The transition to civilian rule in Egypt is "effectively over"

i saw this story when it broke early this morning... to me, it's a demonstration of just how tenaciously those who are accustomed to unfettered power and limitless reservoirs of stolen money and resources will finagle to make sure they stay on the top of the pile, the common good and the will of the people be damned...

from common dreams...

'Military Coup' in Egypt as Court Dissolves Parliament

CNN reports:

Egypt's highest court declared the parliament invalid Thursday, and the country's interim military rulers promptly declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.[...]

"Egypt just witnessed the smoothest military coup," said Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, in a tweet after the high court's decisions Thursday. "We'd be outraged if we weren't so exhausted."

"Egypt is entering into a very dangerous stage and I think a lot of people were caught by surprise," he said.

Riot police and military personnel, some in armored vehicles, were outside the court ahead of the rulings. Military intelligence officers were also present.

After the ruling about Shafik was announced, a crowd of citizens shouted their disapproval. Military police moved to block the road in front of the court -- a major Cairo artery.

Ahram Online reports:

Eliminated presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh on Thursday declared that allowing Ahmed Shafiq – the military's preferred presidential candidate – to vie for Egypt's highest office while dissolving the elected parliament and granting military police the right to arrest civilians represented a de facto "military coup."

"Anyone who believes that Egypt's millions of revolutionary youth will allow this to pass must be delusional," Abul-Fotouh declared.

i spent a great deal of time early last year watching the al jazeera livestream of the tahrir square protests and, finally, the capitulation of mubarak... ever since then, egypt's super-rich elites have been playing the waiting game, keeping all of the mubarak power and money system intact while throwing an occasional bone to the masses... now it looks like they've gone and made a master power play, effectively telling the egyptian people, "tough shit, we're in charge and we DARE you to do anything about it"...

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Stiglitz: Moral deprivation, all the apples in the barrel are rotten and capitalism is broken

when i read stiglitz' book, globalization and its discontents, in 2003, it opened my eyes... that was the first year i worked in international development and i was witnessing first-hand a lot of different dynamics that i was trying to make sense out of... sitting in a former communist country and watching the mad scramble to shift to a market economy would have simply been undecipherable chaos for me if i had not had stiglitz as a guide... i was left with a deep impression of a profoundly moral person of great intellect who was nonetheless gifted in making hugely complex forces understandable in ways that upheld what i had come to believe was basic common sense... i'm pleased to see him still out in front as a rational, moral force at a time when the quasi-religious ideology of capitalism is collapsing under its own weight...

this is an excerpt from a daily beast article quoting stiglitz from his latest book, from cairo to wall street: voices from the global spring...

If no one is accountable, the problem must lie in the economic system. This is the inevitable conclusion and the reason that the protesters are right to be indignant. Every barrel has its rotten apples, but the problem, as MIT Professor Susan Silbey has written, comes when the whole barrel is rotten.

Much of what has gone on can only be described by the words moral deprivation. Something wrong had happened to the moral compass of so many of the people working in the financial sector. When the norms of a society change in a way that so many have lost their moral compass—and the few whistle-blowers go unheeded—that says something significant about the society. The problem is not just the individuals who have lost their moral compass but society itself.

What the protests tell us is that there was outrage and that outrage gives hope. Americans have always had an idealistic streak, reflected both in the instruction in schools and in political rhetoric. Kids read the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal,” and they read the words literally, all men, white and black, and they believe them. They recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which promises “justice for all,” and they believe it.

[...]

The political system seems to be failing as much as the economic system, and in some ways, the two failures are intertwined. The system failed to prevent the crisis, it failed to remedy the crisis, it failed to check the growing inequality, it failed to protect those at the bottom, and it failed to prevent the corporate abuses. And while it was failing, the growing deficits suggested that these failures were likely to continue into the future.

Americans, Europeans, and people in other democracies around the world take great pride in their democratic institutions. But the protesters have called into question whether there is a real democracy. Real democracy is more than the right to vote once every two or four years. The choices have to be meaningful. The politicians have to listen to the voices of the citizens. However, increasingly, and especially in the United States, it seems that the political system is more akin to “one dollar one vote” than to “one person one vote.” Rather the correcting the market’s failures, the political system is reinforcing them.

[...]

