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Month: January 2017

Trump’s Fast-Paced Dismantling Of American Democracy & Move To Cement Corporate Totalitarianism

Posted in Journalism, and Lee Camp

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the pace of Donald Trump’s dismantling of American democracy? That’s on purpose. He wants to keep you off balance and exhausted.

Thousands of people stormed the nation’s airports over the weekend, demanding the release of Muslim travelers caught up in Trump’s unconstitutional ban on visitors from certain Middle Eastern countries (except the ones where Trump has business interests).

The airport protesters and the dozens of lawyers who fought to free the detained Muslims are to be applauded for their quick organizing work and their solidarity with the oppressed. But if you think this is unprecedented, you should keep in mind that the U.S. has been bombing innocent Muslims for decades now.

Yet, even as protesters chanted, the newly installed regime was working on multiple fronts to undermine the normal operation of the U.S. government. Unless you’re plugged into Twitter 24/7, it’s impossible to stay up to date, much less effectively fight back.

What You Need To Know To Protest Donald Trump’s Inauguration

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and Lee Camp

Thousands of people are preparing to protest the inauguration around the country on Friday, or planning to participate in one of the many women’s marches that take place nationwide on Saturday. And for many of you, it will be your first time to take action.

Welcome! Taking the streets for justice can be exhilarating, and a well-directed protest can help change the world. At the same time, marching is hard work, and the potential for police violence is worse than ever. That shouldn’t scare you away — but you should take steps to be prepared.

If you can, you should form an “affinity group” with a few of your friends or close allies. An affinity group is a small team that agrees to work together and watch each other’s backs.

Protests & Events In Austin For Donald Trump’s Inauguration

Posted in Archive, Austin, and Creative Commons

You don’t have to go to Washington, D.C. to resist Donald Trump. Here in Austin, we’ve got a full weekend of protest — and some fun events to round it out.

Heres’s a list of every protest, rally, or inauguration-related event I know of in Austin. You can jump in the comments with links if you know about anything else I’ve missed.

I’m not endorsing any of these events, but I’ll be covering them when I can. Keep an eye on my Twitter for updates and my Facebook for live coverage.

Don’t Let Unity Erase Your Struggle (Gonzo Notes 04)

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, and Journalism

A vital part of preparing for the next 4 years is building broad coalitions, but lately I’ve been reminded that coalition building has a dark side too.

This is work we need to do, without a doubt. A coalition can mobilize thousands of people from diverse backgrounds, and illuminate the intersection between our struggles.

The trouble is that with every group you bring to the table, you have to accommodate not just another political agenda but differing tactics for achieving those goals.

Questions quickly arise: How far are you willing to go to resist the government? Will your coalition collaborate with the police and in what ways? Are all organizations committed to nonviolence and, if so, do they have compatible definitions of what nonviolence means?

Let’s Party Like it’s 1984: The Ministry of Truth in 2017

Posted in Act Out!, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Video

War is peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is strength. And we’ve always been at war with Russia. So, while you were celebrating the holidays Barack Obama quietly approved a multimillion-dollar anti-propaganda project that feels a lot like the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s “1984” — with a more covert and far more boring name. Included as part of this year’s National Defense Appropriations Act, aka NDAA, and inspired by the new “Red Scare,” it’s called the Global Engagement Center and it’s this week’s Fucked Fact.

As you may recall from Orwell’s novel, the Ministry of Truth controlled all the media — from journalism to entertainment, ensuring it all conformed to the government’s agenda. America’s new Global Engagement Center is ALSO designed to control the media narrative — at a time when alternative media outlets and journalists known to question the US Empire are being slammed for acting as Russian spies.

Signed into law on December 23rd, the creation of the Global Engagement Center is part of the “Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act,” originally introduced as a separate bill in March by Republican Senator Rob Portman, and Democrat Chris Murphy. Luckily for Portman and Murphy, their pet bill made it into the NDAA and into law just before Santa came to town.

The Real Threat Is ‘Telling The Truth’: Abby Martin Responds To Accusations Of Influencing Election 2016

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On Monday, journalist Abby Martin dismissed accusations that she colluded with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Martin is the latest independent journalist to fall victim to a new “Red Scare” that seeks to shift the blame for the Democratic Party’s political problems onto Russia.

On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence published a declassified version of “Background to ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution,” a report which purports to document Russia’s alleged interference in the election.

Despite the report’s technical-sounding title, a sizable portion of the document is concerned not with cyber attacks, but with unfavorable coverage of the U.S. government and American politics broadcast on RT, the Russian state-owned news network that has been a target of repeated U.S. government threats. The report specifically highlights Martin’s show, “Breaking the Set,” which ran on RT from September of 2012 until February of 2015, and another RT program called “Truthseeker” for being “overwhelmingly focused on criticism of US and Western governments as well as the promotion of radical discontent.”

In Monday’s interview, Martin appeared alongside Anya Parampil, a host at RT America who worked as a producer on “Breaking the Set.” Martin defended the accuracy and importance of her work as a journalist, suggesting RT was actually targeted for critical investigative journalism that cast Washington in an unfavorable light. Martin continued: