Friday, March 27, 2015

OWS: NATO can’t feed poor, Chicago, Roseanne/Jill Stein



Occupy Wall Street continues to do much more than the corporate media is reporting on and when the corporate media does report on it they often distort things so it is advisable to gather information from a variety of alternative news outlets which you can find on your own or if it helps I’m creating my own list of alternative news sources which you’re welcome to use; it’s on a Wiki so if you have your own suggestions for alternative news outlets that would be welcome as well. Recent news stories include information about arrests that have been misrepresented in the corporate press and used to distract from more important issues, as usual; the financing of wars based on lies while people starve; and the corporate press including CNN seems to be giving air time to the second place contender for the Green Party, while virtually ignoring the leading contender, Jill Stein, who clearly seems to have more grass roots support and a more serious campaign.

This is part of a semi-regular update of some of the latest stories from the Occupy Wall Street web page for additional details see previous post’s introduction to series.

National Lawyers Guild Condemns Preemptive Police Raids & Unlawful Searches

Chicago, IL 5/17/12 -- The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) condemns a preemptive police raid that took place at approximately 11:30pm Wednesday in the Bridgeport neighborhood, and instances of harassment on the street, in which Chicago police are unlawfully detaining, searching, and questioning NATO protesters. The Bridgeport raid was apparently conducted by the Organized Crime Division of the Chicago Police Department and resulted in as many as 8 arrests.
According to witnesses in Bridgeport, police broke down a door to access a 6-unit apartment building near 32nd & Morgan Streets without a search warrant. Police entered an apartment with guns drawn and tackled one of the tenants to the floor in his kitchen. Two tenants were handcuffed for more than 2 hours in their living room while police searched their apartment and a neighboring unit, repeatedly calling one of the tenants a "Commie faggot." A search warrant produced 4 hours after police broke into the apartment was missing a judge's signature, according to witnesses. Among items seized by police in the Bridgeport raid were beer-making supplies and at least one cell phone. Complete Article


Solidarity Sunday: Fight Back Against State Terrorism! 
 
Last week, Chicago police officers promised ¨billy clubs to the fucking skull¨ to a group of activists they'd pulled over without cause in the South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport. The activists recorded the encounter with a cell phone and the video spread virally across the internet. Now, three of them are locked up on charges of terrorism that witnesses, lawyers, and family say are ridiculous. Lawyers for the accused say CPD planted evidence.

This is now the second time authorities have timed high-profile arrests of alleged "domestic terrorists" to coincide with major days of action for the Occupy movement -- the other was earlier this month when five Occupiers in Cleveland were arrested on charges of conspiring to blow up a bridge on May Day. In both cases, authorities surveilled and infiltrated activist circles to instigate and supply support for alleged conspiracies to commit domestic terrorism. It seems clear now that these government-engineered "terrorist" plots are more than just a tool to entrap troublesome protesters; they are calculated psychological operations intended to manipulate public opinion and quash dissent with fear. Complete Article

There are many stories in the corporate media about the arrests that take place as usual however there is a very different version of events presented in the alternative media including an article from Russia that was pointed out by Dr. Stuart Bramhall as well as the articles on OWS. The corporate media would have us believe that these aren’t reliable sources; however they manage to address many important issues that the corporate media ignore. If the corporate media was so much more credible they wouldn’t be ignoring so many issues or dismissing them without addressing the details. Alternative news isn’t always a guarantee but when the corporate media ignores so many issues the odds are much better with them if people use their own discretion.

NATO Invades: We Can’t Feed The Poor, But We Can Fund Wars?

When NATO released a video earlier this month introducing Chicago to the visiting heads of state, it was full of so many errors and missteps—that the city is the capital of Illinois, that President Obama grew up here, that the Trump Tower is an architectural treasure—it made one ask, just what city were they talking about? The Chicago being presented to the delegates is the mythic “Global City”: a walk-through postcard of gleaming streets, architectural landmarks and cultural institutions. But the real Chicago will be invisible to most visitors. Beyond the Magnificent Mile is the Chicago most of us live in. It’s an imperfect portrait. Complete Article


A War On Homelessness, or a War on the Homeless?

