Disclaimer: This site is *not* affiliated with AIPAC, Ahmed Chalabi, K Street, ClearChannel, or Urban Moving Systems of Weehawken, NJ. In case you were curious. Full disclosure: I have some shares of Apple and therefore I have an Apple bias. Yum. Also got a tiny bit of gold!
Got a batch of videos here from the last week to check out. Glad to have a little chance to bring these interesting projects, including Idle No More MN & the Enbridge Blockade near Leonard MN (also known as the encampment) going strong since late February. All these videos are basically unedited and you can remix them as Creative Commons at your leisure!
Really fascinating interview, unedited, with Indigenous Environmental Network longtime organizer Tom Goldtooth inside the kitchen tent at the Enbridge Blockade/encampment near Leonard MN. Covers capitalism, colonialism, Indigenous organizing and tar sands resistance. Thanks Tom!
Interview with Tito Ybarra, camped at Enbridge Encampment/blockade at Leonard MN. A popular native comedian has been bottomlining the camp protesting above several pipelines operated by Enbridge without an easement on Red Lake ceded land. Covers humor in politics, organizing the camp & more.
Canadian citizens barred from access to their Consulate in downtown Minneapolis as IdleNoMore protesters try to register their concerns with the Canadian govt.
This is related to a major Idle No More symposium happening Friday Mar 21st
UPDATE 3PM SUNDAY: Here's the video I livestreamed at the protest today. Bambuser link: http://bambuser.com/v/3363747 Pretty fun and good champs in the snow amirite?
Youtube version may finish processing this year?
A heads-up for lulzcats in the Minnesnowta region: Minnesota Anonymous people have filed a permit to protest at the Church of Scientology "Ideal Org" at Wabasha & Exchange Streets, (the old Science Museum of MN building) starting at 10:30AM roughly, marking five years of Chanology, the large-scale protests which brought the old era of abusive Scientology schemes to a close. I will probably livestream from some part of this at http://bambuser.com/channel/hongpong & keep an eye on http://twitter.com/hongpong for updates otherwise.
Also given the expected snowy weather tomorrow, the exception to "CONCEALING IDENTITY" in Minnesota Statute may clearly apply:
A person whose identity is concealed by the person in a public place by means of a robe, mask, or other disguise, unless based on religious beliefs, or incidental to amusement, entertainment, protection from weather, or medical treatment, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
The St. Paul City Council voted to allow a planned "dance protest" outside of the Church of Scientology in downtown St. Paul, but limited a requested noise variance to a single hour.
Members of Minnesota Anonymous had applied for a noise variance from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 10. The group's application listed vuvuzelas, the type of horns used at sporting events, and speakers among their instruments.
"Free speech is one thing, and a total disruption of people's lives is another," said St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune. "They're free, of course, to picket, carry signs, at various times."
Before the vote, Nancy Schumacher, a public affairs director for the Church of Scientology, told the council that a noisy protest would disrupt Sunday services, church courses and residential neighbors.
"The intent of the group is to actually harass and intimidate church members, and we're hoping you will vote against it," she said.
No one representing Minnesota Anonymous spoke at the hearing.
Here is my commentary on this ugly fake religion on PP:
It was a sad travesty when the once proud, educational and even fun Science Museum of Minnesota building of my youth got taken over by this nasty, greedy little corporate cult which is partially based on the intrinsically selfish & maniacal teachings of Hubbard's personal hero & organizer of Satanic sects, Aleister Crowley. It turns the principles of the Enlightenment on its head to have such 'black disinformation' spammed out into the larger community.
I have met people whose family lives have been ruined, through no choices of their own, because of Scientology's classic cult strategy of dominating and splitting families, requiring years of deprogramming simply to obtain a normal life once more. That type of abuse certainly suffices to justify protesting this corporatist, 'intellectual property' hoarding knockoff cult. Also they kill people through brainwashing at their front organizations such as "Narconon Arrowhead" in Oklahoma. I'm not a "member of Anonymous" but I can agree this travesty of a site offends me as much as anything in the Cities.
After some months, the Minneapolis Police Department released dozens of pages about Occupy Minnesota / Occupy Minneapolis and several high-profile operations, particularly the eviction of protesters from 4044 Cedar Ave. This data was released from the Department late yesterday afternoon.
Interestingly the suppression of the civil disobedience at 4044 Cedar fell under the rubric of the MPD Special Operations Division / Homeland Security Unit. Further data requests to this unit could be interesting, including federal grants applied for similar suppression activities in the name of "Homeland Security."
This email related to the "Emerging Issues" PDF from Nevada below (see the attachments field).
