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From Common Dreams this morning we are hearing that Rahm has denied the Coalition
Against NATO/G8 parade permit in Chicago for Sunday May 20, the day the NATO conference begins. The ever-brilliant Barack Obama had earlier moved the G-8 meeting to Camp David, but not before Rahm granted the requested parade permit to the very same folks a day earlier. But…as the philosopher Kurt Vonnegut was always wont to say: ‘So it goes…’.
Via CD, the Chicago Tribune reports:
“After approving a parade permit for a group protesting the G-8 and NATO summits in Chicago, the city has denied an identical application by the same group seeking to move their parade one day later in the wake of the White House’s decision to move the G-8 conference.
The demonstrators asked to move their march from Saturday, May 19, after word came that the G-8 meeting scheduled to start that day had been moved by President Barack Obama to Camp David. The protesters filed a permit that was identical to the one the city approved for Saturday, except the date of protest was moved to Sunday, May 20, when the NATO meeting is set to start.
But this time the city rejected the request, citing a lack of police officers as well as other security and logistics complications from the very summit the demonstrators are seeking to protest. [...]
Protesters, including the permit applicant, Andy Thayer, met with city officials today to discuss the city’s proposed alternative route. Thayer said they rejected the alternative, but will continue meeting with the city.
“Hopefully, we can work something out,” Thayer said. (my bold)
Although the same route had previously been approved for the first day of the G-8 summit, the denial states the city can’t handle such a demonstration on the first day of the NATO summit.”
The Common Dreams piece has the pdf permit denial from the Dept. of Transportation.
Stay tuned; this may get interesting. And if you didn’t get a chance to read TarheelDem’s excellent diary about his reasons for heading to Chicago to protest NATO, and demand alternative alliances and/or healthier global objectives, please do. TD was extremely patient with me in the comments; good guy that he is. ;o)
Also, Truthout has a very good essay by Phil Rostock up, ‘Reclaiming Our Rights from HR 347’, which new law several of us at My.FDL have written about, kerfuffles notwithstanding, here’s mine if you want further information.
Rostock is sober about our coming struggles against the despotic plutocrats, but envisions each of as flaming arrows of focused energy as we find our best core selves in order to reclaim our nation and its commons, reject the commodification of our selves we’ve been subjected to for so long, and de-couple from the amnesia that is America. He, like many of us here, is a Dreamer, and you’ll love his dream-tales. I’ll just include one bit he wrote, and it includes a quote from a familiar ancient Greek:
“On a personal basis, if you insist on standing opposed to despotism, expect trouble. In that case, one loses all certainties … save one: The retention of a viable sense of self.
“So little pains do the shallow take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.”
~ Thucydides, from The History of the Peloponnesian War
It’s likely Kevin will write this up with more detail than I have time for just now; if you see more updates, info, or reaction, please bring it into the comments.
41 Comments
Wow. Just Wow. Stupidity on a colossal scale.
Shades of 1968 all over again. In 1968, Richard J. Daley ensured that Hubert Humphrey was not elected by creating a situation that Republicans could exploit with cries of “law and order”. Is the ever political Rahm Emmanuel sticking the political shiv in his former boss?
Just like walking at night–more people makes it safer; fewer people makes it more dangerous. This is a deliberate tactic to reduce the number of people who might show up, just as the tough line the CPD are taking on Occupy Chicago marches is to discourage turnout.
My guess is that it will have exactly the opposite effect, TarheelDem.
Just checked again; CANG8 doesn’t have it up yet. Whoosh. Yes; colossally stupid AND dangerous.
Dunno what else to say just now, srsly.
MayDay march seems to have a permit for estimated 4000. That’s May 1 Union Square to Federal Plaza.
‘
Thanks, TD; I’d been too busy to look around much. I was just about to post another diary when I saw the Michael Cavlan banning post; think I’ll hold off on publishing it for now.
All my best to you, dear. You’re a good ‘un.
“All this brouhaha is sad and so unnecessary, given what we’re facing as allegedly somewhat enlightened, or very aware, human beings in this nation.” -from the brouhaha thread.
Perhaps it is an assumption that people are “somewhat enlightened, or very aware, human beings in this nation.”; I don’t perceive that ‘many’ are somewhat enlightened or very aware”. I could be mistaken but it eases my frustration when reading about the insanity that seems to rule the world.
And in case you missed this ; get ready for martial law.
More cheerily
What do you mean get ready? PATRIOT Act, NDAA, Bill 347
All the executive order does is allow the government to commandeer industry during a time of “national defense emergency”. Turns the economy into the sort of regulated economy it was during WWII.
Yes; what I had meant to say was that folks at this site were allegedly more aware; I’d been up for too many hours, and my brain was getting muzzy from reading and writing.
We discussed the executive order, and in the end, with reservations, I acceded to TD’s take on it.
So the City would have had a sufficient number of cops to
beat the crap out of all the demonstrators and arrest themprovide security on Saturday, but not on Sunday.WTF. They all go to church on Sundays????????
Methinks the City is playin’ games and had advance knowledge that Obama was going to move the G8 meeting to Camp David.
Ye olde bait & switch routine.
