ANONYMOUS - OUR VOICE

The Revolt Against the Ruling Class

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<h2>The Revolt Against the Ruling Class</h2>
<span>The Revolt Against the Ruling Class</span> <a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/politifact-photos-trump_sc.jpg?itok=QRhhhZME" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/politifact-photos-trump_sc.jpg?itok=QRhhhZME" /></a>
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<p>“He can’t possibly win the nomination,” is the phrase heard most often when Washington insiders mention either Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders.</p>
<p>Yet as enthusiasm for the bombastic billionaire and the socialist senior continues to build within each party, the political establishment is mystified.</p>
<p>Political insiders don’t see that the biggest political phenomenon in America today is a revolt against the “ruling class” of insiders that have dominated Washington for more than three decades.</p>
<p>In two very different ways, Trump and Sanders are agents of this revolt. I’ll explain the two ways in a moment.</p>
<p>Don’t confuse this for the public’s typical attraction to candidates posing as political outsiders who’ll clean up the mess, even when they’re really insiders who contributed to the mess.</p>
<p>What’s new is the degree of anger now focused on those who have had power over our economic and political system since the start of the 1980s.</p>
<p>Included are presidents and congressional leaders from both parties, along with their retinues of policy advisors, political strategists, and spin-doctors.</p>
<p>Most have remained in Washington even when not in power, as lobbyists, campaign consultants, go-to lawyers, financial bundlers, and power brokers.</p>
<p>The other half of the ruling class comprises the corporate executives, Wall Street chiefs, and multi-millionaires who have assisted and enabled these political leaders – and for whom the politicians have provided political favors in return.</p>
<p>America has long had a ruling class but the public was willing to tolerate it during the three decades after World War II, when prosperity was widely shared and when the Soviet Union posed a palpable threat. Then, the ruling class seemed benevolent and wise.</p>
<p>Yet in the last three decades – when almost all the nation’s economic gains have gone to the top while the wages of most people have gone nowhere – the ruling class has seemed to pad its own pockets at the expense of the rest of America.</p>
<p>We’ve witnessed self-dealing on a monumental scale – starting with the junk-bond takeovers of the 1980s, followed by the Savings and Loan crisis, the corporate scandals of the early 2000s (Enron, Adelphia, Global Crossing, Tyco, Worldcom), and culminating in the near meltdown of Wall Street in 2008 and the taxpayer-financed bailout.</p>
<p>Along the way, millions of Americans lost their jobs their savings, and their homes.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates to big money in politics wider than ever. Taxes have been cut on top incomes, tax loopholes widened, government debt has grown, public services have been cut. And not a single Wall Street executive has gone to jail.</p>
<p>The game seems rigged – riddled with abuses of power, crony capitalism, and corporate welfare.</p>
<p>In 1964, Americans agreed by 64% to 29% that government was run for the benefit of all the people. By 2012, the response had reversed, with voters saying by 79% to 19% that government was “run by a few big interests looking after themselves.”</p>
<p>Which has made it harder for ordinary people to get ahead. In 2001 a Gallup poll found 77 percent of Americans satisfied with opportunities to get ahead by working hard and 22 percent dissatisfied. By 2014, only 54 percent were satisfied and 45 percent dissatisfied.</p>
<p>The resulting fury at ruling class has taken two quite different forms.</p>
<p>On the right are the wreckers. The Tea Party, which emerged soon after the Wall Street bailout, has been intent on stopping government in its tracks and overthrowing a ruling class it sees as rotten to the core.</p>
<p>Its Republican protégés in Congress and state legislatures have attacked the Republican establishment. And they’ve wielded the wrecking balls of government shutdowns, threats to default on public debt, gerrymandering, voter suppression through strict ID laws, and outright appeals to racism.</p>
<p>Donald Trump is their human wrecking ball. The more outrageous his rants and putdowns of other politicians, the more popular he becomes among this segment of the public that’s thrilled by a bombastic, racist, billionaire who sticks it to the ruling class.</p>
<p>On the left are the rebuilders. The Occupy movement, which also emerged from the Wall Street bailout, was intent on displacing the ruling class and rebuilding our political-economic system from the ground up.</p>
<p>Occupy didn’t last but it put inequality on the map. And the sentiments that fueled Occupy are still boiling.</p>
<p>Bernie Sanders personifies them. The more he advocates a fundamental retooling of our economy and democracy in favor of average working people, the more popular he becomes among those who no longer trust the ruling class to bring about necessary change.</p>
<p>Yet despite the growing revolt against the ruling class, it seems likely that the nominees in 2016 will be Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. After all, the ruling class still controls America.</p>
<p>But the revolt against the ruling class won’t end with the 2016 election, regardless.</p>
<p>Which means the ruling class will have to change the way it rules America. Or it won’t rule too much longer.</p>
<p><a href="http://robertreich.org/" rel="nofollow">Originally published by RobertReich.org</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/image-386.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/image-386.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are agents of a revolt, from the left and the right, fueled by anger at those who have had power over our economic and political system since the start of the 1980s.</p>
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<p>The majority of money raised for the 2016 presidential race has come from those giving $100,000 or more.</p>
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<p>According to financiers, the only way out of the island's economic mess is to eliminate the minimum wage, sell off public assets, lay off teachers, shutter schools, cut workers’ vacation and benefits, and raise sales taxes.</p>
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<p>Yep, we have one helluva all star creative activist lineup for you this week!</p>
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<p>If you make the right to strike so much harder to realize, you change the balance of power between the employer and employee.</p>
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<p>“This is the first time fracking activists have got together on this scale internationally – from Kurdistan to Brazil, from Ukraine to Portugal and Algeria," says Catriona of Ireland, who attended the recent Frackanpada.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Through discovery of place, through story, and through personal connection with people along the way, we are journeying 1,100 miles to the tar sands of Alberta – and are asking for your support in our venture.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Activists dangling by ropes from the city's tallest bridge, and kayakers on the water below, blocked the icebreaker from heading to the Arctic for a drill operation.</p>
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<div><span><em>2 days 19 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 2 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 2 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<p>“This is the first time fracking activists have got together on this scale internationally – from Kurdistan to Brazil, from Ukraine to Portugal and Algeria," says Catriona of Ireland, who attended the recent Frackanpada.</p>
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<p>"Politicians and parties whom the electorate condemned for their efforts to turn Greece into a protectorate are now persecuting me. I wear their accusations as badges of honor."</p>
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<p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p>

