In a surprising new development, protestors angry at Wall Street have extended what”s become an international movement against the abuses of financial institutions and oppressive government practices to outer space.
Former NASA employees laid off after cuts in the space shuttle program reportedly constructed a rocket and say they are now ready to launch their protest into orbit. Representatives of the Occupy Space Movement say that government cuts in the manned space program were unnecessary and bad policy when you consider all we have gained.
Meanwhile, Occupy Space Movement protestors are lining up in cities all over the country in space suits and helmets in a symbolic gesture to show their support for Occupy Space. One of the protestors I spoke with said that it”s not a bad idea anyway considering that wearing space suits will help insulate OWC protestors from bad weather this winter.
A spokesperson for Occupy Space indicated to this op-ed writer that they hope the OCM movement will call attention to the littering of space with satellites that do nothing but pollute space to advance the telecom industry. They say that if left unchecked, the purveyors of wireless technology will eventually turn outer space in to garbage dump much like other industries have polluted our oceans and rivers and we”ll be living in a world so bombarded with electromagnetic irradiation that there will be dire biological consequences for us all.
To balance opinion, we attempted to contact Thomas Edison who was unavailable for comment. Family members close to Edison indicated they”d have to decline our request to interview him since he died in 1931. A similar request to interview Alexander Graham Bell was also declined. A spokesperson for the Bell family said that regrettably, Mr. Bell died of complications arising from diabetes on Aug. 2, 1922 at his private estate in Nova Scotia.
No attempt was made to contact Michael Peavey, President of the California Public Utilities Commission who”s been at the center of California”s Smart Meter controversy since the CPUC virtually rubber stamped utility companies who decided to ramrod their wireless venture through most of the state”s customer base, even after the World Health Organization and numerous scientific studies found that Smart Meters cause significant health hazards.
It seemed pointless to contact Peavey or the CPUC since previous requests have fallen on deaf ears and Mr. Peavey has been busy covering up PG&E”s latest abuses and planning personal vacations for himself and his wife, California Senator Carol Liu to exotic places like Spain where along with other senators and members of the state Assembly and representatives from the energy industry including executives from Chevron, Shell Energy North America and high ranking executives of the state”s investor-owned utilities such as Fong Wan, senior vice president of energy procurement for PG&E, Peavey and his friends have previously enjoyed lobbying junkets like the “12-day travel-study excursion” with stops in Seville and Barcelona, a trip sponsored by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy.
While there are rules governing commissioners” interactions with parties that have a financial stake in the outcomes of commission rulings, there isn”t anything particularly unusual about Peavey traveling internationally with a group that just happens to include representatives from the same companies his regulatory commission oversees. These trips happen every year and the CFEE, a nonprofit organization, has footed the bill to fly regulators, legislators, and utility executives to prime vacation destinations like Italy, Brazil, and South Africa in recent years, excursions organizers say are critical for educating top-level stakeholders about worldwide best practices for sustainable systems. That”s understandable considering the public pressure these individuals are under to perform and the need to get away from all those pesky protests.
Leaders of Occupy Space may want to consider broadening their movement to the space currently occupied by useless government agencies pretending to work in the public interest along with the space required to seat lobbyists in Washington, D.C. It seems that the space they occupy would be better served with programs that actually work to put America back on track instead of padding the pockets of private interests.
Howard Glasser
Kelseyville
