May 24, 2012

Hipter Cop Hates Music, Ironically




"Hipster Cop," a plainclothes detective with a love for Ralph Lauren, became an internet sensation last fall when he was spotted looking very fashionable while patrolling an Occupy Wall Street protest. Naturally, his photo spawned an internet meme a fake Facebook profileand even a GQ profile about his fashion sense. Well now, Hipster Cop, a.k.a. 45-year-old Rick Lee, is returning with the Occupy protests this spring. Check out this video of him yelling at musicians to turn down the music and threatening to revoke their sound permit. It looks like Lee wants to be less like a hipster and more like a cop now.


from Occupy.com

A guide on swarm intelligence from Montreal




Swarm Intelligence//


Swarm intelligence (SI) is the collective behaviour of decentralizedself-organized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence. The expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989, in the context of cellular robotic systems.[1]
SI systems are typically made up of a population of simple agents or boids interacting locally with one another and with their environment. The inspiration often comes from nature, especially biological systems. The agents follow very simple rules, and although there is no centralized control structure dictating how individual agents should behave, local, and to a certain degree random, interactions between such agents lead to the emergence of "intelligent" global behavior, unknown to the individual agents. Natural examples of SI include ant colonies, bird flocking, animal herdingbacterial growth, and fish schooling.

May 22, 2012

Capitalism Isn't Working



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CAPITALISM ISN'T WORKING! (or it's working just fine, and this is how it's SUPPOSED to work).

So a couple years ago, about three years ago, I made a video called...
I actually don’t remember what it was called. I’ve deleted it. It was about Capitalism, and how I found the idea that we should be “smashing capitalism” to be infantile. One argument I made was: how would you get avocados for your vegan burrito? What would the incentive be to bringing food from that far away? Would you barter for a hemp necklace?

However, I had made a terrible mistake. Since the word “capitalism” is so propagandized, it’s come to be synonymous with a LOT of things that it has absolutely nothing to do with.

In the video I’m mentioning, I had conflated the term “capitalism” with “markets.”

In reality, capitalism actually has NOTHING TO DO WITH MARKETS. Capitalism simply means that we as a society think that it’s okay for some people who have a lot of money, to buy all the stuff, and then get even more rich simply through the fact that they own all the stuff. Capitalism necessitates abuse of labor. It is in the DNA of capitalism that labor is abused and exploited.

It is under capitalism, that a worker builds a house, and then has to pay the capitalist for the right to live in the house he built with his own hands.

It’s under capitalism that a worker makes hundreds of shoes all day, but is paid so little for his labor by the capitalist who owns the factory, that he cannot, in a day of labor, earn enough to buy a single pair of shoes for himself.

It’s under capitalism that a worker makes enough clothing in a day to clothe a neighborhood block, but is paid so little they would have to save for a month to purchase a single shirt they made through their own labor.

It’s under capitalism, that workers harvest every day from the fields the capitalist owns, enough food to feed a village, but the worker has to pay the capitalist their days wages for the right to eat a single meal’s worth.

You don’t have to think about this very hard to come to understand why so many of our brothers and sisters are homeless, shoeless, naked, and hungry. The game is rigged that way.

These things, the field, the farm, the factory, the financial institution, these are what people are talking about when they say “the means of production.”

What is the value that the capitalist provides in any of these aformentioned situations? The capitalist does no labor, and simply through owning the factory, owning the field, owning the bank, and therefore controlling the money, the capitalist is able to create even more wealth for himself by exploiting the labor of his fellow man.

At what point did we decide that THAT was a good way to organize our society?

Now, it’s often said that capitalism is an economic system. That’s a complete misnomer. Systems have closed loops and sustain themselves. Capitalism is a straight line. What do I mean by that?

Have you ever played the game monopoly? Well, monopoly and capitalism operate under very similar rules. So long as everybody has a fairly equal share of property, and the money keeps getting passed around the board equitably, the game can go on for what seems like forever. But eventually, somebody gets enough of an upper hand that you can see the game is already over. People start losing their homes in order to pay their bills. Sudden expenses come up that you can’t cover, and you start losing the very things that allowed you to participate in the game to begin with. Then slowly and surely, one person ends up owning everything, simply by the virtue of the fact that they own more stuff than anybody else to start with, and then the balance of power tips forever in their favor from that point onwards. And so eventually all the money and all the property ends up in the hands of one person. And that’s how you win Monopoly.

