Occupy the Internet: Take Back the American Dream

Perhaps I am wrong, but our elected officials are supposed to be looking out for our best interests. So why are they Hell bent on destroying the country we love and have lived in all of our lives? Why are they only interested in helping the rich get richer, while the rest of us starve to death, or freeze to death in the outdoors after our homes are stolen from us?

That's right, I said stolen. Because that is what is happening all across America. Banks that were bailed out with our hard earned tax money are still taking our homes in record numbers and with total ease. They are using those tax dollars to hire attorneys to rob us blind. This is wrong. We bailed them out, they should stop trying to kill us. Considering all of the tax dollars they were given, every house in America should be paid for by default. These banks should not be allowed to foreclose on anyone.

My New Year's resolution is to pay my mortgage and nothing else. I did not rack up huge credit card bills this year for Christmas. In fact I did no Christmas shopping this year. My kids had to do without. Sad, but true.

I am an American with less that $5000 worth of credit card debt, yet I pay some of the highest interest I've ever seen. I hunt and grow my own food so that my family will not go hungry. Yet, I am facing an electricity charge increase after the first of the year and my taxes may go up as well. I don't like the idea that my tax dollars are going to help the wealthy get more, while I have to live on less.

We, the middle class are being squeezed out of existence by the top greed-heads in this nation. I have never really been a partisan voter, but looking at the GOP line up, I know without a doubt that I will vote to re-elect President Obama. Are the Republicans serious? You couldn't pay me to vote Republican.

If the world is coming to an end, I wish it would hurry up and end already. I've already lost my lifestyle.

The town I live in has plenty of workers, but no jobs for them to do. The saddest part of that is I'm willing to bet that most of them if they voted at all, probably voted for the Republicans who continue to put the squeeze on people like us.

We out number the wealthiest in this country, so why can't we take our nation back from them? The Occupy Wall St. folks are doing their best to bring this country back in line with the ideals of our founders, but money talks and the rest of us have none. Make the bullshit walk! That is what our House is made of... bullshit. I say take a walk. Get a real job. Take a pay cut. Do something meaningful to help the rest of us.

The thing that really pisses me off is the fact that Republicans sent us to war without worry of how to pay for it, and cut taxes for the wealthy in the process. That is why our coffers are empty. Now all of a sudden they can't do anything until they figure out how to pay for it. Where the Hell were these guys when Georgie was making plans to go to war with Iraq? That wasn't paid for; in fact, we are still trying to figure out how to pay for it and we're out of there. The deficit can be blamed on the Republican President who sent us to war under false pretenses. Make Iraq foot the bill for their freedom from Sadaam. They can afford it. They have all the oil and they make their people live in squalor. I, for one, do not want to live as though I were in a third world country. I have worked hard all my life to be a productive member of society and I am tired of being looked down upon because I have little to show for it.

I think it is time for the people to take over Congress. Storm the building with clubs and pitch forks and make them live as we do. They are some of the top earners in this country and they want to take social security away from the elderly. Why don't they take a pay cut if they are so worried about our deficit? Why won't they contribute to the solution rather than adding to the problem?

We have the right to over-throw our government, and I think the time to do so is now. What are they doing for us? Not a damned thing!

I hear a lot of Republicans whining about how the U.S has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, but what does it matter if those corporations aren't paying taxes to begin with? How many jobs have corporate America created? None. What they have done is eliminate jobs, yet the Tea Party protects them. Our government would be the richest in the world if those corporations paid their fair share, but they don't.

I was a middle class American until the economy hit the skids. I want my life back! We all want our lives back. We are the 99%!

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Friends,

This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society; [2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus; [3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.

The next step will be to develop a specific list of goals and demands. As one of the millions of people who are participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, I would like to respectfully offer my suggestions of what we can all get behind now to wrestle the control of our country out of the hands of the 1% and place it squarely with the 99% majority.

Here is what I will propose to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

10 Things We Want
A Proposal for Occupy Wall Street
Submitted by Michael Moore

1. Eradicate the Bush tax cuts for the rich and institute new taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on corporations, including a tax on all trading on Wall Street (where they currently pay 0%).

2. Assess a penalty tax on any corporation that moves American jobs to other countries when that company is already making profits in America. Our jobs are the most important national treasure and they cannot be removed from the country simply because someone wants to make more money.

3. Require that all Americans pay the same Social Security tax on all of their earnings (normally, the middle class pays about 6% of their income to Social Security; someone making $1 million a year pays about 0.6% (or 90% less than the average person). This law would simply make the rich pay what everyone else pays.

4. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, placing serious regulations on how business is conducted by Wall Street and the banks.

5. Investigate the Crash of 2008, and bring to justice those who committed any crimes.

6. Reorder our nation's spending priorities (including the ending of all foreign wars and their cost of over $2 billion a week). This will re-open libraries, reinstate band and art and civics classes in our schools, fix our roads and bridges and infrastructure, wire the entire country for 21st century internet, and support scientific research that improves our lives.

7. Join the rest of the free world and create a single-payer, free and universal health care system that covers all Americans all of the time.

8. Immediately reduce carbon emissions that are destroying the planet and discover ways to live without the oil that will be depleted and gone by the end of this century.

9. Require corporations with more than 10,000 employees to restructure their board of directors so that 50% of its members are elected by the company's workers. We can never have a real democracy as long as most people have no say in what happens at the place they spend most of their time: their job. (For any U.S. businesspeople freaking out at this idea because you think workers can't run a successful company: Germany has a law like this and it has helped to make Germany the world's leading manufacturing exporter.)

10. We, the people, must pass three constitutional amendments that will go a long way toward fixing the core problems we now have. These include:

a) A constitutional amendment that fixes our broken electoral system by 1) completely removing campaign contributions from the political process; 2) requiring all elections to be publicly financed; 3) moving election day to the weekend to increase voter turnout; 4) making all Americans registered voters at the moment of their birth; 5) banning computerized voting and requiring that all elections take place on paper ballots.

b) A constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and do not have the constitutional rights of citizens. This amendment should also state that the interests of the general public and society must always come before the interests of corporations.

c) A constitutional amendment that will act as a "second bill of rights" as proposed by President Frankin D. Roosevelt: that every American has a human right to employment, to health care, to a free and full education, to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat safe food, and to be cared for with dignity and respect in their old age.

Let me know what you think. Occupy Wall Street enjoys the support of millions. It is a movement that cannot be stopped. Become part of it by sharing your thoughts with me or online (at OccupyWallSt.org

). Get involved in (or start!

) your own local Occupy movement. Make some noise. You don't have to pitch a tent in lower Manhattan to be an Occupier. You are one just by saying you are. This movement has no singular leader or spokesperson; every participant is a leader in their neighborhood, their school, their place of work. Each of you is a spokesperson to those whom you encounter. There are no dues to pay, no permission to seek in order to create an action.

We are but ten weeks old, yet we have already changed the national conversation. This is our moment, the one we've been hoping for, waiting for. If it's going to happen it has to happen now. Don't sit this one out. This is the real deal. This is it.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Yours,
Michael Moore

Watch this video
It is the Constitutional Right of every American to peacefully assembly and to be able to redress grievances. So why are the cops allowed to hurt those exercising their rights? That is Anti-American.

I have to laugh at all of these religious people who spend their lives trying to keep up with the Jones'. For some reason they have it in their collective heads that they are more deserving of everything than others are.

When God created this world he made sure that everything we needed was here for the taking. For the sharing. It wasn't until the people became greedy that things started to run afoul. There was enough of everything for everyone, but now that is not true. The greedy, those who think that some are less deserving than they are, came to have power over the other people; that is when things fell apart and the abundance of the earth was altered. Now there are too many people for our planet to support. There are people who live with every comfort known to man, while others are starving to death.

I believe this is happening by design. The greedy and self serving are starving the rest of the population out of existence. They have jobs, money and toys. Oh the money they spend on toys. They control the prices of everything from medicine to clothing and they are pricing us to death. We can no longer afford the basics, let alone luxuries. They are making products that are more than disposable, they are cheap crap that must be replaced regularly.

I bought a pair of tennis shoes for my boy at the beginning of the school year. Two months later he came home with the sole of his shoe missing. (the whole thing)I used to be able to buy him a pair of shoes that would last until he out-grew them. No more. Corporations are making things cheaper and charging more for them. So, not only are we paying higher prices from the start, we are having to replace these cheap articles more often.

From abundance they took abundance and still abundance remained. Bob Proctor explains this best by using air as an example of abundance. There is air to breathe. Just because I take a breath doesn't take away from your supply of breath, your ability to breathe. We all need to share this earth and the abundance it provides. No one is more deserving than anyone else.

According to the Christian faith, greed is a sin. How many Christians hold the purse strings of this world? How many are elected to office because of their faith in God?

The irony of it is that if the world were to suffer a catastrophe, the ones who will be most likely to survive are not those who have the money. Money won't be worth anything. Those who have lived with a silver spoon in their mouths will starve because they will not know how to grow food. They have become accustomed to living off the work of others, not of their own. Who will help them survive? My guess is that no one will. Bad karma, man.

