2.06.2012

'Park Police Massively, Officer Beck Blatently, Massively Lied Saturday to Occupy, is my best understanding.' SL (txt)

There are as many as 8 and as few as 2 or 3 folks at Occupy DC McPherson I have solid regard for. Young Brian is one fo the two or 3. He is young, and I don't find his judgement impecible (tho far better than mine at his age) but I find his core character, his core Goodness rare, 1 in 100,000.

I saw him toninght as I was getting my supper from the food wagon. Brian was returning from jail after 3 days.

I had not seen Brian arrested, it happened mid morning Saturday I believe between my early am and noon visits. But another of the 3, Jerry Nelson, a HuffPo blogger/photog told me that Brian, who had been accepted as a crisis negotiator by the Occupy crowd, and the police, when he found he was totally and blatantly lied to by the police, demanded to be arrested, jumping a police barrier and announcing his intent to be arrested. Entirely non-violent.

Even when Jerry told me this, among all the confusion, it did not take prominence in my thinking. Now that I've heard from Brian, I'm horrified and deeply sadened. My best guess is that Officer Beck, in total bad faith, said and promised whatever he saw would gain the immediate compliance of the demonstrators, with zero intention of carrying through. I deeply and passionately believe in the dictum - innocent until proven guilty, but not as something to hide behind. A man is responsible for his moment by moment behavior, decisions, views, actions, so I don't have the luxury of suspending all judgment until I have the entirely unlikely opportunity to hear Officer Beck's side.

I now recall hearing, and catching obliquely on tape, the clear expectation Officer Beck, Park Police, set in the early morning, that - only those tents with bedding would be removed, or with food, or dangerous uncleanliness. I'm 99% sure this was not made up, and is what Park Police said would happen. 80-90% of the tents are gone. It is impossible that that many failed the police criterion.

I'm open to hearing my assessment is incorrect. I HOPE I find it to be incorrect, because that would be such a massive moral, professional, constitutional lapse on the part of our Federal Government as to constitute massive destruction of what has been my view of and hope for that institution - the Park Police.

With no expectation of impact, I'll none the less advise Brian to take all promising steps in the media and legal channels to bring this to a head. If there are overriding circumstances that could not be foreseen - they should be brought to light. If it was simply the Federal Government urinating on citizens because the citizens were unarmed - that too should be brought to light.

STUDY US Economic Growth funded by Spending Down Our Natural Wealth

Economic Growth Is Depleting Our Natural Wealth

SLO-MO US FUNDED GENOCIDE: Israel condemns Palestinian reconciliation deal USA TODAY

Israel condemns Palestinian reconciliation deal

USA TODAY - ‎15 minutes ago‎

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday took a decisive step toward reconciliation with the Islamic militant Hamas, agreeing to head an interim unity government that would prepare for elections in the West Bank and Gaza ...

Palestinian rivals choose Abbas to head unity governmentCTV.ca

Fatah, Hamas choose Abbas to head new joint governmentWashington Post

US Senator: China Cannot Avoid 'Arab Spring' Voice of America

US Senator: China Cannot Avoid 'Arab Spring'

Voice of America - ‎2 hours ago‎

Monday, 06 February 2012 US Senator: China Cannot Avoid 'Arab Spring' VOA Tibetan A leading US senator and one-time presidential candidate is warning China, “the Arab Spring is coming.

China warns officials in Tibet to keep region stable, or risk criminal chargesWashington Post

Tibetan officials warned to maintain stabilityBBC News

Your preferred source:China denies Tibetan self-immolations happened in Sichuan ProvinceMiamiHerald.com

Highly Cited:3 Tibetan Herders Self-Immolate in Anti-Chinese ProtestNew York Times

From China:Three more Tibetans self-immolateChina Economic Review

In Depth:China disputes reports of self-immolations by TibetansCNN

Black Bloc: The Cancer in Occupy truthout

Black Bloc: The Cancer in Occupy

truthout - ‎1 hour ago‎

... demonstrate against the World Bank in Washington DC on April 17, 2011. (Photo: Collin David Anderson) The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement.

