FIVE FOR ELEVEN

Thanks to the movie V For Vendetta, The Fifth of November is no longer just a bonfire day in England.  It is a day for social protest and action, and the "Million Mask March".

To quote the character V:  
People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

They don't fear masses of us in the street, we've seen that they just send in the teargas and rubber bullets.  I'm not saying we should stop protesting in public. But we need more action, and we need effective day to day actions on a wide scale, that we can maintain for years.  In fact, we need to make political action part of our day to day lives.

You know: brush teeth, wash face, call the Mayor's office...

We have to disrupt the ordinary, day to day lives of people in power, in annoying legal ways. Calling them constantly while they are at work, showing up at their meetings and in their courtrooms and watching what they are doing.  Asking them well-informed questions and demanding answers.

Make a pledge today to make 5 significant actions for social change each month for 11 months in the next year.  (Give yourself a one month break.)  If enough people did this, we could have a literal "armchair revolution". 

Here are some suggestions:

REGISTER TO VOTE
If you aren't registered to vote, register.  Voting is less important than being than being a registered voter.

CALL ELECTED OFFICIALS ON A REGULAR BASIS
Voting is less important than calling or writing your elected officials on a regular basis about the things that are important to you. 

VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS
There are approximately 220 million people eligible to vote, and only 150 million are registered.  Of registered voters, only about half of those 150 million actually vote in Presidential elections!  As was demonstrated in 2000, the popular vote does not elect the President.  The electoral college does.

And the people that make the most difference in your day to day life are your local leaders.  Voter turn out in local elections is often less than 20%.

It is a lot easier to change things from the bottom up, than vice versa.  

LEARN YOUR LOCAL ELECTED JUDGES
More important than voting for political leaders is the who is in the judicial system.  Learn about the judges on the ballot in your next local election. 

RAISE THE WAGE
Join the nationwide Fight for $15 an hour minimum wage.  Do the research.  It will not be the end of small businesses.  It will not be the end of corporate jobs.  The minimum wage hasn't raised with inflation since 1970.  What has risen is corporate profits, executive salaries and bonuses, and credit card debt.

And we need to raise the "exempt" wage.  Right now employers in Missouri can require an exempt employee to be available 168 hours a week (that's the entire week) for $455 per week, if the exempt employee supervises 2 or more employees for 80 or more hours per week.

For example, if you are the live in administrator at a small residential care facility or half way house that is "24 hour awake" care.  The state requires that of those 80 hours, 42 are required 6 hours a night for the administrator to sleep.  The other 38 hours will generally be support during the day with cleaning, cooking and medication paperwork.  If the exempt employee takes a full day off, half the weekly pay can be legally deducted.  $455 a week is not even minimum wage for 168 hours worth of work.

LEARN YOUR LOCAL ECONOMY
Learn how your local government is spending tax money.  Are the same contractors used again and again?  Is there nepotism and "legacy" hiring in your local government offices and agencies?

INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF PETITIONS YOU SIGN
Signing on line petitions and then sharing on social media is a good way to get dialogue started, and to show visible support for the issues that matter to you.

You have the power to change the world.  Make the pledge: 5 for 11.

Happy V Day!  #5NOV



OPTINSTL will be back on blogging and taking it to the streets about public transportation in St. Louis toward the end of the year.  Absence on social media does not mean absence from the issues!

VOTE FOR MICHAEL BROWN NOVEMBER 4TH, STRIKE NOVEMBER 5TH LEAFLET TO PRINT AND SHARE

This leaflet was produced in Open Office text with two columns, .49 page margins, and 1.0 (1 inch) between the columns.  It is two sided, with four of Side One on one page, and four of Side Two on the other.  The font is Arial, 11 points, the spaces are size 6.  (These changes are lost when I copy this to blogspot editor.)  PLEASE PRINT AND SHARE.

(Also, if you were at the September 10th highway demonstration, where I was handing these out for the first time, and you have video of me being arrested, please contact me.)

SIDE ONE 

 

VOTE FOR MICHAEL BROWN JR, NOVEMBER 4TH 2014

Vote because that is one of the only legal political muscles we have left in this country, and only between 12-20% have been flexing that muscle. Your vote counts more in local and state elections than on national issues. The city is 49.5% African American, and most of North County is more than 60% African American.

