MechanusSunrise

Robots and Bureaucratic Capitalism

2012-06-18T13:33:00.003-04:00

Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit
David Graeber, The Baffler No. 19

This is one of the best articles I've read in a long while. Thought provoking and subtle.

Law Enforcement on the Screen and the Fourth Amendment

2012-05-21T16:16:00.002-04:00

Almost every show or movie with law enforcement protagonists features the Constitution as, at best an annoying obstacle, and at worst the fatal flaw of law enforcement - a flaw the can only be overcome by working outside the law. At one point the protagonists feel compelled to ignore the 4th Amendment, and occasionally other Amendments, to achieve justice. Callous violation of rights and use of violence by police is portrayed sympathetically. Protagonists don't wait for warrants before entering houses and follow their intuitions rather than using any legal standard for suspicion. In the stories, their intuitions are right and their unlawful searches and seizures are forgotten by the end of the episode.

Is it any surprise that in practice police see the Constitution the same way and many citizens immediately react in sympathy with the police when they violate the law? Is it any surprise that after 9/11, Congress, the White House, NSA, DHS, the FBI and the NYPD view Constitutional rights for U.S. citizens as mere obstacles to stopping terrorism? It was not the Constitution that prevented law enforcement from stopping the 9/11 attacks, it was lack of sharing information. As Coffer Black said, "The gloves come off." What he means by the gloves, in part, is the Constitution of the United States. In his mind, the core rights defining our freedoms are diminished to naive and trifling obstacles.

Its also interesting that almost as common as cop stories are criminal stories, where the viewpoint characters are organized criminals of one kind or another. Like police, these gangsters use force and work outside the law. Like police stories, the gangsters are romanticized. Greed, pride, threatening vulnerable people, violence and wrath are all portrayed sympathetically - perhaps shockingly but ultimately in a way that is designed for the audience to relate.

Is it any wonder that Wall Street bankers, even when it is acknowledged that they wrecked the economy due to their greed, pride and lack of accountability, are viewed sympathetically by many people?

Is it any wonder that people who do not use violence, who are concerned with and exercise their rights, who do not act with greed or pride and who don't exploit vulnerable people, are not well understood by the majority of people?

How can I get involved in the Occupy movement?: at any level

2012-05-08T17:01:00.003-04:00

Many people think you have to be a full time activist or engage in risky actions to participate in the Occupy movement but this is untrue. There are countless ways to participate in the movement.

Participate in nearby general assemblies and working groups. This is the most important step. The very experience of consensus-based direct democracy is inherently a step in the right direction.
Send letters to the editor voicing support and spreading the word about specific actions like those of Occupy Our Homes
Share videos of recent actions and projects on social media and with friends, as well as videos of police brutality, undercover officers and surveillance of Constitutionally-protected political activity.
Read and watch videos about consensus-based direct democracy, autonomism, anarchism, social movements, co-opts, permaculture, the Zapatistas, Abahlali base Mjondolo, Freetown Christiania, Wikipedia, the Quebec social economy, participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, economic history and ethnographic literature.
Learn and exercise your rights. Many police do not know the law, having never been confronted with someone who knows their rights. The more people who know and exercise their rights when dealing with law enforcement, the more police will become used to the law and become less habituated to abusing their authority when dealing with political activity. The more people who assert their right to remain silent and to refuse searches, the less suspicious law enforcement officers will be of those who exercise this right and the more free we all will be. The more people know their rights to participate in political activity, the harder it will be for those rights to be suppressed and the more awareness there will be of the injustice of the current limits of those rights.
Start a general assembly in your neighborhood or town if one does not already exist. You may have to educate people about what that means and why it can work. You do not have to associate it with the Occupy movement. Use the human microphone if you have large numbers, even if voice amplification is legal. Once the general assembly is off the ground, step back and become a participant like any other and let direct democracy take its course. General assemblies can fill the gap and handle neighborhood needs that are not met by local government, in addition to forming a basis for collective political and economic actions.
Move your money out of major banks and into credit unions and community banks.
Sign petitions to protect the right to protest and to oppose surveillance and gathering intelligence on political activities through the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation and other groups.
Make connections with local community groups, activists, unions, religious groups, and other local associations. Get on listserves, websites and calling lists and find out about events in your area that you can participate in or otherwise support.
Edit articles in Wikipedia following proper citation and content guidelines, adding information not previously available. Wikipedia is one successful form of anti-systemic democracy of editors, albeit with an additional small and non-interventionist hierarchy in the form of the Wikimedia Foundation.
If you unwilling to engage in risky Occupy actions, you can participate in non-risky actions and labor, such as attending gatherings, handing out leaflets about upcoming actions and issues and creating media and art.

