The Antisocial Socialist

(Iconlove!)

....the failure is so mixed up for me with the aftermath of 9/11. Because I remember when T and I were just walking along in downtown Seattle one summer afternoon a while back (after one of the larger anti-war protests during Shrub's....first term?, I don't remember exactly when) and there was a small crowd by the Federal building, seriously, no more than sixty or eighty people, if that. And ranged along the sidewalk about half a block away were a LARGE number of cops in riot gear -- large to me, anyway, maybe forty or fifty -- shields up, visors down, batons, pepper spray, armed, everything in place, the whole works. And across the street were 2-3 mounted cops and about four squad cars and a woman cop taking pictures of everyone with a digital camera. And the action was, you know, the usual shit like the singing grannies and the inaudible guy who can't work his bullhorn and the woman trying to lead chants without the bullhorn, whatever. Tiny. It was fucking bizarre. People were just milling around in this little open plaza area and getting threatened 'YOU ARE MAKING A DISTURBANCE. YOU DO NOT HAVE A PERMIT.' They weren't even blocking the fucking sidewalk.

....butyeah. I would love a good book. As opposed to a movie with Woody and Ray in it.