Thirty Kentucky Congregations Will Participate in Global Warming “Preach-In” WFPL

Thirty Kentucky Congregations Will Participate in Global Warming “Preach-In”

WFPL - ‎4 hours ago‎

by Erica Peterson on February 6, 2012 Next weekend, thirty church congregations across Kentucky will participate in a nationwide effort to raise awareness about global warming: the third annual National Preach-In on Global Warming.

Hubris. Insanity: Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering The Guardian

Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering

The Guardian

2.05.2012

Sacrificing the desert to save the Earth Julie Cart la times

Sacrificing the desert to save the Earth

Julie Cart

Bill Maher to leftover Occupy movement ‘douchebags’: ‘Get a job’

Maher to leftover Occupy movement ‘douchebags’: ‘Get a job’

Obama: US prefers to use diplomacy with IranUSA TODAY

Obama says US will work in 'lockstep' with Israel against Iran nuclear program

Washington Post (blog) - ‎7 minutes ago‎

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Sunday he does not think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran over its disputed nuclear program, a standoff that has the Middle East on edge. The president sought to assure allies and foes alike that the ...

Obama: US prefers to use diplomacy with IranUSA TODAY

Obama: Israel has not decided on attacking IranCBS News

Subs, silos, UAVs: Rumors cloud Israel's Iran clout Reuters

Subs, silos, UAVs: Rumors cloud Israel's Iran clout

Reuters - ‎2 hours ago‎

Israel, which sees Iran's nuclear drive as a mortal threat, sent F-16 jets to destroy Iraq's atomic reactor in 1981 and launched a similar sneak sortie against Syria in 2007.

'Divine Truth is Demonstrated, Shown, Told of not Argued, Convinced., Proven.' SL (txt)

Jesus, the man, never argued, convinced.... He Demonstrated, Showed, Told of... the Truth of how things are. If someone shows me that a tree is green, and I argue that it is some opposite color, if one argues with me, or tries to convince me, they are at best wasting their time, probably, right? And so it is, that the Divine Truth of Life is Love - relentless waging of activity to advance the well-being of the individual and the species.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence Martin-Luther-King (txt)

http://paceebene.org/power-nonviolent-change/martin-luther-king-jr-s-principles-nonviolence

1) Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.

It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
It is assertive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
It is always persuading the opponent of the justice of your cause.

2) Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.

The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.

3) Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.

Nonviolence holds that evildoers are also victims.

4) Nonviolence holds that voluntary suffering can educate and transform.

Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its acts.
Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
Suffering can have the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.

5) Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.

Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as of the body.
Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
Nonviolent love is active, not passive.
Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater.
Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
Love restores community and resists injustice.
Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.

6) Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.

'DC Occupy - Police happy to club, trample, shoot citizens.' SL (vid, txt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrjuAlbqaAs

'DC Occupy - Police happy to club, trample, shoot citizens.' SL

Today I have uploaded two videos with extremely inflammatory titles talking about police brutality, when in fact the brutality that the early morning and midday videos revealed was the verbal brutality, abuse, violence of the occupiers. Just, just a nasty young mob, vicious, irresponsible, just a nasty young mob. The title of this video is not facetious. Tonight I witnessed something that in eight years in DC I've not witnessed, that I can recall.

So disgusted was I with what I saw this morning at Occupy DC that it was clear to me I'd have nothing more to do with it. I've never enough respected what I saw to identify myself with it, but I'd seen sufficient glimmerings of hope to try and help it become what it should be. And, as of today I see no hope there. McPherson’s on my return trip from the coffee shop I use, to where I am now, where I sleep, and it also is in park where I get food in the evening. My guess was that the police action would have been done by 5:15 when I was going for supper. On my 10 min. walk halfway I encountered one of the few people that I've had a significant regard for, who was running the opposite direction to catch transportation I think, who said, 'Start, don't go that way, there's police violence.' I believed him because I've learned to trust his word pretty much, his judgment, but I go toward trouble, not away from it. When I arrived at the camp, as he had told me I would find, all of the protesters had been driven out of the park, which didn't alarm me, still doesn't alarm me; the police have been breaking the law for three months, the law that says no camping. And it remains my belief that within the Park police is a sense of duty to democracy, to protect the expression of Democratic action, that was self sacrificial on the part of the police, in allowing this three months suspension of the law, on their own volition. So, that the police are now beginning to enforce the law, I can, no responsible citizen can, have an objection. I saw no responsible citizens in Occupy this morning.

