The group known as Anonymous has selected one of the longest standing continuous Occupations in the US for a gathering the week before the G8 in Chicago this Spring.
Which Occupy is this you ask? You’ll never guess… Cleveland, Ohio.
That’s right, Cleveland, home of the Browns, the Rock Hall of Fame, and weather bad enough to rival Buffalo, is also the home of one of the longest continuously Occupied Occupy encampments in the United States.
Ohio’s newest claim to fame appears in this video by the group “Anonymous” that surfaced on Social Media late Friday evening with the cryptic lettering “A28-M5CLE“.
A28-M5CLE seems to refer to the dates of an Occupy Cleveland Street Festivalstarting April 28th. I’m not sure if Occupy Cleveland planned on hosting Anonymous Party Crashers, but for a town that boasts of it’s own “Factory of Sadness”, I can definitely see an Anonymous/Occupy Street Festival being just the ticket to lift Ohio’s spirits. And in Rock and Roll style if history is any indication.
And the political Junkie in me is well aware of the implications for the Occupy movement.
Ohio is shaping up to be the swing state to end all swing states this year, crawling with candidates and the media trail that accompanies them. If you ask me Cleveland has an opportunity to put on one heck of a Festival (Wonder if they’ll have a burning man?) and really create an amazing, inspirational, non-violent, community Festival showcasing Occupy Cleveland.
I certainly hope so, for Ohio’s sake. But I will at least say this, The Anonymous video is certainly a better “tourism promotion” than this Cleveland gem ;D
What do you think? Will it be a beautiful festival of love and community? Will you stop by?
//
//
Does birth control matter to you? Have a socially progressive pet issue? Chances are it’s covered in this weeks Up With Chris Hayes.
1960 called, they want their politics back
Most of my regular readers know I watch every weekend (DVR and online baby! I like to get my beauty-sleep!) and I’m never dissapointed by the dissection discussion. It mimics the feel of coffee with friends after college classes. When all the nerds my friends and I would gather to add to our professors latest insight, or have a running commentary on the economic impact of default student loans over cheap beer at Becky’s.
Long story short, I dig it. What can I say? I’m a fan.
I’ve read a few books based on show guests, and I haven’t been dissapointed yet.
Baratunde Thurston’sHow to Be Black was drop dead hilarious. I listened to it through my audible account while insomnia/packing and guffawed rather loudly a number of times. I was able to grin while packing (no easy feat) and learn a few things along the way, and according to How to be Black I’m well on my way to cafe au lait. (Happy February, lol, Wink Wink@baratunde)
Next on my list is Going Solo by one of Saturday’s guests, Eric Kinenberg. He sold me when he commented on our culture’s conflation of “Living alone, being alone, and being lonely” .
Huzzah sir, you’re right on point!
–> CAN.NOT.WAIT. For Melissa Harris-Perry’s show next week. She nailed her analysis of marriage, religious controls, and women’s control of their fertility! She’s such a smarty pants!
For my “Anti-Occupy” friends: What Fox News Isn’t Showing You.
I know you disagree with a lot of what Occupy stands for, and I respect your right to have those ideas. I’m asking you to try to put that pov aside for 10 minutes to watch this raw unedited video you won’t see on MSM.
Please ask yourself what was accomplished? How much taxpayer money was spent to surround a group of protesters who simply wanted to have a protest march through public space.
Also ask yourself if you think it is morally, ethically, or legally right to prevent any exit route for peaceful protesters, declare the entire group under mass arrest, and stick the taxpayers with the bill.
Even if you disagree with why they are assembling, they have a right to assemble without being herded and corralled like cattle, beaten, intimidated, shot at, gassed, etc.
NOT because I agree with what they are protesting about, but because I believe they have a constitutionally guaranteed right toprotest and express dissatisfaction with their Govt.
As does the Tea Party, and the NRA, and Westboro Baptist. (JustSayin)
Uploaded by RTAmerica on Jan 31, 2012
According to the eye-witness who captured this footage, an Occupy march was stopped by Oakland PD at Telegraph Avenue and William Street. There protesters were asked to leave but were surrounded. Cops used flash grenades, pointed guns at protesters and used batons against the unarmed demonstrators. Eventually the protesters find a way out.
