Oh, my brothers and sisters of change we want to facilitate and believe in. I blink back the tear of emotion, when I view the photo of our brother, a veteran, that is now a veteran for peace. With the stunned open eyed, look of bewildered terror, after being assaulted on our streets of amerika.

The chickens have come home to roost. We all knew, but just not exactly when.

We need to get out and fill the streets, WE have the numbers, and need to use them.
Take care and remember the motto, which is now a meme; "LEARN TO DUCK".

Now is the time to : OCCUPY
In Light, Love and Peace.........................

No one ever promised that non-violent resistance would be easy nor that it would be met with non-violence. The face is, non-violent resistance is quiet frequently met with violence. While non-violent resistance is anything but passive, to be effective it must always respond to violence with non-violence, not passively but actively. recording, video, broadcasting, regrouping to remain a thorn in the side of the 1%, etc.

We have yet to see the Occupy response to last night's violence but I am confident that it will be powerful and forcefully non-violent. Last night, Oakland strengthened the resolve of the 99% movement. It was foolish action on the part of the 1% and will only hasten their demise as a ruling elite.

Psst. That's why they call them pigs. Perhaps the Occupiers might consider replacing the Wall Street Bull with a couple of bronze pigs wallowing in unlaundered filthy money or sopping at a corporate trough for it's all really all pig-sty beneath a tawdry facade.

To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, "The more one reflects on the nature of the national trough and its imagery, the more one wants to spring to the defense of the maligned pig ... Pigs have a fine ratio of brain-to-body weight, almost the equal of dolphins. They do, if left to themselves, know how to keep clean,. They possess many intelligent and humorous faculties. Can the same be a said of, say, [the 1% of the s-called cream that rises to the top and floats like a scum]? I rest my case."

The recent case of Rajat Gupta, Ex-Goldman Sachs Director, is nothing new. He is just one more like the "Queen of Mean" Leona Helmsley or Martha Stewart who go down while the vast majority of scumbag big fish escape the net. The cream rises to the top? So does scum. And every day more scum that floats to the top only to prove how rotten to the core American capitalism is.

An investment banker friend from Chicago, very openly and cavalierly, recently admitted to me that insider trading is common practice "everyone does it."

Indeed, every prestigious hair salon and spa owner or fancy restaurant maitre d knows this or they just don't have the right clientele. Every investment banker and his wife knows what they need to do if they want to make sure the always get a good table at the best Manhattan or Michigan Avenue restaurant or prime appointment time with the ‘in' celebrity hairdresser! ‘Got a good investment tip?' ‘Sure X is going to buy Y and ..." Why do you think their family and friends so commonly make the best investment decisions?

Is there a "A Modest Proposal for a 1% Solution?" http://open.salon.com/blog/f_arouete

Guillotine! Guillotine! Guillotine! Guillotine!

To the OakTown Campers from a ghost of the revolution:

If this is violence, then violent's what I gotta be
If you investigate you'll find out where it's comin from
Look through our history, America's the violent one
Unlock my brain, break the chains of your misery
This time the payback for evil shit you did to me
They call me militant, racist cause I will resist
You wanna censor somethin, motherfucker censor this!
My words are weapons, and I'm steppin to the sirens
Wakin up the masses, but you, claim that I'm violent

Rock on

I see. Spraying graffitti means you forfeit your 1st amendment rights. But, what if the graffitti were protected speech? Any pretext to quell dissent. Our rulers are ruthless and stupid. It would be far better for them to let Occupy do its thing, and assume that it will die a natural death. Instead, the crass and vicious overlords of America are striving to suppress protest and dissent, ensuring that both will grow. At this rate, only the political class, their mass media butt plugs, and the dumbest Americans (i.e. those lacking the brainpower to light up a 20 watt bulb) will be able to proclaim the US is a democracy where individual rights are respected. The post-Constitutional age is here folks. We're all Syrians now.

The "global empire" the initial posters here name as perpetrator of the Oakland Outrage is but the metaphorical tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Our true oppressor -- the true perpetrator of atrocities against avowedly non-violent protesters, the true cause of our misery, the true Evil amongst us -- is capitalism.

