To all "Occupiers Far and Wide, Present and Past"

..... In asking ourselves about the history of various "occupations" through this country's past, can there be a fair question that asks whether or not corporate wealth and narrow moneyed interests have preoccupied what is the very best of this democracy over the last 30 years? And maybe, just maybe what we see now at the various occupations across the country is just a waking up of sorts, finally hearing the tolling bells on the village greens and commons that have been stilled for so long...

...... In the present tolling of bells I also hear the occupiers of the past and it is to them that I want to pay a little tribute at year's end, a year where TIME magazine has made the"Protester" its banner person of the year.So, here's to all those who occupied in foreign or domestic wars, so that we at home might have the chance at keeping freedom's vigil. To those who revolted against monarchical rule after occupying their own consciences and deciding that taxation w/out representation was reason enough to risk their lives, thus through this sacred protest as enshrined in the Declaration Of Independence, did they take up their cause and birth this country

......To all those who occupied their conscience and committed themselves to the work of building and keeping the underground railroad or making their last stands at Harper's Ferry because they knew that slavery was a terrible bliight on humanity and that it must end. To all those in the great Prairie Revolt of the 1890's where farmers and settlers rose up against large corporate, moneyed interests and whose demands were finally met 30 years after their revolt was put down..... To the great feminists traditions and to their will to bring more compassion and care into state affairs and to women's suffrage. To the movements in the 30's and to FDR that great "occupier of his own conscience" and a "Traitor To His Class" (book) that helped the common man.

To all those at home and abroad who fought fascism and prevailed in WWII do I thank your occupations of conscience to take up arms and to your willingness to risk all for the yet unborn among us who now understand the full measure of your devotion and have not had to hail any fuhrer since then .... to all the great occupiers of conscience who changed this society so much for the better in the great Civil Rights movements. To all occupiers in all wars, who for better or worse, believed that they were sacrificing for the just causes of freedom. For my uncle David Kaul, who I am named after, who died on his 18'th birthday in Korea, not so sure about the causes that brought him there but willing to commit the last full measure of his devotion do I pay tribute and respect. To my father, a soldier in WWII, who flew over the hump of the Himalayas many times,( risking his life each time) into China to train the Chinese troops against the Japanese and was awarded a medal by "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell, and who may nearly have died from yellow fever do I pay my tribute. To his "occupation of conscience" that the right was done and that sacrifice is sometimes necessary.

This is my tribute to all occupiers of conscience now, in the past and in the future wherever they may be who have ever taken themselves to task for whatever reason they felt/now feel necessary so that the better good might be served by acting upon the dictates of their occupied conscience..

to Imagine something better than what is is a Thanksgiving...


‎.. to little Eaarta Gaia and thoughts of Thanksgiving spun from wind, sand and stars

A Grinch's Return to the Ghost of the Future.

2008 represents the beginning of the Great Change. We hit the world growth limit wall in 08. Many economic growth charts support this evidence. Given the current world population (7 billion) available resources and the fossil fuel sourced economies delivering those resources, we have hit a terminus of resistance that begins, at best, a flat growth sustained economy- in the beginning at least..
It has been an explicit and implicit expectation, especially since the 1980's, that the future is larger than the present and the past is smaller than the present.


That concept is now history...... into the distant foreseeable future anyway..


It is the realization of this historic moment that will cause most of the strife over the next 50 years. Before the Great Change begins in earnest, a correction period will ensue, and that process began in 2008. This correction period will mean great suffering for many, many millions, perhaps billions of people. This has already begun and will escalate over the next decade. Welcome to the future we warned our grandchildren about, folks! It's arrived a century earlier than expected.

Government cost related to GDP

So, are we headed toward a socialist state run by the proletariat when government costs go from 20 to 25% of Gross Domestic Product? Randians and Laffer curve trickle downers will have you believing so and this has been a persistent and relentless theme of theirs since the Reagan years. GDP needs to be compared to trade disparities as well as unemployment, welfare, food stamps and other social programs during a depressed economy to establish the real figures on government size in relation to the gross figure of the national product.As just one measure, when GDP is stagnant due to a depressed economy, then government costs will naturally rise in relation to it.

A much better metric to evaluate income inequality would be to establish hard money figures coming from the corporate, finance, and multinational sectors as these dollars relate to legislative, judiciary and executive impacts, especially the tax code and social programs.

Just for the sake of a hypothetical, let's say that in 1965, 2 billion dollars was contributed from big bizz and corporate in legislative lobbies, campaign finance, getting Johnson out and Nixon in etc,. How would that figure relate to the cost of government,The Great Society programs and the common good of most of the people?

say, just for argument, that 1% of GDP came from the most moneyed and special interest sector then. How would social programs for the common good for most of the people be affected if, say 3% of GDP was funneled into all branches of government.

That's essentially what has happened. It has been a mergers and aquisitions campaign by the Randians over the last 30 years since Reagan. More money and thus more power and influence has been exerted all across government. Not only government, but, more importantly in some ways, the media too. The return on investment ratio is very high when the legislators write the tax codes that have billionaires paying 1% on their earnings.