2012 World Junior Tournament Highlights Canadian Spirit

Canada is a huge place. So huge its 35 million people are divided into far-flung clusters both spacially and culturally. Highways, trains and planes connect places, hockey connects cultures. Everywhere, atlantic to pacific to arctic, gets 'Hockey Night in Canada'. Almost everybody has their favorite NHL team depending on where they live or grew up. But the World Juniors are different, everybody everywhere gets to cheer for the same team, and it's a mighty roar eh.

So far the Canadian kids have barely had any challenge but the atmosphere has been electric. From the moment the Canadian kids step onto the ice the building starts rocking, a huge Canadian flag is passed hand to hand by hundred of fansa in the stands around the arena, hockey not only is Canada's game its Canada's cultural spirit.

Tonight's game between Russia and the Czech Republic will determine who the Canadians play on tuesday in the semifinals. After last year's 3rd period implosion most Canadian fans are rooting for a rematch with the Russians, me too.

GO CANADA GO

The Ron Paul Revolution a Wild Card in 2012

Check out the crowds, Ron Paul is drawing big huge crowds in Iowa. There's a lot of young people, Independents and Democrats in those crowds. Ron Paul is the wild card in 2012, even Ralph Nader says. “Libertarians like Ron Paul are on our side on civil liberties. They’re on our side against the military-industrial complex. They’re on our side against Wall Street. They’re on our side for investor rights. That’s a foundational convergence,” he exhorts. “It’s not just itty-bitty stuff.

Paul has a lotta momentum at just right time despite a huge smear campaign by the GOP brass and corporate money in the last few days. Tuesday's Iowa results will show why the fat cats are squirming. The Democratic Party brass can't figure out if the Ron Paul Revolution is a good thing for them or not. If Paul were to jump the Republican ship of fools and tools and run as a third party independent it could be nightfall for them all.

The mainstream media, while on the surface dismissing Paul's campaign, is a big reason for his success so far. Paul's radical positions require thoughtful debate to prove or disprove none of which fits well between commercials or lends itself to being easily dumbed down to a meaningless slogan.

After Iowa comes New Hampshire a week later. N.H. is an open primary where Paul's recent surge will gain strength. After that who knows, but maybe, just maybe, there'll be space for new ideas opened up by Paul's outspoken positions and the obvious need for dramatic change in America.



Why Ron Paul's Ground Game is Gaining Traction in the Iowa Mud

Ron Paul's leading in Iowa with one week to go both because his long time devoted supporters and a new younger disillusioned x-Obama anti-war group are knocking on every door in the state. He's poised to either win or place a strong second, either result is an embarrassment for the GOP's establishment who has rejected Paul because he sees the folly of foreign wars, because of his advocacy of a return to the gold standard, abolishing the Federal Reserve and cessation of aid to Israel.

Libertarian Ron Paul mocks the drug war, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and he rails against the assault on American civil liberties by a national security state contained in the Patriot Act. He wants to bring the troops home from all the far flung corners on the planet, he denounces empire, voted against all the Wall St. bailouts and he's been saying and doing the same thing for decades.

Ron Paul's supporters are an unlikely alliance if viewed from a left/right political perspective but from the circular spectrum view it's a natural fit. Paul supports some aspects of both OWS and the TEA Party, he has supporters in both their camps too. On many issues their camps are situated very close to the same stream.

Ron Paul winning the nomination is a real longshot and probably a good thing as some of his other stuff, like on abortion, is borderline crazy and definately scary. The huge value to Ron Paul's successful run is that his presence, his opinions, opens the ground for actual debate on some on the biggest underlying issues of our time. Because of Ron Paul there's space for debate about the cause of diseases like war, drugs and fear. Ron Paul has the GOP brass scared and if he were to win the nomination the chickenshits in charge of the liar Obama's team will see a lot of those same wide eyed kids that were knocking on doors for the O-Bomber 4 years ago now part of Paul's ground game.

Amish Christmas Lights

Amish Christmas Lights

Read up on the Amish a bit today after getting the Amish Christmas Lights picture/joke by email. Turns out they're very neat in some ways and not what i expected in others. They don't use electricity except what they generate with diesel generators. They'll use modern gasoline driven baling equipment as long as it's pulled through the fields by horses.

The Amish are as goofy as the rest of us. But they do offer an excellant example of a group using and choosing which technology is appropriate and which isn't within a certain framework. Each group of Amish have their own slightly different intrepretations of acceptability. One thing they all agree on though is no TV. That alone gives them cred.

Many environmentalists are predicting a relocalization of economies in the near future driven by huge fuel and transport costs among other things. If they're right those horse drawn carriages the Amish, and some other Mennonites, drive will be a hot item soon. Horse drawn buggies could well be the next big financial bubble, now's the time to get in for sure.

Checked out my neighbors places last night on the way home from the winter solstice celebration. Sure enough our little joint is the only one not decked out in electric lights. Even the Koreans who own the local store have lights up. Sometimes it all seems alien, but i'm a flip-flopper, when the kids were little it was easier getting into stuff like putting up lights, now i'll stick with my birdfeeder and all the little miracles here.

The Countdown to the Apocalypse

The countdown to the apocalypse is on. We’re one year away from Dec. 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar allegedly marked as the end of an era that would reset the date to zero and signal the end of humanity. The Mayan civilization excelled at advanced mathematics and primitive astronomy, creating what has been called the most accurate calendar in the world. So, once again, might as well party eh.

It's hard to keep all the apocalypses straight without a scorecard, but i like this Mayan myth a lot better than the Rapture or runaway global warming, its so descently close, i'm sure it gives comfort to the polar bears and billions of other living things that the ill wind of humanity might soon blow itself out.

Apocalypse theories are wildly popular online, to a non-believer all of 'em sound silly, but to a believer they can offer a solid solution in a choatic world. Belief is the key, humans whittle and mold any new information so it fits into their underlying belief structure. i believe we can only shit in our nest just so long before we're nesting in our shit. so as i digest new information-like the Russian reports of huge plumes of methane in the Arctic never seen before-it fits into my worldview that we're reaping what we sowed. Maybe lightning will strike a huge methane cloud up over the Arctic next Dec. 21st fulfilling the Mayan prophecy.

