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Lumpenproletariat

Tag Archives: President Barack Obama

Hard Knock Radio Presents A 2016 Presidential Election Post Mortem

30 Fri Dec 2016

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Fascism, Anti-Totalitarianism, Civic Engagement (Activism), Police State, Presidential Election 2016, Racism (phenotype)

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Alicia Garza (b. 1981), Aryan Nations, Black Lives Matter, Davey D, DeRay Mckesson (b. 1985), Hard Knock Radio, KPFA, Opal Tometi M.A., Pacifica Radio Network, Patrisse Cullors (b. 1983), President Barack Obama, Thomas Linton Metzger (b. 1938), transcript

hard-knock-radioLUMPENPROLETARIAT—At a Project Censored event, Hard Knock Radio‘s Davey D gave a set of remarks, reflecting upon the looming Trump Presidency, as the electoral college votes in favour of Trump.  We need more journalists, people in a special position to observe local and global events, to speak out and provide a synthesis of sociopolitical and socioeconomic developments.  We may not agree with everything uttered, but we value independent voices.

In this particular speech, Davey D gave, perhaps, the loudest condemnation, even if only a whisper, which we’ve ever heard from him, in terms of an outright rejection and condemnation of the Democratic Party.  But he also offers much-needed critique of the political apathy and complacency amongst liberals and progressives and many others on the left, when it comes to engaging in the sort of civic engagement in public with other likeminded people, which actually translates into political action and political power.  Listen here. [1]

Messina

***

HARD KNOCK RADIO—[30 DEC 2016]  [Station ID by Pedro Reyes]  [Hard Knock Radio introductory audio collage]  (c. 1:15)

ANITA JOHNSON:  “Wussup, fam.  You are tuned to Hard Knock, here on the Pacifica Network.  On today’s programme, Oscar Grant as well as the rise of Trump.  All this and more ahead.  So, keep it locked.”  (c. 1:28)

[KPFA News Headlines omitted by scribe]  (c. 6:50)

[Hard Knock Radio segue collage] 

“And, again, you are tuned to Hard Knock, here, on the Pacifica Network.  Up next, we speak to Hodari Davis, the National Program Director for Youth Speaks, the nation’s leading presenter of spoken word, arts, and education.  Hodari joins us to discuss the Eighth Annual Oscar Grant Vigil on January 1st at the Fruitvale Bart Station.  Hodari, once again, welcome to the programme.”

HODARI DAVIS:  “Thanks.  It’s great to be here.  [snip] ”

[Hodari Davis interview omitted by scribe]  [2]

(c. 22:35) [music break]  (c. 25:19)

DaveyDBfresh

Davey D, host of Hard Knock Radio (Pacifica Radio Network)

ANITA JOHNSON:  “And, again, you are tuned to Hard Knock, here, on the Pacifica Network.  Up next, we’ll hear a talk, featuring Davey D at the Project Censored 40th Anniversary event.  In this talk, he explores the rise of Trump, the collapse of Clinton as well as Barack Obama.  All this, and more, ahead, so, keep it locked.” (c. 25:38)

Davey D speech, at Project Censored 40th Anniversary, on looming Trump Presidency

DAVEY D:  “I think one of the things, that we wanted to talk about, obviously, is what has happened, uh, this past month, or this past week.

“I think many people woke up Monday morning, figured that they’re gonna have, uh, conflicted feelings.  You’re gonna make history, in the sense that a woman would be in the White House for the first time.  But, at the same time, this woman in the White House was very problematic, uh, with her corruption and a lot of things, that I think that social justice advocates, we would be in opposition to, you know, her, um, her record on war; some of the things she hasn’t talked about, her cozy relationship with Wall Street; all these different types of things, I think folks were mentally preparing themselves to deal with, at the same time, celebrating the fact that a woman made it to the White House.  (c. 26:40)

“So, I think, like most people, when things happened on Tuesday, we were watching.  And, at least where I was at, people were thinking, like,

They’re just stretching this out.

“Because they’re like,

It’s real close.  It’s real close; and it’s still like at 80%  Or:  80% of the precincts checked in and, if Detroit comes through with all their votes, then she’s gonna take Michigan.  And, if Philadephia comes through, she’s gonna take Pennsylvania.

“And people were sitting there thinking, like, Yeah, she’s gonna win, because, up ’til that moment, they kept saying, It was a walk in.  All these pundits were walkin’ around sayin’, She has a 98% chance, and a 100% chance, and all these different, um, predictions.  And, at the end of the night, homeboy Donald Trump won.  (c. 27:29)

“And people were sitting there, like, What the f—. [audience laughs; apparent edit cut]  And, then, people got scared.  And, then, reality hit.  And, at that moment, that reality hit, many of us had to humble ourselves.  And what I mean by that I mean by that, if we haven’t humbled ourselves, we’re gonna have to, if we’re gonna move forward.  [scant applause]

“What do I mean by that?  [applause continues to trickle]  Um, I went to Cleveland for the RNC.  I’ve been to most of the conventions, since 2000, or maybe ’96, I started going.  So, I covered a lot of ’em.  Went at my own expense.  The [radio] station didn’t pay for it.  Uh, but this is something, that’s important.  In fact, it was my church, that was like, This is important.  Somebody needs to be in Cleveland to find out what’s going on.  And, so, they raised the money.  And we went out there.  (c. 28:26)

“Now, out of all the conventions, that I covered, one that stands out, where folks were just excited—I mean it was magical; it was just—people were just, you know, amped up in ways, that I had never seen before—was 2008 in Denver with Barack Obama.  I mean it was excitement.  For all his flaws, that we can now look at and point at, it doesn’t erase how people felt in, uh, September or August of 2008.  I remember.  When he gave that speech at the stadium, all kind of people were crying.  I saw tears coming out of their eyes.  And I remember the tears, that people shed at his inauguration, which I went to.  I saw people, that were 90 years old, who were saying, I waited all my life to see this, and tears in their eyes, and just were so happy because they felt that a corner had been turned in these United States.  (c. 29:26)

“Barack Obama captured the imagination of people because he had a slogan: Hope and Change.  And many people bought into this.  And coming off of the eight years of George Bush, many of us were susceptible to it.  And we did things, like we looked at some of his policies, as he was talking and some of us got pricked and said:  That don’t sound right.  And, if you recall, people said:

He’s playing chess, not checkers. Give him a chance. He’s gotta do this to win. And, once he gets in, he’s gonna flip the script.  (c. 30:03)

“So, all those emotions were there.  But the excitement, that led to people dancin’ in the streets of Oakland, dancin’ in the streets of New York, dancin’ in the streets of Chicago was something, that we can never erase.

