OCCUPY WALL STREET

[persiphone]

"Occupy" protesters break into London office
Reuters – 1 hr 55 mins ago


LONDON (Reuters) - Demonstrators broke into an office building used by mining company Xstrata in central London on Wednesday and hung protest banners on the roof before police regained control of the building.

A group of about 60 from the "Occupy" movement entered the offices in Haymarket in protest at the pay of the company's chief executive, Occupy said in a statement.

Led by a samba band, they chanted and unfurled a banner which said: "All power to the 99 percent."

A spokeswoman for Xstrata said in a statement: "All executive pay is approved by the company's shareholders and is linked to company and individual performance."

Police removed the demonstrators and threw a cordon along the Haymarket, effectively sealing off the immediate area.

"At approximately 1550 hours (GMT) a containment was put in place outside Panton House, Haymarket, to prevent disorder by a group of protesters outside the building," police said in a statement.

"Some protesters have entered the building and officers are in the process of making arrests for aggravated trespass."

It was unclear how many people were arrested.

TV footage showed demonstrators walking up and down the staircase, watched by members of staff.

The raid took place on the same day as thousands of public sector workers marched through London as part of a national day of protest against government plans to change their pensions.

"In this time when the government enforces austerity on the 99 percent, these executives are profiting," Karen Lincoln of Occupy London said in a statement.

Occupy London grabbed the headlines last month when they pitched about 200 tents outside St Paul's Cathedral after they were thwarted in an attempt to stage a protest outside their initial target, the London Stock Exchange.

Their protest is part of a global movement for social and economic change. They say economic and political power lies in the hands of just 1 percent of the population.

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby and Clara Ferreira Marques)


i love that they were led by a samba band lol! awesome

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

Does anyone figures on emergency services and response? How much typically is being spent?

This is one of my morning emails. Does anyone know about this either?

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________

Tim Geithner, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, has a long history of enabling Wall Street misconduct.

Yet President Obama is allowing Secretary Geithner and other top officials in the Obama administration to pressure state Attorneys General to agree to a horrible settlement deal with banks that would let them off the hook for massive amounts of mortgage and foreclosure fraud.2

In exchange for meager penalties, the banks get immunity from future prosecution, even for misconduct that has not been fully investigated and misconduct that might still be ongoing.3

Any settlement like this would amount to little more than another bank bailout4, and according to published reports we might only have a small amount of time to stop it.

Call President Obama and tell him not to sell us out to Wall Street. Click here for the number to call and a sample script.

Americans are paying a heavy price for Wall Street greed. Millions are out of work, millions face foreclosure, and millions more are feeling the pain in some other way. But not one of the Wall Street crooks who drove our economy off a cliff has gone to jail. And without aggressive investigation and prosecution of misconduct, none of them will.

President Obama's political advisors have said that he plans on running against Wall Street as part of his reelection campaign.

But if President Obama really wanted to hold the banks accountable, he'd ensure his administration does nothing less than support investigating, prosecuting and punishing unscrupulous banks to the full extent of the law.

Top officials in the Obama administration cannot act in their official capacity without the backing of President Obama, who is ultimately responsible for what they do. The buck stops with him.

President Obama must stop his administration from pushing this terrible deal.

Call President Obama and tell him not to sell us out to Wall Street. Click here for the number to call and a sample script.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

There have ben figures thrown around about Occupy Oakland- at nearly a half million dollars spent just at the start of the occupation and the "raids" to move protest tents, etc. - for one month. But, there was no break-down of what this represents in terms of line items and how the city earmarks for possible needs out of the ordinary. I have no idea of the accuracy of these figures and when a "range" is given, I question it. Most likely, a month-end accounting from a municipality would be the only way to have some accurate figures. I do believe that with a good 3 years of revenue decreases due to the recession cities are dealing with tight budgets and that having to contract out for services is taking its toll. Much less expensive to have the lost positions in a budget. And well, think of those that were laid off. There have been so many public employment job losses that many cities are running on empty. But they still have an obligation to provide safety and emergency services- no matter the nature of an event or activity.