Like just about all apocalypses this myth too shall pass, humanity won't stop gobbling next Dec. 21st, but something has to happen soon that's nearly the scale of a Mayan type collapse or humans will either run out of stuff to gobble up or run out of space to throw their left over crap.

Hail the Return of the Light, Might as Well Party EH!

Evidence shows that since at least the neolithic era, losely defined as the end of the last ice age and the begining of agriculture, our ancestors of every culture celebrated the winter solstice and the return of the sun. Almost every ancient culture built their greatest architectures - tombs, temples, cairns and sacred observatories - so that they aligned with the solstices and equinoxes.

Out here on the western edge of northamerica the earth will momentarily stop tipping at 3:11AM [pst] early on the 21st. A moment later and our one blue marble's axis will begin to tip southward again. Another miraculous move in the dance of the spheres for some folks. A simple mechanical/gravitational byproduct to some. A non-event to the attention of most who might only hear the ancient drums vaguely.

It's very neat reading about the ancient myths associated with the winter solstice. It's also very neat that tomorrow will be a tiny bit different, after 6 months of watching the sunset creep down the horizon it'll start marching back up the horizon again, a day a tiny bit longer. The first day of the new celestial year. All Hail the Return of the Light

In my circle, a witches and warlock type circle, a pagan, gumboot and granola type circle, the ancient drums are calling for a feast to be had at sundown tomorrow with wine at the ready to toast the sunset. Might as well party eh.

Opposition to the NDAA, Unities The TEA Party and OWS

Left and right are artificial divisions in what is better modeled by a circular spectrum than a linear metaphor. The linear outlook has the TEA Party and OWS at opposite ends, the circular view has them shoulder to shoulder and over lapping on many issues. The OWS chant, "We are the 99%", is only true if the right-left dichotomy is given the boot.

Dividing the 99% into opposing camps is the stratedgy long employed by the 1% to achieve their goal of keeping the hands of the many from around their necks. Sometimes though issues bubble up through the chowder that tear a hole in the veil of division. The most recent being the reaction of many from both the TEA Party and OWS camps to the NDAA. Both see the clear danger in abandoning long fought for rights in the name of bogus national security fears.

Many from both nearby encampments have the same general reactions to The Patroit Act and the growing security state. Many everywhere in the spectrum agree that both major US parties and the system itself is so corrupted by big money as to be useless. Both working class groups hate the bank bailouts and the phoney stimulas packages that saved the dreams of the rich and foreclosed on everybody else's.

Guess i'm a dreamer as well as an underdog rooter, but it looks like there is a chance that the common goals of all the 99% might come into focus soon. If there is to be a class war then the side of the many will need a ground game, an infantry of pacifist occupiers maybe. They'll need artillery too and the TEA Party's got plenty. Maybe a sagebrush nation stocked cavalry could ride in wearing white hats. Let us not be divided, we, the 99%, are all in this together, ashes to ashes, mud to mud.

Bahía de Guantánamo, an Ideal Year Around Get Away for Dissenters

The weather is ideal in sunny Bahía de Guantánamo every month of the year. The accomadations are a bit sparse, and the service providers snarly, but there's 3 meals a day and lottsa efficient fencing. The Bahía de Guantánamo was, like the rest of Cuba, until recently only open to non-American citizens, all that changed the other day when the US Congress and the Prez signed The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. Now you too, my fellow Americans, could win a trip to the Guantanamo Hilton.

The defination of terrorism, like beauty and cataracts, lie in the eye of the beholder. Certainly America's founding was fought for by what would now be called terrorists. The indians who fought back against the invading colonists would now be too, so would the slaves who revolted periodically on the plantations, and the union organizers, the anti-war organizers, the treehuggers, the occupiers...just about anybody who bitches qualifies for a free trip to the Bahia now eh.

i'm thinking the flights down there would be quick and easy on one of those secret jets the spooks use. And there'd probably be plenty of old friends flying in as the tropical months rolled by. Might be a perfect place for a long term getaway or for an old outlaw radical to retire.

It's Time to Wake Up America

The idea that a person cannot be held without charge or detained indefinitely without trial goes back to the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago. The US Congress has done away with those rights without even holding a hearing. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 would allow for the indefinite military detention without charge of United States citizens and lawful immigrants in America destroying the Constitutional rights of Habeas Corpus and Due Process.

Outrage is spreading, especially among human rights groups, from coast to coast as 'The Liar Obama' signed off on the dastardly deal. But it appears a huge portion of the American people in their fear of foreign enemies have forgotten who they are and have abandoned their values of liberty and justice. "People who are willing to sacrifice liberty for security end up with neither" -Benjamin Franklin

It's time to Wake Up America. These are the rights and freedoms that once made the US, the country i grew up in, a proud, free and unique place as well as the 'shining city on the hill' in the world's eyes. It's all disappearing in the tsunami of fear flooding the US.

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.

In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains

seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we

must be aware of change in the air, however slight,

lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

Agri-business Cheers the Cutthroat Market Ahead in Canadian Grains

Big day for big agri-business, this wicked witch of the prarie populism, the CWB, is dead [pretty close anyway], many more little guys will follow. In a dog eat dog world the big dogs usually do best. Same thing will happen to the small family farmer. For sure some farmers will do better and some will do worse. The smaller operations will have a hard time competing both in scale of production costs and negotiating power.

Within a decade thousands of small farms that have been totally viable for generations, that have fed and housed the families that tended them, will be bought up by conglomerates and we'll see thousands of people who used to live off the land living off the food banks.

It's true that the individual farmers should have the right to self determination, if the Canadian Wheat Board is past its due date, then the government should have consulted with them and not just arrogantly ignore the court's ruling. The Harperites are sending a message that they can and will stand above the law. The courts have two choices, the easiest out would be to roll over and play dead, the tough choice would be to stand up for the rule of law.

This case should be of concern to all Canadians, as should the recent border security deal, and ditching the koyoto deal, and changing the rules to speed up the northern gateway pipeline approval...one at time the laws and regulations that were designed to protect individuals from the leverage of the large are being obliterated. That's how the facists eat the elephant of an open society, one bite at a time.

War of the Worlds Played Out in Durban

The myth of materialist exceptionalism got a boost in Durban. The dark forces of consumption swept in from the north and clobbered the conservationists again. Their stall tactic wherein there'll be no organized international action for another decade at least means 'business as usual' for the consumptive culture.

