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November 27, 2011

Special Action Alert

Hello Every One!

Here is a special complement to my latest compilation which I feel ought to be networked without any delay because of the ACLU warning I discovered - Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window - and which requires immediate action if the unthinkable is to be prevented. This legislation, if passed, would apparently - and hopefully! - be vetoed by Barack Obama, but it would sure help that lots of American citizens take a stand against this attempt to deal a final blow to the Posse Comitatus Act's intent of specifically prohibiting the use of U.S. military forces on U.S. soil unless orders to do so originate with the United States Constitution or Act of Congress [as indicated in this Wikipedia entry], a prohibition that has been gradually eroded over the years as explained in this article - The Myth of Posse Comitatus - found (of all places!) on the Homeland Security website.

As mentioned in this recent Time Magazine article - The Other 1% - the U.S. soldiers have become an insulated tribal group of people who feel disconnected and alienated from, and superior to the citizens they are sworn to defend, a growing divide that even former Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently felt necessary to warn against. This could mean that if deployed against U.S. citizens in some Homeland security operations, many of these soldiers might have no qualm with applying to them the same treatment metted out to Syrian civilians by the Syrian soldiers still faithful to the Assad regime.

Being timely informed and empowered to take preventive action is crucial at this moment - which is why I felt necessary to send you this material immediately. You'll also find how I was led to discover this matter, in connection to a feedback I received from a subscriber on the Thrive movie.

You are of course welcome to network this...

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com

This complement to The American Fall Series #5: The Upwising Continues - Change the system, not the climate! is archived at http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/Archives2011/SpecialActionAlert.htm

Free subscription to a large weekly Earth Rainbow Network compilation by simply sending a blank email to earthrainbownetwork-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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CONTENT

1. What do you think, re THRIVE
2. Soon U.S. could be declared a "Battlefield" - Military could arrest and Lock Up ANY U.S. citizen
3. The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy




1.

Date: 26 Nov 2011
From: (full name and email address withheld upon request)
Subject: What do you think, re THRIVE

Hi Jean,

Interestingly the THRIVE movie is garnering some negative reactions from people who feel it is a double whammy tool of the elite and is very manipulative... interesting link with comments below and then a friend had also written her reaction, pasted below.

I know that I totally lost center in the week after I watched it and after a few days of weirdly not being able to get it together--my own center literally seemed shielded off from me-- I actually had the thought that I had been really whacked by someone energetically. I had to have a friend help me get back to myself.

So, was it the movie? ...maybe, I don't know. But when I reflected back and assessed my thoughts versus my feelings re. the movie, I did see discrepancies...my head got into all the info, my feelings were sending out some kind of "it does not all compute" message.

Wanted to bring this up to you since you are central to so much and you may be hearing from others or have an opinion yourself. Thanks...

Leslie

Here is a link to a woman who wrote about the movie THRIVE. She blogged about it and there are other people's comments as well.

http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2011/11/thrive-movie-is-not-about-thriving-at.html

From a friend...

Hello all,

First of all I want to thank you beautiful, loving souls who are ever vigilant in bringing us ways to help us create more peace and joy in our lives. You are the true angels of earth life and your hearts and intentions are pure. It is my hope that you will not be hurt by my comments, but understand that I support you in your efforts to help us.

Having watched the new movie THRIVE, I have this to say:

It is a manipulation tool filled with hooks and subliminal messages directed at the viewer to gain access to your energy centers through your pineal and pituitary glands. It attacks your base chakra (your survival center) and your solar plexus chakra (your personal power center), and closes off your crown chakra (your soul’s link to the universal energy fields that keep you animated in your body). It closes off these sacred centers to all but the creatures who want their own dark access to your energy fields.

This movie is meant to create depression and the feeling of hopelessness in people. For 1.5 hours it tells you all the ways you have been captured and controlled, flashes control symbols across the screen in constant “implant” mode to help with their chording of your energy, and then tells you to send money to, and become members of some of the very NGOs (non-government organizations) that are being used to control everyone.

It is a very clever movie, made with sincere intent to let us know that the ruling elite know that we know what they have done, and are continuing to do to have control over us. EVERYTHING to the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Morgans, and others is about control and has been for the past 13K years.

This movie is not about some of the elite opening up to become “one of us” and turn against their peers. It is about letting us know that they have accomplished what they set out to do. It is an “in your face” bragging event that was specifically created to gather the rag tag independents who still want to think for themselves, and implant them with chords and subliminal instructions.

