Football players may support Occupy the Super Bowl in fight against ‘right to work’ law
As the February 5 Super Bowl approaches, right-to-work opponents [in Indiana] are buoyed by support from the NFL Players Association. The NFLPA released a statement against the bill and six football player unionists, all Indiana natives, sent letters to the legislature last week opposing it. Protesters celebrated this support with an “NFLPA Appreciation Day” last Thursday. Wearing football jerseys, hundreds marched through the snow to Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be played.
While Democrats said today they have no plans to intervene in the big game, protesters may have other ideas. In the past few weeks, “occupy the Super Bowl” has become one of the most popular chants in the statehouse.
NFLPA Director DeMaurice Smith indicated in an interview yesterday that the football players’ union may “possibly” support a demonstration outside the stadium. Noting that the union has lent its support to picket lines in the past, he said, “We’ll have to see what is going to go on when we’re there, but issues like this are incredibly important to us.”
http://tinyurl.com/7ywzgdt
Update: Support petition for NFL player action here.
Corporate cheerleaders at Davos: ‘Now is the moment for business to take over from government as the key force for social change’
The Corporate Muppets running Davos, the annual gathering of financial and industrial leaders, launched their 2012 meeting saying that now is the moment for business to take over from government as the key force for social change. But the evidence they present for this claim proves quite the opposite: in reality, while trust in politicians and companies has collapsed, public movements like Occupy and Tea Party, plus peer-to-peer web sites are likely to become far more influential.
The impetus for the debate is the just-released poll by Edelman, a corporate PR company, showing that the public’s faith in government has dropped sharply around the world in the past year due to a mixture of corruption and incompetence. It is this change which is causing people to go off-grid in growing numbers, particularly in the US.
http://tinyurl.com/77r3yfo
Corporate Rule Is Not Inevitable
You may remember that there was a time when apartheid in South Africa seemed unstoppable. Sure, there were international boycotts of South African businesses, banks, and tourist attractions. There were heroic activists in South Africa, who were going to prison and even dying for freedom. But the conventional wisdom remained that these were principled gestures with little chance of upending the entrenched system of white rule.
“Be patient,” activists were told. “Don’t expect too much against powerful interests with a lot of money invested in the status quo.”
With hindsight, though, apartheid’s fall appears inevitable: the legitimacy of the system had already crumbled. It was harming too many for the benefit of too few. South Africa’s freedom fighters would not be silenced, and the global movement supporting them was likewise tenacious and principled.
Romney redbaits Occupy protesters
Mitt Romney didn’t mince his words in response to chants from a group of Occupy activists at a rally here, saying the protesters want to turn the United States into North Korea or Cuba.
One Hundred Thirty Cities Across the US Protest on Anniversary of Citizens United
On Friday, activists in more than 130 cities in 46 states across the country “occupied” their federal courts on the eve of the second anniversary of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
http://tinyurl.com/7lukbl6
Occupy Stanford expands
The Occupy Stanford movement is extending its efforts beyond Meyer Library with new on-campus initiatives, in addition to participation in neighboring city protests and collaboration with other universities on a new Occupy Education movement.
Prof calls for ‘revolution’ against economic inequality
Princeton University professor Cornel West took the floor at Riverside Church on Sunday night to advocate for drastically changing capitalism to reduce economic inequality.
West, a prominent civil rights activist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, led a panel discussion about the Occupy movement, economics, politics, and religion. On Sunday night, he said that Americans need to start a “revolution” on the scale of the American Revolution and the fight against slavery in the Civil War in order to combat economic inequality.
“In American history, we have had two revolutions. We need three,” West said to enthusiastic applause and cheers.
http://tinyurl.com/7tlhptk
Occupy Wall Street Activists in Boca Sunday for GAIM Conference Protest
Protestors from Occupy West Palm and Occupy Miami boarded buses this morning and headed to the Boca Raton Resort and Club to protest the GAIM (Global Alternative Investment Management) Conference.
Citing an attendee list of “dozens of corporate criminals”, the activist have a daylong schedule aimed at sending a message to those heading into the conference.
http://tinyurl.com/7fey5ph
Dumb excuses for obscene bonuses in banking
A senior official at the Bank of Scotland explaining why they need to pay their CEO an obscene bonus:
If the chief executive turned down his bonus it would “demoralise” staff members and would send a signal that they now effectively “worked for an arm of the civil service or a utility, rather than for a bank”.
