Close to Closing in Wisconsin, then on to DC

As preparations here in Green Bay continue for the big trip to DC and the move to San Francisco, I will be posting a few recent and last photos of Green Bay here.  I am looking forward to new and interesting photo subjects.  

As I am not able to do any video on the trip, I will be shooting and posting more still photos to try to tell the story that way.

The march, protest and occupation of Washington DC is a hopeful to be one of the largest in the history of the country,  I will be there to see.

I know that as I have been studying monetary policy and the practice’s of Wall Street for the last few months, it was a coincidence that the Occupy Wall Street movement started just after I began researching the subject.  Although many of the protesters don’t seem to know what they are protesting, they DO know that something is not right with this country.   When an already very wealthy person can get tax dollars in the form of a bail out that amounts to what it would cost to provide free health care to the uninsured for a year … for the whole nation … something is wrong.  This Army Ranger will be looking at all of this very closely.  Keep checking back for more of my last local photos and updates on the trip preparations. 

It takes a lot of time and effort to deliver you independent news and video.  The time I can offer, but the costs of providing corporate influence free news and outlooks take time and money.  You can help Wisconsin Confidential, and Green Bay Confidential by making a small donation to help pay for the gear, bandwidth, and gas we use to do these reports.  Please, if you like you can Donate here.  If you do not have a PayPal  account, go to the lower left hand section of the donation page.

Fall Ends with the Beginning of Holiday Seasons

With the arrival of formal Winter just ahead, the weather has change just as quickly.  Changes are of course coming to my list of  blogs as well.  I am going to keep this blog page up, but only for reference.  I will not be posting here as of December 5th.   I will be posting to and and updating a few new pages.  The first will be only for the trip to Washington DC for the Nationwide based (Occupy folks will be coming from throughout the United States) protest and occupation of will be onsite live Occupy Washington DC America.  I will be counter posting (meaning that I will not be posting to that page now as well as my final postings to Wisconsin Confidential and Green Bay Confidential.

Once I reach my final destination of San Francisco, I will be starting a page suited to that area as well. 

Make a Donation for Free Independent Citizen Journalism  If you would like to support my blog and free independent journalism,  you can Donate here .

 

 

Local Boy Rob Schultze Makes the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle's Datebook

Local boy Rob Schultze went to the San Fransisco School of Arts.  He (his photos and a story about him) just made the front page of the datebook section of the San Franciso Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/19/DDTV1LU0F1.DTL

His sites are  ...  http://www.robertschultze.net/ and somephotographer.com. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?

Green Bay Confidential / Wisconsin Confidential most likely Shutting Down.

With my camcorder mysteriously and suddenly not working any longer while simultaneously getting interference from local business persons and "social" activists and workers, my independent blogging and reporting is no longer tenable.  I was working (for a very competitive price) for a local children's development group.  This is the project that has just been nixed by the "powers that be".  I have included here the "sample" video that I shot (in 20 minutes) and edited (in 45 minutes) to bring awareness to the community of their existence and needs.  I know they cannot afford one of the local production houses, so I do feel bad and hope the best for their efforts. I have never been paid or asked for direct compensation for my work and content.  It has been a learning experience for me.  Never the less, it may be time for my to onward and upward.  I get a lot of pressure to "go work at the packing plant" from many individuals (many who are local social or technology professionals with amazingly poor technology and or social skills) who often seem quite offended by the skills I have gained in my many years of blogging, reporting, and photography and video.  I am quite sure many of the production houses and some (not all) media outlets will be quite please with my departure.  I really do appreciate my readers and the support of those out there who over the years have become faithful readers and viewers.  I will be departing for Washington DC on the 5th of December.  I will most likely not be coming back.  As one last effort, I have sent this message to several citizen journalism support groups, but I have little faith that anything will come out of it.   This would be the only way I could continue here as I have opportunities  in San Francisco. 
"My camcorder died as I arrived in Milwaukee to cover the Occupy the bridge event. It appears to be junk.  Do you know any one or any charitable organizations that helps impoverished citizen journalists like myself. I would not be asking for cash, but help getting a new or comparable camcorder and a laptop to replace the ones that just died and were broken.  The timing is interesting, as we (some OWS folks from Green Bay) have been planning  on going to DC Dec 5 - 9 for a big event there, and I have no way to cover it in video now. It would have been my biggest story to date. If interested, you can see examples of my work (all original content, including original music) below. You can see a promo at http://youtu.be/plFaQJQ_d44?hd=1 (this was shot with my Canon HF 10 Consumer Camcorder). My local news blog is http://greenbayconfidential.blogspot.com/. You can see a report I did recently on the Occupy movement in Green here at http://youtu.be/MeDeFhrVPf4?hd=1.    
Any advice or assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated and noted in my upcoming work as well".    
Thank You.

