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Tag: Occupy

  • The One Percent: They’re Not Who We Thought

    “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Mark Twain

    Ever since the #occupy movement kicked off, the term “the one percent” has been a household phrase. Everyone knows what it means, right? It’s those richest of the rich, with their Park Avenue homes, super-exorbitant salaries, and low-paid minions beneath them, suffering while the boss sits in the lap of luxury.

    Or so everyone thought.

    As The Atlantic points out, this may be one of those times when the very statistics used to prove a point actually blinded people to the truth of the matter.

    It turns out that using the term “one percent” has clouded the issue. It was not 1% of Americans that were holding the vast majority of the wealth. In fact, it is more like .01%. And that sliver of the population is so rich that their numbers could be spread over 1% and still look impressive, thereby misleading those who hear that “one percent” phrase.

    Why is it important to know that the number of super-rich is even slimmer than we thought? Because an examination of the “one percent”, now known to be too wide a sampling, does not reveal the truth of who holds the wealth. Within the “one percent” are CEOs with fat salaries. And as a result, those people have been demonized. But it turns out that those richest of the richest do not collect paychecks.

    The super-rich get all their money from investments, the stock market. Therefore, they pay little in tax. And they may have no employees “beneath them” at all.

    And one of the most interesting facts that we find when we look at that top .01% is that they are not always the same people. There is “churn” at the top.

    The IRS releases a list of the “Fortunate 400” every year, the richest tax returns of the country. Between 1992 and 2008, over 3,500 different households were on that list. And even more shocking is that only one percent of the Fortunate 400 – that’s 4 households – appeared on the list every year in that period.

    These discoveries do not halt the battle for Fair Pay, a Living Wage, or collective bargaining rights for those who wish to have them. But it may go a long way toward defining who is who, and possibly prevent epithets tossed based on someone’s wealth that is gained without being on the backs of others.

    Image via ThinkStock

  • Tiny Houses Shelter the Homeless in the U.S.

    Tiny portable houses are being built all across the U.S.

    These tiny structures were originally used for downsizing or environmental purposes, but now homeless activists are taking advantage of the security it could provide to someone living on the streets.

    Typically built with a bed, kitchen, and toilet, similar replicas have served well for poverty-stricken individuals in states including Wisconsin, Oregon, California, Florida, New York, and Texas.

    Occupy Madison Build (OM Build) of Wisconsin built its first 98-square-foot structure for $5,000 last month without government assistance. Now, one homeless man is helping to build his mini home.

    “You’re out of the elements, you’ve got your own bed, you’ve got your own place to call your own,” Harold “Hap” Morgan said. “It gives you a little bit of self-pride: This is my own house.”

    Plumbing and electricity are unavailable. However, the houses are well insulated and have propane heaters.

    One California carpenter told NBC News that his tiny homes, which he refers to as micro-pods, has helped with issues faced by the homeless in the city of Oakland.

    Artist Gregory Kloehn, 43, hopes his custom designed structures will help to alleviate the number of homeless people who are jailed for breaking public safety laws.

    “I was sleeping outside on the freeway for two or three years,” 39-year-old Cathryn Estelle Copeland told NBC News. “Now, I can roll my house down the street. Now the police don’t give me a hard time. I keep my house clean and I have no problems.”

    Unlike OM Build, Kloehn’s quirky-like structures are built on a $100 budget. He saves money by reusing wood found out on the streets or in the local trash. His tiny houses, however, usually only come with a bed, a storage area, and insulation.

    Additionally, other nonprofit organizations and ministries in the country are taking this idea just a little further.(image)

    In Eugene, Oregon, homeless activists are hoping to establish small interpersonal communities filled with mini mobile homes.

    Opportunity Village Eugene, Community Supported Shelters (CSS), and The Village Collaborative are just a few that plan to offer affordable and sustainable permanent housing to people living without shelter or who wish to live resourcefully.

