Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes inceased, the weaker an economy becomes. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
==========================================================================================================================================
#Occupy Wall Street and its sister groups around the world, seem to take inordinate pride in not having leaders. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s because #Occupy wishes to disassociate themselves from their “enemies,” i.e. governments and big business,” which do have leaders.
For whatever the reason, lacking a head, #Occupy runs aimlessly, chicken-like, and expends great energy for little gain. It wishes to deliver a message, but what message? Ask the person in the street what #Occupy stands for or wants, and you surely will get a mixture of anti- this and anti- that, and for very little.
They seem like a group of young people for whom protest is an exciting break — think Spring Break on Daytona Beach. And like all young people whose primary mission is to have fun and outdo each other in daring naughtiness, they break things, flout authority and incite trouble. “Innocently” camping in the park for weeks on end, is neither innocent nor meant to be. The sole purpose is to provoke authority, then whine about their First Amendment rights, when authority gets tough. Even the worst police show more discipline than the protesters.
Pity, because #Occupy’s message should be to close the gap between rich and poor, by lifting the poor. But the message is lost in the medium.
If #Occupy had a head, he/she would be smart enough not to come to Chicago for the NATO summit.
Questions: Why NATO and why the summit? NATO has only a distant relationship to #Occupy’s prime message, whatever it may be. Mostly, NATO is a combination war and anti-war organization (depending on how you look at it), specifically designed to protect Europe from the Soviet Union, and more recently as a military alternative to the unwieldy United Nations. Do you think of #Occupy as primarily being an anti-war group? I don’t. If it is, I must have missed the message.
And in any event, if you don’t like NATO, the last place you want to be is the summit, where every kook from around the world, is coming to march, yell, carry some sort of sign, and possibly cause a bit of bother. What is the key message the world will get from the upcoming summit protests? Just one: How well, or how poorly, the Chicago police “handled” the protesters.
As for which message, take your pick: Poverty? War? Global warming? Energy? Tyranny? Starvation? Disease? Ecology? Overfishing? Overlumbering? Pollution? Save the birds? The list goes on and on, and for each item a group of protesters will scream, march, carry nutty signs and attempt to provoke the police, while acting oh-so put upon if the police respond. (Think wild 12-year-olds trying to tickle the noses of the human statues guarding Buckingham Palace.)
Is this the message with which the headless, leaderless, messageless #Occupy wishes to associate itself? Is this is the memory #Occupy wishes the public to carry away?
If #Occupy wishes to make a statement, first it should have a statement to make — a sharp, clear, focused statement. And then it should make that statement, not in the maelstrom of a thousand screaming children, but on a calm, clear day, when their voices are the only ones to be heard.
In short, #Occupy, to get ahead you need to get a head, preferably one with enough good sense not to try painting a picture while standing under a waterfall. Sure, come to Chicago, but not at a time when you’ll be blamed for every misdeed, and accomplish nothing, except to have your message drowned out. Come when yours is the one voice, so the media can support your ideas.
#Occupy, please stay the hell away from Chicago during the NATO summit.
(Ah, but it’s too late, isn’t it?)
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com
==========================================================================================================================================
No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
funny(not really)how we never see some asshole in a tri-corner hat get maced now do we, or some lowlife scum get maced for spitting on a representative during the health care debacle.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4
LikeLike
oh, come on, rodger–here’s your chance to shine!! as you repeatedly say, they need a leader–well, go over there and offer your services!! don’t be shy!!
LikeLike
In several posts, I already said what I’d do, so in the immortal words of William Tecumseh Sherman, “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”
LikeLike
Then watch the right wing media decapitate that head … just like that.
LikeLike
The .01% thanks you for your Bill O’Reilly mischaracterizations of something you wish so dearly would fit into your own box of thinking and categories- but never will. I like how the protesters- clearly wronged by the rotting system- are the “provocateurs” (despite not being the ones with the batons, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and tear gas grenades). Yes, how dare they stand up to the criminal racket status quo. Let the debt serfs eat cake!
Let’s start politely writing our congressmen requesting “better elites” and more reform scraps! Ha!!
LikeLike
Pete, who are you talking to, and specifically to what are you referring? Standing in the middle of the street and screaming how you hate the world as it is, will not produce productive results.
When angry mobs have no clear-cut goals, all that results is a ‘frying-pan-into-the-fire totalitarian government. “I’m pissed” is no substitute for a coherent plan.
And why would #Occupy want to cloud its message (whatever it may be), by joining in with every angry citizen in the nation, who comes to Chicago to air grievances against authority?
LikeLike
“Standing in the middle of the street and screaming how you hate the world as it is…..” Occupy is much more comprehensive than that. Street protests are but one aspect. It has nothing to do with “hating the world”. That’s your and Bill O’Reilly’s interpretation. I gather from watching TV…
LikeLike
O.K., specifically, what does #Occupy want? Try this. Go out and ask a dozen people that question, and see what answers you get.
I sympathize with #Occupy, but as a long-time business man I can tell you, they simply do not know how to get their message across (perhaps because they themselves don’t know what their message is.)
LikeLike
Relatively clear concepts….
http://occupychi.org/
#NATO Thursday May 17: Planet over Profits and War!
Announcements
2pm Jackson and LaSalle – Bike Mass for Environmentally Sustainable Transportation
3pm Prudential Plaza, 180 N. Stetson Ave.- Rally outside of the Canadian Consulate
3:30pm Press conference, Prudential Plaza
Thur 5/17: Occupy Chicago Stands against NATO/G8 Member Canada’s Environmental Destruction
Shouting out against the NATO war machine, Occupy Chicago is organizing a week of actions highlighting the violence and oppression of NATO, and calling for the organization to be disbanded. Thursday, May 17th Occupy Chicago will defend the environment at the Canadian Consulate, exposing the dirty oil extraction of the Alberta Tar Sands, which is destroying the local ecosystem, fueling G8/NATO’s wars to protect resources and contributing to the global climate crises.
At 2 pm, all environmentally-friendly modes of transportation are invited to meet at LaSalle & Jackson for a mass mobilization to the Canadian Consulate, located at Prudential Plaza, 180 N. Stetson Ave
LikeLike
–Against violence and oppression by NATO (but not by al Qaeda, Syria, Lybia, Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah)
–Anti- tar sands mining
–Environmentally friendly transportation
–Anti “corruption and corporate influence in government” (according to their web site)
–Against the gap between rich and poor
So, as I said, they have no focus. In essence, they are against bad and for good. With no focus, they cannot deliver a coherent message. The public will think of them as a bunch of punks, who would rather protest and block traffic than do an honest day’s labor.
And, this is what their own web site says, “Currently the participants of Occupy Chicago are expressing their voices together and developing an agreed Mission Statement and list of Grievances (to come soon).”
A year has gone by and they have neither a mission statement nor a list of grievances, but they are out there marching and protesting. It’s like a child throwing a tantrum.
LikeLike
http://natoprotest.org/why/
Bringing the U.S./NATO war machine home:
•Just as spending for U.S./NATO spending has exploded abroad, U.S. domestic security spending has doubled since 2001, with evidence that much of this domestic spying is targeting political dissent, including opposition to war and economic inequality, right here at home.
•Screw accountability at home for war crimes: On April 3, 2012, the Obama administration indicted intelligence whistleblower John Kiriakou, the sixth whistleblower that the Obama administration has charged under the Espionage Act for the alleged mishandling of classified information – more than all past administrations combined. Kirakou’s ‘crime’? Blowing the whistle on Bush administration waterboarding and refusing to engage in torture; he’s the only person to be criminally prosecuted in connection with the Bush-era torture program.
•Homeland Security officials have spent six years and more than $250 million building the nation’s largest fleet of domestic surveillance drones, yet the nine Predators used on America’s borders have yet to prove very useful in stopping contraband or undocumented immigrants — but they HAVE jumpstarted enthusiasm among law enforcement agencies across the nation for using drone technology to observe and spy on local residents.
•In February 2012, Congress directed the Federal Aviation Administration to craft regulations governing the licensing of commercial drones. That could open the skies to increased domestic surveillance and commercial data-gathering of the sort that concerns groups like the ACLU.
