My Last Pry: Communities Should Fight Back

Friday, October 13, 2006

Communities Should Fight Back

my latest email list rant...

folks-

this is long. caveat emptor.

one of my pet peeves - no, major soapbox rants - is the way (in particular but not always limited to) corporations spam and price bully their piggish selves into our lives.

i mention this because everyone i know is fed up with the direction our country is headed. what's needed? among the necessities, here are a few i think are required:

1. motivation: a knowledge base of real-world, concrete examples of individuals and communities doing real things to sustain and empower local communities. i am particularly interested in entrepreneurship that energizes communities through letting ideas from the grassroots flower.

2. networking - a consistent platform, not only virtual but real-world, for people to come together and experience the unique dynamic of synergy. i believe synergy is the one thing that local communities and those individuals possess that is our greatest resource - but also the most under-developed. during the dot-com boom, there was a now legendary tech group that met in santa monica quite regularly - VIC, or the Venice Interactive Community (later, the Virtual Interactive Community, i believe, when it grew). their gatherings were thick with the buzz of "something's in the air." some entrepreneur MUST be out there who can figure out how to cater to a comparable audience around sustainability issues and community empowerment.

3. capital - this may be too obvious but i think the approach to capital is soft-peddled and not met with force in the non-profit or community-based realm. financially struggling is no one's idea of a good time, and i've seen it time and again with non-profits and entrepreneurs. one of the problems is that there is no community-based approach to capital - it's always tied in one form or another to corporations. if an idea is funded, say, by relatives and friends, their concentration is so small as to make it a fairly sizable risk. this is what a lot of filmmakers run into - i hear it all the time.

there is a tribal community in africa i heard of years ago that had a novel - and synergistic - approach to capital. when one of the community members had an idea for a business, the rest of the community would pitch in and fund it. then later, when another had an idea, it would make the same rounds. i'm assuming the ideas had to of course pass muster, but the point is they practiced sound investment fundamentals: minimizing risk by spreading it around in small amounts and diversifying their portfolios. simply: by playing the odds via diversification, their bets (investments are bets) are hedged toward probability.

and the more good bets one places, the greater expectation one has. that is what "odds" are about. this is what professional gamblers do. and make no mistake, investors are no different - they are gamblers. (there are of course contextual distinctions...)

one exciting, community-based approach to capital is MICROLENDING. if you're unfamiliar with the subject, there is perhaps no better example of its power than Vinod Khosla.

what this asian brotha has done is nothing short of miraculous; empowering the poorest of the most oppressed and disenfranchised (ie: third world women of color) - and local communities here need to pry open their minds and begin looking for entrepreneurial examples outside of their narrow confines. khosla's story is nobel prize worthy, and one that i'm confident e.f. shumacher would smile at.

for those of you in LA or who know folks here, there is an event this saturday - local, community-based...

eso won books is an institution in LA's black community, and they are having their opening this saturday - tomorrow - in their new location. what's significant is that their new home is in la's black capital - leimert park.

i mention this not just because i support eso won, but i heard a piece this morning where a local leimert park entrepreneur was talking about the changes in the community - developers gentrifying, raising leases and pricing out locals (residential and commercial) and bemoaning the general decline in the community, mostly due to these changes brought on by the pursuit of profit over communities.

so, support this event (take an umbrella tho, there's a small chance of rain) - who knows, you'll get out and see LA, have a good time in one of the jewels that is our city, and hopefully connect with folks who see it the way we do.

gamblers want action, they seek it out and approach it strategically: i think community-minded folks could learn something from that.

thanks for reading.

-jp

What is EM08?

We have to get ready.
We have to fight.
-Carol, The Walking Dead (S07E13)

Intro, September, 2012

The Econ Meltdown of 2008

It's been over 3.5 years since I got very curious about the historic welfare bailout triggered by the massive implosions of Bear, Lehman and the soon to be shotgun wedding bride, Merrill, to groom B of A.

With OUR money. I did say "welfare."

I tell anyone who'll listen that when I began researching EM08 in Q1 09, within a few weeks I knew we were in the midst of the biggest story ever. Bigger than any wars, atrocities and cruelties. It makes atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki look bush league. And I'm Japanese.

History has shown us the ebb and flow of empires past; Mongolia, Rome, England... but because of the limitations, the relative crudity of the technology of the times, empires past were limited to portions of the earth, their colonies.

Today is different. With a military base in every corner and a bazooka aimed at every citizen on earth, we exist in the era of the first true global empire. But here's something even more disturbing; our weapons of mass destruction come bathed in the glow of purity, but it's the purity of Walt White's blue meth.

