11.28.11

Today, I made over 50 Facebook posts re: the occupation. I could only guess at how many posts I read, then read or viewed attachments. In the last two months plus, my email archive went from it's 10 year high of 2,000 to just shy of 5,000. 2,000 over a decade. 3,000 in 10 weeks. That's what democracy looks like.

So much of it is redundant or inapplicable, but, as a metric of the movement, there it is. I haven't studied this hard or learned this much since my days studying international political science, as the Berlin Wall crumbled.

It was the late 80's. The Cold War had raged and smoldered for four decades. Now, the once formidable USSR was a shattered hull. My father spent his career in the Air Force fighting the Cold War and yes, it was a real fight involving real people from before Korea, thru Vietnam, and in some regards, right up until today.

When I was in college, the first time, the scales fell from my eyes dramatically under the tutelage of the wisest men I have ever met - a former state official from Liberia, who narrowly escaped with his life during a coup but returned to his country, with immanent threat of death, to save both his family and, by helping the junta reorganize the functions of the state, save his country, taught me about African politics; a teacher of US / Soviet foreign policy, and (nuclear) arms control and reduction, who had actually participated in the negotiation of the START Treaty, escorted us thru the facilities at Oak Ridge; a gentleman who held his biases better than anyone I have ever known showed me how colonialism absolutely screwed up the world, and why / how it continues to this day.

Where I went to college, an obscure yet elite Southern University, we had a thing called comps to deal with before graduating. "Comps" was short for Comprehensives, as in a few questions re: your academic career, as in comprehensive questions about everything you have studied during the four years your major has been involved. For me, this was complex.

Everything I had studied boiled down to the Cold War, US / Soviet relations c. December, 1989. At some point, my coursework had covered every aspect of US history, the Constitution and political process the major international struggle of the post WW II age and everything that led up to it over the preceeding 500 years. Seriously, it was a lot for a 20 something to deal with at that.

I began condensing notes from spiral notebooks, each dedicated to a course, some dating back 4 years. At that point, the oldest notebooks were almost 20% as old as I was. Every friend I had was asked to share notes, or asked me to share notes, or a fraternity had a hoard of old questions, professor specific. From this chaos, I distilled 45 pages of concise outline from the beginning of the Enlightenment thru present day, with a focus on the past 40 years.

Then the Wall came down, suddenly. When I first caught wind of it, I was dumbstruck. "So what the fuck am I supposed to do now?" Everything I had studied, as if in a laboratory, had reached its' final conclusion, the experiment had delivered its' results. The world we knew yesterday no longer existed. I went to my prof who had taught arms control, a man I greatly admired, had taught me several classes, and was involved in the department's comp committee. "What shall I do?" I pleaded. "Watch CNN 6 hours a day and study your notes. You'll be fine." was his laisse faire answer. So, I did.

The day came. I arrived, as instructed, 15 minutes before the exam was to commence, with 10 "blue books" (thin, composition books) in hand, just in case I had something to say. As it was "off" in the semester schedule, I was comping in December, there were fewer than a dozen of us, all nervous, all clamoring about high points we had studied together and the details only a few trivia traps remembered. The eldest member of the polisci department walked into the exam room, across from his office, and announced he would be proctoring the exam. We had as much time as we liked. There would be coffee available at all times. And, he might dissapear at times for a smoke. He was 80 something at the time.

The instructions were simple. I had eight questions. The first four were in re: to the United States (Constitution, Electoral History, Quantitative Presidential Blah Blah Blah) of which we had to answer two. The second four were in re: to international relations, my concentration, and none were optional, all dealt with US / Soviet relations in some way. I spent six hours writing 32 pages. I passed. The only "grades" given were pass, fail, and honors. Iwas grateful.

Thanks for reading. May tomorrow be a day we can't imagine today.

here we go

well, i can hold off no longer, i must put words on the screen or my head will explode. i can stand silent no longer. if you know me, you will also know i am prone to hyperbole. if you do not know me, you will quickly learn i am not one to mince words or edit first thoughts.

currently, i am neck deep in the occupation of nashville, a part of the international movement of occupations. occupy nashville (ON) is my central "theater of operations". we have a good crew there, a lot of good energy, and no fear of repercussions.

however, nationally, the movement is in the crosshairs of the true 1% - not the successful businessman, the average millionaire, or multimillionaire, but that very thin slice of the pie which has good reason to fear us. their whole world view is based in fear and scarcity.

of late, the conversation has devolved from what are the injustices that can be heaped upon us and how can we correct them to how many more injustices can be heaped upon us despite our constitutional avenues of recourse. municipalities across the country have witnessed paramilitary suppression of occupations. what began as pressure for actually enforcing wrongs done the people by the too big to fail banks, laws that were on the books a few years ago, has become hand to hand combat (rather hand to hug interaction), a brutal fight for the most basic of rights. from the declaration of independence:

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

---

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

as i see it, this means we will give something in between lip service and NATO support to any insurrection in the NAME countries, but will enact the worst of options, at the behest of the big $$, against our own people to suppress their concerns.

what can i say? my anger and dismay discourage all reason. i read a balanced article in some media or another, but now i make it a point to read the online comments. one can tell the leaning of the publications by the leaning of the comments. but, the main line, local media (in nashville, the local papers and tv have been very even handed, if a little confused sometimes), show a good 10:1 ratio of support vs. opposition.

nashville, by only the grace of the fates, has fallen into the national spotlight. "we", actually a small, separate group from the general assembly, decided a space must be occupied at our second ga, on oct. 8. by luck, the occupiers picked the legislative plaza, where we had previously held a very successful action. this location, according to a federal judge, allowed for the "quintessential" expression of 1st amendment rights - state property, no curfew. if you haven't followed the row between the state and the occupation at the plaza, google it. i don't have enough life left to explain it.

so what has happened since the nashville arrests on oct. 29-30? municipalities across the country have taken increasingly militaristic actions to counter protesters. news has surfaced via ap that 40 mayors spoke with feds on how to crack down on occupations. but let's back up.

if you don't buy into these copy / paste pieces or other items, google it. do your own research.

JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD’s main data center.

bank security forces and nypd join forces in surveillance work.

nationwide sweep of occupations, with similar tactics. THIS is where ON plays into it all. the raids at ON were about a week before the "sweep". for the most part, they were civil and professional, tho, like NYC, we had arrests of journalists. there is no doubt gov haslam / powers that be manipulated situation.

LRAD (google it) used in NYC, Oakland. other weapons used against peaceful protesters: batons, chemical sprays, pepper ball guns, "bean bags" (sounds so harmless), rubber bullets

rediculous amounts of pepper spray used at point blank range

tactics used, in ON and elsewhere:

undercover officers

dehumanizing claims against protesters (public urination, defecation, etc)

strike in the middle of the night (3 am seems to be a favorite) to minimize participants and media

proof of penetrating online presence of occupations thru undercover operatives.

aclu notice today re: actions against occupiers might include incarceration (google it folks - i'm running on memory on this one). the order states something to the effect that anyone, anywhere, at anytime, can be detained for any reason if they are deemed a threat (presumably to anything).

aclu reports:

http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-demand-military-lock-american-citizens-battlefield-they-define-being

a questionable source:

http://theintelhub.com/2011/11/22/how-protestors-become-terrorists/

reason to be concerned:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/this_is_what_revolution_looks_like_20111115/

i could go on, but it is late and i want to post something tonight.

BOTTOM LINE:

the occupation is here to stay. the powers that be are afraid. we have only just begun.

bg 11.23.11