Tuesday , 9 January 2024

karololesiak

Karol Olesiak is a poet, writer, and activist. He is a graduate of Eugene Lang Liberal Arts College at The New School and an MFA from The University of San Francisco. As a Navy sailor, he commissioned the USS Ronald Reagan, navigated the straits of Magellan, and served in the Persian Gulf. In 2011 Karol headlined The Bowery Poetry Club in New York. That same year he became a staunch supporter of The Occupy Wall Street Movement and became entrenched in the Occupy network of affinity groups. Karol was one of the founders of www.soldiersforthecause.org. He became an antiwar activist in 2010 and has written many political essays. He has been translated into Spanish. Karol's poetry has been incorporated into cinematography and sound art.

The Truth by Brandon J. Raub

Brandon J. Raub was whisked away to a psychiatric institution after he posted a facebook note critical of the government. Mr. Raub’s commited no crimes and the activist communities have been ablaze. Because of his Facebook posts, Mr. Raub was taken into custody and held for behavioral observation. The following essay could be cataloged as the main reason for Brandon J. …

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The Language of Occupation

image: www.freeclipartnow.com In December of 2011 I was intimately involved in an Occupy Roundtable Summit. The mumble chat was populated with Occupy activists from all over the world and some members of the hacktivist group Anonymous. We discussed the future of Occupy Movement and how the language plays a part in that. The tenor of the conversation was about the …

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What Will You Tell Your Kids About 9/11?

Image: 9/11/11 Man playing the flute at St. Paul’s Chapel by ground zero. Across the street “truthers” gather with Adbuster activists. Somehow this one man on a flute outnumbered the screams of 200 or so activists. -Chanell McLaughlin I write this in light of a conversation I had with my fiancée about what I would tell my children about the …

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The Last Social Program

image: Karol Olesiak In Navy boot camp, it was my pleasure to have a Senior Chief who was also a Medal of Honor recipient as Recruit Division Commander. In the Navy, we would call someone who had served out to sea a lot “salty.” Senior Chief was “salty” within the first two weeks of boot camp, while we sat in our …

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The Power Principle – An Interview with Filmmaker Scott Noble

Scott Noble is the director of several acclaimed and politically charged documentaries, including Psywar, Human Resources and Lifting the Veil. His documentary on Occupy Wall Street, Rise Like Lions, took the #1 spot on Films for Action’s Top Ten Occupy films. His latest, The Power Principle, takes on the American empire, with emphasis on the Cold War period. We sent …

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Terrifying Crowd Control Weapon

We here have covered the issue of so-called nonlethal weapons since the first LRAD arrived in NYC this past fall. Most of these weapons were developed to control crowds in occupied countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Inevitably, like the infamous LRAD, which was deployed in the Pittsburgh G20  protests in 2009 and then seen brandished this fall in Zuccoti (Liberty) Park, these weapons …

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Stem Cell Farming

Image: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Dolly the sheep was the first public exposure to genetic manipulation and a slew of dialogue ensued. This article was written in 2006 when George W. Bush was still president. Stem-cell research had center stage for a while, before it lost the public’s interest. The main two things that have changed in this debate since then are funding sources …

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Motivation Monday XII

photo “09/11/11 at memorial” by:  Karol Olesiak On this President’s Day, we can say with some certainty what we should be commemorating is future lack of dependence of representative leadership. It is a strange idea to have a holiday monumentalizing the future, but it might be necessary as the present seems more and more obsolete. Perhaps, one day a maximized citizenship …

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Occupy Love: Salute to LGBT Veterans

[Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta, left, kisses her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell in the first time a same-sex couple was chosen for Navy’s traditional homecoming kiss] On this Valentine’s Day we must acknowledge how love has changed in the modern day. Whether you agree with gay marriage or not, the issue has landed …

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