One interesting feature: the coordination between the MPD and the Downtown Improvement District (DiD) which is aligned & serves the purposes of the downtown property owners (as opposed to homeless, indigent people downtown etc). DiD, while seen as a semi-public entity, is privately directed and is not an openly participatory structure. DiD has a central office that coordinates over a digital radio system with the downtown First Precinct and corporate building security officers including during protests.
The other major item of wider interest is a sketchy Nevada operation partially merged with the Los Vegas Police Department. It was use as "a lot going on" from Darrel Stephens@carolina.rr.com whoever that is...
"Emerging Issues in the Occupy Movement" from the Major Cities Intelligence Commanders Group (MCC ICG Sub-Committee)and the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Center (SNCTC) is really a classic chestnut. The email addresses to LVMPD.com seem to be an official domain of Las Vegas law enforcement, not a private organization. I don't recall seeing this Occupy-related writing from this organization circulate elsewhere. If so, we have a new taxpayer-supported 'node' generating more hype in the "counterterror" national political activist monitoring network.
Fortunately the "LAW ENFORCEMENT ONLY - DO NOT DISSEMINATE" pseudo-classification does not really have much if any actionable meaning under the Minnesota Data Practices Act, though we can surely expect proposals to create tons of secret data piles under loosey-goosey unnecessary pseudo-secrecy at the Minnesota Legislature this session. Follow @richneumeister for sharp updates on that whole front for sure!
City of Minneapolis Application to IPAD requesting classification of all ALPR data as not public. It's worth an entirely separate post, but basically here the City of Mpls argues that the ALPR license plate reader should be classified by the State of Minnesota Dept of Administration's "IPAD" division as confidential, because IPAD classified data from an entirely different tracking project, the MnDOT IntelliDrive / Mileage Based User Fee (MBUF) system, is also dangerously specific data which easily indicates when homes are vacant due to daily traffic patterns, etc. So the argument from the city is that the data is dangerous: ALPR is dangerous, MBUF is dangerous, therefore should be classified -- but still collected of course!
There does not seem to be very much other personal data of regular people, besides one page of mugshots of arrestees with their birthdays. However I do not have the time to parse more carefully & if this acts as an intrusion to anyone in the public I apologize in advance. IN theory, what the state defines as private personal data should not be released on this kind of material. Lacking a handy secure redaction tool for PDFs, I deleted page 99 from part 1 in this release..
Here is the Data Practices Act official response email which accompanied this. If the requestor wishes to have their name added back onto this I will do that, just took it off by default.
We received your check today and I’ve attached the data you requested regarding Occupy MN. There are 259 pages. Again, we apologize for the delay in getting this to you.
This electronic message may contain investigative data which is non-public pursuant to Minnesota Statutes section 13.82 subdivision 7, or personnel data which is non-public pursuant to Minnesota Statutes section 13.43 subdivision 4. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail: (1) do not read the content of the message; (2) immediately notify the sender that you incorrectly received the message; and (3) do not disseminate, distribute, or copy this e-mail.
Many hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more, Natives and supporters joined up at the Mall of America on Dec. 29 in sympathy with those struggling against the Canadian government. Burned sage wafted out into the crowd as echoes of drums & cheers throbbed off the walls. Reportedly, many were in extra high spirits later Saturday at the Minneapolis American Indian Center New Year's Powwow gathering, as so many indigenous people have mobilized so quickly across international borders in just recent days.
This went off way easier than some expected. I heard secondhand something like that management had offered the rotunda - or at least, more like there was an understanding that there would not be arrests. Earlier someone said that a VP for Operations had called and threatened arrests a little while after the event was first suggested, so in any case MOA management didn't want arrests to happen it appears. The rotunda which was full of Xmas stuff, and instead everyone headed for the large space on the Northeast corner in front of Sears.
(Another likely factor: I heard from one person that MOA owners are still trying to get in on a casino, so they had a fiscal incentive to work something out & not get the MN tribes angry. There have been casino plans near the Mall site previously, years ago Caesar's spent lots of money in Minnesota lobbying for this, & the dream of raking cash from Japanese tourists continues...)
It was really nice to be able to livestream this to GlobalRevolution.tv and a wider audience. A Best Buy ad placard overhead declared "The Next Big Thing" which seemed quite appropriate!
Main video: Not great audio at the high levels, but good interviews I think. Please remix - Creative Commons!
Shorter clip shot by a friend:
Additionally a friend sent video of a pretty sketchy guy that admitted to being a corporate videographer, though he did not say for where. Here are the 2x clips of this guy:
All these videos are licensed Creative Commons - with attribution. So please remix!
If you see this guy taping your events - well watch out for him!
