krowface | Entries tagged with politics

Dear Occupationists,

Please head this warning: Stop with the "mask".

It undermines the movement through improper associations with the historical figure of Guy Fawkes, the social-political group 'Anonymous', and the media conglomerate Time-Warner, Inc.
...
These associations give both the media and counter-protestors cause and viability to their attempts to challenge the integrity of and obfuscate the message of the movement.

Regardless of arguments for or against the fairness of the power of media, in dealing with the entrenchment of corporate control of domestic and international news outlets leads to the inarguable fact that the presentation is JUST as important as the actual message itself. The psychology of "guilt by association" is a possible tool the media can (and will) use to undermine the movement.

Please be aware that the media will not only hold the movement accountable for its associations with current trends, but also established historical and contemporary concepts.

Therefore, be aware of the following:

1. Guy Fawkes was an actual historical figure remembered his involvement in a failed plot to commit an act of domestic terrorism in the name of the Catholic church. His attempted use of domestic terrorism, as well as his alignment with one specific religious theology, is contradictory to the ideals of the Occupationist Movement. This allows for unfair and inappropriate comparisons by the media.

2. The mask is already an established symbol of another activist group. While laudatory for some of its more positive events, Anonymous is currently vilified and/or feared by the general public due to past actions. Associating one group with the other with such a strong and unique visual symbol before there is an official declaration of involvement between the two parties, can cause confusion in the regard of the public and can also dilute the separate and/or unified messages of both parties, and allows for unfair and inappropriate comparisons by the media.

3. The mask itself is copyrighted Time-Warner. Every mask purchased or worn earns more profit for Time-Warner through licensing fees. The continued and unintentional financial support of this media outlet is contradictory to the ideals of the Occupationist Movement.

In summary, the use of the mask in relation to the actions of the Occupationist Movement can be used against the movement itself.

Do not allow these associations to become the tools utilized by the media to undermine or sabotage the movement.

The struggle will be hard enough as it is.

*This page was created for educational purposes. No copyrights or trademarks owned by Anonymous, The Occupationist Movement, Time-Warner, Inc are implied to be challenged in this document.

Being a native New Yorker, I've always kept an eye on events related to the 9/11 incidents.

I feel like I have a lot to say, but I can't find the way to say it, I guess.

So the big bad scary monster is dead.

Now... our boys get to come home.... right? War's over? Time to come home?

Yeah. Fucker's dead, but I don't feel like celebrating.

Think about this for a second. I mean really THINK about this:

1) Your employer is NOT required to give you any notice, or any severance pay. Some do provide severance, but that is purely at their discretion and often accompanied with "sign or you don't get your money" waivers of corporate liability for your termination. So if you suspect you've been fired for an illegal reason, too bad, if you want to make your rent and car payments you'd better sign on the dotted line.

2) Employers in the U.S. are not required to provide ANY paid time off. No paid sick days, no paid vacation time, no paid maternity leave, no paid federal holidays. Many employers, even most, provide one or more of these things as a courtesy, but the number of employers offering none of them is rising as the unemployment rate rises and people become willing to take any job at all, even one that views its employees as chattel who don't deserve a paid day off once in a while.

3) Do you work for a company with fewer than 15 employees? Your company is allowed (in most states) to discriminate against employees on the basis of race, sex, national origin, pregnancy, et cetera. Title VII of the civil rights act, which prohibits such discrimination, exempts private businesses with fewer than 15 employees. In other words, if you employ only 14 total people, you can simply say "only white people allowed." By the way, that 15 number doesn't include independent contractors or partners, so you can have a fairly large employer that is still allowed to discriminate as long as most of the people working there are independent contractors. What's more, no one's agitating to change this.

4) If you receive tips as part of your normal employment, your direct wage is generally $2.13 per hour. Yes, $2.13 an hour. Hope your tips are real nice.

5) Many, MANY jobs are not required to pay any overtime wage regardless of how many hours you work. This doesn't just apply to executives and managers and creative types. Projectionists, carnies, cab drivers, and a host of other occupations are also exempted and require no overtime wage whatsoever.

6) Youth under age 20 in their first 90 days of employment are allowed to make $4.25 an hour.

7) Only 21 of 50 states require ANY meal or rest break time for adult employees (including both paid and unpaid breaks). Four more require breaks for minors but not adults. There is also no federal restriction on how long employers may keep employees at work or how many hours an employer can require of an employee per week. In other words, while most employers do not do this, it is 100% legal in many states to employ someone for a 16 hour shift with no breaks allowed.