“Fast forward eight years later; in Clevaland, the only other time I seen people this excited was with Donald Trump.  And that’s something, that we’re gonna have to deal with.  Except, the difference was I didn’t see black and brown people.  I didn’t see—well, I saw a lot of women.  But I didn’t see the women, that I know is social justice advocates.  I didn’t see a lot of LGBT folks.  I saw folks, who were angry; poor folks, who were pis— off, who felt like things had changed too fast and they were left behind; folks, who were in the Rust Belt, that had been ignored; folks who were f—— pis— off and were looking for somebody to blame for their economic misery. (c. 31:02)

“And, so, the excitement came when this political creature, who is actually a cultural, um, a cultural star, a cultural phenomenon, a reality TV star came in their midst and said:

Check this out. I got a ‘Hope and Change’ thing for you all. But it’s ‘Fear and Blame’. And the reason why your life is messed up is because of the Mexicans, because of the blacks, and because of the Muslims.

“And people got excited.  I stood in that arena, where the Cleveland Cavaliers play, and saw ten thousand people chanting—build a wall!—and just getting excited; and that excitement rivaled what I saw in Denver, but with a whole different energy.

“And, when I came back, I said to myself—and I said it publicly; I said it at report-backs; I said it to my church folks—I said:

This dude is gonna win. Make no mistake about it. And, if you—

“And I said there’s gonna be three things, that’s gonna lead to him winning:

One, the folks, that got behind Bernie Sanders weren’t gonna get behind Hillary. And, if they did, they wasn’t gonna bring the enthusiasm.

“And, having covered the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton campaign in ’08, one of the things, that I kept hearing from the Bernie people was that Hillary was cheating. (c. 32:31)

“Now, at that time, people said—they got offended.  Donna Brazile, from CNN, was, you know, like:  How dare you say that.  People just dismissed that.  But, if you had gone on that campaign trail in ’08, the complaints, you heard from the Bernie people [in 2016] were very similar to the complaints, that the Obama people had about Hillary in ’08.  So, I’m hearing these stories, and I’m like: That’s sounds pretty similar to what took place in ’08.

“So, I believed what they were saying, not because I, politically, could get down with where they’re at, I just had heard those stories before.  And I knew that that was her get down, that there was some shadiness going on.

“And the bottom line was that people may have, strategically, said: Yeah, we’ll do it.  But they weren’t gonna bring that energy, that you saw with Bernie Sanders, with 37,000 people showing up at a march here, and 50,000 there.  You weren’t gonna have that.  More importantly, the question, that needed to be answered: Would people, especially, a lot of these Millennials—young, white Millennials—were they gonna stand on line for six hours for Hillary Clinton, the way that black folks and people of colour stood on lines for six hours to vote for Barack Obama, which they did in Cleveland two years, you know, two election cycles?  I just didn’t see that happening.  So, that was conclusion one.  (c. 33:55)

“The other thing was around the Black Lives Matter people.  Now, there had been a lot of shenanigans, in terms of how Black Lives Matter was going to be presented to the public.  And part of the disinformation was to overlook, um, the founding of that movement with Alicia Garza, Opal, and, um, Patrisse.  And kind of distill it in this guy named DeRay, who comes out of Baltimore, because he was more friendly-like.  He was from Teach For America.  He kind of had these corporate connections and was like: Let’s go along with Hillary.  So, they were kind of, like, this is BLM.  And, in fact, anybody, who was black, who was protesting was automatically associated with that.  (c. 34:42)

“And, so, what they could do was, they could kind of mainstream the Black Lives Matter movement and, then, kind of defang what they were asking for and make it seem like this is an organisation to go along to get along.  And, so, there were a lot of people, that were comin’ up with critiques.  And they were like: Oh, yeah, that organisation is trying to lead the masses to the Democratic Party. They’re gonna be a front for Hillary—all this sort of stuff. (c. 35:06)

“So, what was ignored was BLM had spent a year, or the movement for black lives—’cos there was a collection of people, who had spent a year putting together a robust, incredible, um, agenda, you know, for the masses.  If you got a movement for black lives, it’s well-researched, well-principled.  It was something you could jump into, if you was an individual.  You could do it as a group.  It connected it to its history.  And it showed you organisations, that were already doin’ it.  It ranged from political prisoners to their stance on the Middle East, all sorts of things.  Incredible.

“That was removed from the news.  And had you read those, that movement piece, that agenda, you would’ve known that they weren’t about to wind themselves up around Hillary.

“So, my understanding was, you know, it’s a leaderless movement.  You can’t have one person say: This is gonna happen.  But my sense was most people ain’t really gonna be ridin’ for her from that movement as well.  And the more that the campaign was goin’ and the less you heard about some of these very egregious police shootings, in a physical, tangible way, you knew that those were two main groups, that Obama might’ve counted on, in terms of demographic, that Hillary wasn’t gonna have at her disposal. (c. 36:27)

“So, the suggestion was:

If you want her to win, you’re gonna have to phonebank and volunteer and door-knock; and you’re gonna have to understand how these elections work, that California is gonna be a given.  It’s gonna go blue, unless there’s something catastrophic, that happens.  But you’re gonna have to put in some work.

“And many people nodded.  And they was like:

Well, these people need to know better.  

“And everybody had this whole thing about trying to be right, trying to be logical, like:

They need to know. The Millennials need to understand that social security is gonna be—

“And I was like: 

People are gonna do what they’re gonna do based upon their understanding. Those Bernie Sanders people, maybe some of them have nice houses, that they live in with their parents and can withstand the economic storm under a Trump.  So, they wasn’t gonna have the same sense of urgency.  (c. 37:22)

‘Black Lives Matter didn’t want a two-party system anymore’

“The BLM folks were very clear in that they didn’t want a two-party system anymore.  And they were like:

We need to have clarity that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and others have represented—what I would call, and I think people have coined before—a form of ‘friendly fascism’, that they will do some evil sh–.  But they’ll do it with a smile. And they’re able to hide it behind cultural signifiers.

“So, Obama will have rappers at the White House.  And he will brush his shoulders off, like Jay Z.  And Michelle [Obama] say she likes Beyoncé.  So, we forget that he deported three, four, you know, 2.5 million people.  Right?

