Cops Raze Occupy LA/Philly Overnight, Senate Shreds Constitution, Crisis Gets Scary
November 30th, 2011 - by: danny
Watch the Upstream Now At OccupyWallStreet.org or http://www.ustream.tv/occupyoakland Oakfoshow is new stream.
Breaking: Occupy LA Encampment Shut Down
6:25 The police in LA have shut down Occupy LA, and claim it was done non-violently and professionally. The police are praising themselves for how it was done. Some press was pushed back and denied access. Many reporters unable to witness the police actions. Demonstrators were non-violent. At least 200 arrests, police say. 1400 cops involved. Cops say no violence. Two minor uses of Violence. No Batons. No Pepper Spray. Police will fence off park. Protesters will have to make bail. Protesters charged for refusing to disperse at an illegal assembly.
CLG Reports:
Breaking: Los Angeles police dismantle Occupy protesters’ tents
More Los Angeles police officers, including dozens in white protective HAZ MAT suits, (In fear of human waste and Staph Infections) surrounded the Occupy L.A. camp on the City Hall lawn early Wednesday and began to dismantle tents and other shelters. Officers in riot gear and armed with night sticks closed off streets around City Hall. Police used bullhorns to threaten protesters with arrest. “This has been declared to be an unlawful assembly. You have seven minutes to gather your belongings and decide to leave,” one officer said. Dozens of Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics and firefighters were also standing by on sealed off downtown streets. “This is what a police state looks like!” Occupy protesters chanted at the officers in riot gear. LA Times: Three Inconvenient Truths for Occupy LA
CBS LA reports: LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Protesters allege the eviction of the Occupy L.A. encampment by city officials may be due to a scheduled shoot of the movie, “Gangster Squad.”
Sources with Occupy L.A. tell CBS2 that on Nov. 20, the location manager for the Warner Bros. film starring Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn asked Occupy L.A. members to move several portable restrooms near Spring and Main streets for a shoot scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 29 in front of city hall.
Occupy L.A. agreed to move the restrooms but only at the studio’s expense, movement leaders said.
City of Brotherly Love
The Atlantic: “Meanwhile in Philly, several arrests have been made as police made a similar move to disperse the protesters early in the morning Wednesday. Despite some scuffles and minor injuries, it doesn’t appear as though much violence was used and most protesters left Dilworth Plaza near City Hall peacefully.”
Senate OKs Gov’t to Keep US Citizens in Military Custody, Indefinitely and Without Trial
Defying the Obama administration’s threat of a veto the Senate on Tuesday voted to increase the role of the military in imprisoning suspected members of ‘Al Qaeda’ and its allies — including people arrested inside the United States. By a vote of 61 to 37, the Senate turned back an effort to strip a major military bill of a set of disputed provisions affecting the handling of terrorism cases. The most disputed provision would require the government to place into military custody any suspected member of Al Qaeda or one of its allies connected to a plot against the United States or its allies. A related provision would create a federal statute saying the government has the legal authority to keep people suspected of terrorism in military custody, indefinitely and without trial. It contains no exception for American citizens.
Lieberman to Google: Ban Terrorist Content
In the wake of news that terror suspect Jose Pimentel was operating a jihadist Blogger site, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Insane-Sadly, CT) is urging Google to implement a system that bans terrorist material. Last week, Lieberman sent a letter to Google CEO Larry Page on behalf of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that called on Google to ramp up its efforts against terrorist material on the Blogger platform.
Oklahoma City Occupiers Arrested in Local WalMart (From Thiscan’tbehappening)
Oklahoma City – In the early morning hours of Black Friday, 10 members of Occupy OKC discovered that chanting “Buy local!” in a crowded Walmart is an arrestable offense in the United States of America.
It all started with a group of about 20-25 Occupy OKC demonstrators doing “mic checks” at several mega retailers around the Oklahoma City area open on Thanksgiving night. “We hit Best Buy, Toys `R’ Us, a Target store, and two other Walmarts between 10pm and midnight,” said Nick Saltzman, 19, one of the local occupiers who managed to avoid arrest. “It was going so well.”
That is, until the group left Oklahoma City limits and ventured into nearby Del City (recently voted “OKC’s Worst Suburb” by 41% of Lost Ogle readers.) Unlike the Oklahoma City police department, the off-duty officers working security at the Del City Walmart on Tinker Diagonal were not in a tolerant mood. …
Support for Manning in Brussels
Speaking at a press conference this morning at the European Parliament, elected officials representing a broad spectrum of political parties expressed their strong concerns about the mistreatment of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning. They released a letter signed by over 54 Members of Parliament to officials in the White House and U.S. military…
“We are troubled by reports that Mr Manning has been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and other abusive treatment tantamount to torture.”
Quote of the Day–James Galbraith, Mother Jones:
“The remarkable thing about the American middle class is that we still have one, given the job losses, housing bust, and 401(k) wipeout of the past three years – and considering that for 35 years, politicians (and the bankers who own them) have been hammering away at middle-class institutions.”
Dissector in the Media on The Media
Commenting on NYTExaminer on what the press Is missing–today’s story: Black Friday
Press TV: OWS needs its own media to get its message out
“Schechter said that there was a tendency in the media to simplify the events and to merely look for the action and confrontations. “When there is violence, they’re there. When there’s serious demands for real change in Wall Street you can’t really read about it in most of the media. So the problem is, how do you use the media to get your message out?”
All The News Just Repeats Itself…
The news never stops and trying to keep up with it makes you crazy. I am trying to cover the coverage as well as the story. For example, the big story from IRAN seems to be an attempt at an occupation of the British Embassy, but nothing on the scale or spontaneity of the actual occupation of the US embassy with its hostage taking. I was in Iran a year ago as a judge on a film festival and visited–and wrote—about the former Embassy which activists there denounced as a “spy nest”–which is what it was. That action was part of a revolution. The current one is more of a protest. But both hardened hostility between Iran and the West. That hasn’t changed in all the years since.