Even then, if everything else goes just right, the US will never sign a binding agreement that challenges their entitlement to the American lifestyle. Not just them, all westerners-all materialists-wherever they live, will never be prepared to make major changes to their lifestyles. This world, this worldview, sees itself as entitled to their entitlements. The other world...not so much.

The other worldview sees the fast approaching darkness, and while continueing the good fight, fears it's probably already to late. They know that any of these proposals fall far short of having any meaningful effect on the planet's problems. The truth is the costs of changing the capitialist system, of turning this consumption train around, are astronomical, that any significant change would destroy the existing system.

This system, this globalized growth godzilla, is eating the planet but so many sheeple are beholden to the existing system because it is the only means by which they can continue to pay down the indebtedness the system has induced them into. One fate awaits both worlds, perhaps the fairy of economic collapse will wave her magic wand and save the biosphere from human hubris, if not, let the forces of Gaia's feedback loops come get us soon so 'we the demanders' ouselves feel the effects of our greed. Time to apply the barley sandwich solution eh.

Naomi Klein’s conclusion: that passionate corporate and conservative foes of curbs on greenhouse gases are right in asserting that a meaningful response to global warming would be a fatal blow to free markets and capitalism.

Thousands Demonstrate in Solidarity with 'Wall Street on the Waterfront'

Thousands of demonstrators, in solidarity with the Wall Street on the Waterfront action staged from San Diego to Anchorage, forced shipping terminals in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., to halt parts of their operations Monday. Canada's West Coast ports, large and small, saw demonstrations as well. Just when it looked like the Occupy movement was over, protesters on the West Coast are showing that they haven’t gone anywhere.

Many small communities here on BC's left coast saw demostrations at BC Ferry terminals. Occupy Powell River's Call to Action states in part that 70% of British Columbians voiced anger at being priced out of their own transit system. Families can't afford to visit each other for the holidays, seniors miss their medical appointments and are stuck sitting with pets on the car deck, tourists avoid the coast altogether, visiting the Interior where the ferries are not only optional, but free of charge.

BC's ferries are part of the highway system, they are a necessity-not a luxury-to thousands of coastal residents. BC's residents of generations past and present have built the ferry system through taxes and hard work just as they have built the rest of the highway system. But by an accounting mirage the Campbellites morphed this public asset into a corporation who now ranks finances over services and seeks to eliminate ferry subsidies altogether. As lond as The Coastal Ferry Act is in force taxpayers will increasingly pay more and more.

Up and down the West Coast the many local issues blended seamlessly with the broader issues of the 99% campaign and the worldwide class struggle pitting the havenots at the gates against the haves within their walls of entitlement.

Charity is Empathy in Action

We are the lucky mud. Our atoms, made up exactly like other atoms, have lucked out. Somehow our atoms can see and think about and understand what they're seeing. What lucky atoms. But this seeing, thinking and understanding comes at a cost. The more a person sees the more a person is obliged to act thoughtfully and with empathy towards those bits of slightly less lucky mud.

How then might a person, who's attempting to be a seeing, thinking, understanding and empathetic pile of lucky atoms, best approach Christmas. It's a dilemma, people smile joyously while loading up the credit card, others have a job serving them. All the stuff has to be made and shipped and...if the total cost to the planet were added in an ipad would cost millions. Yikes, what to do?

Our family started a tradition new to us over a decade ago when 'we the adults' decided that instead of buying each other gifts we'd make a contribution to a charity of each's choosing. It has worked great, this year, like the last few, i chose the local Food Bank. i met some neat people there the day i stopped by, people helping each other. Charity is empathy in action.

Of course everybody's situation is unique and sometimes presents are unavoidable, what then? For me, buying locally made useful stuff is next best 'cause it keeps the money in the community. Next, if that's not possible, i'm looking for Fair Trade goods made by real people not corporations. In a nutshell, Fair Trade puts people and the planet before profits. For those folks living near Gibsons BC Canada the Gaia store in the lower part of town is wonderful.

The Harperites vs. The Canadian Wheat Board, Headin for Armegeddon?

The Canadian Wheat Board is a 75-year-old marketing structure that works by price pooling and single-desk selling. Farmers fought very hard, over the decades, to build a system that could serve their own interests against predatory grain companies and giant railways.

A Federal Court judge in Winnipeg ruled Wednesday that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz breached the Canadian Wheat Board Act by introducing legislation without holding a plebiscite for producers.  Ritz's answer,“This declaration will have no effect on continuing to move forward for freedom for western Canadian farmers.”

Farmers have approved none of this. Most are well aware that this path will only diminish their own power and profits, and hand them back to the corporate world of agri-business. That's what this is about, money honey, $5 billion a year and Harper's backers want a bigger bite, no matter that generations devoted their lives to the Prairie cooperative movement that resulted in creation of the Canadian Wheat Board, or that this decision could be the beginning of the end for many family farms that are the backbone of Canadian agriculture, in a matter of weeks it'll be gone if the Harperites get away with it.

Who rules Canada, the courts, or the parliament? Is any government above the law? Or does Harper think he's guided by a law higher than human law? Most evangelicals do, George Bush did, and this Conservative government is loaded with 'em. as Marci McDonald's book 'The Armageddon Factor' shows. This could quickly escalate into a showdown at high noon in the Supreme Court. Of course i always bet on the underdog so i'm predicting a huge win for the little guys and a big black eye for the Harperites.

Address to Senate standing committee on Agriculture and Forestry December 8, 2011 by Allen Oberg, Chair, CWB board of directors - Very informative!

Stop The Steamroller - Over 30,000 supporters of the Canadian Wheat Board Alliance have sent an email so far..

Today's Canada-U.S. Border Deal Announcement Another Dark Day For Canadian Sovereignty

According to Stevey Harper Canadians need not be concerned about matters of Canadian sovereignty in relation to the Border Pact and Security Perimeter. According to his corporate cronies it's a great day. Why then do so many of us non-corporate cheerleaders have such a sinking feeling deep in our psyches. Could it be because we know that this is just another step down the road to Fortress North America.

Step by step Canadian sovereignty is being sacrificed on the alter of the rightwing nut jobs. "I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal. But if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper." - Pierre Trudeau

Canadians are being lied to about the real purposes behind this dark deal. If Canadians think this deal will result in even one truckload of goods rolling more quickly into Amerika they're in for a big surprise. The vast majority Americans are paralyzed by fear of anything and everything outside of their law enforcement's control. This deal is just one more step toward the 'normalization' of Canadian laws and law enforcement techniques with those of the paranoid public in what was once upon a time known as 'the home of the free'.

Stevey's Omnibus Crime Bill is an example of what the future holds for Canadians in Fortress North America. Why, when all crime statistics are dropping, do Canadians need to spend billions of dollars on more prisons? Why the demise of the Wheat Board and the Long Gun Registry without allowing any real debate in parliament? Why pull the stakes on Koyoto now? Why, why, why? Because the wolf at the door demands appeasement and fearful Canadians seem quite willing to oblige. One day soon there'll be a knock on Canadian doors and it'll be obvious then that the new security state the wolves 'don't need any stinking badges'.

The Impoverished and Hungry Seldom Have the Strength to Complain

Once upon a time here in North America people had the courage to stand up for their rights. The many understood that their rights were all that stood between them and servitude to the few. But things have changed now. The many have allowed themselves to be divided by fear and now seldom have the strength to complain.

i'm 63 and much of it has happened in my lifetime. It started decades ago with cutbacks in education funding i think. After World War 2 people here were riding a wave of material success and began to forget the long hard lessons of class warfare passed on to them by generations past. They began to believe themselves entitled to their good fortune by the superiority of the capitialist dream, they lost sight of the real and danced to the banker's beat.

Studying the old knowledge became non-sense in a culture gone insane with the delirius dance of material desire. The public demanded that schools concentrate on the functional not the foundational, on the new knowledge, on the means not the meaning of life. Whirling and twirling we, the sons and daughters of that generation, believed it all. We believed that growth could be endless, we believed that things could only get better. We borrowed on the future when the present began to provide less than our dreams demanded, we mortaged our futures then our children's futures to pay for it all. We forgot the lessons hard learned by our parents and grandparents, we forgot that a penny saved is a penny earned, we forgot that what goes up must come down, now we're starting to remember.

It's getting late, the dance is winding down and many of the dancers have forgotten their way home. So many have lost their good paying jobs, their homes, their dreams of a better life for their kids and grandkids that our streets are filled with the impoverished and hungry. Those still on the dance floor know it's the last dance, they know that if they stop twirling, even for a moment, that they'll be the next one out in the cold. The rich get richer, the impoverished and hungry seldom have the strength to complain.

"Resist much, obey little." -Walt Whitman

How Perennial Grasses and Organic Farming Sequester Carbon

Every day we pump more heat trapping gasses into our common atmosphere than the planet can absorb and recycle. Every day we march closer to enviromental disaster. Every day lofty speeches delivered to those of us already convinced of this reality become less listened to by our fellow humans.

It doesn't have to be this way, there are viable, practical solutions that could be adopted, that could lead us and future generations out of the desert of madness and into an oasis of sanity. Today's Global Day of Action on Climate Change seems like a good day to review one set of win-win solutions that The Mud Report has focused on often in the past.

Research suggests that a global shift to organic agriculture on the earth's 3.5 billion acres of tillable land could reduce current carbon emissions by nearly 40 per cent. A shift from seed grains to perennial grasses offers the same type of numbers. The links below lead to the results of this research and the conclusions drawn from those results by some of the world's leading scientists.

'We can only shit in our nest just so long before we start nesting our shit.' was a projection of future disaster decades ago and a visible reality now. Please take a look below and follow some of the links offered in these articles, they offer hope of a better not bitter future for our children and grandchildren.

Perennial Solution - Annual grains feed the world, but they create problems. Perennials are thrifty. Their long roots hold on to soil, water, and fertilizer, which means less pollution.
 
Climate Change and Agriculture: Biodiverse Ecological Farming Is the Answer, Not Genetic Engineering by Vandana Shiva - Biodiverse organic farms produce more food and higher incomes than industrial monocultures. Mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity and increasing food security can thus go hand in hand.
 
Organic Farming Sequesters Atmospheric Carbon and Nutrients in Soils - The extent of carbon sequestration found and the impressive ability of organic systems to capture carbon are important results that should be used by policy makers when planning future agriculture development.

Perennial Grasses - Awesome Library

Putting Christ Back Into Christmas

The other day while on my way into Powell River i passed a sign in front of a local church extolling us to put Christ back into Christmas. It got me thinking about the depressing hordes descending on the malls in search of Black Friday 'deals'. It got me thinking about who the historic Jesus Christ was, about his message and his methods of communicting that message.

Christ was a rebel, he opposed the banking and financial elites of his day, he condemned injustice, praised a life non-materialism, and used street theater to draw attention to his message. Jesus Christ challenged the representatives of the religious and political status quo and they killed him for it.

Now don't be confused, the churchs, christian-muslim-hindu-buddhist-etc, are political institutions. Their mission is control not liberation, their insistance that only the 'bishops' of their institutions understand the 'truth' is a tool of that mission. The churchs are inventions of we the self-interested-lazy-fearful bi-pedal primates not of divinity [whatever that is].

Jesus Christ was the original #OWS member. He overturned the money-changing tables at the Temple which really had become a tax collection agency and a bank. Would Christ have been in the Black Friday crowds? i doubt it. Would he instead have been working in the soup kitchens and free clinics feeding the hungry and giving comfort to the poorest among us? You betcha.

Attawapiskat-Colonialism's Karma

This morning's research into the present fiasco of Attawapiskat's housing crisis has been emotional for me and hopefully the real story will move everyone else too. An excellant place to begin is Alison's Creekside blog where i scooped the picture above. There you'll find a number of great links to information on the numbers that Harper and his buddies are misusing to support the fog of denial and divert the attention of Canadians as well as appeal to their rightwing base.

To be fair this isn't a Conservative government invented problem, the Liberals used the same illogic to cover their tracks too, so have successive provincial governments of all stripes including the NDP.

The numbers themselves, as outlined by Aaron Wherry's breakdown of the figures, though insightful, only give a two dimensional snapshot of the greater problems created by colonialism that we all must face. Colonialism is one of capitialism's tools of oppression. This isn't news, humans have slaughtered and stolen the resources of the 'conquered' since the begining of history. Attawapiskat isn't news but it is symbolic of the ongoing battle being waged against capitialism everywhere.