Behind its cunning disguises, capitalism is infinite greed exalted as ultimate virtue.

Capitalism is therefore the overthrow of every moral and ethical precept our species has uttered. It is the closest approximation of Absolute Evil our species' has yet encountered.

The unprovoked outrages committed in Oakland last night show the extent to which this is true.

These same atrocities demonstrate how the core impetus of capitalism is ultimately indistinguishable from the core impetus of Nazism.

Nazism is, in fact, nothing more capitalism carried to its logical conclusion -- absolute power and unlimited profit for the ruling class, total subjugation and genocidal oppression for all the rest of us.

This is the end toward which all capitalists strive and the final fulfillment of their greed.

And this -- this monstrous ideology of monsters -- is the enemy we must overcome.

We are the 99 percent.

Truly we have nothing to lose but our chains.

Imagine if this had happened when Bush was still president... The absolutely corrupt Democratic Party machine would have pretended to care.

But let me add, both sides can be fairly accused of black propaganda here. I live here and, like any right, ‘free speech’ is not absolute. For the occupiers to demand “Free speech” 24/7 is infantile. They are not the only people who need to use the streets and sidewalks and conduct business and carry on their personal lives. No, sorry, this is not the Arab Spring and America does allow free speech and even vehement protest. The Oakland Mayor’s actions were clearly ‘reasonable time place and manner’ restrictions that SCOTUS has upheld for decades. The area around city hall was reported as a teaming pest-ridden ghetto and squatters’ camp - and the photos verify that. The city’s infamous crime rate should tell any nincompoop that the situation was pregnant with danger. To permit such a sordid milleau is to invite disaster. The mayor acted appropriately. To not clear the area at night would have been not just political suicide but irresponsible. So, again, argue not the need. That said, the means of executing that order was quite another matter and an entirely different question. From what I’ve seen it was executed with a goon-squad’s reckless disregard for life and safety. The question we have all been asking is: Can this mayor manage the gang-infected, druf-driven, crime epidemic that has festered in this otherwise wonderful city for many years? Can she manage a police force which is probably already, justifiably, scarfed shitless to even go to work because they are understaffed and arguably outgunned-literally. It appears to have been a battle between an unreasonable mob and a goon squad. And here is another question to ponder: If the rank and file of the Oakland PD wanted to make sure the mayor was ousted, could they have deliberately done a better job? Let no crisis go unexploited?

Former organizer of cotton mill unions, for 10 years in NC, and a canvass director for ACORN across the east coast here. Currently a Zen Buddhist monk, well past the half century mark.
I really don't know how to respond to the repeated police violence skillfully.

Being a southern boy and a Scorpio, there's a gut side that says: With strategic planning, a good scope and a flat trajectory rifle, as I am a good shot, I could take out ten of them in 2 minutes. Be hidden and they'd never know what hit them. And I want to. I really do now, and I could. These brave people are far younger than my children, and that protectiveness does occur. Wanting to respond to selfish, greedy, ignorant, venal, avaricious, immature, shit heel behavior from the cops with an unforgettable lesson, that would no doubt escalate violence, righteously deserved or not. And I'm sure there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, of others who also feel this way, and who also have the skills to act upon these feelings..

Is that the best way to ultimately achieve our aims, in the broadest scope, for the benefit of all? Is it necessary at this point? The bravery, in all, is there and warranted. What is the best way to respond to this visciousness from the cops? I'd love to hear from those under 30.
I trust them.

A photo from the Oakland police crackdown:
http://tinyurl.com/3mbmfz4

This is the type of thing that "average Americans" should see.

As I have mentioned before, NorthCom (Northern Command) has been training returning combat brigades in "Suppressing Civil Dissent" since 2006. The FBI has always trained and propagandized the various police agencies. They used to teach them, "You can easily tell a Communist. Communists have long hair, take drugs, are often mixed race couples, and use Communist catch-words like 'Love,' 'Peace,' 'non-violence,' 'co-existence', etc.

This crap was on bulletin boards in police stations all over the country. It was under the heading "Words from the Director" (J. Edgar Hoover, himself)

With the SS, er HS (Homeland "Security") funding available, the training has increased in intensity and PD's get lots of toys and advanced training in everything from flash-bangs, gas and tazers to sound cannons and I imagine the pain ray is not far behind.

When the 1% begins to really feel threatened, Obama will be ordered to declare martial law. The air will be filled with drones, the streets with tanks and armed soldiers, possibly even NATO troops. The black SUV's will be making nightly rounds, coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

The KBR no-bid concentration camps will begin to fill, as will the many old military bases which have been converted.

The site below is a FEMA list of Executive Orders
http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/eo/femalist.htm

This list is one of many on the FEMA concentration camp system.
Woops! I tried to open some of these listed sites and found my own computer being scanned (I think). It used to be you could click on them and they would open. They don't seem to do so anymore.

But, give it a try, maybe you'll have better luck. Google FEMA Concentration Camps or internment camps. Lots of hits, but the government lists don't seem to load anymore. They did a few years ago.

Keep this in mind. Because of the DECENTRALIZED nature of the OCCUPY MOVEMENT, blows such as Oakland can be absorbed with small effect on the overall movement. Just because Occupiers are confronted at a place or two, does not effect Occupiers everywhere, except to strengthen their resolve and preparedness. SHOW UP AT YOUR OCCUPY SITE TODAY OR TOMORROW TO SHOW SUPPORT AND RESOLVE. SHOW UP IN BIG NUMBERS. Your presence IS the message. Hit us and we grow bigger !!!

If we are the 99% we must act like it. A LARGE PHYSICAL PRESENCE "MUST" RESULT FROM THIS ASSAULT ON OUR OCCUPIERS. WE VETS IN PARTICULAR MUST SHOW OUR SUPPORT. WE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED. WE ARE HARDENED TO THE TASK. IF BLOOD MUST RUN, LET IT BE OURS.

The inexorable fall of the American Empire......

They're not talking about the Deep South occupations much in the national media but here's an account I read about the police eviction of the Occupy Atlanta folks from their park last night:

"The police spectacle I witnessed at Troy Davis Park last night was
more garish, if not quite as brutal as what I witnessed as a kid when
the mayor sent the cops in on horseback to beat up the hippies and
evict them from Piedmont Park back in the early 1970s.

"Last night I counted over 120 police (including several "white shirts"
observing from a distance) two large electronic surveillance support
vehicles, an arrest bus, a police helicopter circling overhead, a
large detachment of horse mounted police and another large detachment
of motorcycle police. There were dozens upon dozens of police cars
lining adjacent streets. They barricaded an entire block on either
side of the arrest bus so you could not stand at either end (without a
set of binoculars, which I lacked) and see what took place between the
park and the bus. They brought in racks of giant lights to light up the park to clean out all the tents and other camping gear.

"The excuse given for this grandiose display of hollywood &
helicopter-lit police power offered up by one city official (speaking
to a middle-aged female protester near me) was that, 'Occupy
Atlanta did not have a permit to host a hip-hop event in the park last
Saturday.' I later found out they did have an event permit and it was revoked by the mayor several hours into the event. So, three days later, the mayor raids the park over a hip-hop event permit he belatedly revoked himself.

"At one point, when Occupy Atlanta people were removing tents over a police barricade from the park into the street in front of the park, the looks on the astonished cops' faces in the park was priceless. A few of the radical caucus kids were saying they should just occupy the street with tents.

"I tried to explain that those tents were expensive for poor people and if we didn't move them to a safe area the police would confiscate them. No coherent reply to this. It was pretty hilarious, though because a lot of the spectators
across the street thought they were going to occupy the street with tents, too."

They made about 70-something arrests of peaceful, sitting protesters, including some locally known older Civil Rights marchers. There is now a recall effort against Mayor Kaseem Reed by one of those older Civil Rights folks. The DLC dumb-shit Dim mayors are getting on the wrong side of history regarding this movement.