In other words: if you're not from the U.S., however bad you thought U.S. labor protections were, they're worse. If you're an American and used to employers who voluntarily provide one or more non-required things, look at the trend in employer/employee relations over the last 10 years: more independent contractors and temps, fewer full time employees with benefits. If you don't think your company will ever stop giving breaks or vacation time, just wait -- after another few years of high unemployment, non-required perquisites will dry up even worse than they already have.

The worst part of this: if this gets replies, I guarantee a number of them will be from people hastening to tell us why these policies are perfectly okay and how the right of employers to exploit workers in any way is just fine, because employees "chose" to work in such a place. We'll hear that if employers were required to provide such things, they would all go out of business and employ fewer people. Nations offering substantially more protection to employees do not seem to have these problems, but that won't stop people from making the argument (or bringing up a single example of a country with good labor laws and high unemployment as PROOF POSITIVE that such a system is non-viable).

People have become so attached to their own oppression that they view it as a badge of honor. They will show up to fight for their employers' right to exploit them. And they will convince themselves that standing up for big companies instead of individual employees is patriotic. They will ask for a little sick leave as supplicants, grateful for the crumbs cast off by an employer who views them as numbers on a ledger.

It doesn't have to be this way. Non-Americans: what are employment laws like in your country? How much of what I've posted above strikes you as downright awful?"

I know I keep touching on the subject, but it's near and dear to my heart. One, because I'm a goddamned American and anything involving freedom of speech or freedom of religion is going to strike me right in my core. Secondly I'm a goddamned NY kid. I grew up playing in the shadows of the towers. I've been to the observation decks, and I still remember how they looked from my apartment across the river.

So... here's the crux of the issue. People are having a field day with this. So I'm going to steal some words and images, because every time I try to put it in my own words, I get pissed off and go into a rant. And I'm trying to stop with that.

Here's the image:

Here's the quote:

"As a guy who has been living less than 2 miles from the WTC for about 20 years, let me say that no one I know in downtown Manhattan is opposed to this Mosque in any way, shape or form. The "outrage" is completely manufactured by forces far from here. Most of us would hardly have noticed such a tiny new building, and those who did, would have simply been happy to see new money being invested in the neighborhood.

Nothing is making my blood boil more than those who are attempting to stoke the flames of Religious Warfare, in my neighborhood, from as far away as Alaska."
-mitch wells

Definately one of the more rational responses to the uproar.

"This morning, the City’s Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously voted not to extend landmark status to the building on Park Place where the mosque and community center are planned. The decision was based solely on the fact that there was little architectural significance to the building. But with or without landmark designation, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the owners from opening a mosque within the existing building. The simple fact is this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship."

"The government has no right whatsoever to deny that right – and if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question – should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here. This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions, or favor one over another."

Keep in mind, this douchebag also made it illegal to smoke in bars in NY, so he's a fucking hypocrite, but whatever. If I have to chose to between my constitutional freedoms and my freedom to smoke... well there's really no choice is there?

You've been talking a lot about how Obama is the "do nothing" president. You keep talking about how he hasn't done anything since he's been in office.

Really?

Here's a list:

