On the 29th of September, Orlando’s Critical Mass ride may have drawn as many as 800 riders.

On the 26th of September, Christo-Fascist Moms4Liberty showed up in the morning at Gaithersburg High School in Montgomery County, MD. They and “Billboard Chris” held an anti-LGBTQ rally especially condemning trans kids but were outnumbered and opposed by counterprotesters and students alike.

It is not uncommon to see these bible-thumping, hate-spewing bigots in places like Florida (we have a serious infestation of Nazis and religious haters here!) but seeing them in Montgomery County, MD is a wake-up call.

An evening Moms4Liberty “Town Hall” was also counterprotested, and quite likely was why the morning even even took place, given that Billboard Chris literally flew in from another fashy protest in Toronto. Nice carbon footprint pal!

It has been remarked that West Palm Beach, in hard-right theocratic Florida, has essentially criminalized “Loaves and Fishes.” The Christian Bible that DeSantis and co are so fond of claims that Jesus fed 5,000 men and their familes (potentially 20,000 or more people,) somehow multiplying 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes to feed them all. Had Jesus lived in West Palm Beach today, that would have potentially earned him a $500 fine and 60 days in jail.

It is doubtful that someone reportedly executed for flogging bankers with a well-earned cat of 9 tails (“money changers in the temple”) would have been deterred by West Palm Beach’s cops though. Bankers are still earning their stripes today with such things as supporting “redevelopment” that pushed people into the streets, followed by supporting “crime suppression” tactics to round up or drive off those impoverished or dehoused by such policies.

On the 18th of September, activists furious about repeated ticketing of Food Not Bombs foodshare by West Palm Beach police gathered at City Hall, then marched through a restaurant area.

These tickets carry fines of up to $500-and up to 60 days JAIL TIME. This is an act of war on unhoused people, and an act of war on the entire activist community. Feeding unhoused people in an environment where business owners are trying to turn cities into shopping malls where anyone not making or spending money is considered a tresspasser is a political act. When combined with signs and political outreach it becomes a First Amendment activity, meaning the First Amendment is the only permit Food Not Bombs ever needs.

One businessmen whined to the protesters afterwards that he is moving his business out of the city because he does not like unhoused people. He will NOT be missed, good riddance. It’s business owners of this type and wealthy condo and luxury apartment dwellers that are responsible in so many cities for police harassment of unhoused folks.

In Washington DC it was restaurant owners whining about street vendors that led to huge licensing costs and hassles, the ones that are why DC now cannot get street vendors back after pandemic shutdowns.

(Editor’s note: I am seeing this from Florida, a frontline state both in climate change and in the fight against Fascism)

During the big Sep 17 climate march in NYC, a young activist from Korea spoke on the destruction caused by fossil fuel colonialism. At the end of her speech, she directly warned Biden to either stop approving fossil fuel projects, or risk an electoral boycott by young people.

Note that such a boycott hands the White House to Trump or DeSantis who also favor fossil fuels, but the entire two-party system is rigged to generate exactly this effect. Biden knows voters concerned about eminent domain pipelines and climate change have “nowhere to go” except home or to 3ed parties who are structurally blocked from ever taking power. Knowing that, the Democrats treat threats like this as bluffs. They DO however still face the threat that if Biden demotivates a major sector of voters, many who are on the line anyway of voting or not will stay home.

Election boycotts are normally associated with strong movements of extra-parliamentry opposition or outright insurgencies such as in Iran, where the objective is not to give legitimacy to a false choice.

The overall situation is quite ugly: Biden is considered unlikely to be able to defeat Trump, and policies like this that demotivate his base are one of the reasons. Many say he should pre-empt this by stepping down.

While there is little difference between Trump and Biden on fossil fuels, a Trump or still worse DeSantis win would impose the most genocidal anti-LGBTQ hate laws and racist policies of Flordia and Texas nationally.

No matter who wins the 2024 election, it will take tough fighting in the field to destroy projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The final defeat of Huntingdon Life Sciences after 20 years of fighting shows the way. If Trump or DeSantis gets in, many won’t be ABLE to fight over pipelines as they will be too busy fighting to stay out of conversion therapy camps and prisons over their sexuality, or to escape ramped-up police brutality and witch-hunts over the color of their skin.

We cannot win ANYTHING in the 2024 election but we sure as hell can lose a lot.

On the 15th of September, corrupt “frat boy” and so-called “Justice” Kavanaugh again got protesters at his fancy Chevy Chase home. This time around, a new chant was added “we want to know who owns your court.” This was in addition to chants calling out Kavanaugh as a rapist and a fascist.

On Friday, the 15th of September, Trump will be speaking twice in DC: once to Concerned Women for America at 7PM at the Capitol Hilton (1001 16th st NW), and the 2nd time at 9PM at “Pray, Stand, Vote, which is a Christo-Fascist group that appears to have the bigoted “Family Research Council” as it’s core.The second appearance is at the Omni Shoreham at 2500 Calvert St NW, where a 3 day hatefest also featuring DeSantis will be underway. Both Trump and DeSantis are on the speakers list, along with anti-LGBTQ genocide advocate Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council and a hornet’s nest of other haters.

