In the wake of the decision by the SCOTUS that Hobby Lobby could stop paying for some forms of contraception, activists have converged on Hobby Lobby to protest. The decision said that “closely held private companies” with five or fewer owners are protected by the 1st Amendment if they wish to exemt themselves from aspects of the Affordable Care Act.

Protesters argued that this is not only an anti-woman attack, but an enlargement of corporate personhood, and an enlargement of corporate power in general.

Social media was used to spread the word about a protest against Hobby Lobby's grand opening in Burbank on July 4th. Locals turned up with signs, and activists from across Los Angeles came as well, with an arts program put together by Inglewood Guerilla Arts. The photos were picked from those taken by IGA.

Participants included Lynn Harris Ballen of KPFK's Feminist Magazine, poet Sharon D. Johnson, and Bill with his awesome banner.

The next protests, organized by activists in Burbank, are on Mon 7/7 @12PM, Wed 7/9 @6PM, and 7/12 @1PM.

Announcement from IGA:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1092729800767235/1096471783726370/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

First story covered in the Burbank Leader:
http://www.burbankleader.com/the818now/tn-blr-protesters-patrons-clash-outside-burbank-hobby-lobby-20140704,0,211734.story

Editorial from LA Times reprinted by the Burbank Leader:
http://www.burbankleader.com/opinion/columnists/tn-blr-me-0705-crafted-morality-at-hobby-lobby-20140705,0,7179394.story

Feminist Magazine:
http://feministmagazine.org

Lynn Ballen, Notorious RBG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcMpj6lnCO4&feature=youtu.be

Elizabeth Madrigal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0vltWxibn4

Sharon D Johnson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh5-kkVmjIA

Photos by Lynn Ballen and Slobodan Dimitrov. (If there are any objections to using them, please comment and they will be removed.)

It has removable letters so the sign can be adapted. It's also covered in sequins for visual effect.

The Notorious RBG.

It's linked in the main article. Three good performances on video.

The title says it all. Not enough brain power at this protest to light a 20 watt bulb.

Did hobby lobby start covering the disputed abortificants? LOL no, so your protest wasn't successful at all was it. But at least it let you act like fools and feel gooooooooood about your self, right???? Stooges on parade.

1. Got media? Yes.
2. Got the deeper messages out? Yes.
3. Produced artifacts for social media? Yes.

A lot of people protesting have been focused on the contraception issue - which is a key issue - but the reasoning expands corporate personhood. It says that privately owned companies, no matter how large or small, are like people. That is patently absurd, but it's what the SCOTUS said. How can a company that employs 18,000 people be considered the same as, say, a mini-market that employs five people?

It may mean that Buddhist owners can declare that company lunches be "meat free", or that Jewish or Muslim owners can require only kosher or halal products be used at the company.

It means that LGBT people will probably have a harder time getting spousal benefits. Trans people already have it hard, but now this can make things worse.

ever wonder why success is framed by dancing like puppets to 'wedge issues' entirely produced by corporate media, while real issues are ignored?
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There’s a different side of hope mongering, outside churches or in fact organized religion, and that’s politics, especially “left/progressive” politics. It was no accident that Obama, the candidate of the corporate elite, campaigned as the man of hope (And Bill Clinton made a big deal about being from Hope, Arkansas). Some of the nastiest attacks upon the likes o Guy have come from left-leaning websites and media outlets, they depend upon “hope” to build their organizations. One of the worst was a book by Eddie Yuen and Sasha Lilley titled Catastrophims: the politics of collapse and rebirth (2012), which just drips with “hip” techno-optimism. And the Pacifica Radio Network, with which both Yuen and Lilley are connected (especially its Berkeley station KPFA, where they are honchos) has been pushing all sorts of techno crap, including the “new age of machines” idiocy from MIT.
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IMC gets their content aired by them..

"it's difficult for a womyn to take something seriously when her social standing and publicity depends on not taking it seriously"

"co-founder and host of the critically acclaimed program of radical ideas, Against the Grain, on KPFA radio.