One of the things that I noticed NOT mentioned in this film is that ALL religions are used as control mechanisms. In fact, they have been the most effective tool for this purpose.

You can remove these chords by asking your guides, healers and angels to come and help you gently pull these chords out of your being, and to gently erase any messages implanted in you that are contrary to your true spiritual sovereignty and personal freedom. Do not “cut the chords” this leaves pieces of the chords in you and they can still be used.

Simply say, “I remove any and all chords and energy meant to do anything contrary to my highest good that have been placed in me without my permission. I ask that my guides and healers assist me in removing these dark chords and energy and I send the dark energy back to the universe to be recycled into good energy.”

So, what can you truly do to make a difference? Support local group and local organic farmers – PAY THE PRICE FOR THE HEALTHY FOOD so you don’t have to pay the price for the “control chemicals” being used on the commercial food. Commercial chemicals are not all about killing pests and plants. Know that.

Take the time to get connected to the local people who are actually the ones who are making a difference on a person by person, day by day, moment by moment basis. Hire people who are already doing these important changes and let them help you get set up. For the price of a month’s worth of $4 cups of coffee, you can pay another person, thereby supporting the local economy, to help you change your life.

TURN YOUR MANICURED LAWN into food production. Stop supporting giant corporations by trying to make your yards into ego eco displays that are killing you. Get Heirloom seeds and plants. They are NOT genetically modified to sterilize your reproductive organs and petrify your pineal gland.

CLIP

Have clean, healthy water delivered to your house or get the bottles and crock to refill yourself. WATER MATTERS.

I wish you the best on this interesting journey we are on. We are team mates and what one of us does, effects all of us.

Love, Peace and Joy to all...

---

AND MY REPLY WAS...

Hi Leslie

I don't buy into that crap. This is nutty and typical of those who are so paranoid that they can't seem to recognize a good thing when they see one, always searching for some hidden motive to reinforce their own deep-seated prejudices. And interestingly, if you look at the name of the blog it is Sherrie questioning all - It says it all! She is well-meaning of course, but frankly her comment that...

"For 1.5 hours it tells you all the ways you have been captured and controlled, flashes control symbols across the screen in constant “implant” mode to help with their chording of your energy, and then tells you to send money to, and become members of some of the very NGOs (non-government organizations) that are being used to control everyone."

is totally based on thin air... and not a single shred of evidence.

As for what you experienced in the days after watching this, it could have been unrelated... or it could have been triggered by the experience of being faced in such a convincing, impeccable manner with the inescapable fact that we have all been conned to the hilt and that our whole Western cultural paradigm is based on a complete orwellian charade that is meant to totally control and manipulate us. It is sort of like the famous dark night of the soul when all the illusions that were holding together our fake egoic identity fall apart and the ego activates deeply ingrained survival mechanism to preserve its existence while our conscience has cleary understood that the egoic construct around which our whole life and earthly personage have been built is a sham fabrication which is NOT our true nature - which is the soul that we each are. Faced with such an existential and paradoxical contradiction, this automatic survival reaction makes us recoil into a place of deep discomfort -- sending us some kind of "it does not all compute" message -- until we have managed to rewire ourselves spiritually, etherically, emotionally and intellectually to fit into the mold of our real soul nature... over time at this is a long step-by-step, incremental process that may take years.

This movie does such a good job of throwing many hard facts to the viewer's face that those not yet fully cognizant and re-synched to the re-emerging ancient paradigm of Oneness risk going through such a deep denial that they concoct any sort of ludicrous "explanation" to protect their core psyche from being dissolved in the necessary process that - like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly - can enable the emergence of a new soul-centered sense of self, finally freed from the fear, anger, blame and guilt trips on which their previous egoic self was thriving.

