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karmabennett.com
DareToEatAPeach
@karmabennett.com
1.2K followers 640 following 830 posts
I'm Karma: Word wrangler, spin doctor, agitator. I'm all about books, street art, politics, writing, web design & your new favorite band. Mod for San Francisco Writers Conference Discord, web mistress cwc-berkeley.org. Writing a memoir, like everyone else.
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karmabennett.com
Big win for not allowing cops to surveil citizens last night in #oakland. This morning city council trying to sneaky reintroduce proposal this morning while folks are at work. Call to stop them.
Here’s what I found about the Oakland Police Department (OPD) / Flock Safety camera-contract proposal in Oakland, California: ⸻ ✅ What happened on 11/18/2025 On Tuesday, November 18 (or effectively the evening of that day) the city’s Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee met and considered the proposal for OPD to expand its camera-/license-plate-reader system with Flock Safety. The committee vote ended in a 2–2 deadlock (two “yes” votes, two “no” votes) and thus the proposal did not advance from committee at that time. So, yes: the committee effectively rejected or stalled the proposal at that level on 11/18/25. ⸻ 📅 What happens on 11/20/2025 On Thursday, November 20, 2025 the full Oakland City Council (or potentially the Rules & Legislation Committee) is scheduled to take up the matter again. Because the committee didn’t approve it, the item may be resubmitted to full Council (or a relevant committee) with amendments or additional safeguards. The article notes it “is expected to be reintroduced … likely with amendments.” In other words: the 11/20 meeting is the next stage of the process — the Council may review the contract proposal, hear public comment, consider changes, potentially approve, reject, or send it back for further work.
November 20, 2025 at 5:28 PM
karmabennett.com
Image source: subversas.com/are-detainme...

Quote is from this article, which every American should read slate.com/news-and-pol...
Image of quote: As one of the few journalists permitted to tour the government’s new internment camp, about 40 miles from the southern border, the New York Times correspondent tried to be scrupulously fair. Forcing civilians to live behind barbed wire and armed guards was surely inhumane, and there was little shelter from the blazing summer heat. But on the other hand, the barracks were “clean as a whistle.” Detainees lazed in the grass, played chess, and swam in a makeshift pool. There were even workshops for arts and crafts, where good work could earn an “extra allotment of bread.” True, there had been some clashes in the camp’s first days—and officials, the reporter noted, had not allowed him to visit the disciplinary cells. But all in all, the correspondent noted in his July 1933 article, life at Dachau, the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany, had “settled into the organized routine of any penal institution.” from Jonathan M Katz’s article in Salon, “Not Every Concentration Camp is Auschwitz”
October 29, 2025 at 6:14 PM
karmabennett.com
NY Times, history repeating.
Image of quote: As one of the few journalists permitted to tour the government’s new internment camp, about 40 miles from the southern border, the New York Times correspondent tried to be scrupulously fair. Forcing civilians to live behind barbed wire and armed guards was surely inhumane, and there was little shelter from the blazing summer heat. But on the other hand, the barracks were “clean as a whistle.” Detainees lazed in the grass, played chess, and swam in a makeshift pool. There were even workshops for arts and crafts, where good work could earn an “extra allotment of bread.” True, there had been some clashes in the camp’s first days—and officials, the reporter noted, had not allowed him to visit the disciplinary cells. But all in all, the correspondent noted in his July 1933 article, life at Dachau, the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany, had “settled into the organized routine of any penal institution.” from Jonathan M Katz’s article in Salon, “Not Every Concentration Camp is Auschwitz”
October 29, 2025 at 6:09 PM
karmabennett.com
#StephenMiller #TheyreAllGonnaLaughAtYou
😂😂😂😂🤣

#AOC
Screenshot of Reddit comment: Stephen Miller looks like a talking thumb that only quotes deep cuts of the Turner Diaries. Stephen Miller looks like he in an expert of sound proofing basements. Stephen Miller tried to buy a panel van and was turned away from the dealership. Stephen Miller paid two bums to fight each other, but they joined forces to jump him and rob his shoes. Edit:: Stephen Miller looks like he's a little too into Huey Lewis and the News.
October 7, 2025 at 2:46 PM
karmabennett.com
"My classroom was over 89° the first week. Had things thrown at me, administration does nothing"

#WCCSD "#UTRStrong
September 25, 2025 at 3:47 AM
karmabennett.com
Karen VanWinkle Murphy at El Sobrante says her class has been 82° for seven days in a row. The law says services must be provided at 82°. "So where are my services?"

#UTRStrong #WCCSD #Richmond #Hercules
Teacher at podium addressing school board
September 25, 2025 at 3:36 AM
karmabennett.com
I did not expect Mexican piñata dancing at the #Richmond School Board meeting but life is full of surprises.

My sweetie: "worried about the well-being of that cow"
September 25, 2025 at 2:31 AM
karmabennett.com
Teachers at the #Richmond School Board rally chanting "fair contract now." Currently working with no contract... You think they'll hesitate to strike? 🤔

#studentSuccess #UTRStrong #weAreUTRStrong
September 25, 2025 at 1:39 AM
karmabennett.com
I think of this quote all the time, when i read stories like the one below. It's wasn't that long ago that such a headline would be unthinkable. Do you remember?
Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked — if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D. And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you… [I]n my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.” –Milton Mayer, “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45”, excerpt
September 23, 2025 at 5:16 PM
karmabennett.com
@gypsy-karel.bsky.social asked me about dancers who do flips with the handles on the #BART train. For example:

#SanFrancisco #BayArea #buskers
September 14, 2025 at 12:38 AM
karmabennett.com
Using the Open #AI dictation app (Whisper) for the first time, and it broke on this line. 😳

I know it's just an uncanny coincidence--not a robot revolt --but #yikes.
Screenshot of Whisper app, with the sentence fragment "and the rise of AI slop" repeated over and over until it goes off the screen.
August 22, 2025 at 6:29 PM
karmabennett.com
Read your message, logged into Reddit, second post i saw was this... My Gawd, what have you done?!
August 22, 2025 at 2:52 PM
karmabennett.com
I'm impressed! I've never seen a company that revised their policy to remove mandatory arbitration! Raise your hand if you've ever mailed a letter to a company to opt out of that policy.✋

It's unfair that corporations are able to require folks not to take issues to court.

