Deconstructing the Manifest

Middle Class: A Question At The Rogue's Forum

2012-01-24T12:26:00.000-08:00

Image from Who or what is the middle class?

Excerpted from my post in the comments thread at The Rogue Columnist: Can Liberalism Be Saved?

I've got a quibble, and I'll mention only partly to stir the pot: This "middle class" business, and the "saving" of it. (My adolescent dabblings with Marx's paradigm - not "Marxism" per se - have come 'round again.) I'm taking the liberty of conflating Jon's & Walter's posts, since they are to me of an harmonious piece.

Walter:
"Into this bad mood, the necromancers of the American right conjure a Total Explanation: liberalism is to blame. It makes you share with people who are not like you. It tells you that you're no better than the street thugs jostling you in line."

This. What fertile soil does this seed fall upon? The middle class has always been about codifying and justifying a very un-democratic inequality that is endemic to the post-Revolutionary Republic that has well-masqueraded as "democracy." The easily beguiled "middle class" specialises in the "turning away," it embraces the fiction of justice in this faux meritocracy. It has always been bought off by the so-called elites - and now that the greed of the movers and shakers (and, to a lesser extent - for awhile - the looming resource crunch) is consuming their ability to sate a critical mass of this enabling class, we now lament its demise and ponder its salvation?

Most of us here are, or have been, or considered ourselves, or at least aspired to, middle class. Are we asking ourselves the right questions about our complicity in keeping other classes down in service of our "justified" lifestyles? Now that we are jostling with these "lesser folks," is the right question to be how we make our return as the administrators of class inequality, or do we wake up and look around, and remake our view of America, the world, our fellows?

I put this to better minds than I, here, in this forum.
- Petro

Update: from today's Archdruid Report:

...it’s important to get past the rhetoric of victimization that fills so much space in discussions of social hierarchy these days. Of course the people at or near the upper end of the pyramid get a much larger share of the proceeds of the system than anybody else, and those at or near the bottom get crumbs; that’s not in question. The point that needs making is that a great many people in between those two extremes also benefit handsomely from the system. When those people criticize the system, their criticisms by and large focus on the barriers that keep them from having as large a share as the rich—not the ones that keep them from having as small a share as the poor, or to phrase things a little differently, that keep their privileged share from being distributed more fairly across the population as a whole.
- John Michael Greer

Visiting The Old Haunts - Rosie McCaffrey's

2012-01-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

Posted from Rosie McMaffrey's

Trundlin' Down The Road To Tempe

2012-01-13T23:24:00.000-08:00

Image from the lazy photographer

Posted from the Greyhound.

Marc Maron And The Great Steven Wright - WTF!

2012-01-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

Image found at WTF with Marc Maron

I listen to his podcasts religiously, and I think this is the third WTF that I've linked to here. I found Marc's interview with Steven Wright interesting, and particularly heartwarming in that trademark Maron fashion. Bonus: Wright comes in at the end and turns the tables, so we get to hear a rapid-fire rundown of Marc's career as Steven grabs the host mike.

America, This Is Your Brain On War

2012-01-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

RT News: Video of US marines urinating on Taliban sparks outrage

Any questions?

Chaos

2012-01-01T10:42:00.001-08:00

Ain't it pretty?

I'm a bit distracted with an economically mandated return to the Phoenix area. My apologies for not writing much recently. I will return - in the meantime, keep dreaming of an #OWS spring. Clap harder, as they say (I joke I joke, I keed I keed.)

#OccupyEverywhere!

Merry Christmas, And Calling Bullshit, Physics Edition - #OWS Day 100

2011-12-25T22:19:00.000-08:00

Thrive - the trailer

There are some real problems in this world that need to be addressed. Movies like Thrive are not helpful. Judging from the trailer, it is particularly noxious because it mixes facts about the imbalance of political and economic power in our world with the fancy of unlimited available energy being withheld by a sinister elite.

Not helpful. It kind of reminds me of What the Bleep Do We Know!? from just a few years back - a propaganda piece for the Ramtha cult, neatly dicing together some of the more esoteric aspects of physics together with metaphysical dream-weaving.

Again, judging from the trailer alone (I am not going to waste my time watching the entire film), it looks as though it is resurrecting the zero point energy twaddle. Spiced up with references to "torus" devices, Tesla, and aliens, of course. If one gets into the weeds of the physics of this, it can seem like there is some way of harnessing it if we just knew how - and surely the wizardry is just around the corner - but if we climb up out of the mire of double-speak, and just think of simple entropy and the laws of physics, we can retain our sanity and rest assured that there is not a free lunch.

Simply put, zero point energy is ubiquitous energy, and energy everywhere is the same as energy nowhere. It is the imbalance of energy - stored, or potential, energy - released that makes work happen. Once it is used, it dissipates into useless ubiquity. This is the second law of thermodynamics. Remember this law, and use as the garlic-and-cross weapon against the supernatural siren call of energy Utopia.

