Michael Moore: "These seeds have been planted by the abuse of Corporate America on its own people. And it is just sprouting now, and there's no way to stop it. They must rue the day they overplayed their hand and decided to kill the middle class of this country, and give no hope to the poor. They must just completely rue that day. So have heart, everyone who is listening this is a movement already with a number of victories. And there's only going to be more to come, because this thing is going to blossom throughout the winter."
Michael Moore comes to Oakland three days after the crackdown, 10/28/11. (photo: KQED News)
Michael Moore on 'Occupy Oakland'
01 November 11
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-vQ3BVdv2U
Michael Moore at Occupy Oakland: "No Turning Back"
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The Right got what it wanted when Bay Area police stormed the Occupy Oakland encampment touching off clashes that left one protester, Iraq War vet Scott Olsen, in critical condition. Filmmaker Michael Moore discussed the protests with Davey D and Dennis Bernstein.
n the early morning hours of Tuesday, Oct. 25, the heavily armed Oakland Police Department in conjunction, with 16 other police departments from all over Northern and Central California, stormed the Occupy Oakland Encampment.
The police were fully dressed in helmets, and riot gear, and armed with shotguns, "nonlethal pellet guns," teargas and concussion grenades.
The first attack on Frank Ogawa Plaza, in downtown Oakland, where about 200 men, women and children were camped came at about 4:45 a.m. Helicopters were circling and crisscrossing their spotlights from above, and at least one armored personnel carrier was in the streets, turning downtown Oakland into an instant war zone.
Within a half an hour or so, the police had roughed up, cuffed, and arrested over 100 of the protesters, and routed the rest away from the area. The police occupied the area all day, denying the public access.
The peaceful protesters were held on high bail, for several days, contrary to the cite-and-release policy usually employed during arrests at political demonstrations.
Police then proceeded to rip apart and shred the tent city, with people's belongings and personal items being scattered to the wind. Buses were rerouted and downtown Bay Area Rapid Transit stations (BART) were closed for hours, as city officials and police advised workers in that area to stay away.
On Tuesday night, hundreds of protesters took to the streets again, and heavily armed police cracked down again, firing chemical gas canisters right into the crowd. Scott Olsen, a young two-time veteran of the Iraq war, was struck at close range in the head by one of the canisters, putting him in the hospital in Oakland in critical condition.
On Friday, early evening, over 1,000 people gathered in Oakland, reconstructed the camp and held a rally in protest of the police action. Mayor Jean Quan, who was out of town when the police assault occurred, defended the police actions as necessary, citing health and safety concerns.
She claimed that the police were there to protect property and guarantee the safety of all Oakland's citizens, while also defending local banks that were under attack. However, eyewitness accounts and extensive video footage show that there was virtually no damage to property, and no indication of violent protesters attacking the police.
Among those in the Oakland downtown plaza on Friday night was radical filmmaker and political activist, Michael Moore. He spoke with KPFA/Pacifica Radio's Davey D and Dennis Bernstein, after he addressed the crowd.
DB: When you spoke here about a half hour ago, there were no helicopters in the air, now there are four circling around overhead. This is sort of the regular part of the police operations here. So maybe they are here to cheer for you as well.
MM: Actually they are up in the sky, are part of the occupy helicopter movement. This thing is not only happening on earth it's also happening up in the atmosphere
DD: [The police] attacked the demonstrators, when they were asleep to catch them off guard.... Are you seeing this type of pattern, everywhere, you know, in New York and other places, which is militarized, brutal police tactics against ordinary folks.
MM: I think one thing that Oakland has gotten a lot of people talking about across the country is how since 9/11 untold billions of dollars have been spent on so-called Homeland Security. We don't know how much, because by law they don't have to tell us how much.
But what we do know is that local police forces across the country have applied for and received an enormous amount of money to buy armaments, tanks, spying apparatus, equipment things that we don't even know about. And it is, on some level, frightening that we have allowed this to get out of hand. And they have all done it under the guise of 9/11.
You know, if I had had a loved one die that day and I did have a friend in one of the planes, the plane from Boston, was a producer, that I had worked with ... the fact that he and the others who died, that their deaths, their names have been used to create so much harm across the country, it's really disgusting.
DD: Definitely. You know, what about the whole thing with New York, you have the white shirts police that are now being paid by Wall Street financial/banking institutions; we're seeing a privatization of police and do you see that maybe spreading going to other cities?
MM: No, actually, well it has spread but the spreading is going to stop, because this movement is growing so fast, so wide, so far. It is amazing. I've had the good fortune of being able to travel the country in the last few weeks. I have seen it with my own eyes.
It would blow your mind if you just got on a bus now or got in the car and drove across the smallest of towns having little occupy movements. There's a little town where I live called Niles. There are only 10,000, 11,000 people who live there. They've got a hundred people camping out there, demonstrating and occupying Niles.
Now a hundred may not seem a lot, here in Oakland. But a hundred is one percent of the population there. If one percent of America showed up on the national mall to a demonstration that would be over three million people. So a hundred people in Niles is the equivalent of three million people showing up for a national demonstration on the mall there in D.C., now that's never happened
DD: Right.
MM: Just to give you an idea. And again, there's nobody organizing it in Niles. There's no national organization that they belong to. They don't pay dues, there's no leaders. It is just happening organically. And it is an amazing thing to see. It has lifted my spirits; it almost feels like drugs, if I knew what drugs felt like.
DD: Boot Riley just hit me up and he wants me to talk to you about some sanitation workers and for you to accompany him tomorrow, if you are in town. But also the other thing that Boots reminded us of there is a general strike going on in Oakland, next Wednesday. And then on the fifth, I guess, there is a national effort for people to start switching banks. Your thoughts on that, the fact that the city of Oakland is calling for a national strike...
MM: Ultimately that is what's going to have to happen. Ultimately people are just going to have to say "Sorry we're not participating in the system any longer. We're/I/we are no longer cogs in this wheel, we are resigning from that." I think eventually this is one of the things that will happen, and I don't know when it's going to happen, I don't know how it's going to happen....
DD: Well, I know for us next Wednesday, there's a general strike planned
MM: Sounds like it's going to start here [in Oakland].
DB: Michael Moore, Dennis Bernstein here with Davey D. Can I ask you what was your gut reaction when you heard this young, really peaceful vet, Scott Olsen, was hit hard at close range and sent to the hospital in critical condition by a police action in which 17 police departments were sent to arrest 100 sleeping people, with children, in the camp. What's your response to that kind of violence at that level?
MM: Well, obviously appalling. It's not just me, I mean they, they again, overplayed their hand just like Wall Street has overplayed their greed hand. The police here overplayed their brutal fascistic hand because people, all kinds of people across the country, saw what happened here in Oakland and were horrified by it.
Nobody wants to live in that country. Nobody wants to see the police that they pay taxes for, do this to fellow citizens. I mean I think what happened here I feel really bad for the harm that happened to those who were injured and certainly to Scott Olsen who is sitting in a hospital here, who is going probably to take a long time for him to go back to being normal, if ever.
I just think about, too, these kids that, you know, he and his roommate, or his roommate was talking on T.V. the other night about how when they were both in Iraq they turned against the war, they saw first hand how wrong this war was.
And that's a very brave thing to do when you are a soldier, when you are in the war zone and you become anti-war. Man, that's ah, it's already, you know to be a soldier first of all, in a volunteer army the implications is, that if you sign up to go into the Army you are basically saying "I'm willing to give my life so that others can live."
Assuming, you know, if the military was actually used for what it only should be used for which is pure self-defense, you are willing to die. What greater gift can a human give to another human than to be willing to give their life for another?
So that's who these kids are and to have had two tours over there and want to come back and want tell his fellow Americans, "I've been there and I know this war is wrong." That takes a lot of courage, on top of the courage he already had. And to find that the only people who were going to harm him were the people here where he lived, in Oakland, California.
And the difference between Oakland and Iraq in terms of what Scott Olsen had to face is this. In Iraq, your biggest threat driving down the road is what they call an improvised explosive device, an IED. Okay?
Scott Olsen is in the hospital tonight suffering from an [un]improvised explosive device. There was no improvisation going on. These devices that were being fired are meant to control the people. This is really what Homeland Security is about. They are not worried about Al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda is just a joke right now. Even our own CIA says there are only 50 Al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan, okay? All right, that's the boogieman. That's the boogieman that they want to create to try and get everybody afraid so everybody will back a huge military budget and the militarization of the police forces.
DB: Seventeen police forces, 17 in the Bay Area, but we don't know who exactly shot Scott Olsen because they were all wearing the uniform and masks....
DD: Well, they are saying now that it was the Alameda Sheriff's Department that did it. I remember, what he looked like, I was on the front line.
MM: The officer in New York who put the pepper spray in those girls eyes, you know, they were able to find out who that was and he's had to go through a suspension, and now he's been moved to Staten Island. They will find who did this....
[At this point in the Moore interview, that was being broadcast right from the Plaza, a witness, and an Occupy Oakland activists offered this eyewitness account of the Tuesday night melee that sent Olsen to the hospital with a critical wound.]
Eyewitness: Scott was next to me, and the other guy with the hat that was the Marine and they hit him just a couple of minutes after we were all standing there. You know what I'm saying, cause we were there, it was going down, they shot three tear things, "Boom!" then they waited like another 30 seconds, "Boom!" and then they did another one "Boom!"
It was crazy; it was like we were in a war zone! It was old women, it was, the media didn't report this, and it was people that were there.... [There were children there] that couldn't breathe. I was, I'm a little bit healthy so I was able to run about three blocks to eleventh or tenth. But it was people that were on the ground that was choked up.
DD: Right, and those are the stories that aren't being told.
MM: Well, there being told here on Pacifica Radio, this is where it starts and then others will start to cover it. And eventually justice is going to happen. The people who made the decisions to do this, to unarmed citizens who were acting peacefully, there's going to have to be justice here.
And ultimately the buck does stop on the mayor's desk no matter how progressive she is, no matter how nice she is, no matter how broken-hearted she is over what happened. No matter how much she had to interrupt her vacation, or wherever the hell she was, and had to come back. The bottom line is the buck does stop with her, and the people of Oakland have had to suffer for long enough.
For crying out loud, how many years, how many times have I come to Oakland over the decades of what this town has had to go through. And talk about a town that has been abused by the policies of Corporate America and Wall Street. It is amazing though, the life that is still here and the resistance that is still here. That people have not given up. And that in some ways I'm not surprised that this watershed moment, in this movement, happened here in Oakland, this week.
And if it had to be here, then it was here, and it has inspired, it has inspired people all across the country.
DB: It is a bit different than the peace marches of the Sixties a bit of a different crowd.
MM: It's different. Those things were well organized. This wasn't organized. And it's so counter-intuitive that out of disorganization came already one of the best movements I've seen in my lifetime. With no structure, no discipline, no organization and, I'm saying that. I'm not like an anarchist really, but there is something, it just appeals to my inner core of and I think that we are probably all this way.
You know I said at the end of my last movie, "I refuse to live in a country like this. And I'm not leaving." So, I think that is shared by millions of people. We refuse to live in the way that they've constructed our America. We're not going anywhere, so that means it's gotta change. End of story. Thank you so much for having me.
DD: Michael, is there any last words that you want to pass along before you leave?
MM: Yes, everyone listening to this whose been participating in the Occupy Movement; please know that you have already changed the national debate and discourse. We've already a number of victories here, you have killed apathy across the country, you have removed despair from peoples' hearts.
So many people sitting at home thinking they were all alone "What can I do, I live in Debuke?" "What can I do, I live in Boise?" "I live in Salt Lake," "I live in Grass Valley, California." What can I do? What can I do? I can't do anything. So I will just sit here on the sofa.
