Diane Coyle — From ‘Arab Spring’ to Fake News

I’m late to Zeynep Tufekci’s excellent Twitter and Teargas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. It analyses the impact of social media on political events such as the Arab Spring – remember that? – and Occupy. Her thesis is that online organization is a powerful political tool when combined with offline organization, but cannot substitute for it; and the evidence presented here from a range of mass protests certainly convinces me. The problem mass socially-networked protests have lies in their norms of decision making, which are slow and non-hierarchical. This makes them unable to change tactics quickly when hostile authorities respond to the protest, and so the moment passes. If, however, there is a parallel offline organisation with more conventional decision-making structures, the political protest can adapt and continue....

The Enlightened Economist
From ‘Arab Spring’ to Fake News
Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation

Peter Lee — Occupocalypse Now! © in Hong Kong

Interesting that the United States, the United Kingdom, and the UN General Secretary have all voiced concern about developments in Hong Kong and called for restraint.
In other words, what we see is creeping internationalization of the Hong Kong issue. Given the relatively minor and local character of the matter to date, at least, it makes one pause. 

After all, the current toll in Hong Kong is a few dozen injured after some confrontational street protests, some tear gas got fired, now everybody’s sitting around waiting for Occupy Hong Kong’s latest move. 

Why give a sh*t about a currently fatality-free civic ruckus inside China’s sovereign territory even as the US refeeds the Middle East through the military meatgrinder for the umpteenth time, mass graves of slaughtered civilians are uncovered in eastern Ukraine, and the U.S. can’t bring itself to censure Israel for a disproportionate military operation in Gaza that killed 2000 including 500 children? 

Hate to say it, but the inference that the U.S. sees profitable mischief to be made in Hong Kong is inescapable. 

I believe that Occupy Hong Kong is a legitimate local movement with legitimate local grievances and is pretty much a local phenomenon. 

I also believe that its leadership has spent months planning the current campaign, and part of that campaign involved keeping the United States informed and coordinating sub rosa with the United States to exploit the unrest to apply pressure on the PRC....

Counterpunch
Occupocalypse Now! © in Hong Kong
Peter Lee | Editor, China Matters

Also Bruce Stinson, China’s Long Game and Occupy Central

Tony Cartalucci, US Openly Approves Hong Kong Chaos it Created, at NSNBC International

Dell Cameron — Police cars explode in Canada as fracking protests turn violent

What started as a peaceful protest by the Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nation in New Brunswick against a shale gas project has now spun violently out of control. After the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) advanced on the anti-fracking protest, demonstrations clashed with police, chemical agents were deployed and at least half a dozen police vehicles were destroyed by Molotov cocktails

The Daily Dot
Police cars explode in Canada as fracking protests turn violent
Dell Cameron

See also Romanian villagers force Chevron to suspend fracking operation by Agence France-Presse


Indonesian court jails fourth Chevron employee over corruption by Agence France-Presse

Fascism Alert — Ranjit Devraj: Delhi bill to criminalize opposition to GM food

India's environmental and food security activists who have so far succeeded in stalling attempts to introduce genetically modified (GM) food crops into this largely farming country now find themselves up against a bill in parliament that could criminalize such opposition. 

The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill, introduced into parliament in April, provides for "single window clearance" for projects by biotechnology and agribusiness companies including those to bring GM food crops into this country, 70% of whose 1.1 billion people are involved in agricultural activities....

"The new bill is not about regulation, but the promotion of the interests of food giants trying to introduce risky technologies into India, ignoring the rights of farmers and consumers," Sahai said. "It is alarming because it gives administrators the power to quell opposition to GM technology and criminalize those who speak up against it." 

Asia Times Online
Delhi bill to criminalize opposition to GM food
Ranjit Devraj

Looks like criminalizing dissent is catching on.

Matt Sledge — Homeland Security Tracked Occupy Wall Street 'Peaceful Activist Demonstrations'

A Department of Homeland Security division produced daily briefings on "peaceful activist demonstrations" during the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests, documents released Tuesday revealed.

The 252 pages of documents were obtained in a March 14 letter from DHS by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which in November 2011 launched a campaign to unearth public records that would show whether the federal government was spying on Occupy Wall Street. FBI records obtained by the group in Decembershowed that the bureau investigated Occupy as a potential "domestic terrorism" threat.

"Taken together, the two sets of documents paint a disturbing picture of federal law enforcement agencies using their vast power in a systematic effort to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations," Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, said in a statement. "The federal agencies’ actions were not because Occupy represented a 'terrorist threat' or a 'criminal threat,' but rather because it posed a significant grassroots political challenge to the status quo."

The Huffington Post
Homeland Security Tracked Occupy Wall Street 'Peaceful Activist Demonstrations'
Matt Sledge

Occupy is dead. Long live Occupy!

Three years after the May 1968 uprising that swept the world, the great French philosopher Michel Foucault observed that a key strategy of power is to “appear inaccessible to events.” Power, Foucault argued with a nod towards 1968’s failed insurrection, acts to “dispel the shock of daily occurrences, to dissolve the event … to exclude the radical break introduced by events. 

Forty years later, in light of Occupy, Foucault’s observation still strikes home. Despite achieving the impossible at unprecedented speed – sparking a global awakening, triggering a thousand people’s assemblies worldwide, and giving birth to a visceral anti-corporate, pro-democracy spiritual insurrection – Occupy is now struggling through an existential moment. Our movement has been dealt a blow: our May 1 and follow-up events have been dissolved by power; the status quo has shown itself to be far more resilient than many of us expected. 

Now a passionate debate is emerging within our movement. On one side are those who cheer the death of Occupy in the hopes that it will transform into something unexpected and new. And on the other are patient organizers who counsel that all great movements take years to unfold.

Read the rest at Adbusters
Occupy's Spiritual Quest — The fork in the road ahead
Posted by Adbusters

What this will do is separate the revolutionaries from the evolutionaries both strategically and tactically, as well as over policy. Pretty much the same thing happened pretty early on in the Sixties, too.

The scene was very different in the Sixties, at the beginning of the protest movement, however. The Democrats held the presidency and solidly controlled both branches of Congress, and the courts were dominated by years of Democratic administrations, with the interruption of the Eisenhower moderate Republican years. Still, all hell broke loose at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

This time promises to be different. We are still it the early stages, and this has gone viral globally through social media and networking.

All the conditions that sparked Occupy and Indignados remain in place, and TPTB around the world are determined to press their hand. This promises to be another "long march." Expect the unexpected.

The protestors now realize just how asymmetrical this is and how determined TPTB are to crush social protest and political dissent. They will have to adapt.

However bad things get though, it will be nothing like what the anarchists faced in the lead up to the failed revolution of 1848 and the aftermath. However, they changed history in unexpected ways that are still unfolding.

This is shaping up just the beginning of the next awakening predicted by Strauss & Howe in The Fourth Turning (1997) and Ravi Batra (2007) in The Next Golden Age: The Coming Revolution Against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos. It's not going to happen overnight.

If this lasts through the decade at least, as I believe it will, the issues will be decided by an electorate that will be very different in demographic composition and culture. The chances that neoliberalism will survive are extremely slim. It's just a matter of time.

However, youth is impatient and will attempt to push its hand, so there are going to be rough spots, especially when the next financial and economic crisis hits and global warming obviously starts to bite.

This will be the predominant trend of the decade and it will have broad and deep consequences socially, politically, and economically.

Adam Gabbatt — Canada student protests erupt into political crisis with mass arrests

Protests that began in opposition to tuition fees in Canada have exploded into a political crisis with the mass arrest of hundreds of demonstrators amid a backlash against draconian emergency laws.

More than 500 people were arrested in a demonstration in Montreal on Wednesday night as protesters defied a controversial new law – Bill 78 – that places restrictions on the right to demonstrate. In Quebec City, police arrested 176 people under the provisions of the new law.

Demonstrators have been gathering in Montreal for just over 100 days to oppose tuition increases by the Quebec provincial government. On Tuesday, about 100 people were arrested after organisers say 300,000 people took the streets.

But what began as a protest against university fee increases has expanded to a wider movement to oppose Bill 78, which was rushed through by legislators in Quebec in response to the demonstrations. The bill imposes severe restrictions on protests, making it illegal for protesters to gather without having given police eight hours’ notice and securing a permit.

Read it at Raw Story
 Canada student protests erupt into political crisis with mass arrests
Adam Gabbatt | The Guardian (UK)

"The student movement in Chile opposes neoliberalism"

Vice-president of the University of Chile Student Federation, 23-year-old Camila Vallejo has led a campaign for better access to education that began in April 2011. The student movement in Chile opposes neoliberalism and shook the country's elitist democracy. She was voted person of the year in a poll of guardian.co.uk readers

Read it at The Guardian (UK)
Chilean protester Camila Vallejo: 'You need collective organisation and action' - video
by Jonathan Franklin, Morten Andersen and Cameron Robertson

Watch the video.

Japanese economic minister — requirements for a new growth model

At the individual level we have seen unambiguous signs that the economic climate is contributing to discontent. Public sentiment has undergone a distinct shift, and we can be far less certain that a return to previous levels of economic growth can erase this dissatisfaction. Through the Occupy Wall Street movement and other demonstrations, we have heard not only a message of anger at the current situation, but the desire for something else; for something more. The search is underway, particularly among the young people of the world, for a new model of growth.

A fundamental assertion for any new growth model, that is, dynamic and inclusive growth, is that three basic elements -- the economy, society, and the environment -- are each integral and must all contribute to overall improvement. Such thinking is not superfluous or a luxury that can only be afforded during periods of strong economic performance. It is critical to recognize that we must seek to provide not only prosperity, but also leave behind a healthy social and natural environment for future generations.

The new growth model must, in other words, impart more than economic gain. In recent years governments around the world, including Japan, have quietly turned their attention to research into the question of happiness and quality of life. How do we measure, or even define, such a concept? What factors contribute? In an era when so many people face stark economic challenges, does it even matter? Fundamentally, how do we meet the needs of society, and of future generations?

Research and, one could argue, the message from demonstrations around the world, would indicate that the contribution made by society and the environment play an integral role in ensuring our citizens realize their personal goals. Such factors are therefore critical to both prosperity and sustainability; an important part of the new growth model.

Read it at The Huffington Post
The Search for a New Growth Model
Motohisa Furukawa | Japanese Economic Minister

Looks like at least some of the TPTB are listening to the voice of protest and getting the message that globalization is not working based on the model in terms of which it is being applied.

Furukawa also talks about introducing quality rather than only considering quantity, which is border on superstition for most mainstream economists.

He also introduces the economy, society, and the environment as macroeconomic trifecta requiring resolution instead of only the traditional growth of production, employment, and price stability.

Jeff Cox — Riots in US Streets? Why Soros' Prediction Is Unlikely

Read it at CNBC NetNet
Riots in US Streets? Why Soros' Prediction Is Unlikely

by By Jeff Cox | Senor Writer

I would agree with this analysis, but I suspect that this is not what Soros is concerned with. I would guess that he, like Randy Wray, foresees another crisis developing that will be far worse than the present one since it will be hitting on top of this crisis before this one is resolved. If that happens, who knows what will happen. Moreover, the global economy now has countries joined at the hip. Another crisis would likely be global.

George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War

Read it at The Daily Beast (from Newsweek)
George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War

by John Arlidge

Culture Wars And Craziness

The Occupy movement's evolving agenda is in danger of being sullied by association with neo-Nazi David Duke and antigovernment crusader Ron Paul.

Read it at AlterNet
How Right-Wing Libertarians, John Birchers and Conspiracy Freaks Are Trying to Hijack the Occupy Movement
by Eric Johnson

In my anecdotal experience this is not affecting only Occupy and the 99% movement. Quite a few people with whom I am acquainted, who I had thought were sane, are falling into this hole of dark fantasizing about conspiracy theory. For some it is an anxiety neurosis, but for others, often the leaders, it is a paranoid psychosis. But for many, it is only uncritical thinking that can be countered by introducing rigor.

A lot of this centers around the Fed and it related in some way to Ron Paul and Rockwell-Rothbard Libertarianism, based on the persistent conspiracy theory about and "international banking cabal" instituting a "new world order" based on a repressive "world government" under UN aegis — the Money Masters, Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations stuff that is supposedly controlled by "the Rothschilds." There is just enough fact to support the outlandish claims, so that uncritical minds make logical jumps that are unwarranted.

This quote from the article cited above sums it up.

For many of the people involved in the Occupy movement, this is their first involvement with political activism. Their openness to new ideas and reluctance to embrace any one political dogma is refreshing. But as the saying goes: “It’s good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.”

One-Hundred and Thirty Cities Across the US Protest on Anniversary of Citizens United

On Friday, activists in more than 130 cities in 46 states across the country "occupied" their federal courts on the eve of the second anniversary of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Read it at TruthOut
One-Hundred and Thirty Cities Across the US Protest on Anniversary of Citizens United
by Britney Schultz, Truthout | Report

See also:

Justice Scalia responds to critics of CU.

Read it at The Huffington Post

Justice Scalia On Unlimited Political Ads: Turn Off The TV

Scalia was joined on stage by Justice Stephen Breyer, who voted on the losing side in the decision which has become known as "Citizens United," for the group that successfully sued over federal campaign finance laws. Breyer didn't directly criticize the ruling, instead pointing out how it is critical in the American system that people respect the decisions the judiciary makes.

By nature, when a decision isn't unanimous, "somebody is making a mistake," Breyer said.

Breyer also briefly summarized both sides of the argument concentrating on his own.

"There are real problems when people want to spend lots of money on a candidate ... they'll drown out the people who don't have a lot of money," Breyer said.

Glenn Greenwald — Two lessons from the Megaupload seizure

Read it at Salon
Two lessons from the Megaupload seizure
by Glenn Greenwald
(h/t Kevin Fathi via email)

(1) It’s wildly under-appreciated how unrestrained is the Government’s power to do what it wants, and how little effect these debates over various proposed laws have on that power.

(2) The U.S. really is a society that simply no longer believes in due process: once the defining feature of American freedom that is now scorned as some sort of fringe, radical, academic doctrine. That is not hyperbole.

