1. It’ll never last.
2. It has no demands.

The first objection is really an empirical prediction. Is it bearing out? Partially — people are leaving and camps are disappearing across the country, it’s true. But that’s not an independent result. Local governments across the country are using their power to declare these assemblies illegal. Then they’re bringing in the police to drag people away and obliterate camps. The fully-sourced tally at Occupy Arrests shows 6,526 arrests since the beginning of the Occupy movement in September 2011. There have been 53 arrests in the month of February so far…

… which is one indication that the Occupy movement is still going strong; you can’t have arrests unless there’s still a movement. One of the occupations that’s persisting despite harassment and arrest is the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, one block from the White House.

And that brings us to the second point. A full three months ago, the occupation at Freedom Plaza produced and published a full proposal on cutting the budget deficit, creating jobs and lessening inequality.

The protest goes on. And yes, it does stand for something.

There’s one presidential candidate who has joined in with protest by the working people of Indiana against the new law. You know it’s not Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich. It’s not Barack Obama, either.

It’s Jill Stein, presidential candidate with the Green Party. At noon today, Dr. Stein will be at the State Capitol building in Indianapolis.

“Dr. Stein is not only strongly opposed to so-called Right-to-Work legislation (RTW), her Green New Deal includes a program of immediate creation of 25 million, publicly useful, sustainable, well-paying jobs,” declared a statement from the Stein for President campaign.

This year, it’s different for me. This winter, the unseasonably warm weather has me feeling out of place. At the same time, I’m watching America’s political landscape continue its slide toward the Right, though I had for years hoped a restoration of balance could take place after George W. Bush left office.

In short, I’m feeling exhausted. Yet, the idea of Groundhog Day this year provokes within me some hope for renewal of energy. Upon reflection, it occurs to me that this is what the Groundhog Day celebration has always been about.

Punxsatawney Phil is a gimmick who stands at the mouth of a burrow that runs deep. The groundhog represents a re-emergence of life into a world that had been in darkness and death, a symbol of rebirth out of the womb of the Earth quite similar to, if more hairy than, Persephone, the stolen bride who returns to us the warmth of her youth for a short time.

The Christian holiday of Candlemas held about this time is a borrowing from the Celtic holiday of Imbolc, honoring the goddess Brigid, who foretold the weather of the weeks to come by watching the behavior of a snake that emerged from the ground at the base of a sacred tree. This mythological basis for the holiday was lost only after St. Patrick waged his campaign against the snakes.

Whatever animal is seen to come out of that hole, be it reptile or rodent, has something of the cthonic character of mystery that is found in the world’s most ancient surviving art, in the ritual caves of stone age Europe.

Nobody really knows what the future will be like, shadowy or sunny, of course. In hazarding a guess about the storms to come, however, we’re engaged in a sort of reflection on the cold and hard times we’ve just been through.

For what it’s worth, the first flowers of spring emerged here yesterday. The bright yellow of winter aconite is in bloom a full month and a half ahead of its usual schedule this year.

This year’s Groundhog Day ritual has become something of a joke, as we all know that winter has not yet obtained a solid grasp on us, even in the far north. Punxsatawney Phil may say that there are six more weeks of winter, but that could only be true if we had six weeks of winter already, and though the astronomers may tell us that winter has been here regardless of the warmth, the rest of us know better.

From now on, Groundhog Day should become more to us than just a quaint tradition of weather divination. Groundhog Day, after all, is a day that recognizes a warmer future. What better holiday could there be, then, to dedicate ourselves to a renewal of activism to the cause of contending against the global warming we have created as a result of our desire to tame the rhythms of nature, rather than observe them?

Where should we send dollars next? If you have a good idea, let us know.

Both the McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza protest encampments have asked people to come to those squares if they can as a measure of support and peaceful (both camps reiterate the word “peaceful”) noncompliance.

If you can’t make it down to the squares in DC, you can watch for yourself and see how the evictions proceed:

McPherson Square: Washington Post Live Feed (apparently constant), Occupy DC Livestream (intermittent), and JeanCam (still being set up)

Freedom Plaza: Occupation UStream (intermittent) and Livestream (intermittent)

No word on whether K Street lobbyists, who have been engaged in a persistent occupation of Washington DC for over a century, will be evicted by police any time soon.

It’s hard to say whether things went according to plan. What is clear is that things did not go well.

The Oakland police fired tear gas at Occupy Oakland, struck them with batons, and used other brutal techniques of “crowd control”. One young protester was sent to the hospital with internal bleeding as a result.

The police justified their violence by saying that, “acts of violence, property destruction and overnight lodging will not be tolerated”. It doesn’t make sense to say that you won’t be tolerant of violence if you’re acting violently yourself… and overnight lodging… why shouldn’t that be tolerated?

Back in October, Occupy Oakland gained nationwide support when the Oakland Police engaged in such brutal attacks. That’s not likely to happen this time.

This time, Occupy Oakland protesters were violently attacking the police. This time, Occupy Oakland protesters were destroying property – including artwork.