If there is one thing that I disliked in this movie, it was the long effort to convince us that the torus is a sort of universal archetypal pattern upon which the entire universe is based. They nearly lost me at the beginning with this and I had to jump to where I felt the movie was finally tackling more useful facts. The moments I resonated the most with were when the woman - Kimberley Carter Gamble - is empowering the viewer into trusting that we can overcome the perils at hand and co-create a Golden Age. Overall, they could have spent more time on balancing out the disempowering and disturbing (to the newbies) long first 3/4 of the movie with more on the already emerging solutions and on the exponentially accelerating spiritual shift underway on Earth, but I guess they wanted the people to explore their website at http://thrivemovement.com/ to find more on this uplifting aspect in their "Solution" section at http://www.thrivemovement.com/solutions and their critical issues http://www.thrivemovement.com/critical_issues which I've browsed quickly and which are quite comprehensive - although they fail to cover an issue which is overlooked by most people and which is truly at the heart of the control matrix and very bad for everyone's health, that is, the ever increasing electromagnetic pollution of our living habitat. Still this website has a fascinating, elegant design with lots of very good content and thus their whole incredible effort deserves lots of praises.

I hope you will give it a look and allow the Light of Source to continue to grow within... through your own unique and vital Path to Self-Awakening which we are all prodded to walk upon at this historic evolutionary crossroad on Earth.

Love and blessings to you

Jean

TO WHICH LESLIE REPLIED:

Hi Jean,

Thanks for taking the time to address my wonderings concerning THRIVE. I asked several people I trust and they all came back in your vein. So, interesting to watch how the paranoia factor can add its layers to different responses... and a reminder to be ever vigilant with deep checking in with Self. Yes, the information is a lot to integrate even if one is not naive to all this. I think what didn't compute exactly for me was the slickness of it (although that's also called beautiful and well done), and the money put into it, and some of the ways the info was balanced.

Also interesting was that in the beautiful sequence of nature images in the beginning of the movie, I was jarred by one quick image... flying over the river scene... about 30 years ago, while reading in bed, I had a spontaneous leaving through the top of my head and went on an astral journey around the Earth and then into the universe. Around the Earth I was flying over THAT river and I remember my heart being connected to the earth through THAT river as I flew above it, as if I was connected to a vein in the body of the Earth, and through my heart I heard/felt the Earth and creatures crying.

When I went up into the universe I was shown a great force of evil and saw an awesome corresponding and balancing Light, the Christed Light. I felt a profound understanding and respect for the power, mission, and necessity of the Christed Light. There was a sense that I was supposed to be on some kind of journey with all this info. I remember a feeling of overwhelm and asking if my then boyfriend could come with me and help me with all this, The answer was "no"...that I was to face into this on my own with the interaction and learning for me being between myself and these elements.

How have I done?... A seemingly ordinary life with a lot of plot twists, rivers of synchronicity, and a sense that a lot more goes on than meets the eye. We are all like this and I and look forward to the deepening understanding of our multidimensional nature and cross connections that is at the heart of what we are coming to know.

Thank you so much for your fierce dedication to Truth. Many blessings...

Leslie

---

Note from Jean: Here is another complementary take on Thrive

From: http://www.waccobb.net/forums/showthread.php?85018-THRIVE-movie-and-discussion

Re: THRIVE movie and discussion

Barry wrote:

I encourage everybody to see the movie and let us know what you think! Wow.

Where to begin?

I guess I was expecting it to be an elaborate piece of disinformation, like so many others I have seen. I expected it to hit on a lot of truth, gaining the viewer's trust, only to steer them in the wrong direction with its "solutions". Kind of like the Zeitgeist movies, which are subtle (or not so subtle, depending on your perspective) disinfo pieces that accurately represent many of the problems we face, while presenting a global system of computerized control over nearly every aspect of our lives as the ultimate solution that we should strive for. Yes, that's exactly what I was expecting. The fact that the maker and narrator of the movie is Foster Gamble, heir to the Proctor & Gamble fortune, definitely increased my suspicion.

Well, to say I am pleasantly surprised is a huge understatement. This was a good movie, and the solutions it presented were totally right on! I especially liked the emphasis on overcoming the division between liberals and conservatives. Many liberals seem to have knee-jerk negative reactions to anything they see as conservative, and vice versa. This divisiveness is by design - the globalist elites would like to keep us from coming together around real solutions, and so far their plan has been working marvelously.

Likewise, a great many people (especially here on Wacco) seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to anything they see as even remotely suggesting a conspiracy. Many of the topics raised in this movie have been discussed occasionally on this website, usually with some of the more vocal members loudly interjecting a lot of ridicule. They tend to dismiss the information being presented because the source of information is not accepted in the mainstream (a pretty silly argument when the mainstream media is owned by just a few multinational corporations), or because it subscribes to different political values than that of the detractor, or some other ad hominem argument. It's rare to see actual facts being debated. Which is a shame, because what I have found is that when one looks into these things with an open mind and discernment, it is usually clear that there is some kind of conspiracy or cover-up.

