June 30, 2012

Unicorns Fart Rainbows and Capitalism Sucks.



I make awesome memes. You should donate $5 just for the shit like this that I do.

Let's create a cooperative economy!

Think Capitalism is awesome? You're probably thinking of "markets" which are a different thing. Here's why capitalism sucks:

June 25, 2012

Campaign Signs as Dialogue, Not Marketing

I'm actually on a bus on my way to NYC for the world premier of American Autumn right now. But this is a video I filmed a while ago and just had a speck of free time to edit and upload it:



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Primary Election Day!



I won! But I was also the only candidate in the Primary race. On to the general election!

Asherplatts.com

How many ______ could your debt buy? Student Debt in Perspective

This is an amazing visualization tool from The Young Invincibles.

click it



h/t to my dear friend Ingrid.

June 24, 2012

Ze Frank: Occupy Wall Street and the hero archtype

via Ze Frank

Police Brutality: it's not a race issue, it's an impunity problem

via retired police officer Larry Hohol


Media contacts and more information:: http://www.worsethanrodneyking.com
Actual state police dashcam video and audio of recent brutal Pennsylvania State Police beating of shackled detainee. Other than not stopping when directed, this incident involved no serious traffic violations and was simply the low speed following of a car that would not pull over.
For more on this story and for media inquiries visit: http://www.worsethanrodneyking.com

Norman Finkelstein on "What Gandhi said on Nonviolence, Resistance, and Courage



via democracyNow!

After an exhaustive study of Mahatma Gandhi’s works, scholar and activist Norman Finkelstein has written a new book about the principles of nonviolent resistance from the Indian struggle for independence to Tahrir Square and Zuccotti Park. He says Gandhi found "nothing more despicable than cowardice," and argued that nonviolence does not mean running away from danger. In fact, Gandhi argued that fighting a war with weapons takes less courage than nonviolent resistance in which "you’re supposed to march into the line of fire, smilingly and cheerfully, and get yourself blown to bits." Finkelstein’s new book is titled What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage. Click here to see part 1 and part 2 of this interview.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, joined by Norman Finkelstein, scholar, activist, author. He has just published two books. One, Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel Is Coming to an End. His other is called What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage. What does Gandhi say, Norm Finkelstein?

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, I think the first point is, very few people read Gandhi. They just assume: Gandhi, simple person, simple dresser, skinny, nonviolence, it’s obvious what it means—when, in fact, it’s not obvious at all what nonviolence means for Gandhi. His collected works come—you’ll be surprised, I think, to learn they come to 98 volumes. And that’s about 500 pages per volume. When I first started checking out the works at NYU Library, New York University Library—and NYU is a prominent research library—I think you’ll be surprised also to learn, even though they acquired the collection in 1984, apart from one volume, I was the first person who ever checked out any volume of Gandhi’s 98-volume collected works. I went through about half, 47 volumes, about 25,000 pages.

I was curious to know, what did Gandhi mean by nonviolence, because, you know, on reflection, it’s not so obvious. And the first thing to say about it is Gandhi was not the kind of nonviolent pacifist that, for example, was depicted in Sir Richard Attenborough’s film on Gandhi. Gandhi valued nonviolence, no question about it. But he attached equal value, and in some places you could say more value, to courage. Not just nonviolence, but courage. And he found nothing more despicable than cowardice. It wasn’t violence that, for Gandhi, was the most repellent of human instincts; it was cowardice.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to read a quote, that you quote in What Gandhi Says. Gandhi says, quote, "My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. I can no more preach nonviolence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. Nonviolence is the summit of bravery. And in my own experience, I have had no difficulty in demonstrating to men trained in the school of violence the superiority of nonviolence. As a coward, which I was for years, I harboured violence. I began to prize nonviolence only when I began to shed cowardice." Norm Finkelstein?

