Abby Martin of Media Roots captures some great energy and epic highlights from the day of the historic general strike in Oakland on 11-2-11. Footage includes the strike, the shutdown of the banks around town, the march to the port and the shutdown of the Port of Oakland:
“If you’re going to have a rally where hundreds of thousands of people show up, you might as well go ahead and make it about something.”
Bill Maher lambasts the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity” as misguided in its call for “moderation” at a time when clear-headed people should be standing up firmly for what’s right. Right on, I say.
Rallies Have Always Been Used to Manipulate the Masses
I finally saw the 1988 movie “They Live” today and realized what Peter Chamberlin is saying with his blog title‘There Are No Sunglasses’. I also saw a little of the Stewart and Colbert sanity/fear rally and you don’t need the sunglasses to see through it.
The lefty counterpoint to the righty Glenn Beck hijacked Tea Party types. The lefties may be a little more fun but no less propagandizing. It’s breaking us down into two groups that oppose each other as if that’s all there is.
But most of us don’t actually fit into this false duplicity. We’re the ones who don’t like Stewart and Obama, Beck and Palin. Using conventional terms we as individuals are a mix of conservative, liberal, moderate, radical or what ever you want to call it. Sort of ‘mongrels’ that don’t fit what the media wants us to be.… Read the rest
Photo: (C) Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
No doubt the our two revered political comedians will be sparring for weeks to come with Glenn Beck over whose rally drew more people, but for now, let’s focus on what, if anything, they actually achieved. New York Magazine does a round up:
So what happened? Well:
People wore costumes. “One man wore only a diaper and a sombrero, and carried a large wooden anchor — a depiction of ‘an anchor baby,’ the name conservative talk show hosts have given to children born in the United States to immigrant parents … Some people donned faux Tea Party costumes, while others dressed as Harry Potter characters, robots and space aliens.” [NYT, NYDN]
Celebrities showed up. The tally, thus far: The Roots, John Legend, Tony Bennett, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, R2-D2, Cat Stevens, and Ozzy Osbourne. [Caucus/NYT, Gawker, Daily Intel]
The signs were creative.
The recent rally led by Glenn Beck brought together an interesting assortment of characters, and with them ideas. The New Left Media recorded various interviews with some of the attendees. More interesting than what bizarre claims they make, most had wrong or speculated information, yet not a single person cited a source from where their information was coming from. Of course except the one women who receives her immigration “facts” from her sister.
