If Occupiers Had Been Armed, Would the Cops Have Backed Off?

Yes, of course she was convicted. They weren't protesting the federal government; they were protesting the obscenely wealthy criminals of Wall Street.  And refusing to submit to their deserved beatings. That cannot be permitted.

Digby:

Chris Hedges catches up with the Occupy protester court proceedings:

Cecily McMillan, wearing a red dress and high heels, her dark, shoulder-length hair stylishly curled, sat behind a table with her two lawyers Friday morning facing Judge Ronald A. Zweibel in Room 1116 at the Manhattan Criminal Court. The judge seems to have alternated between boredom and rage throughout the trial, now three weeks old. He has repeatedly thrown caustic barbs at her lawyers and arbitrarily shut down many of the avenues of defense. Friday was no exception.

The silver-haired Zweibel curtly dismissed a request by defense lawyers Martin Stolar and Rebecca Heinegg for a motion to dismiss the case. The lawyers had attempted to argue that testimony from the officer who arrested McMillan violated Fifth Amendment restrictions against the use of comments made by a defendant at the time of arrest. But the judge, who has issued an unusual gag order that bars McMillan’s lawyers from speaking to the press, was visibly impatient, snapping, “This debate is going to end.” He then went on to uphold his earlier decision to heavily censor videos taken during the arrest, a decision Stolar said “is cutting the heart out of my ability to refute” the prosecution’s charge that McMillan faked a medical seizure in an attempt to avoid being arrested. “I’m totally handicapped,” Stolar lamented to Zweibel.

The trial of McMillan, 25, is one of the last criminal cases originating from the Occupy protest movement. It is also one of the most emblematic. The state, after the coordinated nationwide eradication of Occupy encampments, has relentlessly used the courts to harass and neutralize Occupy activists, often handing out long probation terms that come with activists’ forced acceptance of felony charges. A felony charge makes it harder to find employment and bars those with such convictions from serving on juries or working for law enforcement. Most important, the long probation terms effectively prohibit further activism.

I wonder what the defenders of Cliven Bundy have to say about this? My recollection is that they complained a lot about cleanliness. I don't recall any right winger stepping up to defend the right of these people to protest --- and I haven't heard a thing from the "tree of liberty" folks about the legal system dealing with peaceful protest in this way. I guess if you don't have a gun in your hand you just aren't worth defending.

My personal feeling about Bundy is that the Feds and the cops did overreach -- they could have found a less confrontational way to deal with collecting the fines. I suspect they simply lost patience and wanted to make a point. That's usually how these things go. But the armed response by right wing militias and so-called "oath keepers" is even more dangerous. Let's just say it's pretty clear these folks weren't defending my freedom. And they never will.

Meanwhile, peaceful protesters are being harassed by the police and prevented from defending themselves through legitimate legal means by authoritarian judges.

Where do you suppose all this is going to lead?

Resistance Is ... Spreading

Occupy didn't die and it didn't go away. It's been here all along.


David Atkins at Hullabaloo:

Want to understand what's going on Turkey right now? It's not just anti-authoritarian protests against an increasingly autocratic regime. It's much deeper and more interesting than that. It's a protest against privatization, right-wing economics and religious conservatism

SNIP

Behold the unholy combination of IMF loans, corporate power, privatization and conservative religion. A Turkish blogger has more:

This is how it started. A small group of thoughtful, committed citizens camped out in the last green space of the city centre to save it from being sold out. Two nights in a row, authorities sent in the police to disperse them with massive use of tear gas and water cannons, as if they were disinfecting it from a harmful infestation.

There were dozens of wounded, tents were burned, there was blood on the streets. The park was closed and fenced in.

The people refused to accept it. Gezi Park has become a symbol for many more of their grievances. It’s not just against the private sector taking over the public space. It’s also against the assault on civil liberties under pressure from the religious right. And it’s a personal matter, with Reçep Erdogan.

SNIP

The police crackdown has led to events like this, in which a woman bravely stands up in the face of a fire hose:
 

One is reminded of that chilling scene in Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine in which the Iraqi worker at a state-run facility tells a reporter that he will convert to radicalism rather than watch the people's utility be privatized.

There is nothing that says that Islamism is in any way opposed to neoliberal economics. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. But more often than not, conservative religion abroad plays right into the hands of the multinational powers just like it does here at home, with precisely the same effects.

Resistance is key. Resistance against religious fundamentalism. Resistance against neoliberalism. Resistance against privatization of gains and socialization of losses. Resistance against the subjugation of green spaces, renewable energy and the environment to the profits of a very few.

A few brave Turks are showing that resistance. That's a great thing. Now it's up to the world to join them.

Already some have - back in Zuccatti Park. 

Occupy Still Alive, Still Kicking Ass

DS Wright at Firedoglake:

Occupy The SEC, one of Occupy Wall Street’s offshoots, has filed a lawsuit in hopes of forcing regulators to (finally) finalize the Volker Rule – a provision within the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. Three years later many of the rules that Congress punted to regulators in the law have not even been made let alone enforced.

Also from Firedoglake:

“In the first trial stemming from an Occupy Wall Street protest, Michael Premo was found innocent of all charges after his lawyers presented video evidence directly contradicting the version of events offered by police and prosecutors.”

