by Nicole Powers

Just over 24 hours before #OccupyLA would have celebrated its 2-month anniversary, the encampment at City Hall in DTLA was raided. The operation involved 1400 police officers and resulted in 200+ arrests (update: LAPD have confirmed a total of 292). After staging and loading into buses at Dodger Stadium earlier in the evening, police swarmed Solidarity Park from the outside in, and from the inside out – with officers in riot gear and hazmat suits pouring out of the South Doors of City Hall. The LAPD claim that there were only 3 violent incidents resulting in injury. The last of the protesters – 4 people and a dog – that had been holding out in a tree house, were removed from their tree top fort with the help of a cherry picking mobile platform and rifles firing bean bag rounds just before dawn. Clean up crews quickly moved in to dismantle the camp. These images were shot between 7 and 8 AM today.

RIP #OccupyLA at #Solidarity Park. Long live #Occupy. You can’t remove, arrest, destroy, bulldoze, or dispose of an idea.

We sidestep some of LA’s finest to shoot what’s left of Solidarity Park.

As we shoot through the fence in one area an officer tells us “the sidewalk is closed.”

We are a peaceful movement. Never stoop to their level. One love.

A tent is dragged to a dumpster by a member of the cleanup crew.

And another one.

Wishes written by children from the #OccupyLA creche are still attached to a tree.

A news crew reporting on the aftermath amidst the rubble.

#OccupyScience

Here’s to the death of mindless consumerism.

Camp life sure was colorful.

A trash truck moves into the heart of Solidarity Park.

A bamboo sculpture gets trashed and compacted.

The white stuff piled up in the foreground is discarded disposable hazmat suits.

Remember: Close your account.

The bulldozers move in.

Concrete barriers are transported to City Hall.

A bulldozer moves a concrete barrier into place.

City Hall is now a fortress surrounded by concrete barriers and wire fencing.

But the protesting don’t stop.

Waiting for peace at a bus stop as the sun rises.

Picking through the rubble. Just after I took this picture, this chap found a pair of socks!

A displaced member of the #OccupyLA community is happy to have rescued his belongings.

More displaced set up home a few blocks away.

The site of #OccupyLA’s last stand. The Freedom Fort occupied by Manny, Chad, Shane, Lucky, and a dog – who was technically the last occupier to leave the park!

They were the dreamers – indeed a friend told a livestreamer that Manny had wanted to build a tree house ever since he was a kid. Not sure getting arrested was on his wish list though.

No prizes for guessing what these are!

by Aaron Colter

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything about #OccupyWallStreet, and even longer since I first posted about the movement’s inception. Since then, a lot of things have happened, most of which are still too difficult to cope with intelligently or even handle on basic level. The world is awaking, bursting at the seams of what it means to be a society. It’s exciting, but frightening as well, confusing as always.

I hope to unpack all of those thoughts soon. Put them into the right places so that I can have a better grasp of what Occupy means, why in some ways it was a tragedy, and why it’s still hopeful. Most importantly, why its failure is a personal failure.

For now, if you’re supportive of the moment, continue to do what you can. Some of us in the comic scene have decided to come together for a Kickstarter project called Occupy Comics. Top names in the industry are creating their own interpretations and stories from the Occupy movement for a book that will be collected next year. For now, funds raised will be donated by the artists to various efforts around the world to help the Occupy movement continue. There are only a few days left to contribute if you’d like to help out or get a book.

Creators involved include: Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan), Dan Goldman (Shooting War), Amanda Palmer (Evelyn, Evelyn), Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night), Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Riley Rossmo (Cowboy Ninja Viking), Tim Seely (Hack/Slash), Zoetica Ebb (SuicideGirls, Biorequiem), Steve Rolston (Queen & Country), Tyler Crook (B.P.R.D.), Steve Niles (30 Days of Night), both Brea Grant and Zane Grant of the SuicideGirls comic series, and many more. Plus, several other top creators will be announced soon!

If you’re into the idea, please contribute to the Kickstarter. And if you have an idea of your own for how to keep the Occupy movement alive, please make it a reality.

Thanks for reading.

Stay safe, stay positive.

