by Steven Whitney

On the June 8th edition of Real Time, Bill Maher took the Occupy movement to task. His was more of a pep talk than a scolding, but his message resounds clearly: If Occupy doesn’t start making a difference, and soon, it will become just another left-wing full-of-hope-fad that failed. And we Baby Boomers know all about revolutions and/or protests gone awry.

Ours was the love and peace generation –– Woodstock Nation, populated by flower children, hippies, and even Yippies (an outrageously theatrical political movement) –– who believed that to end the war in Vietnam “all you need is love.” We marched, occupied parks –– the term “flower children” originated in a Berkeley park that Governor Ronald Reagan wanted razed –– disrupted political conventions, got arrested (more than 13,000 in the D.C. May Day Protests of 1971 alone), performed street (guerilla) theatre, slid daisies down the barrels of rifles, sang, chanted, burned incense and candles, wore ankh necklaces, and visualized the end of war. Men burned draft cards and women burned bras. Protesters and students at Kent State and elsewhere were shot and killed. We raised awareness, got everyone’s attention –– “the whole world is watching” –– and it didn’t make a damn bit of difference. Well, we got better hair, better concerts, healthier (organic) food, and wider sexual freedom –– all good things. But the war ended only when the last American helicopter was chased out of Saigon by NVA troops –– no peace, no honor, just defeat. . . and more than 58,000 young American men and women KIA. The system stayed in place and Nixon started the slow erosion of confidence in our government.

It was the era that began the culture war that split America apart and still rages today. . . and it was the revolution that ultimately failed. It didn’t end any wars and it didn’t change America for the better. Indeed, we made it worse –– because we remained defiantly outside the mainstream, a nation that would have elected Robert Kennedy President in 1968 wound up with Nixon and Watergate, Ford, Reagan and Iran/Contra, the two Bushes (George the Elder and George the Stupid) and their Iraq fiascos, and a nation filled with crass capitalists who bought the system and kept it rigged. Down with Che and up with Gordon Gecko.

Obviously, raising consciousness or awareness wasn’t enough. Neither was singing, marching, dressing up in costumes, or any of the other creative means we utilized to spread the word. We had the right message, but –– to our everlasting shame –– we didn’t deliver it properly.

Many blamed drugs for short-circuiting our feel-good revolution. But even without drugs, the ‘60s revolution was doomed because we didn’t focus on reality, on how things work in the real world. All the peaceful protest in the world did not end the Vietnam debacle because Nixon and a Republican congress, backed by corporate war-profiteers, were in power. If we had not opted out, if we had concentrated on supporting Democrats –– from President on down –– in 1968, the war would have ended, Watergate would not have happened, and Republicans would not have had a nearly unbroken 28 years in power. Instead, our demonstrations and the resulting police riots at Chicago’s Democratic Convention that year scared the shit out of ordinary Americans –– the swing voters each party needs to win –– and they literally ran the other way.

Now we have a President who actually wants to end our extreme economic inequity. But we have a Republican party that blocks every effort in that direction.

At the same time, we have a huge and growing movement called Occupy that also wants to end our financial double standard. But Occupy is doggedly apolitical –– it doesn’t want to get involved. Occupy decries political parties and refuses to endorse candidates while encouraging its loosely-knit membership not to participate in the existing political system. It doesn’t want to change the system, it wants to replace it entirely. . . all the while remaining on the outside looking in.

It’s an understandable position – the Hippies and Yippies actually held much the same view. But it’s unrealistic and totally counter-productive to Occupy’s own goals. As we Boomers tragically discovered, it’s like sitting on the curb and watching Republicans march the American parade off the cliff.

It’s vital that Occupy not repeat our failures, and perhaps the best way is to learn from our mistakes. Like the unsuccessful Yippies, Occupy intentionally has no party affiliation, hierarchy or leadership. That’s certainly democratic, but who makes decisions and who speaks for you? Democracies need leaders –– hell, every revolution, every system of government needs leaders. Otherwise who inspires? Who mobilizes the millions of willing volunteers at your disposal?

Most importantly, you can get involved from both the outside and the inside – one doesn’t preclude the other. Just figure out the most effective strategies to get what you want. What’s at the top of your wish list? What are your top five positions? You must make it crystal clear for both yourselves and others what policies and positions you stand for. How do you propose changing a system that’s fixed from the top down? And how do you communicate that to swing voters?

Occupy should be the important political movement that America needs, but right now its policy of non-engagement is sadly evident. Just look at Wisconsin: Scott Walker –– a politician for and backed by the 1% if ever there was one –– won by a larger percentage of voters last week than he did before Occupy was born. What’s wrong with that equation?

What’s glaringly wrong is that Occupy wants to change things, but apparently doesn’t want to dirty its hands by participating in the albeit imperfect process currently in place, one that can nevertheless affect change. The $11 million that the Koch brothers donated to Walker might have been counteracted by the occupiers in the state had they mobilized fully, but instead Occupy by and large stood by and allowed money from the 1% decide the election. And Wisconsin is only a preview of coming attractions if Occupy remains on the political sidelines.

