Ruby Brown with members of her family in front of the north Minneapolis church where Ruby serves as a deacon.
After a five-year battle over now-illegal lending practices, a bank error that dropped her from a loan modification program, and a campaign with Occupy Homes MN, north Minneapolis homeowner Ruby Brown has received a mortgage renegotiation from Bank of America, just days before her home was to be auctioned off.
“This is an incredible victory for Ruby, who has been in the struggle for so long. It’s also something that can and should happen for everyone facing the loss of a home right now,” said Susan Kikuchi, an organizer with Occupy Homes MN. (website - http://www.occupyhomesmn.org ) Read the rest of this entry →
EU bankfail as everyone relishes Spain’s ‘successful auction’ – American bankfail continues as homeless spirals, inflation & money velocity drift
On the MN front, well the Occupy movement in Minneapolis really flushed out a lot of authoritarian over-reactions in the last couple weeks, starting with a haphazard police action slapping a KSTP photographer, arresting a dozen occupiers including an indy videographer (which the tut tutters ignore, etc). A meeting with the mayor and police chief was achieved. Videos & stills from the street incident by various folks including myself and roguemedia.org at youtube.com/hongpong & quickly circulated as far as Iran’s state news service PressTV lol.
A few days later, Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson tried to sneak an unlawful resolution without any public notice, which would have instantiated shutting down many inalienable rights between midnight and 6 AM on Nicollet Mall and Peavey/Greenway/Riverside plazas etc., including my right to collect stories and media as a journalist, a proselytizer’s right to preach the Gospel, a protesters right to protest, a homeless person’s right to exist, etc., in the name of the hellish blandness demanded by corporate psychopaths who want peace & quiet and these damn kids off their publicly owned lawns. The Council kicked it to committee 9-4 after the mayor lobbied for the corrupt resolution.
For the moment, anyhow, this pushed Johnson from the perceived ‘center’ to the ‘right’ of the DFL-dominated city political continuum. With an embarrassing defeat for the mayor, with the high stakes Vikings Stadium deal to rail thru without a vote in Minneapolis on the rocks at the Capitol, and Barb’s greasy Peavey Plaza plan whacked in at least one committee, it seems the wheels of shadiness have trouble turning when a little sand gets in the gears. (the next hearing is May 2nd or 3rd, this would be a public hearing for the public safety committee vote, don’t have info on hand. see facebook.com/occupymn or occupyminneapolis.mn )
According to one source, Mayor Rybak & Johnson’s defeat last Friday was enough to spur one pol to discuss finally taking on the city machine — the notion is that this new shakeup could finally crack open some political space in Minneapolis for an alternative after years upon years of stasis and acquiescence to top-down control (on behalf of the big banks and police union types in particular).
If nothing else then, it shows that the Founding Feathers insisted upon enough cracks in the machine to get the sand into. They never really could guarantee that the machine would work, but it seems like the saving grace for the last week was basically our dwindling freedom to throw sand in the machine. Good times. Even in Big Stone County people are standing up against massive mining projects.
EAGAN, MN — GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney glitter bombed not once, but twice at a Minnesota campaign stop by two members of Occupy Minneapolis and the LGBT rights group the Glitterati.
Nick Espinosa and Sam Richards yelled “Feel the rainbow” and “the 1% pays for hate, you’re not welcome in our state!” as they showered Romney in rainbow colored glitter as he walked up to the stage, and again as he shook hands on his way out.
Romney completed the speech with a formidable amount of glitter sparkling in his hair and another Occupy Minneapolis member Sam Richards added a second salvo of glitter just after Romney concluded his speech.
“The struggle against inequality in all its forms unites the 99%. Just as we stand against economic inequality, we stand against the inequality faced by those of us in the LGBT community.” Added Ben Egerman, an organizer of the action.
In solidarity with the national call-out to occupy empty buildings for communities, Minneapolis Space Liberation will host a day of action on January 28th, 2012.
There will be a march to empty space, skill/foodshares and a dance party!
Meet at 1:00PM, Steven’s Square Park, 18th St. & Stevens Ave, MPLS, MN
For more information and updates: twitter.com/spaceliberation
