London Police Rescue Ungrateful Anarchist From Berserk Wheelchair.

The wheelchair with attitude pictured a week
before its attack on Anarchist Jody McIntyre.

Wheelchair attacks man!

London police rush to his aid!

A life preserved by dramatic intervention.

The scene: Last Thursday. London. Evening. Crazed anarchists march to demand even more free money for lazy university students. Suddenly, one of the is brutally assaulted by a wheelchair with murder on its mind. Unarmed London police rush to assist. Anarchist saved. Wheelchair subdued.

As the kids say, "This is where it gets weird." Despite manfully confronting an out of control wheelchair, the heroic efforts of the London police were bitterly scorned by the man whose life, just moments before, had been preserved by their quick response.

Identified by his I.D. card - surely forged - as "Jody McIntyre, Violent Anarchist Revolutionary,” Mr. McIntyre plans to sue the Metropolitan Police Service for God knows what. Perhaps for saving his life? For failure to inquire “May we?” beforehand? Maybe for trampling his “right” to be consumed by a wheeled medical device?

Who is it who said, “No good deed goes unpunished”?  I have no idea. I do know, however, that this affair qualifies splendidly. Mr. McIntyre, I'd bet my last penny, is known among his anarchist brood for a consistently angry visage and chronic violent activities not yet hinted at or known. And yet, regardless of his thoroughly alleged incendiary traits, he – of all people – has engaged the services of a solicitor (the equivalent, I am informed, of a first year law student here in the United States).

"Did you say 'college students'?"

A solicitor! To do what, exactly? To draft a sincere and overdue letter of gratitude to the generous “bobbies” who on his behalf intervened. No. Quite the contrary. In this era of litigiousness over presumed “rights,” Anarchist McIntyre will drag the Metro Police Service into court to upbraid his modern day Samaritans! I'd bet my Grandmother that McIntyre will complain of mistreatment when the police assisted him to the asphalt, quickly dragged him to the safety of a nearby sidewalk, and safely tapped him on the head with a police baton to calm him. All the while, take note, other sturdy officers were wrestling the miscreant wheelchair to the ground lest it pursue McIntyre and resume its attack.

We shall see whether the rude Mr. McIntyre succeeds in his legal mischief. I am absolutely certain about forcefully alleging that he is a man who despises the very legal system he now cynically seeks to employ. If he prevails, he ought to be expelled from Britain;  if he fails, he ought to be expelled from Britain.

Watch the BBC NEWS video below – witness (and pity) the intrepid interviewer, BBC's Ben Brown, vainly trying to get the truth about McIntyre's highly alleged violent and unmannered past. Read the Guardian article. Then, you decide using your rational brain.





A final note: Other than reaffirming my hatred of alleged anarchists, this episode reaffirmed another of my habits. The next time while strolling I happen upon a person being assaulted by an unsavory wheelchair (or any other medical device) I shall remain steadfast in my longstanding policy, and quickly stroll past.

A more nearly final note: The offending wheelchair was arrested but bonded out the next day through the auspices of the Medical Devices Defense Fund, represented in court by a heart and lung machine.

Another in a series of final notes:  For more on last Thursday's "Day X" activities, go to UK Uncut's blog.  For something about UK Uncut, go here.

The really final note(s):

Tax Equity: Lessons In Disobedience From Our British Cousins.

"At the same time as making massive cuts to public services, this [UK] govern-

ment is letting rich individuals and corporations avoid billions of pounds of

tax. Join UK Uncut’s Big Society Revenue & Customs (BSRC) and become part

of an army of citizen volunteers determined to make wealthy tax avoiders pay."

UK Uncut website.

A December 4th Guardian.co.UK.com article described UK Uncut's protests at high street stores owned by the wealthiest UK tax dodgers, like Topshop's billionaire owner Sir Philip Green. This reminded me that in some places people get out into the streets and, with their voices and their bodies, "vote" against the inequitable, destabilizing, and divisive tax avoidance tactics of the super wealthy. And this is particularly important, as now, when hypocritical fiscal conservatives call for huge cuts in public programs that benefit, protect, or incentivize poor and middle class families.

"The unkindest cut[s] of all. . ." The UK tax debate described in the Guardian article differs from ours; UK Uncut decries enormously wealthy tax dodgers; our gripes relate to the top tax rates, in particular, the GnOP/White House "compromise" to extend the Bush II era tax rate reductions for the wealthiest Americans. We do, however, share the same motivation - protecting lower and middle income families from the unkindest cuts in public programs promised by cravenly austere fiscal conservatives, overwhelmingly Republican. They cannot, however, do it all themselves. Enter their BFF enablers, the liberal sell-outs in an apparently growing faction in the White House and the Blue Dog Democrats (although diminished substantially by 26 seats as of the beginning of the 112th Congress in January 2011, having lost 28 Blue Dogs in the November midterm elections).

"Neither a lender
   nor a taxpayer be."

"Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood . . ." Suppose WE tried this? Up close and personal, 1960's style, vocalize our lack of consent to the GnOP/White House tax deal? Imagine "pop-up protests" at Walmarts across the nation, producers of the Walmart family fortune (approx. $90B*). Visualize megaphone toting protesters invading billionaires' hedge funds like John Paulson's ($12.4B) Paulson Co., or Steve Cohen's ($7.3B) SAC Capital (under investigation for alleged insider trading, by the way)? Picture this: at today's Washington Redskins game the delightful sight of hundreds of hand-drawn signs politely requesting Redskins owner Daniel Snyder ($1.1B) to "Cough it up, Dan!" I think all know these folks can afford a 3-5% increase in their taxes if the Bush II tax rates are retired. And don't be fooled by their palaver; there is NO tax rate they'd be pleased with. None. Period, paragraph. (Well, perhaps they'd accept a negative tax rate . . .)

Yet "nothing will come of nothing." Protests. Sit ins. One can dream. This imminent week, as the House, Senate, and White House continue their backing-and-forthing about extending the Bush tax rates for the gilded class, perhaps, like a U.S. version of UK Uncut, some will be moved to make life more interesting than expected. Likely not. It is a bit late. But other battles loom, especially as of January 2011 when the House is turned over to the tender mercies of the GOP. So, I think it's an almost sure bet that our eternal British cousins, and UK Uncut in particular, have shown us our not-too-distant future . . .



* Dollar figures are net worth and drawn from the 2010 "Forbes 400  Richest Americans." Total net worth of the gilded group? $1.37 Trillion. And THAT is still "real money."

P.S.  Keep watching UK Uncut:



From their website:

Saturday December 18th is Pay Day, our next day of mass action. One week before Christmas, thousands of people across the country will be hitting the high streets to make sure tax dodgers pay.

Once again we will be targeting the multi-national and the multi-billionaire, Vodafone and Sir Philip Green. Both have been shaken up by the protests so far, but on December 18th they will face protests on a scale they could not have imagined just a few months ago. Vodafone and Arcadia will be targeted on every major high street in the UK.  [Note: My link to Phillip Green.]

For more, click here. 



Today - GOP Senate Lame Duck Strategy In Writing: F.I.L.I.B.U.S.T.E.R.

This morning, on the Senate floor, the usual "stirring" words of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), speaking truth to power: