Maybe this is getting more media attention in the East. Out here in California, I haven't seen anything in the news. But then we've been buried with all the tortuous propaganda regarding how mean and racist we are for opposing "Il Duce Negro" and his fascist agenda, the raging fires, the sky rocketing unemployment rate, the rising tide of property foreclosures (while home sales are up! I haven't figured that out) and the usual drive by shootings, stabbings in grocery store parking lots, and general mayhem in the state capitol and in the state's finances.
Thanks to "PghPrppr" for bringing it to my attention. Come on back to our online chat sometime.
The year was 1999. The end of the Dot Com Bubble. Seattle was hosting the WTO Summit.
Mostly peaceful protesters squared off against riot police. The few incidents where violent clashes occurred, including acts of vandalism, seemed to be the work of agents provocateurs. Protesters, and other eyewitnesses, saw the people engaged in these acts changing out of police uniforms immediately before the incidents.
It is ten years later. Ten years that made the Roaring Twenties look like a church ice cream social. The end of a world wide economic bubble fueled by cheap money and just out and out greed.
People attending protests these days aren't the "Save The Whale" crowd. They aren't worried about starving kids in Africa, or the destruction of the Rainforest. They aren't even worried about global warming.
No.
They're worried about saving their jobs, their homes and their bank accounts. They're worried about starving kids here in this country. They're worried about the destruction of their own environment, neighborhoods vacant and rotting . They're worried about how they're going to be able to afford to warm their own home, never mind the globe.
It's a whole different matter to look at a problem in a thirty second TV pitch, or a glossy mailer designed to tug at your heart, and wallet, just so. It's a whole lot different when the problem is half a world away, and you can just throw money at it and make it go away.
Many people are looking around and starting to realize that they are sliding into the Third World, and they aren't happy about it.
Some places rival the worst the Third World has to offer. Visit Detroit via Time Magazine. Visit Pittsburgh via HiveMind. Visit New York via UnderNY. Visit Saint Louis via Underground Ozarks.
The really terrifying thing about these places, is that they multiply. We're looking at a coming collapse in the commercial real estate market akin to what we've seen in residential real estate.
So, what will happen in Pittsburgh?
I haven't the faintest, but judging from the pent up frustration voiced by one marine and the roars of approval from the crowd, my guess is people are going to be moving from words to actions.
Already groups like the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project have taken flight, and skirmishes have already begun over the right to protest, and exactly who is paying for what, and who will have their rights denied.
Pittsburgh is also seeking additional law enforcement from across the nation. With cash strapped cities already laying off uniformed officers, this may not happen. That paves the way for private security forces (say "mercenaries") such as Blackwater being hired. Could Pittsburgh resort to this?
We'll just have to see.
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