April 26, 2012

Marina Sitrin: Imagining a New General Strike


The call for a general strike on May 1 should not be solely about work, argues Marina Sitrin, a postdoctoral fellow at CUNY specializing in global mass movements. Instead, it should reshape our ideas about how society is built, as Sitrin explains in this video, by asking hard questions about class, consumption, work and society.

April 23, 2012

Predictions of Fire: A History of the NSK state



Learn about how the arts provided a catalyst for revolution in the past.
This is a video you MUST see.

Whole Food, not Whole Foods: Occupy The Farm Gill Tract



OccupyTheFarm's first day at the Gill Tract in Albany, Ca.

Shot in 720p HD by Nick Xavier. Visit www.greenmanproject.net for more video on Urban Farms, Permaculture, Food Justice issues, Cooking, and much more

Music is Canned Heat - Goin Up The Country and Woody Guthrie - Pastures of Plenty

McDonald's Occupy Mindfuck

"It's your lunch, take it."


The following is a real live ad for McDonalds.
WARNING: watching the following ad may cause nausea, vomiting, uncontrolled hysterical laughter, and a desire to poke your own eyes out with a spork.


McDonald's is coopting the language of revolution in their ads.


Well... McDonald's food IS revolting.

However, this is a great segue to talking about an idea for a general strike I had over a year ago:



"If you work at McDonald's and you hate your job don't spit in the food, give food away for free."


I think we should move on their directive of "it's your lunch, take it" start a massive influx of people applying to work at McDonald's, and then after we make up a majority of the workforce, give all the food in the store away for free.

Fast Food workers of the world, UNITE! On May First, don't call in sick. Strike at work. Just as McDonald's says, "It's your lunch, take it." Take and give it away for free. You've been implicitly told to do so by McDonald's advertising department.




UPDATE: Holy fucking shit.

The Webcomic "NothingNice" predicted this in 2005:

April 22, 2012

Hey 99% of America. Take a day off from the Rat Race on May 1st. You deserve it.



This May 1st Occupy is recommending everyone take a day off from working, shopping, and going to school. Why? Watch the video silly.

from Lee Camp

"1st Amendment Zone" formed on steps where George Washington inaugerated

George Washington to roll in grave




Yeah. Joe Coscarelli of New York Magazine has the story:

When the NYPD all of a sudden decided Occupy Wall Street's new sidewalk sleepovers were illegal, protesters moved down the block to Federal Hall (and got arrested there too). Once the first capitol building of the United States, the landmark is now a museum run by the National Park Service, creating a bit of a gray area in terms of NYPD jurisdiction. This week, the steps became sort of a home base for occupiers, and as such, the Hall is "announcing a temporary change to how the public will access the building" — away from the protesters.
According to an updated map on the website for Federal Hall, as pointed out by Gothamist, demonstrators will be asked to stay on one side of the big George Washington statue — he was inaugurated at the building — in the "First Amendment Rights Area," a.k.a. "freedom cage." Visitors can enter from the other side, steering clear of the riffraff.
You might be asking yourself: Isn't all of America a First Amendment Rights Area? In which case, stop being so silly.


Don't piss off George Washington:



Also, "Freedom Cage" is a great name for a Punk Rock Band.

April 21, 2012

The Punk Patriot interviews Ayn Rand



There was an audio problem with the original, and I finally got around to fixing it.

Ayn Rand has been dead for nearly 30 years, making her quite the "get."

Seeing what consequences her philosophy has had for the world, will she recant?
Watch and find out!

DONATE: http://bit.ly/7OwKc2
STORE: http://punkpatriot.etsy.com
FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/1OtiqI
TWITTER: @punkpatriot

Link to Nathaniel Branden's rebuff of Ayn Rand's cult: http://bit.ly/muKj
Also, Ayn Rand had a serious crush on a serial killer who kidnapped & brutally dismembered a 12 year old girl and modeled the protagonists in her stories after him:
Article 1
Article 2



3rd Party Presidential Debate, live now.

Watch live streaming video from greenpartyus at livestream.com

The Yes Men tackle Bank of America



A new website has been launched all for the sake of mocking Wall Street giant Bank of America. The site, YourBofA.com, greets its visitors with a warm welcome from the chief executive officer, allegedly claiming their bank is no "longer working anymore." The website was blacklisted by Google and looks just like the original Bank of America page.