armageddon news revolution The Revolt Against the Ruling Class

The Revolt Against the Ruling Class The Revolt Against the Ruling Class “He can’t possibly win the nomination,” is the phrase hear...

How the Super PAC Megadonor Oligarchy Conquered American Politics

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<h2>How the Super PAC Megadonor Oligarchy Conquered American Politics</h2>
<span>How the Super PAC Megadonor Oligarchy Conquered American Politics</span> <a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/55bc264b1d00002f00143884.jpeg?itok=dOYfwYRO" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/55bc264b1d00002f00143884.jpeg?itok=dOYfwYRO" /></a>
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<p>A new oligarchic era of American politics came into full view on Friday, as super PACs disclosed fundraising details showing billionaires bankrolling the 2016 presidential race to an unprecedented degree.</p>
<p>The unlimited-money super PACs account for one-third of all federal election funds raised in the first half of 2015 -- up from 4 percent at this time in the last presidential election. Three-quarters of all super PAC money came from more than 500 wealthy donors, corporations and unions in contributions above $100,000. More than half the money in the presidential race so far -- to super PACs and to campaigns -- came from donors who have given at least $100,000.</p>
<p>For the first time in more than a century, the majority of funding for a presidential election is coming in six-figure or larger checks from corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The presidential campaigns, limited to a maximum of $5,400 from a single donor, raised a combined $128 million. Super PACs supporting those candidates pulled in $260 million, with $208 million from those giving $100,000 or more.</p>
<p>“The 2016 presidential candidates and their individual-candidate Super PACs are wiping out the nation’s anti-corruption candidate contribution limits,” Democracy 21 president and longtime campaign finance reform advocate Fred Wertheimer said in a statement. “In doing so, the presidential candidates and the Super PACs supporting them are creating the kind of system that the Supreme Court has described as an inherently corrupt system.”</p>
<p>The dramatic shift to a campaign finance system built upon outsized contributions of the wealthy and their businesses comes five years after the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/26/citizens-united-congress_n_6723540.html" rel="nofollow">Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United decision</a> opened the door to unlimited electoral spending by corporations, unions and, individuals so long as it remained independent of candidates.</p>
<p>Overall, super PACs raised $314 million through the end of June, compared with $26 million at the same time in 2011. More than 500 donors have given at least $100,000, for a total of $238 million -- 75 percent all super PAC donations.</p>
<p>The super PAC expansion appears likely to take over much of the political fundraising system, especially at the presidential level.</p>
<p>As an oligarchy of campaign contributors has begun to dominate political fundraising, opposition is mounting, with activists calling for campaign finance reform and a rejection of super PAC politics. In Iowa, a coalition of Republicans and Democrats called Iowa Pays the Price are spotlighting the influx of big money into their state to bring attention to the issue. A group called the New Hampshire Rebellion is calling attention to the trend in the nation’s first presidential primary state.</p>
<p>Former President Jimmy Carter this week took note of what was happening to the nation’s politics as candidates race for larger and larger checks from billionaires and millionaires.</p>
<p>"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system," Carter said in a radio interview July 28. "Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president."</p>
<p>Numerous candidates have obliterated the requirement that their super PACs operate independently, by directly coordinating with the groups and raising money for them. Republican Jeb Bush personally raised $103 million for his super PAC during a six-month period when he declared that he was not officially running for president.</p>
<p>Bush raised a combined $114 million, including his official campaign and his super PAC. Of that, 63 percent came from donors giving $100,000 or more. Twenty-four of Bush’s super PAC donors gave $1 million or more.</p>
<p>Much of Bush’s money came from a vast pool of large donors. Unlike the rest of the Republican field, Bush’s Right to Rise super PAC collected $100,000-plus donations from about 300 individual donors. His donor list includes more than 1,000 people, corporations or political committees that gave at least $10,000.</p>
<p>Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) racked up 71 percent of his super PAC and campaign fundraising from big donors, almost all of it from three million-dollar contributors: $15 million from the fracking Wilks family, $11 million from New York hedge fund executive Robert Mercer, and $10 million from Texas private equity investor Toby Negeubauer.</p>
<p>Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's (R) campaign and super PAC raised 60 percent of their combined total from six-figure donors, most from million-dollar contributors. He raised $5 million from his longtime personal funder, luxury car dealer Norman Braman, $3 million from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, $2.5 million from a thoroughbred horse stable owned by Benjamin Leon and $2 million from the Israeli-American wife of the Marvel Entertainment CEO, Laura Perlmutter.</p>
