Corporate Media to Solidarity Singers: Resistance is Futile
http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2012/11/corporate-media-to-solidarity-singers.html<a href="http://imgur.com/y6M74"><img src="
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The corporate media giant, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, belittles the Singers and expresses confusion on why the Singers haven't just rolled over yet:
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Their efforts might seem puzzling. Protests generally persist only as long as there's a chance to bring change. It can be hard to sustain that energy when there's no clear goal or realistic chance of success.
That's what happened with the Occupy movement, which grew out of anger at Wall Street and a financial system perceived to favor the richest 1%. The movement grew too large too quickly for organizers to keep up. Without leaders or specific demands, it eroded into an amorphous protest against everything wrong with the world and eventually fell apart.
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Citizens are being ticketed (similar to a traffic ticket) for singing political protest songs at the Wisconsin State Capitol from noon to 1pm Mon thru Fri... (non-work hours) These citations are "valued" at $200.50 and up. As of this morning, 102 citations have been issued since new Capitol Police Chief, former Marine and body guard to Governor Scott Walker, David Erwin took over.
So the Occupy movement is over, eh? Sorry, corporate shills, you're just so consistently wrong. The Solidarity Singers will be there as long as it takes.
There're two ways you can help the Solidarity Singers stand up for our freedom of speech. The first is to join them at the Capitol, noon daily.
The second is to contribute the legal defense fund going to PAY PAL and writing in this email address as recipient: [email protected].
Thanks for your support!!!!!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Last edited Mon Nov 26, 2012, 04:32 PM - Edit history (1)
Or the 47th remake of the 60's classic pastime, "Culture Wars."
So the rapidly aging demographic of Journal-Sentinel subscribers and advertisers can knock over a straw man. So the hands of the clock will start turning backwards and restore us to the 1950's.
The sports section of the Journal-Sentinel can't waste precious ink on full-size NBA box scores any more. They got rid of Stuart Carlson and Doonesbury in the Sunday Funnies a long time ago. And don't ask how long it's been since any really important editorial position they've taken has made much sense. But they're only too happy to take a big, full-color cheap shot at a perceived Culture War stereotyped nemesis.
A Big Lebowski look-alike.
The bigger the photo the better. (Apologies to Dude, whoever he is or whenever the pic was taken, under what circumstances.)
...It's like a full-color reflection of what the Journal-Sentinel's editorial board has become:
The photograph (above, from the article cited by Capper) let's us know the J-S Editorial Board wants all of us, "all you hippies out there, to lose the tie-dye t-shirts. Start wearing crisp and starchy white dress shirts. With ties. And cut your hair and stop wasting time on things we really don't understand."
So how do we Progressives respond? With the nuclear option, getting a little childish ourselves, in the process?????
Audio clip --------> (Hilarious, honest) ----------------------> http://soundcloud.com/mike-in-raleigh/skeeter-stock
Should we make fun of kids before they have a chance to unlearn what they can't help picking up?
Maybe with simplistic responses and stereotypes of our own?
NAAAAH.
Here's the bottom line --------> ......the Pharisees, the Holier-than-Thou's, all the American Exceptionalists and Dominionists don't really have anything going for them, except the delusion that Amerikkka/some-deity-of-their-own-construction is on their side. But that's how Bigots always justify their sanctimony. Did you know the word 'bigot,'according to some theories, is an archaic derivation from, "By God?" Since that's how hypocrites and religiosity-mongers always try to use religion, as a club to beat other people with. Or it's such a characteristic, common usage that it becomes defining. During World War I, similarly, Americans serving in France were said to be known as les sommobiches. Centuries earlier, other French referred to other English-speakers as Les Goddames.
Do your best to be accepting of everyone.
.....Or be hoisted on the petard of your own worst self.
In the meantime, thanks for the PayPal info. A small donation is on the way. (Why does PayPal want to know if this was a payment for a good or a service, or a gift or payment owed, or even an "other?" I checked 'gift' but that's not really the right response.)
Edit to add afterthought:
In Britain, in the aftermath of the Murdoch press scandals, a writer in The Observer suggests:
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/maybe_british_newspapers_are_so_awful_they_need_to_be_regulated_20121125/?ln
Hutton argues that the phone hacking and general stench of British rags such as those owned by Rupert Murdoch signal a need for new regulation.
Yes, freedom of speech is the great Enlightenment gift that comes with the freedom to dare to know and to challenge. But it is not a charter for systematic character assassination by powerful media organisations that offer no right of reply, nor redress for mistakes.
I can't help but point out that posting fulminating pro-Walker and pro-Teahadist replies in the comments section of the Journal-Sentinel -- while they were on the tax-payer's clock -- is what's gotten some of Der Wanker's staffers into court. (Can't remember if it was Wink or Ms. Beef -- "Rindfleisch," in the original German.) Makes you think those folks don't trust readers not to think for themselves, or for the printing mills they buy to stay bought.
To mount an effective response, you might not need too many laws or too much free-speech regulation. It might be enough to provide an entrepreneurial opportunity. If someone were allowed to open a mirror web site. A Bizzaro-World or Opposite-Day kind of un-J-S news site that would be able to post corrections and "equal time-in-all-fairness" type replies to the corporate b.s. that regularly appears in that paper. Without fear of libel or other reprisal or legal action from the Money Party.
Thank you so much for the donations. They're greatly appreciated. 
And you don't need any kind of singing voice to join the sing along. We all sound pretty good in the rotunda - sort of like singing in the shower. 
By the way, four more citations delivered by Capitol Police tonight. For chalking on the sidewalk outside the Capitol.
since he was here a couple of months ago. W.O.W. That's all I can say about that experience. 
Usually Officer Hyatt, the one delivering the citation, goes out with a camera and takes pictures of the chalkings before calling the Capitol maintenance people out to hose it all down. I think we had him in stitches the first day of our Chalkupation. It was the day after the first arrest for chalking - an arrest Chief Erwin actually made, himself, early in his reign. So, of course, a BUNCH of us showed up, and we had the sidewalk just covered with chalkings. Some of them were pretty clever, if I do say so, myself, and Hyatt was there for over an hour taking photos. No arrests or citations for chalking from that day, or since then, until this latest batch delivered last night.
Hyatt told me later that he was NOT amused by the "trail of doughnuts" leading from the parked police cars to our Chalkupation location. 
