Share Your Voice.

Namasté,

J Mercurial

permalink: http://99stickers.com/learn-about-the-1-percent/

We’re workin on a 99stickers version of this graphic. What do you think?

99 Voices

It’s not that rich people think their kids are better than your, it’s just… Well, they’re not all that sure they want their kids playing with someone from your neigborhood or tax bracket. I’m sure my dad had that concept, my mom, not so much. Although before Obama she was a RED-Stater all the way. Things DO change.

So today I was walking a block over from my neighborhood and into the way 1% area where Sandra Bullock built her home. Even their neighborhood pool looks snooty. And I was noticing all the fences. Just about everything is fenced in. With codes and locks and gates and … security services.

I’m glad they can’t take a reading of my credit report at the moment, or I’d a been booted from their streets and back into my more variable neigborhood PDQ.

Anyway I was wondering about the ‘normal’ people in the backyards of their gated houses. And they looked just like me. Most of them, okay all of them, were white. And while the cars in the driveways were nicer than mine, I was at least, from the street, a member of their tribe. So here they are, just like me, living in a HUGE frickin house with a beautiful front yard with no one in it. Ever!

So they’re gonna play and keep their kids playing in their backyards. Approved play dates, I guess. And something IS different about this than how I was raised 40+ years ago. The kids in our neighborhoods all played together. And we played in the front of our houses, in huge packs, playing kick the can, werewolf, and capture the flag. It was a neighborhood.

Today there was not a single group of kids anywhere. The gated and protected pool was empty, but school’s still a week or so from being out. I did see two other folks jogging. They looked pretty much like me, too.

So what keeps them so “gated?” Is there something sinister that comes in when you don’t fence and arm your property?

Sure the rich love their children. They just don’t love your children. And unless you’re at the private school, they’re not so sure they want their kids to love your kids either. Maybe that’s it, classism.

A high school friend asked me the other day, “How is it, that we grew up together and yet we came out with such different politics?” It was a friendly question.

The answer came a few hours later. It was my hippy sister. She didn’t care to much for classism. She balked at my father’s discipline and dislikes of her boyfriends. In fact, I’m sure she went the other way just to piss him off.

It must be kinda sad on the other side of that fence. I mean, lonely. Unless you schedule a playdate, how are you going to make friends?

It just goes to show you, that people are people. Biases and prejudices are everywhere. I’m sure I have some of my own. But I AM sure it does not involve providing healthcare for the poor kids as well as mine.

If we all rise we all rise. If only the rich rise, the rest of us fall further behind. That’s what I believe, anyway.

Namasté,

J Mercurial

permalink: http://99stickers.com/2012/05/the-children/

I’m gonna pay my damn mortgage today, okay, so quit having a cow. It’s not easy out here in middle-class land. [God save the lower income folks.] But you’ve been so damn crappy since two days after it was due [ya know there's a 12 day grace period, right? I mean, you wrote the fukin documents.]

So you’ve been pounding me with phone calls begging me to call you guys back for about 25 days now. And I really want to say fk it and not pay, but I HAVE NEVER MISSED A PAYMENT. So WTF? Why are you treating me like I’m skipping town when I’m a great fkin customer. With a half-way descent credit score, considering.

So, I just wanted to say, I fkin hate your harassing practices. And as much as I’d like to take my mortgage elsewhere, it would probably be sold right back to you. So fk you. I’m paying today. And I know it’s late. And I know you will start calling me before the weekend for the next payment.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, the number you have is my Google Voice number. It doesn’t even ring my phone. I get an email that you called again. I kinda like hearing your minions and robots leaving their angry or desperate messages. But mostly I just clear my Google Voice inbox and ignore the emails I’m getting about your harassment.

I’m paying today, but I fukin HATE YOU.

I AM THE 99% YOU FKERS!