Vote because you want to send a message the “leaders” will understand. Right now they only talk to the constituents that vote for them, and only when they need campaign money or support. That needs to change. If we all vote, then they have to reach out to all of us.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, ST LOUIS COUNTY VOTERS NEED TO SEND A MESSAGE THIS FALL: BOB MCCULLOCH IS RUNNING UNOPPOSED AGAIN. GET A PAPER BALLOT AT THE POLLS AND WRITE IN “MICHAEL BROWN JR” FOR PROSECUTOR. It would say a lot if Brown got more votes than McCulloch.

On November 5^th, call the Board of Election Commissioners and verify that they counted and reported your vote. 

SIDE TWO 

 

REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER

The day AFTER the elections, join the “Armchair Revolution” and “phone it in”. Don't go to work. Don't go to school. Don't buy anything. More than anything, the people in power need us to continue business as usual. Without our labor or consumption, they have no profits. They need us more than we need them. And we have more power than we realize if we stand together for real change.

On the 5^th, spend the day calling every elected official on a local, state and national level, and tell them what you need: Justice for Mike Brown? Job programs? $15 an hour minimum wage? Access to better health care? Solvent, healthy public schools? Better public transportation? No more GMO's? An end to tax credits and incentives for large corporations? A recognition of our First Amendment rights and the dismissal of all illegal “failure to disperse” arrests in Ferguson? JAM THE PHONE LINES WITH DEMANDS!

WE THE PEOPLE pay for the government. Without us they have nothing. Vote on 11/4, and on 11/5, be part of the revolution.

Please print and share this leaflet www.optinstl.blogspot.com

Occupy Public Transportation in St. Louis

NOVEMBER 4TH, 2014: VOTE FOR MICHAEL BROWN, JR.

Not just "vote for Mike",--meaning get to the polls and get involved in the process-- to make changes to St. Louis leadership, and get rid of the Ole White Boy Network.

Not just to flex the only political muscle We The People seem to have in the political process anymore.

Not just to demonstrate what can happen when the African-American population-- or any population-- actually turns out at the polls in numbers higher than the usual 10-20%.

I mean VOTE FOR MICHAEL BROWN, JR. as a write-in candidate against St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch. He's running unopposed.  Again.  And honestly, it's not the kind of job that a human being with a heart wants, so it's no surprise that someone like McCulloch has had the job for 23 years.

(And as I mentioned in my last post about Dooley, it is ironic that McCulloch backed Steve Stenger against Dooley in the primaries, and Stenger ran on the campaign that "10 years is long enough" for Dooley to be County Executive.  HAHAHA.)

John Lennon famously said that those in power "can't handle non-violence and humor."  St. Louis Police have shown time and again that they have no problem gunning down unarmed black men.  St. Louis "Powers That Be" amply demonstrated during the protests that they have no problems tear-gassing their citizens and violating our First Amendment Rights.

Lennon was right.  They are ready for violence.  It's THEIR game.  It's the only thing they really have.  Without guns to shove in our faces, or the threat of guns, they got nothing.  And a pacifist is as willing to die for his/her beliefs as much as an armed soldier, a pacifist is just not willing to KILL for his/her beliefs.  Which of the two is more courageous? 

A massive write-in campaign for Michael Brown, Jr. --- especially if he got more votes than McCulloch-- would be humor, albeit very tragic humor, considering the promise Brown had already shown in his all too brief life.  (As I have said before, for a black kid to graduate from Normandy and get accepted to Vatterott shows more initiative and ambition than any kid from a "nice' neighborhood with good schools getting into Wash. U.)

And it would scare the living daylights out of most elected officials.  They act like they want you to vote.  But what they really want is for only those that truly support the system as it is, and take it seriously, to vote.

NO ONE has made a bigger mockery and sham of voting and the political process than our politicians.
Just two examples:
http://www.oppositionnews.org/articles/2014/q3/ma-green-candidate-kicked-ballot-using-white-paper/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/23/citizens-united-government-shutdown_n_4150614.html

They don't want a lot of voters they have to answer to.  Especially voters that aren't making huge donations to their campaigns.  They don't want to actually have to SERVE the public.  They want you to keep quiet and keep shuffling back and forth from your job to your television or your sports, or ANYTHING.

Just not be out voting, and certainly not mocking them with your vote.

To write in Brown's name you will probably have to ask for paper ballot or vote absentee.  And I will have to check if there is some Draconian rule in place that will nullify the rest of your ballot for writing in the name of a dead man (I don't think they legally can, but I will check).  But for a lot of people, probably MOST people, the majority of the stuff on the ballot is meaningless, anyhow.