There is much moral clarity in the ideals Occupy cherishes. But only cowards shy away from their moral responsibility. More than two centuries ago, Irish philosopher Edmund Burke wrote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” It’s still true today. . . and the deliberate non-engagement of Occupy in party politics, is a de facto example of doing nothing.

So roll up your sleeves, Occupy – mobilize and swarm the neighborhoods of all 50 states. You need to make people understand the real issues at stake –– and that voting for what you view as the lesser of two evils is still better than not voting at all (and worse, aiding and abetting the GOP by default). You have to convince everyone in the 99% not only to vote but to vote in their own interests. If you want a better and fairer America, the first and most pragmatic step is to keep Obama in office and get rid of Congressional Republicans who are blocking his progressive agenda. You must figure out how to threaten Republican power bases in a meaningful way or nothing will change for the better.

The lasting effect of Occupy will not be how many “likes” their various pages receive on Facebook, or how many re-tweets their accounts get on Twitter, or how many livestream views their citizen broadcasters rack up, or how many people occupy a park, a square, or even the Washington Mall. Occupy can only be judged on how it changes the face of a country in the midst of the greatest political crisis in its history. In the end, Occupy’s worth will be valued by how much it gets involved and directly affects what could be the most important election of our lives this November.

Up to now Occupy has been sitting on the sidelines preaching to the choir. But now it’s time to exit your tents, stop banging drums in circles, and get your political act together. Run from the dugout onto the playing field and exert your grass-roots power to pressure the only system we have into working for all of us.

The Boomers who largely failed are rooting for you to succeed. We want you to restore a true democracy. But if you don’t get involved –– and Republicans win by default –– then you can kiss your aspirations goodbye. Possibly forever.

There’s a lot of heat on Occupy right now. . . and there should be. You’ve got to prove to skeptics that you’ve got the goods to help build a better and fairer America.

It’s time to deliver.

[..]

by Steven Whitney

Last week, a friend asked: if you could communicate one thing before you died, what would it be? So, hedging my bets, this is that column. Since I’m not a fan of polemics, consider this merely as the first item, as it were, on my bucket list of social truths.

Memorize that one clear, simple sentence and you’ll be miles ahead of the game.

They aren’t going to give it back.

But who are they…and what aren’t they giving back?

They are the idle rich and the rich who create nothing, not even jobs. They are the so-called “masters of the universe” who gamble other people’s money and win no matter how the bet turns out. They are the rich who live in five or six McMansions each (and perhaps a yacht or two) and who aren’t “concerned about the very poor” because they have “a safety net.” They are the rich who rally against education because they don’t want a level playing field or an electorate who can actually think for themselves and understand the clear issues they too often succeed in obfuscating. They are the rich who are not their brother’s keeper so will not support the “general welfare” of their fellow citizens. They are the rich who don’t support universal healthcare because the sick don’t make them any money, especially if they cannot afford expensive drugs that might keep them alive – worse yet, the sick are too ill to work for them at minimum wage. They are the rich, self-described “patriots” who steadfastly refuse to pay even one extra penny to keep the country afloat. They are the rich who want to shut down government in favor a free-market economy, which to them means a market free of all regulation and oversight. They are the rich who prey on the rest of us, the rich who are not “of the people” or “for the people,” but are instead barnacles on the hull of humanity, sucking it dry of all common morality – the parasites who make no positive contributions to society as a whole.

They are not the good rich, of which there are many, but the bad rich, the ugly face of the rich…and they aren’t going to give back their money, their power, their influence, or their privilege to anyone, much less the little people of the 99%. They will let the principles of democracy rot and wither so they can keep the deck stacked in their favor.

They are not going to give any of it away. Well, at least not to you…or our country. As long as it’s tax-deductible, they might give it to non-profit conservative think tanks or right wing SuperPACs that reinforce the criminally inaccurate notion that the bad rich need to keep all their money and car elevators for the greater good of society.

So we have to take it back ourselves. If America as we know it is to survive – if our people are to live free of economic shackles – we must find a way to recover from them everything that is undeserved, stolen, and inequitable.

That means instituting larger top marginal income and estate tax rates, the very instruments that Republicans call “a holocaust for the rich” and which they warn is the first step in “class warfare,” two phrases born of alarmist horseshit.

The last time these rates were as low as they are now, the government essentially went broke…ushering in the Great Depression. To get the country rolling again, and give its people a New Deal, FDR raised the top rate to as much as 79%. During the 1950s, Eisenhower was able to maintain what became known as the American Century only by raising the top rate to 91%. Nixon, the absolute pragmatist, kept a top rate of 70% and Reagan’s was 50%. And during all those years, the rich suffered not at all, not even a trickle of a holocaust. Class warfare wasn’t even a topic of discussion because, through both the Civil Rights Movement and the idea of a Great Society, America was striving to become “one nation, for all.”