     

    Here is the story about Harold “Hap” Morgan of Wisconsin:

    Image via Blog, Gregory Kloehn

    Image via YouTube

  • Scott Walker: 2016 Candidate Should Be an Outsider

    Scott Walker made a surprise statement on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”, according to the Huffington Post. In his opinion, he says that the next Republican presidential nominee needs to be an outsider, meaning a governor or former governor with a successful track record in their state. Like himself, of course.

    Well, if he is right, that would rule out some Tea Party favorites, like Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (Ky.), all of whom are considered very likely to seek their party’s nomination in 2016. Cruz is a Tea Party icon, and highly spoken of by the likes of Sarah Palin and other conservatives who might disagree, and Rand Paul is a huge favorite among Ron Paul fans and general lovers of the constitution.

    Walker is considered one of the greatest enemies of the “Occupy” movement from three years ago that saw days, sometimes weeks and months, of protests all over the country.

    He even had to use a secret tunnel to go to and from work during the tumultuous times. He and his family were the recipients of death threats. But now he’s turning his attention to the 2016 ballots and what’s next for the country. About the nominee, he said,

    “I think it’s got to be an outsider. I think both the presidential and the vice presidential nominee should either be a former or current governor — people who have done successful things in their states, who have taken on big reforms, who are ready to move America forward.”

    ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked him about Paul Ryan, Walker’s Wisconsin colleague and former vice-presidential candidate to Mitt Romney. “I love Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan, if he had a fan club, I’d be the president of that,” Walker said. He then added that, unfortunately, Ryan also wouldn’t meet his criteria for an ideal candidate.

    According to ABC, he said the reason for his harsh criteria is the misguided efforts of Republicans in the government shutdown debacle last month. When asked if he thought it was a mistake, he said, “I think so.”

    He observed that Republicans at the state level are much more willing to compromise to make things happen.

    “Republicans, at the state level, are showing we’re much more optimistic, we’re speaking in terms that are much more relevant to where real voters are at,” he said.

    Some Republicans and Independents may not see this as a good thing, however. Tea Party members and the conservative Right have spent a considerable amount of time and money supporting those that held their ground in Washington during the shutdown.

    Is this a ploy by Walker to make room for his own name on the upcoming nomination? When asked if he would run himself, he said, “I don’t rule anything out.”

    Sounds sneaky to me…

    image via youtube

  • ‘Pepper-Spray Cop’ from Occupy Protest Gets Bigger Payout Than Students

    Remember the infamous cop that pepper-sprayed peaceful Occupy protesters at the University of California-Davis in 2011 because they wouldn’t move? He was awarded a workers’ comp settlement last week, which just happens to be more than the students that were pepper-sprayed received.

    The news of former University of California police officer John Pike filing a workers’ comp claim made rounds back in July. A judge approved the claim last week in the amount of $38,000 for “moderate” psychiatric distress stemming from the pepper-spray incident. The protesters that were sprayed in the face received around $30,000 each. Check out the video of the cop pepper-spraying the students below.

    Pike walked down a line of student protesters that were sitting on the ground as part of the nationwide Occupy movement and showered pepper-spray in their faces. Some protesters were pepper-sprayed multiple times. Pike was put on paid administrative leave for eight months and was eventually let go from his position after the university determined that he used excessive force.

    According to The Davis Enterprise, Pike was being paid an annual salary of just over $120,000 at the time he was fired, which means in addition to the workers’ comp settlement he received, he was also paid $90,000 (less taxes) after the pepper-spraying incident. Pike will also receive retirement benefits.

    Bernie Goldsmith, a Davis lawyer that supports the protesters, told The Davis Enterprise that Pike’s workers’ comp settlement sends a dangerous message. It “sends a clear message to the next officer nervously facing off with a group of passive, unarmed students: Go on ahead. Brutalize them. Trample their rights. You will be well taken care of,” Goldsmith said.

