Steven Crowder vs "Union Thug"

via AcronymTV

Naked Force used against Democracy in Michigan

Michigan really is an experiment in Fascism. Already, municipal governments are being shut down by state-appointed "emergency management" officials, and towns no longer have control over their own municipal budgets, over their own schools, over anything.



Now, this:

Protesters take the Capitol Building:





Protesters locked out of the capitol building:


Police use pepper spray against protesters:


Michigan Union Member peppersprayed, stepped on by a horse:


via the Michigan ACLU

Walmart Actions Today:

In Maine (collaboration between Occupy Maine + Southern Maine Worker's Center + Maine Green Independent Party):



In New York City(Occupy Wall Street:

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AcronymTV: Stand with Striking Wal-Mart Workers

via AcronymTV

The State of the Unions

In order for this ad to become more than sentiment, Unions are going to have to decouple themselves from the Democratic Party-- especially in light of the fact that Chicago Mayor, and former White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, is looking to throw the Teachers Union under the (school) bus by laying off thousands of teachers, closing schools, and bringing in privately run charter schools.

It's a GOP wet dream, and yet it's a Democrat who is going to get it done. Just another example of how it's always the Democratic Party that advances the GOP agenda.

Do You Eat Ethically? #BehindTheKitchenDoor

Photo Caption Contest

Here's your source photo:



And here is a link to I can Haz Cheezeburger's LOL builder: build it and they will haz cheeseburger

Here's a couple to start things off.






I'm sure you can do better. Send your entries to punkpatriot411 [at] gmail [dot] com

The winner wins something good, but not something awesome (sorry, I'm poor).

Ben Manski lays it down

Greens didn't spoil a single federal race in 2010.
The Democrats lost because they are spineless, two-faced, corporate puppets, and even with a majority in both houses they get nothing done for the people, and the people realized that, and stayed home.

Minimal Minimum Wage

via PropagandaTimes

CPAC has thoughts on #OWS; but #OWS has thoughts on CPAC

So the Conservative Political Action Committee had a panel in which they discussed the Occupy Movement vs the Tea Party.

It's on C-SPAN, and is currently not available for embedded playing. So here's a link: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/304376-8

I would say, "Enjoy!" but I think you're going to have a REALLY hard time doing so. It's extremely cringeworthy.

Thankfully:

The Occupy Movement Shared Their Thoughts about CPAC

via Teamster Nation

The annual corporate greedfest known as CPAC was turned upside down today by thousands upon thousands of union members, community activists, unemployed workers and our good friend the giant Fat Cat. Dozens of reporters trained cameras on the sprited Washington, D.C. scene. Union banners waved as throngs of marchers surged into the street and up the hill to the hotel entrance. Protesters chanted, sang, drummed and danced while grandmothers sat down in the street to protest attacks on Medicare.


Police gave up trying to keep the huge crowd on the sidewalks. They blocked off the street as the peaceful protesters vented their thoughts about greed, tax dodging, unemployment and the war waged on working families.


Teamsters with "Stop the War on Worker" signs joined autoworkers, sheetmetal workers, firefighters, elevator constructors, UFCW, SEIU, AFSCME, UNITE. Community groups from as far away as Baltimore showed up by the busload.

Some of the entitled jerks attending CPAC had gleefully predicted violence, the way they always do, then did their best to provoke it. With expensive suits and camera equipment, they waded into the crowd hurling belligerent questions at the protesters. A security official -- was it a Secret Service agent -- took one entitled jerk away from the group he was badgering and gave him a talking-to.

The rally got off to a slow start around noon, as steelworkers, UAW members and Teamsters formed a picket line around the Fat Cat chanting, "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Union busting's got to go." But at 12:30 someone shouted "Oh my God, thousands of marchers!" Led by drummers they filled the street, waving signs and banners as cars honked and police officers tried to herd them onto the sidewalks. "Our DC" and "We Are The 99%" signs joined "Recall Walker" and "Greed is Good--Romney-Gekko."

Soon the huge crowd surged up the hill, past the police and security, bellowing, "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" Then they peacefully marched down again and regrouped in the street. Two women sat down on the pavement, soon to be joined by many more. Some gave speeches, some chanted and some sang along with pro-movement songs made up on the spot.

The CPAC one percenters had some charming things to say: @BossyMother called them "mutant scum." The delightful @stephenww tweeted, "I think we all can agree that the #OccupyCPAC crowd should get free contraception." @JimForbes_Pasco refers to the peaceful protesters as "OccupyCPAC goons."