And for those who are afraid they may be put on a "government list" or something, newsflash, you are probably already on a list.  And even if you aren't, you are already being spied on.  You are already under surveillance.  And if you are an African American man, you already face "Death by Police" or imprisonment for being black.

And if you are one of those 2nd Amendment supporters that says "I will fight to death to keep my guns against a government dictatorship" why wait?  Why not fight the dictatorship now?  No gun could ever send the message that a massive voter turnout would send, especially with a strong write in response. Guns are not bulletproof, but ideas are.

After voting, I strongly suggest contacting the St. Louis Post Dispatch and St. Louis American, and telling them you wrote in Brown's name, so that if the Board of Election Commissioners doesn't report it, the media will keep them honest.  Also, on the 5th or 6th, call the Board of Election Commissioners and ask them if your vote was tallied. ( If you are joining the revolution on 5th, make this your first call.)

If your voter registration isn't current or you aren't registered, I hope you will register by September 23, 2014, and I strongly suggest you vote absentee, and get those votes for Mike in early.
http://www.stlouisco.com/yourgovernment/elections/voterregistration

I can't think of a better honor than for Mike Brown, Jr. to get more votes than McCulloch, or even as many votes.  If you think it is disrespectful to vote for Brown for other reasons, than write in Ron Johnson's name.  Or Dorian Johnson.  Or Chris Koster (the MO AG, that along with Antonio French and Jamilah Nasheed, has proven himself during the events in Ferguson to be one of the few "good" political leaders.  Koster is also qualified for McCulloch's job.)  Or vote for Tupac Shakur, or John Lennon, or yourself.

The chance that McCulloch is going to conduct this investigation fairly is a mockery in and of itself.  And if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  Mock them back!

On November 4, 2014 vote for Mike Brown, Jr. (or anyone other than McCulloch) as St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney.

Most importantly, VOTE!!


Then, on November 5th, join the revolution.
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/09/remember-fifth-of-november-2014.html

DOOLEY DOES RIGHT, A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT

Lame duck Dooley accepted all the blame for the Ferguson chaos.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/dooley-takes-blame-for-ferguson-in-speech-to-business-group/article_f1a461e7-5bf2-5af4-bf46-68365839b9b6.html

Well, someone else's problem now.

Too bad he wasn't on the side of the people sooner.  What about Metro and Prop A?  C'mon Dooley, as the old song says "why don't you do right/ give me some money too."

Do something that will matter in your last few months of office.  Give us the truth about Metro and what they are doing with their money, and what happened to Prop A, and, oh yeah, that 3 or 4 year long 40 million dollar lawsuit from the Shrewsbury line, and the cuts to service in 2009? 

One interesting thing, Stenger-- backed by McCulloch-- defeated Dooley in the primary with the charge "10 years in long enough."

Well, Bob "Bubba" McCulloch, 23 years and running unopposed AGAIN in November.  THAT is long enough.

Write in Michael Brown on the ballot and vote for him instead of McCulloch.  It won't change anything, but it will send a nice message.

And I SERIOUSLY hope that the ENTIRE eligible African American population will vote on November 4th.  Vote for everything.  With a city that is 49.5 African American and with most north county municipalities 60% or more African American, a 100% voter turnout will create a more serious fright in the Old White Boy Network (actually, the entire political and economic infrastructure) than burning down ten Quik Trips.

Seriously.  See you at the polls, black (actually ALL of) St. Louis, PLEASE!

OCCUPY YOUR LIFE THIS THURSDAY AND FIGHT FOR $15!

September 4th EDIT/UPDATE: Ferguson, representin':
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/business/economy/fast-food-workers-seeking-higher-wages-are-arrested-during-sit-ins.html?_r=0

This is a reprint form the Occupy Your Life blog:
http://occupyurlife.blogspot.com/2014/09/fast-food-thursday-fight-for-15-show-me.html

With only 318,000 people in Saint Louis, and 49.5% African-American, an a big chunk of small business owners living in the county, a $15 minimum wage in the city should be fairly easy to institute.  Yes, it will take more than protests.  It will take massive campaigning and petitioning.  But it is within reach.

In the meantime, don't eat at a fast food restaurant this Thursday, and call the corporate offices of McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc, and tell them you stand with their striking workers.

More importantly, call Mayor Slay and Governor Nixon, and your local Mayor and representatives, and tell them you demand a $15 an hour minimum wage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/more-fast-food-strikes-are-coming_n_5751630.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592