Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez Video

I am not providing a link to it and I am not posting it here, it is merely the subject of the post. Apparently, the police believe that Oscar is the person who attempted to shoot President Obama, even though he was in another state at the time.

According to reports, Mr. Hernandez-Ortega shot from a half mile away from inside his car and hit the white house with two bullets. He managed to do this without anyone noticing and drove away. His car apparently had broken down or had an accident and he left his car with the rifle inside it. He then apparently left on foot to only be found in the last two days.

I watched a 20 minute video that he had recorded of himself. In the video he promotes marijuana, claims to speak to God and says that he can stop war and improve the world. They are saying that he had some trouble with the law, he states that he had been involved in gangs and his family report that they have been worried about him for a year since he disappeared.

My observation from the video is that he needed help. He seems confused and erratic. He does not make any threats to anyone in the video nor did I hear him mention the President. Reports say that he told others that he believed that Obama was the anti-Christ.

My question is how will this be used by the media to justify some new law. It will be. Let the circus begin as politicians scramble to pass a law that will prevent "this from ever happening again". Of course nothing can prevent crazy people from doing crazy things. The media already attempted to connect this guy to the Occupy movement; but, that didn't work well. He will be used to vilify something. We can wait and see what it is. He talked about Oprah; but, I doubt she will be blamed. He talked about a lot of things; but, only the ones the media dislikes will be the subjects that are blaemd.

Random Thoughts in a Random World

It came out today that Homeland Security had worked with police in Portland regarding the Occupy movement, no kidding. Meanwhile CNN has published an article saying that America is not on a decline. It sure looks and feels like one, what am I missing? If this is things getting better than someone needs to tell me what better means.

Warren Buffet has been telling people for years what direction the nation is headed in and what is wrong with the way that Wall Street and big business are failing us as a society. I think it is important that people go back and read what he said; but, I will give some of the essentials. The biggest problem is that we set up a system of rewards for Wall Street and CEOs that was not based on how well a company performed within it's industry. Instead, we have set up a system that rewards people based on how it's stocks perform, not dividends; but, the value of the stock. It promotes short term trades rather than true investment in stocks. That is why CEOs can get bonuses even when the company if failing or in bankruptcy.

I wrote a very long time ago how option trading could be halted. Now, people are actively looking at ending such trading. I read an article about it today. The way business works today has a lot to do with insurance. People who don't have insurance for their decisions often make riskier decisions.

AIG insured bad investments. High risk and high return go together and that is fine; but, you shouldn't insure high risk investments because it promotes bad investments. Let us be very clear, that is not good capitalism. I personally believe in capitalism, though it is not about democracy, those are two different concepts.

Capitalism is the idea that individuals should be rewarded for their efforts if they result in improvements or production that is valued by others. Our system is not capitalistic and hasn't been for a long time. Instead we have a ponzi capitalism where government backed insurance protects those who are big investors and it is paid for by your taxes.

The housing bubble was backed by tax dollars as insurance, because of that the banks profited by lending to anyone regardless of their ability to pay. You see, the second aspect of real capitalism is that you have to live with the consequence of your bad decisions and that didn't occur for the wealthy that own the big banks.

What we really have is a form of oligarchical socialism for a few and an insurance class totalitarianism for the rest of us. Same for our so called democracy, our political class represents not the people; but, the privileged. After all they were the ones who got bailed out. People on both the left and the right understand this, they just differ on some of their solutions.

Who is against having a level playing field and having the rules apply to everyone equally? I was not a big supporter of the Tea Party because I saw how quickly it was overtaken by monied interests. One of the biggest supporters of the Tea Party was the Koch brothers and their history is a little questionable to say the least.

MF Global is an excellent example of how we are not living in a capitalist society. MF Global invested other people's money in commodities, if the value went up then the company benefited even more than the people whose money they invested. If the commodities dropped in value then the people who invested had to pay the debt. There was no risk for MF Global itself unless people couldn't pay the companies debt.

Here is a Huffington Post article that sums it up - The Koch Brothers and MF Global - Friends to the End. The reason I support the Occupy to any extent is firstly based on their right to air their grievances and secondly (and as importantly), it is an opportunity to identify what the problems with the system are rather than thinking that electing "new" politicians will change the system because it has not.

The problem with the system is that is it unfair, undemocratic and fixed so that some have no risk and others bare the risk for them. AIG went bankrupt; but, Berkshire Hathaway did not and their biggest investment is in insurance. So why didn't Berkshire Hathaway go bankrupt? The answer is simple, they didn't insure bad investments to an insane amount.

