Occupying Wall Street and Other Places

Now Watching: Sons of Anarchy from FX, followed by CSI from CBS, and lastly American Horror Story from FX on DVR

For a while there was nothing on this Occupation of Wall Street - but now it is suddenly everywhere.

A lot of BS from both sides of the fence. Hard to believe anyone's hard numbers for how many people are there, how many people have been arrested, or how many people are really walking the streets... But it is safe to say that folks are, and there are plenty of reactions. Some of the most strong ones based on certain members of the NYPD deciding to mace some corralled protesters (check out some video HERE).

So today in Dayton, Ohio, there was an "Occupy Dayton" protest thing of sorts. Like so much of things done here, I imagine it was pretty half-assed. But the Dayton Business Journal reported on it, saying 50-some people were there. A far cry from the reports by people on the blog of David Esrati (a local free thinker and rabble rouser that I introduced myself to a few years ago) - where people were reporting only 4 attendees and such...


Who knows.


But looking over the comments... the disparity in people's opinions is nearly unbelievable. Almost so much so, that in my quick IM conversation with David today regarding some of the comments posted to his facebook we mentioned that thing that sometimes you like you are crazy reading/seeing some of the things coming from other people. Then comes the realization that it isn't YOU who is crazy, it is them. And that we are no longer outside the Asylum.


What gets to me? The guys saying that the rich deserve to be. And those in need are there through their own fault and deserve nothing - not even sympathy. I am just not seeing it that way...


Kent Metcalf (who is in real estate (his FB says) believes all people needing any kind of assistance say things like:

I need my drugs, I want a guaranteed roof over my head & a big screen tv with an HD satellite dish. We need our porn on 70" tv's, so we can get in the mood have more children that we can't support, then we can blame rich people like you for wanting my children to be homeless.

and

Life liberty and a guaranteed high paying job, roof over our heads, free health care, the ability to procreate as much as we want, that's all we're asking for. Oh and the greedy wealthy class can give up their share and take care of my five kids. I don't want to work that hard, I'm certainly that not that intelligent. They have an obligation to provide for me and if they don't, we're just going to vote people into office that will pass legislation and take their jobs and give them to the government.

While John Manes (who is allegedly part of the Better Business Bureau) feels that the "Occupy" groups are in the wrong because:

These groups also seem to forget that their 401k and retirement plans rely on the profitability of these companies they are attacking

and

So should Japan make outsourcing illegal as well so we can lose tens of thousands of jobs. honda, toyota, bmw and mercedes all ship cars from the USA to other markets. they outsource the jobs because of all the taxes and regulations in this country that would make them noncompetitive in the marketplace, Taxes and regulations that the take over groups want to increase which will only cause more outsourcing, not less.

and let us know (when someone suggests he makes less than $20K a year)

I started life in a minimum wage job making a little more than $2.00 per hour and have worked hard over 30 years to get where I am today. I suffered through 3 bouts of unemployment the past 10 years but never relied on anyone but myself to get out of it. I lost a house when there were no programs to help you keep something you couldn't afford in the first place. So many believe that everything should be handed to them, a job is not a right, healthcare is not a right, retirement plans are not a right, these are all things you have to earn.

This is what I see as the real problem: both of these men (and, in turn, plenty of people JUST like them) seem to work on antiquated ideas: that those who are not earning lots of money are not doing so because they don't DESERVE to. They're not working hard enough to earn it. 


They are also under the delusion that many people still have 401Ks, and despite the difficulties of this economic situation, should just be working HARDER for those in economic power to keep them in charge.


In a nutshell - they are unwilling to make any real change.


Anyway...


So if you're interested, take a look a the "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" below -- I honestly can't support certain parts of it (which I will go in future posts... I have been getting some commentary that my individual entries are just too long for most blog readers), but it is worth reading.


The one thing I just don't get it is how what amounts to an anarchistic collective can let one guy crank out their Declaration... but, whatever. All the world's a stage... I guess it needs a playwright. Let me know what you think --

Below is what Mark Ruffalo of #occupywallstreet wants to tell you about (taken from http://www.tweetdeck.com/twitter/Mruff221/~zUvRe)

Here is the General Assemblies Statement Read it and weep (tears of joy) Declaration of the Occupation of New York City 

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

• They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
• They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
• They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
• They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
• They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
• They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
• They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
• They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
• They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
• They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
• They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
• They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
• They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
• They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
• They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
• They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
• They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
• They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
• They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
• They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
• They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
• They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

Already Dead

Currently watching: The Twilight Zone on Chiller Network.

I am already dead.

Here's what led up to it: back on November 20, 1983 I watched a television movie aired on ABC called "The Day After," about the after effects of nuclear attack on the United States. It was followed by a discussion with Carl Sagan, who used the term Nuclear Winter for the first time I can remember.

The film is REALLY intense. (Check out this evaluation and review HERE)

Leading up to the broadcast of this show, my school had been inundated with materials about nuclear war - including a map posted on the wall showing quite clearly that the town where I grew up (Greenville, OH) was well within the blast range of the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which is assumed to be a preferred target. So, pretty much, right off the bat we we were informed we were as good as dead when the shyte went down.

Then, a couple of weeks after watching the movie, I was lying in bed reading a book, listening to a broadcast from WTUE 104.7FM in Dayton - when it all of the sudden cut off... As in absolute dead silence. The bomb(s) had fallen - and the blast was on it's way to wipe us off the planet.

I stayed there - waiting for the world to end... And I'm still there.

Did you ever read the story by Ambrose Bierce, or see the short film directed by Robert Enrico, "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge?" In the moments before the onset of death while he is being hanged, a Confederate sympathizer "lives" a dream where he escapes hanging and continues his life... until the rope snaps.

In my "life," the stereo's tape player clicked off - I had been listening to a tape recording I made of a radio broadcast. Sweating, pale and shaken, I continued on... "living" on borrowed time until the blast reaches me, still lying in that bed in the house in Greenville with that book.

It was "years" later when I came across in my research of the tenets of Bushido that a Samurai accepts that he is already dead, and therefore is free from fear to live his life. More on that another time --

If I believed that I wasn't still lying on that bed awaiting final destruction, then I would live my life that way, too - free from fear. It is how I continue to live this dream...

How are you living yours?

Death Is In the Conversation

Currently listening to: Sounds of the Season: Oktoberfest* on Time Warner Cable's Music Choice.

*I suspect many of these songs to be Nazi marches -- or at least music featuring sympatheties to the Nazis.

NOTE: I changed most people's names in this blog 'cause it seemed like the right thing to do.

Today my unexpected phone conversation turned to death.

Not right off the bat! First we discussed life -- what my friend's new baby is doing, what my kids are doing, what her husband is up to and then what Alice is up to. Our plans for upcoming events, their plans to have more children. It was nice.

But, then, as things are wont to do lately - the subject turned to death.

There is a lot of discussion that has been going on about this subject around our house, lately. While the cold, boney finger of the Grim Reaper has not fallen immediately upon us directly, it does seem to have been falling on an awful lot of our friends and associates as of late. And in turn, the horrific things that follow.

Apparently, I was informed in our conversation, and then in a separate conversation with a different individual who also knew my acquaintance, Frank (recently deceased) and his wife Scarlett, that a bit after Frank's passing, the ENTIRE staffs of the three tattoo shops he owned and had left to Scarlett cleared the places out of all the equipment, gear and displays and opened three ENTIRELY DIFFERENT shops named exactly what the old ones were. Seriously: every piercer and tattoo artist who worked for him took not only everything that they personally owned BUT ALSO everything Scarlett owned at the shops, and cleared it out into new storefronts, which they then called by the name of their former shop. They even left messages on the old shops' answering machines telling people to visit the "new locations."

At what point is it okay to steal the source of income from a widow - and her stuff - then cite that it is okay to do so because her husband died? And to bugger off with no notice, set up all this stuff and steal her business without so much as a hey-we're-leaving conversation? I don't care WHAT is going on, that is wrong.

What's more - it seems from all accounts that the staff feels that their actions are what Frank wanted.

But death seems to have that affect on the living. Greed and bad judgement just sort of take over their mental facilities.

A guy I know, Bart, was adopted when he was a baby. While he was still young, his (adopted) mother died and his (adopted) father, Bill, eventually remarried, bringing Bart into her family with him - along with a fat bunch of cash. Years go by, and his (adopted) father passes away - and Bart was kept out of the reading of his will. Just recently, Bart's stepmother passed away. Once again, Bart is kept out of the reading of the will.

Now, originally, the wills stipulated if Bill died first, all his money would go to his new wife. Then when she passed, it was to be divided up among the surviving children. There was also a trust for Bart that had been set up years before meant to go only to him. Sadly, one of Bart's step-siblings passed away a bit before his step-mother did.  So that left three children (including Bart) to inherit what appeared to be a pretty sizable estate.

