Category: American Empire

By John W. Whitehead / Huffington Post / Dec. 6, 2011

America’s so-called war on terror, which it has relentlessly pursued for the past ten years, has forever altered the political and legal landscape of our country. It has chipped away at our freedoms and is unraveling our Constitution. Even now, with Osama bin Laden having been killed and al Qaeda dismantled by a series of high-profile assassinations, the war hawks continue to rattle their sabers. Yet while more and more Americans join the call for a de-escalation of military actions abroad, those clamoring for war have turned their focus inwards. As Senator Lindsay Graham recently remarked as an explanation for his support of legislation allowing for the indefinite detention of Americans, “Is the homeland the battlefield? You better believe it is the battlefield.”

By Robert Johnson / Business Insider/ Dec. 5, 2011

The U.S. military has some of the most advanced killing equipment in the world that allows it to invade almost wherever it likes at will.

We produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns out a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens.

Benjamin Carlson at The Daily reports on a little known endeavor called the “1033 Program” that gave more than $500 million of military gear to U.S. police forces in 2011 alone.

Every now and then, we need to take stock of the Occupy Wall Street movement, not just here in San Diego, but matters of the movement across the United States. And right now seems very appropriate what with the recent crack-downs and break-up of the encampments by police on the occupations around the country.

Questions abound.

What has happened? Is the Occupy movement moving into Phase Two? Just where is it going? This question is on every pundit’s lips, across the political spectrum, from left to right. And observers, supporters, and opportunists everywhere are unhesitating ready to offer advice to the fledgling wave of activism whose abbreviations are OWS.

What is next for the movement that has transfixed the nation, changed our lexicon, that one-eightieth the political discussion in this country – all in less than three months?

Are we now entering the “Winter of Discontent” where the movement breaks up, or breaks down into smaller parts, all the while bubbling up for a protest here and a protest there, but over-all submerging itself until spring? Or will the Occupy movement remain visible, creating new ways and forms to remain constantly visible?

The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class’s venality

By Naomi Wolf / guardian.co.uk / November 25, 2011

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

Editor: A shortened version of the following article by Rebecca Solnit appeared on the Op-Ed page of today’s LA Times. We thought the entire piece is worthy of your read, so here it is.

By Rebecca Solnit / TomDispatch.com / November 22, 2011

Last Tuesday, I awoke in lower Manhattan to the whirring of helicopters overhead, a war-zone sound that persisted all day and then started up again that Thursday morning, the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street and a big day of demonstrations in New York City. It was one of the dozens of ways you could tell that the authorities take Occupy Wall Street seriously, even if they profoundly mistake what kind of danger it poses. If you ever doubted whether you were powerful or you mattered, just look at the reaction to people like you (or your children) camped out in parks from Oakland to Portland, Tucson to Manhattan.

By E.J. Dionne /Washington Post — Nation of Change / Originally published Nov. 18, 2011

Here is a surefire way to cut $7.1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade. Do nothing.

That’s right. If Congress simply fails to act between now and Jan. 1, 2013, the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush expire, $1.2 trillion in additional budget cuts go through under the terms of last summer’s debt-ceiling deal, and a variety of other tax cuts also go away.

By Dave Lindorff / Nation of Change / November 17, 2011

The ugly hand of the federal government is becoming increasingly suspected behind what appears to be a nationwide attempt to repress and evict the Occupation Movement. Across the country in recent days, ultimatums have been issues to groups occupying Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, San Francisco, Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, [editor: don’t forget San Diego] and most recently New York, NY, where the Occupation Movement began on September 17.

Editor: This article from the NY Times is a fairly even-handed account of November 17th actions around the country. Despite any mention of Occupy San Diego activities (see other posts on our website for those), it does cover the other major “Day of Action” events.

Hundreds Arrested in Actions Targeting Wall Street, Banks and Bridges

By Katharine Q. Seelye/ New York Times / November 18, 2011

Protesters across the country demonstrated en masse Thursday, snarling rush-hour traffic in several major cities and taking aim at banks as part of a national “day of action” to mark the two-month milestone of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Via RT.com

If you thought the recent crackdowns of Occupy encampments across the country was more than a coincidence, there is a good chance you were right. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan admits to talking to other cities before the massive coast-to-coast evictions .

In an interview this morning with the BBC, Mayor Quan reveals that she spoke with officials from other cities over the phone before a Monday morning raid that led to the eviction of hundreds of Occupy Oakland protesters and the arrests of many.

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SEE LIVE STREAM FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET – SIDEBAR

By Colin Moynihan and Corey Kilgannon / New York Times / November 15, 2011

The New York City police began clearing Zuccotti Park of the Occupy Wall Street protesters about 1 a.m. Tuesday, telling the people there that the camp would be “cleared and restored” before the morning and that any demonstrator who did not leave would be arrested.

The protesters resisted with chants of “Whose park? Our park!” as the police began moving in and tearing down tents. The protesters rallied around an area known as “the kitchen” near the middle of the park and began building barricades with tables and pieces or scrap wood.

Editor: This timely article by Norm Stamper – a former assistant police chief of San Diego – and former police chief of Seattle – is worthy of your time. Stamper is also a member of LEAP – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition of marijuana.

By Norm Stamper / The Nation / Nov. 28, 2011 Issue

They came from all over, tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the world, protesting the economic and moral pitfalls of globalization. Our mission as members of the Seattle Police Department? To safeguard people and property—in that order. Things went well the first day. We were praised for our friendliness and restraint—though some politicians were apoplectic at our refusal to make mass arrests for the actions of a few.

The First Amendment and the obligation to peacefully disrupt in a free society.

By Naomi Wolf / Reader Supported News / Oct. 22, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg is planning Draconian new measures to crack down on what he calls the “disruption” caused by the protesters at Zuccotti Park, and he is citing neighbors’ complaints about noise and mess. This set of talking points, and this strategy, is being geared up as well by administrations of municipalities around the nation in response to the endurance and growing influence of the Occupation protest sites. But the idea that any administration has the unmediated option of “striking a balance,” in Bloomberg’s words, that it likes, and closing down peaceful and lawful disruption of business as usual as it sees fit is a grave misunderstanding – or, more likely, deliberate misrepresentation – of our legal social contract as American citizens.