Occupy Homes MN, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and others gathered for a 200-person march on Minneapolis’ Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, demanding that a house the community cleaned up for a single mother and her children be donated to the community.

Quote of the Day

Funny how the ones who whine the most about "personal responsibility" are the ones who never take any.

From The Nation:

“Occupy understands that the transit system that took a century to build is threatened by the 1 percent, who want all of the financial benefits but none of the financial responsibilities of a civilized society,” ATU president Larry Hanley explained at the launch of 2012’s National Day of Action for Public Transportation.

After Superstorm Sandy devastated public transit in the Northeast Corridor, Hanley made the right connections. “Ultimately, who should pay is the oil companies,” he told the most valuable StreetsBlog.org. “They’re the people who are polluting the environment, the people who are causing this global warming…. If ever there was clear evidence of climate change, it’s what we’ve been through over the last several months, with the hot summer and now this storm activity. Like the cleanup in the Gulf, they should be called upon to clean up after this storm.”

 

 

 

Occupy Lives

One year, 10 years, 100 years: it changed the conversation forever.

William Rivers Pitt at Truthout:

Because an idea never dies, because this idea is not dead, because Occupy lives on all across America and all across the world. Occupy lives in every American city and in every national capitol on the planet. Occupy continues to fight against the greed and violence of the powerful. Occupy continues to fight against those who are murdering our world with pollution and the profit motive. Occupy continues to fight unfair foreclosures and evictions, to stand with Labor and the rights of workers, to push back against the perpetual wars that suck the life out of everything and everyone. Occupy continues to stand in England, in Canada, in Mexico, in Chile, in Greece, in Spain, in Russia, in India, and in so many other places besides; in every place where there are people, there is Occupy.

Occupy continues.

Read the whole thing.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "We Are the Many"

Uploaded by MakanaVideos on Nov 10, 2011

Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage

From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight

They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none

So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest

We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy

Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We are the many
You are the few

Maybe Homeland Insecurity Doesn't Have Enough Work to Do

Occupy is most certainly an existential threat to the power structure, but not the way they think. Or at least, not the way they approach the threat. Because, as usual, the "security" goons are spying on the wrong groups.

Digby on "Homeland Occupation:"

So, we found out (last month) that Homeland Security was doing some tracking of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. It they've only done what was reported, it seems to be fairly benign, limited to tracking and analyzing the movement through public media. Here's the main thrust of its reasoning:

Mass gatherings associated with public protest movements can have disruptive effects on transportation, commercial, and government services, especially when staged in major metropolitan areas. Large scale demonstrations also carry the potential for violence, presenting a significant challenge for law enforcement.

I suppose that's true. But why is it the federal government's problem? No large scale political demonstration is going to be big enough that it could "disrupt" beyond the borders of a major metropolitan area or certainly not state borders. Lord knows there are plenty of local and state police around to handle anything that happens. There is no federal implication to any of it, unless it's happening in Washington DC.

These are explicitly political demonstrations, even if they aren't partisan, and great care needs to be taken to ensure that the government isn't interfering with that. I realize that we have a huge new federal policing apparatus with Homeland Security that needs to play with its toys, but I don't think it was designed for the purpose of monitoring domestic political demonstrations. After all, we already have the FBI for that --- and I would imagine they are doing their own monitoring, (also for no good reason, by the way.)

Local police are perfectly capable of handling demonstrations. There's no reason for the Feds to be involved.

But I do wonder, considering this revelation, if Homeland Security is monitoring the Tea Party at all? After all, there was a fairly good chance that some of the fringe far right characters who were involved were actually planning some terrorism. My guess is that the locals and maybe the FBI would have also been capable of dealing with that, but one could at least see some remote reasoning for DHS to be concerned with them over Occupy, which hasn't shown the slightest inclination toward any kind of terrorism or violent national threat.

DHS did warn of some threat from the Tea Party back on 09, of course. But you'll recall that they were harassed by the right wing into withdrawing their warnings. In fact, they ended up closing down the whole unit that was devoted to right wing extremist groups:

In an in-depth interview published in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, [former DHS analyst]Johnson reveals the level of sway the political right had in thwarting intelligence work on right-wing extremism. He says DHS deliberately "mischaracterized the report as unauthorized, even though it had passed through proper channels" and "instituted restrictive policies that brought the important work of his unit to a virtual standstill." As a result, Johnson "left DHS in dismay and was followed by almost all the members of his team, leaving a single analyst where there had been six." In comparison, there are at least 25 analysts devoted to tracking Islamic terrorism.

When questioned about Johnson’s claims -- which have been confirmed by current and former department officials in the Washington Post – DHS officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have repeatedly disputed his account and insist that "the level of activity by right-wing extremist groups has remained consistent over the past few years." In addition, they claim "the perception of increased extremist activity may be due to increased awareness of the threat by the government and the public." But the numbers beg to differ.

I wonder how many analysts they put on Occupy?

The fact is that right wing terrorist groups are growing and have been quite active over the past few years, which anyone who reads the paper knows. But the political pressure that was brought to bear was instantaneous and crushing. That was the end of that. So I would imagine they held back on doing any assessment of those who brought guns to political events for intimidation purposes or investigated any of the militia groups that have infiltrated the Tea Parties.