I have been thinking about how a lot of city workers that have seen their co-workers be laid off or have more to do because cities are not hiring when someone retires could get upset at seeing added costs to the very budget their job depends on. The "will I be next?" phenomenon at work. Here in CA, cities have had several sources of both state and federal funding sources dry up simply due to deficits caused by drops in all kinds of tax revenues. The monies really are not there. Hell, my county just had to float a measure to keep a county emergency hospital open that serves the public and loads of people that are homeless and uninsured. And the fact is that we have a huge population that still exists that tries to stay under the radar due to immigration status that has no other place to go for medical emergencies or care- especially for their children- what can they do?

One of my fears is that there will be a big backlash by municipal employees that are laid-off in the future and will blame in part, extra spending on the Occupy movement- even if that line of thought is faulty when all is considered. The 98/99% is getting screwed on a multitude of levels.

[SoNotHer]

"The 98/99% is getting screwed on a multitude of levels" - you can say that again, and again, and again...

Yeah, Carlin had it right. The game is rigged, and until the gig is up, the majority of us are going to stay down.

Originally Posted by AtLast

There have ben figures thrown around about Occupy Oakland- at nearly a half million dollars spent just at the start of the occupation and the "raids" to move protest tents, etc. - for one month. But, there was no break-down of what this represents in terms of line items and how the city earmarks for possible needs out of the ordinary. I have no idea of the accuracy of these figures and when a "range" is given, I question it. Most likely, a month-end accounting from a municipality would be the only way to have some accurate figures. I do believe that with a good 3 years of revenue decreases due to the recession cities are dealing with tight budgets and that having to contract out for services is taking its toll. Much less expensive to have the lost positions in a budget. And well, think of those that were laid off. There have been so many public employment job losses that many cities are running on empty. But they still have an obligation to provide safety and emergency services- no matter the nature of an event or activity.

I have been thinking about how a lot of city workers that have seen their co-workers be laid off or have more to do because cities are not hiring when someone retires could get upset at seeing added costs to the very budget their job depends on. The "will I be next?" phenomenon at work. Here in CA, cities have had several sources of both state and federal funding sources dry up simply due to deficits caused by drops in all kinds of tax revenues. The monies really are not there. Hell, my county just had to float a measure to keep a county emergency hospital open that serves the public and loads of people that are homeless and uninsured. And the fact is that we have a huge population that still exists that tries to stay under the radar due to immigration status that has no other place to go for medical emergencies or care- especially for their children- what can they do?

One of my fears is that there will be a big backlash by municipal employees that are laid-off in the future and will blame in part, extra spending on the Occupy movement- even if that line of thought is faulty when all is considered. The 98/99% is getting screwed on a multitude of levels.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

"The 98/99% is getting screwed on a multitude of levels" - you can say that again, and again, and again...

Yeah, Carlin had it right. The game is rigged, and until the gig is up, the majority of us are going to stay down.

Yup- rigged "every which way, but loose!" And I think that the 1/2% has a very good handle on how to keep us spinning around and to even lash out against each other- "divide & conquer" is alive and well in the USA. Building coalitions based upon the genuine ability to compromise just seems like the only way I can see breaking down those levels (not compromising with the 1%- talking about what the 98/99% must compromise about in forming effective tactics to reach goals).

[persiphone]

hijack alert. so this is not related but i found this tidbit of information to be utterly fascinating and shityourpants scary so i thought i'd share it here because....well.....i find the timing of things to be very....enlightening. so here it is. check your phones! the link to the vid shows in detail how to see if your android/smartphone is carrying this app/rooting thingy/whatchamacallit

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T17XQI_AYNo&feature=player_embedded"]Carrier IQ Part #2 - YouTube[/nomedia]


Your Smartphone Is Spying on You
By Adam Clark Estes | The Atlantic Wire – 5 hrs ago


An Android developer recently discovered a clandestine application called Carrier IQ built into most smartphones that doesn't just track your location; it secretly records your keystrokes, and there's nothing you can do about it. Is it time to put on a tinfoil hat? That depends on how you feel about privacy.

The reason for this invasive Android app seems reasonable enough at face value. Even though it's on most Android, BlackBerry and Nokia devices, most users would never know that Carrier IQ is running in the background, and that's sort of the point. Described on the company's website as software to gain "unprecedented insight into their customers' mobile experience," Carrier IQ is ostensibly supposed to help mobile carriers and device manufacturers gather data in order to improve their products.