Don't sweat divisive issues or debates within the movement. The Occupy movement is open and there is a places for anyone in it.

Do you have any other ideas?

Cops and Occupiers

2012-04-27T17:25:00.001-04:00

How many cops have Swiss bank accounts, hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, armies of accountants and financial advisers helping them avoid taxes and beat inflation, bodyguards, private islands and private planes?

If the investment banks and government legislators refuse to fix the problems that led to the crash of 2008 and there is another crash, who deals with the social unrest? Cops, not bankers. The wealthy are isolating themselves from the consequences of the financial system they benefit the most from by hiring security companies, building fortress homes and apartment buildings, and living in exclusive areas. Who deals with their mess? Cops. If someone goes wrong, who do they call? Well, sometimes their security company...but mostly cops. Who does the security company call? Cops.

The top 1% owns 40% of the nation's wealth. Who defends that wealth? Cops. With the exception of the higher ranks, cops are in the 80% that owns just 7% of the financial wealth in this country.

Like Occupiers and unlike financial types, cops have to come to terms with issues involving homelessness, mental illness and drug addiction face to face. One of the positives of the Occupy movement is that it brought those issues to light in visible parts of cities. A number of homeless people gained a route to political participation through the Occupy movement. Others still have their problems but they were not turned away from Occupations, the way they are from upscale apartment complexes and tourist areas. Whereas the rich can pretend homelessness and unemployment don't exist and can wall themselves in so that they never have to see them, cops can't do that.

Cops deal with the brunt of issues that are not widely known and don't enter into the public discussion much. 22% of kids in the United States go hungry, people on the streets due to mental illnesses and foreclosures, families and neighborhoods in chronic poverty, cops face these issues and witness things that few can imagine. Politicians pretend these issues don't exist. They talk about the interests of middle class and the "job creators" without mentioning the poor and problems caused by poverty. Without movements from outside electoral politics bringing light to these issues, cops will still be left to conceal and contain the messes that politicians don't want to touch-since doing so could alienate their campaign backers.

Paintings

2012-04-17T17:36:00.000-04:00

Sappho on the Rocks - Gustave Moreau

The Forging of the Sampo by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1893

Thor's Battle with the Ettins by Marten Eskil Winge, 1872

Surveillance and Censorship

2012-01-29T06:18:00.000-05:00

The best video to watch is Top Secret America by PBS Frontline about the massive expansion of the top secret parts of the government after 9/11 to a far greater extent than is widely known. It is well documented and acknowledged by the powers that be. Almost one million people in the United States have top secret security clearances. Considering how well the terrorist fighting successes are publicized, whether its killing or capturing Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Sheik Mohammad, Mohammed Atef or Anwar al-Awlaki, drone strikes or the hostage rescues in and around Somalia, I question the claim that there are major victories every day that are hidden from the public. This claim is used to defend the obscene secrecy and massive surveillance apparati that have been constructed since 9/11. When the government of a republic is so powerful, public scrutiny is more essential than it is tactically inconveniencing.

In terms of raw power at its disposal contemporary governments are unrivaled in history. At the time of the French, American or Haitian revolutions, for example, the difference between civilians and governments was less. A citizen had a hunting rifle or musket and a soldier had a military musket with a bayonet and cannons and war horses on their side. The governments did not have a substantial advantage in information or technological knowledge. Today, militaries possess nuclear and chemical weapons, air superiority fighters, surveillance drones and satellites, machine guns, shoulder-fired missiles, Apaches that can control Little Bird drones and aircraft carriers. Civilians have rifles, hand guns, remote-control toy planes, automobiles and small unarmed planes and helicopters and closed-circuit cameras. While for the present, the power of governments is held in check by rights enshrined in constitutions, multiple branches of government, the press and free speech, many of these checks do seem to be eroded, weakened or circumvented, initially during World War II and continuing ever since. Many of those who are sworn to defend the Constitution seem so eager to view it as red tape. That is not surprising. For many decades, television shows and movies have portrayed the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments, as well as the press clause of the First, as bureaucratic obstacles to stopping crimes. I am not of the opinion that the United States is a tyrannical state drastically abusing its power domestically but I worry that its position is more precarious than its longevity makes it appear and there will be little recourse for its people. In addition to the laws weakening the rights of civilians, there is a record circumventing laws by law enforcement and intelligence agencies and is harder for the public to see. In the meantime it would be good to keep that in mind and repeal many of the expansive powers that resemble those of Cold War East Germany.
Twitter Censorship Policy Ignites Global Outrage
Twitter to Enable Country-Specific Censorship
FBI releases plans to monitor social networks
Authority for NYPD-CIA Collaboration Questioned
NYPD infiltrated mosques and Muslim student groups, raises concerns
Army Tracking Plan: Drones That Never Forget a Face
Homeland Security Wants to Spy on 4 Square Miles at Once
An interesting point is made by this last article. Technologies developed for the military and Central Intelligence Agency with federal money have been and will be turned towards the people of the United States. While the research expenditure is more easily justified to the people for overseas use than for domestic use, if law enforcement has their way, the distinction may be moot. Surveillance drones and nonlethal and less lethal riot control weapons are principle examples.