“And I want you to bookmark that because this is what I’m talkin’ about: We gonna have to humble ourselves.  We’re gonna forget that he did that.  We’re gonna forget that he got rid of Gaddafi and did regime change, and what was really behind that.  And we could go on and on.  We’re gonna forget that, you know, the police got more money.  We’re gonna forget that he didn’t really advocate to have punishment—all these different things, that we could look at, his relationship with Wall Street—all this stuff.  We just gave it a pass.  (c. 38:35)

“But the thing was: if you didn’t work for her, my sense was, she is going to lose.  And many did not work for her.  I came back and said: You all volunteering for her? 

Nah, because the guy from the New York Times, whatever his name is, Nate Silver said she’s gonna win. And someone else said she’s gonna win. And this one said she’s gonna win.

“And my sense is this, just as a journalist: numbers are good; numbers have their place.  But they don’t tell the whole story, unless you actually go there.  Going to Cleveland and seeing bikers, big ol’ Hells Angels-looking bikers, that, you know, were sitting there:

I like Donald Trump. That’s my guy. We are going to put him in the White House.

Man, for real?

You damn, right!

“Like, you know, you saw enthusiasm from people like that.  That’s—I was like, that don’t show up in the numbers.  That doesn’t show up when you had, like the day before the election, when I had people on from Ohio and they was like, well, these bikers are on the freeway getting people to vote.  It didn’t explain that there was a dissatisfaction in the Midwest, who were like,

There’s no discernible difference between Bush and Trump and Obama, in terms of what I’m dealing with.

“Now, in California, many of us are—you know, we’re living here; we’re doin’ okay, especially, if we’re livin’ in San Francisco or Oakland.  We’re doin’ better than they are in the Midwest.  And, so, for us, there may be a discernible difference.  But, for many people, for many people, it was no difference.  It was no difference, in terms of what their experience had been from one president to the next.  And a lot of that dissatisfaction showed up in 2012.  And the people, that delivered Ohio to Obama, had told him to his face.  Like,

People do not like you right now. But, because of the racism, that is showing up, they’re probably gonna vote for you just so they can, at the end of the day, point a finger at racists and say ‘you lost’. But they’re not really ridin’ for you like that. (c. 40:49)

“And that was important to understand because, maybe, had people really been on the ground, they would’ve said, you know:

There’s dissatisfaction; and the vote will probably not be as robust and won’t have the numbers, that they did before.

“Is this making sense, what I’m saying?  So, all these things were kind of in play.  And, then, you add to the fact that, since you can’t really tell dissatisfaction, that people are, kind of like: Yeah, I’ll vote for you—but you can tell by body language, that they’re not really gonna get up.  If there’s a Warriors game on, or a Cavaliers game on, you know, the World Series or anything, they be like,

You know I got other things to do. If Empire is on, I’m ‘a watch that before I go out and stand on line for six hours.

“In Michigan, they had been telling Hillary: You need to show up.  She never showed up because her numbers said she won.  And people were dissatisfied. (c. 41:43)

“So, at the end of the day, we saw what happened.  And here we are.  Right?  We’re asking: How did she lose the Rust Belt?

“And, just as a side note, there’s a documentary, that came out, maybe ten years ago, of the Aryan Nations—were they neo-Nazi; I think they might have been neo-Nazis or Aryan Nations.  Tom Metzger was on there.  And he’s saying: You know where it’s going to jump off?  I mean he was pretty confident when he said it.  He said:

The Midwest is where it’s gonna jump off. It’s where we have our people at. It’s where they’re waiting to really set things in motion. It’s where they are judges. They are bankers. They are lawyers.  He said: The Midwest is where this is gonna happen.

“That’s the Rust Belt.  And, so, when you combine all these facts, here we are. (c. 42:30)

“Now, when I said that we had to, kind of, humble ourselves—and I’ll close with this—I think for the past—before even Obama—we, as social justice folks, have made the same excuses, that we see being made now.  When people—you talk to Trump supporters, and they go, you know, he groped a lot of women.  [The response is:]

He’s not perfect. You know, I mean he’s—c’mon.  What candidate is perfect? You gotta go for the greater good. You gotta put that behind us.  Or: They’re lying.  They’re exaggerating. He didn’t really do all that. The media always is trying to get after our guy.

“Have you not heard those excuses?  But have we not made them, or seen people around us for darlings on the left?”

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  “Yes.”

DAVEY D:  “Have we not made them ourselves?

You know, this woman did A, B, C, and D.  She cheated!

“We tell people to have integrity.  And we found out through these [leaked Podesta] emails that there was no integrity.

She’s not perfect. She’s not a prefect candidate. You gotta look for the greater good. You don’t want Trump. You want her.

“Right?  So, we kind of play that game.  As I pointed out before, when I said bookmark those deportations, we have been playing that game when people’s lives were upended.

“I’ve been on a panel one time—and I recall it was in New York—during the 2012 election, and I had brought up the fact that, you know, I’m conflicted with Obama ‘cos he’s deported twelve million people—I mean he’s deported all these people.  And there was a Ph.D. professor sitting next to me: Well, they shouldn’t have come here illegally.  And I kind of looked at her—it was a sister from one of these colleges.  And I was like a pundit:

How can you say that? I mean it’s not like these are people that are not connected to families. I mean you’re talkin’ about parents, sons, daughters, uncles, families were disrupted.

“And her response was:

If it’s that important, how come Eva Longoria isn’t talkin’ about it?

“And what that said to me was—and this is the other thing, that we have to be humble about—is that we have a blindspot for people, who are talking to students, people who are getting on TV, who were doing 30-second soundbites of people’s culture and history.

“And, if we have not made an intentional act for us to be very, very familiar with the comings and goings and the histories and the political understanding that folks in our community have, then we’re missing a big boat.  And we will wind up being, I guess, on the left, but making some pretty stupid ass statements about other people.  Is this making sense, what I’m saying? (c. 45:28)

“I’m looking at them saying: How in the hell do you not know what deportations do?  But you’ll be surprised how many people ride that train to the polls.

“And, so, when people were scared in 2010 and 2012 and 2014, we didn’t have millions of people in the streets.  Nobody held their hands around the lake, even as they were ignoring their brown brothers and sisters being deported.

“We have the situation in Standing Rock.  Right?  People are inspired.  But our candidates didn’t say anything about it.

Well, she’s not perfect. She can’t do it. She’s in an election.

“But those are the very people, that we are depending upon to vote for her.  So, you can’t even give a shout out, like, you know:  A shout out to all those water protectors, that are holding it down. When I become president, I’m gonna make sure I got your back.  You didn’t say that.

