Also see the “Pots and Pans” protest

“That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is a “circle of life” like feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.”

Yet, this idea is one that that TED’s organizers recently decided was too controversial to spread: the notion that widening income inequality is a bad thing for America, and that as a result, the rich should pay more in taxes. . . . watch it below.

Full text of this talk

ALSO SEE: Occupy Journalists Stopped, Searched, Handcuffed & Interrogated at Gunpoint

During the stop, search and interrogation, Chicago PD took the journalists’ hard drives and slammed them against “running boards four or five times.” They took Pool’s alternate batteries and slammed them too. Content recorded by the journalists was deleted from Ustream.

The stop happened about midnight or just after. And, according to Pool’s Twitter stream, the police were still following them on the police scanner around 2 am. They allegedly wanted the targeted journalists to announce where they were staying for the night so they could raid where the journalists were staying.

Pool released a YouTube clip that included audio of the stop.

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you!

Terence McKenna once said, “If the truth can be told so as to be understood it will be believed.” IMO this video tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the current state of affairs in the U.S. . . . I strongly encourage you to watch this video to the end. . . . and then YOU become the friction!

Police officers knocked down and clubbed a young woman during an anti-police march in Oakland late Saturday night, and arrested six people. . . . Video of the incident uploaded to YouTube showed the young woman riding her bicycle towards a small group of officers. As she approached, officers shoved her to the ground and at least one clubs her with his baton. . . . Protesters quickly rushed to her aid, and dragged her away from police. . . . An “Occupy Oakland” press release said the “Fuck the Police” march was held to protest the “brutal campaign of repression” conducted by Oakland police to prevent protesters from re-establishing their camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza. It describes the City of Oakland as a “war zone.” . . . About 100 people marched from Frank Ogawa Plaza to the Oakland Police headquarters at 7th and Broadway, where more than 50 officers stood guard.

ALSO SEE:

Occupy Oakland plans more antipolice rallies

So whom do you think he will disappear first, white Christians or dark-skinned Muslims?

( WILL POTTER, GreenIsTheNewRed.com, DECEMBER 20, 2011)
[CLICK the above credit line for the full article]

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists, according to a new document uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act. . . . This new information comes as the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional because its vague wording has had a chilling effect on political activism. This document adds to the evidence demonstrating that the AETA goes far beyond property destruction, as its supporters claim. . . . Based on these acts — trespassing in order to photograph and videotape abuses on factory farms — the agent concludes there “is a reasonable indication” that the activists “have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a).” . . . The file was uncovered through a FOIA request by Ryan Shapiro, who is one of the activists mentioned. The file is available for download here. [Please note that this document has additional redactions in order to protect the identities of the other activists, at their request.] Shapiro is now a doctoral candidate at MIT. . . . “It is deeply sobering to see one’s name in an FBI file proposing terrorism charges,” he said in an email. “It is even more sobering to realize the supposedly terroristic activities in question are merely exposing the horrific cruelty of factory farms, educating the public about what goes on behind those closed doors, and openly rescuing a few animals from one of those farms as an act of civil disobedience.” . . . So how do we explain that such a sweeping prosecution was being considered in 2003, under the law’s somewhat-narrower precursor? . . . One possibility is that FBI agents lack training, education, and oversight. They are spying on political activists without understanding or respecting the law. . . . Another explanation is that this document is no mistake, nor is it an isolated case. It is a reflection of a coordinated campaign to target animal rights activists who, as the FBI agent notes, cause “economic loss” to corporations. . . . The FBI makes clear that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is not about protecting public safety; it is about protecting corporate profits. Corporations and the politicians who represent them have repeatedly lied to the American public about the scope of this legislation, and claimed that the law only targets underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front. The truth is that this terrorism law has been slowly, methodically expanded to include the tactics of national organizations like the Humane Society of the United States. . . . This document illustrates how the backlash against effective activism has progressed within the animal rights movement. However, if this type of legislation is not overturned, it will set a precedent for corporations to use this model against Occupy Wall Street and anyone else who threaten business as usual.

Free speech and peaceful assembly are no longer allowed in San Diego, California. The police have become a private security force that has been directed to quash all forms of dissent from the status quo of the rich and powerful to whom they have pledged their souls.

And here is what was going on a few hundred miles north of San Diego at about the same time. Sadly, we can no longer teach our children to trust the police. Now we have to teach our children to fear the police. I’m afraid that it is only a matter of time before some demonstrators are murdered by out of control cops, such as the one seen in the video below. Welcome to the gulag.

Peaceful demonstrators are now being classified as terrorists. Militarized police forces now being used to shut down free speech in the U.S.