Anyone going to Mayday?

http://www.may1stseattle.org/

I personally hope the thing is a success. Although I disagree with a ton of what some of the protestor's think it is a good route, I personally think that Capitalism died long ago and I think a bunch of the nonsense that people think will help is tom foolery. BUT none the less Unlike our political candidates might PITCH, we truly do need a change! And that change will never happen in our current system or with our current election process. So rather than keep going down that road, I look forward to one and only one thing.

Watching people protest, get their asse$ pwned and find out how much freedom's have been stripped away already... Constitutional Republic with democracy.... ahahah

I hope allot of people go... I would but I have to work !!!! (I hope some can find the humor in that)


Edited by James - 30 Apr 2012 at 2:39pm

Jon,

Thanks for the link, had not yet seen the new video. I won't get mad at you for the little bit of vomit that I just tasted... after all I could have closed the window.

Well, May Day has (just about) come to pass.
After a particularly hectic day at the job, damn if I didn't just need to go to Happy Hour somewhere and get me a beer. Seems like my locale ain't got nothin but sports bars, other than wannabe sports bars (variations on a theme). fu*k this town. Ain't gonna be around much longer.
...so I go to a local bar, imagining myself sipping sum suds while watching a game that I really don't giva rats ass about. Sounds appealling after a day like today, ironicly. I coulda gone and boated the Green at a sweet medium flow (2590), but my current plan sounded much more appealing after blocking out reality by paddling the Green for 5 out of 7 days.
So here at the local pub on the TV screens, I witness an entirely different game than the one I expected, as the effects of MAY DAY IN SEATTLE unfolded on the local news-distortion show.

Already throughout the day I had resented getting yelled at by someone who has proven himself silmultaneously an asshole AND an idiot- sorry, dude: you gotta choose. You can't be both thats just reckless. I resented going to work on May Day for this jerk. Ok fu*k it pass that Cispa bill. No, bossman can't have my password to whatever. He's small potatoes anyway like the rest of us. But anyone who wants to cross THAT line with me, go ahead. Anyway, I felt resentfull for working because I dig symbolism, and May Day is a historicly symbolic day, if you know history. But, the fact is, I was there out of self interest, so fu*k it. And, while I work, I apply myself with sincerity to the task(s) at hand, even if my supposed leader acts in self sabotaging ways. But, yelling at me, being hostile, now, That's startin to cross a line. I'm sincere, I work hard, and really I'm just trying to keep my head above water. I'm f**king flush drowning in this rapid called modern America. My f**king fault for choosing a bad line in the approach, but here I am...

Anyway, while I watch the news coverage with the sound off, all I get is the footage of the riot cops, and the window smashers, and the text banner scrolling cross the bottom telling me how much parking sucks in Seattle. May Day Meyhem it said. Looks like your boursoisie events are gonna get cancelled. Boo Hoo.

So its easy to see how quickly and effectively thousands if people with legitimate greivences get marginalized, trivialized, and delegitmized. Am I sounding like a black preacher yet? No? Well, my WHITIEwater audience, I guess I should keep going...

So in walks some variant of a blue collar worker w/ his lady, and before long he's commenting on the spectacle on TV, repeating many of the basic comments you csn hear on any talkshow that is designed to counter these events and tamp down any meaning that might reach the general populace.
   I don't want to be insightful to my new bar stool companion and his lady, but some of the dumb generalities he threw out deserved rebuttal, so I provided it in a freindly way. Saying stupid sh*t like how all those protesters are "students who are just there to get laid". No, dumbass: people are loosing their homes. People are paying back loans for degrees that can't employ them. Yeah, it is lame that a small percentage smashes windows at these events, and the news is reporting the vandalism of cars, which is outrageous.
But:
A) this is a small (and admittedly unfortunate and embarrasing) fraction of the whole
And,
B) in some cases even (any critical thinker needs to entertain this possibility, as history bears it out) PROVACATUERS. looks like I misspelled that word. Still...

I went downtown during most of the days during the WTO event of 1999. Or was it 2000? I don't have to remember. I was there. Anyone else remember? I didn't invoke any meyhem there. In fact, while I was there to participate in the protest, I also was there as an observer. Yeah, CISPA, fu*k you. File all this away. I am a free man who does not steal or engage in violence. fu*k you.
So I gently explained to my bar stool friend that, yes, there are all sorts of folks of all sorts of ages at these protests. Yup. There are plenty of hipster self described Anarchist fu*ks who make trouble. Plenty of "bad apples". But most are pretty sharply educated about why they are there, despite the fact that the media only interviews the clueless 'tards...

