The Punk Patriot interviews Lee Camp

Lee Camp's stuff: http://LeeCamp.net
His interview with me: http://leecamp.net/2012/07/podcast-146-asher-platts-sits-down-with-me-to-talk-occupy-his-race-for-the-senate/

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Dr Margaret Flowers at Think Tank in Maine

"The United States Government, because of corporate involvement, has proven itsself incapable of making decisions based on evidence, or the public interest"

The Corporate Elite are Standing Dead Wood

I don't know if you've ever been in an area of old growth forest, but often you'll come across a stand of trees that look like they are solid, but they are totally dead and rotten. They are filled with termite poop and dust, and even though they may be 6 feet around, a gentle nudge is enough to send them crumbling into piles of dust.

Adara's Story - Stop The Machine

Watch this twice, and make sure it really sinks in. Then share it everywhere.

Adara came from Denver, CO, to stand with us against corporate greed. Her father committed suicide to prevent his daughters from having to go into debt to pay for his medical expenses.

Meanwhile, Wall Street was meeting inside the Marriott Hotel, pretending that they are health police experts, when in reality, they profit from killing people.

Stop The Machine- Day 7 - It's Raining

go to October2011.org and help us get tents and ground mats and stuff!

Footage from the past few days

Just some brief moments in time:
Marching to the MLK Jr memorial:


The MLK jr Memorial:


Two protesters who were maced at the Smithsonian talking about recovering:


Dance Party at Freedom Plaza: this is a revolution with dancing!

Stop The Machine- Day 3

So we went to the Air and Space museum to do a silly little demonstration. We were going to do a banner drop at the drone exhibit, a display of military fetishism that our tax dolars pay for.

I had gotten ahead of the march with my camera to video tape us entering the lobby. What happened instead was just insane.

The security guards rushed the entrance like linebackers, shoving people out the doors, flailing their arsm, pushing people in the face, and then pepper-sprayed the crowd, including women like Linda Wiener, 54, of Portland Oregon, from no more than a few inches away from their faces. In the ensuing chaos, the guards sprayed a few of their own. One security guard, seen in the video above, was choking on the pepper spray, and remarked, "God, that stuff is nasty."

Yeah, no shit.

I was pushed out of the lobby into the still-hanging cloud of pepper spray. The air was impossible to breathe. If you've ever put a 9volt battery to your tongue, that's what it felt like, but in your eyes, your nose, and your mouth and lungs. I ran outside of the cloud of spray, took a deep breath of air, and ran back into the crowd of people being flushed and treated by our first aid team.

I had no idea things were going to go like this. I figured we might be denied entry, but to be maced? Really? They shut down the museum for the rest of the day. That wasn't our intent. Our intent was to do a silly little banner drop and die-in. Pure theater.

Instead, our theatrical demonstration against unlawful use of force, was met by an unlawful use of force. Ironic.

Stop The Machine! Day 2

I have a little bit of down time, logging and capturing footage. It takes a while, so I guess I'll write a blog entry.

One question that is coming up over and over again is this: How far are we willing to go?

It's almost entirely without question that we all agree that we will remain nonviolent, but in order to separate this occupation of Washington DC from every other rally-- how far are we willing to go?

Also, the Food and Water committee needs to get their shit together. Right now Food Not Bombs is serving food, but that can only last for so long. I went to their committee meeting for a little bit (filming, as a journalist) and they were talking about food sovereignty, High Fructose Corn Syrup, GMOS and Monsanto.

That's not the point of the food and water committee. THe point is to get fucking FOOD, and fucking WATER to the plaza so we don't die. There were only five of them.

I think as soon as Food Not Bombs runs out of food, people might pay a little more attention to this rather pressing issue.

TODAY IS THE BEGINNING

Things I've learned today:

1) Apparently my mobile uploading thing for this page doesn't work. In the middle of uploading video from today. Going to edit Dennis Trainor Jr's speech from Occupy Wall Street today.

2) P2 cards are incredibly expensive. We've only got 4 of them for two cameras. The reason for that is they are about $500/ea. If you want to help the No Cure For That documentary team out, please go to http://nocureforthat.org/ and click that donate button.

Why help us buy more p2 cards? Well, they take a long time to upload footage, and if we currently only have enough space for 2 hours per camera. Our HQ is about 20 min away from the plaza, and the occupation of Freedom Plaza is going on 24/7, and we're trying to capture as much as possible for this documentary.

I'm in the middle of logging four 64gig p2 video cards, and it's taking me about an hour per card. Oi. Then backing them up... If we had four more, that would give us the flexibility to send a member of our team back to log footage on our external HD, and then wipe the cards and bring back fresh recording media so we can keep shooting.

3) DC is a sweet city. I really really like it here. I've visited many times, but I've never lived here before.

4) Lee Camp is taller in person than I thought.

5) Medea Benjamin is shorter in person than I thought.

6) DC cops will clear the streets for you if you have a spontaneous march.

7) Junkyard Empire kicks ass live.