It's also symbolic of how we the many allow ourselves to be divided by the few for their own short-term gain and how, sooner or later, the chickens come home to roost. The blog âpihtawikosisân has the most clear, detailed, informative article on Attawapiskat by far, and on Canadian Federal-First Nations relations generally.

“The Harper government has told the other communities, 'You speak up, we will take you out.' That is as blunt and brutal a colonial message as could be delivered,”  - NDP MP Charlie Angus

The #1 Reason Why Harper Won't Legalize Pot in Canada

Harper's recent statement that his goverment won't legalize loco weed here in Canada isn't because his base voters oppose it, it's not because the drug warrior zealots to our south would go even more nuts than they already are, it's because Canada's small time mom and pop marijuana industry is powering the rural economies of Canada.

Worth $7 billion in BC alone, that's a lotta money. Some goes to the big boys, that's true, but the vast majority goes to thousands of little mom and pop operations in BC and all over Canada.

When mom and pop growers spend their loonies it's at local stores, on bills and at the grocery market not the stock market. The tax boys get their cut over and over again. As 'The Toilet Bowl Theory of Economics' shows the GST/PST/HST taxes mean the government gets every one of the outlaw's loonies sooner or later. But before its all sucked up into taxes and corporate profits it circulates from person to person powering our local economies.

Someday, like the other outdated 'boogie men' we'd been manipulated to fear, like gambling, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, etc. the 'sin' of pot will go up in smoke and the government will use it as another source of revenue. Until then we the people can enjoy our tokes and our green economy secure in the knowledge that whenever it's legalized it'll become just another crappy plastic corporate commodity. Until then folks everywhere will live 'the motaleros way'.

A Lakota Prayer and Healing Song

Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy – myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes,
so when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit will come to you
without shame. –Chief Yellow Lark, Lakota Tribe

Lakota Peyote Healing Song by: Robbie Robertson
Sometimes you don't need the words when the song speaks directly to your heart.

Grey Cup Sunday, a Unifying Canadian Tradition

Coast to coast to coast millions of TV's and radios in Canada will be tuned into the 99th Grey Cup game. 30,000 fans from all over Canada are partying in Vancouver. 60,000 will fill BC Place later this afternoon. Its a bonanza for the hotels, pubs and restaurants.

Every CFL team had its colors well represented in the crowds at yesterday's parade. It's like a traveling Mardi Gras, every year fans take their holidays to come to the party, this year its in Vancouver. Being an american by birth, an import in CFL terms, it took me awhile to convert to the Canadian game but now i'm on the bandwagon both for BC Lions and the CFL.

It's a big place this Canada, lottsa space, in distance and culture, between BC-Newfoundland-Inuvik. But in a few hours the kickoff will be watched in all three and everywhere in between. The Grey Cup unities Canadians once a year, kinda reminds everyone to focus on our shared good fortune.

International Buy Nothing Day Celebrated Around the Globe

International 'Buy Nothing Day' has, like everyday, unfolded later here on the west coast of Canada than most places. We have breakfast while europe has dinner and while China sleeps, if it ever does. By midday here today it's already apparent that BND was either a huge success or a total failure depending on who you get your info from.

At least 63 countries participated, hundreds of thousands worldwide staged some sort of action. Number of shoppers who stopped shopping=zero. Minds weren't changed, but the message was sent. Quitting shopping must be far more difficult than kicking drugs or booze. Our culture validates nothing more than consumption unless maybe its excess.

Stopping conspicious consumption, genuinely wanting and being happy with less, growing and making our own, these are the ideas and actions that could hobble the runaway corporate agenda. The Empire appears as a many headed hydra, its money and power won't be given away, its power lies in the control that fear instills.

The power we have is in owning the ground. They need us more than we need them, and they know it. Every action, no matter how symbolic, that lifts the skirt hiding that truth is revolutionary and dangerous to the 1%. "Remember" as Timothy Leary said, "that you're only as old as the last time you changed your mind."

Please Continue Shopping.

It's hard to be optimistic on Black Friday. The malls are a madhouse, so many of my fellow north americans acting like puppets on casino capitialism's stage.

But not everyone's at the mall, there are those who are protesting againt the puppetmasters and some folks just have better things to do like a walk with the dog [yum] or cleaning the gutters [yuck].

We, the 99%, hold all the cards but allow ourselves to be deluded and divided. Every exchange is driven by demand. Supply rises to meet that demand. We, the demanders, are the driving force behind the destruction of the planet's enviroment, behind the inequities that create starving children in Sudan and gluttonous consumption at the malls here. We, the demanders, create the 1% with our endless consumption.

"We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable." -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Will Shopping Save Us? - Shopping may be our real national pastime, but it comes at a price that is not advertised in the malls.

Thanks to the Wind

i give thanks to the wind whipping the rain against the windows and sending the waves crashing over the seawall on this morning's walk. Thanks for the forest dancing in the wind, for the little birds at the birdfeeder, for my best friend Pancho, for another vertical day.

Being lucky enough to have been born in 1948 gives lots to be thankful for. We grew up in a world of limitless possibility, the perfect time to be a dreamer, a time when kids were kicked out after breakfast and told to be back for lunch without a moment of terror about the unknown.

i'm thankful mostly for my family, for my mom and the sacrifices she made as a single mom in an era long before it was common. How hard she must have worked on all those graveyard shifts to make a home and a life for us. Brilliant and beautiful, Betty Wiley gave me her best and i thank her with all my heart. Thanks too to my daughters who've been the proud focus of my adult life and provided its finest moments.

We've been the lucky mud, from rock and roll to hoola hoops, those my age have watched pop culture as it popped. Now we're watching a new generation of mud awaken and begin again to realize another world is possible. We too thought we would change the world in our hippy-yippy past but change slipped through our fingers, change kept changing and now my thanks go out to the growing global resistance for re-awakening my hopes.

Can We, the Greedy, the Lazy, the Fearful, Want Less?

Wanting less is the central message of Buy Nothing Day. Wanting less is empathy in action. There is still a chance humans could change from the greedy, lazy, fearful mob we mostly are now into empathetic members of the living earth. The Vagas odds are real long, but not zero.

Symbolic actions this Black Friday like the Zombie Walk and Whirl-Mart are great mall theatre. They open a channel to a new way of thinking about the holidays, about our own consumption habits. Pogo like, we must acknowledge that we have seen the enemy and it's us.

