Occupy Everywhere - Sept 17th - Day of Rage Against Wall Street and what it stands for!

[Peter Lemkin]

Tens Of Thousands March On Koch Industries For Suppressing Voting Rights | This past Saturday, tens of thousands of civil rights activists marched on the New York offices of Koch Industries to protest the Koch brothers' support of restrictive voting laws that disenfranchise millions. In dozens of states, Republican politicians have pushed laws that disproportionately keep Democratic voters, including blacks, Latinos, students, and the poor, from the polls. U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) was among the lawmakers and labor leaders who locked arms and led the march on Madison Avenue. The billionaire Koch brothers help fund the shadowy corporate front group ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) that has modeled restrictive voting legislation.

[Peter Lemkin]

Ten Things You Can Do to Sustain the Occupy Movement

The Nation
December 13, 2011

Alice Walker has noted that one of the failures in our collective memory of the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham is that we have forgotten the names and activist leanings of the four girlsCarole, Denise, Addie Mae and Cynthiawho are often merely reported to be four black girls who died in the bombings. In fact, the burgeoning activists were preparing to give a presentation about civil rights at the church's annual Youth Day program. Rosa Parks, before she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, had just finished a course on nonviolent action. To neglect the activist background and intention of these women is to believe falsely that historic moments like the civil rights movement "just happen." In fact, years of organizing and strategizing bring about their birth. Travis Holloway, a poet, political philosopher and activist at Occupy Wall Street, believes this movement has the potential to go beyond mere words and slogans (though, he writes in a recent piece, these help), and like the civil rights movement, to effect real change. Along with suggestions from a wide range of activists, here are "Ten Things" to keep the Occupy movement going and build a foundation for long-term change.





1. We are the 99 percent. A movement of the 99 percent must be inclusive in its makeup and its goals. "The issues of the bottom of the 99 percent have to move to the top of the agenda," writes Elias Holtz. Be sure that the movement involves those of all backgrounds, sexual orientations, religious and cultural affiliations and work towards representing the movement through women and people of color. Engage community leaders and ask them what are the most pressing issues they're facing and fight alongside them. Read organizer Paulina Gonzalez's experience at Occupy LA.
2. Whose streets? Our streets! Crackdowns on encampments means the movement shifts from holding a space to major public events, actions on the street, and horizontal, online organizing forums. Join a working group according to your interest and stay updated on major days of action.
3. Imagine all the people. Rallies aren't the only form of protest. Be creative and don't forget to surprise. If your opponent is counting on noisy drum circles or big signs, try a silent march or vigil (like the students at UC Davis) or looking like your opponent by walking the streets in business suits. For ideas and inspiration, read Gene Sharp's 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action. Some ideas include boycotts, mock awards, mock elections, mock funerals, prayer and worship (as a symbolic public act), silence, teach-ins, refusal of public support, etc. Get more creative action ideas from the YesLab.
4. This is what democracy looks like. The value of top-down organization is no longer self-evidentnot only in government, given the lack of trust in political representatives, but also in our everyday jobs and institutions. Consider adopting a horizontal decision-making structure. Here are the principles of workplace democracy and some people who practice it.
5. Occupy the future. Set major, future events now to define the agenda and the permanence of the movement, then use the winter to network in order to better mobilize in the spring. Community organizations, churches and labor have real connections with the community and add support and energy to existing movements. Go to OrganizingUpgrade for ideas on how to build and maintain connections. And don't let Facebook leave out your grandma.
6. Occupy your life. Everyone has an opportunity to act out the ideals and goals of the Occupiers in his/her everyday life. We may not be able to leave jobs that are inconsistent with our values, but reflecting on our own feelings and opinions can make us stronger and influence others. Check out Occupy Yourself for the holiday season and beyond. Read this article and watch this video to rethink your allegiance to popular brands.
7. Boycott the 1 percent. Take on a corporation or person that in their actions embody the worst of greed Whoarethe1percent. If you are in a non-union workplace, consider the benefits of worker solidarity when confronting unfair wages or work conditions. Many union organizers are willing and prepared to help you form a union with your fellow workers.
8. Study. Winter is a time to learn more about economic inequality and real strategies for resistance. Schedule a teach-in at an Cccupy event or consider attending one (schedule of NYC teach-ins here). Read "There Are Realistic Alternatives" for a crash course on nonviolent resistance and browse the OWS Library.
9. Nonviolent resistance is five parts organizing, four parts media and one part action. One of the major challenges and successes of organizing is to get media to report on an event. Designate a media person whose sole goal is to pitch to reporters, build relationships, update them on actions, and report back to members. Just keep reiterating the main themes of the movement. You may feel like a broken record, but few things are more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Go to Pitching to news outlets for more suggestions.
10. Occupy education. Occupy the DOE was a great way the movement showed it could shift from the streets to strategic action by protesting the lack in the structures that instruct. Identify student loan corporations and colleges with the most atrocious tuition hikes. If you are a public university student, connect and collaborate with other schools within your network to protest tuition hikes that most state schools are undergoing. Go to Occupy Student Debt Campaign to learn more.
A Couple More Things:
11. Exit Strategy Always have one. Be imaginative enough to see possible outcomes of the movement and always have a plan for anything that arises.
12. Occupy "Other Things." Think we missed out on a fundamental piece of advice or suggested action?

