i've run out of patience

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The very weakest of my ten perfectings is patience, but enough is too much already.

A federal magistrate ruled Friday that prosecutors can demand Twitter account information of certain users in their criminal probe into the disclosure of classified documents on WikiLeaks.

Three of the five account holders targeted by the government had asked the judge to reverse an earlier order she issued requiring Twitter to turn over the information to prosecutors. The Twitter users argued that the government was on a fishing expedition and its request amounted to an unconstitutional violation of their freedom of speech and association.

But in a ruling issued Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan said the government's request was reasonable and did nothing to hamper the Twitter users' free speech rights.

"The freedom of association does not shield members from cooperating with legitimate government investigations," Buchanan wrote in her 20-page opinion.

The efforts by the Twitter users marked the first legal skirmish in the Justice Department's criminal investigation of the WikiLeaks disclosures, but is unlikely to be the last. The Twitter users' lawyers, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation - had previously said they would appeal an unfavorable ruling from the magistrate to a trial judge.

A federal law - the Stored Communications Act - allows prosecutors to obtain certain electronic data without a search warrant or a demonstration of probable cause. Instead, the government must only show that it has a reasonable belief that the records it seeks are relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Prosecutors said the law is used routinely in criminal investigations, and that the WikiLeaks investigation is no different from any other criminal probe.

The U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is investigating the WikiLeaks case, declined comment after Friday's hearing.

Buchanan agreed with prosecutors, and said the Twitter users had no reason to expect that the information sought by prosecutors would be kept private. The order does not seek the content of the tweets themselves, which are already publicly disseminated. Instead, it seeks certain "non-content" information, like billing records and IP addresses associated with the accounts.

"The Twitter Order does not seek to control or direct the content of petitioners' speech or association," Buchanan wrote.

Lawyers for the Twitter users had argued that people would be less likely to speak freely if they knew that doing so could result in their being subjected to a government investigation.

Twitter did not immediately respond Friday to questions about whether it now intends to turn over the information sought by prosecutors.

The original order issued by Buchanan in December 2010 at prosecutors' request sought account information from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is being held at Quantico Marine Corps Base amid allegations that he leaked classified documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to WikiLeaks.

Three other accounts belonging to American Jacob Appelbaum, Dutch citizen Rop Gonggrijp and Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland's parliament, were also targeted. Those three challenged the court order. Assange has contended that, as an Australian citizen, he is not subject to American law.

Buchanan also rejected a request that would have required the government to disclose whether it sought similar records from other social networking sites like Facebook.

Just make it stop.

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love, 99
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STAND UP!

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My tooth just shot lava into my mouth.

A Statement on the Events of March 9th
“A Stain on Democracy”

The Autonomous Solidarity Organization was officially formed on Tuesday March 8th, 2011. The roots of our organization date back to the early days of the original occupation of the Capitol. The bulk of our core membership were members of the drum circle and “people's microphone” which kept spirits high and allowed the voice of the public to be heard in the rotunda for the 18 days of the occupation. We worked in concert with unions, the Capitol staff, and the general public as these connections became available. We made every effort to maintain peace and order during the repeated provocations we were faced with. These roles were revisited on the night of March 9th. During the post-occupation period (after March 3rd) we decided to formally organize in order to continue the fight which we had already dedicated weeks of our life to. Our efforts, and our reach, will be much broader than the fight against SB 11 but for now that is a moot point.

To begin discussing the events on March 9th it is useful to begin by examining the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law (State Statute 19.84):

“Public notice of every meeting of a governmental body shall be given at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of such meeting unless for good cause such notice is impossible or impractical, in which case shorter notice may be given, but in no case may the notice be provided less than 2 hours in advance of the meeting.”

At around 4:00 pm, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald announced that a conference committee on the Budget Repair Bill would meet at 6:00pm. This minimal compliance with our state's laws is the continuance of a disturbing trend we have seen from the Wisconsin Republicans. As stated in the Open Meetings Law, a 24 hour notice is required unless such notice is impossible or impractical. Assembly Speaker Fitzgerald has certainly not provided any argument as to why a 24 hour notice was impractical or impossible. There is no rational, intellectually honest argument behind such a claim.

