The Port of Olympia continues to move fracking materials from China to the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. I think that makes the Port an accessory to murder of the planet.

We have some work to do with the Port of Olympia Commissioners. We continue to talk to the three commissioners. The next opportunity to speak to them is April 22nd at 5:30 pm at the LOTT Building. If you want to sign a petition to ask the Commissoners to stop importing fracking materials, click on this link.

Hey, Toto. 2 big blizzards in a couple of weeks. One of the complications of global warming is that the warmed atmosphere holds more water vapor and guess what? More water vapor means heavier snowfalls. I scanned this piece quickly and did not see any mention of global warming or climate change. Same thing last week in the mainstream coverage of the snowstorm. Is it irresponsible not to give readers the background information? Last week was Storm Q (I like the Blizzard of Oz name better). This week is Storm R. I did spot some coverage that referenced the fact that the last 100 year snowstorm was two years ago when I was scanning the news for mainstream connections to the largest global story - global warming, but I think that coverage did not mention global warming either. Here is what Yahoo News is running on the second storm in two weeks:

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Blizzard conditions slammed parts of the central Plains Monday, forcing the closure of highways in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and sending public works crews scrambling for salt and sand anew just days after a massive storm blanketed the region with snow.

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Friends are in jail. We don't know how long they will be there. We don't what criminal activity is being investigated that leads to these folks being jailed for refusing to answer Grand Jury questions.

Land of the Free. Home of the Brave.

Jump in, you can help. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

The election season is in full hysterical mode. The dems are beating on progressives who are fleeing to Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson, the repubs are beating on the dems with all the corporate money and psycho-linguistic technology they can muster and behind the scenes somewhere we have a bunch of faceless (poor things, they don't have faces) IT folks who are gearing up to do whatever they are supposed to do with the vote-counting technology to tabulate votes on November 6th.

Michael Connell will not be available to help with the information technology tasks in this election cycle. His private plane crashed and he was killed before he was available to testify about the 2004 Ohio vote-counting, "man in the middle" controversy.

There is lots to worry about in this election cycle even with the tragedy of Michael Connell's death in 2008. But let's get real, this election is in the can. Yes, we should all work on getting out the votes for progressive candidates, for local initiatives that might produce change, but the change is not coming by defeating Romney, the change is not coming in this election cycle. Our best progressive shot happens with the mid term election of 2014.

Activist, anarchist, writer, organizer - Scott Crow - is going to be in Olympia for a few speaking engagements over the next few days. He will be at South Puget Sound Community College on Oct 25th at noon, Room 102, Building 26 Then he will be at Last Word Books on Friday, Oct 26th at 7:30 pm. and one more time in Oly on Monday, Oct 29th at Lecture Hall 2, The Evergreen State College at noon.

Want to understand anarchism? Learn more about it. It's not what you may think.

Want to continue to misunderstand and misrepresent anarchism? As Bobby Dylan said, "you are going to have to serve somebody..." Choose today, who will you serve? You are going to have to serve somebody.

Black Flags and Radical Relief Efforts in New Orleans: An Interview with scott crow

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Next Friday night, Oct 19th. Community potluck, meet and greet the author, book sales thanks to Last Word Books and free talk from Dr. Michael Parenti at 7 pm. Lecture Hall 1 at TESC.

For more details, go to the Facebook Event for the People's Movement Assembly.

A couple of items on things oceanic came to my attention this week. NYT had a story on collapse of the cod fishery:

The Shocking News About Cod The ideal fish for human consumption would mature quickly and

reproduce in staggering numbers. This does not describe the Atlantic cod. Cod mature late — at 4 to 6 years old — and they can live as long as 25 years. Female cod do, in fact, produce astonishing numbers of eggs. But older cod lay two or three times as many eggs as younger cod. This means that a healthy cod population must include relatively large numbers of older fish.

For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT.

A recent survey of cod catches in Northern Europe shows exactly the opposite. Extrapolating from survey numbers, scientists at a British government fisheries agency estimate that there are nearly 200 million 1-year-old cod in the North Sea but only 18 million 3-year-olds. As for older cod, the numbers are shocking. The survey team estimates that in 2011 there were only 600 12- to 13-year-old cod, a third of which were caught, and not a single fish older than 13 has been caught in the past year.

Read the whole article? Important stuff.

Biko!

You are not forgotten.

Struggle. Resist. Live and Work for Justice.

Thanks to Drew Hendricks for sending a link and this sad news.

No justice for the Corrie family today at Court. Join us on Wednesday at 6:30 pm at Traditions Cafe 300 Fifth in Olympia for a videoconference call with Craig and Cindy. Rachel's Foundation is here. Information about the Traditions event on Wednesday night is here.

Verdict in Rachel Corrie Lawsuit to be Announced August 28th – Family to Hold Press Conference in Haifa

This is a big deal in Olympia because so many of us are connected to the Corrie family. Rachel was a well-known Oly activist. She was loved, she is missed. Rachel's death in the occupied territories of Palestine welded the communities of Olympia and Rafah together

The verdict will be announced on the 28th in Haifa. On Wednesday, Aug 29th, we will have a video conference call with Craig and Cindy Corrie at Traditions Cafe at 6:30 pm. I hope that many of you will be able to join us at Traditions next Wednesday to support Craig and Cindy and to pay your respects to Rachel.