Protests Storm British Embassy in Iran
In the latest sign of deteriorating relations with the West, around 20 Iranian protesters entered the British Embassy compound in Tehran chanting death to England, tearing down a British flag and ransacking offices, news reports said. The episode came a day after Iran enacted legislation on Monday to downgrade relations with Britain in retaliation for intensified sanctions imposed by Western nations last week to punish the Iranians for their suspect nuclear development program. Britain promised to respond robustly. The British Foreign Office in London said it was aware of the reports from Tehran about its embassy on Tuesday, and later condemned the protests.
Foreign Policy.com: After a day of apparent success and unexpectedly high turnout, voting in Egypt’s first post-Mubarak election has entered its second day. There were no reports of attacks on polling places or stolen ballot boxes, following two weeks of anti-government demonstrations that often turned violent. Turnout is reportedly high for the second day of voting as well.
Egypt’s military rulers are pointing to the apparent success of the polls as validation for their interim rule, while protesters in Tahrir Square continued to reject the elections as a sham. Two more rounds of elections will follow, ending in January.
Our Economic Crisis Grows
WP: AP: American Airlines and parent company file for bankruptcy
American Airlines and American Eagle’s parent companies are filing for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection.
AMR Corp. and AMR Eagle Holding Corp. said Tuesday that they filed voluntary petitions to reorganize, saying it’s in the best interest of the companies and its shareholders.
The Deeper crisis:
Serious analysts are not ready to press the alarm bell but worry about a financial crisis in Europe that they see as increasingly serious and in danger of spreading.
Have a taste of this: The long shadow of the 1930s
By Gideon Rachman
“Could things go bad again? I mean really bad – Great Depression bad, world war bad? The kind of cataclysmic event my generation has learned to think belongs only in the history books.
There is certainly a sense of foreboding in Europe at the moment. Speaking in Berlin on Monday night, Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, warned: “We are standing on the edge of a precipice.” President Sarkozy of France cautioned recently: “If the euro explodes, Europe would explode. It’s the guarantee of peace in a continent where there were terrible wars.”
European politicians have often indulged in shroud-waving about the threat of war, to rally support for the beloved European project. In normal times, few Europeans take such talk seriously.
On the contrary, war talk seems inherently implausible to people raised in prosperous, peaceful western Europe. I have lived my entire life in a world in which, for all its ups-and-downs, things seemed to be getting steadily better. Nazism had been defeated; dictatorships fell in Spain, Portugal and Greece; the Soviet empire collapsed; apartheid ended in South Africa…
Until the global economic crisis, the words of Tony Blair’s election campaign song in 1997 seemed to capture the spirit of the age – “Things can only get better”.
Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, we have discovered that things can definitely get worse. The question is how much worse?
The risk of a grave economic crisis in Europe is severe. The threats of sovereign-debt defaults and the break-up of the European single currency are rising – and with it, the attendant threats of collapsing banks, popular panic, deep recessions and mass unemployment. That would indeed feel like a modern version of the Great Depression…”
Here’s part of a report from a European Think Tank:
GEAB: 30,000 Billion US Dollars In Ghost Assets Will Disappear By 2013
As we come to the end of the second half of 2011, it is evident that 15,000
billion in ghost assets have gone up in smoke since last July, just as was
anticipated by LEAP/E2020 ([3]GEAB N°56 ). And, according to our team, this
process figures to continue at the same rate throughout the year to come.
Indeed we estimate that, with the introduction of a 50% discount on Greek
government debt, the global systemic crisis has entered a new phase: that of
the generalized discount on Western public debt and its corollary, the
fragmentation of the global financial markets.
Our team believes that 2012 will bring an average discount of 30% of total Western public debt (1), plus an equivalent amount in loss of assets from the balance sheets of worldwide financial institutions. Specifically, LEAP/E2020 anticipates the loss of
30,000 billion ghost assets by early 2013 (2), with an acceleration in 2012 of the partitioning process of the global financial market (3) into three increasingly disconnected currency areas: Dollar, Euro, and Yuan. These two phenomena feed to each other. They will also be the cause of a sharp decline of 30% on the part of US currency in 2012
“Is America Over?”
John Feffer of Foreign Policy In Focus on Geroge Packers’s Essay in Foreign Affairs: Is America Over?
“Packer argues that the U.S. economy went off the rails in the late 1970s, when the top 1 percent stopped thinking about the national interest and focused instead on the preservation of their own economic and political power. Powerful lobbyists, anti-government politicians on the right, and a newly unregulated Wall Street all combined to boost the wealth of the very rich and leave everyone else behind. Although globalization and technology accelerated these trends, they were fundamentally political choices made by our leaders (and the powerful interests that helped them to power).
“We can upgrade our iPhones, but we can’t fix our roads and bridges,” Packer writes to illustrate our economic predicament. “We invented broadband, but we can’t extend it to 35 percent of the public. We can get 300 television channels on the iPad, but in the past decade 20 newspapers closed down all their foreign bureaus.”
In other words, the public realm has deteriorated over the last two decades even as the private realm continues to promise cutting edge speed and novelty. Worse, it’s a self-reinforcing dynamic. “The more wealth accumulates in a few hands at the top, the more influence and favor the well-connected rich acquire, which makes it easier for them and their political allies to cast off restraint without paying a social price,” Packer continues. “That, in turn, frees them up to amass more money, until cause and effect become impossible to distinguish.”
Daily Beast: Will German Stubbornness Kill the Euro?
Germany is holding up a solution to the euro crisis with its dogged insistence that financially irresponsible countries should pay the price for their mistakes. But New York Times columnist Joe Nocera says the time for moralism has passed, and Europe can afford only to worry about its survival.
‘S&P downgrades credit rating of major banks’
Domestic News: Mr 9-9=9 “Reassessing”
LBN: Herman Cain told members of his campaign staff on Tuesday that he was reassessing whether to proceed with his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, an aide confirmed, a day after an Atlanta woman disclosed details of what she said was a 13-year affair with him. In a morning conference call with his advisers, Mr. Cain said that he would make a decision in the coming days about whether to stay in the presidential race after his campaign was rocked by another round of allegations about his sexual conduct.
