tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-226115002012-01-27T09:54:25.527-08:00Swiftspeech!<br><br>
<b>Progressive political commentary and news</b>
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"Our problem is civil obedience."
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"There can be no patriotism without permanent opposition and criticism."
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"I will not equivocate―I will not excuse―I will not retreat a single inch―AND I WILL BE HEARD."Stella by Starlighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16385761338190877425noreply@blogger.comBlogger65981100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-77655800441377397532012-01-27T09:10:00.000-08:002012-01-27T09:47:02.803-08:00"Don’t castigate individuals who’ve been successful."Mitt Romney said that. More fully:“I think it’s important for people to make sure that we don’t castigate individuals who’ve been successful.”Bow down before him, people. He's a success. Thou shalt not castigate the capitalist. Or, as Obama put it in his latest State of the Union:"We don’t begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it."R.A. Maynard offers a simple reason not to fall No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-61316387273744115242012-01-26T08:15:00.000-08:002012-01-26T08:25:56.790-08:00"All the first-grade people took the other side of the street when they saw him coming."He said some extravagant thingsAnd planted a few stingsUnder the rich man’s hide.And one of the sensational newspapersGave him a line or two for cutting capers In front of the Palace of Justice and the Church.But all the first-grade people took the other sideOf the street when they saw him coming[...]And this city had illustrious Pharisees,And this city had a legion Of men who make a No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-46361204079857528422012-01-24T16:35:00.000-08:002012-01-24T16:35:02.209-08:00The undignified return of Stella under construction...Some of you may know me as Dorothy Anderson, but she has left the building. Say good bye, and hello to me, Stella, who is slowing deleting spam and returning home.
I have accidentally deleted some readers' comments, so all apologies. We are only a small corner of cyberspace, but we'll say what we want and let you do the same...Stella by Starlighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16385761338190877425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-25159131753118648392012-01-21T10:30:00.000-08:002012-01-24T18:58:04.090-08:00Upton Sinclair's other masterpiece
Here's a book not to be missed by those who sympathize with or participate in Occupy Wall Street!
In 1915, Upton Sinclair self-published The Cry for Justice : an Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. Jack London provided a foreword. In this book of 891 pages, the reader will find "the writing of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-36597353390197569012012-01-20T06:37:00.000-08:002012-01-20T06:43:58.881-08:00"As for culture, I usually use that word in its anthropological sense. When I hear it, I load my shotgun. Cheers! Ed."Ed Abbey said that.He also said: "Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down."No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-44361234517360098662012-01-17T17:00:00.000-08:002012-01-17T17:03:46.851-08:00"Bombing should be a war crime."Phil Donahue:Where is the valor? A guy sits in a cage or a control room somewhere in Maryland or maybe Nevada and he sees in the nose cone camera of the unmanned aerial vehicle, there’s the insurgents, how they know, I’m not sure, and they fire an incendiary device, and we kill children, children! And this is on Obama’s watch.You know, I don’t see how anybody who engages in this kind of killing No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-21576969316039689532012-01-15T13:42:00.000-08:002012-01-15T13:47:22.881-08:00"We have an obligation to never say anything we don’t believe to be true."Katrin Becker:I am one of those people that believes there is no such thing as a white lie – there are only lies (some say it is a disorder). There are many who imply that lying is a normal and necessary part of social interaction. I don’t believe that. While it is not necessary to say everything that pops into your head, it is possible to be honest without being hurtful. I think we have an No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-55120498377692626782012-01-15T12:07:00.000-08:002012-01-15T12:16:45.830-08:00"What kind of asshole straps his dog to the roof of the car for twelve hours?"[source]"Do you think these plastic weirdos will treat the country any better than they treated Seamus?"- OHollern No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-19595823119216524962012-01-12T12:32:00.000-08:002012-01-12T17:13:24.148-08:00"You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is."Mark Twain, from "Corn-Pone Opinions":...I had a friend whose society was very dear to me because I was forbidden by my mother to partake of it. He was a gay and impudent and satirical and delightful young black man -a slave -who daily preached sermons from the top of his master's woodpile, with me for sole audience. [...]I listened to the sermons from the open window of a lumber room at the backNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-73637962385255222752012-01-12T06:46:00.000-08:002012-01-12T07:18:19.329-08:00“Adopt a policy of being joyful.”Jane Brody: Enter an invaluable source of help, if anyone is willing to listen while there is still time to take corrective action. It is a new book called “30 Lessons for Living” (Hudson Street Press) that offers practical advice from more than 1,000 older Americans from different economic, educational and occupational strata who were interviewed as part of the ongoing Cornell Legacy No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-24469317515789902982012-01-08T15:48:00.000-08:002012-01-08T15:53:45.749-08:00Which Side Are You On, Righteous Babe?In anticipation of Ani DiFranco's new album - due out on January 17th - here she is singing Which Side Are You On? in 2010.Aaaaaaaannniiiiiiiiii! No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-91903389267819704212012-01-07T07:12:00.000-08:002012-01-07T07:25:26.218-08:00"Smart enough — hip enough — to watch CNN."[source]Paul Duffy:Anderson’s the guy in the black tee shirt, you know, the one with prematurely gray hair you’ve seen on billboards looking resolute as he plunges through jungles and treks across Saharan wastes chasing the news. What a guy! The message on the billboards, spoken and unspoken, is that Anderson will go anywhere, risk any danger, bear any burden, to get the story for TV news No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-10148299868568318782012-01-04T16:45:00.000-08:002012-01-04T16:58:50.303-08:00"Weariness and war are the results of an artificial society based upon capital."