Sunday, December 3, 2017

#OccupyWallStreet – Principles for Success

Just this morning, a crackdown of sorts transpired on the #OccupyOakland movement. The Associated Press wrote:
Under cover of darkness early Tuesday, hundreds of police swept into Oakland's Occupy Wall Street protest, firing tear gas and beanbag rounds before clearing out an encampment of demonstrators. In less than an hour, the 2-week-old, miniature makeshift city was in ruins. (Source)
Personally, I am greatly mortified to hear this news, word of clandestine police raids conjuring disturbing visions of V for Vendetta-esque police-states. That said, it is even more disturbing to read some of the comments on the link in question, indicating that those affected by the gratuitous lies that the media propagates tire of the movement and maintain a deeply flawed misconception of the movement.

That said, in order to preserve solidarity and hope in vein of police intervention and a false sense of jadedness and cynicism towards the movement, several things must be acknowledged by protestors.
  1. Protestors must not break the law confrontationally. By vandalizing private property, throwing around ethnic slurs and trespassing, we come off to the media as sensationalistic hippies without a worthy cause. We know that we are not that and thus, we must act professionally to hold credibility.
  2. Protestors must not react violently to police presence. Like in the last rule, our credibility is at stake here. A single riot would put a massive dent in the movement. 1% of the 99% can easily ruin the image of the movement for all involved.
  3. Protestors must uphold the ideals of nonviolent civil disobedience. As a “populist” movement, there are few historical precedents to #OccupyWallStreet. Thus, we must learn from the most successful: Gandhi and King.
  4. Protestors must persist and not be dissuaded by threats of police intervention or popular disapproval. As a movement characterized by mass civil disobedience, we must stand together in solidarity to act as a force for positive social change imprinted forever into the collective consciousness of our world. We must believe in ourselves and that our actions are valuable.
Naomi Klein wrote that the #OccupyWallStreet movement was the single most important thing happening in the world right now. Let’s give the movement the love and care it deserves.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Political Endorsements 2012

So I lied, I'm back.


Political Endorsements 2012

Decide for yourself at: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures.htm

President: Barack Obama - Lesser of two evils, focus on small business is better for economy. This guy has a good description of why: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-06/costco-founder-says-obama-better-for-business-than-romney.html
CA Senator: Dianne Feinstein - Have had no objections in previous years.

30 YES Increased funding for public schools is a priority, a temporary tax increase for certain demographics will help improve the UC system and California public schools.

31 NO Ineffective and expensive bureaucracy, overly vague language open to interpretation (READ: EXPLOITATION)

32 NO Nice try, multinational, big, evil, corporations.

33 NO Allows insurance companies to raise rates for people who have temporarily canceled their insurance.

34 YES Repeal the death penalty, avoid huge controversial battles, save taxpayer money, and respect the life of other humans.

35 YES Human Trafficking and slavery is a crime that deprives people of their autonomy and dignity, I don't think anyone objects to that

36 YES We need to reform this broken system and make repercussions for crimes appropriate for each situation. Will also save California a lot of money.

37 YES We have the right to know what's in our food and autonomously choose whether or not to consume it.

38 NO Redundant to Prop. 30, more expensive and less effective.

39 YES Taxing big businesses allows for increased state revenue, and greater degree of clean energy, which the state needs desperately.

40 YES Less fiscal impact on the state, allows for more effective representation.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Retiring this Blog

The day has come at last, due to new obligations I will be retiring this blog and will stop posting here regularly. It has been a great journey over the last four years, and we have done many great things over the lifetime of this site. But the future awaits, and it will be necessary to end this site and continue posting at the beautiful http://subtlestone.com/. If you’re still interested in following my adventures, check the site out, subscribe, like and watch the journey continue.

Peace

Kevin

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sunday Sites 102

Almost done converting Dark Deception to XNA, just gotta build some original character sprites.

http://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing Try not to spot an re-enactor, how long can you survive?

https://www.scoreoid.com/ Cool API for online score-attack games. Could be useful if we want to market zombies on Desura.