(1/21/09) Enacted pay freeze on white house members making more than 100k
(1/21/09) Banned gifts to members of his administration from lobbyists
(1/21/09) Required members not become lobbyists for 2 years after leaving
(1/21/09) Stopped restrictions on FOIA claims for presidential records
(1/22/09) Banned the use of torture during interrogations
(1/22/09) Ordered the end of detention without due process at Guantanamo
(1/23/09) Removed abortion restrictions on aid to family planning groups
(1/29/09) Increased statute of limitations on discriminatory pay
(1/29/09) Started the replacement of 16,000 sets of deficient body armor
(1/30/09) Stopped federal funding for bribing of workers to not unionize
(2/4/09) Expanded Children's health care program for low income families
(2/26/09) Lifted 1991 media ban on photographing fallen soldier's coffins
(3/9/09) Reinstated federal funding for stem cell research
(3/29/09) Announced redecoration of White House will be out of his pocket
(3/30/09) Gave national protection to 2,000,000 new acres of wilderness
(4/6/09) Introduced program for new naval combat ship for Somali patrol
(4/13/09) Removed Cold War era restrictions on travel to Cuba
(4/21/09) Reinstated and expanded AmeriCorps program
(5/19/09) Raised car MPG and emmisions standards for first time since 1990
(5/20/09) Started federal crackdown on fraud in financial institutions
(5/22/09) Introduced provisions to stop credit/debit predatory practices
(5/22/09) Cut out waste in defense contracting and research/development
(6/1/09) Cash 4 Clunkers boosts MPG of automotive fleet to all-time high
(6/17/09) Authorized benefits to same-sex partners of government workers
(6/22/09) Disallowed marketing flavored cigarettes to kids
(7/4/09) Successfully negotiated return of 2 citizens held by N. Korea
(7/21/09) Discontinued F-22 fighters, a 1980's plane never used in a war
(10/1/09) Prohibited federal workers from texting while driving
(10/12/09) Created program for judges to save money for their families
(10/5/09) Required federal agencies to cut fuel consumption 30% by 2020
(10/19/09) Stopped federal raids on medical marijuana dispensers
(10/19/09) Allowed any court to issue warrants for stored communications
(10/22/09) Required accountability on how VA health care budget is spent
(10/28/09) Extended hate-crimes to include ones based on sexuality
(11/6/09) Awarded Casimir Pulaski honorary citizenship
(11/9/09) Extended outreach to hire returning veterans to government jobs
(12/16/09) Removed social security benefits for times when one is in jail
(12/16/09) Allowed amtrak riders to carry firearms in checked luggage
(12/16/09) Ended ban on funds for needle exchange programs
(12/22/09) Tasked the Department of Justice with enforcing human rights
(12/30/09) Ordered creation of response plan for a biological attack
(1/29/10) Stopped restrictions on releasing visitor logs of White House
(2/1/10) Cut massively overbudget constellation program out of budget
(2/12/10) Reinstated congressional restriction to offset spending w/revenue
(2/16/10) Tax cuts and infrastructure improvement to combat recession
(2/18/10) Created commission to provide full plan on reducing debt
(3/18/10) Tax cuts for employees and employers
(3/23/10) Largest reform of health care since 1965
(3/30/10) Removed need for student loans to be run through banks/marked up
(3/31/10) Announced increase in hybrid purchases for federal autos
(4/6/10) Approved targeted killing of Al-queda regardless of citizenship
(4/8/10) Reduction of US and Russian nuclear arms by 1/3, focus on Iran
(4/15/10) Introduced plan to incentivize private space travel companies
(5/14/10) Froze congressional salaries through 2011
(5/25/10) Sent 1,200 National Guard troops to Mexico border
(6/9/10) Started a fund to pay transportation of fallen soldier's families
(7/2/10) Increased security of biological agents and toxins stored in US
(7/21/10) Largest reform of background financial transactions since 1924
(7/22/10) Extended basic unemployment benefits for 2.3 mil Americans
(7/22/10) Started investigations into stopping fraudulent federal payments
(8/2/10) Reduced racial divide in sentencing for crack and cocaine
(8/4/10) Posthumously restored rank of Vietnam scapegoat commander

Now... let's compare that to what Bush Jr. did while he was in the office...

Well, I'm not going to bother to make the list, why don't you guys do it? Just do me a favour and don't bother listing all the times he went on vacation, that'll make it a much shorter list.

Thanks.

"CRIMINAL IS: Stealing people's land, taking their natural resources, and denying them labor rights so that they are forced out of their own countries to survive. CRIMINAL IS NOT: Risking your life to cross the border in order to provide for your family.

This is National Week Against Criminalization, July 23-30, 2010"

Originally Posted by Jinx

And welcome to the Tea-hadist mindset. With Barack Obama in charge...who are you going to be better than?

And don't think some of us recognize the symptom because we are a pack of condescending know-it-all asshats. We are...but that has fuck-all to do with the observation.

It's just that we have seen this before. Up North...in our so-called "enlightened" neck of the woods.

Want to know the difference between North and South? Well, a man once told me that up North, it is OK to have a Black as your boss, but you will be damned if you will have one for a neighbor. Down South, it is OK to have a Black neighbor...but you will damned if you will have one as a boss.

So we went through all this Tea Party nonsense up North, about 20-30 years ago. And the reaction was just as vehement, inarticulate, and dumb as what is being spewed now. If you want to see hate and spittle, you should have seen how South Boston reacted to school integration.

And if you think the enlightened liberal North embraced integrated housing with open hearts, think again, It was called "white flight" and it damn near emptied some cities. "Sure, we support integration...now excuse us while we move to the suburbs where those Zulus won't be able to spear us with their assegais."

But white flight was a safety valve. It kept the pressure at reasonable levels. It also prolonged it and led to new levels of stupidity, but you could, after all, vote with your feet. Many did. Many still do.

But the job front was a bit stickier. Northern Industry has always been (at least since the 1950's) largely integrated. Steel Mill owners don't give a fuck what your skin color is. Besides, you could only tell on the way into work, on the way out everybody pretty much looked the same.