Again, I'm not sure what Homeland Security's role is supposed to be in all this to begin with. We already had the FBI for national law enforcement, which includes domestic terrorism.(And lord knows they have historically been eager and willing to infiltrate and monitor political movements.) I thought DHS was going to be for bringing all the federal authorities together to assess foreign threats to the "Homeland."

That it would end up infiltrating and duplicating the FBI and local law enforcement's jurisdictions was inevitable, however. If you build it, they will use it. And it appears they are using it to monitor events such as peaceful political demonstrations against domestic industries. Just don't ask them to monitor violent white supremacist groups or anti-government terrorists. It would go against the constitution and that would be wrong.

This week, DHS responded to a FOIA request by turning over documents on its Occupy spying to Truthout. Read more here.

Who You Gonna Call?

Again, Occupy steps up to do the hard political work no one else wants to tackle.

Digby:

OWS Gets Wonky

Here's a fascinating interview by Mike Konczal with one of the writers of the Occupy SEC comment letter that's been getting so much praise. I think it's significant for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's clear they came up with a process that worked for getting a consensus document addressing a particular issue, which is a good thing. But more importantly, this document came from Occupy Wall Street, the heart of the movement and ground zero for the 99% vs the 1% claim. Beyond the specifics, which have been received as substantive, serious and important, the significance of a successful collaboration to reform a flaw in the financial system from OWS cannot be understated. As Joe Biden would say, this is a big fucking deal.

Read the whole interview and if you haven't familiarized yourself with the document, you can read these posts by DDay, Felix Salmon, Matt Yglesias, Swampland, The Nation. It's pretty great.

When We Fight, We Win

When we compromise, we lose.

Diane Sweet at Crooks and Liars:

The following press release announces the settlement between ILWU Local 21 and the Export Grain Terminal (EGT).This announcement marks a significant victory for the labor movement in the US.

Via:

Longview, WA – On Friday, members of the ILWU and the labor community named the Occupy Movement as key to the settlement reached Thursday between ILWU Local 21 and the Export Grain Terminal (EGT). The contract finally provides for the use of ILWU labor in the grain terminal at the Port of Longview. After staging the December 12 port shutdowns in solidarity with Local 21, the West Coast Occupy Movement planned coordinated action together with labor allies for a land and water blockade of the EGT ship in Longview, should it attempt to use scab labor to load. Occupys in states where EGT’s parent company, Bunge, has its growth and operations were also planning actions against the company on the day of the arrival of the ship.

“This is a victory for Occupy in their involvement in forcing negotiations. Make no mistake – the solidarity and organization between the Occupy Movement and the Longshoremen won this contract,” said Jack Mulcahy, ILWU officer with Local 8. “The mobilization of the Occupy Movement across the country, particularly in Oakland, Portland, Seattle, and Longview were a critical element in bringing EGT to the bargaining table and forcing a settlement with ILWU local 21.”

“West Coast Occupys had already demonstrated their ability to stage such a blockade by shutting down ports along the West Coast on December 12th, as well as the Port of Oakland on November 2nd,” said Anthony Leviege, ILWU Local 10 in Oakland. The Occupy Movement shut down ports in order to express solidarity with port truckers and Local 21, as well as responding to a nationally-coordinated eviction campaign against Occupy.

Mayor Jean Quan said on Dec.11th that the unions weren't backing this effort, and even if that were true at the time, the unions are certainly full of praise for Occupy Oakland now.

Watch video of the port shutdown here.

Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars on important labor victories in Arizona (!), Pennsylvania and Colorado:

These are all good signs that when we fight back, we can win, even in places where governors and legislatures are hostile to working families.

As for what happens when dems cave, check out this with this piece by Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money on just how thoroughly the dem cave on the transportation bill damages unions.

From Protection to Protest: An Iraq Veteran Occupies

You may have seen this young man interviewed on Countdown; here is the original article that led to that interview.

Derek McGee in The Nation:

In late September 2001, I was living in a tent in Lower Manhattan with the 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, a reserve unit just outside the city. We were occupying Battery Park, which at the time served as the National Guard's headquarters. "Guarding the guard," we called it.

The two weeks I spent there were profoundly affecting. There I was, at the center of the world, watching America at its finest, showing at once nearly impossible perseverance and limitless compassion. Generosity sprouted everywhere throughout New York City; people gave out food, shoe inserts, massages, coffee, flowers, hugs, kind words and anything you needed.

SNIP

From where I stood, the whole world seemed to feel empathy. It was one of the only times in my life that I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be.

Another time was when I was living under a bridge along the Euphrates River. A nearly ceaseless convoy rolled overhead. I wasn't particularly keen on the invasion of Iraq, but if we had to have one, I knew I needed to be there with my fellow marines. A Subaru filled with reporters pulled up and offered us cigarettes to hasten our search of their car. "They're just outside Baghdad," they told us. The whole world is watching, I thought.

But the last time I knew without a doubt that I was where I should be was on November 17, standing in the center of Zuccotti Park. We were corralled and outnumbered, with helicopters overhead and riot cops, tourists, media and disdainful bankers looking on. Yet for all the chaos, it felt like the whole world was suddenly awake—not just watching but thinking.

