Most See Trump's Remarks About Protesters As Unhelpful

 

The charts above are from the ABC News / Ipsos Poll -- done on September 2nd and 3rd of a national sample of 709 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Lately, Donald Trump has used a "law and order" theme for his campaign. He has demonized the Black Lives matters protesters and tried to paint a picture of a lawless society if Joe Biden is elected. It's not working.

Most Americans don't want a divided country. They want a united country where equality and justice is given to all. About 55% see Trump hateful rhetoric as making the situation worse, while only 13% say it's making it better (top chart). 

And the respondents clearly thought the candidate that could make things better was Joe Biden (bottom chart).

Right-Wingers Pose Danger With Their Shutdown Protests

Austin, Texas

Huntington Beach, California

St. Paul, Minnesota

 Orlando, Florida

Salem, Oregon

Lansing, Michigan

Our nation is in the middle of a pandemic that has cost nearly 40,000 lives already, and will undoubtably cost many thousands more before it is over -- even if we cooperate with the social distancing measures put in place in most states. Unfortunately, there is a tiny minority (composed mostly of radical right-wingers) that refuses to cooperate.

Right-wingers took to the streets in many states this weekend to protest the shutdown measures being taken by most states. Those measures have saved lives, and since there is no vaccine or cure for the Coronavirus, represents our only hope to control the pandemic. Those right-wingers don't care. They claim the shutdown somehow violates their "rights", and they're evidently willing to unnecessarily kill thousands more people to protect those "rights".

No one's rights are being violated. The government has the responsibility to act to protect public health, and it is being done only until the very dangerous virus has been controlled.

These right-wing nutters have the right to protest, and to expose themselves to the virus by doing that. If they were the only ones to get sick because of their protest, I probably wouldn't mind. After all, you can't fix stupid! But anyone stupid enough to attend one of these protests is probably too stupid to quarantine themselves for a couple of weeks after doing so. Instead, they will carry the virus back to their families and friends, and anyone else crazy enough to get close to them.

These ignorant protesters say they want the economy reopened, but their actions will likely do just the opposite -- spread the virus and cause the shutdown to last even longer. Sadly, Donald Trump is encouraging their dangerous actions, and so are some other Republican officials. They are playing politics with the lives of American citizens (especially older Americans).

This is inexcusable -- and it shows once again that the radical right (and their political leaders) are the most dangerous element this country faces.

KKK Rally In Dayton Is An Embarrassing Failure

(Picture of the KKK Rally, by Jim Urquhart/Reuters, is from Business Insider.)

This has to be an embarrassment for the racist members of the KKK in Ohio. They decided they would hold a rally in Dayton. They didn't expect a massive turnout, but even scaled back predictions didn't materialize. They only had nine members show up -- and they wore masks to keep from being identified, and spent their time behind a cordon of police officers.

They were probably smart to hide behind the police, since over 650 counter-protesters showed up -- shouting and beating drums to drown out the KKK.

All-in-all, it wasn't't a good day for the cowardly racists. That's a good thing. The city government couldn't deny them their right to assemble and speak. Those are constitutional rights for all citizens -- even racists. But decent people have the right to speak and assemble also -- and they used their rights to put the KKK in its place.

May every day be as bad for racists.

Bus Driver In Amarillo Refuses To Transport OWS protesters

I have always thought the purpose of a bus was to transport passengers -- as long as they didn't cause trouble or pose a danger to other passengers. But an Amarillo bus driver named Donald Ainsworth seems to think he can make up his own rules for passengers -- and his rule is that he won't allow anyone who disagrees with him politically to ride on the Greyhound bus he drives.

There were 13 Occupy Wall Street protesters coming from San Diego (California) to participate in the upcoming "Occupy Congress" demonstrations. They had no problems with the bus company or any of its drivers -- until they reached Amarillo on Saturday. Driver Ainsworth became upset when he learned the 13 riders were OWS protesters. He yelled at them and told them they weren't wanted, and when they got on the bus, he refused to drive the bus.

The protesters and other passengers were locked on the bus for an hour while the driver ranted and tried to decide what he would do. He finally called the Amarillo police to the bus station. After a discussion with police, in which they tried to talk him into just driving the bus, the police finally removed the 13 San Diego OWS passengers -- and Ainsworth drove the bus away leaving them stranded in Amarillo (even though they had tickets and were causing no trouble).