Immediately members of the ASO and other groups involved in fighting this bill put out a call for the general public to get to the Capitol building as quickly as possible. At this point, access to the building was limited to only two entrances (King St. and North Hamilton St.). I specifically state this because the public entrances are constantly changed. Between 5:30 and 6:00pm, only one of these two entrances was open. Which entrance was open was periodically changed. Again, there is no rational, intellectually honest reason for doing this. It succeeded in slowing the pace at which the general public entered the building.

Despite the fact that Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca has stated that he received only the Legislative Financial Bureau memo on the new bill, the conference committee quickly approved the amended version of SB-11 and within minutes the Senate passed it. Before the Senate was even out of session, the building was locked down. No public hearings were held. Over the next several hours, there were several large breaches of the Capitol building security. Eventually the police largely stood down and the public began to flood into the building. In the past the DOA had clearly demonstrated its ability to lock the building down like a militarized zone. Even in the few days preceding March 9th, public access was severely limited. In the past, the Governors supporters were brought into the building through underground tunnels while a Democratic Assemblymen was literally tackled to the ground while trying to gain access to his own office. Members of ASO dressed in suits were offered quick passage through security while others were prevented access on March 8th. It is an interesting point that security measures were severely relaxed on the evening of March 9th.

While the massive flood of the general public into the building created a hectic scene, at no point did the crowd become violent. For a period there were no sound amplification systems in the building, which we had previously used during the original occupation to maintain order and peace. Eventually megaphones were brought in and members of ASO immediately began using them to urge the crowd to remain peaceful. It was merely a precaution that we have always taken. Despite the justifiable anger of the crowd, we have yet to resort to violence even in times where there was no control at all. Despite all of the provocations, manipulations, despite the DOA's violation of the state constitution and failure to comply with court orders, we have remained peaceful.

Eventually, after discussions with Chief Tubbs of the Capitol Police, the majority of the public left the building. All but a few members of the ASO have left the building. The assembly will vote on the new version of the bill today, March 10th at 11am. If this occurs it will be an unspeakable crime against our democracy. Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans have spent weeks promoting the provisions of the Budget Repair Bill as necessary to close the budget deficit. There was never a rational, intellectually honest argument that stripping collective bargaining from public employees, that putting an unelected official in direct control of Badgercare and Medicaid, that allowing no-bid sale of power plants have anything to do with balancing the budget. However it has now been made even clearer. Explicitly financial portions of the bill were split into a separate bill and they are attempting to pass these provisions into law.

In the Legislative Financial Bureau's memo on modifications to SB 11, page 16, there is a provision titled “Discharge of State Employees.” It states that under current law, “the Governor may issue an executive order declaring a state of emergency for the state or any portion of the state if he or she determines that an emergency resulting from a disaster or imminent threat of a disaster exists.” Remember that the Wisconsin Republicans have shown a disturbing penchant for complying with existing law in the most limited sense. In the event of a Governor declaring a state of emergency, the new SB 11 would allow an appointing authority to discharge any employee who fails to “(a) report to work for any three days during the state of emergency, (b) participates in a strike, work stoppage, sit- down, stay-in, slowdown, or other concerted activities to interrupt the operations or services of state government.” There is a clear coordination between the language used to vilify those exercising their 1st amendment rights and the language used to activate this provision. The Republicans very clearly are interested in giving Governor Walker the ability to wield unreasonable, unprecedented power.

The writing is on the wall. Every day we see more of their intentions and every day our resolve only grows stronger. As always, we will respond appropriately, peacefully, and effectively in Autonomous Solidarity.

Thomas M Bird
Co-Chair, Communications
Autonomous Solidarity Organization

Obviously, Wisconsin Democrats knew these rules, knew how the Republicans would handle it. So nothing to lose by playing the good guy here.

GET. POLITICAL. PARTIES. OUT. OF. THIS.

WILL. YOU. NEVER. LEARN?

