test blog #10

We're here early this year, visiting friends and family now instead of over US Thanksgiving. Occupy Wall Street is definitely on the agenda. Probably not much blogging though.

S. Brian Willson is a Vietnam veteran and peace activist. In September 1987, he lost both his legs when he was run over by a US government munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action. Willson recently published a memoir, Blood on the Tracks ; you can hear or read an interview with him by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! here . Next Monday, November 7, Brian will be speaking in Toronto, at a fundraiser for the War Resisters Support Campaign. If you're in the area, please join us for an evening of food and conversation with S. Brian Willson, and get an update on the most recent developments in the campaign to win asylum in Canada for Iraq War resisters. WHEN: Monday, November 7, 2011 WHERE: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto 6:00 pm Dinner • 7:00 pm Speakers $20 suggested donation

From the Occupied Wall Street Journal #3: Howard Zinn is here. Dominick Dunne and Tom Wolfe, too. Ernest Hemingway and Barbara Ehrenreich and Dr. Who and Beowulf: All here, and all free. Barnes & Noble may be endangered and the Borders across the street closed months ago, but The People’s Library at Liberty Square is open for business and thriving. That a lending library would spring up fully operational on day one of an occupation makes sense when you consider that the exchange of ideas is paramount here, at a new crossroads of the world. Just as occupiers young and old mingle with Africans, Jews, Algonquins and Latinas, de Tocqueville rubs elbows with Nicholas Evans and Noam Chomsky. Mandy Henk, 32, saw Adbusters’ call to occupy Wall Street and drove in from Greencastle, Indiana, on her fall break to work in the library. A librarian at DePaul University, she’d been waiting for “an actual movement” for years when she saw a photo of the library and a poster beside it that read: “T...

I found this telling infographic in a column by Charles Blow in the New York Times called "America's Exploding Pipe Dream". If you can't read it here, go here and click on the pop-up box. We have not taken care of the least among us. We have allowed a revolting level of income inequality to develop. We have watched as millions of our fellow countrymen have fallen into poverty. And we have done a poor job of educating our children and now threaten to leave them a country that is a shell of its former self. We should be ashamed. Poor policies and poor choices have led to exceedingly poor outcomes. Our societal chickens have come home to roost. Blow reports on a study from a German foundation that analyzed some social metrics among countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As you can see, the US ranks very near the bottom of the heap. That's no surprise. What also shouldn't surprise - yet does, for many people ...

This would be so much funnier if people's lives and a great city weren't being damaged in the bargain.

If you missed the story: 24 year-old Iraq War veteran beaten into critical condition by police .

Solidarity with Oakland: The Oscar Grant Plaza Gazette brought to you by the People's Library at Occupy Wall Street. The whole world is watching. Scott Olson, 24-year-old Iraq War veteran, is in critical condition after his head was bashed in by Oakland police. While the Oakland Police Department attacked peaceful protesters with tear gas, flash grenades and tanks, the City of Los Angeles became the first city to pass a resolution in support of the Occupy movement . We will not be moved.

Katha Pollitt on "The Mainstreaming of OWS": Maybe OWS will vanish with the lovely fall weather, or drift off into the anarchist subculture, or break down in fights and factions. But already it has accomplished more than anything put forward by organized progressives since Obama took office: the October 2010 jobs march on Washington, which the media simply ignored; Van Jones’s Rebuild the Dream; or even the inspiring Wisconsin protests, to say nothing of the Coffee Party (what was that all about, anyway?). As with SlutWalk, another viral grassroots protest movement led by the young, the ambiguities and indeterminacies and openness to interpretation of OWS have allowed people to join it on their own terms and make it theirs. No wonder polls show a majority of Americans support it. It’s a party you don’t need a party card to join. Read it here.

I don't watch this show, but if I did, this would piss off the hell out of me. CBC and McCain, the frozen food company, are "partnering" for a contest. Viewers are invited to submit audition videos. The winner lands a spot as an extra on "Being Erica"... eating McCain pizza. In other words, the winner gets to act in a commercial without being paid. McCain gets to advertise their brand throughout the contest, then again during the show, without a commercial break that everyone can fast-forward through or mute. Since viewers don't watch commercials anymore, advertisers embed ads right into the show. We know this. We've been seeing it for years. But when the show turns into an extended ad, and there are ads for the ad itself, is there even a show left anymore? McCain makes good pizza. Is "Being Erica" a good show?

