Occupy News: Dec. 2-#OccupyLA falls, #OccupyCongress Rises; $7.7 TRILLION bailout; GOP kills vote protection

2 Dec

The aftermath of #OccupyLA

In this period of transition for the occupy movement, as encampments nationwide are being shut down, news related directly to Occupation encampments is relatively thin–everything is just about another small Occupy camp being evicted.

Most of the news I find is merely fodder for the Occupy machine, words to fuel your motivation as “Phase 2″ begins.

What other bit of encampment news is there?  Nothing you don’t know already.  Occupy LA was shut down Wednesday morning.  I sat up, watching the Twitter feed #OccupyLA and #OccupyLAscanner, following the events as they unfolded.  Some 300 protesters were arrested, the media was shut out, and homeland security was called in.

Yeah, it was a mostly non-violent raid.  But that’s not the point.  The raid should never have occurred to begin with.  It’s disgusting how Occupy protesters are often characterized as unreasonable in many news articles.  It’s all in the tone, in the phrasing.   So many articles begin, “This many protesters were arrested after police asked them to…”  It doesn’t matter what the police asked them to do!  The right to protest peacefully is one of the most important rights in this country and no one, not even police officers, has a right to tell you to stop.  The officers (or at least their superiors) are the ones in the wrong, the ones who are being unreasonable.

So that’s it.  The last tower has fallen. 

Occupy Congress January 17th, 2012

All that means is we fall back, rally the troops, and prepare the next offensive.  Right now it looks to be the January 17 march on Washington, which, frankly, is exactly where Occupy needs to be right now.

The economy sucks, the rich/poor disparity sucks, but unless we get in the government’s face and demand a change in many of the policies being enacted right now, we won’t be able to protest safely at all.

We need to #OccupyDC, because the 2012 Defense Authorization Act needs to be shut down.  SOPA, too.  For that matter so does the Patriot Act, and I’ll even say the FCC. 

You know what needs to be reaffirmed?  Not the absurd national motto “In God We Trust,” but the Constitution and the Bill of Rights itself!

So what’s going on?

  • In a recent release of information it was learned that the bank bailouts we all thought happened (and thought were pretty bad) was nothing.  We were told that the banks were bailed out to the tune of $700 billion.  No.  Try $7.7 trillion.  
  • This isn’t about America, but dammit, you have to love the Scandinavians.  Iceland has arrested the former CEO of Glitnir Bank which was the first of three major Icelandic banks to fail in 2008.  That’s right.  You don’t arrest peaceful citizens, you arrest the scumbag criminals!

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A Solemn Rant of the Slow Death of American Liberty

1 Dec

I usually write about the news, or try to compose a coherent, even-toned opinion piece, but today I’d like to post something different.  I wrote an e-mail to some friends last night after discovering the news about the Defense Authorization Act.  The message is a bit raw and a bit meandering, but it is a solid explication of the worries in my head.

As I’ve mentioned before, Occupy has become about more than fiscal responsibility for me, it’s become about the defense of some of our simplest liberties.  I’ve never been an alarmist, or a real YEAH-America! kinda guy, but the state of things today really concerns me.  This isn’t about being patriotic, this is about simple humanitarianism.

Please make sure to refer to the “Documents” link in the bar above to find the full text of much of the legislation discussed in this article.

So, without further delay, and with only a few typo corrections, the e-mail:

I’m very upset by what’s going on in this country.  I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this before.  In fact, we couldnt’ have, the technology didn’t exist.  Read this article–I’m at #14 right now.

http://peopleforfreedom.com/new-world-order-news/police-state/30-signs-that-the-united-states-of-america-is-being-turned-into-a-giant-prison/