That’s also how you win capitalism. That’s where we’re at right now, on the precipice just before the super-wealthy end up owning every property on the game board, and all the money in the bank, while the rest of us are unable to play the game at all. To the 1%, to the Koch Brothers, I say, congratulations, you win at capitalism. Nobody else has anything. You win.
Another word that people use capitalism as a stand-in for is Democracy. Truly Capitalism and Democracy could not be further from each other in meaning.

Under capitalism, your workplace is organized in a hierarchical structure, in which one person, or a small cabal of people own everything, and reap all the profits from the labor of the workers. The workers have no input in the direction of the business, how it is run, how their fellow workers are treated, etc. If your average workplace were a government, we would readily call it fascism. So let’s call it what it is-- fascism.

Worker-owned autonomous workplaces, however, looks very different from Capitalism. Under worker-owned and operated cooperatives, the workers all share ownership of the means of production. They are all paid equally for their labor, they all share equally in the profits, they all share equally in the losses. Workers come to consensus how to run the business, and how their fellow workers are treated. If this workplace were a government, it would be called a “democracy.” Another word for democracy in the workplace, is “socialism.”

So Socialism and markets are not mutually exclusive. In fact there are many worker-owned cooperatives that you already know about and probably purchase their products regularly, like Land O Lakes butter.

Now, most workplaces are capitalist. Which means that there is little to no democracy in our economic sphere. Which means that a few are enriched through the exploitation of the labor of the many. And in a society where money is legally seen as equivalent to speech, and in practical terms is equivalent to power, it’s quite clear that capitalism CREATES a ruling class, and is the OPPOSITE of democracy.
The lack democracy in our workplaces is the ROOT CAUSE of why there is so little democracy in our governmental systems. For information how to to start your own worker’s cooperative, go to usworker.coop

Vets throw their Medals back at NATO summit



What happens when the people who guard your empire realize that the "honor" you told them about was a way to trick them into dying for your bottom line?

May 20, 2012

Obama is a War Criminal

Yes this is old news. Perhaps you weren't ready to hear it in 2009 though:




part 2


In case you forgot that both Democrats and Republicans were War Criminals:

here's a little video compilation of both democrats and republicans lying through their teeth to remind you


via puppetgov.com

The "crazy radical" that was censored by TED talks

Nick Hanauer in March of 2012:


Me, two years prior in November of 2010:


This isn't a new idea. It's just math. Capitalism is not sustainable.

TimCast, LukeWeAreChange, and Jiraffa raided by police


Video streaming by Ustream


Video streaming by Ustream

Meanwhile, Montreal is on fire.

Chicago Police beat peaceful protesters with clubs & truncheons

via NATO indymedia:

May 19, 2012

Protesters hit by police van at #OCHI #NoNATO

UPDATE 12:13am:

Very Clear Video:

UStream's automatic code generator appears to be broken for this vid and it won't embed the video highlighted at the video page, which you can watch here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22714270/highlight/264637

[manually messing with embed code]

Hopefully this video will work:

Video streaming by Ustream
UPDATE (11:48pm): Photos are coming in.





via OccupyTheRoads


Video streaming by Ustream

The video is choppy, and due to shakey camera work and low light, it's hard to tell what is actually happening, but you can definitely hear two "thud" sounds and see that the driver continues to push forward through a group of people. I'm sure more details will emerge in time. Hopefully somebody else was recording this and has better video.

TimCast in Chicago #NoNATO


Broadcasting live with Ustream

FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN NDAA!



FUUUUUUUUUUUCK YEAH!

If you don't know why this is awesome, watch this video:



Both Obama and Romney supported the NDAA. Fascist assholes.

May 17, 2012

Jill Stein: She's got gravitas

Lee Camp: 15 crucial facts you'll NEVER hear in the mainstream media

via LeeCamp.net

Ze Frank reminds you to chase your happy

via ZeFrank's youtube channel:

My Interview up on Occupy.com

My interview with Dennis Trainor Jr on the Occupodcast is up on Occupy.com

Click the above image to go to the podcast on Occupy.com, and poke around and check out all the other great media there!

HAPPY 8-MONTH-IVERSARY OWS!

The Power Of Music: Nazi Sniper Tamed By Trumpet

via plinorph

My League of Young Voter's Candidate Questionnaire

Are you a clean election candidate? Yes
*If not, why? Exactly.

If you are an incumbent, how did you vote on the re-qualifying option to replace matching funds? If you are a new candidate, how would you have voted? 

I would have voted in favor.  I would like to see our clean elections system much much stronger than it currently is.  Truly, so long as we allow “traditionally” funded campaigns, aka corrupt campaigns, we will never actually have clean elections.  Clean elections should be mandatory.  Public funds for Public Office.
Stepping stones on the way there are measures such as the re-qualifying option, but ultimately, we need to get money out of politics, and let ideas compete on a level playing field in the court of public opinion.