After being forced to stay overnight in the bus station, the 13 were finally able to board a bus on Sunday and continue their journey to Washington, D.C. This should never have happened. As an Amarillo resident, I am shocked at the way these visitors were treated in our city. Ainsworth has the right to any political beliefs he wants to have, but he does not have the right to force his beliefs on others or demand they have a certain political philosophy before they can ride on the bus.

To my knowledge the bus company has not made any public statements regarding the driver's conduct. Personally, I believe he should be fired. He has shamed himself, this city, and the company he works for.

Support The West Coast Port Blockade

I received this e-mail from the Solidarity Center in New York. Personally, I think this is a good idea. Now that the authorities are taking violent actions on behalf of the 1% to destroy the Occupy Wall Street movement, the movement must alter its strategy and strike against Wall Street in a variety of ways. This is one of those ways.

Battle lines have formed as the West Coast Occupy movements, from San Diego to Alaska, flex their collective muscle against the federally coordinated, brutal attacks targeting the Occupy movements across the country. They are organizing for blockades of West Coast ports on Dec. 12 in San Diego; Los Angeles/Long Beach; Port Hueneme, CA (central coast); Oakland; Portland, OR; Seattle; Tacoma, WA; and possibly more. Solidarity actions have been called by OWS in New York and by Occupy movements at inland locations, as well.

The Occupy movement is aligning itself with labor and the working class, as the West Coast Occupy movements organize to support the struggle of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, ILWU, in Longview, Wash. Longshore workers there are waging a ferocious battle against transnational EGT, controlled by Bunge Ltd., of the grain cartel that controls most of the world's trade in food products. EGT is trying to break the ILWU in an attempt to drive down wages and destroy the union.

The West Coast Occupy movements are also aligning with the struggle of port truckers, who are fighting for the right to organize for union representation. Twenty-six of them were fired in Los Angeles for wearing Teamster jackets to work. Occupy LA and Long Beach are targeting SSA, an anti-union port terminal operator, majority owned by Goldman Sachs, the notorious Wall Street investment bank. Teamster president, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., has publicly expressed support for the Occupy movement.

The West Coast Occupy movements are targeting the ports as major commercial centers, showing that they can strike at the institutions which help to aggregate the wealth of the 1 percent by disrupting Wall Street on the waterfront. It's the history of the militant ILWU which enables this attack to have teeth. The ILWU rank and file have historically supported political struggles such as the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-war movement, in defense of Palestine in the face of attacks on Gaza, in support of the Wisconsin struggle against union busting, etc.

At a December 9th Press Conference regarding the West Coast Port Blockade, rank-and-file workers from the ILWU and Teamsters, local union leaders, veterans, and occupy organizers explained plans for the upcoming West Coast Port Shut Down on December 12 called for by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly:

“Occupy Oakland called for this massive coordinated blockade as a way to strike back at the 1% after their attacks on the Occupy movement and their continued assault on working and poor people” said Boots Riley an organizer with Occupy Oakland. “Our action is aimed directly at Wall Street on the Waterfront and is in solidarity with the struggles of port workers in LA and Longview, WA.”

A Few Hippies Or A Nationwide Movement ?

Many of the politicians, especially the Republicans, would like for Americans to think the Occupy Wall Street movement is nothing more than a few hippies raising a little hell. Newt Gingrich even said they should just take a bath and get a job (even though his party, with blue dog help, has systematically destroyed or outsourced millions of American jobs, leaving  a double digit number of applicants for the few jobs available).

The above map shows what an outrageous lie that idea is. Each of the red pinpoints above represents a city where Occupy Wall Street protests have been and are being held. That doesn't look like a few hippies to me. That looks like a nationwide movement demanding change. The politicians of both parties had better start taking this movement seriously, or they could well find themselves part of that change (and out of a job).

NOTE -- This map was found at Daily Kos.