Tons of applications do this, and you're probably used to those boxes that pops up on your screen and ask if you want to help the company by sending your data back to them. If you're concerned about your privacy, you just tap no and go about your merry computing way. As security-conscious Android developer Trevor Eckhart realized, however, Carrier IQ does not give you this option, and unless you were code-savvy and looking for it, you'd never know it was there. And based on how aggressive the company has been in trying to keep Eckhart quiet about his discovery, it seems like Carrier IQ doesn't want you to know it's there either.


Eckhart first raised a red flag about Carrier IQ about two weeks ago when he started investigating reports that a software update on the HTC EVO 3D included "user behavior logging" code. The code had worried some geek bloggers when it showed up a couple months ago, but HTC and Sprint insisted that it wasn't much different than normal error-logging software and certainly didn't gather granular data like "contents of messages, photos, videos, etc." Eckhart wrote an exhaustive blog post about his startling findings -- CarrierIQ collected lots data, including keystrokes, and there way for the user to opt out "without advanced knowledge" -- and CarrierIQ flipped out. The company sent Eckhart a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he keep his mouth shut and threatening legal action. But after the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) took a look at the case and determined that Eckhart was working within his First Amendment rights, it backed off but still denied that they recorded keystrokes.


This week, Eckhart fired back with a 17-minute long video showing in painstaking detail how much data CarrierIQ collects, effectively undercutting the company's denial. It was even logging contents of text messages! Wired posted the video on Tuesday night and cemented its status "as one of nine reasons to wear a tinfoil hat." The magazine explains how CarrierIQ even undercuts other companies' security measures:
The video shows the software logging Eckhart’s online search of “hello world.” That’s despite Eckhart using the HTTPS version of Google which is supposed to hide searches from those who would want to spy by intercepting the traffic between a user and Google. … It’s not even clear what privacy policy covers this. Is it Carrier IQ’s, your carrier’s or your phone manufacturer’s? And, perhaps, most important, is sending your communications to Carrier IQ a violation of the federal government’s ban on wiretapping?

Oh, we're definitely in tinfoil hat territory now. CarrierIQ and the carriers have yet to respond to the latest claims -- we're doing our best to chase them down -- but if past smartphone tracking scandals are any precedent, they could end up answering to Congress.


Like many things in life, there are a couple of different ways to think about smartphone tracking. One way approaches privacy from a forward-thinking, technology-trusting and, heck, even progressive perspective. GPS-equipped smartphones are incredibly powerful tools that enables mankind to do all kinds of amazing things, thanks to the perpetual stream of data from the Internet. However, that stream runs both ways, and sometimes, the folks that build and maintain the network sometimes need to monitor your data in order to improve the technology. Who wouldn't want better service?


This brings us to the second approach. Tracking is creepy. In an Orwellian kind of way, it makes people nervous -- especially Americans -- that the government or the corporations or the system is closing in on them and stealing their freedom. Of course, not everybody feels so strongly about privacy, but as long as you can opt out, it's fine. Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer spoke out about a program at some malls in Virginia and Southern California that were anonymously tracking shoppers' movements by tracking their cell phone signals, and the only way to opt was by not going to the mall. Schumer did not approve. "Personal cell phones are just that -- personal," the New York senator said in a statement. "If retailers want to tap into your phone to see what your shopping patterns are, they can ask you for your permission to do so."
The CarrierIQ software is not dissimilar to the shopper tracking program. In fact, it's arguably worse since it follows you everywhere. In the age of social media, everybody is becoming increasingly aware of and often angry about the amount of private data companies are scooping up with or without their consent. This week, the Federal Trade Commission and Facebook came to an agreement that the social network must make all of their new programs opt-in so as not to break the law by violating users' privacy. Even Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a sincere-sounding blog post that his company had "made a bunch of mistakes" on the privacy front in the past. He went on to detail how "offering people control over the information they share online" was a top priority. This is Mark "Privacy is Over" Zuckerberg we're talking about here. With Facebook reportedly building its own mobile phone platform, wouldn't it be super ironic if people started defecting from the Android army and switching to the Facebook phone in the name of privacy?

Your move, Google.

/hijack

[SoNotHer]

The Koch brothers don't just want to take away your right to vote. They want to trick you into believing they are voting rights supporters.

