Bearing Witness...

Boy and I marched yesterday, in Seattle, to honour the May Day General Strike action...

Interesting experience - a reality check about the state of the world really, giving me lots to think about...

We marched to bear witness to what is going on in these times...

To bear witness, and, by our presence, to send a message to the powers-that-be that we know what is going on, and it's not OK...

"If we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future.  The future is an infinite succession of presents and to live now as we think Human beings should live - in defiance of all that is bad around us - is in and of itself a marvellous victory." 

~ Howard Zinn

 

We went with our school teacher house-mate and another family...

We were a little late to the event, joining the march half way through...

We weren't expecting it to be the big deal it turned out to be...

I was impressed by, and grateful to, the young people who saw us (not that far behind Black Block - which we had no idea would be there), advising us to take a detour when things got 'exciting', so that the children would not be caught up in the fracas and the tear gas, pepper spray...

Some cars parked along the route were spray painted with protest symbols and had their tyres slashed...

I felt empathy for the owners of those cars who would come back to find this damage; 

The police were positioned to PROTECT BUILDINGS/CORPORATIONS not citizens...

I didn't feel any sympathy for the owners of the buildings that were damaged - though I was concerned for bystanders...

When a country, state and city (USA/Washington/Seattle) decides to use military force, surveillance and unmanned drones against its own citizenry, does it really think that the people won't feel they have to meet force/intimidation with force/intimidation, to both fight back and to retake their freedom?

Quite a challenge to explain all this to the boy and his peers...
 

Scary parts?

Talking to strangers and wondering whether or not they were infiltrators...

Noticing all the video and still cameras taking photos...

Sure there were news crews doing their thing and private individuals taking photos of cool signs and their group participants...

But who were all those other unidentified people, walking around click, click, clicking away without asking the people they were photographing if it was OK?

How the world saw what went on in the US yesterday:

Biggest May Day Protests in Nation's History

And for us here in the US - we are not alone:

May Day Protests Span The Globe

It's Official...

... we're now living in serfdom here in the US, and, with the president refusing to veto the liberty and due process-stealing provisions of the NDAA Bill, in a fascist police state...

According to the latest census results, 1 out of every 2 Americans is living in poverty...

"Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years..."

~ Half of All Americans Now Live in Poverty

Today's The Day...

...the music died...

The White House announced this afternoon that President Obama would not veto the bill that turns American soil into a battlefield and allows American citizens at home and abroad to be captured/arrested and held indefinitely in military detention centres, without due process...

The Bill passed in the House today, 283 votes for, 136 against...

The Senate is expected to pass it tomorrow (Thursday 15 Dec), after which it will go to Obama for signing...

With its passage, no presidential veto, and the passing of the SOPA internet censorship bill which gives government the right to shut down both individual websites and the internet itself, America has finally sunk into the status of a fascist police state, with informal martial law in place...

No more pretending...

LYRICS:

A long long time ago
I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
**The day the music died**
So

[Chorus]
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey in Rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Now do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you're in love with him
Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died
I started singin'

[Chorus]

Now, for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But, that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lenin read a book on Marx
The quartet practised in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singin'

[Chorus]

Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
We started singin'

[Chorus]

Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil's only friend
And as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan's spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
He was singin'

[Chorus]

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most-
the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost-
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singing

[Chorus:Repeat x2

 

American Pie Song History

Haven't Disappeared...

...off the face of the earth...

Rather, we are staying with lovely people on Vashon Island - quiet, green, 270 degree view of water, Seattle, sky, birds, boats, night lights and stars; 

Overnight we finally caught/trapped our recalcitrant, extra-toed, tuxedo cat who had been hiding in the ceiling of the West Seattle house we stayed at for 10 days; we went to retrieve him this evening - $20 ferry ride there and back; 

Missed the Protection Order Renewal hearing this past Wednesday - thought it was scheduled for Friday; now renewal application is to be heard on December 21; 

Court hearing on December 16 to determine whether I can take the boy back to Australia to live;  met the Friday noon deadline to file my response to boy's father's lie-filled motion to stop us leaving...