The Militarization Of The Police

I wrote yesterday about the indefensible actions of a policeman who pepper-sprayed peaceful sitting demonstrators at the University of California - Davis. But that was far from the only police overreaction that has happened against the peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. Several people were hospitalized in Oakland due to unnecessary and brutal police actions. In Seattle, a pregnant woman was pepper-sprayed and attacked, and that was most likely the cause of her miscarriage a couple of days later. And those are just three of many incidents across the country.

Some on the right have been trying to make excuses for the unnecessary police actions against peaceful people trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Just a couple of nights ago, a couple of talking heads on Fox News tried to minimize the use of pepper spray. Responding to a statement by Bill O'Reilly just causes some burning of the eyes, Megyn Kelly said, "It's like a derivative of actual pepper. It's like a food product, essentially."

Authorities Conspire Against The 99% Protesters

The other day I wrote a post about the authorities in several cities using the police to deny protesters their constitutional rights. I said the 1% must be getting scared if they are resorting to police violence to shut the people up. Now it looks like it was even worse than I had imagined. I think most people, including myself, believed these actions in different cities were independent actions done by the authorities in those cities. It looks like that was wrong.

Thanks to a couple of slips of the tongue by dim-witted government officials, we now know that there is a conspiracy by both local and federal officials to break up the protests and deny these citizens their right to peaceably assemble and petition for a redress of their grievances. The Oakland mayor let it slip that she had been on the phone with the leaders in 18 other cities discussing how best to shut the protesters up. And a Homeland Security official let it slip that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were involved in those discussions.

Blame The Bankers And Politicians - Not The "Hippies"

Ever since the demonstrations of Occupy Wall Street started there have been those on the right (and among the 1%) who have tried to demonize the protesters. They hope that by demonizing the protesters they will take the country's attention away from the very serious economic and political problems the protesters are trying to point out. They have called them "socialists", "anarchists", and "anti-American", but perhaps the silliest charge they have made is that the protesters are just "hippies" (as though that would somehow make what they are saying less true).

I don't think these efforts to label and demonize have been very effective. People across the country can see in their own lives and those of their neighbors the truth of what the Wall Street bankers and the politicians have done to this country. That is why large numbers have joined or supported the OWS movement.

One of the best responses to the name-calling I've read can be found at the blog Thurman's Notebook (and I think he got it from DKos). I'm reposting it here for your perusal, and I freely admit I liked it because I'm an old "hippie" myself:

I don’t want to make this all about hippies… because it isn’t. The #OWS movement is a phenomenon all to itself. Blaming it on hippies is just typical weasel behavior from the champaigne-sippin’, caviar-dippin’ greedheads of Wall Street crowd – you know, the ones who got us into this mess in the first place. It’s just their way of avoiding responsibility, and boy howdy are they good at it.

But hippies, young and old, are involved…and that’s a damned good thing.

Let me tell you something about hippies. Hippies didn’t export anyone’s jobs, hippies didn’t lie us into an immoral war, hippies didn’t  conspire to steal anyone’s pension funds, hippies didn’t order anyone tortured, hippies didn’t steal so much that it crashed the economy of the entire world, and hippies don’t go on national tv and spew nonsense and propaganda for a very nice living.

So go ahead and blame hippies for everything…as if they had ruled us for decades. We should be so lucky. But we weren’t that lucky – not by a long shot. Instead, we got you.

So if the hippies have some advice for you Wall Street assholes, maybe you should listen. You could do worse. You did do worse. You did a lot worse.

Hippies told you to mind your planet. Hippies told you to make love not war. Hippies told you to not let greed grab you. But did you listen?

No. You and your minions in Congress and elsewhere turned your backs on responsibility. You abandoned the people and sold your souls to the highest bidders. Consequences be damned.

You should thank what gods may be that there are still hippies, that there are still people who put humanity over corporate profits, that there are still those who insist that we do the right thing rather than the profitable thing. We just may save the planet from assholes like you.

Meanwhile, our bought-and-paid-for politicians can’t do shit:

Global warming? Sorry.

Unjust wars? Nope, nothing to be done.

An oppressive and unjust Military Industrial Complex? C’est la vie.

Class warfare by the 1% against the 99%? It’s only class warfare when we say it is.

The disastrous drug war? Whatcha gonna do?

Loss of precious civil rights? Quit yer bitchin’.