Andy Bichlbaum, activist for The Yes Men, joins us to explain why he helped create the website.

THE WEBSITE: YourBofA.com

On that website you can make your own Bank of America ads. Here's a few I made:





Make your own: http://yourbofa.com/creative

Rev Billy: Doomsday Debt



The big banks don't fear the courts or governments or police but there is the problem of BEING OCCUPIED BY PEOPLE, when the bank customers turn into tattooed motorcyclist opera singers, butch top gymnastic somersaulters, red-petticoated sufi poets, Elvis-impersonators fresh from Hell. How did this happen? They want their money. They want their homes back. They want some Earthalujah!

http://FEAROFBANKING.COM

April 20, 2012

Court to Maine Democratic Party: NO MORE BULLYING THIRD PARTIES OFF THE BALLOT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


April 19, 2012

CONTACT:
Oliver Hall – (617) 953-0161
Lynne Williams – (207) 266-6327


MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT UNANIMOUSLY RULES FOR NADER IN SUIT AGAINST DEMOCRATS

High Court Decision Reinstates Lawsuit Alleging Democrats Unlawfully Targeted Nader-Camejo 2004 Independent Presidential Campaign



PORTLAND, ME – Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court (the “Law Court”) today unanimously ruled to reinstate a 2009 lawsuit filed by independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his 2004 Maine electors against the Democratic Party and several of its allies. The lawsuit, originally filed in Superior Court for Washington County, Maine, was dismissed in November 2010 pursuant to Maine’s anti-SLAPP statute, 14 M.R.S. § 556. The Law Court vacated the dismissal, ruling that the lower court erred by denying Nader and his electors the opportunity to establish their claims for abuse of process, malicious prosecution and civil conspiracy.

“We conclude that the Maine anti-SLAPP statute may not be invoked to achieve dismissal of claims alleging abuses of process without giving the plaintiff the opportunity to establish a prima facie case to support the claims,” the Law Court declared in a majority opinion by Justice Donald G. Alexander. Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley, Justice Jon D. Levy, Justice Andrew M. Mead and Justice Ellen A. Gorman joined the opinion.

“Accordingly, today we announce a change in the parties’ burdens at the preliminary anti-SLAPP dismissal stage,” Justice Alexander wrote.

Under the new standard, the Law Court ruled that the lawsuit filed by Nader and his electors “should be allowed to proceed,” unless they are unable to show that “any, rather than all,” of the Democrats’ litigation against the Nader-Camejo 2004 presidential campaign was “devoid of any reasonable factual support or arguable basis in law.”

Maine’s anti-SLAPP statute was enacted in 1995, with the intention of protecting activists who are sued by real estate developers for speaking out against proposed projects (such actions are known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). Typical SLAPP suits have no merit and are filed for improper purposes, such as imposing litigation costs – which, as defendant Toby Moffett admitted, was a primary purpose of the litigation that Democrats initiated against Nader’s 2004 independent presidential campaign with the late Peter Miguel Camejo.

In a concurring opinion joined by Justice Joseph M. Jabar, Justice Warren M. Silver wrote that the anti-SLAPP statute had been “used by different parties than those intended,” and that it had “served an entirely different purpose than the one intended.”

“The ‘Goliath’ who abuses other forms of petitioning to harass ‘David’ has now adopted the [anti-SLAPP statute] as another obstacle to throw in David’s path when he legitimately seeks to petition the court for redress,” Justice Silver wrote.

The lawsuit alleges that Democrats orchestrated a concerted, nationwide effort to interfere with the Nader-Camejo campaign, by filing 29 complaints in 19 states, including Maine, and that many of the complaints included groundless and demonstrably false allegations of fraud. According to Moffett, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist who helped recruit an estimated 95 lawyers from 53 law firms to join the effort, the purpose of the Democrats’ complaints was to “drain,” “distract” and “neutralize” the Nader-Camejo campaign, by “forcing [them] to spend money and resources defending these things.”

Other defendants named in the lawsuit include the Maine Democratic Party, its former Chair Dorothy Melanson, the Democratic National Committee, its former Chair Terry McAuliffe, the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign and a Section 527 political organization called The Ballot Project headed by Moffett.

