Heroic Parody Artist Snatched by Fascist NYPD

The thug army who beat on the Occupy Wall Street Zuccotti Park encampment — in complete violation of their constitutional rights to assemble peacefully and speak out, all the while barking “STOP RESISTING,” WHACK, WHACK, KICK;  “STOP RESISTING,” POUND, ASSAULT, BATTERY — have hunted down the drone poster artist and locked him up.

Such bogus, bullshit “charges” as “criminal possession of a forged instrument” are being leveled against one of the city’s most important artistic voices in an attempt to silence the message and discourage others from lampooning the NYPD and its military occupation tactics.  This brand of laughable legalese attempting to criminalize speech should prompt lawsuits and wrongful arrest charges against those violating the right of the artist to parody the authorities.  Parody is a long-protected form of speech, and arbitrary attempts to label it a criminal act should not stand against the US Constitutional protections of same.

Already the New York Gulag is an emerging rights-free zone where “stop and frisk” searches are permitted by cops against the civilian population.  Numerous minority civilians report persistent harassment by New York’s paramilitary forces.

Here is an interview with the artist, “Essam” explaining his drone campaign:

Animal magazine article on Essam.

Camp FEMA (2009)

This is one of the most frightening trailers I’ve ever seen in my life.  Haven’t seen the full film yet.

The YouTube description:

Watch Camp FEMA Online or Get Your DVD – http://www.campfema.com –

DESCRIPTION:

Recent legislation attempting to legitimize the use of internment camps to detain U.S. citizens in the event of an uprising or civil unrest has many people asking what nation they live in.

In a country born out of political dissent, we watch our leaders in Washington slowly pass bills that label ordinary Americans as thought criminals and potential domestic terrorists for simply questioning the actions of their government. We see third party candidates and their impassioned supporters listed in secret government reports that call their allegiance into question and brand them as fanatics and extremists.

WMD (2009)

DVD: wmd.

Free Online at HULU (temporarily)

WMD is a frustrating film, not a little bit because of its subject matter. This is the story of some big lies which transcend borders, the globalisation of big lying. This is about forged uranium documents, fake intelligence sources and knowing war crimes as the U.S, Britain and others sent their armies to “disarm” a country they knew wasn’t “armed” with WMDs in the first place.

The End of America (2008) / Free Online

DVD: The End of America: Director’s Cut

Film Free Online

I stumbled on this free online film, not knowing what it was. I’m glad I did. Naomi Wolf has made a film to accompany her book of the same name, which is essentially an indictment of the Nazi-type policies inflicted on America since 9/11, primarily by the Bush regime, but also approved by many Democrats.

Comparisons to Hitler’s strategic plan to overthrow democracy in Germany are relevant and real. There is no excuse for ignorance in this information age . Wrapping one’s self in the flag and in mindless flag waving is no substitute for the “eternal vigilance” required of a free people.

District 9 (2009) – Science Fiction of the Now

District 9 is an Ugly Marvel
Science Fiction of the Now

By KIM NICOLINI

District 9 is not a pretty movie. It doesn’t look pretty. Its message isn’t pretty. It hurts the eyes to watch. In fact, District 9 is an outright ugly movie, but it is an ugly that is perfectly crafted and takes ugly to the heights of a new aesthetic. The screen is full of unflinchingly realistic ugly slums, banal ugly interiors of institutionalized spaces, and ugly people whose entire lives and bodies have been corrupted by the ugly greedy powers that dominate everything in the landscape.

Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, the movie centers on a camp of stranded space aliens who have been contained within a hideous filthy militarized slum and are in the process of being relocated to a concentration camp in the desert. Through its narrative, District 9 overtly exposes South Africa’s egregious practice of apartheid, a system of segregation that was the government-sanctioned practice of legal racism. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out this connection and to understand the film in relation to its historic and geographic specificity. Certainly, apartheid and all systems of racism need to be addressed. But what makes this movie most interesting is how it uses the real life practice of apartheid as a jumping point to expose a whole global system of exploitation, discrimination, and economic cannibalism. District 9 doesn’t take on these big issues with bombastic Hollywood gloss and spectacle, but rather through a beautifully ugly hybrid of film genres – sci-fi, body horror, toxic accident, war and action films – to show how in a world where the toxins of global capital are so fluid, everything is corrupt, nothing is in its natural state, and toxic hybrids have become the new norm.

Tortured Logic (2009) (Short)

Tortured Logic: A Project of the ACLU

This short film features Oliver Stone and other celebrities weighing in on the Bush administration’s “torture memos.” This is an action alert of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a web page makes sending a message to Attorney General Eric Holder easy and convenient.

These memos were written by Bush white house lawyers, particularly John Yoo and David Addngton. They display a clear intent to break the law and an insane attempt to redefine torture as non-torture. These are grave crimes and must be addressed by the current president and his Attorney General, or else the rule of law can simply not continue.

People who are tortured will give “testimony” to anything their torturers demand of them. This is incompatible with a free and democratic society, and is expressly forbidden right in the US Constitution (“cruel and unusual punishment”).

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006)

Get the DVD: Reel Bad Arabs

Or watch for FREE online

Racism is an ugly subject, and always controversial. This controversy is magnified a thousand fold when talking about the most powerful media corporations on the planet with powers above and beyond citizens or citizens’ groups (and even beyond a number of nation-states). It is important to discuss and to expose racism wherever we find it, as it is the sea in which warmongers swim.

Privilege (1967)

DVD: Privilege

“You can lead them into a better way of life, a fruitful conformity.”

Director Peter Watkins probably deserves his own category. Watkins was behind the previously reviewed BBC sponsored film The War Game, which was ironically banned by the BBC!

Standing Up To Fascism: Sophie Scholl (2005)

DVD: Sophie Scholl – The Final Days
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days [Blu-ray]

The White Rose Society were college students in Munich in 1942-43. They covertly printed a series of leaflets that opposed Hitler, in an effort to wake up their fellow students. For this they were arrested by the Gestapo and tried for treason.

“Isn’t it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who among us can imagine the degree of shame that will come upon us and our children when the veil falls from our faces and the awful crimes that infinitely exceed any human measure are exposed to the light of day?” –White Rose Society, Leaflet 1

I will post a series on “Standing Up To Fascism,” as this is highly relevant to today and should remain so indefinitely.