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love, 99
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lawful rebellion

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Yesterday, on one of those Out There sites, I saw a call for people to show up somewhere in England with black umbrellas. Today I see it worked. Now THAT is what I call taking responsibility... EXCEPT that they were far too noisy about it. It should be done in silence.

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And we should not be arrested for it. A much greater effort should be made to convince peace officers what side they're really on. They shouldn't need convincing, but, seriously now, they've been dumbed down and hypnotized thoroughly, in addition to their paychecks... so we need to address that.

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love, 99
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while i'm dying of a toothache

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You should contemplate the beauty and power of this... and try to help restore it and enhance it.

Also, some tedious progressives are bragging about a demonstration at a BofA in DC today, and trying to start something more serious. I wouldn't mention it, because it's just another bullshit clicktivism website trying to get you to do the equivalent of an email petition, but at LEAST, for once it doesn't seem to be asking for your money. It, in fact, may be a bunch of bullshit nonprofits putting it up so they can wave it as evidence of performing their function when the IRS audits them. Pessimism. Nasty pessimism. Jaded killjoy here. Sorry.

Anyway, I may be on the horns of a serious disability... that I hope is just a popcorn hull jammed under my gum, but might be something a little more egregious... and so this is my declaration that for sure until this stops hurting me, I'm not going to be out there presenting my bank with any bills or bullhorning anyone into city hall.

No kidding, you should look at the the spectacular images at the image link and contemplate filling all state capitols and CERTAINLY Washington, DC in even greater numbers. It is my fondest wish for you to do this WITHOUT any signs or noise, to just gather in these numbers and calmly and peacefully physically remove the government, the corrupt sham government, from our property. Okay? In short, kindly stand up while I lie down.

Right, then. I'll have a nap now. If I can do it.

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love, 99
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baby steps

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I love ya, but more, better, harder, faster...

On Monday afternoon, the Capitol Police in Madison, Wisconsin refused to enforce an order to clear the Capitol building of hundreds of peaceful protesters who have been occupying the site to protest Governor Scott Walker’s plan to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews State Rep. Kelda Helen Roys (D), who spent Sunday night in the Capitol building with other protesters. Roys describes what happened at four o’clock on Monday afternoon when the government gave the order to clear the protesters from the building:

And after several hours of the same sorts of scenes that we’ve been seeing all week—singing, chanting, drumming, speechifying—the Capitol police captain, Chief Tubbs, made an announcement, and he said that the protesters that had remained in the building, they were being orderly and responsible and peaceful and there was no reason to eject them from the Capitol.

Police attempted to clear the building of protesters on Sunday night, but they relented when the protesters refused to leave and allowed them to stay another night. On Monday, the police decided not to eject protesters already inside, but no additional activists would be allowed in. The governor plans to deliver his budget address on Tuesday afternoon. Walker is expected to call for spending cuts that could exceed $1 billion dollars.

Gov. Walker has threatened mass public sector layoffs if the Democratic senators do not return from Illinois by March 1. However, the Uptake.com reports that one of the absent legislators, State Sen. Jon Erpenbach, claims Walker is not telling the truth. Erpenbach says the unions have already agreed to come up with the money the governor needs to balance the budget, and therefore, he has no need to lay anyone off to bridge the gap.

Wisconsin 101

Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive describes the epic scale of the Wisconsin protests:

This is the largest sustained rally for the rights of public sector workers that this country has seen in decades — perhaps ever.

The crowds at the state Capitol have swelled from 10,000-65,000 during the first week all the way up to 100,000 on Feb. 26. Hundreds of people occupied the Capitol building with a sit-in and sleep-in for days on end, and total strangers from around the world ordered pizzas for them.

In case you’re still wondering what all of this means, Andy Kroll, Nick Baumann, and Siddhartha Mahanta of Mother Jones have joined forces to bring you this Wisconsin 101 primer.

