Lunar Obverse

09:42 28th Nov 2011

Notes: 408

Reblogged from wilwheaton

WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR: Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B

Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

As Wil says (from whom I got this post), this is outrageous. It gives me context for all the folks who complain about cities that choose to spend money on cops policing peaceful protests, or the “damage” to city parks caused by those protests.

As we saw in Portland, the Occupiers can police themselves and there is no violence when the robotic stormtrooper riot cops don’t show up. But banks? Banks need policing, and our government is doing a piss-poor job of it.

16:29 19th Nov 2011

Notes: 517

Reblogged from spkent

Tags: occupy occupywallstreet occupyportland opdx

image: Download

spkent:

This is all you need to know about what is happening here.

from sirmitchell

Yup.

08:24 18th Nov 2011

Notes: 6395

Reblogged from markcoatney

Tags: occupy occupyportland ows

I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested… As I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, ‘I need to get in. My daughter’s there. I want to know if she’s OK.’ And he said, ‘Move on, lady.’ And they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head,” says Smith. “I walk over, and I say, ‘Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that.’ And he said, ‘Lady, do you want to get arrested?’ And I said, ‘Do you see my hat? I’m here as a legal observer.’ He said, ‘You want to get arrested?’ And he pushed me up against the wall.

— Retired New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith, working as a legal observer after the raids on Zucotti Park this Tuesday, via Paramilitary Policing of Occupy Wall Street: Excessive Use of Force amidst the New Military Urbanism (via seriouslyamerica)

08:02

Notes: 1779

Reblogged from motherjones

Tags: occupy occupyportland opdx ows

image: Download

This is obscene and shame on the police officer who did it, and the police department who allows it, and the leadership who does not immediately condemn and repudiate it, and the citizens who see it as the expected action by police in response to a peaceful exercise of First Amendment rights.

kateoplis:

Today at Occupy Portland: Protester hit with pepper spray at point blank range.

How can anyone justify this? Or this?

09:52 10th Oct 2011

Notes: 1

Tags: occupyportland teaparty

Victoria Taft, the ball’s in her court

Victoria Taft, local conservative radio host, tweeted the following this morning:

You couldn’t block the street for TParty w/o a permit but you can for this. http://tinyurl.com/4x5vpou

“This” being the OccupyPortland campsite in Chapman Square.

I couldn’t resist pointing out what I see as a difference between the Tea Party policies and the general sense (not really a policy yet) of the anger behind the Occupy movement:

@VictoriaTaft @OregonTeaParty Maybe because the Tea Party stands against the poor and sick, and the Occupy movement is giving them voice.

She replied with sarcasm. No, really, she indicated it right up front:

*sarcasm* Yes, of course, we don’t care about the needy. Now you can keeping hating. Feel better? #5vtshow @lunarobverse @OregonTeaParty

Luckily, I can back up my claims with actual evidence. Evidence maybe even a conservative talk show host would find difficult to refute. I did a simple Google search for “Tea Party against health care” and got a lot of links to what appear to be non-sarcastic Tea Party pages, and some news articles with headlines like “Tea Party Activists Make Last Stand Against Health Care Vote”.

I shared that last link with Ms. Taft. No word yet. I’ll update if she ever replies.

I’ve got screenshots of all these tweets just in case they get lost in the aether.

10:06 9th Oct 2011

Tags: OccupyPortland

A few days ago I was in a coffee shop debating issues around Occupy Portland with the owner and another customer, because apparently I live in eighteenth century France.

— G. Xavier Robillard writes about the #OccupyPortland kickoff march. Also, too, strippers.

17:42 8th Oct 2011

Notes: 19

Reblogged from pdxtales

Tags: portland pdx history 1910 socialist may day occupyportland

pdxtales:

“Socialists To Be Peaceful May Day”, May 1st, 1910. In which local left-wing groups moved the annual May Day to 7th (now Broadway) & Market St. after being denied the use of their first choice, Chapman Square. Chapman Square is currently home to the #OccupyPortland encampment, and right now they’re trying to work out how to coexist with Sunday’s scheduled Portland Marathon.

The 1910 turf battle was somewhat different; in 1910 the two Plaza Blocks were segregated by gender: Chapman Square was designated for women and children only, no exceptions, while Lownsdale Square (the one with all the war memorials) was reserved for the menfolk. One vestige of this system survives to the present day in the locations of the mens and womens restrooms in the two parks.

The article begins:

The crowds which will probably assemble at the Plaza blocks this afternoon to witness a battle royal between the police and the Socialists are in for a great disappointment. Instead of being “innocent bystanders” in the casualty list of a general riot, they will, if the plans of the revolutionists work out, be benevolently assimilated and towed in the rear of the procession to Seventh and Market streets, where Socialist oratory will be flung to the four winds throughout the afternoon. Thus all probability of serious disturbance in Portland on this international annual festival day of unrest is removed.

Some days ago representatives of the Socialist body waited upon Park Superintendent Mische and first requested and then demanded the use of Chapman Square, the park block reserved for women and children, for the May day meeting. Upon being informed that such use of the block could not be allowed, they announced that they would be there anyway, and a very strained situation seemed to be at hand. More mature reflection, however, brought a modification of the demands of the agitators and conferences with Mayor Simon and Chief of Police Cox have resulted in an amicable settlement of the difficulty.
…

11:46 7th Oct 2011

Notes: 1273

Reblogged from wilwheaton

Tags: I love my town OccupyPortland aaand scene

image: Download

wilwheaton:

kateoplis:

The estimated crowd for today’s Occupy Portland was around 10,000. Portland police reported no arrests and said the protesters were “tremendously peaceful and very receptive of police presence.” One of the officers said: “It’s moving to see this large number of people expressing their views and our commitment is to do everything we can to keep them safe.”

Good job, PDX!

Thanks, Internet’s Wil Wheaton!