Back then, the rich were composed of people who created good products, jobs, and services that grew in value. And yes, the rich were still different from us, but not that different. Most had houses and cars and took vacations that were a little better than ours, yet they shared with us many of the same values of fairness, of the need for good education and healthcare, and the desire to live in a country that held real opportunity for all. And since it was considered in bad taste to flaunt wealth, the showy, ostentatious McMansions were the exception rather than the rule. There was a more equitable balance between the classes and, so, more cooperation.

Today, that balance is pitiably out of whack.

When the then higher rate of income tax at the time is figured in, CEOs netted just 35% more than the average worker during the 1950s and ’60s. In 2012, CEO salaries were between 380 and 475 times what the average worker makes…and with much lower income, estate, and capital gains taxes. These outrageous gains were bought and paid for by the 1% through the congressional votes of the Republican Party, driving a stake through the heart of the middle class.

Now tell me again: who exactly is engaging in class warfare?

And, by the way, if the 1% wants class warfare, the 99% should oblige them. After all, the numbers are on our side – 99 to 1, to state the obvious.

We already have way too many Marie Antoinettes; what we don’t have is our own Reign of Terror. And since they view higher taxes (Obama’s proposed top rate of 39.6% compared to 91% in the 50s) as a holocaust and the essence of class warfare (as they define it), let’s give it to them…and more. By voting to cut their pay, and impose higher taxes (say, up to Nixon’s 70%), more wealth will accrue to the nation and more equity to society.

This summer and fall millions of Americans must storm the Bastille of right-wing ideology, exposing its shallow self-interest, empty promises, bait-and-switch economic policies, and complete lack of real patriotism.

And then, in November, the guillotine of the ballot box should drop on the arrogance and sense of entitlement of the 1%. But that’s up to you…and only if you remember: they aren’t going to give it back.

[..]

by Steven Whitney

One is the best of Americans; one is the worst of Americans; one reflects true wisdom, the other muddles in foolish avarice disguised as wisdom; one affirms our belief in freedom and dignity, the other binds us in economic chains; one brings forth Light, the other carries Darkness; one promises a spring of hope, the other a long winter of despair – in short, the two figures are so like the 99% and 1% they represent that some pundits noisily insist that they are superlative comparisons for Good and Evil.

We are talking, of course, about the two Grovers, worlds apart in both action and outlook yet both of them pivotally influential figures of American life over the last three decades.

The first was born in 1967, in the Sesame Street maternity ward in New York City, the love child of Jim Henson and Frank Oz (not a gay couple). Through the years, Muppet Grover evolved and grew, from green to blue and from dark monster to “cute furry little monster” to superhero and friend to all. As the Sesame Street website declares: “No other resident of Sesame Street can lay claim to being (or at least trying to be) more helpful than Grover.”

The other, Grover Norquist, was born in 1956 in Sharon, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Weston, Massachusetts. In 1968, when he was just 13, he volunteered to help “get out the vote” for Richard (“I Am Not a Crook”) Nixon. While earning a B.A. and M.B.A, he was Executive Director of the national College Republicans and part of the team that published the libertarian-leaning Harvard Chronicle. During that time, he was hit with a revelation that would define the rest of his life. “When I became 21, I decided that nobody learned anything about politics after the age of 21.”

It’s funny how things turn out. Monsters are, by definition, entities you cannot reason with – try reasoning with Jason, Jigsaw, Freddie Krueger, Leatherface, or even the shark from Jaws. Muppet Grover was born a monster, grew and opened himself to new ideas and became compassionately human. The other Grover, now a 55 year old man trapped within a 21 year old’s world view, was born human and, by his own admission, steadfastly refused to grow or consider ideas outside his own cloistered sphere…and became the kind of monster who would destroy his own country rather than change his mind.

After college, Mr. Norquist headed up the National Taxpayers Union, did a stint in the Reagan White House where he supported Oliver North’s illegal black op that became the Iran/Contra scandal, was named to the Boards of both the NRA and the Conservative Union, co-authored the Contract With America with Newt Gingrich, raised early support for “W” and was instrumental in crafting the Bush Tax Cuts that added approximately two trillion dollars to our deficit (not counting the lack of job creation attributed to those cuts).

During that time, Norquist’s organization served as a conduit for funds that flowed from convicted felon Jack Abramoff’s clients to covertly financed anti-tax lobbyists.

Bringing us to the source of Mr. Norquist’s power – the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a non-profit he founded in 1985, for which he has served as Executive Director since its inception. His foundation has just one issue: the opposition of all tax increases. That means income, corporate, sales – all taxes. Mr. Norquist even describes the Estate Tax as “a Holocaust for the Rich.”

The central tool of Norquist’s ATR is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which binds state and national candidates and members of Congress to oppose any and all tax increases. Both the pledge and its signers can be found here. Mr. Norquist boasts that more than 95% of current House and Senate Republicans have signed his pledge.