I still say that he who has the water, not oil, will be the one in charge. We can live without oil, but we cannot live without water.

The 99% could easily topple the 1% just by refusing to pay their bills. I think this is what the 1% are truly afraid of. What would the cops do if they were met with a shot gun each time they tried to evict a homeowner?

Grow your vegetables; learn to hunt your meat and buy bullets. Keep what little you have by refusing to let the 1% take it away. Stop consuming their crap! Become self reliant.

Once we have the population of this planet under control, there will once again be enough for everyone. It is time for the Richie Rich's to learn to share.

Certainly not a Capital One credit card. Oh, I used to have one, but no more. I cut up the card and closed my account. Then I sent them a check for $250, which they did not credit to my account; instead they sent me to a collection agency.

Bear in mind that my credit limit was only $500.00. I sent them $250 and now this collection agency is try to squeeze me for $750.00. According to them the extra is interest and late fees. How can it even be legal that a credit card company can charge you fees in excess of your credit limit? Then they pile on the over limit fees on top of that.

Capital One is no longer in my wallet. They are one of the worst companies I've ever dealt with. When they were ranting about their lower interest rates, they were charging me 30%. I call that false advertising. Sure, I had a good rate when I opened the account, but shortly after that my interest rate went through the roof. In fact I do not use credit cards at all any more. I'd rather starve to death. It's a good thing I grow my own food.

So, now I have even more damaging crap on my credit report.

Why are so many people who have more money than I do asking me to donate to them, or their cause? Perhaps if they could give me a job, I could donate to them.

I get emails daily, asking me to donate to this or that, and many of these causes I would donate to if I had the money to do so. Why don't these people understand that these are tough times, and asking people to even give up their five dollar gallon of milk in order to donate is not cool?

I can't afford to pay attention, let alone donate to anyone's anything. Why on earth would I give my money to a politician? What have they done for me recently? All they seem to be able to do is stall on important issues and line the pockets of their corporate contributors. After all, it was politicians that gave billions of our tax payer money to those who took away our jobs and wrecked the economy. Did this money get used to help the middle class? Nope, not a dime went to help the 99%ers. It went to pay for CEO bonuses and the like.

I will not, because I cannot, donate to anyone's cause. How would these people like it if I sent them emails all of the time, asking for money?

The American tax payers bailed out the Wall Street banks that collapsed the economy, the president told these banks to start lending to the people, and they have refused to lend to anyone who has less than perfect credit. Now, if that isn't crazy, I don't know what is. The only people with perfect credit are the 1% who have more money than they know what to do with and have no need to borrow. The economic crash has left the 99% with credit scores that are in the toilet. We, American tax payers, give all this money to these banks and get nothing in return.

My story is this:
When the housing bubble burst, my contractor husband had to go to work making 2/3 less than he did as a self employed building contractor. I have a house in foreclosure and no chain of title has been produced by the German bank who claims I owe them. I did not finance my home with a German bank, but it is a German bank that is trying to take my house.
Now my family survives on little to nothing.

My tax dollars paid these Richie Riches, and because of their irresponsibility, I can't borrow any money against the equity in my home; why? Because my credit score is flat. Why is my credit score so bad? Well, because living on 1/3 of what I used to have makes it hard to pay the bills. I have gotten behind in my payments and the late fees are mounting. So is my debt. These creditors should not be able to impose these fees, especially since the banks are at fault for this lack of cash flow.

I know in my heart that all of the Americans who can no longer afford to pay their bills would pay them all, if they had the money to do so.

As for myself, I have vowed to pay back the money spent, but not the fees and interest charged to me. I have also made a list of banks I will not do business with ever again.
Citizens' State Bank
Wells Fargo
Capital One
Chase
BoA

...just to name a few.

The Tea Party sect is so out of touch with reality that they can't see the pink slips going out on a regular basis. If it doesn't affect their bottom line, it isn't real to them.

My bottom line is at the bottom of an ocean right now, while the 1% is living high on the hog and it pisses me off. They were rewarded, with tax payer money, for trashing the American economy, and our money is buying them their toys. You and I bought that new car, paid for the McMansion and the tropical vacation they have enjoyed. The American people have been shit on.

If I had a car, I would join the occupiers in Denver, but I cannot afford to fix my car, let alone buy another one. So I thought we could start an Occupy the Internet kind of thing.

I do not work outside my home because I cannot find a job. I applied for a retail job, for which I have 20 years experience, but the people doing the hiring opted for a teenager with no experience over me, a 45 year-old mother of two, with 20 years experience in retail customer service. Why? My guess is because she is cuter and will work for less money. She doesn't have a car to support, let alone kids. But, she got the job.

There are few if any opportunities where I live and the tree huggers of Telluride are doing their level best to make sure we have no way of making money here. They sit in their McMansions and fight against a mill that has been proposed to bring jobs to our area. They live 65 miles up stream from us and they are complaining about the environmental impact of this mill on their lifestyle. Telluride wouldn't exist without mining, but they don't want us to have mining jobs. It is perfectly fine for them to cut down trees for skiing, and to burn the trees they cut, but it is not fine for us to have an operational mine and mill project here. The trees they cut and burn on the slopes could be used to heat homes, but no way Jose, they just burn 'em where they fall.

I am a member of the 99% and I am sick and tired of living under the thumb of the 1%.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with people having a lot of money, when they work hard for it; what I have a problem with is the people who have all of the money stepping on those who don't have any and then turning around and acting as though they are the victims in this situation.

I pay taxes on little to nothing as far as income goes and Exxon pays nothing on their $14 billion in profits. Profit is what is left AFTER expenses. That is obscene. Make the corporate 1% pay taxes!

If the 1% paid their fair share of taxes, there wouldn't be national budget issues. Social programs would not be on the cutting table. There is no need to cut programs; or at least there wouldn't be a need if corporations paid their fair share. Those CEOs getting multi-million dollar bonuses for crippling our economy should be coughing up some serious tax cash. That is our money they are spending on their month long vacations, luxury cars and McMansions. That is what sticks in my craw... The majority of the country is finding it hard to put food on the table, while these folks are sipping pina coladas on the beach somewhere.

When the banks got bailed out, all debt owed to them by the 99% should have been vacated and the credit scoring system should have been abolished. That is not fair. We give them all this money and still we are billed by them each month? They won't loan us money but they want us to buy stuff. They won't loan us money because we are not credit worthy, are they credit worthy? They ruined the economy; I think their credit should be in the toilet, on a global level. They bought and paid for our Tea Party politicians; they are still paying for them, so the system is rigged. The Tea Party supports corporate America. And corporate America supports the Tea Party. What does Capitalism have to do with governance?

What is the Tea Party agenda? To destroy womens' health care, to cut off the elderly from their deserved Social Security and Medicare, and to line the pockets of the 1%; they are anti-education and anti-union and in my opinion they are anti-American. The people who collect Social Security are people who paid into it. It is not welfare, it is retirement. They are against birth control and abortions but they support Viagra. If you don't want abortions, you should be in favor of birth control. How many of these people cheat on their wives and use birth control so they don't get caught fathering a child that is not a product of their marriage?

Politicians who cheat on their wives will most likely cheat on the American public. If they can't stay true to their own marriage vows how on earth can they be trusted to live up to their political vows?

The Tea Party is only interested in protecting what the 1% have, they care nothing about what the 99% have lost.

Scandal after scandal make the head lines these days and who are in the middle of it all? The Republican/Christian right!

Religious ideology should have nothing to do with governing. Especially when those who are preaching are the biggest hypocrites around. Government is about governing; the protection of the peoples' rights. We all have the right to choose how to live our lives, treat our bodies, and plan for our futures.

All of my life I have been told what to do and how and where to do it. Look at where it has gotten me... in the 99%.

When I graduated from high school, one could afford to pay rent on minimum wage. Now though, a minimum wage earner must either work more than one job or have several roommates to pay the rent.

Fifteen years ago I did the single mother thing after a divorce. I would have never made it if it were not for my union job. My union job provided me with health care coverage and sick days. My union protected me for losing my job just because management didn't like me. (personal reasons) Now the Tea Party would do away with such protections. Just look at what Scott Walker has done in Wisconsin, my home state. And, look at how many republican run states have followed his lead.

They shouldn't be called tea baggers, they should be called nut baggers, since their ideas of what America should be is nuts.

It's time the 1% start giving back to those who put them in that percentile to begin with. They wouldn't have what they have if it weren't for the rest of us. We have been rewarded by having our jobs shipped overseas, and our homes taken from us, and if the Tea Party has their way, we'll starve to death.

The 1% have jobs. How did they get those jobs? By getting an education that qualified them for that job. So, why is it that the Tea Partiers are against education? Didn't they get an education? Weren't they taught by school teachers and professors? Why is it that they don't think education is important for our children? Shouldn't the kids of today have the same chance that they had when they were young? Let's face it, the Tea Party are part of that 1%. That is why they are fighting so hard to maintain the status quo.