All nice and good, except according to Bart's lawyer (who Bart eventually had to bring in to sort out what happened), the remaining step-siblings had the will changed just before the step-mother passed so that all the money would be divided between them, cutting him out entirely. AND then when he got his trust, THEIR lawyer determined that they had been raiding his trust for cash! He did not even get the full amount!!!

Might as well forget about any upcoming family reunions.

I had a friend whose ex-wife, with whom he had several children, was diagnosed with cancer. They reconciled a bit and he moved back into their house to help out with her and the kids as her health deteriorated. We tried to be there for them, and as part of our help, tried to remind them that paperwork, wills and details about things needed to be set up so the transition wouldn't be horrible when she passed.

Unexpectedly, she took a turn for the worse and passed recently. And unfortunately the wills, paperwork and details were not worked out sufficiently. What's more, important paperwork (including a "will" she had been working on) were taken out of the house by her extended family and not shared with her ex (my friend). Some of the paperwork included the kids' birth certificates and such, because apparently my friend's ex had specified to her family she wanted them to have the kids move in with them until my friend could meet certain criteria she had set up. They had every intention to take the kids and move out of state.

He did not know about this - and had not seen this will. And they didn't give him a copy.

I met his ex's extended family. They're nice folks. And, in my conversations with them, I do not doubt that they thought they were doing the right thing. They thought they were following what they perceived to be her wishes. But it really wasn't clear what her wishes were --

So when they realize that he's on top of things, her parents offer to rent him the house him and the kids are already in and to help him out. But then her family clears out a bunch of his ex's stuff, including her car, leaving him without one. And then they did not give him a reduced rate AND demanded an additional month's rent. My friend's ex had a life insurance policy, and cash money at the house meant for him to use for the kids. It is all missing.

So now, despite whatever his ex wanted to happen, he is just doing what is the right thing. Maybe the details aren't what she would have wanted - but he is keeping the kids with him and taking care of them no matter what. In the end, that is all that matters. And while doing all this, he is struggling to find bills, what moneys are owed to who, and is constantly surprised by something he did not know before.

This same friend also had an uncle whose wife managed to clear out the house right away when he died. His uncle had left him things in his will - just mementos and such - but there was nothing left in the house by the time the will was read. And there was no way to recover anything. This same uncle's wife was also staying with my friend's dad to "take care of him" while he was sick. Guess what's missing?

Just about everything.

By the time my friend and his brother figured out what was going on, and how sick their dad was, they managed to get her out and take over. And, amazingly, after they took care of giving their dad his meds -- he suddenly took a turn for the better. Seems there was some hanky panky going on with his prescriptions... and, thusly, his bad health. Sneaky, huh?

When my friend Dr. Creep died (yes, that's him), apparently one of his "friends" took pictures of him to try and profit on.

So it just comes down to the fact that the possibility of getting money (or something similar) will make people act absolutely insane. Especially when there is death involved.

It must be some primitive urge. Magnified, somehow. Like in films from the old westerns to post-apocalyptic mayhem: when someone gets killed, other people swoop down upon the corpse to take everything of value left. Like robbing tombs. Pillaging the homes of the dead.

After all, death is death. There is no coming back. Even if one believes in an afterlife, then I hope that it gives the deceased some perspective as to what is important - and that they may look down, but better understand the trials & tribulations of our existence upon this plane. But the dead cannot truly influence what the living must go through.

And, of course, you can't take it with you.

After seeing so much of people's last wishes not being followed. Of the misconceptions and misunderstandings of even the closest of family and friends after someone has passed -- here is my advice to you: DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING TO CHANCE!

• Spell out everything as clearly as you can. Seriously.
• Get your will through a lawyer - he can let you know what is legal to include and what is not (unlike Legal Zoom or any of that stuff).
• Be specific with your loved ones as to what YOUR wishes are. They will try to project their feelings on to whatever you say. Make sure they really listen to you.
• Have every important paper set aside - and copies set aside somewhere else. All the passwords, websites, etc and so on in a safe but accessible place.
• Really think about who you REALLY trust to do the right thing. Ex.: if your dad has been an asshole your whole life, he will continue to be one after you die. Do you really want him handling things after you're gone?

You may not care about money or anything else left behind when your loved one passes - after all, you care more about them. You're grieving. It's hard to think about.

