Conversation with Occupy the “T” Activists
Activists with #OccupyBoston and associated groups in surrounding cities and towns served by the MBTA transit system are mobilizing their supporters to oppose extensive cuts in services and large fare increases on the trains and buses of the “T.”
On Sunday, members of Occupy the T joined the hosts of “RADIO with a VIEW” on WMBR-FM in Cambridge to discuss the consequences of fare hikes and service cuts and the reaction from Occupy activists and their allies.
http://tinyurl.com/7x7ebsp
Students Occupy Lamont Library Café
Members of the Occupy Harvard movement parked themselves in Lamont Library Café on Sunday night, pledging to stay in the café until 10 p.m. on Friday in order to protest planned staff reductions in Harvard libraries.
More than 23 supporters of the movement gathered in the café to inaugurate the next phase of their protest, the first to involve a physical occupation since Harvard administrators removed the Occupy Harvard dome from the Yard on Jan. 13.
Occupy Movement and Libertarians, Tea Partiers Find Common Cause in Fight Against NDAA
A coalition of three Southern Oregon Occupy Movements is joining forces with a local libertarian/Tea Party goup called Wake Up America Southern Oregon for a Monday February 13th protest in Medford against the National Defense Authorization Act. This is one of the first cooperative efforts between such groups. A statement noted that the joint action will “show that united we can begin to stand up to the problems which face us as a nation and a people.”
Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It
Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government.
He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region’s long-serving Democratic congressman.
Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice.
http://tinyurl.com/6nkqhu2
Will This Be the First Election Where Class Trumps Race?
As stirring as Occupy Wall Street’s exhortations about the 99 percent were, it’s important to realize that they were the symptom, not the cause, of a wider trend. Inequality, of course, has recently become a much more integral part of the American conversation. But it’s more than that: There is now an unprecedentedly widespread understanding of economic class as the primary dividing factor in the nation. Indeed, this year seems to mark a historic tipping point for the United States: the year that our primary concerns about inequality went from being about race to being about class.
Britain’s Labour Party and America’s GOP Shows the Two Party System Needs Fixing
The transatlantic political landscape has plenty in common, from Occupy movements to “banker bashing” and recession. But the greatest similarity now is how both countries’ opposition parties – the Republicans in the U.S., Labour in Britain – are in crisis.
Labour is failing to provide a proper opposition or electoral alternative to the neo-liberal Tories, and the Republicans are the terrifying alternative to Obama’s Great Disappointment following the last election. There needs to be greater choice in politics, to tackle the problems left by the dying free market, neo-liberal capitalist system.
http://tinyurl.com/86pcmvk
McConnell: GOP Will Fight To Let ANY Employer Deny Birth Control Coverage
Not satisfied with President Obama’s new religious accommodation, Republicans will move forward with legislation by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) that permits any employer to deny birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday.
http://tinyurl.com/73ph3y4
Willie Nelson calls for Occupy the Food System
Little did Willie Nelson know when he recorded “Crazy” years ago just how crazy it would become for our cherished family farmers in America. Nelson, President of Farm Aid, has recently called for the national Occupy movement to declare an “Occupy the Food System” action.
Nelson states, “Corporate control of our food system has led to the loss of millions of family farmers, destruction of our soil…”
http://tinyurl.com/7frua6t
Occupy San Diego InterOccupy Conference – Activists Converge on Democratic Convention
After a busy morning, participants in the Occupy San Diego InterOccupy Conference arrived at Children’s Park. News reporters from CW6, as well as other local media outlets, converged in anticipation of the protesters’ arrival and a planned action to take place at the San Diego Convention Center.
Frank Gromlie of Save The Bill of Rights group and Occupy San Diego took the bullhorn and spoke about the dangers of the National Defense Authorization Act recently passed Congress and signed into law by the president.
$1 trillion in student loan debt fuels political fire
“This may become the first election in modern history where higher education rises to the level of being one of the top half-dozen issues,” said Richard Vedder, an economist and scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and author of “Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs Too Much.”
