People gathered to protest suspicious shootings by the Anaheim, California police and were brutally attacked by police wielding non-lethal weapons which included a dog being sent in at children. There simply comes an obvious time in the life of a civilized nation when the people must stand back and take a very good look at the savages that have been allowed to overrun police departments.
Tag Archives: protest
Egyptian Military Leaders Begin Systematic Beating and Slaughter of Peaceful Protesters
The Egyptian military, which is supported by the United States military, has begun a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters by beating and killing. Recently, they appear to have targeted mainly women, beating them with sticks, stomping on their heads and chests, and dragging them half naked through the streets.
This is the Egyptian military. This is the leadership of Egypt. The revolution of January 2011 has failed. Egypt has sunk into a brutal military dictatorship that has begun to rape, beat and kill all dissenters. I do not believe in peaceful revolution against murderous dictatorships. When confronted with barbaric monsters like the current leadership in Egypt, one must kill or be killed. My advice to Egyptians is to eliminate soldiers wherever you might find them by any means at hand – like the Libyans did. I say that because I’m an American. And nobody on the planet knows how to do a revolution like the Americans do. And the one thing we know about revolution is that when you want to win you put your gun in the other guy’s face and pull the trigger. Peaceful protests are for smirking idiots like the Dalai Lama.
But I do not think Egypt’s revolution will work. There are too many poor uneducated religious people and they will react to freedom with more brutal attacks on women. It is the nature of religious people under pressure to brutalize women. It happens in all places where you find poverty mixed with religion. In fact, it is oppression of women that fundamentally defines all religious behavior. Reading a Bible or a Koran is like reading an instruction manual for the subjugation and enslavement of women. These books are horrific works by deformed men who were terrified that they might not know for sure who really fathered their children. That is about all I have to say on the subject of the very sad and dying nation of Egypt. Arab Spring looks to me like a death march. I am also deeply ashamed of my country’s military association with Egypt. It is a profound embarrassment to all Americans to know that our military officers give advice and money to rapists. Disgusting.
Needless to say, I will not be visiting the fucking pyramids any time soon.
This news video contains disturbing images and shocking violence:
University of California Has Physically Attacked Tuition-Paying Students
University of California at Davis students staging a sit-in have been attacked by school police with massive doses of pepper spray. The use of weapons against tuition-paying students by the university is grounds for removal of any administration officials with knowledge of these tactics. This is disgusting. Students have a long-standing tradition of free expression on their campuses. Sit-ins are a harmless and excellent way for students to express outrage. The pepper-spraying police should at the very least be discharged. There should also be legal charges brought against them.
The spectacle of the university going after its students with weaponry and armored police thugs is simply outrageous. It’s an appalling act of stupidity and cruelty. This school should be hammered with lawsuits and public outrage. While Penn State University allegedly rapes small children, University of California blasts pepper spray into the faces of its kids. What the fuck may I ask is going on in this country? Our higher education system has typically been the only thing giving our country an edge internationally. Now it would seem that even that system is cracking.
It seems clear that every single protester at every protest nationwide should be armed with a canister of pepper spray to use against police. Their faces are vulnerable under the helmet guards. Every single protester with pepper spray. It looks to me like the time for passivity might be ending. There is a tactic that I think could be used against police. It would be the singling out of an individual officer by hundreds of protesters. The surrounding of a single officer might put the police ranks into a very uncomfortable position.
New York City Police Attack and Destroy Occupy Wall Street Encampment
On the orders of New York mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD staged a brazen and unwarranted attack on the Zuccotti Park protesters of Occupy Wall Street late last night, removing and destroying the entire camp. This assault on Occupy Wall Street appears to be a coordinated nationwide effort with police departments in various cities operating in near concert.
New York has been foolish. The police should not have done this.
There are major protest activities approaching this week. The police assaults may be an effort to head things off before any more major statements can be made by the movement. However, it would be my guess that now all the gloves come off. It would not be unreasonable for massive numbers of protesters to shut down the entire Wall Street area. I think now the movement will be justified in the general public opinion when it escalates its actions. My guess is that if it wasn’t yet, Wall Street is about to become ground zero.
It does appear that there is a court order against New York to allow the protesters back into the park with their tents. However, Mayor Bloomberg is ignoring the court’s order.
It is also reported that the police destroyed the protesters’ library of 5,000 books during their raid. Get it? That’s basically a book-burning.