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, you know, it’s a—first of all, it’s a great quote, and there are many quotes like that in Gandhi. And it’s hard sometimes for a person to understand the logic, because a lot of people on the left, they take nonviolence to be sort of wimpish, and they want violence because it’s more, you know, macho and so on and so forth. But Gandhi comes along, and he says, "I think nonviolence takes more courage than violence." So, at the beginning, when I read that, I thought he was just saying it for rhetorical effect. But then, when you read what he actually means, it’s actually sensible. He says, if you believe in violence, and say there’s a war, your enemy, your opposite, has a weapon, and you have your weapon. So, at any rate, yes, you’re risking your life, but you have something to protect yourself: your weapon. And you may survive the encounter. But Gandhi says, "Nonviolence means you’re supposed to march into the line of fire" — and now I’m quoting him — "you’re supposed to march in the line of fire, smilingly and cheerfully, and get yourself blown to bits." That’s what nonviolence means for Gandhi. You’re supposed to get yourself blown to bits. During the nonviolent activities known—the various campaigns, he would say to his followers, "Don’t be a coward and go to jail, because you’re afraid to get killed. Don’t use jail as a pretext to get away from getting killed. You better" — and I’m quoting him — "You better get your skulls cracked. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear from you." So, the irony is, even though Gandhi is attacked by people on the left for being wimpish, the fact is, he set such a high standard. I couldn’t meet it. I mean, I have to be honest about those things. I wish maybe, if I’m thrust into circumstances like that, I’ll find the courage to do it. But sitting here, no, I couldn’t honestly—I couldn’t honestly say I can meet that standard.

I’ll give you an example. A couple of days ago, a friend of mine, my webmaster, Sana Kassem, she sent me a video of a fellow, an American Jew, protesting in the Occupied Territories. And every time the Israelis fire the tear gas, he’s of course running in the opposite direction. Of course. And it’s being filmed. And I’m thinking to myself, but Gandhi says he’s supposed to march—go right into it. And you’re supposed to get killed.

AMY GOODMAN: But, I mean, he was very strategic. He wanted to achieve an end. He didn’t want just to have people killed. He—most importantly was to accomplish what he was driving for: Indian independence.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Yeah, well, India independence. But we have to be clear about Gandhi. Sometimes he’s reduced to India independence. But no, he had a whole program of Hindu-Muslim unity, about—and he led many campaigns. I mean, it was news for me also. I’m not pretending as if it’s common knowledge. But Gandhi was very careful. He would only take on public campaigns where, he said, the public already recognized the wrong.

So let’s take one example. In the 1930s, he led a major campaign against alcoholism, which was a big problem in India. And people said, "But Mr. Gandhi, why do you focus on alcoholism? There are many other problems. We have a problem with people who are addicted to racetrack betting. And they’re addicted to the cinema," which, you know, Gandhi thought was a sin. So he said, "Why do you choose" — excuse me — "Why do you choose to focus on alcoholism?" And Gandhi’s answer was very straightforward. He said, "Because Indians already recognize alcoholism is a problem. But they don’t recognize that racetrack betting or the cinema is a problem." And then he said, "It’s wasting time." Gandhi always said, "I’m a man of action. I want to get things done." And so, he wants to start with where public opinion is at. You see, for Gandhi, politics was not about bringing enlightenment to the masses. No, that’s sort of like the Marxist tradition: "We’re the vanguard. We know the science, the science of Marxism" — or in my day, the science of Marxism-Leninism. "We have the science, and we have to bring enlightenment to the benighted masses who suffer from false consciousness and all sorts of other, you know, maladies." Gandhi is not that.

Gandhi is sort of like the Occupy movement. Yes, he’s very much like the Occupy movement, because the Occupy movement started from where people were already at. The Occupy movement comes up with a slogan: "We are the 99 percent." The basic point being, 1 percent are hoarding it all, and 99 percent are getting nothing. And it immediately struck a responsive chord with Americans because that’s how we already felt. They started—what made the slogan so successful is they tapped into a sentiment that was already there. They started from where the consciousness of the American people already was. Nobody had to educate us that the system was unfair. It had been rolling before our eyes for the last several years, or more. And so, what made their movement so successful was, I think, the Gandhian tactic: they found the perfect slogan that embodied the consciousness of the American people at that moment. If they had gone a little further in their slogan, they may have lost the people. And that, I think, was a real—for me, it was a real insight in Gandhi that politics is not about enlightening people. Politics, for Gandhi, to use an expression, is to quicken the conscience of the public to get them to act on what they already know is wrong.

And actually, it worked in my own case. You know, personally, I’m a person of the left, have always been, and always railing against the capitalist system, the unfairness of the distribution of wealth and so forth. When I started to hear about these folks in Zuccotti Park, it resonated for me. But then I heard they’re camping there. I said, "All right, Norm, you’re heading toward 60. You’re not going to Woodstock. You’re past your prime. This is not for you." And so, I just was an observer, a sympathetic observer, but an observer. And then, when I heard about—I’m from Brooklyn, New York, and I heard 800 people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. I said, "OK, Norm, it’s time to do something." Now, nobody had to tell me the system was wrong. What people had to do was quicken my conscience to act. And that’s what Gandhian nonviolence is all about, getting people to make the kinds of personal sacrifices which will force the bystanders to say, "OK, I really have to do something now. If they do it, why aren’t I doing it?" And that’s what Gandhianism was about.

But also, as I said, you have to enter a thousand caveats, qualifications, about his commitment to nonviolence, because it was not nonviolence that for him was the ultimate sin. Actually, I’ve read through about half of his—as I said, half of his collected works. He uses—I know it’s a paradox—he uses the most violent language, not against those who commit violence. Actually, he says he was an admirer of Sparta, because he admired the courage of the warrior. And he always used military metaphors. It was "the army of the nonviolent." He was "the general." He always used martial metaphors. But he said—as I said, he reserved his most violent language for cowards. He literally says they don’t deserve to live. A coward does not have a right to live.

There is where he gets—you know, Gandhi was very strict about nonviolence. He had to be nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But you could say he sort of verges on violence—violent language, thought and word when it comes to cowards. And I have to say also, probably in his classification, I would rate a coward. I mean, I’m not proud to say that. But he had such a high standard of what political commitment was about and the sacrifices you were obliged to make, if you want to be morally consistent with your values, it’s a tough act.

AMY GOODMAN: A thumbnail sketch of who Gandhi was, since you’ve studied him. For people who, as you said, have a very sort of scant—a sort of caricature of who he is, explain where he was born, why he came to adopt the views he did.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, I’ll tell you—I mean, I’d like to always be honest. I didn’t look too closely at the biographical data. I mean, I know as much as, you might say, a Wikipedia entry might say. I was more interested in the theory. I was interested—I began the whole project because I said to myself, well, you know, India under Gandhi—under Gandhi’s influence, it faced the same sort of challenges as Israel-Palestine. First of all, Gandhi wanted to end an occupation, like the Palestinians. Second of all, Gandhi was confronting the great power of his day, the superpower of his day, namely the British Empire. Similarly, the Palestinians have to face a formidable regional power, namely Israel, and right behind it, the superpower of our day, namely the United States. And thirdly, the Palestinians don’t really have a military option. The only way they’re going to succeed is if they try these tactics that Gandhi pioneered in India. And so, I felt, for those three reasons—trying to end an occupation, facing a superpower, and the only tactical option is really nonviolence—it would be interesting to see, OK, how did Gandhi reason the whole thing through? And that was my impetus. I don’t know the history better than sort of a generalist, or, for that matter, Gandhi’s personal biography.

He was a—you know, there were—many things about Gandhi were very eccentric and also very autocratic. You know, Gandhi was, "you do it my way, or go the highway." He was very, very autocratic. And he said that what he decides to do is not based on reason. Reason comes later. It’s what his inner voice tells him to do. Well, obviously you can’t rationally argue with an inner voice. Either you agree, or you don’t agree and you leave. I did have a good opportunity when I was in South Africa a couple of years ago. I went to see his granddaughter, Ela Gandhi. And I remember her saying to me, and it just came out in conversation, she said he had great confidence in that inner voice, which is—you know, nowadays we would say—we would call it, he had good political instincts. But you can’t argue with an instinct. Instinct tells you, "Do this at this moment." But you can’t really argue with it. And so, it was very hard. You know, reading him, there’s that streak of autocratic—that autocratic streak, which is very unpleasant.

On the other hand—and, you know, I sort of get emotional—you can’t but admire that man. I mean, the kind of moral force he had, it was just terrifying at the end, in '47, you know, Egypt—excuse me, Israel—ah, India erupts in this horrible bloodletting, the Partition. They estimate like a million people were killed. You go into streets of Calcutta, literally 10,000 bodies in the street. All the blood is literally flowing in the streets. And Gandhi comes in, and the first thing he does is he goes to the Hindu temples. Now remember, this is where the intercommunal hatred has reached a fever pitch. And he goes into the Hindu temples, and he insists, "I'm going to begin each religious—each service, prayer service—I’m going to begin it with a passage from the Koran." The Hindus were going mad. "What do you mean, the Koran?" And he is adamant. "I am beginning with the Koran." And there would be the hecklers and the people who were worse than hecklers. He would stay with them in the temple the whole night. He said, "I’m going to sit and reason it through with you why I’m beginning with the Koran." And when he went on the hunger strikes during the terrible bloodletting, you know, to his credit—you can take it away—they stopped. OK, it’s true they stopped killing each other temporarily. You can even say they stopped briefly. But for the Mahatma, for Gandhiji, they stopped. You know, that’s—it’s very impressive. Of course, the downside is, that kind of moral power came and went with Gandhi. There was nobody else commanding that kind of moral authority. But it was a very impressive show. It really was. And it gets me a little bit angry when people on the left, who I like, you know, and they’re very harsh on Gandhi. No, there were a lot of problems, no question about it. But there, there went a man.