Sasha Lilley is the author of Capital and Its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult and series editor of PM Press’ political economy imprint, Spectre. A group discussion will end her talk. “Catastrophism" will be available for sale. As always, our lectures are free and open to the public. If you wish to support the Marxist School’s endeavors, you can make a safe and tax-deductible donation by PayPal from our website: www.marxistschool.org"

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Guy doesn’t really talk explicitly about the link between capitalism and the environmental crisis. He should. Capitalism feeds off of crisis. As they say, capitalism is crisis. It is the primary root cause of the civilization-ending eco-collapse we are facing:




Catastrophe Capitalism

When enviromentalists think of corporate influence on the climate 'debate', most immediately focus on the well-documented industry of climate change denial, best exemplified by the Koch brothers, Exxom Mobil and various libertarian think tanks.

It is crucial to remember, though, that capital is divided on this question, and FAR MORE corporate and elite energy has gone toward generating anxiety about global warming with an eye toward implementing 'market based' "solutions".

The lte David Noble documented in 2007 how various elite organizations, led by Al Gore, the Pew Center, BP, DuPont and other capitalist entities succeeded for a while in creating a 'fevered popular preoccupation' with global warming. The crucial difference between these elite campaigns and grassroots climate activism, however, was the corporate insistence that all inconvenient thruths of capitalist exploitation and social enequality be swept aside.

In the proposed "war" on climate change, rich and poor, North and South can be united through the purchasing power of our pocketbooks and our endorsement of an INCREASED commodification and marketization of carbon and the atomosphere. In the Manichean contest "between mindless deniers...and the enlightened global warming advocates", all critical scrutiny of corporate science must be suspended.

In the "apocalyptic rush" to fight global warming, attention to empire, injustice and free market theology are seen as distractions.


In the wake of the Copenhagen climate summit debacle in 2009, the hot air has gone out of the carbon trading balloon and public concern of climate has plummeted to 22'nd place out of a possible 22 global issues. Nevertheless, it's important to bear in mind that climate catastrophism has always had an elite component, and that apocalyptism was seen as the most effective way to generate popular support for the new round of enclosures and commodification.

The project of Tony Blair, Bono, and Al Gore is most certaintly NOT radical.

Many if not most capitalists can recognize the overall environmental situation as catastrophic; the problem is that their proposed "solutions" exacerbate catastrophe for the global majority.

To better understand this, it is helpful to revisit some contributions of eco-Marxist theory.

This goes beyond the common insight that capitalism has "the logic of a cancer cell" in that it must expand without end in order to exist, which, in a finite world, is unsustainable.

Karl Marx made a more complex and elegant point that every boundary to accumulation that capital comes across is seen not as a limit, but as a starting point for devising a way to cross that barrier and initiate a new round of accumulation.

As economist James 'O Connor put it, "capitalism is not only crisis-ridden but also crisis-dependent"

In other words, capitalism produces terrible problems, but the escapes stagnation and enters its next round of accumulation by devising solutions to these self-made problems. At the level of the human body, capitalism has produced many of the new health problems (physical and mental), which impair the productivity of the workforce (cancers, nervous brealdowns, repetitive motion injuries, etc) This barrier to accumulation (a degraded workforce) is partially overcome by the proliferation of new health industries, pharmaceutical products, self-help books, etc.

In a similar manner, ecological catastrophes encourage the proliferation of "green" industries (smoke stack scrubbers, biofuels, etc) nature based "derivatives" such as carbon trading, and the geoengineering industry, all of which are more likely to produce a new round of accumulation than actual solutions to the crisis.

Capital, as its advocates argue, is indeed endlessly restless and innovative, but this restlessness is incredibly destructive as well.


Perhaps the most optimistic assumption of environmental catastrophism is the notion that anyone who gets the message will work to prevent the onruching disaster. Shocking though it may be, there is reason tro believe some business and political elites feel that they can avoid teh worst consequenses of the environmental crisis, and may even be able to benefit from it.