Every nation’s power comes from its right to tax its citizens to the extent necessary to efficiently run its government. If that becomes impossible, both government and the “general welfare” of its people crumble in ruins. And Mr. Norquist’s pledge does just that, creating gridlock, extreme partisanship, and a government that can’t get anything done.

But Mr. Norquist’s intention is clear: “Our goal is to shrink government down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” Which gave rise to a unique neo-conservative wish list for our government – “…to starve it, shrink it, and choke it to death.”

In collusion, they want to prove that government does not work, so they obstruct (through filibusters) and impede (via lawsuits) the legislative process while reducing available funds (through the Pledge) to cut our government back to the point where it actually doesn’t work.

Apply that same strategy to, say, NFL football. You want to prove it doesn’t work, so you buy a team of 45 players (the standard season roster). First, to reduce payroll, you cut the roster to 25 – 11 on offensive, 11 on defensive, and 1 kicker. Then after a few close but losing games, you cut costs even more. After all, you really only need 12 players – 11 playing both offense and defense and a kicker. But then injuries occur and you’re soon down to 6 players who lose every game by 80 or 90 points. You sit way up high in your luxury box with your cognac, cigars, and 1% business cronies, smile, and say: “You see, football doesn’t work.”

To work, damn near everything in this world needs to be funded. Perhaps government most of all. Even some moderate Republicans who aren’t totally batshit crazy understand the insanity of the new GOP. Former Republican Senator Alan Simpson remarked: “You have Grover Norquist…saying that if you raise taxes one penny, he’ll defeat you. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress.”

Which raises the question of why a pledge to Norquist should supersede any elected official’s oath of office and allegiance to his country.

But no one in power asks…although the result is obvious to anyone with clear vision: Norquist and his pledge are already choking the American government and its people to death.

Norquist certainly didn’t acquire this strategy from his mentors – Reagan raised taxes 11 times and Nixon raised the rate on capital gains from 25 to 35%. Indeed, except for “W” – and we know he was an idiot – every Republican President since 1928 has raised taxes – Hoover raised the top rate from 24 to 63% to combat the Great Depression, Eisenhower raised it to 90%, and Ford upped the tax rate for the wealthy and focused on closing loopholes. Why? Because it was necessary to run the government for the good of our country!

Some have understandably accused Norquist of being a traitor. But by law, treason must involve a foreign entity. Still, Mr. Norquist may very well be guilty of sedition, which is “any overt conduct, such as speech and organization that…tends toward insurrection against the established order.” Considered a subversive act, sedition can also involve rebellion against a constitution and incitement of discontent. And, it should be noted, revolt from the inside is always more insidious to a democracy than any threats from outside our borders.

Is Mr. Norquist guilty of sedition? We’ll never know, because his Republican protectors will never allow him (or themselves) to be so charged.

Instead, we can only compare our two Grovers – Muppet Grover and Grover the puppet-master of the extreme right-wing.

As a performance artist, everything Muppet Grover does is public and full disclosure; the other Grover discloses only what the law requires – we know neither his financial backers nor his own net worth.

Muppet Grover is of, to, and for humanity (and avidly supports Occupy – see the photo above); the other Grover speaks of, to, and for the 1% and economic enslavement.

Muppet Grover encourages us all to be fair; the other Grover stokes the fires of greed and selfishness.

Muppet Grover is sometimes afraid of the dark and has trouble sleeping; the other Grover has no trouble sleeping even as he attempts to rob the 99% of their constitutional birthright of a level playing field.

Muppet Grover shines the light of possibility on our childrens’ dreams while the other Grover crushes their opportunities by slashing funds to education, welfare, and healthcare.

One is every child’s best friend; the other you don’t want anywhere near your children.

Muppet Grover is a joyful creation; the other Grover would be a ridiculous cartoon figure if he weren’t so hell bent on killing the American government.

I’ll let each of you decide which Grover to embrace. But be warned – if you choose the wrong one, you’re not only part of the problem, you may just be an enemy of the state.

[..]

by Steven Whitney

The long, agonizing, and often unintentionally hilarious Republican debates – the multi-network reality show that ran more first-run episodes than most network series – are finally over. And the one thing you have to grant early loser Rick Perry, the second successive mentally-challenged Governor of Texas, is that he never once claimed that “What three cabinet departments would you eliminate?” was a gotcha question.

While one can hope his restraint was the beginning of a new Republican trend, all evidence points in the other direction. Egged on by Fox (Not Really the) News and an almost complete lack of facts supporting their delusional positions, Republican candidates of all stripes – those running for local and state offices, and those aspiring to the House, Senate, and Presidential chambers – will be forced to campaign on lies, made-up fantasies, wild accusations, and, yes, outrageous whining and crocodile tears (or should we call them elephant tears?) when asked “gotcha” questions, especially when the gotcha is not a gotcha at all.

So where did the gotcha question come from?

Early in the 20th century, the gotcha question grew internationally popular through the fictional mysteries of Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason). Said well-plotted gotchas always resolved the complex story at the climactic moment, freeing the innocent and/or condemning the guilty.

Before long, police detectives across America were encouraged to manipulate frightened, confused, exhausted, and unwitting suspects through a series of questions that would eventually lead to a self-incriminating answer.

So, too did trial attorneys on both sides strive for the most dramatic gotcha moments to impress upon juries the defendants’ innocence or guilt.

Then came the historic 1966 Miranda Decision, in which the Supreme Court restored suspects’ constitutional rights (to remain silent, etc.) by reaffirming the 4th and 5th Amendments. With attorneys now in the interrogation room, it became almost impossible to ensnare suspects into gotcha statements. Indeed, fearing accidental gotchas, most attorneys advised their clients to “shut the fuck up,” and gotchas became largely ineffective as a law enforcement tool.

Spying opportunity, and not bound by legal restraints, the press jumped feet first into the gotcha arena which – with the Cold War, the RFK and MLK assassinations, Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers, global student uprisings, and so much more – ushered in the glory years of investigative journalism. Indeed, Watergate provided perhaps the most famous gotcha question of all: What did he know and when did he know it?

With modern journalism’s mandate to make the news as well as report it, gotcha scenarios expanded exponentially, becoming the coup de grâce of political reportage – the gotcha moment of Muskie crying, the gotcha photo of Dukakis’ tank helmet, the gotcha forensics of a semen stain on Monica Lewinsky’s skirt. The victims were mostly Democrats, wounded by a relentless gotcha strategy employed by the Republican machine (and well-funded by the 1%)…and yet, I never heard a Democrat complain about a gotcha.

That was left to ill-informed Republicans, who bitched and moaned about every relevant question they could not answer while accusing the so-called liberal media of gotcha journalism.

But after the Supreme Court installed Bush and Cheney into the Executive Office, Republicans hit upon a unique solution to hide their cluelessness. If you asked a tough question, or even one they simply didn’t like, you were denied access and, worse, had to “earn” your way back into their so-called “circle of trust.” If a reporter on a political beat does not have or cannot get access to insiders, the news organization has no choice but to install a new reporter who can get access. The new Republican policy was: ask a tough question, you risk your job, your health insurance, your house, everything. So when the counselor at the Midnight Mission wonders how you became homeless and riddled with pox, you can only say: “I asked Dick Cheney what was discussed at his secret meeting with oil executives on May 31, 2001.”

But now that Republicans once again need the media, they’re reluctantly submitting to media debates and interviews. And their awful whining is about to hit fever pitch.

So let’s define it. A gotcha question is one that leads inescapably to a self-incriminating or self-defeating answer. While there may be many forms of gotchas, they are designed almost solely to trap, or corner, or “get” the target.

At the same time, gotcha questions are fair as long as they fall within one unspoken rule of honest journalism – that questions must arise from the real actions, thoughts, promises, and platforms of the person being questioned.

Here, as examples, are some legitimate questions based on the words and actions of some prominent right-wingers.

To Rick Santorum (and other Evangelical candidates): Like Abraham, if you heard God order you to kill your eldest child as a proof of your faith, what would you do?

To Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito: If you were speaking from the bench at a Court proceeding and one of the attorneys stood up and yelled “Liar!”…would that constitute Contempt of Court?

To any Republican running for office: Why is your pledge to Grover Norquist more sacred than your oath of office?

To Mitt Romney: Why are you on both sides of every important issue?

Given these real gotchas…really, how tough is “What do you read?”

Here’s a rule of thumb: anyone whining about a tough but legitimate question must be asked just one follow-up question: are you smarter than a 5th Grader? If you aren’t, you shouldn’t be running for any office, not even dogcatcher.

Gotcha!

[..]

by Steven Whitney

In Chinatown, private detective Jake Gittes puts those two questions to Noah Cross, perhaps the richest man in 1930s California. Those same queries, and others like them, resonant more than ever in today’s America.

How many cars can you drive? How many McMansions can you live in? How many diamonds and jewels and designer clothes can you wear? How many black Escalades filled with bodyguards does it take to make you feel important? Why do you need more when you already have so much more than enough? And most tellingly: how much do you fucking want?

The movie doesn’t provide answers – after all, who can explain rampant and uncontrolled greed? But it does offer a symbolic confrontation between the 99%, in the persona of Jake Gittes, and the 1%, represented by super-rich Noah Cross.

Jake is Everyman working hard to earn a decent living, perhaps with a dodge or two here and there, but living by a code in keeping with Raymond Chandler’s “hero” – a man who walks the mean streets who is not himself mean, a common man, a man of honor.

During a short stint with the police, Jake came to know Chinatown – a dark and dangerous place controlled by a few and impervious to change.

Why? Because he knew it was a game played with a stacked deck, one he couldn’t win…and he never knew if he was helping or hurting.

