Still walking like an Egyptian!

OccupyDC, the Freedom Plaza Occupiers, and local Egyptian-American activists joined up today to march in solidarity with the revolutionaries at Tahrir Square, Cairo, visiting the downtown HQ of the Egyptian Defense Office. Marchers demanded the release of 12,000 citizens and activists held by the Egyptian SCAF (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) junta, an end to military trials for civilians, and a proper trial for ex-dictator Mubarak as opposed to “a theatrical irony”.

Continue reading "Solidarity, from McPherson to Tahrir" »

After a decade of observing police thuggery against protests in Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York City along with the recent police attacks on unarmed protesters at Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland, and comparing it against similar scenes I witnessed in video from Athens, Bahrain and Cairo, I can’t help but conclude that Nonviolence™ is an ideological luxury affordable only to the cushy-living white middle-class activists of the United States.

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For your further enjoyment:
Ward Churchill’s Pacifism As Pathology (pdf download).
Review of Peter Gelderloos’ How Nonviolence Protects The State, at OpEdNews.

Oakland police raid Occupy Oakland, 10.25.11, 5am:

Oakland riot police turn Occupy Oakland scene into war zone:

More video of Oakland police attack on Occupy Oakland here.

Continue reading "Nonviolence…?" »

The consensus over here on the Left is that there is a danger to the Occupy Movement far greater than any amount of pepper spray, mace, tear gas or blunt force trauma that could be dished out by various metropolitan police departments, or any amount of buffoonish insults crapped out by Fox News — and that is the danger of being co-opted by the Democratic Party in the form of its various front groups. On the upside, though, this generation of dissidents seems less likely to fall for Democratic Party snake oil, unlike their older comrades who came out of Seattle/WTO, “A16″, and the early ’00s peace movement.

The Democrats’ co-optation attempts are especially galling in the context of the latest news of the Obama re-election campaign fundraising efforts. They’re continuing the pace set during the ‘08 campaign, when the Democrats first surged ahead of the GOP in the amount of campaign cash coming from Wall Street and the banksters.

Not only that, but it’s right out in the open, butt-assed naked, reported on the front page of this past Thursday’s Washington Post. The real “money shot” comes eight paragraphs deep:

Obama’s ties to Wall Street donors could complicate Democratic plans to paint Republicans as puppets of the financial industry, particularly in light of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have gone global over the past week.

“Could complicate Democratic plans”? No shit, Sherlock.

Of course, this inconvenient truth won’t stop the likes of Michael Moore, the AFL-CIO, MoveOn and the Progressive Democrats Of America from trying to weasel their way in and divert the movement’s energy down the Democratic Electoral Black Hole anyway, because that’s just the way they are — exploitive, manipulative, parasitic, amoral.

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Continue reading "Infiltrator!" »

As if the celebrities and Liberal politicians barging in on the Occupy Movement aren’t bad enough, now the movement’s having to contend with Mr. Wall Street Water Boy himself, President Barack Sparkle Pony Obama, claiming support for the protests, although in classic Obama fashion, he waters it down by pleading with them to not “demonize” the banksters and brokers. Yes, the man who pushed the Democrats ahead of the GOP in the Wall Street Campaign Donations Department in 2008, whose Treasury Department maintains a revolving door with Goldman Sachs and who, in this year’s Presidential campaign, has already set a record at shuffling for investment bankers and stock brokerages, has sent a shout-out to Occupy Wall Street. What’s worse is that despite Obama’s obvious, shallow election-cycle pandering to the Left and his ongoing brown-nosing of Wall Street and the bankster scum, the Tea Party crowd still insists on claiming that he sincerely supports the Occupiers — and, of course, that he’s a Marxist.

With that in mind, here’s a little bit of ammo for you to use on those Teabagger nutcakes who try to connect President Sparkle Pony to the Occupy Movement, even though anyone who didn’t ride the short bus to school knows he’s been Wall Street’s boy for years, and is simply trying to pander to the movement and exploit it in classic Democratic Party fashion.

Americans for Campaign Reform: Both parties profit from Wall Street
Sourcewatch: 2008 Obama campaign financing: more donations from investment banks, hedge funds, and Wall Street
Obama Taps Wall Street for Dollars, Washington Post 07.16.07

Just a little reminder that the Democratic Party is no more a friend of the workers than the GOP. Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberly had it totally nailed down when she tweeted a warning to the Occupy Movement to “don’t let the Dems in”.

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Continue reading "We Are The 1%" »