The Holloywood film 2012 depicted a scenario of an "ark" of the planetary 1 % escaping a global inundation, and this perception that there is a geographic or a technical exodus strategy for elite is not an exaggeration. Although the greatest legacy of the George W. Bush administration may be the lost years of climate change denial, it's worth noting that Cheney and Rumsfeld had retreats high in the Rockies, where the business of high-end disaster survival shelters also thrives. Although the insurance and reinsurance are extremely concerned about trillions of dollars of liability from predicted disasters, the opportunities for other sectors of capitalism are colossal in scope.



Disaster capitalism, a term popularized by Naomi Klein to describe neoliberal shock therapy since the 1970s, has in fact been in effect from the very first conquests and enclosures of the 16'th century.

The expansion of capitalism has always been accompanied by differentially experienced social and environmental disaster - just as it has always been racial and patriarchal.

There is no evidence to think that present-day elite will see the suffering of the global majorities due to flooding and famine as any less "natural" than that of the millions who perished in the "late victorian holocausts" documented by Mike Davis.

This is why catastrophist appeals to "humanity" from environmentalists and scientists haven't resulted in substantive action - many global elites have left "humanity" behind.

click on link for full size ^
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KPFA/Pacifica, Democracy Now, The Nation, and other “progressive” media outlets are really latching on to the likes of Harvey Wasserman, who is endlessly promoting the hope hype of Solartopia, insisting that solar and wind power can not only power the capitalist global economy, but can lead to a new era of growth which is sustainable within the ecosystem. Similarly for some advocates of biofuels. The “radical” faction at KPFA< people such as Bonnie Faulkner and to some extent Dennis Bernstein, are more into "free energy," featuring the likes of Catharine Austin Fitts who promote this wonder as well as fusion, cold or otherwise, contending that this is how the UFOs will rescue planet earth, by sharing these technological miracles. Some of the people on these media outlets even support oil/gas shale development, provided measures are taken to protect the environment, totally buying the industry hype regarding the energy to be made available.
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..this is why there's no action or interest on here about the issue of climate chaos and trying to support millions of people in a desert with no local source of water


this crap is indistinguishable from the shit channel owned coast-to-coast AM propaganda

they're NOW covering Fukushima (now that it's safe to - 3 years later, nothing about the hot particles over the U.S. in the weeks after the entirely man-made disaster, of course) and scaring people off eating fish (which is actually a valid concern), while during the daytime on other shit channel outlets (like the one I make fun of) playing fish restaurant commercials in heavy rotation, then playing american cancer society PSA's

it would be amusing if it weren't so pathetic

It's off-topic as a comment, but seems like something important, and concerns Pacifica.

Before you go attacking me or this issue as a distraction - people and organizations can have multiple goals. People in IGA are also organizing against fracking, and IMC on kpfK regularly raises the issue.

when either:

1.) the article has a few comments already

2.) when glaring hypocrisy or naked agenda is expressed

3.) when known actors of foundation influence attempt to frame issues such as 'success'

..this article met all three criteria

I could post a article about picking lint out of my belly button along with colorful signs of people rallying on the freedom to pick belly button lint with the corporate media's blessing..

then, if someone comments that there's more important issues to rally about like endless war, climate chaos, sustainability, where water for millions is to be found in a desert facing severe drought, the critical water shortages already happening, etc.

then a neo-comment can come along and call any other issue other than picking belly button lint off-topic..

which is true in a black & white browbeating false dichotomy way of thinking


however when a continuum of thinking from issues that matter little to issues that matter a lot is present, holding on to rigid structures of authoritarianism that excludes and marginalizes the important so that unimportant drivel can continue to dominate the media seems unwise

Just admit it. You're off-topic.

The HL decision was bad on many levels, and exposed the sexism of the scotus and society. The boys voted one way, and the girls voted the other way.

