AnonyOps Anonymous
Monday, October 10, 2011
OCCUPY BOSTON AND OCCUPY SEATTLE BOTH GETTING RAIDED
paulconstant Paul Constant
Looks like Boston and Seattle are both raiding Occupy camps in the dead of night, like cowards. On my way down to #occupyseattle now.
OCCUPY EVERYTHING
"Recession Officially Over," The New York Times' lead headline declared around 7 o'clock this morning. (Watch: they'll change it.) That was Part A. Part B said, "US Incomes Kept Falling." Welcome to What-The-Fuck Nation. I suppose if you include the cost of things like the number of auto accident victims transported by EMT squads as part of your Gross Domestic Product such contradictions to reality are possible. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, where are you when we really need you?
I dropped in on the Occupy Wall Street crowd down in Zuccotti Park last Thursday. It was like 1968 all over again, except there was no weed wafting on the breeze (another WTF?). The Boomer-owned-and-operated media was complaining about them all week. They were "coddled trust-funders" (an odd accusation made by people whose college enrollment status got them a draft deferment, back when college cost $500 a year). Then there was the persistent nagging over the "lack of an agenda," as if the US Department of Energy, or the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs was doing a whole lot better.
This is the funniest part to me: that leaders of a nation incapable of constructing a coherent consensus about reality can accuse its youth of not having a clear program. If the OWS movement stands for anything, it's a dire protest against the country's leaders' lack of a clear program.
For instance, what is Attorney General Eric Holder's program for prosecuting CDO swindles, the MERS racket, the bonus creamings of TBTF bank executives, the siphoning of money from the Federal Reserve to foreign banks, the misconduct at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the willful negligence of the SEC, and countless other villainies? What is Barack Obama's program for restoring the rule of law in American financial affairs? (Generally, the rule of law requires the enforcement of laws, no?)
Language is failing us, of course. When speaking of "recession," one is forced into using the twisted, tweaked, gamed categories of economists whose mission is to make their elected bosses look good in spite of anything reality says. I prefer the term contraction, because a.) that is what is really going on, and b.) the economists haven't got their mendacious mitts around it yet. Contraction means there is not going to be more, only less, and it implies that a reality-based society would make some attempt to acknowledge and manage having less - possibly by doing more.
Instead, our leaders only propose accounting tricks to pretend there is more when really there is less. The banking frauds of the past twenty years were a conspiracy between government and banks to provide the illusion that an economy based on happy motoring, suburban land development, continual war, and entertainment-on-demand could go on indefinitely. The public went along with it following the path of least resistance, allowing themselves to be called "consumers." They also went along with the nonsense out of the Supreme Court that declared corporations to be "persons" with "a right to free speech" where political campaign contributions were concerned - thereby assuring the wholesale purchase of the US government by Wall Street banks.
Praise has been coming in from all quarters for the peacefulness of the OWSers. Don't expect that to last. In the natural course of things, revolutionary actions meet resistance, generate friction, and then heat. Anyway, history is playing one of its little tricks by simultaneously ramping up the OWS movement in the same moment that the banking system is actually imploding, with the fabric showing the most stress right now in Europe. I shudder to imagine what happens when OWS moves into the streets of France, Germany, Holland, Italy, and Spain.
All of the action right now has the weird aura of being an overture to the year 2012, fast approaching as we slouch into the potentially demoralizing holidays of the current year. I don't subscribe to Mayan apocalypse notions, but there's something creepy about the wendings and tendings of our affairs these days. OWS is nature's way of telling us to get our shit together, or else. This means a whole lot more than bogus "jobs" bills and Federal Reserve interest rate legerdemain. It means coming to grips with the limits of complexity and purging the system of the idea that anything is too big to fail. What happens when Occupy Wall Street becomes Occupy Everything, Everywhere?
YA SEE, TRIMET? THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT
Mertolink rolls out 10 new 'bicycle cars' | 89.3 KPCC
The Blueberry MAX line could really use something like that? Or even really any of the MAX trains, specifically during rush hour
The Blueberry MAX line could really use something like that? Or even really any of the MAX trains, specifically during rush hour
Occupy Boston
OccupyWallStNYC #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
15K people watching @Boston_Police beating and arresting peaceful protesters in #OccupyBoston #TheWholeWorldisWatching
Occupy_USA Occupy_USA
Miami: ATTENTION: SAVE OCCUPY BOSTON. They were told by the Boston Police Department th... on.fb.me/n6PeIX #usrevolution
Occupy_USA Occupy_USA
Binghamton: Occupy Boston is being raided RIGHT NOW by Boston Police Dept. http://www.livest... on.fb.me/qGu1um #usrevolution
Occupy_Boston Occupy Boston
People are being dragged away, beaten.
