September 2014

On the 16th of September, net neutrality protesters returned to the headquarters of the FCC, where chairman Tom Wheeler is pushing a plan to allow "paid prioritization" of content from websites willing to pay internet service providers for premium access. This "internet fast lanes" plan would allow your phone or cable company to slow your access to videos from this site so that Facebook and Netflix would load faster, and could lead to the removal of most independent websites from the Internet if nobody can reach them. After all, the bandwidth has to come from somewhere.

On the 10th of September, Obama gave a speech formally announcing the US was return to war in Iraq and now also in Syria, but only from the air supposedly. Antiwar protesters were in front of the White House booing some of his more bellicose words. One of the protesters said Obama wanted to bomb Assad last year, but now wants to join with Assad to bomb Islamic State. Which side is he on in Syria anyway-the chemical weapons side, or the religious extremism side?

54 sec video clip including booing protesters

On the 9th of September, the Alliance for Appalachia delivered a very bad report card (mostly incompletes and an F-) to Obama's Council on Environmental Quality for five years of broken promises on protecting people from water being poisoned by mountaintop removal coal mining. While a traditional square dance provided support several people blocked the steps in a civil disobedience.

Video of bucket brigade, square dance, and reaction to cops throwing report card into trash

On the 8th of September, Earth Quaker Action team showed up at the Dupont Circle branch of PNC Bank, intending to enter the bank and perfrom a "4th grade math" themed skit against PNC's investments in mountaintop removal coal mining. Upon arrival the bank branch was found closed, with customers being turned away at the door. The branch appeared to have been closed long enough before protesters arrived that all but a few of those who got in before the closure had finished their business and left. The few remaining customers were escorted out by security when the finished, but no new customers were allowed to enter.
Video of protest that shut down PNC Bank at Dupont Circle

Saturday night, the 6th of September was the third Saturday night in a row that Ferguson/Michael Brown protesters marched into and shut down one or more gentrified parts of the city. Two weeks earlier it was Chinatown, last week it was H st where all the new money is flowing into NE, this time around it was U Street and later Adams-Morgan and Columbia heights.

Video of the march set to "thunderstruck" for the storm that rolled in