Occupy News
Huffington Post; Capitalism and Democracy
NY Observer: Where Occupy Wall Street Stands Now
Has the Occupy Wall Street movement fizzled out? Certainly the stories have moved: While Philadelphia and Los Angeles have handed their Occupiers eviction notices (but haven’t moved them out yet), and some protesters have moved down to Miami for Art Basel, we notice that it’s been awfully silent over at Zuccotti Park recently.
A lot of people are speculating on what OWS can do next, or where the movement is going…which is a sure sign that journos have hit a lull on breaking news in NYC.”
Mandelman to the Rescue
If you are interested in the real story of the foreclosure cris, there’s one person to read; Martin Andelman who goes by the name of Mandelman, and writes at:
http://mandelman.ml-implode.com. He is a fearless advocate of families facing the loss of their homes . The other day, he took on a big wig at the Dow Jones Newswire, a Murdoch company and gave it to him good, an expression of concern about how poorly the media has covered the issues. Here’s a taste;
“I used to read the Wall Street Journal all the time, maybe even every day for a few years, back in the days when Yuppies were king, BMWs reigned supreme, and I was still stupid enough to pay $300 a year to carry around a grey piece of plastic from America Express that I idiotically referred to as being “platinum.”
These past three years, well… not so much. It’s not just because a gaggle of insensitive and insufferable cheerleaders for the banks write the newspaper, although that certainly is a big part of it. It’s mostly because the paper’s views are entirely predictable, and unreservedly smug… no they’re smug2. We’re not even having a recession in the Wall Street Journal, its positively surreal.
So, I’m clicking around through my news alerts yesterday, and I see this headline: “We Can’t Ignore Housing Anymore.” Huh? Can’t ignore it… anymore? Well, why the heck not? It’s been going swimmingly, thus far. Why quit on a winner?
Neal Lipschutz, who first joined the company in 1982, is today senior vice president and managing editor of Dow Jones Newswires, wrote the article, and according to his bio, he “directly supervised the news staffs in the Americas and served as chief arbiter of and spokesman for news policies, coverage and standards on a global basis.”
And today, Neal has “global responsibility for Dow Jones Newswires editorial.” So, Neal is a man with “global responsibility,” and I’m almost positive that I’ve never even met a man with global responsibility. Apparently, Neal has written articles that have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, The New York Times, and The Baltimore Sun among others.
So, at first I thought… Neal is Journalism Man, but then I started reading what he had to say and I quickly realized… nope, he’s just another Lipschutz. Here’s how he kicked off his article on how we can’t ignore housing…
“In the end, we can’t dodge housing.
The U.S. recession and financial crisis of the late aughts began with housing and the scourge of subprime mortgages, which were so messily dispensed. It spread to Europe and its banks.
For a few years we tried to work around the paralyzed housing sector – the drip, drip of steadily lower home prices, the unresolved status of the wounded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — and it seemed to be working.”
Obviously, either Neal has the cognitive abilities of a fruit loop soaked in milk, or he’s just disturbed. What do you suppose he thinks “spread” to Europe and its banks? I mean, I don’t think loans can spread… loans are not germs or viruses… they don’t just spread. Someone has to spread them, right Neal? And let’s assume you’re right and within the mortgage-backed securities and CDOs that were sold to Eurobanks, there were a few loans leveraged to the hilt. So, who do you suppose might have taken them to Europe, Neal? Because it wasn’t me Neal.
And then he writes:
“Now that worries mount about an ever more likely return to recession amid a significant equities markets decline, we are hearing again about housing.”
Hearing “again” about housing? Who’s hearing again about housing?
I wouldn’t worry too much about you hearing anything, Neal. I just don’t think you’ve heard anything in maybe twenty years.
Read the rest my latest column for the dirty digger’s australian paper, on student debt in the Americas
It’s got a bloody paywall but one only has to register to read for free, and we all know Murdoch’s excellent ethics record
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/occupy-movement-takes-on-behemoth-of-student-debt/story-e6frgcko-1226209499684
Thorne Dreyer. a radio personality and writer writes from Austin, Texas:
Danny — you might check out this feature done by a local news station right after the protests started. I thought they did a decent job.
Rest In Peace: WP: Richard L. Grossman, a community organizer who sought to curtail big business by raising public awareness about what he regarded as corporate abuse of power, died Nov. 22 at a hospital in New York City.
Mr. Grossman worked on a variety of progressive causes during his four-decade career. In the 1970s, while living in the Washington area, he founded Environmentalists for Full Employment, a group that sought to unite environmental activists and unions. In the 1980s, he worked at the Highlander Research and Education Center, a social justice organization in Tennessee, and was executive director of Greenpeace USA.”
And that’s my news dissection for today. I am still seeking some editorial help with the blog. Working on it, as I do, early in the morning and late at night is not the best time to catch typos etc. I am looking at someone who has an interest in news analysis and with some blog/editorial skills. Unfortunately, its a volunteer gig.
If you are interested or have some comments or suggestions write: dissector@mediachannel.org.
See the whole Post / →
Egypt Votes, Barney Frank Retires, Unions March, Occupy Lives
November 29th, 2011 - by: danny
Interview on OWS and the media on Press TV
Quote of the day from another Dan (Rather) RSN
“As you know, we are living in an age when big money owns everything … including the news. That cash bought a lot of silence for a long time. Enough time for unchecked power to get this country tangled into messes all around the world. We all know that money talks. But, so do the people. They tire of conflicts at home and abroad … conflicts that avert our eyes from the corruption and callowness that does little more than spill our blood and misspend our treasure. ‘We had fed the heart on fantasies,’ wrote William Butler Yeats, ‘the heart’s grown brutal from the fare.’ In other words, we have gotten used to it.”