Get rid of Reed; he's a loser and he sucks at his job.

These are NOT the consequences of citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. This IS THE CONSEQUENCE of the culture of activism remaining dormant in America for so many decades. You can't sit back and allow illegal wars and the invention of a HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT , and PATRIOT ACT in the name of security and not realize you are unleashing an armed genie which may be very difficult to put back in the bottle.

This is a very scary time to be an American and we only have ourselves to blame. We allowed our constitution to be scrapped. We sat back on our heels and waved our flags while our laws and rights were erased. As long as it didn't happen directly to ourselves it was acceptable, afterall it was in the name of SAFETY and SECURITY. Afterall it's only funny dressed foreigners and unions that are the real threat, not the "heroic" police, the private para-military/intelligence consultants, the multinational corporations or bankers??

How many times are we going to fall for tax cuts and tort reform before we wise up and begin to protect our most valuable assets: OUR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS and PROTECTIONS as OUTLINED IN THE CONSTITUTION! ?

It's time we grew a civic conscience, and demanded our publicly elected officials be held accountable to the electorate not K St..

Why is it the Fed won't undergo an independent audit, the Pentagon hasn't balanced it's books in decades but we pee in cups, and submit to credit checks for 10.00 an hour jobs? Our phone calls and library activity are no longer private, but congress is allowed to insider trade. Soon we'll be forced to buy health insurance from private for profit companies, and in Texas twelve year old girls have to get a venereal disease vaccine, but I am betting all those health insurance companies don't submit to independent audits, and Texas does subsidize the cost of that vaccine? I doubt it. They charge rape victims for the rape kits.

I know there are those out there that say our votes don't count. Maybe they haven't. I used to think by not voting for incumbents I could change things. I have a new solution. This next election I am voting acrossed the board for the candidates that raise the least money. Think about it we can use the free market to work for us. If the most popular candidate is the least funded we can get money out of politics.

Tell the Oakland mayor's office what you think of their fascist thuggery ... http://www.oaklandnet.com/contactmayor.asp. Let them know by the thousands, and let these attempts to quash American liberty - in Oakland, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, wherever they may occur - fall to utter failure in the face of ever-increasing numbers of people and protests across the land.

Do you love liberty? Do you care about justice? Is this movement more than just a passing fad and transitory fancy of the beleagured masses? Is there anything left in this world really worth fighting for? Is this truly the Revolution?

Fight back, with passion and courage and intellect and unflagging faith in the worth of the fight. It's true, we all die someday regardless. Better that we live lives of meaning and integrity, than grovel at the feet of our "masters," whom we both loathe and fear.

There is nothing to fear but our own cowardice and moral timidity. Come on People of America: "Now's the time to know there's a time to fight. We've got the numbers, we've got the might."

What's Governor Brown have to say about this? Any journalist bothered to ask for a statement?

Hold fast, brothers and sisters, hold fast.

Sometimes, the only way out of a storm is to make for its heart.

And then there's nothing for it but to make preparations and hold fast.

This goes especially to the most severely wounded man, Scott Olsen.

We need your voice here, man, now more than ever, don't go away from us yet.

Hold Fast.

Labor has said it stands on the side of Occupy Wall Street.

IF (big IF here) the AFL-CIO had any balls, the would strip and and kick out any police union that arrests even one more protester. Any police local that arrests protesters or uses any violent tactics such as flash-bang grenades, tear gas, or night sticks, should have their union charter immediately revoked by the AFL-CIO and all of their collective bargaining rights and union benefits stripped from them immediately, with no dues returned.

The police need to realize that they have a choice - protect the rights of the citizens they've sworn to and are paid to protect, and stand with labor as labor, or stand with the oligarchs. They should not be allowed the benefits of union membership while oppressing those that secure it.

I've read through all these posts and I'm seeing a lot of "viva la revolucion" remarks, and a lot of very fired up older progressives. All well and good, and it's good to see Americans in all the OT movements engaged in so many hundreds of cities and towns across the country--even if most of them represent pretty small numbers so far.