<p>Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) hasn't reported any fundraising for his official campaign. But two unlimited money groups working for him had raised $26 million. Those groups raised 77 percent of their money from donors giving more than six figures. Like other candidates, Walker's groups were predominantly funded by a few million-dollar checks, including $5 million from Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks, $5 million from Chicago Cubs owners Marlene and Joe Ricketts, $2.5 million from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, and $1 million from Access Industries, a company run by billionaire Len Blavatnik.</p>
<p>New Day for America, a group that has since converted into a super PAC, supports Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and raised more than $11 million, with 86 percent from those giving more than $100,000. Four gave $1 million.</p>
<p>The same can be said for nearly every candidate on down the line: Six-figure donors fueled 85 percent of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) super PAC fundraising; 62 percent for two groups backing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; 83 percent for former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) groups; 83 percent for Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) super PAC; more than 90 percent for three groups supporting Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.); and 62 percent for former tech CEO Carly Fiorina’s super PAC.</p>
<p>Some big billionaire names were absent from the list of Republican presidential candidate megadonors, including casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer and the industrialists Charles and David Koch.</p>
<p>While the big-money race on the Republican side of the presidential campaign is most intense, it's not absent from the Democratic Party. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s super PAC, Priorities USA Action, a hand-me-down from President Barack Obama, raised $15.6 million, with 99 percent of it coming from $100,000-plus donors. Her group raised nine $1 million checks from George Soros, Haim and Cheryl Saban, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, Herbert Sandler, Donald Sussman, a union for plumbers and pipefitters, and a union-backed political group.</p>
<p>Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) eschews the big-money super PAC race. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s (D) Generation Forward raised $290,000.</p>
<p>Large super PAC fundraising also occurred outside the presidential race.</p>
<p>Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer donated $5 million to his personal super PAC, NextGen Climate Action Committee. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers each gave more than $1 million to their own super PACs. Singer, who so far has not put his chips down in the presidential race, gave more than $1 million to his super PAC in support of Republicans who favor gay marriage (of which there are very few). And then there’s Cruz’s benefactor, Mercer, who gave $1 million to a super PAC controlled by the neoconservative former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton.</p>
<p>A new super PAC launched by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to support his Republican majority pulled in three $1 million donations, from Houston Texans owner Robert McNair, Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus and Singer.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oligarchy-super-pac-megadonors-have-conquered-american-politics_55bc1eece4b0b23e3ce2f5ec" rel="nofollow">Originally published by HuffPo</a></p>
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<p>Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are agents of a revolt, from the left and the right, fueled by anger at those who have had power over our economic and political system since the start of the 1980s.</p>
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<p>The majority of money raised for the 2016 presidential race has come from those giving $100,000 or more.</p>
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<p>According to financiers, the only way out of the island's economic mess is to eliminate the minimum wage, sell off public assets, lay off teachers, shutter schools, cut workers’ vacation and benefits, and raise sales taxes.</p>
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<p>Yep, we have one helluva all star creative activist lineup for you this week!</p>
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<p>If you make the right to strike so much harder to realize, you change the balance of power between the employer and employee.</p>
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<p>“This is the first time fracking activists have got together on this scale internationally – from Kurdistan to Brazil, from Ukraine to Portugal and Algeria," says Catriona of Ireland, who attended the recent Frackanpada.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Through discovery of place, through story, and through personal connection with people along the way, we are journeying 1,100 miles to the tar sands of Alberta – and are asking for your support in our venture.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Activists dangling by ropes from the city's tallest bridge, and kayakers on the water below, blocked the icebreaker from heading to the Arctic for a drill operation.</p>
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<div><span><em>2 days 19 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>America's overstretched military has hired hundreds of private-sector contractors to analyze top-secret video feeds and help track suspected terrorist leaders – a secretive industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.</p>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<p>From terrible company management to supporting the Iraq war to giving away astronomical sums to corporations, here's a cast of candidates who should be dropped from the ledgers.</p>
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<p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p>