Dissecting Is Not Always Fun
Yesterday, my day began with fear and loathing, suspecting the worse from the threatened LAPD shutdown of Occupy La. (Maybe because I just saw the new film Rampart featuring Woody Harrelson’s brilliant portrayal of a brutal member of that esteemed force and also remember what happened in Watts.)
At the same I grew up with Jack Webb’s “Joe Friday:, a TV Cop who followed LAPD rules on Dragnet, Don-da-Dom Don…!
But it wasn’t to be. At least not yesterday although the pressure is till on.
And neither was the shutdown yet of Occupy Philly, as OpEd News editor Rob Kall observed, “I witnessed the waning of Occupy Philly’s encampment, but also saw what looks to me like a pattern of energy and development that suggests that occupy evictions will lead to a Metamorphosis of the Occupy Movement to something that not only walks but flies, that is more beautiful, more powerful than anything we have seen so far.”
And then I heard that Miley Cyrus has done a pro-Occupy music video.
That Miley spirit was not so evident at Occupy Wall Street’s main base with only a small contingent wandering around in a rather dispirited mood. I was on a bus on 23rd Street when a spirited march of students against cuts in education marched by chanting, “Students United Will Never Be Defeated. Today at 2, there will be a protest to support the Egyptian people at the Egyptian consulate at 58th and 2nd Ave.
Speaking of Egypt…:
Egypt Votes Under A Cloud of Military Menace
Egyptian citizens lined up on the streets Monday to vote in the country’s first free election in decades. They’re electing members to the lower house of Parliament, and the Muslim Brotherhood is expected to do well. The long lines indicated good turnout despite the fact that political parties had little time to campaign.
Meanwhile, Egypts military leader, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, issued a stark and troubling warning. Either we succeed politically, economically, and socially or the consequences will be extremely grave, and we will not allow that, he said.”
Talk Radio News Service: Barney Frank retiring
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) announcing he will not seek re-election in the next election cycle.
This will bring an end to the 71-year-old’s 32-year career serving the 4th District of Massachusetts. Frank is currently the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee. He played a major role in the creation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill that passed in 2010 and is a champion of gay rights who helped campaign for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
If the bankers hate Frank, they will be apoplectic when the next Democrat in line for the Committee chair takes over; Maxine Waters, the Congresswoman from California who is also an outspoken black leader. That is, if the Democrats regain Congress:
Daily Beast: Announcing his decision Monday, Frank blasted his Republican colleagues for “dropping the ball” on financial regulation, and the media for creating partisan echo chambers. “It would have been a tough campaign,” Frank said. “In some ways, if you’re an incumbent representing people you haven’t represented you get the worst of both worlds.”
Comments: Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
“Barney Frank is one of kind. He has brought his own brand of brashness, boldness, unmatched wit, discipline and skill to Capitol Hill, at times ingratiating and infuriating friend and foe alike. We thank him for his years of service. As an openly gay member of Congress for nearly a quarter century, Barney Frank has made his mark on history. Yet his legacy is much more than that — for 30 years, he has dedicated himself to bettering the lives of the people he serves, and the country he serves. His voice — often loud and uncompromising — will be missed by many, including me.”
Openmarket.org: Barney Frank’s Cognitive Dissonance on Liberties and Risk-Taking.
“Congress will certainly be different and, for the country, better with the absence of Rep. Barney Frank, who announced today he will not seek reelection. Frank’s record on civil and constitutional liberties can best be described with a paraphrase of a nursery rhyme. On the rare times he was good, he was very, very good; but when he was bad — which was most of the time — he was horrid.”
Occupy Philly and LA Hanging On
Occupy Wall Street.org: Even as hundreds of police gathered around City Hall, Occupy Los Angeles continued to peacefully assemble in impressive numbers in Solidarity Park (formerly City Hall Park) throughout the night. Accounts put the crowd at over 2,000.
Early this morning, LAPD moved in to evict the encampment. Around 5am PST, police armed with batons and riot gear ordered the nonviolent Occupiers to disperse from the street or face violent arrest. The crowd responded by asking LAPD to lay down their weapons and join them. At least four arrests were made, before the police backed down.
In the words of one Occupy LA participant who was interviewed by the New York Times, “It wasn’t in their best interest to come in when there are thousands here.” And the whole world continues to watch; the livestream OccupyFreedomLA reported that it had over 37,000 views last night
•Though ordered by the city to leave yesterday and threatened with arrest, Occupy Philly remains peacefully assembled.
•Threat to Occupy DC ” National Park Service Gives Warning to Freedom Plaza
“Freedom Plaza is treating this as a threat of eviction and arrest”
Washington, DC: Today, Freedom Plaza responded to a memorandum dated November 23rd to Occupy Washington, DC at Freedom Plaza. The response denies serious accusations of assaults, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, lack of sanitation and other issues.
The memorandum, which was also addressed to McPherson Square, is viewed as a first step to eviction and arrest. It was delivered to every tent at Freedom Plaza, posted on the General Assembly Board and delivered to individuals who were present. This was the first notice received by Freedom Plaza.
“Six weeks ago we were warned by the Park Police that before any enforcement action was taken the police would give us written notice of the illegal activities on the Plaza. Freedom Plaza is treating this notice as a threat of eviction and arrest. This is a serious threat to the Occupy Movement in Washington, DC,” said Kevin Zeese, a organizer of Freedom Plaza. “The notice contained numerous false accusations against Freedom Plaza and therefore we are providing a thorough response to their claims.”
“There were several inaccuracies in the memorandum with regards to Freedom Plaza. First, we support the efforts of the Park Service to protect Freedom Plaza. We have consistently taken great care to protect the Plaza, keep it clean and sanitary.
No harm has been done to the Plaza by Occupy Washington, DC. We know the importance of public space and treat it as our commonwealth.
Second, we appreciate the National Park Service tradition of allowing the exercise of First Amendment rights. As we have said throughout this occupation we are acting in the great tradition of citizenship. As the preamble to the Constitution states: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union . . .” We are acting in this great tradition, confronting issues that have been ignored by elected officials in order to create a better country for us and future generations.