[source]Oscar Wilde, from "A Chinese Sage":But Chuang Tzu was something more than a metaphysician and an illuminist. He sought to destroy society, as we know it, as the middle classes know it; and the sad thing is that he combines with the passionate eloquence of a Rousseau the scientific reasoning of a Herbert Spencer. There is nothing of the sentimentalist in him. He pities the rich more than No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-42465251323332275172012-01-02T12:18:00.000-08:002012-01-02T12:29:30.828-08:00In the wild riot of throwing away our patrimony and of establishing a predatory class of privilege and wealth, we have left the Old World far behind."Martin Johnson, from The Magnate or the People (1913):We should never have heard of the individualism of the multimillionaire railroad magnate, of the express company magnate, of the telegraph or telephone magnate or of the individualism of the multimillionaire oil, copper, timber baron, or sole dollar individualism of any kind, if we had not granted special privileges but had instead maintained No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-38993582344494540282012-01-01T10:51:00.000-08:002012-01-01T11:02:02.813-08:00"Within the mind there is yet another mind.""Within the mind there is yet another mind.That mind within the mind: it is an awareness that precedes words. Only after there is awareness does it take shape; Only after it takes shape is there a word. Only after there is a word is it implemented; Only after it is implemented is there order. Without order, you will always be chaotic. If chaotic, you die."From Nei-yeh, chapter 14Start the new No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-44693157420883946222011-12-31T15:11:00.000-08:002011-12-31T15:17:32.262-08:00"Comrades and friends, let us join hands for the new year in the great work before us.""Christ gave his blood to enable the churches and department stores to do better business. If, on the right hand of the Heavenly Father, he does not swear and curse over this success to shock the very angels, his heart is a lamb’s indeed. ... Comrades and friends, let us join hands for the new year in the great work before us. The time has never been more ripe. The present is fast nearing itsNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-88816785056052434922011-12-27T07:50:00.000-08:002011-12-27T08:22:20.430-08:00"For there is nothing of which the ordinary American man and woman are more proud than of their magnates.""The American Magnate," from The Saturday Review, 21 February 1903:For there is nothing of which the ordinary American man and woman are more proud than of their magnates. They are an ideal for them in default of anything better; and though the avenues of success are being rapidly closed by the monopoly of the magnates little people go on dreaming that to them also it may be permitted in due No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-70486187266654428672011-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:002011-12-24T09:12:10.089-08:00"The reason why male privilege is so insidious is because of the insistance that it doesn't exist in the first place."[source]Harris O'Malley on geek culture, which has a lot to learn (or unlearn) when it comes to representing women in video games:The reason why male privilege is so insidious is because of the insistance that it doesn't exist in the first place. That willful ignorance is key in keeping it in place; by pretending that the issue doesn't exist, it is that much easier to ensure that nothing ever No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-9315769482368123802011-12-22T06:27:00.000-08:002011-12-22T06:43:15.787-08:00"If they looked at the world like public servants, and not like corporate executives...."[source]Matt Taibbi:Geithner seems really to believe that if fraud were aggressively policed, and the world made aware of the incredible extent of the illegality in our markets, that international confidence in the American financial sector would plummet and our economy would suffer – and suffer, incidentally, on Barack Obama’s watch.Better, apparently, the Band-Aid the problem now, and let the No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-3975035827919859112011-12-18T06:49:00.000-08:002011-12-18T06:54:33.522-08:00"When I was young I thought cops were cool."Nicholas K. Peart:Here are a few other facts: last year, the N.Y.P.D. recorded more than 600,000 stops; 84 percent of those stopped were blacks or Latinos. Police are far more likely to use force when stopping blacks or Latinos than whites. In half the stops police cite the vague “furtive movements” as the reason for the stop. Maybe black and brown people just look more furtive, whatever that No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-49110408104172215682011-12-17T22:17:00.000-08:002011-12-17T22:27:06.053-08:00"Now our houses they sag with sorrow of tomorrow's fate bestowed."The Rag Blog:The Gourds came out this fall with a highly praised and historically resonant Vanguard release, Old Mad Joy. They have four fine singers and songwriters and an astonishing facility with an array of instruments that include acoustic and bass and electric guitar, mandolin, accordion, violin, piano and organ, and drums. They blend strains and echoes of gospel, rock, blues, country, No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-15316221189095182002011-12-16T09:56:00.001-08:002011-12-16T10:19:48.529-08:00The war that never happenedN.Y. Times (Andrea Bruce):“We don’t put official paperwork in the trash,” said the commander, Maj. Gen. Thomas Richardson, at the meeting at the American Embassy in Baghdad.The documents were piled in military trailers and hauled to the junkyard by an Iraqi contractor who was trying to sell off the surplus from American bases, the junkyard attendant said. The attendant said he had no idea what No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-47864097671539572842011-12-15T17:11:00.000-08:002011-12-15T17:16:27.168-08:00"All too often, police (and U.S. soldiers as well) are viewed by a large percent of the general public as selfless heroes, noble souls."Phil Rockstroh:All too often, police (and U.S. soldiers as well) are viewed by a large percent of the general public as selfless heroes, noble souls, protecting life and liberty. And no matter how much evidence accumulates to the contrary, this image holds. How is it that so many can cling to the illusion that cops and soldiers — grownups, armed with deadly weaponry, and who have shown No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-34596834497679393042011-12-14T06:33:00.000-08:002011-12-14T06:37:28.476-08:00"Americans at the 95th income percentile or higher can expect to live nine years longer than those at the 10th percentile or lower."Elizabeth Gudrais:There is little question that it is bad for one’s health to be poor. Americans at the 95th income percentile or higher can expect to live nine years longer than those at the 10th percentile or lower. The poor are more likely to develop illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer, and there is evidence that relative deprivation and the stress it engenders No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-62717233976467896392011-12-11T12:58:00.000-08:002011-12-11T13:29:37.470-08:00"Buying and selling, and spending their lives like serfs. O Baker Farm!"Cornelius Browne:Thoreau talks of an Irish immigrant drawn to the dream of America as the land of the golden goose, where butter, bread, and money are plentiful. Although denied these things, he still dreams of potential access to material wealth, to things. Thoreau counters, ‘‘But the only true America is that country where you are at liberty to pursue such a mode of life as may enable you to doNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-65358881009701662882011-12-11T06:59:00.000-08:002011-12-11T09:50:30.299-08:00"In the end we can look back on our lives and remember all the great shows we watched on television; the great virtual escape from alienation."MWC News:The values and ethics of the most dominant forces have a tendency to find their way to the majority. If the individual is valued not as a mother or father, not as a friend or lover, not as a human being, but instead is valued as an object of work and not valued in terms of use value but instead in terms of exchange value, this will have a significant impact on the identity of the No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-68478016797489844962011-12-10T07:08:00.000-08:002011-12-10T09:50:50.622-08:00"Capitalism is ... a religion which offers not the reform of existence but its complete destruction.""This is a cult that engenders blame. Capitalism is ... the first case of a blaming, rather than a repenting cult."