Rolling Stone Interviews Scott Olsen

Excellent interview from Rolling Stone magazine with Scott Olsen, the veteran ex-marine shot in the head with a 40mm tear gas canister by the Oakland Police Department while peacefully protesting as part of Veterans for Peace.

Scott Olsen - Casualty of the Occupation 
 (via Rolling Stone)


For those of you new to the story here is a short clip of Oakland Police throwing more tear gas and a flashbang at peaceful protesters rushing to aid Olsen after he is critically wounded. I warn you, it is very difficult to watch this happen to an American serviceman on American streets at the hands of American police.

(via Majority FM Radio)

 

Greyhound Driver Evicts Occupy Supporters from Bus

Protesters who were not actively protesting, merely using Greyhound to get to the Occupy Congress protests in DC were evicted from a Greyhound bus because the driver didn't agree with their reasons for traveling to DC.

Just another argument for better public transportation. Private corporations are free to restrict your rights to travel and to speak, the government (ideally) is not.

Greyhound Driver Evicts Occupy Supporters from Bus with Help from Texas Police 
(via opednews.com)

Oil and Gas Companies Hire Climate Scientists to Help them Prepare for Climate Change

As if we needed any more evidence that climate change is real. Now major energy companies are hiring the same climate scientists they publicly discredited to help them ensure they can adapt to the changing conditions as climate change starts to have a real world impact on their operations. 

They Know But Won't Admit It
(via Good Magazine)

Great Recession for the Poor, GreatProfit for the Rich

So much for all that talk about "shared sacrifice"...

Large Businesses Benefit from the Great Recession 
(via Time Magazine)

On the Ground Report from Occupy Congress

Two very important observations from this article:

One, while they were loud outside to get attention they knew to speak softly inside such that their message is actually heard.

"They chanted and cheered and hollered...then all stood in line patiently to get through building security. Once inside the building, the previously boisterous group split apart, becoming suddenly deferential inside congressional offices. Raucous on the outside; concerned average citizen on the inside. One California Occupier I followed walked into his congresswoman's office and asked quietly, "We're doing this correctly right? Asking these people to represent us?" He then went on to tell the staffers that his parents cannot retire and will have to work until they die."

Two, the "disorganized" style of the Occupy protests has some clear advantages.

"And Occupy Congress did manage to pull off a massive protest on the steps of the Supreme Court. This was not planned and had it been, it likely wouldn't have happened. It's illegal to demonstrate on the steps of the highest court in the nation. In October, Cornel West, on the day of the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, held a sign reading, "Poverty is the worst form of violence" and was swiftly arrested in "solidarity with the Occupy Movement." Tuesday, with only a handful of Capitol Police around over a thousand Occupiers rushed the steps of the Supreme Court. There was no way for the police to arrest that many people in a massive act of civil disobedience. The protesters then stood on the steps, cheering and chanting for a few moments, before just as swiftly leaving for the White House.


Had they known what they pulled off by accident was so unusual in the post-9/11 world, they might have stayed longer on the steps of the building where Citizens United was decided, facing arrest and forcing a point about the Court. Instead, the "leaderless" movement traipsed down Pennsylvania Avenue to the current home of President Obama."



On the Ground Report from Occupy Congress 
(via The Atlantic Magazine)

They Only Call It Class War When We Fight Back

"Everything the conservative movement stands for is a massive transfer of wealth and power from the poor and working class to the super rich and their wealthy special interests. They only call it class war when the working class and poor fight back. I plan to fight like hell because my dad wasn't a rich Governor like Romney's dad, my dad was a union carpenter who served in Vietnam, and the fact that my dad paid a higher tax rate than Mitt Romney does is fucking obscene."

I didn't come to start a class war, I came to end one
(via Daily KOS)