[..]

by Damon Martin

In today’s America, I could easily say I was a Catholic, a Baptist, a Mormon, or a Muslim and likely get less criticism and hatred spewed at me than simply saying I don’t believe in any god or book that talks about a god. It’s for that reason that today I ‘come out of the closet’ and proudly say that I’m an atheist. I won’t apologize for that and hopefully more atheists will do the same.

At the University of Kansas recently, a group of students launched a campaign called ‘We Are Atheists‘ modeled after the famous ‘It Gets Better’ campaign focused around gays and lesbians.

The ‘We Are Atheists’ ideal is simply a way for more non-believers to come out and not be afraid to speak about their lack of belief in a god, or their belief in science or evolution, or whatever it is that brought them to decree that they are an atheist.

Co-founder Amanda Brown put together a five-minute video that’s being circulated around YouTube speaking about why she is an atheist and encouraging others to speak out as well.

It’s a similar ideal to that of famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins who started the ‘Out Campaign’ a few years ago. Dawkins created the movement with the exact same thought in mind:

“The Out Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows”

Atheism is almost like a dirty word in American culture. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in May 2011 asked voters what potential traits would sway them negatively away from a political candidate. 7% said that a political candidate being a woman could sway them away, 33 % said a candidate being gay could push their vote the other way, while 46% said that a candidate who had an extra marital affair wouldn’t get their vote. As for atheists, well a whopping 61% said that that was a negative trait that would keep them from receiving a vote.

The fact is, not believing in god scares the general public because believing in god, any god, is something that’s so widely accepted, that society by default dictates that you have to believe in something to be accepted. It’s not enough that the Bible, Koran, or any other religious texts all disagree on where the world came from or how to get to heaven, that ultimately religious folks all believe in some magical spaceman in the sky – believing in anything rather than nothing is preferential when it comes to creating camaraderie.

The fact is I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in a higher deity, I don’t believe in the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon or any other religious text. I went to church as a kid and I thought I believed in god the same as everyone else around me. I had an aunt and uncle that took me to church with them and I felt accepted, and I felt like this was what I was supposed to do.

As time went on however, I realized that I never felt a ‘divine presence’ and when I read the Bible cover to cover, it literally scared the hell out of me. How could a god that was supposed to be so loving and forgiving be so selfish as to ask you to literally love him above everything else? How could this same god kill, murder, and have horrible acts done in his name on page after page after page?

I always joke with people that the easiest way to make an atheist is to have them read the Bible, but the reality is that it was a shock of reality for me as much as reading any book about science or even Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. There is however just as much wonder and amazing things in science as there will ever be in a book like the Bible, conversely there’s a lot less rape, murder, and genocide in a science text than a book talking about god.

I do have morals and none of them are based on the Ten Commandments or other religious beliefs that have been passed along. I know I shouldn’t kill a person because it’s simply wrong, not because god told me it was wrong.

With the holiday season just around the corner, I’m sure to have friends ask me about how I’ll celebrate Christmas, and I usually respond with the same thing every year: “It’s a day off from work.” But pushed deeper, I’ll happily explain that I don’t celebrate Christmas the same way that I don’t celebrate Easter or any other religious holiday.

Sure, Christmas is more about gift giving and seeing family now than anything to do with the supposed birth of Christ, but it’s something I’d rather not acknowledge and that’s my choice. The same way I don’t expect all of my friends to read the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, or follow the speeches given by Christopher Hitchens.

The fact is I’m an atheist and that doesn’t make me any better or worse of a person than anybody reading this article. But I refuse to be afraid to talk about why I don’t believe a god exists the same way so many Christians happily thank god when something good goes right in their life.

If that makes me a lightning rod for criticism, so be it. I know I’m not alone and I’m happy to stand up and make the statement.

I am an atheist.

by Yashar Ali

“I’m not going to talk to you when you’re acting this way.”

Whenever I ask my women friends about this phrase and what it means when they hear it from the men in their lives, they always have a strong reaction. One of frustration, anger, and annoyance.

You know how it makes you ultimately feel. This statement is about communication, a way to shut down the potential conversation that should happen. Men typically use this phrase as a way to avoid an uncomfortable or awkward moment — usually a situation in which they are being held accountable for their actions.

