Profile: People of Occupy Boston: Mike Kostigan
BLAST Magazine: What do you do?
MK: Within Occupy Boston I work with the Direct Action working group. We help to plan marches, as well as try to keep everyone safe during the marches. We also help to coordinate different relevant trainings. With-in my Affinity Group (a group of 6-12 people who you really really trust) I helped to build and maintain our sleeping quarters. We had one of the best sleeping areas within the camp. We had two tents, a porch, couches, bike generators and lighting. We all worked hard to build that place, and it showed in that it was one of the last tents standing.
http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/local-news/people-of-occupy-boston-mike-kostigan/
Imperial Rome was slightly more equal than the U.S.
Since too much inequality can foment revolt and instability, the CIA regularly updates statistics on income distribution for countries around the world, including the U.S. Between 1997 and 2007, inequality in the U.S. grew by almost 10 percent, making it more unequal than Russia, infamous for its powerful oligarchs. The U.S. is not faring well historically, either. Even the Roman Empire, a society built on conquest and slave labor, had a more equitable income distribution.
http://persquaremile.com/2011/12/16/income-inequality-in-the-roman-empire/
Britain draws up evacuation plans to rescue expats if the banking systems of Spain and Portugal collapse
Evacuation plans for British expats stranded in Spain and Portugal if their banking systems collapse are being drawn up by the Foreign Office.
The contingency plans are being put in place to help thousands of Britons if they were unable to get to their money in the event of a catastrophic banking collapse in two of the most vulnerable eurozone economies. Around one million British expats live in Spain, particularly around Marbella and Malaga, and some 50,000 in Portugal.
OWS-NYC: More than 50, including retired bishop, arrested for attempting to occupy Trinity Church’s vacant lot
More than 50 anti-Wall Street protesters have been arrested after they tried to climb over a fence around a church car park to establish a new encampment. The demonstrators used a wooden ladder to scale the chain-link fence and enter the car park owned by Trinity Church, an Occupy Wall Street spokesman said.
Police could not immediately say how many people were held, but Gideon Oliver, president of the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, put the number at about 55, including between five and 10 clergy [including Episcopal Bishop George Packard].
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/18/50-occupy-wall-street-arrested
Iraq war dead: North Carolina man, Spc. David Hickman, was last to die in combat
On November 14, a North Carolina man, Spc. David Hickman, became the last last man to die in combat in Iraq.
The Defense Department confirmed to theGrio that Spc. Hickman was the last man to die in hostilities in Iraq. He became the 4,487th fatality in the war on November 14th, when his unit was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Baghdad.
http://www.thegrio.com/news/iraq-war-dead-spc-david-hickman-last-to-die-in-combat.php
Occupy Murfreesboro denounces RuCo Dems endorsement
Occupy Murfreesboro protesters quickly distanced themselves Friday from the local Democratic Party, contending that although the support is appreciated, they do not want to be co-opted into partisan politics.
“A few people from the Democratic Party should not try to ideologically represent the entire Occupy movement,” said Matthew Hamill, who serves as a media liaison for Occupy Murfreesboro. “There are varying degrees of viewpoints, and not all of those are aligned with the Democrats.”
http://www.murfreesboropost.com/occupy-denounces-ruco-dems-endorsement-cms-29523
Occupy activists stake camp at Obama office
Occupy Des Moines activists on Saturday vowed to shut down President Barack Obama’s campaign offices and set up a camp outside they plan to maintain around the clock.
“We have every intention to keep this place closed down until we are satisfied,” said Frank Cordaro, an activist and founder of the Catholic Worker group in Des Moines.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/12/17/occupy_activists_stake_camp_at_obama_office/
American public to Congress: Get out, All of you
The American electorate is primed to throw out record numbers of incumbents in the 2012 election, according to new polling from the Pew Research Center.
Sixty seven percent say they want to see most Members of Congress voted out in 2012, the highest that number has ever been in Pew polling. And, while people are more favorably inclined to see their own Member re-elected, (50 percent yes/33 percent no) those numbers still match historic lows
Occupy the Constitution: Get Money Out of Politics!
One of the most popular 99% Movement and Occupy Wall Street issues is getting money out of politics. In a country where the candidate who spends the most money on their campaign wins the election 94% of the time, it is blatantly obvious that our electoral process is dominated by the richest global financial interests. By saturating the campaign finance and lobbying system with an endless supply of cash, Wall Street has rigged the political and economic system against hard working Americans. In unprecedented fashion, they have consolidated wealth into the hands of one-tenth of one percent of the population, at the expense and suffering of the American people.
http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-constitution-get-money-out-politics/1324070807
The banks’ Plan B – How to loot nations and their banks legally
Plan A does depend on governments being able to suppress discontent and to outlaw opposition in the sense of saying to people you may disagree but we have now declared these debts and their repayment to be outside democratic control and immune to any attempt to rescind or repudiate the agreed debt contracts. As the severity of the austerity cuts to social services (health, education, pensions etc) becomes painfully clearer to people and the ‘necessity’ for them is ‘regretfully’ extended year after year, it will become harder and harder to justify, let alone impose, such suffering. We will enter an era of vicious sectarian blame. We are already in it, but it will get much darker.
. . .
The key to the bank’s Plan B is in understanding why any money/assets were taken from MF Global after it had gone bankrupt and how exactly it went under in the first place. We all know MF Global had huge holdings of dicey European sovereign debt. But those debts have not become worthless so what caused MF to collapse?
The answer to all these questions lie in a change to Bankruptcy laws that happened around the world between 2002 and 05. This might seem like a detour into nerd city but it is not. It is the key.
http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2011/12/plan-b-how-to-loot-nations-and-their-banks-legally/
Nobody Likes GOP Or Obama, So Third Party Hero Will Waste Nation’s Time
It’s a wonderful moment right now in America, because the vast majority of people completely loathe big business, Obama, the whole GOP field, Congress, military people, everybody in “public life.” They are all despised. So we need an exciting, out-of-nowhere third party hero to distract everyone, stop the protests, etc., and ultimately get maybe 20% of the vote. Then the movement can die, just like it did after every other big-time Third Party Candidate lost to one of the two parties, the end.
http://wonkette.com/458444/third-party-candidate-to-win-2012-because-nobody-likes-gop-nuts-or-obama
Obama and the GOP Circus Show
Having shown his hand over the last three years as an eager – although often spurned – partner in Republican austerity politics, and a war-maker who could make George Bush blush, President Obama will seek reelection with bankers’ money while pretending to remain “infuriated” with Wall Street.
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obama-and-gop-circus-show
500 “mass incidents” a day in China – strikes, riots, protests, etc
Conflicts over land transfers in China are the leading cause of unrest, according to an official study published in June. The number of protests, riots and strikes doubled in five years to almost 500 a day last year, according to Sun Liping, a professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-16/chinese-police-with-shotguns-man-checkpoints-near-scene-of-land-protests.html
CEOs of big companies foresee no pickup in hiring
Two-thirds of chief executives of the largest U.S. companies say they don’t plan to increase hiring or will cut staff in the next six months, mainly because of sluggish growth in the United States and financial turmoil in Europe
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/12/14/survey_ceos_foresee_no_pickup_in_hiring/?rss_id=Boston.com+–+Top+business+news
Why Canadian MF Global customers lost no money
Clients of MF Global who lived in Canada lost no money in the collapse. Canada’s regulations do not allow client-segregated monies to be borrowed for speculative purposes. Further, voting and lobbying laws there do not tolerate the sort of corrupt legislative lobbying that is rampant in the United States. Hence, regulators in Canada are far more independent and less affected by lobbying than the regulators in the United States.