In a way, it's hard to call what is happening in our world a true conspiracy, because while there is a secret element to it, much of the agenda is out in the open. These globalist elites talk about it in public, they write books about it, and they even build monuments describing their plans. They openly use government as a means for suppressing those who stand in the way of their agenda. It is only because we have been so conditioned that we fail to see what is really going on. Many people, once they wake up to the reality of it all, find it hard to fathom that they could have been previously so oblivious to it.

At any rate, I liked the movie, and I think Foster Gamble is legit and not some corporate shill. The solutions he is presenting are things I stand behind wholeheartedly, and they are things that will return the power to the people.

Laurel Blair, NTP
www.dynamicbalancenutrition.com

Here are more related comments on this from the very webpage where this knee-jerk destructive criticism is posted:

http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2011/11/thrive-movie-is-not-about-thriving-at.html

"I watched the entire movie and found it fascinating. Sure, I didn't agree with everything covered, but I think the movie is a good tool for getting many people informed who aren't necessarily intellectual and need a slick presentation to hold their interest. I am not about to discredit the movie because the host is a Gamble heir. He makes that quite clear throughout the film. Not everyone with money is evil, and it sometimes it takes somebody with a little clout to get the word out. If we shoot down everyone who tries to expose the facts, then fewer people will be encouraged to do so. Yes, the movie makes us uneasy. It's not a pretty subject, and nobody likes to be told that they're a slave... just like Neo in the Matrix initially felt resentment for toward Morpheus after being told the truth of his existence."

"Geez, people sure freak out over very little these days... Yeah, it was a slick production, but much of the movie was true... Inventions being suppressed is one. The U.S. Gov. has suppressed over 5000 patent applications-for 'National Security' reasons. All branches of military, and secret services review EVERY patent app. and make their recommendation as to whether the patent should be granted, or suppressed. Do you REALLY think that no one has invented anything better than an Internal Combustion Engine in the last 100 years??? C'mon, think about it. Why are we STILL using technology invented in the latter half of the 19th century??Purely for financial, and hegemonic reasons."

"I personally saw tons of value in the material. It is in plain sight that oppression has occured and is becoming stronger in every way. I like the concept that the message is not doom and gloom rather than education and concepts to manage the transition of change. It is so easy to knock something because destruction is easy, what is difficult is creation. That should be applauded. They present ideas to create inspiration to rise as a people. They present a clear problem and also present conceptual solutions. This documentary to aid in your individual search for the truth. Believe nothing until you can personally verify it."




2.

NOW HERE IS SOMETHING REALLY DISTURBING WHICH I JUST FOUND ON THIS SAME WEBSITE

From: http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2011/11/us-being-declared-battlefield-military.html

NOVEMBER 25, 2011

Soon U.S. could be declared a "Battlefield" - Military Could Arrest and Lock Up ANY U.S. citizen

We are about to become Nazi U.S.A. - Seriously! Bill Going to vote on floor Monday

11/28/11

This is it! This would take away any last freedoms we think we may have.

A Bill that allows the military to become the police and declares the U.S. as a battlefield, then the military can take and detain any U.S. citizen in the battlefield! They never have to charge you with anything nor give you a trial with this bill! In other words, if they don't like what you say or do, you can be picked up and held for the rest of your life without ever be given a reason nor trial!

If you enjoy what little freedoms we have left... then you need to let your elected official (not that they listen to the people) to vote NO on this bill!

It is coming up for vote on Monday or Tuesday - Carl Levin (D) and John McCain (R) created a bill behind closed doors that proclaims even the U.S. as a battlefield and U.S. citizens can be proclaimed enemy combatants!

This is so serious! This makes the military the Police and allows the military to come to your front door and arrest and lock you up! Remember the Patriot act allows the U.S. to take people and never say they have them.

This would even go farther, it will be the military not the FBI, CIA etc to take U.S. citizens. It could be the military that could start shooting at us, since we would be in a battlefield!

Is it because the government doesn't trust the police to stop the Occupy Wall Street folks? Is it because they know the police may even join the OWS movement at some point?

The ACLU is telling everyone to contact their elected official and tell them to vote NO!

This is so outrageous!

We will be Egypt/Syria/Libya if this goes through! The military will be our police!