The Republicans in the Wisconsin House passed a bill that would take away collective bargaining rights for public sector unions, restrict their ability to collect dues, and force them to undergo yearly recertification votes. But the bill cannot become law until the state Senate also passes it. Currently, 14 Democratic state senators are hiding out in Illinois to deprive the Republican majority of the quorum they need to vote on the bill. However, as Kroll notes, if only one Democrat breaks faith and returns to Madison, the Republicans will be able to pass the bill.

Nationwide solidarity

Jamilah King of Colorlines.com brings us a photo essay on the solidarity rallies held around the country over the weekend in support of the Wisconsin protesters. From San Francisco to Salt Lake City to Atlanta to New York, people took to the streets in support of the right of workers to organize. Also at Colorlines.com, historian Michael Honey draws parallels between the situation in Wisconsin and Dr. Martin Luther King’s last crusade. Shortly before his assassination, King stood with the sanitation workers of Memphis to demand collective bargaining rights and the power to collect union dues.

George Warner of Campus Progress profiles some young activists who took to the streets of Washington, D.C. to express their solidarity with the Wisconsin protesters. About 1,500 people came out to a rally in support of the protesters on Saturday.

Anonymous strikes again

In a bizarre twist, a loosely organized coalition of anarchic hackers known as “Anonymous” attacked websites linked to Koch Industries on Sunday, Jessica Pieklo reports for Care2.com. The Koch brothers are among Gov. Walker’s most generous benefactors. The hackers launched a distributed denial of service attack on the website of the Koch-funded conservative group Americans for Prosperity.

In addition to generous campaign contributions, the Koch brothers gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn paid for millions of dollars worth of ads against Walker’s opponent in 2010. Walker is evidently very grateful to Koch. Last week, a writer for a Buffalo-based website got Walker on the phone by pretending to be David Koch.

Don’t look now, but...

Meanwhile, in Indiana, the state assembly reconvened on Monday to find most of the 40 Democratic members had decamped for Illinois. The legislators are apparently taking a page from the Wisconsin playbook. Indiana’s Republican governor is trying to pass legislation that would make permanent a ban on collective bargaining by public sector workers and the Democratic legislators are seeking to deny him the 2/3rds quorum required to vote on the bill.

...and quickly, please.

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love, 99
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wake up, america

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It makes me so crazy because I remember bellowing about this on the airwaves some six years ago. I was screaming about the fortresses that would be surrounded by naked and starving hordes here, and around the world, if this Democratic-Fascist and Republican-Fascist plan for globalization were allowed to go forward. So I almost want to smack the guys bellowing about it now, when it's this close to midnight.

From now on, whenever you hear the term "the global economy" you should immediately equate it with the destruction of the U.S. middle class.  Over the past several decades, the American economy has been slowly but surely merged into the emerging one world economic system.  Unfortunately for the middle class, much of the rest of the world does not have the same minimum wage laws and worker protections that we do.  Therefore, the massive global corporations that now dominate our economy are able to pay workers in other countries slave labor wages and import the products that they make into the United States to compete with products made by "expensive" American workers.  This has resulted in a mass exodus of manufacturing facilities and jobs from the United States.

But without good, high paying jobs the U.S. middle class cannot continue to be the U.S middle class.  The only thing that the vast majority of Americans have to offer in the economic marketplace is their labor.  Sadly, that labor has now been dramatically devalued.  American workers now must directly compete for jobs with millions upon millions of workers on the other side of the world that toil away for 15 hours a day at slave labor wages.  This is causing jobs to leave the United States at an almost unbelievable rate, and it is putting tremendous downward pressure on the wages of millions of jobs that are still in the United States.

So when you hear terms such as "globalization" and "the global economy", it is important to keep in mind that those are code words for the emerging one world economic system that is systematically wiping out the U.S. middle class.

A one world labor pool means that the standard of living for the U.S. middle class will continue falling toward the standard of living in the third world.

We keep hearing about how the U.S. economy is being transformed from a "manufacturing economy" into a "service economy".  But "service jobs" are generally much lower paying than "manufacturing jobs".  The number of good paying "middle class jobs" in the United States is rapidly decreasing.  So how can the U.S. middle class survive in such an environment?

