we stopped by Occupy Portland to visit with a couple of friends who have been with the encampment for some time. They are feeling a bit overwhelmed as the numbers of homeless and people with mental conditions have been growing dramatically in proportion to the activists who are at the camp. This past week there were a couple of incidents where some homeless got into a scuffle and were arrested at the camp and of course the media and the city have used this to justify demands that the camp be shut down. A meeting between Portland city officials and Portland Occupy is happening this afternoon and it will be interesting to see what comes out of it. The truth is that the homeless are obviously very much a part of the 99% but it is exceedingly unfair for people to think that the Occupy movement should have to be adept at feeding, housing, and offering professional mental health counseling to the very population that society has cast aside. This is an issue that is playing out at every Occupy in the nation - some are dealing with it better than others - but will remain a challenge into the future.
Uploaded by bluedevilhub on Nov 20, 2011
(A full, narrated video that explains the story is athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCJEomwVM...ture=feedu .) After an hours-long impasse, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi leaves the Surge II building on the UC Davis campus, accompanied by her husband Spyros Tseregounis and campus minister Kristin Stoneking. Video by Anna Sturla, HUB reporter. For photos and continuing coverage, go to[URL="http://bluedevilhub.com/"]http://bluedevilhub.com/
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"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"
A Frozen Zone is a US government term for an area that has been locked down, blocked off, and barricaded by the police or the military. A place where normal commerce and foot/vehicle traffic is not allowed. A place where the bill of rights does not apply. A frozen zone can be as small as a building or an entire downtown area of a major city (this is done for G20 conferences and political conventions). Here's a mini frozen zone set up around Bloomberg's home.
Auto-cuts to the US federal budget are about to occur. Lawmakers are lining up to protect their pork. This is a big test of the Tea Party as an opens source movement (since a balanced federal budget has become its raison d'etre or plausible promise).
Egypt. Lots of blood in the streets as protesters attempt to force the military government from power. Modern protest basics: open source protest can only be used to block, stop, or deny things. It can't build anything.
Sydney Morning Herald. Outlawing resilience on the West Bank. Using the future is already here but it's not evenly distributed yet line of thinking: Israel is pioneering the legal methods by which a capitalist democracy can repress or cleanse unwanted groups from valuable areas. One method, as seen in this article, is to deny connections to national infrastructure (particularly energy) and then prevent (using zoning/etc. regulations and legal maneuvers) the use of resilient technology. This tactic is also central to efforts to eliminate Occupy camps. We, in the US/EU, are going to see this lawfare on a grand scale in the future as IN/OUT groups (if you think you will be on the IN group, you are probably wrong) develop due to prolonged economic failure. Homework for global guerrillas: think of the ways to defeat this method of attack (is there any method besides counter-lawfare?). I'll post the best answers.
"WhiteIndian said...Attorney Jeff Vail, a former Air Force intelligence officer, always has an informed opinion, as follows, especially Part 5:
Part 5. Rhizome Network Defense. A review of a Cambridge team's analysis of potential tacticts to defend rhizome structures against hierarchy. http://www.jeffvail.net/2007/01/what-is-rhizome.html
22-11-2011, 08:46 AM (This post was last modified: 22-11-2011, 09:11 AM by Peter Lemkin.)
Pregnant Woman Blasted with Pepper Spray by SPD Says She Miscarried (Updated)
Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 5:45 PM
Posted at 3:55 p.m. and updated below with an interview with Jennifer Fox.
One of Occupy Seattle's outspoken activists who blogs under the name Ian Awesome has a post up this afternoon about the pregnant woman who was hit in last Tuesday's pepper spray attack by Seattle police:
On the 20th, Jeniffer Fox received news that she has miscarried, and alleges the miscarriage is due to the injuries she received during the police action on the 15th.
"It hurts. It's upsetting. I was ready to have a kid, because my family was going to support me in taking care of the child. Her name was going to be Miracle."
UPDATE: Jennifer Fox, 19, spoke to The Stranger at the Occupy Seattle encampment at Seattle Central Community College. Fox claimed that she was three months pregnant last Tuesday evening when she joined an Occupy Seattle march that stopped at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street.