On March 2, Hank Rush, the CEO of Houston’s Star of Hope Mission—who makes a quarter-million dollar salary for his work with the poor—joined several other homeless service leaders in signing a commentary in the Houston Chronicle. They gave their support to a new law that would impose a $2,000 fine on unpaid volunteers for sharing home-cooked food with the needy in public.
Going so far as to criminalize bringing a box of fruit into one’s house to keep it out of a hot car for a few hours before sharing it, the law would have been laughable if it weren’t a threat to the food supply of a vulnerable population. Complete Article

Sometimes I have to wonder whether this is a serious article or not; “impose a $2,000 fine on unpaid volunteers for sharing home-cooked food with the needy;” can this possibly be for real? I had to Google this one for at least a quick check on it and found that it has been reported widely by other Occupy web pages so it is getting a lot of attention. I didn’t find any rebuttal; however I still have to have my doubts because of the sheer stupidity of this story. It seems to me that if it was receiving so much attention and if this guy, Hank Rush, is legitimate and concerned about his reputation he would make an effort to correct it if it was misguided. With a relatively quick look I could find no such denial. Furthermore the behavior of the Republican Party is so absurd that this isn’t really so much, if any worse than some of the other things they’re coming up with, if you think about it.

It just might be for real; absurd and stupid as it sounds!

We have a few more news articles but first a word from our sponsor, who happens to be 78 days past due on their payments but I’m sure they’ll come through if they want me to maintain the quality of their ads.

Peter Morici answers questions to an audience about why they should buy from Kyocera

Peter Morici: As an economist I frequently speak with business leaders, and I’m shocked — no, outraged! — at how some companies manage their printing; and I would be happy to answer your questions about why you should buy from Kyocera.

Lady?

Woman from audience: actually I don’t have a question but my six year old son does.
Peter Morici: What a cute kid; what can I help you with son?

Six year old boy: How can Kyocera offer a competitive price if they have to pay you for your sponsorship and foot the bill for a much higher price to the networks that air your commercials.
Peter Morici: My where did you come up with that questions son?

Six year old boy: I thought about it; and would like an answer please.

Peter Morici: Yes of course, well, business is complicated and they need someone to educate the public about their products so that the public has more accurate information to make their decisions.
You’ll understand these things more when you grow up.

Six year old boy: But doesn’t that provide you with an incentive to lie or distort the truth? After all I find it hard to believe that they would pay you unless they thought you would help them increase their profits which only add to the other expenses that don’t go to printing.

Peter Morici: Yes, well, Business is more complicated than that: I’m sure you’ll understand better when you grow up.

Next question!

Six year old boy: But I wan..

Peter Morici: Next question! Somebody else that understands business, yes you sir.

Audience member: Why don’t you answer the boy’s question? Is it that complicated?

Six year old boy: Yea

Peter Morici: No of course not, but well, who put you up to this question? You didn’t come up with this on your own did you?

Six year old boy: Yes of course I did; it’s not that complicated!

Moderator: Sorry we’re out of time but we’ll be sure to get back to more questions next time.

Maryland economist Peter Morici goes from pundit to pitchman in Kyocera ads

 

A Few Good Democrats Are Not Enough

As long as there has been a thing called Occupy Wall Street, there have been people who’ve suggested it should become the left’s version of the Tea Party. Josh Harkinson’s piece is a notable contribution to the conversation because it comes after eight months of in-depth reporting on the movement. Harkinson, like Jennifer Granholm, suggests that Occupy should recruit and run candidates, so the left has champions in Congress and can credibly threaten less ideologically aligned Democrats. According to this logic, it doesn’t matter if Occupy does this itself or essentially outsources the job to our progressive allies—the point is to find ways to elect more good Democrats.

The idea of a progressive Tea Party was totally my jam before Occupy started. Like Harkinson, I didn’t see how the left could create real change in America without taking control of the Democratic Party. Now I think it’s important to recognize that the problems we face as a country can’t be solved by electing more Democrats, or even by electing more good Democrats. A progressive Tea Party would be a welcome addition, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough to create the kind of change we need. Complete Article


The Occupy Movement isn’t necessarily a political party but they have a good point about the fact that when we relied on the Democratic Party to pick up on the issues they have fallen through for us. The reason for this is quite simple; the Democratic Party is part of the system that is essentially controlled by the corporations. They often try to give the public enough lip service to appease them and convince them they’re going to do the will of the people; however at the same time they’re collecting an enormous amount of money from the corporations and they demonstrate their true priorities with their actions.

As I have indicated before when I took a closer look at Jill Stein she has clearly indicated that she is much more sincere than those approved by the corporate establishment including the Mass Media. If there is a sincere candidate that deserves more attention than Jill Stein they’re probably listed on Project Vote Smart’s list of presidential candidates; however they probably don’t receive much if any attention from the corporate media.