I just received this from the ACLU. I will run it here verbatim, except for a few extraneous bits. This is racial and ethnic profiling at its most extreme. If the top law "enforcement" agency in the US does this, how can the police departments of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and every other US city be expected to do otherwise? From the ACLU: * * * * Dear Friends, You'll be outraged by what we found out. The ACLU has uncovered and analyzed thousands of FBI documents and found that America's most powerful law enforcement agency is using its vastly expanded investigative authority to collect racial and ethnic information and "map" American communities around the country — based on crude stereotypes about which groups commit different types of crimes. The last thing America needs is the FBI running unconstitutional investigations of innocent Americans and mapping communities based on racial stereotypes and suspicion not backed by a shred of evidence. T...

This post - like its subject - is old but still relevant. Over the summer I read Life , Keith Richards' memoirs. When I blogged about it here , I was loving it, but the book didn't turn out to be as fascinating and excellent as that post implies. The best part, for me, was the first third, when it's all about music - Keith's discovery of the music, how it transformed him, how he transformed it. By the book's final third, if you know your rock history, you'll realize that this is distinctly The Story According to Keith. All history is coloured by the teller, of course, but there are facts and there are fabrications and there are rationalizations. Nothing was ever Keith's fault, and even if it might have been just a little bit his fault, it was all in service of the music, and that excuses anything. If Mick became a big bad meanie for talking about adult concerns, that couldn't possibly be the fault of his partner Keith, who was living an extended fantasy ...

There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible. Howard Zinn

In my post here , recapping a report-back from Occupy Wall Street, I mentioned The People's Library - but I neglected to see if the people's librarians have a blog. Silly me, of course they do! Please visit and scroll through, it's quite amazing: Occupy Wall Street Library . Thanks very much to AW1L! I can't wait to see this for myself next week. My friend and comrade Dr. J has an excellent post with thoughts on the Occupy Movement, placing it in context of the larger struggle, and some ideas on the burning question that the media can't stop asking, What comes next? On the question of demands there are two potential dangers. The media are asking for a few simple demands that the system might accommodate, eliminating the systemic critique at the heart of the movement. On the other hand, some participants are calling for no demands in a way that reduces the movement to the procedural form divorced from the radical content and the movements that inform it. A related ...

Top Ten OWS signs , courtesy of International Business Times.

From ReWORKit : In light of Occupy Wall Street and the spin­offs that are grow­ing in many other cities, there have been a large num­ber of excel­lent arti­cles and stud­ies going around look­ing at the top 1% of income earn­ers in the United States. I have included links to some of them below. This U.S. focused read­ing got me think­ing about Canada’s place in this all this, and the con­ven­tional wis­dom about how much more of an equal soci­ety Canada is. An arti­cle in the Guardian back in May enti­tled " Top income earn­ers: are they get­ting richer? See the data" exam­ined the World Top Incomes Data­base pub­lished by the Paris School of Eco­nom­ics. From this data, I cre­ated this chart to com­pare the incomes of the super-rich in select coun­tries over the past 25 years. Read How does Canada’s 1% compare to other countries? by Dar­ren Pus­cas. The short answer, as is often the case, is: not as bad as the US, but that sets the bar far too low. As Puscas says, ...

The dogs of Occupy Wall Street

While the leaders of nations cheer at the death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the real face of the air war on Libya goes unreported. This unsparing article fails to mention Canada, but our country is once again a junior partner in an enterprise in which it should take no pride. The Libyan city of Sirte is being systematically destroyed by National Transitional Council “rebel” fighters and NATO fighter planes. The operation stands as a monumental war crime, for which primary responsibility rests with the leading forces behind the military intervention in Libya—US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sirte has been under siege for weeks. TNC forces have prevented all supplies from entering the city, including food, medicines, and other basic necessities. NATO bombs have rained down, together with a heavy and indiscriminate bombardment by TNC mortars, tank shells, and rockets. Basic infrastructure—including water, electricity,...