HAPPENING NOW
The everlasting love of rail
Should Seattle spend millions to plan more streetcars? | Seattle Times Newspaper
And they will whether they should or not.
And they will whether they should or not.
Ecoliner electric buses
Apparently it has a year's in use experience in the Southern California Foothill Transit. One of its best feature is that it can be charged in about ten minutes and that it can use an inductive method of charging - the bus merely pulls under the charging canopy and waits.
What is especially dissatisfying though is the lack of followup on this venture. After a year's use - the data ought to be most illuminating - but I see nothing anywhere. It is hard to believe that there has been no problems - but it would seem that it has been successful.
And what about costs as compared to the regular non-electric bus or even other types of electric buses? It ought to be virtually maintenance free - but was it?
It is not too difficult to find faults with the bus as a use in regular service. One might be that the need for the charging station - however convenient - requires fixed, and maybe short, routes. I don't know, but this bus seems to have great potential - but it seems unlikely that there will be followup reports.
Interesting...
Is TriMet going to attempt to overrule it?
How things at TriMet work
FRANK FARRELL v. TRI-COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION DISTRICT
An employee, Frank Farrell, learned he had diabetes prior to working as a bus driver for Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District (TriMet). Years later, he also suffered from a number of maladies, including asthma, and emphysema and/or chronic bronchitis. On several occasions, he requested permission under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to be absent from work due to his medical conditions. When TriMet denied his requests, Farrell was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and was ordered by his doctor to take time off from work as a result of the mental distress. He sued TriMet under the FMLA, seeking lost wages and emotional distress damages. The jury awarded just $1,110 in lost wages.
Incredibly, TriMet appealed the $1,110 award (see Why Big Firms Don't Work), claiming that while an employee can recover lost wages for an improper denial of leave under the FMLA, it cannot recover those lost wages if they are the result of "psychic injuries." The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the argument by TriMet that Congress did not intend the FMLA to allow the recovery of emotional distress damages. However, it found that as to the facts of this case, TriMet's argument failed because the jury's verdict merely required TriMet to compensate Farrell for the wages he lost by reason of TriMet's FMLA violation, not for his psychic injury. The judgment was affirmed.
http://www.toplawfirm.com/casesofnote.html
The Portland Peanut
@Wraith_PDXCole
I don't care what its real name is, the OHSU tram should be called the "Portland Peanut" #pdx #makeithappen
TriMet: Hillsboro area bike commuters, you're invited to the BTA Service Station at Orenco MAX Station
Hey Hillsboro-area bike commuters,
Join TriMet, Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Westside Transportation Alliance and Bike n’ Hike tomorrow afternoon for a BTA Service Station at Orenco MAX Station.
Event: BTA Service Station
Where: Orenco/NW 231st Ave MAX station
When: Tuesday, Oct 11th 4-6pm
What: Free snacks and basic repairs (provided by Bike n’ Hike)
See you there!
That's weird.
@ActivismTipsActivism Tips
You must demand freedom and democracy in action, not in the formulated vision of the power hungry elites.
@jrledouxJordan LeDoux
The #occupyportland and #OWSmovement is frm a generation youve never seen rise up like this. We're done playing games, it's time for change
Courage
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.~Winston Churchill
@doctor_jeffDoctor Jeff
Note to mom sharing her Red Bull with 5-year-old: the 57 bus is apparently not the best one for rowdy kids. Have a backup plan to get home.
Here we go...
RANTINGS OF A TRANSIT BUS DRIVER: DOT ORDERS-TriMet Language Implementation Plan
I wonder if this could be partially related to the recent baby incident on that line 57? It was brought forward early on in the incident that the mother didn't speak good English.
I wonder if this could be partially related to the recent baby incident on that line 57? It was brought forward early on in the incident that the mother didn't speak good English.
Seattle Metro
Bus drivers accounted for just 30 [percent?] of Metro's $100,000 employees last year; and just 1 percent of all bus drivers made $100,000. Supervisors, managers, engineers and planners accounted for most of the transportation department's six-figure workers.
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