"I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in," she says. "I was screaming, 'I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.'" At that point, Fox continues, a Seattle police officer lifted his foot and it hit her in the stomach, and another officer pushed his bicycle into the crowd, again hitting Fox in the stomach. "Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut," she says.
Fox asked for medical attentionthe now-famous photo by Josh Trujillo of her being carried to the ambulance is here (click to the second photo)and was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, she says, where doctors performed an ultrasound and said that they "didn't see anything wrong with the baby at the time." Fox says she had also seen a physician at Harborview for prenatal care about five week before.
"Everything was going okay until yesterday, when I started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out," Fox says.
A friend called for an ambulance near the community college campus. (Fox says she has been camping with Occupy Seattle since it first began in Westlake Park. She is homeless and says, "I don't have a place. This is the place I call home.") When she arrived at Harborview at 11:00 a.m., she says, a doctor told her that "there was no heartbeat" from the baby. "They diagnosed that I was having a miscarriage. They said the damage was from the kick and that the pepper spray got to it [the fetus], too."
As for joining the protests, she says, "I was worried about it, but I didn't know it would be this bad. I didn't know that a cop would murder a baby that's not born yet... I am trying to get lawyers."
I repeatedly asked Fox if she could provide any medical records that confirm the miscarriage or that the clash with police officers caused it. She did not have copies but says she asked her case worker at Harborview to provide her with records (I'll continue to ask for follow-up evidence and post if and when Fox provides those records). Harboview officials say they cannot provide any information, of course, except that medical records would mention those details. The Seattle Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment. UPDATE at 11:30 PM: IowaBoyDave posted a disturbing video of Fox taken Tuesday night, just after she was pepper sprayed and before medics arrived.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
A new report from the Charlotte Observer has revealed banks are on pace to spend a record amount on lobbying this year in an attempt to weaken or repeal new financial regulations. Banks have spent $47 million in lobbying so far this year up from $42 million at this time last year. Wells Fargo has spent $6 million on lobbying an 80 percent increase over last year. Three years ago, Wells Fargo had five Washington lobbyists. Now it has 28. The massive amounts spent on lobbying has helped banks gain access to regulators. According to Public Citizen, Wall Street lobbyists have had more than 350 meetings with regulators to discuss weakening the Volcker Rule. During that same time, public advocacy groups like Public Citizen were granted only 20 meetings.
Two Occupy Wall Street Protesters Sue NYPD For False Arrest, Excessive Force
Two Occupy Wall Street protesters have sued the New York City Police Department for false arrest and excessive force arising from a protest at a Citibank branch last month. One of the protesters, 23-year-old Heather Carpenter, received national attention after a video was posted online showing an undercover police officer dragging her into the bank and then arresting her. Anderson was detained moments she closed her Citibank account.
undercover police officer: "You were inside. You were inside with everybody else."
Heather Carpenter: "I'm a customer. I'm a customer."
witness: "She is a customer."
Heather Carpenter: "I'm a customer."
undercover police officer: "You were inside. Yes, but you were inside with the wholeno, no, no."
witness: "What are you doing?"
witness: "Hey, what thehey!"
witness: "What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? This is all being documented right now. She's not doing anything! She's not doing anything wrong! Oh, my god! This is wrong! This is wrong! This is wrong! What you're doing is wrong! This is wrong! You should be ashamed of yourself! Shame! Shame! Shame!"
Nation's 10 Biggest Banks Could Lose $185 Billion As Customers Move Money
New research shows the nation's 10 biggest banks could stand to lose as much as $185 billion in deposits over the next year as the movement to move money to credit unions and community banks expands.
15 Arrested at Bank of America Anti-Foreclosure Sit-In
Fifteen people were arrested at a sit-in against home foreclosures at a Bank of America branch in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Monday. Among those arrested was Lara Shepard-Blue.