- Walter BenjaminWalter Benjamin, from "Capitalism as Religion" (1921):Capitalism is the celebration of a cult sans rêve et sans merci (without dream or mercy). There are no “weekdays.” There is no day that is not a feast day, in the terrible sense that all its sacred pomp is No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-45472023808242530482011-12-09T09:35:00.000-08:002011-12-10T06:59:43.521-08:00Obama makes James Inhofe very, very, very happyIf Obama thinks it's essential to please his Republican colleagues, he's succeeding admirably."I am making this announcement from Washington D.C., where I am confident the only person left talking about global warming is me. The message from the Washington to the U.N. delegates in South Africa is this, we could not be any clearer: You are being ignored."- James InhofeBut let's not forget the No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-10287430966051841112011-12-09T07:35:00.000-08:002011-12-10T09:53:55.025-08:00Who needs Jesus when Capitalism is our saviour?Jason Drew thinks capitalism will save the world from climate change:It’s a business world. It’s capitalism. We need people to buy our goods. If people don’t buy my goods, I haven’t got a business. So, therefore, we need to save those things. Two, three, four hundred thousand people in the Maldives, they all buy iPads, Coca-Cola, all the products we know. If they don’t exist anymore, the No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-40542951221742593332011-12-07T20:00:00.000-08:002011-12-07T20:08:08.133-08:00"Why do they hate women so much..."A N.Y. Times commenter:Disgusting and humiliating.The pregnancy and childbirth carry many more risks than taking this pill!The girl who cannot get Plan B WILL NOT go to the doctor, because it's too much hassle and she hopes she didn't get pregnant anyway, or because she has no insurance, or because she is illegally in this country, or because she has no money to pay for doctor visit. So she will No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-18523115798468942692011-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:002011-12-05T17:09:43.632-08:00"Moving beyond capitalism and the rule of corporate power and its machinery of profit making."Do you do the Extraenvironmentalist? I hope so. This weeks episode is with David McNally, author of Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance.From the book reviews:"In this book, McNally confirms – once again – his standing as one of the world's leading Marxist scholars of capitalism. For a scholarly, in depth analysis of our current crisis that never loses sight of itsNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-63049807316782695202011-12-03T16:14:00.000-08:002011-12-03T16:34:48.372-08:00Bye Bye, Mr. Pizza Pie![source]"It is so easy to lose personal freshness."- Samuel Beckett, MurphyNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-73426141558617269662011-12-02T07:59:00.000-08:002011-12-02T08:17:40.233-08:00"Americans seem to have lost the capacity to think seriously about the structure of their own society."Lawrence Goodwyn, from The Populist Moment (1978), p. 315-322:Americans seem to have lost the capacity to think seriously about the structure of their own society. Words like 'inevitability,' 'efficiency,' and 'modernization' are passively accepted as the operative explanations for the increasingly hierarchical nature of contemporary life.[...]Inexorably, the consolidation of economic power No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-61388302668386928772011-12-02T06:34:00.000-08:002011-12-02T06:35:55.569-08:00"A serious shortage of women."Broadsnark:I moseyed over to Occupy K Street last night for the general assembly and the action committee meeting. Not much to say about the GA – except maybe to mention that there was a serious shortage of women. Of the two that spoke, one offered to take notes and the other was reporting back from the committee that cleans and does dishes. I’ll let you make your own comments.No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-76680791775074508772011-11-30T19:08:00.000-08:002011-11-30T19:15:49.967-08:00"As they were throwing out the books, a fellow OWS librarian asked one of the NYPD patrolmen why they were doing this. His answer: 'I don’t know.'"William Scott:The NYPD first barricaded the library by lining up in front of it, forming an impenetrable wall of cops. An officer then announced through a bullhorn that we should come and collect our books, or they would be confiscated and removed. Seconds later, they began dumping books into trash bins that they had wheeled into the park for that purpose. As they were throwing out the books, a No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-37926035187992455872011-11-30T06:34:00.000-08:002011-11-30T19:10:48.338-08:00"You want to make a difference you do it the Tea Party way and protest during the day and then go home and go to work the next day."Someone somewhere in America:Croni-Capitalism is a real thing but is was created by Big Governemnt that over extended it's Constitutional powers by bailing out banks and corporations and creating a Lite American Facsim. Croni-Capitalism is not caused by Capitalism, again it is caused by Big Government tampering with Capitalism when it should not be involved in the free market. Instead OWS is No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-63074476320871152242011-11-29T19:53:00.000-08:002011-11-29T20:06:09.196-08:00"There is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs.""What they are attempting to do is funnel you back into that dead system. The power of the Occupy movement is that it won't go there. ... There is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs."- Chris Hedges(h/t Louis Proyect)No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-78454910474643369122011-11-29T08:24:00.000-08:002011-11-29T08:27:06.502-08:00"Our daily lives have lost all directness, all authenticity; we are full of lies and conformity."Edward Carpenter, from Angel's Wings (1898):I say the scramble for existence has so far dominated society in the past, that the mass of men have worked, not to create, not to create round themselves a world answering to the world within; but simply in a negative way, to avoid penury, to avoid starvation, to satisfy one or two beggarly needs, to please their masters. But such work expresses No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-18151768517435893922011-11-28T10:20:00.000-08:002011-11-28T10:21:49.070-08:00Letter To the Editor of the L.A. TimesI wish I was smart enough to write this. But I didn't.
