LOL your fine no worries.

You're right, we had more than our usual (two) for the G-20 Summit. However, they were more to be seen than anything else. I was on the streets of downtown Pittsburgh
those two days,(working) and it was so exciting. Almost no problems. I wish I could say NO problems...but the few were minute.

We do have two, as I said. One for the City bomb squad and the County also has one.

Shopping for a Credit Union
 

One of the actions some folks have taken in support of OWS is to change out their banks for credit unions. I'd be interested to hear what experiences you've had and if anyone can recommend a good credit union in the Chicagoland and NWI areas.

Thank you, and good night :-)

SNH



http://images.decal-orations.com/gra...dit_unions.png

[QUOTE=SoNotHer;435903]One of the actions some folks have taken in support of OWS is to change out their banks for credit unions. I'd be interested to hear what experiences you've had and if anyone can recommend a good credit union in the Chicagoland and NWI areas.

Thank you, and good night :-)

SNH

Use your internet to find one in your area. Benefits. Free checking accounts and free debit card useage. Most credit unions are employee owned and operated. That means NO CEO's, CFO's and all that 1% sucking money away from the 99% doesn't exist. Those positions are volunteers comprised of members. MOST credit unions use what they call shared services....For example...my credit union is in Memphis Tn. I have never *met* them in person. But through the wonders of electronic communication and shared banking, that means you can go to most credit unions and they honor the services of each other....anyhow, I set mine up via electronic, verified it via shared services, and that was that. Checking pays interest. Savings interest is more than a bank. CD's are higher than a bank, and loan services are lower than a bank. Again, because only the 99% are employed. It makes better cents (pun intended)

http://images.decal-orations.com/gra...dit_unions.png

Many credit unions are created around types of employment like public school employees, plumbers, firefighters, etc. If you belong to professional organizations, they often have a relationship with a credit union that you may join.

I have an account with a teachers association that I joined many years ago, but after moving from the area I joined it in, I started to use a bank. Now, however, I am closing my bank accounts and putting everything into the credit union.

So, will the Democratic Party come out in support of these protests? The GOP is certainly standing against them. The rhetoric about all that are protesting are "bums" in a "mob" as well as references for demonstrators to "take a bath." have started. Hermain Cain thinks that everyone is unemployed that are attending these demonstrations which is not true. They are trying to spin this as they did back in the 60's and 70's as being born out of low life people that won't work.

I know all of that, YB :-) I was looking for someone's personal recommendation.


[quote=Yellow band;436020]

I am looking into credit unions. It's tricky moving everything and a pain in the ass but I know I must. I have business accounts and we also have ACH deposits to consider. Not to mention all the automated billing.

For the past year I have offered discounts on cash. Most of my local business pays cash and I have also begun doing more bartering. I know this isn't always possible for people but bartering is great. I trade boarding services and marketing services. I have my own server, build sites and market them for monthly subscriptions I trade. Its great.

Hi Sachita, it took me pretty much an entire day. I started the month before, with a bank statement to see who I had the direct withdrawls with.

Then I set up my plan. The next thing I did was open the new checking account. Once I got moving, it wasn't too bad. I made a standard form letter to mail everyone that I had the direct wirthdrawl with, as a back up, in case they screwed it up. But no one did, it was very smooth. I had more problems with my employer at the time getting the direct deposits correct:blink:, and it was employee sponsored thru them. I MADE my sister join. Now, she is all about credit unions.

[QUOTE=SoNotHer;436120]I know all of that, YB :-) I was looking for someone's personal recommendation.


Ha ha! Busted me on being little miss know it all, before coffee. :police:

I'd recommend my credit union to you in a heart beat but you'd have to be a member of my family. However, I used the shared services of the Postal workers credit union, they are terrific...they treat me and my money like I am their member. As I said, my actual credit union has never seen me. Anything I need, they go ahead and do, as if they were my CU.
Check them out maybe.

I hear good things about US Airways credit union too,The postal CU is one block from my house, so thats why I never looked beyond them.

Any of them is better than a bank. coffee anyone?:tea:

I'm a member of Alternatives credit union in Ithaca. I really like it, because the little bit of money I have there gets loaned out -at a fair rate- to people in the community, rather than leaving the town and going to a million dollar bonus of some executive.

I hate capitalism. I don't think that that people's labor should be sold to the lowest bidder. I think that exploiting labor and the earth are criminal acts, and shouldn't be financially rewarded.

Do most credit unions keep money within the community? I'm not entirely sure how they operate but that seems like a great thing.