Adbusters update today extolls us all to use Buy Nothing Day as a springboard to #OCCUPYCHRISTMAS. There is only one earth, we cannot continue to consume its limited resources to satisfy our unlimited demands. The sooner we each confront our inner consumer the sooner the flora, fauna, microbes, minerals, forces and fairies we share this life with will step back from the precipice of disaster we're all looking over.

Can we, the greedy, lazy, fearful primates, overcome our own worldview of entitlement? Can we want less? The real 99%, the non-human part, sure hope so.

Each Act of Resistance Awakens the Actor

It's moving day at #Occupy Vancouver, they're moving on to the next phase they say on their website. They, and their fellow rebels, have changed the political discourse in first phase, my heart soars like an eagle.

The next phase will see many different tactics including our individual recognition that we are part of the problem. There's as many viable tactics as there are tacticians. Resistance through non-cooperation is one non-violent tactic. Whether you're in the country, a small town, the city, the burbs, the root ideas remain the same: live by cash-stay out of debt-never buy on credit-save your money-buy local-work hard.

The Occupiers are not necessarily asking that we join them in their camps but in their spirit of resistance and cultural rebellion, and in the task of imagining a better world -- realizing that we have been sleep-walking towards the edge of the cliff. They are telling us all to wake up before it's too late. Their challenge to each of us is not to live in tents, but to resist - Murray Dobbin

Every act of resistance creates a whirlpool of downstream effects and each act awakens the actor. The corporations, like chinese handcuffs, hold on by the power of fear. If you stop retreating in fear, even for a second, the spell is broken. The freedom to live, hope and work towards your dreams is only one smart choice away.

"Politics is how you live your life, not who you vote for!" -Jerry Rubin

Wind of Repression Fanning the Flames of Change

There is a fire burning in the forest of capitialism and it has plenty of fuel. When it's a well fueled fire burning in a real forest the firefighters work towards containment. They try to use up the available fuel so that when the winds blow the resulting embers will have no chance of kindling a new breakout. The Empire seems not to have learned from this example.

Instead of attempting to contain the worldwide anti-capitialist movement by removing the fuel of inequity that feeds it they've adopted violence and repression in response. Every day the wind fans the flames from a new direction. Today in the US it's the UC Davis pepper spray blowing, in Egypt it's Tahrir Square exploding, riots in Athen's and Rome, the winds of repression are stiff, the fire is spreading quickly. Tomorow more evictions in more cities will spread the flames of change further still.

Evicting the occupiers is doing the movement a huge favor, i'd personally like to thank them. Before the evictions their very name 'occupy' had them somewhat contained. The movement's flame is small when the bits of mud they camped on framed the discussion. Now it's the moral high ground they seek to occupy. The glowing embers set aloft by the evictions will hopefuly land in neighborhoods and back yards where new General Assemblies will convene, where the new horizontal awareness could lead to real communication among the, until now, divided 99%.

Until then, until the fire burns in every community, we can take heart in the new flames large and small quickly fanning out in all directions. The batman like beaming of slogans at the Brooklyn Bridge march was perfect. OWS has a great sense of theater, today they've organized a a 24-hour "Occupy Bloomberg's Mansion Drum Circle and Love-In Art Show" outside the mayor's townhouse at 17 East 79th Street. Free drum lessons!

Buy Nothing Day is a Tool of Individual Empowerment

During this morning's beach walk with the pack of dogs and their humans the topic of Buy Nothing Day came up. One fellow laughed. He, like me and millions of others living on the fringe, has as many buy nothing days as possible, this is truely a movement we at the fringe can embrace.

Buy Nothing Day (BND) is an international day of protest against consumerism. The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Mexico in September 1992 as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption. This year BND is Nov 25 in North America. Nov 26: World Wide. More than 65 countries participate. As the UK group says, "Lock up your wallets and purses, cut up your credit cards and dump the love of your life - shopping."

Like Move Your Money Day last week BND is a tool, of individual empowerment. They are a lever poised to lift the veil of consumerism one x-zombie at a time. Adbusters has for years promoted BND and now the occopiers are coming on board. It's depressing to watch the hords lined up to stampede the malls on Black Friday in the US and during the consumer season generally. The newest video game or smartphone, the shiniest bobble, still draws the zombie hordes. The awakening is spreading, slowly.

The corporations, the 1%, live on the excesses-the wants not the needs-of the rest of us. Without the endless demands of consumers the veil would drop and the bonerack that seems, like the Wizard of Oz, so powerful would be exposed as the teetering lie it is. We are the consumers, we are opening our eyes, despite the hordes at the malls gobbling up needless crap-we are winning [i hope].

NYC Lightshow Manifesto Says 'We Are Winning'

A dazzling lightshow manifesto splashed across the Verizon building last night as thousands of Occupy Wall Streeters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge. Cars honked in solidarity, and projections appeared on the side of the the building across the street, including "Occupy Earth," "You are part of a global uprising," OWS's "99%" logo and "We are winning."

Yesterday thousands marched and held actions in solidarity with OWS around the world as well as across the US. Bloomberg's raids have succeeded in drawing ten times as many protesters into the streets. The same thing happened in Oakland last week. It seems the more violence the authorities use to repress the occupy movement the faster it grows.

In LA yesterday a small group of protestors took over a key intersection and quickly caused traffic snarlup that shut down parts of the freeways and ground streets. Occupy LA announced their intentions, the LAPD knew where and when it was coming, they responded immediately. Imagine the effect numerous small groups of independently oganized dancing and singing protestors could have at a few key intersections in any city at rush hour. The Yippies used this tactic back in the early 70's in Vancouver. Quick mini parties that today would be called flashmobs at major intersections. Many motorists would join the fun for a couple minutes. It was empowering, often inspiring, always musical and quick.

Locally, Occupy Vancouver is jumping into community as well as global issues again today with its March Against Open-Net Salmon Farming Practices, they know that open-net fish farms break natural laws and are unsustainable. Homelesness, poverty, hunger, and fish farming are all connected with the larger global issues. In a short two months this 'idea', this 99% meme, has changed the game. We are part of a global resistance movement, it's growing every day, We Are Winning.