The best (least) I can do is to take the time to sign it!
Vigilantenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-59944592605292350502011-11-27T10:35:00.000-08:002011-11-27T15:03:21.276-08:00"There is a cold dead blue spot where my patriotism used to be."OHollern:I don’t feel any pride at being an American anymore, or at least not much. There is a cold dead blue spot where my patriotism used to be. The Stars and Stripes don’t stir me any more than the flags of Belize or Tonga. It is the banner of an increasingly repressive and reactionary power that, on issue after issue, is on the wrong side of history. Old Glory may as well be a freakin’ No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-59411091494537936402011-11-26T08:14:00.000-08:002011-11-26T08:22:38.639-08:00"Our own national leaders ... are now making war upon us."Naomi Wolf:The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality.[...]So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of theNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-22465620491346026632011-11-24T06:31:00.000-08:002011-11-24T21:06:22.949-08:00How not to cook a Thanksgiving turkey[source]No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-85177494305221351042011-11-22T20:48:00.000-08:002011-11-22T20:58:54.281-08:00"Backpedaling and obfuscation ... used by the powers that be every time there is an act of police violence.""There is no place on our campus for administrators who order the use of force against peaceful protesters."- Nathan BrownNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-15105897168341973272011-11-22T18:40:00.000-08:002011-11-22T19:19:16.240-08:00"I’m never shocked when powerful people abuse others. I’m shocked when they don’t."[source]Katehi is calling for the study of new protocols to handle student protests. The only protocols that need to be studied are inside Katehi's head and involve her willingness to abuse power!Mel:People pursue power in order to take the things they want without having to consider other people. They pursue power to lessen the likelihood of having to suffer any consequences for acting on theirNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-36965467569361006112011-11-22T06:37:00.000-08:002011-11-22T06:41:39.702-08:00"She has shown herself to be manifestly unfit for the job of educator -- and to be a gutless prevaricator to boot."Sir Charles of DC:The police and the military have fundamentally different missions. The military when deployed, no matter how much we like to sanitize things, is basically intended for the purposes of killing people -- it is designed to bring overwhelming deadly force to bear. The police, by contrast, are supposed to preserve peace and order by using the minimal necessary force -- and No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-59920126016685942772011-11-21T17:01:00.000-08:002011-11-22T06:37:42.556-08:00"The point right now is to break the collective imagination out of it's Matrix-like cocoon and force people to choose a pill.""Open you eyes. Time to wake up.Enough is enough is enough is enough."troutsky:Everyone wants Occupy to come up with "concrete actions" and pragmatic demands. I am going to go with theatrical, symbolic actions and demanding the impossible. Full employment and National wages and pensions for all. Just to get us started. A democratic economy with fossil free production. Anything I am missing? The No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-976265455277111362011-11-21T13:03:00.000-08:002011-11-21T13:08:08.541-08:00"A militarized university under a belligerent, violent and cruel chancellor."No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-55796295018093769612011-11-20T09:28:00.000-08:002011-11-20T10:26:14.605-08:00"We are outraged that the administrations of UC campuses are using police brutality to suppress dissent, free speech and peaceful assembly."The board of the Council of UC Faculty Associations:This week, we have seen excessive force used against non-violent protesters at UC Berkeley, UCLA, CSU Long Beach, and UC Davis. Student, faculty and staff protesters have been pepper-sprayed directly in the eyes and mouth, beaten and shoved by batons, dragged by the arms while handcuffed, and submitted to other forms of excessive force. No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-39737927293233336732011-11-19T09:35:00.000-08:002011-11-19T09:56:21.728-08:00The 1% have the pepper spray guns, the 99% have the truth!The police-state at work in California!"You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation."- Nathan BrownGonzalo Lira:A police-state uses the law as a mechanism to control any challenges to No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-72761468714826849222011-11-18T06:29:00.000-08:002011-11-18T06:33:33.758-08:00"You have destroyed the greatest enemy to freedom, and the greatest ally of the ruling class: Apathy."Redditor Aniadrift:People will tell you that you fight in vain, that you are accomplishing nothing, that you have no direction, that your actions are pointless. But your actions are far from this. You have destroyed the greatest enemy to freedom, and the greatest ally of the ruling class: Apathy.I see these people out in the streets and I know now that this movement cannot be stopped. That No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-49813779129481144512011-11-17T18:01:00.000-08:002011-11-17T18:03:39.712-08:00"American Dream = Park Place, American Reality = Park Bench"Charles Davis:Shaking from the cold at 3 in the morning on a park bench a few blocks from the White House, warmed only by a paper-thin prison blanket an empathetic passer-by had gifted me, I couldn't help but think: man, am I a bad ass or what?Well, not really. Mostly I thought about being cold and whether my overwhelmingly witty sign – American Dream = Park Place, American Reality = Park Bench –No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-91415095049860380092011-11-16T17:20:00.001-08:002011-11-16T17:21:50.884-08:00All power to the Occupiers!No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-57952899890722398932011-11-15T19:01:00.000-08:002011-11-15T19:50:01.945-08:00"You cannot evict an idea whose time has come."