Occupiers Aren't Buying False Dichtomy Anymore

Occupy Augusta received some terrific mainstream news coverage yesterday from WGME 13 as about 100 folks joined the hardy souls of the tent occupation -- which has doubled in size since I was there two weeks ago -- to march, chant, drum, and take a little field trip to the home of the biggest corporate lobbyist in Maine, Severin Beliveau.

The founding partner of the law firm Preti Flaherty Beliveau Pachios did not appear to be at home. Maybe he was schmoozing with some lawmakers; Severin was a major influence in the administration of (Democrat) Gov. Baldacci, and contributed heavily to the third party candidate campaign that split the Maine vote to put the current corporate lackey (Republican) Gov. LePage in office.

The people I spoke to in Augusta yesterday were clear on the absence of any meaningful distinction between the two corporate-controlled parties, and on the acute lack of people's voices in government at the local, state, or national level. And if the people don't stick up for the Earth, who will?



Meanwhile, to the east of us Occupy Bangor got some kudos from resident author Stephen King, and to the south of us the Occupy Maine folks in Portland received good news that there was no truth to rumors that the police were planning to evict them.

And this from Boston from the blog Revolutionary Frontlines:

A flotilla with as many as a dozen activists — including Code Pink’s Kit Kittredge- was bound to Gaza bearing humanitarian aide on November 4th. The Israeli military boarded seized the ship, and took all of the activists into custody.

Occupy Boston then marched on the Israeli Consulate in solidarity

Notice how -- no matter who is in the White House or which party has a majority in Congress -- that we, the taxpayers, still send Israel $3 billion a year in mostly weapons? That's why corporate media like the Washington Post have to work overtime to keep us believing bullshit:

What can be said at this point is that, after three years of pitched battles between Obama and congressional Republicans, the country is heading toward a high-stakes contest. Election 2012 will be a contest not just between two candidates but also between two starkly different views of the role of government that underscore the enormous differences between Republicans and Democrats.

'Bread! Freedom! Social justice!' Are Cries Heard 'Round the World

source: The Atlantic's translation of Egyptian protester's manual -- click to read it online.

Democracy Now! reported: "...for inciting violence...Alaa Abdel Fattah, considered one of Egypt's most influential bloggers, has been ordered to spend at least 15 days behind bars." Last winter DN! interviewed Fattah and he stated:

"We are continuing the pressure because we want what happens next to be power to the people and to be through a democratic Egypt that represents all of its people. 

We should also remember that the initial slogans were not just 'Topple the regime' but were also [in Arabic],

'Bread! Freedom! Social justice!'"

Fattah made those remarks two weeks into the Egyptian uprising, last February. Note how the many uprisings now underway in the U.S. and elsewhere express those very same values.

Palestinian people struggling under a half century plus of occupation by Israel can use the very same slogan. The open air prison of Gaza starves while being bombed, its inmates playing word games on Twitter to keep up morale while awake overnight monitoring drones moaning overhead, and bracing for explosions below.

On October 31st the rest of the world belonging to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization voted to recognize Palestine as a member, with Zionist leaders of Israel, the U.S. and Germany in opposition, and the U.K. shamefully abstaining. Phyllis Bennis of IPS wrote that the UNESCO vote will:

...trigger an immediate cut-off of U.S. dues to the UN’s cultural, education and science organization, as well as ending U.S. dues payments to (and perhaps thus voting rights in) several other important UN agencies — possibly including the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors nuclear production around the world.

This loss of influence mirrors the degraded role of the U.S. as a champion of democratic process and human rights in the 21st century (or of nuclear non-proliferation, for that matter). Our own white, formerly middle class kids are waking up to police violence against unarmed, nonviolent protesters in cities all over the country, while our own non-white communities say, "So what else is new?"

Source: http://weroccupyunited.com/post/12126913361/spraying-a-child-with-mace-your-kidding-me-right

 The spin machine that has kept white folks entertained in the dark is winding down in the face of brutal realities. 

Source: Guardian | Occupy Oakland protesters carry Scott Olsen away after he was hit in the head on Tuesday night. Photograph: Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images (reprinted in the Guardian)

A nation that has kept a nonviolent whistleblower who exposed war crimes incarcerated without a trial for over 500 days has little to teach the rest of the world about due process or habeus corpus, unless it be teaching by examples of what not to do. Bradley Manning will have his pre-trial hearing soon, and someone close to the case recently stated of Manning's mental ability to stand trial, “He is as sane and lucid as anyone can be."

If only the same could be said of our wounded, raging empire.

Protesters were roughly treated by police arresting them at a sit-down last April demanding an end to 300+ days of Manning's solitary confinement at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia.