Messages

1

War Room / Re: Nashville Based Companies in Healthcare and Corrections With Secret Ties?

« on: February 17, 2012, 09:33:37 am »

http://www.healthcarecouncil.com/Libraries/Family_Tree/2011_Nashville_Health_Care_Family_Tree.sflb.ashx

Nashville is pretty much the epicenter for healthcare companies.  17 publicly traded companies with about $60 billion in market cap, 250 total with multi-state operations.  I think it's fair to say that there is naturally going to be some co-mingling due to job shift; it's a bit like Silicon Valley for IT/IS workers.  Regarding CCA, they typically run their own healthcare operations unless specifically indicated by government contract that they do otherwise, as it's a significant component of their total contract value.  It's overall pretty interesting that, while there is a general vibe of pro-privatization, government money is the lifeblood of the industry here.  Nashville would lose a ton of business if we went to single payor. 

2

War Room / Bank Mortgage Fraud Settlement to be paid by US Taxpayers

« on: February 17, 2012, 09:14:13 am »

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/housing-settlement-be-taxpayer-funded-confirming-big-five-banks-are-beyond-law

Linked ZH as I don't have a Financial Times subscription.  I'm kind of past the point of being shocked, this is just plain depressing.

3

Occupy Nashville Chat / Re: Do you support or oppose a constitutional amendment to ban TN state income tax?

« on: January 20, 2012, 12:29:43 pm »

I support it because income taxes are ultimately regressive, even if they're structured progressively (note the recent examples by Buffett/Romney).  Taxes on property/estates and capital gains are the way to really move the needle here towards better income equality.

4

General Discussion / Re: Peaceful UC-Davis Protesters Pepper Sprayed

« on: November 24, 2011, 05:32:00 am »

"I do find it interesting that plenty of people are aware of this very minor incident, yet many have no idea how much brutality and blood thirsty carnage Wall Street's 4.6 million dollar "donation, a week prior to the first occupation, bought from their hired mercenaries that treated peaceful people as militant terrorists."

I agree, I do think this one got more attention just due to the additional factor of this being students that are supposed to be in a sort of sanctuary.  It scares the shit out of parents that this could happen on a college campus to their children (I realize this comes with a fair amount of ignorance of recent history).  This incident was a far cry from, say, the stuff that happened in Oakland/Seattle/NYC/ATL, but the standard of conduct I think is a lot higher in "the people's" minds.

5

General Discussion / Re: Peaceful UC-Davis Protesters Pepper Sprayed

« on: November 23, 2011, 02:20:54 pm »

Let's review:

1.  This was public property.  UC-Davis is owned and operated by the State of California.  There is literally nothing private about this institution.
2.  Most of the students were US citizens, and most of the students were residents of the State of California.
3.  Pepper spray is a non-lethal deterrent that is restricted use only in instances where the officer is in immediate or impending physical danger, but has not been threatened with or observes a lethal weapon on a person. 
4.  Proper procedure in instances where it is determined that an individual is committing a criminal trespassing violation (and it's in no way clear this was the case, but assume it is), does not respond to a verbal request to leave, and presents no immediate or impending physical danger, is to arrest the offender and charge them with misdemeanor criminal trespassing.

I have two cousins that are active in the UC-Davis protest, and I am extremely proud of their participation.  They have close friends that were victims of this assault.  They're still recovering.  Pepper spray is no joke. 

The bottom line:  it looks likely that the kids sitting down at the quad were actually not in violation of any UC-Davis/State of California code violations.  If it turns out that they were provably criminally trespassing, the officers here did not follow proper procedure.  I'm a person that grew up with the understanding that we respect civil servants in the protective services fields.  I have personally supported police and fire widow funds.  Probably one of the greatest men I have ever met was an officer who helped my family work through the immediate aftermath of my dad's suicide.  I promise you I respect the hell out of P.O.'s.  None of this justifies shitting on the rights of our citizens.  None of it.  There's a right and a wrong way to do this job, and these guys were frankly a bunch of criminal assholes who deserve to be fired and charged with aggravated battery.

6

General Discussion / Re: I'm interested in knowing this group's consensus on this issue..

« on: November 23, 2011, 01:31:11 pm »

Have you seen George Carlin's (RIP) video on what the USA does best?

Sadly hilarious and worth watching.

Carlin was a prophet.

7

Occupy Nashville Chat / Re: Smoking Cigarettes on the Plaza

« on: November 23, 2011, 01:19:13 pm »

I read your post don't worry.

I was just pointing out the obvious. It's hard to separate one from the other. In fact I'm not really sure it can be done.

It's a good point, an extension of it might be "if our reps our a reflection/representation of us, and we're supporting major corps financially through our purchases, then ergo they should be supporting major corps financially."  It's a challenge that I don't have an answer for. 

8

General Discussion / Re: Reform or Revolution?