I see a lot of activity and a lot of people standing up but I don't see any action. Its time to see action.

a letter to the editor Pittsburgh post gazette
 

Originally posted Oct. 01, 2011
Street rights: The Wall Street police clash sends a message
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As protests go, the march from New York's financial district to Union Square last Saturday should not have been a big deal. Although the protesters, a loose coalition of anti-capitalism activists, did not have a permit for the march, their demonstration was generally peaceful and harmless.
Their numbers fell far short of the thousands they would have liked to muster for their ongoing protest, Occupy Wall Street. Still, it was a day for chanting slogans about financial practices that hurt the poor and the middle class, and for waving placards denouncing capitalism, free trade agreements, bank bailouts, the rich and corporate greed.
Because the marchers, who had confined their previous protests to Wall Street, lacked a permit, there was fear in the New York Police Department that the expanded event could turn violent, like the demonstrations that greeted the Group of 20 in London two years ago and the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.
The New York police moved in to stop the marchers. Video of the operation showed rough tactics being used on unarmed and nonthreatening demonstrators. Marchers were thrown to the ground and dozens were arrested. Four women who were standing behind orange netting were pepper-sprayed by a deputy inspector.
The police insist that the dozens of arrests and the pepper-spraying were done according to procedure. Others on the scene beg to differ. On Wednesday the police commissioner said the Internal Affairs Bureau will look into the pepper spray decision.
Meanwhile, the protests in the financial district are expected to continue because the demonstrators have permission to picket there. Our advice to the NYPD comes courtesy of lessons learned here when Pittsburgh hosted the G-20 in 2009.
There are rights to be balanced out on those streets. A right to peaceably protest. A right to have access to streets, sidewalks and buildings. A right to feel safe.
It's not too much to ask the police to observe those rights. And it's not too much to expect the demonstrators to deliver their message while respecting the same rights as well.

First published on October 1, 2011 at 12:00 am



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11274...#ixzz1abEwstQ4

The protesters in the nascent movement have been criticized for being too decentralized and lacking a clear list of demands. But they are bearing witness to the corruption of our politics; if they made demands to those in power, it would suggest those in power could do something about it. This contradicts what is, perhaps, their most compelling point: that our institutions and politicians serve the top 1 percent, not the other 99.

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/12/141263...shape-politics

This is partly true BUT there are so many fucked up things the government has allowed. I'm thrill to see so many people standing up but there needs to be a firm agenda and some actions taken soon. You already see the media twisting news and you have to wonder what is really going on behind the scenes in the minds of politicians. I have major trust issues with them.

Here are some thoughts from my credit union's website:
"Many bank at Alternatives because of our community focus and social change philosophy, while others have chosen us simply for our services. Our social mission is integrated into our economic mission, so for whatever reason, joining Alternatives is making a choice towards a more economically just community.

We take pride in our services, policies and procedures because they contribute to a better society, a healthier community or a financially sound member. Some of our more innovative programs include: Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), Business CENTS (our small business development program), Student Credit Union, the Free Tax Preparation Program, lending for minority and women-owned businesses, affordable mortgages, and much more."

And regarding action, Sachita, I know that you and I as rural, sustainable people know the value of patience! I see all these "occupy" actions as big compost piles. Sure they don't look like much now, and they have all kinds of disorganized elements that don't seem to go together well, but give that organic matter a chance to hang out together long enough with the right conditions, and in time you get some kick-ass compost that will fertilze, nourish and support even more life! I don't know yet what the result of these actions will be, but nature would suggest that it will be positive in the long run.

I know I know... I admit I'm inpatient. I know change won't happen overnight but I sure would like to see some big politicians jumping on this bandwagon and making public speeches about it. But it's also going to be a huge agenda, perhaps perfect timing for elections, during voting. I worry thought that we'll get a lot of lip service as we have in the pass.

So other then people moving bank accounts from banks what other strong actions are people taking?

Credit Unions
 

I talked to a couple people today including a colleague with whom I immediately bonded with about the protests. We're going to hook up and go into Chicago. I had him laughing when I compared the bloated corporatocracy to the "Death Star" (we're both SF/Fantasy geeks), and he responded, "Yeah, and I don't see any Luke Skywalker around ready to fire the shots to blow that thing up." We laughed hard.

Anyway, I've got a line on a credit union. Thanks everyone.

I worry about just how long the protests can go on with winter coming.

Yeah I was thinking about that.

I quoted from Zinn's masterpiece in Corkey's thread
 

on indigenous peoples' day. Maybe another quote here would serve to embolden and allay - I've worried as well about the effect of winter on the protests:

From A People's History of the United States, "Robber Barons and Rebels":

"That winter in Yonkers, a few women carpet weavers were fired for joining the Knights [of Labor], and in the cold of February, 2,500 women walked out and picketed the mill. Only seven hundred of them were members of the Knights, but all the strikers soon joined. The police attacked the picket line and arrested them, but a jury found them not guilty. A great dinner was held by working people in New York to honor them, with two thousand delegates from unions all over the city. The strike lasted six months, and the women won some of their demands, getting back their jobs, but without recognition of their union.