As a result of the Law Court’s decision, the lawsuit will be remanded to the Superior Court for Washington County for further proceedings.

The Law Court also vacated a lower court order awarding Moffet $1 in attorneys’ fees.

Copies of the Law Court’s opinion are available by emailing oliverbhall@gmail.com.

April 16, 2012

The Capitalism Story: The Whole Fucking Thing Is Coming Down



So I keep resharing this video on my facebook page.

There's a reason for that. I can't believe how close to being true this video is now.

Let me explain:

When I wrote this song, it was back in August of 2011. There had been a successful occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol building, but Scott Walker kicked everybody out. Paul LePage here in Maine had taken down the Labor Mural, and was pushing through anti-human legislation, such as lifting the ban on cancer-causing chemicals in toys and baby bottles, trying to make Maine a right-to-work (for less) state, cutting taxes on the wealthy, cutting services on the most needy, all in the name of being pro-business.

(hence the inspiration for this graphic)


Occupy Wall Street loomed on the horizon as an exciting protest, but I, like many, didn't think it was going to end up being much more than just a week long endeavor, and hoped that I would be able to get down there to attend before it was over, just to say I was there and did my part.

I was working in a factory between 40 and 50 hours a week as a "seasonal hire"-- just the latest of a series of jobs where I was working full time, but being compensated as a "part time seasonal employee" aka no benefits, no bonuses, nothing that isn't mandated by law. Except for maybe the occasional balsam fir scented car freshener, or corporate logo-emblazoned baseball cap. ("Cuz' here at the corporation, we're all on the corporation's team.")

The lyrics of the song were my life at the time. The refrain of the song "And the whole fucking thing is coming down" wasn't coming from optimism like it may seem to now. What it felt to me, is that eventually the working class were going to be so completely crushed, that Capitalism would finally and entirely eat itsself, plunging our country into chaos and civil war.

This had long been a feeling of mine. This sentiment inspired the following fable which I wrote in October of 2010:
They told us when they took our jobs overseas, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"
They told us when they destroyed our 401ks through gambling with our money, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"
They told us when we fell behind on our mortgage and foreclosed on our house, kicking us to the street, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"
As more and more people were forced on welfare, the government's budget started to look grim. When they cut welfare spending entirely so that they could enjoy bigger tax cuts to "stimulate the economy," they told us, "No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"

Then the poor had nothing left to eat, and no place to go.

So they had to kill and eat the rich.

They descended on Wall Street by the millions, stopping all traffic.

Their numbers were so large, the police couldn't do anything to stop the massive crowd of the disenfranchised. They flooded the buildings of Wall Street, the halls of DC, of the McMansions of Texas, and like a horde of zombies, they tore into the flesh of the horrified wealthy, who screamed and shat themselves, knowing that they were powerless to stop the oncoming mass of gnashing teeth and hungry mouths.

And as the poor picked the bones clean over the burning piles of money, the poor said to the bones:

"No hard feelings. It's just business, you know?"


And my youtube mentor Dennis Trainor Jr made this video in Dec 2010:


But back then, we were just pissing in the wind. Just frustrated, angry, and impotent, spewing our rage into the internet, and our message didn't really find purchase in the collective consciousness of the public.

So the refrain to my song


"The whole fucking thing is coming down, the whole fucking thing is coming down" that wasn't coming from a place of empowerment. That was coming from a place of complete and total desperation. It was coming from total hopelessness. It was coming from a place where too many people spend their ever dwindling paycheck at Wal*Mart, and too few people know how their State Budget works.

It came from a place where everything was fucked up, most were pissed, but most didn't bother trying to figure out WHY everything was fucked up, and just watched football instead.

But now... now that Occupy Wall Street has happened, and has been going for 7 months strong coming up on the 17th of this month, when you listen to the refrain of the song, "the whole fucking thing is coming down" imagine the alternative systems that will replace the systems that are around us now. Imagine the better ways we can organize our society- the better ways that those of us in the movement HAVE BEEN organizing our society.

It's been almost two years now that I've been feeling desperate and utterly hopeless; that something has got to give. And now something has given way.

