Max, I posted this at 4:03 AM with this chilling link

http://i.imgur.com/J3AE5.jpg

And this link with an equally chilling 8 minute video.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/19/po…

You have to get up very early to beat the outlier.

If you watch the video to the end, you will see the students shaming the campus police into retreat.

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What a miserable shithead cop. Makes you want to bring back the stocks & pillory. Put his little hitleresque head in a stock on campus with a few barrels of rotten veggies for convenient tossing. Organic, of course--it's California.

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Good call, Sanford. This guy (campus not city police) is a tad rotund and obviously could benefit from more organic veggies and a little less time at Dunkin' Donuts.

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A quote knocking around Facebook goes like this: "Perfect analysis of NYPD crackdown on Occupy Wall St. seen on Twitter: 'If only they enforced banking regulations like they do park rules, we wouldn't be in this mess.'"

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Gosh, the behaviour and even the helmets and other equipment of these police officers in America remind me of news reels of fascist police action that I saw at the movies during World War II.

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Why we fight.

Senior Editor of The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn’s brilliant reporting:

“The Two Year Window - The new science of babies and brains—and how it could revolutionize the fight against poverty”

The article begins with the unique research opportunity afforded scientists by the horrifying results of Romania’s infamous orphanages ten years after Ceauşescu’s fall. He dictated increasing Romania’s population by banning birth control and abortion, using the Romanian Orthodox Church as motive and justification, much as the Catholic Church does in other countries. Result? State-run institutions filled with children their parents couldn’t support.

Read all about it.

Cohn’s four-page report details the crucial importance of the first two years of life, no matter what care-programs may follow those years, and the role played in future poverty, crime and destruction of societies. Including what OWS is fighting this minute: mass inequality.

“The implications go beyond mental illness or crime. Children who fail to develop coping mechanisms struggle from the earliest days in school, because even the slightest provocations or setbacks destroy their focus and attention. They can’t sit still and read. They have trouble standing in line. They lash out at classmates or teachers. And these struggles, naturally, lead to other problems that perpetuate the cycle of poverty. All of this is to say that the science of early childhood may play a significant role in the dominant political question of our time: rising inequality.”

The article examines programs like Head Start and their results, as well as the political undercurrents that feed or starve those and other efforts toward solutions.

“The science of early adversity, then, offers a blueprint for tackling the effects of poverty and neglect, one that is more precise and observable than any tools policymakers have ever had at their disposal. ‘The concept of disrupting brain circuitry is much more compelling than the concept that poverty is bad for your health,’ says Jack Shonkoff, a Harvard pediatrician and chair of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. ‘It gives us a basis for developing new ideas, for going into policy areas, given what we know, and saying here are some new strategies worth trying.’”

What is clear is the futility of past and present approaches, largely supported and funded by right-wing religiously-backed dogma instead of science.

Despite the enormous costs to society and to human beings, especially children, the right-wing targets precisely those programs most successful in addressing these issues and their resulting inequality and monumental societal costs: Sex education, birth control and ongoing responsible parenting programs for young people.

“The bigger questions right now are political. Nobody is talking about launching a new government initiative, no matter how much money it might save in the long run. On the contrary, the focus today is on slashing government spending.”

The Tea Party. Republicans. Religion. United by irrational, emotionally manipulative and unscientific dogma, they’ve become the driving force behind current anti-birth control; anti-choice; anti-women; anti-same-sex equality; anti-science; anti-education.

“In Illinois, to give just one example, about 5,000 at-risk children will lose state-financed schooling, care, or developmental services this year because of a 5 percent budget cut, according to Adam Summers, from Illinois Action for Children. And that’s in addition to 14,000 kids who lost access to state-funded pre-kindergarten in the last two years. At the federal level, House Republicans have proposed eliminating the new home visit funds altogether.”

Things aren’t getting better for these children, their young parents, or the 99% who are our future. Things aren’t getting better for America, which the GOP would rather see fail and collapse than suffer any but their party apparatchiks in office; reach any bi-partisan solutions; or risk losing their Taliban-fundamentalist base by funding scientific solutions rather than dogma.