But it’s making me ever more unnerved by the ideas presented in 1984.  #12 on the list in this article talks about how the FBI records all internet talk radio.  They say that they’re not playing big brother by policing the airwaves, just collecting anything that might be potential evidence.
That sounds an awful lot like in the beginning of the book when Winston talks about how it’s not illegal to do such-and-such, but you’re still screwed if you do.  Oh, sure, it’s not illegal to practice free speech, but be careful just how free you make it.
This rides on the wave of The Patriot Act, the supression of Occupy and the media, and the two bills currently going through Congress that just take the Constitution and say “fuck it.”  One is SOPA, the internet censorship bill.  The other one, which I’ve discussed and linked to on FB (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/29/senate-votes-to-let-military-detain-americans-indefinitely_n_1119473.html) basically does away with the 6th amendement, doing away with due process.
How is this possible?  How is this happening?  And how is the nation not up in arms?  How are there only a few thousand people, maybe a few tens of thousands, if we’re being generous, out of the hundreds of millions in America, involved in protest right now?  My god, everything that has ever made this country a shining beacon is being thrown away!  At the very least, how is no one talking about this?  How come I’m one of maybe a dozen people of my Facebook friends who ever even posts about htis stuff?  How can we worry about Adele and the Grammys and fucking Victoria’s Secret when everything is being destroyed before our eyes?
I….I’m horrified.  Absolutely, mind-numbingly horrified.  
…
I just finished the article.
#29 is fucking chilling.
I say all of this without even mentioning the War on Drugs, the illegality of prostitution, or the fuckign FCC, all of it absurd.  The War on Terror is absurd too.  More people are killed yearly by–fuck, almost anything!–than by terrorists!!  Why are we waging war on something that has virtually no effect on our lives??
And what the hell is the point of America if we have none of our liberties??  Why is everyone so worried about making sure that the markets are free when no one who participates in the markets is free?
Is this really happening?  And how is it posible that now, when public scrutiny is the highest, that Congress is making some of its most brazen actions since the Patriot Act itself?
What do we do?

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Deregulation? Been there, done that, didn’t work.

30 Nov

Is it ever considered, by those who encourage anarcho-capitalism, libertarianism, and unregulated free markets, that we already have those systems, as a microcosm of our society/economy, as seen in the streets?

Gangs are the unregulated corporations of the world, its leaders the do-as-you-will CEO’s.  Gangs conduct business guided by naught but the invisible hand.

The way gangs, by their very nature, are allowed to operate is a libertarian’s wet dream.  With no accountability, except to themselves and those allied with them, these gangs act out their voracious greed by whatever means necessary.  It doesn’t stop people from using their services, it doesn’t drive down their sales.

Yet, we see it even in the regulated, “legitimate” markets, wherever corporations can squeeze through a loophole.  There are constant complaints of companies like Coca-Cola, Apple, and Nike treating their employees with disdain, especially overseas, but people still buy from them. They still thrive.

You want true deregulation?  Then you want true warfare.  With no shackles to hold them I have no doubt–none at all–that corporations would conduct themselves in ways almost indistinguishable from the worst that humanity has ever seen.

We have seen an America that was mostly deregulated.  It resulted in monopolies that boggle the mind and a depression that we fear to repeat.

Why do some people act like they’ve come up with good, fresh ideas in deregulation?  We’ve been to the economic laboratory of history.  We tried it.  It doesn’t work.

Greed truly knows no bounds.  Do you believe that corporations would use the increased profits from deregulation to help out the world?  There is enough in profits today to feed, clothe, and protect the most helpless members of our global society.  But, still, tens of thousands die of starvation every day, or because proper medical care was unavailable, or because a better lifestyle was impossible.  It’s not as easy as “just get a job.”

This could be stopped, or at least helped, but nothing is done.  And it won’t change with bigger profits.  Bigger profits means bigger toys for those already in on the game.  That’s it.  End of story.

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And deregulation means a greater divide between rich and poor, and the destruction of the type of middle class we have become accustomed to, for good.

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#Occupy L.A.–The Last Stand

28 Nov

Well, in just a short while we get to find out if the governments and police forces of America have learned anything.

#OccupyLA is getting evicted at midnight tonight.

They protesters have been given the chance to leave, but, of course, they will not.  And they should not.

At present, around 500 tents are erected around City Hall in downtown Los Angeles.  Let’s see how they stand in the cool air of dawn.

Will pepper spray fill the air?  Will rubber bullets set the air  a-whistlin’?  Will batons be used to crack down on liberty?

If it is a peaceful eviction, similar to the one seen in Toronto earlier this week–which faced no violence from police, even after people chained themselves inside a tent–then we can hope for a future that leaves less innocent people in critical condition.

