Year: 2011

Occupy Santa Rosa’s first week contrasts with Wall Street’s moral principle

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“When They Execute a Corporation,” read a sign held by activist Gary Abreim, 69, “You Know They Are Real People.” When asked why he had been coming to the occupations, Abreim explained, “There are seeds being planted here. I’m here to water those seeds. They are a yearning, a passion on the part of Americans to return to a democracy that we have lost.”

#Occupy – Oct 23

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– Barbara Ehrenreich: Why Homelessness Is Becoming an Occupy Wall Street Issue
– At Zuccotti Park, Conflict Arises Among Occupiers
– Michael Kinsley: Four Iron-Clad Demands for OWS
– Global indignation inspires Spanish movement
– Chinese web censors block terms related to “Occupy,” to stamp out movement’s spread in China

#Occupy – BACKGROUND – Oct 23

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– The Economist: Leaderless, consensus-based participatory democracy and its discontents
– Intellectual Roots of Wall St. Protest Lie in Academe
– Athenian Democracy
– A brief history of consensus decision-making (Quakers and pirates)
– Naomi Wolf:The First Amendment and the Obligation to Peacefully Disrupt in a Free Society

Don’t gamble with the grocery money

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My grandfather loved to gamble. So, it is no surprise that my father likes to gamble. I confess that even I enjoy the occasional challenge of facing an opponent when both us have a little skin in the game. But my grandfather–who didn’t always follow his own advice–gave my father some advice which he has taken seriously and passed on to me, to wit: Don’t gamble with the grocery money.

#Occupy – ANALYSIS – Oct 22

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– How Occupy Wall Street Really Got Started
– From Protest to Disruption: Frances Fox Piven on Occupy Wall Street
– What ‘Diversity of Tactics’ Really Means for Occupy Wall Street
– Could the Occupy Movement’s General Assemblies Replace Today’s Parliaments and Legislatures?
– What can OWS learn from a defunct French avant-garde group? (Situationists)

Whether in Egypt or America, it takes organization to win

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In its purest form, politics in a democracy is about the contest for power. The best ideas don’t always win, nor do the most deserving candidates or causes. It is the side that organizes the best and mobilizes its voters most effectively that carries the day and takes power.

This is a lesson we learned in 1981, and it is lesson that is being learned in the Arab Spring states of Tunisia and Egypt where elections will soon decide which side initially takes power and reaps the benefits of the popular mobilizations that led to the downfall of the regimes that governed for decades.

Kidding ourselves about future MENA oil production

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Depending on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for 90% of the growth in global oil production between now and 2020 seems unwise. What the world really needs is a rising supply of low-priced oil, if we are to avoid long-term recession. But MENA is unlikely to supply this. The Middle East claims huge oil reserves and Iraq offers high production targets, but in the end, we are likely to be kidding ourselves, if we believe that these will fix world oil problems.