Vlad Teichberg of Global Revolution

Vlad Teichberg of Occupy Wal Street discusses the police raid and continued police harassment on the studios of Global Revolution in Bushwick.

Slavoj Žižek on Climate Change Denial

Excerpt from an interview about Slavoj Žižek's book Living In The End Times. In this part Slavoj Žižek discusses the psychology of climate change denial - not in the sense of denying the evidence, but in not acting on the knowledge of an imminent emergency, and the systemic misidentification of what needs to be done as well as how urgent environmental threats are considered in general.

Office for democracy established in U.S. State Department

File under 'Irony'. RIA Novosti reports:

The U.S. State Department on Thursday established the Office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.

Maria Otero, under secretary for civilian security, democracy, and human rights, will lead the office.

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Vermin Supreme - A Pragmatic Anarchist for President

On C-Span I was watched the lesser known candidates in the New Hampshire Presidential Primaries. For the most part the lesser known candidates offered the same boring garbage as the better known candidates. The only difference was that their performances weren't polished. However, there was one very notable exception in both regards...Vermin Supreme.

Vermin Supreme offered blatant garbage in a very polished fashion. What do I mean by blatant garbage? In my post on a taxpayer division of labor I discussed how Roger Koppl's ONE political lesson was that politicians tend to signal goodness rather than actually doing anything good. Unlike all the other candidates...Mr. Supreme signaled badness..."I offer lies for less".

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French Political Scientist Advocates Sortition

From the Kleroterian blog:

The English version of the French web site “Books and Ideas” has an interview with Loïc Blondiaux about the increasingly apparent undemocratic nature of traditional electoral democracy.

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Occupy Geriatrics: Seniors in Walkers Shut Down Local Bank of America

What some healthy and spry Occupy Movements across the nation couldn't quite accomplish, San Francisco geriatrics have!

KCBS reports that a small group of senior citizens between the ages of 69 and 82 successfully shut down a Bank of America in Bernal Heights on Thursday with nothing more than walkers and oxygen tanks. That's right: No shouting, chanting, tear gas, or window-smashing.

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Police arrest journalists at Occupy Wall Street protests

Demonstrators allege that Mayor Bloomberg has specifically cracked down on reporters covering Occupy by refusing to recognize credentials blocking access and physically intimidating them.

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The REAL Reason the U.S. Wants to Attack Iran

Unocal proposed building the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline to congress in 1998 to provide oil and natural gas to several Asian markets. Regardless of their stated intentions, they had to pull the ruling Taliban away from agreements they had with the Bridas Corp to convince them to sign on with Unocal instead (which eventually got backing from the US government). Enter Iran as the new kid on the block. They offered a pipeline to cross the southern part of Pakistan which would cover less harsh territory and cause far fewer tribal disputes over pumping oil and gas to India and Pakistan. Do you see a potential conflict here?

Pepper-Spray Creator Decries Use of Chemical Agent on Peaceful Occupy Wall Street Protesters

Democracy Now! speaks with Kamran Loghman, the expert who developed weapons-grade pepper-spray, who says he was shocked at how police have used the chemical agent on non-violent Occupy Wall Street protesters nationwide -- including students at University of California, Davis, female protesters in New York City, and an 84-year old activist in Seattle. "I saw it and the first thing that came to my mind wasn't police or students, it was my own children sitting down having an opinion and they're being shot and forced by chemical agents," says Loghman, who in the 1980s helped the FBI develop weapons-grade pepper -spray, and collaborated with police departments to develop guidelines for its use. "The use was just absolutely out of the ordinary and it was not in accordance with any training or policy of any department that I know of. I personally certified 4,000 police officers in the early '80s and '90s and I have never seen this before. That's why I was shocked... I feel is my civic duty to explain to the public that this is not what pepper spray was developed for."

Full transcript

Stopping a Movement While Saving Its Art

Marissa Gluck writes for The Atlantic Cities:

Though the history of Occupy Wall Street is still being written, some of the movement's artwork is already receiving attention from preservationists.

While there are multiple efforts to organize local gallery shows for the tent cities' protest art, Los Angeles is taking the unusual step of organizing a preservation process for a major mural created in its encampment. It is the first major city to do so.

The massive four-sided mural, painted on plywood erected to protect a park fountain from vandalism, is awaiting a caretaker after the Department of Cultural Affairs removed it under the watchful eye of a conservator. The mural isn’t just a visual depiction of the protesters’ perspective. Its physical creation echoes the movement as well, with multiple anonymous artists contributing to the work.

One side of the mural depicts the Federal Reserve as a monstrous octopus, ravenously grabbing cash from foreclosed homes, while exhorting viewers to "Take the Power Back."

The other sides are a hodge-podge of protest images, icons and graffiti, recalling the vibrant murals and chaotic street art of Los Angeles’ urban sprawl. "It’s site specific to L.A.," says Carol Wells, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. "It documents L.A.’s part in an international movement."

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Sam Greenlee’s debut novel drew up the blueprint for Black nationalization

From The Revolution by Cherryl Aldave:

Over forty years later, Sam Greenlee’s debut novel still kicks ass. The tome often dubbed “the first Black nationalist novel” was birthed in 1968 in the middle of a quasi writers’ workshop/smoke session between Greenlee and writers Jim Creighton and Mel Clay.

“We were sipping Greek cognac and smoking a joint,” recalls Greenlee, “and I told Mel the idea of this book called The Nigger Who Sat by the Door, and he said, ‘Man…you got to do this! It’s timely and has to be done now.’ ” Being that Greek weed is good—and I mean really good—Greenlee completed the manuscript in just four months on the Greek island of Mykonos. The book, ultimately titled The Spook Who Sat by the Door, was hailed as an insurrectionist blueprint for uprooting oppressive governments from the inside out.