The same oil billionaires who bankroll the Tea Party are now channeling their vast fortune to limit the right to vote in 38 states and counting. The NAACP has sounded the alarm against their attacks, launching Stand4Freedom.org to expose them and mobilizing a rally outside their New York headquarters on December 10th.

Now here's the amazing part: The Koch brothers have responded with a bizarre online advertising campaign. Now, when you search for the NAACP on Google, they've paid to have ads pop up directing people to a "Stand for Liberty" web page -- a page that's a blatant take-off of Stand4Freedom.org and actually brags about the Koch's so-called commitment to civil liberties.

Do they think we're stupid? That's not just inaccurate -- it's offensive.

The NAACP has always risen to protect our nation's most vulnerable populations when their rights have been threatened, and we will continue to do so with your help. We need you to take action today, to ensure that millions are not disenfranchised next year.

Sign the Stand For Freedom pledge to raise awareness for voting rights in your community:

http://action.naacp.org/sign-the-pledge

Regardless of what they want you to believe, the facts are clear. The Koch brothers have a long history of fighting civil rights. For years they have bankrolled extreme right-wing and anti-government think tanks and fought affirmative action and other civil rights initiatives. Recently the PAC that they founded led the political effort to re-segregate North Carolina schools, and now they have launched their biggest initiative yet: to roll back voting rights in advance of the 2012 election.

Photo ID as a prerequisite to voting, proof of citizenship before casting a ballot, radically restrictive rules on registering new voters, dramatic cuts to early voting and Sunday voting -- these are just a few of the tactics that the Koch Brothers are using to make it harder for you to vote.

If the Koch brothers have their way, millions of students, the elderly and working families of all colors will fall victim to arcane voter suppression laws that this country hasn't seen in one hundred years.

Throughout our history, Cynthia, the NAACP has taken on powerful enemies and won. With your help, we'll beat back these attacks on our most fundamental rights. Sign the Stand For Freedom pledge today:

http://action.naacp.org/sign-the-pledge

Join us in the fight, and together we can protect the right to vote for millions of Americans for years to come.

Stefanie

Stefanie Brown
National Field Director and Director of Youth and College Division
NAACP

[Toughy]

Now here's the amazing part: The Koch brothers have responded with a bizarre online advertising campaign. Now, when you search for the NAACP on Google, they've paid to have ads pop up directing people to a "Stand for Liberty" web page -- a page that's a blatant take-off of Stand4Freedom.org and actually brags about the Koch's so-called commitment to civil liberties.

Just for fun I did the google thing on this. I did not get any ads directing me to a Stand for Liberty web page. I got the NAACP page. The only 'Stand for Liberty' page I could find on google was a group in Texas and nothing on that website about voters....

......shrug....

[atomiczombie]

How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street

By Chris Moody

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Republican Governors Association met this week in Florida to give GOP state executives a chance to rejuvenate, strategize and team-build. But during a plenary session on Wednesday, one question kept coming up: How can Republicans do a better job of talking about Occupy Wall Street?

"I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death," said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation's foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. "They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."

Luntz offered tips on how Republicans could discuss the grievances of the Occupiers, and help the governors better handle all these new questions from constituents about "income inequality" and "paying your fair share."
Yahoo News sat in on the session, and counted 10 do's and don'ts from Luntz covering how Republicans should fight back by changing the way they discuss the movement.

1. Don't say 'capitalism.'

"I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either 'economic freedom' or 'free market,' " Luntz said. "The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem."

2. Don't say that the government 'taxes the rich.' Instead, tell them that the government 'takes from the rich.'

"If you talk about raising taxes on the rich," the public responds favorably, Luntz cautioned. But "if you talk about government taking the money from hardworking Americans, the public says no. Taxing, the public will say yes."

3. Republicans should forget about winning the battle over the 'middle class.' Call them 'hardworking taxpayers.'

"They cannot win if the fight is on hardworking taxpayers. We can say we defend the 'middle class' and the public will say, I'm not sure about that. But defending 'hardworking taxpayers' and Republicans have the advantage."
4. Don't talk about 'jobs.' Talk about 'careers.'