This means that the public needs to take the initiative to find these things out for themselves.
Clearly the establishment can’t be trusted to do so; in fact at times I have even found that the quality of information at Project Vote Smart has deteriorated or the organizational skills got worse. For example when I just Googled it to retrieve this link it didn’t show up in the spot that it usually did; since I knew where to look it wasn’t hard for me to find it but others might not know to do so.

Project Vote Smart is still providing better information than the corporate media; but in the long term it will be necessary to find a way to hold them accountable or replace them with an organization that is more accountable.

The corporate media has once again demonstrated their bias and/or incompetence when they recently gave Roseanne Barr some air time without even mentioning Jill Stein much if at all on CNN yesterday, as well as on many other news stories that seemed to have appeared on CNN and other corporate news outlets, including a debate with Ted Nugent. Jill Stein is almost certainly going to receive the Green party nomination; yet she has been ignored while Roseanne gets attention, presumably because she is a celebrity or some other reason that has nothing to do with giving fair amount of coverage to those that have grass roots support.
The fact that she has been able to get on the ballot in so many places and is virtually guaranteed to get the nomination without much if any coverage from the traditional media clearly should indicate that she has a lot of sincere grass roots support and this support is almost certainly much better informed about the public. Furthermore I suspect that once more people realize how much support she has been receiving with a virtual blackout from the corporate media I suspect it could snowball and she could do much better than many people suspect even winning!

This shouldn’t be considered out of the question simply because that is what the corporate media wants you to believe.

They asked Roseanne Barr the usual question about whether or not she will be a “spoiler” from Barack Obama, who works for the corporations in their usual attempt to make the current system seem acceptable and inevitable. Roseanne’s response indicated that she was clearly better than the corporate candidates; however after taking a little closer look I’m not so sure she is that much better or more serious.
The truth of the matter is that if anything either Barack Obama or Roseanne Barr should be the ones considered “spoilers” against more sincere candidates like Jill Stein.

A quick look at Roseanne Barr’s web page turned up this article about My response to Dr. Jill Stein’s thesis of the need for new US policy in the Middle East where she says, “Dr. Jill Stein demonstrates a firm grasp on the obvious, which is: that her opinions and solutions are based on failed status quo answers, have been in play for decades and do not work, and never will work.” If you look in the article she goes on with her policies but never provides a link to “Jill Stein’s thesis” or mentions any details that she is disputing.
Furthermore there are some things in that article that make me wonder whether her position should be taken serious at all. I have some legitimate concerns with Israel’s policy like many others but I’m not convinced that what Roseanne has to say will help things even if it does raise some legitimate issues it also potentially trades one extreme for another.

A relatively quick internet search turned up the following article that might be the “thesis” she is referring to:

U.S. policy to Israel, Palestine must change, says Stein
Jill Stein, the prospective Green Party presidential nominee, hailed yesterday's agreement regarding solitary confinement, family visitation rights, and more by Israeli prison authorities as a significant victory for non-violent resistance and human rights. The agreement was the result of a hunger strike by over 1600 Palestinian prisoners that lasted in some cases as long as 77 days.

Dr. Stein said that this victory represented a positive step, but that the United States remains complicit in the ongoing systematic violation of human rights by the Israeli government in particular. She issued the following statement:

United States policy regarding Israel and Palestine must be revised to make international law, peace and human rights for all people, no matter their religion or nationality, the central priorities. While the U.S. government sometimes voices support for this principle in name, in practice U.S policy towards Palestine and Israel has violated this principle more often than not. Complete Article
Israel policy is a difficult one and part of the reason for that is due to the fact that few people with much if any political power are willing to listen to the other side; and people on both sides are pushing things to the extremes.

I’m not going to take the time to explain the full details, as far as I know them; however I suspect that many people may find that Jill Stein’s position on this is far more rational than either the positions of Roseanne Barr or the most powerful members of the Israeli Lobby and the leading politicians that cater to them.
This doesn’t guarantee that she’ll be able to solve the problem; however she has a far better chance than those that continue to pursue the policies that have repeatedly proven to be failures. In order for policy in the Mid-East to be successful both sides have to try to cooperate and they have to give the more moderate people much more chance to speak and get their views across.

I suspect that if this was allowed they would find that more people than they realize oppose the current policy despite the position of the hardliners that have the clout with the corporate media.

Six year old boy: My daddy says that advertising costs are going through the roof and manufacturing costs are being cut to the bone; they reward liars and abuse workers that have few if any rights!

Peter Morici: Shut Up Kid! I think your mothers calling

Mother: You better hope I don’t come calling on you again if you talk to my son like that anymore! His questions weren’t that complicated!