As the story begins, Jake is hired to expose a love nest that will ultimately determine control of the Los Angeles water supply. While the scandal is false, it leads to an apparent suicide. But Jake senses that he was unknowingly set-up and that the victim was murdered. So he unexpectedly wades deeper into the murky waters and runs straight-on into Noah Cross.

Cross has gotten rich as Croesus by not making any positive contributions to society. He doesn’t create anything – he just buys things, forces up their value (often by illegal means), and then sells them at an obscene profit. Sound familiar?

To make matters worse, he’s everyone’s Moriarty – an old man of gross and unchecked appetites. Indulging in land fraud, assorted swindles, mayhem, murder, and incest. He is both father and grandfather to the innocent girl he now lusts after. This, of course, makes him the worst kind of fucker – worse than a motherfucker and even worse than South Park’s notorious unclefucker (but probably still not as bad as Dick Cheney). By every measure, Noah Cross is an uber-villain.

Imbued with a sense of fairness, of right and wrong, and of common decency, Jake tries to rescue a woman and the daughter who is also her sister from this psycho-sociopath. Tough, smart, and relentless, if anyone can stop Cross, it’s Jake. And, against all odds, he seems at times almost on the verge of winning.

But he can’t win. He can never win because the game is rigged from the top, with scant trickle-down benefits. You can’t fight City Hall, especially if Noah Cross owns it. Jake gives it his best, but he’s a man alone, fighting phantoms he can feel but cannot see as Cross wages scorched-earth warfare. Too late, Jake realizes the only way he can win is to kill Cross. But Jake’s not a killer…so he winds up back in Chinatown, impotent, losing everything, and bone-tired of the whole damn mess.

Cross manipulates Jake (and everyone else) like Republicans maneuver their base – holding out the carrot of the American Dream only to snatch it away at the last second, keeping all the spoils of victory for themselves. Jake, like the rest of us, has been played for a sucker.

In 2012, it’s not morning in America. It’s fucking Chinatown.

Unlike Noah Cross and his ilk, we don’t want it all, we just want a level playing field…with more education, equal access to quality healthcare, and economic parity. We want the freedom to create and control our own lives.

But freedom comes at a high cost. It can neither be given nor bestowed, and it must be fought for and earned, now and forever. If we don’t get angry, if we don’t fight as hard and as relentlessly as the opposition, if we don’t learn to vote for our own interests, if we don’t deploy every weapon at our disposal, our lives will become mere ceremonies of loss in which our rights, our freedoms, and our opportunities are eroded, little by little, until the final whistle blows…and the American Dream is officially dead, stolen by Noah Cross and his brethren of the 1%.

And then we’ll all suffer Jake’s tragic fate – a purgatory of futility.

DARKNESS DESCENDS. MUSIC UP: A noir melody, light tinkling on a piano, backed by lush woodwinds, and then…a mournful trumpet solo, wailing a plaintive cry of helplessness.

[..]

by Steven Whitney

For more than a decade, even the smallest truths have been at a premium in the halls of Congress. . . and elsewhere in our government, from the Executive Office and WMDs to the Supreme Court and Citizens United.

But now, finally, Congress is *cough* aggressively attempting to restore truth in government.

Just as the Feds fully cleaned up the Wall Street and Bank disasters of 2008-2009 by convicting homemaking doyen Martha Stewart on charges of trading on “insider information,” they are now prosecuting former All-Star baseball pitcher Roger Clemens on six felony counts involving perjury, false statements, and obstruction of Congress.

The charges stem from Clemens’ voluntary 2008 appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committees in which he denied allegations by others that he had used steroids during his major league career. Stunned in much the same way Claude Rains was “shocked” to learn that nefarious criminals were hiding out in Casablanca, the Committees referred the case to the Justice Department for prosecution.

Clemens’ first trial ended abruptly in July, 2011, when the judge, citing prosecutorial misconduct, declared a mistrial on the second day. The Feds pressed fervently on, and Clemens’ second trial began just a few weeks ago.

Clemens’ defense? Through a 23-year career and 354 wins, he never once tested positive for steroids. Not once.

The government’s evidence? Well, Jose Canseco, who himself admitted to steroid use, wrote a book in which he “suggested” that Clemens “might” have taken steroids. Teammate Andy Pettitte testified that Clemens implied he had taken steroids, but also stated that he (Pettitte) might have “misunderstood.” And then there’s Clemens’ trainer, who’s changed his story five times, and now says without doubt (and no collaborating evidence) that he injected Clemens himself. In other words, the government has over four years built an airtight he-said, she-said case at a cost conservatively estimated well into eight figures.

And why not? Truth is sacred. Especially when spoken in the halls of Congress, a baseball player’s words in his own defense might threaten the security of our great nation.

So lies must be revealed. . . and prosecuted.

But perhaps – just maybe – prosecutions for perjury and making false statements should begin a little closer to home. Say, in Congress itself. After all, it impeached a President for lying about a blowjob, so why not impeach its own members for lies that undermine the very legitimacy of government?