Mercenaries on the streets of America? What’s to worry about?

Corporate takeover of the country? Yawn.

No, our bought-and-paid-for politicians can’t do anything that doesn’t involve shoveling cash into the coffers of the already filthy-fucking-rich. And by their inaction they would doom us all.

You greed-deranged fools who have done these things to us had better hope that the dirty fucking hippies come riding to the rescue. Otherwise we are all going to suffer a fate that only you deserve.

I don’t care what anyone says, there is something sweet and pure about old hippies like Ben Masel and others. People who still retain their principles and ideals and are still willing to stand up for humanity in the face of unrelenting tyranny. They deserve respect not scorn. Bless them all.

Law And Order Vs. Freedom

It's the same old argument that's being played out in many cities across this nation right now. -- is "law and order" more important than "freedom and free speech"? This last weekend the riot police moved in to break up the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in several cities, such as Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Oakland, Portland, Denver, and others. They are clearing parks and arresting protesters -- violently if they have to, and they are doing it in the name of "law and order".

The cry for "law and order" has always been the catch-phrase used by the powerful when their authority is questioned. It has been used by dictatorships throughout history to justify their using violence to hang on to power. And it is now being used by the 1% to stop those who would institute change in this country.

There are many in this country who believe that the United States is a place where freedom and free speech trump law and order. After all, we have a Constitution that guarantees the right of the people to speak freely and to peaceably assemble to redress the government for grievances. I wish that was true, but it has always been an illusion -- more propaganda than reality. Free speech in this country is allowed only when that speech coincides with what those in power want to hear.

A perfect example is the demonstrations by the teabaggers. They were not met with riot police and beaten or arrested because they were speaking out for policies that those in power, the 1%, liked -- policies that would let them continue to control the government and continue to amass an ever greater portion of the nation's wealth and income. But the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators were different, although just as peaceable. They were protesting for a change in power and for economic justice -- things the 1% did not want and will not allow. So the riot police have been turned loose on them. In their case, free speech and other constitutional rights must be subordinated to the "need" for law and order.

This is not new. It's the way this country has always reacted when it's citizens demanded change that scared those in power. There are many examples -- the violence unleashed was unleashed against those demonstrating for civil rights, for an end to the Vietnam War, for the right to strike and collectively bargain, for decent wages and conditions for farmworkers, for Native Americans to control their own destiny and land, and for many other things. The history of this nation has been a long battle between those wanting freedom and those trying to impose law and order to protect their power.

The rich and powerful have never given up anything willingly. They have always unleashed violence upon those wanting change. All these recent events have done is to remind us that nothing has changed. Our constitutional rights are respected only when the people stand together and demand it. When that doesn't happen, they are trampled upon by those in power.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is entering a crises time. They have been successful enough to scare those who control the government and the economy.Now those people are using the police to strike back. This is the time for people to stand up and demand that our constitutional rights be respected. If not, the movement will die, and the 1% will pop the champagne corks and celebrate another victory -- and we will be another step down the road to a full-fledged police state.

Occupy Amarillo Schedules Second Protest

The picture above shows people gathering before the first Occupy Amarillo protest (held to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement). A better than expected crowd of between 70 and 80 people showed up at Ellwood Park and marched down to the Chase Tower Building -- and many people along the route showed their approval of the marchers and what they stood for.

Now the Occupy Amarillo folks have scheduled a second event. On Saturday (November 5th) at 1:00pm they will gather in front of City Hall in downtown Amarillo. This time they are taking part in a worldwide protest against the giant banks on what has been dubbed "Bank Transfer Day" -- an effort to get people to take their money out of the giant Wall Street banks and put it in local banks or credit unions.

As Occupy Amarillo member Jami says, "We're trying to protest the entire corrupt system by starting with where we feel it started. That is why people are on Wall Street protesting instead of in front of the capitol in D.C. protesting because it's not just about the government and their shady politics, it's about the people who are feeding the shady politics lots and lots of money."

That is very true. Politics in Washington (D.C.) has gotten off track because of the tons of money being poured in by the Wall Street banks and giant corporations who have, in effect, bought the government -- so that it works for them and not the people of this country. Until the corporate and special interest money is taken out of politics nothing can or will be done to help hurting Americans, create jobs, or fix the broken economy.

