August 2015

Blackout DC blocks 395, stages coffin ceremony at US Capitol

On the 15th of August, Blackout DC staged what was announced as a march from the White House to the Capitol to protest police murder of Black and Brown people. Cops expected a direct march but got a surprise! The march diverted from Penn Ave north up 7th st to Chinatown, then proceeded east to block the I-395 tunnels before finally going to the US Capitol. At the Capitol, offerings for those murdered by police were placed in a cardboard coffin. This was intended to take place on the Capitol steps, but US Capitol police blockaded the top exits from the Capitol West Lawn against protesters-and only protesters. As a result the offering ceremony took place on the spot where people were blocked.

Video-395 shutdown and coffin/offering ceremony at the US Capitol

Blackout DC blocking I-395

Shutting down I-395, remembering the fallen at the Capitol

Another huge DC Bike Party takes to the streets

The July 3ed Anniversary special Bike Party was perhaps the largest ever, but the August 12th ride may have been second only to that one for sheer size. DC never seemed to get big Critical Mass or other such rides in the past, now the organizers of the DC Bike Parties seem to have found the magic formula for turn out in this town.

Video highlights 1st half of the ride(2:40)

Ride of the DC Bike Party(August)

Vegan activists disrupt shopping at Rockville Whole Foods store

On the 9th of August, Vegan activists from Direct Action Everywhere entered the Whole Foods on Rockville Pike in MD and staged a noisy speakout at the back of the meat section. Protesters charged that ALL animal products sold as "humane" at Whole Foods are just as fraudulent as the now notorious eggs from caged hens, and that these labels are meaningess.

Youtube video of Aug 10 in-store protest

Hundreds "Bike around the Bomb" against nuclear weapons

On August 9, 1945, the US dropped the second atomic bomb of WWII on Nagasaki, Japan. On August 9, 2015, hundreds rode in Global Zero's "Bike Around the Bomb" protest ride around the periphery of the part of DC that would be severely damaged by the smallest nuclear weapons in existance. Similar rides were conducted in cities all over the world. Several organizers spoke before the ride against efforts by the GOP (and AIPAC) to scuttle a nuclear deal with Iran that would block that country from building nuclear weapons. They warned that the alternative to the treaty may well be war.

Video of the ride

Biking around the Bomb

StopCopTerrorDC marches on eve of Michael Brown Murder anniversary.

The 8th of August was the day before the 1 year anniversary of the murder of Michael Brown by cops in Fergerson, MO, It was also the day DC police (MPD) killed an African-American woman right here in DC. That night StopCopTerrorDC shut down streets from U st to I-395 to protest the continuing wave of police crime, violence, and outright murder of Black and Brown people throughout the US.

Video highlights of the march

4 1/2 minute die-in blocks I-395 and NY Ave

StopCopTerrorDC on the march

Racist FOX News, other media push crime stories to counter Black Lives Matter

All this Summer FOX News has led almost every broadcast with lurid crime stories. Just yesterday someone shooting out the back window of their own car in an argument became the lead story on FOX, complete with white tourists saying they felt safer with so many cops in that part of town. This drumbeat has been in most of the major media, but FOX especially ever since the Battle of Baltimore was fought over the murder of Freddie Grey by police. There is the real possiblity that this is an organized effort to rebuild support for police on the part of media outlets owned by the wealthy whites whom police protect.

War Thugs

Commentary on US warmongering by the last 11 US presidents was added to the mural by Mama Ayesha's restaurant on Calvert Street.

Code Pink hula-hoops for nuclear peace deal with Iran

On the 4th of August, Code Pink set up on the H st side of Lafayette Park with hula hoops and signs supporting the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran. The GOP and politicians funded by AIPAC are doing everything they can to kill this deal on Capitol Hill. It is possible that gas fracking and shale oil interests would also fund efforts to kill the deal, as the lifting of sactions on Iran could cause crude oil and gas prices to plunge. That could make fracking and tar sands unprofitable for years to come.

Video-Code Pink hula-hoops plus explanation of effect of Iran nuclear deal on fracking/tar sands

Protesters storm, disrupt P st Whole Foods over fake "cruelty-free" foods

On the 3rd of August, Vegan activists from Direct Action Everywhere (DXE) swarmed into and disrupted shopping at the Whole Foods at 14th and P sts NW. A DXE investigation Youtube video found that Whole Foods is marketing factory farm products such as eggs from collectively caged hens as "cruelty-free." DXE called the Whole Foods marketing and endorsements from some animal welfare groups the "invasion of the movement snatchers." The "cruelty-free" eggs are just one example of fraudulent marketing of factory farm products at Whole Foods and suggest many more similar examples

Video-protesters inside Whole Foods plus clip from inside "humane" egg farm

Same video on Liveleak

Inside whole foods-protesting fake "cruelty free" and the reality behind it

Bunny Alliance protests Delta's vivisection flights at National Airport

Delta Airlines has a "strategic partnership" with Air France, one of the few remaining airlines that will fly monkeys and other animals to vivisction labs for a life of torture. Due to the partnership, some of the animals fly on Delta's planes. On the 3ed of August, the Bunny Alliance deployed from the Animal Rights 2015 convention to National Airport to demand Delta stop flying animals to labs and demand the same of Air France. On the same day, Delta announced they will no longer fly dead animals for trophy hunters in response to the lion who was killed by an American poacher. The Bunny Alliance asks that the same courtesy also be extended to live animals.

Video of Delta/Air France protest at Ronald Raygun National Airport

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