This is what I have to say: If you want me to pay my credit card debt, mortgage and all other bills due, give me a job! Give my kids an education so they may get jobs. What happens when we get jobs? We pay taxes!

We are the 99%. We work hard, work long AND ARE REWARDED LITTLE. .We are the ones who make corporate America rich, every time we buy what they have to sell. There would be no corporations if it were not for us consumers. We can fight back by not consuming so much. It is our hard work that allows them the luxuries they have. They say thank you by permitting us to die? By begrudging us the ability to live in decent housing, eat good food, and have esteem for the good job we do? We are the time clock punchers. We have no Golden Parachute. We have no pensions; we have no income. What we do have is the Tea Party to dig our graves. Beware though, they'll probably bill us for it, with interest

(c) PREFERENCE.-No small arms ammunition or small arms ammunition components in excess of military requirements, or fired small arms cartridge cases may be made available for commercial sale under this section before such ammunition and ammunition components are of25
transferred for transfer or purchase, as authorized by law, to1 another Federal department or agency or for sale to State
and local law enforcement, firefighting, homeland security, 3 and emergency management agencies pursuant to section
2576 of title 10, United States Code, as amended by this Act.

Let them see what it is like to be unemployed with mountains of debt to pay. Take away their health care. Take away their vacations in five star hotels and resorts. Smash their credit scores; let them live like the 99%.

It seems to me that we have a corrupt government and our president has had his hands tied by them; Congress, that is. The Republicans are elitist thugs and the democrats are spineless. Oust them all and start over fresh with people who do not have law degrees. Lawyers go to school to learn how to screw people. Put real people in power.

We need a party of the Constitution. Our government has strayed so far away from the principles this country was founded on it is not even funny. CONGRESS YOU'RE FIRED! Will the 1% help you now? Congress is part of the 1%! That is why they won't raise taxes. They will raise their own incomes, but not taxes on the rich.

If Congress can decide how much they will make, we should be able to decide how much we make. We should get rid of the lot of them. Our elected officials are not doing their job, so fire them!

While we have important issues on the table, Congress has been wasting time on things like our national motto. Who the hell cares if our motto is, 'In God We trust'? We pay these people for this shit. We need jobs before we need to worry about whether or not In God We Trust is printed on our money. We need health care and we need stability in government.

I submit that Congress is not doing the job they were hired to do. I further submit that they are in no way shape or form, earning the big bucks we pay them.

I wonder if any members of Congress have ever seen the Star Trek movie in which Mr. Spok dies. If not, they should because my favorite and most appropriate line came out of that movie.

In the scene where Mr. Spok willingly gives his life so that others may live, he said, The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

Congress should take heed to that statement. The needs of the 99% outweigh the needs of the 1%. Republicans should especially listen. We are those who have worked hard all our lives, making the 1% rich and now we are being spit upon by them. We elected our members of Congress to represent us; look out for us and they are not doing their job. Fire the whole lot of 'em!

Restore our social programs to run effectively for all who need them and tax the one percent to pay for it. We are the United States, not the divided states. We need to take care of our own. That means the 1% needs to give a leg up to the 99% that paid for their year end bonuses in 2010.

For all of the money these Misers and cheats got from us, we should have a debt amnesty. Then the people would have money to spend without worrying about having enough to eat or a roof over their heads. That would stimulate the economy! Let those rich F***ers suffer a bit so that all may prosper in the long run. We have suffered long enough!

I have stopped paying my bills because I have no money, not because I don't want to pay them. Soon I will have no telephone, no Internet and perhaps no lights. Ah well, I live in the new old west I guess.

I'll answer my door with a shot gun if anyone thinks I'm leaving this house.

I am not happy with the results of the tax payer bailout of any of these corporations, especially the ones who pay no taxes. The funds have been used as I had feared. Instead of being invested into the economy, they were used to pay executive bonuses, for the most part. The tax payer is then thanked by way of hidden fees and high interest rates. No one has the credit score to get good rates.

What I would have done differently is to attach a whole bunch of strings; the least of which is this: Being that the majority of this country gave money to these corporations, all debt owed by middle class America should have been void. They can consider it interest on the money we the people loaned them from our government coffers.

Everyone would start fresh. No one would lose their home; junior wouldn't have to go without boots this winter, and everyone would be able to buy food to eat.

The 1% can continue to pay each other off, as usual. Only those who make less than $100,000 a year would qualify for debt amnesty.