Massive Turnout at #OWS Shows Movemnt Far From Dead

Tens of thousands have turned out in NYC in support of OWS. Many more thousands are demostrating their support around the world. The occupy movement is far from dead but it is about to change tactics. The original tactic of occupying small bits of mud was a vechile to propel the meme of inequity into the forfront of people's attention. It has succeeded wildly. But now the evil empire has countered with state violence and the mass media's attempt to turn the focus away from the large questions originally posed by the occupiers into local squabbles about red herrings like public safety, regulations and jurisdictions.

Today's turnout is a statement, a validation really, that the original message of the occupy movement is being heard loud and clear, but not it's not the new tactic. The next move will be to go small. Next we'll see small independent cells organize into flashmobs that can appear without warning anywhere, can be secure by being entirely made up of trusted friends, can disappear just as easily, can continue to serve the stratedgy of education as a stepping stone to change.

Not very encampment will be overpowered by local 'authorities', but most will. Those that survive will do so because they serve the needs of their local communities. Occupy Vancouver is one model that might survive. They are currently serving up to 1,800 meals a day to all comers and they are in talks with the city and provincial governments to establish housing for the endless stream of homeless who arrive at their site daily.

The police are puppets, once they recognize their position relative to the puppetmasters events will change. The downfall of every empire in history includes the pivotal moment when the army of the rich realizes their emporer wears no clothes. It will happen again hopefully sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile as today's communique from Culture Jammers HQ says: Now begins the second, visceral, canny, militant phase of our nonviolent march to real democracy. We regroup, lick our wounds and begin our counterattack as early as tomorrow. We will turn this winter into a training ground for precision disruptions – flashmobs, stink bombs, edgy theatrics – against the megacorps and the unrepentant 1%, a festival of resistance in the snow with, or without, an encampment that'll lay the tactical foundation for our Spring Offensive.

Occupy's Goals-Strategies-Tactics

The emerging cooperation among anti-capitialist movements showed its strenght as thousands of people in Berlin and Frankfurt took to the streets Saturday to protest the global financial crisis. The anger of the Occupy Wall Street and Indignants movements has spread to Germany. A similiar meeting of movements in Athens a few days ago reflect a global resistance movement coming together to face global problems.

The goals of these far flung protestors are identical. Goals are achieved by way of good strategies. Strategies are accomplished by different successful tactics. Here in Canada the occupations, the tent city tactic, are being cleared by local 'authorities' each day. IMO the tent city tactic can only work when they begin to serve the particular needs of their local communities. Occupy Vancouver's daily 'free food for all' run by volunteers and supplied by donations is a great example. So is their focus on homelessness shown by yesterday's march.

Just as each community's needs are different so will the strategies and tactics be different. If a small tent city occupation gets thrown out then, like in Halifax, the moral outrage shown locally can do as much or more to further the process of education central to your strategy. Maybe it is to cold in Regina to live in a tent all winter but Regina has local issues to build around.

The goal is of building the world you want is being grown around the world by people who are learning to organize themselves and resist in the course of providing for one another. Not learning from the successes and failures of the strategies and tactics would be stupid. The Argentines and, to a lesser degree, the Greeks have built grassroots community bases that serve the needs of the people not the elites. Nither had encampments, though the indignants of Spain did, encampments are a tactic to be used, or not, in the service of a strategy designed to accomplish a goal.

OWS Says 'Enough of This Bull...'

On Wend. a small group of Occupy Wall Street activists engaged in a near-successful corrida against the Wall Street Bull. The matador and the bull both survived to fight another day. Street theater, pictures worth thousands of words, a spark in the growing fire.

Another spark was the article on OWS joining an Assembly of Struggles in Athens. Those gathered in a basement in the neighborhood of Exarcheia talked about parks, public kitchens, and barter bazaars. They even seemed pretty hopeful.

A common theme, a common trajectory of events that echo Thomas Jeffereson's prediction of things to come. The Greeks are a bit ahead of we Norte Americanos on the revolution curve, the Argentinians are well ahead of us all. Today another technocrat was installed by the bankers in Italy. As Benito Mussolini once said, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."

That evening’s meeting in Athens is hopefully a sign of things to come: a global resistance movement coming together to face global problems. It’s being built right now around the particular needs of local communities, of people who are learning to organize themselves and resist in the course of providing for one another. Street theater in NYC, organizing in Athens and sad news from Burlington Vt. and Oakland where, like Vancouver, tragedy, wrought of our culture's woes, has landed on the occupiers door step.

"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring" -- Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950



Global Resistance Up, Greed Markets Down and Other Good News

Don't cry for Greece let alone Argentina. The bankers have nearly completed their coup in Greece. But this lamestream economy is less revelant each day in Greece and beyond as a global resistance movement is being built around people who are learning to organize themselves and resist in the course of providing for one another. The bankers will squeeze Greece dry, the protests will only get bigger. Each day the center of power in Greece moves to the street. The Greeks will rise, the bankers will fall.

This spirit of building the world you want is gaining momentum here at Occupy Vancouver which has become a downtown eatery serving hundreds of meals a day dished up to all comers as donated food rolls in. Staffed totally by 20-30 rotating volunteers who are building a new world one meal at time. They say, "Come on down and Join Us'.

Then there's Occupy Oakland's 1 month old Birthday Party today and tonight in the Amphitheater of Oscar Grant Plaza. It'll be livestreamed, it'll be fun, it'll be another little spark in the global resistance's spreading flame.

In the video below musicians Graham Nash and David Crosby play an acoustic set for members of Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park on Nov. 8. It moved me to tears this morning.

Teach Your Children Well... And Feed Them on Your Dreams

The Occupier's Only Demand is: Join Us!

We are reclaiming public space to use as a forum for the people to come together, meet one another, listen to each other, and build power for ourselves. - Occupy Oakland

Somehow the Occupy Movement has managed to change the political monologue into a dialogue or a multilogue more accurately. There are, seemingly, as many different issues, strategies and tactics as their are occupiers. Somehow the occupiers have organized themselves into a horizontal-inclusive community despite the choas of daily events unfolding around them. Somehow they've managed to issue only one real demand: JOIN US!

Being an oldtimer, set in my oldtimer ways, i'd have tried to organized clear demands. The Robin Hood Tax...Mandatory Labeling of GMO Foods...The End of Corporate Personhood...etc. Trivial, misleading oldtimer type divisions that obscure the fact they are all part of the same issue.