"Everyone in this room talks about 'jobs,'" Luntz said. "Watch this."
He then asked everyone to raise their hand if they want a "job." Few hands went up. Then he asked who wants a "career." Almost every hand was raised.

"So why are we talking about jobs?"

5. Don't say 'government spending.' Call it 'waste.'

"It's not about 'government spending.' It's about 'waste.' That's what makes people angry."

6. Don't ever say you're willing to 'compromise.'

"If you talk about 'compromise,' they'll say you're selling out. Your side doesn't want you to 'compromise.' What you use in that to replace it with is 'cooperation.' It means the same thing. But cooperation means you stick to your principles but still get the job done. Compromise says that you're selling out those principles."

7. The three most important words you can say to an Occupier: 'I get it.'
"First off, here are three words for you all: 'I get it.' . . . 'I get that you're angry. I get that you've seen inequality. I get that you want to fix the system."

Then, he instructed, offer Republican solutions to the problem.

8. Out: 'Entrepreneur.' In: 'Job creator.'

Use the phrases "small business owners" and "job creators" instead of "entrepreneurs" and "innovators."

9. Don't ever ask anyone to 'sacrifice.'

"There isn't an American today in November of 2011 who doesn't think they've already sacrificed. If you tell them you want them to 'sacrifice,' they're going to be be pretty angry at you. You talk about how 'we're all in this together.' We either succeed together or we fail together."

10. Always blame Washington.

Tell them, "You shouldn't be occupying Wall Street, you should be occupying Washington. You should occupy the White House because it's the policies over the past few years that have created this problem."

BONUS:

Don't say 'bonus!'

Luntz advised that if they give their employees an income boost during the holiday season, they should never refer to it as a "bonus."
"If you give out a bonus at a time of financial hardship, you're going to make people angry. It's 'pay for performance.'"

LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/r...133707949.html

This is not surprising. Occupy is starting to effect the national conversation about politics. This is a great sign when the conservatives are feeling the heat!

[ruffryder]

(Newser) – When the protesters of Occupy LA vacated their encampment, they left behind 30 tons of debris. Sanitation workers have already removed 25 tons of garbage, clothes, and random belongings—all of which went to a landfill, the Los Angeles Times reports. Protesters, who lived in the tent city for two months, left behind not just trashed protest signs and food, but everything from mattresses to electric razors to bicycles to a treehouse—and, of course, dozens of tents.

According to the AP, the site doesn't smell so great, either—specifically, it reeks of "urine and unwashed bodies." The grass is ruined, trees are damaged, there's graffiti on the walls of City Hall and on statues, and there are rumors of a lice or flea infestation. The site is "so contaminated, it doesn't even make sense to sort [the left-behind belongings] out," says a sanitation superintendent. There were rows of portable toilets, but protesters still urinated in bottles that must now be disposed of. Says a city refuse collection supervisor, "I've never seen anything like this."

[SoNotHer]

I wrote about a student with health issues and no health insurance a couple weeks ago. Though the Now she's about to get evicted with two small kids in two. She's going to school to try to be a nurse. She's being evicted for $200 - $150 of that is the court filing fees for the eviction. I am scrambling to find her pro bono help and money or assistance somewhere.

And then I get a call today from an old friend who is no without a job or a permanent place to stay for her and her daughter. I invite her to live with me several hundred miles away, but because of a custody issue, she can't leave her area. And so in one I have poured over the internet looking for resources for two mothers with young children who, though several states away from each other, are in the position of now having to look for money and a place to live.

This is how we do it here, right?

[persiphone]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

I wrote about a student with health issues and no health insurance a couple weeks ago. Though the Now she's about to get evicted with two small kids in two. She's going to school to try to be a nurse. She's being evicted for $200 - $150 of that is the court filing fees for the eviction. I am scrambling to find her pro bono help and money or assistance somewhere.

And then I get a call today from an old friend who is no without a job or a permanent place to stay for her and her daughter. I invite her to live with me several hundred miles away, but because of a custody issue, she can't leave her area. And so in one I have poured over the internet looking for resources for two mothers with young children who, though several states away from each other, are in the position of now having to look for money and a place to live.