Those wmds are what's destroying the EU right before our eyes. To those like Matt Taibbi, Goldman helping Greece rig its books in order to gain entrance into the EU is old hat and not even square one of EM08. But it illuminates the thesis; the EU crisis is an American one, with the fingerprints of American banks all over it. Pension funds, sovereign debt funds, hedge funds... you name it. All got taken in, or rather more accurately, just taken. The scope is staggering. All were suckered into the biggest con in history involving the entire world far beyond what any empire past or futurist could have possibly dreamed of.

Ultimately horrific and the most interesting story ever.

The other big theme I asked in 2009; Why has no one gone to jail? The Obama administration, AG Eric Holder and the various regulators have done absolutely NOTHING amidst the Godzilla of crime scenes. In fact, they have arguably enabled the psychopathic banksters and associated thugs with a string of settlements that are sickening embarrassments.

I'm anything but an economist. These are my "everyperson" observations based upon what citizen journalism I can muster. Need I say it, this time is history being writ LARGE. My bullet point advice for the coming tsunamis ahead (yes, that's plural):

1. Get educated; there's no time like now to start learning about the way the American system of economics works. Even a cursory glance on a consistent basis at some of the analysts and blogs I cite (see sidebar links "EM08 Analysts to Trust" and "EM08 Blogs I Like") will begin to shed light if you really reflect and chew on the cud. Ironically, in a time of extreme unemployment, this is work.

2. WAKE UP - THE ENEMY HAS DECLARED WAR. The eCON elites have already made it abundantly clear that they do not care about and even look down on "the little people." It therefore makes sense to connect with others of like mind. You do yourself no favors by acting in isolation.

You are not a super hero and no god will save you from the wrath of the eCON elites when your number comes up. Ask the millions of taxpayers who were raped by "having to give" the largest socialist welfare theft in history to shithead bankers for their evil pre-2008 machinations so that they can dole out bubble era bonuses for 2009! Also be aware that as of February, 2010, these shitheads are doing the same things that got us in trouble before. In fact, because of even more welfare era conglomeration that created the super banks -- ironically in the face of "too big to fail" which, like so much of political speech, turns out to be empty rhetoric -- it can be persuasively argued that the bankers' position is stronger than ever. The lesson is that the eCON elites conglomerate and so should we. As the Ethiopian proverb says, A million spider webs can take down an elephant.

Note: Throwing your hands up and shrugging, feeling helpless, remaining uninformed, not even trying... essentially doing nothing, is the worst "strategy" of all. It plays right into your enemy's hands and is not just easy, it's lazy and weak. It makes you, in the con artist's playbook, a mark. Which in the fall of '08, became painfully clear we all were.

The bottom line: Your enemy is highly organized and powerful, they are relentless and they are coming. They are Skynet and the Death Star on super roids, the ultra Terminator that will not stop. This is not being alarmist, this is not hyperbole and this is not a screenplay. February, 2010: The biggest socialist welfare "mothers" in history, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein and JPMC CEO Jamie Dimon take BONUSES of $9mil and $17mil respectively, thanks to the welfare money they and uncle scam stole from us and while the world is on its knees. The national debt is over $12 TRILLION with interest counting fast. Does that sound like we're playing poker with a strong hand?

3. Organize strategically. In an era of unprecedented complexity, too much information, obfuscation, deflection, mis-direction, filibustering avoidance, mass media manipulation, and outright censorship, the ONLY answer is pragmatism based upon strategic insight. Take lessons from the analysts cited below, connect with others, form small, agile communities of support, and PLAN. Not to do so is to go to war armed with a Nerf ball.

NEED: A local, national and even international network of these small, agile communities so that they can share resources and support. Tall order, but the time to start is now simply because the eCON elites have such a tremendous head start and as of Q1/2010 EM08 is still in the beginning stages.

WATCH FOR: EGOS (include your own!) & BUREAUCRACY. Communities that hedge their bets by acting strategically, egalitarian and fair have the best shots. There is nothing wrong with good leaders, provided they are fair and do not succumb to the god complex. Remember, in insane times, sobriety and pragmatism should be your first rule. In other words, if times are hard, what would you rather have, a gold ingot or clean water?

Good luck to us. We need it.

For much, much more: CLICK HERE for EM08 Posts

lordonlow at gmail dot com

RZA

Piri Thomas

My father Juan, also known as Johnny, once gave me some advice in the art of survival, saying, "Listen, hijo, sometimes you don't look where you're going and you stumble into trouble. You must learn how to spot danger by learning to smell the ca-ca at least twenty miles away, for remember, son; that mierda not only walks on two feet, but it comes in all colors." I moved to exercise my powers of being able to smell ca-ca twenty miles away and to recognize the difference between ca-ca and flowers, when my father stopped me. "Por favor, son, before you start out to smell other people's ca-ca, smell your own first, otherwise you'll get so used to smelling everyone else's, you might forget you have quite a bit of your own." Punto!