The highest purpose that the Occupy movement can cause right now is not in proposing legislation, it is in awakening the nation to how we were taken advantage of and how our system is no longer capitalistic. My question is how the protesters will now find a way to start consolidating on what needs to be fixed and in what manner, the same is true for the Tea Party and Cain is not the answer.

Here is an article from Market Ticker - Oh Oh. "Regulated" Derivative Markets About To Blow Up? I like the part where the investment broker says that the market is fixed the best.

More Media Spin

We have a new story. ABC News - DC Shooting Suspect Could Be Threat to Obama, Police Say As you read the story wait till you get to the part where it says that "U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time blending in with Occupy D.C. protesters." Really, based on what, the fact that he was in D.C.?

Turns out the guy is 21, from Idaho and has a history of mental instability. Jeez where have I heard that before. Now, why say he may have been with the Occupy movement? He may have been with the Republican movement or the Tea Party too, he may have been anything; but, shouldn't there be some evidence before the media makes such assertions?

I have been in front of the White House, how the heck did this guy manage to fire at it and hit the window is way beyond me. Reports say that the shots came as he jumped out of a car and fired. He must be an amazing shot. There are snipers on the roof of the White House, even terrorists who are willing to kill themselves haven't achieved this. They want to eliminate open carry of guns and this is going to be used to do that. They will start by making it illegal in Washington D.C., one step at a time kids.

On a lighter note, a group of millionaires went to Washington to ask the people making more than a million dollars a year be taxed a little more. They were ridiculed by the politicians. Associated Press - Millionaires on Capitol Hill: Please tax me more!

Do you understand how crazy are legislators are? Put the pieces together, the politicians have figured out how to steal money by making stock investments (as reported by 60 minutes and others) and they don't want to be taxed on it because most of the people in congress are millionaires. The lunatics truly are running the asylum. I forgot something, certain news sources are now reporting that Homeland Security may have been the people who organized the mayors to take out the Occupy encampments at the same time.

Not every millionaire is crooked or evil; but, our political class is out of control. Here is a YouTube Video - Amazing video of violence at #OccupySeattle Unprovoked assault by police. Is this the kind of nation we want, one where the police pepper spray people for standing on the street in peaceful protest? They are protesting a system that is corrupt as proven by our politicians using insider information to make investments and enrich themselves and this is in Seattle a pretty liberal city.

How about this, in New York the police are keeping people out of Zuccotti Park even though there is a court order allowing people in during the day and as previously mentioned by their mayor himself, the park is private property and the City had previously passed laws requiring it to remain open to anyone at anytime. The law does not apply to the police in New York as they explained when they said they had a right to fix tickets for family members and it doesn't apply to the mayor.

Now here is something that will make it easy to understand. How many cities across the U.S. that are facing shortfalls have cut the salary of the police and how many have given them raises as we did in Los Angeles. Why did they get raises and why do they get paid overtime to watch peaceful protesters and pepper spray them? Because if you cut the salary of the police then they might side with the protesters.

The NYPD has become part of the Occupy movement, they are Occupying Zuccotti park to make sure that nobody enters it. The protesters surrounded them. Do you not see that our nation is occupied by morons and corrupt politicians? The people in charge don't know what lie to tell, things are moving too quickly and not following the established patterns. Their actions are dangerous and ill advised. Common sense doesn't seem that common right now.

What use is a political class that is supposed to represent the people when 90% of the people feel that they are not being represented? I really do want to know what type of idiot looks at this economy, this blatant corruption and thinks this country or this world for that matter are working?

Now a little history. Remember the movie "Braveheart", I have another for you to watch it is called "Zulu". Many people do or have seen other such films. The kids today know military techniques, they play fricking video games like "Call of Duty". Think they won't figure out how to respond to the police tactics? I don't wish to see violence in our streets, not from the cops and not from the protesters and the police and politicians are pushing them to respond violently.

This can either come down as shared sacrifice and we get things back in order or it can be where a few benefit and everyone loses. I prefer the first choice. Why don't our politicians and why are the police supporting violating the law in New York? Think about this, people who were hippies in the 60s are preventing their grandchildren from protesting and ridiculing them for doing so.

I Have Inspired Someone

My best guess is that it is cl. Perhaps they will say. Responding to a comment that will not be posted; because it was not meant to be posted by the sender.

Be well all and don't believe in the spin that anyone, including the alternative sources, give you. Define yourself and be you.