And finally, there is good news. The Fourth Amendment still has kick, according to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Rules Police Need Warrant For GPS Tracking

The Successes of Occupy Wall Street

2012-01-17T15:49:00.002-05:00

Half a million people left banks and joined credit unions
Occupy Wall Street? No, divest from it.

Far more people are aware of the massive and increasing income gaps between the rich and everyone else.

Economic inequalities, the 99% and the 1%, and the amount of money in politics are now visible in the news media and in both Democratic and Republican public conversations.

Far more people have learned and experienced consensus-based direct democracy and can reproduce it. They now know that it can work. They can explain it to others. Moreover, we have experienced how other forms of organizing society are possible and that there are more ways of organizing society that we can collectively choose from then we were previously aware.

The number of people trained in non-violent direct action, have learned their rights and tried methods of utilizing the First Amendment has multiplied.

The problems of homelessness and addiction became more visible.

Tens of thousands of people around the country and world have made new connections that they will be able to rely on in the years ahead.

I'd say that is more than any political party has accomplished in four months.

What You Reap is What You Sow: My Occupy Wall Street Soundtrack: Part 4

2011-12-17T12:00:00.002-05:00

K'naan - Wavin' Flag

Rage Against the Machine - Wake Up

A Message of Support for Occupy Wall Street

2011-12-16T05:21:00.005-05:00

Sisters and Brothers, I greet you in the Name of Our Lord and in the bonds of common friendship and struggle from my homeland of South Africa. I know of your own challenges and of this appeal to Trinity Church for the shelter of a new home and I am with you! May God bless this appeal of yours and may the good people of that noble parish heed your plea, if not for ease of access, then at least for a stay on any violence or arrests.

Yours is a voice for the world not just the neighborhood of Duarte Park. Injustice, unfairness, and the strangle hold of greed which has beset humanity in our times must be answered with a resounding, "No!" You are that answer. I write this to you not many miles away from the houses of the poor in my country. It pains me despite all the progress we have made. You see, the heartbeat of what you are asking for--that those who have too much must wake up to the cries of their brothers and sisters who have so little--beats in me and all South Africans who believe in justice.

Trinity Church is an esteemed and valued old friend of mine; from the earliest days when I was a young Deacon. Theirs was the consistent and supportive voice I heard when no one else supported me or our beloved brother Nelson Mandela. That is why it is especially painful for me to hear of the impasse you are experiencing with the parish. I appeal to them to find a way to help you. I appeal to them to embrace the higher calling of Our Lord Jesus Christ--which they live so well in all other ways--but now to do so in this instance...can we not rearrange our affairs for justice sake? Just as history watched as South Africa was reborn in promise and fairness so it is watching you now.

In closing, be assured of my thoughts and prayers, they are with you at this very hour.

God bless you,

Desmond Tutu

Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town

The above statement was posted to occupywallst.org. The next day, December 16, Trinity Wall Street posted the following message from Desmond Tutu on their website.

I’ve challenged my friends at Trinity on this issue just as I’ve challenged Trinity for the past 35 years in our ongoing friendship. I do this in love, not to harm.

I also now challenge those who disagree with Trinity. My statement is not to be used to justify breaking the law. In a country where all people can vote and Trinity's door to dialogue is open, it is not necessary to forcibly break into property. Nor is it to reinforce or build higher the barriers between people of faith who seek peace and justice. My deep prayer is that people can work together and I look forward to that conversation.