Well, aint no sitting anymore, no more sofas. Peoples' ears are wide open as are their eyes, and they are participating. This is going to grow, and you, Dennis, me, we don't really have to do anything. Nobody really has to do anything. We just have to just watch it happen.
These seeds have been planted by the abuse of Corporate America on its own people. And it is just sprouting now, and there's no way to stop it. They must rue the day they overplayed their hand and decided to kill the middle-class of this country, and give no hope to the poor. They must just completely rue that day.
So have heart, everyone who is listening this is a movement already with a number of victories. And there's only going to be more to come, because this thing is going to blossom throughout the winter.
DB: I also want to thank you very much for stopping by the Pacifica table, for coming to Oakland. We appreciate the time and we hope you'll come back soon.
MM: I will, and thank you very much. I'm sorry we are on radio; no I'm not sorry we're on radio but if you could see. We've got a little card table here set up in the middle of Occupy Oakland. There's the Wells Fargo Bank over there and thousands of people, all kinds of people, and all kinds of people are here.
This is the America we want to live in, what we see here now, this is the democracy as the way it should be. And so I'm very hopeful.
Davey D is the co-host and co-producer of Hard Knock Radio. Dennis Bernstein is the Executive Producer of Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio.
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And about Israel: I would hope that people allow that country to determine the best course of action for itself, and not pour money into campaigns that the Israelis themselves do not want. For those who point to Bible prophecy: I respect religious opinions, but consider the story of Jonah: he finally warned Ninevah, they repented, he got mad that he had spent time in the whale, and with the example of the gourd it was pointed out that sometimes forgiveness is given for repentance. Those prophecies are supposed to point to a good direction, not just give a blanket punishment, but prophecies may be self-fulfilling with the kind of meddling that Adelson is doing.
We the People just won't buy what they are selling. Let them waste their money. Don't vote republican on any level.
My post was to anybody who might give Adelson an excuse for his meddling. At one time, any foreign meddling in an American election was a serious offense; a foreign corporation could lose their licenses to do business in the United States. I wonder where those laws went?
This last year, I've been seeing loads of out-of-state license plates, all good cars. Most people change their license if they are moving here, so I assume these are all the out-of-state people coming to Ohio to pay people to vote Republican. Most people don't buy it, but all those out-of-state plates prove they are trying.
Yall benefited from the bail-out of GM I believe, so I hope many, many more Ohioans will also vote Dem. It is going to be a trying time, for since you are THE swing state, you will be bombarded with negative adds. STAY STRONG
Isn't that typical for the rich jerks. It is too bad that the people need the job, for I would LOVE to see them all march out and leave him stranded, high and dry with nobody to run his damn casino.
Of course, he does nothing for the community, People like him just take, take, take. they only give when they are certain to get what they want in return. A pox on him
I've been wondering if and how all this money that's flowing so freely is being written off. Of course when you make that much money, the IRS turns a blind eye. But if $1 of the Adelson, Koch, Rove, or other Super Pac money is being hidden or written off, we are making up the difference. Isn't that the other aspect of anonymous donations?
Not even social security will you find there and their equilivent of medicaid was gutted in the 1980's. Their master plan calls for a social security program to increase domestic consumption but it is a longer term plan,not immediate.
This Mr Adelson...Don't know him of course but I can only assume he is not really considering himself a citizen with US interests at heart but a global citizen here to use the US for all it is worth..very.sim iliar to Reupert Murdouch.
Their interest is to use the US for personal financial interest.
When the US is no longer at the top of the financial heap, his heirs by my take will then be Chinese citizens using that place for their personal gain. Similar to Reupert and his Chinese wife, really they care not about what country they are in or meddling in...their concern is all about personal profit.
The amounts of money now being donated to campaigns compared to the amounts of money at stake for guys like this is minuscule.
Keep in mind the ramifications of citizens united are just now being felt....it is just starting..
I wonder why they do not just start paying people to vote a certain way....would that not also be a exercise of free speech...since money is speech by their determination.
Your ward goes this way...1k each to each voter...why not?
Just imagine what Social Security and Medicare/Medica id could do with that money. Think of all the people it could help. And then I look at people like Cheney, Rove, Murdoch and this clown, Adelson... it puts me somewhere between rage and nausea.