[Peter Lemkin]

Fake OWS occupied by the real one.

[Peter Lemkin]

A group of port truck drivers thanked the "99 Percenters" on Monday for bringing attention to their profession, which they claim is rife with labor abuses.
"Occupy" protesters disrupted traffic at ports along the U.S. west coast on Monday, as a small number were arrested for seeking to shut down the major trade cargo hub, officials said.
The port truck drivers, who were affiliated with the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, stopped short of supporting the effort to shut down the ports. But they were "humbled and overwhelmed" by the attention the action brought. "Normally we are invisible," they said.
the biggest action was in Oakland, California where the anti-Wall Street demonstrators closed the major U.S. port for 24 hours last month, as protests were called from southern California up to Alaska.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched on the port early in the day, at one point preventing trucks from entering or leaving a couple of gates. And some 150 of 200 longshoremen were sent home to due to companies shutting docks due to safety concerns, said the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
But port authorities said operations continued despite some disruption and delays.
"The companies we work for call us independent contractors, as if we were our own bosses, but they boss us around," the truck drivers said. "We receive Third World wages and drive sweatshops on wheels. We cannot negotiate our rates."
"Why are companies like SSA Marine, the Seattle-based global terminal operator that runs one of the West Coast's major trucking carriers, Shippers' Transport Express, doing this?" they continued. "Why would mega-rich Maersk, a huge Danish shipping and trucking conglomerate that wants to drill for more oil with Exxon Mobil in the Gulf Coast conduct business this way too?"
"To cheat on taxes, drive down business costs, and deny us the right to belong to a union, that's why."


Despite the hardships, they did not want to quit their jobs. The drivers would rather stick together and transform the industry from within by organizing themselves.
"Nowadays greedy corporations are treated as people' while the politicians they bankroll cast union members who try to improve their workplaces as thugs,'" they said.
"But we believe in the power and potential behind a truly united 99%. We admire the strength and perseverance of the longshoremen. We are fighting like mad to overcome our exploitation, so please, stick by us long after December 12."
In Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, two people were arrested after protesters marched on the port terminal of SSA Marine, a company 51 percent owned by Goldman Sachs, a key target of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
But by early afternoon the Port of Long Beach said there had been "minimal impact to port operations" during the rain-soaked demonstration by several hundred protesters at one of the world's largest shipping ports.
"Most freeways, bridges and port access routes remained open, and all shipping terminals were operational during the protest," a port statement said.
Further north in Portland, Oregon, where protesters also began demonstrations before dawn, two people were arrested for possession of weapons, and the port was partially closed down, according to local media.
In Seattle, Washington state, demonstrators planned rallies later in the day, according to organizers. There were no immediate reports of protest actions in Anchorage, Alaska.
In Oakland, across the Bay from San Francisco, more protesters were expected later in the day, organizers said.
Authorities in the northern California city wrote an open letter to protesters urging them not to shut down a port which handles some $39 billion in imports and exports per year.
"The port is connected to over 73,000 jobs in the region and more than 800,000 across the country. These are not just numbers. These are good jobs held by real working people and working families," it said.
The loosely organized, left-leaning Occupy Wall Street protesters insist they are exercising their freedom of speech in the run-up to November 2012 national elections.
Protest camps sprung up in recent months across the United States from New York to Los Angeles, though many have been closed down by officials wielding varying degrees of force.
With reporting by Eric W. Dolan