armageddon news revolution How the Super PAC Megadonor Oligarchy Conquered American Politics

How the Super PAC Megadonor Oligarchy Conquered American Politics How the Super PAC Megadonor Oligarchy Conquered American Politics ...

Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy – Now the Poor Are Paying the Price

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<h2>Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy – Now the Poor Are Paying the Price</h2>
<span>Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy – Now the Poor Are Paying the Price</span> <a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/p02ytv9x.jpg?itok=NvlefAy0" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/p02ytv9x.jpg?itok=NvlefAy0" /></a>
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<p>Angry graffiti scrawled across the brightly colored buildings of San Juan tells the creditors of the world exactly where they can stick their plan to extract roughly <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/07/08/3677565/puerto-rico-crisis-minimum-wage/" rel="nofollow">$73 billion in debt</a> from the struggling U.S. territory. “Puerto Rico comes first. To hell with the debt,” reads one wall.</p>
<p>“Don’t play around with my retirement,” says the side of a major freeway. Down by the University of Puerto Rico, the walls and sidewalk are filled with laments — “Look into my unemployed face” — and calls to action: “Study and fight!”</p>
<p>Depending who you ask in Puerto Rico, the debt crisis was caused by neocolonial and imperialist policies from the U.S., the Puerto Rican government’s wasteful overspending and corruption, or the cadre of hedge funds that are <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jakezamansky/2013/11/13/how-wall-street-has-profited-from-puerto-ricos-misery-2/" rel="nofollow">currently profiting from</a> the island’s woes.</p>
<p>Add to that toxic mix a series of free-trade agreements that triggered mass outsourcing, and a population in rapid decline <a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/08/11/puerto-rican-population-declines-on-island-grows-on-u-s-mainland/" rel="nofollow">due to out-migration</a>, and you arrive where we are today, with the government on the hook for tens of billions of dollars.</p>
<p>After the island’s Public Finance Corporation <a href="http://m.newstimes.com/news/world/article/Puerto-Rico-No-money-available-to-make-58M-bond-6418558.php" rel="nofollow">failed to make a major payment</a> due this weekend, the threat of a default looms larger still.</p>
<p>Two recent reports, one by former consultants of the International Monetary Fund and the other by the island’s hedge fund creditors, say the only way out of the mess is a regime of harsh austerity that eliminates the minimum wage, sells off public buildings and assets, lays off teachers and shutters schools, cuts workers’ vacation and benefits, and raises sales taxes and electricity rates.</p>
<p>Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s sole representative in the U.S. Congress, told ThinkProgress he somewhat agrees with this model. “When you tell me ‘austerity,’ I tell you, of course we have to be austere. Of course we have to be fiscally responsible. When our financial viability is at stake, we should all be concerned.”</p>
<p>Speaking to ThinkProgress in the office of his pro-statehood political party, Pierluisi said in alternating English and Spanish that Puerto Rico must prioritize paying its debt — not only because <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/puerto-rico-wants-to-incur-more-debt-to-regain-financial-footing/?_r=0" rel="nofollow">their Constitution mandates it</a>, but because it’s the “adult” thing to do.</p>
<p>“We can’t follow Argentina. Argentina has spend 12 years fighting its creditors before tribunals and they’ve lost billions in foreign investments. I don’t want that model for Puerto Rico,” he said. “So we have to talk to our creditors in a responsible and civilized way. We have to say, ‘I want to pay you. Help me pay you.’ That’s what I don’t see: both sides sitting down at the table to negotiate like adults.”</p>
<p>Pierluisi, who will run for governor of Puerto Rico in 2016, <a href="http://pierluisi.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pierluisi-re-introduces-bill-to-include-puerto-rico-in-chapter-9-of-the" rel="nofollow">has introduced bills</a> that would give the island the same bankruptcy protections as U.S. states and cities. This would allow the commonwealth to restructure its debt in a more manageable fashion.</p>
<p>But Pierluisi has no vote in Congress, even though he represents more U.S. citizens than any other House member, and hope for passing the proposal has fizzled in the face of Republican opposition. Furthermore, the White House has <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/246444-white-house-no-federal-bailout-for-puerto-rico" rel="nofollow">already ruled out a bailout</a>.</p>
<p>Without a lifeline from the mainland, the island could run out of cash as soon as this summer, sending the economy into a Greece-like spiral that makes the path to austerity all the more likely.</p>
<p>For some U.S. progressives, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT), this is a “moral outrage.”</p>
<p>“At a time when 56 percent of children in Puerto Rico are living in poverty, the last thing that Puerto Rico needs is more austerity,” he said in a recent statement. “The people in Puerto Rico should not be forced to suffer so that a handful of billionaires can make even more money.”</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://hedgeclippers.org/hedgepapers-no-17-hedge-fund-billionaires-in-puerto-rico/" rel="nofollow">a new investigation</a>, many of those same billionaires demanding payment from Puerto Rico have also profited from the debt crises in Greece, Argentina, and Detroit. These hedge funds specialize in buying up “distressed” assets and pushing governments to take on debt they can’t afford under predatory rates and conditions. At the same time, the groups are lobbying Congress to not allow the island to declare bankruptcy, as doing so would cut into their profits.</p>