Third, our actions are protected by the First Amendment. You recognize that we are exercising our First Amendment rights to Freedom of Speech and our Right to Assemble to Redress Grievances. The language of the Amendment could not be clearer: “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” We are acting with the protection of the Constitution. We have been flexible to work with other permit holders, but the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and trumps all others…
As we explained to the Park Service when we applied for our permit. all over the United States Americans are living in tent cities, much like what we show at Freedom Plaza. The tents, sleeping bags, kitchen and other parts of our tents city has been erected virtually since the beginning of the occupation. The tent city that is the occupation of Freedom Plaza is a stark political statement of the economic reality many Americans are facing today.”
There are also debates underway within the Occupy Movement about its future.
David DeGraw, who coined the 99% versus the 1% concept, noted:
…something I notice frequently in this movement – you have people who spend time fighting over specific issues and you have people who spend time working together to find common ground and move forward in constructive ways. it’s certainly not easy, it’s a very messy and humbling process, to say the least. The first thing we have to do is defeat the enemy, a corrupt and rigged system of exploitation, we can fight over the best ways to move forward after that.
After spending the past 3 years trying to herd cats / unite the 99.9%, there were only two places where common ground was consistently found: 1) get money out of politics. 2) break up the banks.
Until those two things happen, all other battles are a waste of time. i have my own strong opinions on monetary systems, healthcare, education, environment, etc, but i don’t pretend to have the perfect solution to problems that have rarely been successfully addressed throughout the world. until we get the boot off our throat, what’s the sense in fighting over those issues right now?
I definitely get that there are many vital issues that need to be addressed urgently, but it’s like trying to change a light bulb when there is no electricity. as with most the people fighting 24/7 within this movement, we don’t have the luxury of sitting behind our computers envisioning the perfect future, we’re much too busy fighting the people who have destroyed our families and set our futures on fire. while the ideologues are yapping and fussing, we are fighting and pushing forward. i have great respect for everyone on this email, just don’t have time for pissing contests, back to the front – “there’s a battle outside and it is ragin’” ;-)
Note from the AFL-CIO; Time To Act
If Congress does not act before it adjourns for the year, unemployment insurance (UI) will expire and 6 million jobless workers will lose their UI lifeline….
Unions Plan March This Thursday: 4 PM: .
The March for Jobs and Economic Fairness on Dec. 1 is a call to action and a show of unity. Join us. We hope you will join with us as we march down Broadway from Herald Square to Union Square and fill the street from curb to curb so government and corporate CEOs get our message: Enough is enough.
News from The Beltway: Senate Dems plan to move $1 trillion omnibus in December (The Hill)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday he plans to move a massive omnibus spending bill in December, a move that will fire up opposition from Tea Party conservatives.
Reid says he wants to avoid the prospect of the federal government running for another year on stopgap spending measures.
Democratic aides argue that Reid, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama have already agreed to set the level of federal discretionary spending at $1.043 trillion for fiscal year 2012 so there’s no need for further drama.
Reid said he will encourage meetings between appropriators in the Senate and House to iron out differences over specific programs and policy riders and combine the remaining spending bills in one large package.
Business Week: Dems Debate New Tax Plan
Global Developments
•Election in DR Congo experiences violence, is extended to get ballots to 63,000 ballot stations. Fraud and irregularities reported on Al Jazeera
• South Africa’s Mail & Guardian: Trust issues stalk COP17 as UN climate talks open
The UN climate talks in Durban have kicked off amid distrust over carbon cuts, and worries that the Kyoto Protocol will be “murdered on African soil”.
Washington Post: The chief economist for the International Energy Agency said Monday that current global energy consumption levels put the Earth on a trajectory to warm by 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, an outcome he called “a catastrophe for all of us.”
•Madre: To Reverse Climate Change, We Need the Voices of Grassroots Women
Today, as world policymakers gather in Durban, South Africa for a major summit on climate change, MADRE underscores that prioritizing the expertise of grassroots women worldwide is critical to addressing climate change while upholding human rights. Our grassroots partners represent women on the frontlines of the climate crisis, and they are there to present solutions that can meet these twin challenges.”
• Misurata: Libya’s New Rulers Offer Weapons to Syrian Rebels
Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya’s new authorities on Friday
“There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” – “There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see.”
•Noam Chomsky: The US Game Plan For Egypt and The Arab World
Economy
Economy
Jim Cramer, CNBC: We are in Defcon 3, 2 Steps from Major Financial Crisis
•NYT: Crisis in Europe Tightens Credit Across the Globe
As European banks pull back on lending, companies around the globe are finding it harder to borrow, edging the world economy toward another slump.
•60 Minutes, Hard Times Generation: Families Living in Cars
•Judge strikes down Citigroup’s $285 million settlement with SEC
A federal judge in New York has struck down a $285 million settlement that Citigroup reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing a need for truth about the financial markets.
He says the bank did NOT admit wrongdoing!
Here’s More on The Case.
The deal would have imposed penalties on Citigroup even as it allowed the company to deny allegations that it misled investors on a complex mortgage investment. The SEC has accused the bank of betting against the investment in 2007 and making $160 million, while investors lost millions.
Via Liz Burbank: “The amount of money the central bank parceled out…dwarfed the Treasury Department’s $700 billion TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system”
•Secret Fed Loans Helped Banks Net $13B
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret… the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerges from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the FOIA and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions.
Edward Jay Epstein, NY Review of Books: WAS DSK SET UP AT THE SOFITEL HOTEL?
Media
Why Americans Are Kept In The Dark: Common Dreams Shows the Cover of Time Magazine in The US And The Rest of The World.
RSN: Julian Assange: Internet Is Now The World Largest Surveillance Machine
The Internet itself had become ‘the most significant surveillance machine that we have ever seen,’ Assange said in reference to the amount of information people give about themselves online. ‘It’s not an age of transparency at all … the amount of secret information is more than ever before,’ he said, adding that information flows in but is not flowing out of governments and other powerful organizations.”