Would you vote for a non-binding resolution that expresses opposition to the Citizen United Supreme Court decision?  

OMFG are you kidding?  ABSOLUTELY, RESOLUTELY, YES.  I would vote for a BINDING resolution that expresses opposition to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.  I would vote for a law that banned corporate person-hood in the state of Maine, and just let the Federal Government figure out what to do with that.  Yes, I would love to see that bill tied up in the federal court system, and generating public dialogue, and I hope legislators in a dozen other states follow suit.  I would also like to see corporations, since they are legally currently people, freed from ownership under the 13th amendment which bans slavery.  We need to tackle this issue from every angle possible.  As a person spent 3 months at Occupy Wall Street and Occupy DC, this is an issue very near and dear to my heart.

If there were a constitutional amendment designed to nullify the effects of the decision, would you vote for it?

Yes.  For further information on where I stand, here is a video I made on this subject back in 2009:  http://punkpatriot.blogspot.com/2009/09/dont-get-rolled.html



Who are your top three donors?

A. Marnie Glickman $99 (She and I served together on the Green Party of the United States Platform Committee, and I interned at GreenChange.org, a nonprofit that she ran.)
B. David Palmer $100 (we worked together on Pat LaMarche's campaign for Governor)
C. Michael Briggs $75 (fan of the Punk Patriot)

What level of campaign finance disclosure do you think is necessary? 
All of it.  I realize from running now that this can be difficult to keep track of, but so what?  All in the service of transparency.  Transparency is one of the principles of solidarity at Occupy Wall Street.  Our government could learn quite a lot about good governance from the Anarchists down in NYC.

Do you believe it's acceptable for candidates to accept money from PACs?

Absolutely not.  I also think it's unethical and immoral for PACs to spend money on behalf of candidates.  If I had my druthers, PACs, SuperPACs, etc would not exist.    

What industries do you see bringing jobs to the state in the coming years? 

Well, to remain within the narrowness of this question: Ecotourism, Technology, Arts, Green Energy and Weatherization, and Public Transportation.  To step outside of the narrowness of this question for a second, let's look at the industries that we've lost.  
We've lost jobs in the paper industry to Canada.  Sure, Irving still cuts down our trees, but they export them to Canada to be processed.  Why?  Because of the cost of insuring their workers.  In Canada, they have a Universal Single Payer healthcare system, and the cost of insurance isn't a factor in the cost of labor.  We've lost jobs in textiles.  Maine used to be one of the top producers of shoes in the world.  Those jobs have all left for China, Mexico, and other places with weak workplace protections, weak environmental protections, and low standards of living.  We could still have global trade based on principles of raising up worker's rights, civil rights, and environmental quality.  But we are prohibited from doing so.  This is because of our participation in the WTO, which supersedes state and even federal law, and dictates our trade policies.  I propose we create a WTO free zone in Maine.  Again, this would be tied up in the courts as the WTO and Federal Government prosecute, but in the meantime it would generate dialogue on a national level, and make it a household issue that people talk about.  People don't realize why all the jobs are gone.  Our economy is screwed up because a handful of corporate executives run  an organization that is effectively a meta-national world government made of corporations that completely undermines our national sovereignty in regards to trade policy.  That is why the jobs are all gone.  That must be addressed directly and confrontationally.

How can the state do a better job attracting and supporting these industries?