What makes things even worse for manufacturers in the United States is that other nations often impose a "value-added tax" of 20 percent or more on U.S. goods entering their shores and yet most of the time we do not reciprocate with similar taxes.

But whenever someone mentions how incredibly unfair and unbalanced our trade agreements with other nations are, they are immediately labeled as a "protectionist".

Well, someone should be looking out for U.S. interests when it comes to trade, because the current state of the global economy is ripping the U.S. middle class to shreds.

Right now, the United States consumes far more wealth than it produces.  This nation buys much, much more from the rest of the world than they buy from us.  This is called a "trade deficit", and it is one of the most important economic statistics.  The U.S. runs a massive trade deficit every single year, and it is wiping out our national wealth, it is destroying our surviving industries and it is absolutely shredding middle class America.

We cannot allow tens of thousands of factories to continue to leave the United States.  We cannot allow millions of jobs to continue to be "outsourced" and "offshored".  We cannot allow tens of billions of dollars of our national wealth to continue to be transferred into foreign hands every single month.

The truth is that the global economy is bad for America.  The following are 23 facts which prove that globalism is pushing the standard of living of the middle class down to third world levels....

#1 From December 2000 to December 2010, the U.S. ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars.

#2 The U.S. trade deficit was about 33 percent larger in 2010 than it was in 2009.

#3 The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#4 The U.S. economy is rapidly trading high wage jobs for low wage jobs.  According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project, higher wage industries accounted for 40 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months but only 14 percent of the job growth.  Lower wage industries accounted for just 23 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months and a whopping 49 percent of the job growth.

#5 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.

#6 In Germany, exports account for approximately 40 percent of GDP.  In China, exports account for approximately 30 percent of GDP.  In the United States, exports account for approximately 13 percent of GDP.

#7 Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe?  Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.

#8 In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them.

#9 The U.S. economy now has 10 percent fewer "middle class jobs" than it did just ten years ago.

#10 The United States currently has 7.7 million fewer payroll jobs than it did back in December 2007.

#11 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.

#12 In 2002, the United States had a trade deficit in "advanced technology products" of $16 billion with the rest of the world.  In 2010, that number skyrocketed to $82 billion.

#13 The United States now spends more than 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#14 In China, working conditions are so bad that large numbers of "employees" regularly try to commit suicide.  One major employer, Foxconn, has even gone so far as to install "anti-suicide nets" in an attempt to keep their employees from jumping off of their buildings.

#15 Wages for workers in China are incredibly low.  For example, one facility in the city of Longhua that makes iPods employs approximately 200,000 workers.  These workers put in endless 15-hour days but they only make about $50 per month.

#16 In Bangladesh, manufacturing workers toil in absolutely horrific conditions and make an average of about $38 per month.

#17 In Vietnam, teenage workers often work seven days a week for as little as 6 cents an hour making promotional Disney toys for McDonald's.

#18 Since 2001, over 42,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been closed.

#19 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#20 In the United States today, 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for 6 months of longer.

#21 8.4 million Americans are currently working part-time jobs for "economic reasons".  These jobs are mostly very low paying service jobs.

#22 When you adjust wages for inflation, middle class workers in the United States make less money today than they did back in 1971.

#23 According to Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup, China will be the largest economy in the world by the year 2020, and India will surpass China by the year 2050.

Those that promote "free trade" can never explain how the U.S. middle class is going to continue to have plenty of jobs in the new global economy.

By merging our labor pool with the rest of the world, we have also merged our standard of living with the rest of the world.  High unemployment is rapidly becoming "the new normal" in America, and wages are going to continue to decline in many, many industries.

Already, there are quite a few formerly great U.S. cities (such as Detroit) that are beginning to resemble third world hellholes.  If something is not done about our massive trade imbalance, even more cities are going to follow Detroit into oblivion.

Unfortunately, most of our politicians continue to insist that globalism is good for our society.  They continue to insist that we should not be worried that jobs formerly done by middle class American workers are now being done by slave laborers on the other side of the globe.  They continue to insist that having 43 million Americans on food stamps is a temporary thing and that soon our economy will be better than ever.

Well, it is time to stop listening to the politicians that are promoting "the global economy".  They are lying to us.

Globalism is great for nations such as China and it is helping multinational corporations make huge profits, but for the U.S. middle class it is an economic death sentence.

If you want an America where there are less jobs, where more Americans are on food stamps and other anti-poverty programs and where our cities continue to be transformed into deindustrialized hellholes, then you should strongly support the emerging global economy.

But if you care about the standard of living of the U.S. middle class and you want for there to be some kind of viable economic future for your children and your grandchildren then you had better start caring about these issues and doing something about them.

Please wake up America.

Globalization would be jake IF there were a plan in place to protect workers, but everybody, INCLUDING workers, just skips over that part.

I'm about ready to start pleading with Agent BB2 to hop in my go cart from the eighth dimension with me and onward to Wisconsin, but this needs to be happening in EVERY government outpost from city all the way up to federal—and the airports, and the bus stations, and and the train stations, and the hotels, and the sports stadiums, and the goddam pits of murderating delusion shopping malls—across the nation.

NOW.

Or, you'll be a half-clad and barefoot beggar who pleads to put on a sterile suit and clean glass for the real people.

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love, 99
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oh, man, it's odd i should come across this today

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I was back trying to pull together my sidebar again last night. Deleting or replacing dead links, etc., and finding myself miffed about that damn unemployment chart I keep faithfully updating every month, and which increasingly feels wrong to me. Kabam and kablooey! Pft! This now finds my eyeprints today.

Cosmic.

So. Since it now feels wrong, starting to feel as understated as the official line—and, yes, I know I clearly do like to err on the side of overstatement, but gimme a break, the country is comatose—I think I'm going to take that Shadow Stats graph off my sidebar. It ceases to say something meaningful to me....

For those of you on the feed, I don't know if you've noticed the updating on the matter of Egypt today. I think you should notice now.

Okay. Right. Off to nix the annoying graph.

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love, 99
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graffiti not even i can fuck up

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You can scribble, can't you? And you can google.

YOU ARE RESISTANCE

V FOR VICTORY

OCCUPATION OF AMERICA

Come on! It can't get any simpler than this... but it can get a whole lot nastier.

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love, 99
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the tribbles take on the space lizards

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Team work. You know, that all-American value, team work?

Unlike the short-lived uprising in neighbouring Algeria or recent socio-economic protests in other Arab countries, the popular Tunisian uprising was immediately supported by all the opposition groups, from the Islamists to the Communists, as well as by the labour unions, which helped it spread to all major parts of the country, including the influential north.

We are many; they are few.

Which is why the old divide-and-conquor bit is applied so relentlessly. Surely there are very few who are not conversant with this strategy, and yet Americans in our millions still fall for it, many gleefully engaging in it. I don't know whether to be semi-proud of myself for recovering from it, climbing back out—slimed—after falling into this glue pit when Dubya stole his second term, or continue to flog myself for it, let my shame keep burning. So I decide to do neither and to just do better.

I have very little patience even with people who constantly invoke our numbers advantage and yet insist on nonviolence because that violence is what "they" want from us, so they can crack down all the way. In the abstract, this sounds darn laudable to most people, those of us whose desire to remain physically unscathed by anything as colorful as an up close and personal confrontation, but, ahem, be realistic for a moment, would you? Yes, the violence is almost unerringly started by agents provocateurs, but there are no Gandhis or MLKs around to help insure nonviolence from uprising masses. When it happens, it isn't going to be nonviolent, but it will happen.

For US and European leaders, Tunisia's deposed president [er, dictator] had been considered a staunch ally in the war on terrorism and against Islamist extremism.

Are we going to leave it for as many decades as the Tunisians did?

I think we will. If they can drag out the fall slowly enough to keep the mainstream from overcoming its denial, it will be later rather than sooner. If we can keep ignoring the numbers of our fellows being culled by calling our participation in hotly partisan venues "engaged activism" or the proprietors of such venues "engaged activists", the day of reckoning can be indefinitely postponed. Sorry culls. We're cranking out cleverisms and books and blog ratings and facts—OMG, shitloads of facts—just as fast as ever we can.... Hold on. We will turn the tide. Don't die for a quarter of a century or so, okay?

Is it too much to endure if I point out that ANYONE engaged in partisan shit-slinging is not engaged in social justice? They are fervently working to coöperate with the power elite—most of them fervently trying to join them—whether we're talking on the right or on the left. If you can step out of your righteous indignation for but a few moments, this actually is readily apparent and indisputably lethal.

Then you have to train yourself to stop going there, now don't you? And that could mean eventually having to get out into the analog world and risking something fleshy, now wouldn't it? So, let me reïterate, they are NOT going to take away the means for you to keep engaging in your suicidally-ineffectual clicktivism. It is working beautifully for them, insuring they prevail, and giving more people a chance to make a living off this new theater of saving the world, this cyber liberation that corresponds with actuality not at all.

Plus, beside insuring you stay locked safely in la-la land, it gives them a means to identify you as possibly dangerous, too, and if you are a particularly audacious virtual revolutionary, you can make a name for yourself, make some bucks, get in with the power elite, help cull people who think you're a saint.

Whether you prefer to think of this as fascism or communism—whether you're a little bit Country or a little bit Rock and Roll—dragons are not slain by solitary knights. It takes masses of humans to rid the world of monsters.

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love, 99
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tomorrow

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Any of you close enough could get me some pictures....

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love, 99
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breaking news

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The people of Tunisia stood up.

Tunisia's long-standing president has left the country amid violent protests and the prime minister has taken over control of the government from him.

"Since the president is temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime minister will exercise temporarily the [presidential] duties," Mohamed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian prime minister, said on state television.

Ghannouchi is now the interim president.

He has vowed to respect the constitution and restore stability.

Friday's developments come following violent clashes in the capital, Tunis, over unemployment and rising food prices.

State media earlier reported that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the president, had imposed a state of emergency in the country and promised fresh legislative elections within six months in an attempt to quell the wave of dissent sweeping across the country.

There were also reports that the airport in Tunis had been surrounded by troops and the country's airspace has been closed. Air France, the main international airline into and out of Tunisia announced that it had ceased flights to Tunisia following that announcement.

State TV also reported that gatherings of more than three people had been banned.

Tunisian state television said on Friday it was expecting the announcement of an "historic decision" which will satisfy the desires of the north African country's people.

Ben Ali had been in power for the last 27 years. On Thursday, he vowed not to seek re-election and reduced food prices in a bid to placate protesters.

But the pledges seemed to have little effect as fresh street protests erupted on Friday.

Yes, we've all heard pledges before, now haven't we?

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Our first WikiLeaks revolution....

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Reuters gets the prize for best headline: Veteran Tunisian leader quits after protests.... Let's see if "veteran leader" replaces "dictator" in Webster's.

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love, 99
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hey! you know what? BULLSHIT.

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If you follow the link at the link, you will bump into a twenty-minute video introductory to a series of interviews on Peak Oil and a Changing Climate. This is sort of a mashup of the gang to be trotted out for us over the coming couple months. We will be hearing from Richard Heinberg, Nicole Foss, James Howard Kunstler, Dmitry Orlov, Noam Chomsky, Bill McKibben, Greg Palast, Thom Hartmann, Jean Laherrère, and Mike Ruppert... assuming we can muster the juju to put up with it, that is.

Listen. I'm SICK of progressives. I'm sick of their fucking video mashups and lectures and documentaries and endless bursts of "scholarship" that has a hard time standing up to real scrutiny and preaching to the choir and their everlasting half-hearted petition drives and their ever-lasting whole-hearted fund raising efforts... their goddam motor mouths... their frickin' esteemed positions in major universities and in the media, ALL of it. I mean, do NOT EVEN get me started on the comments appending all these.

