The 21st century with its instant access to evil tidings can be hard on a news junkie. Real-time updates about the billionaire Mayor of Wall Street sending cops out to slug city councilmen and jug reporters whenever they’re not otherwise occupied fixing tickets or kicking the shit out of the citizenry are guaranteed to raise the blood pressure and trigger the deadly head-desk effect (thud, ow, thud, ow, thud, ow).
Occupy Wall Street’s muddled message doesn’t resonate with everyone (though OWS does poll surprisingly well). But even those who dislike the movement should agree that the government has no business manhandling the media as they struggle to figure out and explain to the curious folks Occupying their couches just what class of something is happening here (what it is ain’t exactly clear).
Since when do U.S. cops get to arrest journalists, ignore court orders and in general behave like SA brownshirts? Who thinks the militarized police attacks on protests in NYC, Oakland and Chapel Hills were smart strategically, tactically or financially? Since when does repression quell expression?
Jesus. I finally had to leave the office to Occupy Palmer Park for an hour, me and the Voodoo Nakisi. Neither of us got beat up, arrested or even had our First Amendment rights violated.
Mad Blog Media 
You’re right Patrick. Up ’till the time they started to violently break up these protests nothing much was heard about them over here unless you read the IHT. But once they started kicking and beating people, video clips were all over the Italian TV news. These plutocrats are scared, very scared.
One lefty blogger I read (can’t remember which; there are so many) noted of the stories coming out of Oakland, Denver, Seattle, New York and Chapel Hills: “All you need to do is change the dateline to Cairo.” Truer words, etc. Spreading democracy throughout the world, crushing it at home. Such a fine example we set.
Can anyone say “Kent State”?
Yeah, unfortunately. Sooner or later some cop is gonna lose it and pop a cap in someone’s ass and then all bets are off.
1. Buddy is much smaller than I thought. He knows how to strike a pose.
2. Bloomberg is disgusting. What a way to jump the shark.
3. Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, and Gerry Jennings, the mayor of Albany, the capital of NY, have started to arrest occupiers for violating a newly enacted curfew! So far the DA is not charging the protesters
Libby, he’s an itty bitty for sure; 17 pounds, is all. When he’s not posing, he does a couple deals common to the breed: the “Chin Spin,” which involves leaping high in the air and whirling like a dervish; and a wriggling along in the grass on his back with all four paws up in the air, gurgling like a partially clogged toilet attempting a flush. The cats watch this with distaste, as they are Occupiers who decline to act the fool for The Man.
Good on the Albany DA. I’d heard their office was being sensible, like the Nashville magistrate who was releasing arrested Occupiers as soon as the cops dragged them in.
Can anyone say “1960’s”? About time we got some pushback against this folly.
NPR had Robert Reich on the air this morning reminding us that the US economy has actually doubled. Its just mostly gone into the pockets of the rich. I’m not a Marxist (yet), but at some point, such wealth distributions are the script for a breakdown of democracy (largely already happened), despair, and armed revolution. I’d rather not see Uncle Sam go there. We lived with Dems and Reps when I was a kid and both sides had adults in charge. WTF happened is beyond me. Greed has led to lies, and ignorance to the countenance of lies.
I was a Marxist — Marxist-Leninist, actually, hooked up with former SDS honch’ Mike Klonsky’s October League, later rebranded as the Communist Party (M-L). I kind of lost interest when nobody could explain to me how the State would wither away. It reminded me of walking on water, the dead rising and stones being rolled away from empty tombs.
But I’m damned if I can see much practical value in representative democracy lately. It seems increasingly clear that we the people are not the small-d democrats being represented.
Wow, Patrick. Does that mean I should report myself as consorting with Commies?
Like Marxism, the popular brand of Republicanism these days is based on theology rather than reason. Some of these folks have traded their Bibles for Atlas Shrugged. But the way I see it, we are more likely these days to have the common citizen withdraw and not give a shit because he or she doesn’t enjoy the fruits of their labor (when they have any to enjoy) nor have any voice in either the workplace or in governance. We have thirty years of history of deregulation. The rich are not withdrawing, they are stealing us blind.
Its nice to see the recall petition going on in Wisconsin. if nothing else, it rallies people to get involved rather than sit on their asses and drink Soma, aka Brave New World. That’s next.
Here in the liberal bastion that is Duluth, Mn, the occupiers have been ordered to leave their encampment before the cops assist them in doing so. Weird, just last week, they were told they could stay the winter! Hmmm… I wonder if the Koch brothers and their ilk have sent out some Xmas “bonus” early this year? We will never know.
Boz, the Oakland mayor let the cat out of the bag — city “leaders” nationwide have been conspiring on ways both fair and foul to end the Occupations. It’s gonna be interesting to see how the protesters respond. Is it really necessary to “Occupy?” I’ve wondered before whether a more mobile demonstration might better win hearts and minds.
I think part of the problem with the occupy bunch is that they need the media to get their message out, but the media shows the part of the group that the average guy effected by the Wall Street problem can’t get identify with. They seem to focus on the stereotypical 60’s leftover or some naive college freshman out to change the world. Both spout some socialist rhetoric that the media loves to edit and broadcast on the evening news, making it sound like the occupiers are a bunch of kooks. Yes, many are, but so many are not. The real message is lost, so Joe average is not that outraged when the SS sweeps in and busts heads to remove the “trash” from the city square. Mixing in a shower, shave, and a hair cut could do wonders for the image of the movement – before it augers in for good.
Yeah … as a former employee of the mainstream media I can confirm that objectivity occasionally took a back seat to “Hey, look at that silly sumbitch. Get a pic, Bob.”
I like street theater myself — the Billionaires for Bush, the Rev. Billy and his various faux churches — but I think sometimes their anti-corporate messages can get overwhelmed by the comic delivery (“Aw, ain’t they cute, Doreen?”).
The only real solution is probably something as prosaic as trying to take back the gummit from the very bottom: join a party, attend its meetings and caucuses, help identify and recruit worthwhile candidates for office, support their campaigns financially and keep ’em on a short leash if they’re successful.
But that process has been so polluted by money that it’s more like a toxic-waste site than the green fields of Liberty.
Deja vu, “Let them eat cake”
In Seattle, it’s “Let them eat pepper spray.” http://t.co/m3kzCtOK Cops gassed an 84-year-old woman, a pregnant teen and a priest. How’bout them apples?
The new government was on Italian TV this evening. You KNOW things are different when the women chosen do not look like they were chosen for their “bunga-bunga” value and at least one of the new ministers was described as a communist.
On the “getting involved” front, I did just that in Iowa when Howard Dean was making the most sense of any of the dems, only to see him get killed by the mainstream power-bosses of the party in favor of John “The Democratic Bob Dole” Kerry. I gave up after that, being lukewarm about Obama’s chances vs Hilary. But Barry was mainstream enough they let him win the Iowa caucus…and look where we are now. Certainly better off than with John “Get off my lawn” McCain, but I think things would be very different now had Dean been allowed to gain steam by the Demo bosses..but he threatened the status quo too much.
I don’t know but “Comrade Buddy” kinda looks lie FBI Hoover.
Here in Richmond, the local Occupy group, having been forcibly routed at 1 AM, issued an ultimatum to City Council demanding permission to return. The deadline passed, so they are following up on their threat by camping (by invitation!) in the yard of the publisher of the local black weekly paper. He happens to live right next door to the mayor….