This came over the fabled “transom” from a somewhat revolutionary (but neither left nor right) charity which we’ve been advertising proudly here for a year now. Think of them this holiday season – my favorite presents last year were when people would donate to them (or heifer.org) in my name:
Strike Debt’s Rolling Jubilee project has abolished $13.5 million in medical debt!
Celebratory events in five cities around the USA!
Spread the word on social media.
More ways to take action.
Thousands of people are better off today!
Strike Debt is pleased to announce that, with your participation, we have purchased and abolished $13.5 million in medical debt, affecting 2,693 individuals across 45 states and Puerto Rico. These debts ranged from $50 to over $200,000, including several accounts over $100K. These individuals will no longer have to pay this debt. They have been informed via letters like this.
To date, the Rolling Jubilee has raised over $600,000 and abolished $14.7 million in debt across four separate purchases. Every penny spent has gone towards the process of buying and abolishing debt. Read our accounting report for details.
Celebrations on November 15th
To celebrate the latest round of the jubilee, we’re holding events in several cities on or around this Friday, November 15th, the one year anniversary of the Rolling Jubilee. Join your friends and neighbors in these areas:
Austin
Helena, Montana
New York
Portland, Oregon – Nov 23rd
San Francisco – Nov 23rd
If you’d like to hold an event to celebrate the Rolling Jubilee’s largest debt purchase to date – let us know! Email organize@strikedebt.org
What’s next?
The Rolling Jubilee is a tactic for raising awareness of the fact that debts are sold for pennies on the dollar on the secondary market. This means that lenders are perfectly willing to write your debts off; they’re just not willing to write them off to you.
Simply buying more debt is not going to solve the problem. For ways you can take action against debt, look at our new, regularly updated list of resources.
The solution is collective action!
Debt is so devastating because it is treated as an individual burden. As the saying goes: “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” If we band together and force them to deal with us as a group, rather than as individuals, we’re the ones who have the power. Helping to build that collective strength is the primary goal of Strike Debt. If you’d like to help, email info@strikedebt.org
Join us as we build new forms of collective power and create a world where our debts are to our friends, our families, and our communities, not Wall Street.
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Again, this is your damn Weekend Open Thread, and as Greg would say, feel free to discuss this or any old thing, within this boundary and that boundary. Laterz …. V
We have a lot of stupid, arrogant elected officials in the good ole’ U.S.A. but at least we don’t have this guy.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/11/14/rob_ford_denies_eating_pussy_toronto_mayor_ad.html
Sadly, as soon as word spreads that the bar has been again lowered, we probably will. Ready for Mayor Howard Stern? Some idiots somewhere probably are.
BATKID ROCKS!
The rest of us suck.
Vern, you may especially appreciate this : ” Bill Moyers, for his national public TV show this weekend (just posted online), explores the amazing political and cultural influence of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and his “Ode to Joy” around the world, past and present.”
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177182/bill-moyers-explores-amazing-lessons-beethovens-ninth-symphony-our-dark-time
Ted Cruz gets a welcome audience reception on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOV3yhNU2qQ
Let’s hope he gets the Presidential nomination in 2016. It’ll mean a Democrat in the White House for 4 more years.
I agree, but he will add to the conversation – I am looking at:
Potential 2016 Republican Presidential Candidate Governor of Ohio
John Kasich
At one time, he was seen as one of the new bloods that will reinvent and reenergized the Republican Party. In 1995, a suitably impressed Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, lobbied hard for Congressman Kasich’s appointment as Chairman of the House Budget Committee, making him one of the youngest ever to hold the position. His stewardship of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is credited by some as one of the most crucial elements behind the four consecutive federal budget surpluses during former president Bill Clinton’s second term in office, the only times it has been achieved in the last 44 years.
However, his failed presidential run in 2000 almost broke his political career. Since then, Kasich’s only significant achievement has been as part of the Lehman Brothers team that took Google public in 2004 – that is, until 2010, when he was elected as the 69th Governor of Ohio.
Now seen as one of the establishment Republican old guards, any potential presidential bid by Gov. Kasich is predicated on reminding everyone of his experience in managing the country’s checkbook.
Do you REALLY think the Tea Partiers are going to stand for someone like Kasich winning the nomination?
Even if he were to run, he’d be forced to run so far to the right to get the nomination that by the time he reaches the general, he’s damaged goods, just like Romney was.
Hey Skally, here’s a little sneak preview of the sort of attack your boy will be up against:
“Appearing on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” Kasich was confronted by guest host Laura Ingraham for his state’s participation in Medicaid expansion. Ingraham cracked that Kasich and Obama were becoming “BFF” and practically “spooning” together.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/16/john-kasich-laura-ingraham_n_4288489.html
I think Kasich is Overmyer’s boy, not Skally’s boy. Skally’s boy is Ted Cruz. Skally is a FOX dittohead. Carl is a freethinking (wrong-thinking sometimes too I believe) libertarian. Carl also lacks Skally’s meanness. DON’T GET THEM CONFUSED!