More significantly, this phrase is about taking control. When someone says this sentence, they are defining the situation on their terms — a man’s terms.

It’s gaslighting.

 But this phrase is related to a larger issue I’m exploring: why is the tone, tenor, nature, path, and dynamics of the relationships (and not just romantic relationships) that women have with men, so often on the man’s terms?

The man setting the terms of a relationship may seem obvious when we think of romantic relationships, or perhaps, even work dynamics, but I want to engage in a larger exploration about all the kinds of relationships that women have with men, from male relatives, to male friends and co-workers.

[..]

by Hoodoo4102

Employees of Target and Best Buy are voicing their opinions, trying to get a message across to the CEOs of their companies before they’re robbed of their time with family. One in particular, Anthony Hardwick of Omaha, NE, has voiced his displeasure at his employer, Target, and has become the featured petition on Change.org. And while I’m writing this blurb, the petition has just jumped up from a staggering 170,000 to 180,000 signatures of its 200,000 goal. A similar petition inspired by Hardwick’s, posted by Rick Melaragni of Tampa, FL, concerning Best Buy’s opening hours is currently sitting at 14,550 of its 15,000 goal.

Anthony’s message is quite clear, and well put:

“A midnight opening robs the hourly and in-store salary workers of time off with their families on Thanksgiving Day. By opening the doors at midnight, Target and Best Buy is requiring team members to be in the store by 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation — all Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones and get a good night’s rest on Thanksgiving! Any team member not present for their shift will receive a final warning, or termination of their employment.”

While all’s quiet on the Target front, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn writes a heart warming message to Employees and Customers saying*:

“Our customers and employees are, first and foremost, people. We acknowledge that each one is an individual with hopes, dreams, passions, talents, experiences, cultures, faith and loved ones. People don’t celebrate a ‘Happy Holiday’ – they have their own cultural, religious and family traditions. So, why shouldn’t we value and embrace that same level of individuality during the Holidays?”

Thank YOU Brian! It’s always so touching to see a CEO open his mouth wide enough just in case he may need to have a Thanksgiving foot for dinner with a side of trimmins’.

So what does this mean for those hard working hourly employees of corporate America? Thanksgiving breakfast, black out curtains, no booze (since getting a DUI on the way to work would make for a whole different kind of Black Friday!), and beddie bye at noon-o-clock so the board can eat meat, slog brew, and belch their American spirit to the tune of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and ESPN’s Thursday Night Football — all for one hour of over time.

If you would like to join Anthony’s cause you can do so at www.change.org.

*Since time of writing, Brian Dunn has deleted his own post on his Corp Blog as quoted above and replaced it with another expressing his thanks to the company and his employees for sacrificing their holiday for the company.

**UPDATE**

#OCCUPY SANTA ANA STAGE AN IN-STORE FLASH MOB IN PROTEST OF BLACK FRIDAY WORKING HOURS:

by Nicole Breanne

I took a week off from this blog because politics was a bit slow, and the only story was about Ron Paul – and I didn’t want to write about Ron Paul. This is a blog, not a democracy and I’ll write what I want (and what my editor will print!). But now I’m forced back to work to write about someone even worse. Not that Ron Paul is bad – he’s just nuts and I feel like if I write about him I’ll fall down a rabbit hole of crazy. Like I’ll be transported into a David Lynch film where nothing really makes sense, and then Robert Blake shows up – and shit, I’m not mentally stable enough for that right now! Although, I have always wanted to be Patricia Arquette. See, right now I’m just procrastinating, I’m bringing up random things I could write about for days (David Lynch, Rabbit Holes) because I don’t want to be writing about Newt Gingrich…did I mention I’m listening to Tom Waits…I really love him…I feel he’s not recognized enough as an artist and more people should get down with Tom Waits on, don’t you?

[..]

by ExAddict

Arguably, anyone who smokes tobacco has inevitably cursed themselves on occasion after taking a puff break and falling prey to the Surgeon General’s warning that graces all packs of cigarettes. For those who use tobacco – a sacred weed if there ever was one – most are willing to accept the health risks in order to indulge in their everyday habit.