In regards to EcoTourism, we should keep our unspoiled wilderness unspoiled.  I am opposed to the Plum Creek Developments, something that Democrats and Republicans alike supported, and members of the Maine Democratic Party establishment, like Harold Pachios, pushed through.  If the Democrats prostituting our wilderness was bad, the recent talk from Paul LePage and others in the GOP about disbanding LURC, is ludicrous.  This new private east-west highway, which would help make it even easier to allow paper companies to export our resources to Canada, would also open up new areas to development and urbanization.  Which is terrible.  People don't go to Newark, New Jersey to go on vacation, or get away from it all.  They come to Maine.  We have wealthy folks “from-away” like Martha Stewart, George HW Bush, John Travolta, and many more, who live here for at least part of the year, precisely because it is largely unspoiled and wild.   To “develop” Maine’s wilderness is to kill the goose that lays the golden egg year round, every year.  These aren't jobs we need to attract, these are jobs that are already here, and should be preserved.  The Great Outdoors is the fabric of Maine's identity as a state.
In regards to technology-- investing in the UMaine college system, and ensuring that the State-to-Tuition ratio is brought back to what it was in the 1970s (roughly 70%/30%), and creating grants and other incentives for people to go to school in the fields of science, engineering, computer science, etc, would ensure that we have a highly skilled, and intelligent workforce.  And of course clean energy is an emerging field in the technology sector which is going to require creative problem solving and highly skilled labor.
Without regard to the type of jobs that you are trying to bring to a state, the number one guaranteed way to attract jobs to your state is to invest in your citizens.  Every policy that Ayn Rand-worshiping regressives say kill jobs, actually CREATE jobs.  They are 180 degrees, dead wrong on this issue.  Ensure that you have strong environmental protection laws so that people want to live here, and when they do live here, they don't get poisoned by their air, water, and soil.
Both Apple and Microsoft were started in garages by college dropouts who were able to go to college thanks to government assistance with tuition.  Ensure that an affordable education is available so that your citizens are intelligent, skilled, and creative.  
Ensure that everybody has access to medical care.  As I mentioned before, because Canada has Single Payer Healthcare, we lose jobs to them, because the cost of labor is lower.  Rather than mandating businesses provide health insurance to their employees, let the government do that.  The Government does a better job insuring people anyways, as they are free of the burden of profit.  And yes, profit is a burden, rather than a positive motivator to provide excellent service.  Private Healthcare has a perverse incentive structure, where the worse the care they provide, the more money they make.  
How would we pay for all of this investment?  Taxing the rich.  Our current tax brackets are hilariously stupid.  Our top income bracket kicks in at $30,000/yr, which is $16,000 below the national median income.  We are taxing millionaires the same as we tax school teachers.  That's such an incredibly stupid financial policy, I cannot believe it has never been brought up as a bigger campaign issue.  We need to create more tax brackets that are increasingly progressive.  Our top tax bracket is only 8%.  Which is fine if you only make $30,000/yr.  But what if you make $75,000/yr?  I think that tier of income should be taxed at a  significantly higher rate.  We have people who live here who make more than $100,000 a year.  That bracket of income should be taxed at an even higher rate.   We need more tax brackets.  Because Maine is a unique and beautiful place, people who only live here part of the year, and declare some other state as their primary residence, should not be able to get away with cheating, just because they make enough to own more than one home.  Their income should be taxed as though they were full time residents.  Where are they going to go and get natural unspoiled beauty like here?  New Jersey?   I don't think so.

What proposal to create jobs would you bring to the table that offers a fresh approach?

See the above.  I think that's kind of fresh.

What has the Occupy movement accomplished so far? Name 3 accomplishments.

I'll name more than just three:
A. Changing the National Dialogue.  We are talked about positively now in the Corporate-Owned Media because we're so damned popular.  There is coverage on ABC of the upcoming General Strike on May 1st, the day of International Worker's Solidarity, and it's not derisive coverage, it's positive coverage.
B. Scaring the shit out of the Department of Homeland Security (I read a DHS docket that Anonmyous snagged as part of the Stratfor dump released to Wikileaks, and DHS has been paying VERY close attention to us).   http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/13637_DHS%20IP%20Special.pdf 
C. Delivered a kick in the teeth to the dominant paradigm of Reaganomics.  People are allowed to criticize capitalism openly now.  It's socially acceptable to say, “We need to Raise Taxes.”  
D. Given people permission that they thought that they needed, but never actually did, to be outspoken, to engage in direct action, to do crazy, amazing, beautiful things.
E. Radicalized a new generation of activists
F. “Class War” now has a positive connotation.
G. We created a church of dissent in the heart of the world's financial district that has persisted against all odds.
H. We have drawn attention to poor-people's issues, homelessness, joblessness, oppression of minorities, etc – issues which are usually lost in the national political dialogue as the DNC and GOP both pander to an ever shrinking middle class.

P.S. What is your tax rate or bracket? 
I don't make enough money to pay taxes.  I got everything I paid in back, as per usual.

Do you support the following workers’ rights policies? 

I have, as Cornell West says, “a deep-seated love of poor and working people.”  
*If no – why? <-You'd really have to be a dick not to.

A mandate for paid sick days? YES!

A living wage mandate? OMFG YES!

Worker's right to organize a union? YES!

P.S. What dollar amount do you think is a living wage? 

$15 currently.  The problem with naming a figure like this is that there are confounding factors like inflation.  A true living wage would index a minimum wage against the cost of living, which fluctuates, and can be region specific.  France indexes their minimum wage against the price of bread.  That's one way to do it.  I'm sure there are better ways as well, such as simply using census data.