Just a few months ago, Senator Minority Whip John Kyl (R-Arizona) gave a speech in the Upper Chamber in which he stated unequivocally that abortion was “well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.”

Of course, only about 3% of Planned Parenthood’s activities actually involve abortion (and much of that is just consultation). But instead of copping to his egregious error, Kyl’s office doubled down by releasing a statement that the Senator’s “remark was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood. . . . does subsidize abortions.”

In other words, Kyl’s statement was like Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare that “illustrated” a lesson in persistence. But fables employ symbolic metaphors, not untruths. Attempting to “illustrate” any moral virtue with a bald-faced lie disparages both the argument and the virtue it portrays.

In conceding that his oratory “was not intended to be a factual statement,” Kyl admits that he knew it wasn’t true when he said it. Hence, he lied. . . to Congress.

Kyl’s not the only one. Every day yet another elected official ambles forth nearly foaming at the mouth with one falsehood after another (like Representative Allen West’s recent comments that 74, or 82, or 61, or 55 Congressional Democrats are in fact Communists). Do these politicos have any substantiation of their “facts” whatsoever? And if not, why aren’t the Feds prosecuting them as relentlessly as they did Ms. Stewart and Mr. Clemens?

What proof would the Feds have to support prosecution? With Members of Congress (and most other elected officials), every sleazy lie is on videotape. And most are entered into the Congressional Record, signed by the liars themselves. Which leaves only two rationales: 1) our elected representatives are morons who don’t know the truth, or 2) they are lying douchebags inhabiting the lowest rung of Dante’s Inferno. Neither is an acceptable defense.

The key ingredient to a successful democracy is an informed electorate – a citizenry that is told and knows the truth. Indeed, how can any vote be legitimately cast if it is based on lies?

It follows that if truth in government is not our first priority, then government itself is inherently false. For when those in elected office distort truth into illustrative fables grounded in lies, an informed electorate is merely a myth. . . and democracy “of the people, by the people, and for the people” becomes nothing more than a fairy tale.

Photograph: Keith Allison, Creative Commons

by Nicole Powers

This #M1GS post will be updated as news comes in throughout the day. We’re working with Media for the 99 Percent to bring you up-to-the-minute coverage. If you have a photo, link, or news item you’d like us to diseminate, please Cc. @SuicideGirls and include the #M1GS hashtag in your tweet.

Occupywallst.org have put together an excellent Checklist for May Day protesters, which includes advice on what to bring, how to deal with the police, and what to do if you find yourself facing arrest.

For a nationwide directory of May Day actions visit: occupywallst.org

Catch the OccupyLA #M1GS Action Via The Following Livestreams:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crossxbones
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/savagetruth
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/spiritanimalsola
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/PMbeers
http://www.ustream.tv/occupyfreedomla
http://www.ustream.tv/willyforeal
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Occupyminds
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/occupy-fights-foreclosures
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/occupysfvmedia

Catch the OccupyNYC #M1GS Action Via The Following Livestreams:
http://www.ustream.tv/timcast
http://www.ustream.tv/user/OccupyCarlisle
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/occupymusician
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

3:03 AM PST: May Day gets off to a flower-powered start as masked protesters distribute thousands of roses and carnations to commuters at London’s Liverpool Street Station. Attached were tags which read: “This flower is a May Day gift from Occupy London. Please put it in water and enjoy it. There is something better out there.”

3:46 AM PST: The NYPD have been doing their homework and studying the history of #M1GS. In a report titled “NYPD Shield: Countering Terrorism Through Information Sharing” (fo’ realz!) they note:

The “General Strike” was initially proposed by the Los Angeles node of OWS in November 2011, endorsed by Occupy Oakland at the end of January 2012, and subsequently endorsed by the OWS New York General Assembly on February 14.

3:53 AM PST: The media lineup to report in NYC (but will their coverage be fair and balanced?). @Occupied_Air reports that “At least 18 Media Vans already line the streets around #BryantPark In preparation for #Mayday events.”

4:18 AM PST: Embrace your inner Pagan and get your Wicker Man on! (But watch the original 1973 version featuring Britt Ekland and not the well dodgy 2006 remake with Nicolas Cage.) May Day is an ancient holiday which celebrates fertility. In Europe traditional rituals include Maypole and Morris dancing.

4:28 AM PST: And tents will fly!. A flying tent is spotted rising above London’s Barbican heading towards Paternoster Sq. Let the spring silliness begin.

5:35 AM PST: We’re with the band. @macfathom reports that unofficial #OWS house band the Rude Mechanical Orchestra is jamming out on “Which Side Are You On.”

6:12 AM PST: First reported #MayDay arrest in NYC at the protest outside the Bank of America at 6th Ave and 50th St. Vietnam vet stands in the middle of street as an act of pre-planned civil disobedience. Keep moving if you don’t want to enrich the prison industrial complex folks.