Occupy's Statement To the Media: Our struggle won’t fit in a 15 second soundbite. This occupation is a beginning, and we have a long way to go. And while we have much in common, we believe the people are stronger united behind many banners, rather than a single one. says it perfectly.

The video below could be David Suzuki's finest hour. This should be watched by the whole world.

Occupy Vancouver and City Managers are Negotiating to Move Indoors

The most promising story line this afternoon isn't the impending showdown being hyped in the lamestream media it's the behind the scenes negotiations between city managers and Occupy Vancouver. Councillor Andrea Reimer confirmed negotiations have been going on since day one of the protest in an interview with The Independent, and that moving the camp indoors is currently on the table.

“We’ve been talking with people from the movement since day one, the deputy city manager has been the lead on it,” Reimer said. “[The Art Gallery grounds] is not an ideal space. If they had somewhere with concrete, that drained a little better, that would be a better space for such a thing. I know that that discussion has been going on. Facilitating the movement itself would probably best be done from an indoor space where they could have things like offices.” Reimer said.

Of course i have no idea if the occupiers would agree, that would require much horizontal discussion, twinkling and a vote. But it is a hopeful sign, perhaps Vancouver can be a vanguard for the co-operative model that yesterday's stories from Occupy Halifax and Olympia examplified. This could be a model for so many other occupied locations now heading into winter.

Imagine the difference in tone co-operation would bring over confrontation. Imagine the difference one successful co-operative solution could bring to what now seems like the kindling of a soon to be out of control fire. Vancouver's Adbusters called the people to this growing occupation movement, now, hopefully, Vancouver's occupiers will propel the movement foward.

Occupy Vancouver to Move Indoors - According to a key Occupy organizer, protesters are in negotiations with the city to move to a warehouse following the shut down order issued by Mayor Gregor Robertson.

A Combo-nation of Occupy Olympia and Occupy Halifax a Viable Model

Occupiers are stirring the pot, everyday now there are so many issues on so many fronts it resembles a candling forest fire in a strong wind. So many stories everyday that a person can go with those that are the best fit with their paradigm. Today's news cycle includes a number that fit mine. One is where the Washington troopers took to heart the radical notion of 'protect and serve' and helped set up tents at Occupy Olympia.

Another is from Halifax where Occupy Nova Scotia protesters camped outside Halifax City Hall put down their placards and bongos Sunday and picked up brooms, sponges and dishcloths instead. The demonstrators started a cleanup prior to a temporary relocation that will allow Remembrance Day ceremonies to go ahead at the city's main cenotaph.

Oakland, Atlanta, Vancouver, Chicago, San Diego, Bloomberg and others are watching hopefully. Their aren't two sides, everybody is in the 99% boat. First came Albany now Olympia and Halifax are visible models of co-operation but they are only a few we've heard of. There are thousands of ongoing occupations the vast majority are peaceful, community supported, protests.

Occupy Vancouver is under pressure right now. The occupiers sound determined to stay. Occupy Vancouver providing a number of valuable services to the homeless, their schedule of daily events shows a level of organization to be envied and, with any luck, cloned by occupiers everywhere.

Hundreds of millions of poor across the globe are going hungry to feed this mania for profit. The technical jargon, learned in business schools and on trading floors, effectively mask the reality of what is happening—murder. Those who resist—the doubters, outcasts, renegades, skeptics and rebels—rarely come from the elite. They ask different questions. They seek something else—a life of meaning. - Chris Hedges

Occupy Vancouver in Shock After Death.

Occupy Vancouver medic Chris Shaw was the first-responder on scene, and unsuccessfully attempted first aid on the deceased woman. Within hours, protestors began a candle-light vigil - with signs reading "We are all Ashley" - was held in front of the art gallery on Georgia Street.

It appears Ashley died of a drug overdose. Another occupier said the incident is reflective of Vancouver's drug addiction crisis, not Occupy Vancouver, a protest against the very economic and political system that creates the conditions for drug addictions. "This is a better, safer shelter than any other shelter in the city. That's why people are here -- shelter, education, free food. Nothing that happened here is a product of this movement." - said Occupy participant Blaine Komatic.

Their have been 120 deaths from drug overdose in downtown Vancouver during the past year. Not once did either Gregor Robertson or Sunan Anton call for the closing of the downtown slums because of 'safety'. This poor girl's death is being used as a red herring to divert attention, as all red herrings are supposed to do, away from the issues of homelessness, hopelessness, poverty, inequality and despair.

Occupy Vancouver is undoubtedly the safest place to survive as a street person in Vancouver. If there were no election run going on Gregor Robertson would be going all 'liberal' on this issue. If the Olympics had actually delivered on it's pre-spectacle hype there would have been far more facilities available for Ashley. Instead she and others have voted with their feet for the imperfect community growing in the 'occupied' bits of ground here and around the world.

What happened today does not merely affect Occupy, it affects all of Vancouver, Canada, and our world - touching us all. This event reinforces our very reasons for being onsite today and calls for collective grieving and solidarity. This is a time for love and healing. We need to stand together as a community in this moment. - Occupy Vancouver

Tragic death rocks Occupy Vancouver site  - A woman at the Occupy Vancouver camp died Saturday after being found in an "unresponsive" condition, police said. A Canadian protest organizer said it appeared to be the result of a drug overdose.

It's Move Your Money Day Today

If you're looking for something cool to do, Saturday is Move Your Money Day. Or Bank Transfer Day. Or Dump Your Bank Day, lottsa names. November 5 has been marked as the unofficial date for unhappy customers to take their dough outta the big banks and move it into smaller, more local co-ops and credit unions.

Moving your money is a bigger issue in the US and Europe than here in Canada. Canadian bankers have had their greed machine throttled back by regulations passed by Chretian and Martin years ago they couldn't avoid or bribe their way out of. Though muzzled some by regulations Canadian bankers still do their best to serve the interests of their wealthy shareholders. So do Credit Unions serve he interests of their shareholders. The difference is you and i, the members, are the shareholders.

In what could be the first practical request by the Occupy Movement yet, protesters are asking everyone to take part in the "Move Your Money Day" and divert their investments from big banks. Moving your money is a small act of individual enpowerment. It feels good to act, Move your money! i did. The local Credit Union people were pleasant and helpful.

Move Your Money Day: San Francisco Residents to Dump Their Banks

 

Move Your Money: 650,000 People Just Did