I urge everyone who can to attend the rally on November 5th. Nothing can be changed until we stand together and show the politicians and rich corporations that the people as a whole are demanding that change.

Economist Lauds Occupy Wall Street Movement

The 1% and their congressional lackeys want Americans to think the Occupy Wall Street movement is just a group of radicals who don't understand the intricacies of economics. But nothing could be farther from the truth. The OWS protesters understand economics very well, and they especially understand how unfair the current policy of "trickle-down" economics is to the vast majority of Americans -- having created massive unemployment and a huge gap in wealth and income between the richest people and the rest of America.

Lending intellectual credence to the idea that the OWS movement knows exactly what they are doing (fighting for economic justice and fair play) is the fact that some very well respected economists support the movement and its goals. First on board was Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman. Now noted economist Jeffrey Sachs (pegged by Time Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People In The World") has expressed his support for the OWS movement. Here is the speech he gave to the OWS protesters on October 7th:

Occupy Wall Street Is Having A Positive Effect

The image above brings home a very disturbing fact about the United Staes -- the vast inequality of wealth and income in the country. This inequality, which grows worse with each passing week since Congress has done nothing about it, was the primary cause of this Great Recession (just like a previous and very similar gap caused the Great Depression).

But there is a big difference between the previous gap causing the Great Depression, and the current gap causing the Great Recession. The previous gap was caused by the Republican Party favoring the rich and the coporations. But when the Democrats got into power they changed the economic policies, put people back to work (using WPA and CCC), created the Social Security system, and gave the country new hope.

But things were different this time. After the Republicans went back to their old ways of favoring the rich and the corporations, causing the current economic mess and the loss of millions of jobs, the people again put the Democrats back in power in 2008. But this time nothing happened. It turns out that the rich and corporations had gotten smarter -- instead of just buying the Republican politicians, they also bought a passel of Democratic politicians (the blue dogs). And the Republicans combined with the blue dogs were powerful enough to prevent any economic changes or job creation.

After watching the Congress muddle around for nearly three years without changing the failed "trickle-down" Republican policy or doing anything to create a substantial amount of jobs, it became obvious that too many members of Congress (of both parties) were controlled by the corporations and the rich and nothing was going to be done to help ordinary and hurting Americans. In fact, the situation was being made worse by cuts to education and social programs while the rich continued to get unnecessary tax cuts and the corporations received unnecessary subsidies.

If any needed change was going to occur, it would have to start with the American people -- not the corporate-owned politicians in Congress. When this became obvious, it resulted in the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It may have started small with only a few hundred protesters in New York City, but it struck a chord with the American people and spread quickly to many other American cities -- first the large cities, and then in the smaller cities, and finally in cities around the world. It has now grown so large that it can no longer be ignored.

But can the movement cause real economic change in the United States? Probably not until and unless it grows even larger, but it has caused a couple of minor changes already -- and one of those could lead to much bigger changes down the road.

Did Oakland Police Give A Boost To OWS Movement ?

The Occupy Wall Street Movement spread far beyond the confines of New York City several weeks ago. It has spread across the country and is showing up in cities around the world. That's because people are finally starting to realize they've been taken advantage of by the rich and government policies that are slanted to benefit only the rich. The term "economic justice" may not have meant much to most people in the past, but for more and more people it has now become a cause they understand and support.

Even though the movement has seemed to spread like wildfire, there are still those who are hoping that the movement will die out. And that was in the realm of possibility -- after all, the cold weather is coming and it can be hard sometimes to keep a citizen's movement growing. Fortunately, it doesn't seem that the authorities, who are trying to cover for Wall Street, have learned anything from the experiences of the sixties and early seventies.

Occupy Wall Street And Public Sentiment

When the protesters started their Occupy Wall Street demonstrations over a month ago, it was first ignored by those in power. They figured the protesters would soon tire of the effort and go away. But they underestimated the tenacity of those protesters, and they also underestimated the anger among the general public over the recession and the economic system that had created it. Instead of dying out, the demonstrations grew stronger, and then they began to spread out of New York City and across the country.