Whether the warnings come in the form of stark labels like “Smoking Kills” in bold black and white print or the picture-based warnings that many Western countries have adopted, generally smokers understand that the medical community wants you to quit. Of course, the huddle of nurses outside any hospital catching a drag plays loose with the consistency of the anti-smoking message but that’s a story for another day.

Today’s dope lesson is in the form of a simple question. Should marijuana growers and seed-sellers do the responsible thing and provide a medical warning on their products? Before you jump down my throat and spit out your bong water all over the screen, please, keep an open mind about something, hmmmkay?

Pot, in its many forms, can be destructive and destroy lives. Amid the hype and hyperbole about cannabis being a miracle worker and wonder-drug, one fact that gets lost on pot-heads is clear; Heavy marijuana use (and the term heavy leaves room to maneuver) has been linked to psychosis and schizophrenia.

Blame Canada for the evidence. Not only is the Great White North home to some of the most potent and notable strains of marijuana, but an increased tolerance of the drug by courts and legislators has provided ample statistical data to government and healthcare authorities. A May 2011 broadcast entitled The Downside Of High aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation noted one particularly troubling statistic: that “for all young adults, smoking marijuana nearly doubles the risk of developing recurring psychosis, paranoia and hallucinations – the hallmarks of schizophrenia.”

There’s more. A report released in early November and publicized worldwide (including in the American Journal of Psychiatry) by researchers with the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health in Toronto found that “an increased risk of schizophrenia in methamphetamine users was similar to that of heavy users of marijuana.”

There’s that term again: Heavy usage. It’s probably a loaded term for chronic users leaving many to decide for themselves what exactly makes up heavy pot use. However, given the real evidence that weed can be harmful, are casual users even aware of the risks associated with dope smoking?

Here’s where a label might help. Ultimately, the time is now to strike while the iron is hot. The evidence is clear, there is a correlation between mental illness and cannabis use, but at the same time, the drug is seemingly on the verge of worldwide acceptance for medicinal uses. Users therefore need to know all the facts before using. It’s the responsible thing to do.

This isn’t the first time a warning label has been advocated. Earlier this year, lawmakers in Montana rejected a proposed label for medical marijuana that read: “Warning: In some instances, marijuana may trigger acute psychosis or symptoms of schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.” Apparently, conservatives felt that providing such a label would be akin to offering a rubber stamp on what is still viewed by governments and the justice system as an illegal substance.

So with the legality of marijuana still up in the air in many jurisdictions, maybe it should be left to growers and sellers, rather than government officials, to provide a valid warning label. Would this not be a proactive step to at least counter the type of class-action lawsuits that occurred within the tobacco industry? Without a label, are so-called legitimate dealers and growers not leaving open the possibility of legal and financial responsibility somewhere down the road?

And there’s something else to consider. Many people who have had experiences of psychosis or schizophrenia might have been introduced to smoking bud through the widespread promotion and misinformation about marijuana on the Internet. Nowhere on any cannabis-related websites do readers ever encounter an age or health warning. Even Hanoi Jane Fonda used to advise a doctor’s consultation before beginning any program of exercise during those 20-Minute Workout programs so popular in the 80s’. It was a legal buffer that served notice that users should accept responsibility and talk to a doctor before beginning any form of exercise.

Pot is not unlike a form of mental exercise. It’s like training your brain to go on a mental hike-in-the-woods. So why not a warning label to make everyone feel a little bit safer and protect against legal action in the future?

Alcohol and tobacco producers offer similar – but legally required – warnings. What is stopping dope growers and sellers from getting on board before the government forces their hand? Doesn’t a warning label fit inside the tidy concept of harm reduction? Harm reduction also meaning giving addicts the help they need to quit. And don’t fool yourself, everybody knows somebody who is addicted and smokes too much herb. Chronics need this.

Unfortunately for some the marijuana economy is about little more than cold hard cash. Perhaps because of this, and the struggle by advocates to gain legal standing for the bud, many are afraid of uttering the words schizophrenia or psychosis for fear that to do so might make a dent in their considerable profits and/or be counter productive when furthering the political cause.

But think about it next time you smoke up; A warning label could save your life – or that of a loved one.