Yes, he has to take the money because the staff wants him to have it, so they can feel a part of the exciting and glamorous world of … banking.
Occupy Fracking: Shale-Shocked America Fights Back
Shale gas isn’t the conventional kind that lit your grandmother’s stove. It’s one of those “extreme energy” forms so difficult to produce that merely accessing them poses unprecedented dangers to the planet. In every fracking state but New York, where a moratorium against the process has been in effect since 2010, the gas industry has contaminated ground water, sickened people, poisoned livestock, and killed wildlife.
At a time when the International Energy Agency reports that we have five more years of fossil-fuel use at current levels before the planet goes into irreversible climate change, fracking has a greenhouse gas footprint larger than that of coal. And with the greatest water crisis in human history underway, fracking injects mind-numbing quantities of purposely-poisoned fresh water into the Earth. As for the trillions (repeat: trillions) of gallons of wastewater generated by the industry, getting rid of it is its own story. Fracking has also been linked to earthquakes: eleven in Ohio alone (normally not an earthquake zone) over the past year.
But for once, this story isn’t about tragedy. It’s about a resistance movement that has arisen to challenge some of the most powerful corporations in history. Here you will find no handsomely funded national environmental organizations: some of them in fact have had a cozy relationship with the gas industry, embracing the industry’s line that natural gas is a “bridge” to future alternative energies. (In fact, shale gas suppresses the development of renewable energies.)
http://tinyurl.com/7nh995e
St. Louis groups protest Kirkwood Walmart, Lowe’s
Members of Occupy St. Louis and the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined forces Sunday afternoon to protest outside the Kirkwood Walmart and Lowe’s over advertising dispute.
Organizers say they are protesting Lowe’s decision to pull its advertising funds from TLC’s television series “All-American Muslim”. Protesters are accusing Lowe’s of pulling the ads after pressure from the Florida Family Association.
http://tinyurl.com/6mop69o
Denver Occupy supporter faces six years in prison over fire started on eviction night
The man accused of setting fire to a structure and other debris at the Occupy Denver site last month remains in jail.
Michael Clapper, 22, is facing arson charges. He says all he did was kick over a trash can that he didn’t know was on fire.
Rinaldi: The fine art of the Occupy movement shows stripped-down, naked anger
For sure, Occupy-related art is varied, though the painting, theater and music now surfacing have enough in common to be considered an actual genre.
http://tinyurl.com/77hv7mp
Foreclosure Robo-Signing Deal Worries N.Y. Official
Some of the biggest banks in the country are reportedly close to a settlement with authorities over the so-called robo-signing scandal in which mortgage company officials signed and notarizeed foreclosure documents without properly reviewing them.
Many lenders and mortgage servicers acknowledged making serious mistakes in foreclosure paperwork.
But the much-delayed settlement still faces challenges. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is raising objections, and may reject the settlement because he believes authorities have done too little to investigate the role of big banks in the financial crisis.
Obama to Use Pension Funds of Ordinary Americans to Pay for Bank Mortgage “Settlement”
Previous leaks have indicated that the bulk of the supposed settlement would come not in actual monies paid by the banks (the cash portion has been rumored at under $5 billion) but in credits given for mortgage modifications for principal modifications. There are numerous reasons why that stinks. The biggest is that servicers will be able to count modifying first mortgages that were securitized toward the total. Since one of the cardinal rules of finance is to use other people’s money rather than your own, this provision virtually guarantees that investor-owned mortgages will be the ones to be restructured. Why is this a bad idea? The banks are NOT required to write down the second mortgages that they have on their books. This reverses the contractual hierarchy that junior lienholders take losses before senior lenders. So this deal amounts to a transfer from pension funds and other fixed income investors to the banks, at the Administration’s instigation.
Another reason the modification provision is poorly structured is that the banks are given a dollar target to hit. That means they will focus on modifying the biggest mortgages. So help will go to a comparatively small number of grossly overhoused borrowers, no doubt reinforcing the “profligate borrower” meme.