•Drones “really have the potential to become a new avenue of surveillance in American life. There are 747-size drones, but there are drones as small as little hummingbirds that can fly up, buzz around, look in windows and stuff like that,” Jay Stanley, an ACLU senior analyst, has said. The FAA has approved 300 certificates to operate drones filed by public entities including local police departments, universities, and federal departments.
LikeLike
So, you’re protesting against NATO, and as your examples, you give whistleblowers and domestic drones, neither of which has anything whatsoever to do with NATO.
You are a perfect example of what I I’ve said, repeatedly, #Occupy has no focus. I’m sure these people mean well, but if you protest before you even have developed a mission statement or a list of grievances, you are being naive.
No leader. No focus. No list of grievances. Yikes! And they think they know how to run the world????
LikeLike
Roger, we all tried listening to your generation for the last 35 years and look where it got us and look at the condition of the planet. Great job….The party is over.
“The worldwide protests against the global political and economic system could therefore be understood as a sign that “democracy cannot be made or imposed from above”
“History often emerges in retrospect. Events become significant only when looked back on. No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square in a town barely on a map, he would spark protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Or that the spirit of dissent would spur Mexicans to rise up against the terror of drug cartels, Greeks to march against unaccountable leaders, Americans to occupy public spaces to protest income inequality, and Russians to marshal themselves against a corrupt autocracy. Protests have now occurred in countries whose populations total at least 3 billion people, and the word protest has appeared in newspapers and online exponentially more this past year than at any other time in history. Is there a global tipping point for frustration? Everywhere, it seems, people said they’d had enough…the idea of democracy was present in every gathering. The root of the word democracy is demos, ‘the people’, and the meaning of democracy is the people rule. And they did, if not at the ballot box, then in the streets. America is a nation conceived in protest, and protest is in some ways the source code for democracy – and evidence of the lack of it.”
“It seems clear to me that the understanding of how democracy could, and perhaps should, function in a changed world, may well emerge from a close scrutiny of individuals’ involvement in these protests.”
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/bertolivier/2012/01/10/the-significance-of-recent-protests-for-democracy/
LikeLike
” . . . protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Or that the spirit of dissent would spur Mexicans to rise up against the terror of drug cartels,. . . ”
Two questions: What was NATO’s role? Are things now better in those countries?
LikeLike
Pete says,”Americans to occupy public spaces to protest income inequality”
Praise the Lord,we now know what the OWS has as its issue.
INCOME INEQUALITY.
So why doesn’t every one carry a sign protesting “Income Inequality”
Why not protest how we got there and how to fix it.
As Einstein said,”Make it simple.”
ONE UNITED CAUSE:
End Income inequality.
How about we start with “Great News !! ZERO INCOME TAXES…”
LikeLike
How about this for a slogan: “There is an alternative”
“That the invasion of market relations into every sphere of life has always been accompanied by violence. War, debt, and the market are inextricably linked. Even today, our money system is based mainly on the monetization of government war debts. If there is one persistent theme to this book, it is that our association of debt repayment with morality is false; that, indeed, the debt relations that hold today are rooted in a history of violence; that debt and money itself are social creations and not unalterable facts of nature; that our understanding of human nature is deeply colored by the market-based, debt-based world we live in. The world could be different. We are right to want it to be different.”
Would love to see you discuss this and/or Graeber in a post…
http://www.shareable.net/blog/there-is-an-alternative-0
LikeLike
I understand. You’re unhappy with the world, so you protest everything. NATO kills people; the leaders of Syria and Iraq and al Qauda don’t kill people.
Try protesting in Syria and see what you get.
Remember this, my protesting friend, virtually every dictator in modern history came to power because of a protest against the establishment, and the reason always was the same: The people were angry, but they didn’t know exactly what they wanted.
Sure, they hated their leaders, but without specific goals, all they got were worse leaders.
What is #Occupy doing to prevent the rise of another Hitler, Castro, Amin, al-Assad, Chavez, Mugabe, Kim Jong-Il, Kagame, Mao Zedung, Mussolini, etc., etc.? Until #Occupy answers that question, it’s just another mob with pitchforks.
Compared to those guys, the NATO leaders don’t look all that bad. Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.