Nobody knows the future anymore. Things that we once might have thought of as important aren't on our Radar-- Romney or Obama? Who gives a shit? They're both Wall Street Puppets. It doesn't matter.

With every incident of young and elderly women getting pepper sprayed, and Iraq War vets getting mortally wounded by police, the legitimacy of the plutocratic regime crumbles. It is a collapsing facade revealing behind it an ugly and terrible face, propped up only by combination of fraud and force. And when the majority of Americans see the regime for what it really is, they'll turn their backs, just like those of us in the movement already have.

The whole fucking thing REALLY IS coming down.

And it's beautiful.

This is an exciting time to be alive.

Rio Tinto: Greenwashing the Olympics

Rio Tinto is a mining company that will be providing metal for the olympic medals.

Dow Chemical: Greenwashing

BP gets the Gold in Greenwashing!



Don't forget to tell Delaware's legislature and AG to REVOKE BP's CORPORATE CHARTER!

April 11, 2012

Leah Bolger on Thomas Hartmann Show

via Thomas Hartmann


Navy Commander Leah Bolger, Veterans for Peace, joins Thom Hartmann. Last year - a courageous war veteran gave a dose of reality and common sense to the infamous Congressional Supercommittee - and she was arrested for her actions. We'll talk to her about her activism - her upcoming trial - and how to get this country back on track.

Leah Bolger Pleads Guilty to Telling the Truth



More: In 45 Seconds Leah Bolger Did More to Represent the Views of Americans then the Supercommittee Ever Did: Now She Faces Jail

20-Year Veteran to Face Jail Time for Act of Civil Disobedience

I answer viewer mail: Payday Loans



For more information about GRO, go to GroMo.org

The Evolution of the Butterfly



Cellular biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton narrates the process of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly over a milieu of imagery in "The Evolution of the Butterfly". The film combines first hand footage from the Occupy Wall Street movement with stylized portraits of the recent economic collapse and gives a backdrop of hope to sometimes bleak reality.

For more information on the caterpillar and butterfly, humanity and society, see Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future And A Way To Get There From Here

For more info on Occupy Wall Street, visit Occupy.com

Lee Camp: You are a Slave. Here's why.

Lee Camp nails it:


I tried to make a video with the same message back in February of 2011, but it turned out much less succinct:



In fact, it took me two videos to get it all out, and I don't really think I really got the point across:

Everythings Fucked Up, and Nobody Goes to Jail

via TheYoungTurks


If you don't prosecute crimes as crimes, they are legal.
Bush Administration officials are war criminals and need to be prosecuted.

So, Obama, how is that going? Oh what's that? You're just going to be looking to the future? What about the future where somebody else who is president waterboards and indefinitely detains you based on the legal precedent you set by not prosecuting?

And how is that whole "assassinating US citizens" thing going?

April 10, 2012

Chris Hedges- The Critic, and his Critics

I'll be totally honest, I have not been a big fan of Chris Hedges until recently. I've always found him to be a bit of a defeatist, and his outlook so grim as to be disempowering, apathy-inducing, and just generally depressing.

I've met him on a few occasions prior to September 17th, 2011, and he has always been in a perpetual funk. At the Veterans for Peace 25th annual convention, he shuffled to the stage, read an article about how much everything sucks, and how things in the future are going to end in a MadMax scenario where rich people are shooting poor people from behind their wrought iron fences in their gated communities, and then shuffled back to his seat, looking down at his feet the whole time.

Since Sept 17th, 2011, Chris Hedges has been a brand new man. I've run into him a couple times in DC at Freedom Plaza since OWS started. He's got spring in his step. He's talking about things as though there is hope afterall, and as though we've actually got something worth fighting for.

I have to say, I'm a fan of this new, post-OWS Chris Hedges.

via truthdig:


Truthdig’s Chris Hedges and Kevin Zeese of Occupy DC spoke in Washington in early April to call on Occupiers everywhere to grow the movement through the use of nonviolent tactics.

Hedges enraged members of Occupy’s so-called black bloc contingent in February when he branded protesters willing to commit acts of vandalism and other violence as “cancerous.”

Such protesters make regular appearances at Hedges’ talks. A typical exchange between the author and his detractors appears below. —ARK