The 2011 Green Bay Thanksgiving Day Parade

Green Bay hosted a quite large and entertaining parade today to the enjoyment of it's citizens in the downtown area. One of the largest ccrowds ever showed to enjoy the parade floats from a local area business's, organizations and schools.  The parade was Broadcast live on MYNEW 32 and Re-broadcast on NBC 26.  Before the parade the public was invited to go over to to the YWCA Green Bay-De Pere for cookies and hot cocoa. After, head to The Daily Buzz Coffee Shop (130 E. Walnut) for free cookies and cocoa, pictures with Santa and a meet & greet wit the Door County Sled Dogs!  This years parade included marching bands, floats, special characters, a giant "Chilly Willy Penguin" balloon, Door County Sled Dogs and of course Santa on a custom horse drawn carriage.  It was nice to see large floats this again this year, along with a variety of animals.  Many also found it interesting to see an electric car as well.  Here are a few highlights. If you wish to purchase photos (I have close to 180 available) please contact me by leaving a comment on this post.

Scenes From the Bridge of Occupation in Milwaukee

Cold weather was not a major factor for supporters of the Occupy Wall Street Moment, or the 99percenters as they are known in some circles, as they "Occupied"  North Avenue Bridge in Milwaukee Wisconsin this last Thursday.  In fact, it may help signify the seriousness of the issues the local Occupy movement were out marching and protesting about.  There was also a strong presence of pro-recall, anti Governor Walker protesters as well, as their unhappiness with the current "pro big money" for "big money government", both state and federal, was expressed with the march to and occupation of the North Avenue Bridge over Interstate 43.
As I experienced the events of the day on the bridge myself, and took in the situation, I thought of a few things that need to be said, or in this case, written.
I was impressed with just about everyone I encountered over the course of the event. I was impressed with the organizers of the event Occupy Milwaukee.  They displayed excellent judgment along with strong leadership in the form of  keeping everyone safe and keeping the peace to the best of their ability.  I was also impressed overall with the Milwaukee Police Dept’s handling (with the backup of some Sheriff’s Personal) of the situation throughout the course of the day.  They showed restraint and generally respect for all present and simply kept the peace.  This in light of the way some of the events around the United States were handled by their Law Enforcement agencies and the violence that ensued at many of them, the MPD clearly showed that it was not necessary.  Watching footage from around the county, many scenes reminiscent of the uprisings of recent in the middle east were brought to mind as armed security forces aggressively and without concern for the safety of the public or the general peace moved on protesters using excessive force. Many departments throughout the U.S. showed displays of unprofessional Law Enforcement standards of conduct of legal severity.  Not so in Milwaukee on this day. 
In the one truly dangerous incident, both the organizers and the police reacted quickly.  After dark, a man driving a white van ran the barricades of the west side of the bridge and drove erratically through the crowd at a relatively high rate of speed.  He was quickly arrested by the police.  While this was occurring, many in the crowd began to surge toward the Van, but were held back by organizers.  I did hear of 4 other arrests, but they were deemed no danger to the overall  bridge occupiers.  I could not confirm that they were even formally with the protest.
As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to spread through many walks of life, I was struck by the utter diversity of the Milwaukee Bridge protesters that day.  Literally from every social and economic background, it was a crowd that definitely reflected America.  You can see for Yourself.