AFP: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has blasted the mainstream media, Washington, banks and the internet itself as he addressed journalists in Hong Kong via videolink from house arrest in England. Fresh from accepting a Walkley award for journalism on Sunday, Assange spoke to the News World Summit in Hong Kong on Monday before keeping a regular appointment with the police. He defended his right to call himself a journalist and said WikiLeaks’ next “battle” would be to ensure that the internet does not turn into a vast surveillance tool for governments and corporations.
Letters
Stephen writes from Ireland
My name is Stephen Nolan, I am Irish and just seen your contribution on Max Kaiser. I then visited your site and watched the clip from your film “Plunder” …
I have been researching all this financial crime stuff over the past two years – I am in the middle of doing a Professional Certificate in Financial Crime Prevention. The major problem over here in Ireland is that the crimes were aided and abetted by the Regulators – and the investigations are taking an inordinate amount of time to complete – and this has me wondering why!
We still have to see one person charged with unlawful behaviour – we have a catch all offence of failing to keep proper books of accounts – but all the proposed misconduct was reported to the regulators who apparently agreed with the schemes to save their own asses while the collapse was playing out between 2007 and 2009.
How many of these people in the US have faced justice? I known very little right but people like Bernie Madoff have been tried and convicted and that must have been a very complex case to unravel – our Director of Corporate Enforcement (equivalent to the SEC in the US) is still investigating crimes that were reported to him over three years ago and continuously asks the courts for more time to do the investigating.
The major issue in this country now is that we just had an election where we replaced a deeply corrupt government in hock and in the pockets of the banks with a government in hock and in the pockets of the EU/IMF. People are very tried and don’t have the energy to fight anymore.
I just don’t know where this is all going. I am nearly thinking that people in Ireland should start an Occupy ODCE (the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement) to highlight his shy approach to his public enforcement duties!
Mark Sashine writes: “Noise covers what is not reported”
If you slander a messenger his message then is not propagated. NONE of the legit. concerns of OWS was even slightly analysed by the MSM. And that is what it was all about.
Robert James They (Mainstream Media) don’t “miss it”.
Their misses are deliberate. The for profit corporate media limits discussion to a few topics and omits anything that doesn’t fit the corporate elites’ agenda, like Ron Paul, for example.
Pam Parker writes
My new Journalism site called http://www.topjournalismschools.org is
up and running! Would you help me share this site with your visitors by
adding it to your resources page of http://infousa.state.gov/media/media_links.html?
After hearing about the challenges many colleagues faced when trying
to find a degree, I saw the need for a truly effective Journalism
education resource on the web. As a result, I designed http://www.topjournalismschools.org to include a comprehensive listing of schools offering a degree in Journalism as well as practical information on possible careers in the field.
Doc “Old Codger” McCoy writes:
The OWS story is unique
For those who support the goals of OWS, it is an important story that needs telling. For those who do not support the unstated goals or actions of OWS, it is a non-story. Obviously, since you support OWS, you want more to be written. As a non-supporter, the story is old.
Barry David Butler writes: “Maybe Ralph will run again…..THIS IS HIS TIME.
If he starts filling up Madison Square Garden for Rallies….the press will not be able to ignore it.
The energy is THERE…He needs to run with Elizabeth as his Vice President….talk about shaking up the status quo…lol”
Ugly Goes Prime Time
I few years ago I made a film about the exploitation of sex on television by focusing on the life and slimes of Ugly George—a public access phenomenon in New York who won big audiences and high ratings for his “Ugly George’s Hour of Sex and violence.”
I couldn’t get arrested promoting the film here because it was assumed that I was supporting Ugly, not just reporting on his many outrages in a film that raised questions about all the hypocrisy over sex in the TV world.
I finally got the film on TV in prime time—in Australia!--and was happily surprised by the review in the Age, a leading Australian newspaper:
“Ugly George Urban drips with sleaze and gets around wearing a tatty backpack with an attached satellite dish but there must be something about him. In the days before reality television and Girls Gone Wild, he approached women in the street and convinced them to get their kit off on camera. The result was a low-budget but widely watched American cable-TV show.
Ugly George’s sheer bravado can be the only explanation for his success with women and it is also the reason this documentary about him works as well as it does. An unreliable and often unappealing character, he is a shameless self-promoter with a habit of making breathtaking statements. He claims, for instance, sole responsibility for the success of cable television. He also claims a female lawyer who opposed his program did so because of the size of her breasts.
The documentary is interesting enough as a character study but interviews with Urban’s contemporaries and archival footage from sex-education videos and anti-smut campaigns broadens its perspective. It is a portrait of a moment in time as well as an eccentric individual.”
Now if can get my work out of the outback and in front of audiences here….
Thanks for tuning in. Sorry for so many items in a blog that has been referred to, not favorably. as a modern version of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There’s much, maybe too much, to comment on.
Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
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Eviction Time In Augusta, Philly and LA, The Media Axiom, The Fight Is On In Cairo
November 28th, 2011 - by: danny
Breaking from OccupyWallStreet.org: Occupiers have refused to leave Occupy LA, and the police are currently enclosing. Thousands have arrived to defend Solidarity Park, forming human chains. Watch it live on this site or here.
In Case You Missed My Sunday Blog
RT: Dissector On The Air with Max Keiser: :
NYT Examiner,Watch: My thoughts on the Death Of NY Times Reporter/Columnist Tom Wicker
And, In Case You Missed This Essay: Will Shopping Save Us?
‘
One By One, the Occupations Are Bring Rolled Back
OccupyWallStreet.org reports:
See: occupyphiladelphia at livestream.com
Despite having sent a letter of appeal to City Hall, Occupy Philadelphia is facing imminent eviction:
[Mayor] Nutter has joined the chorus of Mayors nationwide to silence and render invisible this movement against Wall Street greed. The City told us to leave City Hall with all of our belongings by 5pm today. At 5pm let’s show them how much support this movement has. Come to City Hall and stand with the 99%! Chances are police will not move in at that time. The City will probably unleash them in the middle of the night to start ripping down tents and displacing the homeless.
