Occupy survives in churches, marches
While the Occupy Boston protest was shut down last month, it lives on in symbolic displays at Jamaica Plain churches and in a team-up with JP housing activists. It also survives as a loose, active organization with lots of JP residents involved, including prominent spokesperson Gunner Scott.
Meanwhile, the local Occupy JP group has gone quiet after two protest marches last month, but continues to meet about possible activities.
Occupiers ousted: Cops bust Bushwick anarcho-media group after landlord slaps them with ‘perilous building’ notice
“What basically is going on is that independent media worldwide is being attacked,” said Teichberg said in a video after his release Thursday. “We’re beginning to see in the United States somewhat of a concerted attack to suppress independent media, and Globalrevolution … has been targeted.”
Supporters of GlobalRevolution.tv agree, citing the fact that paying tenants on other floors in the building were not ordered to leave.
“The Fire Department came on Monday and said that we passed the inspection,” said Avery McCarthy, who lives in a $2,400 three-bedroom apartment on the third floor.
Citizens United Backlash Grows from Cali. to NYC Urging Congress to Overturn Corporate Personhood
Adding to a growing nationwide backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, California lawmakers have introduced a resolution that calls on Congress to “propose and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.” The New York City Council has just passed a similar resolution, echoing measures passed in Los Angeles, Oakland, Albany and Boulder.
http://tinyurl.com/85l7ajz
Our Suicidal Ruling Class: Why Won’t the Rich and Powerful Try to Save Themselves?
America’s corporate rulers and their pet politicians know that people are furious. They understand that their actions and policies are accelerating the pace of income inequality and creating a growing, permanently alienated underclass.
They know history. Sooner or later, the downtrodden rise up, overthrow and kill their oppressors.
It’s not a nice way to rule. Nor is it smart. So — if all it would take for America’s masters to save themselves from the raging mobs of the not-so-distant future are a few empty words, why not try?
MF Global Chief Reportedly Shopped For French Chateau While Company Was On Verge Of Collapse
As MF Global inched towards collapse, CEO Jon Corzine pre-occupied himself with a few other things — namely securing a chateau for him and his wife in the ritzy south of France.
At a party in Paris on October 15 — just two weeks before MF Global filed for bankruptcy, costing more than 1,000 workers their jobs — Corzine and his wife, Sharon Elghanayan, were discussing a house they planned to purchase in the south of France, according to an upcoming report in Vanity Fair.
MF Global Inquiry Turns to Its Primary Regulator
Federal authorities investigating the collapse of MF Global have expanded their inquiry to include the actions of the CME Group, the operator of the main exchange where the commodities brokerage firm conducted business, according to people briefed on the matter.
In particular, the commission is reviewing whether CME’s efforts to verify the safety of customer funds were sufficient, the people said.
CME, for its part, has said that MF Global may have intentionally produced inaccurate documents related to customer accounts.
Yes, Virginia, Brokerage Firms Keeping Client Ripoff Provisions in Customer Agreements in the Wake of MF Global
In the wake of the collapse of MF Global, and the evaporation of funds in customer accounts, even ones with no margin lending, investors big and small have become duly concerned about the safety of their funds. For those of you who are not brokerage customers, one of the big achievements of the 1930s security law reforms was their success, up until now, in putting rules in place that protected customer assets. Numerous broker/dealers have failed but their clients’ funds were recovered.
Needless to say, old market hands like Jesse have reacted with alarm: “One would think that the customers should be paid first out of all MF Global creditors. But I suspect that where it is possible, their loss will be subordinated to the unsecured creditors like JPM who have a powerful influence with this Trustee and the courts. The customers of consequence, like the Koch brothers, appear to have been tipped off weeks in advance.”
What if We Focus on Boosting Employment Rather Than Growth?
(video)
In Japan, entrepreneurs are revered not for making money but for creating jobs. Japanese companies went to great lengths to keep workers, cutting senior pay to preserve manning. That was done largely for cultural reasons, since companies are seen as being like families.
But was this preoccupation also good economic policy, and might it have played a more direct role in buffering the worse effects of the bubble aftermath?
Bank of America severing some small-business credit lines
Bank of America is demanding that some small-business customers pay off their credit line balances all at once instead of making monthly payments.
Bank of America Corp., under pressure to raise capital and cut risks, is severing lines of credit to some small-business owners who have used them to stay afloat.
http://tinyurl.com/7ufo7kh
Immigration, Due Process Fail: Runaway US teen deported to Colombia
Young Ms. Turner’s horrifying story is not unique, although her case stands out for an astonishing obliviousness on the part of ICE – a Black girl who spoke excellent English and no Spanish was somehow mistaken for a Colombian national, after her fingerprints didn’t match up with the suspect they were looking for and (presumably) she denied her identity. About 2,000 U.S. citizens a year get deported, and about 4,000, or 1%, of the people in ICE detention are United States citizens.
This adds an extra level of perniciousness to state-level “anti-illegal immigrant” laws with mandatory referral provisions, like those recently adopted in Arizona and Alabama.