DO they think we are so stupid as to not notice that they never DO anything to deserve our esteem? Our time? Our ears? Our eyeprints? Do they think they can just keep up with all this palaver for the rest of time... which, granted, isn't long...? I don't think a one of these people, except maybe Palast, could ever be induced to ACT, to LEAD, to MAKE this stuff get handled. This palaver has been coming at us without much in the way of letup for a decade or two, no? WHEN do they put it together that jawing in front of the masses doesn't CUT it? They expect to bask in their celebrity and punditry without any ACTUAL risk, even though they welcome any amount of PERCEIVED risk. Inflates the esteem quotient considerably... which keeps the donations trickling in.

WHY would all the air have gone out of our big push to clean up our act? BECAUSE these fuckers who never shut up never PUT up either. BECAUSE they play games and pile on bogus "science" to try to "prove" that which cannot be proven, but is felt by everyone, is KNOWN to everyone to be true. We're turning our planet into a sewer and it can't support us or most living things much longer if we don't drastically change our ways.

Peak oil is a big so what. It might NEVER actually peak because there very well may be limitless supplies of abiotic oil, but that is moot, moot, moot, moot, moot, because it's FILTHY shit and has to stop. All these "scientists" who have to play around with nothing-close-to-the-truth because the REAL physics must remain IGNORED by the mainstream would better serve by taking long walks off short piers. We. Don't. Need. Oil.

We. Do. Need. To. Clean. Up. The. Filth. And. Squalor. And. Quit. Extinctifying. Living. Things.

NOT rhetorically. The pen is no longer mightier than the sword. The mouth is no substitute for the feet. People VOTE with their feet and if you are watching the feet of this crowd—again, with the possible exception of Palast—you will find them no further away from their desks than yours are right now.

THIS DOES NOT—AND WILL NEVER—FAZE ACTUALITY.

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For any of you who are following my doctoral work in Out There, we have a particularly entertaining interview to listen to tonight. For any of you pooh-poohing it as fairy dust or conspiracy, not doing your thought experimenting to bust open that stanky old cell wherein your brain is molding, just ignore this little link. Not your bag. Not your bag.

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love, 99
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if we were not space aliens

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Things would not be as they are. Sure, we must kill things to eat, but that doesn't cover it.

Now does it?

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love, 99
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reminder

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A friendly reminder of the cost of spectator sports.

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love, 99
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nonsense

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It seems most probable that it is dread toxins from the Gulf being carried up and rained down. If we can get reports of plants being affected or massive enough outbreaks of human toxin-related illnesses, we will know for sure. This means that we won't be getting those reports, except from people on the ground making videos or reporting in to sites still covering the sequela of the blowout.

Then mix in, just for ducks, the weather modification and its big geoengineering ideas that are already taking place, and you could see how that might add to the problem of lethal crap killing living things.

Getting mad and then just swallowing it helps you not at all, but there are obviously some for whom all your denial and mounting terror is extremely benefiicial.

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love, 99
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i want one

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Please translate... or send me to France.

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love, 99
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all you turkeys wanna think about this when the tsa is grabbing yer giblets

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WHAT are we being basted with?

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And WHY is it this cold?

Global warming activists have warned for years that warming could cause the "great conveyor belt" of warm ocean water to shut down. They say that such a shut down could - in turn - cause the climate to abruptly change, and a new ice age to begin.

Also, see this, this and this. I mean, I don't know why suddenly it's so bad that airports are staying closed down THIS long. Seems to me that in blizzards past it was always they'd be closed only for the worst of it and and happening as soon as the runways were scraped, and now it seems that every volcano and storm is shutting down travel for days and weeks instead of a matter of hours.

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love, 99
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united states rammed through approval of gmo food in europe

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Ah, well....

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love, 99
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yes, i did post about this before

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But I didn't know yet how it was to be officially overlooked. Thanks to WikiLeaks, we have confirmation. The government is perfectly cognizant of the destruction they are licensing... and it's because they are all space lizards sent down here from their craft that has been orbiting us for millennia.

I'm speaking, of course, of what we call the moon.

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love, 99
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jesse ventura blows my mind

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This will Blow. Your. Mind.

ELEVEN DAYS BEFORE THE BLOWOUT. ELEVEN DAYS.

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love, 99
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