[P]rotesters are asking for so little: for a chance to use their skills, for the right to decent work at decent pay, for a fairer economy and society. Their requests are not revolutionary but evolutionary. But at another level, they are asking for a great deal: for a democracy where people, not dollars, matter; and for a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do. The two demands are related: unfettered markets do not work well, as we have seen. For markets to work the way markets are supposed to work, there has to be appropriate government regulation. But for that to occur, we have to have a democracy that reflects the general interests, not the special interests. We may have the best government that money can buy, but that won’t be good enough.

i will put stiglitz' argument into my own words... i believe he's making a case for a return to the concept of the common good, a concept i believe has been under constant assault by the social darwinian mindset of our super-rich elites... we can't get back to it fast enough to suit me...

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More tragedy in Cairo

from spiegel...


Stones thrown during clashes between soldiers and protesters in Cairo are
placed in a heart-shape around blood stains, in memory of protesters killed
during the latest clashes. Thirteen people have been killed in the violence
since Friday with hundreds suffering injuries. Over 100 demonstrators have
been arrested. The most recent clashes come just days after Egyptians voted
in the latest round of parliamentary elections. Protests against ongoing military
rule in the country have been ongoing since mid-November and have become
increasingly violent since then. Forty-two people were killed in street battles
in November. Both United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have expressed concern at the latest flare-up.

so sad...

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Egyptian army major: I’m supposed to die for these people, not them die for me

it makes sense that there would come a point when even the most establishment and status quo among us can longer stand by while our fellow citizens are brutally repressed... i'm wondering when that realization will fully hit our militarized police here in the u.s...

the guardian...

Speaking next to an open window that looks out on to Tahrir Square, Major Tamer Samir Badr says he now feels it is his duty to protect 'these people who are fighting for our rights'. The 37-year-old claims many officers have been attending the protests secretly in civilian clothes.

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The Cairo prostesters in Tahrir Square have no intention of being bamboozled again

following the egyptian situation definitely gives a different perspective to my worry that the occupy movement may be fading... those egyptians are a real inspiration...!

from democracy now...

Egyptian protesters continue to fill Cairo’s central Tahrir Square over the ruling military council’s refusal to immediately transfer power to a civilian government. In a televised address on Tuesday, the head of Egypt’s military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, said he has accepted the prime minister’s resignation and that the military is ready to relinquish power if Egyptians call for that in a referendum. But protests only intensified after Tantawi’s speech and security forces unleashed a barrage of tear gas. Over the past five days at least 38 people have been killed, thousands injured, and at least 15 journalists attacked as Egypt has witnessed the largest protests since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

fool me once...

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Cairo, Tahrir Square: November 19 - 22

a round-up of the last four days of the egyptian revolution... a very important compilation of key events...



this certainly puts our occupy efforts in stark perspective, doesn't it...? the egyptians have no delusions that their super-rich elites and the military that empower them have no intention of going quietly into that good night... we here in the u.s. are just starting to wake up to that fact... god forbid that we have to deal with their level of violence and repression but seeing what has been taking place in places like uc davis et al, i'm not so sure it isn't coming quicker than we might think...

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A smidgen of good news from Tahrir Square

i posted extensively on the february uprising in egypt (here) and have been following it ever since, altho' recently i've been focusing more on our own domestic uprising...

i was thrilled beyond words to see egyptians come together to challenge their u.s.-sponsored puppets and persist beyond all reasonable limits in insisting that real power was vested in the egyptian people and not their super-rich elite overlords... i was glued to the al jazeera livestream for the better part of every day and repeatedly felt chills running up and down my spine as i watched...

i didn't believe for a single moment then that the egyptian ptb would easily step aside any more than i believe now that our own super-rich elite overlords in the u.s. will do anything other than give a condescending nod to the concept of citizen-led democracy, social justice and the quaint notion of service to the common good...

i give the egyptian people enormous credit... their persistence is a shining example for us all... may they prevail...


A suspected police informer was surrounded by an angry crowd after he
was severely beaten in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Monday.
Moises Saman for The New York Times

Egypt’s Civilian Government Submits Offer to Resign

After three days of increasingly violent demonstrations, Egypt’s interim civilian government submitted its resignation to the country’s ruling military council on Monday, bowing to the demands of the protesters and marking a crisis of legitimacy for the military-led government.

The step was reported by Egyptian television, and it remained to seen whether the military would accept or reject the offer of the resignation, which followed the most sustained and bloodiest challenge to military’s hold on power since the fall of Hosni Mubarak as demonstrators clashed with security forces around Tahrir Square and across the country.

again, may they prevail, and may my country finally decide to pull its head out of its ass...