Comes just as naturally to Rahm/Obama as a full fledged Ponzi scheme.
Oops. Forgot to say recommended.
It’s likely going to be a Pyrrhic victory for Rahm.
Officer, I’m not in a parade, I’m on vacation, and just happen to be walking in the same direction as all these other people, because there must be something where they are going, or they wouldn’t be going there.
What’s the name of the Pub where we are going? Rahm’s Follies or Rahm’s Foibles?
Recommended. Tiny Dancer is tryna be a worse mayor than Quan and may very well succeed; obviously he didn’t learn anything about what happens when you say No You Can’t.
I love the “flaming arrows of focused energy” visual. Even though my arrow is kinda bent and flamed out at the moment, I do have hope that I can get it to fly once again.
Lotta mixed messages since the summer, too. Sigh.
(And: hire more cops in a big hurry, so they will know how to
smack ‘em aroundcontrol crowds.)http://www.wbez.org/story/chicago-police-union-head-city-not-ready-host-g-8-nato-summits-88277
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/02/17/chicago-police-superintendent-just-not-that-into-using-tear-gas-at-natog8-protests/
Note TarheelDem’s first comment on the thread. ;o)
‘Rahm’s Rum Punch Pub’?
KAPOW!
Worse cuz he’s had so much practice, mebbe, and has so many friends in the world of multinational bedfellows.
Rostock’s piece was a dilly, though, wasn’t it? Fair’ breathed sober fire.
I’m glad you’re on break, girlfriend; you deserve it. I’ve been trying to name what this time feels like to me; haven’t got it yet, but when I try, it feels like being seasick when you didn’t expect to be. Crazy, no?
That’s as good of a description as I can think of, my friend. Spring and daylight savings time help tremendously, but I am still out of sorts and very irritable. Reading the marathon Cavlan banning diary didn’t help; WTF? No happy ending, no sad ending, no ending at all. Weird.
I really do wonder what’s in store in Chicago; they must know they are becoming an anarchist’s wet dream with every restriction they put in place.
Rahm is the chosen successor to the Daley machine. He’s setting it up to do it like old Richard J., Sr. He forgets what happened to Hubert Humphrey—or maybe he doesn’t.
As best I can tell, Quan had to learn from the OPD.
Hmm. That thread may be a bit of a metaphor for this week, this time, this fractured energy. Gotta picture it through, bring in more data images. Some wild threads on Trayvan Martin’s killing. Comment dynamics that were baffling and almost predictable at once.
I’ll write; we’ll speak of books; they never fail us. ;o) (Well, a bit hyperbolic, but still…so pleasurable.) I’ve been having such a nice time going through them, imagining who’d like what…er, like which of my children, really… ;oP
Yeah, they aren’t in the same evil manipulator universe, that’s for sure. Quan’s imperial attitude makes her seem evil but she’s really just incompetent. Rahm is a whole ‘nother animal.
Haven’t been going to events lately but I will be attending tomorrow’s “Million Hoodie March for Trayvon” tomorrow in San Francisco, which coincides with the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Seems like a good one and a great excuse to go to SF.
That’s tomorrow, in case it wasn’t clear. :o
Gonna disagree; when martial law comes, you see the ‘law’ in the streets with their swat capabilities and the DOD trotting out the heat ray. PatriotAct, NDAA, 347(don’t know that that has become law yet) are not the same as martial law though they are despicable legislation.
The ‘real’ point -for me- was the why of it =the exec order= coming about now and how it is related to the war drums about Iran.
What a day! I don’t know who to be unfair to next lol. I was just wondering whether the candidates might have Secret Service protection at the party conventions, so as to trigger the 347 law. Just wondering. They sure are going to a lot of trouble to keep the dissenters from being seen, ain’t they? Rec’d.
Shock doctrine strategy in place for US police state and swift ethnic cleansing for Palestine. Police being educated nationwide as we speak with toys, tanks, and free trips to Israel:
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/occupation-%E2%80%9Coccupy%E2%80%9D-israelification-american-domestic-security
Who runs the D of Homeland Security? We do. Lieberman, Harman, Chertoff, etc. Who wrote the Patriot Act?
Shalom!
“In one of his most influential essays, Friedman articulated contemporary capitalism’s core tactical nostrum, what I have come to understand as “the shock doctrine”. He observed that “only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change”. When that crisis occurs, the actions taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. Some people stockpile canned goods and water in preparation for major disasters; Friedmanites stockpile free-market ideas. And once a crisis has struck, the University of Chicago professor was convinced that it was crucial to act swiftly, to impose rapid and irreversible change before the crisis-racked society slipped back into the “tyranny of the status quo”. A variation on Machiavelli’s advice that “injuries” should be inflicted “all at once”, this is one of Friedman’s most lasting legacies.”
Martial law = use of the military in “the homeland”
I’ve seen it. In 1968, in Baltimore, after the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The 82nd Airborne patrolled the street of Baltimore in ragtop trucks. Had they needed tanks, no doubt they could have deployed them. Martial law. Done by LBJ.
The existing legislative authority exists. All of that legislation I listed just broadens it beyond what LBJ did.