I really feel dirty just bothering to address this crap, but I can see, especially in desperate times, how intelligent and well-meaning people can be sucked into considering it.

There are real problems in this world that need to be addressed. It is not helpful to delude people with dreams of infinite, free energy with no limits. However primed they may be with Star Trek dreams. Hell, even those guys had to mine Dilithium for their fucking warp drive. What do you think their Empire, er, I mean, Federation was for?

Don't look into the light! But do continue to...

#OccupyEverywhere!

(Spring is just around the corner...)

(Oil) Money Trumps People Every Time For Our "Leaders" - #OWS Day 92

2011-12-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

10,000 souls don't mean shit

[Update: Jane has hosted the #OWS liveblog today (Kevin is liveblogging the Bradley Manning pretrial): Re-Occupy Wall Street Live Stream]

Tar Sands Action:

Dear Friends,

As you might know, the Keystone tar sands pipeline is back in play.

This morning, the Senate passed a bill that requires a 60-day, expedited approval process for the pipeline in return for a payroll tax cut, and the President has said he will sign it...

#OccupyEverywhere!

West Coast Port Shutdown - #OWS Day 88

2011-12-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

Occupy Protesters Set Up Barricade To Shutdown Port Of Seattle
(some pretty good general coverage of other actions as well)

Today's FDL Liveblog: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Police Violence in Houston, Seattle & San Diego Extends Port Shutdown Action.

Last night's thread: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: West Coast Port Shutdown Action (Evening Edition).

#OccupyEverywhere!

Police are now using ad hoc "tents" to conceal actions against protesters. Houston:

Occupy Houston arrested on #D12. Police use tent to hide arrest tactics! Caught on tape!

West Coast Port Shutdown - #OWS Day 87

2011-12-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

West Coast Port Blockade - Shut Down Wall Street On The Waterfront! Occupy Strikes Back 12.12.11

Gosztola: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: West Coast Port Blockade Action.

TarheelDem: "A Global Corporatist Imperial Multi-National Regime" - #OWS Day 86

2011-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

[Update: FDL liveblog: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: International Human Rights Day Actions Plus Occupy SF Raided]

Only those who do not intend to co-opt the movement can co-opt the movement. That is not ironic. That is not a paradox. That is a contradiction. Because what happens when the whiff of co-option occurs is that the movement fragments and in doing that loses the power that co-option would bring.

Only sociopaths do not participate honestly in the general assembly process. And only people who do not yet experience the failure of all institutions are impatient with the wrangling that is required to reach a consensus for there is no easy way out. Remember that when there is pressure to streamline the consensus process.

If Democrats are either one of these, they will self-exclude. The remainder are likely to be clear about the failure of the Democratic Party.

We all have to deal with our own phantoms. There never before has been the collapse of a global corporatist imperial multi-national regime. Just from its own internal incompetence, deception, and arrogance. Not even the Occupy Wall Street movement worldwide has grasped the depth, complexity, and danger in that failure.
- TarheelDem - 2011/12/10

TD's full comment:

Democratic fundraising letters are drafted by media consultants who live in Washington and base their framing on focus groups operated by DC pollsters. And the conventional wisdom in DC is that the poor don’t vote but the middle class, especially the elderly middle class, do. The first Democratic fundraising letter I ever got was in around 1985–after Mondale got trounced by Ronald Reagan. At that point, the Democrats decided that for survival they had to do what Republicans did. And they fell into the trap of thinking they could outspend Republicans.

Also, prior to 1965 “poor” meant poor whites. When Robert F. Kennedy wanted to highlight poverty in America, he went to West Virginia. LBJ’s campaign ad about poverty showed poor white children. And in fact the number of whites in poverty is higher than the number of African-Americans or Latinos in poverty–but the proportion of African-Americans and Latinos in poverty is double or triple that of whites.

When the white working middle class in the South deserted the Democratic Party because of desegregation and growing antiwar sentiment among Democratic politicians and the white working ethnic Catholic middle class deserted the Democratic Party because of the anti-war sentiment, school busing, and opposition to Roe v. Wade, those voters ceased to be economic voters and became “values” voters.

Left in the Democratic Party in the South were the pro-business “progressives” (Atlanta, the city too busy to hate–became–Atlanta the city too busy to care) and African-Americans who were beginning to have economic opportunities. (Notice the absence of the comma) Elsewhere, the Democratic Party became a patchwork of causes–women’s movement, environmental movement, ….who developed non-profit lobbying presence in DC and through the 1970s moved important legislation. And who beginning in the 1980s and intensifying in the naughts because of the impoverishment of the middle class depended more and more on wealthy and even corporate donors. And slowly became driven by the Democratic Party leadership instead of driving that leadership. The evolution of the veal pen was the logical result of this trend. The poor were not an “identity” among those causes, Marian Wright Edelman notwithstanding.

The triangulation of Bill Clinton’s pushing through welfare reform that allowed the program to be starved to death is a symptom of a politician responding to this trend among voters for the Democratic Party.

The conservative strategy this entire time was to use wedge issues to suck the folks who would have benefited from progressive policies out of the Democratic party and to put institutional barriers and ideological barriers against the coalescence of an outside progressive movement. Marginalization of progressives was part of that, but so was the creation of the great conservative-Republican Wurlitzer that was first used to purge the party of “Rockefeller Republicans” and later turned on Democrats who even gave lipservice to progressive ideas. The Republican strategy was to create a permanent Republican majority of the gullible 99%, for the 1%, by the 1%. And they nearly succeeded in 2002. Individual Democratic politicians said to their voters “Me too”. They saw what happened to Max Cleland; they saw how John Kerry was swiftboated.

Had not George W. Bush so bungled the response to Hurricane Katrina and had not the financial bubble burst in 2007, likely the Republicans would have succeeded in locking down the system. They are still trying, and they depend on progressive focus remaining on the President of the United States (this is not excusing him) and ignoring the city councils, state legislatures, mayors, governors, courts, secretaries of state, attorney generals, and state and county party apparatus. And the fact that no one ideological opinion is dominant in US politics. Therefore, purity of ideology cannot win an election—even Republicans are not pure conservatives (in terms of their own rhetoric).

Progressives found out in Florida and Ohio that secretaries of state and attorneys general are important. They found out in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan that governors and state legislatures are important. They are finding out in Atlanta, Oakland, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles, among other cities that mayors and city councils are important. And in Boston that circuit court judges are important.

The progressive movement now knows clearly that it is back to where it was in 1895, without influence in a party, on the streets, and facing police crackdowns.

I’m not talking about the lefty part of the progressive movement. Or the labor part of the progressive movement. But the anti-corruption part of the progressive movement. The “pragmatic” part of the progressive movement. The “electoral strategy” part of the progressive movement.

We are now in a fight we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. It is clearly now a fight for the survival of the Bill of Rights. Historical analogies fail. And we should be clear that it has become much more difficult over the past 30 years for citizens and politicians to make moral choices–greed, fear, pride are so managed by a system of expectations and institutional rewards and punishments. The logic of the political-economic bureaucratic machine (h/t Lewis Mumford, Pentagon of Power) pervades the 1% in a way that is destructive of the natural and economic environment that brought them their riches and power. They have stripmined everything. And they are applying paramilitary policing against the phantoms of their imagination.

This is a time of judgment in which illusions are being stripped away, one by one. That process is global. It cannot be co-opted. It cannot be suppressed. It is clear that every single human institution worldwide has failed us–every single one–this is not hyperbole. Name one that hasn’t. Chris Hedges had only part of the story in identifying the five institutions of the liberal establishment as having failed us.

So let’s pronounce them failures and figure out how we get out of this mess. Holding accountable key guardians of those institutions accountable is part of how we get out of this mess. So is having an inclusive movement to build alternatives from the components of the institutions that have failed. Every community is now a laboratory (a fancy name for workplace) for continuing the Enlightenment experiment in society, assessing the failures. And that is what the Occupy Wall Street locations (some encampments, some just regular meetings have been doing. Electoral politics is premature now because (1) there are folks in those institutions who have been working to prevent the failure and those who have persisted in the logic of the institution, (2) the process of bringing accountability is also broken, and (3) the electoral process in general is also broken. Until those are fixed, the electoral process is irrelevant no matter how you participate in it. And not participating in it doesn’t change the fact that it is broken and broken to the point that it does not matter what an individual voter does; the machine will grind on in spite of mass boycott.

Only those who do not intend to co-opt the movement can co-opt the movement. That is not ironic. That is not a paradox. That is a contradiction. Because what happens when the whiff of co-option occurs is that the movement fragments and in doing that loses the power that co-option would bring.

Only sociopaths do not participate honestly in the general assembly process. And only people who do not yet experience the failure of all institutions are impatient with the wrangling that is required to reach a consensus for there is no easy way out. Remember that when there is pressure to streamline the consensus process.

If Democrats are either one of these, they will self-exclude. The remainder are likely to be clear about the failure of the Democratic Party.

We all have to deal with our own phantoms. There never before has been the collapse of a global corporatist imperial multi-national regime. Just from its own internal incompetence, deception, and arrogance. Not even the Occupy Wall Street movement worldwide has grasped the depth, complexity, and danger in that failure.

#OccupyEverywhere!

#OccupyPhoenix Raided This Morning - Day 84, #OWS

2011-12-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hang in there, Phoenicians

Nice to see my former homies stepping up for #Occupy. DownTown Devil.