Mistakes will be made sometimes, I know. But 2,000 citizens wrongfully deported every year seems like more than we ought to be willing to tolerate. How much easier would it be to make a similar sort of mistake when the detainee is Latino, and does have good Spanish, maybe even better Spanish than English?
http://tinyurl.com/7pp2kva
Tea Party, Occupy Tallahassee Organize for Legislature’s Opening Day
Demonstrating their inside and outside games, a statewide tea party coalition and a host of “progressive” groups will converge on the Capitol on Tuesday as the Legislature begins its 2012 session.
Working the outside, Occupy Tallahassee has already set up a base at Gaines Street Commons. Purporting to represent the “99 percent,” the group will be joined by like-minded activists from around the state. To kick things off Tuesday, the left-wing coalition has reserved the Old Capitol Steps from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. for a daylong series of rallies and speeches.
Working the inside on Tuesday, the Tea Party Network will host a morning coffee reception for lawmakers in Room 117 of the Knott Building. TPN has also reserved the Old Capitol steps from 7-9 a.m., but doesn’t plan a repeat of the large public tea party rally that was held there last year.
Six Occupy protesters fined $150 each for sit-in at US representative’s office
Six Southern Oregon protesters were fined $150 each in Medford Municipal Court Thursday after pleading no contest to trespassing charges stemming from a sit-in at U.S. Rep. Greg Walden’s office in December.
Protesters held the seven-hour sit-in at Walden’s office Dec. 5 to demand he hold a handful of town hall meetings to hear from constituents about how economic polices and his votes have hurt them.
http://tinyurl.com/7etg2yj
Senior citizens hold Occupy protest in San Francisco
A group of senior citizens, some in wheelchairs, protested Thursday outside a Bank of America in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood.
They identified themselves as part of the “99 percent” and demanded that Bank of America stop the foreclosure of homes in their area. The protest was organized by members of the Occupy San Francisco movement. They have begun holding community meetings in different parts of the city to involve a wider spectrum of people in their demonstrations.
Colorado Spring considers new municipal law establishing ‘protest zones’
The city that has had trouble running its own elections or conducting credible liquor enforcement investigations now deems itself capable of drafting new laws to further limit where and how nonviolent free-speech protests will be allowed.
It’s only in the research phase, but downtown’s brave new world could one day include enclaves Attorney Chris Melcher calls “protest zones.” These would be places where unruly protesters could be sort of fenced off, which of course would dilute the impact of the protest.
http://tinyurl.com/7ecjxw4
Occupy Oakland Activist May Face Three Strikes Life in Prison Penalty After Arrest for Blanket Dispute
The threat of life imprisonment looms for Occupy Oakland activist Marcel Johnson – better known by his alias, Khali – after a third-strike arrest during the demonstration. Having spent about 15 years incarcerated already, 38 year-old Khali said he was trying to turn his life around by distributing food to the needy at the Occupy Oakland encampment, where he was a frequent, vocal, sometimes endearing presence.
On December 16 he was arrested outside City Hall for violating anti-encroachment laws – namely, for a dispute about a blanket – which normally wouldn’t have warranted more than a few hours jail time. Since Khali was in fact violating his probation terms for a different case in Sacramento, he was taken to Santa Rita and made to serve some jail time in lieu of going to trial, his attorney Dan Siegel explained. There, Khali was held in solitary confinement and not given his psychiatric medications, which might explain why he got into an altercation with a peace officer – the exact circumstances of which are still widely disputed. Now, Khali faces a felony assault charge in place of his original misdemeanor. As of Friday, December 23, Khali’s bail was set at $580,000, according his attorney, Dan Siegel.
Occupy Oakland Attempts to Storm City Hall, Occupy Mayor Jean Quan’s Office
It seems that Occupy Oakland’s initial intent to dismantle big banks has shifted to a more tenable goal: to make Mayor Jean Quan’s first term a living hell. More than two dozen protesters attempted to overtake City Hall this afternoon, just over 12 hours after a dozen protesters were arrested on the plaza.
News outlets are reporting that pissed off Occupiers tried to make their way into City Hall this afternoon, with plans to occupy Mayor Jean Quan’s office for starters. So far protesters have not been successful, but they also aren’t giving up.
Occupy Oakland activists barred from City Hall
About 2 p.m. Thursday, protesters gathered for a rally at City Hall and tried to enter the building in hopes of occupying Quan’s office. Police closed the building after activists tried to enter through side doors. Two protesters who repeatedly pounded on a side entrance door and yelled at officers inside were arrested, police said.
‘Occupy Hungary’ demonstrates against Constitutiona; Changes, “Dictatorship”
The European Nation saw hundreds descend on its capital to make their voices heard chanting slogans like ‘Occupy Hungary’.
http://tinyurl.com/7l3fvud
Occupy protests over fuel continue in northern Nigeria
Protests in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, in response to the removal of a fuel subsidy that caused petrol prices tto double, continued Thursday Hundreds of people had gathered overnight to protest the fuel hike which came after the government cut subsidies on January 1.
Dubbed “Occupy Kano,” the ongoing protest is a keystone of the “Occupy Nigeria” movement that is sweeping across the country.
http://tinyurl.com/89uxg4l
One Response to “The OB Media Rundown for 1/6/12”
I love reading these articles because they’re short but inofmravtie.