In the decade between my occupation of Battery Park and Occupy Wall Street, I saw the country descend into fear and apathy. We became so afraid of Osama bin Laden and Muslims that we borrowed a trillion dollars to wage an unneeded war in Iraq (then forgot about it halfway through). I returned from Falluja in 2006 haunted by the sense that our country had made things worse, not better, for Iraqis. Meanwhile, at home, we'd let an invasive domestic intelligence apparatus go silently to work all around us. And as money dominated politics and bipartisanship degenerated into an impotent ruckus, we let our banks more or less start regulating themselves.

It was this last bit that brought me back to Lower Manhattan. After Iraq I'd gone to work at Merrill Lynch, then worked doing corporate security for a firm on Wall Street. I knew enough to be critical of the financial industry. Yet when the first Occupiers converged downtown, I was dismissive. I didn't have anything in common with those people, I thought. Then I saw a newspaper photo of someone holding a sign that read, Reinstate Glass-Steagall. Thank you, I thought. I'd been saying that since taking my stockbroker's certification exam in 2007. Nobody had ever listened. I went down to Zuccotti Park.

SNIP

Between work and school I didn't have much time for Occupy, but when I could I marched, and when something was on my mind I made a sign. I was late to the protest on November 17, a "day of action," arriving shortly after the opening bell. I was immediately underwhelmed. A few signs were held aloft and what looked like thousands of police officers milled about smartly; I squinted to make sure the ones in the distance weren't just blue streaks painted on backdrops like the buffalo herds in old westerns. Toward Wall Street a line of people waited to get past some barriers, where police were checking people's identification. I ducked into the subway, whose network of tunnels was familiar from my corporate security days, and emerged inside what I'd dubbed the Green Zone. (The Green Zone in Baghdad is a large, heavily secured area, too.)

At the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway were two young women holding signs above their heads, mostly topless, totally harmless, obstructing neither sidewalk nor street. Yet they were forcibly removed by a swarm of police officers. A melee broke out; people shoved and hollered, the media tried to get pictures, passers-by were caught in the middle, protesters ended up cuffed on the ground and a policeman had an unknown substance thrown at his face. No one asked why the women should be denied the right to free speech.

Further down the street, a line of cops fidgeted in riot gear. They looked uncomfortable, tugging at straps and twisting about. I knew how they felt. I was trained in nonlethal riot control. It's dreadful. Hours of choreography, getting the steps right—you have to move as one to keep gaps from opening. I learned to throw stun grenades, how to restrain and zip-tie troublemakers. I practiced using fire extinguisher–sized canisters of pepper spray—and was pepper-sprayed myself. (It's important to appreciate the effects of such weapons, lest one be tempted to deploy them casually. I ran a good way through an obstacle course thinking pepper spray isn't so bad, then pow!: a dozen elves were ripping the freckles off my face with belt sanders.)

SNIP

But when you're part of a unit sent to "restore order," whether you're facing former soldiers throwing bricks or university students publicly expressing an opinion, you go in with one mentality: crush the other side. At no point are you considering whether you are on the right side. Empathy has no place. If your boss ordered you to clear pregnant diabetic women from outside the grand opening of a new InsulinMart, for reasons that are hard to explain, you go in angry. That's why putting people in riot gear where there is no riot is reckless and provocative.

Of course, if my goal was to crush free speech, I might use a little misdirection too. As in any war, I would dehumanize the enemy: make sure the protesters aren't perceived as ordinary people with legitimate concerns but rather as hippies and anarchists who force police to work overtime on the taxpayer dime. Then I would send far more police than necessary, pre-emptively ordering some troops into riot gear, to stir tension and make escalation inevitable. The singular focus thus becomes the "clashes": police and protesters absorb one another's frustrations, and I've successfully contained the problem by pitting the 99 percent against itself, while eclipsing the issues that led to the protests in the first place.

SNIP

How did I get here? Ten years ago I was standing in military fatigues checking IDs, and now I was walking around with a legion of malcontents carrying signs with messages like Police—I Forgive You. I had gone down to Zuccotti to call for Wall Street to be reformed and held accountable, but the more I listened to protesters discussing other issues, the more my skepticism gave way to an impulse to go home and do my own research. I realized that much of what they said was true. Corporations are legally people? Does anybody know about this? I thought naïvely. We imprison people at twelve times the rate of Japan? And none of the people who defrauded the country and caused this crisis are in prison? Why isn't anybody saying anything?

Everyone in the Occupy movement has a different set of grievances. I personally believe that we must spend less on offensive wars and more on education—I'm going back to school on the GI Bill, and its value is immeasurable.

But more fundamentally, if Occupy has taught me anything it is that we must live up to our own values. There is nothing you could write on a sign that could offend me more than seeing police take away someone's right to free speech. What we do as soldiers is meaningless if our government takes away those freedoms while we are sent to supposedly defend them. Americans applaud protest throughout the world as a legitimate way for people to express their thirst for democracy. Is it really possible that everyone has a point except those who protest here?

Read the whole thing.

I Love Mountains Week Starts Tonight

The I Love Mountains Day rally at the Capitol next Tuesday, Feb. 14, has mushroomed into a full week of events you do not want to miss.

