South Essex Register of Deeds: Mortgage Settlement Fails to Address Banking Criminal Enterprise
I will continue to pursue my request for Federal and State grand juries to be impaneled to hold the CEO’s of these banks liable for the crimes that have been committed under their watch. The only thing missing in this illegal scheme that MERS and the big banks came up with was a gun and a mask. I will continue to expose this fraud and work everyday to make sure that the taxpayers are fully reimbursed for the over $44 million dollars in lost recording fees in my district alone by institutions who still believe fees are “for thee but not for me.” A message needs to be sent to these banks that they may think that you are too big to fail but they are not too big to go to jail.
Harvard: The Dilemma of the Radical – On-Campus Activism in the Age of Occupy
Even within activist organizations like the EAC, convincing students to get out and protest isn’t easy. “A lot of people show up to meetings and not to events. Others go to one or two rallies but don’t sustainably involve themselves,” he explains.
12:03 p.m. Stepping out of the Park Street station, Chaudhary joins about 25 people who are gathered for the rally. Most are well out of college, but there are a few other students from Brandeis and Tufts as well.
What if Occupy Created a Movement so Big it Couldn’t Control it?
Essentially, something can only be considered an “official” statement or action by Occupy Wall Street if it gains approval by the group’s general assembly in New York. It’s a cumbersome process, and most Occupy-related actions don’t go through it — but they’re done in “good faith” with the guidelines the group ratified in its Statement of Autonomy, so there’s usually no problem. Lately, though, more such Occupy-branded actions that diverge from the group’s ethos have been popping up. Remember the Occupy Super PAC last week and quickly drew the ire of the movement? Or the Occupy candidates, who’ve emerged despite the fact that the group has specifically pledged not to endorse parties or candidates? Or that delegation from Zuccotti Park that nearly (gasp) met with Congress before thinking better of it?
http://tinyurl.com/7na6v87
The Food Movement Speaks With One Voice: Occupy Our Food Supply
On February 27, an unprecedented alliance of more than 60 Occupy groups and 30 environmental, food and corporate accountability organizations have joined together for Occupy our Food Supply, a global day of action resisting the corporate control of food systems.
The call to Occupy our Food Supply, facilitated by Rainforest Action Network, is being echoed by prominent thought leaders, authors, farmers and activists including the Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, Food Inc.’s Robert Kenner, music legend Willie Nelson, actor Woody Harrelson, and authors Michael Pollan, Raj Patel, Anna Lappe, Gary Paul Nabhan, and Marion Nestle, among others. The central theme uniting this diverse coalition is a shared sense of urgency to resist the corporate consolidation of food systems and create socially and environmentally just local solutions.
. . .
From Brazil, Hungary, Ireland, and Argentina to dozens of states in the US, thousands of people will be participating in the February 27 global day of action. Participants will be reclaiming unused bank-owned lots to create community gardens; hosting seed exchanges in front of stock exchanges; labeling products on grocery store shelves that have genetically engineered ingredients; building community alliances to support locally owned grocery stores and resist Walmart megastores; and protesting food giants Monsanto and Cargill.
http://tinyurl.com/6r96d2t
‘The grotesque insult of austerity’ in service of extravagant militarism
No mail on Saturday, maybe, but small-town police get armored personnel carriers?
Let’s take a moment — in the context of these bitter times, and President Obama’s recent austerity budget proposal — to celebrate the questions the residents of Keene, N.H., are asking their city council about the kind of world we’re creating.
First of all, the grotesque insult of “austerity” in the shadow of limitless military spending is destroying our national sanity. And the proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, mental health services, environmental cleanup, National Parks programs and even, yeah, Saturday mail delivery are miniscule compared to the unmet social needs we haven’t yet begun to address in this country, in education, renewable energy and so much more. But we’re spending with reckless abandon to arm ourselves and our allies and provoke our enemies, and sometimes arm them as well, creating the sort of world no one (almost no one) wants: a world of endless war.
Efficiency of the market: Patients say FDA lets Big Pharma create artificial drug shortages
Two dozen people suffering from life-threatening Fabry disease say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services give drug manufacturers carte blanche to create drug shortages that deny them the medicine that keeps them alive.
Twenty-five people, 13 of them John or Jane Does, sued the agencies in Federal Court on constitutional claims. They also sued the National Institutes of Health, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and top officials in the federal agencies.
Most of the plaintiffs say they are being denied interstate access to Fabrazyme, a drug that treats Fabry disease, due to a shortage created by Genzyme, the drug’s manufacturer, but not a party to the case.
http://tinyurl.com/7y9uqro
Million-dollar foreclosures rise as rich walk away
Five years after the housing bubble burst, America’s wealthiest families are now losing their homes to foreclosure at a faster rate than the rest of the country — and many of them are doing so voluntarily.
Over 36,000 homes valued at $1 million or more were foreclosed on — or at least served with a notice of default — in 2011, according to data compiled by RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures. While that’s less than 2% of all foreclosures nationwide, it represents a much bigger share of foreclosure activity than in previous years.
. . .