« on: November 22, 2011, 05:44:49 am »

The best I can tell, there is only one chance and one way to fix what is broken and those who have benefited, and continue to benefit greatly by the masses being ignorant of our realities, will never fix it for The People.

What is the fix?

9

General Discussion / Re: I'm interested in knowing this group's consensus on this issue..

« on: November 22, 2011, 05:41:22 am »

My personal take on the Koran (read it cover to cover, English language version):  it seems to mostly revolve around "do good".  There are iterations of Islam that warp the original intent enough to approximate something similar to Christian imperialism.  Those particular iterations appear to be what is typically used to "educate Americans" on the "dangers of Islam".  Unfortunately, we tend to vote for people that buy into this "education program", because we're subjected to the same program.  The bottom line is that it's a smokescreen, we "fight Islamic extremism" (using CIA operatives as the boogiemen), and conveniently slip in the whole "oh, btw, there's a shitload of oil/gold/etc., yay!"

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/11/jp-morgan-hunt-afghan-gold/

I mean, they just put it right out there in front of our damn faces.  They must have had a good laugh about that one.  "Hey, hey guys, let's just straight up tell the plebs what we're actually doing in Afghanistan!  We've made them so damn stupid, they won't even notice between their Cheetos and American Idol!  LOL!"  Seriously, why aren't we burning down JP Morgan Chase branches over this?  Oh, that's right, we're too busy trying to decide whether Muslims should be allowed in the military.  My bad.  It's all the brown people's fault. 

10

Introductions / Re: Hi I'm Bill1 (old guy with felt hat)

« on: November 22, 2011, 05:17:31 am »

Welcome and thanks for being with us.

11

General Discussion / Re: Peaceful UC-Davis Protesters Pepper Sprayed

« on: November 20, 2011, 10:39:40 pm »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8775ZmNGFY8

Wow.  Incredible response by the students.  Inspiring stuff. 

12

General Discussion / Re: The Middle Class is Dead.....

« on: November 20, 2011, 06:45:43 pm »

http://boombustblog.com/BoomBustBlog/Why-Occupy-Wall-Street-When-You-Can-Control-Wall-Street.html

You speak the truth sir. 

13

Occupy Nashville Chat / Re: Smoking Cigarettes on the Plaza

« on: November 20, 2011, 06:41:20 pm »

You do realize that Verizon paid a NEGATIVE 2.9% in taxes last year right? Instead of paying in taxes to the government, due to their breaks and rebates, they received 951 million dollars from the government.

All while cutting 40,000 jobs and investing over 1 billion dollars less in capital expenditure and the community in which their businesses thrive. And demanding that their union employees give up over 1 billion dollars in wage and benefit cuts.

Think about that next time you use you Iphone 4 to tweet about how you can't afford a new car every year.

And by the way, don't just assume everyone agrees with you regardless of religion or political affiliation.

I get what you're saying, and if I didn't need it for work, I probably wouldn't have a cell phone at all.  The point I'm trying to make is that it's very common for people to say, "Oh, the protesters use popular consumer products, so they're hypocrites and they're message is B.S."  Well, I think that argument is B.S.  We're still people trying to live in our society.  I do the best I can to limit my financial support of organizations I disagree with.  The enemy is not me, you, or anyone else involved in the movement, and I promise that making any of us out to be "the bad guy" is precisely what the establishment is hoping will happen.  I am not your enemy dude, I promise I'm not.

Regarding the point with political/religious affiliation, that wasn't intended to be a statement of "universal truth", it was more pointing out that there are individuals across the spectrum that agree that crony capitalism is bad.  That's all I was trying to say.

14

War Room / Re: Tennessee Number One in the Nation for Corruption

« on: November 20, 2011, 08:27:40 am »

It's my opinion, that there are enough, who are well over the line, to turn Nashville into the New Alabama of the early 60's* if shown half the uprising as seen in say, Portland, Oregon.

If the police truly do go over the line with us, we're well positioned to turn it into an international news story within a couple of hours, tops. 

http://www.dnj.com/article/20111116/NEWS01/111116009/Public-records-reveal-support-Occupy-protesters

“I write to you from Repton, NSW, Australia, to express my strongest disapproval of the actions you are taking against the members of Occupy Nashville,” wrote Nick Rose. “Freedom of assembly is a basic right. Your actions are flagrant violations.”

We have people from rural Australia monitoring the situation and actively participating in supporting Occupy Nashville.  If the cops "go jackboot", our movement will just get that much stronger. 

15

General Discussion / Peaceful UC-Davis Protesters Pepper Sprayed

« on: November 20, 2011, 08:16:53 am »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4

Not only is that a completely insane amount of pepper spray, but these kids were sitting down.  On campus property (it was "the quad", basically the campus square).  And they're students.  Students, shelling out $20K+ a year, were pepper sprayed for sitting down on campus property.  Apparently, the Occupy movement is scaring the crap out of the establishment.