“I was talking to somebody earlier.  That’s because we made excuses for people in our lives, who serve two masters.  And, in this case, her master was Wall Street.  In this case, her master was Big Business.  In this case, her master was corporations.  And we gave it a pass. (c. 46:38)

“We didn’t hold them seriously accountable.  But, now, here we are.  And the question is: Where do we go from here? What’s the next steps?  We can do the protesting now and try to get the Electoral College to change.  And we can have a Million Mom March in D.C. during the inauguration.  All that stuff will be good.  It will be an indication of our dissatisfaction.

“But what are we gonna do to really stop the team, that he has in place?  Rudy Giuliani and that crazy, um, that crazy police officer, the sheriff—”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  “Arpaio.”

DAVEY D:  “No.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  ” [inaudible] “

DAVEY D: “Yes.  Those people are gonna be in his ear.  So, they’re gonna have national Stop and Frisk.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  “John Bolton.”

DAVEY D: “You know, John Bolton.  See?  So, they got a team, that’s in place.  And my question is, for us, what’s our team lookin’ like?  Not our team, necessarily, on the federal level, but locally?  Do we control []?  Do we control Oakland up and down?  Do we control San Francisco?  Do we have people, that will sit there and fight the same fight that we’re fighting on the street side?  And as journalists?  And as academics?  And as activists?  Do we have people, that are representing us legislatively?  To make sure when they say, we’re gonna do a Stop and Frisk [programme] nationally, we have people goin’, nah, not in this city. This is gonna be a new type of sanctuary city of no Stop and Frisk in any of these nine counties.  Have we locked it down like that?

“Are we involved in any sort of movement to move us in those directions?  What we’re gonna have to do is be ungovernable, to quote my friend Rosa Clemente, in every way possible.  The fight is here.  Many people have romanticised about this moment.  There’s been people that said: You know, if we only had somebody who was tyrannical, it’s gonna unite people.  Here we are. (c. 48:41)

“And you know what I see people doing?  I see some people uniting.  Bu t I see a lot of other people applying for overseer-ship.  I’ll be an overseer. I’ll be a gate-keeper. Let me in Mr. Trump; I’ll keep the masses down in my respective community.  That’s something, we need to be concerned about.  We’ already seen people line up—those blacks and those Mexicans and those Muslims, that have been rollin’ for Trump.  And he has them.  They’re gonna be the overseers.  They’re gonna be the ones that, I will put the masses down for you, mastuh.

“So, how are we going to really fortify our team?  Is what we need to be looking at, since we’re at that moment.  How are we preparing ourselves?

“People said: We need a revolution.  What does that look like?  Is it peaceful?  How many of us go to the gun range?  How many of us know how to shoot a gun?  Are we shooting it, like in the movies?  Or do we really know how to hold it, so we don’t get the kick-back?  Do we have the ammunition?  Are we training?  Do we do martial arts?  Do we stay in shape?

“When the health care is gone, are we now talking about cooperative economics?  So, if he says, no more Obamacare, are we gonna be like, it’s alright; we got our own doctors and lawyers here?  We’re good.  Have we set that up?  Because we’re at that moment now.  And there’s going to be a lot of desperate people.  How do we quell the fears?  Living in Oakland, you know what desperate people do?  Desperate people look at you and go:

Yo, son! Run those sneakers. Run the jewels. Run your house. Run your—

“Right?  They will rob you.  People will do what they need to do to survive.  Are we prepared for that sort of chaos, because it’s within this chaos that I think they’re gonna ferment, because they’re building an economy around law and order.  Their ecosystem will be based upon:

We need a lot of criminals to go to jail, so that we can give jobs to these poor folks, that were in the Rust Belt.

“And they’ll say:

You know what your new job is? You’re gonna be a little gatekeeper for the [petty] criminals, that we caused the chaos in your communities, that led to them doing those sorts of things.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  [inaudible comment, perhaps:  ‘They did that in ’93 in Ohio.’]

DAVEY D:  “There you have it. [applause]  (c. 50:54)

“So, the slogan Crime Pays will have new meaning.  It will pay them.  And they pay some of us, who are like, you know what, I might as well be a jail-keeper, get my fifty thousand dollars and call it a day. I think I can forget about it.

“I’ll close by saying this:  Somebody hit me up on email and said, you know, all this violence, all this rape and pillaging, that’s going on in the community now—we’re not talking about Trump coming in—all the stuff that’s happening, I’m just gonna go leave the cities and live in the country. And I’m gonna get away from it.  Kanye West, go to another country.

“You can’t hide from a place you’re invested in.  We’re invested in this empire in many ways.  It’s built upon slavery, genocide, rape, and pillaging.  You can’t escape it.  You think when we go to other countries, they’re gonna be like [endearing tone],

Oh, you’re an American? [agitated tone] You’re the one, that caused the problems, that we have now. [audience laughter]  You don’t get a pass.

“And even if you’re black, you don’t get a pass.  It used to be, if you was black, they gave you a pass.  But, no:

You had Obama up there. You put him into office, so you don’t get a pass, either.

“It used to be, if you was a woman, you’d get a pass.  But, no: 

You was rollin’ with Hillary. [incredulously] You don’t get no pass. Condoleeza Rice preceded her; you don’t get a pass. You’re an American. You’re part of the empire. And the only reason why you’re concerned about the world now is because it’s hitting you in the a–.  But, guess what, we’ve been poor for the past two, three, or four decades. We’ve been without, while you had.

“And, so, we’re gonna have to humble ourselves and figure out how we’re gonna reconcile that.  I would say we’re gonna have to be honest.  We’re gonna have to hold people accountable like we’ve never held them before.  We’re gonna have to fight in ways, that we’ve never dreamt of.  We’re gonna have to spiritually align ourselves, so that our willingness to fight is fearless—” (c. 52:57)

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  “That’s right.”

DAVEY D:  “—like you are not afraid to make that sacrifice.  You’re not afraid to die.  We’re reminded [inaudible] about the [Black] Panthers.  They just had their 50th Anniversary.  Many of ’em are doing 30 and 40 years in jail.  You ready to make that sacrifice?  Many people are, like

You know it’s good you all did that. But I need to go to Starbucks and read about it, go to a movie night, maybe have a conversation. But I ain’t willing to make that sort of sacrifice. [3] 

“You’re willing to give your life.  Many people aren’t.  Many people are trying to situate themselves in a economy, or an ecosystem, that now will no longer have Obama, but will have Trump.  So, we can make money speaking about Trump.  We can make money writing books about Trump.  We can be a pundit, that talks in opposition of Trump.  But that’s about as far as it’s gonna go. (c. 53:52)

“And the big battleground will be media.  And the reason why you have a Trump is because of the corporate media.  So, the first thing, we should start doing is dis-attaching ourselves from it and not giving them anymore credence. [audience applause]

“One of the things, that was interesting is how they framed the voting patterns.  And this is what the [corporate] media does.  It’s called divide and conquer.  So, the headline is:

54% of white women voted for Donald Trump.