I’ve spent the last hour watching my dog push his bowl across the floor in an attempt to scrape and lick every last particle of dog chow out of it. He’s now staring at it determinedly and plunking one paw down on the inside rim (He is an 8 pound Maltese terror btw) thus flipping the empty plastic bowl off the floor and directly into his noggin. (too adorable!)
Next he huffs and gives the bowl the stank eye, then proceeds to repeat the entire process 3 or 4 more times! It is absolutely hilarious in a puppy shodenfrueden kind of way….
You’re probably thinking “What does this have to do with Occupy or the New Year?”.
Truthfully nothing, it’s just that I have been sitting at my computer desk gazing down admiringly and guffawing at my little puppy, not writing a blog post.
This presents a potential problem, I could try to throw together a post on the fly…but that’s not really my style.
BAM- the Universe steps in and provides a solution for the new year!
Form of: Guest Blogger Tim Russo! (please hold your applause until the end)
Tim wrote an inspiring piece about the New Year, the events and politics of years past, Occupy Cleveland, and the crossroads of all these. After reading it I knew I wanted to share it, and Tim was kind enough to let me “borrow” it
Occupy The Fucking New Year Already (you know who you are)
I used to try on New Year’s Eve. You know, spend a lot of money, dress up in finery, do the countdown in a room full of strangers also in finery. I could probably pinpoint when that stopped being fun if I tried, but that’d be too depressing. Maybe tonite I’ll try again, because 2011 doesn’t feel wasted for once.
Spend a lifetime professionally in Democratic Party politics, and you run into a lot of leftier than thou types. Being a campaign guy, a strategist technician paid to win elections, I would chastise their lack of pragmatism, sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly, always wore it as a badge of honor. Yeah, you might be right about the world, I’d say, but it doesn’t help win this seat, or that one. Leftier than thou exits in a huff…stage left, of course.
“There’s gonna be a revolution some day,” we’d always decide though, over a keg at a law school party, or the cabernet and camembert on the way up the ladder. Someday, people will wake up. Maybe it’ll happen this year. 1990. 1992. 1994. 1996. 1998.
Or 2000. Oh yeah, Bush v. Gore. That was a high water mark for New Year’s Eve armchair revolutionaries. Then came 2002, 2004, 2006. Dark years all. Then 2008. Was Barack Obama the revolution? Turns out no. Leftier than thou got the injection of the internet’s keyboard courage, and became louder. Then 2010.
2011, and here it is. That impending revolutionary awakening I’ve been hearing the self-appointed guardians of justice pray for since the day I was an intern on Dennis Kucinich’s 1988 congressional primary, the moment that was supposed to prove pragmatism wrong and idealists right. It has arrived. Yearned for over the sushi tray in the Heights, just the right Carole King dirge giving you those goosebumps, lighting that incense, misting up those eyes over Woodstock remembrances, snowflakes falling on your buddha statue in the garden while the organic tea steeps just long enough to be perfect, like you learned how to do that one summer backpacking in Britain or Nepal.
Their bluff has been called by kids in tents, in 3 months the long-awaited revolution went from nonexistence to everywhere, and they sit there slack-jawed, 2012 their last chance to ante up, and the excuses you hear are just comical. Where’s their message? Why are they in a tent? But they aren’t demanding policy? But…but….but….leftier than thou has been flummoxed, stammered to speechlessness. A mighty wind came and blew them right over onto their couch.
Maybe they’ll come around. They know that couch isn’t secure. They didn’t sell out for a billion, they sold out for a whole lot less and they know it – that pointless non-profit gig, that consulting 1099 with no healthcare, the waitressing on your feet all night, the adjunct position at minimum wage, that laughably tiny line item in a grant with their name on it, and it can all vanish tomorrow, all of it, because the purchase of power by the 1% doesn’t care who the fuck you are if you just sit there and take it.
That’s why they’re in a tent you damn fool. And staying in it, from a warm autumn Into the freezing cold of a Cleveland winter, for your future, and your kids’ future, your grandkids, and it ain’t gonna get any more revolutionary in this country if you lived forever waiting for it. Leftier than thou was never any good at strategy or tactics, that’s always been their own proudly waved badge of honor, now suddenly instead of idealists condemning the tacticians & strategists, they’re strategic tacticians condemning….what exactly?
