protests
9 posts
The uprising currently happening in Ukraine is heart-stopping. Things are happening fast there. Please use this post to share the latest news reports, your feelings, hopes and fears for the people there. Continue reading
The nation’s capitol was brought to a standstill mildly inconvenienced Friday as thousands dozens maybe eighteen or so four truckers descended on Washington as part of the Truckers Ride for the Constitution, a truck-based protest designed to “shut down America” and “restore constitutional government.” Organizers denied the event was just a stunt to promote James Franco’s reboot of Smokey and the Bandit, and claimed 10,000 truckers would show up. USA Today puts the number that actually showed up as approximately three. Some photos show as many as four trucks. Fox News and Politico put the number as high as thirty. Some of the truckers may be extra-dimensional travelers from Earth 61-A, where Separatist cyborg-general Barack 0-9AMA overthrew beloved President Will Romney in a bloody coup. These extra-dimensional travelers may be unaware that in this dimension, human Barack Obama soundly defeated cyborg Willard Romney, giving the manbot a humiliating electoral loss that was well within Constitutional parameters. What the truckers from either dimension planned to actually do is unclear, though there was some speculation that they would engage in the obscure quasi-Constitutional practice known as “truckerpeachment” in an effort to remove Barack Obama from office. Continue reading
After University of California, Berkeley campus police and Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies initiated violent action against Occupy Cal protesters on Wednesday, UC Police Capt. Margo Bennett has come up with a justification for the police action captured on video above. Continue reading
Given that the mainstream American Left has been scared of its own shadow since the Reagan revolution turned “liberal” into a dirty word, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that many of these self-professed “progressives” have responded to the first genuine sustained mass youth movement my generation has seen by heaping scorn, doubt, and criticism upon it. I arrived in Zuccotti Park late Sunday afternoon hoping to catch a glimpse of the chaotic and disorganized mass of dirty hippies, drugged-out punks, and other standard bogeymen of the “get off my lawn” crowd. I was sorely disappointed. Continue reading
Hey, you know I’m as mad as the next gal about what’s going on with the current tax debate. Sure, yes, it floors me that some jerkoff multi-millionaire claims that in suffering a tax increase his net income would be diminished down to $400,000 after he feeds his family. That’s some crazy logic right there. No, seriously, that is something only an out of touch maniac would say. But is taking to Wall Street in some undefined protest, led by an anonymous internet movement, without focused demands or plan other to say “Thumbs down to Corporations!” really the answer frustrated, unemployed, mostly left-leaning Americans should take?
Seems like a long shot to me.
Arab Spring? Thai red-shirts? Student protests in Britain? Pah! As Tony Kornheiser has been telling everyone for years, it’s the animals that governments should be worried about! Here are some critters, both great and small, that have stood up to The Man. Continue reading
On the three-month anniversary of the March 11 earthquake in Japan, protesters around the country took to the streets to protest nuclear power after the true scale of the nuclear disaster and details of gross mismanagement of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant by the Japanese government and TEPCO came to light. Rally organizers in Tokyo say about 20,000 people participated in the demonstration. Continue reading
Protesters certainly do like to gather in squares, don’t they? This is no less true of Bahraini protesters who have marched on and occupied Bahrain’s Pearl Square this morning in a show of resistance against their violent ejection from the square a few days ago.
Bahrain, the latest Middle-Eastern country to be rocked by determined and energetic anti-government demonstrations, has been ruthless in quashing demonstrations; calls by Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Khalifa on Friday for a peaceful resolution were rejected by the the leading opposition party. Protesters had tried to enter the square Friday but were fired upon by security forces and repelled with rubber bullets and birdshot.
Bahrain’s deadly response to protests, leaving at least 6 dead, only steeled Bahrainis’ determination for change all the more and as the sun rose on Saturday people made another attempt on the square. Seemingly, there was some reconsideration of strategy going on within the Bahraini government as this time around police and military have relented and protesters have been able to peacefully occupy the square.
The atmosphere in the square is being described as “euphoric” and as demonstrators hunker down for the night in tents calls for complete overthrow of the regime are becoming increasingly loud.
Elsewhere, things aren’t looking so bright; in what is being called a “day of rage” 15 mourners were reportedly killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi when security forces fired on them while they were attending a fucking funeral.
From Al Jazeera:
A doctor from Benghazi told Al Jazeera that the Al Jalah hospital where he works had received 15 bodies and was treating numerous people following the shootings at the funeral.
He said the hospital had counted 44 deaths in total in three days, adding that it struggling to treat the wounded.
“This is not a well-equipped hospital and these injuries come in waves. All are very serious injuries, involving the head, the chest and the abdomen. They are bullet injuries from high-velocity rifles.
In Algeria, riot police dispersed a pro-democracy demonstration of about 50 people with batons. Such restraint!
VOA News, Al Jazeera, picture via NYT