The next level for Occupy San Diego spurred by the trial of John Kenney

There was a great turn-out to the GA tonight. It was painful at times, and dramatic.
Despite the frustration and hurt feelings I feel like the spirit of Occupy burns as brightly as ever.
This struggle against one person within the group has united and re-ignited a passion in all those who are occupying with genuine intent.

In the past I’ve voted Democrat, but I don’t want Occupy to become a voter registration drive for the Democratic party, or an Obama re-election campaign.
The empty promises of the corporate owned Democratic party is part of the problem, not any real solution. Going out and voting once every four years is not going to cut it.
Occupy is about going beyond all of that and getting real change from the people for the people.

It’s not the police, or the republican party that might possibly subvert us.
The threat comes from our supposed cousins in Democratic party trying to absorb us and render us inert.
Already all over the country mainstream establishment forces are attempting to control or neutralize what we’re doing.

For some reason nobody really talks about the possible motivations for the accused John Kenney’s behavior in our GA.
Not even on the third day of his “trial” did anyone directly address that maybe he’s a political operative here to attempt to hijack and/or disrupt what we’re doing.
I don’t know if that’s true, but people should at least be considering it a possibility.

People need to connect the dots as it relates to John Kenney and his actions.
Maybe people are thinking it and talking about it in privately.
It needs to be spoken out loud in GA.
The facts of the matter need to be dug up.
The case needs to be made if it’s true.

If you have someone getting on TV, talking to politicians on our behalf, or other occupations on our behalf then that person needs to be addressed publicly.
It goes beyond GA. We need to make a public statement to other Occupations about the reasons for our “lack of confidence”

People are upset that a few ringers came in and blocked.
They can block tonight but they can’t block every night.
Consensus is more than a bureaucratic following of rules.
We had an awesome show of solidarity and consensus at Downtown Johnny Browns and it did not require a proposal or call for consensus.

True consensus takes patience and listening as well.
Some people have principled reasons for not agreeing with the proposal.

People had a very valid point in that we’ve allowed on person to drive us nuts and take over the whole agenda of what we’re doing.
We are way too strong and dedicated to let one person derail our peace of mind and what we’re trying to achieve.
Let’s not give this one person all that power.

I talked to someone more in the know of what’s going on.
His comment was,
“We’re playing checkers against people playing three dimensional chess”

Let’s get smart and see the game that’s being played on us.
Let’s evolve.
That’s how we win, when we keep changing and learning.
We’re fluid, a swarm of transformational agents with one heart.

Moving forward I’d like for us to all talk about why we chose to occupy.
We need sharing and discussion of issues that brought us here in the first place.
That’s important and we haven’t been doing that enough.

I think GA is too rigidly focused on achieving technical consensus without regard to real human interaction.

I see the greatest purpose of Occupy is to spread awareness and break apathy.
We all live in a main-stream reality bubble owned and controlled by corporate powers. That bubble needs to be popped so we can see the reality of what’s going on, and the reality of our power.

Most importantly we need to get out and bring people in and wake people up.
We need to continue the viral awakening to break people’s apathy.

Tonight started out kind of painful and dramatic and it ended up inspiring again.
The after GA in Downtown Johnny Browns was true solidarity and consensus.

The next turn of Occupy San Diego’s evolution is now underway and I’m looking forward to it.
This last phase of OSD has revealed what works and what doesn’t.
It’s shown what brings us together and what seeks to subvert us from within.
It’s shown how people who are not on our side can use our own rules against us.
It’s given us an opportunity to learn that making and following rules cannot replace direct action from the heart.

Stay strong my Occupy brothers and sisters… we will prevail!

3 Month Anniversary for Occupy San Diego – 1/7/2012

Three months going strong for Occupy San Diego!

The 3 month anniversary march Occupy San Diego started at the same time and location of the one that kicked it all off October 7 last year.
The group of about 100-150? marched by Seaport Village and the Midway by the harbor. We placed intention hearts on a tree.
Heading back through downtown someone attacked from the sidewalk to tear down our sign. Two people were injured including Pastor Ron who was taken away in an ambulance.
Occupy San Diego continued marching through the Gaslamp section of downtown San Diego making a spectacle of chanting, drumming and sign waving for all the people on the sidewalk and in the bars.
When the March concluded at the Civic Center (Freedom Plaza) there was a rally with open mic time. There were two arrests of female occupiers. One encounter seemed especially unnecessarily rough.

Edited video of entire march and rally:

Arrests in Freedom Plaza

News stories:
3 Arrested at Occupy San Diego

Observations of the Occupy DNA

Observations of the Occupy DNA

Last summer Adbusters magazine put an idea out on a mailing list.
The proposal was for a peaceful occupation of Wall Street.
It was to protest corporate influence on democracy,
the growing disparity in wealth,
and the lack of justice behind the recent global financial crisis.

The Occupy Wall Street idea was inspired by uprisings that caught the world’s attention in 2011 –
the Egyptian spring uprising in Tahrir Square,
and the summer of the Spanish Indignados.