Kevin liveblogging from #OccupyBoston: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Occupy Boston Still Standing & OWS Occupies ‘Law & Order’:

10:06 AM At midnight (scroll down for details on how this developed), Occupy Wall Street went to a “Law & Order: SVU” set and occupied a fake Zuccotti Park camp in Foley Square. What unfolded was incredibly surreal. It was a revolutionary guerrilla nonviolent action that Adbusters and the Yes Men might have planned. Except, the occupiers weren’t really protesting “Law & Order: SVU” (though in retrospect they could have because the story line for the episode will probably revolve around serial rapist living at the OWS camp). That made what was happening even more subversive. And quite frankly one wonders if Monty Python would have written a skit about Occupy Wall Street, would it have been like this?

#OccupyEverywhere!

Label Creep: "Terrorist" Meme Officially Birthed For #Occupy Movement - #OWS Day 83

2011-12-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

City of London Police conflate #OccupyLondon with terrorists. Image from Alexander Higgins' blog

Kevin's daily liveblog: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Police Retreat from Occupy SF Plus Boston Mayor Orders Occupy Boston to Leave.

From The Independent (UK):

The City of London Police force was facing criticism last night after including the Occupy London demonstration in a letter warning businesses about potential terrorist threats.

The letter, a "Terrorism/Extremism Update", lists al-Qa'ida, the Colombian dissidents Farc, and Belarusian terrorists who bombed the Minsk underground. It also lists Occupy London under the heading "Domestic".

It states: "It is likely that activists aspire to identify other locations to occupy, especially those they identify with capitalism. City of London Police has received a number of hostile reconnaissance reports concerning individuals who would fit the anti-capitalist profile. All are asked to be vigilant regarding suspected reconnaissance, particularly around empty buildings."

An Occupy London spokesman said: "Activism is not a crime and the desire to participate in democratic decision-making should not be a cause for concern for the police in any free society.

“An institution that confuses active citizens with criminals and equates al-Qa'ida with efforts to reimagine the city is an institution in danger of losing its way."

A police source said the letter was authentic but was poorly worded and never meant to imply demonstrators posed a terrorist threat...

And so it begins.

Alexander Higgins:

We now have our first confirmation that Occupy Wall Street is being labeled as a Domestic Terrorist Threat and protestors now being labeled as possible domestic terrorists. Don’t hesitate to think for a single second that agencies across the entire US agencies haven’t already done the same exact thing...

Shiv Malik, The Independent (UK) Occupy London's anger over police 'terrorism' document

On a lighter note:

Gingrich fundraiser meets Occupy Wall Street

#OccupyEverywhere!

#OccupySF Brutally Raided At 2 AM On Day 82 of #OWS - Also, #OccupyOregon

2011-12-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

SF DPW disposing of #OccupySF protestor's belongings with a compacting garbage truck Dec 7th, 2011

[Update: Today's FDL liveblog: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Reports from #OccupyHomes Day of Action & More]

Kevin Gosztola (SFPD Mount Sneak Attack on #OccupySF After Emails No Longer Returned):

Early Wednesday morning, 2 am PST, hundreds of San Francisco police (SFPD) arrived at Justin Herman Plaza, the site of Occupy San Francisco.

Occupiers were asleep. They woke up to find they had five minutes to get their belongings and leave the Plaza...

Davey D reported fully functional bikes, entire backpacks with computers and the life savings of homeless people were all thrown away. Male officers searched peaceful female occupiers, which led to complaints of male officers feeling them up. The SFPD also rubbed one occupier’s face in the pavement, and on the UStream they could be seen sneering and laughing about the raid...

Occupy SF has a rally planned for 12 pm PST at 101 Market Street. Then at 6 pm PST they will rally at Justin Herman Plaza and decide how to move forward.

#OccupySF.org:

Emergency assemblies have been called for 12 noon and 6pm TODAY, December 7th. NOON RALLY at 101 Market. 6PM RALLY next to Justin Herman Plaza. Please attend to support and make your voice heard as we debate and decide how to move forward in light of this latest assault on our rights.

mzchief, reporting from Oregon (Eastern Oregonians In The Streets Asking “Where’s The Love And Where’dat Money Go?”):

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is kind of a sacred thing to Oregonians especially those living in mostly rural Eastern Oregon. I detect that folks are pleased that OPB sat up, took notice and sent David Nogueras to cover yesterday’s OccupyCD2 events around the State in US Congressional District 2 ( see the prior post, “Occupy CD2: Eastern Oregonians Ask “Where’s Walden?” )...

Occupy Wall Street Rag (Where'dat Money Go?)

#OccupyEverywhere!