I took 15 or 20 minutes to walk around the park to try and see what I could see. Roughly half of the tents are gone. To what degree the police honored their commitment to only remove tents that had bedding in them, and food, I don't know. It surprises me that that many tents would have violated their dictate. But probably half to two thirds of the tents were gone. On my way back around the north side of the park, because the south streets were closed off for the police action, that's where the crowd was, and I went to a far end and was slowly exiting, I'd pretty much come past the crowd, when a phalanx of, oh, 6 to 8 massive police horses, that had been stationary, hence not catch my attention, and yet only 12 feet from me, instantly lurched into motion and almost trapped me, almost trampled me. I wasn't their target, but there's no indication they would've hesitated to trample me. I was able to get out-of-the-way, I was willing to be trampled, but I could conveniently, with a little rushing, get out. These on-horse officers were part of about 30 officers, maybe only 20; some with night vision scopes on their helmets, SWAT team folks mixed in with the Park police, maybe city police as well, but probably mostly Park, and then SWAT team folks. There was someone about eight feet into the crowd that had been really not paying attention to the police as I recall, not threatening in any way, but someone that they wanted to arrest, so quickly, 12 to 15 heavily armed police, including these SWAT team type folks, extremely military, special forces looking, and the horses, drove into the crowd. The fellow they wanted to apprehend, there was no indication of who or why, it was just a guy in the crowd, was instantly on the ground, was apprehended and carried out.

I didn't sense any viciousness in this, and I didn't sense an ounce of compunction as to whether anyone got trampled; those of us in the crowd were bodies; we could've been Taliban, we could've been rat's, four-legged rats, it didn't matter; these officers were given orders and there was no order they weren't going to carry out. I'm not saying I should be shocked, or even find it worthy of comment, but I do, it's quite horrifying. One could say, well gee, how well trained they are. Okay, well trained droids, well-trained robots, Star Wars clones?

The implications of this in my view, I don't know. It's, it's simply a factor, it's certainly a factor I've not witnessed before, I've heard of, but not paid attention to, and it's now squarely on my radar screen.

There was no humanity in evidence. There was no humanity in evidence on the occupiers, among the occupiers, in the morning and the afternoon, and I'd like to think I saw some evidence of humanity among the police. I believe I've seen evidence of humanity among the police for three months now. But not tonight among the police, nor the occupiers. No humanity on either side. I believe in nothing mystical, believe in no higher sentient power, thinking God, Angels, whatever, of the mystical sort; but I think there's wisdom in some of the old tales, and I frequently now think of Pharaoh in Egypt, warning after warning after warning after warning, to which he could not or would not or both, wake up to, or wake up from. That's you, that's me, that's us as a society, police and demonstrators, and the 99.999% who sit on their asses at home. In their addictive stupors; warning after warning after warning - storms, scientific pronouncements, attacks on the Constitution by Bush and Cheney, wars that slaughter Arabs and our own children, and we do nothing. We even don't even contemplate doing anything. Yes I think of I think of Pharaoh, I think of that story more and more. It's virtually certain we're beyond redemption. This is the end.

I don't feel sorry for we western adults, we deserve, we deserve what our children and all of creation are going to get from our behavior, and they don't deserve it. But 7 billion people on a planet going to nine or 10 billion, and all this technology? It's like a child born into a drug-den. We're not designed to be born in drug dens, were not designed to be born into the dens of this massively dense population, technology, this idol worship. Oh what a tragedy that that sounds so arcane, so moralistic; no, we worship idols, we don't worship humanity, we don't worship human beings, we don't worship Love. We worship everything but, all false idols. Humanity is what we should worship; we are built to be kind to one another; we should worship our ability to care for one another which is life itself.

I seem to be at a place of acceptance that I've been moving toward for quite some time, that whereas my secondary job will be to continue to do what I can to stand in the way of this impending, irreversible doom, that's not my primary job. My primary job is to keep Love alive within me, and to be a possible life raft should anyone come along that either wants the Love in them protected, or want's it kindled. Absurd. Absurd. But that's the truth of it.