Would you support legislation that enables municipalities to tax big box stores? 
HELLA yes.  Box stores are like bleach to thriving communities.  They sterilize them.  They kill jobs.  They kill community.  They kill culture.  They ought to pay for what they destroy.

How about a local option sales tax?  
I'm actually not familiar with this term.  If this means allowing a small local businesses to charge a sales tax at a lower rate than large franchises, then YES.

Do you support bonds as a means of funding Maine's infrastructure and other investments in the state's future? 
Yes.  I also support the creation of a State Bank, and using infrastructure created as collateral for loans.  This would effectively allow the state to create small controlled financial bubbles, and they can be collapsed in a controlled fashion, or simply erased.  This gets to the heart of what money actually is, and how banks operate --they can make up, out of thin air, 7 times the amount of money they actually have on hand.  This is how fractional reserve banking works.  Since money isn't really a thing, it's really nothing but the incentive for people to do things in “fossilized” form, we could create the money out of an infrastructure bank, rather than borrowing it, and then being charged interest on those loans.  This sounds crazy if you're not familiar with monetarism.  If you understand how our financial system actually works, it would seem even more crazy that we're actually kicking people off of Mainecare and into the streets for our perceived lack of something that is really nothing but a collective hallucination.

Maine has the second highest student loan debt in the country. What would you do to alleviate the problem of excessive student loan debt?
As a student who couldn't afford to finish my degree, and had to petition my department for a waiver in order to get any degree at all, this issue is near and dear to my heart (and wallet, as I've got over $20,000 of debt ).  
But, I believe I already went over this in my section on “how to attract jobs” so I don't want to rehash things too much.  Our UMaine system is effectively a private institution with a public name on it's stationary.  I support a Universal Education system, akin to what most civilized nations in Europe have.  I also support a jubilee for student debt.  If we don't control the collapse of this debt bubble, students like me who can't afford to pay their student loans are going to be the start next big financial collapse. 

Would you support increased funding for Maine's public university and community college system?
Provided that tuition costs are dramatically reduced as a result.  Education is a RIGHT.  Education in an INVESTMENT.  We should be glad to invest in the knowledge of one another.  I would favor universal college education.

Equal Rights & Courage of Convictions

Will you vote for marriage equality on the Maine ballot? 
I worked for No On One.  Yes.  Absolutely yes.  

Will you actively rather than passively support the initiative?  
Yes.  Absolutely yes.  It drives me up the wall that this is still an issue that we have to debate over.  I would take great pleasure in using logic and wit to decimate any arguments against marriage equality as well.  I take much pleasure in being a firebrand.

What's an example of an issue or policy on which you would not compromise despite constituent lack of support?
Everything I say I stand for now, I will stand for when I am elected, unless there is compelling factual evidence, or a sound logical case, that convinces me otherwise.  I will run on my platform, and If I am elected on my platform, I will serve on my platform.

Are you willing to be a one-term representative/senator because you chose not to compromise your principles? 
HAHAHA!  Yes.  Gladly.  I've got nothing to lose.  I don't want to go to Augusta for a job.  I want to go to Augusta to unfuck the world- legislatively speaking.  If I lose my seat for having integrity, then the system really truly is completely broken, and I will gladly go back to OWS and spend my time and energy there again.

Conversely, what's an example of an issue on which you would follow the lead of your constituents?
I served for Student Senate at USM, and people came to me with issues all the time that I'd never thought about.  The issues that aren't on my radar, if people bring them up, I will investigate them, and find out what I can do about them.

Do you believe that non-citizen immigrants living in Maine should have the same access to social services as American citizens?
I'll go one step further, and say that they should not only have the same access to social services as US citizens, but they should be allowed to vote in municipal elections.  They pay sales tax.  They pay property taxes, either directly or indirectly through their landlord.  They have kids who go to school.  They should have a say in how their tax dollars are spent, and how their kids are educated.

What is the single most destructive change that has occurred in Augusta in the past two years?
To say that there is just one is to ignore the fact that every single state in the USA is under a barrage of destructive legislation from groups like ALEC.  There is no single most destructive change.  We are in the middle of a tsunami of destructive change.

Do you feel the need to take a proactive stance against the anti-choice agenda?
Already did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDc15RKIAlg





How would you effectively frame your argument to religious women?
“You want to reduce the number of Abortions.  I do too.  To ban abortion is not going to work.  It never did.  It never will.  To truly reduce the number of abortions, we have to look at the root causes of why women get abortions, and then deal with those.  Those root causes are poverty, lack of social mobility, lack of access to preventative healthcare, and the high cost of raising a child causing potential homelessness.  Abortion is inextricably linked to Social and Economic Justice.  If we have strong welfare, strong state assistance for new mothers, better access to preventative healthcare, the number of abortions will drop.  

An increasing number of candidates are invoking religion as part of their campaign. Do you believe this is acceptable and do you plan to invoke religion in your own campaign? 
My religion is nobody's business.  

Why or why not?  
It just shouldn't be relevant.  Governance should be based on facts, figures, logic, and evidence.  Policy is social science-- heavy emphasis on the science part.  Religion requires the denial of facts to uphold previously held belief in dogma.  That is a recipe for bad government.

What role should religion play in campaigns and in shaping public policy?  
None.  I believe, as Vaclav Havel said, “The measure for political progress should be a measure of the well-being of mankind.”

Living off the Land & Government Authority
What policies would you support that place more Maine-produced food on Maine tables?
Well, creating a WTO-free zone in Maine would help with that.  Our federal farm bill is totally messed up with it's priorities, and I would support a mirror-image farm bill that supports small farmers over large factory farms.  A tax on factory farmed meat that reflects the true cost to the environment and to the people who live near those farms, would help to drive the price of factory farmed meat up, and that tax levied could be used to subsidize small farmers, to bring their prices down.  I support the ability of people with EBT to use their card at Farmers Markets.  I think that is a such an obvious thing, especially when access to healthy food is such an issue for low income people.

Rank the top 5 energy sources that are the most viable options to combat man-made climate change, 1 being the best and 5 being the worst:


Nuclear 5 – Why? In the time it takes for nuclear waste to become benign, humans went from living in caves and eating their dead, to checking facebook on their iphone.
Wind power 1 (with the condition that micro-nodal power distribution is far better than giant pinwheel turbines)
Natural gas 5 Why?  Well for starters-- fracking. Second, methane IS a greenhouse gas- and burning it creates CO2.  Uh, hello? 
Solar power 1
Off shore drilling 5  We need another Deepwater Horizon like we need carcinogenic shrimp cocktails.
Tidal energy 1
Solar energy 1 I'm glad that solar is on here twice.


Other (please explain) 
We really need to follow Germany's example on this.  They have FIRST reduced their energy consumption by mandating criteria for energy saving standards.  Simple things, like motion detector lights in hallways, rather than running them all day long when nobody is in them.  SECOND, they created subsidies for solar power, which have been so successful that the price of electricity in Germany is collapsing right now.
We also need a micro-nodal smart grid, where we can create jobs by providing market incentives for building owners to install small scale solar and wind arrays.  To take the bite out of the payback time, we give grants to those who wish to make the transition, and allow them to sell the power back into the grid.  We tax the money they make on those sales.  This needs to be done via grants, rather than tax incentives, because tax incentives rely on people having the money to start with, and then waiting until they get their tax return to be reimbursed.  If we want to get serious about this, we need to get serious about this.  We have the potential to off ourselves as a species if we take half measures.

Do you support a mandate to promote the growth of these energy sources? 
Depends on what that mandate is, and what it is mandating.  I support a mandate on the purchase by government agencies of clean energy, mandating that their energy portfolio be made of 100% clean energy by a certain date.  If we had a state bank we could create zero-interest loans for that transition period, and shrink that time to near zero.  

How do you envision the future of Maine's north woods and the management of its unorganized territories? 

Leave them alone!  LURC was created to protect this gem that is the North Woods.  I have canoed the Allegash waterway.  There is nothing like sitting at a campsite, and hearing absolutely nothing.  No trucks.  No cars.  No airplanes.  Just the air moving through the trees and the occasional bird.  People who have never lived in places like Cleveland, Detroit, or New York, they don't understand how incredibly sacred and rare that is.  Maybe a new role of LURC should be to send people who want to urbanize the north woods to go live in Detroit for a year.

What should be the role of the Land Use Regulation Commission?
To preserve the North Woods.  That is what it was created for.  It's jurisdiction is 10.4 million acres of undeveloped land.  Let's keep it that way.  There are ways to create sustainable jobs for those living in rural areas without destroying the very biosphere that sustains us.

Maine spends more than $130 million each year on its prisons. The state's jails and prisons are overcrowded, and its jails place an enormous financial burden on county governments. How would you reform the Maine corrections system? 

First, I want to preface this by saying that I do not, and have not ever used recreational drugs.  And I don't plan to ever use drugs recreationally.  However, since more than half of all prisoners are convicted on non-violent drug related charges, we should just end the prohibition on Marijuana and other victimless crimes.  Simple.  Easy.  Effective.  