LeadNow.ca petition here . We know that Stephen Harper thinks the United States is the GNOTFOTE, but of all the things to emulate about the US, the prison-industrial complex is a particularly poor choice.* When conservatives in Texas tell you a prison strategy doesn't work, take their word for it: it doesn't work! Conservatives in the United States' toughest crime-fighting [sic] jurisdiction — Texas — say the Harper government's crime strategy won't work. "You will spend billions and billions and billions on locking people up," says Judge John Creuzot of the Dallas County Court. "And there will come a point in time where the public says, 'Enough!' And you'll wind up letting them out." Adds Representative Jerry Madden, a conservative Republican who heads the Texas House Committee on Corrections, "It's a very expensive thing to build new prisons and, if you build 'em, I guarantee you they will come. They'll be filled, O...

Join Occupy Toronto: All Out Against The Corporate Agenda Join Occupy TO for a family friendly march to Nathan Phillips Square. * Meet: 2:00 p.m. at the Occupation site (St James Park, Adelaide & Jarvis) * Rally: 2:45 p.m. at Nathan Phillips Square (City Hall) We, the 99%, will not accept cuts to our social services while our public funds are spent on corporate bailouts only to disappear into corporate tax holes. We reject the corporate agenda of neoliberalism, privatization and union-busting. We refuse to be saddled with student debt, only to graduate with no prospect of decent career. We condemn the Canadian government’s continued criminalization of dissent and Harper’s scheme to spend billions on new super-prisons. We oppose the racist demonization and deportation of migrants. We will never accept the destruction of our environment in the name of corporate profit. We demand an end to militarism and colonialism, at home and abroad. Occupy Toronto is growing everyday. Join us!

I'm writing this from the IS encampment at Occupy Toronto, in St. James Park. It's chilly and wet out today, but people here are warm and energized. There are at least 75 tents set up, and I've heard that number is growing every day. There are tents for food, logistics, media, medical, and a few other necessities, and of course, portable toilets donated by one of the unions. My hands are too cold to type, I must put my gloves back on, so... more later. * * * * Now that it's later... I have two deadlines to meet and can't blog. In Toronto, the next big Occupy action is this Saturday, October 22 . Details and a daily schedule of Occupy Toronto events are found here .

While at work this past weekend, I spent some time reading comments and posts written by people who dislike the Occupy movement. Most of these comments were angry, or cynical, or dismissive. I thought I'd address a few of them here. Laziness . Supposedly Occupy demonstrators and supporters don't want to work hard. We want everything given to us, simply because we exist. This leaves me wondering about who works hard and who does not. Do nurses work hard? Construction workers? Secretaries? Flight attendants? Do labourers work hard? Teachers? Social workers? Auto workers? Or do we all think that hedge fund managers and stock exchange traders work harder than the average working Joe and Jane? Do the critics believe that the 1% all became super-rich by dint of hard work? That every CEO with a multimillion dollar salary - plus several million dollars annually for each corporate board of directors on which he is listed - actually worked his butt off and was fairly compensated? Surely...

McFadden: Occupy Poor Street . I love this guy!

I have been steadfastly avoiding the so-called 53%, the US right-wing reaction to the Occupy movement, but two responses to their claims caught my eye. Suzy Khimm in the Washington Post takes on the hypocrisy of right-wingers flaunting their status as taxpayers, and the ridiculous notion that the protesters don't pay taxes. Part of the reason that over 40 percent of Americans don’t pay taxes is because of the continual push to lower them — a cause that conservatives have championed. For example, while the Bush-era tax cuts benefited the wealthy, they also lowered taxes at every income level, making it “relatively easy for families of four making $50,000 to eliminate their income tax liability,” as the Associated Press notes. Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts, similarly, took many lower-income Americans off of the tax rolls, an accomplishment about which the Gipper was quite proud. . . . What’s more the “53 percent” Tumblr also implies that there’s a certain mantle of responsibility that p...