Via the indispensable Barefoot and Progressive, Lexington offers six full days of I Love Mountains events, starting tonight:

Thursday, Feb. 9th: Film Screening — Dirty Business: “Clean Coal” And The Battle For Our Energy Future // @ Homegrown Press 7 pm, FREE, 574 N Limestone

At 7:15 p.m. on Monday, the Kentucky Coffeetree Cafe on Broadway in downtown Frankfort will host a special pre-rally party.

Celebrate the marchers coming from Prestonsburg, KY, and participate in an interactive film screening of #whilewewatch.

#whilewewatch is the gripping portrait of the #OccupyWallSt media revolution. Citizens came together at Zuccotti Park with energy, intelligence and guts to impassion their message, "We are the 99%." #whilewewatch discovers the #OWS media team who had no fear of a critical city government, big corporations, hostile police, or a lagging main stream media to tell their story. Through rain, snow, grueling days, sleeping on concrete; they pumped out exhilarating ideas to the world. Fueled with little money, they relied on the power of Twitter, texting, Wi-Fi, posters, Tumblr, live streams, YouTube, Facebook, dramatic marches, drumbeats and chants.

And on Tuesday, as Kentuckians for the Commonwealth says:

Please join us on Tuesday, February 14th for I Love Mountains day to continue calling for an end to mountaintop removal and asking our leaders to share a vision for the solutions that Kentucky so desperately needs. Help us call on Governor Beshear, our state legislative leaders, and even our leaders in Washington D.C. to serve the public interest by ending mountaintop removal and looking towards a clean energy future that provide good, safe jobs and health communities.

12:00 p.m.: Gather on the front steps of the State Capitol (please eat lunch before you arrive).

12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.: Rally and march. Our rally will feature special guest speaker, Tar Sands Activist Melina Laboucan-Massimo

Coal mining harms Kentucky and Kentuckians in many more ways than mountaintop removal, as horrific as that is.

John Cheves at the Herald:

Kentucky's leaders should consider the health hazards of mining, moving and burning coal as they craft the state's energy policy, an environmental group said (in January).

The Kentucky Environmental Foundation, based in Berea, released a 44-page "health-impact assessment" on coal and sent copies to Gov. Steve Beshear and the General Assembly.
The statement cites published, peer-reviewed scientific studies from recent years that document health risks associated with coal. They include air and water pollution from mountaintop-removal mining, mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, and toxic metals, including arsenic and cadmium, that are found in coal-waste storage ponds. Burning coal also releases heat-trapping gases that contribute to climate change, the statement says.

Just as state government can require an environmental-impact statement before it undertakes a public construction project, it should require a health-impact statement before it passes laws or regulations concerning coal, said Elizabeth Crowe, executive director of the Kentucky Environmental Foundation.

"Unfortunately, many of Kentucky's elected officials seem concerned about protecting the image and profits of the coal industry with little if any time donated to consideration about the impact on public health," Crowe said. "After all, this is the state in which legislators last year proposed a bill that would make Kentucky a 'sanctuary state' for the coal industry."

Lefty WATBs: "Occupy Won't Play By Our Rules!"

So. Occupy accomplishes in three months what the Left could not accomplish in 30 years - changing the conversation from "how to more efficiently fuck over poor people" to "how to make rich motherfuckers pay their fair share" - and how does the Left thank them?

By bitching and complaining because Occupy is not promoting the Democratic Party's corporatist agenda.

Tough shit, morons. Occupy is not your fucking cheering section. You want people to fall in line, join the motherfucking repugs. Jesus Fucking Christ, what a bunch of tools.

Allison Kilkenny at In These Times:

This week, Bill Maher and Chris Hedges went to war with the black bloc, though Maher framed his attack against Occupy Wall Street more broadly. The tactics he seems to take issue with i.e. throwing chairs through a Starbucks window is behavior usually associated with individuals claiming to be part of black bloc action.

The discontentment with Occupy on the left appears to be growing. In an interview I did yesterday with The Young Turks yesterday, host Cenk Uygur expressed similar frustration with the movement that stubbornly refuses to engage within the political system.

Let me be clear: this aggrivation on the left is not new, but it seems prominent liberal players feel a renewed sense of confidence that they will not be booed mercilessly by their audiences if they take Occupy to task.

While the left joined the mainstream in a now almost five-month long bickerfest over protest tactics, Occupy Pittsburgh quietly closed shop, dismantled their tents, and removed the remaining fixtures of their encampment.

Yeah, congratulations, you mainstream progressive assholes: you pissed and moaned the biggest liberal success of the last half-century off the front pages and into the loving arms of police thugs.

Fine. You think Occupy is so terrible, you don't get to take credit for everything Occupy accomplishes from now on. In every state, Occupy protests are moving out of tent camps and into the community, where they are stopping foreclosures and picketing bad actors and organizing good neighbors.

Occupy is everywhere. You can't stop it. Just four months old, it's already bigger than lefty WATBs, bigger than the Obama campaign, bigger than the Democratic Party.

Attack it at your peril.

Occupy the Neighborhood

While President Obama's special committee of investigators plus state Attorneys General from around the country move closer to prosecuting the banks and mortgage dealers who defrauded Americans of hundreds of billions of dollars in home value, there are things state and local governments can do now to alleviate foreclosures and restore property values.

