Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1228
December 6, 2016
Oil Company Responds To US Army Corps’ Announcement, Will Continue To Proceed With Pipeline : Conscious Life News
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Despite Standing Rock legal victory, oil companies plan to keep on constructing pipeline – illegally.
Despite these concerns, ETP and SXL have pressed on to finish the $3.7 billion pipeline which may offer more jobs in a struggling economy. Three federal mandates were issued to halt the construction of the DAPL in recent months, but development continued nonetheless. It’s because of this that protestors began to blockade bridges and put themselves in danger to raise awareness about the issue. Activists have been maced, tased, shot with rubber bullets, beaten with batons, and hosed down with water canons in freezing temperatures to stop the DAPL’s construction.Finally, on Sunday, the US Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement for the pipeline to cross Lake Oahe, meaning the DAPL would need to be rerouted. Shortly after that declaration, however, ETP and SXL released their own statement, making it very clear that the companies have no intention of delaying or stopping construction.The statement reads:“As stated all along, ETP and…
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The Yes Men: Culture Jammers Extraordinaire
The Yes Men are Revolting
Directed by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos (2014)
Film Review
Culture Jamming (def) – a tactic used by anticorporate social movements to expose corporate “methods of domination” by disrupting or subverting corporate media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions.
The Yes Men are Revolting is the third full length documentary by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (aka Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos). The Yes Men’s goal is to use satire and humor to underscore the total insanity of our present corporate-run society. For the first time, the 2014 film includes biographical material and frank discussion of Andy and Mike’s episodic despair over the difficulty of producing real change.
Most of their work relies on their elaborate impersonations of corporate oligarchs and government bureaucrats to portray the world as they believe it should be. The official and media reactions to the improbable causes their alter egos espouse are eye wateringly funny.
Among my favorites:
The one in which they impersonate a Chamber of Commerce (official oil industry lobby) at the National Press Club calling for a carbon tax.
Their campaign to liberate Barbie and Ken from oppressive gender stereotypes.
The time they impersonate Shell Oil officials and threw a lavish party to celebrate the immense profit potential of melting Arctic Sea
The time they pose as Gazprom officials presenting a kidnapped polar bear to the Amsterdam zoo.* This was after the US government revoked Shell’s Arctic drilling permit and the company partnered with Gazprom intending to drill the Russian side of the Arctic Circle.
The Brokers and Police March they organized during Occupy Wall Street.
Their promotion of a special NYPD program in which black males could receive a free McDonald’s Happy Meal after their third stop and frisk.
The documentary climaxes with their best and most outrageous prank. First they they reserve a spot on behalf of General Colin Powell’s office at a Homeland Security conference. Then they impersonate a Department of Energy spokesperson and propose to replace all fossil fuels with solar panels and wind turbines to be owned and operated by Native American reservations. The segment culminates with all the defense contractors circling the room in a traditional indigenous dance.
* Amsterdam is home to the corporate offices of Royal Dutch Shell.
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I must admit to being totally addicted to the Yes Men. Here are their earlier films if you haven’t seen them:
The Yes Men (2003)
The Yes Men Fix the World (2009)
December 5, 2016
How the For Profit Corporate Charter School Industry is Hijacking Public Education
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Charter schools – publicly funded but privately operated schools generally free of most state regulations – are a favorite cause of Republican state lawmakers, and some Democrats. What’s unclear is how states hell-bent on financial austerity can afford to create what is essentially a new parallel school system of taxpayer supported charter schools.
If the American Dream is still alive – the one that includes a good job and a house with a yard, kids, and a two-car garage – you can see it taking shape in Wake County in the heart of the state of North Carolina. Signs of surging prosperity are everywhere this morning as I make my way to West Lake Middle School in Apex, NC, on the outskirts of Raleigh.
What were once sleepy two-lane country roads are now teaming with impatient commuters, school busses, and mini-vans. New housing developments, shopping centers, and office buildings are transforming the rolling Piedmont landscape.
Wake County is home to five of the fastest growing cities in the Tar Heel State, which is the state with the nation’s fastest growth in economic output in 2015 at 13.4 percent.
At West Lake Middle this morning, cars and busses in the drop-off lane back up…
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Trump Defeated by Judge Who Orders Immediate Recount in Michigan
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The Green Party’s push for presidential recounts swung into high gear early Monday as a federal judge in Michigan dismissed GOP objections and ordered that state’s recount to begin immediately, and Jill Stein’s campaign filed a federal suit seeking a statewide recount in Pennsylvania, whose election system they called a “national disgrace.”
The Green Party’s push for presidential recounts swung into high gear early Monday as a federal judge in Michigan dismissed GOP objections and ordered that state’s recount to begin immediately, and Jill Stein’s campaign filed a federal suit seeking a statewide recount in Pennsylvania, whose election system they called a “national disgrace.”
Michigan Federal Court
The court victory came early Monday, when U.S. Court District Judge Mark Goldsmith granted the campaign’s emergency request to start the statewide recount immediately. His opinion, issued just after midnight, said a state law requiring a two-business-day waiting period to start the recount likely violates voting rights. “The fundamental right invoked by plaintiffs—the right to vote, and to have that vote conducted fairly and counted accurately—is the bedrock of our nation,” he said, ordering the recount to begin Monday at noon.
Goldsmith dismissed objections by Donald Trump’s campaign and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, a…
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When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss: The Truth About the Diamond Industry
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Even the “non-conflict” diamonds come from one of the most corrupt industries in the history of the world. This industry has developed one of the greatest marketing schemes in the world that have us believing that love is synonymous with diamonds and getting the world to turn their heads to the crimes against humanity being carried out to bring us the gems that we need to express love.