The idea that a privately held company that's huge is the same thing as, say, a mom-and-pop operation, with regard to religious freedom, is absurd.

the topic is a corporate media generated wedge issue, and the participants framing of success falls right within it

- you know if you just ignore the drought it will go away

That HL protest was all women except for three or four men, and one of the men was gay, meaning at least one is going to be directly impacted by the decision. The other ten or fifteen people were women.

On the SCOTUS, there was a clear gender split.

Maybe YOU don't think it's an important issue because you're a man.

Just like a lot of white people think racism is something made up by the media to split people or distract people.

Just like some Christians thought this decision was good.

- they're an excellent way to DISTRACT people from _more_ important issues to _less_ important ones

the only real struggle is class, not gender, not race

wedge issues are created to manage dissent

the billionaires looting and polluting and the environment matter more - to far more people

another way to look at it is economic terrorism victims (the working poor & homeless) and climate refugees don't have time to strut around holding protest signs for wedge issues and so none were present at this rally

- which is exactly the intent of the people to run these 'progressive' information dominance outlets - to continue to ignore the people and issues that really matter by filling up airtime and page space with these distractions


look at the front page - no constantly updated placeholder about the ever-worsening drought, just a tiny link on the sidebar about 'climate' along with dozens of DEAD links to other IMC's which no longer exist

the working poor and homeless should have placeholders as well, regularly updated.. insted we see rallies produced and focused on a tiny minority mostly dealing with wedge issues, attended and dominated by career activists

You're such a fundamentalist. So much confidence in your narrow-mindedness.

Some of the people involved with this demonstration are also involved in race, class, and environmental issues as much as, or more than, their involvement in gender issues.

Ignoring the erosion of womens' rights isn't going to further the class or climate change struggle. If anything, it can make you an enemy of it.

The struggle for racial justice put feminism on the shelf, to be dealt with "after the revolution", and now communities of color are behind on womens and lgbt liberation.

The struggle of women of color, particularly lesbians, *IS THE CLASS STRUGGLE*.

oh the rich irony

I explained the issue clearly without singling any individual out, so now that the issue can no longer be ignored or swept under the rug, (because I explained it explicitly) you now go into personal attack mode - attacking the messenger - while also trying to re-frame what real class struggle is, from the working poor & homeless and our environment, to a select group which isn't working poor & homeless - the career activist.

- didn't take much for you to go on the very attack you whined about above, did it?

Are you not a climate change fundamentalist?

"when did you stop beating your wife?"

El Niño May Be Too Little, Too Late to Save It From Drought

The Golden State issues statewide water restrictions as it prepares for the worst shortage in its history.



California has imposed statewide water-use regulations for the first time

as its three-year drought worsens.



Yesterday, state regulators approved stringent new measures limiting outdoor water, which include $500 fines for using an outdoor hose without a shut-off nozzle.

Meanwhile, hopes that the drought would break by autumn have been tempered. The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center downplayed the help that El Niño may bring to the drought-plagued West in its monthly report of Pacific Ocean weather patterns. While the Center is still projecting that sea surface temperatures will be warmer than usual—a phenomenon known as El Niño—it is now saying that the effect will be only "weak to moderate."


Australia's Bureau of Meteorology concurred with U.S. climate forecasts in a press release yesterday. It further suggests that El Niño has been effictively counteracted by the arrival of cooler water.

All of California is under drought conditions and will likely remain that way through autumn. Reservoirs are precariously low in many places. The nation’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead in Nevada, is now at an all-time low.


The drought is hitting the farm industry and its workers particularly hard. The Central Valley, one of the world's richest food-producing regions, is up against what geologists are calling the 500-year drought.


The state's farmers have idled about 800,000 acres this year.