Umm, well, I dunno…Skally said above he’s looking at Kasich and he agreed with me that Cruz can’t win the White House.
oh … maybe i blinked and missed a comment or two. Carry on…
“…the reason for the shut down was, President Obama said, “we will not negotiate, we will not compromise.” (Ted Cruz, from the above link)
A strategy formulated back in a summer meeting with Harry Reid, per Huffpost and to the best of my knowledge not denied by either of them.
To summarize, they scripted, directed and produced the shutdown, while failing to do the peoples business or manage the gigantic programs that they were responsible for implementing. All the while lying to the media and public!
They clearly put their own political agendas in front of taking care of business.
So apologists, what new lame analogy will you come up with this time?
Cars and sandwiches and didn’t work out so well. (btw Greg you should have used corvus instead of seagulls as your example of ingredients in those sandwiches)
One other little item, access to, or purchase of, insurance is NO guarantee that you can collect on damages that the policy is supposed to cover. That’s why there are lawyers that make a pretty good living chasing them.
How’s that albatross doing?
The ACA is a train wreck!
The President said he wouldn’t negotiate a budget deal or a debt ceiling deal IN CONJUNCTION WITH NEGOTIATING ON THE ACA!!
From Fox News:
“Obama has said before that he’s open to improving the law and would negotiate on anything when it comes to a bigger deal, or a so-called “grand bargain.” However, his remarks, as part of a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press, come amid increasing pressure to make changes to ObamaCare.
A small-but-powerful group of conservative House Republicans forced the chamber’s leadership to make changes to ObamaCare part of negotiations on a temporary spending bill. And the failed negotiations resulted in a partial government shutdown that began Tuesday.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/05/president-repeats-willingness-to-negotiate-obamacare-changes-amid-increasing/
You go right ahead and stick by that.
“Obama has said before that he’s open to improving the law and would negotiate on anything when it comes to a bigger deal, or a so-called “grand bargain.”
And the sentence before that in the Fox News story is;
“President Obama is saying he’s willing to negotiate changes to his signature health care law, ObamaCare, but won’t until Congress resolves its budget issues — reaching a spending deal to reopen the government and raising the debt ceiling.”
If ignoring what the President has clearly said helps you promote your false narrative, hey, if you can live with that lack of honesty, have at it.
The President LIES all the time!
But you keep saying you believe him, really, REALLY?
What does that say about your ability to grok whats really going on?
Carl, I commented on what you posted. Now, predictably, you want to move on to other issues, right? Is this what you do when your false narrative is exposed?
The President said, clearly, that he would not negotiate the ACA in tandem with a budget or debt ceiling deal.
No event that happened contradicts that stance. There is NOTHING that happened that contradicts that position.
OK, I decide to accept your premise that the grand and powerful O is willing to negotiate, as he stated it, is a non negotiable direction.
Offering someone a choice of which way one walks, other than backwards, you can’t go THAT way, left, right, or strait ahead, IS NOT an acceptable choice when one is standing on the end of a gang plank in the open ocean.
Unless you want to drown that is… an illogical option.
What part of that don’t you get?
It’s the devil or the deep blue sea argument.
Neither are acceptable outcomes.
Ted Cruz, has first hand knowledge and experience on this issue that neither you nor I do. When it comes to what he heard, how the problems have been mismanaged and all, frankly he’s more credible than the guy who promised, and lied. I’m NOT saying I think what they did was right either. I also don’t see Harry running away from the meetings agenda or premise either.
I have to laugh every time you drag out the fox report. They have some issues getting the story straight sometimes, almost as often as the rest of the media.
ACA working for you.
Just in from your beloved Fox… (thought I would look at it, since it’s been a while)
Over 5,000,000+ health insurance cancellations and counting…
I don’t look at something like the ACA in terms of whether or not it’s “working for me”. That is the kind of short-sighted lens politicians and pundits want us to look through, and it’s a lens that is turning us into a bunch of selfish, self-centered Americans. I look at it in terms of whether or not it is good for the country.
And on THAT score, despite the botched roll-out and cancelled policies, it’s simply too soon to say. Really? You’re foaming at the mouth to judge the ACA based on it’s first 2 months of implementation? Those who WANT to make that determination NOW are simply looking for political points to score. It’s the game of winning this week’s media narrative. I don’t think we’ll be able to make a serious, meaningful evaluation of a program as big as the ACA for at least a year, maybe more. I mean, if nothing else, you can’t make ANY judgements yet as to whether or not the cost curve is bending down…that is simply going to take time.
Some of us don’t have time.
Would you care to expand on that and how it relates to the ACA?
Are you saying you’re going to die soon so you want to get your licks in now?
I am still fighting cancer, as are others I care about.
I go in for major neck dissection, both internal and external, that may include a carotid artery bypass soon.
So that may in fact be the case, anon.
I sure as hell am not going to go silently, even if they do stick me with a trach-tube! My laptop is going to the hospital with me!