Joey Quits

This is a slow burn. Worth the wait.




Visit JoeyQuits.com if you're a hotel worker who wants to make public your story of an unjust workplace!

Write to joeyquits@gmail.com for info on submitting your story.

YOU COULD PROBABLY BUY THIS SHIRT AND WEAR IT AND STUFF:

Thanksgiving Message to the Occupy Movement

Occupy Wall Street: What do they want?

I think its obvious what we want. Any idiot who spends 15 minutes at any occupation talking with the people at it can come away with a sense of what our demands are.

The economic mode upon which our society is based, by whatever name you want to call it, is a homicidal machine, which requires us to ignore the connections between the way we live, and the problems in the world. For the machine to continue working, requires us to devalue the lives of others-- the lives of people we will never meet, either because they live far away in another state or another country, or because we will not live to see them born.

For the machine to continue working, requires us to ignore the fact that the lights are on in your house right now are powered most likely by coal, and that extracting that coal from the ground means that there are people in Pennsylvannia and West Virginia are going to die of cancer and mercury poisoning.

For the machine to continue working, requires us not to think about the fact that your cell phone or laptop’s wifi is made possible through the rape and forced labor of women in central africa, who are brutalized and forced to work in mines to extract the rare earth minerals used in wireless devices.

For the machine to continue working, requires us to ignore that our grandchildren’s grandchildren will inherit an earth characterized more by toxic chemicals and poisoned air, water, and soil, and less by unspoiled wilderness than the one we were born into.

For the machine to continue working, requires us to ignore the fact that we are killing the very planet that sustains us. Requires us to ignore the fact that human beings are so in control of the elements of nature, that we have fundamentally altered the chemistry of the ocean, causing massive dieoffs of coral reefs. We have filled the ocean with garbage. There is an island the size of Texas, made of garbage, floating in the Pacific Gyre.

We all know that this is wrong. We all know that there is a better way to do things, though we may not be sure how to get there from here.

The machine must be stopped. The homicidal machine that is western crony capitalism, it’s made of all of us. When we comply with the roles that the system has set for us, when we “do what we’re supposed to” we become more and more trapped by it.

But we cannot simply walk away. The grip of the machine on our lives is too great.

If the machine has a brain, the center of that machine is in Washington DC.
If the machine has a heart, it’s the Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

I would like to revitalize the call of the Occuppy Wall Street movement. This is not about sleeping outside. That is not what the movement is about. It’s about creating a new world. That new world is in its infancy right now, and the old world has been trying to crush it before it even has a chance to take hold. But this new world has taken hold. Now that it is in its infancy, the machine is going to try to destroy it. This new world is a direct threat to the old world’s existence.

In order to make this new world possible, we must stop the machine from working. We must shut down the heart and brain of the homicidal machine.

There is a prophesy by the elders of the indigenous people who live now where the Keystone XL pipeline will soon be. This prophesy says, that one day, the ways of mankind will be so wrong, and so dangerous to the earth, that mother earth will rise up to correct things, and that the people of the world must either rise up with Mother Earth, or face extermination.

Those of us in the Occupy Movement, we are like White Blood Cells.

Our world has been infected by a homicidal mode of economy, a homicidal mode of thought.

We must heal the earth, we must heal ourselves.

We must clog the New York Stock Exchange with our bodies and prevent it from functioning, we must clog the halls of congress with our bodies and prevent it from functioning. We must remain there, like white blood cells attacking an infection, until the homicidal machine is dismantled.

Have you ever been surfing?

Right now there is a wave of energy gathering. When a large wave gathers energy, the ocean pulls backwards away from the shore. The ocean becomes thin and shallow. There is a lull. The larger the wave, the greater the lull.

This winter will most likely prove to be the lull before that next wave.

At the point before things turn in the other direction, the draw out to sea is strong, and it looks like you are being pulled away from the shore. But if, during this low point, you are able to look around and position yourself well, you can ride the coming surge all the way in to the shore.

So occupiers, this winter, stay strong. Hold your ground, but don’t worry too much about short term direct action this winter. It’s cold. It’s time to focus our energy inward, to focus on staying warm, and on survival. This spring, during the week of the Vernal Equinox, when the earth’s life force surges forward, let us surge with it. Let us descend by the hundreds of thousands on both Wall Street and DC, and shut the machine down.

