This is a long post but it’s about something pretty interesting so I hope you’ll indulge …
Like many folks, Occupy Wall Street has been some doing good work in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, helping people on the ground.
Now OWS is launching the ROLLING JUBILEE, a program that has been in development for months. OWS is going to start buying distressed debt (medical bills, student loans, etc.) in order to forgive it. As a test run, we spent $500, which bought $14,000 of distressed debt. We then ERASED THAT DEBT. (If you’re a debt broker, once you own someone’s debt you can do whatever you want with it — traditionally, you hound debtors to their grave trying to collect. We’re playing a different game. A MORE AWESOME GAME.)
This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need — to free them from heavy debt loads so they can focus on being productive, happy and healthy. As you can see from our test run, the return on investment approaches 30:1. That’s a crazy bargain!
Now, after many consultations with attorneys, the IRS, and our moles in the debt-brokerage world, we are ready to take the Rolling Jubilee program LIVE and NATIONWIDE, buying debt in communities that have been struggling during the recession.
We’re kicking things off with a show called THE PEOPLE’S BAILOUT at Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday, November 15. It will also stream online, like a good ol’-fashioned telethon!
Friends, the line-up is insane. Performers include:- JEFF MANGUM (Neutral Milk Hotel)
- JANEANE GAROFALO
- GUY PICCIOTTO (Fugazi)
- LIZZ WINSTEAD
- HARI KONDABOLU
- TUNDE ADEBIMPE and KYP MALONE (TV on the Radio)
- members of DAS RACIST
and other great talents including a group of radical nuns! I’ll be playing the role of JERRY LEWIS, emceeing in my tuxedo from MEN’S WEARHOUSE.
This will be a joyful, positive night about people banding together and subverting a predatory financial system in order to help each other. BOOM! That’s a movie pitch right there, goddamn why am I not a Hollywood mogul?!
Anyway, HERE IS THE INFORMATION about THE PEOPLE’S BAILOUT:
- The LIVE SHOW is at Le Poisson Rouge on THURSDAY 11/15, 8 - 11 PM. Tickets are $25 (each ticket buys $500 of distressed debt).- The LIVE STREAM will be at http://rollingjubilee.org (you’ll be able to donate online)
- Here’s the FACEBOOK PAGE
- The HASHTAG is #peoplesbailout
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
- Spread the word! Share this info with your friends, family, and followers
- Donate money via http://rollingjubilee.org$25 abolishes an estimated $500 worth of debt
$50 abolishes an estimated $1000 worth of debt
$100 abolishes an estimated $2000 worth of debt
$250 abolishes an estimated $5000 worth of debt- Host a live-stream party! Get together with folks in your town and watch the show online and donate money and maybe even drink a beer if you’re feeling crazy.
- If you are Jerry Seinfeld or Bill Cosby: Call me about doing a set at the live show! We’ll fit you in.
Okay, that was a really long tumblr post. I feel very vulnerable right now. Thanks for reading.
Bye!
—David Rees
Here’s every punk album cover for the next five years taken last night during the violent arrests at Zucotti Park.
Look at that face.
Guys, he just really cares about the health and safety of protesters.
He’s angry at all the “unsanitary” things around, he actually loves the protesters SO MUCH.
GUYS I’M SO PUMPED THAT YOU’RE TAKING DOWN CAPITALISM CAN I HELP
So much of the anti-union rhetoric I hear really comes down to “OH NOES! Someone, somewhere, is making a nice middle class salary!”
“Goddamn auto workers or teachers or teamsters make enough money to Take a Vacation. Who do they think they are? Non-serfs?”
One of the…
| — | Rachel Maddow (via splashmeadouble) |
“can you see the new world through the teargas?” #ows Cleaned up version soon
UPDATE:
High res image available here. Feel free to print, poster, and plaster everywhere. DO NOT use commercially
Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance
1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.
2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.
3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.
4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.
5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.
6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.
8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else—a stranger in the street, for example.
9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.
10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.
11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you’re the one tumbling down when it collapses.
13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.
Posted without comment.
::edits self::
No wait, I can’t let that pass without comment. Yesterday in Boston, the Boston Police Department brutally arrested members of Veterans for Peace as well as the peaceful student protesters. Check out the iconic photo of the female Iraq War veteran who was dragged by her throat by members of the Boston Police Department.
This is the latest chapter in how the conservative administration has urged us to “support our troops” and then mocks the wounded, cuts off financial support, and houses them in hospitals like the scandal-ridden Walter Reed.
