Over 700 students have been arrested in Canada during the latest night of rallies against tuition fee hikes and the adoption of controversial bill that is widely seen as a tool to limit freedom of speech, association and assembly.
Police in Montreal dispersed unsanctioned protests and arrested 518 demonstrators on Wednesday night. The arrests were also made in Quebec City, where some 170 were detained, and in Sherbrooke. There were no reports of injuries or casualties.
On Friday, May 18, the Québec legislature signed a special “emergency law” to “restore order” in the province following three months of student protests in a strike against the government’s proposed 80% increase in the cost of tuition. A legislative debate lasted all night and resulted in a vote of 68-48 in favour of the legislation.
The legislation has three main focal points: (1) it “suspends” the school semester for schools majorly affected by the strike, (2) it establishes extremely high fines for anyone who attempts to picket or block access to schools, and (3) it imposes massive restrictions on where and how people may demonstrate and protest in the streets.
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have” – Thomas Jefferson
Something odd and not quite as planned happened as America grew from its “City on a Hill” origins, on its way to becoming the world’s superpower: government grew. A lot. In fact, the government, which by definition does not create any wealth but merely reallocates it based on the whims of a select few, has transformed from a virtually invisible bystander in the economy, to the largest single employer, and a spending behemoth whose annual cash needs alone are nearly $4 trillion a year, and where tax revenues no longer cover even half the outflows. One can debate why this happened until one is blue in the face: the allures of encroaching central planning, the law of large numbers, and the corollary of corruption, inefficiency and greed, cheap credit, the transition to a welfare nanny state as America’s population grew older, sicker and lazier, you name it. The reality is that the reasons for government’s growth do not matter as much as realizing where we are, and deciding what has to be done: will America’s central planners be afforded ever more power to decide the fates of not only America’s population, but that of the world, or will the people reclaim the ideals that the founders of this once great country had when they set off on an experiment, which is now failing with every passing year?
As the following video created by New America Now, using content by Brandon Smith whose work has been featured extensively on the pages of Zero Hedge, notes, “we tend to view government as an inevitability of life, but the fact is government is not a force of nature. It is an imperfect creation of man and it can be dismantled by man just as easily as it can be established.” Unfortunately, the realization that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and absolute central planning leads to epic catastrophes without fail, seems a long way away: most seem content with their lot in life, with lies that their welfare money is safe, even as the future is plundered with greater fury and aggression every passing year, until one day the ability to transfer wealth (benefiting primarily the uber rich, to the detriment of the middle class which is pillaged on an hourly basis), from the future to the present is gone, manifesting in either a failed bond auction or hyperinflation. The timing or shape of the transition itself is irrelevant, what is certain is that America is now on collision course with certain collapse unless something changes. And one of the things that has to change for hope in the great American dream to be restored, is the role, composition and motivations of government, all of which have mutated to far beyond what anyone envisioned back in 1776. Because America is now saddled with a Government Out Of Control.
Watch the two clips below to understand just how and why we have gotten to where we are. Also watch it to, as rhetorically asked by the narrator, prompt us to question whether the government we now have is still useful to us and what kind of powers it should be allowed to wield.
Members of the Oakland Police department form a line during a confrontation with Occupy Oakland demonstrators near the Oakland Museum of California Photograph: Stephen Lam/REUTERS
Police have used teargas and “flash” grenades to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and tearing down fencing.
About 300 people were arrested in the most turbulent day of protests in Oakland since November, when police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last autumn, called on the Occupy movement to “stop using Oakland as its playground.”
Police said the group started assembling at a central plaza on Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser convention centre. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.
The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.
The protesters walked to the vacant convention centre, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and “destroying construction equipment,” according to police.
Live net coverage by Yasumi Iwakami’s IWJ right now, here.
200 policemen guard the entrance to Katsumata’s mansion. Protesters and on-lookers on USTREAM are upset that their tax money is used to protect TEPCO’s chairman, who in their eyes is a criminal.
The arrest and brutal treatment of this young woman reminds us that the revolution is far from over.
Egyptian soldiers beating and dragging a young woman during clashes in Tahrir Square. Her image has become the latest icon of the revolution. Photograph: Reuters
The woman is young, and slim, and fair. She lies on her back surrounded by four soldiers, two of whom are dragging her by the arms raised above her head. She’s unresisting – maybe she’s fainted; we can’t tell because we can’t see her face. She’s wearing blue jeans and trainers. But her top half is bare: we can see her torso, her tummy, her blue bra, her bare delicate arms. Surrounding this top half, forming a kind of black halo around it, is the abaya, the robe she was wearing that has been ripped off and that tells us that she was wearing a hijab.
Six years ago, when popular protests started to hit the streets of Egypt as Hosni Mubarak’s gang worked at rigging the 2005 parliamentary elections, the regime hit back – not just with the traditional Central Security conscripts – but with an innovation: militias of strong, trained, thugs. They beat up men, but they grabbed women, tore their clothes off and beat them, groping them at the same time. The idea was to insinuate that females who took part in street protests wanted to be groped.