Lara Shepard-Blue: "If Bank of America would lower the principle to the actual real value of the home then we could keep families in their homes and also help spur an economic recovery in our city and across the country. So that's why we got arrested. We're also calling on them to stop evicting home owners after foreclosure. They should be accepting rent from home owners or agreeing to sell the house back to them. If they could afford the house at the current value Bank of America should sell it back to them."
15 Students Arrested in New York City Rally Against University Tuition Increases
Here in New York City, 15 students were arrested during a daylong rally against a tuition increase at the City University of New York. The arrests occurred in a lobby at Baruch College where the university's trustees were meeting.
University Of California Davis Protesters Set Up Camp Near Site Of Controversial Pepper-Spray Incident
Meanwhile at the University of California Davis, students have set up a protest camp with tents near the site where campus police officers pepper sprayed students on Friday as they were sitting down during a peaceful protest. On Monday the campus police chief was put on administrative leave.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
I have just watched the video of the University of California students at Davis against the heavily armed police that is becoming prominent on many internet sites and I am reminded, among others, of the non-violent responses of the Palestinians to their occupiers (see "Refusing to be Enemies - Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israeli Occupation," Ithaca Pres, 2011).
The video shows clearly the actions of the police pepper spraying passive students sitting on the ground, heads down. Following that, without any real organization of leadership, the students start slowly almost imperceptibly at first, moving forward toward the police. The resolution is that the police finally turn and leave the site. An earlier video, showing U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Shamar Thomas shaming a squad of New York city police, serves as another excellent example of non-violence actively confronting threatened or implied violence.
The highlight of this is that non-violence need not be passive.
Non-violence can be passive, and does at times necessitate full passivity in the face of impending violence. But in other circumstances, especially where the overwhelming balance of force is on one side, a pro-active non violence can be very effective. The police/military are then forced into a decision: to either use violence against the protesters; or to stand down from the protesters.
Included in this is the nature of social media and the ubiquitous presence of cameras, videos, cell phones, and their immediate input into the airwaves of the world. If the police are to choose violence, that will be seen globally, even if the mainstream corporate media do not pick up on it. If the police choose to stand down, that also will not be seen in corporate media. But everyone else will see it nevertheless.
Historically, pacifism did not bring about significant changes to the social structures and politics of the world. The Magna Carta (1215) in England was not donated willingly by the King but forced upon him by his rebellious barons. Interestingly enough, this was not a rebellion to replace one monarch with another, but to limit the powers of the absolute monarchy. The unions that workers attempted to form were not aided and abetted by the corporations that were involved. Union development in the western world is the story of workers' rights and better working conditions up against the forces used by the corporate elites, the militaries and hired police. Many workers' strikes were settled by violence before unions began to have some recognition under law, unfortunately later many of them were co-opted by the union bosses to support one political position or another of the elites.
The women's suffragette movement was not a peaceful one, and involved violence against the women, with the women resorting to hunger strikes and chaining themselves to barricades in order to pronounce their determination. World War I had a significant role in giving women the right to vote as they demonstrated' their abilities to replace men in the homeland manufacturing centres. The freeing of the black slaves in the U.S. and then the long struggle to have equality in society was not given to the black people voluntarily. It involved a long history of violence against blacks and their supporters. This violence continues today with the inequalities of race and crime based on this historical pattern.
Ghandi spoke of non-violence, but was not passive in his opposition to the British empire in India. Martin Luther King spoke of non-violence but was not passive in his actions against racial discrimination in the U.S. The Egyptians demonstrated non-violence in Tahrir Square and are still under fire from the military regime now controlling Egypt (and why not, for all the billions of dollars they receive from the U.S.?) The Palestinians practice non-violence on a daily basis, protesting against the illegal "wall" that is expropriating their territory, and in a large part by simply existing and being, proceeding with life trying to give it some sort of semblance of civility under occupation. Protesters in Bahrain and Yemen who have been non-violent have had overwhelming force used against them - as did the Indians, the blacks, the Egyptians, and all others who have protested non-violently.