Finally, the horrific, endemic and institutional protection of child sexual abusers by the Catholic Church is being challenged by the judicial system. Thanks to the courageous and continuous speaking out of survivors, and the tireless work of those who advocate for them, we are seeing a crack in the Church's previously impervious facade. Thank you, thank you, thank you, brave people. Every time you show your face, use your real name, point the finger at the criminals, you move us towards justice. And you help other survivors know they are not alone. Keep on speaking out. Keep on keepin' on. A bishop in the Roman Catholic Church has been indicted for failure to report suspected child abuse, the first time in the 25-year history of the church’s sex abuse scandals that the leader of an American diocese has been held criminally liable for the behavior of a priest he supervised. The indictment of the bishop, Robert W. Finn, and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph by a county gran...

I posted this in comments on the protest Dick Cheney thread , but it may have gotten buried. From the Department of If Only, cross-referenced under After The Revolution. Amnesty International is calling on Canada to arrest and either prosecute or extradite George W. Bush when he visits Canada later this month. Amnesty has submitted a memorandum to the government of Canada making a case for the former Resident's legal responsibility for a series of human rights violations. You can see the memorandum here. "Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former President Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture," said Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International. "As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring former President Bush to justice, the international community must step in. A failure by Canada to take action during his visit would violate the UN Convention against Torture an...

The flood of calls and emails, and a steady stream of supporters joining the protesters in Zuccotti Park early this morning, caused New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to re-think his plan to "clean" Zuccotti Park. Civil disobedience was planned for this morning, and the men in blue could have gotten very ugly. Thank [something] Bloomberg has more PR sense than that. Tomorrow! Occupy Everywhere!

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced plans to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Please pick up the phone! Call the Mayor's office, call Brookfield Properties, the owners of Zuccotti Park. Tell them what you think of this plan. Occupy Wall Street protesters represent hundreds of thousands - millions - of us who cannot be there ourselves. Let's back them up. Protest - freedom of speech and freedom of assembly - is a Constitutional right. Fight for it. Office of the Mayor of the City of New York: 212.639.9675 (212-NEW-YORK) Brookfield CEO Richard Clark: 212.417.7063 Brookfield US: 212.417.7000 Brookfield Canada: 416.369.2300 To contact the mayor by email: go here .

Last night we attended a meeting of the Toronto International Socialists , because I wanted to hear a report-back from a member who has just returned from New York, where he spent a day at Occupy Wall Street. Chris is 19 years old, originally from New Jersey, and he attended with his dad, age 57. What he witnessed filled him with joy and hope and excitement - and hearing about it did the same for me. I'll be in New York City in early November, and I can't wait to join the occupation for a day. After I relate Chris' observations, I'll pass along ideas on how we all can get involved, no matter what our availability or ability to physically join the occupation. So please stay tuned or scroll down. * * * * Chris was part of the occupation from an entire day and well into the night, and Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) was packed with people the entire time. The gathering was so organized, efficient and and well maintained - yet so completely democratic and participatory - tha...

In case you missed any of these, here's some great stuff on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Naomi Klein: Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now : If there is one thing I know, it is that the 1 percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over. And there is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it’s a very big thing: the 99 percent. And that 99 percent is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say “No. We will not pay for your crisis.” That slogan began in Italy in 2008. It ricocheted to Greece and France and Ireland and finally it has made its way to the square mile where the crisis began. “Why are they protesting?”...

We all know that agent provocateurs are a reality, but whenever we are offered hard evidence, we should spread it far and wide. A right-wing "journalist" has admitted to infiltrating a protest group and claims to have personally instigated events that led to a Washington DC museum's closure this past Saturday. What Patrick Howley lacks in journalistic integrity he makes up for in ego: unethical enough to pull this stunt, he then couldn't resist bragging about it, and his publication was stupid enough to run it. Apparently American Spectator has changed the wording of the story, but not before the Washington Post 's Suzy Khimm caught it and posted it on Google Docs . ( American Spectator could also use a proofreader: Howley writes of his "unshaven left-wing altar ego".) Khimm writes: A conservative journalist has admitted to infiltrating the group of protesters who clashed with security at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on Saturday — ...