Am exhausted but OK...

Not so sure about this country though...

Lady Liberty suffered some serious attacks this past week or so... with the US now basically a fascist police state, living under undeclared martial law, thanks to the passing of Bill S. 1867 in the Senate, which declares the entire United States of America a battleground.

Section 1031 of the National Defense Authorization Act allows the US military to now operate with impunity; the Bill grants the military the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate, and even assassinate United States citizens both within the US and abroad...

Then there's the militarisation of the police, exemplified most graphically these past weeks by their brutal response to peaceful Occupy protesters all over this country...

And then there's Halliburton subsidiary KBR, currently seeking sub-contractors to staff, outfit, activate “emergency environment” camps built across the US for FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers, to deal with the kind of riots that have already spread throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East...

Guess we are living in "interesting times"...


Post Script:
"Today, (Nobel Prize-winning economist) Paul Krugman decreed that the U.S. and Europe are suffering not a recession but a “depression,” and highlighted the social unrest and anti-democratic forces growing in Europe.

Economic - and austerity - fuelled riots have already struck London and Athens. Police in England have formally labeled the Occupy movement a “Terrorist threat” alongside Al Qaeda and FARC and, of course, excessive police force has been repeatedly used against Occupy protesters on U.S. soil.

And U.S. Terrorism officials now routinely emphasize the supposedly domestic nature of the Terrorist threat, with greater powers constantly being seized in its name for domestic uses."

~ Glenn Greenwald

I've been shouting that we are in a Depression for the past two years... 

And it will be a permanent 'depression' - the oligarchs need a larger permanent underclass to enable them to siphon off the last of the earth's resources etc for themselves...

You Know You're Living...

... in a fascist police state when:

I said "You need a degree to get a good job", so he went into debt to go to college, while I got rid of the jobs; he protested #soipeppersprayedhim

I took his job away - sent it overseas - and then when his family lost their house, he protested, #soipeppersprayedhim

He proclaimed "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed" #soipeppersprayedhim

He wanted to complain about tuition increases #soipeppersprayedhim

He hadn't had a shower in 3 days and was living in a tent, for chrissake #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "MIC CHECK!" #soipeppersprayedhim

JP Morgan Chase gave me $4.6 Million to do their bidding #soIpepperSprayedHim

They were gathered together having a teach-in #soipeppersprayedhim

They set up a library and were reading books! The nerve! #soipeppersprayedhim

Those kids were way too peaceful... #soipeppersprayedhim

They said they didn't like it when we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Riot Police but closed public schools #soipeppersprayedhim

They were chanting about corruption #soipeppersprayedhim

They were sitting on the grass with their arms linked #soipeppersprayedhim

He questioned Bernanke's ability to create money from nothing, #soipeppersprayedhim

Somebody looked at me funny #soipeppersprayedhim

I was handing out fliers to people as they walked by #soipeppersprayedhim

Someone shared an idea that was different than mine #soipeppersprayedhim

He was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask #soipeppersprayedhim

He said they wouldn't let his special ed kid go to their charter school #soipeppersprayedhim

He said it was time for the rich to share their wealth #soipeppresprayedhim

He said he wants real change in government #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "They only let white kids go to that charter school" #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "My kid doesn't know how to speak English so they wouldn't let him go to their charter school" #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "CEO's making 435 times the amount of the average worker is too much for one person" #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "Bill Gates granted billions to charter schools, but the state cut public education budgets, closed schools", #soipeppersprayedhim

He said he works two jobs and can't pay his bills when I told him "go get a job, take a bath" #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "It's the poverty, stupid" when they told him his public school was failing #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "I do my job every day, why doesn't Congress do theirs?" #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "We all have a right to a free and public education" #soipeppersprayedhim

He said "You can't put an idea in jail." #soipeppersprayedhim

She was 84, he was in a wheelchair and their friend was very pregnant #soipeppersprayedhim