<p>“The reason Puerto Rico has such unsustainable debt has everything to do with the policies of austerity and the greed of large financial institutions,” said Sanders. He additionally noted that just seven years ago, Congress “acted with a fierce sense of urgency to bail out Wall Street,” yet is now dragging its feet on helping the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>In the working class neighborhood of Santurce, in a union hall decorated with the Puerto Rican flag and photos of “martyrs of the struggle,” a group of a few dozen professors, laborers, and activists met in late-July to pick apart the proposals on the table and brainstorm their own solutions.</p>
<p>Those at the meeting and other residents who spoke to ThinkProgress blasted Pierluisi and other politicians for supporting the proposed austerity model, which they warned would only further decimate the fragile economy, and push even more Puerto Ricans to flee to the mainland United States.</p>
<p>“Austerity is usually oriented at the people who need the most,” said Aaron Gamaliel Ramos, a professor of Caribbean Studies at the University of Puerto Rico. “Our greatest concern should be for workers in the lower echelons of society.”</p>
<p>Today, the island has the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/07/08/3677565/puerto-rico-crisis-minimum-wage/" rel="nofollow">highest unemployment rate</a> in the nation, at over 12 percent, and more poverty than any other state.</p>
<p>While Ramos acknowledged that a high level of corruption and wasteful spending does exist in Puerto Rico, he criticized the calls from the hedge funds to shut down schools — <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/28/hedge-funds-puerto-rico-close-schools-fire-teachers-pay-us-back?CMP=share_btn_tw" rel="nofollow">more than 100</a> of which have already been closed — and slash the social safety net.</p>
<p>“It’s not a black and white debate — cuts or no cuts,” said Ramos, whose own retirement fund is on the chopping block, along with his 92-year-old mother’s Social Security. “We need to ask: what should we do before we cut? What is so valuable to society that it should not be touched?”</p>
<p>Yet others say there should be no cuts at all, at least for now. Instead, argues Martha Quiñones Dominguez, an economics professor at the University of Puerto Rico, the country should order an independent audit of the debt to see which creditors’ claims are valid and which are illegal.</p>
<p>She also called on the government to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, put a moratorium on debt payments, and use the money instead for sustainable development that will help cut down on costly imports.</p>
<p>“The current model of catering to foreign business and capital is a model of dependency,” she told the workers’ meeting. “We have to invest in local businesses that are truly invested here and won’t pick up and leave when things get tough. Walmart will leave. Costco will leave. What will be left?”</p>
<p>Many of those present, including Dominguez, told ThinkProgress they identify as independentistas — those who want the commonwealth to break off from the U.S. and become its own sovereign nation. If this happened, they argued, the island could set its own wages and trade policies to boost development.</p>
<p>As it is, many expressed frustration that the average Puerto Rican has no say either in the U.S. Congress that may decide its fate, or in the high level negotiations between the creditors and the government that are now taking place behind closed doors.</p>
<p>“They’re debating our future without consulting us,” said Dominguez. “If they claim the debt belongs to all of us, they need to talk to all of us. The people are the most important bond holder in Puerto Rico.”</p>
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/08/02/3686499/is-puerto-rico-too-big-to-fail-inside-the-islands-debt-crisis/" rel="nofollow">Originally published by Think Progress</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/ap_543438880193-1125x635.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/ap_543438880193-1125x635.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are agents of a revolt, from the left and the right, fueled by anger at those who have had power over our economic and political system since the start of the 1980s.</p>
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<p>The majority of money raised for the 2016 presidential race has come from those giving $100,000 or more.</p>
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<p>According to financiers, the only way out of the island's economic mess is to eliminate the minimum wage, sell off public assets, lay off teachers, shutter schools, cut workers’ vacation and benefits, and raise sales taxes.</p>
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<p>Yep, we have one helluva all star creative activist lineup for you this week!</p>
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<p>If you make the right to strike so much harder to realize, you change the balance of power between the employer and employee.</p>
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<p>“This is the first time fracking activists have got together on this scale internationally – from Kurdistan to Brazil, from Ukraine to Portugal and Algeria," says Catriona of Ireland, who attended the recent Frackanpada.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Through discovery of place, through story, and through personal connection with people along the way, we are journeying 1,100 miles to the tar sands of Alberta – and are asking for your support in our venture.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Activists dangling by ropes from the city's tallest bridge, and kayakers on the water below, blocked the icebreaker from heading to the Arctic for a drill operation.</p>
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<div><span><em>2 days 19 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 2 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Activists dangling by ropes from the city's tallest bridge, and kayakers on the water below, blocked the icebreaker from heading to the Arctic for a drill operation.</p>
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<p>Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</p>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p>