[source]Occupy Wall Street:We will push back against billionaire Michael Bloomberg and any politician who wantonly tramples on proud American freedoms: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom of Americans to peaceably assemble and petition for change.We will overcome the obstacles placed before us. We will not be deterred. We will persevere. Our message is resonating across No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-2398320488106739672011-11-15T06:30:00.001-08:002011-11-15T06:52:34.830-08:00They can clean the protesters out of Zuccotti Park, they'll never clean the scum up on Wall Street.N.Y. Times commenter patois:I hope this makes those who were not already convinced realize that the rights of all Americans, the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and laws under which this country was founded are all under siege. More to the point, the enforcement and application of these laws have now been bought by the 1%. Sanitation trumps democracy in New York City. Make no laws respecting the No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-16251877190402644872011-11-11T18:15:00.000-08:002011-11-11T18:18:54.564-08:00"Are corporate profits more important than life on Earth?"Rand Clifford:Advocates call the Alberta tar sands, “oil sands”. Well, not “oil”, we are talking about bitumen. Tar. And we’re not talking about an “oil pipeline”, Keystone XL would be a highly-pressurized (1440 pounds per square inch) pipeline to squeeze along fiendishly-toxic, corrosive and abrasive “dilbit” (diluted bitumen) that has already taken almost as much fossil energy to extract No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-43217194686553195982011-11-11T16:13:00.000-08:002011-11-11T16:33:46.748-08:00"Saturday needs to be about the players, about Penn State and not about the scandal that has engulfed our community."Still in denial over at Penn State."They got a gigantic game."No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-21771987164543442052011-11-11T11:16:00.000-08:002011-11-11T16:13:25.836-08:00"We have learned ... to live comfortably with all these floating and empty signifiers such as Democracy and Politics or The Left."Troutsky:We have learned in our post-modern world to live comfortably with all these floating and empty signifiers such as Democracy and Politics or The Left. I am ok with indeterminancy, but not with the lack of debate and discussion which has been the hallmark of the last 40 years. So now when a Moment or Event opens up, citizens have no consensus on what consensus means or what citizen No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-22250584150322211192011-11-11T11:11:00.000-08:002011-11-11T11:15:36.816-08:00"Ask yourself if you’re content with your relatively high quality of life being possible thanks to the poor quality of life of others elsewhere."Mickey Z:So, are you or are you not part of the 99%? To assist with this appraisal, I suggest you ask yourself if you’re content with your relatively high quality of life being possible thanks to the poor quality of life of others elsewhere. Ask yourself if you’re content with your relative freedom being possible thanks to the oppression of others elsewhere.Ask yourself: If our way of life is No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-61132857317293800732011-11-10T06:53:00.000-08:002011-11-10T06:55:37.051-08:00Republicans' True Colors Never FadeJohn McCain says an overseas profit repatriation tax holiday would give a worthwhile boost to the U.S. economy. He said at the Reuters Washington Summit,If you brought $1.5 trillion back to the United States of America, it's bound to have some positive effect somewhere. I don't see how it would not. Even if they buy more yachts and ... corporate jets and all that, it's bound to have some Vigilantenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-33419965940938518682011-11-09T19:55:00.000-08:002011-11-09T20:13:28.979-08:00"People worship their oppressors.""Don't we know what a troll is yet? Rush Limbaugh is there to make sure the conversation never gets to anywhere that it matters. ... I'm embarrassed by this country a lot, by its stupidity and shallowness. I'm disturbed by how people worship their oppressors. And that's what fascists get you to do."- Barry CrimminsNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-87661132405747562772011-11-09T06:42:00.000-08:002011-11-09T19:36:12.980-08:00"It baffles me that people ... still think it’s individuals in foreclosure who need to be lectured about 'personal responsibility.'"Matt Taibbi: But from what I’ve seen, most foreclosures involve ordinary people with jobs who bought houses when the economy was good, but are caught now in the triple death-trap of an underwater home, rising costs of living, and declining wages and opportunity. And as far as personal responsibility goes, those people who bought that home-ownership ticket, if they missed payments, they’reNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-2203388251429911122011-11-07T18:12:00.000-08:002011-11-07T18:39:08.485-08:00"Inhabit an inner landscape wherein no state, corporation–nor any type of extant system holds dominion over your essential self."Come home. Surf blogs. See new pieces by favorites OHollern, Rockstroh, and Crimmins. Yes!Here's some Rockstroh:The stakes are great. Much has been stolen from us: essential qualities, more valuable than money. As the populace of the corporate/consumer state, we have been induced, by means of small bribes and hyper-authoritarian coercion, to sign a social contract that sells our essential No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-88336220270474043162011-11-07T17:34:00.000-08:002011-11-07T17:46:14.403-08:00"There are no innocent victims of drone attacks."Glenn Greenwald:Many people want to hear nothing about these victims — like Tariq — because they don’t want to accept that the leader for whom they cheer and the drone attacks they support are regularly ending the lives of large numbers of innocent people, including children. They believe the fairy tale that the U.S. is only killing Terrorists and “militants” because they want to believe it No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-22246793162838102512011-11-05T18:18:00.000-07:002011-11-05T18:28:51.540-07:00"The demand for industriousness and also for saving, self-denial, is made not upon the capitalists but on the workers."