As Above, So Below

…Because the world is broken. Because shit’s fucked up. Because shit’s fucked up and bullshit. Because things have been so fucked up for so long, so many of us don’t even know where to start to fix it. Because we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the things we’re shopping for while bombs are dropping are made by slave labor. We should do something about the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people in prisons across the planet who might never see the sunlight again. Because it’s more than an outrage that while a nation can afford to spend 8 billion dollars on an aircraft carrier, it can’t afford to help the sick, the hungry, or the mentally ill. But it’s no one specific person’s fault, no one political party or group of people can be blamed for generations of problems. No one issue can simply be fixed to solve it all.

(Source: diatribemedia.com)

Plenty of people might dismiss connecting these requests and other instances that highlight targeted suppression of dissent as mere paranoia. Such tactics have a chilling effect on legitimate dissent, and the efforts by multiple law enforcement agencies to question, detain and arrest activists of varying stripes points to a much more dangerous world. More than a decade ago, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said that when it came to dissent in troubled times, Americans should “watch what they say and what they do.” Rhetoric like Fleischer’s and quick quips today from politicians like “if you’re not doing anything illegal, you shouldn’t be worried” shows an increasing acceptance of the criminalization of dissent, and points towards a disturbing future.

(Source: diatribemedia.com)

Jail solidarity means waiting outside the holding area or prison with hot coffee, cheers, hugs and warm bodies for fellow protesters locked away. Jail support means bandaging our friends who were smashed to the concrete by the state with words and kindness, ministering the sunset-colored bruises, massaging away the aches from unnecessary and excessive uses of force. Jail solidarity means writing letters featuring silly stories and cartoons, sending reading material like science fiction, nonfiction, and art supplies like colored pencils and paper.

(Source: diatribemedia.com)

The District Attorney’s office is attempting to use Harris’ tweets to contradict his defense that demonstrators on the bridge did not hear police orders to vacate the area and had permission to march. Harris and his lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild argue the subpoena is an “unwarranted invasion of privacy.” The San Francisco Gate reports Assistant District Attorney Lee Langston disagrees, writing “he has no proprietary or privacy interest in tweets that he broadcast to every person with access to the Internet.”

The EFF acknowledges this partly, insofar as the government can simply scroll back through a public Twitter feed and get the information they desire. The subpoena however, covers much more than just the public tweets of Mr. Harris:

With this overbroad subpoena, the government would be able to learn about who Mr. Harris was communicating with for an extensive period of time not only through Tweets, but through direct messages. And with the government’s request for all email addresses associated with @destructuremal, they could subpoena Mr. Harris’ email provider to get even more information about who he communicated with.

Beyond that, the EFF points out the government could also be fishing for some other information, mainly location data. The majority of Twitter users are connected via mobile devices, and Twitter keeps track of IP addresses, dates and times related to log ins and messages. Should the government be able to subpoena this information, the ISP would hand over the information the specific cell tower someone uses to access Twitter. Armed with this information, the government would be able to track Mr. Harris’ movements over the past three months, sidestepping the Fourth Amendment.

(Source: diatribemedia.com)

Once again, plant workers demanded a seat at the negotiating table. Around 8:30 p.m., the workers and their union representatives were in communication with the corporate offices in California. In a statement read in front of the building, Leah Fried, an organizer for UE Local 1110 said “Our only demand is that we be given a chance to save these jobs. What we want is time. We want time to find a buyer or even make it possible so that the workers can buy this place themselves and run it as a worker-run enterprise.” When asked how long they planned to stay, she said “As long as it takes. We did it once before and we’ll do it again.”

(Source: chicagoist.com)