One More Bloomberg Statement

Now I do recall statements being made that the people at Occupy Wall Street were violating the hours of operation of the park. Okay, that would validate a trespass charge; but, I just read a statement by Bloomberg that was different.

Originally from the Associated Press and re-broadcast by Yahoo. "Crackdowns reach epicenter of Wall Street protests". I like his statement, "The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day," Bloomberg said. "Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with, as the park has been taken over by protesters, making it unavailable to anyone else."

Did you get what he just said. This is simple property law. He said that a law created Zuccotti Park and required that the park remain open to the public 24 hours a day. Now, why was a law required to create a private park? That is strange. I know of a park in California, it is called Griffith Park. The City was given the land on the grounds that if never charged a fee for it's use. It he 80s, the City tried to charge for parking and almost had to return the park to the family of the person who dedicated it to the City. Someone should probably do some research into the title of the park and the laws that were passed. Bet the police and mayor both broke the laws.

The New York Police Department was more concerned about the poor police dressed in riot gear getting taunted. Really? Here is the quote, "Arresting people is not easy," he said, adding that he thought the officers showed great restraint in the face of "an awful lot of taunting, people getting in police officers' faces, calling them names." Wow, the NYPD showed a lot of restraint in the face of being taunted, how brave they are, those who claim "professional privilege" while illegally fixing tickets for family and friends. When people call me names I don't find it hard not to hit them with batons. What restraint, didn't we hire them for that?

People's words outlive them. The mayor's words will outlive him and his actions will define the type of person he was. He does not care about the people of New York, he does not care about the law and he is not part of the 99%, he is of the 1%. When this all began, Bloomberg more than any other mayor had a chance to show compromise. He could have said what he knew, that the financial system was corrupt and then had some of the people who benefited the most from the bubble put in jail. He did not, he arrested the people who complained about what happened.

Bloombergs Possibly Illegal Gift of Public Funds

For the past couple of months the Mayor of New York, the Billionaire named Bloomberg, has stated how the park in Wall Street that was occupied is private property. Over the last three days Occupy movements were removed from the parks in multiple locations. Now, I shall show you a lie and a crime. Mr. Bloomberg has broken the law.

Firstly, here is an article from MSNBC, "Mayors deny colluding on 'Occupy' crackdowns". It flat out admits that 11 Mayors participated in conference calls about how to deal with the Occupiers. By coincidence (I don't believe in such things) the largest groups were all taken out on the same following weekend. You might also consider the fact that some of these groups were removed using police from outside their districts, that required coordination didn't it? CNN reported that the Oakland police were joined by dozens of police from other jurisdictions, didn't that required them to coordinate with other mayors?

Now, Bloomberg has a different problem. He spent all this time saying that the park was private property, yet, immediately after the police removed people from the park, the City's Sanitation department showed up and removed articles and pressure washed the area. It is interesting to note that the Sanitation people did not wear face masks, it implies that it didn't smell. There is a real issue though, why were public employees used to clean up private property? That can only be done in two situations, one is when the property owner has allowed a nuisance on his property in which case he must be officially noticed and is responsible for the cost of clean up. The second is when a gift is made of public funds and that requires a council action and a public hearing and that was not done. Sounds like Mayor Bloomberg may have been involved in a criminal act.

Lets consider what did occur. The police "evicted" people. Where the heck is that from in the penal code. The people were trespassing, not renters. Under what authority do the police "evict" people, were those laws followed? No, therefore the law that was in place is for trespassing and they should have arrested everyone; but, they couldn't do it, it is too expensive.

By the way, because Council action is required, it cannot have been mutually agreed to by the City and the owner of the property unless there is a law specifically allowing such actions. If they attempt to claim the right under emergency powers then they will have to show that an emergency was declared.

You cannot call for lawfulness when you yourself are breaking the law. You cannot call for peace whey you yourself are beating the peaceful. I spent two hours after work with a small group discussing how we can feed as many people as possible. Apparently, Mr. Bloomberg spends his time trying to figure out how to take peoples sleeping bags and tents while very likely breaking the law. It must be nice to be a Billionaire.

I knew a Billionaire, he actually was a "job creator", he worked his way up and started as a truck driver. He liked giving people jobs and worked till he no longer could. I wish he and I could have discussed the Occupy movement with him. I liked our conversations and respected his mind. I remember a conversation we had after the crash, he had to lay some people off; but, he had the opportunity to bring some back. He called one person and offered them their job back, it paid over $40,000 a year. The person turned it down because he was making about the same on unemployment and didn't have to work. It stunned him that people could think like that.