It looks like the police also prevented press coverage of the attack. Network news helicopters were prevented from flying and journalists were roughed up and kept away.
However, it has now become clear that the Zuccotti Park protesters last week surrounded an emergency medical technician to prevent him from taking a mentally ill patient to hospital. The EMT’s leg was broken in the scuffle. That story fits in perfectly with the experience of a Rolling Stone reporter who was surrounded and prevented from interviewing someone. One of those acts is a serious crime committed by the protesters against an emergency worker. The other is an infringement of the right to freely speak with another person. It is also an attempt to prevent a journalist from doing his or her job. I do not support such actions on the part of the protesters. But those are not reasons to destroy their encampments.
Here is Keith Olbermann excoriating mayor Bloomberg for his raging stupidity:
Here’s a television news report about the NYPD raid:
Here’s a live feed from the Zuccotti Park area:
Watch live streaming video from globalrevolution at livestream.com
Saturday November 5 Is Bank Transfer Day
Tomorrow, Saturday November 5, 2011, is Bank Transfer Day. That means that Americans everywhere are moving their money out of big banks and putting them into smaller local banks and credit unions that are FDIC insured. The Occupy Wall Street movement is having serious consequences and is beginning to wake people up to how easy it is to change things when millions decide to act. The big banks have been making life very difficult for many people through absurd fees, rates and indecipherable rules meant to empty pockets. But the problem is actually much more serious than that. Big banks are actually putting lives at risk through illegal foreclosures all across the United States. Masses of people are boiling with anger that is going to reach a critical overload. Moving money out of these banks into credit unions is a common sense approach to smacking big banks. But this event is just a warm-up. What we are practicing for is the eventual ability of the population to move almost overnight to totally destroy a chosen corporation. The ability to do so is almost here and will make itself apparent in very short order. I’m talking about a population that will be able to pick a corporation – say a major auto manufacturer for instance – and totally liquidate that corporation. This will be a weaponized and highly focused form of boycott, but it will be characterized by extremely sudden mass decision-making unlike anything ever seen in history. Get ready for it. Start your warmup tomorrow by moving to a credit union or small local bank.
The Bank Transfer Day Facebook page.
A Salon article about why Bank Transfer Day is only the beginning and the power of social media.
Oakland Police Smash Skull of Iraq War Veteran at Peaceful Protest
MATURE CONTENT – DISTURBING IMAGES AND LANGUAGE
In Oakland, Tuesday evening, police fractured the skull of Occupy Oakland protester Scott Olsen who is an Iraq war veteran. Police apparently fired a projectile at his head. Mr. Olsen is in critical condition.
Oakland is an American city where police will lay a person out on a subway platform and brutally murder them with a bullet through the back. They are now firing deadly projectiles at Occupy Oakland protesters.
The use of projectiles by police against crowds is in fact a use of potentially deadly force and should be defended against as such. Any firing of a projectile toward crowds or individuals must be viewed as potentially deadly. The protesters would now seem to have a legal argument for self defense.
I predict that this protester and his injuries will soon cost the city Oakland tens of millions of dollars in damages.
That’s the thing about this movement. It’s got a lot of very smart and well-educated people involved and they have really powerful attorneys who are going to rip Oakland a great big new asshole.
Oakland police were also filmed firing projectiles at people who went to administer first aid to the seriously injured Olsen. You can see that toward the end of the following video. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quiet like that, but I am very certain that the police officer who fired this projectile at people rendering assistance to an injured person can face serious criminal charges.
Four Reasons to Support Occupy Wall Street
Yes, deregulation of the banking industry has led to absolute chaos and total criminality. It is abundantly obvious. The presidents serving since 1980 have been completely owned by corporate lobbyists, as have all senators, representatives and Supreme Court justices. I have arguments with some of the tactics of Occupy Wall Street, but I think they are very minor compared to the overall message. The separation of government from corporations has become an urgent necessity and does in fact require a mass movement of people across the placid lawns of government. Politicians should be examined for any corporate connections whatsoever and immediately dismissed if they fail the test. Corporations should be checked for any attempts at electoral influence. A Constitutional amendment that declares corporations to be nothing more than legal abstractions and forbids them from influencing the federal government is essential. After all, corporations seek to produce products at the lowest possible cost and currently do so by using concentration camps in China. They would gladly build those concentration camps in the U.S. if it was cost-effective. Such entities cannot be allowed the slightest influence on American politics. We may be forced to totally ban all political contributions that do not come directly from an individual person.
