Tag Archives: Wall Street

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stand with the people of Richmond


Campaign for a Fair Settlement a project of Action for the Common Good

Take Action

Get more people involved in fighting back against Wall Street bullies by sharing this image or sharing the petition to Stand with Richmond.

Impressive.
We’re getting reports from our partners in California that this is how the people fighting for Local Principal Reduction (LPR) in Richmond are describing all the support and media attention that’s been focused on them since that city started using that policy to move towards helping struggling families stay in their homes.

Thanks to the efforts of supporters like you, 20,000 people have signed on to support Local Principal Reduction and over 6500 have signed on to support Richmond, CA, efforts in particular. Activists at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and the Home Defenders League delivered those signatures directly to Wells Fargo branches the same week the Wells CEO, John Stumpf led the charge of the Wall Street criminals in trying to stop Richmond’s efforts by suing the city the week after Richmond announced its policy. Just last week over 200 of you also called Stumpf’s office to tell him to stop suing and start negotiating.
Another thing that’s impressive is how important this support is in fighting back against Wall Street’s bullying of cities like Richmond. The lawsuit isn’t just about stopping Richmond, it’s about stopping ANY city from trying this common sense solution to fixing what Wall Street broke. The more people standing up the more likely we are to win! Can you help find more fighters by forwarding the Stand with Richmond petition with 5 friends? http://www.homedefendersleague.org/stand_with_richmond_ca You can also share it on Facebook here or on Twitter here.

You can also share this great Facebook graphic that the Home Defenders League created about the LPR fight between Richmond and the criminal bankers led by Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf (it’s the one in the picture at the top of the email).
This campaign is really heating up because there’s finally a way to fix what Wall Street broke and it doesn’t have anything to do with coddling Wall Street criminals; its main priority is keeping struggling families in their homes. Naturally, Wall Street bankers are desperate to stop it. If you want to stay up-to-date on these fights, the HDL has set up a special section of their website with information, updates, and ways to take action: http://www.homedefendersleague.org/local_principal_reduction
Thanks for standing up and fighting back in support of Local Principal Reduction!

In Solidarity,
Brian Kettenring, Executive Director, Action for the Common Good

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Social Security


On Saturday Senators Tom Harkin and Mark Begich were on The Ed Show to
introduce their plan to strengthen and expand Social Security to MSNBC’s
audience across the country.

They certainly have the right
idea. They’ve proposed bills that would strengthen and enhance Social
Security for generations to come. That’s the kind of renewed commitment
to community and security we need. Already 94,672 DFA members have taken
action to support their plan. Will you join them?


Click here to watch the Senators’ appearance on The Ed Show and then
add your name to our petition to help us reach 100,000 signatures by
Tuesday.

This
isn’t going to be an easy fight. The very same Wall Street bankers and
Tea Party interests that have plotted to derail Social Security time and
again will no doubt put up the fight of their lives. We need your help. Will you join us in the fight to expand and strengthen Social Security?

Thanks for all you do,

Neil

Neil Sroka, Communications Director
Democracy for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Action for Fair Settlement


Campaign for a Fair Settlement a project of Action for the Common Good

Take Action

We need to make sure local communities can decide their economic futures.

Full scale Wall Street freak out.

Five years after Wall Street criminals destroyed our economy there are still millions of underwater homeowners and millions more foreclosures in the pipeline.

The good news is that Home Defenders and local elected officials have figured out an innovative way – called Local Principal Reduction – to deal with this problem. The bad news is that Wall Street criminals are in in full attack mode fighting as hard as they can to stop us.

Tell Wall Street bankers: Stop bullying communities advancing local principal reduction and cooperate in keeping struggling families in their homes.

Here’s what’s happening. We have figured out a way to purchase certain underwater loans, reset them to fair market value, and then get the homeowners into new, sustainable mortgages. The costs of the program are borne by the private funders who the cities are partnering with and the beneficiaries are the homeowners, with affordable mortgages and new equity, and our communities, with greater economic activity.

The key to making this program work for everyone is the use of eminent domain – the ability of a government to take property for the public benefit – to acquire the underwater mortgages if the Wall Street investors refuse to make a fair deal. And that’s what’s freaking Wall Street out.[3]

Tell Wall Street: End your outrageous efforts to block local principal reduction programs that will keep families in their homes and rebuild local economies.

We are facing a stark choice. Either we and our elected officials control our economic future, or Wall Street criminals and their banks do. It’s clear where Wall Street bankers stand. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), made up same old Wall Street bankers that brought you the foreclosure crisis, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, etc., is bullying and threatening cities that are exploring local principal reduction programs including El Monte, La Puente, and Richmond, CA; and North Las Vegas, NV. [4]

But that’s not stopping us. Stand up and tell Wall Street criminals to keep their hands off of Main Street and help struggling homeowners rebuild their lives and their wealth.

This fight is just starting; Wall Street and SIFMA are committed to fighting as dirty as they can to keep this from happening. With your help Home Defenders and our cities will take bold and courageous action to build a future that works for all of us, starting with the struggling underwater homeowners in our own back yards.