This is how we do it here, right?

the unfortunate thing is that because unprecedented numbers need help right now, the lines these women will have to wait in will be pretty long. as far as the custody issue, she can make a plea of financial hardship to the judge (i believe without an attorney) to get permission to leave the state. (i think don't quote me...still worth looking up).

as far as the eviction goes....in my state there was a program called ARCHES that asissts with the expense of getting a new place to live and with temporary rent. when i found myself out of a place to live recently due to a disaster to my apt building, i applied. of course, i didn't qualify because i don't have any evictions in my history. go figure. however, there are social programs that help those that have.

usually, social services or human services will have compiled lists of all the resources and agencies that can be made available to your friends. that's the upside. the downside is that the processes will take time and in some cases weeks to get an answer of yes we will help or no we can't help. i know the red cross gave us some assistance but again we suffered a disaster so i dunno if they can or will help. prolly not. it's worth a phone call?

edited to add.....what pisses me off is if i had the money i'd just send it to you. it's so frustrating.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

I wrote about a student with health issues and no health insurance a couple weeks ago. Though the Now she's about to get evicted with two small kids in two. She's going to school to try to be a nurse. She's being evicted for $200 - $150 of that is the court filing fees for the eviction. I am scrambling to find her pro bono help and money or assistance somewhere.

And then I get a call today from an old friend who is no without a job or a permanent place to stay for her and her daughter. I invite her to live with me several hundred miles away, but because of a custody issue, she can't leave her area. And so in one I have poured over the internet looking for resources for two mothers with young children who, though several states away from each other, are in the position of now having to look for money and a place to live.

This is how we do it here, right?

"The face of hunger is changing"- as "they" say." In the past month, 2 more friends of mine have now been laid off. Another is just waiting for the notice to come shortly.

I watched a program last week on this "new face" of hunger- the increased numbers of middle-class people now applying for food stamps that have been laid off but are hanging on with minimum wage jobs. They have small children and until the last 4 years have been employed and attained some of their dreams. Now?

Sometimes I think that it is still going to have to get worse before the numbers of Occupy demonstrators to grow to the level that will scare those in Washington. Is that what it will take? Today, the democratic payroll deduction bill as well as the GOP's failed in Congress. Deadlocked ideological bullshit bickering as usual. It is going to be a very long campaign season with billions of dollars spent on it. Billions on freaking election campaigns!

We have got to get private $ out of politics. OCCUPY Campaign Funding!

[VintageFemme]

A great interview w/ Jackson Browne by Keith Olbermann about the Occupy Movement: http://current.com/shows/countdown/v...t-the-movement

...and just one of the videos I found on youtube from his performance at Zuccotti Park when he did visit:

[SoNotHer]

Thank you both for your posts and concern. I couldn't find ARCHES in Indiana or a eviction mediation program, but I did find several possibilities in terms of pro bono services this morning for her. I found few other possible resources as well. An ex I reached out to today who suggested both the student and my friend try the 2-1-1 line that many states have set up to connect folks to services. Let's hope something works soon.

And yes, this is becoming all too common of a story. I have been teaching for well over 20 years, and I have never seen so many of my students to this point and with stakes for any missteps higher than ever.

Originally Posted by persiphone

the unfortunate thing is that because unprecedented numbers need help right now, the lines these women will have to wait in will be pretty long. as far as the custody issue, she can make a plea of financial hardship to the judge (i believe without an attorney) to get permission to leave the state. (i think don't quote me...still worth looking up).

as far as the eviction goes....in my state there was a program called ARCHES that asissts with the expense of getting a new place to live and with temporary rent. when i found myself out of a place to live recently due to a disaster to my apt building, i applied. of course, i didn't qualify because i don't have any evictions in my history. go figure. however, there are social programs that help those that have.

usually, social services or human services will have compiled lists of all the resources and agencies that can be made available to your friends. that's the upside. the downside is that the processes will take time and in some cases weeks to get an answer of yes we will help or no we can't help. i know the red cross gave us some assistance but again we suffered a disaster so i dunno if they can or will help. prolly not. it's worth a phone call?

edited to add.....what pisses me off is if i had the money i'd just send it to you. it's so frustrating.

[MsMerrick]

And taking a moment for a smile...
Here is Occupy the North Pole..in Ginger Bread : )
Occupy the North Pole

[persiphone]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

Thank you both for your posts and concern. I couldn't find ARCHES in Indiana or a eviction mediation program, but I did find several possibilities in terms of pro bono services this morning for her. I found few other possible resources as well. An ex I reached out to today who suggested both the student and my friend try the 2-1-1 line that many states have set up to connect folks to services. Let's hope something works soon.