“And, you know, you’re sitting there, like,

God d—, what the —-? I mean he did all this groping and raping. It’s white women, that caused him to get elected.

“But, as media people, your supposed to

Let me check these statistics, if we’re gonna go by their statistics.

“So,

Oh, 54% voted for Romney. 53 for McCain. 56 for Bush.

“So, there’s always been a majority of women, white women, who voted for the GOP.  Now, that tells us that if, you know, you have a family and aunties and nieces and grandmoms—there’s work to be done.  You know?  Your family members, they’re gonna have to be spoken to.  But we have to be very clear that the person, who put them in office is probably not some of the folks in this room—at least, I hope not.  Right?  I’m assuming these are folks, that are fighting for liberation and a better tomorrow. (c. 55:22)

“But the way that the media framed it, would have people comin’ out, like

We can’t trust you all at all. You all voted 54%.

“But they’ve done that for the past 20 years.  The other thing:

30% of Latinos voted for Trump.

“So, now, you have folks lookin’—

Man, these brown folks, man, they sold us out.

“You gotta look at the record.

Oh, there’s always been 30%, that have been in the GOP side.

“So,

It ain’t my man, Jose, who lives in the store in Fruitvale that did that. That’s some other cat. Maybe it’s a class thing. Maybe it’s a religion thing. I don’t know. But it ain’t the folks, that we rollin’ with.

“So, if you go back to the headlines—and, if I had a slide, I’d show you—it’s like Obama got 74% of the Latino vote—what the headline said.  Trump got 30% of the Latino vote.  See how we start to—

What? 30%?! Let’s roll.

“But nobody did that when Obama said he had 70%.

“So, these are the things, that media is doing to us right now.  And we’re gonna have to be aware of those types of shenanigans and more to come because it’s gonna be a divide and conquer.  It’s gonna be the emergence of a buffer class, that’s going to speak on our behalf, that’s gonna culturally sound like us, culturally look like us, but support policies, that are far, far away from our values.  (c. 56:46)

“So, you’ll have somebody sitting there, saying:

I love Jay Z. I have my pants saggin’. And we need Stop-and-Frisk.

“So, you’re gonna have that.  You’re gonna have a woman sit up there, like,

I know second– and third-wave feminism. Women need equal rights and equal pay. But we don’t need no choice. We need the Supreme Court to gut Roe v. Wade. A real woman doesn’t get an abortion.

“You’ll have that sort of rhetoric coming from a mass media regulator and people will buy it up, if we’re not careful.” [applause]

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  ” [inaudible] ”

DAVEY D:  “There you go.

“So, I’m just gonna leave you with those few things.  Um, we’re gonna be talkin’ about Trump for a long time.  But, hopefully, we’re doing some things to change things around.  This could be the death knell.  Or this could be an opportunity to really turn this around.  I’ve always said that Goliath always loses.  And I really mean that.  Goliath never wins the fight.  He’s big.  He’s cumbersome.  He’s terrifying.  All it takes—if you have five smooth stones, all it takes is one in between the eyes, and he loses.  What’s your aim like?  Are you practicin’ with that slingshot?  And a slingshot comes in many forms.  But we are gonna win.  And, in the words of Kendrick, we gon’ be alright.  Thank you.” [applause] (c. 58:10)

[music break:  Hard Knock Radio theme by Brown Buffalo]

[snip] (c. 59:59)

Learn more at HARD KNOCK RADIO.

***

[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Hard Knock Radio, this one-hour broadcast hosted by Anita Johnson, Friday, 30 DEC 2016, 16:00 PST.

[2]  During Anita Johnson’s interview with Hodari Davis, she cited Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s recent KPFA speech and Dr. Taylor’s critique of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration.  But Mr. Davis seemed to dodge any questions, which may be critical of the Democratic Party.  Of course, the focus of his interview was the Oscar Grant Vigil.  But, of course, it’s important for Ms. Johnson to raise broader political questions about political power, which, for pacifists, mainly falls into the category of electoral politics.

During the interview, Mr. Davis cited the “whitelash” argument, which “Van Jones aptly described”.  But that’s a flawed analysis of Trump’s rise to power—not only because Hillary Clinton won the people’s vote, but lost the electoral college vote—because it doesn’t fully explain the socioeconomic dynamics at play in the United States.

And, of course, Dr. Taylor had recently obliterated that whitelash argument during her recent speech in Berkeley, which Ms. Johnson hosted.  So, it was surprising, or disappointing, that Ms. Johnson didn’t reiterate that argument to Mr. Davis.  She could have shown him (and the audience) how that line of argumentation about a whitelash against the Obama Presidency, which ostensibly translated into a backlash election of Trump.  That argument is symbolised by prominent liberal (Democrat apologist) Van Jones, whom Dr. Taylor cited in her speech.  That liberal argument, preoccupied with identity politics, misses deeper questions about class, which transcend racism or white supremacy.

[3]  This phenomenon of political apathy, in Marxian philosophy and political economy, is related to the problems associated with a bourgeois or petit bourgeois mentality, which lacks class consciousness.  Antonio Gramsci has described the concept of false consciousness, which also helps explain how defeatist or acquiescent attitudes toward the antidemocratic and anti-working class status quo are held by otherwise intelligent groups of people, who are capable of apprehending.

People of conscience, such as Davey D (or, perhaps, yourself, dear reader), must call out the contradictions, the injustices, and the corruption of the spirit, which permeates society, and with which we must all contend, individually or in groupings, if we are to advance the cause of socioeconomic justice.

***

[31 DEC 2016]

[Last modified at 18:39 PST on 7 JAN 2017]Save

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Democratic National Convention 2016, Day One

25 Mon Jul 2016

Posted by ztnh in Democracy Deferred, Democratic Party (USA), Political Science, Presidential Election 2016

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Askia Muhammed, Bernie Sanders, Chris Hedges, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Convention 2016, DNC 2016, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, Dr. William K. Black, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Rodham Clinton, KPFA, Margaret Prescod, Michelle Obama, MMT, Pacifica Radio Network, President Barack Obama, Tim Kaine, Trans-Pacific Partnership

Democratic_National_Convention_2016_LogoLUMPENPROLETARIAT—The Democratic Party has convened once again to confirm the nomination of their candidate for the presidency of the United States. The 2016 Democratic National Convention (DNC) has begun today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  And it’s pretty much locked in for Hillary Clinton, an imperialist politician who has presided over the overthrow of democratically elected governments as Secretary of State under Obama, promoted fracking all around the world undermining the hopes of environmental activists, and who has apparently worked behind the scenes to steal the Democratic Primary nomination.