[Peter Lemkin]

Bradley Manning is a hero among OWSers. His joke of a trial [sort of] starts tomorrow.....
PFC Bradley Manning's Article 32 pre-trial hearing starts this Friday.
Firedoglake writer Kevin Gosztola is en route to Ft. Meade, Maryland to cover this important hearing that will determine whether or not the government has sufficient cause to move forward with prosecuting Manning.
The government has leveled dozens of charges against Manning, including aiding the enemy - which carries the potential penalty of life in prison or even execution. Firedoglake has been working tirelessly to defend Manning's right to a fair trial and humane treatment for over a year now, and Kevin will be there to report on these critical proceedings.
You can catch our coverage of the Article 32 hearing beginning this Friday at http://dissenter.firedoglake.com.
To date, over 20,000 people have signed our petition demanding the government drop the 'aiding the enemy' charges against Bradley Manning.
But with less than a week before proceedings are set to begin, the government is already refusing to play fair by blocking 38 of the 48 witnesses requested by the defense. In fact, the 10 witnesses who were approved by the government are simply the same 10 witnesses the prosecution plans to call as part of their own cross-examination.
In addition, Manning's counsel wanted to explore whether there was undue influence on the military chain of command stemming from President Obama's comment at a fundraiser earlier this year that Bradley "broke the law" 7 months before he even had a date set for his hearing. The defense also wanted to hear from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the true sensitivity of the materials Manning is alleged to have leaked. Both requests were blocked by the government, but Manning's counsel may at least pursue a deposition from them instead.
Incredibly, among the 38 witnesses blocked from the hearing are Army mental health specialists and military personnel in Manning's immediate chain of command - individuals with intimate knowledge of the facts leading up to his arrest whose testimony would be imperative to deciding whether or not the government has sufficient cause to move forward.
In addition, Manning's counsel wanted to explore whether there was undue influence on the military chain of command stemming from President Obama's comment at a fundraiser earlier this year that Bradley "broke the law" 7 months before he even had a date set for his hearing. The defense also wanted to hear from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the true sensitivity of the materials Manning is alleged to have leaked. Both requests were blocked by the government, but Manning's counsel may at least pursue a deposition from them instead.
Firedoglake has been and will continue to be at the forefront of the battle for Bradley Manning's rights. Help us out by donating $10 or more to Kevin Gosztola's coverage of a case that is likely to have profound implications for civil liberties in this country.

We're anxious for Manning to finally have his day in court, and hope you will continue to work with us throughout.
Thanks for all you do,
Jane Hamsher
Founder & Publisher,
Firedoglake.com

[Peter Lemkin]

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

A billion dollars...
A hundred billion dollars...
Eight hundred billion dollars...
One TRILLION dollars...
What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.
We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...

And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...

Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.
You ready for this?
It's pretty surprising.
Go ahead...
Scroll down...
Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...

(And notice those pallets are double stacked.)
So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about

[Peter Lemkin]

State Power and Democracy: Before and During the Presidency of George W. Bush
Thursday 8 December 2011
by: Andrew Kolin, Palgrave Macmillan | Book Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from the Introduction of Professor Kolin's recent book, "State Power and Democracy: Before and During the Presidency of George W Bush" (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011).

With the recent emergence of the nationwide "Occupy" movement in the United States, there is reason to hope that a mass-based progressive movement could develop to challenge the power of an American police state.

The expansion of state power over the course of U.S. history came at the expense of democracy. As state power grew, there developed a disconnect between the theory and practice of democracy in the United States. Ever- greater state power meant it became more and more absolute. This resulted in a government that directed its energies and resources toward silencing those who dared question the state's authority. Such questioning of state power had emanated as a response to mass- based political movements striving to further democracy with an increase in freedom, especially for the downtrodden. This put mass movements in direct confrontation with the elite politics of policy makers. So, over time, as the U.S. government continued on its course of seeking to increase state power by extending ever- greater control over people and territory, it also meant it worked toward a goal to diminish mass-based political movements. This tendency began not long after the end of the Revolutionary War, starting with the conquest of North America and by the start of the twentieth century, continuing with the expansionism outside of North America.