Day 81 of #OWS: Sean Penn To The Rescue, #OccupyLA

2011-12-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

Sean Penn on Piers Morgan Tonight in October, Part 1 of 4

From Kevin's liveblog (Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Occupy NOLA Evicted Despite Scheduled TRO Hearing):

…And then my phone rings. A scruffy voice says, “Hello Joan?” and I reply, “Yes.”

He responds, “This is Sean Penn. Where are you? What is happening?”

...Sean asks if I am willing to go over and meet with the director of the film to help resolve the issue, “Go alone and tell them you are my friend and that you need to speak to Ruben Fleischer.” Moreover, he says that he is willing to pay for digital editing to remove people and shadows from the shots of City Hall. He tells me that he supports Occupy and did not know that the film was doing these re-shoots in the same place that the Mayor set aside for free speech activities.

Also #OccupyHomes is underway. Kevin:

12:50 PM Actions have begun in last hours. In Chicago, where I am right now, there are two actions underway. One is a house warming party for a family that “liberated a foreclosed home” in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood of Chicago. Another involves a vacant, bank-owned building on Van Buren St that is being cleaned and boarded up by the South Austin Coalition (SACC).

#OccupyEverywhere!

Local Action #OccupyPortland On Day 80 #OWS

2011-12-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

Doggin' Wells Fargo 2011/12/05

#OccupyEverywhere!

Still Standing II: #OccupyDC - #OWS Day 80

2011-12-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

Occupy DC Protesters Arrested (Raw Video - h/t Kevin Gosztola)

Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Occupy DC is Still Standing:

For what it’s worth, Occupy DC released a statement on the winter structure that police tore down.
The modular structure was designed by professionals ‘to code’. It meets all health and safety requirements and is fully accessible. It is non-permanent, has no foundations and is not tethered to the ground. It’s designed to be movable every four days to protect the grass beneath the structure. The structure is fully sustainable–it is built to be entirely passively solar-heated and will feature a hydroponic irrigation system on the roof.

Occupiers consented to its construction at a General Assembly during the week of November 7th. It was deemed important to have shelter in order to protect the health and well being by preventing the risk of hypothermia or illness of those who come to the square to peacefully meet in the coming winter months. At a time when thousands of native District homeless struggle to survive in extreme weather conditions, Occupy DC feels that the structure makes a positive statement for equal housing opportunity and sustainable living.

Still Standing

#OccupyEverywhere!

Take It Back: #OccupyPortland On Day 79 #OWS

2011-12-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever." - 1984 (image from @Jason_Darnell)

[Update: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Occupy DC Police Raid, Arrests Made of People in Structure]

Portland Mercury BlogtownPDX (h/t Gosztola @ FDL):

From Sarah Mirk on Sat, Dec 3, 2011
10:40pm
The march is now reportedly wandering around Old Town. The crowd is over 300 people strong, which is large enough to block traffic and garner alternate solidarity fists/"Fuck You!"s from the bros hitting the bars downtown.

It's a bit of a cat and mouse game, with police seemingly trying to guess the direction of the march and block it off, but overall taking a hands-off approach to the protest at this moment. There appear to be few or no riot police directly around the march. There is, of course, at least one person on stilts...

11:10pm
Surprise!

After marching around Old Town, the protesters suddenly got coordinated and started running full speed BACK to the South Park Blocks, from which they were evicted just over two hours ago. The protesters arrived in the park and immediately established a Michael Jackson dance party at the scene. There's about 600-800 people at the protest currently, with only about five police officers in sight, according to News Editor Denis Theriault. There's definitely more people in the park now than there were pre-eviction...

Midnight
Another strange turn of events: For about half an hour, the re-occupiers danced in the South Park Blocks, chanting and basically waiting to see what the police would do. The police did exactly what you'd expect: Amassed a large number of riot police near the park and appeared ready to move in to clear the park.

Over the police scanner, an officer said, "Is there anybody who's not in position?" Then the order was given to "roll"... swiftly followed by an order to hold off. Then, at about 11:50, a voice over the scanner said, "All units return to Central, where we'll write reports & hopefully have pizza. I'll explain when I get there." The order was repeated: "I want every officer who was out here tonight to return to Central and write reports..."
From Denis C. Theriault on Sun, Dec 4, 2011
2:39am
At about 2:20 AM, some 75 or so people are still here at Shemanski Square, eating pizza after the Portland Police Bureau abruptly called off an imminent raid more than two hours ago for a pizza party of their own. The police, meanwhile, have sent out their summation of the night, reporting some 19 arrests—including one occupier who carried a Christmas tree onto the roof of city hall.

There is talk on the ground of still holding the park for two weeks as planned, and a couple of tents have gone back up, with people sleeping in them ("mic check if the police come," said one fellow). But I wonder if the cops are waiting, just like on the day of the Chapman and Lownsdale eviction, to move in when the numbers fall and the feeling of a victory fades a bit.

More importantly, there's talk of what came off by all accounts as a swifter and far more aggressive approach by the tactical officers who showed up to clear the park half an hour before its scheduled 9 PM closing. Another photo, just like the iconic shot of the woman pepper-sprayed in the face on ovember 17, has gone national—this time, it's the Oregonian's picture of a bloodied 15 year old boy. And rumors also spread of a 7-year-old boy being handled roughly by police. Police, in fact, in their release, addressed those claims by denying that any kids had contact with police, despite reports from a handful of witnesses. Occupiers also shot photos of a man, reportedly with broken ribs, being worked on in an ambulance...
From Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Sun, Dec 4
8:29am
The Portland Alliance sent out a press release this morning announcing a rally/march planned for 10 am (WHEN DO YOU GUYS SLEEP??)...

...Protesters plan to meet up at the waterfront on SW Salmon and SW Naito Parkway at 10 am, at which time they'll make announcements, hold an open forum, and at 11 am, begin their march downtown. More updates when we have them!

Yah, yah - the lyrics don't quite fit, but it's Cream (from Disraeli Gears)

The New Normal: LASD's Guantanamo Dreams - #OccupyLA, Day 78 #OWS

2011-12-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Image from BailBondsLosAngelesCounty.com

[Update II (videos): Human microphone testimonials of abuse, below the fold. (h/t TarheelDem)]

[Update:Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Undercover LAPD Infiltrated Occupy LA]

Some things do "trickle down." The voodoo economics of upwards wealth distribution - in the vain hope that worthy "producers" will use their lunatic gravity to swell a tide lifting all boats - has been pretty well clearly exposed as a scam. However, our treatment of certain categories of human beings (why are there categories of human beings?) has just as clearly infected the status quo of domestic detention procedure.

This violent country has always had its chain gangs, its Abner Louimas, its Clint Yarboroughs & Scott Norbergs (yah, that's a two-fer for serial prisoner abuser Sheriff Joe Arpaio there), and various other prison atrocities. But these have been considered (accurately or not) as fringe incidents, and generally receive the full weight of public and media disapprobation upon discovery, often accompanied by sanctions.

Now that torture and mistreatment of "terrorist" prisoners has been sanctified by the highest levels of our government, the immutable law voiced by pastor Martin Niemöller...

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

...has ensured that would-be spectacles like the treatment of the peaceful protesters of #OccupyLA (and many who were journalists, or simply nearby) are now worth nothing more than a collective yawn.

It will be your daughter next, arrested for one-too-many on that girls' night out. This is what a police state looks like.

Yasha Levine Released From Jail, Exposes LAPD’s Appalling Treatment of Detained Occupy LA Protesters...
[Excerpted]

I heard from two different sources that at least one busload of protesters (around 40 people) was forced to spend seven excruciating hours locked in tiny cages on a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. prison bus, denied food, water and access to bathroom facilities...

...The whole time we listened to the screams and crying from a young woman whom the cops locked into a tiny cage at the front of the bus. She was in agony, begging and pleading... A police officer sat a couple of feet away... but wouldn’t lift a finger.

...the zip-tie handcuffs they use—like the ones you see on Iraq prisoners in Abu Ghraib—cut off your circulation and wedge deep through your skin, where they can do some serious nerve damage... A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats...

The 100 protesters in my detainee group were kept handcuffed with their hands behind their backs for 7 hours, denied food and water and forced to sit/sleep on a concrete floor. Some were so tired they passed out face down on the cold and dirty concrete, hands tied behind their back... I wound up losing sensation in my left palm/thumb and still haven’t recovered it now, a day and a half after they finally took [the zip-ties] off.

One seriously injured protester, who had been shot with a shotgun beanbag round and had an oozing bloody welt the size of a grapefruit just above his elbow, was denied medical attention for five hours. Another young guy, who complained that he thought his arm had been broken, was not given medical attention... he spent the entire pre-booking procedure handcuffed to a wall... staring blankly into space like he was in shock.
...
There were 292 people arrested at Occupy LA... Most are still inside, slapped with $5,000 to $10,000 bail. According to a bail bondsman I know, this is unprecedented. Misdemeanors are almost always released on their own recognizance, which means that they don’t pay any bail at all. Or at most it’s a $100.

That means the harsh, long detentions are meant to be are a purely punitive measure against Occupy LA protesters–an order that had to come from the very top.

Excerpts from The BRAD BLOG (Ernest A. Canning on 12/2/2011):

Much of the good will and plaudits earned by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck for their "minimal use of force" tactics employed to clear OccupyLA demonstrators from City Hall Park earlier this week has been quickly squandered in the hours and days since... hundreds of peaceful arrestees were kept in often deplorable conditions in the hours following their apprehension...

...men and women alike were held without charges for hours on end, forced to urinate in their seats on a holding bus while handcuffed, cut off from attorneys, medical supplies and drinking water, and locked away with punitively high bails while being deprived of both humane and Constitutional rights.

At this hour, almost three full days since their arrest at the OccupyLA encampment in front of Los Angeles City Hall, more than 200 of the peaceful demonstrators... are still being held...

...[Mike Prysner, a 28 year old Iraq war vet] claims he "witnessed many people being beaten by police batons"...

Stories of arrestees being shot with rubber bullets, held hours on end on buses without medical care or without being allowed to urinate or drink water... are documented.

...with three young woman... describe how they were shackled with plastic cords for nearly eight hours on a bus as they were driven from station to station without being booked. Chilled by a continuously running air-conditioning system, they were subjected to loud music, relentlessly played to keep them from being able to communicate with officers or each other as their hands turned blue. They were deprived medical support for conditions such as asthma...

"One of the girls asked the [Deputy] Sheriffs can we use the bathroom and he said 'Well, we can't take you there, so you might have to piss on yourself.'"

"...At that point they had already stopped for a rest break for themselves. And we said 'Please, can we have some water? Please, can you make it so that we can go to the bathroom...And they laughed and said, 'What about us? We're in overtime at this point.'..."

"...so all together we surrounded her, because there were men in front of us and behind us. So we surrounded her with our backs to her, and helped her pee..."

Another one of the women adds, "And then the cop came and, what'd he say? --- Something like 'How did that make you feel?' Laughing."

...some eight hours later, ...an officer said to them, while laughing, "Didn't you guys have fun? Wasn't it a fun ride?"

...

Another released arrestee, Kevin Recinos, interviewed by "Freedom", explained that "When I was in jail, it took for one guy, he asked for water, it took 9 hours for him to get a cup of water. ... They weren't even letting people go to the bathroom sometimes...They were really treating us like animals."

Tyson Zoltan Heder still detained as of this writing, bail set at $20,000

Updates (videos): Human microphone testimonials of abuse (h/t TarheelDem):

Deirdre: Abuse by LA County Sheriffs after Occupy LA Raid

Elise

Nick

West Coast Port Shutdown Monday, Dec 12th - #OWS

2011-12-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

West Coast Port Blockade - Shut Down Wall Street On The Waterfront! Occupy Strikes Back 12.12.11

Luntz's Sweet Little Lies - Day 77 #OWS

2011-12-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

Fleetwood Mac - "Little Lies" from Tango in the Night

Kevin's liveblog: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Occupy Tampa Participants Arrested After Refusing to Leave a Public Park

Frank Luntz says he's "frightened to death" over #OWS' messaging success. I don't know - the man's stock-and-trade is advising how to obfuscate... oh, crissakes, he's a professional liar. In any case, his wisdom has been handed down.

Via Yahoo! News (h/t TarheelDem - click through to read of Luntz's reasons for these sweet little lies):

Don't say 'capitalism.'

Don't say that the government 'taxes the rich.' Instead, tell them that the government 'takes from the rich.'

Republicans should forget about winning the battle over the 'middle class.' Call them 'hardworking taxpayers.'

Don't talk about 'jobs.' Talk about 'careers.'

Don't say 'government spending.' Call it 'waste.'

Don't ever say you're willing to 'compromise.'

The three most important words you can say to an Occupier: 'I get it.'

Out: 'Entrepreneur.' In: 'Job creator.'

Don't ever ask anyone to 'sacrifice.'

Always blame Washington.
...and...

Don't say 'bonus!'

I do have problems with the excitable (and partisan) Cenk Uygar, who "loves Capitalism"

#OccupyEverywhere! Frank Luntz is scared!

H.P. Albarelli, Jr.'s Latest Now Available For Pre-Order

2011-12-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

A Secret Order: Investigating the High Strangeness and Synchronicity in the JFK Assassination
by H.P. Albarelli, Jr.

Arthur Shreds "Goddamned Piece Of Paper"

2011-11-30T13:08:00.000-08:00

Actually a goddamned piece of parchment

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"
- President George W. Bush (disputed)

Many of us are concerned with the deterioration of the oversight for the rights assigned to us by our Constitution, a document I hold some reverence for myself (with reservations, specifically regarding the right to property), and for the erosion of the rule-of-law in general. Arthur Silber brings our attention to an important fact: That this achievement of the American Enlightenment yet retains dubious pedigree: An early weapon, wielded by moneyed elites, against the ideals of true democracy.

Arthur Silber (emphases in original):

The Constitution created a government of, by and for the most wealthy and powerful Americans -- and it made certain (insofar as men can make such things certain) that their rule would never be seriously threatened. The most wealthy and powerful Americans were the ones who wrote it, after all...