A homeless man came up to me while I was at the Occupation of Freedom Plaza in DC, and he said to me out of the blue, “I’m going to say this to you, because you seem like the kind of person who can appreciate this-- Being here in this space, I don’t have to say anything to be heard. I have power that comes from simply being here.”

That’s turned out to be true for the entire occupy movement.

While I spent time on Wall Street, and in Washington, DC, I’ve seen how scared the machine is of us.
At the Chamber of Commerce, all we had to do was show up, and they shut the building down.

At the Hart Senate office building, we showed up, and they shut the building down.

At the Rayburn House offices, 15 people showed up, and they shut down the hallways, not even allowing congressional staffers through.

Our power comes from simply being there. The machine is used to us misdirecting our anger into online petitions, facebook groups, rallies, symbolic protests. But if we simply SHOW UP to the scene where the crime is happening, suddenly the homicidal machine is exposed for exactly how powerless, naked, and illegitimate it really is.

It’s true. You want to stop the machine? All you have to do is show up, and the machine, which knows exactly how weak and frail it is, will go into self-preservation mode. At that point, the only thing we need to do is wait. If we scare the machine into shutting itself down out of fear, every day, for weeks on end, the machine will starve itself to death. If the machine lashes out with violence, it only betrays the total lack of legitimacy that this machine has a right to exist. It does not. The homicidal machine must be stopped for the sake of all of humanity.

On this vernal equinox, March 20th, let’s simultaneously, invade the New York Stock Exchange in, and the halls of Congress in DC and bring the gears of the machine to a halt.

Will I see you there? I hope so.

Paul LePage is a Lying Douchebag

If you don't already know, Maine Governor Paul LePage took down a mural in the Maine Department of Labor which depicted the struggle of organized labor throughout the last century.

When he originally did this, he was renaming rooms originally named after pillars of organized labor, to be "more business friendly." He said that the mural was "too one-sided." That it didn't tell the story of the job creators. You know, sure it showed the children who were forced to work in factories for pennies a day before child labor laws were put in place... but what about the factory owners who employed them?

Well, now Paul LePage has a different reason for taking down the mural:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now, the fact that he's squirming, and laughing at the fact that he's lying to Brian Williams and ostensibly getting away with it is reason enough to be suspicious of this flip flop.

But let's dig a little deeper.

Okay, well not too much deeper. We don't actually have to dig very far at all. Just as far back as this article over on CNN which states that the labor mural paid for out of a FEDERAL ART GRANT.

"Most of the artist's commission of $60,000 was paid from federal money, made available by transferring it to the state's account in the trust fund."

And not only that, the Federal Government bought that public art with a contract, stating in no uncertain terms the placement of where the mural was to be displayed. And taking it down violates that contract.

And so the Federal Government has threatened Paul LePage, that if the art is not put back up, in accordance with the contract, they will demand their money back.

Which, in his new version of reality, is exaclty what Paul LePage is saying HE is doing. In an post-Orwellian game of "I know you are, but what am I?" Paul LePage has taken this very threat and lawsuit against him, and flipped it on its head.

The worst part is that nobody is willing to call him out for being completely full of shit. Brian Williams just lets LePage's bullshit slide.

Even this Bangor Daily News article takes an "even-handed" approach to the subject.

Watching this idiot laugh at himself getting away with lying, I can't help but be reminded of the bumbling idiot leaders of the Soviet Union during its collapse. They, like Paul LePage, lied broadly, and brazenly. They, like Paul LePage, had no legitimacy.

I think it's time the State of Maine, like the former soviet states, had our own nonviolent color revolution.

Which Side Are You On?

This song goes out to the policemen on Wall Street:



Come all of you humans,

Good news to you I'll tell,

Of how that revolution

Has come in here to dwell.

CHORUS:
Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

My daddy was a union man,

And I'm my father's son,

And I'll stick with the union,

Till every battle's won.

They say down on Wall Street,

No human can relax.

You'll either be with anonymous,

Or a thug for Goldman Sachs.

Oh, Policemen can you stand it?

Oh, tell me how you can.

Will you be a hired thug,

Or will you be a man ?

Don't scab for the bosses,

Don't listen to their lies.

Us poor folks haven't got a chance,

Unless we organize.

Fascism, Democracy, and the Workplace

Maine Green Independent Party 2011 State Convention: Sarah Bigney of the AFL-CIO

The Citizen's Filibuster by Peaceful Uprising

YES.

