RSA - Ideas and Actions for a 21st Century Enlightenment Uh-oh, it's a marxist analysis. Hey, can Marx have things figured out correctly from time to time? Thanks to Austin K for passing this one on.

The stock market continues to be on a roller coaster ride as it slides and then rebounds as traders engage in fishing the bottom and making trading commissions, sliding a few bucks out of the pockets of the marks. Prez Obama is on the road in his magic bus talking about jobs and job creation. The NY Post (bastion of responsible journalism!@!) is reporting the bus was built in Canada. Well, job creation somewhere on the continent, I guess that's good, but it might have been a nice touch to have had the thing built here in the USA to go on tour and talk about jobs. It's always easy on the ear to listen to Barack talk and sometimes inspiring, but it's a bit like holding a shell to your ear and enjoying the sound of the ocean. It's largely theater, the connections between the sounds and any reality are pretty slight.

 

Planning meeting today for ramping up copwatch activities in Olympia. Interested folks will be at Bigelow Park around noon enjoying the park and sitting in on the Olympia Really Really Free Market. I think we will have a training opportunity. Will also have some flip video camcorders to get out into the hands of folks who are committed to keeping a camera turned on the police in Olympia. I am not sure we need a formal organization to ramp up copwatch, mainly I just think we more tools and a little bit of framework. I have opened an Olympia Copwatch facebook page and group. I am not sure whether group or page makes more sense. I am still trying to figure out how to use fb. (and I am wondering if google plus will turn out to be a better tool in the long run) See you in the streets and the parks! Mike

The annual peace walk to the Ground Zero Center in Bangor is wrapping up today with a talk by Dennis Kucinich at 6:30 pm. I was able to speak with Senji Kanaeda for a few minutes on July 31st and am finishing up a short video with Senji's thoughts front and center. I still have a little tweaking to do on the video, but it's almost finished and I wanted to get this up. I am also using the video to publicize the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant event at Traditions on Monday, August 8th at 7 pm. We have to stop nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. This is a road that leads nowhere.

I think this guy has it figured out.

Common Dreams is reporting that the berm around Fort Calhoun nuclear plant has breached. The story continues to be spun, suppressed, and misreported. I agree with many of the commenters who think this particular event may not be particularly dangerous. The coverage of the story is a bigger story. The dangers of building nuclear plants in floodplains along rivers (essential cooling water source) and the accumulation of residential growth and population in close proximity to nuclear plants is a big story. The essential unsafe nature of nuclear engineering, the problem with "mothballing" plants, disposing (where you gonna dispose of stuff that will be dangerous for thousands of years?) of waste, the collateral damage to public health by the occasional radioactive emission when an "event" occurs; these things are or should be a big story. Dahr Jamail has an update story on Fukushima at Aljazeera. Thanks to my friend Pat Rasmussen at Temperate Rainforests for passing that one on. There is an essay out about a spike in infant mortality that suggests Fukushima may have had some public health impact here on the Left Coast. This is complicated stuff, but the handwriting is on the wall for those who want to read it: nuclear power is not safe or clean.

It looks like a mismatch at first glance.  And of course, OPD won the first round with a reported body slam to the pavement.  But this could turn out to be a long match. 

You can read the background information here at Olyblog by searching under Yoos.

Wrinkles:  A quick review of the Olympia Police Guild contract with the City of Olympia reveals the following interesting items:

Page 26

ARTICLE 22 - DASH-MOUNTED VIDEO SYSTEMS
To enhance the ability oflaw enforcement personnel to accurately document events, conditions, and statements made during traffic stops, arrests, critical incidents and other related contacts dash-mounted video and audio systems will be installed in all patrol vehicles. It is further agreed that the labor-management committee will be responsible for writing the specific department policy that will govern the use, timing, recording, records retention and destruction ofsuch recordings. The video system shall not record at all times when the patrol vehicle is in use, but shall be in operation as dermed by the department policy for the purposes described above. Officers shall not be required to wear or carry a remote microphone at any time. Officers will be allowed to view any such video recordings before making any written or recorded statements and may view the recordings while
writing reports related to the recordings.

That's an interesting bit.  Too bad it did not appear to be in place to "capture" the first round of OPD v. Yoos.

and B Media Collective descend and dance for justice. B Media does some great work. Peace, justice, economic pressure. Boycotts work.

I posted the first 4 points about organizing here. This is my condensed presentation of the 14 pages, the full presentation that is available here. This website title - The End of Capitalism - suggests that the folks behind this project are thinking like I am. I think that unfettered capitalism, free market globalism, is an abject failure. Read and think carefully. I think that free market energy, style, human waves of fashion and style, free enterprise are forces like weather. They do good things if they are harnessed and fettered. Free market globalism, the elevation of the free market as an end in itself, the commodification of the natural world, the exploitation of people and nature that is a natural byproduct of unfettered, unregulated free market economy is a bad thing. Environmental degradation, exploitation of individuals are economic activities that can be very profitable. Regulation of free markets, of globalism, runaway capitalism must happen or we face a bleak future. There are powerful, minority forces working against regulation and for profit as the primary goal. I hope the end of that form of capitalism is coming. Ok, back to the Organizing Points. I did the first four points in Part I. I expect this will take 3 parts, so here we go: Part II.

5. What Does Solidarity Mean, Especially with the Immigrant Justice Movement?

Tacoma activist Arthur M sent along an email and link about organizing that I think is right on. Thanks, friend. Here is the link if you want to read the whole article. It's 14 pages and I recognize that we live in a world of tweets and sparkle fingers today, so I want to tweet this article down a bit. It's funny, email seems so 1999 now. I still rely on email and I do not like telephone calls or telephones, but emails seem superfluous to blogging and the resultant give and take. Now I am thinking/wondering if blogging is becoming superfluous, being replaced by more interactive social networking tools. Not sure about that. I am continuing to blog, but also becoming more involved in social networking stuff. Back to Organizing. Thanks again to The End of Capitalism for this work. I recommend reading the whole text. It's long, but full of good information. Here is Part 1:

“We aren’t done, we’re not leaving, and we’re in this together.”

1. What Is Organizing?

A. How to actually organize and build lasting radical organizations, particularly in terms of maintaining radical politics while reaching beyond insular communities

B. Without a sense of why they are there or a program about which to talk with people, door knocking will yield few productive results

C. Build Dual Power, Confront State Power. Building coalitions, political infrastructure, and visionary, alternative institutions that prefigure the types of social relationships we desire — while simultaneously confronting the state, right-wing social movements, and other forms of institutional oppression. One without the other is insufficient

2. How Do We Build Intergenerational Movements? (A Challenge to Young and Old!)

A.