ALSO SEE: Occupy the Police State

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the U.S. government initiated policies intended to eliminate democracy inside and outside the United States. It is no coincidence that as the state enacted measures to crush democracy, there appeared federal agencies with an antidemocratic mission. Also developing throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in relation to crushing democracy was the state unleashing political repression. Nonetheless, political repression ebbed and flowed, often determined by historical factors and the ability of progressive movements to affect social change during periods of unrest. Still, despite some success in making America more democratic by including the excluded, overall state power was becoming more absolute, above the law and the U.S. Constitution. The achievements of progressive movements were being overshadowed by the state's measures, which eventually wore them down and then eliminated them as a social force for the advancement of democracy. . . . One prerequisite for a police state's exercise of absolute power is the concentration of power in one branch of government, and so in the latter part of the twentieth and twenty- first centuries, presidents operate with ever greater frequency outside of the U.S. Constitution and according to their arbitrary will. So by the time we reach the presidency of George W. Bush, the executive branch had become a branch that saw itself as above the law while making law.

The state came to embody the will of George W. Bush and his inner circle. In this regard, the Bush administration functioned as other police states have, in Germany, Russia, Italy, and Spain. Most indicative of a police state mentality exhibited by recent presidents from Nixon to George W. Bush was that they truly believe they did not break any laws because of their belief that they had sole authority to act as lawmakers. The spark that ignited the transition toward the final form of an American police state was the attacks on the World Trade Towers in 1993 and 2001. At the same time that this permanent police state came into being, what took place was the elimination of what remained of procedural democracy and rule of law. In response to these attacks, the Clinton and both Bush administrations had the opportunity to twist law in such a way as to make diverse viewpoints illegal. Any and all opposition to this war on terrorism would unleash the unquestioned power of the federal government through wholesale surveillance, roundups, and preventive detention as well as political trials.

Overall, the formation of an American police state was the end result of establishing a link between internal and external terrorist threats in a time of national emergency. Afterward, the government acted outside the Constitution by passing the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and a host of other measures, which produced a direct assault on civil liberties. By using an abstract definition of terrorism, the government had all the rationale it needed to consider all citizens and noncitizens terror suspects.

The clearest example of an American police state that acted like so many other police states is its use of preventive detention. In one exampleextraordinary renditionall the government has to do amounts to accusing anyone of anything related to terrorism, and this was a sufficient reason to seize and ship individuals elsewhere to be tortured. The use of torture, unfortunately, is an all- too- common practice used by democracies that have degenerated into police states. Torture as state policy simply means that a police state is exercising total domination over the minds and bodies of those identified as enemies of the state.

The U.S. government also used torture to justify the maintenance of a state of permanent emergency. Torture as state policy was also employed as a propaganda tool in the Bush administration's campaign to rationalize an aggressive war against Iraq. All too common in many police states is the tendency to manufacture reasons to go to war so as to create mass mobilization to support the war.

Police states also function in a state of permanent war in part through the use of shock troops, specialized forces used to instill terror on a conquered nation, such as the use of mercenaries, like Blackwater Corp. in Iraq. Such corporate warriors fit well into the idea of a police state that operates outside the law. The twisted and extensive use of signing statements also indicates that an administration is functioning outside the law. In a distorted extension of the theory of a unitary executive, President Bush's excessive use of signing statements resulted in giving him dictatorial powers.

[Keith Millea]

Police states also function in a state of permanent war in part through the use of shock troops, specialized forces used to instill terror on a conquered nation, such as the use of mercenaries, like Blackwater Corp. in Iraq. Such corporate warriors fit well into the idea of a police state that operates outside the law.

Another name change for former Blackwater firm as CEO explains how new title is inspired by Greek warriors


By Associated Press

Last updated at 6:56 AM on 13th December 2011The security firm once known as Blackwater has changed its name for the second time in less than three years as its owners continue to reshape the company they bought from its founder a year ago.