Do you support private prisons as a solution?  
Oh f**king hell no.  In scenarios like this, privatization makes things worse.  First, there is the burden of profit.  Second there is less accountability.  Third, you get into the issue of prison labor, where corporations are increasingly moving their labor force to.  Private prisons are bad for inmates, bad for Civil Liberties, bad for Maine, and bad for America.

May 16, 2012

Dr Margaret Flowers at Think Tank in Maine

"The United States Government, because of corporate involvement, has proven itsself incapable of making decisions based on evidence, or the public interest"

May 8, 2012

Occupy.com profiles Capt Ray Lewis



As a police captain and a bishop, Ray Lewis and George Packard inhabit roles in society that don't lend themselves to activism. But they bucked convention and sided with the people they vowed to counsel and protect. Other police officers were not as kind to the Occupy Movement, and other clergy were certainly not as brave as Episcopal Bishop George Packard, who challenged Trinity Church, one of the largest landowners in New York City, when it denied much-needed space to Occupy Wall Street.

The director, producer and executive producer of these pieces—David Sauvage, Seth Cohen and Lawrence Taubman, respectively—are the founders of Occupy.com. Beth Bogart, one of the original members of the OWS PR Working Group, worked with David and Seth to produce the piece and connected them with the Captain and the Bishop.

Occupy.com Profiles Bishop George Packard



"The church needed, at this moment in history, to stand alongside these protesters," Bishop Packard says in the film. "The truth of Christ is found in the streets, in the honesty and the integrity and the insistence of people that you find in Occupy Wall Street."

Occupy Blitzkrieg!



"It is possible to be militantly non-violent."

With this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced two sides of a dichotomy that often arises within social movements: the question of whether to be militant or non-violent. There is a long history steeped in both approaches, from Gandhi's non-violent civil disobedience to guerilla war tactics employed to overthrow oppressive regimes.

Filmmaker Corey Ogilvie agrees with MLK in regards to being well organized and disciplined in non-violent power struggle. His film craftily evokes the post-WWII era in which Americans were united against a foreign enemy, except the enemies in this piece are not the Axis Powers but the greedy bankers within our borders. Ogilvie takes the motif of the American war machine and turns it on its head with the assistance 1950's-era cartoons and television and film footage, and the result is a fun, engaging and informative piece of propaganda brought to you by the filmmaker of the popular #OWS video, "I Am Not Moving".

"Considering MLK's statement led me to the question: What would a nonviolent blitzkrieg look like?" Ogilvie said. "Imagine if all the elements of Occupy - organizers, protesters, flashmobs, whistleblowers, donors, filmmakers, journalists and hacktivists - could focus fire on just one government official, one bank, one corporation, one institution, all at once, for one month, with one simple demand. Blitzkrieg simplifies the complexity of the battlefield for the attacker, focusing every weapon on one target at one time. This made it the most groundbreaking strategy in the history of violence. Maybe it also has a place in the history of nonviolence."

Bernie Sanders - Student Loans

May 7, 2012

Photo Caption Contest

Here's your source photo:



And here is a link to I can Haz Cheezeburger's LOL builder: build it and they will haz cheeseburger

Here's a couple to start things off.






I'm sure you can do better. Send your entries to punkpatriot411 [at] gmail [dot] com

The winner wins something good, but not something awesome (sorry, I'm poor).

May 5, 2012

Dear Cenk, You don't get it.



Dear Cenk,
You don't get it.

The idea behind direct democracy is that nobody can represent you better than you.  Why should I be representing that woman in Florida?  She should represent her.  Send a person to her house, and interview her.  Tell her story.  We are all individuals.  I don't have a right to speak on her behalf.  She should speak on her behalf.

The idea that some people are able to speak better for us than ourselves, is part of the problem with our government, and with our media.  You are lazy.  If the news actually spent money looking into how bad shit was here at home, instead of just repeating what government officials said all day long, maybe this would be a non-issue.

But it's not a non-issue.  It's very much an issue.  Why should WE be the ones to do YOUR job?  We aren't the media, you are.  You should be coming to us to learn about our struggle.

The GA's held in lower Manhattan aren't meant to represent everybody in the world.  People can hold their own GAs in their own towns and self-organize.

Peace,
The Punk Patriot

May 4, 2012

Harrison Shultz-- OWS Organizer on Sean Hannity show





He Doesn't even flinch.

May 2nd protest at Brooklyn College

Sign the Petition at Takebackbrooklyn.wordpress.com to demand charges be dropped for trying to meet with the Administration along with an end to Tuition Hikes and Over-securitazation of our schools.

