Awesome cartoonist and friend o’ mine Keef Knight has a Kickstarter campaign going for a keen graphic novel he wants to launch. All sortsa prizes are on offer, so won’t you please help? And if you do help, tell him to… ahem… “kickstart” a little of that green back towards me!
Andreas Rau, a Rochester-based political drifter and contributing blogger to the Democrat & Chronicle, has posted an editorial that hails the imminent demise of Occupy Rochester’s Washington Square Park encampment by mayoral fiat on March 11.
And although it is clear that Rau has not spent even the lifespan of a quantum particle amongst Occupy (or else he would know that while Alex White is a leader amongst us, he is not OccRoc’s “leader”, de facto or otherwise) he nevertheless deigns to speak for Rochester’s masses, who he claims have had enough of the “eyesore” that is Occupy Rochester’s encampment, at best a modest distraction for commuters from business as usual.
By choosing to represent for the 99%, however, Rau has declared himself a fellow traveller with Occupy. Welcome, brother!
Beneath Rau’s scorn there is clear regret at Occupy’s aimlessness. Perhaps it is Rau’s alleged history with the SDS that prompts him (a Republican) to lament, albeit hatefully, the waning of Occupy. After all, if Rau’s opinion of the temperature of the 99% is accurate, his two cents are hardly needed.
“Unfortunately for the “occupiers,†Rochester has gotten bored with the tiresome spectacle of “Occupy Rochester†in Washington Square Park,” he writes.“They ought to thank the mayor who now is for putting out of its misery a poorly directed, poorly produced, poorly acted and poorly attended slapstick comedy whose curtain should have been rung down months ago.”
Coming from a man whose own political party has descended into pure shtick, these sentiments could easily be dismissed by Occupiers as garden-variety cranksterism. But Occupy Rochester had better take Rau’s sentiment’s to heart, for without attending a single GA, Rau has pegged Occupy Rochester perfectly.
Now in its seventh month as a nationwide movement, the ejaculation of enthusiasm that birthed Occupations in city parks across the country and even overseas has dissipated. The movement has  been met with predictable resistance from law enforcement and city governments, resulting in a near-total loss of landed Occupations. Rochester remains one of the few encampments left, but  the camp is often absent of protesters, although its membership continues to be engaged in a variety of outreach initiatives.
Therein lies the problem. Occupy Rochester is riven with micro-agendas, splitting its time between anti-fracking, prison reform, new-agey health fairs, and so on. It has lost sight of a goal that will legitimize it’s continued presence in Washington Square Park, and that can resonate with the public at large. And while a strong sense of organization remains in the form of the horizontal democratic structure that Occupy has established to govern itself, the goal of actually occupying their site has drifted from the minds of the local branch of the movement. This would be acceptable if it were part of a plan, but it is simply entropy.
Fortunately, this erosion of purpose has not gone unnoticed within the ranks. Some wish to continue the Occupation indefinitely, but have not put in the shoe leather necessary to acquire anything like the political leverage that would make this possible. Others would have it simply go out with a bang on March 11th, even preferring a forced eviction to an orderly withdrawal. But it is hard to see that as anything but a pyrrhic victory. Has the nation shed any tears for the evicted rabble of the now scrubbed and buffed Zucotti Park?
Other options that are available have yet to be explored, however. The first is that, contrary to Andreas Rau’s fevered imagination, Mayor Richards has in fact accommodated Occupy before, and has hinted his willingness to do so again. What he desires, or so he claims, is an end date where OccRoc will declare mission accomplished and the world can return to normal.
So the possibility of pushing off the day of reckoning another month or so is there. But that leaves it in Occupy Rochester’s hands to decide what goal, if any, they can put their continued Occupation to. To put this in the sort of painful poetry that Rau himself enjoys, the locus needs a focus.
A focal point is on the horizon, that being the upcoming Republican State Convention. With the Republican party drowning in its own bile, with organizations like ALEC now standing naked as prime movers working with Republicans to put more of our government in corporate hands, how can Occupy Rochester not make this moment the lodestar of its existence?
Occupy can also show the city where their Democrats really stand in this time of decision. One thing you can be sure of is that Adam McFadden, Lovely Warren and the rest of the City Council will not be standing arm-and-arm with Occupy as they rally the progressive base to meet the Republicans. The Democrats have been quite cool towards this tea party within the liberal rank-and-file, as well they should, since the bloodless inertia of the Democrats is visible to anyone who is not distracted by matters of contraception. The Democrats are not willing to hit the pavement when they are out of power, how much less should we expect of them when they have a White House to keep?
And as for our Democratic mayor, a man so wealthy that his stools probably contain more precious metal than a shot of Goldschläger, and who took the throne through something less than a fully democratic process, if he isn’t the symbol of what Occupy stands against, who is?
Only a curmudgeonly asshole could actually cheer for a return to the muffled voice of the status quo. Here, then, is what Occupy should do regarding it’s March 11th ouster.
First, by any means necsessary, get the City Council membership on record as either pro or anti Occupy. Simply “are you with us or against us? “With” means you are ready to support Occupy staying in the park for at least one more extension of the contract.
Against means get ready for a rough ride, gang, as Occupy raises holy hell showing the citizens of Rochester that while Republicans will tie themselves into pretzels to protect every wealthy, felonius fuck in Creation, Rochester’s Blue State Liberal Progressive Civil Rights Beneficiaries won’t lift a finger to help a cause based on defending the Holy Middle Class.
