Foreclosure abuse rampant across U.S., experts say | Reuters
By Tim Reid
LOS ANGELES | Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:34pm EST
(Reuters) - A report this week showing rampant foreclosure abuse in San Francisco reflects similar levels of lender fraud and faulty documentation across the United States, say experts and officials who have done studies in other parts of the country.
via Foreclosure abuse rampant across U.S., experts say | Reuters.
"It is expected that the $25 billion settlement will include no admission of wrongdoing by the banks."
Totally normal, totally natural. Does anyone still doubt that we live in a Plutocracy?
-Rob
Anti-Union NLRB gives the working class a break, a very very small one | Labor board gives U.S. unions a rare victory | Reuters.com
"This rule is about giving all employees who have petitioned for an election the right to vote in a timely manner and without the impediment of needless litigation," said NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce, a Democratic appointee of President Barack Obama.
What this effectively means is that union-busting law firms wont have as much time to crush organizing efforts. And of course they’re pissed about it.
Lawyers for the largest business lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit in Washington to try to block the rule, which is scheduled to take effect on April 30. They say election periods could become so short that they could "ambush" employers and violate their free-speech rights.
Why and how the fuck do Corporations have “free-speech” rights?
Oh right America is a plutocracy, I almost forgot for a minute.
Even though this is a half measure, closer to a quarter measure, in todays political climate of a pansy Democrat in the White House and a congress that enjoys bending over being buggered by Tea-Party endorsed candidates, we still have to count this as a victory.
-Rob
Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters
"Is there a global tipping point for frustration? Everywhere, it seems, people said they'd had enough," Time Editor Rick Stengel said in a statement.
via Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters.
I’ve always held the notion that the center cannot hold. That sooner or later everyday people are going to wake up to this cluster-fuck of materialism and superficiality we cling to as modern society.
I really, really, really wish this could be that moment – yet I fear it is not.
The Arab spring had a coherence driven by years of mutual oppression we have nothing close to that in this country. The Occupy movement is tapping into something very real and very profound and I support it 100%, but it lacks a message, it lacks an actual narrative. Unlike the astroturfed “Tea Party” movement the Occupy movement has yet to find a platform that can actually be manifested as policy.
What it has managed to do is put the discussion on the national radar screen, to start a dialogue. let us hope this doesn’t get hijacked by the political establishment and turned into lukewarm half measures like we’ve seen so many times in the past.
I am not optimistic.
Cyber attacks could wreck world oil supply | Reuters
By Daniel Fineren
DOHA | Thu Dec 8, 2011 11:03am EST
(Reuters) - Hackers are bombarding the world's computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption.
Oil company executives warned that attacks were becoming more frequent and more carefully planned.
"If anybody gets into the area where you can control opening and closing of valves, or release valves, you can imagine what happens," said Ludolf Luehmann, an IT manager at Shell Europe's biggest company .
"It will cost lives and it will cost production, it will cost money, cause fires and cause loss of containment, environmental damage - huge, huge damage," he told the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.
More fear-mongering from Big Oil. Jesus, these threats JUST DON’T EXIST.
Let Mr. Mitnick and Poulson enlighten you. [link]
-r0b
Critiques Of Libertarianism: The demands of continuous existence.
My friend Mike Huben of Critiques of Libertarianism asks a good question:
Here's a question for economists out there.
Would economics examples be significantly different if we start off understanding that people have a continuous demand for consumables such as food with no elasticity as we approach starvation?Critiques Of Libertarianism: The demands of continuous existence..
-r0b --a recovering Libertarian.