"..There are no "undecided" voters any more. More crap on tv is not going to sway people one way or another."
Never over-under-esti mate the ignorance of the American public! Of course money can, will and does, buy elections, over the TV.
You may be correct that there are no undecided voters left.......in THE PRESIDENTIAL part of the election,... but
all that money can make a HUGE difference in the CONGRESSIONAL election.
I doubt the democrats will have a lot of money, and most people don't pay much attention to representatives and senators therefor if Adelson's money is used to throw a lot of dirt at the democratic candidates, it can make a BIG difference
So unless democrats really work hard for their candidates, they will have little chance of getting more Dems in the house.
This nasty SOB may be able to determine who wins this election, because of all his money.
We are certainly not a democracy any longer. He MIGHT not be able to unseat the president he hates. But his filthy money could destroy GOOD law makers.
....Contrary to belief....they DO exist.
He proves that no matter HOW much money some people have they want STILL MORE. And they want the middle class to pay the taxes, they want to avoid. He is sickening
And don't forget to volunteer to work with your local political group. You don't have to have money to get involved. And your involvement may be just the thing that turns an election around. This money is being used not only to combat President Obama, but all the way down to the local level. You can bet that Rove knows who's running in every district in the country and will bring his money to bear against any candidate he thinks is vulnerable.
The only way we can beat the money is with bodies - lots and lots of bodies.
It's men like Adelson who make the world an ugly place. If he continues, it will probably also be uninhabitable, because I guarantee to you that if the Rethugs win up and down the line, the biggest casualty will be the environment.
It could come from China!...We simply have NO idea. We do not have elections anymore. We have AUCTIONS.
And the winner is???.....The highest bidder. How sickening, and we have the NERVE to tell other countries, how to run elections and build democracy??
I meant to give you a negative not a positive vote for your foolish remark. Adelson hates America, he is a Zionist who would rather have worn the military uniform of Israel rather than the American one he wore.
I can't believe I spent some money at his Venetian Casino in Las Vegas when I was there recently.
I would hope he has a better use for 30 million dollars than to point and shame;thus throwing himself into the shame/blame game, the Republicans favorite form of lying which works well in this imbecilac country.I wish I could stop these lunatics,but my bank account isn`t big enough.
Frankly, I think there is a good chance that that may happen and that the Republican office-holders and wannabes will be swept away in a spew of voter vomit.
Billionaire (who owns a piece of everything) -
lots of ads, paid into big media -
owned by billionaires (who make profit on the ads) -
lots of ads, paid into big media - ...
They can't lose on this, and they will still have all their money in the end!
Of course that applies to the Middle East brand of Mormonism, another "M" cult absolutely devoted to denial of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. Masons too.. Interesting, the "Shriners" with their Islamic symbolism, swords and red fez costumes?
But the mills of prophecy grind along, with the Saudis deepening their ties with China, closer to the long feared oil for nuclear missiles transaction. Mr. Adelson would show much greater discernment were he and Mr. Winn et al able to grasp the need for American transport policy re-orientation as key element in defusing the Middle East noose around America's neck. It's about Petrodollars, stupid!
The scriptural warnings about Jerusalem as stumbling block for the nations do not necessarily include America, but as things stand, it seems likely. Adelson should read "The Blood Of The Moon" and counsel Mitt Romney on the prophetic and spiritual forces at play. America's relationship with Israel must be considered, not overplayed to bad end.
Could Jastrow's "The War And The Bagdhad Railway" scheme offer engineering solution to Palestinian resettlement and Islamic goals of regional unity, hold Israel harmless, and stifle relentless moves to cataclysm?
I think that God is intelligent, don't you?
I also always felt that's why Adelson vigorously solicited the Chinese to build casinos in their territory. He has a delusion that the Chinese government will let him take all his money there and they will protect him and his money.
I predicted years ago that Adelson would eventually take his bad ideas and his money and head for Macau to live permanently just not to pay a few percent of taxes.