The fight for Bernie Sander‘s political revolution seems to have been over before it began.  Although Bernie Sanders has been polling as the more popular candidate, the corporate media machine seems to have decided previously that Bernie Sanders must be sidelined.  And then there was the apparent Democratic Primary rule changes, which favored Clinton, such as in Nevada.  And, then, there was the corruption of the Democratic National Committee, spearheaded by Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  Thanks to WikiLeaks, leaked Democratic National Committee emails proved suspicions that the Democratic National Committee was not honoring its own rules and remaining neutral, but instead was actively working to undermine Bernie Sanders‘ campaign.  As Greg Palast and others have been arguing, the democratic process has been rigged against alternative candidates, such as Bernie Sanders (not to mention alternative political parties and their candidates, such as the Green Party‘s Dr. Jill Stein).

But, perhaps, Bernie Sanders‘ biggest impediment to political success has been his own cowardice, apparently conceding to Hillary Clinton even before Day One of the DNC.  When Sanders met with Obama recently, prior to the DNC, a line in the sand must have been drawn, which Sanders evidently was unwilling to cross, even given his advanced age.  Time, it seems, does not always make one bolder.

Bernie Sanders seems to have already betrayed all of his supporters, including his chief economists from the radical heterodox economics department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Sanders could have informed the American people, for example, how heterodox economic concepts, such as MMT for example, can create a job guarantee programme (aka employer of last resort) capable of effectively ending involuntary unemployment as we know it.  This would help stimulate our economy, reduce poverty, reduce crime and social dysfunction, and easily help Sanders defeat Hillary in the Democratic Primary contest for the presidential nomination.  But Sanders held back.  Sanders gave in.

Free speech radio has provided critical coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention, and will also report from this year’s Green Party National Convention.  Today, free speech radio has faithfully covered Day One of the 2016 Democratic National Convention.  Listen (and/or download) here. [1]

Messina

***

PACIFICA RADIO—[25 JUL 2016]  Bernie Sanders addresses the Democratic National Convention on its opening night.  So does progressive favorite Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Michelle Obama.  Sanders supporters marched in the hot sun ahead of the convention’s opening, chanting protests against the Democratic National Committee and its outgoing chair, Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  The Sanders supporters are angry over the evidence revealed in leaked emails that DNC officials discussed among themselves how to defeat Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries.  Sanders supporters are also unhappy about Hillary Clinton’s choice of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate, calling it an assault on the progressive base of the Democratic Party.  They say Kaine has been wrong on issues ranging from advocating the use of coal, to the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, right to work laws and tax rates for the wealthy.

Learn more at PACIFICA RADIO.

***

[Working draft transcript of actual radio broadcast by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and Pacifica Radio Network.]

PACIFICA RADIO—[25 JUL 2016]  [Up next is the] Democratic National Convention.  [dead air; technical difficulties]  (c. 1:25)

ASKIA MUHAMMED:  “[inaudible]  It’s gonna be a wild session here, the first opening session of the Democratic National Convention.”

MARGARET PRESCOD:  “Well, I think Mother Nature must be cooperating, in a way, with the protestors.  It seems as though there have been a flash flood of protestors—”

ASKIA MUHAMMED:  “Absolutely.”

MARGARET PRESCOD:  “—the last few days, including this very evening where the trains were shut down.”

ASKIA MUHAMMED:  “Absolutely.”

MARGARET PRESCOD:  “Some of the bus stations were shut down.”

ASKIA MUHAMMED:  “Right.  And people have—as a matter of fact, Cornel West and Chris Hedges spoke to one of the events.  Linda Perry Barr reports:  At one point, about 50 demonstrators sat down refusing to move until a Mississippi state flag with the Confederate symbol was removed.  An hour later it was removed.

“This is the kind of action and the power, that’s goin’ on in the streets as well as in the suites here among the deliberating [dead air; technical difficulties]

MARGARET PRESCOD:  “[dead air; technical difficulties]  Askia Muhammed, also a rocky start to say the very least.

“What we’re gonna do now:  We’re gonna give you just a little taste of it.  We’re gonna go now to a clip from The Washington Post about some of the goings on on the floor and around this kick-off of the DNC. [2]

[Audio from Washington Post video clip]  (c. 3:00)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER:  “It all started on Friday.  The emails dropped.  And they were incredibly embarrassing, apparently confirming that Democratic officials had, basically, been trying to help Hillary Clinton throughout the Primary.  By Saturday, Democrats were getting really, really nervous.  The emails were bad.  They made the Party look bad.  And, by Sunday morning, it was clear that she [Debbie Wasserman Schultz] was being pressured to resign, both, from within the campaign and from outside of the campaign, not just from Bernie Sanders supporters.  It ended when the President, himself, called her and asked her to resign.  And that, Democrats told me, is not a very good sign.  You don’t want the President to be the one to fire you, essentially.

“So, here we at the Convention.  She is not resigning at the beginning of the Convention, but at the end.  And, so, she will be a constant presence in Philadelphia [dead air; technical difficulties] installed in her position.  And it’s still going to be a source of tension and friction with the Clinton folks.  They’ve worked for weeks and weeks with Bernie Sanders supporters to try to hammer out some of the dee— [dead air; technical difficulties]

“At the same time, I think a lot of Democrats, and including Clinton Camp officials, that I spoke to, really think that by resolving Debbie Wasserman Schultz before the Convention gavelled in on Monday they have, kind of, put that chapter behind them; and they have the best opportunity to move forward.  The speakers lists are, kind of, designed to showcase the best of the Party, its rising stars, its biggest names, the most popular figures.  And they are hoping that those people, who are more unifying figures will, kind of, undo some of the damage, that they sustained over the last several days.  (c. 4:50)

“The Clinton Camp is talking about the leak as a ploy by the Russians to help Donald Trump.  And part of that is to deflect.  They wanna make this about Trump and not about them.  But part of it is also that they feel like the timing is strategic; it’s intended to hurt them right before the Convention.  They’re trying to do everything they can to not focus on the details of the leak and to deal with individual problems associated with the things, that were said individually, but move on to what they think is the big picture issue, which is that they are fighting a campaign against a Republican opponent, Donald Trump.  And they believe that they need their entire Democratic establishment to get behind them on this.”  (c. 5:38)

MARGARET PRESCOD:  “Okay, so, you heard that report, Askia.  I mean it’s like:  Blame Putin.  (Right?)  Blame the Russians. [chuckles]  

“And if you think that was good, we’ve got another juicy clip coming, that happened on the floor.  But, Askia, what do you think?”  (c. 5:51)

[Pacifica Radio hosts continue discussing the Debbie Wasserman Schultz scandal, involving rigging the Democratic Primary against Bernie Sanders and in favor of Hillary Clinton.]