The bottom line is this:
When so many people gather like this, clearly some sh*t ain't right on a massive scale. Especially when it occurs as often as it does these days. People can draw their own conclusions, but its clear to me that things have been gradually unravelling for a few decades.

It goes on as long as we keep paying for it. I feel ya, JP. Haven't figured out how to change the world yet, just myself. AND... Ben & Jerry's did re-issue Rocky Road, which I love.

I spent may day working and doing homework for a political science class. Feel a bit bad for not trying to add my voice to the pool. I applaud the discussion and feel a bit less marginalized and more connected for hearing it. I also liked the symbolism in the cave story. Sorry for sounding like a poindexter.. It's what I got right now.

Edited by thad2000 - 03 May 2012 at 4:54am

I don't think you can really connect the anarchist violence with the protests.  The protests were semi organized peaceful demonstrations.  Some separate folks chose to engage in violent destruction of public and private property at the same time. 

Those folks were not part of the protests, do not share an agenda with the protesters, and not supported by the protesters.  OF course, in the media, everyone protesting anything is some anti american terrorist.  figures.

Hey JP if you don't like america, move to another another country. You have no idea how good we have it hear. I watch a protest in the middle east lead to be-headings after a man spit on a officer. That man was a hero, I would have shot the men storming the Fed Building. Guess I would stop that trickling little flow right then and there. Had to Riot when your DEAD

Yeti, I don't think most americans are satisfied that we're better off than Syria.  Talk about setting a low bar!

The media didn't cover much of the protest, or the issues the protesters were trying to call attention to.  The media focused on the few individuals who chose to behave poorly.  This is how the media marginalizes protests like this. 

With the Occupy movement, which started out as a protest against legit and specific things (bailing out banks instead of homeowners, lack of promised regulation of financial industry, legal insider trading for congress, etc) the media gives us the anarchist homeless drug addict interview.  They don't give us the retired fire fighter, or the teacher with her own kids at the rally. 

We're taught that we ought to respect the fireman and teacher.  If those hard working honest 'merikuns are protesting, then maybe what they are saying has validity.  But we can easily agree without thinking too hard that the homeless violent thug deserves no respect or consideration.  So, it's easy to first think all the Occupy people are the latter rather then former.  Once we've done that, who is going to rally to support those people?  No one.  End of protests. 

May 1 is the international version of our own Labor Day.  It's a day with a long and storied history, and one when it is very usual all over the world to have protests in favor or organized labor, safe work places, and generally policies supporting of a viable working class. 

As the working class is severly under attack in this country, the protests were timely and relevant.  They spoke to many of the same issues as the '99 WTO protests and the Occupy Movement.  Interesting that all 3 protests were given attention for the violent misbehavior of a few, rather than the valid peaceful critiques of thousands. 

As for terrorism, no, destroying property does not make you a terrorist.  Targeting civilians for violence or death because of a political beef makes you a terrorist.  If we have any terrorists in this country it's the Christian fundamentalists who bomb abortion clinics.  They target civilians with violence for a political purpose.  To compare breaking a few Bank of America windows to hijacking a plane and murdering civilians is absolutely ridiculous. 

But yeah Yeti, we're better off than Syria.  Guess we'll eat our cake and be glad to cling to the lower middle class for a few more hours ... until some asshat republican supply sider comes to save us with more tax breaks for corporations who already pay no taxes. 

Sounds like you are a vet.  Thanks for your service; I honor and respect it.  But if you are a vet, you should respect an honor jP's right to say and think what he does, and you especially ought to respect any American who takes the time to be informed and think critically about the issues, which jP does, and which is very rare it seems.  Whether you agree with him or not is irrelevant.  None of us here need the yeti stamp of approval on our politics.  And none of us hate america, so take your liberal baiting bullsh*t somewhere else. 

Flame away, y'all.

I can't believe Yeti actually pulls out the "love it or leave it" card. That slogan is for simple minded people that don't want to actually think for themselves. Consider changing your tag to "Epic_Sheeple".

I bet you would be the same guy in the 1950's saying, "the system is fine. Its separate but equal".

Never settle. Continue to push for true freedom.

Your supposed to knock on ladies doors and leave flowers on the porch and run away on May day....not destroy and kill....