So there is an obvious downside to protests and struggles for human rights, but that is part of what non-violence is about - a clear demonstration that the powers that be are not democratic and are in reality against the masses of the people (except as consumers and cannon fodder of course). The elites are not aligned with the people, are not accepting their own rhetorical standards of free speech and democracy, and with other elites will do their best to control the voice of the people. It is an alignment of the contradictions of society where those in power clearly do not lead the people, where the elites are clearly in opposition to the people, and in some cases will go to great lengths, including torture and murder, to keep their positions.
Occupy Wall Street for the moment remains a relatively calm demonstration, with non-violence being one of its hall-marks (the other main one being that it is essentially leaderless). The elites will look for weaknesses and try to exploit them. The elites main weapon for now is the overall tenor of fear that they present to society: fear of communism, fear of terrorism, fear of crime; all embellished by the corporate media to both entertain and contain the thoughts of the hopefully ignorant masses.
The lessons learned from the efforts of the Palestinians can be incorporated into the occupy movement. What the state [of Israel, the U.S. ….] fears most of all is the hope that people can live together based on justice and equality for all. Non-violence becomes a pro-active dynamic, with actions taken that are similar in nature to civil disobedience (in cultures where there is civil law, rather than military rule). Another aspect is that of normalization - the elites want a leader, they want to negotiate, they want to buy off the leaders (or imprison and decapitate them to instil fear). Non-violence disallows normal relations, the goal is to replace the subservient position with one of equality in all areas. In other words, through non-violent resistance, the [Palestinians, Occupy movement….] are not accepting the status quo, are not accepting that the media will be able to present a picture that life continues as normal within the elites' mode of controlling society.
Non-violent protest can lead to very violent counter-actions. If that happens to the Occupy movement, it will be seen around the world, and the world, once again, will see that what the U.S. claims about freedom and human rights is simply rhetorical fodder to cover up their real interests in power and control of people and resources. If nothing else, the Occupy idea is out - corporate wealth is creating great inequalities within the U.S. (…and Canada, and Mexico, and Europe, and any other nation that supports the globalization of capital and the governance of corporations over sovereign nations).
Ideas cannot be removed once put out. Non-violence is the best way to maintain the message and keep the pressure on in an otherwise violent - threatened or applied - system. Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. Miles' work is also presented globally through other alternative websites and news publications.
　
I've noticed a meme beginning to fester among liberal insiders who are positing that the Occupy Wall Street movement is starting to "distract" the citizenry from the wicked machinations of Republicans of the legislative class.
Nonsense.
The OWS movement is not a distraction frombut serves as an alternative tothe disingenuous theatrics staged by the political hacks of this faux republic. Conversely, movement members have grasped that it is the hollow grandstanding--the modus operandi of the present U.S. political system itself--that serves as distraction from the realities of the day.
Those drawn to the OWS movement realize this: Vast sums of money are required to get the attention of and gain influence over the entrenched class of self-serving political insiders who hustle their wares in Washington, D.C.
Year after year, election cycle after election cycle, Washington's political class has revealed whose interests it serves. Accordingly, let the 1% and their political operatives continue on their present myopic, self-serving, society-decimating course: By doing so, they will just bring more outraged people into the streets and hasten their own undoing.
Yet, because arrogant power, girded by duplicity and ruthlessly maintained, does not yield without a fight, we should expect more of the following:
Stories are circulating that Clark, Lytle, Geduldig & Cranford, a well-connected Washington lobbying firm, with ties to the financial industry, have floated a $850,000 plan to pillory Occupy Wall Street. This should not come as a surprise. Living in a society dominated by the power of massive corporations, and the inequitable wealth these self-perpetuating organizations have at their disposal, we will be relentlessly subjected to the narratives they generate.
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." Steve Biko
Since birth, most of us have been enveloped by the consumer state's commercial hologram. Almost every daily act we perform and attitude we evince is in some measure determined by the dictates, demands and the incessant, commercial come-ons (the defacto propaganda) of the corporate state e.g. from what time you rise in the morning, to the food you eat, to what you clothe yourself in, to how you spend your days, to what time you go to sleep at night, to what stories you are audience to--the cultural myths you have internalized--by means of mass media saturation, to the manner you celebrate festivals and holidays, to how your illnesses and of those around you will play-out, even the circumstances of how you will approach and succumb to your death.