From the video description:
On May 2nd, 2012, peaceful students and faculty experienced unnecessary brutality on the Brooklyn College campus. Brooklyn College President Karen Gould ordered for students to be violently removed by campus security from outside of her office in a main academic building; two students were wrongly arrested, spent a night in jail, and face unsubstantiated charges.

Over the next five years, students face a $1,500 tuition increase, and continuous cuts to student services and a continuation of increased securitization on CUNY Campuses-- from the NYPD systematic spying on Muslim Student Associations, to Stop and Frisk racial profiling policies on and off our campuses, to attacks by security guards on peaceful students such as during the Board of Trustees Meeting on November 21st, 2011 at Baruch College. We refuse to allow this to become the future of CUNY.

Petition: To Chancellor Goldstein, President Karen Gould of Brooklyn College and other CUNY Administration, Under your leadership, Chancellor Goldstein, students have seen our tuition dollars diverted from programs that support our needs as student to fund increased securitization of CUNY campuses.

We refuse to pay ever increasing tuition rates for decreasing student services. We refuse to watch our tuition money used to fund campus security measures that target students of color and those exercising their right to freedom of speech. We demand the repeal of NYSUNY2020 Tuition Hikes and an end to the securitization of the City University of New York.


While the video title is "Police use excessive force against peaceful student protesters at Brooklyn College" it doesn't appear that that was the case- unless there were injuries that I am not aware of. I think it's important not to overblow police violence, because when it actually happens, we end up with a "boy who cried wolf" situation.

That said, the police presence certainly escalated things from a bunch of kids sitting down in a hallway, into a frenzied mass. From a tactical standpoint, the police did a really lousy job handling this situation.

Shep Smith of Fox News -"Politics is weird and creepy, and... lacks the loosest attachment to anything like reality."



"Politics is weird... and creepy.  And now I know, lacks the loosest attachment to anything like reality."

ART RESISTANCE - I need financial backers

UPDATE: Thanks to two very generous donors, we should have more than enough money to do this right. If you'd like to still donate money for future art resistance actions, we'll gladly take it, but at this point, we don't need it.

Stay tuned for more here: WearYourDebt.tumblr.com


I know that many of you already donate as sustaining donors. You help me keep food on my plate and me making videos.

I normally don't beg so blatently for money, and I always feel weird about doing so, but there's some upcoming art resistance actions that I'd like to do, and I really need about $200 to make it happen. Can you give like $10?





One art resistance action is planned to be during Senator Olympia Snowe's speech to my graduating class at USM, and I need funds to do them. Think posters, giant banners.
I made this sticker for instance
That shit costs money- canvass, paint, etc. And I need it quick. Like before May 8th. I will have video for you, for sure, it will be fucking awesome, and there will probably be national news coverage as well. And you can be sitting at home watching it on your computer, or on your tv, and say to yourself, "HEY! I helped make that happen!"

Olympia Snowe's husband, by the way, is currently under investigation for financial fraud. What for? Bilking college students, that's what.

From Truthout:
In November 2011, after three years of study, Washington was provided notice by the "college" that she had reached the federal loan/grant aggregate limit of $52,340 and that it would cost $37,000 to complete the degree. Washington dropped out with $52,160 in debt. Because The Art Institute's credits are not transferable, Washington has been swindled out of $52,000 and three years of her life.
The only way to describe $89,000 for a four-year degree with non-transferable credits from a non-academic college is as a fraud and a swindle, and that characterization possibly fails to convey the frustration and downright victimization students like Washington must feel.
Like subprime mortgages, for-profit colleges are a scam driven by payment of commissions to sales staff known as recruiters. The payment of commissions to high-pressure salespeople is so central to the scam that the umbrella trade group for for-profits, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), has sued the federal government to overturn its ban on incentive pay.

And She's our commencement speaker. It's audacious that she is speaking to a crowd of graduating seniors at USM.
Anyways, please donate so that me and my crew of awesome people can call her out for her bullshit:


Thank you!

May 3, 2012

Jill Stein: The Revolution in 8 minutes

I met up for dinner with Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein. It was great talking with her. I almost forgot to get a video. I asked her to recap our two hour conversation in 5 minutes. And so she did:
 
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Jill Stein on MPBN

"One presidential candidate has made it part of her campaign platform to erase student debt and make college more affordable. In fact, Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein would make enrollment in a public college or university free. It's all part of what she calls her Green New Deal. Stein was in Maine today for a campaign swing through Portland just two days before the Maine Greens hold their party convention." Article here: http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/21652/Default.aspx