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it would take years of rains to make up for what has been lost - the plants die and the soil dries out, so when sudden heavy rains occur insted of it being soaked up you get flash floods and mudslides and the drought remains..

what's needed now are light gentle rains consistantly, over a period of months to years to give the soil and vegetation a chance to recover, then continued rains to prevent further drought - this is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, EVER

at best you'll get flash floods with no lingering effect.


to have drinking water you need heavy snow in the mountains during the winter (which is less than 20 % normal right now)

it's possible El Niño might provide some as the above forecast shows, but I wouldn't count on it

the west coast is basicly a desert and cannot substain millions of people for any length of time, water tables and aquifers falling/depleting prove that

the west coast is no place to be to have a future - it's future is deadly heat and lack of fresh water

death valley is it's future

It's More Than Just Lack of Rain


"According to the State Water Resources Control Board, California is bone dry. Nearly 50 communities in the state of California are in danger of running out of water.

Additionally, the draining of aquifers on California farmland is happening so fast that the ground is sinking, up to a foot in some parts of the San Joaquin Valley, which is a very, very significant part of America’s breadbasket. Sinking ground, in turn, damages irrigation pipes that deliver the water. It’s a vicious circle.

A new social media phenomenon “Drought Shaming” has begun in California. This involves people who take videos of neighbors wasting water, and it is posted on Facebook or Twitter.

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas the situation is dire, according to climate scientist Tim Barnett, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography: The city must find new sources of water or go out of business."



"a much bigger issue is whether California produces food in 2015-20"


"As far back as 1990, James Hansen, one of the world’s foremost climatologist, in an article (Potential Evapotranspiration and the Likelihood of Future Drought, Journal of Geophysical Research, 95, 9983-10004) predicted that severe to extreme drought in the U.S., then occurring every couple of decades, would become an every-other-year phenomenon by mid-century: “If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase rapidly, the model results suggest that severe drought (5% frequency today) will occur about 50% of the time by the 2050s.”

Hansen was wrong. He was too conservative, especially in consideration of the fact that annual CO2 emissions are 50% higher than when Hansen wrote his paper.

Bottom line: If fossil fuel (oil, gas, and coal) usage flagrantly continues to spew carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, eventually an ice-free Arctic will kick up methane (CH4) like there’s no tomorrow, essentially injecting steroids into the global warming equation, and California will morph into a barren desert wilderness."

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It's actually far worse than this - all of this is already 'baked into the cake' - it's already happening now.

Does this person get paid to hawk someone's book?
http://www.whale.to/b/weather.html

(a book is for sale at the link posted - weather warfare)

"The HAARP system is being used to cause Hurricanes, earthquakes, and drought conditions. The reason is to thin out the population and create conditions (Global Warming) for martial law in the USA."

SO, as long as you can blame someone, the lack of water and the increasing methane, the 200 species per day going extinct - none of that matters

..as long as you can blame someone

but don't blame exxon, exxon is as pure as the black shooty snow that's melting

this is typical
http://guymcpherson.com/
for another alarmist making a buk.
And he promotes a carbon tax. And the author of that off topic comment promotes this person

[ laughing ]
nice colorful without foundation, charts, BYW again, without a source.
I'd worry more about GMO food than climate oga boga.
But 'climate change is a great red stinking fish.
Strawmen arguments like any affiliation with the energy cartels is also stupid.
Stupid and transparent for sure.

.....that the lack of any measurable "global warming" the last 15 yrs or so is due to "climate change"...but then one eco-nazi meme is as good as another,I suppose

liar

he presents the latest DATA and MEASUREMENTS

- where's yours?

Even as the planet continues to grow warmer — with June 2014 the hottest June on record

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2014/6

the U.S. is the world leader in climate denial.


The top three climate-denial countries (the U.S., Great Britain, and Australia) have something in common: they all speak English — as do the 91 separate organizations that comprise the core of the climate-denial movement. Plus, they are home to media organizations and think tanks that "provide the arguments and rationalizations necessary to feed this anti-science position."

It's these countries where neo-liberalism is most hegemonic and have strong neo-liberal regimes (both in power and lurking on the sidelines to retake power) that have bred the most active denial campaigns—US, UK, Australia and now Canada. And the messages employed by these campaigns filter via the media and political elites to the public, especially the ideologically receptive portions.


learning requires effort while believing does not