Innovation Patterns: #OCCUPY

Showing posts with label #OCCUPY. Show all posts

4.08.2015

04-08-2015 | Young & Hungry

Beyond Hope - Derrick Jensen

The Agrarian Is The Political - Gordon White

The Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies - Tetlock & Mellers

Serfdom is Actually Better Than What the West is Headed For - Ian Welsh

6.05.2013

Are Cops Constitutional? - Long & interesting read from Roger Roots.

Abstract: Police work is often lionized by jurists and scholars who claim to employ "textualist" and "originalist" methods of constitutional interpretation. Yet professional police were unknown to the United States in 1789, and first appeared in America almost a half-century after the Constitution's ratification. The Framers contemplated law enforcement as the duty of mostly private citizens, along with a few constables and sheriffs who could be called upon when necessary. This article marshals extensive historical and legal evidence to show that modern policing is in many ways inconsistent with the original intent of America's founding documents. The author argues that the growth of modern policing has substantially empowered the state in a way the Framers would regard as abhorrent to their foremost principles.

11.15.2011

11-15-2011

"I walked in supportive and left unsupportive," said 69-year-old Mary Ann, who declined to provide her last name. "I’m turned off by the negative shouts, repetition, and all I can think about is a cult. And I believe in every one of their damn principles."

Occupy Seattle: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Dominic Holden

Google X: A Secret Lab for a Stranger Future - NYT

#OpCartel Update - Barrett Brown

#Occupy and Anarchism's Gift of Democracy - David Graeber

Zuccotti 11/15: A Police Raid Suffused With Symbolism - Glenn "Commie" Greenwald

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan: 18 Cities Consulted & Coordinated on #Occupy Crackdowns - Alternet

11.13.2011

11-13-2011

Occupy as Leaderless Movement | Innovation Patterns

"You don't seriously believe this is a leaderless movement, do you?" Cecily McMillan, a 23-year-old graduate student at the New School, asks me one day. Not possible, she says, that's an illusion crafted by the OWS secret elite, who she insists are unresponsive to the demand for a concrete agenda by the "actual 99 percent."

McMillan is Northeast regional organizer for the youth section of the Democratic Socialists of America, which bills itself as the largest socialist organization in the United States. She's been involved with the Occupy movement since August, despite sharp differences with most of the people in the park. "I believe in a constrained view of revolution," she says, by which she means putting pressure on mainstream politicians. And for this, she says, she has suffered. "I have been called a terrorist. I have been called CIA, FBI. I have been called a Democrat!" Like Lasn, she wants regime change. Unlike most of the occupiers, she believes it requires the guidance of those, like her, possessed of what she calls "cultural capital."

She's a former cheerleader; she used to want to be a politician. She says her studies and her work – she's also a nanny – prevent her from sleeping in the park. But she's not afraid to put her body on the line. She was arrested after she charged Wall Street three times, a "direct action" that even some veteran anarchists – militant and masked – considered wildly courageous, if foolish. A cop thought so, too, blasted her with pepper spray, knocked her down, stepped on her head and snarled at her, "Shut up. You get what you deserve, cunt bitch."

We met in the atrium of 60 Wall Street, built in 1989 as a headquarters for JP Morgan and sold to Deutsche Bank right after 9/11. It looks like a bad Italian restaurant – white-tiled columns, mirrored ceiling, a grotto, stunted palms. This is where many of the movement's working groups meet. At any given time there might be a half-dozen of them – the People's Kitchen, Alternative Banking, Tactics, Medics, Sanitation. McMillan had just come from a gathering of one of the biggest and most influential groups, Facilitation, responsible for setting the agenda of the daily General Assembly. She was there as the least bristly representative of the working group that bluntly calls itself Demands, and her first demand was a place on the agenda, which she claimed had been denied by "infiltrators." She wasn't talking about police; she meant other occupiers opposed to her ideas.

--from Jeff Sharlet's outstanding history, Welcome to the Occupation

11.12.2011

11-12-2011

#Occupy Logistics: Power To vs. Power Over - Michael Bauwens

US Veteran Unemployment Hits 30% - John Robb

How Anonymous Waged Media Warfare and Generated FUD Cover for #Occupy - Fast Company

An Interview with #Occupy Media Team Member Justin Wedes - Andrew Katz

The Informal Media Team Behind Occupy Wall Street - NPR

Vermont Infragard WikiLeaks and National Security Colloquium Presentations - Public Intelligence

Tuckman On Group Development - [PDF]

11.11.2011

"Terry Duffy: Expect Us"

Meet Terrence Andrew Duffy...