And yes, this is becoming all too common of a story. I have been teaching for well over 20 years, and I have never seen so many of my students to this point and with stakes for any missteps higher than ever.

my professors were outstanding during my plight. and they still are. three of them came to my rescue in a few different ways. perhaps find out who her other professors are? my program is pretty small and everyone pretty much knows each other so it's prolly different. does the college have any type of resources for the students?

[SoNotHer]

I am smiling as I read this, Persiphone. I am glad to hear some profs stepped up for you.

Well I've tried a couple of my top people at school, and I've been told there is nothing. Nevertheless, I will keep asking and looking. I've also contacted my church which is looking for a family to adopt this holiday season. Keep your fingers crossed. :-)

Originally Posted by persiphone

my professors were outstanding during my plight. and they still are. three of them came to my rescue in a few different ways. perhaps find out who her other professors are? my program is pretty small and everyone pretty much knows each other so it's prolly different. does the college have any type of resources for the students?

[atomiczombie]

Top officials willfully concealed the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts from Congress and the public.

November 30, 2011

We now have concrete evidence that Wall Street and Washington are running a secret government far removed from the democratic process. Through a freedom of information request by Bloomberg News, the public now has access to over 29,000 pages of Fed documents and 21,000 additional Fed transactions that were deliberately hidden, and for good reason. (See here and here.)

These documents show how top government officials willfully concealed from Congress and the public the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts that enriched the few and enhanced the interests of giant Wall Streets firms. Here’s what we now know:

The secret Wall Street bailouts totaled $7.77 trillion, 10 times more than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) passed by Congress in 2008.
Knowledge of the secret bailout funds was not shared with Congress even while it was drafting and debating legislation to break up the big banks.
The secret funding, provided at below-market rates, gave Wall Street banks an additional $13 billion in profits. (That’s enough money to hire more than 325,000 entry level teachers.)
The secret loans financed bank mergers so that the largest banks could grow even larger. The money also allowed banks to step up their lobbying efforts.
While Henry Paulson (Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury) was informing Congress and the public that only minor reforms were needed to protect Fannie and Freddie from collapse, he met secretly with leading Wall Street hedge fund managers -- among them his former colleagues at Goldman Sachs -- to alert them that he was about to nationalize the giant mortgage companies – a move that would eradicate nearly all the stock value of the companies. This information was enormously valuable because it allowed these hedge funds to short Fannie and Freddie and thereby make a fortune.
While Timothy Geithner was head of the NY Federal Reserve, he argued against legislative efforts by Senator Ted Kaufman, D-Delaware, to limit the size of banks because the issue was “too complex for Congress and that people who know the markets should handle these decisions,” Kaufman recalls. Meanwhile, Geithner was fully aware of the enormous secret loans while Senator Kaufman was kept in the dark. Barney Frank, who was authoring key bank reform legislation was also not informed of the secret loans. No one in Congress was told.
So what does this all mean?

1. The big banks and hedge funds were in much more trouble than we were led to believe.

As many of us suspected, all the big banks were on their knees begging for help – secretly – while telling their investors, the public and Congress that all was well. They had gambled and lost. Under the rules of ideal capitalism, they should have suffered some “creative destruction,” and seen their shareholder value eliminated through bankruptcy, and their managers replaced. The entire banking system should have been reorganized from top to bottom as well. Instead, these colossal failures were secretly rewarded.

2. Wall Street’s secret government made sure the largest banks would grow even larger, aided by the secret funding.

While Congress was debating legislation to break up the large banks and reinstitute Glass Steagall (to separate risky investment banking from insured commercial banking,) the secret government was using public funds to grow even larger through mergers and acquisitions. Because Congress and the public were unaware of the secret funding and ill-health of all the banks, the legislation was easily defeated. As the chart below makes painfully clear, too-big-to-fail banks grew even bigger.