There's something magical about this. The idea that the simple act of a few people singing could bring things to a screeching halt. More proof that you don't need bombs or guns.

Art is the most effective tool in our arsenal.

9 young activists interrupted the proceedings in the US House by singing one at a time. As each activist was detained and taken out, another began and Congress was forced to pause their proceedings. They sang the following words to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner:

"Oh why can't you see
It's my life that's at stake
When you sell out our world
You are stealing my future
Can you look in my eyes
As you gamble our lives
When will you stop the lies
So that we can survive?
If you represent me
Not the fossil fuel industry
You must stop wasting time
Chasing your dollar signs
Oh, say will you listen to
Our generation
If you refuse to hear us now
Then we have to shut you down"

Bill Whittle is a douchebag.*

Ignore that this douchebag* spouting ad hominem attack after ad hominem attack; against the British, Michael Moore, liberals, et al.

Ignore the fact that he calls Michael Moore a hypocrite for being a millionaire who says that millionaires should pay more in taxes. (And why is that hypocritical, exactly? Shouldn't he have MORE right to talk about how much millionaires should pay, being one himself? Seriously, wtf? Is Bill Whittles idea of an un-hypocritical person a poor person defending the rights of the rich to pay nothing in taxes by sheltering their income in offshore tax havens? Clearly logic is not a big part of this guys day-to-day life.)

IGNORE ALL THAT:
The meat of the video is this: In trying to "blow a hole" in Michael Moore's "money hoarder" argument, Bill Whittle proves Moore's point for him. This video illustrates quite well, even with the narrow scope that it presents it's evidence with, that most of the money is in the hands of the super-wealthy. That we're able to make it through 2/3rds of the year on the salaries of a few thousand people alone is striking.

What he leaves out is that right now they aren't paying their fair share. And at the end of his argument, we're still one day short, so the rest of us get stuck with a whopping $40 in annual federal taxes!

Dear me! I've already had $2,000 withheld from my paycheck, and I'll be lucky to make $16,000 this year. I'd gladly pay $40 in federal taxes as opposed to what I pay now. The elephant in the room here, is that since the ultra-rich aren't paying in, the burden of taxation is falling on working people.

And he doesn't even touch the "dark market" shit on wall street- naked shortselling, derivatives trading, etc.

A Tobin tax of 1% applied to these "dark market" trades would raise 1.7 trillion annually.

I'm skeptical of the numbers he has on ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eliminating these wars would reduce our spending every year after we end them from here to infinity, but they are portrayed in this video as being a one-time cost reduction-- which is a misleading error at best, and a deliberative deception at worst. No matter though, because either way, it's bullshit.

If we're spending $170 billion every year on killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our budgeted discretionary pentagon spending is $815 billion, then that leaves an additional $645 billion (that's more than half a trillion) in discretionary pentagon spending we could free up. Keep in mind, this is discretionary spending, not mandated spending for soldier's wages, VA benefits, etc.

What would his little fiscal calendar look like if we shut down all those 737 military bases we have all over the Goddamn planet?

What would it look like if we reduced our nuclear weapon stores by 50%? Between 1940 and 1996, we spent more than 5 trillion on maintaining our nuclear weapons. Just by letting them sit around and making sure that they don't explode on us. And keep in mind, we currently have enough nuclear weapons to replicate Hiroshima 150,000 times over.

The issue here isn't that we want to take everything from the rich. The issue here is that they don't pay taxes, and working people do. If you're rich enough, you can hide your money in tax shelters in the maldives and not pay a goddamn cent.

The issue here is that the richest among us got that way because our society provided them with the means to do so. If they manufactured products, everybody who paid taxes provided them with the means to do so-- electricity, water, sewage, waste disposal, etc-- and if they sold those products, everybody who paid taxes provided them with the means to do so-- we paid for the roads, bridges, and rail-beds that they shipped their products on.

It isn't uncouth to expect that since the wealthiest amongst us became wealthy because of social spending, that they should give back accordingly-- the more wealthy they become, the more they should give back to the society that allowed them to become wealthy. Also, I think we can conclude soundly and firmly, that Bill Whittle is a contemptible douchebag.*

* Not an ad hominem attack-- I've presented solid evidence that this is the case

Dennis Kucinich gets Gov Scott Walker to Admit It

via NoCureForThat

Washington D.C. (April 14, 2011) — Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today scored an admission from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker that his decision to strip the rights of public workers to bargain collectively “doesn’t save any” money for the Wisconsin taxpayers.