Space for Visible and Embodied Assembly

2011-12-16T04:46:00.001-05:00

Liberty Plaza/Zuccotti Park was the birthplace of the Occupy movement. The movement could not have attained its successes without a space for ongoing occupation. A physical site is very different from a Facebook page, an online petition, comments on a video, Skype, a forum or thread, or a listserve. The internet is largely segmented in specialized spaces where only those who are interested go, as well as trolls. Google and the URL bar take you where you want to go directly most of the time. It is not a street where those passing by can notice a group of people having an engaging discussion out of the corner of their eye and walk over keeping their distance at first, then moving closer when they hear a point of view they've been thinking privately that they never knew anyone else shared. I'm thinking of Think Tank right now. I loved the look on people's face when they sat down at Think Tank and discussed issues in person. Not academics, politicians, public relations workers, journalists, bloggers or long time activists but instead regular busy people who had no outlet for their thinking in their daily lives, who often were not confident about expressing their views. They had this look on their faces of disbelief - finally they can say what they've been mulling over for, in some cases, years and people will listen and consider their views. A place where you can make eye contact and crowd together to get enthused and brainstorm, expressing ideas that would never make it onto television and its one directional communication or any political platform. Many responded as if they had found utopia, a place they had half-desired that they never believed existed. No qualifications needed. Many did not get further involved in Occupy but just attended Think Tank day after day before the park was raided on November 15th. That this happened in a visible location in downtown Manhattan, a neighborhood otherwise reserved for private office space, large banks, McDonalds and Starbucks, and other commercially viable institutions.

A latent benefit of a physical Occupation has been at times a source of unease and other times a critical energy. Prior to September 17th there were homeless people living in Zuccotti Park. After the Occupiers moved in and started sleeping there and eventually the Kitchen and Comfort working groups got off the ground providing food and warm clothing, the site attracted more and more homeless, including the mentally ill, the drug addicted, and those whose ability to interact with others had been lost or injured. Middle class recent college graduates and those without a place in society sharing a crowded space. Gradually more and more homeless became involved in Occupy Wall Street, whether in decision making at the General Assembly, attending marches or by performing work for the park. They became socialized into the Occupy movement and vice versa. Many issues with drug addiction and mental illness or the same difficulties of attention or attitude that plagued them in school, jobs or family still plagued them and led to tensions in the park. There has been an aspiration for those who society has failed, who have been systematically and consciously removed from visibility in areas like lower Manhattan, where bankers and tourists move, to be reincorporated into a new society where they can live in society without harassment and where they can deal with their demons in a safe and stable environment. Lessons from Zuccotti Park have been discussed and Occupy Wall Street can improve in this regard if it re-occupies a space. That is not possible without an embodied Occupation in a physical place. The internet cannot do that and it would be difficult for a dispersed nomadic network to do that.

Time to re-occupy!

Occupy Wall Street Chants

2011-11-25T02:56:00.006-05:00

Whose Streets?
Our Streets
variation Whose Bridge?
Our Bridge (Day of Action)

We Are Unstoppable
Another World is Possible

Banks Got Bailed Out
We Got Sold Out

We Are the 99%

All Day All Week Occupy Wall Street
v. All Day All Week Shut Down Wall Street (N17 Day of Action)

The people united, will never be defeated
El pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido

There are others that I don't care for or that I feel are counterproductive.
I favor chants that emphasize our strongest arguments specifically or that make clear the targets of our opposition and avoid using vague and easily misunderstood terms. The last of the above chants is good for internal morale and may inspire hope in bystanders but also misrepresents the dire straits we find ourselves in, where we are constantly defeated. An example of vague terms in a chant that I choose not to use:

Show me what democracy looks like.
This is what democracy looks like.

First of all, when chanted during a march it is arguably inaccurate, since a march is not a performance of democratic political process per se. There is the argument that it is an expression of freedom of speech and the result of democratic assemblies, but the observers of a march do not see the later. They see people asserting that they are democratic while acting uniformly. They do not see how Occupations deal with dissenting views, the true test of democracy. They believe the United States is a democracy and that the laws against disrupting traffic are the result of democratic processes. The chant attempts to intervene in the language of democracy and appropriate it, but this is hard to understand for an outsider.

Another example of vagueness is:

What do we want?
Justice.
When do we want it?
Now.