I don't agree with people who will not work because they think a job is beneath them or because they are willing to milk the system. That is corruption and all good Republicans would be horrified by such a thing. I also do not agree with people who believe that because they have money they can take advantage of their position and don't owe something back, I don't care much for Mr. Bloomberg. "Pull up the ladder mate, I am aboard" is an old saying regarding sailors. All the sailors leave for shore leave and as one comes back he says it, not asking if everyone is aboard.

I am sick, I have a cold or flu. My throat hurts and I am cold. I hate being sick. I got home late and haven't eaten dinner yet. I decided to write before I lost my thoughts. Let me ask you a question, one of the complaints from the mayors and police was that the homeless were infiltrating the occupy encampments. The encampments were feeding them, giving them medical help and in Los Angeles, trying to get them social welfare help. The homeless turned to the protesters rather than their cities because they know the mayors and police will not help them and could care less about them. Is the complaint that the homeless were infiltrating camps that the mayors and police didn't want there or that the homeless were finally getting help?

Think about the moral corruption that goes into saying that people who are protesting corruption in government and industry are feeding the homeless and that it is a bad thing. Are the pidgeons? You should have a sign out showing your heart which says, "Do not feed the homeless", God will remember all of what happens and is continuing to go on. Shame on you Mr. Bloomberg and even more to the mayor of Oakland. It is not supposed to be about you and your control over the cities, it is supposed to be you and helping your residents, listening to their grievances and addressing them. You are supposed to be shepherds and not predators.

A Summary

I have written a number of posts about the Occupy movement by now. I find it a fascinating subject because of the reactions it has received. I find it interesting that conservatives who have always been proponents of the first amendment are taking such a negative attitude, even many liberals have taken a negative approach.

My reaction is slightly different. I think it is fantastic that the youth of this nation are participating in the political discussion rather than sitting at home playing online video games. Lets tell the truth, we are leaving them with less than we had and they don't like it. They shouldn't like it, heck, who does like it?

Is there anyone who thinks this nation is better off than it was ten years ago? Is there anyone who thinks that having millions of homes in foreclosure and millions of people unemployed is the sign of a healthy nation? How can anyone applaud the Tea Party and not applaud the Occupy movement, they are merely two sides to the same coin.

Politics has become a complete sham. The TARP bill, the stimulus bill and the Patriot act were all passed by a congress where none of the members even read the darn things. What kind of nation have we become when we no longer allow people to peacefully assemble and complain about conditions that we have to live under?

I have read too many times that some of the protesters are communists, don't they get to protest too even if I disagree with them. Didn't we used to believe that we might not agree with people; but, we would give our life for their freedom of speech?

I would hate to be a police officer right now. Their job is to protect the rest of us and instead they are being used to suppress peaceful demonstrations. Their alternative is to refuse to follow the commands of politicians that they know are corrupt and lose their jobs.

Lets say that all of the Occupy encampments are taken down, then what? Is that the end of the protests or will they merely take on another form. History says it will morph into something new, not go away. Does anyone really think that if Ron Paul gets elected anything will change? Your congress is owned by big money and lobbyists.

Consider Obama, he made all sorts of promises and nothing changed for the better. Solyandra was a joke, hundreds of millions in bad loans with nothing to show for it. Almost a trillion dollars in Tarp and stimulus money and nothing gets any better. Much of it was given to foreign banks, that is insanity.

What is the message to today's youth, our children? The message is that we messed up, you will have to work longer and get less than we did. Oh, and by the way, we don't to hear your complaints about it and there is nothing you can do about it.

I don't expect the Occupy movement or the Tea Party to change anything for quite awhile. The corruption within our political system is so ingrained that it will just continue to be more and more removed from the citizens. As the voice of the system continues to be dismissive of the citizens, it loses more and more moral authority and validity. It promotes people ignoring the laws and that will only cause a further degeneration of our whole society.

Some might think that I am overstating things; but, really, look around you, read the news. What kind of nation tolerates it's local and federal police being involved in drug running and gun running to gangs and criminal cartels? Let us consider what has happened in Italy and Greece. Their leaders passed laws that take even more from their people and then immediately leave office. Hey, that is the exact same thing George W. Bush did and you can expect Obama to do the same.

None of this is unexpected. Think tanks, such as the RAND Corporation, are tasked with predicting these things. The truth is most of us would like to see things go back to the way they were, we like comfort and stability and there is none given and none expected.