[(c. 7:40)  Controversy on the Democratic National Convention floor]

[(c. 9:29)  A brief interview with Dr. William K. Black, professor of Law and Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Sadly, this interview did not acknowledge the fact that Professor Black, alongside Dr. Stephanie Kelton (both former UMKC professors of your author), were working as the chief economists for Bernie Sanders, even up through Bernie’s Democratic Primary campaign.  Even more tragic is the fact that this interview did not acknowledge the progressive economic policies promoted by heterodox economists, such as Dr. Kelton and Dr. Black at the UMKC Department of Economics.  The positive side of this interview is that Professor Black was able to discuss his recent article for Consortium News, which exposes Hillary Clinton’s Vice Presidential running mate, Tim Kaine, has been calling for further economic deregulation of the sort, which President Bill Clinton engaged in with his Reinventing Government initiatives, which laid the groundwork in the 1990s for the Global Financial Crisis of the late 2000s.]

[(c.. 18:00)  Bernie Sanders speech is booed by his own supporters when Sanders urges the Sanders Campaign to vote for Hillary Clinton.]

[(c. 23:35)  The Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein]

[SNIP]

[SNIP]  (c. 3:59:59)

Learn more at PACIFICA RADIO.

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow.]

***

[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) (also broadcast simultaneously across the national Pacifica Radio Network) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Special Programming: Democratic National Convention, Day One, this broadcast hosted by Askia Muhammed and Margaret Prescod, Monday, 25 JUL 2016, 17:00 PDT, four-hour broadcast.

[2]  Also see:

  • “Leaked DNC emails show top Democrats writing off Sanders during the primaries”, Washington Post, 24 JUL 2016.

***

[Though the image entitled “Democratic National Convention 2016 Logo” is subject to copyright, its use is covered by U.S. fair use laws, and the stricter requirements of Wikipedia’s non-free content policies, because:  It illustrates an educational article about the entity that the logo represents.
# The DNC logo image is used as the primary means of visual identification of the article topic.
# The DNC logo is a low resolution image, and thus not suitable for production of counterfeit goods, as it has been rendered at a small size and with lower detail since it is a scalable vector image.
# The DNC logo is not used in such a way that a reader would be confused into believing that the article is written or authorized by the owner of the logo.
# The DNC logo is not replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image of comparable educational value.]

[8 AUG 2016]

[Last modified  14:41 PDT  8 AUG 2016]

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Media Roots: Occupy Movement Repression Bears Federal Footprints

20 Sun Nov 2011

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Fascism, Anti-Imperialism, Free Speech, History, Neoliberalism, Police State, Political Science, U.S. History: 20th Century

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Abby Martin (b. 1984), Donkey Hotey, Keith Olbermann (b. 1959), Media Roots, MediaRoots.org, Naomi Wolf (b. 1962), Obama administration, Occupy Movement, Occupy Wall Street, President Barack Obama

obamawavyflickrdonkeyhoteyLUMPENPROLETARIAT—This article was originally published at Media Roots with Abby Martin (y su autor).

Messina

***

MEDIA ROOTS—[20 NOV 2011]

Felipe Messina: On Thursday, November 17, 2011, I spoke with Russia Today TV (RT) about the violent mass arrests by militarised platoons of local police, as they waged a coordinated national campaign to crush the Occupy Movement.  Images of bloodied protesters flashed on the screen, as OWS 99-percenters chanted, “Show me what a police state looks like!  This is what a police state looks like!!”  Even journalists, such as RT’s Lucy Kafanov, caught some NYPD fury against First Amendment freedom of the press.

Yet, Obama is nowhere to be found; his campaign promises withering in the shadow of the absurdity of his future 2012 promises.  The Obama presidency has been a complete disaster thus far, as he has betrayed virtually every promise made on the campaign trail.  Those who wept with joy at his inauguration were likely unaware he was put in office by banksters and Wall Street, or that he’d soon stuff his cabinet with them.  To date, Obama has received more money from the financial sector than any other 2012 presidential candidate combined.

And what about his piddly Jobs Bill?  Did it drown in a Democrat-controlled Senate on a technicality?  Obama’s not trying to sell that noise anymore; not that it was a New Deal for the 21st Century, anyway.  Obama is not, and never will be, an ally of the Occupy Movement.  It is on his watch the U.S. is witnessing the most egregious police state repression against First Amendment activity.

As I mentioned Scott Olsen on RT, left with a fractured skull after being shot by rioting Oakland cops, a man named Brendan Watts was seen around the world bloodied by NYC cops with a fractured skull.  However, at the moment both Obama and Biden are essentially MIA, as police state repression unfolds across the U.S.

In conversation with RT, I pointed out the Federalised character of the coordinated crackdowns against the Occupy Movement.  Oakland Mayor Jean Quan had recently admitted in a radio interview that she was on a teleconference call with many other mayors across the country coordinating their crackdowns against the Occupy Movement.  Once the Federal Government is involved, people can no longer ignore the Obama Administration in this national travesty against the First Amendment.  So much for hope and change, indeed.

On Tuesday (11/15), Mike Ellis of the Minneapolis Examiner reported:

“According to [one Justice Department] official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.”

By Wednesday (11/16), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) worked on damage control claiming worries over Federal involvement in the crackdowns were overblown.  Yet, DHS admitted taking an official role in at least one Portland, Oregon crackdown.  And, of course, this admission may be attributable to the fact that DHS agents of the Federal Protective Service variety were photographed in action at Occupy Portland, Terry Schrunk Plaza, on October 31, 2011.  So, it’s conceivable other DHS agents may have been involved elsewhere.

It’s interesting to note how in Oakland the ostensibly liberal Mayor Quan, initially tried to co-opt Occupy Oakland through photo-ops on October 15 with establishment activists of MoveOn.  But faced with the horizontal principles of the Occupy Movement equalising Quan’s position of authority to genuine cooperation, feeling snubbed or assenting to pressure from above, gave the green light, before conveniently skipping town (in similar fashion to Obama’s trip to the Pacific Rim), to the militarised police state platoon raids and crackdowns.