Here's the crux of it:

...what distinguishes a tyrannical society from a free one is whether the government is first required to prove guilt in a fair, adversarial proceeding. This is a precept Americans were once taught about why their country was superior, was reflexively understood, and was enshrined as the core political principle: “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” It’s simply not a principle that is believed in any longer, and therefore is not remotely observed.

It is simply not possible to have free enterprise in a tyrannical society. The US is kneecapping itself. Eventually this leads to powerful interests taking down competition politically, thereby stifling innovation.

Joseph Schumpeter saw the risk to capitalism as late-stage capitalism stifling innovation.

"New battlelines drawn in cyber-space"

What is the relationship between the self-imposed blackout of Wikipedia and the September 2007 Israeli air raid against an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor? The sophisticated worm Stuxnet, dubbed the first cyber-weapon in history? Or the "cyber-war" between Saudi and Israeli hackers? And while we are on it, might we add WikiLeaks and the debates on media freedom?

Read it at Asia Times Online
New battlelines drawn in cyber-space
By Victor Kotsev

This is much bigger than a lot of people realize, but governments get it that the Internet is undermining authority of all types, sizes, and shapes — to Libertarian delight and authoritarian dilemma. How and where this is going to lead is unpredictable, and the outcomes will determine signifiant aspects of the future in global politics and the global economy.

The fading dream of higher education in the US

It seems fitting that some of the activity inaugurated by the Occupy Wall Street movement migrated from city squares to college campuses, where students, from Berkeley to the City University of New York (CUNY), are protesting against the rising cost of their educations. Undeterred by pepper spray or police batons, they struggle to preserve the evanescent American dream of a top-flight affordable college education available to all. But, unless there are major transformations within academe and the rest of society, they may be fighting a losing battle.

Just as the frontier once allowed an enterprising individual to get ahead (or so the story went), by the middle of the 20th century, higher education had become the main engine of social mobility in the United States. A college degree, it was believed, would boost its holders into the middle class and then keep them and their children there. Recently, however, as the US economy turned sour, that promise no longer holds. Not only have rising tuitions and unmanageable student debt threatened to put a first-rate higher education out of reach for many of the 99 per cent, but it has also become harder for graduates to enter the well-paying careers they went to college for. 

The economic insecurities that have blasted so many students' hopes did not originate on campus. They stem in large part from the ascendance of a neoliberal polity that worships the corporate sector and seeks to shrink the state. Businesses pursue the bottom line by shedding jobs, while demanding lower taxes and fewer regulations. The very concept of a common good, of a system that nurtures citizenship and offers all in the US the benefits the market does not provide, has lost its meaning. 

In response, higher education has also abandoned the common good. Most in the US now view it solely from a narrowly economic perspective. Vocational training has replaced the liberal arts, while administrators strive to make their campuses engines of economic growth, rather than sites for intellectual experimentation and meaningful cultural encounters. Of course, graduates need to earn a living, but they also need to have a life worth living. And adapting colleges and universities to today's profit-driven environment imposes financial and educational costs that may simply be too high - for students, for the academy and for that elusive common good.

Read he rest at Al Jazeera
The fading dream of higher education in the US
by Ellen Schrecker, professor of history at Yeshiva University
(h/t Kevin Fathi via email)

"FBI shuts down Megaupload, Anonymous shuts down FBI"

Read it at RT
FBI website crippled in Anonymous-led retaliation to Megaupload raid

Rude.

AnonyOps on SOPA and PIPA

Read it at AnonyOps — We Are Legion
Bright, and Clear: The Future of Free Speech

Rachel Maddow summed it up pretty well on her show last evening, saying that it's no longer OK for politicians NOT to understand how the Internet works.

SOPA and PIPA are like trying to kill flies in the house by swinging a sledge hammer. There is no reason to break the Internet and undermine freedom of expression in the name of controlling piracy and protecting intellectual and artistic property rights. It's overkill based on lack of understanding of the technology.

This is coming from the content producers, the same people that did their best to hobble hardware and software technological advances to prevent illegal duplication. It was stupid and self-serving then, and it is stupid and self-serving now.

Looks like the blackout got some results. Quite a few politicians are now walking back their support of SOPA and PIPA. But it is not over until it is over. They aren't going away in this attempt.

Sergei Khrushchev — The end of the Putin era?

Despite the government's best efforts to write off protesters, the public discontent is likely to keep growing.

Read it at Al Jazeera
The end of the Putin era?
by Sergei Khrushchev
Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

Wikipedia Will Go Dark On Wednesday In Protest Of SOPA And PIPA

Read it at Business Insider
Wikipedia Will Go Dark On Wednesday In Protest Of SOPA And PIPA
by Dylan Love
(h/t Kevn Fathi via email)