Lindsay Graham and Kelley Ayotte both (R) support the bill - they feel the U.S. is a battlefield now.

Taken from the American Civil Liberty Union website...

From: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-demand-military-lock-american-citizens-battlefield-they-define-being

Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window

While nearly all Americans head to family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.

Senators need to hear from you, on whether you think your front yard is part of a “battlefield” and if any president can send the military anywhere in the world to imprison civilians without charge or trial.

The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.

The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.

I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?

The answer on why now is nothing more than election season politics. The White House, the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act are harmful and counterproductive. The White House has even threatened a veto. But Senate politics has propelled this bad legislation to the Senate floor.

But there is a way to stop this dangerous legislation. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is offering the Udall Amendment that will delete the harmful provisions and replace them with a requirement for an orderly Congressional review of detention power. The Udall Amendment will make sure that the bill matches up with American values.

In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”

The solution is the Udall Amendment; a way for the Senate to say no to indefinite detention without charge or trial anywhere in the world where any president decides to use the military. Instead of simply going along with a bill that was drafted in secret and is being jammed through the Senate, the Udall Amendment deletes the provisions and sets up an orderly review of detention power. It tries to take the politics out and put American values back in.

In response to proponents of the indefinite detention legislation who contend that the bill “applies to American citizens and designates the world as the battlefield,” and that the “heart of the issue is whether or not the United States is part of the battlefield,” Sen. Udall disagrees, and says that we can win this fight without worldwide war and worldwide indefinite detention.

The senators pushing the indefinite detention proposal have made their goals very clear that they want an okay for a worldwide military battlefield, that even extends to your hometown. That is an extreme position that will forever change our country.

Now is the time to stop this bad idea. Please urge your senators to vote YES on the Udall Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

---

Here is a link to contact your Congress person
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

Here is the link to contact the Senate
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Do you enjoy the few freedoms we have left? Do you want the military to be able to come to your door step and take you away?

We could become Germany under the Nazis! Seriously... we could. They went to people's homes and took them without reason and locked them up and killed them. The U.S. is basically about to Okay doing the same thing here. The government will officially become a Nazi government if this bill goes through. Because it will allow them to do exactly as the Nazis did!




3.

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

Naomi Wolf - 25 November 2011

The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality
US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.

I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.

Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.

That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.

The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.

For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich's having been paid $1.8m for a few hours' "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail.

Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists' privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can't suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance.

So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.

Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us.

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NOTE: So far (Nov 27) this eye-opening article by Naomi Klein has elicited 878 comments such as...

"This is an insidious and barbaric orchestrated crackdown - It makes a mockery of supposed freedoms and democracy and shows the state to be the corporate sponsored plutocracy it is.........Persevere."

"The way this kind of behaviour from security forces in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain was portrayed, it is amazing that Americans generally sit back and take it. They love people standing up for freedom as long as it is not Americans. The USA is turning into the most oppressive regime on Earth and it is just being allowed. Ron Paul is their only hope."

"Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one". In this case, one hopes that the American public will become sickened of the images of their children being beaten up by the forces of "law and order". One hopes that a Kent State incident won't occur.Then one remembers that the American public are probably watching Fox News. It is time for change, it is time for the 99% / 1% inequality to change. But will the revolution be televised ? And will the Occupy movements across the globe unify and provide us all with an alternative from our decrepit, ineffectual and amoral political parties ?"

"I'm sure that Congressmen will fight in the last ditch to protect their personal fortunes. However, it seems too simplistic to suggest that the only reason Occupy has been subject to brutality whereas people queuing for SNL tickets haven't is because of the issue of Congressional "profit streams". There is a very, very long history of the US government at all levels acting to violently suppress and disorganise left-leaning organisations, going right back to the nineteenth century. Bosses and local governments and police were often in cahoots when forcibly breaking strikes. That great "liberal", President Woodrow Wilson, presided over the biggest crackdown on socialist agitation in US history prior to WWI. The US state is a capitalist, counter-revolutionary state and has always acted to viciously suppress the left. Today is nothing new. Read your Howard Zinn."

"The Citizens United ruling really was the final straw for me. It was the point I realized America will never recover from the Bush years. Bush was a mortal wound. If this ruling is in fact a primary motivation behind the occupy movement, a way needs to be found to get this message out to the American public, because this is literally the first time I've even heard itmentioned in the context of the occupy movement. Most Americans are totally ignorant to the ruling and its consequences, which is what the Republicans and their paymasters want."