[source: original]"Hence still today the demand for industriousness and also for saving, self-denial, is made not upon the capitalists but on the workers, and namely by the capitalists. Society today makes the paradoxical demand that he for whom the object of exchange is subsistence should deny himself, not he for whom it is wealth." - Karl Marx, Grundrisse, 1857(h/t :Lady Poverty)No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-74538024755767795462011-11-05T17:43:00.000-07:002011-11-05T17:45:39.029-07:00"Questions of fact cannot be resolved on the basis of ideological commitments."Noam Chomsky said that.No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-69925829092278263202011-11-02T19:11:00.000-07:002011-11-02T19:20:40.901-07:00"The Occupy movements could provide a mass base for trying to avert what amounts to a dagger in the heart of the country."Transcript."Well, now the world is indeed splitting into a plutonomy and a precariat, again in the imagery of the Occupy movement, the 1 percent and the 99 percent. The plutonomy is where the action is. It could continue like this, and if it does, then this historic reversal that began in the 1970s could become irreversible. That’s where we’re heading. The Occupy movements are the first major No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-29487033389657592372011-11-01T18:17:00.000-07:002011-11-01T18:37:11.387-07:00"If we scale up big enough we might be able to take care of the whole street population of Manhattan.”Jon Friesen (interviewed by Chris Hedges): "Everyone is being taken care of here. As long as you’re nonviolent, you’re taken care of. And when you do that you draw all sorts of people, including those people who have problematic behavior. If we scale up big enough we might be able to take care of the whole street population of Manhattan.”N.Y. Times:From Los Angeles to Wall Street, from DenverNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-83060678521306514742011-11-01T06:41:00.000-07:002011-11-01T07:02:35.215-07:00"Men are rational, practical, survivors; while women are stupid, inefficient and sentimental."Yan Basque on The Walking Dead, Episode One, which I watched last night.1. One woman at the camp near the end of the episode, whose character is only onscreen for this one scene, is so stupid and useless, she doesn't know that in order to respond to someone on a CB radio, you have the push the button. Seriously. I'm pretty sure most people have seen enough of those things on television, No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-23767695990784377332011-10-31T18:42:00.000-07:002011-10-31T19:15:54.577-07:00"Round and round in one barren path, a little money, a little food and sleep, some ancient fables, old age and death."[source]Richard Jefferies, from The Story of My Heart (1883):From my home near London I made a pilgrimage almost daily to an aspen by a brook. It was a mile and a quarter along the road, far enough for me to walk off the concentration of mind necessary for work. The idea of the pilgrimage was to get away from the endless and nameless circumstances of everyday existence, which by degrees build a No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-6890652058971065952011-10-30T11:36:00.000-07:002011-10-30T11:43:44.333-07:00"Our message is, 'Stop pretending. You know what to do. Start doing it.' Occupy Wall Street is about exposing the truth."Charles Eisenstein:Occupy Wall Street has been criticized for its lack of clear demands, but how do we issue demands, when what we really want is nothing less than the more beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible? No demand is big enough. We could make lists of demands for new public policies: tax the wealthy, raise the minimum wage, protect the environment, end the wars, regulate theNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-7154830943554044802011-10-29T12:40:00.000-07:002011-10-29T12:42:13.061-07:00"Scott Olsen's injury shows whose interests he served in Iraq."Dennis Perrin:Scott Olsen's injury shows whose interests he served in Iraq. I'm sure he once considered it a patriotic duty, a form of Homeland defense. His joining Iraq Veterans Against the War denotes a change in perspective. His joining the Occupy movement demonstrates engagement with genuine democratic forces.Keith Shannon, a fellow Iraq vet, said, “Scott was marching with the 99% No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-51129700140151884152011-10-28T09:25:00.000-07:002011-10-28T09:39:38.118-07:00Lawn care trumps the right to peaceably assemble."It is everybody’s lawn, not just those with their tents right now."- L.A. Councilman Bill RosendahlNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-1366065436277524962011-10-27T18:35:00.000-07:002011-10-27T18:41:52.822-07:00"This is only the beginning. We are all Scott Olsen.""We will not be afraid, we will not be silenced, we will not stand quietly while police brutalize peaceful occupiers. We fight for true democracy, and we fight to end the tyranny of the 1%. This is only the beginning. We are all Scott Olsen."- Occupy Wall StreetNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-39273519278551634952011-10-27T08:36:00.000-07:002011-10-27T08:54:09.053-07:00When sanitation trumps free speech and the right to peaceably assembleALM a N.Y. Times commenter:Democracy isn't always clean and tidy. It's loud, messy, and yes, sometimes even unsanitary. But I much prefer the exercise of free speech that I have participated in on the streets to the free speech opportunities afforded corporate lobbyists, invited by politicians to "help" them write legislation. It's way past time for our voices to be heard. And if politiciansNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-53599731842323198372011-10-24T20:41:00.000-07:002011-10-25T18:33:48.237-07:00"If the Occupy movement had only one demand that would address all of those demands attributed to it, it should be to abolish monopoly capitalism."Ron Jacobs:Call it what you want — globalization, global capitalism or imperialism — the fact is that all of the ills highlighted by the Occupy movement are economic at their most fundamental. The only way to cure them is to end the economic system which by its very nature created those ills.[...]It is no longer possible to reform capitalism. Its current ruthlessness is unsurpassed in human No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-82866048474128114572011-10-24T20:07:00.000-07:002011-10-24T20:09:01.676-07:00"It is impossible to create a society that is both just and capitalist."Michael Yates said that.No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-63091173939968132392011-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:002011-10-24T20:21:12.479-07:00Let the vagueness and the vision blossom at the Occupy movements.