Is Occupy Wall Street Encouraging Bigotry?
Does anyone pay attention to what is being said when this ‘1%’ thing is thrown around?
Here’s a direct quote from the OccupyWallSt.org About page and must therefore be the definitive statement of the movement’s intentions:
‘The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future.’
If you replace ‘richest 1% of people’ with different words like ‘Muslims’ or ‘Jews’ or ‘Whites’ or ‘Blacks’ or ‘Poor People,’ wouldn’t you have a serious problem?
Why is it that Occupy Wall Street can define a 1% minority out of a population and engage in open hostility and bigotry toward them? Bigotry against a part of a population is bigotry no matter what the rationale for it happens to be. Occupy Wall Street is not talking about corrupt rich people. It is not talking about criminals. It is talking about ALL rich people. It is equating wealth with villainy.
It should be obvious that not all of the richest people are in fact helping to write unfair rules. Michael Moore is rich. Is he writing some of the unfair rules?
Why is Occupy Wall Street unable to confine its hostility to actual policy?
In Germany, during the buildup of Nazism, people grew increasingly angry toward the wealthy and then turned that anger toward Jewish people. Angry crowds, encouraged to chant mantras and direct hostility toward groups that they define as evil become extremely dangerous when exposed to a charismatic leader who is willing to exploit them.
I do not oppose constructive change of policy to make the economic situation more fair and to prevent the corporate control of government. But I do oppose the fundamental and defining aspect of Occupy Wall Street which is to associate a particular group of people with a generic and unspecified evil.
Musician and Activist Tom Morello Talks to Press About Occupy Wall Street
Former Rage Against the Machine member, Tom Morello, who has been playing for and talking to Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Los Angeles, speaks with reporters about what is going on with this explosive movement.
And here is a repost of my film, ‘One Day Occupy L.A.,’ which features an incredible live soundtrack of Morello playing for the protest in Los Angeles just this week.
Right Here All Over (Occupy Wall Street): A Film by Alex Mallis
This film shows how the protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement organize themselves in lower Manhattan. They seem to be forming something like a little community with food services, minor first aid, a library, battery charging and even video editing services for all the people covering the action. These people are working hard and have an uncommon seriousness about them. This is something new. These are mainly young people. They are waking up from iPod oblivion and showing the world that they can make a difference in a democracy decayed by a corporate stranglehold over the government. These are people who can see that corporate management structures have totally occupied and taken over the United States government all the way up to and including its Supreme Court. In fact, there is no other way to dismantle this criminal structure. It can only be broken up by massive groups of angry protesters who simply never stop coming.
The film was shot and edited by Alex Mallis.
Here’s a simple and clear opinion piece about the reform movement represented by Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy Wall Street Protest Video by Django’s Ghost
Django’s Ghost has posted a stirring and rather enthralling video compilation of the ongoing and exploding phenomenon known as Occupy Wall Street. The film is set to several rock & roll protest songs and it gets across the feelings of rising anger and the public’s growing awareness that it can in fact stop the corporate takeover of the United States.
The protesters seem to me to be a rather intelligent and well-behaved crowd. Some of the New York police however appear to be overeager. Cops always end up on the wrong side of these things. They never get it right. Many of them seem to be pretty easy-going, but there are always the brutes that come stomping in and make a mess of things.
I love the way the crowd is so heavily armed with photographic equipment. The protesters are their own journalists!
This movement is spreading quickly. It’s come to Los Angeles at City Hall and is springing up in other cities as well. People are angry about the corporate takeover of their country and their Supreme Court. Losing a President to corporate interests is one thing. That is rather expected. Obama jerked us all around and then turned into a cheeseball from General Motors. But when our Supreme Court gets bought out and turns into a boardroom… well, that is a terrifying problem. That is just about the end of the line. A democracy cannot survive the corruption of the judicial branch.
Thanks to Marc Campbell at Dangerous Minds.