Ellen Brown at Truthout:

The legal tide is turning against MERS and the banks, giving rise to some interesting possibilities for relief at the county level. Local governments have the power of eminent domain: they can seize real or personal property if (a) they can show that doing so is in the public interest, and (b) the owner is compensated at fair market value.

The public interest part is easy to show. In a 20-page booklet titled "Revitalizing Foreclosed Properties with Land Banks," the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) observes:

The volume of foreclosures has become a significant problem, not only to local economies, but also to the aesthetics of neighborhoods and property values therein. At the same time, middle- to low-income families continue to be priced out of the housing market while suitable housing units remain vacant.

The booklet goes on to describe an alternative being pursued by some communities:

To ameliorate the negative effects of foreclosures, some communities are creating public entities - known as land banks - to return these properties to productive reuse while simultaneously addressing the need for affordable housing.

States named as adopting land bank legislation include Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Kentucky and Maryland. HUD notes that the federal government encourages and supports these efforts. But states can still face obstacles to acquiring and restoring the properties, including a lack of funds and difficulties clearing title.

Both of these obstacles might be overcome by focusing on abandoned and foreclosed properties for which the chain of title has been broken, either by MERS or by failure to transfer the promissory note according to the terms of the trust indenture. These homes could be acquired by eminent domain both free of cost and free of adverse claims to title. The county would simply need to give notice in the local newspaper of an intent to exercise its right of eminent domain. The burden of proof would then transfer to the bank or trust claiming title. If the claimant could not prove title, the county would take the property, clear title and either work out a fair settlement with the occupants or restore the home for rent or sale.

Even if the properties were acquired without charge, counties might lack the funds to restore them. Additional funds could be had by establishing a public bank that serves more functions than just those of a land bank. In a series titled "A Solution to the Foreclosure Crisis," Michael Sauvante of the National Commonwealth Group suggests that properties obtained by eminent domain can be used as part of the capital base for a chartered, publicly owned bank, on the model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. The county could deposit its revenues into this bank and use its capital and deposits to generate credit, as all chartered banks are empowered to do. This credit could then be used not just to finance property redevelopment, but for other county needs, again on the model of the Bank of North Dakota. For a fuller discussion of publicly owned banks, see http://PublicBankingInstitute.org.

Sauvante adds that the use of eminent domain is often viewed negatively by homeowners. To overcome this prejudice, the county could exercise eminent domain on the mortgage contract rather than on title to the property. (The power of eminent domain applies both to real and to personal property rights.) Title would then remain with the homeowner. The county would just have a secured interest in the property, putting it in the shoes of the bank. It could renegotiate reasonable terms with the homeowner, something banks have been either unwilling or unable to do, since they have to get all the investor-owners to agree, a difficult task; and they have little incentive to negotiate when they can make more money on fees and credit-default-swaps on contracts that go into default.

Read the whole thing.

Occupy Louisville Permit Extended - With Restrictions

Mayor Greg Fischer is no fan of Occupy, and probably envies the police thuggery Oakland Mayor Quan has at her disposal, so this amounts to a victory, albeit temporary and constricted.

Chris Quay at the Courier:

The city has extended an event permit that allows Occupy Louisville protesters to camp overnight in Founder’s Square Park through the end of March.

The permit includes added requirements for the protesters, including payment for electricity used in the park and adding at least two portable restrooms.

SNIP

Curtis Morrison, an Occupy movement member, said he and other movement supporters saw the action as a “refreshing attitude of compassion as opposed to being against us and intolerant.” But he said Occupy supporters see the added requirements as a way for the city to impose unwarranted restrictions to deter protesters from staying in the park.

Read the whole thing, which includes the video "Voice of Occupy Louisville."

Occupy Lexington Raided

No, it wasn't violent, but neither was it necessary. C'mon, Lexington - four solid months of peaceful co-existence and suddenly you go all hick sheriff on them? What, were Oakland cops calling you pussies?

Louisville Courant:

After 118 days of continued protest on the corner of Main St and Esplanade, Lexington, Kentucky police, under the supervision of Mayor Jim Gray, came by Tuesday between 12:30-1 PM and confiscated occupiers' tents and canopies.

The police brought more trailers than they needed. All in all, it only took 5-10 officers to confiscate the property. No arrests were made and they left no officers on the scene.

Protesters were allowed to save what personal items they could quickly grab and throw in the back of Ford Ranger belonging to a huge longtime supporter, the owner of Natasha's Bistro on Esplanade.

According to occupier Steven Burt, the police have been less than cordial over the course of the occupation.

"They've complained about our sidewalk chalk. They've said we were dirty and we looked disgusting," Burt said.

Occupy Lexington is located adjacent to a 14-story Chase JP Morgan bank, on the sidewalk. The rumor is that the raid was justified by Lexington police because the protest was on the sidewalk,but that leaves protesters puzzled since that had been the case for 118 days.

Passing motorists are honking and making eye contact just a few hours later, a show of solidarity that is lacking today from Mayor Gray.

"We're not going anywhere. We're needing solidarity from our supporters tonight though," says Stacie Catlett.