First it was other large American cities, then it spread to smaller cities all over the country and eventually it even spread beyond the borders of this country. A couple of weekends ago there were "Occupy" demonstrations in over 1500 cities around the world. This makes sense because the economic inequality and injustice that is evident in America also exists in many other countries -- and the giant Wall Street Banks and international corporations  don't let puny things like national borders interfere with their greedy endeavors.

But the politicians and power brokers really perked up their ears when they learned that a large segment of the United States population was supporting the Occupy Wall Street protesters. One early poll showed that of the people who were familiar with the demonstrations, more than twice as many approved of them than disapproved. Then Time Magazine commissioned a poll (done on October 9th and 10th of 1,001 randomly chosen adults), and that poll showed that 54% of the public approved of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations while only 23% disapproved (and another 23% said they didn't know enough to have an opinion).

Those are some pretty nice numbers -- numbers that the two political parties can only dream about these days. Obviously the protesters had struck a chord with a lot of angry and unhappy Americans. Why was this happening? Why had the people stopped believing the broken promises of both political parties? Well, some clues can be gleaned from the answers to some other questions the Time Poll asked. One of those questions was:

DO YOU BELIEVE THE GAP BETWEEN THE RICH & POOR HAS GROWN TOO LARGE?
Yes...............79%
No...............17%
Don't know...............3%

That means about four out of every five Americans believes the distribution of wealth and income in this country is not just unequal, but unfair. This kind of inequality has not been seen since just before the Great Depression (and it then resulted in a massive economic disaster -- just like today). As the chart pictured above shows:

Top 1% controls 38.1% of the country's wealth.
Top 5% controls 59.4% of the country's wealth.
Top 10% controls 70.9% of the country's wealth.
Top 20% controls 83.4% of the country's wealth.
Top 40% controls 95.3% of the country's wealth.

While:
Bottom 60% control only 4.7% of the country's wealth.
Bottom 40% control only 0.2% of the country's wealth.

Those are some pretty incredible numbers. How can it be that 40% of the people in this country (over 132 million people) don't even control 1% of the country's wealth (or even one-half of 1%)? Or that 60% of the population (over 198 million people) don't control even 5% of the nation's wealth? In what universe can that be considered fair and equitable? Another question the poll asked was:

DOES WALL STREET AND ITS LOBBYISTS HAVE TOO MUCH INFLUENCE IN WASHINGTON?
Yes...............86%
No...............11%
Don't know...............4%

It doesn't take a genius to know that today our government is "of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations". Since the Supreme Court gave corporations the same rights as real humans and declared that money was speech and could not be limited, there has been little the ordinary citizen can do to have a voice in government. In the Bush administration, the corporate lobbyists were even allowed to write their own laws. And the Obama administration has not been much better, since all of the administration's economic advisors were plucked from Wall Street.

This won't be remedied until the money is taken out of politics through the public funding of all federal elections and lobbying is outlawed. It won't be easy to do with the huge donations the politicians get through PACs and superPACs (and the high-paying lobbying jobs waiting for them when they retire), but it must be done. The Occupy Wall Street movement must continue to grow until the politicians are too afraid not to do it -- or a constitutional amendment must be passed. A third question asked in the poll was:

SHOULD THE EXECUTIVES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FINANCIAL MELTDOWN IN 2008 HAVE BEEN PROSECUTED?
Yes...............71%
No...............21%
Don't know...............6%

This should be no surprise. The greedy and illegal actions of these executives on Wall Street kicked off the recession and cost many millions of people their jobs. And what happened? They were rewarded with a $700 billion bail-out of taxpayer money. Then they went right back to doing what they had been doing before, including giving themselves millions of dollars in bonuses. Meanwhile, many millions of Americans are out of work and more people slip into poverty every month -- and the corporate-bought politicians want to slash the social programs that help them to keep their heads above water.

It's no wonder that the people support Occupy Wall Street. They are angry, and they have a right to be angry. But anger alone is not enough. That anger must be turned into action. We must make sure the movement continues to grow - and grows large enough that change must happen.  

