#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[Twyla LaSarc]

Just waded around a little pond of information on UC Davis chancellor Katehi.

As Katehi spins and spins:
http://my.firedoglake.com/teddysanfran/ ... /#comments

People begin digging into her background and find some interesting things:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/24

http://crookedtimber.org/2011/11/22/ath ... -uc-davis/

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/ ... ities.html

BBC documentary on Greek Military Junta: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... onels.html

[2012 Countdown]

Occupy Wall Street protester Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground after clashes with police over the eviction of OWS from Zuccotti Park. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images


The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy
The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality
Naomi Wolf
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 November 2011 12.25 EST

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.

I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.

Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.

That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.

The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.

For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich's having been paid $1.8m for a few hours' "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail.

Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists' privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can't suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance.

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 the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.

Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us.
--
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... own-occupy

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Occupy Oakland was celebrating Thanksgiving by sharing a meal and having a space that all could present their talents when a truck arrived to drop off portable toilets for the community. Officers were immediately on the scene and after about ten minutes the police asked the driver to leave with the portable toilets. The crowd was upset that on a day of celebration basic needs were not allowed to be delivered. Shortly afterwards an officer is seen tackling a citizen and another police officer helps push the citizen to the ground.

===


How to successfully Resist Police Intimidation and Defend Your Rights
OccupyTVNY on Nov 22, 2011

[JackRiddler]

Aerial view of UC Davis General Assembly, a couple of days after the pepper-spray incident.

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[2012 Countdown]

#OWS => New forms of Nonviolence and Leadership emerging??
Something remarkable has been going on out there - especially at UC Davis. I have a hard time figuring out how to articulate it. I haven't yet seen anyone talk about quite what I'm seeing, so I'll give it a try.
Here's what it looks like to me: Nonviolent activism is evolving rapidly right before our eyes. The level of spot-on - and often spontaneous - nonviolent creativity that's showing up exceeds what I've seen before, to an extent that I wonder if a fundamentally new and more powerful form of nonviolent action is emerging.
--
After a period of confused anger and upset, protesters chant "Who do you serve? Who do you protect?" (since many police departments have "serve" and "protect" in their mottos). Then they chant "Shame, shame!" then "Shame on you!!" The tension between the police and crowd grows palpable. The police become nervous, raising their pepperball guns protectively and threateningly. Things are about to get very ugly. And then suddenly - at 6 minutes 13 seconds into the video - someone in the crowd yells "MIC CHECK!" and the crowd yells back "Mic Check!" They say it again. The scene goes into a surreal suspended animation as the unknown initiator calls out a wisdom that the crowd had not possessed moments before, but now recognizes and follows:
---
http://tom-atlee.posterous.com/ows-new- ... adership-e


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Off the hook- Occupy WalMart (Friday)






===

Occupy protesters attend Bachmann book signing
Friday, November 25, 7:42 PM

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann met with anti-Wall Street protesters Friday, but not necessarily by choice — the protesters won the right to meet her up close by buying her book at a Black Friday book signing.

Heavy security kept a close eye on the protesters who showed up at the public event at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., where the Minnesota congresswoman was signing copies of “Core of Conviction,” her autobiography, in a private area of the megamall. At least a dozen members from the Minnesota offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement bought copies so they could approach her.
--
In Pennsylvania, Occupy Harrisburg protesters showed up at Capital City Mall dressed as zombies to protest the consumerism of the celebrated day.
--
In Oklahoma, a group of Occupy OKC activists showed up at a Wal-Mart to protest the large wage disparity between store workers and corporate officers. Occupy OKC participant Mark Faulk said 10 members of the group were arrested for disorderly conduct early Friday after conducting a group chant inside the store in the Oklahoma City suburb.
--
Meanwhile, in Washington state, Occupy Seattle members were urging shoppers who must buy to patronize local businesses instead of giant corporations, and to consider giving handmade holiday gifts.

==

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... story.html

[American Dream]

"Why Would Anybody Care About a Bunch of Dirty Hippies, Any Way?"

[2012 Countdown]

^that was some funny shit right there^

[brainpanhandler]

OccupyMadison started with an encampment up by the capital. We've been somewhat slow in gathering any momentum as alot of energy and resources are going into the recall Governor Walker effort. Ahead of when Freakfest (40,000 drunk college kids on Halloween night) took place the occupation moved to East Washington Avenue, a main thoroughfare out of the capital. The encampment has steadily grown over the last month. The property the camp is on is city owned and the city has granted permission to stay at least until spring. In fact even the building on the lot which is an old car dealership and also city owned has been offered for occupymadison use. GA's four times a week. New buildings being built. Lots of traffic and support from the locals. Main need - firewood.

The Madison cops are pretty low key and liberal as far as cops go. Very different culture (strategy?)








hoop house made of steel tubing and tarp.


Steel structure being erected. This was originally wood. A loophole in the language of the municipal code allows steel structures.

[Project Willow]

^Thanks for the update and photos Brainpan. It's good that the authorities are fairly warm to the occupiers because it's going to get cold out there over the winter! *shivers*

Also, it jogged my memory, a great aunt headed up one of UW Madison's libraries for 25 years and was recently inducted into the UW library hall of fame. Hmmmm, that family tree branch needs researching.

Our Seattle Central CC Board of Trustees voted unanimously to oust Occupy Seattle.
OS has filed suit against the college:

--UPDATE 11/23 3:07PM--
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HEADLINE: Occupy Seattle sues SCCC to protect round-the-clock presence and free speech activities
BYLINE: Olympia, Washington, November 23, 2011
STORY: Occupy Seattle has sued Seattle Central Community College in Thurston County Superior Court to prevent the college from evicting Occupy Seattle from the college’s campus. The suit challenges the validity of an “emergency rule” that would ban the presence of tents and other structures at the site based on concerns about health and safety. The suit claims that health and safety concerns identified in two King County Department of Health reports, including the presence of “uncontrolled dog food in uncovered bowls,” can be addressed through existing rules and enforcement by relevant agencies. The suit claims that enacting a broad “emergency rule” against tents is an “arbitrary and capricious” action, which is a violation of the college’s legal obligations. A hearing on the case is scheduled for today at 2:00 p.m.
Occupy Seattle is the local branch of an international movement, launched September 17, 2011 by Occupy Wall Street in New York City. The movement is generally unified around the need for economic justice and eliminating corporate control of the political system, protestors reflect a wide array of political and social concerns. Other occupations around the country, including Portland and New York City, have recently been evicted from their full-time sites, possibly ending the movement in those cities. Occupy Seattle representatives argue that a round-the clock political assembly is the signature feature of this movement, and its main vehicle for free speech.

[Allegro]

.
Thank You, brainpanhandler, for the report, and for the mention for needs of firewood. Strategy of the cops? I don't know, but it is winter; maybe the're waiting. My fingers are crossed for the very best results for the occupiers!

Thanks, too, for the photos. On one of the photographed cement squares is written, "slightly irritated." That understatement caught me by surprise. It was sooo funny atm, it sounded as if you had written it. (Still remembering: "Is that like a poem or something?") Good one!

OccupyMadison started with an encampment up by the capital. We've been somewhat slow in gathering any momentum as alot of energy and resources are going into the recall Governor Walker effort. Ahead of when Freakfest (40,000 drunk college kids on Halloween night) took place the occupation moved to East Washington Avenue, a main thoroughfare out of the capital. The encampment has steadily grown over the last month. The property the camp is on is city owned and the city has granted permission to stay at least until spring. In fact even the building on the lot which is an old car dealership and also city owned has been offered for occupymadison use. GA's four times a week. New buildings being built. Lots of traffic and support from the locals. Main need - firewood.

The Madison cops are pretty low key and liberal as far as cops go. Very different culture (strategy?)

[2012 Countdown]

A protester wearing a 'V for Vendetta' mask at Occupy Madrid on 15 October. Photograph: Action Press/Rex Features



Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask
From Wall St to Athens and Occupy sit-ins worldwide, protesters are wearing masks inspired by V for Vendetta. Here, its author discusses why his avenging hero has such potency today

Tom Lamont
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 26 November 2011 15.05 EST

The comic-book writer Alan Moore is not usually surprised when his creations find a life for themselves away from the printed page. Strips he penned in the 1980s and 90s have been fed through the Hollywood patty-maker, never to his great satisfaction, resulting in both critical hits and terrible flops; fads for T-shirts, badges and shouted slogans have emerged from characters and conceits he has dreamed up for titles such as Watchmen and From Hell. "I suppose I've gotten used to the fact," says the 58-year-old, "that some of my fictions percolate out into the material world."


But Moore has been caught off-guard in recent years, and particularly in 2011, by the inescapable presence of a certain mask being worn at protests around the world. A sallow, smirking likeness of Guy Fawkes – created by Moore and the artist David Lloyd for their 1982 series V for Vendetta. It has a confused lineage, this mask: the plastic replica that thousands of demonstrators have been wearing is actually a bit of tie-in merchandise from the film version of V for Vendetta, a Joel Silver production made (quite badly) in 2006. Nevertheless, at the disparate Occupy sit-ins this year – in New York, Moscow, Rio, Rome and elsewhere – as well as the repeated anti-government actions in Athens and the gatherings outside G20 and G8 conferences in London and L'Aquila in 2009, the V for Vendetta mask has been a fixture. Julian Assange recently stepped out wearing one, and last week there was a sort of official embalmment of the mask as a symbol of popular feeling when Shepard Fairey altered his famous "Hope" image of Barack Obama to portray a protester wearing one.

It all comes back to Moore – a private man with knotty greying hair and a magnificent beard, who prefers to live without an internet connection and who has not had a working telly for months "on an obscure point of principle" about the digital signal in his hometown of Northampton. He has never yet properly commented on the Vendetta mask phenomenon, and speaking on the phone from his home, Moore seems variously baffled, tickled, roused and quite pleased that his creation has become such a prominent emblem of modern activism.

"I suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn't it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world… It's peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction."

--
David Lloyd, V for Vendetta's co-creator, has admitted going along to a demo in New York to see the masks in use. The extent of Moore's own activism has been "a good moan in the local pub"; he does not see himself donning a mask ("Be a bit weird, wouldn't it?"). But his sympathies are with the protesters, and there is a clear sense of pride for him that so many people – if not "the 99%" then a great, unignorable bloc – have caused such a stir. "It would be probably be better if the authorities accepted this is a new situation, that this is history happening. History is a thing that happens in waves. Generally it is best to go with these waves, not try to make them turn back – the Canute option. I'm hoping that the world's leaders will realise this."

Back in the early 80s, approaching the end of Vendetta's epic 38-part cycle, Moore was struggling to think of another "V" word with which to title a closing chapter. He'd already used Victims, Vaudeville and Vengeance; the Villain, the Voice, the Vanishing; even Vicissitude and Verwirrung (the German word for confusion). "I was getting pretty desperate," he says.

He eventually settled on Vox populi. "Voice of the people. And I think that if the mask stands for anything, in the current context, that is what it stands for. This is the people. That mysterious entity that is evoked so often – this is the people."
--

full-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/no ... sk-protest

[2012 Countdown]

The 99 percent movement & Wall Street-On the Edge with Max Keiser-11-25-2011
Broadcast date: 25 Nov. 2011
In this edition of the show Max interviews David DeGraw from AmpedStatus.com.
David talks about the 99 percent movement from which the Occupy Wall Street sprung out and comments on its aims and implications.

[Jeff]

“A Strong Military Appearance”: Are These the NYPD’s Disorder Control Unit Guidelines?

[Nordic]

Occupy Los Angeles is getting an eviction notice. After being peacefully tolerated, even encouraged, by the Mayor and the police all this time.




Things might get interesting.

[elfismiles]

Occupy Los Angeles is getting an eviction notice. After being peacefully tolerated, even encouraged, by the Mayor and the police all this time.

Things might get interesting.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Tells Occupy L.A. To Leave By 12:01 a.m. Monday
By Gene Maddaus Fri., Nov. 25 2011 at 6:20 PM

​Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced late this afternoon that City Hall Park, the home of Occupy L.A. for the last 56 days, will close at 12:01 a.m. on Monday.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said that police would move to clear the park at some later, unspecified time, after Occupiers have been given ample notice to clear out.

The announcement was met with defiance both inside City Hall -- where an Occupier managed to disrupt the mayor's press conference -- and outside.

"We're not moving," said Manny, a protester who gave only his first name.

In a letter to Occupy L.A., Villaraigosa praised the group for changing the terms of the national political debate, and for having "awakened the country's conscience." However, he continued, "The Occupy movement is now at a crossroads."

"The movement faces the question of how it can build on its initial success," Villaraigosa wrote. "It is a question of whether energy will be consumed to defend a particular patch of earth or whether that energy will be channeled to spreading the message of economic equality and signing more people up for the push to restore the balance to American society."

For their part, the Occupiers seem all too eager to defend their particular patch of earth. There has been talk of bringing a large contingent of labor and leftist clergy to protest the eviction, or perhaps try to block it. The National Lawyers Guild has issued a flier advising Occupiers what to do in case of arrest. Many of the Occupiers are self-described "sovereigns," who assert that police officials have no authority over them.

Still others have been meeting for the past three weeks to prepare a post-eviction plan. The Raid Preparations Committee, later renamed the "Preparations and Reconstruction Committee," has been working on obtaining gas masks and determining fallback meeting places.

"It's not a picnic anymore," said Jared Iorio, one of the Occupy moderators.

Occupy L.A. members have said they hope to learn from the Occupy protests in other cities. In some cases, the police have succeeded in evicting the encampments, only to see protesters return the next day.

City officials have also learned from others' experiences, and say they plan to "secure" the park area while it is being rehabilitated. Once the grass has been restored -- and it's not clear how long that will take -- officials say the park will reopen during its posted hours -- 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. In the meantime, the west steps of City Hall will remain open for public protest during park hours.

At a General Assembly meeting on Wednesday, author Deepak Chopra urged the Occupiers to continue their efforts.

"The Occupy movement is unstoppable," Chopra said. "If next week, they evict us, move somewhere else close by and occupy! If they evict us again, move again!"

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011 ... sa_120.php

[Wombaticus Rex]

This was excellent:
Naomi Wolf’s ‘Shocking Truth’ About the ‘Occupy Crackdowns’ Offers Anything but the Truth

I see Joshua Hol being accused of "gatekeeping" and being a "DHS apologist" but that's such fucktard noise. To mine own eyes, Naomi is a celebrity liberal who is using #OWS, not supporting it. Hol lays out an objective case here. I know I'm always the skeleton at the feast when it comes to revolutions, but sweet Jesus, if you're going to overthrow the powers that be, be prepared to replace them. I definitely see an emerging strain of #Occupy that is serious and skilled enough to actually do that and I definitely don't see Naomi as a part of that. Michael Moore, either. These people are liabilities, not assets.