Click here for photos of the so-objectionable sidewalk chalkings.

UPDATE, 6 p.m.

Barefoot and Progressive:

The nation’s longest continuous occupation continued last night after police removed all the tents. Despite earlier reports that the corner of Main and Esplanade had been raided and the Occupation was over, the Occupiers met last night to chart a course for the future.

In fact, this sounded less like a raid and more like a misunderstanding leading to a cleansing. At the time, the camp was not unoccupied but the person on watch had crossed the street to get a coffee from Natasha’s. The police saw it empty and decided it was time to break it down, seeing it as abandoned (H-L).

But that’s all neither here nor there, really, since that part is done. The question quickly became “What Next?”

During a two-hour general assembly meeting last night, that question was discussed at length. The Occupiers were of different mindsets but as always, worked toward consensus. Their quick report:

- We will continue to occupy our location at Main and Esplanade. People have committed to be there for the next 24 hours, so feel free to come by and join them, or bring by some hot drinks!

- There was a great conversation tonight about the nature of our occupation and what our next steps should be. Energy is high and there were a lot of great ideas. If you haven’t been by in some time, please come out tomorrow at 6:30 for our General Assembly!

- Stay tuned to this page for more information as we have it. Again, tomorrow’s GA will be very important, so be sure to show up!

You can join them tonight at 6:30PM. Even if you’ve never been down before — there was one gentleman last night who was attending his first meeting.

What will happen next?

Watch the video.

Zucotti Re-Occupied! But No Sitting.

Kevin Gosztola at Firedoglake:

The barricades around Zuccotti Park were finally taken down after NYCLU took issue with how the presence of the barricades were in violation of Brookfield Properties’ zoning permit and wrote a letter. The removal led many Occupy Wall Street protesters to return to the park to “reclaim” it. They ordered free pizza to distribute. They brought the People’s Library back out (which bothered the Brookfield guards on duty immensely). They also sat and lied down on benches in the park and anyone who refused to get off the benches was arrested.

Here is a video that shows occupier Joey Boots being approached in the park. (h/t Gothamist ):

Following the arrest, We Are Change’s Luke Rudkowski shot this interview with Boots, who says he heard on the livestream that a cop said if you sit down in the park you’re going to be arrested. So, he got his ass in a cab and went down to Zuccotti to sit in the park.

He has a bad leg from a torn ACL. Like many Americans, he needs to be able to relax and the Brookfield guards did not want to allow that. And that is the political point here, too. This is something all Americans should be able to do and why are guards and officers empowered to keep a private and public space “secure” wasting energy and resources on people sitting or lying down on park benches?

Below is another video of the re-occupation. This one shows people getting arrested for sitting and lying down too. But, the best part comes at the end when you get to hear what a police officer really think of citizen journalists who carry cameras.

Get the fuck out of our way with that piece of shit you’ve got in your hand. You’re a regular fucking pain in the ass.

Regular Fucking Pains in the Ass Unite!

Click here to see the videos.

Federal Court to Decide Occupy Louisville's Rights

Louisville's prosecutor requested the move from circuit to federal court, which suggests the city wants no part of the opprobrium that has fallen on Oakland, New York and other cities for their stormtrooper tactics in evicting Occupiers.

From the Courier:

A request for an injunction that would prevent the city from evicting Occupy Louisville protesters and their tents from Founder’s Square downtown was moved to U.S. District Court in Louisville from Jefferson Circuit Court on Thursday at the behest of the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office.

The move means a hearing scheduled for Circuit Court on Friday will not happen. It is unclear when there will be a hearing federal court.

Bill Patteson, spokesman for Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell, said the case was moved to federal court because protesters claim that it would be an infringement of their free speech if the city does not allow them, and their tents, to stay around the clock in the small park at Fifth Street and Muhammad Ali Blvd.

Since freedom of speech is protected by the U.S. Constitution, “it’s most appropriate to be heard in federal court,” Patteson said.

Occupy Louisville's permit to stay round-the-clock in Founder's Square expired December 31, but the city has made no move to evict them.

Very smart. Let's hope the federal court judge is just as smart.

OccuParty Saturday!

It's going to be warm and sunny, so don't you dare miss it.

Barefoot and Progressive:

Third in the nation and the longest continuous, uninterrupted Wall Street occupation in the country, Occupy Lexington is celebrating 100 Days and you’re invited:

North America’s longest running occupation is holding an open house this Saturday to celebrate its 100th day at the corner of Main and Esplanade in beautiful and historic downtown Lexington, Kentucky. Our camp has prospered at the foot of JP Morgan Chase because of good fortune: we have a mayor who thus far has allowed our presence, a professional police force that recognizes we pose no threat to the public (and that often waves to us when driving by camp on Tuesday mornings near 4:00 AM), and ordinary citizen activists like yourselves who have contributed various types of support.

On our centennial day at JP Morgan Plaza, we invite all you elected officials, neighbors, police, teachers, builders, writers, poets, children and the rest to drop on by our encampment to celebrate this noteworthy community landmark, and to offer ideas on how we can become better area residents. The winter is starting, and we would like our community’s input—political, police, educational, homeless, immigrant, artsy-fartsy, suburban, or any other community—for how our winter camp can more productively run.