But with a recovery in the housing market still years away, foreclosure has turned out to be a worthwhile option after all. Saddled with bloated mortgages after a long run up in property values, many high-end homeowners have chosen to pursue a “strategic default.” Even though they can afford the monthly mortgage payments, they still decide to walk away from their home because they owe more on the property than it is worth.
http://tinyurl.com/77j934b
Auto Workers Union Wants To Provide Resources and Training to Occupy Protestors
The United Auto Workers Union reportedly wants to help train 100-thousand people to support the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The “Daily Caller” website obtained documents from the UAW Internet server outlining plans for a group called “99 Percent Spring.” The documents include talking points, social media plans and press releases.
The UAW would not comment directly on the report, but a spokesman told the “Detroit News” the information was mistakenly posted on the UAW website.
http://tinyurl.com/7r697bp
Revealing moment: NPR/Fox News flak loses her composure over reporter challenging White House’s hypocritical support for journalists abroad
(video)
Mara Liasson is the woman behind Jake Tapper’s left shoulder making faces.
Link to transcript here: http://tinyurl.com/7td3bn6
Abortion fight was never just about abortion – activists shifting now to a massive attack on access to birth control
The opponents of birth control coverage are playing a long game. As they ransack family planning funding and prop up religious organizations, they are transforming the way information – and misinformation – about abortion and birth control is passed on to the public. Their efforts are enabled by narratives about religious persecution, demanding, in effect, to create a religious alternative to public health policy based in medicine and science. The Constitution doesn’t require or even envision that. Democrats and their pro-choice allies need to stake out their own long game.
New Hampshire: Birth control law repeal added to bill
A Republican lawmaker in New Hampshire has proposed repealing the state’s requirement to provide insurance coverage for birth control by attaching the measure to a bill aimed to repeal “obsolete and outdated” laws.
State Rep. Andrew Manuse (R-Derry) has proposed the amendment to end the contraception law to a piece of routine legislation clearing older laws off the books, the Concord Monitor reports. Manuse’s amendment, first proposed Tuesday as the routine legislation was being heard by a legislative committee, would exclude both religious organizations, along with private companies that have religious objections, from the requirement to provide birth control.
United Citizens vs. Citizens United – Two years after the infamous ruling, support builds for a constitutional amendment
The Citizens United ruling is notorious. Its immediate effect was to nullify key portions of the bipartisan campaign reform law known as “McCain-Feingold,” which regulated spending by outside special interest groups trying to influence elections. The Court held that such spending by corporations – whether for-profit or nonprofit – constitutes political “speech” that cannot be restrained under the First Amendment. So, Congress cannot limit spending in elections, such as to support or denounce candidates, even though corporations cannot give money directly to a candidate. As for the long-term impact… well, that’s where we leave simplicity behind.
One example of popular resistance to the Citizens United ruling comes from Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). They have proposed the same constitutional amendment in their respective houses – Deutch’s “Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in Our Elections and Democracy” amendment, introduced in November; and Sanders’ “Saving American Democracy” amendment, introduced in December – both of them brief, identical and deceptively simple.
Activists gear up for statewide Occupy meeting [NC]
The clusters of tents that dotted North Carolina cities in the fall and winter of the Occupy movement have largely disappeared, but the activists who pitched them are planning a statewide gathering to show their staying power.
Organizers are calling it the first Statewide General Assembly. Activists from 15 or so cities and towns will gather from Friday ubtntil Sunday to meet face to face, swap tips, make plans and stage a rally on Saturday outside the State Capitol.
http://tinyurl.com/7jrf5h2
Anger Against MN Welfare Reduction Bill Erupts In “Mic Check”
The “occupy wall street” style of amplifying the public’s voice was used to disrupt and express displeasure over Minnesota legislation opponents say is an attack on the poor.
The Minnesota House Health and Human Services Reform Committee met on February 22, 2012, to review and pass three bills restricting welfare.
Representative Daudt’s bill, HF2080, received the most complaints. This bill reduced life-time coverage from a maximum of 60 months to 36 months. It required applicant paid for background checks for drug convictions, reduced exit level from 115% of poverty to 100% of poverty and reduced sanctions from 7 to 3 offenses.
http://tinyurl.com/7mja7de
After Pressure from Occupy Bernal, Wells Fargo execs fly across country to meet with Bernal Heights man
People facing eviction and foreclosure often report hardly being given the time of day by banks and lenders. But yesterday, three top Wells Fargo executives flew to San Francisco to meet with Alberto Del Rio, a Bernal Heights resident facing foreclosure.
Del Rio’s parents purchased their home in 1973. The home was refinanced multiple times, he says “for a better life” for his family. The most recent refinance, in 2007, was a result of lenders convincing Del Rio’s mother that refinancing would be an easy to pay for some of her retirement.
The loan she got was a pick-a-pay loan, one of the most notoriously predatory loans that banks offered in the years leading up to the 2008 crash.
http://tinyurl.com/6tzp77x
Occupy D.C. to Take Fight Directly to Freddie Mac
Perhaps getting their camping gear cleared out of McPherson Square was exactly the push Occupy D.C. needed. Last week demonstrators picketed outside the Walmart site on Georgia Avenue NW (with mixed results), and next week, the group plans to return to the Occupy Wall Street movement’s roots of outrage over the nation’s enduring foreclosure crisis.