This guy reminded me of earlier work on the weird Mall of America shady intelligence operations & Suspicious Activity Reports, which I and some other colleagues with TC Indymedia discovered a few months before PBS made a big deal out of it. Here is the video that I shot in late 2010 about this:
On Wednesday, Dec 19th, indigenous and allies launched the first protest in the United States in solidarity with their kin further north in what is known today as Canada. Prime Minister Harper basically decreed a bunch of lakes critical to indigenous survival are no longer environmentally protected, which clears the way to their destruction at the hands of the tar sands-oriented petrochemical industry.
According to Robert DesJarlait (talking in the first video) the US/Canadian border is becoming more restricted for natives/shut down right now & border protests have been called as well.
Unedited / Creative Commons with attribution to HongPong or Dan Feidt. Unfortunately was not able to livestream it - either maple syrup-powered EMP cannons or the relatively mild cold interfered with power levels. Technology not cooperating with me lately - not easy to edit FlipCam clips either :-/ I have not videotaped any protests in quite a while & this one was really inspiring, I was lucky to be involved in any way.
Later in the day at the American Indian Center I also saw representatives from Red Lake reservation leaving for the site of the school shooting in Connecticut in solidarity with those victims, since Red Lake had its own disastrous school shooting in 2005.
I wish our indigenous brothers and sisters the best of luck struggling against the power structures in both these nationstates which are determined to strip them of dignity and the means to survive autonomously in harmony with nature.
On Friday the Day of Action for Idle No More will be starting - where else? in Egypt! Idle No More day of action Friday will begin in Egypt | APTN National News. Drum circles for noon Mountain time zone have been called so I believe there will be a protest at 1PM around Minnehaha Park/Coldwater Springs though I am not sure of where exactly.
I like this one - it's 18 minutes totally unedited, the last song and going up in the elevator to the Consulate & most of that time in there. Watch Harper's Canadian consular staff lurk behind their thick walls & bulletproof glass, taking cell pics and dipping!
Here are a few pics, one I found and the two from Weds. posted by Robert DesJarlait. They overflow my blog border but you can right-click to save them!
Worth throwing up there as an example of how to keep perspective when they try to throw the book at you. Things like this crystallize the hypocrisy of conspiracy charges, cyber-fear-blather, terrorism and of course the laundering of drug money through the banking system. Till the walls tumble, Jeremy...
23 July 2012 - Statement from Jeremy Hammond, alleged Anonymous hacker -
Thanks for everybody coming out in support! It is so good to know folks on the street got my back. Special thanks to those who have been sending books and letters, and to my amazing lawyers.
I remember maybe a few months before I was locked up I went to a few noise demonstrations a the federal jail MCC Chicago in support of all those locked up there. Prisoners moved in front of the windows, turned the lights on and off, and dropped playing cards through the cracks in the windows. I had no idea I would soon be in that same jail facing multiple trumped up computer hacking “conspiracies.”
Now at New York MCC, the other day I was playing chess when another prisoner excitedly cam e up as was like, “Yo, there are like 50 people outside the window and they are carrying banners with your name!” Sure enough, there you all were with lights, banners, and bucket drums just below our 11th floor window. Though you may not have been able to here us or see us, over one hundred of us in this unit saw you all and wanted to know who those people were, what they were about, rejuvenated knowing people on the outside got there back.
As prisoners in this police state – over 2.5 million of us – we are silenced, marginalized, exploited, forgotten, and dehumanized. First we are judged and sentenced by the “justice” system, then treated as second class citizens by mainstream society. But even the warden of MCC New York has in surprising honesty admitted that “the only difference between us officers here and you prisoners is we just haven’t been caught.”
The call us robbers and fraudsters when the big banks get billion dollar bailouts and kick us out of our homes.
They call us gun runners and drug dealers when pharmaceutical corporations and defense contractors profit from trafficking armaments and drugs on a far greater scale.
They call us “terrorists” when NATO and the US military murder millions of innocents around the world and employ drones and torture tactics.
And they call us cyber criminals when they themselves develop viruses to spy on and wage war against infrastructure and populations in other countries.
Yes, I am one of several dozen around the world accused of Anonymous-affiliated computer hacking charges.
One of many here at MCCC New York facing trumped up “conspiracy” charges based on the cooperation of government informants who will say anything and sell out anyone to save themselves.
And this jail is one of several thousand other jails, prisons, and immigrant detention centers – lockups which one day will be reduced to rubble and grass will grow between the cracks of the concrete.
So don’t let fear of imprisonment deter you from speaking up and fighting back. Silencing our movement is exactly what they hope to accomplish with these targeted, politically motivated prosecutions. They can try to stop a few of us but they can never stop us all.