If the police have learned nothing, and blood, tears, and the detritous of personal property cover the earth outside the very building erected to protect the rights being violated, then we will see a movement with renewed strength.

At least, I hope so.  If the removal is violent then I believe that we can also agree that one of the strategies discussed between the 18 mayors and Homeland Security was one of a violent suppression of personal liberty, and an outright violation of everything this country has been founded upon.

But it wouldn’t be the first time.

Let’s hope no one gets killed.  And let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a riot–L.A. is known for those.

Let’s hope, whatever the outcome, that something is learned and that the movement can grow stronger.

If you are in the area, I implore you to go down and stand with Occupy.  OccupyPhilly was evicted earlier today: this is the last permanent Occupy camp in America.  This is the last stand!

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We Are More Than the Sum of Our Wallets: #OCCUPYBlackFriday, #BuyNOTHINGDay

25 Nov

I don’t have a news post today because not much happened in the news.  Today, Occupiers from all over America, from all walks of life, coordinated to feed thousands across the nation as a part of their recognizance of Thanksgiving.  How unselfish, how unlazy, how wonderful.

But, now, as midnight approaches, and with it Black Friday, my heart is turned cold.  The ravenous consumerism that takes hold of people during this “holiday” sickens me.  It has for a very long time.

Since my earliest memories of this event, long before America was in an economic crisis, I always found it disturbing, this praise of what one can buy, how much one can purchase.  The exultation of the “good deal” and the “doorbuster,” the horror of trampled shoppers, and the apparent thrill of accepting the dilution of your being into that of a mere consumer, has made me uneasy since my childhood.

Today, I won’t spend a penny.  I won’t put gas in my car, and I won’t buy food, even if I were to wake up and find none in the fridge.  I won’t buy at Wal-Mart, I won’t buy at McDonalds, I won’t buy at a small business.

For me, it goes beyond simply sticking it to the 1%.  I refuse to open my wallet for one principal reason: I am more than a consumer.  When you spend money at a small business you continue to maintain the status quo of a population that has a singular use–consumption.

It doesn’t matter if you hand over your money because of a big, flashy television ad, or because you were drawn in by a cute local ad in the paper–you are still being treated as nothing more than fount of cash.

I am more than the product of what I own.

I am more than the sum of my buying power.

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#OCCUPYAmerica: Doublethink and the American Police State

23 Nov

America is a police state.  That’s sad.  That’s frightening.

I know–it doesn’t look like a police state.  That’s why I didn’t notice until recently.  It’s why you probably didn’t either.

We expect such a society to look (understandably so) like something out of 1984, or, perhaps, it might be reminiscent of “V for Vendetta”, or “Equilibrium.”  It doesn’t, and I don’t suspect it ever would.

Where am I going with this?  The use of a concept called doublethink–which I will elaborate on below–to enforce this restrained police state.

It is written, in the U.S. Constitution, that we have free speech, a free press, and the right to peaceful assembly.  It is touted by politicians and held up as if it means something.  But that is all.  It is written down and it is spoken about–but it is not enforced.

Without our rights being enforced the Constitution is meaningless.

This is the fundamental sadness of American doublethink.  Doublethink is a word, a concept invented by the writer George Orwell in 1949 to describe the ability to believe two contradictory things at the same time.  Doublethink is the ability to

“…tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies”

What else can it be called but doublethink when a person states their utter devotion to America, the flag, and the Constitution, only to follow with support of the police action involved in the Occupy protests?

How else can a person claim that America is the freest nation on Earth while making clear that they believe media censorship is legal and a good idea?

Measure of press restraints

How is calling a series of laws designed to limit liberty the “Patriot Act” any less absurd than the credo “War is Peace”?

Doublethink is how politicians can get on television, decry the violent actions against protesters in Egypt, but not say one word about Berkeley, or Davis, or Oakland, or Seattle, or Zuccotti.

So, what is doublethink good for?

Doublethink is valuable if you want to keep Americans believing the hubristic claim that they are the greatest and freest in the world, all the while driving the nation and its liberties into the ground.