armageddon news revolution Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy – Now the Poor Are Paying the Price

Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy – Now the Poor Are Paying the Price Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy – N...

Act Out! [23] - The LA special: Peter Joseph, Matt Sedillo & Lil Haydn

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<h2>Act Out! [23] - The LA special: Peter Joseph, Matt Sedillo & Lil Haydn</h2>
<span>Act Out! [23] - The LA special: Peter Joseph, Matt Sedillo & Lil Haydn</span></div>
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<p>Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are agents of a revolt, from the left and the right, fueled by anger at those who have had power over our economic and political system since the start of the 1980s.</p>
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<p>The majority of money raised for the 2016 presidential race has come from those giving $100,000 or more.</p>
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<p>According to financiers, the only way out of the island's economic mess is to eliminate the minimum wage, sell off public assets, lay off teachers, shutter schools, cut workers’ vacation and benefits, and raise sales taxes.</p>
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<p>Yep, we have one helluva all star creative activist lineup for you this week!</p>
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<p>If you make the right to strike so much harder to realize, you change the balance of power between the employer and employee.</p>
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<p>“This is the first time fracking activists have got together on this scale internationally – from Kurdistan to Brazil, from Ukraine to Portugal and Algeria," says Catriona of Ireland, who attended the recent Frackanpada.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Through discovery of place, through story, and through personal connection with people along the way, we are journeying 1,100 miles to the tar sands of Alberta – and are asking for your support in our venture.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>5 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Activists dangling by ropes from the city's tallest bridge, and kayakers on the water below, blocked the icebreaker from heading to the Arctic for a drill operation.</p>
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<div><span><em>2 days 19 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 2 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</p>
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<p>America's overstretched military has hired hundreds of private-sector contractors to analyze top-secret video feeds and help track suspected terrorist leaders – a secretive industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.</p>
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<p>“This is the first time fracking activists have got together on this scale internationally – from Kurdistan to Brazil, from Ukraine to Portugal and Algeria," says Catriona of Ireland, who attended the recent Frackanpada.</p>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<div>Robert Reich (A…</div>
<div>Instant Video)</div>
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<p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p>

armageddon news revolution Act Out! [23] - The LA special: Peter Joseph, Matt Sedillo & Lil Haydn

Act Out! [23] - The LA special: Peter Joseph, Matt Sedillo & Lil Haydn Act Out! [23] - The LA special: Peter Joseph, Matt Sedillo...