In solidarity, Brian, Campaign for a Fair Settlement
http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/

[1] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/underwater-mortgage-percentage-falls-below-20-2013-06-12

[2] http://www.newbottomline.com/underwater_mortgages_and_1_million_jobs

[3] Robert Kuttner “Seize the mortgages, save the neighborhood” Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/29/opinion/la-oe-kuttner-eminent-domain-mortgages-20130630

[4] Peter Dreier “To Rescue Local Economies, Cities Seize Underwater Mortgages Through Eminent Domain” Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/to-rescue-local-economies_b_3614326.html

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

CNBC censors Warren


ELIZABETH WARREN’S EARLIER EMAIL TO PCCC MEMBERS:

About a year ago, on the campaign trail, I asked PCCC members to join with me in pushing for a new Glass-Steagall bill.

This law stopped investment banks from gambling away people’s life savings for decades — until Wall Street successfully lobbied the regulators to chip away at the rules in the 1980s and Congress to repeal it entirely in 1999.

Over 100,000 people joined the fight. And now, I am proud to introduce the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act — along with Republican John McCain, Independent Angus King, and Democrat Maria Cantwell — as my first big banking bill in the U.S. Senate.

Will you join over 100,000 of us in calling for more Wall Street reform, starting with a new Glass-Steagall Act? Sign here!

We learned during the 2008 financial crisis that Wall Street is not just taking risks with their own money — they are taking risks with the whole economy.

A new Glass-Steagall would separate high-risk investment banks from more traditional banking. It would allow Wall Street to take risks, but not by dipping into the life savings and retirement accounts of regular people.

And by making banks smaller, a new Glass-Steagall could also help put an end to banks that are “too big to fail” — further avoiding costly taxpayer bailouts.

Please help us pass a new Glass-Steagall Act. Join the fight here.

I’ve already talked about this petition on MSNBC, and I’ll keep my Senate colleagues informed of the growing public support for this reform.

By mobilizing people across the nation, we can get this done.

Thank you, Senator Elizabeth Warren

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The Roberts Corporate Court Strikes Again


By  CAP Action War Room

The Powerful Over the People

Yesterday, we celebrated two landmark Supreme Court rulings advancing LGBT rights, but a closer look at the rest of the Supreme Court term reveals a wide variety of troubling rulings. These rulings may be on different issues, but they all have a common theme: whenever possible the High Court’s conservative wing puts the interests of the powerful above those of the people. This term the Supreme Court has issued rulings attacking voting rights, consumer rights, workers’ rights, and more.

In particular, the Roberts Court chooses to side with powerful corporations at almost every possible opportunity. Even conservative-leaning Supreme Courts in the past have not sided with corporations as often. For example, in cases where the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce intervened, they won barely more than half the time under Chief Justice Rehnquist. Since Chief Justice Roberts and Alito joined the court in 2006, the Chamber has won 70 percent of its cases. Over the past two terms alone, the Chamber has prevailed in a whopping 88 percent of its cases. In fact, the Roberts Court is the most pro-corporate Supreme Court in more than six decades.

Here’s a few of the areas where the court trampled on the people at the expense of the powerful:

  • Voting Rights: Just this week, the Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. As a result, six states are already moving forward with voter suppression laws that previously would’ve been held up or blocked entirely. If individuals cannot vote, they of course cannot vote for politicians who support progressive or populist policies or vote against those who are the tools of corporate special interests like polluters, insurance companies, and Wall Street banks.
  • Workers’ Rights: In two decisions also handed down this week, the Court made it much harder for victims of workplace discrimination to seek justice. The first case severely limited the definition who counts as a supervisor, making it much easier for people to be intimidated out of taking action against harassment by their bosses. A second decision issued the same day made it much easier for corporations or supervisors to retaliate against individuals who complain about discrimination.
  • Human Rights: In April, the Court severely limited a 200 year-old law that allowed individuals to use the U.S. civil court system to seek recourse for human rights violations committed abroad. Chief Justice John Roberts led a splintered court in ruling that several Nigerians alleging an oil company aided an abetted torture, arbitrary killings, and indefinite detention could not sue, because the corporate conduct occurred outside the United States. It is now essentially impossible to hold anyone accountable for such conduct.
  • Consumer Rights: The Roberts Court has made a habit of issuing rulings that limit the ability of individuals to file class action lawsuits and/or seek justice outside the arbitration system that heavily favors corporations. The Court issued several such rulings this term, making it harder for individuals or even millions of individuals impacted by wrongdoing or some other harm to take on powerful corporations.

In addition, the Court ruled in favor of pharmaceutical companies, authorized what should be unconstitutionally intrusive police collection of DNA, undermined the rights of indigent defendants, and sided with big developers and trampled on “local community rights,” among other unfortunate decisions.

Based on the cases the Court has agreed to hear next term, it appears we may be in for more of the same. The Court will hear cases on abortion rights, housing discrimination, the separation of church and state, the ability of the president to fill executive vacancies in the face of Senate obstruction, affirmative action, and environmental laws, just to name a few potentially explosive decisions.

When the Court managed to rule against corporate interests and the powerful, it almost always came over the objections of Chief Justice Roberts and the other members of the Court’s conservative wing.

BOTTOM LINE: In spite of some bullets dodged and landmark victories, the Roberts Corporate Court continued to distinguish itself by overwhelmingly favoring corporate interests and the powerful over the rights and interests of individuals and the American people.

***The Progress Report team is conducting a short survey to make The Progress Report a more useful resource for our readers. Don’t be scared–we promise it’s only a few minutes! Please fill it out now to help us improve this newsletter for you.***