Last year I mentioned I had never seen a single Pixar movie, including any Toy Story movie. Many wmtc readers recommended I watch all three Toy Story movies, which seemed excessive to me, but I thought it was time to at least see one. I'm watching "Toy Story" as I write this, because it doesn't hold my interest enough to watch without something else to do. The movie is cute. It is mildly entertaining. The animation is beautiful and the voices are good, but I can't watch a movie for either of those elements. It is just not especially interesting or compelling. I guess this kind of movie is just not for me. On the other side of the spectrum, last night we watched "Made In Dagenham". This story of striking female factory workers in 1968 England might as well have been made with me in mind. Of all the people's movements, I find the struggle of working people for justice the most moving, and I identify with it above all else, except perhaps the struggle ...

A fellow student recently complained to me about the "knee-jerk lefty-liberal" worldview of one of her teachers. I don't know why she assumed the professor's worldview was reflexive rather than well considered, but she went on to say, "I try to take a moderate approach to all things. I feel it's very important to be moderate." When I suggested that "moderate" is a relative term, she said she knew that, and that's why she sought out the position. This strikes me as sad - and dangerous. Political discourse in North America has been marching steadily to the right. Like Michael Moore , I date this to 1980, the dawn of the era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Views that might have been characterized by mainstream pundits as moderately liberal in 1975 were considered much farther left-of-centre in 1985, still farther left in 1995, and so on, to our present day. A person who wants to be considered politically moderate by the dominant cultur...

Please visit Brian McFadden and his Big Fat Whale . The war on Afghanistan is having a birthday party, and you're invited .

More great photos here. Day 19 : Most compelling moment of the night: Watching NYPD taking a girl away, crowd asked her name, she replied, "Troy Davis, Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, Martin Luther King." Total poise, totally amazing. October 15: Occupy Together Thanks to Jere for the photos and links.

Signing a petition seems such a paltry, insignificant act when measured against the massive starvation in Somalia. I remind myself of what Gandhi said: Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. Please sign the petition to G20 decision makers, demanding action to end the famine in Somalia. The petition page says, "Drought is an act of nature. Famine is man made." Right now, drought may be largely human-made, too, as climate change causes more land to become desert. One thing's for sure, though. There is enough food on this planet to feed everyone. If signing petitions and making small donations are all we can do, then signing and donating it is. Petition here.

Time to collect some of the scraps of paper scribbled all over my desk... Amira Hass will be speaking at the University of Toronto tomorrow night. Hass is an Israeli journalist based in Ramallah, and the only Israeli journalist to live in the occupied territories - which means she is the only reliable Israeli source of information about Palestinian life. A journalist living in the location she covers shouldn't be unusual. As Hass puts it, "If you are covering Paris, you don't live in Berlin." Yet all other Israeli journalists write about Palestine without being in and among Palestine. Why bother, since they get all the information they need from the government. I so wish I could attend this event! But I'll be in class, and missing one session of this cataloging class could sink the course. (How much information can we throw at you in three hours? Whee, let's find out!) Hass' Canadian tour is sponsored by Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle Eas...

This is one of the most beautiful animal videos I've ever seen. Enjoy! Lion and human, friends and family

A few views of the mass arrests in New York City this weekend. Even the official versions are great. In the US, the Occupy Wall Street movement - now Occupy Together - has sprouted in more than 100 locations. A list of current or planned occupations can be found in the sidebar on this site . The movement will be visible in Canada October 15: Occupy Toronto Market Exchange , Occupy Montreal , Occupy Vancouver , Occupy Calgary . Saturday, October 15 is slated as a global day of protest against austerity budgets that force working people to pay for capitalism's crisis, and an untenable, worsening global income disparity.

Although the big 9/11 anniversary was weeks ago, Chris Hedges' observations are relevant every day. This is a truly excellent piece. This excerpt is not the lede. The beginning of this essay may be triggering for some, as Hedges was at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, and recounts part of what he witnessed. I returned that night to the newsroom hacking from the fumes released by the burning asbestos, jet fuel, lead, mercury, cellulose and construction debris. I sat at my computer, my thin paper mask still hanging from my neck, trying to write and catch my breath. All who had been at the site that day were noticeable in the newsroom because they were struggling for air. Most of us were convulsed by shock and grief. There would soon, however, be another reaction. Those of us who were close to the epicenters of the 9/11 attacks would primarily grieve and mourn. Those who had some distance would indulge in the growing nationalist cant and calls for blood that wou...