Beauty and Love Are Another Song – Song About the Youth Uprising in England
Michel Montecrossa’s latest video examines the desperation behind the rioting in Great Britain. His direct and heartfelt approach works to cut through all the recent bullshit about the rioters being simple thugs with nothing more on their minds than robbery and destruction. Riots are open wounds that erupt after enormous damage has already been done to a population. The seething pressure is always there for a long time before exploding in everyone’s faces. By definition, riots involve damage and robbery. What else would there be to do at a riot? Riots are anger and desperate hopelessness that cannot be controlled. Yes, of course one must punish people who burn down buildings. But one must also have the intellect and social responsibility to seriously look at why children and adults would feel so awful that the only thing they can think of doing is burning down a city. That is serious rebellion and it is going to spread. The world is under incredible economic pressure and the people who suffer understand that governments tied to extreme wealth and corporate interests are responsible. Populations are going off like bombs. The uprisings in the Middle East are directly connected to the uprisings London because both groups of people have become aware that the same corporations control what happens in both places. The dictators and authoritarian regimes in the Middle East are kept there because they provide certain corporations with efficiency in the region. Assad is exterminating people in Syria because it is convenient for Western companies and politicians that he do so. The Western governments have wanted globalization and now they’ve got it. Globalization of uprisings and riots. One must remember that the riots in Great Britain were started by a policeman who killed a young man. A policeman who chose, just like the policemen in Syria, to point his gun and fire a bullet into the body of a human being. A violent reaction to such an act should be expected in most cases.
Talkin’ World Awakening – New Topical Song For Greece, Freedom and All People Sacked by Banka-Gangstas
German musician and filmmaker Michel Montecrossa sings a song of rage and protest aimed at banks and their governments who seek to eliminate entire populations in favor of a very small group of super-wealthy. The first decades of the 21st century are proving not to be about some ridiculous war on terror, but instead they are seeing the beginning of a conflict between large corporate interests and enormous populations. The uprisings in the Middle East have nothing to do with the dictators there. Those uprisings are against the corporations that do business with the dictators.
I like Mr. Montecrossa’s hard and direct approach. He is a wild man and he’s making some very interesting things. I posted earlier about his ‘Resurrection’ movie.
Facebook Appears to Delete Photos and Pages Related to Gay Men Kissing
If this photo upsets you or offends you, then kiss my ass. Facebook appears to have deleted a page set up to organize a protest over two gay men who were thrown out of a British pub for kissing at their table. (Update: It turns out that the protest organizer made the page private. But it still looks as though Facebook removed some other posts and pics related to this issue.) Over the course of my life I have observed many men and women kissing in restaurants, bars, taxis, airplanes, streets, theaters, Ferris wheels, boats, beaches and on television. It’s a simple act of affection that is practiced by all cultures worldwide.
If a man and a woman feel something for one another, they kiss. If two men feel something for one another, they kiss. If two women feel something for one another, they kiss.
Facebook doesn’t seem to see it that way. They appear to consider it offensive. Objectionable. Perverse.
This is what’s wrong behind the scenes with corporate control of major communications tools. You get some unevolved, intellectually limited, vapid, sexually repressed jackasses running the show and suddenly no one is really allowed to communicate freely anymore. This is a sure indicator that we need to move off of services like Facebook and into fully open-source social networking tools.
Mark Zuckerberg may be one of these mental midgets (Don’t be fooled by the movie. It doesn’t take much to code Facebook really. It’s just MySpace with a white background.) with problems in the sexual arena. Those dull watery eyes might be a dead giveaway. At any rate, he presides over a company that is apparently banning photos of men kissing while fully clothed.
Candlelight Stories supports the rights of all gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual persons. Those rights include the right to kiss and the right to marry and the right to carry on in any way they see fit.
It does not escape me that some of Candlelight’s slower readers will find this post surprising and perhaps offensive. To those readers I say, get the hell out of here, take your kids with you and don’t let the door hit your expanding ass on the way out. I don’t publish for you. Never have. Never will. I consider you monkey people. Unattractive, limp, unschooled, unappealing and quite frankly disgusting. If you were to read another word of my writing, I think I would vomit.
For those others of you who understand that we all have the same right to kiss, go onto Facebook and share this photo.
Three Big Pigs – A Middle East Revolution Animation
Egor Zhgun presents a cartoon news report on the revolutions rocking the Middle East. Some of these revolutions, though coming from noble intentions, are failing miserably. Egypt has rid itself of a dictator only to be taken over by a barbaric military that conducts organized rape and torture of men and women who seek to engage in any further protests. Egypt is now a military dictatorship. It is sheer stupidity to believe otherwise. I won’t go visit the pyramids any time soon because I don’t want to be raped by Egyptian soldiers.