The right-wing will continue to lie, cheat and steal elections as long as they’re allowed to get away with it.

Fight on.

http://www.tnr.com/article/economy/magazin…

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It is ironic indeed when conservatives and libertarians applaud what is shown in this picture. "Limited government" types are pleased as punch to see government oppression when it's against a group they don't agree with.

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The antidote to Sunday morning gas-baggery is Chris Hayes, with the added bonus of a Saturday morning show. In his first hour today, he had retired police captain, Ray Lewis, who was arrested yesterday at OWS. He offers a much needed and useful perspective.

http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/

Hayes also has a story about this:

"A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.” The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association. CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead. According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

We, the 99% are being taken seriously to the tune of an almost million dollar counter-strategy.

Also, too, does any one besides this old girl think Chris Hayes is eminently stalkable? He's too young for me and I was thinking more for Hayden. She doesn't need my help, and besides he's married.

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Norma, the "mass inequality" that the OWS movement is protesting is already more massive than even the Census Bureau realized. Consider this from a report in the NYT this morning:

"They drive cars, but seldom new ones. They earn paychecks, but not big ones. Many own homes. Most pay taxes. Half are married, and nearly half live in the suburbs. None are poor, but many describe themselves as barely scraping by.
...

"When the Census Bureau this month released a new measure of poverty, meant to better count disposable income, it began altering the portrait of national need. Perhaps the most startling differences between the old measure and the new involves data the government has not yet published, showing 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line. That number of Americans is 76 percent higher than the official account, published in September. All told, that places 100 million people — one in three Americans — either in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/us/censu…

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I sympathize with your anger, whap, but beating those police with axe handles, no matter the brutality they committed, would still be Wrong. Granted, it's getting close to the point where, for instance, the "Just War" theory of the Catholic Church might justify it, but it would still be Wrong.

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The video posted above by Outlier is really incredible. Watch how that cop is so impressed with himself for pepper-spraying those kids. He walks around them, holds up his pepper can over his head like a gymnast signalling the judges, and then struts around and hoses them down repeatedly. All for the heinous crime of exercising their rights to assembly and free speech, on a college campus no less.

Just as important in the video, though, is the reaction of the students. They sat there and took it, and remained peaceful. That's the most important part of this whole movement -- remaining peaceful. The cops are ramping up their violence and trying to goad the protesters into violence, because then they can justify their police state actions.

And finally, the video shows the real power of the non-violent movement. The crowd of students surrounds the police, doing nothing but holding up cameras and chanting "SHAME!" over and over again. The cops close ranks into a pathetic little circle, looking ridiculous in their Nazi helmets and over-the-top riot gear, while the crowd shames them into leaving the area. And the protesters moved them out using nothing but cameras and their voices.

The violence and thuggery in this whole ordeal is only coming from one side -- the one whose motto used to be "To Serve and Protect."

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Max, I've been out of town, so forgive me if you've already done this, but I'd like you or another respected journalist get a statement from area Police Chiefs and Mayors outlining what they consider justifiable use of less than lethal weapons. Should they be used for anything less than preventing likely death, injury or property damage? I see their value in some of those situations, but I cannot see that they are justified to prevent inconvenience and certainly not to prevent free speech.

It would be nice to get statement from the authorities ahead of a situation like this so that the beat cop would be on notice and responsible for his/her own actions. I'll bet the incident in this video will be swept under the rug because there was confusion about who issued the order and what uses were appropriate.

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"Protect and Serve the 1%" is the full version of the motto, Pompatus. It's heartening to hear of the number of rank-and-file police officers who resist doing so. That's much more important to me than the thuggish actions of those who slather their orders of hot dogs with a relish of brutality and a spritz of pepper spray.

(Call the metaphor police. I've just violated some law and I will go peacefully.)