But shouldn't you care? If it was their wish(es), don't you have a responsibility to do everything YOU can to make sure their wishes are followed. From funeral, to wills, to internment... it is all important, whether you believe it or not. Your loved one has some plans for things that you may not even realize - maybe ideas to help you grieve. Shouldn't you respect that?

Alice and I have made some very specific plans. From the "do not resuscitate" order, to what should happen with the house and such when one of us passes unexpectedly. We are trying to keep bills, legal paperwork, bank accounts and all that kind of stuff in such a way that if one of us should unexpectedly pass, the other can wrap up some of the affairs and continue on.  We have shared these plans with our families. One should be allowed to grieve without struggling to try and figure out even the basics of what needs to be taken care of.

We have even discussed "the back up": a plan of who the surviving one of us should get together with that we feel would be best for the kids. (Of course, I cannot guarantee either of our "back up" is necessarily interested in BEING back up. Something that will have to be figured out should the time come.)

Despite all our planning, though, we have the thought that continues over all: the children must be taken care of - and part of taking care of them is maintaining OURSELVES, too.

It's not comfortable, at times, to discuss these things. It is hard to face. But death comes upon us all -- and once gone, we're gone. It is your responsibility to look out for those left behind. Anything we can do to manage the injustices that can be put upon them by others is of the utmost importance.

My Ideas About This Blog

Currently watching: Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

I have been giving a lot of thought as to whether or not I really needed to start blog before making a decision -- but in the end I went ahead and did it anyway.

I am already working on the blog and other writing for my company FreakShow Deluxe, then getting my book See You On the Backlot out in print by Ransom Publishing (in the UK), and getting ebooks of my Jack Info Adventures series finally out on Amazon for the Kindle -- so it's been pretty busy. I even got out my own website with a bit of blogging on it... but it isn't what I hoped.

With Goth Taco, I hope to be able to address more political issues in addition to other observations I have which just don't seem to be suitable for anyplace else where I may write.

Wow. That sounds like it might be boring.

The bigger issue is, of course, will I keep up with it? Charting the course of most blogs, it starts out with a post stating all kinds of intentions and shyte, then carries on for maybe a couple weeks as the posts get less and less frequent until it eventually peters out completely. Such is the electronic world in which we live.

But I have a plan --

After being on deck pretty early with Facebook, and before that MySpace (yes, those profiles are, as of today, still active), I would start out with the best of intentions... But in the end, they always end up more hassle than they are worth.

When I signed up for Google + the other day - having already had a gmail account that I have really never used for a couple years that I originally only set to make sure no one else took my name - I decided I would make a real attempt to make it a connection for business contacts as well as family. Granted, my business contacts are not really the types you hear about that fire folks over what they post on social networking - so I feel pretty safe about it.


But there's always a first time...


On Sunday I posted to my Facebook profile page that I had started a Google + account. One of my connections asked me why I was doing it - and after some thought, here was my reply:

"(I) Feel like I have to keep up on social media stuff for business and contacts. Between +, FB, MySpace, Twitter, the blog(s) AND regular website... It's honestly just too much! But without it = business fail!"

It's like this:

• I am a published writer, so I try to keep my profiles & info (including appearances and book signings) up to date on Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, and my publisher's webpage. I had a twitter account, but I abandoned it as it was just too much. Too bad it was as my name - so now I can't use it again...
• There is also my personal website, which ties in to my professional writing work, with a couple pages of it dedicated to my book & ebooks - AND there's a blog there... But it also ties in with FreakShow Deluxe, too.
• Now, as I am trying to relaunch my professional writing -- I don't know... "stuff," I guess -- I started up THIS blog, along with a related Twitter account. With it, I hope to have some fun and do some promotional-type things that can't be done any other way.
• Plus, there is also my work with FreakShow Deluxe, which has it's OWN website, a Facebook profile, a MySpace page (where nothing really happens anymore), Twitter, and a Wordpress Blog. OH, and there's a YouTube.com page, too, which had to be titled theFreakShowDeluxe because somebody had already claimed the name on there. There's another page of press release stuff, too, as well as other things that I can barely keep up on.
• Not to mention any and all OTHER events I might have started (don't tell anyone), including the goth-industrial skating event: Dayton Wumpskate, and the Zombie Walk In Dayton, that have to keep up their own Facebook, MySpace and Twitter profiles, too.

Ug. No wonder I can't seem to get anything done!

Well -- despite all of the above -- let's see what happens, okay? Why don't you subscribe to this blog and twitter - even if you don't bother to look at any of the other sites or anything. Follow along. Comment. Let's get this going. . .

Things should prove to be interesting!