Democracy Index--Darkest green is the most democratic

This doublethink, combined with the American police state–a restrained and mostly invisible police state–is extremely useful to get Americans to give up their own rights.  As suggested in this article by Glenn Greenwald,

“The climate of fear imposed by all abusive police state actions is intended to achieve [this]: to coerce citizens to “decide” on their own to be passive and compliant — to refrain from exercising their rights — out of fear of what will happen if they don’t.”

Fear is the prime objective of this police state.  ”Let’s hurt them so bad they won’t want to express their free speech anymore.”  Doublethink is how they achieve it. “Let’s obstruct their right to peaceful assembly.  They can’t really complain since they still have the right in the Constitution.”

The police state of our imaginations is different from the one in residence here only by its appearance.  Drab colors, video screens, and countless cameras aside, how is America any different from a true police state as one might imagine it?

Even in a film like “V for Vendetta,” speech is still allowed, even challenging, interesting speech.  Until it goes too far.  The same is is done here.  Speech is protected, until it gets too vulgar, or too offensive.  In many cases even challenging the government will get you censored–not by the government itself, but by the media, which is controlled by corporations, which control the government.

As long as a protest is unseen by the public, how would it benefit the state to obstruct it? But, if the protests grow too large, grow too visible, what happens?  A simple phone call from a mayor can have the peaceful gatherers beaten to within an inch of their life, for no tangible reason, with little to no penalty for the police.

The police have destroyed the People’s Library. How is that different from a book burning?

Is it okay that, “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner,” (Third Amendment) but a policeman may tear down a person’s shelter if it’s a tent?

If we cannot say what we want, and protest as we feel we need to without the fear of violence, then what good are our “rights”?

Keeping traffic moving is not sufficient reason to spray deadly chemicals in a person’s face.  Keeping a park clean is not sufficient reason to spread tear gas.  Keeping a walkway open is not sufficient reason to beat someone with a club.

This is it.  The American Police State.  They are not always there, but when you get one step out of line, they will be.  Protest too loud and they will silence you.

There is never an excuse to curb our American freedoms, except that it directly interferes with someone else’s safety or health.  Anything else is a slippery slope to being less than our best.

If you’ve noticed this police state before, excellent, spread the word.  If you haven’t, think about it.

Occupy is no longer about mere economic disparity and political corruption for me.  Occupy has become a fight for our rights as Americans.  It is no longer OccupyWallStreet, but OccupyAmerica, OccupyHumanity.

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Occupy News: Nov. 23- Buy Nothing Day; Occupy Foreclosure; #OccupyThanksgiving; Are You Serious Baruch?

23 Nov
  • OWS is calling for the arrival of #OccupyXMAS, campaigning for the Buy Nothing Day on Nov. 25.  Traditionally, that day, the day after Thanksgiving also known as Black Friday, is used by consumers to attack the stores and buybuybuy as much as they can possibly fit in their houses, and as much as their credit can support.  It’s a day of national corporate support.  It’s a day to remind ourselves of what being an American has come to mean: becoming a disposable consumer entity.  I do not believe that we should “just buy from small businesses.”  Buy from small businesses every other day of the year.  This day is to escape from being a consumer.  It’s not about hurting the 1%, but about supporting our humanity by escaping the consumer culture.  So, this Black Friday, you can be sure I will be doing nothing of the sort.  I will not spend a penny on Nov. 25, 2011.
Julion Lewis-Tatman occupies a privately-owned lot in the name of ''Occupy Oakland'' with fellow protesters in Oakland, California November 22, 2011. Driven from three other sites this month, members of ''Occupy Oakland'' set up camp on a vacant lot in West Oakland Monday night, claiming to have permission from the owner, who faces foreclosure. REUTERS/Laird Harrison
  • Already begun in Oakland, OWS is calling for people to occupy foreclosed upon homes on Dec. 6.
  • OWS is preparing to feed 5,000 at Zuccotti Park on Thanksgiving.  That’s right.  In the cold, away from family, the Occupiers are gathering to help the world be a better place.  Who would have thought a bunch of lazy, self-entitled college kids could do something like that?
  • It continues.  Wow.  The mind boggles.  After the debacle at UC-Davis and Berkeley you’d think universities nationwide would be extra cautious about how they treat their students.  Nope.  Baruch College, a part of the CUNY system in New York decided that further violent arrests were necessary to silence peaceful protest.

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