Last week I helped write a proposal for Occupy Cleveland to submit to Occupy Wall Street, and here’s part of the preamble, arrived at through the signature consensus process that governs the movement uniquely unlike any other movement in American history…
“OC’s purpose is to give voice, courage, and hope to the 99% through a sustained effort to expose and attack the illegitimacy and injustice of imposing on our democracy the purchase of political power in favor of the 1%. OC will deploy creative, bold, and dramatic actions to educate and persuade citizens to reject deference to authority and instead challenge and defy authority, encourage citizens to take responsibility for their communities, take to the streets, refuse to submit to or cooperate with illegitimate action by the 1%, and thereby inspire in the greater populace a new courage to resist…”
Looks like I’m the one who’s leftier than thou, aren’t I, and ya’ll still don’t know bupkus about strategy and tactics. Maybe in 2012, we’ll all meet again, if so, it’ll be on the street, where the change we’ve all claimed we wanted is to be had, and happening, right now. The revolution will be waiting for you whenever you get here, and the welcome will be very warm indeed.
Happy New Year.
A review of Occupy Cleveland’s October, 2011. Music is Sunshine (Adagio in D minor), the score of the 2007 film Sunshine.
Search for “Occupy Wall Street” on Amazon, and you’ll get more than 220 books and media choices relevant to OWS. (who knew!?)
Occupy Wall Street - Kindle edition
Ok, and there are still people out there saying Occupy hasn’t made an impact…?
Amazon is one of the best indicators of what we consume…The presence of so many Occupy and OWS themed books on Amazon not only indicates a niche market within the movement, it also presents an opportunity to learn more about Occupy Wall Street, and the 99%.
I picked 4 books from the Occupy Wall Street search results to preview on my Kindle, making sure to pick books ranging from mass media outlets like Time Magazine, to the self published authors acting as de facto Historians of OWS.
I plan to read the samples over the next week, and pick a book to purchase and review (thus creating jobs! woot I am a job creator!)
Frankly what initially attracted me to this book is the donation of royalties from the book to Occupy Wall Street. I am not quite sure how that is happening, and would love to see something more specific about the royalties and donations disclosed in the description, but I guess you can’t have everything
A TIME compilation of Occupy… I selected this book as representative of the “mainstream” opinion of Occupy. Plus.. a bit of a hat tip to Time for naming the protester Person of the Year for 2011.
This book was featured on a number of news programs and blogs I follow. It is a bit different in that it is only available as an e-book. I see this as a way to cut costs for production and purchase, and taking advantage of the kindle and e-book format by loading the book with active links and info. The active links encourage the reader to continue learning about the early history of OWS even after reading this book.
50 cents from the sale of each copy goes to Occupy Wall Street. At first glance that seems kind of slim, until you see the book is only $2.99. That’s a decent donation ratio.
This is an interesting concept, a day by day timeline of the movement, (starting Sept. 17, 2011) with updates promised by the authors. The current version goes through December 6, 2011.
This is a wonderful format for those with an intermediate level or higher understanding of OWS already. I am hearing rumblings in the blog-o-sphere of individual Occupy movements adopting this format to create and self publish their own personal time-lines and developments. I would love to see this practice adopted in other Occupy movements!
We may be watching history unfold…it would be nice to have a record of it as it happens.
I’ve already downloaded the digital sample available for each book, and I hope to have made it through all four this week, and have my reviews and take-aways posted by Monday.
Leave a comment if you have read any books about OWS or Occupy in general…I’d love to know which you have read, and what you think about the idea in general.
How do you think the writing and reading of books like these reflect the cultural phenomena of OWS embedding itself in American political discourse as a long-term social influence?
Will we continue to see more Occupy related books and media popping up on Amazon, or your local Barnes and Noble?
was drop dead hilarious. I listened to it through my audible account while insomnia/packing and guffawed rather loudly a number of times. I was able to grin while packing (no easy feat) and learn a few things along the way, and according to How to be Black I’m well on my way to cafe au lait. (Happy February, lol, Wink Wink