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Eureka, they want to provoke the OWS protestors into violent action. That way, the cops and banks can justify brutal means to squash a, so far, peaceful protest.

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This here is about as violent as I want to get: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yge311sFhC8

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Where is the OWS riot gear? Is it against the law to wear a headgear that helps repel tear gas? If the jackbooted tools of the 1% can abuse peaceful protesters, why not at least outfit the peaceful protesters with protective gear?

I understand what John A says about remaining non-violent and these kids have done an amazing job of taking the tool's shit and remaining calm. But not everyone can take a punch to the stomach with a 4 foot billy club and come up smiling.

I'm like Ma....it takes a ton of shit to finally make me mad, but we you do....pure Charles Manson! I'll bite your damn eyeballs, I'll start eating your ears, I'll try to yank your genitals off your body. You gots to be careful around us Wally Cox types, we got years of simmering just below the surface.

So while I agree that the non-violent approach is the right thing....oh god....I just don't think I have it in me to be polite while a fat cop prances around dosing me with pepper spray.

The best medicine for fat cops with clubs & pepper spray is LARGE NUMBERS. Notice on Thursday when upwards of 35 thousand people marched in NYC, the fat cops kinda took a powder. Just stood back and let the peaceful marchers march. Bravery......NOT!

So we can go John A's way but only if the number of feet on the ground swells and swells. Jesus just whispered to me.....outnumber the bastards, that's the ticket! Thanks big guy!

Our Civil War started with general unrest like we have today. In the South it was the North who was viewed as the 1%. The actual fighting started when Lincoln ordered a sea blockade of the lower east coast and sent out a request for new troops. Wasn't no pepper spray, flash bombs, bean bags, or billy club beatings, in 1861 we went to bloody war over words and some ships patrolling the waters off South Carolina.

So....the restraint of the Occupy protesters is amazing. Most of them are better men than me, even the women. Each picture & video like the one above is a recruiting poster. Bless their hearts, those protesters who are being beaten and pepper sprayed are swelling the ranks each day.

Organized money hates OWS--and OWS welcome their hatred!

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I love the ending of the full video of that incident, where the students shout "Shame" and the police march off in fear, fear both unjustified--for the crowd remained non-violent--and justified--because they knew they'd just done something shameful which they could neither hide nor hide from.

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The official motto of UC Davis: "The Community that Embraces Civility"

The full version: "The Community that Embraces Civility like a Snake Embraces a Mouse"

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Huffpost front paged this story a little over an hour ago. Over 8000 comments already. I skimmed a few of them and it seems the majority of posters are as horrified as we are. The 1% are hoisting themselves by their own petards---or something. DBI's hope for safety in numbers is more and more likely.

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Norma, Charles Pierce has a reply to "disgrace-to-boozy-bar-room-skanks everywhere Annie Coulter" that you linked to in an earlier thread.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ann-…

In other news, Rudy Giuliani calls us "bums" and "left over hippies". Not left over, but new and improved in my book.

And I'm in love with Charles Pierce, Driftglass, Chris Hayes, and our very own DBI. Not to worry, I'm worshiping from afar, mag.

I think there are some engineering students at work in this picture. OWS is irrepressible and their sense of humor is first rate, unlike the skank that Pierce and Norma referred to.

http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/di…

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The Salt March scene from Ghandi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XarpddX1BI

"Whatever moral ascendency the West held was lost here today."

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Driftglass had a prescient post in March, 2007 which he introduces this way:

"For anyone who is interested, back in 2007 I wrote a series of posts noting how closely the demented, fear-based thinking of the Middle Ages Catholic parallels the demented, fear-based thinking of Modern Conservatives when one substitutes the word “Liberal” for “Jew”, “Conservative” for “Christian”, etc, and substitutes the various lies leveled against the Jews of that age with the various lies Conservatives level against Liberals every single fucking day."