Most years, only 5 percent or 6 percent of the U.S. population is in college, Vedder noted, making higher education a “back-burner” campaign issue. But many are coming out of college deeply in debt in a faltering economy with few good entry-level jobs. Student loan debt fueled one of the first and loudest complaints as the Occupy Wall Street movement mushroomed last year.
http://tinyurl.com/87xzjjl
Occupiers [NY] renovate abandoned house
Occupy protesters may be out of Niagara Square, but some demonstrators are still working against the City’s blight.
Occupy Western New York supporters were busy renovating an abandoned home on Michigan Avenue Sunday.
http://tinyurl.com/6vwsqp8
Introducing Occupy Pueblo [CO]
The members of Occupy Pueblo would like to introduce themselves. Despite what you may have seen on some cable news channels, we’re not a scary bunch. We include people who have lost their homes, people who have lost their jobs, students, physicians, dentists, architects, social workers, teachers, nurses, union members, veterans and many others.
Some of us are working, some are retired, some are unemployed and not by choice. We do take baths. We do not support either political party and believe in peaceful, patriotic and persistent protest for changes in a system that has become rigged by the rich. We are the 99 percent of Americans and most of the citizens of Pueblo are, too.
The “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision has unleashed unlimited and undisclosed spending by wealthy individuals and corporations on political campaigns, ensuring the advancement of their interests at the expense of the common good. Even the most honest and patriotic officials won’t survive if they don’t play ball with the big-money interests.
http://tinyurl.com/6rtzsjt
Occupy NH to hold statewide meeting
Members of Occupy-New Hampshire are planning to hold a statewide meeting next Saturday.
The General Assembly will be held in a Nashua church. It’s expected to include members from other Occupy movements and individuals from across the state.
http://tinyurl.com/82hezmb
Occupy Mansfield plans Day of Fracktivism
Occupy Mansfield will present what they have dubbed “F18 Day of Fracktivism” from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
http://tinyurl.com/7qpaaxe
Mortgage settlement is great – for politicians and banks
Supposedly a big part of the deal is the implementation of new foreclosure standards to end the abuses that made the deal necessary. These standards require banks seeking to foreclose henceforth to submit sworn affidavits that are accurate about the amounts owed and the legal right of the servicer to proceed, and require that the bank officers who sign them to actually examine the documents they swear to have examined.
In other words, no more “robo-signing.” Assertions the banks make in court will have to be “accurate.” Banks will have to give borrowers complete and accurate information about their loans, suspend foreclosure proceedings once they start working on a loan modification, apply mortgage payments promptly, keep accurate loan records and communicate effectively with borrowers.
I believe the technical term for all this is “big whoop.” The provisions mostly require mortgage lenders and servicers to comply with what I would have thought was already the law, which prohibits, you know, criminal fraud. The rest is pretty much out of the best-practices manual of customer service, which benefits both the customer and the institution.
http://tinyurl.com/7nxoo7n
Protests Rage Across Europe, Middle East
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in several nations this weekend demanding political justice, economic opportunity, and a change to the status quo.
Demonstrators — who powered the Arab Spring, the worldwide Occupy protests during the summer and the anti-austerity marches of the European autumn — have used to past 48 hours to take over the streets of Portugal, Syria and Bulgaria, setting the mood for a veritable winter of discontent.
The killing of Greece
As you have probably heard, the Greek parliament, if you can still call it that, has passed the austerity bill. Overnight Athens has erupted in protest with a reported 80,000 people on the streets and up to 30 buildings on fire.
Greek lawmakers approve austerity bill as Athens burns
The Greek parliament approved a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second EU/IMF bailout and avoid national bankruptcy, as buildings burned across central Athens and violence spread around the country.
Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament.
State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were looted in the capital where police said 34 buildings were ablaze.
Next Steps for Greeks after the Austerity Bill (AKA: Hope for Greece, at last)
Ok, another austerity package just passed. That’s the bad news, but amidst the bad news there is some good news. More than 40 MPs were expelled from the PASOK and ND parties, two from LAOS-those MPs need to form a new, explicitly anti-austerity, pro-default government. Odds are good they will win the next election, and can form the new government.
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