The executive order is scary mainly because it is a full-on top-to-bottom delegation of authority in case of a “national defense emergency”. If you read it carefully, is there an assumption that the emergency envisioned includes the loss of communications with the President which would be the ordinary source of authority? I’ve got to reread it with that question. At any rate it is scary because it is the delegation of authority that a President would make generally after a general war is declared (like WWII).
If it’s related to Iran, at this point it might be more chest-beating; see, we’re getting ready….
Other way around. The 347 law was framed the way it was because (1) heads of state and their parties have Secret Service coordination with their security personnel and (2) it has been the practice since RFK was assassinated that candidates have Secret Service protection and not just at the conventions.
Yeah, I’ve already written about the ‘tail wagging the dog’ and commented that Obama was Bibi’s poodle.
Buffalo Springfield’s Stop Children What’s That Sound was ‘adopted’ as an anti-war song but it really went far beyond that:
“Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away”
Rahm has a political machine that backs him up. It includes elements of the CPD. They don’t drive him. He drives the political machine. The PtB drive him. It’s the way that Daley and his predecessors built it. But Daley could boast of a city that works. Rahm is cutting every public service in sight.
You left out Janet Napolitano and Rand Beers. As far as the day-to-day functioning of the DHS is concerned, those are the key figures on policy. But Lieberman did make sure that there was the Israelification of homeland security, and not just in the US.
I believe I have notice that there seems to be a correlation between the size of the population the TBP wants to control and the repressive measures it takes to achieve this.
I mean total population not just those protesting.
The title was “For What It’s Worth”
Yes, but I am thinking in particular about an intent to keep protest away from the conventions. Do all 4 Rethugs have SS protection, or does it have to be narrowed down to one or two? Phrased my Q poorly, I’m tired. ;-)
True, but it was easier to copy the youtube title. :->) I still subsrcibe to the ‘Litany of Fear’.
Well….yeah. This is true. I myself find paranoid people to be the scariest.
“Scared children are very hard to get along with.”
“And once a crisis has struck, the University of Chicago professor was convinced that it was crucial to act swiftly, to impose rapid and irreversible change before the crisis-racked society slipped back into the “tyranny of the status quo”. A variation on Machiavelli’s advice that “injuries” should be inflicted “all at once”, this is one of Friedman’s most lasting legacies.””
All the executive orders are in place, Patriot Acts 2-5 or whatever, the police have been taught about crimi-terrorists, food can easily be made scarce by more shrewd Goldman Sachs manipulation and withholding of supply, etc.
War with Iran can be the “catalysing event” that PNAC longed for before 9/11 just happened to occur.
Palestine would/will be wiped off the map, along with Lebanon, and probably Iran and Syria as well.
Even if Israel doesn’t survive, power and hegemony will be greatly consolidated among the tribe.
Our US weeny elite will jet off to more stable climes while America is brought into closer comparison with China, and the elite may or may not return when starving Americans adopt more of the Chinese masses “anxious to please” 6 day a week mentality.
Shalom from Steve Wynn, tribal elder:
September will be our fifth anniversary in the People’s Republic of China in Macau, and we love it there. We are so grateful to be part of that market and to be allowed to participate in that community. We find the political environment, the regulatory environment, the human resource environment that we’re in to be absolutely delicious. Life is quite straightforward in China. The government is predictable. Our employees are eminently trainable. They’re anxious to please. They have a fabulous attitude, whether they’re local Macau people, mainland Chinese people, folks from the Philippines, they’re just wonderful and all of that’s come together to help us deliver the kind of product that we’ve always been delivering.
http://politics.salon.com/2011/07/20/steve_wynn_anti_obama_rant/singleton/
I believe that all four have Secret Service details right now. As the field thins, the number of details drops. And likely the Secret Service is coordinating with the candidate’s own security staff.
But after the nomination, it is substantial. There must have been a dozen Secret Service agents with Kerry when he came to NC in 2004.
Sorry I lost track of this thread; glad y’all carried on so well by yourselves. Srsly. ;o)
Hope you are not in Texas, wendydavis.
Raw Story has this headline on a story
In Colorado, Adam; but thanks for your concern. I’ve come upon Texas Senator Wendy Davis in the google cache, though, while hunting down diaries I’ve written over the years.
Stay strong and well, my friend.
wd
I’d say this is a lot more than stupid. I’d call it an outright attack on our civil right to express ourselves. And I’d say that whether it is or is not a shiv into Obama is not a very important issue, is it? Plutarchs do infight.
For God’s sake, we routinely now see militarized responses to public demonstrations, and the legislative backing for far far more is in place, and according to many reports, the military itself isn’t just assigned to the domestic ‘front’ now, but massively trains for operations in the US against the population, and even wargames such operations in the US, though none of this is widely reported. Is that not enough martial law for you to call it martial law? Do you intend to split hairs until we are all in a prison camp or under a lock down? And that’s not even discussing the vast military industrial complex, and the fact that the poor and minority populations have faced virtual martial law for decades, and that it’s getting steadily worse for them already, and the arrests of peace activists by SWAT teams, etc.
What do you need to see before you stop caviling about labels?