J Mercurial.

if you like this, please join our Facebook community, it’s where the discussions and actions are taking place. http://facebook.com/99stickers

NSFW - click to view video

STRIP SEARCH!Good idea or police state tactic? Here’s my initial take from a first-hand routine traffic stop:

I had no idea the other day, in my white middle class neighborhood that I could’ve been strip searched when I said, “That’s fucking ridiculous to the cop that was pulling me over.” I’m betting in other areas, with my skin being a bit different and my auto being a bit more run down, I’d have been in for a different experience all together.”We’re cracking heads on the OWS folks all over this country in a way that we would frakin invade other countries for. Regardless of how you feel about OWS, it’s not right.

And now they have the power of the STRIP SEARCH? I think no one, none of us smart ass honkeys, can actually believe it would happen. Not to us, not in our neighborhood. But it that truck of smelly outdoor workers gets stopped in front of our house, heck, they might have been illegals too. They were speaking Spanish.

Disgusted with my country at the moment. That’s why I’m activating with the99spring.com and my own little uprising http://facebook.com/99stickers

Of course stickers won’t solve anything. But they can get us talking to each other. We can spread the dialogue with thinking folks and see if we can tip the balance away from the tea party and the way RIGHT that are trying to get Santorum elected. SRSLY? What kind of nightmare would that be.

I encourage you to get involved somewhere. Make sure your opinion is heard. And if you don’t agree with me, that’s cool, but let’s keep the discussion in the top levels of the hierarchy of a disagreement, okay.Bungle in the Jungle or What’s In a Snipe: Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement

But we definately need to raise up our voice on this one. What’s the MEME that we can start online to support or defeat this amazingly retro ruling?

Hey they won’t have to strip us if we’re naked. That’s it. DRIVE NAKED.Thanks RR for the push.

Namasté,

J Mercurial
permalink; http://99stickers.com/2012/04/strip-search/

Video of the new Movement: DRIVE NAKED (NSFW)

Bill Moyers Journal: The 99% Spring (VIDEO)

Pay per click advertising on Facebook

Yeah, I’ve got a problem. This is a wonderful experiment. And what we’ve got here, in a few short months, is an actually “community” on Facebook. And we’re sharing, commenting, and reposting a lot of information.

My problem is this. Unless I pay for it, we’re not getting any more “reach.” Meaning no one is joining us, unless I pay ¢.25 to ¢35 per click, on an advertisement similar to what got you here. So what’s the issue? Why aren’t WE sharing 99 Stickers to others?

One more, minor problem. My vision was that people would get the stickers and send back pictures of the stickers in funny places. And a few of you have done that, but not 500 – 600 of you. That’s how many stickers I’ve given out so far. And I’ve gotten $65 from Pay-Pal since the beginning.

My question: What’s wrong with this approach? Is facebook not conducive to sharing? Are you afraid to publish or promote your connection with something so clearly 99% related?

I’d really like to know what you think. That’s why I’m here.

One of my favorite tools is TwitterVenn. A quick way to compare the volume of tweets.

Here’s a post that has even more ideas for harnessing the information available on Twitter.

How to Get Useful Business Information Out of Twitter: Hashtags for Social Media Research

Get organized and be heard. We are the majority, let’s empower ourselves with action.

You don’t have to believe or align yourself with the Occupy Wall Street movement to understand that the 1% (maybe really the top 5% of the 1%) really wield the power in the US. Today I participated in a training session put on by the99Spring.com. Please check out the site and see if there is something there for you. According to local organizers there are 700+ 99Spring Groups meeting across America.

The training in Austin is at Ventana Del Soul. And you need to learn about them as well. This is a fantastic non-profit facility and restaurant that is training people and helping people with life work, and work skills.

And one of the exercises we did, was to design our ideal city by drawing a map of what we wanted. Here is my group’s city: “Dignity City.”

Rosa Parks example being used to show us how a simple act of civil disobedience and NON-VIOLENCE can have an affect.

A few of our whiteboards, self-identifying who we are.

See the99Spring.com for more information about getting organized to tell your story and take action.

DAY TWO

Last Circles of the Day

Moveon.org – the99spring.com

Namasté.  Snag the free stickers by emailing your address to 99stickersite[at]gmail[dot]com