It was very chaotic in downtown Manhattan today and in the side streets lots of people milling around  Zucotti/Liberty Plaza --- I was there starting around noon -- police in vans racing around -- cops thick on the street -- helicopters hovering overhead, camera news crews and many many people milling around in the side streets. I spoke to a few people outside the fray, I couldn't get closer than two blocks away, the people on the street were in agreement with the removal of the folks from…

Occupy Wall Street has called for a mass march to meet at Canal & Broadway in NYC at 9am.

Still time to join.

I think it is possible that the new face of Occupy around the world as mass protest ( rather than live in protest) will draw more and more and more in huge numbers..growing numbers.  It will become more fluid , more mobile, more resilient, better able to witness and stand in solidarity with what serve us all..what undermines us all.

This is not a…

Wondering if the lynch-pin reform that will change everything is a call for constitutional reform to separate business interests from the job of governments?

Seems to me that governments everywhere have been hijacked by the economic interests of the corporations, and as such have forgotten that their job is actually about people and our health and wellbeing, not only…

Don’t ask what the world needs. 
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is
people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman, American theologian,
clergy, mystic and civil rights activist, 1900-1981

     It appears that we have a highly unusual situation in this country.  We have two large groups of people who are completely dissillusioned with the current state of our country, namely those that identify with the occupy wall street movement and those that identify with the tea party.  This however is not what I find unusual.  What I find most unusual is that these two populist movements routinely villify each other while failing to find any common ground or to learn from each other. …

Excerpt from email out of Philadelphia:

"We have a trustifarian anarchist, …… down here influencing the GA's with swinging people to her ideologies, and she has been transporting anarchist in when important votes happen. So we are in a really sticky situation down here."

This illuminates a fascinating dynamic whereby an "anarchist" personality is actually mimicking old paradigm political tactics, if the report is accurate.  That is, the…

It appears to me that the current evolutionary thrust, as symbolized by the Occupy Movement and assorted police actions being taken against them, comes to some stage of each significant evolution in human society.  The tendency is to maintain the status quo, which against such movements is represented by the agreed to government of that time and enforced for them by police authority.  When resistance to the status quo becomes too strong, for the comfort of those who’s…

This was posted on the Occupy Portland Facebook page a bit ago-the camp is being evicted tonight and tensions are obviously high.  Like other Occupy encampments, they have become the focal point for many of the ills that have resulted from the dysfunction of our system.  I have been tremendously impressed with the level of dialogue and communication that has gone on between the Occupiers and city officials, as well as police.  This particular Occupier does a really good job in…

Hello,  this is my first post.  I'm excited to be here!  i got home a bit ago from a small Occupy March in downtown Pdx.  Our focus was on our diversity.  It was organized by a Latino contingent.  Also happening this weekend: City/Police closing Portland's Occupy Camp tonight.

First draft. Text will evolve according to feedback...



What do we hear when we listen to the forgotten U.S. nation-wide End the Fed movement in 2008, which sparked the TeaParty movement, or to the so-called…

Peter pointed me to this one from

Edgar Cahn, ‘I think we’re learning that money isn’t what we thought it was, that bankers aren’t what we thought they were, and that the monetary system is not enabling us to get to where we need to get to,’ he says. ‘Money that depends upon repayment of interest requires that we have to keep producing more and more in a world that’s having to learn how to become sustainable.’

And this, 

"For while the market economy locks out those not…

I realize what I am about to post may not seem directly related to the Occupy movement - BUT for me it is.  

This morning I watched a video, "No More Shooting and Crying"  that affirms all that I think about why war and military occupation is not the answer. 

I appreciate that these young people in Israel have found a way to share the message of what war and military occupation…

It's our world; when do we get our turn in running it?

Last Saturday, as I walked out of "World Government House" where I live and work in South Burlington, and climbed into my Accord to join the local Vermont group at the Burlington City Hall park supporting the now global "Occupy Wall Street" movement, I wondered what would be appropriate for me, a world citizen since 1948, to contribute in a meaningful way. Following Amy Goodman's daily "Democracy Now!" reports of the same…

Message to the 99%:

Please find more compassion for the sickly 1% (not to condone their behavior). And remember that if you are emotionally "charged" by seeing their actions it probably means you are doing some similar "greedy' behavior yourself and you can use them as a mirror to clean up your own life. Once you have done so you will still see their greed and still take action but without the "charge".…

Since 2000, when I Greg Palast broke the story of the 50,000 disenfranchised people of color and democratic persuasion, three months in advance of the election, and Al Gore took the offer to accept the theft as being "within the bounds of reasonable dishonesty," I have been creating an Electoral Reform Act outline.  I took everything I could find from Ralph Nader, the undisputed foundation for any such work, and then worked with Jim Turner and others to create a ten point Act.  Once I…

Lindsay Newland Bowker brought the fact of declining general public support for #Occupy to us yesterday in a status post that was soon off the site's front page.  She asked what it means.  My thought is in my title for this blog.

We live in a time that mixes confusion concerning wants and needs with profusion of offers to satisfy both.  Once someones complain or cry foul, people want to know…

The Occupation is gaining depth and breadth, nationally and globally.  The appearance is that spontaneous actions have arisen and continue to proliferate, cross-pollinate and act independently from the original occupation on Wall Street itself. Though there is a groundswell of coordination, no one is directing, no manifestos have appeared. No leaders have been elected. No one speaks for it all. The message may appear to be muddled, yet action appears everywhere and support materializes as if…

An Open Letter to The People and The Media:

A Voice From Occupy Wall Street and Tea Parties Worldwide

All over the world, people are tired of waiting for their government leaders to make the necessary changes that are promised year after year.  While we try to remain optimistic about our future, some of us are frustrated, some are understandably angry, and we all hunger for change.  Change is at the heart of the Occupy Wall Street and Tea…

Peter Joseph is Peter Joseph Merola, born into a working/middle class family, attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and dropped out of the Mannes Conservatory of Music in NYC. He had hoped to be a professional marimba player, but instead went into video production and Wall Street day trading. He currently lives and works in New York City as a freelance film editor/composer/producer and is the creator of the Zeitgeist film trilogy and the founder of the Zeitgeist…

As I become more educated about the national and global issues that have given rise to the Occupy movement, I am also running across some alternative ideas - regarding how we get from where we have been, up until this present moment; and where we might find ourselves next.  So, I hope to share in this space, from time to time, the best that comes my way to spark discussion and allow for further rippling of thoughts that may spur improvement for us all.

 …