Women developed deterrent techniques: layers of light clothing, no buttons, drawstring pants double-knotted – and carried right on protesting. Many of the smaller civil initiatives that grew into the protest movement: “We See You”, “Against Corruption”, “The Streets are Ours” were women-led.
(Update-2) Here’s the scenes at the square, in three parts, recorded live by Yasumi Iwakami’s crew (here, here, here). It looks both the political left and the right were up against the Noda administration and shouting at the administration officials together. And old and young, somewhat reminiscent of the scenes that I watched earlier this year in Egypt.
The net media is laughing at Noda, who turned back on the way to the square, as “saved by Kim Jong Il”.
(Update) PM Noda turned back to the Prime Minister’s Official Residence on the news of the death of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, who died from working too hard for the people. Ostensibly (for both Noda and Kim).
Protesters say they were unjustly withheld by the police from coming into the square while the DPJ dignitaries were making speeches.
==========================
Oh boy. Some sight to behold. A swarming via the net is my guess.
The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, blames the US for encouraging protests over Russia’s recent parliamentary election. He accused Hillary Clinton of giving ‘the signal’ to opposition leaders, who are expected to gather thousands of people for a major protest on Saturday. Clinton has repeatedly criticised the parliamentary vote in Russia last weekend that gave Putin’s United Russia party nearly 50% of the vote despite widespread reports of fraud
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of provoking the post-election protests in Russia that have posed a surprise challenge to his decade-long era of domination.
Harking back to the rhetoric of the Cold War, Putin on Thursday accused US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of deliberately sending a signal to the opposition to protest by questioning the fairness of the weekend’s parliamentary polls.
About 1000 people have been arrested in three days of protests in Moscow alleging mass fraud in the parliamentary polls, but organisers have vowed to stage a mass protest in Moscow at the weekend.In his first public comments on the demonstrations, Putin accused Clinton of criticising the polls before having even read the reports of international monitors.
Washington, he said, was paying Russian groups to find fault with the elections. And that US criticism “had set the tone for some people inside the country and given a signal”, Putin argued.
“They heard the signal and with the support of the US State Department started active work.”
Prime minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of stirring up protests against his 12-year rule and said foreign countries were spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence Russian elections.
In his first public remarks about daily demonstrations over allegations that Sunday’s election was slanted to favour his ruling party, Mr Putin said US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had encouraged Kremlin opponents by criticising the vote.
“She set the tone for some opposition activists, gave them a signal, they heard this signal and started active work,” Mr Putin told supporters as he laid out plans for his campaign to return to the presidency in a March election.
On November 30 London Metropolitan Police unveiled a ‘Protable Berlin Wall’ style dividing wall that shocked and appalled Londoners who were marching on occasion of a peaceful strike against austerity measures by UK government.
London police has been under pressure this year with a succession of social unrest riots, protests and occupy camps and it may have overdone their response by acquiring array of weaponry including Taser guns, rubber bullets and now this Berlin Wall.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hard-line Iranian students stormed the British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The mob surged past riot police into the British Embassy compound – which they pelted with petrol bombs and stones – two days after Iran‘s parliament approved a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London’s support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.
Less than two hours later, police appeared to regain control of the site. But the official IRNA news agency said about 300 protesters entered the British ambassador’s residence in another part of the city and replaced British flags with Iranian ones. The British Foreign Office harshly denounced the melee and said Iran has a “clear duty” under international law to protect diplomats and offices.
“We are outraged by this,” said the statement. “It is utterly unacceptable and we condemn it.”
It said a “significant number” of protesters entered the compound and caused vandalism, but gave no other details on damage or whether diplomatic staff was inside the embassy, although the storming occurred after business hours.
After Fox News’ Megyn Kelly mocked victims of a pepper-spray assault on the air this week (again), supporters of the students that suffered the attack challenged the conservative correspondent to find out first-hand what it’s like to be maced.
As of Friday morning, nearly 40,000 people have gotten behind that cause.
On Monday, Kelly told fellow Fox host Bill O’Reilly that pepper spray was “essentially” just a food product and that the hubbub over a University of California at Davis cop that fired the condiment (essentially) onto the faces of peacefully protesting students was unwarranted.
“I don’t know if from a legal standpoint the cops did anything wrong,” Kelly said, while at the same time admitting that Lt John Pike’s now infamous assault was still kind of “abrasive and intrusive.” The footage of the campus cop firing the dangerous chemical onto students that sat quietly at UC Davis spawned an Internet meme, international outrage and eventually administrative leave for the officer. Opponents of Kelly aren’t asking exactly the same for her, but they do think that she should see how tasty that food product can really be.
“To back up your claim that pepper spray is a food product, please consume as much of it as was sprayed on each protestor’s face, in one sitting, on camera at Fox News,” Nick Douglas of New York City wrote on a petition he created on the Change.org website. “You may mix the spray with one serving of food or drink, as I am not a sadist. Then, please relate the effects to your audience.”