    While many people question the fairness of Pike receiving a workers’ comp settlement period, let alone receiving more than the people he pepper-sprayed, the university doesn’t appear to have any issues with the settlement. “This case has been resolved in accordance with state law and processes on workers’ compensation,” UC-Davis spokesman Andy Fell said in an email.

    Do you think Pike was entitled to a settlement? Respond below. Many people are outraged with the former University of California system cop receiving a payout:

    [Image via YouTube]

  • Pepper Spraying Campus Cop Seeks Workers Comp

    Back during the #Occupy demonstrations, set off by the #occupywallstreet events in New York, there were lots of accusations of police brutality and abuse. Images of mounted police riding down protestors, old women being pepper-sprayed, and cordoned-off protestors being pepper-sprayed in the face were put on the news on an almost nightly basis for weeks.

    One New York officer, Anthony Bologna, was a particular target of scorn because of video footage showing him, during a scuffle with protestors, deliberately spraying people in the face who were obviously posing no threat.

    But there is probably no more enduring image of this abuse than that of University of California Davis police officer John Pike, seen on November 18, 2011, walking past and spraying unarmed, sitting protestors with pepper spray. The video and images enraged people across the nation. It was made into memes and spread far and wide within a couple of days.

    Pike was suspended and ended up leaving the force in 2012. A 190-page report of the incident showed that campus police used excessive force. The university offered to pay $1 million dollars to university students who were sprayed.

    Now John Pike has come back to get a piece of the action.

    Last month, according to the UC Davis Enterprise, Pike filed a worker’s compensation claim with UC Davis over the incident. He alleges that he himself suffered from unspecified psychiatric and nervous system damage. A judge will hear Pike’s claim in mid-August. If a settlement is not reached, it will likely go to trial.

    Pike’s claim does not specify how he was injured. Only that his injury stems from the incident in which he pepper-sprayed seated students. It is known that he received death threats, threats to his family, and was suspended from work. Perhaps he blames UC Davis for what he did in the line of duty.

  • Judge Orders Twitter to Hand Over Protest Tweets

    A New York judge this week ordered Twitter to hand over months of tweets from an Occupy Wall St. protester. Malcolm Harris, the protester, was arrested while trying to cross the Brooklyn Bridge with hundreds of other protesters in October of last year. The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that the prosecution for his case want his tweets to prove that he and his fellow protesters knew that they were not allowed on the roadway of the bridge.

    Twitter has so far refused to hand over the tweets, which were originally public, but have since been pushed off Harris’ Twitter page by subsequent tweets. The crux of the conflict is over whether the tweets are Harris’ property or Twitter’s. Twitter maintains, as it does in its user agreement, that all content posted to its platform is owned by its creator, and therefore Harris has the right to challenge the subpoena of his tweets.

    The judge in the case decided that Harris did not have a “proprietary intrest” for the tweets and does not have standing to challenge the subpoena. Prosecutors also argued that, as the tweets were originally posted publicly, Harris could not now invoke privacy rights to them.

    Another worry for Twitter is that, if it is forced to supply the tweets in this case, it will have to comply with more requests in the future and have to go to court to defend more of its members. As its recent transparency report shows, Twitter has been receiving an increasing number of requests from governments for user data, and overwhelmingly so from the U.S.

    It is laudable and perhaps rare to see a company go to court for its members the way Twitter is in this case. Twitter, whether or not it is correct in this case, deserves praise for not simply rolling over for a prosecutor’s subpoena. According to the AP, the company is currently evaluating its next legal move regarding the case.

  • Restaurant Calls 1% Tip Story a Hoax

    Restaurant Calls 1% Tip Story a Hoax

    A Newport Beach, CA banker recently prompted public outrage after apparently leaving a 1% tip for a waitress named Breanna, adding a small note to the check reading “get a real job.” But according to the True Food Kitchen, the restaurant where the tip and advice were given, the whole thing is a hoax.

    Apparently, a picture of the note on the check ended up on a blog called Future Ex Banker, which has since been deleted. The blog was moderated by an employee of the “wealthy banker” in question, and a caption with the original photo of the check read:

    Mention the “99%” in my boss’ presence and feel his wrath. So proudly does he wear his 1% badge of honor that he tips exactly 1% every time he feels the server doesn’t sufficiently bow down to his Holiness. Oh, and he always makes sure to include a “tip” of his own.

    Clever. The deleted blog also read:

    I work in the corporate office of a major bank for a boss who represents everything wrong with the financial industry: blatant disregard and outright contempt for everyone and everything he deems beneath him. On top of that, he’s a complete and utter tool. At the same time, I’m still cashing paychecks, an admittedly willing—albeit reluctant—cog in the wheel of this increasingly ugly industry, so I’ve created this blog as a confessional of sorts. It won’t entirely clear my conscience, but hopefully it’ll help. I’m sure I’ll get fired eventually. Until then, enjoy.

    Soon after Future Ex Banker blew up on the web, the author deleted it, lacking the courage of his or her convictions – though the Occupy Movement surely got very excited about the whole thing, initially – the story was so easy, but in the end, too good to be true. Below is a copy of the actual receipt and tip left for the waitress:

    (image)

    So basically, a Future Ex Banker went out of his or her way to insult a waitress named Breanna, to somehow “confess” to the Occupy Movement anonymously on the internet, only to subsequently take the whole thing offline, likely after those aforementioned paychecks were threatened. This is kind of like when I wear North Face clothes to go stare at kayaks at the mall, never to actually float on one – a pedestrian and cowardly reaction to some vague notion or ideal.

  • Occupy Oakland Occupies Social Media [Videos]

    According to various reports, about 300 protesters were arrested on Saturday in the Occupy Oakland protests. As you might imagine, related content is flooding the social networks. There are lots of videos of police/protester clashing.

    Here are some of the YouTube videos that have been going around:

    While the channel is offline at the time of this writing, a UStream channel has been livestreaming the protests.

    Here’s some of the current chatter going on about Occupy Oakland on Twitter (it’s pretty similar on Facebook and Google+):

    @granitesentry
    Granite Sentry    100s arrested at #Occupy Oakland; protesters break into City Hall http://t.co/6p1wvbpe Like herding feral cats. #tcot 3 minutes ago via Tweet Button · powered by @socialditto

    @jeffunderwood71
    Jeff Underwood    @StefanHofmeyer Is Oakland safe or out of control? Looks like the occupy movement got a bit out of hand yesterday. Is all well with you? 7 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    @PrettyMuchRed
    The Red Fox    Occupy Oakland is ruining it for all the peaceful ones. 9 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    The tweets are rolling in like crazy. You can follow the conversation here.

  • Boston DA Subpoenas Twitter Account; Twitter Notifies User

    While social media allows us to broadcast all sorts of information about ourselves to the people we want to communicate with, the access that it provides law enforcement has often made people uncomfortable. The idea that the government is monitoring our Twitter feeds or Facebook pages has ominous Big Brother-type connotations to it. For that reason, Twitter is in the habit of notifying users when law enforcement agencies request information on them, unless specifically ordered not to do so. That turned out to be a benefit for a Twitter user going by the name Guido Fawkes (@p0isAn0N), who has been heavily involved in some of the information leaks during the Occupy Boston protests.

    It seems that the Suffolk County (Boston) District Attorney sent Twitter a subpoena for “[a]ll available subscriber information, for the account or accounts associated with” the name Guido Fawkes, @p0isAn0n, @OccupyBoston, and the hashtags #BostonPD and #d0xcak3 (what they hope to gain by subpoenaing information on hashtags is unclear). Specifically, they wanted information concerning “IP address logs for account creation and for the period December 8, 2011 to December 13, 2011.” Pursuant to Twitter’s Guidelines for Law Enforcement, they passed the subpoena on to the affected users.

    Interestingly, Twitter’s law enforcement guidelines state that they will “notify users of requests for their information prior to disclosure unless we are prohibited from doing so by statute or court order.” Yet the second page of the subpoena says “this office asks that you not disclose the existence of this request to the subscriber as disclosure could impede the ongoing criminal investigation.” It is not clear whether Twitter deliberately or accidentally ignored this request when forwarding the subpoena on.

    Meanwhile, the owner of the @p0isAn0N Twitter account (whose name, of course, is not actually Guido Fawkes) posted last week that he had received the subpoena from Twitter…

    @p0isAn0N
    Guido Fawkes    Haha Boston PD submitted a subpoena to Twitter for my information. Lololol for what? Posting info pulled from public domains? #ComeAtMeBro 5 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    The next day he tweeted that a lawyer from the Massachusetts ACLU had agreed to take the case.

    @p0isAn0N
    Guido Fawkes    Attorney called me first thing this morning and woke me up-_- Oh well she’s gonna take the case thx @ACLU_Mass 5 days ago via HTC Peep · powered by @socialditto

    He later tweeted that his attorney had moved to quash the subpoena. This case should be worth keeping an eye on. We’ll post more as it develops.

  • Occupy Wall Street as Told By The Internet

    #OWS and #occupywallstreet have been some of the hottest leading trends on Twitter these past couple of months. As both support and resentment towards the movement builds, so does the presence and size of “Occupy Wall Street”. What’s been the true story of the movement, and can the internet give us a definitive answer?

    Let’s take a look.

    We know the movement was started by a Canadian based organization, called Adbusters. A single tweet from the organization, on July 4th, was the official beginning of the movement. From there, it continued to grow and keeps expanding further.

    @Adbusters
    Adbusters Magazine    Dear Americans, this July 4th dream of insurrection against corporate rule http://bit.ly/kejAUy #occupywallstreet 135 days ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    The worldwide movement has had a large assortment of problems when trying to assemble in various cities. In the United States, Occupy Oakland and Occupy Seattle have been the biggest hotbeds of controversy. The Occupy Oakland demonstration lead to violence, due to occupiers not leaving when given notification by law enforcement. With the carnage being captured on video:

    While most of the coverage of the movement has had negative connotations attached to it, either for the protestors themselves or the reaction by lawmakers and authorities; there remains a looming question. What does Occupy Wall Street truly represent?

    The Daily Show asked this very question in the only way it knows how, with humor.

    There have been more serious responses to the most important question, “Occupy Wall Street, What Do They Want?“. According to the post, there are very clear cut changes the movement wants to see come into fruition. All involve changes directly relating to corporations of course, but there are mentions of free speech and decreasing the USA’s militaristic attitude.

    The avenues in which the protests are being represented show the power a single phone or blog can have. For instance, if you want an up close view of what’s happened at the latest Occupy NYC event, here’s a live recorded stream:

    The message of Occupy Wall Street has taken to artistic forms as well. The coolest I’ve seen is from MK12, who created this video as a trailer for the 2011 Zero Film Festival. Allowing a game of Pong to explain the message being relayed by the movement.

    Conan O’ Brien’s long time running guest, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog dropped in on the Occupy movement to poke some fun at both the protestors and Wall St. itself.

    Jesse Comart of Mashable, asks what is possibly the most important question of all. Can Occupy Wall Street keep the momentum going, and see their principles shift into direct actions which can facilitate change? Making direct comparisons to the Tea Party, and how their movement was able to directly influence Washington politics.

    The story of Occupy Wall Street will keep continuing, either towards a definitive end with us simply looking back at this small portion of time when a movement started by a simple tweet erupted into something much larger. Or, the OWS influence will grow and be able to facilitate the change they’re rallying for.

    What has been your take away from the movement up to this point? What have been some of the interesting ways you’ve noticed OWS being represented both online and off?