Terrence Duffy | Terry Duffy | Information

Background: A Secret Banking Elite Runs Trading in Derivatives - NYT

Terrence Duffy recently hosted his 4th Annual Global Financial Leadership Conference on October 24th-26th in Naples, Florida. It's exactly what it sounds like: a gathering for high rollers, media figures and tech execs to organize and strategize. The keynote speaker this year was George W. Bush, but of course, Duffy's also gotten Clinton before that. High finance is something Democrats and Republicans are both happy to support: Bipartisan Consensus.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Terry Duffy

Executive Profile - Forbes | Terrence A. Duffy - MarketWiki | Board Network

Terrence Duffy's Political Donations (Hello, Barney Frank) - Newsmeat

Days after the Global Financial Leadership Conference, though, Terry Duffy was right back at work doing what he does best: carving a bigger profit margin out of anything smaller and slower than the financial conglomerate he represents. For the past few weeks, he's been focusing his efforts on the state of Illinois. We do not appreciate that.

10/27/2011: Rich Miller reports the "Corporate Tax Break Bidding War" is heating up in Springfield, Illinois...

"The CME says it pays 6 percent of all Illinois corporate income taxes, making it the state’s largest taxpayer. The company also claims that the recent income tax increase cost it an extra $50 million a year. Its executive chairman, Terry Duffy, has repeatedly warned that he’s furious about his company’s tax burden and is seriously contemplating a move to a more favorable location."

Terry Duffy has insisted that he is not bluffing about moving to another state, and this is true. The act he has been putting on here in Springfield is more accurately described as horseshit. Although it is true the CME has 2300+ employees who will be utterly unwilling to trade the Chicago high life for the cultural wastelands of Indiana, their actual trading floor makes up only a small percentage of their earnings. CME is fundamentally virtual, yet strangely enough, that's exactly why Terry Duffy can't go anywhere.

Spread Networks HFT | Terry Duffy

That's the Spread Networks Dark Pipeline: a fiber optic connection for High-Frequency Trading (HFT) algorithms to communicate with New York in 13.33 milliseconds. That, along with their political connections and market manipulation, is the real source of their massive profit margins. So despite doing business anywhere in the world 24 hours a day, Terry Duffy remains unable to actually move his to another state - no matter how "lucrative" their offers of tax breaks and free rents may be.

Standing before the Illinois Senate, Duffy backpedaled: "We're not threatening anybody. We like Chicago. We love Illinois. We want to remain a big part of it." Less than 20 feet outside the door to Senate chambers, though, and he was already back on a different set of talking points: "I would not be going through all this effort if we did not have a commitment to stay here...I simply would have gone to another state, accepted very lucrative proposals and moved our firm."

"A tax break for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? The notion would be comical if it weren't so sad. CME took a stunning 54 percent of its $8 billion revenue as clear profit. That's a higher percentage than any of the top 100 companies in the country!" - Patrick Bucheit

Terrence Duffy | Rahm Emanuel

"CME gave Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel the single largest contribution to his mayoral campaign, $200,000, before state campaign finance rules changed to prohibit such largesse. Still, to demonstrate how large a donation it was, CME has given House Speaker Michael Madigan about $245,000 since late 1994, according to a Tribune analysis of data that goes back to that year. CBOE, the other financial exchange that would benefit from the tax breaks, has given about $90,000 to Madigan during that period." - Chicago Tribune

"It will be an interesting week. I am going to be down in Springfield, obviously, all week. Hopefully the legislature understands the value that the CME Group brings not only to Chicago but to the state of Illinois and the rest of the country." - ABC News, Nov 7th, 2011

Since October 2006, he has been a member of the Board of FXMarketSpace Limited, a joint venture between CME and Reuters.

Duffy Says CTFC Director is 'Not Too Smart' - Brian Scheid

2006 PBS Interview Re: Mergers - Susie Gharib

Testimony to Agriculture, Dec 2nd, 2009 - Terrence Duffy

Testimony on OTC Derivatives Regulation - April 12th, 2011 - Terrence Duffy

Derivatives Clearinghouses: Opportunities and Challenges - May 25th, 2011 - Terrence Duffy

Of course, CME has been plenty busy putting out fires on other fronts, especially with Jon Corzine's $40 Billion Collapse over at MF Global.

11/11/2011: Terry Duffy announces the CME will put up $300 million to temporarily cover their liabilities for MF Global.