The original Adbuster proposal sought to combine a symbolic location like Tahrir Square in Egypt
with the consensus decision making assemblies of the Spanish Indignados.
Thus the first instance of the Occupy DNA was created.

The idea as a seed spread and grew.
In New York word grew over the internet and took root as the occupied presence on September 17.
Other cities began to emulate the Occupy Wall Street model adhering its core DNA – occupy symbolic space and general assembly.
Here in San Diego, on October 7, the first march kicked off our own occupation.

Occupy is the viral antidote against the powers of corruption, injustice and brutality.
We are all a part of an unpredictable process.
We are the decentralized swarm that the powers in charge cannot understand or defeat.

As the Occupy DNA spreads and mixes we all learn and become more powerful.
We are learning many lessons, on many levels.
We are the evolving wake up call, independent actors in the world-wide awakening.
We are without rulers.
Within Occupy we are free and equal as peers.
Nobody owns us. Nobody controls us.
We are the real hope for real change.

2012 is here!

Happy New Year everyone. We are now in the long awaited year of 2012!
It’s going to be quite a year!

I took something of a one week hiatus from twitter.
During that break I actually started to spend time on facebook, which I had been avoiding since the beginning. That’s where a lot of activity happens so having a presence there is another part of my evolving internet presence.

My thought is that it would be better to change gears and spend more time writing longer form blog entries here and tweeting links to those entries.

This is my first post with that intention of having my actions create more leverage, kind of like changing gears.
After the first few months I’m revved up about as fast as possible in first gear. I need to think longer form, longer term, longer reach.

Instead of doing 10 to 20 tweets a day. Maybe I’ll just write one blog entry and then tweet links to it. It’s a kind of changing of gears.
I’m pledging to make my efforts as effective as possible.

And so with that intention I am signing off for the day as I will later start writing some blog entries to be published here in the coming week.

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Here are lyrics to a Bob Marley song I heard this morning that seem appropriate:

One love. One heart.
Let’s get together and feel all right.
…
Let’s get together to fight this Holy Armageddon
One Love!
So when the Man comes there will be no, no doom
One Song!
…
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Let’s get together and feel all right.

Dem sponsored “sit-in” protest at SD Dem HQ over NDAA

Update: 10:14am 12/18

One thing I got wrong was saying that Obama already signed the bill.
He has stated he will sign the bill, but it isn’t actually signed yet. That’s corrected below.

The gist of what I’m trying to say is don’t be fooled once again that this is “beyond Obama’s control” or “it’s not his fault”, etc.
The language in the bill that goes against the Bill of Rights comes from the White House. There is some serious deception going on that should now be blatantly obvious.

Here are my main points:
Obama and vast majority of Democrats are behind this bill so you can’t simply blame Republicans.
The one-party corporate system with two faces is the core of our problem.
The solution to our problems will not be found in any political party.
Change requires direct individual action as part of the leaderless Occupy movement.

As you most likely know, the NDAA is a tragic blow to our freedom and Bill of Rights. We’re practically about to become a police-state now where mere suspicion of being associated with a “terrorist” can have the military detain US citizens as if US soil is now considered to be a never-ending battlefield against imaginary terrorism.

Here in San Diego there has been “protest” planned against this sponsored by MoveOn.org and local Democratic groups:
Sit-In at San Diego Democratic Party HQ Being Planned for Monday, Dec. 19, to Protest Defense Bill

I left this comment on the blog where this event was posted.
I don’t know who’s organizing this.
I hope people don’t be suckered in on any BS that might be coming top-down to confuse people as to the truth of what’s going or who is whose side.
People need to understand exactly what happened with this. In my mind this completely destroys any last vestige of doubt that candidate Obama’s “Hope and Change” was a complete fraud.

Don’t look to Obama to save you. He just betrayed and sold out America.
Don’t expect the Democratic party to do anything it says. It’s completely bought and paid for by corporate America and Wall Street banks.

Here’s the comment I posted on the OB Rag blog where this was announced:

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Some facts people planning and considering should know:
- Obama has stated that he would sign the NDAA despite earlier statements of intending to veto
- It was voted through the *Democrat* controlled senate *93 to 7*.
- Obama claimed he wanted to veto the bill, but then it came out that he was vetoing it on grounds that he already claimed to have that power! The part where it destroys our freedoms and rights as Americans. That part didn’t bother him.
- Then later even more amazingly it came out that it was the White House themselves who changed language in the bill so it would apply to US citizens! In other words, that part about destroying our freedoms and rights not only didn’t bother him. It was his idea. That’s what he wanted.
See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6ARkiJM2bA

A “sit-in” sponsored by Democratic party front groups doesn’t seem like much of an effective protest.
Someone please prove me wrong that this isn’t some lame co-opt diversion move.
Go down there and make it completely clear and express your fury at the targets who deserve it — *Obama* and the Democratic traitors. Don’t expect the Democratic party to make it all better for you. Reconsider you association and membership with them.
The Democratic Party has made it abundantly clear they are part of the problem, and not any kind of solution.

