Occupy Updates

Day 0156

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PROGRAM NOTES:
This update is an abbreviated version of:
Podcast 300 – “Terence McKenna: Beyond 2012” Part 3
In the Occupy segment of the podcast I feature an interview with and a talk by Chris Hedges, including his criticism of the Black Bloc hooligans who are doing their best to destroy the Occupy Movement.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST
Art by Randal Roberts (who provided the art for this podcast)

Description of the elements in “Fawkes” by Randal Roberts
Read more…

Day 146

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PROGRAM NOTES:
This update is an abbreviated version of:
Podcast 299 – “Terence McKenna: Beyond 2012” Part 2

In the Occupy segment I begin with a recap of what went down in Washington, D.C. the day of the eviction from McPherson Square. Also, I play a series of short audio clips. The first one is of a young man from San Diego who was speaking at the General Assembly that was held in the middle of K Street in Washington the evening after the McPhearson eviction. And while this segment also ends with a call to the barricades from Chris Hedges in different interview, between those two Hedges segments I play a three minute pep talk that Tony Benn gave to some of the occupiers in London the other day.

Links Mentioned In This Podcast

Day 140

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This update is an abbreviated version of:
Podcast 298 – “Terence McKenna: Beyond 2012” Part 1
PROGRAM NOTES:
“The Occupy Movement seems deeply rational for not engaging in normal politics, because normal politics gets us Barack Obama.” -Lawrence Lessig

“All of the correctives to American democracy came through movements that never achieved formal political power.” -Chris Hedges

“Which in my mind means the system is not reformable but will have to be pushed aside. And I think in that sense the Occupy Movement is, in sort of classical terms, correctly defined as a revolutionary movement.” -Chris Hedges

“The legislative branches, both at the state and the federal level, are wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state.” -Chris Hedges

“But this is a moment, this is more the French Revolution moment. This is a moment when everything is falling apart at the same time, and it’s another reason to be pushing on every front at the same time.” -Lawrence Lessig

Books mentioned in this podcast
Death of the Liberal Class
By Chris Hedges

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It
By Lawrence Lessig

Day 0132

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PROGRAM NOTES:
This update is an abbreviated version of:
Podcast 297 – “A Tribute to Robert Anton Wilson”

I first play a few minutes that I’ve taken from a three hour interview that Chris Hedges gave on CSPAN 2 on the first day of this year, and in it you will hear this Pulitzer Prize winning journalist explain how corporate personhood isn’t just a threat to American Democracy, it is a threat to humanity itself. . . . Following that, I play a short speech for you that Senator Bernie Sanders gave on the Senate floor as he introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will strip personhood from corporations. After those two kind of heavy duty pieces. I lighten it up with a two minute clip of country music star Willie Nelson and his wife reading a poem that he wrote about the Occupy Movement. Finally, I close with a song that was written and is sung by a young man from Salt Lake City named Noel. And this is from a YouTube video I found where Noel was singing on Day 1 of the Occupy Salt Lake City street theater.

Day 0111

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PROGRAM NOTES:
This update is an abbreviated version of:
Podcast 295 – “The World and It’s Double” Part 1

The physical occupations and the police attacks on them is only the tip of the Occupy Movement iceberg. It was and is only the first phase of a huge wave of actions that are already underway or are being planned for this pivotal year. And so in this podcast I want to give you a little look into some of the more positive things that are taking place here in the U.S. with the Occupy Movement, which has already become a global phenomenon.

This program is a selection of sound bites that I’ve collected from various sources over the past few weeks, just to give you a little idea of some of the more positive things that are going on in the movement right now. To begin with, I play a brief comment about the movement itself from my dear friend and a person I think of as my brother, a young man who goes by the handle Queer Ninja. After we hear from the Ninja, I’ve included a bit by Noam Chomsky. Following Chomsky’s remarks you’ll hear from some Occupiers talking about the youth involvement and leadership of this movement, and they are followed by some farmers who are also involved. Next is a clip dealing with the civil justice aspects of what is going on, followed by a clip from the Occupy Boston group. Then comes Tina Dupuy who is a columnist and commentator and who points out how the Occupy Movement is changing the shape of local news stories as well as some things about student debt that you maybe haven’t thought about. And to close it out you’ll be hearing about one of the successful OccupyOurHomes actions where the home of a disabled Iraq vet was saved by the Occupy Atlanta people, and that segment ends with some words by the Rev Dr Joseph Lawery, who is a very prominent and respected veteran of the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties and who continues this work yet today. And he is followed by the poet Teresa B., who is the neighbor of another family whose home was also saved by members of the Occupy Movement in New York.

Day 0091

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PROGRAM NOTES:
This update is from:
Podcast 292 – “The Genesis of Occupy Wall Street”

PROGRAM NOTES:

Today’s podcast takes a look back at some of the roots of the current Occupy Movement on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation marked the beginning of the Arab Spring. Today is also the eve of the third anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, and so I have put together an audio collage that ranges from some early sounds of the movement to interviews with David Graeber and Tim Pool, as well as some comments by fellow saloner Jaret, and a couple of sound bites from Lawrence Lessig and Senator Bernie Sanders to round things out.

Links to topics discussed in this podcast:

Battle in Seattle
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – Lawrence Lessig Interview
Brian Leher Program with David Graeber
Majority Report interview with Tim Pool
Jaret Johnston’s FEEDBACK ART

Day 0084

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PROGRAM NOTES:
This update is an abbreviated version of:
Podcast 293 – “The Power of Art and the TAZ”

PROGRAM NOTES:

The program begins with Hakim Bey speaking about the TAZ and Art. Also included are sound bites from Occupy San Francisco, Robert Anton Wilson, and a member of the Psychedelic Salon audience who gives us a few of his ideas about the Occupy Movement.

[NOTE: The following quotations are by Hakim Bey.]
“Why are artists still meddling, or mediating, between people and their desires?”

“All livelihoods are arts, from midwifery to war, nothing is mere labor.” [In reference to gift economies.]

“The artist sacrifices talent for money. The audience sacrifices money for talent.”

“One can no longer distinguish between cops and cop-culture, the media-induced hallucination of a society designed by its lawyers and police.”

“Ten minutes in a video store should convince any impartial observer that we live in a police state of consciousness, far more pervasive than the Nazis.”

“The first step in any real utopia is to look in the mirror and demand to know my true desires.”

“I will argue that illegality means more than mere law-breaking. Illegality as a positive attribute of the Temporary Autonomous Zone implies that the very structure, or deepest motivation of the TAZ-group necessitates the overcoming of consensus values, and that this is true when even no statute or regulation has been broken.”

“The Temporary Autonomous Zone should serve as the Matrix for the emergence of a Sorelian myth of uprising.”

“The Temporary Autonomous Zone cannot be realized solely as a hedonic exercise any more than the revolution can be realized without dancing, as Emma Goldman put it.”

“Today quilts. Tomorrow, perhaps, The Uprising!”

BrainMeats Podcast
Episode 1 Occupy BrainMeats

The inaugural episode of the BrainMeats podcast is devoted to the Occupy movement and what hackers and makers can do to support the protesters on the ground. Willow spoke over Skype to Ari Lacenski, Eleanor Saitta, Matthew Borgatti, Rubin Starset, and Smári McCarthy about the history of OWS, the meaning of illegibility within the movement, software tools for protesters, and more.

Day 75

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