Week In Review: OWS, Dorli Rainey, Personhood Amendments, & Floating Islands

The Bat Signal Of The 99%

Hello to all and thanks for checking in.

I'm thinking of making this is a regular thing, where I can post articles that I couldn't fit in elsewhere during the week. It was a busy week, with this pesky little global revolution going on. Let's get to it:

We have to start with yesterday's International Day of Action. Simply too much happened to list here. There was the standard police brutality in NYC. Here is a guy that is bleeding from his head and mouth, after being thrown to the ground (this one is somewhat graphic) by the NYPD. Eyewitnesses said he lost 3 or 4 teeth in the attack. The reason for the beating: one report said he kicked a barricade another said that he flipped the cap off of an officer. You can decide if either of those actions are worth a cracked skull and missing teeth.

Over 200 were arrested in New York, including some journalists and a retired police chief (formerly of the Philadelphia PD).

NYPD estimated 32K people in the protest. Protesters also did march along the Brooklyn Bridge again (pedestrian walk section). My favorite pic from the day might be this one (above). A group called "The Other 99%" took responsibility for projecting "99%" onto the Verizon building. At the time of posting, there were 3 videos of this on YouTube. It's an awesome sight, there were rotating occupy-related messages. Overall, it seems the best coverage has been from a network called RT America. They've been on top of the Occupy story from the beginning. You can see RT's live blog as it happened in NYC here.

Here is the scene from Greece, courtesy of RT as well. Greece saw more clashes and riots yesterday. It was an incredible day all around. If you wanted more information on a specific town, just Google "International Day of Action and (whatever city)." The most active US towns seemed to be: Chicago, Washington DC, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Portland. Occupy California got around their orders to not pitch tents, by strapping balloons onto them and floating them above their campsite (pretty cool). And, you can check here, for direct links to happenings in Madrid, Belgium, Germany and Japan.

These are some facts to throw out to your conservative friends (and/or family) if you get into an argument over the holidays next week. Any Republican will tell you about the evils of Obama's stimulus package and the need to cut to spending. Every normal economist, including the above-mentioned Paul Krugman, says stimulus is the way to go. Here is some proof. It is a comparison of the U.S. vs U.K. economy, from before the recession to now. After three and a half years, U.S. GDP is just about returning to the pre-recession level. It's not great to be even in size with a few years ago. But, it's worlds better than the U.K., where GDP is still five percent below its pre-recession level. Full article is here. So, if you get into an argument, tell the person that yes cutting spending is important, but after the recession is over and economic growth has resumed.

Earlier in the week, I put up a post that looked at the effect of inequality on society as a whole. Within it, I talked about research that showed that wealthy people have more fear of the poor in these societies. And, there have been proven links and research, showing elevated stress levels in unequal societies. So, with that as the backdrop, consider this. Billionaire, Peter Thiel, has revealed a plan to launch a floating country of the coast of San Francisco. The researchers I mentioned here, were definitely onto something, linking inequality and stress. This guy wants to check out of here completely and create his own country. It must be stressful. What will he name the new country? Who will be President? Will they have people to do the stuff that rich folks won't want to do (clean, mow the lawn, etc)? I'm being facetious. But, what is more far-fetched, my questions, or someone that wants to create a floating country? And, aren't those called islands? I thought we had them already.

Here is a picture that I think sums up the police overreaction to the occupy protest. Here is an 84 yr old woman, after getting pepper sprayed in Seattle. In the Occupy Seattle raid, a pregnant teenager and priest were also pepper sprayed. The elderly woman is named Dorli Rainey. She's still very active politically at her age and was not at the protests by chance. Below is an interview with her, from Keith Olbermann's Wednesday show. She's truly an inspiration.

You may have also heard about the craziness at Occupy Wall Street from early morning Wednesday, concerning their eviction from Zuccotti Park. One tidbit from the OWS episode, that was pretty scary, was that over 5,000 books that were thrown away from their library. For those unaware, the Nazis destroyed literature during their rise to power. And, it's a tactic that is dotted across history. Those in power feel that it's useful to keep new information and ideas away from the public (especially during times of unrest). I don't think that was the intention of the raid, but the similarities of the end result were not lost on the protesters. Here is an expansive list of book burning incidents across time.

2 more things before clearing out and this was actually from Election Day on November 8th. I now have a sliver of hope for that little bit of land, south of the Mason-Dixon line. You know them as separate U.S. states. I lump it all together and just call it "The South." It's faster that way. On Election Day, voters in Mississippi said no to an amendment to the state Constitution, that would have given a fertilized egg the same rights as a human. The ramifications of this passing would have been far-reaching. All abortions would have been illegal (and possibly considered murder). Some forms of birth control would have been considered murder too. In-Vitro fertilization would have been treated the same. Late-term abortions (done to save the mother) would get the same treatment. The idea was patently insane, but the voters thankfully said no to it.

Which leads me to the best joke I saw, a day before the vote:
"Pregnant ladies of Mississippi: you might be able to drive in the HOV lane as soon as tomorrow!"

Oh, the laughs you get from personhood amendment jokes!! Truth be told, I did love that. The law was so ill-conceived, that if you can try a doctor for murder for a late-term abortion, a mother-to-be should be able to use the carpool lane. Seems reasonable.

We'll leave it there for the week.

See you next time,
James