Crackdown in Cairo, excuses in Washington

As Egyptians return to Tahrir Square, the Obama administration sides with the military

keep your eyes and ears open... very shortly, we'll be inundated with propaganda telling us that egypt will fall under the control of radical factions of islam if we don't support the egyptian military and their rule of brutality...

and, btw, where did the egyptian military get their equipment and learn their tactics...?

Egypt uses U.S. teargas on pro-democracy crowds

600 injured as military clashes with demonstrators demanding return to civilian rule

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OWS - the continual necessity for acting and thinking boldly

i regularly think back to my time in kosovo this past february, glued to the al jazeera livestream from cairo... i was thrilled beyond words to see the people in egypt rise up and insist on taking their power back from one of the world's most decidedly corrupt regimes... the fact that mubarak had been a long-time ally of my own country was not a small part of my jubilation...

when the ows movement began here two months ago, i was equally thrilled... while that thrill has dissipated somewhat, i am still of the firm belief that ows is the most exciting development in the u.s. in my lifetime...

i worry over what, if anything, the next evolution of ows will look like... as the author of this excerpt, recently returned from egypt, states, whatever evolves, it must be big and bold... we are at a time in the history of our country and of the world where only big and bold will do...

[T]he most valuable organizing nugget I carried back with me [from Egypt] is the continual necessity for acting and thinking boldly. As an organizer here in the US, I was taught to be pragmatic and practical - go for what you can win in a specific time horizon. As an organizer, we ask leaders to dream, to name the things that hold them back from being happy, free and prosperous. And then, we set limits on those dreams, or cut them into bite-sized chunks that are so small, they sometimes bear little resemblance to the massive, audacious canvas that the leaders first painted for us. We negotiate ourselves down before we even get to the real negotiation table.

Before Egypt, I was taught that politics is the art of the possible. After Egypt, I question whether we should all be reaching for the impossible and ludicrous. Who knows who else might agree? A common call for the laughable and ridiculous widens the possibility for what can and should happen.

this takes me back to what i posted earlier - i believe we should be giving serious consideration to a constitutional convention...

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Crossing the "fear barrier"

listening to rania, a human rights activist, speaking to al jazeera from the 6th of october bridge in cairo... she says that once the egyptian people crossed the "fear barrier," there was no stopping them...

i've said all along that fear is the principal tool used by our overlords to keep us in our place... if you look at just how much fear gets stoked on a daily basis - terrorists, swine flu, home foreclosure, crime, even losing one's job - we are mercilessly manipulated on a daily basis...

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They didn't fight, they didn't kill, and they didn't rely on someone who claimed to "lead" them

they simply came out en masse, took care of each other and said, in no uncertain terms -

NO MORE...!!

they've reclaimed the power that is the birthright of every one of us...

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Power to the people of Egypt...!

tahrir square is exploding with joy...!



after 30 years, it took the combined will of the egyptian people 18 days to topple the regime... god bless them... i'm in awe of their courage and pray for better days for them, their country and, indeed, for all of us...

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MUBARAK STEPS DOWN...!!

egyptian army tanks guarding the presidential palace in cairo with their gun barrels pointed at the protesters just turned them aside... is that symbolic or what...?

suleiman is making a statement right now... watch al jazeera here...

he just announced that mubarak has stepped down and handed over control of the country to the army council...

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Twitter of the day: Mubarak is Egypt's first zombie president

i love it...

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The uprising in Egypt has discredited every Western media stereotype about the Arabs

john pilger...

The uprising in Egypt has discredited every Western media stereotype about the Arabs. The courage, determination, eloquence and grace of those in Liberation Square contrast with “our” specious fear-mongering with its al-Qaeda and Iran bogeys and iron-clad assumptions, bereft of irony, of the “moral leadership of the West”. It is not surprising that the recent source of truth about the imperial abuse of the Middle East, WikiLeaks, is itself subjected to craven, petty abuse in those self-congratulating newspapers that set the limits of elite liberal debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps they are worried. Across the world, public awareness is rising and bypassing them. In Washington and London, the regimes are fragile and barely democratic. Having long burned down societies abroad, they are now doing something similar at home, with lies and without a mandate. To their victims, the resistance in Cairo’s Liberation Square must seem an inspiration. “We won’t stop,” said the young Egyptian woman on TV, “we won’t go home.” Try kettling a million people in the centre of London, bent on civil disobedience, and try imagining it could not happen.

can you imagine what's happening in tahrir square transcending national boundaries and spreading across the world...? men, women, old, young, christians, muslims, buddhists, light skin, dark skin, rich, poor, singing, holding hands, taking care of each other, knowing and believing in their own power and refusing to surrender it to the super-rich elites who have come to believe that it's their birthright to tell us all what to do...

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The Egyptian regime has tested positive for cancer but Mubarak and Suleiman think they only have a migraine

on al jazeera live...

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Mubarak keeps givin' the same speech

it's the same speech he gave two weeks ago and i have the same reaction i did then...



what an arrogant asshole...

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This isn't just about Egypt [UPDATE] [UPDATE II]

it's about ALL of us and we would all do well to pay attention... the tectonic plates are shifting and this will have ripple effects around the world in ways that we can only guess at...

obama is scheduled to take the stage in michigan in about 10 minutes and i suspect that mubarak will be making his appearance at about the same time...

watch al jazeera here...

[UPDATE]

guessed wrong... obama mentioned that we "witnessing history unfold", his usual non-committal statement...

[UPDATE II]

egyptian state television says mubarak will address the nation within the hour... it's currently 11:04 a.m., u.s. pacific time, 9:04 p.m., egyptian time...

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The Egyptian Supreme Military Council just issued a statement [UPDATE] [UPDATE II]

there's quite a lot of room for interpretation, but it sounds like the military announced that the protesters demands are going to be met... the people in tahrir square are pretty energized and the rumors are flying...

watch al jazeera here...

[UPDATE]

Egypt's Mubarak to step down
Sources tell NBC News that Vice President Suleiman to take over as leader

the bad news...?

Vice President Omar Suleiman will take over

yes, that's BAD NEWS...

[UPDATE II]

mubarak to address the nation...

Hosni Mubarak to address Egypt; protesters are told demands will be met

A general tells protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square that their demands will be met, and the military says it is taking the 'necessary measures to protect the nation and support the legitimate demands of the people.' Protesters have been adamant that Hosni Mubarak step down.

please don't let the interim government be headed by suleiman...

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More people in Tahrir Square than ever before

watch al jazeera live feed here...

meanwhile, mubarak, israel and the u.s. are still angling to keep the status quo...

mubarak remains defiant...

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square for the latest protest calling for Hosni Mubarak's government to step down.

The BBC's Jim Muir, in the Egyptian capital, says it is the biggest demonstration since the protests began on 25 January.

It comes despite the government's announcement of its plans for a peaceful transfer of power.

President Mubarak has said he will stay until elections in September.

In Tahrir Square, attempts by the army to check the identity cards of those joining the demonstration were abandoned because of the sheer weight of numbers.

and wikileaks diplomatic cables show that israel the u.s. israel the u.s. israel would like to see the cia operative torturer vice president suleiman step in...

Hosni Mubarak, the current president, according to a leaked diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website, and published by the UK daily, The Telegraph.

The August 2008 cable said David Hacham, a senior adviser at the Israeli ministry of defence (MoD), told US officials the Israelis expected Suleiman, spelt Soliman in some cables, to take over.

"Hacham noted that the Israelis believe Soliman is likely to serve as at least an interim president if Mubarak dies or is incapacitated," the cable sent from the US embassy in Tel Aviv said.

"We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Soliman," the memo cited US diplomats as saying.

i am so impressed with the peaceful determination of the egyptian people in their desire to get rid of their corrupt and vicious overlords...

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This is what happens these days when you attempt to present "un-spun" news

Al Jazeera’s Cairo office burned down by pro-Mubarak ‘thugs’

Al Jazeera's office in Cairo was stormed by a "gang of thugs" and set on fire along with all the equipment inside it, the Arab news network said Friday.

"It appears to be the latest attempt by the Egyptian regime or its supporters to hinder Al Jazeera's coverage of events in the country," the news network said in a statement.

"In the last week its bureau was forcibly closed, all its journalists had press credentials revoked, and nine journalists were detained at various stages. Al Jazeera has also faced unprecedented levels of interference in its broadcast signal as well as persistent and repeated attempts to bring down its websites."

"We are grateful for the support we have received from across the world for our coverage in Egypt and can assure everyone that we will continue our work undeterred," the statement added.

Al Jazeera also said its website "has been under relentless attack since the onset of the uprisings in Egypt." A banner advertisment on the news network's Arabic-language website was hacked Friday and replaced with a slogan reading, "Together for the collapse of Egypt." The banner linked to a page critical of the network.

you can go to this link to register your desire to see al jazeera offered on u.s. cable and satellite tv services...

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