Here’s the schedule of events:

12:00: The Speaker’s Corner will begin with a teach-in and continue throughout the day.
12:30: Teach-in on the consensus process with Kate Folsom.
1:00: Teach-in on political theory with Steven Burt.
2:00: Household working group meeting.
3:00: Libertarian Municipalism: Get an update and contribute your thoughts on the community markets that are being developed for Spring/Summer 2012.
4:00: Guerilla Bocce League: Two balls, one game to eleven.
4:30: Pot luck. If you plan to bring food, post on the event’s wall!
5:30: People’s Budget meeting.
6:30: General Assembly.
7:30: March.
8:30: Occu-Party!

Also from Barefoot, a related OccuPetition for you to sign:

A petition from North of Center:

I support Creatives for Common Sense in their quest to get Lexington Mayor Jim Gray to print and hang a banner advertising Lexington’s position as the longest running Wall Street occupation in North America. The banner should be placed alongside the other Lexington accomplishments enshrined in banners on the Commerce Lexington building, which faces the all-important Main Street corridor. Banner should read: #1: Best Cities to hold a prolonged Wall Street Occupation.

Click on over to sign.

Virginia Third-Graders Get Their Joe Hill On

There's a stupendously fabulous BEST PART to this, but you don't get it until the very end, so read this whole thing very carefully.

Kirsten Boyd Johnson at Wonkette:

A group of Virginia third graders composed a song about the spiritual emptiness of greed, which they sang for their fellow public school students at an assembly — good on them, right? Except, UH-OH TIMES A HUNDRED, they included the term “99 percent” in the lyrics. Since when are children allowed to use SOCIALIST PROFANITIES in school, Every Conservative Blogger in America now demands to know. Or maybe the real question is, who let these kids pay attention to the world around them like that?

Let’s first enjoy an excerpt from the children’s lyrics, shall we?

Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes — they’re the 1 percent

I used to be sad, now I’m satisfied
’Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn’t need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don’t need to be first
’Cause I’ve got my friends
Here by my side
Don’t need it all
I’m so happy to be part of the 99

And now here is one randomly-selected outraged dingbat of many (which you can Google search, if are you a masochist, but we won’t link to them all here) from BigGubermint.com, who is FEEUREEUS with this group of intellectually superior nine-year-olds:

Remember, these are third graders. The simplistic left wing economic nonsense of this ditty boggles the mind. But to an impressionistic third grader, it plants poisonous seeds at odds with long egalitarian American traditions that disdain class hatred. It mocks American traditions of industry, hard work and accomplishment. It teaches the young to distrust and dislike, which of course is a tactic employed by thug cultures and governments throughout history.

(The literate person’s version of the word is impressionable, by the way.)

Can we at least Blame the Teachers? Not really, says the school board, according to a newz report from some local CBS affiliate:

The song was written and performed by third graders on October 21, 2011 at Woodbrook Elementary School during a Kid Pan Alley program.

Kid Pan Alley is an organization that helps kids write and perform their own songs. Their mission is to inspire kids to be creators.

Students write the songs and school officials are standing by the lyrics.

“They don’t censor what the kids write. They don’t shape what the kids write. It all comes out of the kids own mouths and the kids own words,” said Albemarle County School Board Chair, Steve Koleszar.

Oh THERE’S the problem, we spotted it… they’re encouraging creativity. NONE OF THAT NOW.

The kids WROTE THOSE LYRICS THEMSELVES. Give up conservatards; Socialism Has Won.

Kentucky Occupations Standing Their Ground

They haven't been visited by many celebrities, and the police haven't bulldozed or pepper-sprayed them - yet - but Kentucky Occupations in Lexington and Louisville are hunkering down and hanging in.

Laura Ungar at the Courier:

With no sleeping bag and only a thin tent to protect him from the blustery winds, John Masters braved the cold Sunday night and Monday to take a stand against poverty, racism and other social ills through the Occupy Louisville movement.

“My toes about fell off,” said Masters, 29, a political science student at the University of Louisville who slept under several blankets and had to run back to his apartment and get thicker socks.

Masters was one of about 20 Occupy Louisville protesters who stood their ground at Founder’s Square downtown despite the wintry weather, which brought flurries, strong wind gusts and a high temperature of only 34 Monday.

The National Weather service expected temperatures to dip to 19 degrees overnight, with wind chills as low as 8 degrees. And today’s temperatures were only expected to inch up to 26 degrees.

Several protesters said weather is no deterrent. Some were gathering in three tents with heaters, while others remained in unheated tents.

Charles Spray, a 26-year-old construction worker who was recently laid off, stood outside, wearing a coat, gloves and a warm mask that covered his nose and the bottom of his face. He said he has an insulated sleeping bag in his tent.

“The reason why I’m here is corporate greed,” Spray said. “It’s been kind of decent weather until today.”

The city had previously said that all tents must be removed from the park by Monday.

Occupy Louisville had requested a temporary injunction that would prevent the city from evicting the group and seizing its 20 or so tents. But last week, that was rejected as premature by Jefferson Circuit Judge Irv Maze, who denied the request until a full hearing can be held Friday in front of Circuit Judge A.C. McKay Chauvin.

Find, support and join the Occupation in your town here.