Ty. Pi. Cal.
Just as I get the livestream in embeddable form, they change URLs on me for no particular reason. And drop from 133 viewers to 50.
Whatever. Here’s the livestream, and here it is in actual code that you can embed on a WordPress.COM blog.
[ vodpod id=Video.15692226&w=425&h=350&fv= ]
Remember, Remember. Make sure Wall Street never forgets!
Yes, it’s November 5th, Bank Transfer Day.
Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.Guy Fawkes, guy, t’was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England’s overthrow.By God’s mercy he was catch’d
With a darkened lantern and burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.And what shall we do with him?
Burn him!
Guy Fawkes- the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions. (Old but apt on Bonfire Night)—
Jemima Khan (@Jemima_Khan) November 05, 2011
Who is this Thomas Jefferson guy? He sounds like a filthy dirty hippie.
Occupy your own wallet by taking all your funds out of the Big Banks, putting them into your local credit union. You’ll get better service and better protections, you’ll own stock in a community business, and you’ll be helping make the world a better place.
Along with over one million Americans and counting:
That’s already about twice as many as switched from banks to credit unions last year, and when that video was made it wasn’t even November 5th yet! More switched in the month of October, 2011 than switched in all of last year.
“These results indicate that consumers are clearly making a smarter choice by moving to credit unions where, on average, they will save about $70 a year in fewer or no fees, lower rates on loans and higher return on savings,” said CUNA President Bill Cheney.
No relation to…you know…THAT guy.
Are banks really that evil? Let’s ask THIS guy:
Scott Warren opened an account at JP Morgan Chase Bank in 2009 to receive unemployment payments.
Scott Warren mailed his statement to Chase after switching to a credit union. It said 'Dear Chase, Occupy Wall St., from your ex-customer.'"
“Chase was the only one that set it up for you,” said Warren, who was a quality supervisor at Unisolar in Greenville before being laid off. “I went to the unemployment office, they gave me my paperwork. I go to Chase, they set me up, and, right away, they’re trying to get me to sign up for a credit card.”
Warren was stunned. And it happened every time he went into a branch, he said.
“They knew why I was there,” he said, referring to his unemployed status at the time. “I told them I didn’t think that was smart. This tells me that they are not in business to serve my needs. They intend to make money off of my failures.”
Here in Vancouver, a call has gone out from Nancy Zimmerman, Moneycoach, to VanCity Credit Union, one of the biggest success stories in the industry:
In light of corralled girls and teargassed wheel-chair bound women and articulate youth and the hashtag #occupy showing up here, there, everywhere, does Vancity have something to offer? Yes, this vid gives a glimpse of a better way. It’s inspiring.
But it’s not a manifesto, and if ever a ballsy manifesto (nothing pretty, please! and no slick marketing!) was needed from a financial institution, one whose DNA is still gritty and radical even if tamed over the years, it’s needed now. Is a credit union something more than a kinder, gentler bank? I’m listening. And I hope about 99% of Canadian citizens are too.
Lord Black of Conradistan
Between September 2008 and March 2009, Canadian banks reduced their holdings of domestic residential mortgages from $486.1 billion to $434.9 billion according to Bank of Canada stats; on a net basis.
Where did those mortgages go, you ask? Did 10% of Canadian homeonwers sell their homes and move into rental accomodation enmasse during a six month period?
Of course not. The federal government created a unique program through CMHC specifically targeted at allowing Canadian chartered banks to move tens of billions of dollars of assets off of their balance sheets. The reason? Canadian banks couldn’t raise sufficient and/or cost-effective funding from their traditional sources – primarily other global financial institutions – and needed Crown intervention to keep the wolf from the door. By mid-November 2008, the federal government had agreed to take $75 billion of mortgages from Canadian banks.
Assuming the risk-weighting of these assets was 20%, the feds essentially put $15 billion of capital into the Canadian banks that participated in the $75 billion CMHC program.
Bank Transfer Day: Ah, remember how it all began!
More money for you, less for “Too big to fail” corporations that would no longer exist if your tax dollars hadn’t been used to prop them up when their own machinations dug a grave for them. No tie-dyed, herbal-tea-stained, smelly hippie radical protester fingerprints on any of it.
Taking back your own wealth while sticking it to The Man, making more money, and saving fees?
Haters Gonna Hate ... Gramma
As of this writing, somebody’s posting to Facebook every 30 seconds that they ditched their bank in favor of a credit union…The campaign has caught on and credit unions reported a $4.5 billion surge in assets in October alone…
Should you wish to go about your business today or any other day wearing an Anonymous-approved Guy Fawkes mask, but hesitate to participate in consumerism by buying a mask copyrighted by Warner Brothers, you can print out a paper pattern for a 3D mask here, and you can find instructions on making an origami mask at the bottom of this post.
Short Attention Span Lemur presents: your Occupy Unicorn Chaser!