The Arlington-based company announced it will no longer be known as Xe Services and is now called Academi.

The name is inspired by Plato's Academy in ancient Greece and is designed to connote elite, highly disciplined warriors who are thinkers as well as fighters.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z1gcojEYVB

[Albert Doyle]

The Arlington-based company announced it will no longer be known as Xe Services and is now called Academi.

The name is inspired by Plato's Academy in ancient Greece and is designed to connote elite, highly disciplined warriors who are thinkers as well as fighters.

I'm thinking a better analogy would be a nation group of German "philosophers" and warriors in the 1930's and 40's...

[Peter Lemkin]

U.S.-Funded Internet Liberation Project Finds Perfect Test Site: Occupy D.C.

• By Ryan Singel
  
• December 15, 2011 | Follow @rsingel
  

Occupy D.C. protesters preparing to livestream a solidarity march. Photo: Brendan Hoffman/Wired.com

When Sascha Meinrath saw the Occupy encampment in D.C., he saw something few others would a testbed for technology.
Meinrath has been chasing a dream for more than a decade, ever since he was a liberal arts grad student in Urbana, Illinois: community wireless networks. From that small beginning, Meinrath now runs a State Department-funded initiative to create an Internet in a Suitcase the Voice of America of the digital age.
If he has his way, Meinrath's project will lead to low-cost, easy-to-use wireless connections around the globe, all lashed together in mesh that can withstand the whims of dictators willing to pull the plug on the internet to quash dissent. He and a team of software engineers are developing open-source software to turn cheap wireless access points and Android smartphones into nodes on the network, which could then be used by dissidents to evade censorship and to spread low-cost connections everywhere around the world. Proponents of the plan include the U.S. State Department, which has given Meinrath a $2 million grant to develop the code.
"This started due to massive naiveté," said Meinrath, whose official title is Director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative. "I had no idea of the complexity of solving these problems."
Before getting funding, Meinrath and his team of collaborators had been building various community networks for years, including a post-Katrina emergency connection network that spanned three states. Community wireless networks in the U.S. have generally failed to find acceptance, but massive scale networks are possible, says Meinrath, pointing to examples in Spain and Greece which are home to networks with thousands of nodes.
With the emergence of an Occupy encampment in the nation's capital, Meinrath found a nearly perfect testbed for the pre-alpha software the site is weather-challenged, and full of internet-hungry individuals constantly trying to update social networking sites and make their own media. Exactly like what happened in the Arab Spring.
The white router hanging in the center of the tech tent at the Occupy D.C. encampment in McPherson Square is a test of the Internet in a Suitcase project. Photo: Brendan Hoffman/Wired.com