Justice, while an excellent concept, is a nebulous term and it does not help those who are not familiar with our specific causes and strongest arguments understand. Its not a bad chant, but it could be better.

Chants that mention Wall Street, the 99%, banks, bailouts, specific political practices, racist laws, the composition of the 99%, foreclosures, increasing wealth disparities, the high proportion of children who go hungry, lobbyists, are stronger. For instance:

Hey ho
Racist laws have got to go.

Have you heard any chants that resonated? Are there any chants you've wanted to hear? Post them here and bring them to any occupy events you attend.

I'm trying to grow me a heart cause they tore it apart: My Occupy Wall Street Soundtrack: Part 3

2011-11-23T03:05:00.001-05:00

K'naan - Take a Minute

Tumi - The Soldier

On and On Through the Years the War Continues On: My Occupy Wall Street Soundtrack: Part 2

2011-11-20T14:09:00.001-05:00

Blackmore's Night - Wind in the Willows

Jeff Van Dyck and Angela Van Dyck - We Are All One

November 15th Raid on Zuccotti Park and its Aftermath

2011-11-17T06:00:00.012-05:00

Let me fix an omission in the news coverage. All the coverage was focused on what was happening in the park with nothing about what happened immediately after, between 1:30 and 3:30am. While the news teams were busy covering the police raid of Zuccotti Park on the 15th, occupiers who voluntarily and peacefully left the park were being channeled and herded away along Broadway and parallel streets with few or no news crews around. Just police and occupiers on dark sleeping streets with no one else watching and it didn't go well. Maybe 200 full occupiers plus part timers like us who had just arrived to help were stretched out on both sidewalks as hundreds of police, every one with baton in hand, jabbed and threatened us with their batons to stay on the sidewalk and keep moving. The cops would wave their batons threatening to hit us if we even approached the curb or stopped for a breather. Every block a fight would break out and a tun of cops would run over and four or five cops would whack on one guy, holding him down, another four or five on another. Many arrests were made. We were snaking around to avoid police blockades, helicopters above us shining their spotlights on us. When fights broke out people surged around them with cameras. Just as many cops as occupiers, a lot really looking like they wanted to hit us. People who reacted to their jabs and got defensive, as many people from all walks of life might be prone to do in response to harassment, would get surrounded and beat on. In the police mind, using your arm to block a baton strike or a block a punch is basically assaulting the cop. If you talked back you'd be threatened with the baton.

Hopefully today will be interesting.

On a related note, a disadvantage of consensus-style direct democracy is inferior opsec.

It's Too Easy to Bow Your Head and Pray: My Occupy Wall Street Soundtrack: Part 1

2011-11-16T16:56:00.001-05:00

Oceanlab - Miracle

Blackmore's Night - All For One

More Favorite Paintings

2011-11-16T16:31:00.001-05:00

The Wet Meadow, 1872 - Fyodor Vasilyev

Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, 1874 - James McNeil Whistler

House on Attersee - Gustav Klimt

Rare Fowl Xie Sheng Zhen Qin Tu, 10th century - Huan Quan

Gopak - Ilya Repin

Occupy Your Lives, Occupy Everywhere All The Time

2011-11-15T19:26:00.004-05:00

Occupying means being fully present, conscious of the choices you are making, conscious of what is going on around you, aware of and use your power to speak and move, to be proactive and not reactive and routine, to be with the people around you not just physically but socially, to make places that are between into spaces where things can happen. Occupy your lives.

Words that Cause Problems: Efficient

2011-10-31T20:55:00.001-04:00

When people use the word efficient you have to ask the question, “efficient at what, exactly?” because people all to often use the adjective the way they use the color “blue.” If I say “the flag is blue” the meaning of my statement is clear; but, if I say, “the flag is efficient”, you can't really understand what I mean without asking, “What is the flag efficient at?” Maybe its a time-efficient way to signal, maybe it requires few resources to produce or perhaps it is visually simple. All too often “efficiency” is used like a quality inherent to an object rather than dependent on an ends.

When people say, "the economy is efficient" or "deregulation is "efficient" you have to ask, "efficient at what?" Is it efficient at producing a large GDP? Is it efficient at making money for the owners of companies? Is it efficient at meeting the needs of food and shelter of the people in society? Many people mean efficiency as synonymous with elegance and simplicity. Efficient prose communicates ideas effectively with as few words as possible. Since we read prose and it has an aesthetic quality, in this case efficiency takes on an aesthetic quality. The problem is that we run away with this aesthetic quality and apply it to everything without considering what the purpose we are trying to efficiently work towards. The biggest impact of this confusion is the propagation of misunderstandings of economic and business policy, from the language of the Tea Party to that of centrist liberals. Vague words often have the potential to create space for thought. This is not one of them. Simple confusion results in big consequences.