Spook is loosely based on Greenlee’s job as one. Not the spy kind though. In the 1950s, America ushered in a plethora of Black firsts, dually achieved through African Americans’ formidable efforts to fracture the American caste system as well as through more spurious reasons. To avoid lawsuits from claims of racist hiring practices, civil rights–era businesses often employed African Americans to prop near entryways in a preemptive move meant to thwart discrimination claims. They were, in effect, spooks—one of many derogatory terms used by mid-century Whites to refer to African Americans—who sat by the door.

Greenlee’s own “prop” job was as one of the first African American officers in the United States Information Agency; he served as a cog in the wartime propaganda machine under the leadership of Edward R. Murrow. Between 1957 and 1965, Greenlee held assignments in Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Greece.

Tired of a being a token liar for hire, Greenlee left the USIA in 1965, settling in Greece, where his weekly writers’ meetings would result in the creation of the spookiest spook of all. Spook’s protagonist made Whites so nervous that no American publisher would touch it. The novel was finally published in 1969 on the U.K. imprint Allison & Busby, with Greenlee and Clay later collaborating on its screenplay.

In 1969, the United States saw riots destroying cities from coast to coast. Against this backdrop of Black rage and white bombs exploding on America’s streets, Spook’s central character Dan Freeman was charming, calculating, and cool as a Lester Young solo, flipping tables on the Man’s establishment without so much as mussing a hair on his Afroed head. Freeman felt the energy African Americans put into rioting should have been utilized in a more organized manner. Spook lays out what might have happened if it had.

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!WOMEN ART REVOLUTION official trailer

An entertaining and revelatory "secret history" of Feminist Art, !Women Art Revolution deftly illuminates this under-explored movement through conversations, observations, archival footage and works of visionary artists, historians, curators and critics. Starting from its roots in 1960s antiwar and civil rights protests, the film details major developments in women's art through the 1970s and explores how the tenacity and courage of these pioneering artists resulted in what is now widely regarded as the most significant art movement of the late 20th century.

For more than forty years, filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson (Teknolust, Strange Culture) has collected a plethora of interviews with her contemporaries—and shaped them into an intimate portrayal of their fight to break down barriers facing women both in the art world and society at large. With a rousing score by Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein, !W.A.R. features Miranda July, The Guerilla Girls, Yvonne Rainer, Judy Chicago, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, B. Ruby Rich, Ingrid Sischy, Carolee Schneemann, Miriam Schapiro, Marcia Tucker and countless other groundbreaking figures.

Secret Garden - Nocturne& Vangelis...Symbols of Freedom - Kurdish Guerrilla Girls

The PKK Kurdish Women Freedom Fighters of Kurdistan . Kürt Özgürlük Savaşçıları
http://www.freedom-for-ocalan.com/

'Mauritania busts Israeli spy network'

Mauritania has reportedly exposed an Israeli spy network consisting of 'international activists and Arab businessmen,' which operated in different countries across the globe.

The revelation came, when local police officers in the West African country arrested a member of the network for robbery, Lebanese broadcaster Al-Manar reported on Wednesday, citing Mauritanian sources.

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Cancer Causing Monkey Viruses Link to Oswald, JFK Murder with Author Edward Haslam

January 5, 2012 edition of the Infowars Nightly News: Alex Jones interviews Edward Haslam, author of Dr. Mary's Monkey, which sheds light on a fascinating angle of the JFK assassination that shows links between accused patsy Lee Harvey Oswald and covert cancer research conducted by the CIA in attempt to weaponize disease that was taking place behind the scenes in the New Orleans area. Tangled in the story are Oswald's reputed mistress, Judyth Vary Baker, alleged-co-conspirator David Ferrie, who first met Oswald in the Civil Air Patrol, and Dr. Mary Sherman, a physician at the Ochsner Clinic.
http://doctormarysmonkey.com/
http://www.prisonplanet.tv/

FBI targeting political activists as terrorists

Anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists, peace, animal and political activists who hold different views than the government.

It was recently revealed that a counter-terrorism firm spied on individuals who attended film screenings of the documentary Gasland. The film focuses on the practice of natural gas fracking and what impact it has on the environment and in the communities where it is used.

The FBI and other government agencies are cracking down on those who are not willing to stay in line with the status quo.

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'Barthes and Me' - Irish writer Brian Dillon Interviewed about his books

From the podcast of the RTE radio program 'Arts Tonight' 21.03.11

Libyan pulls out of torture inquiry

The military commander of the Libyan rebels who claims Britain was involved in his rendition and torture has pulled out of the Detainee Inquiry amid claims its powers are "seriously deficient".

Abdul Hakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council, will join several former Guantanamo Bay detainees who are also pulling out of the inquiry into wider allegations of British collusion in torture, his lawyers Leigh Day & Co said.

It comes as campaigners wrote to the Prime Minister, warning him that the inquiry will not be able to ensure such abuses never happen again without substantial changes.

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Musical Innerlube: Transglobal Underground, Jimmy Cliff

Transglobal Underground - We Come To Tear Your Wall Down


Jimmy Cliff feat. Tim Armstrong (Rancid) - Guns of Brixton - [August 2011]

Egypt's Revolutionary Poetry

Protesters throughout the Middle East are using famous poetry as subversive chants against the government. Josh Dzieza on countries where verse still has power—and the Pete Seeger of Egypt.

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Yiddish-Anarchist song "In ale gasn/Hey, hey, daloy politsey!"("Down with the Police")