“For every finger to receive a ring, another finger must pull a trigger.”
We all know the story.
The man gets down on one knee, grabs hold of the girl’s hand and she covers her mouth as she is overtaken by emotions. The man pulls out a tiny box and opens it up to show off the sparkling diamond engagement ring before asking the question, “Will You Marry Me?”
The classic love story which peaks when the man asks for the woman’s hand in marriage. They are officially engaged once he props a diamond ring on her finger.
However, there is another side to this story that never gets covered in the media. It is the dark side of the diamond, where if the public knew about the horrors and atrocities that take place to produce this mineral – perhaps we would re-think the way we celebrate “love.”
The Human…
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December 4, 2016
Veterans Build Barracks For #NoDAPL Protesters.
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U.S. military veterans were building barracks on Friday at a protest camp in North Dakota to support thousands of activists who have squared off against authorities in frigid conditions to oppose a multibillion-dollar pipeline project near a Native American reservation.
Veterans have a demonstration on Backwater bridge during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
From Reuters.com:
U.S. veterans build barracks for pipeline protesters in cold
By Ernest Scheyder and Terray Sylvester| CANNON BALL, N.D
Children sled down a hill inside of the Oceti Sakowin camp as “water protectors” continue to demonstrate against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
U.S. military veterans were building barracks on Friday at a protest camp in North Dakota to support thousands of activists who have squared off against authorities in frigid conditions to oppose a multibillion-dollar pipeline project near a Native American reservation.
Veterans volunteering to be human shields have been…
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Pirate Party asked to form new government in Iceland: here’s what they want to achieve
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Iceland’s president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson has announced he has given the Pirate Party ‘captain’, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the mandate to form the country’s next ruling coalition. Informal talks between the Pirate Party, the Social Democrats, the Reform Party, the Left-Greens and Bright Future will commence immediately
Birgitta Jónsdóttir.
Iceland’s president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson has announced he has given the Pirate Party ‘captain’, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the mandate to form the country’s next ruling coalition. Informal talks between the Pirate Party, the Social Democrats, the Reform Party, the Left-Greens and Bright Future will commence immediately. Birgitta met with reporters shortly after the announcement. She said she hopes that all parties already involved in informal talks, with the inclusion of the Left-Greens, will lead to a harmonious result.
Pirate Party manifesto
In the meantime, here is the Icelandic Pirate Party’s manifesto for the October 2016 parliamentary elections. The original text can be found here in Icelandic.
The Icelandic Pirate Party wants to …
1. Adopt the New Constitution
Icelandic Pirates believe that adopting the Constitutional Council’s new constitution is a basic precondition for improving Icelandic society.
The new constitution updates Iceland’s obsolete structure of government. It contains new clauses…
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Wisconsin Recount Observers Discover Vote Counting Machine Tampering
As reported by Bill Palmer in The Palmer Report, Wisconsin recount observers have discovered vote counting machines in St Croix County with tampered seals.
There has as of yet been no explanation from Wisconsin officials or St. Croix County officials as to why the majority of vote counting machines in the county have been visibly tampered with, and no one noticed during the original vote tally. It’s possible that these seals could have been broken by a hacker who was reprogramming them to produce rigged or false vote totals, and it’s also possible that an election worker could have simply pried open the seals for some unknown reason that didn’t involve malicious intent. But in any case, the broken tamper seals stand out as alarming – and could serve as legal fodder for expanding the scope of the recount.
Palmer reports that 60 of 72 Wisconsin counties have voluntarily agreed to do hand recounts despite last week’s court ruling that there is insufficient evidence to compel hand recounts. According to Palmer, the tampered seals could be sufficient to convince the judge to do hand recounts in the other 12 counties.
Read more at The Palmer Report
The Negro Motorist Green Book
Victor H. Green, a post office employee and activist in Harlem, published the first Green Book in 1936 for the New York area. The next year, it expanded to cover the whole country. The book listed “hotels, boarding houses, restaurants, beauty shops, barber shops, and various other services” where Black people would be served. 15,000 copies were produced each year (until 1964) and sold to market Black-owned businesses and more friendly White ones like Esso, one of the few gas stations that would sell to Black people.
During the shameful Jim Crow period, when many businesses all over the US refused to serve black people (even in emergencies), the information allowed black families to travel to parts of the US they had only heard of. In the South, knowledge of safe and unsafe areas could be life saving.
Free PDF (1949 edition): The Green Book
December 3, 2016
Cuba-Trained Doctors Head to Standing Rock
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A delegation of doctors trained at the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba announced they will head to Standing Rock to “serve in solidarity.”
A delegation of doctors trained at the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba announced they will head to Standing Rock to “serve in solidarity.”
In a late Thursday Facebook post, a group of U.S.-based medical professionals trained at Cuba’s famous Latin American School of Medicine, or ELAM, announced they will head to Standing Rock “to humbly serve in solidarity with the Sacred Water Protectors on the front lines of the current human rights and ecological crisis occurring right now in North Dakota.”
Dr. Revery P. Barnes, a graduate of ELAM, said in a post on Facebook, “We answer the call to serve in alignment with the mission and core principles of our alma mater and dedication to our commitment to serve underserved communities in our HOME country.” The delegation will work in collaboration with the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council.
“While Cuba instilled in us an unwavering commitment…
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