'DC Occupiers - spoiled, bratty, hateful mob.' SL (vid, txt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MW7sO5No74

'DC Occupiers - spoiled, bratty, hateful mob.' SL

My brothers and sisters all, but I suspect that today's impression that I hold will not change - those willing to stand among the occupiers, no that's not true - the largest group of those willing to stand among the occupiers are the class brats, whiners, irresponsible me me me me me. Everything that doesn't comply with their wishes is evil and wrong. Absolutely worthless trash.

But eight of us, including two that were young, the rest Vets, except for me and one other, were willing to, were, were determined to risk life and limb to protect the police from an Occupy faction that had amassed mustard gas and feces bombs. And those eight remained through today among the occupiers. But with the exception of myself, this group did not stand up against the hate speech of the brats, which is tragic, but nothing can take away the they were passionately eager to protect anyone and everyone, including the police against abuse, against violence.

But as a movement, it's clear to me that what we've seen so far is at best an indication of what is not a hope. I experience no hope within me that it will be learned from its behavior thus far, in a constructive way, but it could be.

The most hopeless thing is for people to try nothing - entropy wins by default. At least these folks tried something, and they didn't come here out of malice; they didn't come here to hate the police; they didn't come here to rag on the police - there may be a few exceptions. They came here because they feel things are wrong and to that extent they're healthy, they're healthier than 99.9999% of the population, including most of you.

It's rightly said that we can only see ourselves and others clearly in times of crisis, when our very core is called forth by the emergency of the situation. And what showed in the crisis today among DC occupiers is what I would've expected to see, what I think we would've seen in the other occupies - spoiled brats, whining about anything and everything when they don't get their own way, for which they have no right, they haven't worked for a different America; they're not working for a different America now.

My brothers and sisters all, but with very few exceptions, no hope.

'DC Occupy - Fatal Flaw - No Standards' SL (vid, text)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmARabcS3qQ

'DC Occupy - Fatal Flaw - No Standards' SL

Shame on me, I never saw this and never voiced it to the few Souls of any promise that I saw in recent weeks and months, at Occupy. Part of it I have voiced strongly and frequently - that a notion they had of inclusiveness was certain doom to any meaningful outcome for their efforts. By way of analogy, I'd say - so you want to put together a surgical, a doctor, to care for your loved one, wants to put together a surgical team, you're going to hope that their criteria is going to feature inclusiveness? There were many occasions on which I put forth such an idea.

But what I'm seeing tonight and what I wish I had thought to say, to point out, to share, was that their approach was an indictment of, or a rejection of explicitly what King and Gandhi insisted upon. King and Gandhi would have no one in actions with them that weren't trained, that from their very soul didn't convincingly swear to uphold extremely high moral standards, extremely high behavioral codes, that flowed from those extremely high moral standards. Now these poor young folks, largely, have had nothing but the most deadly example from my generation that has taken selfishness, brutal, mindless selfishness to the level of religion, as this planet has never seen before. It would be amazing if these young folks figured things out, but they haven't.

And I wish I had the wisdom to share with them then, but I'm sharing it now, that thus far they have explicitly rejected what was a central tenet of the efforts King and Gandhi. No one participated in their efforts with them, except those who swore to uphold moral and behavioral standards that were explicitly laid out, and who had trained sufficiently that there was reason to believe that under pressure those behaviors would be manifest.

I have no illusion that anyone would've paid attention to me had I shared this. But that's not my responsibility, and by way of logical consideration, if they had heard and paid attention, I have no illusion they would have accepted or rejected - probably rejected. I don't know.

Three Tibetans 'in anti-China fire protest' in Seda BBC News

Three Tibetans 'in anti-China fire protest' in Seda

BBC News - ‎45 minutes ago‎

Three Tibetans have set fire to themselves in south-west China, reports say, in the latest apparent protest against rule from Beijing.

Three Tibetans 'set themselves on fire' in ChinaThe Guardian

More Tibetans Self-Immolate Amid China's CrackdownForbes

2.04.2012

Workers, not Catholic hierarchy, should choose their health care Washington Post

Workers, not Catholic hierarchy, should choose their health care

Washington Post - ‎40 minutes ago‎

Conservative religious groups, and in particular the Catholic Church, are outraged over President Obama's decision to require secular institutions run by religious groups to abide by employment laws.