I’m genuinely sorry to hear that, Carl. I hope all goes well for you.
Still, I think judging the success of the ACA based on 2 months of implementation is a fools errand…one that media pundits want you to go on.
Screw the pundits. Most of them don’t know their collective glutus maximus from a hole in the ground, neither do the policritters.
And yet, when it comes to judging the success of the ACA, you’re playing their game.
It’s not “their game” when I’m forced to be a pawn in it. At that point it becomes very personal.
Why do you say I am mean Vern – because I unfriended you? Poor baby …..
Oh, I forgot about that. I mean the character of your comments. Actually I know you to be a pretty nice guy person to person.
The content of my comments are no meaner than any of you assholes.
I will allow that I am much meaner than Carl.
But he has more guns than you!
maybe, maybe not…
What happens when the employer ACA mandates kick in? When 100 million see their employee cost sharing increase, coverage diminish or go away?
As I have said before – Obamacare is a giant FUCK YOU to the middleclass.
As opposed to rescission, pre-existing condition limits, and widespread medical bankruptcies. Those were a big wet kiss.
For no reason whatsoever, Latest ‘free gift’ from YouTube-
Remove Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan consistently and flagrantly disregards the concerns of the parents and teachers of America’s schoolchildren. He dismisses their concerns in favor of corporate interests. In his recent comments to the Council of Chief State Schools Officers, he said, “It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.”
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-arne-duncan-secretary-education/w0DYCDDm
Yeah, tend to agree, always been my least favorite Obama guy
Great – I invite you to sign the petition.
First lemme go see what the petition says; I suspect your gripes about him are not the same as my gripes. Except for the arrogance.
…kinda vague. WHAT “corporate interests?” And I need to get a whitehouse.gov account? Did YOU get one?
I’m gathering that Arne created one of those right-wing mini-storms by saying something that sounded dismissive of white people and suburbs.
Yes I signed up for an account. What – you don’t trust your government?
No, I don’t. Just stumbled across this on Yahoo (Reuters) A whole organization doing what I would have been fired and criminally prosecuted for doing (I didn’t) as an employee of a contractor.
Again, (like the County) all blaming it on (perpetually) dysfuctional systems and software.
http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-pentagons-doctored-ledgers-conceal-epic-waste-144950858–business.html
One thing that needs to be noted on the subject of accounting in several govt organizations is the black budget cover ups. For years there have been rumors that “poor accounting procedures” are really just ways to dump funds into the black holes.
Ike had a pretty handle on this subject.
In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington.
The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.
And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/18/census-faked-2012-election-jobs-report/
Really???? Now who would do such a thing?
I thought the great and powerful O said this would be the most honest and transparent administration in history…
How’s that working out for you?
For my further thoughts on that subject please see my youtube links above, that I can’t embed in the page, both of them fit.
The rebuttals from non-partisan journalistic sources are coming even quicker these days!
Was the Unemployment Rate Actually “Faked” Before the 2012 Election?
In other ACA related news…
http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-%E2%80%98success-story–says-she-can-t-afford-new-health-plan-225839697.html
Washington State Wire reports that Jessica Sanford, 48, discovered that she is no longer eligible for a large subsidy that would have lowered her monthly premium to $169 per month. Instead, Sanford would now be forced to pay nearly four times as much, $621, for coverage.
Sanford told the paper she believes the government should shut down the entire healthcare.gov site until the site’s issues are resolved. “In my opinion they ought to shut it down and just get all of it straightened out.”
—
The awakening continues…
” Obamacare has become the best example yet of Congressional members such as Bera further stratifying our society by enacting laws that create an elite ruling class separate from “We the People”. Lawmakers have access to a special “Gold Tier” website, and can select from 112 healthcare options, far more than are available to their constituents. They also have access to special in-person support sessions at the Capitol and in the Congressional office buildings to help them through the enrollment process, and a special toll-free Congressional health insurance plan assistance line dedicated to providing service for members of Congress and staff. As for you and your cancelled plan? Best of luck on ‘Healthcare.gov’.”
Elizabeth Emken –
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm
Elizabeth Emken – a blast from the past! Is she gonna run for something again??
Running for US Congress 7th District Sacramento against dem Ami Bera who edged out Dan Lungren in 2012 50% to 49%.
FWIW, stumbled across this at Yahoo. Tried it and got quick results. I’m still paying the penalty.
How 3 coders created a DIY fix to HealthCare.gov (in about 3 days!)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101207592
You people are actually proud of the Occupy movement – socialists who badmouth the very system that has helped make America prosperous and great? You are truly the Useful Idiots Stalin so accurately predicted. Larry Agran must of course be one of your heroes, along with Barack Obama.
http://TheGreatParkAudit.blogspot.com
http://barackobamaisms.wordpress.com
Unlike Cynthia’s website, mine are filled with information
Website
http://thinkforyourselfoc.com/
Happy Easter to you as well.