Yves here. You too can get your own set of Occupy Wall Street Alternative Banking limited edition playing cards prominently featuring many of the people you’ve learned to love to hate, like Timothy Geithner, Jamie Dimon, Angelo Mozilo, and Dick Fuld.
This is the overview:
We need your help to raise the funds to print up a thousand decks of cards to give out on the street for free on September 17, the one year anniversary of the first U.S. occupy gathering in New York City, and in the weeks following. While occupiers are no longer in the park, they are hard at work figuring out how to use people-power to hold big time finance guys and institutions accountable for the total mess they have caused. We think the cards will be a great way to bring people – including you! – into the issues. (Do you know what a CDO is, or how the banks are using it to continue their subprime lending? Well, you should, and the information in this deck, and on our site, will help). Especially as we come up to the election, these issues are very salient.
The money we raise will also go to paying production costs on the project, including a stipend for each of the 28 freelance artists for their time and talent. That way you aren’t just paying for stuff; you are paying to support a community of hard-working artists who tell great stories and want to be able to afford to keep telling them.
BUT WAIT, THIS PROJECT ENDS _AFTER_ YOU NEED THE MONEY. WHAT GIVES?
Rocket Hub is an “all or more” fundraiser, so we get whatever money is pledged whether we hit our goal or not. That said, we are hoping to hit our goal before we need the money, and then if we exceed our fundraising goal, we have TONS of ideas about where to take this next. Possibilities include a show at a physical gallery with an education panel, a book of the works, and even a sequel deck of “heroes” of the financial meltdown (yes, they exist!). We are hoping that with a little extra time, some of these other great projects will become possible.
You can get more information here. Please note that the site promises to send you an e-mail if you donate, which does happen after a lag. At this juncture, the site does not have an e-mail form to collect mailing info to send the cards, so early donors will be sent an e-mail message when the fundraiser is over to collect addresses.
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Tbogg is on fire!!!
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/09/04/pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die/#Respond
Did you know that no one on Wall Street committed any fraud in the runup to the financial crash, and so it’s okay that the Obama administration hasn’t prosecuted anyone? I know that now thanks to Tbogg.
TBogg = Foghorn Leghorn Obamabot. Funny, but not in a good way.
“many of the people you’ve learned to love to hate, like Timothy Geithner”
Foamy, Yves. His name is Foamy.
I gave them $30 bucks for the deck.
Art is much harder than math.
Let it rip.
How many poker players did the group consult before designing these?
I will buy them because I support the cause but my poker boys will NOT want to play with these. Great idea but terrible design. The ID of the card (7 of hearts, king of spades, etc…) has to be way more visible and has to be on both corners. If the group has a chance to re-design before printing more, get on it.
Another idea: a more ambitious one: try to see if you can get either poker champs that support the cause, or even card-dealer-unions to endorse the usage of these cards.
David Einhorn – the hedge fund manager / poker player?
Or anyone else among the well-known players… get them to do an ad endorsing the usage of these ONCE for every regular amateur “poker boy” group. “On the week of December 21st, use the occupy cards for your poker games so that your table can discuss these very important issues”.
Too nerdy? maybe… but it’s worth saving the country
Tiger,
Thanks for the feedback. I think you’re right on. I would love to raise enough to do a second run with a redesign, call it a ‘Player’s club edition,” and get the numbers and pips in all the right places.
If you have other suggestions for players to get in touch with, I’m jamming on PR right now and would love any tips you have.
-marc
Do you ship outside the US?
My suggestion: Tim “Foamy” Geithner.
I’ve thought about this about this same idea. That we need a crooks-among-us deck of playing cards. I’m okay with the cartoonish depictions. That’s just good caricature. But I’d want more text. Not just one line for each bad guy. Rather, several lines of text so people could learn key facts about each crook. Key facts would work well if they illustrated the magnitude of damage caused by each king-criminal. Bankers, congressmen, lobbyists, regulators, mortgages industry people, and others can make for a nice round-up of Let’s-Wreck-The-US-Economy thugs.
One problematic issue: A crooks-among-us deck of playing cards has only so much space for text. A half dozen lines of text per card would be plenty. My other thought is that it might be better if each card in the deck depicted a real world crook, and avoided designating some financial abstraction. Concepts like CDOs, derivatives, and regulatory capture could be appropriately squeezed in the text field below any given crook. The cards would be educational! And fun.
I’m just throwing out ideas, so don’t take me too seriously. Use what works and chuck the rest. However the deck turns out in various revisions, it’s a brilliant idea! Good luck with it.
We need a police state offenders eddition.
With the Jack of clubs on all the backs.
Ummm. How-er U guys gonna know where to send my cards?
U got my $30 bucks but not my address.
I may be slow, but I didn’t see where to put that in anywhere. And I don’t have all day to click around the web site trying to find out.
I’m emotionally prepared to be scammed here, but I don’t get the impression that’s what your up to since the pictures are already there. You’re making it look so real! So I must have missed something.
Craazy,
Re-read last paragraph of article. Its meant to even include you.
You really should cut back. Your mom says she’s worried about you.
I’ll believe it when I see the Deck! :)
Reminds me of the “trading cards” that Eclipse Comics put out in the late 80s to early 90s. They covered subjects from the Iran-Contra Scandal, The Drug Wars and other subjects. There’s a blog dedicated to the “Friendly Dictators” set located here:
http://friendlydictators.blogspot.com/
Stumped up my 25 bucks for a “THE CALL” set. I know a good investment when I see one — a future collector’s item I think !
Hi Marc Scheff if you see this, wondered if you’d considered the international implications of your pricing ? My order cost the same but non-US shipping will probably cost you more. Let me know if there’s a surcharge — worth keeping in mind the readership of NC, you might get more than just US orders. If you can soak up the cost, fine. (I guess you’re margins aren’t too bad :-) so it’s probably not a problem).
Warning: digression ahead: It was the “9 to 5” still that swung me to make a purchase. Great movie and worth watching if it’s on TV. Looking back, the premise of equal rights for women in the workplace was a good one for its time. Left-leaning actors (Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda — not sure about Dolly) obviously felt the project was true to their values. And the producers got union input too. Alss, you women won the bsttle — more-or-less removing the glass ceiling although I will hear argumnents why that’s not so. But you lost the war. You can now be equal opportunities victims of the 1% ! Enjoy…
Hi all,
Lots of great suggestions here.
Our web site has some extra information on some of the cards and we are adding more as we go.
For international shippers, I am actually dealing with this issue now and will be adding a note to our page!
Thanks everyone!
-marc
Here’s a bunch of poker champs, but there are more who don’t play online like Sami Farha
http://www.pokerstars.com/team-pokerstars/
One more thing, my union idea: it’s difficult if there’s no beef but I think it’s very important that *IF* there are any card dealer unions that want to go on strike, that they consider the option of using these cards BEFORE going on strike. Basically “we will work but only with these cards”. Could be creative and garner media attention.
I think these are out of print, so I’m glad to have some more.
Financial Terrorists Deck
http://tinyurl.com/dxyeyza