The 7PM event is nasty too: Concerned Women for America, another anti-LGBTQ group

Pray, Stand, Vote is “A national gathering of spiritually active, governance engaged conservatives (SAGE Cons).”

Pray, Stand, Vote is Organized by Family Research Council, Real Life Network, AFA Action, Evangelism Explosion, Truth & Liberty Coalition, First Liberty Institute, American Values, National Hispanic Pastors Alliance, and Family Policy Alliance

prayvotestand(dot)org

The decades-long fight to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences may finally have a decisive ending. This is somewhat old news but is not well known: After Fortress dumped HLS under pressure from SHAC and DC-based DARRT, HLS barely survived. They merged in 2015 with two other companies into a new firm called Envigo, with a new lab in Cumberland, Va. In summer 2022, that lab was finally forced to stop their animal testing.

In 2019, PETA broke from their recent pattern of mostly high-profile publicity actions, and returning to their roots slipped an undercover investigator inside Envigo. This basically restarted the entire campaign against HLS from scratch, and the take from the investigation showed the same old torture HLS has always been known for. Enough was enough, and even the US Dept of Justice decided this was too much. Both Federal and state action ensued, ending in a July 2022 settlement in which Envigo surrendered all of their nearly 4,000 beagles and agreed never again to engage in activities requiring an Animal Welfare Act license. The dogs were distributed among a large number of shelters and all were adopted by Sep 1 that year.

It took decades to achieve this result. I, the author of this report, participated myself in anti-HLS protests by DARTT (Defending Animal Rights Today and Tomorrow) whose actions during the 2010 “siege of fortress” played so strong a role in killing HLS’s ability to survive as a standalone business. While HLS’s friends in the UK government succeeded in killing SHAC with a storm of prosecutions and imprisonoments, HLS emerged from that fight like a warship that sunk all their opponents only to end up too shot up to make it home through ocean storms. This led to the 2015 merger that created Envigo, and now Envigo has been forced to shut down their lab and give up the beagles they were torturing. This delayed victory passed unnoticed by many because of the chaos in the United States since 2016, and because Envigo escaped from the name “HLS” with the merger.

The tough, grinding, decades-long campaign of attrition that sank HLS lasted longer than the US war in Afghanistan and much of the time was spent week after week, slugging away with home demos against the same targets. We had to drive off HLS investors and customers faster than we lost fighters to prosecution or burnout.

Anyway, the verdict is now in: SHAC tactics WORK! Animal rights activists won, HLS lost. This is a lesson learned for many later fights such as the current fight in Atlanta against Cop City.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envigo

On the 8th of September, protesters gathered at Florida’s Supreme Court as arguments were heard in the 15 week abortion ban challenge. The outcome of this case will determine whether DeSantis’s 6 week ban ever goes into effect or not. DeSantis has packed the court, knowing this could undermine his agenda.

Many of the protesters are active in the ballot initiative campaign that if passed will overturn all of Florida’s abortion laws and prevent DeSantis from attempting to bring them back. DeSantis is expected to attempt by all means to cheat and keep this off the ballot, but if he fails a major part of his agenda will be defeated.

Fl State House candidate Bonnie Patterson-James (Polk County) spoke at the rally about having had to have an abortion herself earlier in the race. Bringing this up is a middle finger to her opponent Jennifer Canady, an antiabortion Repugnican known for using taxpayer funds to subsidize fake (“faith-based”) clinics.

A speaker from Louisiana spoke on the importance of FL, where the worst abortion laws have been held up by court challenges. People needing abortions have travelled from as far away as Louisiana for healthcare. As of now, Florida is a crucial strategic location for both sides, as the status quo in Florida greatly weakens the ability of the GOP to enforce abortion bans from Texas all the way to Virginia. From the Virginia line north, New York is the final fallback position for surgical abortion.

In addition, a defeat of the GOP in either the FL Supreme Court or the ballot initiative will be a warning to prosecutors seeking to bring charges against people assisting those needing out of state abortions in ALL of the GOP states. Prosecutors are chomping at the bit to start bringing more cases for this but so far have been mostly but not entirely held back by political and social peace considerations.

On the 7th of September, the Atlanta community sent a “fuck you, Russian warship!” style message to the prosecutors behind the indictments of 61 heroes for opposing the project. They invaded the construction site and locked down to bulldozers while passing motorists honked at a support rally.

This action was a two-part protest, featuring a support rally at the roadside, and a hard lockdown to at least one bulldozer with chains by faith community activists to shut the site down.

This is a real “put up or shut up” moment, and activists just “put up” in a very big way. Check out this written statement from one of today’s five arrestees:

“This is a war happening against protesters”

“If we don’t stand up for our right to protest now, standing up in the future will be vain. Cop City is in the process of being built, and this can only continue if we allow it.”

In other words: no more crap, no more lies, just payback and utterly committed direct action in the face of the most extreme personal risks: Fuck You, Fascist Prosecutor!

atlpresscollective(dot)com/2023/09/07/construction-work-stopped-briefly-as-cop-city-protesters-enter-site/

(Replace (dot) with period to follow link. Youtube embedded there so potential content autoload blocked as a precaution)