Forums such as this often have little value in discussion of such things for the purpose of changing views. That was not the purpose of the post. My purpose is a simple one, to get people who might not have cared to pay attention, like it or not.

Epic we should kick it some time because you might find that we have alot in common. I am a staunch patriot, having served in the military, and still love my country. But what so many people fail to understand is that what made our country great is quickly at an alarming pace being removed by technocrats and mis-informed citizens. I am not saying that you are mis-informed either, you might be fully aware from multiple sources and just disagree, which is cool. But my goal is just to get people interested in searching out Truth for that awareness. And unfortunately truth no longer comes in a simple news update from you TV set. It does not come from Al Jazeera, it does not come from RT, The BBC, or Reuters. It comes from all of them in little tidbits that you have to extract like a dentist doing a root canal on a gorilla with no sedative.

Here is a fun last thought to consider. I have a friend "un-named" that lives in Pierce County. His mortgage was sold in 2009 and for 6 months he had been paying the wrong bank who was cashing his checks and he was still able to view his balance etc. online. Then one day he got a forclosure notice from a new bank that stated they owned his mortage and he had not been paying. He had to hire legal counsel to prove that he had been paying and to get his money moved from the previous holder to the new one. That motion was not done fast enough and so the new bank forclosed on his home and sent a sheriff out to evict him by force. He did not put up a fight, just told the sheriff that the foreclosure was being done illegally and that the sheriffs office needed to contact the courts to look into this case. The sheriff explained that the court had already issued the eviction notice from the bank and it was done. Months later he is bank in his home legally. Fortunately during the 4 months he stayed with his parents he kept paying his mortgage and now he just has to re-pay the 6 months he owes until he can get the funds back from the original bank. But guess what... the court determined that the eviction notice was issued in error because the bank had robo signed his documents, and that there was serious error on behalf of both banks and not the home owner. Guess what his reward was paying 4 months of mortgage payments while he and his family lived with his parents even though he did not get to live in the home he rightfully owned. He asked the sheriff to issue a written apology which they refuse to do because they were not at fault. He asked the court to do the same thing, which they would not do. See no one is at fault here. He called local news channels to get his story heard, but they said it was not news worthy and this type of thing was common right now and that the public was aware. Maybe I am close enough to the matter to see it differently but I don't hear about this kind of thing on the news ever! I could keep going with other stories of my own but I will save my breath because again nothing is going to change peoples views on a forum. You need to go read and research on your own.

Please do it. Go seek the Truth. Every ones first stop should be re-visiting the constitution, understanding why the bill of rights was introduced and moving forward with an understanding of what actually makes these the "United States". We are not even a shadow of what we once were. The design of this Nation is being destroyed and it might be impossible to stop since we are in a new type of Globalism. But I for one think there is a better way we can move forward. I believe our current trend is to allow Banks and Big Business to control the motion of our society and while they have a place it is not in judicial, legislative or executive branches... Of course they are now in control of each of these. Read on MF Global, Jon Corzine, and the Sac of Greece through Goldman US Housing Debt Derivatives.

See there I went... on a rant. A beer in hand, over a toasty fire really does make all this much more enjoyable.

Words mean something.  Terrorism is a word.  It has an agreed upon meaning:


from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorism

George Zimmerman was not expounding a political view.  He was not resisting the government.  Whatever the legality or morality of his actions, it was not terrorism. 

I reassert that if we have domestic terrorists here, they are the abortion clinic bombers.  They are advocating a political agenda, with violence, resisting gov't legalizing something they oppose.  That's terrorism.  Ted Kaczynski: terrorism.

Breaking a few windows is not terrorism.  Anyone who would shoot someone for that without recourse to the courts and the law is not very different from the vandal or the terrorist.  If Yeti is really a vet, seems a pretty odd way to show respect to constituition and rule of law. 

I disagree very strongly with a lot of people.  I don't advocate killing any of them, certainly not for no other reason that I disagree with how the express themselves.  Y'all realize all these business are insured right?  victimless crime it looks like to me.

Re jP's point, it's already unraveled irretrievably.  Supreme Court says dollars are protected free speech and corporations are people.  So long as it takes money to run for office, nothing will change.  How do you send a corporation to prison for a crime?

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. 

Ok, fair distinction regarding Zimmerman. Thanks for reigning that one in that was a careless comment. Still, it illustrates my point.

Edited by jP - 04 May 2012 at 10:06am