City Hall Plans to Protect Racists!

On Aug. 1st City Hall held a planning meeting for a future Day Laborer center here in Portland Oregon. As expected the racist group Oregonians For Immigration Reform (OFIR)showed up to try to stop the city from aiding residents in need. Of course a number of local activists also showed up to call out these racist scumbags.

David Cross, one of the chief scumbags, was quoted in an OPB article [1] after the meeting. "You know, they followed us for about five blocks with a bullhorn, cursing us, all the way back to our parking garage. We waited in our car for about ten minutes, and they were still down there, when we were paying our parking tickets. And then one of the individuals followed us for about three blocks, pounding on our windows, flipping us off."

Seems like an appropriate response to me, but apparently not to Mayor Tom Potter's adviser Kevin Easton who said, "We're very disheartened to hear about that. We made a very specific effort to make sure that people who came with different views were respected."

WHAT? Why would Portland residents allow racist pieces of shit from out of town into city planning meetings?

Jeremy Van Keuren at the mayor's office seemed to understand the need to call out racists when he said, "Such behavior may be very unpleasant but it is not illegal." [2]

Still at the next meeting a police officer will be dispatched to City Hall to "keep the peace." This blatant attempt to protect racists is disgusting, and further shows the complicity of government, liberal or otherwise, to allow racists to spread messages of hate.

Fuck that!

[1] http://news.opb.org/article/portland-day-laborer-site-plans-draw-controversy/

[2]http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=387966&category=22107

Baton Disarms

These videos were intended for police officers. They show several techniques to disarm batons. It is rather strange that they are teaching cops this. It seems like skills to be used against them.

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Ubiq's Book Club: #1 MIT Guide to Lock Picking

Here is the first in what will be a weekly post of recommended reading. Selections will range from technical to theory to fiction to history.

This week we will be reading the MIT Guide to Lock Picking a must read for any ninja in training. Lock Picking can be a really fun hobby. With a basic set of a rake, s-pick, and tension wrench costing under $5 it is a cheap hobby as well.

DOWNLOAD PDF

Please discuss this weeks selection in the comments area.

9/11 Truth as a Tactic and Strategy

Today, 9/11 Truth is one of the loudest and most passionate subsections of the broader social justice movement. It seems like 9/11 Truth pops up everywhere I go today. I see Truthers chatting at the local cafe. I hear them on the radio. I see them on The View and holding up signs on the side of the highway. It has come to a point where Truthers can no longer be ignored, but like all burgeoning movements there are some aspects of 9/11 Truth that must be addressed. In its current manifestation the 9/11 Truth movement is ineffective, racist, statist and delusional. In order for the 9/11 Truthers to gain credibility with the movement, as a whole, these issues must be addressed.

First, I would like to make it clear that this essay does not attempt to prove or disprove any theory. If the official story is %100 accurate, if the buildings were demolished with explosives, or if HAARP opened a hole in the ionosphere and caused energy beams to destroy the Pentagon it is beyond the scope of this essay. This essay addresses the 9/11 Truth movement (specifically local to Portland, OR) and how it goes about its activism.

The 9/11 Truth movement is ineffective, but as effectiveness is a subjective term I will try to put it into perspective by going over how Truthers have been effective first. The use of “new media” or “viral media” (that's blogs, indymedia, wikis, youtube, etc.) has been extremely effective. I don't think I know anyone who hasn't seen at least one internet documentary that questions the official story, and I'm positive that I know no one that is completely unaware of alternative theories to the events of 9/11/01. Although coverage of 9/11 Truth has become overwhelming in many spheres, it would be a mistake not to take note of the passion and lure present in their media. I know of several campaigns that would benefit from an awareness campaign as strong as 9/11 Truth's.

While 9/11 Truthers have been extremely effective with awareness, they seem to be lacking any substance beyond that. Change requires action. Every event that is organized by any 9/11 Truth group is only a manifestation of their “new media” awareness campaign. Freeway blogging is a good example, but even the “marches” that they organize are nothing more than an advertisement parade.

Once the “truth” is spread to people it seems to do little more than put them in a state of panic. Are the nukes coming to Portland? If the government can do this what else are they capable of? We should not be causing people to fear the government. Instead we should be making the government fear us.

9/11 Truth is not dangerous to the government, nor to capital. 9/11 Truth is inherently patriotic. Most web sites for 9/11 Truth proclaim that “it is our patriotic duty to DEMAND 9/11 Truth.” Truthers do not want to confront the government as a whole. The enemy of 9/11 Truth is just a “scowling George W. Bush.” 9/11 Truth is not a revolutionary force. Having mass awareness of alternative theories will not cause insurrection, the collapse of the dollar, or even close Guantanamo. The only way I can see 9/11 Truth being successful is in electoral politics, and with leaders like Alex Jones and Mary Starrett I don't see this as a good option.

The 9/11 Truth movement is racist. I won't even go into the connections between anti-immigrant, anti-semitic, and other hate groups here as it has already been done in many other places. No, not every truther is a racist (most probably are not). However, truthers must address the white privilege inherent in their call to awareness. Most of the people who died on 9/11 were white affluent North Americans. Most of the people that have died in the streets of Baghdad are poor people of color. The same criminals are responsible for both events. Focusing on one due to race is racism. Imperialism is an inside job! Yes 9/11 was criminal, but so is what is still happening to people of color everywhere. Open your heart and mind to peoples struggles here and abroad.

The 9/11 Truth movement is statist. The goal most often referred to by Truthers is impeachment. It would seem from reading the many articles about 9/11 Truth that the state is something that has recently become broken and need only be fixed. One of the favorite publicity stunts of Truthers is to crash politicians offices, urging them to question 9/11. This type of activism does nothing to stop imperialism, nor anything to bring down the state.

9/11 Truth is delusional. (Not in the tin foil hat way. It is extremely healthy to question all things that anyone tells you, especially the government.) Truthers aim to assimilate all other activists into their awareness campaign without ever attempting to gain awareness about others struggles. One example of this would be last May day here in Portland OR. A truther showed up to the worker/immigration march with a placard that read, “9/11 is an inside job” and handed out DVDs about 9/11. Another example is the recent Hiroshima Day event. An event to remember the horror of the bomb being dromped on Hiroshima. A call went out to truthers who were asked to “...bring your 9/11 Truth sign, DVDs, Flyers, et cetera and help educate people about false flag events.” Why not bring signs that say truthers against deportations or truthers against nukes respectively? The 9/11 truth movement is not willing to educate themselves as they are “educating” those they bring their message to. Truthers please remember that a conversation goes two ways.

9/11 truth is a fight worth fighting. If truthers can move beyond awareness, and pull off solid actions and attacks against the state they will be much more effective in preventing a “future 9/11”. If truthers can address their white privilege and open their minds to struggles around the world there will be even more people that are willing to question the official story. If truthers can quit trying to change an institutionally flawed system and start addressing ways of bringing it down, then they will begin to pose a credible threat to the powers that be. If truthers can learn from others, then others will be more likely to learn from them. We are all in this together and we all need to act like it.