Earlier: Occupy LA Prepares for Eviction
The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, has ordered Occupy LA to pack up and leave Solidarity Park (formerly City Hall Park) by 12:01AM tonight or face arrest. Villaraigosa – who initially claimed to support the Occupation and has lauded OWS for “awakening the country’s conscience” – is now citing “public health and safety” as justification to evict the encampment, even as LA police chief Charlie Beck refused to reject the use of tear gas and rubber bullets against nonviolent protestors.
As Villaraigosa held a press conference announcing the park would be closed indefinitely after eviction, Occupy LA held a counter press conference outside City Hall. Meanwhile inside, Occupy LA delivered part of its General Assembly’s response, including their so-far unmet grievances:
As a collective, Occupy Los Angeles would like to express their rejection of the City of Los Angeles’ alleged proposal that we leave City Hall by November 28th, 2011, in exchange for an apparently now rescinded offer of a 10,000 square foot building, farmland and 100 SRO beds for the homeless. . . .
We the people have peaceably assembled in public space seeking at minimum a full of redress of grievance for the government’s criminal mistreatment of the people and fraudulent application of judiciary responsibilities, in large part for the interest of exploitative corporations and weaponized banks.
•Slate: As Eviction Nears, Protesters Say They Will Stay
‘Dissector Essay: Occupy Wall Street is All Over The Media: But for How Long?
This is the first in what we hope will be a series of Mediachannel1 reports exploring the media and the Occupy Movement. Share yours with dissector@mediachannel.org
One of the oldest patterns of media coverage can be summed up this way:
First, they ignore you. Then, they ridicule you. Then, they realize you are a story and fall in love. So they build you up at first but then. all at once, tear you down
You may not have changed, but they have, addicted as they are to keep coming up with shifting story lines, more to fight their own boredom and fear of tune out, than the validity or importance of the topic.
In the same way, that political sound bites went from nearly thirty seconds to five, or that MTV style editing soon invaded the newsrooms with quick cutting and razzle-dazzle effects, to “cover news” while making it difficult to concentrate on, much less comprehend the fast paced presentation techniques.
When asked by researchers, audiences could barely tell you what they had just seen, much less what it means.
We saw this in Iraq, when during the invasion, it was war all the time, literally around the close but when you looked closely, it wasn’t about Iraq or Iraqis, its was about a narrative of US slaying the bad guys, cowboys versus Indians, Good guys versus bad guys. There was no other news, but what there was AAU—All about US.
Now, with Occupy Wall Street, the pattern is similar. The issues largely don’t exist—if they require any explanation or analysis. Knowledge about Wall Street and the economy is assumed.
Conflict drives the news.
There was little reporting on the occupation when it started. It was only after the cops began pepper spraying or mass protest that the media arrived en masse. They had adversaries. That, they could understand.
Soon, they flocked to Zuccotti Park like blue birds. When one landed, they all landed. The TV trucks were everywhere especially at 6 and 11 pm. so that local reporters could do silly live stand-ups and show off colorful characters to reinforce the narrative that the protesters were just having fun, and no serious ideas.
Many of these “frontline” reporters couldn’t tell you the difference between a derivative and a donut, but that didn’t matter because what does matter is face time, airtime, visibility.
First the international press recognized that this movement was important. The Park became a mini United Nations with crews from BBC, Al Jazeera, Xinhua News Agency, Russia Today, Press TV.
When they took it seriously, the press began to do the same, and then American TV got into the act once it was realized that this was a national, even a global story
Occupy Wall Street soon had a press desk trying to help reporters who often showed up with preconceived story lines demanded by their editors. Soon the stories about sex, drugs and drumming—no rock and roll yet—were everywhere as they turned over rocks and looked for the homeless and the harassers.
When one station did a the Park is a “Walmart for Rats,” story, City Hall saw an opening and harping on cleanliness (Which has always been next to godliness.)
Most activists were happy to be interview but few every watched how the stories were edited: what was covered and what was not.
That’s also because many of the occupiers hate television and what it has become. They don’t read ponderous editorials or inflammatory headlines.
They do read and create social media—Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube etc.
The advantage is that they are then exposed to their truths and the news they believe they need to makes a difference.
Its news for the community, not the country! The disadvantage is they often are not reaching out to millions of Americans who won’t join the movement because it’s cool. The 99% needs to be educated and inspired—but, alas, they rely on the papers and cable news that is least sympathetic to the movement,
You have to use media if you want to occupy the mainstream—and build a larger movement as opposed to being depicted as a tribal subculture of misfits and the angry,
I would suspect that the media has not met with or tried to persuade editorial boards or newsroom execs, They tend to react more to what they are saying than to act more proactively with their own media campaigns to shape a message that gets disseminated widely.
As the movement moves on, messages have to change and target specific communities. That may be coming, but not quickly enough.
Already some big media outlets like The Washington Post, the paper still living off its Watergate reputation even as it finds few wars it won’t support, is saying Occupy Wall Street is “Over.”
You can bet they want it to be over because their focus on politics starts with the top—The White House and specializes in inside the beltway stories. For years, black people in Washington –the majority–have complained that they are largely ignored by their own home town newspaper.
Post editors are proud and cloistered 1 percenters who love to cover social movements of the past, not the present.
I once looked at how the Post covered the March on Washington back in l963. The story line was how violence was averted. MLK’s “ I Have A Dream” speech was barely news. The march’s focus they on the need for jobs were downplayed then just as Occupy Wall Streets economic critique is downplayed today.
The Movement is being challenged by Mayors—armed with the latest “non-lethal” toys—and coordinated by the Feds (a story few media outlets have investigated) who want to shut down the encampments.
Yes, it’s wrong and unconstitutional and unfair, but is this a battle they can win? Yes, many can go to jail but what message does that send?