Considering this “protest” was organized by some last minute mystery “San Diegans to Save the Bill of Rights” group makes me question what is really going on here. It seems fishy to me.
Some of the issues that MoveOn professes to support are good but you have to realize that MoveOn is a group is basically a fundraising front group for the Democrat party who is nothing more than a front group for corporate money and Wall Street banks.

If you support the Democratic party you might as well cut out the middle-man and write a check to Obama’s buddies at Goldman Sachs and all the other Wall Street banks and corporations that helped get him elected in his cabinet and advising him.

Anyone who still identifies as being a “Democrat”, or who thinks that voting for Obama and the Democrat party line somehow will save them… please wake up.
At least with Bush you know what you were getting. Obama is the great deceiver in that he actually gave us “hope” but instead we got the same as Bush, or even worse.

This way of thinking that poor ole Obama can’t do anything because the big bad Republicans stop him is false and purposefully misleading. It’s all an act.
The Democratic party, as well as the GOP (as usual), are the ones that betrayed the American people and continue to do so.
They’re just two faces on the same *one-party* system playing bad-cop/good-cop.

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Just another comment in case the one above seems to harsh.

If you are a member of a Democratic group or MoveOn, and are understandably outraged you should definitely have your voice be heard.

Please be aware of the facts as I pointed out above.
It’s misleading to blame Republicans as this had bi-partisan support and actually comes from Obama himself.
Obama needs to be held accountable.

The solution to our problems will not be found in any political party.
Change requires direct individual action as part of the leaderless Occupy movement.

Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

Why I blocked proposal

Tonight in the 11/9 GA meeting there was a proposal which from what I understood could be summarized as:

• Disband current media team because of frustrations with admins and recent take over of Occupy San Diego facebook site by “anonymous”
• Elect a new media “representative” and new media team
• Strip passwords held by current media team to be passed to new elected media team

I was one of the people blocking. First of all to be clear I agree with the intent of the proposal. Media and internet presence is very important. People should be able to express and share what they want on the internet.

Reasons for the block:

• A “leaderless movement” is an essential core aspect to what Occupy is. That’s what make it different and successful so far. Trying to elect/nominate “leaders” or “representatives” goes against that.  (brought up by some on the stack as well)
• We have a process problem of how to allow people to put content on the internet. Just replacing people in media team without establishing rules will end up with the same kind of problem again if it’s left to arbitrary individual decisions, and power struggles. (brought up by some on the stack as well)
• From a practical point of view it’s a not a good idea to have more people be given access to site passwords. There was already a problem when the passwords were handed out before with the livestream. In fact it looks like the current “anonymous” problem is from this.
• There was never enough of a clear explanation what the issues people had with the media team. It was just referred to as “problems”, “disagreements” or “fighting”. The specific problems need to be discussed in GA if a consensus is being called on to throw out what’s already in place.
• The facebook page and the occupysandiego website, etc are basically like private property. It is not public space, like in the Civic Center or streets, which if free for everyone to use.  GA consensus cannot force people to do things with their personal things that they don’t agree to. The approach should be on discussion, not trying to force people to do things which can’t be forced.
• Anyone is always free to make their own website, facebook page, whatever. That’s an idea for people frustrated with admins of the “official” one. What people consider the “official” one just happens to be the first and most popular one. I say have a group of cooperating, interconnected sites, with as many people participating and creating as possible. Don’t fight for control over the one big “official” one.
• Aside from the “leader” issue above, another issue with voting in GA for some kind of permanent position is that there is no clear membership for voting. Juries reach their decision with 12 people, but those 12 and only those 12 can make their choice. In GA people off the street can join in, people that normally are there might not be present for a vote. It’s not suitable for things other than that are tactical for on the ground or more obvious things. There’s too much at stake to rely on an arbitrary vote to then rely on one person or a few people to take care of “representing” us. It makes more sense to establish rules and guidelines, a process so we can all participate individually. Let people do things individually with *direct action*.

The proposer said something like the media team is our representative. I think a better way to see it is that we all collectively make up Occupy by our contributions. We collectively represent ourselves.

Just like during a march, GA or rally we all have our own voice, our own power. We don’t expect someone else to yell for us, or speak for us in meetings, or make signs for us. The same is true for the internet. People can make their own sites. Post to their own facebook page links, etc. This site right here and my twitter account are examples of of me doing my own part.

For specific ideas of a solution on this I’d say coming up with the “code of ethics” as described by Ciarra is a great idea. The main thing should be an open forum where people have the freedom so share or express whatever they want. There could be limitations on this but it should be clearly defined and agreed on by consensus.

Also maybe as an idea there could also be a more moderated sort of content. Ideally we could use or create software that could allow for this collective moderation and editing. It doesn’t seem feasible to rely on a few people to be the arbiters of what kind of content to put up.

Here’s how Occupy will be unstoppable:

• transparent
• peaceful
• individuals acting with freedom
• inclusive
• all as active leaders
• peer to peer, decentralized side to side
• loosely cooperative
• lots of people doing lots of small things