In adopting the Occupy Our Homes tactic, protesters say they will gather next Monday outside the Penn Quarter offices of Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage giant, on behalf of a Bowie, Md. resident whose house has been foreclosed upon.
Occupiers are taking up the case of Bertina Jones, whom according to their press release was foreclosed upon in September 2010. Jones, who bought the house in March 1997 with a loan from Bank of America, first fell behind on her mortgage payments in September 2008 after losing her job when economy collapsed. Jones applied for but did not receive assistance from the Home Affordable Modification Program, which Occupy D.C. chalks up to clerical error and “inattention” on the part of Bank of America, which sold the mortgage on Jones’ house to Freddie Mac in September 2010.
Occupy Denver Hears Native Concerns
With spring’s approach, Occupy Denver is renewing its plans to affront the corporate state and economic inequity after being driven by police in November from a downtown park where members were camped.
As part of its effort to build support the Occupy movement is reaching out to Indigenous groups that feel they have been marginalized by Occupy, said some Native attendees of an Indigenous Resistance meeting February 21. They reiterated the oft-repeated reminder that North America has been occupied since at least 1492.
“You don’t feel like you really belong there (at an Occupy general assembly),” said Robert Chanate, Kiowa, director of the nonprofit Indigenous Training Resource Center and a columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network. “With Occupy, it didn’t really seem like it was a place for us.”
Citing local resistance to the XL Pipeline, Chanate said, “We can reach out to people like us, or we’ll continue what we’re doing. We have other support groups out there.”
http://tinyurl.com/7a6hq2o
Marchers will ‘Occupy’ Tri-Valley [CA]
Occupy Oakland is headed to Pleasanton to mark the second anniversary of the lockout of workers from Castlewood Country Club. Marchers will start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the corner of Main Street and Bernal Avenue and walk to the club on Castlewood Drive.
The Occupy Oakland website says protesters “are planning on bringing tents and occupying an unclaimed area adjacent to the country club in protest of the inhumane treatment of the workers who have been locked out in a clear attempt to break their union.”
The group is also planning to stage a “mock counter protest” by the country club they label as the 1 percent._
http://tinyurl.com/7j3w4xr
Sinn Féin: State assets sale ‘bad deal’ for citizens
Opposition parties are hitting out at the Government’s proposals on the sale of some state assets.
Sinn Féin has accused Fine Gael and Labour of “flogging off the State’s wealth for a quick buck”. Party president Gerry Adams said he believes the move will result in job losses and increased prices for consumers.
“Instead of flogging off the State’s wealth for a quick buck, the Government should make commercial state companies part and parcel of the solution” he said in the Dáil.
Deputy Adams said it was a “myth” to say that privatisation and deregulation bring competitiveness and efficiencies in State bodies.
http://tinyurl.com/87rkyxt
Scotland: Austerity ‘threatens any recovery’
Finance Secretary John Swinney has reiterated his calls for control of corporation tax and a rethink of the UK Government’s austerity agenda, amid economic “threats” from abroad.
Mr Swinney called on the Scottish Parliament to acknowledge that the UK Government`s “pursuit of austerity” is “threatening the UK recovery” and support the Scottish Government’s “distinctive approach” to accelerating recovery.
However, Labour finance spokesman Ken Macintosh claimed the SNP has merely introduced “populist” policies with “no evidence whatsoever” that they promote growth.
Mr Swinney said: “John Cridland, the director general of the CBI, said on Good Morning Scotland yesterday that the best way to get growth going is to invest in infrastructure. Investment in infrastructure is three times more likely to get a growth result than cuts in taxes.”
http://tinyurl.com/6ogjnpb
High levels of inequality jeopardize Canada’s ability to succeed
What do the Occupy Movement and Canadian software giant OpenText have in common? Most people, including the campers and coders themselves, would probably say very little. But, while the message coming out of Robson Square and St. James Park last fall was about economic justice, it is highly relevant to economic growth as well.
Canada’s high levels of inequality and poverty don’t just erode social cohesion, but also jeopardize our ability to succeed in the knowledge-based economy.
Last week, the Drummond report correctly observed that, in the 21st century, “education and innovation will be the key for Ontarians to be prosperous.” But it is important to recognize that “education and innovation” aren’t just the product of classrooms and laboratories; they are nurtured through favourable social conditions that are incompatible with elevated levels of inequality and poverty.
China’s ‘occupy’ toilet protests spread
A Chinese student is hoping to become a heroine for women around the world by launching an occupy movement of her own – in the men’s toilets.
Fed up with long queues for ladies’, Li Tingting made headlines when she and 20 women marched into a men’s public toilet in the southern city of Guangzhou carrying colorful placards calling for equal waiting times for both sexes.
Now, she plans to take her protest to the capital Beijing, where China’s leaders will gather next month for the annual meeting of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament.
http://tinyurl.com/7kpzsrv
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