(For more information on Blog see Blog description and table of context for most older posts.)

The following are the original replies when this was first posted on Open Salon.

I think the problem is that we are a flawed species. Sarah Cavanaugh May 21, 2012 01:19 PM

Nah, not all of us but those that run the country and those that have been indoctrinated to behave like sheep might be. Some of those are waking up and not trusting the politicians anymore.

zacherydtaylor May 21, 2012 01:34 PM

For what it's worth, while they were giving Roseanne coverage on CNN the results in 6 states including New York Stein's biggest win of the day were coming in; Stein won them all.

Apparently she even tied Roseanne in a previous primary in Hawaii Roseanne's home state; but the corporate media didn't mention any of this, or as far as I can tell they didn't mention Stein at all.

I suspect she will become more difficult to ignore when she gets more popular before the election!

zacherydtaylor May 21, 2012 01:41 PM

Just stopped back to congratulate you on the EP.

Sarah Cavanaugh May 21, 2012 03:36 PM

Wow! I do believe that $2000 fine article to be real.

Sad, but real.

Great work + congrats on your EP today!

Reminds me of the McCarthy era....

Rated Poor Woman May 21, 2012 05:04 PM

NATO has a mission in this world. It's not to feed anyone. To bad OWS can't even get that right.

Catnlion May 21, 2012 10:17 PM

I learned a lot from this post and gained a long list of alternative news sources to mine. Thank you, Zachery. It's so frustrating to hear people mindlessly repeat MSM talking points to the effect that protesters have no coherent message, no ideas, no alternatives, when the truth is they are overflowing with alternative ideas and proposed solutions. [r]

Donegal Descendant May 21, 2012 11:15 PM

In my opinion, the most valuable contribution of the Occupy movement is the attention it has thrown on the failed banking system and more specifically on the debt-based system of money creation. Perhaps this is less visible in the US than in Europe and countries like New Zealand that stand to lose big if the Eurozone collapses.

Many in the mainstream media in Europe, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are coming to recognize that the debt crisis is Europe and Britain can't be solved under our current monetary system (where the vast majority of money is created digitally as debt). Thus an increasing number of monetary reformers are appearing in print and on TV and radio in these countries - arguing that the creation of money must be taken out of the hands of private bankers and put under the control of publicly accountable government agencies.

I see a comparable process happening on the state level in the US with bills in 17 state legislatures considering bills to create state owned banks similar to the Bank of North Dakota. These banks would give the states the power to create digital money (by issuing mortgages and other loans) just like a private bank. Only the revenue generated from interest charges would go back to the taxpayers, rather than private bankers.

Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall May 22, 2012 02:18 AM

First of all thanks for the EP, editor, if your reading this and excuse the late reply I was away yesterday and wasn’t expecting much response let alone and EP.

Poor Woman, sadly this is just one of many things that remind some of us of the McCarthy era even though some of us weren’t born until the worst of it was over. Presumably the Palmer Raids were even worse according to some of the history reports I’ve read.

Catnlion, your right about NATO’s mission not involving feeding the poor; but the fault for that isn’t with OWS that is mine. When coming up with the title for this blog I abbreviated it in a quick manner that may have been a little misleading; however the point is still sound in my opinion and OWS did express it properly if you look at their article. NATO has gone beyond their original defensive commitments and begun participating in wars that involve other countries outside their jurisdiction. And the countries that are participating aren’t taking care of their own and they are supporting corporations that are suppressing freedom around the world to advance their profits.

Donegal, thanks if your list of alternative media outlets include some that I missed so far let me know.

Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, you’re probably right but I’m not familiar with the complexity of the banking system which is probably why they’re able to get away with so much. There are some things that they do that ignore simple basic principles which I recognize even in the banking system so that is usually what I try to focus on.

Baltimore, not quite but if you want to phrase it that way it’s fine with me. NATO hasn’t been acting primarily for defense or to liberate struggling poor people in oppressive regimes and the reason for excessive student debt is largely because of excessive expenses including those caused by excessive use of copyright laws and other tactics to drive up the cost of education to u n reasonable levels. If poor people were paid fairly they wouldn’t need food stamps. First they rig the system so that people have to work for slave wages and pay excessive prices then they pretend they’re doing people a favor when they give a small portion of their money back.

Thanks all.

zacherydtaylor May 23, 2012 09:50 AM

Excellent!!

Mission May 23, 2012 10:05 AM

NATO is known as Rothschild's personal Army

Micheal Laws June 07, 2012 02:16 PM





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