But you always knew what hand you were playing, because the cards were mostly dealt face up. Your boss was still white. Your union steward was still white. Your mayor and your chief of police were still white. And, as much as it pains me to tell you this, Michael Steele does not run the GOP. And even if he did, at least up north, you went home at the end of the day to your own private Idaho in the suburbs

The workforce was integrated. But you still knew who you were better than. Nobody dared yell "You Lie!!" at a white boss.

Over time that has changed (but if you take a shot every time you can name a Black mayor of a predominantly white New England city...you are going to bed sober). But it took a very conscious effort to change it. Acceptance of diversity does not come easy when the question is: "who are you better than?"

And now the way the cards were dealt 18 months ago has upset a huge segment of the population. They no longer know who they are better than. They are lashing out. And there is fuck-all for a safety valve.

They say it is about "freedoms"...but they can point to no freedoms that have been lost over the last 14 months.

They say the Constitution is being destroyed, but when you ask them what parts of The General Welfare Clause or Congresses' power to regulate Interstate Commerce are being violated...they stand mute with rage

They say it is about taxes...but they can point to no drastic tax increases in the last 14 months.

Come to think of it, I really don't really remember anyone getting speared with an assegai thirty years ago either. But that didn't stop people screaming about the danger.

And they say they want their Country Back.

Well, Bing-fucking-O.

Now we have it. They want to return to a time and place where they at least knew who they were better than.

And the fact that most of this spittle is flying from the mouths of the poor, the semi-educated, the low information voter, and from by God Dixie...well, that is only because it is your turn. A lot of the rest of the Country has already gone through this exercise 20-30 years ago. And the same spittle flew from the same confused lips when it was our turn.

So we don't look on Tea-hadists with scorn because they are alien and unfathomable. We do so because we recognize these very traits as ours and those of our neighbors."All in the Family" wasn't the most popular show because Archie Bunker was despised. It was popular because he was comfortably familiar. But at least he was a character. Nobody tried to run him for President.

And it ain't just President Obama. It is a lot else: If your job can be done on the Indian sub-continent, who are you better than? If China can launch a spaceship, who are you better than? If the world looks at the mighty Dollar as little better than an American Peso, who are you better than? If an illegal immigrant can work your ass into the ground, and do it smiling for a lot less money, who are you better than?

A whole lot of life has been shaken and stirred the last couple of decades.

This whole Tea-Party nonsense will eventually pass. Because there is no "going back". OK, you can move to Idaho, or Montana, and it will feel like you have found what was missing. And you might even be happy. As long as you never watch the POTUS on the national news while you are trying to answer the question: "Who am I better than?"

But, God Dammit, people are going to keep asking that question. Soccer may be watched for it's beauty...Football is about who is better. We are more of a class society than people want to admit. There is still a very strong vein of Scotch-Irish pride that runs through this Country's veins. Unfortunately that pride is seldom based, at least lately, on personal or collective achievement achievement...just who you are better than. You can hear it every time a factory closes in this Country and people cheer. No, they really don't believe that closing the Auto Factories will make America stronger. But it adds a whole bunch of people to the list of those they are better than.

Still...what the fuck. 600 years of violence and oppression was bound to warp the Scotch-Irish a bit. Hell, you can even consider them heroically well adjusted given their, and my, history. And history will eventually change us again once all the dogs adjust to the new Alpha Male reality and find their place again in the pack. Until then we live in the land of flying angry spittle.

PS - I never wanted to be better than anyone else. Just faster. Cheers

I'd love to actually post a picture of the diagram that goes with my political stance, but unfortunately, politicalcompass.org's webmaster doesn't quite know how to do that.

So here's the dry and raw data:

On a scale of 10/-10 in economic idealogy, where -10 is Collectivism and 10 is Libertarian, I am at -6.12.
On a scale of 10/-10 in social idealogy, where -10 is Libertarian and 10 is Fascism, I am at -4.82.

I'm basically labeled, according to this test, a sort of Libertarian Communist, which groups me with world leaders and political figures like Tenzin Gyatso (the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama), Ghandi, and Nelson Mandela. Which is the sort of company I can totally get along with.

If you're still a little confused about this political compass, here's some more info to keep in mind...
( ...from the website itself... )

So there you have it. My Political Compass. Feel free to try it for yourself and comment with the results.

Oh, and if you're curious, I'm a supporter of Amnesty International, HRC, and WWF. I used to be a very vocal political activist in my youth (lol, ten years ago), but now I've calmed down a lot. I'm much more subtle nowadays.