Occupy The Polls

... our goal is to encourage #Occupy to embrace the Pirate Party

[rewiredotnews]

Rape Kits: A Decade and A Billion Dollars Later, Why Can’t We Fix the Backlog? by Sofia Resnick at RH Reality Check

A three-month investigation by RH Reality Check has revealed that the agency charged with overseeing this effort has been unable to answer these rudimentary questions, leaving advocates at a loss to explain why so little progress has been made on the backlog even while the Obama administration has identified it as a top priority for sexual justice.  Survivors deserve justice. 

[salon]

Geraldo Rivera schooled by Baltimore protesters

[gimme10dollas]

Fuck him too.

[sickfuture]

[otpglobal]

What explains the power of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s middle finger? All over the TV airways and the Internet, all sorts of people cited the photo to argue that he should be killed.

[fullpraxisnow]

To think that if a person doesn’t vote they therefore are not engaged in creating a better world demonstrates an enormous lack of political education.

[fullpraxisnow]

The whole discussion around voting is rooted in the perpetuation of state-afforded rights, that is to say people subconsciously believe if the state didn’t exist then their rights would somehow vanish. The opposite is true though. Whatever rights you think you have are illusions the state allows you to enjoy. The preservation of this enjoyment is the underpinning lie that keeps people going back every election cycle. 

We have been conditioned to think states are everlasting, so the only change that can happen must take place within the parameters afforded and prescribed by it – avenues like voting and court systems. When folks realize they can generate positive outcomes independent of the mechanisms prescribed by state power, like communities organizing autonomously, well, that’s radical – and it means threatening the hegemony of power the state tries to maintain (yes, partially through voting, but with a myriad of other methods too). 

This is why voting is made into the apex of political engagement. Keeping you locked into a game of the “lesser of two evils” by and large keeps the population pacified and away from political activities with the potential to free us from state oppression.

[otpglobal]

We're just gonna leave this right here. The Daily Cartoon by Emily Flake: http://t.co/GlgIzNYPvA #dearhillary #ows pic.twitter.com/4BfJoE04F1

— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) April 13, 2015

[otpglobal]

“Odious debt” has finally arrived: Greece to write off “illegal” debt http://t.co/iV3S07mYAJ pic.twitter.com/xPXBGWe1Wn

— PPI (@ppinternational) April 12, 2015

As a reminder, this is what Odious Debt is: In international law, odious debt is a legal theory which holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion.

[otpglobal]

Chelsea Manning Shares Her Transition to Living as a Woman — Behind Bars For the first time, Chelsea Manning shares the details of her story as an army private who leaked classified documents, went to military prison, and sued for the right to transition into living as a woman in jail.

@xychelsea Chelsea, your Cosmopolitan interview is on newsstands now—and on its way to you in the mail. Best, Abigail pic.twitter.com/fTD7ao9c1Z

— Abigail Pesta (@AbigailPesta) April 8, 2015

[otpglobal]

Assange, Manning Still Only Ones Imprisoned for Collateral Murder  April 5 marked the five-year anniversary of the release of the Collateral Murder video by WikiLeaks. The shocking footage showed the entire world the 2007 US Apache attack helicopter airstrike on Baghdad that killed 12 people - including two Reuters staff members - and injured two small children.

My latest, on tonight's @wikileaks/@couragefound AMA & 5yr anniversary of Collateral Murder: http://t.co/4Fh6vVuAac pic.twitter.com/PZzXIzJh2Z

— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) April 7, 2015

[dailyjosephgordonlevitt]

Oliver Stone, Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Shailene Woodley on set of Snowden (April 7, 2015) [x]

[otpglobal]

Shailene and I are shooting in front of the White House today! #Snowden pic.twitter.com/ArtG9B29bw

— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) April 7, 2015

[otpglobal]

Abby and Robbie Martin discuss the case of hacker Matt DeHart, the bizarre circumstances surrounding the Bin Laden raid, the Tom Cotton letter to Iran attempting to undermine the diplomatic negotiations, Vice's interview with Obama and House of Cards Season Three's anti-Russian propaganda.

[d-a-g-chaos]

John Oliver sits down with Edward Snowden. Watch here: https://t.co/6Kpk8aNzaw Then speak out against NSA spying: https://t.co/R2t5HjRCyc

— EFF (@EFF) April 6, 2015

[d-a-g-chaos]

Close up of the awesome #Snowden #statue that artists installed atop a #RevolutionaryWar monument! #WellPlaced pic.twitter.com/pHPy5KT6Af

— unR̶A̶D̶A̶C̶K̶ted (@JesselynRadack) April 6, 2015

Statue of Edward Snowden put up in secret in Brooklyn today, now given the Christo treatment by the Parks Dept. pic.twitter.com/Y71sXSHAda

— Josephine Tovey (@Jo_Tovey) April 6, 2015

[freebarrettbrown]

An hour or so after having used the system to contact a journalist about potential BOP wrongdoing, Barrett Brown’s access to the TRULINCS prisoner e-mail system was restricted, for a full year until April 2016, without explanation.

This is contrary to the BOP’s own policy on several points, as...

[otpglobal]

Was talking to @BarrettBrownLOL about articles he'd write for @the_intercept - suddenly his email access was revoked http://t.co/BWg0H83lz1

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 3, 2015

[otpglobal]

Poachers Hunt Endangered African Animals – This Woman Hunts Poachers 

Kinessa Johnson is a US Army veteran who served for 4 years in Afghanistan, this week she arrived in Africa to take on a different kind of enemy. Her new mission is, as she puts it, “We’re going over there to do some anti-poaching, kill some bad guys, and do some good.” She is now enlisted with Veterans Empowered To Protect African Wildlife (VETPAW) as an anti-poaching advisor. VETPAW is a not-for-profit organization that employs US Veterans to help protect African wildlife from being illegally hunted and captured.

[d-a-g-chaos]

Eugene Puryear, organizer with the ANSWER coalition and author of Shackled and Chained connects the war at home and abroad on a systems level while deconstructing the toxic neoliberal ideology that dominates global policy in the 21st century.

[otpglobal]

"You Grow Up Wanting to be Luke Skywalker, Then Realize You've Become a Stormtrooper for the Empire"