It’s also striking how celebratory and supportive Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are about democracy movements abroad and yet draconian against grassroots pro-democracy activism toward socioeconomic justice within the U.S.  It’s even more striking how little awareness we’ve had of Federal involvement in the crackdowns against the Occupy Movement.

Last month, Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, was asked by Keith Olbermann about her rights being violated, as she described the Orwellian involvement of Homeland Security in First Amendment repression at OWS’ Liberty Plaza:  “Did the Department of Homeland Security have anything to do with this?”

Naomi Wolf:  “Well, I have no idea if they had anything to do with this phalanx of 30 or 40 police officers surrounding me and my partner, and taking us in when we were peacefully not breaking any laws on the sidewalks.  But I do know that something very disturbing happened after we were put into a police van. We were supposed to be taken to the First Precinct and, that’s the one that governs what happens on Hudson Street where we were arrested.

“But they got a call that the protesters had gone to the First Precinct with the lawyers of the National Lawyers Guild, who were gonna help us and meet us and represent us.  And so they detoured, the police detoured, across town to the Seventh Precinct and misled the protesters about our whereabouts, which is very disturbing.  Because in America, you know, prisoners, even for a little while, are not supposed to be unaccountable.  Disappear.

“Even more disturbing, we learned that, when the protesters arrived at Ericsson Street where the First Precinct is, it was blocked off.  And they said, ‘What’s going on?’  They didn’t let any protesters or lawyers through, but let people in business suits through.  And NYPD said, ‘Homeland Security has frozen Ericsson Street.’

“So, to me as an American, as a New Yorker, this is very big news for reasons I don’t have to explain to you.  A Federal agency can, because two middle-aged, you know, couch-potato intellectuals get arrested for not disobeying the law?  They can freeze a New York City street?”

Keith Olbermann:  “But even if they weren’t freezing it and the name was merely invoked, that’s its own problem.  If a city police department is invoking this shadowy, national entity, that becomes its own threat to the First Amendment and freedom of assembly and all the rest.”

Naomi Wolf:  “Keith, you’re completely right.  And what baffles me is:  Where is The New York Times investigating this?  Where are our local newspapers?  Where is the national newspaper?  Because you block, you let Homeland Security block off, or even say Homeland Security’s blocked off one street, they could cordon off downtown Chicago tomorrow.  And it’s not, like, weapons of mass destruction or a natural disaster.  It’s, you know, two random people standing on the sidewalk being the excuse to close down our civil society.

“So, there’s another really scary thing, if you want me to keep scaring you, but this is scary for all of us.  It’s not; it is not what happened to me and to my partner that is the worrying thing, the thing I’m distressed about.  It’s that people have got to understand that this could happen to absolutely anyone.  For four or five years I’ve been saying, ‘You start with Guantanamo; history shows they start with the other. It gets closer and closer and someday they come for you when you were innocent and you have no recourse.’

“When they were releasing us, the guy said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna let you go this time with a summons.  But if you go down and rejoin your friends, the protesters, and you get arrested, it’ll be a real arrest next time. Here’s the camera.’  He pointed to a camera, ‘It’ll take your photograph. Here’s the fingerprint machine. We’ll take your fingerprints. It’ll go into that database, a Federal database. And it’ll follow you forever.’

“And then I said, ‘But officer, I got arrested tonight when I was obeying the law. How do I avoid getting arrested in the future?’  And he didn’t dispute that I was obeying the law.  He said, ‘Well, the officers decided it was a safety issue.’  And I said, ‘But, then, what prevents any situation from being called a safety issue and trumping the law and how people are obeying the law?’  And he didn’t answer, but referred me to a section of the criminal code.  But that, too, is very scary.”

Keith Olbermann:  “Of course.  We’ve given them the right to make up the law as they go along.”

Naomi Wolf:  “You know, it’s interesting, we haven’t given them, well, we’ve given it to them by sleeping on the job.”

Today, the 99% is waking up to the totalitarian nightmare the Obama Administration is deepening after eight years of the Bush regime shredding the Constitution, preceded by eight years of the Clinton Administration’s neoliberalism and financial deregulation, which laid much of the foundation for the economic collapse we are witnessing today.  Under Obama, we have witnessed similar grotesquely regressive politics, which have defined our national body politic since at least 1981 with Reagan.  Some of my friends will undoubtedly set the marker further back declaring Kennedy the last legitimate U.S. President.  And, of course, few of my Native American friends would accord much legitimacy to any U.S. President.

Up until the ‘70s, when there was still something of a labour shortage and wages still provided some modicum of working-class dignity, so many U.S. citizens didn’t much mind U.S. imperialism, racism, corporate greed, or the U.S. imposing its will around the world.  It hadn’t hit them yet.  But corruption left unchecked eventually comes home to roost.

At some point, the stink of graft in U.S. politics becomes inescapable.  Never mind Citizens United.  That was just the final nail in the coffin.

Take your pick.  Democrat or Republican, one ends up with the same corporate, one-percenter, puppet-masters behind whichever candidate one chooses to head the two-party dictatorship.  And the same applies to Congressional Democrats and Republicans.  It’s time to expand the two-party system to include alternatives.

The real test for the Occupy Movement will be whether or not its supporters can maintain its momentum and integrity long enough to impact the 2012 Presidential Election and usher in a new consciousness capable of toppling the two-party dictatorship with a powerful left party challenge.  Some of my friends will argue, even if that were to happen that third-party would somehow get corrupted.  Well, then, don’t allow that to happen, I’d say.  Stay involved, because the alternative to that would be much more radical.  For those who are, have at it.  But I just don’t see that at this stage of development for the U.S. consciousness.  Before OWS, it was pretty safe to say progressives would either vote for Obama or not vote at all, with less than five percent voting third-party.  But with the mass consciousness-raising effect of the Occupy Movement, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a huge upset may await Obama.  No small wonder, then, why he’d quietly be allowing the nation’s worst police state repression of peaceful First Amendment activity.

I put more faith in the electoral system, provided the people do what nobody is stopping them from doing.  People must vote their conscience rather than for the least worst, as people have done in 2008 and as far back as we can remember.

As the Occupy Movement is teaching us, change won’t just be electoral.  It will come from the 99% taking their destiny into their own hands with horizontalist vigour on the local and national level.

Only then will we see more desirable crackdowns, those on corporate and banker fascism and police state repression itself.

Written by Felipe Messina for Media Roots

Image by flickr user Donkey Hotey

Learn more at MEDIA ROOTS.

***

[25 OCT 2016]

[Last modified 14:25 PDT  25 OCT 2016]

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