Letter to the editor: Occupy groups are unduly ignored
Lately, I have noticed that the mainstream media have been entirely too careful not to mention anything about the Occupy Wall Street movement. The MSM seem to dedicate their headlines to tragedy, celebrity cat fights, and “terrorist” acts instead of focusing on what can be called American history in the making. The peaceful gathering of the working-class masses to hold the corporate establishment of robbing the poor and giving to the wealthy accountable for their misdeeds is quite a feat in the 21st century.
Letter to the editor: Occupy protesters are not the problem
The communities that have “Occupy” and “the press” are all concerned about the cost of cops to contain, control, curtail and arrest members of Occupy. What about the cost to our long-term and newly unemployed? Now former homeowners? Working-class families? (Are there any left?) Do you know any of them?
Where has community and press concern been to contain, control, curtail and arrest the b— of Wall Street who got us here in the first place? (Military-grade pepper spray optional.)
http://tinyurl.com/6uc5r4x
Letter to the editor: 99 percenters – Help people get voter ID
The 99 percent have been busy “occupying” various institutions across America. A crucial election is coming up in November, and an estimated 5 million Americans could be unable to vote because of new eligibility laws in many states requiring government IDs. The elderly, minorities and low-income Americans will be disproportionately represented among those denied their right to vote.
The 99 percenters should “occupy” the 2012 election by helping otherwise disenfranchised Americans to obtain the necessary documentation and IDs, and then to vote in November.
Arrests as Occupy Auckland [NZ] camps shut down
Three Occupy protesters were arrested in Aotea Square this morning as Auckland Council shut down camps across the city.
Police, security guards and council staff forcibly removed tents and equipment, and protesters retaliated by occupying the security guards’ vans.
. . .
Flustered protester Merlin Blackmore said the situation developed “rapidly” at Aotea Square. “Police are physically removing a protester from a van who is protecting his gear… they are physically grabbing him right now, they are being quite vigorous.”
Ousted Auckland Occupiers say the cops all wore the same badge number
There were scenes of anger and retaliation as occupiers tried desperately to keep their property. Protesters said they were confused and had no warning that their belongings were meant to be gone by today.
Protestors also claimed up to four police were wearing the same badge number – Z557 – to avoid being identified as they made arrests.
On Eve of Davos, Protests Erupt
Swiss police will charge more than 100 demonstrators with breaching the peace after they rallied in Bern Saturday to protest against the World Economic Forum that holds its annual meeting in Davos this week. The protesters, some wearing masks, began an unauthorized demonstration but were stopped by police in Bern, 270 km (170 miles) west of the Davos ski resort, where the global elite will gather for the forum which opens Wednesday.
http://tinyurl.com/7mloc6o
Egyptian anarchists targeted by both the military and the Islamists
Egypt’s anarchists are anticipating a crackdown before the first anniversary of the January 25 uprising. They are perceived as seeking chaos; villains who want to bring down the state, defy authority and spread lawlessness.
The word ‘anarchy’ in Greek means “no authority.” Anarchists’ central belief is that “no man is good enough to be another man’s master,” and that “good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
Anarchy became the new bogeyman – a place once reserved to the Muslim Brotherhood under the Mubarak regime. Many believe that this ideology is dangerous to Egypt.
. . .
“It is evident that people taking part in the ‘Occupy’ movements almost spontaneously embrace anarchist principles. The movement is leaderless, all decisions are made within a general assembly, and instead of majority rule consensus is always sought,” he added.
http://tinyurl.com/7efkeew
Occupy Nigeria Protests Against Insecurity
Members of the Occupy Nigeria yesterday demonstrated on the streets of Abuja to protest against growing insecurity in the country and to mourn the people that were killed during the terror attacks in Kano.Occupy Nigeria, was one of the coalition groups formed against the federal government’s decision to remove petroleum subsidy.
http://tinyurl.com/6ok65bc
Occupy Nigeria: Anonymous Declare War on ‘Evil Jihadi Group’ Boko Haram
The Nigerian cell of the Anonymous collective has declared war on the infamous Boko Haram group. In a statement sent to the International Business Times UK, an individual claiming to speak for Anonymous clarified that the collective was set to extend its presence in Nigeria launching Operation Nigeria II.
. . .
Following the attack pattern previously seen in the collective’s ongoing anti-nazi OpBlitzkrieg campaign, OpNigeria II will see Anonymous hackers target Boko Haram’s networks and emails publishing all the data taken on the central www.BokoHaramLeaks.tk site.
http://tinyurl.com/7a9fbgg