Monthly Archives: August 2014

Scoring the Tea Party at the polls

Almost from the outset, the Tea Party movement committed to an electoral strategy to get what its adherents wanted–or at least some of what they wanted.  By 2010, the movement had largely moved from the town halls and streets to … Continue reading

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Ice bucket challenged

A creative campaign to raise attention and money for ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) has circulated across the web and through virtually every social media channel.  You’ve seen a friend or a celebrity post a video of themselves dumping ice water … Continue reading

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Days of quiet rage

Generating turnout at a movement event is hard work.  Grievances and injustice don’t make protest happen; rather, grievances allow an activist effort to resonate. When Anonymous called for nationwide demonstrations on the Ferguson events, they were depending upon local networks … Continue reading

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Days of Rage: Is Ferguson spreading out or dissipating?

Inspired by the ongoing events in Ferguson, Anonymous has called for Days of Rage protests across the nation:   At least one part of the story here is the reasonably sophisticated use of social media, including Youtube above.  The description … Continue reading

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Nurse-in in Beverly Hills

Protest, when it works, makes it hard to ignore something that was previously ignorable.  Yesterday, women held a nurse-in at the Anthropologie store in Beverly Hills.  The flash meal was a response to an incident earlier in the week, when … Continue reading

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How movements work; Shamu’s story.

Here’s a shift: SeaWorld is building larger pens for the killer whales it keeps as performers and tourist attractions.  It also announced an enhanced focus on research.  Where did this come from? This is the movement story: Shamu, the stage … Continue reading

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Protest and riots

Violence polarizes.  It makes people pay attention.  It makes people take sides.  And this goes for violence from authorities like the police as well as protesters. It doesn’t take many people, committed or crazy, in masks or police uniforms and … Continue reading

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Ferguson and protesting police

Unfortunately, there’s not much new about protests in reaction to overly eager policing, and there are many tragic, maybe criminal, endings that don’t generate protests as well.  In Ferguson, a small suburb of St. Louis, the police have clearly been … Continue reading

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Economic inequality is bad (Occupy echoes?)

Don’t trust me on this; that’s what Standard and Poor’s says in a report published on August 5.  And S&P doesn’t mention human privation, stalled opportunity, justice, or any other kind of moral or political concern.  Rather, S&P claims that … Continue reading

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Occupy Maidan

They’re still there.  At least some of the protesters who toppled Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovich months ago never left the Maidan, Kiev’s public square.  According to Steven Zeitchik’s report in this morning’s Los Angeles Times, the overwhelming majority of  the … Continue reading

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