3. The bigger Wall Street becomes, the more government it can buy.

This part isn’t secret. As the top six banks grew larger, they spent more funds lobbying to make sure that they wouldn’t suffer any unprofitable impacts from banking reform legislation. So after the biggest banks received hundreds of billions in secret loans, they upped their lobbying funds to maintain their size and power. Read ‘em and weep:


4. Wall Street’s secret government protects its own.

At first, it’s not easy to understand how Treasury Secretary Paulson, the former head of Goldman Sachs, could risk attending a secret meeting with giant hedge fund managers, many of whom used to work at Goldman Sachs. How could the nation’s highest ranking financial official dare to tip off these hedge fund elites about the imminent government takeover of Fannie and Freddie before Congress and the public were informed? Well, one answer is that Paulson felt obliged to warn his old comrades of the impeding nationalization. Maybe, he wanted to get them out of harm’s way just in case they were heavily involved in those markets. Or maybe he also wanted to give them a very valuable tip to profit by. But the deeper explanation, I believe, is that Wall Street’s key government officials – Paulson, Summers, Geithner, Orszag (the former Obama OMB chief who now makes millions working for CitiGroup), etc. truly believe the following:

Wall Street banks are the best in the world and are the cutting-edge of the American economy. They are our future.
Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers are enormously smarter and sharper than the rest of us. They deserve our admiration.
Helping Wall Street to grow and prosper is precisely the same thing as helping all Americans and the entire economy. They deserve our support.
Secret meetings to provide insider information are normal on Wall Street. There’s nothing wrong with warning your friends about upcoming policy decisions that might impact their profits.
There’s also absolutely nothing wrong with providing trillions of dollars of secret loans to the best and the brightest and not telling Congress about it.
It’s all a closed loop of self-justification and self-deception: Wall Street is brilliant. What Wall Street does is for the good of the country. Helping Wall Street profit is good for the country. Hiding the truth from democratically elected leaders is also for the good of the country because Wall Street is brilliant and knows better.

And all this is deeply believed by Wall Street and its secret government, even though Wall Street, and Wall Street alone, took down the economy and killed 8 million jobs in a matter of months. Simply brilliant!

5. Wall Street is a clear and present danger to democracy.

Usually, I am not an alarmist. In fact, I often argue against facile conspiracy theories. I want to believe that our democracy still has promise. But, the Wall Street-induced crash and the government’s response to it has me very worried. The Bloomberg News revelations suggest that Wall Street’s secret government has enormous disdain for what remains of our democracy. The financial elites obviously believe that Congress cannot be trusted to do the right thing even when it is bought and paid for by the very banks it supposedly regulates. As for the rest of us? We’re just a financially illiterate mass to be manipulated through the mass media. Our minds too can be bought and sold through careful marketing.

This financial arrogance and corruption is enormously corrosive to our democratic values. Already, many Americans, and for good reason, no longer trust their government. Already, many Americans, and for good reason, no longer vote. Already, many Americans, and for good reason, believe that democracy as we know it is a sham. Wall Street couldn’t have written a better script to maintain its domination.


6. Occupy Wall Street is fundamentally correct, but we need more.

The occupiers dramatically attacked Wall Street elites and captured the country’s imagination with their 1 percent, 99 percent framework. And the idea is sticking and spreading. But that’s only the start. To reclaim our country from Wall Street’s secret government we will need to develop an enormous movement among the 99 percent. Although we hope it just happens spontaneously through Twitter and Facebook, we all know it will require hardcore organizing involving millions of us.

At the moment, no one knows what form it will take. But we do know this: great concentrations of power and wealth do not give up their power and wealth without an enormous fight. Wall Street’s secret government is more than ready to protect itself, even if it means subverting democracy. Our occupiers have shown great courage in helping us reclaim our democratic rights. Let’s hope it spreads…and soon.

Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor Institute and Public Health Institute in New York, and author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity—and What We Can Do About It (Chelsea Green, 2009).

We aren't living in a democracy. Unbelievable.

[persiphone]

Originally Posted by atomiczombie

We aren't living in a democracy. Unbelievable.

mmhhmmm...i posted about that a few days ago:

http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/foru...postcount=1291

and notice how no one is being brought up on any charges. plus, that ridiculous move the banks just made moving all their toxic bundles from their investment arms to their retail arms so they could be FDIC insured....read backed by taxpayers. the ass fucking of the general public just keeps going on and on and on.

[atomiczombie]