For the people of New Orleans, whose homes face demolition....

[Tom Joad]

Tractored out by the Cats. I know it well....

The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects….The man sitting in the iron seat did not look like a man; gloved, goggled, rubber dust mask over the nose and mouth, he was part of the monster, a robot in the seat…

A twitch of the controls could swerve the cat’, but the driver’s hands could not twitch because the monster that built the tractor, the monster that sent the tractor out, had somehow gotten into his brain and muscle, had goggled him and muzzled him—goggled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception…He could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth. He sat in an iron seat and stepped on iron pedals. …

The iron gate bit into the house corner, crumbled the wall, and wrenched the little house from its foundation so that it fell sideways, crushed like a bug. And the driver was goggled and a rubber mask covered his nose and mouth. The tractor cut a straight line on, and the air and the ground vibrated with its thunder. The tenant man stared after it, his rifle in his hand. His wife was beside him, and the quiet children behind. And all of them stared after the tractor.

The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 5

May the resisters to corporate greed and racist regimes of the wealthy and privilege be able to continue their resistance. may this not be their fate.
Resist the monster!

There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop, And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all.

[Robbien]

1. Puts to mind that man who stood in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square

Those NO people have nothing left except a whole lot of courage.

[Tom Joad]

9. Or Rachel Corrie who stood in front of a CAT in Gaza to save the home of her friends

(it was later demolished, like thousands of homes in Gaza).
Rachel Corrie, Presente!

[lovuian]

2. K&R

so sad

[Sugar Smack]

3. Here is my reply: K&R, by the way.

:hi:

[mmonk]

4. wow

[Sugar Smack]

5. Yeah, mmonk!!

:hug: Hugs galore.

[mmonk]

6. Impressive

:hug:

[Yuugal]

7. nicely done nt

[asdjrocky]

10. wonderful n/t

[Yuugal]

8. That about sums it up.

"There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop, And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all."

Thats why I can't vote for Hillary.

[cascadiance]

11. What bugs me is this is happening all over the world now!...

Not only are we seeing our own pushed out in New Orleans with this new rendition of "eminent domain", but its happening in Russia, China and in many of the other world's most powerful countries.

Try watching documentaries like "City in Flux" and "The Power in the Games", two recent DW in Focus documentaries on Beijing, "The Concrete Revolution", "Mr. Wong's World", and "The Migrant Workers of Shanghai", to see how China, the supposed "socialist protector of the working class", is trashing the environment, it's older historical legacy of architecture, and its "lesser" class of people in the name of building a huge propaganda image of its 2008 Olympic games and also trying to usurp the dominant power role from the U.S. as the world's power broker.

Also watch "The Russian Godfathers" BBC series, "My Lost Russia", and "Property to Die For" to see what is happening in Putin's Russia now, where their new definition of "capitalism" is more like the mob, where what you think you own can be "repossessed" at any time by the state if they change their laws to do so for their own purposes.

If you watch all of these in succession, you WILL cry at the similarities of what is going on!

It makes you wonder that if we can't retake our country back from the corporate special interests this coming election, who will speak for the world's less fortunate and increasingly the rest of us that are also being affected as well as the elites increase their stranglehold every place. Will that come from South America with countries like Venezuela and Brazil doing new things? Any place else?

Links:

The Power in the Games
City in Flux
The Concrete Revolution
Mr. Wong's World
Migrant Workers of Shanghai
Spotlight: The Russian Godfathers - The Fugitive
Spotlight: The Russian Godfathers - The Prisoner
Spotlight: The Russian Godfathers - The Politician
My Lost Russia
Property to Die For

[Robbien]

13. It is happening all over the United States also, not just NO

Public housing here in Chicago has been wiped out replaced by million dollar condos. Pelosi is leading the charge over in San Fran to clean up the poorer areas replacing them with nice new sparkling expensive communities. Every major city is being gentrified, or in other terms being cleared of the poorer elements.

I really believe our propaganda war against Chavez in Venezuela has nothing to do with oil, but plenty to do with the fact that Venezuela is a hotbed of government sponsored activism pushing back against the global elite.

[cascadiance]

16. Yup the frog is more apt to get boiled in those slower boiling pots...

As it IS happening, but not as obvious as it is now in the fast moving events in New Orleans, or in other areas like what is happening in Russia, China, Palestine, etc. But the media censors those a bit better than they can New Orleans here.

[Leopolds Ghost]

14. And China, like New Orleans, is destroying its cultural heritage with Gov't sponsored demolition n/t

[cascadiance]

15. Also watch a lot of the Alternate Focus documentaries on the Apartheid wall in Palestine

You see so many similar "takeovers" of the less powerful's property these days. It used to be that there were some other countries that had some power that more principled to stand up and put pressure against this sort of thing, but I think it has died. We have to find some way to get that back, or I think that a covered boiling coffee pot of steam is going to explode in world violence down the road.

[malaise]

12. I find the timing of this wicked act so perfect

Rethug Christmas values gone mad.

[Tom Joad]

17. Nagin is a "democrat".