This post is a spinoff of a larger, incomplete project. Hopefully, it can be completed! :D
Having more time on my hands than I expected lately, I've been scouring the interwebs for everything I can find about the ongoing debates around militant direct action, protest tactics, the nebulous fate and hodgepodgy status of the Occupy Wall Street movement across North America -- along with related movements such as the Quebec uprising.
My whole inquiry really got rolling after reading a relatively ridiculous writeup on the ugly interval at the Chicago NATO summit by some guy from US Uncut, Carl Gibson: Cut It Out: An Open Letter to Black Bloc Anarchists, who made some generalizations based upon "According to those who were there... By starting confrontations with riot police during the ceremony.... All you did was attract more riot police to an otherwise peaceful event, leading to kettlings, beatings and arrests. Way to go. [....] Nobody asked you to be the self-appointed 'Defenders of Dissent' at our actions. Nobody asked you to give us lessons in how to be 'real activists.' If you want to join the movement, join the movement."
It certainly appeared from my remote vantage point that the event was kettled on three sides from the get-go and the Chicago PD started beating the shit out of people with batons without any substantial aggressive acts on the part of the bloc types.
Obviously Carl's reasoning justifies the ol' state violence beat-down without actually proving his point at all -- free form demonization. And the usual boundary-patrolling of who gets to "join the movement" is an eye-roller considering that OWS was at its core obviously a wild-eyed project mostly launched by capital-A Anarchists in the first place.
And of course, Carl buys into the silly notion the opportunistic Chris Hedges maliciously dumped into the mix in January, which is that the black bloc is some discrete sub-group like Blue Dog Democrats or the Congressional Black Caucus, not an anonymized mode of protest utilized by rank-and-file Occupy regulars & others, with a history stretching back at least as far as that iconic colonial Tea Party incident.
Having myself been loosely around the scene which gave rise to the 2008 Republican National Convention St. Paul Principles that then gave OWS that complex three-word phrase "diversity of tactics," I feel like the whole thing is almost old news. It's all quite a bit bigger than black bloc, after all. The late great Walker Church, the RNC8 Defense Committee, the whole debate which once seemed bounded by the Twin Cities barged out into North America to wig out perhaps thousands of people!
I don't feel like laying out all the major points floating around right now, but in the process of pulling links I started pulling the more relevant points and counter-points from the Adbusters piece on MayDay, which had, let's say a number of issues.
It seems like Adbusters wasn't accurate about how things in NYC went down that day (though I wasn't there myself). It also fails to really inform readers about more aggressive & violent tactics from the state, and there are plenty of important elements to share with readers who might not be familiar with that kind of madness. (Not to justify it like Carl avidly does, but it's important to at least inform readers about police & intelligence tactics when discussing militant protest tactics!)
Anyway I wanted to put up this condensed collection of comments for reference because I think it caught much of the anarchist/marxist/capitalist/mainstream/reactionary/confused/trolling spectrum of the debate. If you want a sample of the juncture of the issue, I think this is a useful skim.
Along with a few historical, zine, video & PDF links for variety, here is a condensed view of those comments from Adbusters for yr political reference.
~~ TO BE CONTINUED WITH WAY MORE AWESOME LINX LATER ~~
A bunch of new documents have been FOIA'd out showing the various layers of Occupy crackdown. We certainly watched it all happen pretty rapidly from the ol GlobalRev catbird seat. One week, everything seemed weirdly quiet on the eviction front -- then seemingly overnight the police squads rushed in across the country and crushed the camps.
It was an interesting time... wasn't it? As the documents trickle out, we'll start to really see the whole darn thing in a new light -- certainly Occupy enticed so many bad actors & ugly authoritarian meme-systems to head into the blazing scene, intervening in so many ways.
Some hub of shenanigans known as the Homeland Security National Operations Center (or NOC) was evidently the front desk for a lot of this, but PCJF suspects, that looked pretty bad so they redirected put it through local police backchannels as well.
A classic little highlight here from five days before the White House approved talking points, thanks to PCJF:
It was a fun experience out at Zuccotti Park last October/November, and one late morning/early afternoon I gave an interview to Kevin Breslin, a gung ho director who pulled the OWS pieces together a 38-minute documentary called #whilewewatch on very little budget. It's been making the rounds and will now be free on the Internets later tonight. 8 Pm Eastern, 7 Central, 6 Mtn, 5 Pacific. Official site: http://www.whilewewatch.com/
Our comradez in NYC are running live feeds and I am helping coordinate affairs. We are kickin on irc.indymedia.org #occupywallstreet and also you can hit that on http://chat.indymedia.org via webs.
Here is the live video embed... you can use the Contact form above if you want to hit me up. It is all super fun and kind of a beta test or practice run. the feed is at http://livestream.com/globalrevolution .
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