Just as the police can’t reasonably condemn out of control violence when they engage in it themselves, the Occupy protesters don’t have a solid basis for expressing outrage at police brutality when they have been brutal themselves. Occupy Oakland says that it’s against economic injustice, but it’s not justice to go smashing other people’s stuff. It’s economic vengeance.

Occupy Oakland protesters seemed to be reverting to stereotypes of radical activism, and not thinking through the consequences for the Occupy movement in general. They called police officers “pigs”, denying the humanity of their opponents. They established an “Oakland Commune”, though their organization clearly isn’t integrated into the community. They used tactics from the Seattle anti-globalization protests without considering whether those tactics brought any long-term success. They burned an American flag, which isn’t either illegal or wrong in itself, but will alienate all but the radicalized.

The Occupy Oakland protesters lost my respect this weekend. They’re not thinking wisely about how to solve the nation’s problems. They’re not protesting with integrity. Instead, they look like a group that just wants attention for itself, and is willing to hurt other people in order to get it.

This coming weekend, Occupy Oakland is holding a Move In Day and Oakland Rise Up Festival. At noon on Saturday, the group is going to hold a concert and rally in Oscar Grant Plaza. At 1:00 PM, the protesters will march to a large, vacant building and set up a new, 24-hour community center there.

Occupy Oakland explains, “We’re going to fill the space with a kitchen, first aid station, sleeping quarters, an assembly area, libraries, free school classes, and hundreds of uses yet to be determined. Let’s establish our new home, defend it, and adapt it to Oakland’s needs.”

The Occupy The Courts web site explains, “The courts are the one place where there still exists some chance of a fair result for the 99%, against the power and influence of the 1%. Occupy The Courts is a people-powered movement to bring court cases against corporate power and government abuse, and is an extension of the Occupy Wall Street movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District.”

Mitt Romney won’t be there. Ron Paul won’t be there. Barack Obama won’t be there.

Two presidential candidates will be participating in the Occupy The Courts protest today, however. Their names are Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson.

Rocky Anderson, the Justice Party presidential candidate, had this to say last night in support of the upcoming protest: “The heart and soul of what people are has nothing to do with what corporations are. Corporations bear no resemblance to people. The idea that they’re persons under the Constitution and that they should enjoy the same rights to guide our political system in their direction, is no more than a call for a plutocracy, which is what we’ve got in this country now–rule by the wealthy, rather than a democracy and government in the public interest.”

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will be on the steps of the Supreme Court today, along with other protesters. She points out that David Cobb, 2004 Green Party presidential nominee, is among the founders of Move To Amend, the largest organization behind today’s Occupy The Courts protest. Stein writes, “Since 1996, the Green Party has called for a constitutional amendment to abolish the doctrine of corporate personhood. Greens have been ahead of the curve, but today, the curve has caught up with us, and now this movement for a constitution that serves we, the people, has gathered a historic momentum.”

Today, you can take the Occupy The Courts even further, and work to Occupy the 2012 election. Give your support to the presidential campaign of Jill Stein or Rocky Anderson. (We have political buttons for Stein and for Anderson to help you spread the word.)

Three days ago, Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner used fire safety as a pretext to give the Occupy Syracuse an ultimatum: Leave the area that has been named by protesters as Perseverence Park or be hauled off to jail.

The police were a little bit late, but not too long after the deadline passed, the tents Occupy Syracuse protesters had been using to stay warm during the night were taken away. Contrary to Mayor Miner’s expectations, however, the Occupy Syracuse protest did not go away.

The protesters stayed put, and have stayed put since, keeping up a 24-hour occupation of the public square, without shelter, even though the weeks-long stretch of unusually warm weather in Upstate New York has finally ended. They’re standing, they’re sitting, they are persevering, despite fire inspections that are taking place every two hours, looking for some evidence to justify the physical removal of the protesters.

The inspectors have found nothing. The protesters are cold, very cold, but they are keeping on with the protest. “We are not going to leave this spot,” they’re saying. “The camp is still here. It just doesn’t have tents. It just doesn’t have structures.”

The 99 Percent are giving 100 percent.

Justice Party presidential candidate Rocky Anderson wrote: “Great to see what websites like Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit are doing in response to SOPA (and PIPA). I am vehemently opposed to both acts. One of the essential elements of my campaign is the democratized means of communication that is helping to bring down dictators — and allowing us all opportunities through user-generated cyberspace the means to create, innovate, and yield a greater voice with expanded freedoms. I have often said that, in this campaign, social media will help us topple the dictatorship of corrupt money in our government.

This would be devastating to the Internet, users, and to freedom generally. Initiatives like this have been implemented by some other countries, but the nature of these bills is akin to anti-freedom Internet policies of Iran and China. These bills (SOPA & PIPA) portend a further diminution of our freedom and democracy, ironically at a time when our government contends it is fighting wars to bring greater freedom and democracy to other nations.”

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein did not write in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act. Instead, she posted the following graphic:

Which approach do you think is more productive?