Assuming that this tact works, if the weight of the City Council’s support can sway Richards, then on March 27th every Occupier and their mother should show up at City Council to present a short agenda of items that anyone who isn’t a billionaire and who doesn’t want a transvaginal probe shoved between their legs should have no problem endorsing. Then they take a People’s Vote in front of the Council to prove that these are the things that the 99% actually do want.
And one of them will be a new Congressman.
That good enough for you, Andreas?
If look above this post and just below today’s strip, you may see an ad for “Yellow Glad Days”, a novel by Sam Bellotto Jr. for which I, yes I, provided the cover. Click that link and revel in my glory! Oh, and buy the book.
You always think you’ll be able to tell someone “I hate you” one last time, and then… they are gone. Matt Taibbi’s words say what my tears cannot, but at least I can offer you this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qmz6tUipKw[/youtube]
Matt Taibbi has posted a blog gleefully trumpeting the implosion of the Republican party, as signaled by Wednesday’s (allegedly) final Republican candidates’ debate in Arizona. “Implosion” may be too soft a word, though. Stellar collapse is more like it; the  right wing devouring itself black hole-style, the laws of physics breaking down as the dregs of conservatism crush themselves into an infinitely dense knot of hate.
With Rick Santorum impossibly hogging the spotlight from Newt Gingrich (Mitt Romney’s other ersatz challenger) the Republicans’ must be wondering how they ever permitted themselves be led astray by issues such as birth certificates. They should have been trying to convince the independent voters who apparently control history that they actually have some sense of how to run government. The revanchist populism of the Tea Party, so promising in the beginning, has become like the spell Mickey Mouse cast in in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The GOP is now overrun with bitter, uncontrollable nincompoops who are willing to throw their weight behind anyone who A) is hated by the establishment and B) couldn’t get elected even with an endorsement from the ghost of Abe Lincoln.
Believe me, I’m as surprised as anyone by this turn from bad to worse. Before this latest round of footsie with Santorum I was ready to call it for Newt. I mean, I just can’t believe the Republicans are going to fall for this “electability” crap again. Romney isn’t electable! The GOP isn’t running an electable candidate this year! So why not ride that atom bomb all the way down, hats a-swingin’, with Gingrich?
I really do think Newt would give Obama the best run for his money, but  it does say something for the Republicans that they sense what a tool he is. Just to be sure of this in my own heart, I borrowed Newt’s book To Save America from the library to see if his written words are any more educational than his campaign rhetoric.
Nope! If anything, he is less detailed and more pandering in print, and it is interesting to note that for all the complaints the conservative media has about not being able to tell what Mitt stands for, Newt’s real thoughts are even more garbed in shadow.
The book starts off on the right foot. The title, “To Save America” is pitch-perfect for conservatives, who are forever trying to reclaim some stolen American glory (see also the title of Mitt Romney’s campaign-kicker, No Apologies, referring to Obama’s alleged fawning before our enemies). The book then tries to beat the term “secular socialism” into the reader’s brain once every third sentence, as if any good conservative could forget that their sole purpose in life is to fear the left, as opposed to advancing a positive agenda that more than 50.16% of the electorate will support.
Newt pushes the paranoia button with the impatience of a man waiting for an elevator to arrive, often slathering on references to 1984, a book Newt loves to quote but has clearly never read. If he had, he would have come across the word “duckspeak”, a form of Party ultra-bullshit, which is heavily redolent of the way Gingrich expresses himself, like a sea cucumber turning itself inside out, revealing nothing but his stomach contents.
When To Save America does propose an agenda, it lards it up with regurgitated buzz words. A typical Newt paragraph is a micro-motivational seminar where words like “empowered”, “engaged”, “equipped” and “incentivized” pummel the reader into ignoring their vapidity. One cannot read about Newt’s plans for health care reform without sensing that the fix-it he is building towards is “the unstoppable power of the atom!!” (in fact, the fix is repealing the Affordable Care Act, and letting the insurance companies get back to business as usual.)
Another trick Newt has learned more from Big Brother himself than from Orwell is “doublethink”, the ability to hold two contradictory points of view at once. For instance, one chapter of his book resurrects “Climategate”, the scandal that revealed that UN scientists are capable of being (get ready for this, folks) political, but that ultimately did not change a single accepted fact about Global Warming, i.e., that it is fucking real and man made. Newt calls this issue a left wing power grab… then glides his thoughts into sheer paradox in a later chapter  extolling “Green Conservatism”.
Green Conservatism, a capitalist approach to environmental issues, would put the right wing to work addressing “genuine” environmental problems, “many of them ignored due to the global warming obsession” (emphasis mine). In other words, private initiative, not public, will take the lead in tackling the catastrophes that private industry causes, requiring no intrusion by the government, despite the fact that public pressure is the only factor motivating the rich to do anything, while the one  issue that has united the planet in alarm–the one wrapped up in the very word “green”— is dismissed with a wave of the hand.
Did Gozar the Gozarian summon Newt as an end times challenge to our common decency? His approach is worse than just grubbing for cheers from a stunted, anti-intellectual base of forever malcontents. It’s wrong. In To Save America, Newt does not engage once with the merits of an opposing argument and counter them with a factual riposte. How the fuck can anyone propose to “save America”, whose primary enemy is her politicians, when they are hostile towards anything approaching a dialectic?