Occupy Wall Street and Its Potential

2011-10-31T00:00:00.002-04:00

I've been at Occupy Wall Street for most of the past week and slept there once. Arriving in - I believe the 5th week - meant it took a bit of time figuring out what was going on. I made the mistake of not creating an account at nycga.net and joining working groups before coming. That would have helped me get to meetings of interest, usually at locations other than the park, earlier in the week. Instead I stayed in Zucotti Park, learning what I could from there. As a non-native of NYC it may have taken a little longer to accustom myself to the local activist culture and geographic lingo. I attended Think Tank a few times, an open ended discussion group that primarily consists of a mix of casual and dedicated occupiers, curious locals and tourists, and people looking for an audience for their miraculous insights. Among those there was a candidate for US Congress, a class of high schoolers on a field trip led by their history teacher, a man who described himself as "another Hedge Fund asshole" and a "Marxist" who advocated getting away from free market policies to a political economic model advocated Adam Smith, a vocal anti-Semite who conflated banks with Jews, an anthropology professor, a young mother and her small daughter, a poet, and many more. This is not the typical Occupy Wall Street crowd.

A third of the occupiers are basically confused libertarians who think doing away with the Federal Reserve and bailouts would solve all problems of economic inequalities and poverty. Some of those identify as advocates and many fit the image of the stereotypical young grungy leftist activist. Some have economics degrees. A second third seem to be people who very experienced leftist activists who look for every opportunity to fight the elites of government and business non-violently in the streets. These tend to think in terms of contingencies of direct action tactics and vocabularies of cooperative self-governance. Some of those have PhDs in the social sciences or humanities or are otherwise very educated in political and social movements theory. Many are middle aged. These tend to wear either low key practical clothing, absurd dress, or stylish and creative signals of individuality and personal meanings. These link Occupy Wall Street to previous movements either as a matter of fact or as an aspiration. The final third, who seem to come out of the woodwork just before General Assembly, are 20s something savvy diplomatic organizers who are formally educated and principled who are keen on process and fairness, calm discussion and inclusiveness, these tend to be members of Facilitation. They dress in mainstream youth fashion and look like young professionals. Of course there is a last group - the homeless - who eat at Kitchen and frequently visit Comfort and who have an uneasy relationship with the movement. Some seem to participate in it whoever marginally, others seek coexistence - including many who lived at the park before the OWS, and a very few actively disrupt it.

The third group gives me the most hope and tend to define the movement to the more supportive mainstream press. The second group occasionally worries me - I wonder if they do not see the distinctiveness of this movement. They seem to think that their past is filled with successes but I am not convinced: the anti-Iraq War protests accomplished nothing other than driving information about the US effort into further obscurity and PR language. The WTO protests of 1998 and the Republican National Convention protests in NYC in 2004 likewise failed to achieve any real change. I am aware that there are those who disagree with me and think that the success of protests can measured by their effect of the moral and politicization of the protesters, in confusing authorities or other oblique goals. While I support the causes of those movements and I feel they were right to be attempted, I nevertheless see them as largely failures and would not have OWS similarly fail. OWS has far greater support in the US and around the world than any of those recent protests. Its support can grow greater still if OWS can avoid alienating those who might not feel at home sleeping in the Park or hanging out with self-described anarchists but still seek justice for the 2008 recession, who believe humanity is capable of more than greed, who are frightened by the vast and increasing inequalities in the world and who see the financial system as a dangerous and weird factor in the economy.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-24T10:43:00.004-04:00

Wikipedia: Occupy Wall Street

40 Percent of Financial Advisers Support Occupy Wall Street

New Yorkers Support Occupy Wall Street Poll

Meet Occupy Wall Street's Security Guy

Religious Events at Occupy Wall Street Events

Occupy Wall Street: The Labour Connection

Occupy Globe (ft. Pepe Escobar)

Occupy Wall Streets Consensus Process

Where Does Michael Bloomberg Stand on Occupy Wall Street?