[source] "Many a man has cherished for years as his hobby some vague shadow of an idea, too meaningless to be positively false; he has, nevertheless, passionately loved it, has made it his companion by day and by night, and has given to it his strength and his life, leaving all other occupations for its sake, and in short has lived with it and for it, until it has become, as it were, flesh No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-17903114394290218082011-10-23T11:20:00.000-07:002011-10-23T11:27:41.239-07:00"Every day our rights get taken away. ... W'ere turned into slaves in our own country. ... They just keep hammering us."Don't miss this C-Realm podcast from Occupy Wall Street. The highlight is the union iron worker who is interviewed at the 15:20 minute mark.No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-51174504776217780062011-10-23T11:12:00.000-07:002011-10-23T11:13:46.485-07:00"In the tug of war between Main Street and Wall Street, Obama has made his loyalties clear."Commentary by Heather Gautney at the Washington Post:Is democracy even possible in a context of extreme instability and social inequality, in which 1 percent of the population owns and polices the other 99 percent? And who, among our distinguished set of 2012 candidates, really wants to narrow this gap?[…]Then there’s Barack Obama. The guy we all wanted to love. With his usual charm, he No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-18684900659712351452011-10-23T10:42:00.000-07:002011-10-23T10:57:06.820-07:00"This person will buckle on many, many things ... he is crisis averse to the point of being malleable by his worst enemies."[source]David Bromwich teaches English lit at Yale. He did a great job of explaining Obama's "pusillanimous" leadership on a recent Radio Open Source interview. Check it out. Earlier interviews are available here and here as well."He's a leader in a smaller scale way, not one who finds the magnetic force that unites people, but rather tries to make the sum come out right ... It's what most No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-19802265276139420992011-10-23T08:48:00.000-07:002011-10-23T09:20:39.413-07:00We are the 99%, ambivalent about the homelessgnomedigest reporting on Occupy Raleigh:Another ongoing development has to do with the homeless community. More are coming to our sidewalk occupation. At first it was just giving them food and water and then they would move on. This caused no problems and everyone was happy to help. Then we started having mild altercations with homeless who were drunk or mentally unstable. At one point a drunk No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-41051727700476256432011-10-22T11:35:00.000-07:002011-10-22T11:40:49.047-07:00"This whole OWS movement is 'scary' for the elite because it does not adhere to institutionalized patterns. There seems to be no head to lop off."[source]Rand Clifford:This whole OWS movement is “scary” for the elite because it does not adhere to institutionalized patterns. There seems to be no head to lop off. Plus, the movement does not fall into Corporatocracy’s standardized traps—but seems to dance around them, even taking bait without springing the traps. Established rules of engagement are being ignored.[...]Thousands of No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-27408740346475678912011-10-21T06:44:00.000-07:002011-10-22T11:35:14.175-07:00"NPR objects to my exercising my rights as an American citizen."Lisa Simeone:"I find it puzzling that NPR objects to my exercising my rights as an American citizen -- the right to free speech, the right to peaceable assembly -- on my own time in my own life. I'm not an NPR employee. I'm a freelancer. NPR doesn't pay me. I'm also not a news reporter. I don't cover politics. I've never brought a whiff of my political activities into the work I've No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-76237398173624123342011-10-20T19:35:00.000-07:002011-10-21T07:53:23.962-07:00Obama's greatest legacy will be the fact that he brought on a crisis of democracy by refusing to take the people's interests to heart.In April 2009, I scribbled a few short lines that reflected a deep discomfort with the Obama administration:The banks are getting whatever they want, no questions asked.They will continue to get whatever they want, no questions asked.All of the economic inequality that is destroying the fabric of this country will continue unchecked throughout the Obama administration.The disparities between No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-3760050156702634692011-10-20T18:02:00.000-07:002011-10-20T18:07:02.454-07:00"Capitalism is a system of minority rule, and the principal beneficiaries of capitalist democracy are the small minority of exploiting capitalists."From a beautiful speech by James Cannon in 1957:Capitalism, under any kind of government—whether bourgeois democracy or fascism or a military police state—under any kind of government, capitalism is a system of minority rule, and the principal beneficiaries of capitalist democracy are the small minority of exploiting capitalists; scarcely less so than the slaveowners of ancient times were the No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-60388606637938299762011-10-20T17:33:00.000-07:002011-10-20T17:48:21.980-07:00"I'm a ft mom and nursing student w/ 3 pt jobs. My president calls that American. I call it slavery."[source: Occupy Wall Street Care Packages]Check out all the wonderful letters of support!No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-28954913898871230922011-10-19T18:22:00.000-07:002011-10-19T18:24:05.243-07:00“Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.”David Cay Johnston:Aristotle taught, “Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.” That ancient insight may be unknown to many of the demonstrators, but the concept imbues Occupy Wall Street, which has the potential to change America from what Aristotle would describe as an oligarchy back into a representative democracy.No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-12449696050594628252011-10-19T06:31:00.000-07:002011-10-19T06:38:59.150-07:00"Said Assembly shall convene on July 4, 2012 in the city of Philadelphia."From the 99 Percent Declaration:The People, consisting of all United States citizens who have reached the age of 18, regardless of party affiliation and voter registration status, shall elect Two Delegates, one male and one female, by direct vote, from each of the existing 435 Congressional Districts to represent