What was astonishing in so many of these struggles was not that the strikers did not win all that they wanted, but that, against such great odds, they dared to resist, and were not destroyed."

http://rt.com/usa/news/umbrellas-out...y-seattle-585/

If one is going to protest in Seattle, you're going to get wet, or collapse

For Cheryl and Others in NYC
 

What Comes After Money? Book Signing. Reasons to Occupy Wall Street
Evolver NYC, Fri, Oct. 28

Come out for the book launch of What Comes After Money: Essays from Reality Sandwich on Transforming Currency & Community, edited by Evolver co-founders Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan. This anthology is particularly relevant as thousands of protesters across the U.S. take part in the #Occupy movement, challenging the current financial paradigm in order to create a better, more equitable world. Join the editors, as well as Jivamukti co-founder Sharon Gannon, and Day 1 Wall Street occupier Kelly Heresy.

Jivamukti Yoga School, 841 Broadway, 2nd Fl, Free, 8p.
http://www.realitysandwich.com/beyond_money

Rethinking the term 'occupied'
 

Here is some good thoughts on the relationship to power and movements. Rethinking how language arrives with meaning. Thinking how "decolonize" is a more inclusive term vs. how "occupied" is positioned in relations to indigenous communities around the globe.

http://oaklandlocal.com/posts/2011/1...r-struggles-co

Mayor Bloomburg is asking protesters to clear out for a clean up. The NY Post says they won't be allowed back in.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/m...fXamvvwkvSbHbM

There is a petition that will be presented to Mayor Bloomburg that anyone interested can sign at moveon.org

http://www.civic.moveon.org/defend_ows/

Another article about the attempt.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews...es/#paragraph3

I hope they are not stupid enough to fall for that dumb ass crap.

The last article in my post, the one from Alternet outlines a sort of plan.

Sorry the links weren't working. They seem to be okay now.

When Bush came into office, the homeless in downtown DC disappeared. Homelessness didn't disappear, but the immediate presence of it did.

So this is the latest tactical response? Interesting. OK then let something fester beneath the surface and see how that works out.

The links worked, Miss Tick, when I cut and pasted in an address bar. Thanks for posting them.

[quote=SoNotHer;436120]I know all of that, YB :-) I was looking for someone's personal recommendation.


You are a teacher. Maybe check your area we have Teachers federal CU here. Teachers get special rates etc.

or start calling

http://www.occupywallst.org/article/...e-closure-occ/


come on everyone flood the phones and messaging center! don't let this happen.

EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION: Keep Bloomberg and Kelly From Evicting #OWS
 

EMERGENCY #OWS EVICTION DEFENSE:
Prevent the forcible closure of Occupy Wall Street

Tell Bloomberg: Don't Foreclose the Occupation.
NEED MASS TURN-OUT, SHOW UP NO LATER THAN 6 A.M.

This is an emergency situation. Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the world.

But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. "Cleaning" was used as a pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut down peaceful occupations elsewhere.

Bloomberg says that the park will be open for public usage following the cleaning, but with a notable caveat: Occupy Wall Street participants must follow the “rules”.
NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said that they will move in to clear us and we will not be allowed to take sleeping bags, tarps, personal items or gear back into the park.
This is it—this is their attempt to shut down #OWS for good.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION

1) Call 311 (or +1 (212) NEW-YORK if you're out of town) and tell Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with #OWS.
2) Come to #OWS TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT to defend the occupation from eviction.

For those of you who plan to help us hold our ground—which we hope will be all of you—make sure you understand the possible consequences. Be prepared to not get much sleep. Be prepared for possible arrest. Make sure your items are together and ready to go (or already out of the park.) We are pursuing all possible strategies; this is a message of solidarity.

LINK: http://www.occupywallst.org/article/...e-closure-occ/

Of course it isn't about sanitation. And lots of other people are in the process of cleaning the park themselves. Bloomberg just wants people out. He says he will let them back in, however they won't be allowed to bring their tents and blankets with them. He wants them exposed to the elements so they will leave.

I just had to post here tonight!

OWS has taken POrtland by storm!!!!!

Tonight, it took me two hours to get home from work.
Gridlock downtown; an OpEd in the paper today pressuring our mayor to shut it down
and I hope it doesn't happen.... I honked and made peace signs to supporters, saw some friends of mine, nearly got into an accident, and spent time down there tonight.

No rain or snow here can stop people from standing up and making our voices heard.

Just had to share,
~D