And by the way, the following is ignorant bullsh*t: “Our money system is based mainly on the monetization of government war debts.” Learn Monetary Sovereignty before you spout off about economics.
LikeLike
Roger, you really need to read Graeber’s book. It’s quite a piece of scholarly achievement. The furthest thing from “ignorant bullshit”. It’s an actual anthropological catalog of debt and credit history. You are dead wrong to make that claim.
As far as dictators go, most are pre-approved regime leaders put in place by the western economic powerhouses. We put in leaders that are “business (corporate)-friendly” all across the world. Guys that will sell their human and natural resources for pennies on the dollar. A pound of flesh perhaps for a dubious IMF “loan” (debt-burden) that will never EVER be paid off. Please see John Perkins “Confessions of An Economic HItman” to see how this works… or Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine”. You think we’re “spreading democracy”….? That’s superb.
As far as preventing the rise of villains, I’m not really sure where you’re headed. Do you think that is what NATO does? Please. Our own white house has shown a willingness to violate multiple international standards, invade, murder, torture, run up the false flag all over the globe. And recently we’ve been spending trillions chasing “terrorists” hobgoblins through the desert only to get a lot of good young people, women and children killed. Are we/they better off? I dunno. How about 75 Billion$ a year in Homeland Security spending and a police state that is growing completely out of control. We are bringing the goose steps right to our own front door… who needs fear of third world dictators?
LikeLike
Pete, what are you smoking?
You said, “As far as dictators go, most are pre-approved regime leaders put in place by the western economic powerhouses.” in response to this list of dictators: Hitler, Castro, Amin, al-Assad, Kagame, Chavez, Mugabe, Kim Jong-Il, Mao Zedung, Mussolini
Then you said, “As far as preventing the rise of villains, I’m not really sure where you’re headed. “ Sure you do. The question is dead simple. You want to throw out something (Western governments? All governments??) But you don’t specify what you want to throw out, nor who and what will replace what you throw out.
#Occupy is just a bunch of angry protest with no specifics and no plan. The U.S. government (as well as every government in human history) has done many bad things and many good things. So?
#Occupy marches in the streets, wearing masks, and covering themselves with cooking oil (That happened yesterday). My plan is to write to leaders and to vote for new leaders.
What’s your plan?
LikeLike
list of dictators:
Hitler – covertly supported by Elites in England and the USA, particularly related to Oil and Wall St
Castro – backed by USA for a time, given popular struggle against dictator Batista, hoped to be “our man”
Amin – some support from Israel and psby CIA
al-Assad – not sure
Kagame – a US-trained agents, at the former School of Americas, met in WDC before genocidal outburst in Rwanda
Chavez – not liked by Chevron or Exxon, he would only give them 49% control, not 51%
Mugabe – a mess, corrupt, also Zbwe strangled by western sanctions
Kim Jong-Il – unloved
Mao Zedung – even CIA educ films described how horrible it was to live in China and how Mao was able to rally civilians to his cause, mostly ousting foreign colonizers
Mussolini – lots of love from the USA, Gen Smedley Butler was almost tried on treason in the US for publicly criticizing Benito
I could flesh out more details.
LikeLike
Every criminal has admirers and supporters, but there is a huge difference between a dictator being “admired” or even “supported” vs. being “put in place” as Pete claimed.
We decided to send food and other support to North Korea. Put that in your list opposite Kim Jong Il’s name.
LikeLike
Also Pete, a Monetarily Sovereign nation does not need to monetize debt. The U.S. became Monetarily Sovereign on August 15, 1971, and has not needed to tax or borrow since then, though out of ignorance, it does continue with those obsolete processes.
Do you (or Graeber) understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty? If so, what do you think these differences are?
Don’t bother to write another reply until you can answer that question.
LikeLike
“…..though out of ignorance, it does continue with those obsolete processes.”
Really? You think it’s out of ignorance? Now who’s smoking what? I know the difference but the banker’s game is the same around the globe regardless. You should read the book… you’ll be glad you did. Since Graeber discovers that virtual credit pre-dates the myth of “barter” (a false economic starting point in history), I reckon he has wrapped his head around MS and other fun monetary educational tools.
