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Tag: Activism

Fascist Journalists Attack The Poor: Laura Loomer & The Project Veritas CycleA broken, abandoned doll with blonde hair covered in dirt with a broken face in the ruins of Bosnia.
Laura Loomer: A candid photo. (Pixabay, public domain)
November 17, 2018
Kit
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Fascist Journalists Attack The Poor: Laura Loomer & The Project Veritas Cycle

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

It’s happened again. Fascist wannabe journalists attacked the most vulnerable, and as a result poor people will probably die.

Laura Loomer, a talking asshole fringed in blonde hair, is the latest to engage in a punch-down “sting operation” that’s targeted to hurt people with the most to lose.

In an investigative report that’s the talk of nazi rallies everywhere, Loomer went undercover in a refugee camp to expose the “shocking” fact that camp workers help refugees apply for aid in a way that minimizes.trauma and maximizes the likelihood that they’ll get help. Previously best known for spreading Islamophobic conspiracies about her Uber drivers, she’s now trying to graduate to the next level of far right pundit.

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Threat Modeling For Activists: Tips For Secure Organizing & ActivismThreat modeling helps activists anticipate and respond to police repression. A line of SFPD officers in riot gear block Occupy SF Protesters after clearing them from Market Street in San Francisco.
Police block a roadway during Occupy SF protests, December 7, 2011. Threat modeling helps activists anticipate and respond to police repression. (Flickr / Thomas Hawk, CC-BY-NC license)
October 22, 2018
Kit
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Threat Modeling For Activists: Tips For Secure Organizing & Activism

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

Threat modeling is a fancy term for “knowing how to protect yourself in different situations.”

The idea of “threat modeling” originated in the military before being adopted by security experts. While the field includes many advanced concepts that don’t interest us here, threat modeling can help us get a handle on our personal security choices. In an age of mass surveillance, choosing what steps to take can feel overwhelming. For a lot of people, it may be easier to do nothing at all than worry about protecting yourself online.

Unfortunately, even if you feel like “you’ve got nothing to hide,” many of us are still vulnerable: to government repression, to police brutality and surveillance, and to threats from fascist forces. Even if you’re completely safe, your social networks might be used to target other people close to you. You might not even be aware that someone near you is taking actions that make them a target for surveillance.

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Don’t Just Vote: Embrace Your Rage & Fight Back (#GonzoNotes)
Lights held by Austin Overpass Light Brigade activists on a highway overpass spell out "Do More Than Vote." 2012. (Kit O'Connell, Creative Commons license)
October 13, 2018
Kit
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Don’t Just Vote: Embrace Your Rage & Fight Back (#GonzoNotes)

Posted in Gonzo Notes

Don’t just vote, get angry and fuck shit up.

The midterm election is quickly approaching and it promises to be a pivotal one. Understandably, many liberals are pouring their efforts into voter registration and voter drives with a fervor that hasn’t been seen in years. They’re hoping to channel all the popular anger at the state of things here in this hell nation back into the voting booth.

I want to tell you: don’t let them.

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OccupyICE San Antonio Standing Strong After Patriot Front Nazi’s Temper TantrumA banner at OccupyICE San Antonio reads, "FUCK ICE / ICE is not welcome in San Antonio."
A banner at OccupyICE San Antonio reads, "FUCK ICE / ICE is not welcome in San Antonio." (Courtesy: OccupyICE SATX)
July 29, 2018
Kit
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OccupyICE San Antonio Standing Strong After Patriot Front Nazi’s Temper Tantrum

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

OccupyICE San Antonio continues despite a failed attempt at intimidation by Patriot Front, a notorious group of Texas nazis.

For almost two weeks, activists have occupied the Immigrations & Customs Enforcement offices at 3523 Crosspoint Drive in San Antonio with tents and shade structures. Using noise demonstrations and  direct actions, they’ve been disrupting business at the facility. Busloads of detained immigrant prisoners are a near daily sight. This ongoing protest is part of the national OccupyICE movement, which seeks to abolish ICE and put an end to the detention of immigrants and their families.

About 20 nazis from the Texas-based Patriot Front targeted OccupyICE San Antonio on the morning on Saturday, July 28. They arrived at about 8 am while most of the campers were asleep. After lighting a road flare, the nazis shouted racist slogans while committing petty attacks on the encampment.

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Livestreaming Ethics With Reb Z: Citizen Journalists Must Take SidesA person in a yellow jacket films an event. Livestreaming ethics means always being aware of what is and isn't in your frame. It means showing what the mainstream media ignores.
A person in a yellow jacket films an event. Livestreaming ethics means always being aware of what is and isn't in your frame. It means showing what the mainstream media ignores. (Morguefile, public domain)
July 27, 2018
Kit
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Livestreaming Ethics With Reb Z: Citizen Journalists Must Take Sides

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

“I started as a journalist to show, during the Occupy protests, what wasn’t being shown.”

In the first part of my interview with Jon Ziegler, also known as Rebelutionary Z, we shared some tips for livestreaming. This time, I wanted to go a bit deeper and urge citizen journalists and streamers of all kinds to consider their personal livestreaming ethics.

There’s a misconception that livestreaming is always about simply showing what’s happening in an unedited, raw form. While most streamers aren’t altering their footage as it goes online in any way, they’re still making choices about what to film, who to interview, and how to frame the footage with their commentary.

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Livestreaming Tips With Reb Z: Be A Better Journalist On Facebook Live & BeyondJon Ziegler's top livestreaming tips include holding your phone in landscape mode and holding your hand steady when moving or turning.
"Kettled" activists film and livestream on their smartphones as they await arrest. St. Louis, October 3, 2017. Jon Ziegler's top livestreaming tips include holding your phone in landscape mode and holding your hand steady when moving or turning. (RebZ.tv, used with permission)
June 14, 2018
Kit
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Livestreaming Tips With Reb Z: Be A Better Journalist On Facebook Live & Beyond

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

Want to be a better livestreamer? I asked indie journalist Jon Ziegler, for his top livestreaming tips when we recently spoke.

Jon, better known to his fans as Rebelutionary Z is one of the most experienced streamers today. He began covering footage of protests and activist events during Occupy Wall Street. Unlike most of the people who started then, he’s continued to report from liberal and radical left events. He credits the Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson and St. Louis for bringing him back to the field after Occupy ended. Since then he’s traveled around the continent, including reporting on the Standing Rock protests where he sustained a serious injury from a rubber bullet. He also streamed the nazi attack in Charlottesville that killed Heather Heyer.

I asked Jon for his top livestreaming tips. I’ve divided them into two sections, one for newcomers and people who only stream occasionally. He calls these “Johnny On The Spot reporters,” people who were in the right place at the right time to catch a breaking event. In the second section, I’ve included some further tips for more experienced citizen journalists.

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