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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Antonio,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Money also buys things like web sites, email contacts, and transportation (an enormous problem here in Utah, since the city I live in is about the physical size of Mauritius, with about three times the people to ignore me). To get the message to the right people requires money, and I don’t mean small amounts, as we must also find them and be visible. The people here want to see the idea that we might actually stand a chance to get a politician into office before they’ll even think about supporting any political party. And that requires money, too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Support of the elites would be nice, but it won’t happen because they’re too invested in a system which continues to break down. Their investment isn’t necessarily financial, either.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I was the Operations Officer and tried to establish a structure, but because people here decided it wasn’t to their liking they broke it apart. And to file the paperwork… you guessed it, money!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Money oils the mechanisms in the USA, much more than it does elsewhere. We can’t operate without it, period. The culture here won’t allow it. And until it’s broken at the root, the machine of the MAFIAA continues to churn out propaganda and chips away at the local support—most of whom really don’t know any better, but would be great if we could just reach them. We don’t need a fancy TV advertising campaign; we just need the capacity to break into view for a while… the pirates in the USA are all apparently on submarines.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Currency is required for any of this to happen in the USA, period. Without it, we’re all talk and no action. It’s a little like being a fly stuck to flypaper: we make lots of noise, but we’re not going anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>So, to say we don’t need money is like saying we don’t need dirt to grow potatoes. While it’s technically true, the only results are small potatoes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt'><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net [mailto:pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Antonio Garcia<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, August 24, 2011 10:08 AM<br><b>To:</b> pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [pp.int.general] USPP Status<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>You only need one thing, Ray... the people. They are already revolting world-wide... the only thing they lack is a clear direction towards which to march... in search of an applicable solution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>The only thing money enables you to do is to buy people, their brains and/or their hands.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>With the right discourse... we should have the support of the right people (that is, all people but the different elites)... and be able of thinking about solutions only involving money marginally.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>If the usual bastards keep printing it at the rates they have been lately... THEY already know it will only be paper too rude to service their buttocks with sooner or later. Time for us to aknowledge that too... and look for the proper alternatives. NO matter how much money they print... the only thing that gives them value... IS THE FEW BILLS WE STILL INSIST IN KEEPING IN OUR POCKETS. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>We are moving way too slowly... either because we lack an operational structure, or operational people, or both.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>> From: <a href="mailto:ray.jenson@gmail.com">ray.jenson@gmail.com</a><br>> To: <a href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net</a><br>> Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:48:35 -0600<br>> Subject: Re: [pp.int.general] USPP Status<br>> <br>> Thank you, Antonio, for your thoughtful reply.<br>> <br>> There are two things we need for the PP to work: dedicated volunteers who<br>> aren't afraid of the labels which others will place on them for helping this<br>> effort, and money to fund our marketing and other operations. The USA is a<br>> big place, and so lots more money would be needed; but the fact of money<br>> being needed at all is due to the large amount of capital used for<br>> opposition.<br>> <br>> I calculated (just from what I could see) that running one newspaper article<br>> costs them about US$180 000 to distribute. So far, that put their tally in<br>> the past 5 years at around $180 million (assuming that is correct--about<br>> 1000 articles over the past 5 years through Murdoch's various mass-media<br>> press outlets). The price to combat it with truth and facts on our side is<br>> less than 1% of their costs, but that still put it at almost US$2 million<br>> over the past 5 years. That's US$500 000 per year.<br>> <br>> These articles are various articles about the copyright regime's benefit to<br>> others, or how their poor profit margins are wasting away to nothing (only<br>> US$2 billion in profits instead of US$6 billion), or how awful it is that<br>> the US Department of Justice never gets involved in this act which costs<br>> lives... and other such propaganda which serves only to strengthen the<br>> perception that copyright should reign supreme over the lives of citizens.