A day late and $75 billion short on your Unicorn Chaser good news roundup. After what went down last night in Oakland, I think we could all use a Unicorn Chaser, and the sooner the better.
What went down in Oakland, did I hear you ask? This:
But hey, cheer up!
Occupy Rockettes. If Michael Lohan can do it, you can too!
There! All better! Not quite?
Occu-Pumpkin to be turned into Occu-pie!
Now?
Well, I didn’t want to bring out the heavy artillery, but okay. Here goes. Be careful: better sit down for this.
Tom Morello's back at OccupyVancouver Wednesday Oct 19
Here’s the livestream of Tom Morello‘s show at the Vogue which as I write this hasn’t started yet. He was going to perform a few songs at Occupy Vancouver, but then it started to pour and instead he said, “I’ll do something better: I’ll invite ALL OF YOU to my show at the Vogue tonight,” and so he did! Everyone lined up, got their name down on a list, and away they went to the Vogue. Livestream below.
Tom Morello wil Occupy Vancouver
Not sure if the livestream will work, but what the hell, winging it is the name of the game.
Well, the livestream works, but it’s still live streaming, so until Occupy gets the concert video up, here’s a compilation: Morello’s first song at the concert and footage from both the concert and Occupy Vancouver.
Tom Morello, radically awesome musician and activist formerly of Rage Against the Machine, now solo as the Nightwatchman, addressed the crowd at Occupy Vancouver tonight. Here’s 57 seconds of him addressing the crowd, right up until my battery ran out. I’ll add the rest of the pix and videos as the night goes on. You can’t hear a word HE says, but you can hear the Human Mic, which is an amusing way to get the information. If you think “well, it’s not his real voice” reflect on the fact that an electronic microphone isn’t his real voice either, it just resembles it more.
When we arrived, someone had set up a green cord on the plaza and everyone was standing behind it, leaving about 30 feet empty in front of the stage where a couple of people were dancing to the drum circle that was going when I arrived. Strangely, no matter how many people arrived, people stayed behind it without anyone asking them to. An interesting example of default obedience to perceived rules, without ascertaining whether the rules even existed, never mind who put them in place.
Took the lazy way out and did a slideshow, so here it is:
and here’s my favorite picture from tonight.
My favorite pic from OccupyVancouver Wednesday Oct 19
Too much for just one post, so you get a bonus! UPDATE: actually, Flickr doesn’t want you to see these inflammatory photos, so just scroll up to one of the posts where I told Flickr to go fuck its censorship-happy Yahooligan self and uploaded the pix to WordPress.com. Should I ever get a break, I’ll sit down and repair this post. UPDATE: Done. Turned out to be my fault for setting them as Moderate in the uploader. I didn’t even know you could do that.
I spoke to the same security guard that I encountered yesterday and tonight instead of being nervous, he was … stoked. That’s pretty much the only word for it. He was stoked! Far from fearing the Anonymous masks, he was now focused on the community-building in situ, something he’d heard about but never seen for himself. The democratic process was impressive: the security woman at the medical tent, who couldn’t have been more supportive if she HAD been wearing one of those masks, told me they’d come to six resolutions, there was a free food tent (donations accepted) and it had been uniformly peaceful, to the obvious disappointment of a couple of standers-by.
As expected, it was fairly left-leaning, although there was also a strong Libertarian presence and they are attempting to keep the livestream as apolitical as possible. They’ve come up with a statement from the General Assembly, which is basically everybody there who wants to vote, which is basically EVERYBODY THERE. That should put paid to the “if they can’t say what they want in 140 characters, forget it!” people. What ever happened to good old manifestos, anyway?
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15TH, 2011 VANCOUVER ART GALLERYOccupy Vancouver – A Non Violent Movement
for Social, Economic and Political ChangeWe, the Ninety-Nine Percent, come together with our diverse experiences to transform the unequal, unfair, and growing disparity in the distribution of power and wealth in our city and around the globe. We challenge corporate greed, corruption, and the collusion between corporate power and government. We oppose systemic inequality, militarization, environmental destruction, and the erosion of civil liberties and human rights. We seek economic security, genuine equality, and the protection of the environment for all.
We are inspired and in solidarity with global movements including those across the Middle East, Europe, and the Occupy Wall Street / Occupy Together movement in over 1000 cities in North America. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
We humbly acknowledge that Occupy Vancouver is taking place on unceded Coast Salish territories.
We are committed to an inclusive and welcoming space, to addressing issues of oppression and discrimination, and to creating an environment where all the 99% can be heard and can meaningfully participate. We are also committed to safeguarding our collective well-being – including safety from interpersonal violence and any potential police violence.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a working statement that we know will evolve as #OccupyVancouver grows and flourishes. Our demands and our dreams are not limited to this statement as we have many ideas and solutions. As stated by #OccupyTogether, no one group, person, or website could ever speak for this diverse gathering of individuals. However, the General Assembly on October 8th reached consensus to accept these broad principles as a starting point and there will be further discussion on October 15th at 10 am at the General Assembly at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
And as for resolutions of the General Assembly, well, they are all nice people, they are letting anyone speak, they are willing to consider any and all positions and objections and amendments, but remember:
No one rules if no one obeys. Your moment of Zen
While we’re on the subject of Deep Thoughts, here are some by Brian Revel, who eloquently said what I’ve been too restless to articulate. It’s worth the time to read the whole thing, but here’s a taste:
The Occupy Wall Street movement that is slowly gaining steam in New York City is the change that I have been anticipating for much of my lifetime.
I have warned that a ‘revolution’ is coming. But on the other hand, I have called for change. I admit I have vacillated between embracing a world where the corporate agenda has lost its influence and ‘selling out’ to secure my economic future.
The revolution is upon us. It won’t be a Storming of the Bastille sort of revolution- or so I still hope. It’s going to be organic and more peaceful a la Gandhi; it will be in the numbers of participants, rather than in any violence that the change will take place.
Indeed, it will gain moral strength with every act of violence committed by those defending the status quo. Sadly, the defenders of the status quo is the role the New York Police Department is fated to play out.
REAL, deep and profound change doesn’t happen with a convenient sound bite or even a speech.
It happens because people vote with their feet. It may seem that what they are doing is unfocused right now. But as people slowly realize that their economic interests are being compromised by forces beyond their control and that all they have to do is stop what they’re doing and assemble to be counted, the momentum for change will accelerate.
We are not yet anywhere near a critical mass for spontaneous ‘revolution’ but I cannot help but keep my eye on this movement. Hell, I might even get on a plane and fly to New York to go see what is happening for myself. Seriously. This is the real thing.
Are we at all surprised it’s happening now? The largest demographic in the American population is the kids of baby boomers. They are unemployed, endebted and mad as hell. They see their parents retirement dreams vaporized. Their futures appear condemned to a losing battle against organizations that get rights but bear no responsibility for their actions. They see injustice everywhere and they have the time on their hands to affect the change they need to rebalance the wrongs.
And they make their flower-power parents look like kids making daisy chains in their sophistication and connectedness. To the establishment, they are truly dangerous and the first management tool to diffuse their frustration is extinguishment: to simply ignore them.
Three Little Pigs by Jerome Kashetsky
Remember that in BC the gap between the top 1% and the other 99 is larger and faster-growing than in the US. Remember also that Canada has more billionaires per capita than any other nation, and that Vancouver has more of them than any other city in Canuckistan except possibly Toronto. And hell, anybody who lives in Toronto instead of Vancouver is already suffering enough, right? Amirite?
Sorry, protests r srs bzns.
Goddam Organizers cheaped out! OccupyBakeries!
Should you wish to Occupy Grocery Stores on behalf of Occupy Vancouver, here is the wish list from the food tent:
and the wish list for the rest is topped by: INTERNET! If you have one of those Wind, Mobilicity, Telus, etc, internet sticks and you would like to donate it, please do. If you’ve got the makings of your own mesh network or what have you, please hook up with the Media Committee. And here’s the rest of the wish list:
Media team
walkie talkies
press passes
whiteboard
printer, ink, paper
tables, chairs, media tent
rocket stick (prepaid)
Boom mic and stand
extension cables
super long internet cable
4 power bars
External hard drives
SD cards
Apple laptops with final cut pro
PC laptops with premier or AVID
HD cameras
Cables (USB, FireWire, etc)
flip HD camera
Any other film/video equipment (lights, generators, Gaffer tape, power cables,
umbrellas
tarps
scissors
duct tape
saran wrap (for waterproofing)
re-usable rain ponchos
Dell 1525 Batteries with Rapid Chargers
Double A and Triple A Batteries
HDSLR and Video Camera Rain Covers
generator (1000 watts minimum, 2000 is good)
two 4G hotspots (clearchannel is good brand)
recommended microphone:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=tascam+tm-st1&N=0&InitialSearch=yes
laptop of 2.4ghz core 2 duo or greater. this will work:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200327
-K
For the Kids Zone
toys
rubber maid containers
musical instruments
tarps
twine
large plastic water containers
childrens books
cd player, portable radio
batteries
WILLINGNESS TO COME PLAY
Requests for the KIND KITCHEN
Rubbermaid containers
power cords
hot plates to make warm yummy vegan food
reusable plates, cups and cutlery
12′ x 12′ tarp
coffee maker, toaster, microwave, mixer
coolers
plastic bins
serving bowls
Food requests
prepared foods, soups salads, fruit & veg
caffeine free hot beverages, hot chocolate
The Education Station
NEEDS A TENT / CANOPY and chairs
MEDICS AND SECURITY TEAM
Walky Talkies
White Boards
If anyone has any of the following items and is willing to donate or loan them for Occupy Vancouver, please email occupyvancouvercontribute at gmail.com