#bluesky #tos
August 17, 2025 at 3:30 PM
karmabennett.com
#Zizek bringing it in his latest substack.
My interpretation of their act is: yes, now it's not the moment to say it publicly because doing this MAY HAVE SOME REAL EFFECT - we will be allowed to say it when it will mean nothing. Freedom to say something problematic is given to us when it doesn’t matter: when the effect of saying something is null and makes no difference, we are free to say it.
August 13, 2025 at 1:24 AM
karmabennett.com
"I think I'm in love again, but if not you're the prototype." Great line from New Blue, the #jazz band that plays at #OMCA during the @cwc-berkeley.org monthly #writein.

#writersky #writingEvents #EastBay #music #Oakland #lyrics
August 9, 2025 at 9:55 PM
karmabennett.com
My fuschia looking fine!

#gardenbrag #flowers #fushcia
Hot pink fuschia with freaking huge blooms
July 16, 2025 at 3:41 AM
karmabennett.com
Happy #Pride from #RockyTheCat.

#Kathouse @katzigmont.bsky.social #caturday #catsky #cats
June 26, 2025 at 4:30 AM
karmabennett.com
Motivation tips from a research psychologist who studies it.

Screenshot of @howtoadhd.bsky.social #ADHD #motivation
Screenshot of video. On left, a bullet list: remove needless friction, set good goals, add quick wins. On right, Jessica writes on a notepad. All is blue: the text background, the room, her sweater. All is blue except her hair, a study in contrast, her hair the color of fire.
June 4, 2025 at 5:17 AM
karmabennett.com
I'd just confessed to Kat & Gypsy I sometimes fear the Trump admin is a rabies fever dream. Seconds later, @mirrorshades.bsky.social texted me this article.

Would be a WILD coincidence except that surreality is frequent.

@katzigmont.bsky.social @gypsy-karel.bsky.social
Text message that reads: What's more likely? That America would twice elect a convicted rapist slumlord who was the inspiration for the villain from Back to the Future II? OR that I'm losing my damn mind from rabies? Another text: I'm no longer sure.
May 28, 2025 at 9:41 PM
karmabennett.com
Love Burn,
Virginia Key,
Miami Beach,
Florida,
USA
Silhouette of fire dancer bent backwards, spinning a stick with a ring of fire. Miami Beach at dusk behind her.
May 14, 2025 at 6:06 AM
karmabennett.com
Gentle reminder that NOT leaving your jobs is a valid form of protest
Workers who refuse to leave a factory face off with police. Poland, 2002. Text overlay: In 2002 workers in Ozorów, Poland responded to the closure of the only factory in town by barricading the exits. Keeping the plant running was a matter of survival since no other work was available. Their demand was that the factory remain open, preferably under worker control. As winter set in locals poured water on the roads, which froze and prevented the removal trucks from removing factory machinery.
May 12, 2025 at 5:17 PM
karmabennett.com
If you know someone affected by the unconstitutional #DOGE layoffs, please remind them that building occupation is a perfectly cromulent response. Here's an example from my direct action training.
Image of people resisting police with text: In 2002, workers in Ozarów, Poland responded to the closure of the only factory in town by barricading the exits. Keeping the plant running was a matter of survival since no other work was available, so their demand was that the factory remain open, preferably under worker control. As winter set in, locals poured water on the roads, which froze, and prevented the removal trucks from removing factory machinery.
May 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM
karmabennett.com
Most #indieAuthors know that #Amazoncategories are vital to sales, as they affect where a book's listed and ability to get a "category bestseller." But the author's selection's just one factor Amazon considers; it'll likely put your book into others based on their algorithm.

#KDP #selfPublishing
"ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY" meme depicting the Faceless man from Game of Thrones followed by "SELECT AMAZON CATEGORIES"
May 5, 2025 at 10:29 PM
karmabennett.com
That article starts with this jaw dropping quote.
As one of the few journalists permitted to tour the government’s new internment camp, about 40 miles from the southern border, the New York Times correspondent tried to be scrupulously fair. Forcing civilians to live behind barbed wire and armed guards was surely inhumane, and there was little shelter from the blazing summer heat. But on the other hand, the barracks were “clean as a whistle.” Detainees lazed in the grass, played chess, and swam in a makeshift pool. There were even workshops for arts and crafts, where good work could earn an “extra allotment of bread.” True, there had been some clashes in the camp’s first days—and officials, the reporter noted, had not allowed him to visit the disciplinary cells. But all in all, the correspondent noted in his July 1933 article, life at Dachau, the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany, had “settled into the organized routine of any penal institution.” from Jonathan M Katz’s article in Salon, “Not Every Concentration Camp is Auschwitz"
April 30, 2025 at 4:06 PM
karmabennett.com
Most swales in #Oakland are filled w/foxtails but years ago I seedbombed this one. Every year these flowers come back. I don't even have to weed them anymore. #guerrillagardening
April 19, 2025 at 1:50 AM