Occupy Wall Street is not about camping, its about crusading for justice.
Even Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal (Not the Occupied version) is praising the protests. “This Thanksgiving weekend, Wall Street should say a prayer of gratitude for Occupy Wall Street. While some bankers and brokers have sympathized with or supported this ragtag protest movement, others grouse that they are being demonized.
But compared with financiers of the past, who faced nasty rhetoric, political hostility and physical danger, today’s bankers and brokers seem like a bunch of babies when they whine about being targeted by these dissidents.”
The “Occupy” rhetoric might sound overheated, but it is golden praise alongside what bankers used to hear.”
At least some in the l% is hearing the message.
It’s the 99% that the movement should aim at with actions and media that shows they are on their side and find more creative forms of outreach and organizing to turn a community of activists into a mass movement with demands that the people can resonate with and find ways of supporting.
Media hype can help but its no substitute for ;less glamorous organizing. In the end, that will be the test of whether the movement is “over” or over the top. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
Occupy News
Huff Po: : Cities Spend Cash To Evict Protestors While Ignoring The Homeless
•Student Goes Missing, found at Occupy
RSN: “Egyptian security forces are believed to be using a powerful incapacitating gas against civilian protesters in Tahrir Square following multiple cases of unconsciousness and epileptic-like convulsions among those exposed.”
Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim has been working in Tahrir Square protests for 10 months for a film about Egypt’s revolution. She admitted in the interview that the process was slow.
“These changes take time,” she said, “and I don’t want to put this gigantic blame on the poor kids in the police or the poor kids in the army.”
•Arab League Sanctions Syria
•Wadah Kanfer, Ex-AlJazeera Chief on Rise Of Political Islam (Guardian)
•Mohamad A.El-Erian, Egyptians Will Not Settle For Half-Revolution
•England Preparing for Mass Strike: The November 30 Strike: Will Britain Shut down?
As the long, mild autumn turns into a cold, harsh
winter, it’s not just the frost that’s biting.
Cuts to public spending and a deepening crisis in the
Eurozone have as good as frozen Britain’s economic
growth.
Unemployment is at 2.62 million, with over a million of
those being young people. Inflation is 5 per cent, more
than double the government’s 2 per cent target.
Relations between government and unions are chillier
than ever – and set to reach a bitter head.
On Wednesday, November 30, millions of public sector
workers across Britain will walk out of their jobs on
what’s billed as a “Day of Action”.
London Mobilzing for Major March To Save The National Health Service
With even The Daily Telegraph admitting that the NHS is still “among
best health care systems in the world”, and in the wake of revelations
that Andrew Lansley twice broke Freedom of Information law to suppress
publication of his own assessments of the threat posed by his NHS
reforms, the 38 Degrees petition to protect the NHS currently stands a
little short of one half million signatures. If you’ve not signed
already, please do so now, please also sign the new NHS petition
created by Dr Kailash Chand, OBE, and send these links to all your
colleagues, work-mates, family and friends…
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/Protect_our_NHS_Petition
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670
Zero Hedge:_ Britain’s Foreign Office Prepares For Riots In Europe:
Sees Euro Collapse “When, Not If”
Financial Times: How Iceland Survived Economic Meltdown
Other News
M&G: ‘Last-ditch’ UN climate talks kick off at COP17 in Durban
UN talks to save the Kyoto Protocol begin today in Durban, aimed at cutting emissions blamed for rising sea levels, intense storms and crop failures.
Daily Mail: 5 Billion Bailout For Spain
FT: Europe’s banks feel funding freeze
The funding hole for European banks is deepening following a sharp fall in bond issuance this year as market turmoil leads to a region-wide credit crunch. European banks have sold $413bn worth of bonds this year, equivalent to just two-thirds of the $654bn that is due to be returned to investors in 2011 as the debts mature, according to data compiled for the Financial Times.
WP: Dems Raising Record Amounts of Money
Democratic leaders raising money to be spent on the most competitive House races in next year’s elections are doing something remarkable: outraising their Republican counterparts, despite a historic drubbing a year ago that left Democrats in the minority.
House Democrats have raised $52.1 million to the Republicans’ $48.7 million. The difference is small, but it’s significant given that no minority party has been able to get such an edge in fundraising since the 1994 election cycle.
How Americans Regard Congress: Houses of Pain:
•Black Friday Sales Set http://fluentnews.com/s/27258850″>Record,But No one is talking about usual high rate of returns
•Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Campaigning To Keep Job
More Americans Support Communism than Approve of Congress
NPR’s All Things Considered featured a story on Friday [1]regarding growing discontent in the US over Congress and lawmakers’ sentiments on political problems in America. In October, a CBS News/New York Times poll showed that Congress’ approval rating had sunk to 9 percent, an all-time low. It appears that the vast majority of Americans do not approve of Congress as we hobble towards the 2012 elections.
Financial Times: How Iceland Survived Economic Meltdown
Media
Business Recorder: Al Jazeera, the high-profile Middle Eastern broadcaster, could launch an initial public offering as early as next year as the Qatar government looks to offload stakes in state-owned entities, a senior executive at the country’s bourse said.
“Al Jazeera would like to list next year subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions,” Olivier Gueris, chief operating officer at Qatar Exchange, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.”They (Al Jazeera) have a strong desire to go for an IPO and list the company at Qatar Exchange.
But due to some regulatory requirements with the Ministry of Business and Trade and the Qatar Central Bank it may be next year.”
Al Jazeera was not immediately available for comment.
EJC: Wikileaks Receives Journalism Award in Australia
WikiLeaks has been recognized in Australia for its “outstanding contribution to journalism”, with founder Julian Assange lashing out at “cowardly” Prime Minister Julia Gillard in an acceptance speech. The anti-secrecy website was lauded at the annual Walkley Awards, where winners are chosen by an independent panel of journalists and photographers, for its courageous reporting of secret US cables.
That’s my blog for today. Please pass it on to friends. Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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