From that 2007 post:

"Each time the casually homicidal rhetoric on the Right is conspicuously ignored by the MSM while the fact that the Left uses the word “fuck” a lot sends them leaping onto their writing desks, shrieking and clutching their petticoats...
Each time one Republican Leader after another, after another, after another snuggles up to these loathsome freaks instead of denouncing them, the threshold for what is acceptable for the Wingnut Base to do and say gets lower."

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2007/03/my-…

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"The teabggers brought guns to demonstrations and were never shot, beaten, sprayed, dispersed in any manner.

Is that THE lesson we nonviolent citizens are supposed to learn here and now, after repeated police state brutality?"

That wouldn't be a bad lesson to learn. Be sure to remember that there is a huge gulf between armed and violent.

A better one would be to recognize that the state is violence.

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I hope these thugs are fired.
These students were not doing anything that warrants being pepper sprayed in that manner. What an abuse of power.

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Everyone who carries a gun will tell you they are ready to use it. The obvious implication is that the gulf between armed and violent is subject to radical shrinkage by either party without notice to the other.

But the obvious differences in media and government treatment between the Tea Party and OWS clearly indicate which one is owned and operated by the same people who own and operate Wall Street and which one actually seeks to change the system.

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I'm looking forward to the lawsuits and criminal prosecution against Mr. Pike. He is a worthless human being and deserves everything that will undoubtedly come his way. Unbelievable. Thanks, teabag people, for your support of the police state. While you're so busy worrying yourselves to death about socialism (an economic system), you cheer and support authoritarianism. Unfortunately, you're too stupid to know the difference and to know which is actually dangerous. Fools.

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Those demonstrators have exhibited the ideal behavior and response that defines a peaceful demonstration. They deserve to be recognized for this.

I hope that this video not only goes viral, but is studied by each of the other OWS groups on how to conduct themselves so that they can triumph.

Somehow the message that Corporate Entities are not afforded the same rights as We, the People, has got to become more unified and sung out in cadence by each and everyone of the OWS members.

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There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody'­s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Buffalo Springfiel­d

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Here's what happened to a young Arkansas girl who moved to Portland about 6 months ago. Great country, huh?

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/20…

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Does this kind of crap really make you respect the people in blue? What's fucking crazy is they are trying to help that poor idiot's economic future with their actions.

Don't normally get into calling LEO's names, but this fucker is a pig. Hope whoever he is employed by has some deep pockets as I see some civil law suits in his future.

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A UC Davis professor is now circulating a petition demanding that the chancellor of US Davis who brought in police to break up the demonstrations there resign: http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/uc-da…

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"At Saturday’s news conference, UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said the decision to use pepper spray was made at the scene.

“The students had encircled the officers,” she said. “They needed to exit. They were looking to leave but were unable to get out.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/vid…

I think Spicuzza might be out of job here for lying based on what I see in the video. Those officers were never in danger. And if they felt they were, I think the chickenshits need to find another line of work where they won't feel so threatened. Like working security in a daycare center. Bad judgement all around.

BTW, all this riot gear our PD's have now is courtesy of the US government through grants created after 9-11 as I recall. Homeland Security and all.

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They are campus cops... what would one expect?

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Look at the students' beautiful discipline as they silently shame the chancellor who betrayed them. Listen to her footsteps and ask yourself what shame she's feeling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ0t9ez_EGI

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That silent Walk of Shame by the chancellor is powerful. Her heels going "clop clop clop" while everyone just sits and stares at her ... wow. Those students have handled themselves brilliantly.

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Okay, I had to click the "show more" button 3 times to get it to load.

The HuffPo story on this has more than 40,000 comments. They also have a slide show of 150 OWS pics.

As far comparisons to the Tea Party which some make, they have very little in common. The tea party was a very narrow demographic of middle aged, privileged white folks. They were the "I've got mine, so fuck you crowd." Those camping out are mostly the young, but their events have a wide range of ages and races----they look like America!

The tea party was quickly co-opted by the Kochs, Dick Armey and others. They are nothing more than the Republican base now. So far the OWS movement has avoided being co-opted by the democratic party. They are seeking a new way of being together in a civilized society.