I'm on the media committee of a Deep South Occupy movement and we've had solidarity visits from tiny Occupy movements in places like small town North Carolina, which is pretty astonishing--the guts it must take to get public with an OT movement in places where you are seriously outnumbered by right-wing gun nuts.

But transformative change in this country is only going to come with a lot more intelligent organization between much larger numbers of organized labor with a much bigger, more publicly participated in OT movement using regional and national political strategies and tactics. It needs its own high- and low-tech (cheap) mass media, and it needs to build numbers to fully exploit americanselect.org in a non-partisan, but ballot access hurdling way.

Now is the time we need everyone who can turn out (and their friends and family members) to join an Occupy Together movement and work with their committees or at least work in some kind of support role--even if it is only part-time--most of all. We need time to build overall numbers and relationships with rank & file organized labor so we can get to the point where we can realistically engage in regional & national strategy.

In my city we've already had several combined Occupy/labor rallies and marches in just the last 20 days. We are forming relationships with the rank & file, mainly younger ones, but I can tell the union leaderships' heart ain't really in it. They're too used to and too fat from the status quo of clinging to the Dim Party. We've also seen some of the long-haired older retirees, blue collar skilled trades union men mainly, participate in our marches which is a pleasant surprise.

But we need to be mindful of the fact that most of the folks suffering from the neo-lib economy (one sixth of the population now according to the latest federal poverty figures), are psychologically beaten down, poorly educated and brainwashed by corporate news prole-chow and far-right psycho-babble. Most of them are submerged in various depths of personal and family misery and still pretty much tuned out from our movements except as a mild curiosity they glimpse between ambulance chasing segments on local TV McNews.

We have to relate these movements to them in ways that will either personally move them or somehow improve their lives in a positive way that they can easily identify with the movement. There are several ways to do this and I am working on one, that if successful, can be used in many cities across the country.

Within the movements, though, even though times are scary, we need to strive our hardest not to be too grim: To keep a sense of humor and try to share some warmth among each other.

One of the things I do is expose the 20 & 30 somethings to Firesign Theatre or a little early Monty Python or humorous music by the Fugs or Holy Modal Rounders that all of them so far have never previously seen or heard. I'll play some Steeleye Span, which is totally different from the stuff most of them listen two. One day I had that playing softly on my laptop and several of the kids sat down to listen and spontaneously started making very creative giant masks to use in an upcoming event. They looked like oversized Mardi Gras masks.

I've selected a media committee song for us to sing before each meeting because our meetings are often the most intense of any committee in the local movement. We are still struggling to find the time to generate more outgoing media after dealing with incoming media re our rallies & marches.

We have a lot more police spies in the park and lurking into our office space these days, exhibiting obnoxious behavior and engaging in petty tricks against our computer systems and theft of food and supplies. Some of these specimens are cops near retirement age, and some of them may be cop retirees from the look of them. These guys hang out in the park for hours sitting in folding chairs and snapping pics of movement members with their cell phone cameras. Most of them, sadly, are black.

We had one hick Tea Party clown, a little shrimpy bald-headed 20-something, show up hours before the police evicted us from the park recently. This troglodyte had an AK-47 with an extra long banana clip strapped to his back and was walking around the park parading his 2nd Amendment right [read: deliberately bringing police heat in the park everywhere he went.] At first he was bragging about how, if the police came in in force that night he "would respond with force."

Later, when the cops gradually staged in more and more to prepare to clear us out of the park, they assigned two cops to shadow this rodent while he strutted around and explained that "this isn't my movement," "I have no dog in this hunt," "I support the corporations," "I'm not willing to get arrested for these freaks," etc.

Sure enough, when the cops finally started walking into the park in numbers, that little ferret faced pizzle ran lickety-split for the nearest exit like shit out of a diarrhetic. I used to spar ippon kumite and I would've loved to have gone even one round with that pointless little rat-fuck. This country sure can crank out high-density assholes faster than any other nation on earth.

But enough of that. My ex-girlfriend experienced her first protest arrest and was so thrilled it made me proud. I still don't know if she's out of jail yet.