Today, many of the people who complain most vigorously about the current state of affairs still clamor for a return to "real Constitutional values" and for the revival of the Founders' vision of the Republic. With very rare exceptions, their efforts are directed to the continuation of the Founders' revised version of "democracy," not to the vision with which the "Revolution" had begun....

What we have today is the rule of law -- the rule of law as conceived and implemented by the ruling class. As is true of the State itself, the law will always be conceived and implemented by someone -- and those who conceive and implement it will be those who have the most power...

...again the most obvious point that seems to remain entirely invisible: The State and "the law" will always be devised and implemented by those with the most power: that is why they are devising them and not you. To expect the powerful to erect a system that will strip them of every advantage they possess fails to comport with the lengthy testimony of history, or indeed with human nature itself...

Mr. Silber quotes extensively from Terry Bouton's Taming Democracy: "The People," the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution. Some brief samples, but go read Arthur's essay for a more complete case (emphases courtesy of Mr. Silber):

When it comes to symbols for the spirit of 1776, Pennsylvania has almost a monopoly. After all, it is home to the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge, and Independence Hall. It was the location of the First Continental Congress and the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence...

There is, however, another symbol of the Revolution that complicates the ending to the traditional story. ... the heavily loaded wagon of a county sheriff bearing the foreclosed property of debt-ridden citizens... one striking comparative fact is this: there were more Pennsylvanians who had property foreclosed by county sheriffs during the postwar decades than there were Pennsylvania soldiers who fought for the Continental Army...

...First, the cash scarcity [from the Revolutionary War] brought hardship to a wide range of people across the state, not just poor backcountry farmers. Second, although the crisis hurt some gentlemen, most of the pain was borne by those of the middling and lower sorts. And, finally, property redistribution performed by the sheriff ended up greatly widening the gap between the rich and everyone else...

In the end, the unequal distribution of pain translated into a widening gap between the wealthy and nearly everyone else...

...many of the gentry began embracing ideals and policies that they had once denounced as British "oppression." Frightened by the upheavals of war and spurred by a heightened sense of social status, many of Pennsylvania's self-styled gentlemen abandoned their commitment to extending political and economic power to ordinary folk. Instead, they adopted a new idea of "good government" based on concentrating both political and economic might in the hands of the elite. They launched a prolonged attack on popular ideals and the democratic achievements of the Revolution, attempting to undo reforms that many of them had helped to create. In this sense, the postwar period was essentially a replay of the 1760s and 1770s, with the revolutionary gentry playing the roles of Britain...

Things for all would-be fashioners of a more perfect democracy to consider.

As I've said, there is much more at Arthur's place.

City Of Boston Joins LA & Philly In Voicing Full-Throated Support For The Health Of #OccupyEverywhere - #OWS Day 75

2011-11-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

FromLA Times

[Update III: Great video (song) after the fold, below!]

[Update II: Police Occupy City Hall Before Attacking Protesters (Philadelphia photo-set, h/t TarheelDem)]

[Update: Phoenix protesters pepper-sprayed at Westin Kierland Resort]

FDL liveblog: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: @OccupyPhilly & @OccupyLA Evicted, Hundreds Arrested

WCVB Boston: City Moving To Remove 'Occupy Boston' Protesters

Storyful: Police raid Occupy camps in LA, Philadelphia

Major cities in the US, expressing concern for waning interest in local occupations, have moved in to create more media theater to keep the movement alive. #Occupations in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and now Boston received welcome injections of publicity courtesy of local police staff. Some say that this public relations effort is being coordinated at the Federal level.

Related news: Pepper Spray Developer: It Has Become Fashionable to Use Chemicals on People with Opinions

Meanwhile, national strike in England:

Public sector workers are striking over pension reforms in what unions say is the biggest walkout for a generation.

Some 62% of England's 21,500 state schools are shut and 7,000 routine operations across the UK have been cancelled, the government says.

PM David Cameron says strike "looks something like a damp squib", but Labour leader Ed Miliband accuses him of "spoiling for this fight".

Update (video):

I'll Occupy!

Crushed and fractured: "No one was hurt", reports AP from the City of Brotherly Love (h/t The Dissenter

#OccupyEverywhere!

Still Standing - #OWS Day 74

2011-11-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

Front page photo from 1st edition of Occupied LA Times

Today: Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Students Protest as University Boards Move to Raise Tuition

Lisa Derrick, last night:

It was miraculous, and I hope that spirit of community, or mutual respect, or restraint or whatever–LOVE–love of oneself, of one’s city, or one’s fellows can spread through Los Angeles’ police and community and become a model for both cops and civilians to work in cooperation to obey the laws and foster change.

A little "girly hop:"

Try to throw my name in the dirt
But I really don't give a damn
I'm still standing like the statue of liberty
And I put my name in the history books
So you'll forever remember me
- Still Standing, Monica (feat. Ludacris)

Still Standing

#OccupyEverywhere!