Because these are the waters in which we swim, most will accept societal and cultural circumstances as a given…believing, for example, that when they posit a political utterance that the opinion expressed has been formed exclusively of their own mind, by the exercise of free will.
Accordingly, a large percent of the populace of the U.S. believes consumerism is a form of freedom…that the exercise thereof mainly involves being at liberty to trundle to a mall and be in possession of the right to choose between a big-ass cookie or a giant Cinnabon…that freedom of choice is expressed by over-priced running shoes--or security can be found in a massive SUV.
In this manner, the propaganda campaigns of the corporate/national security state have proven effective at promoting and perpetuating the inequitable status quo in place at the present time. Do not underestimate the well-rewarded, professional con men employed in the criminal enterprise known as "public relations." Remember, these masters of deceit sell wars, fought by the poor, in which, the underclass kill and die for the profits of a ruthless few. War is a money train for the rich and connected but a death wagon for the rest of humankind.
Ready yourself to be buffeted by a barrage of virtual reality blunderbuss--volley after volley of mainstream media launched Big Lies--and the ground fire of social media small distortions. Don't walk unarmed into the line of fire.
Remember this: Most likely, the corporate state has, to some degree, colonized your mind, as it is well on its way to destroying the ecosystem of the entire planet.
Conversely, let your soul occupy you. While there might be an ongoing effort to scour Liberty Park of liberty, they cannot do likewise to your heart without your consent. Turn the tables on them: Evict the corporate occupiers from the public realm within--as all the while, you challenge propaganda whenever it crosses your path…on the streets, at your workplace, at family gatherings, and on social media-- because a lie left unchallenged begins to be accepted as truth. And worse, invades, colonizes and exploits (and often kills) a portion of the soul of the world.
Importantly, do not underestimate the ruthless nature of calcified power.
Regarding the subject: On Thursday, Nov. 17, near Foley Square, there was blood on Broadway. At the scene, I witnessed thuggish, NYPD motorcycle cops driving directly into groups of peaceful demonstrators, with the intent of antagonizing those gathered, and when people stood their ground and refused to be bullied--then phalanxes of blue shirt bastards, swinging nightsticks, waded into the crowd.
Even with my wife, tugging at the back of my jacket, attempting to tow, as we say down south, my narrow ass away from the direction of injury or jail, I could not contain my outrage; I growled at a smirking cop, gloating over the carnage, "just keep it up, you mindless thug, when you get folks angry enough, the boot just might be on the other neck...namely yours."
In hindsight, in my own defense: Being on scene and witnessing peaceful people attacked and brutalized, one is apt to become seized by rage.
But what is the mayor of New York City and his Police Commissioner's excuse?
Mayor Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelley and the ranks of NYPD have proven themselves willing to barricade and checkpoint the city into chaos…as opposed to enduring ongoing moments of freedom of assembly and free expression.
And this is why we must not retreat. Their tactics of repression are very expensive to the city budget, and money is the only thing they love.
Hence, they have, in turn, provided us with a tactic we can use; we can hit them where they feel it. (Conversely, they can take blow after blow to their dignity--because they are devoid of that character trait.)
The ground is shifting below our feet and this phenomenon involves more than the echoing footfalls of marchers and the trudging of militarized formations of riot cops on city streets worldwide.
The first vibrations, closer to tremors, transpired because the ground below us has been fracked of dreams...the void engendered seismological activity. Now, from Cairo, Egypt's Tahrir Square to Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece to Liberty Park, in New York, New York to Oscar Grant Park, in Oakland, California, we have become like tuning forks, in sympatico with the resonances of the tormented earth.
Subsequently, the walls of the neoliberal prison are cracking…We are no longer isolated, enclosed in our alienation, imprisoned by a concretized sense of powerlessness; daylight is beginning to pierce the darkness of our desolate cells.
"The state can't give you freedom, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free." ~
Utah Phillips
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.â€
Buckminster Fuller