6:48 AM PST: A woman’s place is in the revolution. Great pic from NYC via Laurie Penny a.k.a. @PennyRed.

9:59 AM PST: 4,000 registered nurses strike in Northern California. Nurses at 10 Sutter Health hospitals walk off the job following a contract dispute that has lasted over a year. CBS reports that “though the strike is only supposed to be one day, the nurses have been told they won’t be allowed back to work until Sunday.”

10:19 AM PST: “Twitter is over capacity.” A sight I haven’t seen in a while – the Twitter fail whale blows.

10:36 AM PST: Occupy Oregon in da house. Portland schedule is in full effect. PDX students take the Broadway Bridge before marching on City Hall, and a foreclosure liberation is underway. This is what effective resistance looks like! A Roving Dance Party is to be held at 6 PM in the South Parks. Wanna tune in? A full list of PDX streams can be found at: http://www.opdxlive.org/#1

11:04 AM PST: Tom Morello and his big band stage in Bruyant Park before marching to Union Square for an epic performance of “Worldwide Rebel Songs” featuring the OWS Guitarmy.

11:17 AM PST: Time for a sleep-in at London’s Stock Exchange. Tents now occupy Paternoster Square.

11:41 AM PST: #M1 protesters and the Guitarmy take 5th Avenue. Protesters spill from the pavement onto the street.

12:02 PM PST: Occupy Denver rally at Civic Center Park. See pics via @EisMC2. The Wikileaks truck arrives – “Now the party can officially start!” A sleep-in protest on 16th Street Mall is planned later (9.30 PM thru 5.30 AM).

12:22 PM PST: Solidarity rally/concert feat. Tom Morello, Dan Deacon, Immortal Technique, Das Racist, Bobby Sanabria, and more is underway. NYCs Union Square in packed. “Let Freedom Spring!”

12:31 PM PST: Things have taken a turn for the worse in Oakland. Mother Jones writing fellow @garonsen reports that tear gas has been deployed and that arrests have been made. In his latest tweet he states “Police have backed off again and are warning protesters to clear the street. Unclear how many arrested.”

1:03 PM PST: Mother Jones has posted some powerful pictures from earlier on the Williamsburg Bridge. They report that 200 people marched from Brooklyn to Manhattan and were met by 100 cops “in varying degrees of riot uniform.” Nice police to protester ratio! #YourTaxDollarsAtWork

1:37 PM PST: Two arrests reported at Occupy Philly during action to close Wells Fargo branch. @GoPHARE says “All Other occupiers evade arrest” as they “Shut It Down!” @OccupPhilly says they’re now “Regrouping at rittenhouse.” More Philly #M1 action is planned for later in the day – see schedule.

1:54 PM PST: Stream is now live at London’s Paternoster Square sleep-in. (Watch at: http://bambuser.com/v/2604128) Police tell protesters they are “blocking the highway” and have just given them a second verbal warning. Having been threatened with impending eviction in 10 mins, sleepers are currently deciding how to respond. Should they stay or should they go? *Update* Protesters cautioned that if arrested they may be subject to an injunction which will ban them from the UK’s capital for 6 months.

2:27 PM PST: Union Square crowd estimated to be 8,000+ strong by Guardian and Independent writer Laurie Penny.

2:51 PM PST: Massive march snakes away from still packed Union Square. @OccupyWallStNYC reports that NYPD was “totally confused about how 2 let this huge permitted march happen” and that cheers erupted “as police finally back off and allow marchers to enter onto Broadway from Union Square.”

3:31 PM PST: OPD declares “unlawful assembly” and issues a dispersal order for Broadway & Telegraph. Watching livestream as instructions for leaving are given: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pfailblog “You must leave now. If you refuse to move you will be arrested. If you refuse to move chemical agents will be used.”

3:49 PM PST: Occupy Chicago own the banks. @occupychicago tweets: “just shut down the 5th boa of the day!” Strong turnout too – check out this great shot from above the streets posted on their Facebook.

4:09 PM PST: Thousands make their way down NYC’s Broadway and yet more are still stuck at Union Square – and Reuters just said “Occupy Wall Street resurgence a dud.” Call yourselves reporters; Try looking out your window people!

4:39 PM PST: NYPD has barricaded Wall St. even though unions apparently had permit for their Solidarity March there. Thousands of protesters are heading down from Broadway; The NYPD is telling them to move on, but there’s no where to move on to.

5:44 PM PST: Thousands converge for celebratory People’s Assembly at 55 Water in NYC’s Financial District – and more are on their way.

We’re signing off now, and heading down to Pershing Square for OccupyLA’s special May Day GA.

In Solidarity.
SuicideGirls
XOX

11:48 PM PST: Just got back from the special May Day Occupy LA GA. Following the 4 Winds marches, a massive crowd converged at Pershing Square in DTLA. A truly inspiring way to kick off the American Spring.

For more images from Occupy LA’s May Day GA visit our gallery.

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