Seeger & Guthrie Join Occupy Wall Street Movement

Last weekend the Occupy Wall Street movement got a little boost from a visit by some protest heros of the past. Perhaps the most venerable was 92 year-old Pete Seeger, who has spent his life singing and protesting for social and economic justice and equality. Seeger and his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger joined the protesters in a march, and then gave a performance in the park. Joining them in performing for the protesters was Arlo Guthrie (son of legendary activist and singer Woody Guthrie).

It was good to see these icons of past protest generations lending their support to the Occupy Wall Street movement. As the protests across the country have shown, this is not just a movement for young people. It is a fight for economic justice for all age groups, and we must all stand together to have a chance of actually changing things for the better.

I do have a question for some of the other heros of the past protest movements. Where are you? The fight is not over. There is much more to be accomplished and you are needed. Getting older does not excuse you from fighting for social and economic justice. Just ask Pete Seeger.

Going Global

This is just more evidence that the movement for economic justice that started over a month ago on Wall Street has gone global. This picture is of Occupation Melbourne (in Australia), and it looks like they had a great turnout. People everywhere are angry over the unfairness. They are tired of being ripped off just so the rich can get richer.

Lack An Argument ? - Shout Louder

The insurance companies, in conjunction with the right-wing, have a new tactic to defeat any kind of real health care reform -- don't let the other side be heard. It's like a child that knows he's wrong, but to prevent hearing the truth he puts his hands over his ears and loudly yells "la-la-la-la-la-la-la". But refusing to listen to the truth doesn't change it.

Recently, Town Hall meetings are being disrupted by right-wing demonstrators. This has happened in Texas, Florida and other places. One congressman has had his life threatened for trying to tell the truth about health care reform.

These people have no interest in finding out what is being done to reform health care in Washington. If they did, they would listen to their congressmen's explanations and ask questions, and then listen to the answers to the questions. But that's not what they're doing.

Their only intent is to disrupt the meetings by shouting and refusing to let the congressmen talk or the regular audience members to ask questions. They do this because they are afraid that people will hear the truth and respond to it by supporting reform. They don't really have a case to present because even they know that the current health care system is indefensible.

There is nothing new about this tactic. People have been trying to hide their ignorance for years by shouting louder and trying to drown out the people who do have something intelligent to say. To be blunt, the people who shout the loudest have the least to say.

Mark Halperin of Time Magazine says, "Of course we want a full debate. Of course we want people who have dissenting views from the administration and Congress to have a full hearing. But that's not what this is about. That's not the intent of most of these people....If these protesters have ideas, great. Let's hear them. But if they're just stunts to cause a disruption that gets the media tripped in every time, again, I think it's bad for the country whether you want the president's plan or not."

The truth cannot be shouted down. I really think that most decent people do not approve of these kind of tactics, and are turned off by the behavior. If anything, these raucous protesters are probably hurting their point of view more than they're helping it.

If you have a valid point of view, you should be able to calmly discuss it. But disrupting meetings and shouting down others who wish to speak, simply shows you really have nothing to say. We would not allow our children to act this way. Why should we allow it of adults?

Repubs Try To Intimidate Protesters

It looks like the Bush administration is going to continue trashing the Constitution right up until their last minute in power. In the last few days, the local police at the Republican Convention site cities along with the FBI (see above photo) have raided at least four homes and a public meeting site. They have arrested several people, charging them with "conspiracy to incite a riot", searched the sites and taken photos of over forty people (who had not broken any law) after handcuffing and questioning them.

I don't know what the police think gives them the right to apprehend and photograph people who have broken no law. Have they forgotten the Constitution guarantees people the right to assemble? They also have the right to protest, but were raided before any protests had taken place.

In another action, police swarmed and seized a bus that was transporting members of a group called Earth Justice. They just left the bus riders stranded on the side of the road. It is unknown why the bus was seized -- probably just to cause problems for the protesters.

At least one city council member has accused the local and federal police of trying to quash or suppress legal protests. I would call it intimidation -- just a sampling of the police state the Republican leadership would like to install in America. Fortunately, the protesters say they refuse to be intimidated, and the protests will continue as planned.

I haven't seen such gross police misbehavior since the mid-seventies. Obviously, they don't believe freedom or constitutional rights should exist for anyone who disagrees with Bush/McCain policies.