Right to Strike In U.K. Jeopardized By New Anti-Union Bill

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<h2>Right to Strike In U.K. Jeopardized By New Anti-Union Bill</h2>
<span>Right to Strike In U.K. Jeopardized By New Anti-Union Bill</span> <a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/_62829100_strike.jpg?itok=qSC9NcKE" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/_62829100_strike.jpg?itok=qSC9NcKE" /></a>
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<p>Last week the U.K.'s Conservative government published its new Trade Union Bill imposing draconian new laws on industrial workforce action. Under the regulations, strikes will be illegal unless 50% of those eligible to vote take part in a postal ballot, and 40% of those eligible vote “yes.” Employers would also be at liberty to replace employees on strike with temporary agency staff.</p>
<p>In the past, a simple majority of the people choosing to take part in a ballot sufficed, and filling workers' positions during a strike was against the law. Many in Britain were astonished at the harsh new stipulations, compared with what had been outlined in the Conservative manifesto. Trade unions were established in Britain in 1870 and have since had a huge impact on shaping employment law. So how will the new Trade Union Bill actually impact working life? And what can be done to counter it?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/industry_protest_130909_0.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/industry_protest_130909_0.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Trades Union Congress</strong></p>
<p>The Trades Union Congress represents 54 affiliated unions across the U.K. “What the Conservative party had announced in its manifesto was already very restrictive on the right to strike,” a TUC spokesperson told Occupy.com.</p>
<p>“But now [that] they’re in government, their full package of legislation has added things on top of their manifesto promises that we weren’t expecting. These will further infringe on the right to strike by frustrating attempts to strike with petty rules for picketing that carry fines if you don't meet them," the spokesperson added.</p>
<p>"It's not so much that unionized workers' hands are tied – it's more like having to walk through thick mud full of booby traps to get there. They wouldn’t make striking impossible, but they would make the right to strike far harder to realize.”</p>
<p>As well as restrictions on the right to strike, the TUC is also worried about the replacement of workers with agency staff.</p>
<p>“One of our biggest concerns is a plan to legalize the use of agency workers to break strikes," said the spokesperson. "It’s not only an appalling attack on the right to strike, it's also an awful position to put agency workers in themselves. We can't even be sure agency workers would be told they were being brought in to replace striking workers.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/80833666cg005_civil_servant.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Trade Union Bill, budget cuts, austerity policies, National Union of Teachers, public sector workers, right to strike" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/80833666cg005_civil_servant.jpg" title="Trade Union Bill, budget cuts, austerity policies, National Union of Teachers, public sector workers, right to strike" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Public Sector Workers</strong></p>
<p>The TUC said public services will be particularly affected by the bill.</p>
<p>"The right to strike is always an option of absolute last resort, but if you make the right to strike so much harder to realize, then you change the balance of power between the employer and employee," the spokesperson added, "so it becomes much harder to protect the quality of pay and conditions. That affects the quality of the job, and the more the job is downgraded, the more the quality of the service is downgraded so it has negative impacts on public service users, too.”</p>
<p>Firefighters are among the frontline workers who have been most chastised for withholding services because of their vital and irreplaceable role. In Essex, they recently went on strike because of a proposed 25% reduction of staff.</p>
<p>“Our service has suffered cut after cut,” said Alan Chinn-Shaw, secretary of the Fire Brigades Union in Essex. “These attacks are nothing less than a dismantling of the fire and rescue service in Essex. If Essex County Fire and Rescue Service are allowed to continue decimating our frontline service, the public will have to wait longer for their fire engines to arrive in an emergency. It is only a matter of time before there are casualties."</p>
<p>"We are campaigning on behalf of the public to maintain a fire service that is adequately funded, professional and able to respond swiftly to emergency 999 calls. Our communities deserve nothing less. We recognize that our fire service is facing budget reductions, but we believe there are alternatives to these unnecessary cuts to lifesaving front line services,” Chinn-Shaw added.</p>
<p>John Bangs, the former head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said striking teachers are almost as vilified as striking firefighters.</p>
<p>“The Conservative Party fundamentally distrusts and dislikes trade unions,” he told Occupy.com “It can see no value in them despite its protestations that it is in favor of working people. [But] the latest round of proposals go much further than setting higher hurdles for strike action. They seek to limit people's ability to collectively campaign. In short they seek to silence their voice. The proposals make a mockery of the Conservatives' aspirations for a one nation society.”</p>
<p>In terms of the impact on teachers specifically, he added: “Teachers join unions because teaching is not only worthwhile but tough. They want a collective professional voice which will protect them not least from a government which imposes excessive workloads and fails to understand what works in education. These new proposals will be taken personally by teachers and be seen, yet again, as the actions of a government which has no trust in them.”</p>
<p>Donnacha DeLong, who sits on the National Union of Journalists' executive committee, said "it's a problem that they're making people send in postal votes” in order to strike.</p>
<p>“If they were bringing in these percentages and allowing online voting it would be a different story," said DeLong. "The only positive I can think of is that this might encourage larger unions to engage with their members a bit more.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the face and form of union action may by necessity be transformed by the new strike laws, he added.</p>
<p>“I think unions need to get over the idea that a strike always involves a picket line and leaving the building. Imagine if everyone went into work and just 'occupied' their desks, making it impossible to bring in agency workers.”</p>
<p>Many speculate that the new anti-union laws are particularly aimed at tying the hands of the Conservatives' main opposition, the Labour Party, who are in the throes of a leadership election with a left-wing candidate vying to take the helm. Labour gains much of its funds from trade unions, so the decimation of their power would have a palpable effect on the party.</p>
<div><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/29CEA16A00000578-3132645-Brandishing_an_End_Austerity_Now_placard_Church_said_she_was_ins-a-4_1434818599758.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/29CEA16A00000578-3132645-Brandishing_an_End_Austerity_Now_placard_Church_said_she_was_ins-a-4_1434818599758.jpg" /></a></div>
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<p>Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are agents of a revolt, from the left and the right, fueled by anger at those who have had power over our economic and political system since the start of the 1980s.</p>
</div>
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<p>The majority of money raised for the 2016 presidential race has come from those giving $100,000 or more.</p>
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<p>According to financiers, the only way out of the island's economic mess is to eliminate the minimum wage, sell off public assets, lay off teachers, shutter schools, cut workers’ vacation and benefits, and raise sales taxes.</p>
</div>
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<p>Yep, we have one helluva all star creative activist lineup for you this week!</p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
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<p>If you make the right to strike so much harder to realize, you change the balance of power between the employer and employee.</p>
</div>
</div>
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<div>
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<div>
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<p>“This is the first time fracking activists have got together on this scale internationally – from Kurdistan to Brazil, from Ukraine to Portugal and Algeria," says Catriona of Ireland, who attended the recent Frackanpada.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Through discovery of place, through story, and through personal connection with people along the way, we are journeying 1,100 miles to the tar sands of Alberta – and are asking for your support in our venture.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>5 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Activists dangling by ropes from the city's tallest bridge, and kayakers on the water below, blocked the icebreaker from heading to the Arctic for a drill operation.</p>
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<div><span><em>2 days 19 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>"I tell you what, I wish instead of spending so much money on [incarcerating people], they'd come fill some of these crater holes behind my house."</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 2 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 3 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Cozy with Wall Street, Hillary hasn't endorsed the Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act prohibiting government officials from accepting “golden parachutes” from their former employers for entering public service.</p>
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<p>Studies show that debts prevent former misdemeanants and felons from escaping poverty and moving on with their lives – not only because of what’s owed but also because of the accompanying stress and surveillance.</p>
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<p>Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</p>
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<p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p>