"The specific calls for reform you make are all valid, but they are mixed in with a lot of overblown rhetoric about civil war and vast conspiracies. 'Congress' is hardly a homogeneous group; you seem to have forgotten that Democrats control one house of congress and the presidency. Did Obama order the DHS to launch the 'civil war' against Occupy? If so he must be unusually Machiavellian, having given the movement cautious support a day or two ago. Or are you seriously claiming that Peter King, head of a single congressional subcommittee, has operational command of the DHS while the president is out of the country?And what is the nature of this Stasi-like security apparatus you imagine that connects university police at UC Davis with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the state police? What of the numerous demonstrations across the country that have not been met with violence? Isn't it frankly more likely that there is no organised conspiracy based on fear of the protesters' demands (in fact legislation is already pending to redress the recent insider trading revelations), but that events are the result of a patchwork of incompetence and brutality within a few local police organisations and individual officers?"

"This was an immensely informative piece, joining up a lot of dots that I, as a European, was unfamiliar with. I would still be a little cautious about assuming just how high things go in the absence of direct evidence but the circumstantial support is certainly compelling. Many thanks Naomi."

---

Related articles by Naomi Wolf...

How to Occupy the moral and political high ground (6 November 2011)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/06/naomi-wolf-occupy-movement
The worldwide protest can be a critical force for change if it follows some simple rules
As UK citizens are being told once again to "trust" the gatekeepers of the global banking system and as US citizens are realising that, despite a first amendment that guarantees freedom of speech and assembly, they are facing potentially lethal rubber bullets in Oakland and police brutality ranging from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to the streets of Manhattan, what is becoming clear is that a game-changing global shift is taking place. The conflict is no longer between right and left, but between the "one per cent" – a corporatocracy that, without transparency or accountability, is claiming the lion's share of the planet's resources and capital, while disregarding democratic processes – and, well, the rest of us.'

This single global family, transcending national boundaries, just wants a peaceful life, a sustainable future, economic justice and basic democracy. On the other side, the global corporatocracy, also transcending national boundaries, has purchased governments and legislative processes, developed its own military, mercenary or quasi-military enforcers, engaged in systemic economic fraud and plundered treasuries and ecosystems. What should global protest movements learn from what's happening around the world and what lessons should they draw from their own experiences? My study of successful protest movements leads me to suggest the following:
Democracy is disruptive. Around the world, peaceful protesters are being demonised for this, but there is no right in a democratic civil society to be free of disruption. Protesters ideally should read Gandhi and King and dedicate themselves to disciplined, long-term, non-violent disruption of business as usual – especially disruption of traffic. If they are peaceful, they can't be infiltrated by provocateurs as easily, while the unjust militarisation of the police response is more transparent. Also, the winning protest movements of the past were a matter of months or years, not days or hours; they involved sitting down or "occupying" areas for the long haul. Protesters need to raise their own money and use it to hire their own lawyers. The corporatocracy is terrified that citizens will get their hands on the mechanism of the law. CLIP

(...) Finally, we should understand that it is not a "list of demands" that is so profound about any of these protest movements; it is the very infrastructure of a common humanity that is being created. For decades, the global family has been told to keep its head down and leave leadership to the elites; in wealthy countries, to zone out in front of TV or at the mall; in the rest of the world, to submit to poverty and drudgery. What is transformative about the protest movement is that people are emerging and encountering one another face to face and remembering the habits of freedom: face to face, they build new institutions, new relationships and new organisations. And, I hope, pass laws sooner rather than later to demilitarise the police; ban Tasers and rubber bullets; criminalise police and politician violence against free speech activities; demand prosecutions for financial fraud; compel the corporate books that unaccountably swallow billions in tax revenue to be audited; investigate torturers; bring home soldiers from corporate wars of choice – and rebuild society, this time from the grassroots up, accountably, lawfully and democratically.

Naomi Wolf: how I was arrested at Occupy Wall Street (19 October 2011)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/19/naomi-wolf-arrest-occupy-wall-street
Arresting a middle-aged writer in an evening gown for peaceable conduct is a far cry from when America was a free republic...

Find out about the latest developments with the Occupy Movement through http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/occupy-movement

and check their October 18 Occupy protests mapped around the world



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