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Vital Bus Lines are Closing, Leaving People Stranded

13 Oct

From Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, to Town Square, USA, thousands upon thousands of people rely on public transportation to take them to jobs, shopping, to the doctor, and so forth. But bus lines are closing in cities across the nation and leaving people stranded in their homes, especially poor people and old people. It’s happening in Detroit, Longmont (Colorado), Washington D.C., and in my neighborhood in Jersey City, NJ.

Three neighborhood associations met at the Monumental Baptist Church last night to make plans on how to meet the crisis. While there is some reasonable hope that the abandoned routes will be taken-up by other providers, it is clear that this is a recurring problem that must be met by sustained action.

What’s happening in your neighborhood? Have any bus lines been closed in the last two or three years? Are bus lines being closed in the near future? What will happen to people stranded by these closures?

How is it that the so-called richest nation on the planet cannot figure out how to provide transportation for ALL of its citizens?

If you’ve got a story, put it in the comments.

Other stories below the fold. Continue reading →

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Occupy Wall Street Protests a Growing News Story – NYTimes.com

13 Oct

As the Occupy Wall Street message of representing 99 percent of Americans has spread across the country, news media coverage of the Occupy movement has spread, too, to the front pages of newspapers and the tops of television newscasts. Coverage of the movement last week was, for the first time, quantitatively equivalent to early coverage of the Tea Party movement in early 2009, according to data released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.

via Occupy Wall Street Protests a Growing News Story – NYTimes.com.

Occupy Together | Home

13 Oct

A central source of information and organization:

Welcome to OCCUPY TOGETHER, an unofficial hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. As we have followed the news on facebook, twitter, and the various live feeds across the internet, we felt compelled to build a site that would help spread the word as more protests organize across the world. We hope to provide people with information about events that are organizing, ongoing, and building across the U.S. as we, the 99%, take action against the greed and corruption of the 1%.

We will only grow stronger in our solidarity and we will be heard, not just in New York, but in echoes across the world.

For more information about us, the movement, and answers to questions, please check out our FAQ.

via Occupy Together | Home.

L.A. City Council Votes to Support Occupy LA | Communities | 1st and Spring | KCET

12 Oct

Occupy LA has gained the official support of the Los Angeles City Council after it unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday afternoon. It now heads to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his approval or veto.

via L.A. City Council Votes to Support Occupy LA | Communities | 1st and Spring | KCET.

Welcome Activism On Wall Street – NYTimes.com

12 Oct

“We Are the 99 Percent” encourages us to demand of those in power, “Are you with the 99 percent or not? And what are you doing about it?” And the “99 percent” slogan is not only all-embracing but nearly correct: the system is working for far more than one percent of us, of course, but how much more? We are the most class-divided of all the world’s “developed” nations, though in my current travels through five European countries I’ve seen and heard about life-altering cuts everywhere.

via Welcome Activism On Wall Street – NYTimes.com.

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Occupy Together Meetups Everywhere – Meetup

12 Oct

Find a group new year. There are almost 1500 of them.

About Occupy Together Meetups Everywhere

* 9,846 Occupiers

* 1,491 cities

This is OCCUPY TOGETHER’s hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. See what’s going on in your community or get something started!

via Occupy Together Meetups Everywhere – Meetup.

CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About…

12 Oct

The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation’s history—at the end of the 1920s. Unemployment has also reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression.

Unemployment is way up.

And that’s just people who meet the strict criteria for “unemployed.” Include people working part-time who want to work full-time, plus some people who haven’t looked for a job in a while, and unemployment’s at 17%

Meanwhile, corporate profits are at an all-time high And CEO’s make 350 times what workers make. It was only 50 times in  1960-1985.

In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in “income equality.” China’s ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

Click through to see a great set of charts on why people are angry.

When you can borrow money for nothing, and lend it back to the government risk-free for a few percentage points, you can COIN MONEY. And the banks are doing that. According to IRA, the “net interest margin” made by US banks in the first six months of this year is $211 Billion. Nice!

via CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About….

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Response of the Police Is Expanding With Protests – NYTimes.com

12 Oct

“We don’t want people to think that we are being co-opted by other movements,” Mr. Philbrook said. “Occupy Chicago, like all the Occupy movements, stands apart from any political parties, stands apart from any existing movement.”

A sometimes tentative police response is adding its own element to the mix. In Atlanta, protesters were warned by the police on Tuesday that if, at 11 p.m., they were still in Woodruff Park, a small oasis in the heart of downtown, they would be arrested. Anyone who does not want to be arrested can simply leave the park, the police said. But protesters said they were told the same thing on Monday. Instead, dozens of police officers showed up but made no arrests.

The protesters also seem to have significant numbers of uncounted allies, silent or on the sidelines, at least for now.

Daniel Eavenson, an engineer in Chicago, said he had only been “witnessing.”

“There are millions of us watching online and sending out our hope,” he said.

via Response of the Police Is Expanding With Protests – NYTimes.com.

Protesters march on billionaires’ homes – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com

12 Oct

“It is immoral to give a tax cut to John Paulson when we are giving budget cuts to school kids in the south Bronx,” Kink shouted in front of Paulson’s home on 86th Street. “It is immoral to give a tax cut to John Paulson when we are cutting for poor seniors in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Our communities need the money!”

The march of roughly 500 was organized by a new coalition of groups, “99 New York,” whose name is a reference to the unofficial slogan of Occupy Wall Street, “We are the 99 percent,” and which formed in the last few weeks. It is made up of Strong Economy for All, United NY, the Working Families Party, New York Communities for Change, and MoveOn. Activists from Occupy Wall Street were also involved in the planning of the march, said 99 New York spokesman Douglas Forand.

via Protesters march on billionaires’ homes – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

What caused the wealth gap? – Occupy Wall Street

11 Oct

Economist Jeffrey Sachs says the wealth gap got started with globalization, which allowed a small group of highly skilled people to sell their skills in a world market while forcing less skilled people to compete for foreign labor for every lower wages. Then Reagan decided to dismantle government and the federal government’s been unraveling since then.

You, in fact, call for a renewed emphasis on compassion and social responsibility.

What are our deeper economic objectives? Among these is a sense of well-being, of life satisfaction. Income can play a role in that, but so do things like social trust and honest government – and compassion for other people. This kind of discussion is considered odd and I think that is part of our problem right now. We don’t have effective ways to discuss these things in our society.

Instead, we have people who represent a cult of selfishness, what I would consider Ayn Rand libertarianism. They are political figures who say that the goal of America is to leave [people] alone, and that ideas like compassion and so on are dangerous. What the Republicans have on offer – which is based on this 30-year misdiagnosis – is cruel and deeply wrong, because they express disdain for the idea that people are suffering and they need help.

We’ve arrived at a crossroads about the real meaning of our civilization. I think that we will need to reflect on how to achieve a higher level of happiness in this country — [and think about] issues of social trust, social connectedness, decency, compassion.

via What caused the wealth gap? – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

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