armageddon news revolution Right to Strike In U.K. Jeopardized By New Anti-Union Bill

Right to Strike In U.K. Jeopardized By New Anti-Union Bill Right to Strike In U.K. Jeopardized By New Anti-Union Bill Last week th...

Edward Snowden Reveals Aliens Live Inside Earth – VIDEO

<p><img alt="Edward Snowden" class="" height="212" src="http://cdns.yournewswire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/blogger-image-466362808-620x264.jpg" width="498" />A little-remembered piece of information has resurfaced recently in which it is claimed that <strong>Edward Snowden</strong>‘s leaked documents from the U.S. Government show that UFO’s and aliens come from inside the Earth.</p>
<p>According to CosmosTV.org:</p>
<p>Edward Snowden has reported on the facts known to the U.S. Government concerning UFOs. According to the documents (which Snowden copied to the CIA), the U.S. government has long known that UFOs exist and are a species more advanced than humanity. These species are not alien, but from our own earth, only more advanced. They have lived here for billions of years, and are far ahead of us in development.</p>
<p>The CIA stores data tracking systems and deep-sea sonar on them, but they have the status of state secrets, and even the scientists do not have access to this data about these objects.</p>
<p>Extremophiles can live at different temperatures, they have been able to flourish and develop intelligence at a more accelerated pace than Homo Sapiens and they have evolved at the same rate, but their living conditions in the Earth’s mantle defended their civilization from the many disasters that have occurred on the surface of the earth. .</p>
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<p>The general consensus is that we’re just ants from their point of view and there is a small chance that they will continue to pay attention to us.</p>
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<p><sub><i>-- Delivered by <a href="http://feed43.com/">Feed43</a> service</i></sub></p>

anon anonymous news Edward Snowden Reveals Aliens Live Inside Earth – VIDEO

A little-remembered piece of information has resurfaced recently in which it is claimed that Edward Snowden ‘s leaked documents from the U.S...