If you have not read Norma's link to "The Two Year Window" do so. It lays out pretty starkly the need for very early childhood education. If we are ever going to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance, this is where it begins. My sister, a retired elementary school teacher, says that too many children come to school never having been read to and what she needed was a lap big enough to hold 30 kids so she could give them all what they should have gotten from home. We know what we need to do but lack the political will to do it.

http://www.tnr.com/article/economy/magazin…

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Tea Party: People for whom the system works, who wanted it to work even better for them at the expense of everyone else, outlier.

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BTW, all this riot gear our PD's have now is courtesy of the US government through grants created after 9-11 as I recall. Homeland Security and all. - wannabeconservative

Perhaps, but in reality we can thank Tricky Dick and his 'War on Drugs' that created the SWAT funding and training that has in turn created a ParaMilitary force at your local Citizens On Patrol (COP) shop.

Now that the forces have been trained and equipped with the latest and greatest tools of the trade and been given the authority to reign control and terror over the minions we are fully 'protected'.

External threats will now be repelled by the Military while any internal threat can be repelled by the ParaMilitary Police Forces.

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Outlier -

Before clicking on Show More Comments, make sure the page has stopped loading. (For some reason that started back when the OTHER problems started, a couple of months or so back, many of these pages still get stuck in endless loops and NEVER fully load -- unless you manually stop them.)

Manually stop pages from loading by clicking the "X" -- which is where your "Reload" symbol is, after pages load. Your "Reload" symbol usually looks like a circular arrow.

Stop the page from loading and you should have no trouble with Show More Comments.

Unless some Ukranian techie has hijacked you, which I'm pretty sure they haven't. Or you've blogged something nasty about Karl Rove, in which case your future is all used up.

(The answer to Today's Trivia Teaser, incidentally. Who said it?)

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Looks like this story is gaining steam - it is now on CNN and NPR front page news.

Of course, as one might expect - it is a mere one-line article under the much more important 'DC Cops arrest Protesters Occupying empty building' story on Faux News.

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Occupy is doing what the Tea Party set out to do, while the Tea Party implodes even after daily positive press from Fox. That is more than enough to guarantee the anger of Fox.

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And remember during Kent State that 58% of Americans blamed the students and only 11% thought the National Guard was to blame. History has a way of passing judgement on oppression.

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How about the whole video, to a chopped version where the intimation is that he cops simply came and sprayed the fleabaggers. Funny how some talk about edited materials, then post them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyVAuBeEYN0

Funny thing, is the students screaming, "don't shoot the children!" Those aren't children, they are adults, and being treated as such. There is a consequence for actions, and those students who refused to move after being warned repeatedly earned a little consequence. I guess my sympathies have hardened after seeing how nobody thought is was uncool for a pack of fleabaggers to threaten and harass real children.

Spare me the tears. Like I said, sympathy is falling, and even events like the pepper spraying, and the one idiot who got a cut on his head aren't stirring as much outrage they might have earlier on.

Here are some real examples of police brutality, for your consideration and a bit of needed perspective...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibSwITK4jjQ…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDzQ8Vay3Pg…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK60wynrIIc…

One could go for hours with reports of real brutality. But, because this is the fad of the year, and the Fleabaggers are losing ground, they have to incite some drama.

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From the CNN Occupy Roundup

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/20/us/occupy-pr…

The crowd at the Family Leader Thanksgiving forum in Des Moines erupted in applause as GOP president contender Newt Gingrich said the Occupy protesters need to "Go get a job, right after you take a bath."

"All the Occupy movement starts with the premise that we all owe them everything," he said. "They take over a public park they didn't pay for, to go nearby to use bathrooms they didn't pay for, to beg for food from places they don't want to pay for, to obstruct those who are going to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathrooms and to sustain the park, so they can self-righteously explain they are the paragons of virtue to which we owe everything.

"Now, that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country, and why you need to reassert something by saying to them, 'Go get a job right after you take a bath.'"


Nobody can out-hate the Newt.

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