The Internet in a Suitcase project is based off a simple plan: create software that's easy to install and use on cheap hardware which will seamlessly connect to any other access point around it, creating a shared local network.
The custom software is called Commotion. It will work with Android phones and with routers that support custom firmware, like Ubiquiti Networks' low-cost, carrier-grade wireless access points. "The firmware provides auto-configuration capabilities," said Brian Duggan, one of the engineers on the Internet in a Suitcase project, "so you don't need to be an engineer" to install it. "You flash as many nodes as you want, or pick up previous ones."
The idea is that the system will automatically set itself up. Drop a unit near another unit and they'll start talking to one another and trading data. Add another and all three will talk to one another. Add a thousand and you can cover a whole city. Then if one of those routers is hooked up to an internet connection, everyone on the network can connect. If that connection disappears, users can still try to update an application like Twitter or send e-mail to the larger internet and the outgoing notes will go into a holding pattern until the mesh network finds another connection to the greater net.
That's harder to pull off in practice, even under ideal conditions as anyone who's tried to link even two Wi-Fi access points in their own home could attest. Now throw in the variables that the access points should work in urban and exposed environments, as well as protest zones like Tahir Square. You'll want to protect dissidents with encryption and deniability. And you don't want your beta-testers to be arrested or even killed because of a software bug. All together it's the kind of challenge engineers like to call "non-trivial".
"Finding a place to use the system is difficult," Meinrath said. "Thank God for the Occupy movement."
So over the last few weeks, Meinrath's staff have tried to wire up Occupy DC with a few custom-flashed wireless nodes hooked up to the network via radio link to a nearby office's donated business connection.
But please don't take it as an endorsement of Occupy DC's politics, Meinrath says.
"We hope the Tea Party will launch a sleep-in and we can hit both ends of the political spectrum," he said.
Right now, the project's software is in "pre-release" form, though it's seeped into the wild at Occupy DC. You can find one router in the media tent at in downtown McPherson Square, which is home to about 200 protesters.
The Media Tent is built out of a bunch of tarps, with another tarp separating the tent into two rooms. There's a graffiti-lined front door an actual door that is hinged to nothing, a cheeky joke, since you get in by lifting the tarps. Inside is a mess there's an office chair with ripped upholstery, milk crates and ladders strewn about and a few tables for desks. The park ground is the floor, augmented by some cardboard and wood planks.
The Internet in a Suitcase hardware is a white Ubiquiti router the size of a couple Snickers bars. It hangs from the makeshift ceiling and is not noticeable unless you look for it.
To use it, you plug one end into the wall, another into a bandwidth source, and you're to be good to go. In theory. In practice, the test at Occupy DC is drawing at best mixed reviews from protesters, who say the technology is difficult to configure, install and use.
The test network wasn't powerful enough to power this protester's live-streaming baby stroller, demonstrating the bandwidth demands that a dictator-proof network would need to support. Photo: Brendan Hoffman/Wired.com

"It's definitely a work in progress," said Kelly Mears, who seems to be the head of tech for Occupy DC and looks remarkably like Mark Zuckerberg, albeit in a skinny brown tie and cardigan instead of a hoodie. "It's not exactly point and click. I'm looking at a terminal window, on Linux."
Kenny, another of Occupy DC's tech people, is also slightly unimpressed, though not critical of the New America team. He pushes a Dell laptop in a baby stroller to livestream a protest in the occupied McPherson Square's central square, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street eviction. The laptop is notably hooked up to a commercial Clear Wi-Fi hotspot.
"The signal strength [of Commotion] is poor. … The service itself has been shitty. That's why we're using Clear," Kenny said.
The signal strength starts conking out when you walk the roughly 50 feet from the media tent to the center of the square. There are typically 3 or 4 laptops from the media team simultaneously using Commotion its not clear how many other devices are also taxing the system. It doesn't help that there's a single connection to the net a 1 Mbps connection at that which is linked to by a long range antenna. That kind of connection is thin for livestreaming, even for one person in ideal conditions.
Josh King, the technical lead on the project, is excited, even if the protesters aren't.
"It's software under development," King said. "This is a great opportunity to test it, to get this kind of feedback and make changes in real time."
"It's a real test bed," adds Meinrath. "We're getting the good, bad and ugly … It's not as stable as we would like, but we working in real world where we don't have optimum anything. It's a pre-alpha release providing connectivity to several hundred people."
The team is working to augment its internet bandwidth with backhaul from the AFL-CIO and the ACLU. The latter would be ideal, Meinrath says, because it's unlikely that law enforcement would try to subpoena the ACLU's connection to spy on protesters.
But for now Meinrath is happy with the test.
When, or if, the team figures out how to build a point-and-click internet in a box, they hope it'll become a platform that developers can build smart and safe apps on.
Meinrath points to Frank Legendre's work on what's known as disaster mode for Twitter (download it at Twimight) as an example of what an app built for such a network could look like.
"You could have a delay-tolerant Twitter, where people on the local network could see your tweets and then when a connection is restored it could get pushed to the internet," Meinrath said. "We are in the very infancy of this kind of intranet."
That's still a dream that's a long way off. But Meinrath's project is not alone. Another community wireless group in Europe won a $5 million grant to work on implementing such networks, complementing his group's emphasis on research and development.
Meinrath thinks it's just a matter of time now before mesh networks become a fact of life for most of the world in particular the two-thirds of it that aren't high-income nations.
"Those initial years of having a very utopian but pragmatic vision of connectivity for everyone is still driving this project," Meinrath said. "Twenty-first century statecraft is aligned with those goals. It's nice to have Hilary on your side."