Since creating the petition earlier this week, over 37,000 signatures have been added; Douglas is aiming for 50,000 and it doesn’t look that too far off.
Egypt’s pro-democracy demonstrators say the CS gas being used to disperse them seems more powerful than that used by Cairo police during the popular uprising in February. At one of Tahrir Square’s makeshift hospitals, patients show signs of asphyxiation and experience seizures. Dr Ahmad Sa’ad says he has never seen such symptoms caused by ‘teargas’
Egyptian security forces are believed to be using a powerful incapacitating gas against civilian protesters in Tahrir Square following multiple cases of unconsciousness and epileptic-like convulsions among those exposed.
The Guardian has collected video footage as well as witness accounts from doctors and victims who have offered strong evidence that at least two other crowd control gases have been used on demonstrators in addition to CS gas.
Suspicion has fallen on two other agents: CN gas, which was the crowd control gas used by the US before CS was brought into use; and CR gas.
Some protesters report having seen canisters marked with the letters “CR” – although the Guardian has not been able to confirm this independently.
Both gases can be more dangerous than CS and can cause unconsciousness and seizures in certain circumstances.
Concern began to emerge over the use of more powerful incapacitating agents after reports of gassed protesters falling unconscious and having attacks of jerking spasms.
Hell no, we won’t go — unless we get goose down pillows.
A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can “unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,” The Post has learned.
The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.
“Tents are not for me,” he confessed, when confronted in the sleek black lobby of the Washington Street hotel where sources described him as a “repeat” guest.
Spitzer, 24, an associate at financial-services giant Deloitte, which netted $29 billion in revenue last year, admitted he joined the protest at Zuccotti Park several times.
“I’m staying here for work,” said Spitzer, dressed down in a company T-shirt and holding a backpack and his suitcase. “I do finance, but I support it still.”
Egypt’s ruling junta has slowly transformed from heroes of uprising to the focus of its wrath
??Tahrir Square on Sunday night as riot police and troops failed to disperse crowds demanding Egypt’s ruling generals hand over power. Photograph: Mohamed El-Ghany/Reuters
Amid the gloom, the smoke and the deafening chants of thousands around them, the middle-aged couple looked like they had been photoshopped on to the scene. He was wearing a smart jacket, she a dress and a headscarf. They both walked silently forwards across the debris, hand in hand and staring straight ahead. Each was carrying a rock.
The scene was Talaat Harb street, usually one of downtown Cairo’s busiest thoroughfares and a shopping mecca for cut-price shoes and clothing, just after darkness fell across the capital on Sunday evening. The store shutters were down and the dying and the injured were propped up against them. Ahead, beyond a wall of teargas, stood the troops of Egypt’s once-venerated army, and the new frontline of this country’s reawakened revolution.
Clashes between police and protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square erupted for a third straight day on Monday after a night of deadly violence that left at least 22 people dead.
Police used tear gas sporadically through the night and into Monday morning against hundreds of protesters – scattered in groups in and around Tahrir – who responded with stones and rocks, according to live footage on state TV.
The Egyptian health ministry said 22 people had been killed since Sunday, sparking fears of disruptions to the November 28 legislative elections, the first since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak in February.
Egyptian army and police has launched a major crackdown on protesters at Tahrir square. Tens of thousands have been protesting since Friday at a lack of reform comes before crucial elections, and could carry the potential to paralyse the country once again.
As Egyptians return to Tahrir Square, the Obama administration sides with the military
CAIRO — Sitting across from me in a downtown cafe, disgruntled democracy activist Ismail Wahby looks defeated. “Everything is failing,” he says.
In many ways, Wahby personifies the Western stereotypes about the mislabeled “Facebook Revolution”: He is an upper-middle-class 20-something who blogs in English, French and Arabic. After the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, he worked as community organizer with the Union of Progressive Youth, one of the many revolutionary coalitions formed after the dictator’s fall. But as Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) became more oppressive in the months that followed, Wahby grew discouraged and withdrew from political activism. “I didn’t do a revolution for this shit,” he explains.
Wahby has a long list of grievances about the aftermath of Egypt’s largely peaceful revolution last January, including the persistence of the State of Emergency — which was supposed to have expired months ago — and the failure of the opposition to present a unified front. But mostly Wahby is concerned with the dominance of the military in post-Mubarak Egypt.
US officers used pepper spray on Occupy demonstrators, reportedly including an 84-year-old woman and a pregnant woman. The police sought to prevent a protest march from continuing down the middle of a street, blocking traffic in downtown Seattle. Four protesters were arrested
“The ruling class has the schools and press under its thumb. This enables it to sway the emotions of the masses.” – Albert Einstein
“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar weekly salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.” – John Swinton, former New York Times Chief of Staff
“We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries.” – David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991.
“The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media.” – William Colby, former CIA director
“Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality.” – Michael Ellner
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