<br>> <br>> But raising that kind of money is a serious problem: many of us are still<br>> tempted by large amounts of money, addicted to the almighty currency note,<br>> and none of us really has independent wealth to front such a bill. <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> From: <a href="mailto:pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net</a><br>> <a href="mailto:[mailto:pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net]">[mailto:pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net]</a> On Behalf Of<br>> Antonio Garcia<br>> Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 6:15 AM<br>> To: <a href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net</a><br>> Subject: Re: [pp.int.general] USPP Status<br>> <br>> That is SADLY not only the situation in the USA... but almost everywhere.<br>> <br>> To end that intolerable situation, we need to reassess it objectively,<br>> analyse it thoroughly... and present a global viewpoint to the peoples.<br>> <br>> The problem is... anybody who has cared to do that job... will find himself<br>> in a tiny minority position trying to get it through to the others that have<br>> not even started wondering about what really goes wrong in this odd world we<br>> shape every day all of us together.<br>> <br>> All our troubles... are in our minds... some of them crazier and more<br>> delusional than other. Nobody can find solutions for a problem whose<br>> premises he got wrong.<br>> <br>> We do not have to cheat the system... we just have to aknowledge the system<br>> cheats us... and pull all our guts together to do something about it.<br>> <br>> People are all fed up, not knowing what to do inside of this global and<br>> complex situation we build all together... and the first who really comes<br>> with an objective analysis of the situation and a blueprint for a workable<br>> evolution... gets it all.<br>> <br>> I've been pushing to get "humanism" adopted as the true ideology of the<br>> Pirate Parties... because our geek discourse is yet a limited subset of<br>> it... the one we felt most confortable with when we used the networks to<br>> reach far out and find each other... scattered far away as we were. It is<br>> time to aknowledge that... and be who we really are, completely.<br>> <br>> Then, we will take off as if we owned rocket science ;) .<br>> <br>> ________________________________________<br>> From: <a href="mailto:ray.jenson@gmail.com">ray.jenson@gmail.com</a><br>> To: <a href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net</a><br>> Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:08:52 -0600<br>> Subject: Re: [pp.int.general] USPP Status<br>> The issue in the USA is that we cannot reconcile truth with politics--where<br>> the lobbies control our Congress and maintain their undue influence, we<br>> remain robbed of our ability to mount anything remotely resembling a<br>> defense, counter-offensive, or even to garner attention. The MAFIAA still<br>> holds sway over our lawmakers here, and undue influence in other parts of<br>> the world as well. Until that intolerable condition ends, we might as well<br>> be shouting "death to the pigs" at a police station. We are little more than<br>> targets which everyone tries desperately to ignore.<br>> <br>> In Sweden, the issue was foreign influence over domestic governments; in the<br>> USA, we have no such trigger. We lack solid countering on every front but<br>> the ones that truly count, and these are what Murdoch's media hounds work<br>> hard to suppress. We don't live in a day or age where truth counts. We live<br>> in a time where profit overrules the rights of ordinary citizens, and those<br>> who profit work hard to prevent anything toppling it.<br>> <br>> Until we can have a solid platform that the common person can actually get<br>> behind, no party in the USA can operate successfully. And until that happens<br>> (which hasn't really occurred in 5 years), no party, whether centralized or<br>> not, will really take off.<br>> <br>> The Utah PP was crushed in 2007 because the Libertarians took our signatures<br>> and beat us to the post--Libertarians, funded by corporate interests and<br>> backed by special interest funding. It took cheating the system for them to<br>> gain a foothold, and yet people trust them as a political party to end the<br>> very things they used to push past us. They cheated, period. It was a dirty<br>> move, inspired by media hype about the PP-Utah being formed.<br>> <br>> The time we live in is not one which favors art, unless it comes in the form<br>> of mass-produced images on special pieces of paper--we call it currency.<br>> <br>> We need a fundraiser. I have ideas, and anyone who wants them is welcome to<br>> them. But I don't know enough about fundraising to coordinate everything...<br>> I would need help. And when I've asked for it in the past, it has been<br>> lacking in the PPUS, USPP, and every other branch of the PP that I've<br>> appealed to.<br>> <br>> In short, when we actually find ourselves capable to move, only then can the<br>> PP flourish anywhere in the US.<br>> <br>> But seriously: let's make sure we stand firm, and don't cheat the system the<br>> way the others have done. It will hurt us more certainly than any other act.<br>> <br>> <br>> *Gets down off of soapbox.*<br>> <br>> -Ray Jenson, former PPUS Operations Officer<br>> <a href="mailto:Ray.Jenson@gmail.com">Ray.Jenson@gmail.com</a><br>> <br>> P.S., I probably pissed some people off... please don't spam me with<br>> notifications about this.<br>> <br>> <br>> ____________________________________________________ Pirate Parties<br>> International - General Talk <a href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net</a><br>> <a href="http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general">http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general</a><br>> <br>> ____________________________________________________<br>> Pirate Parties International - General Talk<br>> <a href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net</a><br>> <a href="http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general">http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>