the People at the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY in Philadelphia. Said Assembly shall No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-12544141040536225062011-10-15T07:21:00.000-07:002011-10-16T10:57:21.369-07:00"Patriotism is a lie."John D. Rich, Jr.:Patriotism is a lie, and its potential for evil is continually stoked by governments in order to justify a never-ending cycle of war. Until we reject the unspiritual notion that any country is better than any other, and until we inspire a generation of people who will refuse to murder under orders from violent institutions (e.g. the state and the church), we will continue to No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-83518087628311066042011-10-14T07:28:00.000-07:002011-10-14T09:35:34.604-07:00Hard work is not a guarantee of success. If it was, there would be a lot more rich people. “If you’re not rich, don’t blame the rich -- get out there and work for it. You have to earn it.”- Herman Cain to Occupy Wall Street Protesters"It’s not a person’s fault because they succeeded. It is a person’s fault if they failed."- Herman CainNot everyone wants to be a pizza mogul.Not everyone wants a dog-eat-dog democracy.Not everyone wants to devastate the planet by living a wealthy, No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-78165309443912563112011-10-14T06:37:00.000-07:002011-10-14T06:56:16.330-07:00"Growing inequality is ... the consequence of uncontested employer power.""There is no remorse."- Richard SennettMichael D. Yates:Marx argued that capitalist societies tended to exhibit poles of wealth and misery, with each pole tightly connected to the other. This prediction has been dismissed by mainstream thinkers, who argue that while there might have been some truth to it in capitalism’s early years, the advanced capitalist countries have shown that all boats tendNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-29406080655516189432011-10-11T19:11:00.000-07:002011-10-11T20:46:44.547-07:00We have a winterization committee. ... And we are going to stay until we see real-life, systematic change in how America works.""Tonight, in the glow of your faces, I see new life coming into this world out of the ashes of a system that has failed all of us."Phil Anderson of Occupy Boston:"We have a winterization committee. We have medical teams preparing anything needed for the winter. So we are going to be fully prepared to stick out the whole winter here. And we are going to stay until we see real-life, systematic No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-26763713060236467152011-10-10T18:33:00.000-07:002011-10-10T19:00:42.827-07:00"Beware not only of the enemies, but also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process."[part 2, part 3]Slavoj Žižek at Occupy Wall Street:Don’t fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember, carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after, when we will have to return to normal lives. Will there be any changes then? I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like “Oh. we were young and it was beautiful.” Remember that our basic message is “We are No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-75989615700637614292011-10-09T13:17:00.001-07:002011-10-09T13:38:12.803-07:00Occupied Nation![source: Occupy Everywhere]View Occupy Everywhere in a larger map"Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is."- Naomi KleinNo. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-37075914689898672392011-10-09T11:21:00.000-07:002011-10-09T11:34:56.012-07:00"We the 99%, are not the pawns of either wing of the two-party oligarchy."David DeGraw:We appreciate, respect and encourage endorsements from individuals and organizations. We invite them. However, just because an individual or organization endorses our movement, does not mean that they in any way have a leadership role in deciding the future direction of this movement. We will not be co-opted by hierarchical organizations. No matter how wonderful their cause may No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-24249241562807911462011-10-08T08:40:00.000-07:002011-10-08T08:57:20.798-07:00"This country has suffered enough from the plutocrats."Michael Tracey:On Monday afternoon, an elderly man approached me on the corner of Broadway and Cedar St. to ask if I was covering the demonstration. He had a comment. "I'll be 89 this month," the man said. "I served in the United States Navy during World War II. I remember the Great Depression, when my parents had to go [on relief]. And I realized that this is a wonderful country, but there are No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-38346195250099049032011-10-07T17:11:00.000-07:002011-10-07T17:33:30.541-07:00"This movement is not about demanding reform from entities which have already proven themselves incapable of it. It's about true revolution."Karen Garcia:The question is not whether the Obama Administration will take the protests seriously. The question is whether the protesters will take the president seriously. How can they, given that he has stuffed his office with the very malefactors who caused the financial debacle in the first place?Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was one of the cheerleaders of the repeal of the No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-20937141526510519742011-10-06T17:50:00.000-07:002011-10-06T18:14:14.995-07:00"They should put the movement first and not bow to any Democratic Party or liberal organization operatives who seek to channel the movement."I don't feel you anymoreYou darken my doorWhatever you're looking forHey, don't come around here no more-Tom PettyKevin Gosztola:What should the Occupy Wall Street organizers do? They should continue on the path they were on prior to all the labor and Democratic Party support. They should put the movement first and not bow to any Democratic Party or liberal organization operatives who seek to No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-69407451003864078732011-10-06T12:57:00.000-07:002011-10-06T12:59:26.400-07:00"We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies."No. 44noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22611500.post-35295878688621545712011-10-06T12:44:00.000-07:002011-10-06T12:49:09.683-07:00"I can't wait to get the chance to bust your face in."That was San Francisco Police Officer Pascua (#4014) to multiple participants in Occupy San Francisco last night.No. 44noreply@blogger.com0