Either human beings have rights or they don't. If you believe some group of humans identified by their ethnicity or religion do not have human rights, then you are in violation of the UN Convention Against Genocide and the Universal Convention on Human Rights. Such beliefs put Adelson in the company with Nazis and other avowed racist groups. I'm sure he does not give a damn.
The truth is that Israel would be a lot safer and better off with a viable and healthy Palestinian state.
I agree with Nick Neuaur (Ted Conference speaker who's speach isn't included because of what he had to say)that the middle class creates jobs because they can spend. Nick said he can buy 3 cars but the middle class can buy 3,000.
Adleson is in this for short term gain because when the middle class can't afford to gamble he's not going to make any more money.
Europe and America is:
No money in politics
No death penalty
No guns
universal healthcare
W O W what a difference that makes.
President Roosevelt in a message to Congress in 1938:
"A democratic society is in danger if people tolerate private powers...
Corporations, Adelson/Maher, AIPAC
...to an extent where these powers are
more powerful than the democratical state
itself.
That is the essence of fascism."
And it is hard to tell if the top dems are so out of touch but are actually repugs in dems clothing. Can anyone explain the difference between cheney and Obama, who seems to enjoy taking out civilians and supports big oil.
Adelson would prefer Romney because his authoritarian mindset is deeper than Obama's, but he can buy either one.
Notice how suddenly, after a few years, there are headlines about an investigation into "Fast and Furious?" And suddenly there are stories steering "The Conversation" into areas where things might have gone slightly better? I love Dennis Kucinich, who said that as much money as Solyndria lost, it lost much less than any nuclear power plant commonly loses, and is covered up. But does Dennis make headlines?
I NEVER click on any news story that is a (not so hidden) smear tactic. Sure there were some mistakes in Obama's Presidency, but in my entire lifetime (late 50s) there has NEVER been a President who has tried to achieve ANY healthcare package that would help young adults and middle class; and rarely a President who tried to help common people at all (let's see, the ones who did were all Democrats). Clean energy is still being talked about, and it wouldn't even be in "The Conversation" with Repugs running the country.
As far as being bought, Pres. Obama has tried to steer the ship; he has reduced and brought home forces from overseas. If it were Romney, these tired forces would be simply gearing up for Iran. You can talk to Pres. Obama; enough people telling him that Democrats need to be Democrats and he listens, but would you ever in your life get a Republican to listen to the needs of anybody who earns less than $250,000 a year?
Let's see - whose interests do you think a Pres. Romney would support? Sheldon "Mr. Greed" Adelson or the other 299 million Americans in the middle and "working" class? Hmmmm
If you care about the future of our country and our children, I'd suggest you don't vote for Sheldon Adelson (sorry - I mean, Mitt Romney).
...and so it goes, the Republicans are pitted against the Democrats and their supporters against each other and above the fray are the fat cats, Democrat and Republican alike, stuffing their pockets and grabbing power while we fight little battles amongst ourselves, trying to extinguish the little fires they set to divert us while the wholes system burns. Good night and good luck.
All I can toss into pot concerns the auctioning of our democracy.
It is a "silent" auction and we aren't invited.
The folks who own the construction companies contribute to Republicans, the road construction worker unions contribute to Democrats. They both lobby for crappy roads we have to replace every ten years. Good for their companies and jobs, bad for those of us who hate orange barrels.
Both sides buy influence.
Live with it, use it or figure out a way to fix it.
They're all traitors, Art947. These guys claim to be so "religious" and so "patriotic", but they're just the opposite. The Southern Christians and disparate hate groups despise Jews, Catholics, and Mormons, but they REALLY despise Blacks, Hispanics and any other people of color. So they're in. The other groups - regular conservatives, neo-conservativ es, the super-rich, libertarians, bankers, and corporations ("are people too") - who, incidentally, consider the Southern Christians and hate groups to be useful tools, manage to hold this unholy cabal together. So they're in.
Adelson and the others are awash with money. Shame of it is, the lemmings will follow them right into the sea. That's what we're up against.