Live Stream of Occupy Wall Street

More Favorite Paintings

2011-10-24T00:53:00.000-04:00

Salome, 1876 - Gustave Moreau

The Valley of the Shadow of Death - George Inness

Village, 1869 - Fyodor Vasilyev

Waterfall and Monkeys, 1817 - Shibata Zeshin

Pancho Quilici

Occupy Wall Street, Complex Systems and Cultures of Democracy All in One

2011-10-20T23:54:00.001-04:00

Are Swarms Good? Complex Systems and Critical Theory from Complex Systems on Vimeo.

This is a great presentation about swarms and the methods of democracy by consensus.

Occupy Wall Street has developed a culture - an alternative democratic discourse. Quiet hand signals replace clapping and cheering because they are less disruptive to communication. Its not counter-cultural - its an alternative culture and they are not merely proposing it, they are performing it.

Towards the end when he answers a question about uses of metaphors of swarms in history he mentions that they are still typically negative. Both democracy and swarms have long been shadowed by the specters of ill-defined anarchy, chaos, and hysteria.

Favorite Paintings

2011-10-19T19:37:00.000-04:00

Tree of Life, 1909 - Gustav Klimt

The King of Black Isles, 1923 - Maxfield Parrish

Florence Cascina Park, 1868 - Nikolay Gay

Early Autumn, 13th Century - Qian Xuan

At the Dressing Table, 1909 - Zinaida Serebriakova

2011-10-14T19:05:00.000-04:00

I'm preparing a post for submission to overthinkingit.com, a website I am a big fan of. The topic is historical strategy games like Civilization, Age of Empires and Rise of Nations.

Policy Program

2011-10-11T23:18:00.000-04:00

I follow politics closely and can't help mulling over how I would address problems that present themselves including how to close the debt. I decided to write it down the other day and here it is, a work in progress:

A maximum ratio of the highest paid to the lowest paid employees of a single company

Fortify civil liberties, repeal many sections of the Patriot Act

Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act provision separating investment banks that issue securities from commercial banks that accept deposits, a major cause of the financial crisis

Legalize suicide

If any federal court vacancies appear, appoint justices with relatively strong interpretations of the 1^st, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 8^th, 9^th, 14^th and 15^thAmendments

Pass Constitutional Amendments:

End the loophole that enables filibustering in the Senate and other loopholes that prevent a majority from passing bills
Abolish the Electoral College and provide for direct election of the president and vice president
Allow Congress to enact campaign spending limits on federal elections
Provide for run-off Presidential elections if no one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote
Prohibit the death penalty
Clarify and strengthen the right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which a citizen resides
a) ensure felons and ex-felons have the right to vote in federal elections and that no criminal charge, past or present may restrict the right to vote, provisions for prisoners to vote must be provided
b) voter registration drives cannot require certification, licensing, or approval by any government agency
c) states must provide for early voting on all days from 16 days before the election to election day
d) ensure that citizens of U.S. Territories and commonwealths can vote in Presidential elections
Equality of rights under the law may not be denied or abridged on account of sex or gender
Vacancies in the Senate may only be filled by a special direct election and not by state governors
The District of Columbia and all territories and commonwealths shall receive proportional representation to the House of Representatives, with a minimum of one Representative, to Congress.

Increasing Revenues

Phase in the IMF recommended increase in taxes on the financial industry proportionate to institutions contribution to system risk

Raise taxes on million dollar income earners to 40% (Buffett Rule)

Return other taxes to those of the Clinton era

Phasing in a 15 cent per gallon gasoline tax as recommended by the Simpson-Bowles commission
Close tax loopholes for multinational companies who utilize offshore tax havens

Reducing Expenditures

Close one third of overseas military bases (as proposed by the Simpson and Bowles commission)

Reduce the fleet of supercarriers from 11 to 5, replace as to meet current and projected missions with vastly cheaper America-class amphibious assault ships, shift to a fleet of cheaper, leaner, less vulnerable and less individually critical vessels

Reduce without eliminating redundant homeland security agencies

Legalize marijuana possession and pardon those imprisoned for that offense, cut the amount the DEA and other agencies spends on marijuana related crime and consolidate remaining prisoners into as few prisons as possible

Ban the death penalty

Reduce border security funding, get rid of easily circumvented measures,

Get ride of agricultural subsidies

Reduce defense procurement by 15% as recommended by the Simpson-Bowles commision

Public health insurance option competing with health insurance companies

Strengthen the authority of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, perhaps the most important provision of the Affordable Care Act, to find ways to reduce Medicare costs without reducing quality or coverage