My dictator reference was in response to your “Iraq, Syria,….” You do know that Sadam was our friendly chess piece for quite some time before he evolved into enemy #1, yes? Remember Pinochet? Instead of cherry picking, address the general point of U.S. Foreign policy for what it is…. not what the TV tells you. We & other Western powerhouses go into less developed countries, extract human and natural resources under the guise of “democracy” or “development”. As long as the oligarch in charge is “playing ball” with Washington & Friends, human rights and dictatorial behavior are afterthoughts. So, the position that NATO is the defender of the free world is a huge crock. Again, see John Perkins. He did this for a living…
If you’re scared of the next Hitler, I’d be much less concerned about what’s going on half way around the globe and look at the evolution of the police state right in your front yard. And if you want a real threat to humanity, shelve the “axis of evil” dictators and start studying on Monsanto.
Perhaps you think all the protesting during the civil rights movement was a waste of time too?
The system has failed the people on the streets you so horribly mischaracterize. FAILED. Not a B-, not even a D+. A big fat F….I might recommend reading up on several of the direct initiatives that sects of the Occupy movement have begun. Housing, Agriculture, Finance, etc… there are quite a few bright people organizing and effecting real bottom up change. Of course, commercial media doesn’t care much to tell these tales so you have to know where to look.
What did Einstein say? “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
LikeLike
I hate war. You, too?? Really? I’m surprised.
I hate poverty, unemployment, murder, air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, killing entire species, homelessness, starvation, bad education, bad teachers, global warming and the U.S. immigration policy (or lack thereof). You too? No kidding. I didn’t know that.
I hate street gangs, drug dealers, welfare cheats, lack of health care, the military, warrantless arrests, religious leaders who turn a blind eye to misdeeds by their own religion, using the bible to justify hurting people, all criminals and Supreme Court justices who claim to know what was in the minds of the founders, and think the world has not changed since then. Do you? I never knew that.
I hate the growing gap between rich and poor, the buying of elections, the buying of congresspeople, lying politicians, guns, debt-idiots, people who hate America because it’s not perfect, phony patriots, police brutality, uninformed newspaper editors, dishonest reporters, poisons in our foods, holding people indefinitely without a trial, arresting people because of someone’s suspicion, Internet hackers, drunks and bullies. Don’t tell me you do, too.
I hate animal cruelty, hunting, over-fishing, crooked or incompetent doctors, crooked or incompetent judges, crooked or incompetent prosecutors, crooked or incompetent politicians, big business, trial experts who will say whatever they are paid to say, bias based on religion, bias based on skin color, bias based on geography, bias based on sex, people who claim the Holocaust never happened, the establishment (whatever that is), people who fire rockets at civilians then whine when the civilians shoot back, and all forms of hate. Yes, I hate hate. Are we together on this? We are? Amazing.
I have no solutions to any of the above. I barely know the facts. But I believe if I march, scream, carry a sign, provoke the police and cause enough inconvenience for my fellow Americans, someone else will come up with the solutions.
Let’s march!
LikeLike
There is a long list of non-violent protest and public dissent affecting social and economic changes…. from Ghandi & the Salt Laws right up to 10’s of thousands of Wisconsin folk/workers occupying the state capital and recalling politicians.
The current crisis provides a plethora of glaring symptoms having different effects on different people. The current Occupy movement is still evolving and taking form. It might be a bit soon to write it off as senseless anger, especially since you have people who played by the rules all their lives recognizing that there’s a handful of people that apparently don’t need to do the same. I’m sorry this is so difficult for you to understand.
At any rate, you may want to brace yourself for much more of it. You’ve written extensively about the effects of austerity measures (for regular folk). The elites of the rotting old paradigm are still clinging on in the final stages of cancer.
LikeLike
Right. There’s a lot of bad in the world, and protest can help change things, sometimes for the better. Agreed.
Of course, this truth has absolutely nothing to do with the points I made in the post. You misdiagnose any criticism of #Occupy as a criticism of protest and a defense of the 1%.
Go back and read the post.
LikeLike
Today is July 25, 2012, well past the NATO summit. #Occupy came and marched. They had no proposal. They didn’t understand economics. So they accomplished . . . what?
LikeLike