AMY GOODMAN: Author, scholar, activist, Norman Finkelstein. He has just written the book, out this week, What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage.

GUEST
Norman Finkelstein, author and scholar. He has two books out this week: Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel Is Coming to an End and What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage.

June 22, 2012

Sandra Nurse's Interview (Part II) on Occupy Theory Radio

WBAI hosts the interview here:http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/wbai_120620_183216owsr.mp3



This is a short blog post, but an AMAZING interview. I can't actually host the player on my blog here, so just click the image of the player above, and it will take you to WBAI's website.

The Sky Is Pink: New Short Film by GASLAND's Josh Fox



When will people wake up and start voting for the Green Party? Throw the bums out! It's Republicans and Democrats alike greasing their palms while these industries kill us.

June 19, 2012

A list of warmongering assholes who you should Vote AGAINST this November:

Is your Senator on the list? The War Machine amazingly bipartisan.

Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
Joseph Lieberman (I-CT)
James Risch (R-ID)
Ron Wyden(D-OR)
David Vitter (R-LA)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Robert Casey Jr. (D-PA)
John Boozman (R-AR)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Scott Brown (R-MA)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Mike Crapo(R-ID)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
John Hoeven (R-ND)
Jeff Merkeley (D-OR)
Daniel Coats (R-IN)
Christopher Coons (D-DE)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Patrick Toomey (R-PA)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Mike Lee(R-UT)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Rob Portman (R-OH)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Kay Hagan (D-NC)
Bill Nelson ‎(D-FL)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Mark Begich (D-AK)

All signed a letter to Obama criticizing him for negotiations saying, "we urge you to reevaluate the utility of further talks at this time and instead focus on significantly increasing the pressure on the Iranian government through sanctions and making clear that a credible military option exists."

American Autumn Trailer #2

I spent October-January working on this film.
I spent my entire life waiting for this movement to reach this sort of momentum.

Hope to see you at the World Premier on June 26th at Indie Screen in Brooklyn!

June 15, 2012

I don't support Gary Johnson. And here's why:



Paul Robeson School Walkout

via OccupyTVNY.org


On May 1, 2012, nearly 100 students walked out of Paul Robeson HS in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street's call for #MayDay and in protest of the DOE's policies at their school. They were joined by students at several other schools when they held a teach-in with community leaders at nearby Fort Greene Park.

This summer, public education advocates and recent graduates from the school are launching the Paul Robeson Freedom School: PaulRobesonFreedomSchool.org

June 14, 2012

American Autumn World Premiere & Party

(this is that film I was working on with Dennis Trainor Jr)

*Tuesday, June 26th, 7PM at Indie Screen

*directions*

*Tickets are FREE!*

Friends:
Nine months after the start of the Occupy movement, I am proud to share
with you a feature length documentary American Autumn: an
occudoc.


The June 26th Premiere party is co-sponsored by a growing list of partners
that currently includes Occupy.com, The World Can’t Wait, Amped Status.com
and Revolution Books.

The event is FREE and open to the public.

American Autumn: an occudoc features and original score by Goldi & Mike
Lawrence Yanicelli & additional music provided by OWS Rebel Music Group,
Fugazi, Goldishack Guerrillas, & Larissa and the Rain Doggs.

RSVP via the facebook event page (and share this link w. friends)
https://www.facebook.com/events/383559275025108/ , or by emailing me
directly.

The World Premiere will take place at Indie Screen,
a spacious cinema/lounge in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(directions)
on Tuesday, June 26th @ 7PM.

June 10, 2012

Change the World; Not the Climate: Vote Green



Printed on a cotton shirt, (specify your size in the order) made in the USA!
By Union workers!
Even the cotton is grown in the USA.
So awesome!
And at a price like this for all that value, you can't afford NOT to get one!

Click it:

Voting Green Is Sexy!



Voting Green IS Sexy!

I've not yet made physical copies of the shirts, but they'll look a lot like this if you order one.

Printed on Kelly Green, Union Made, USA grown and fabricated cloth! You can't get a shirt better than this! And inexpensive too! Holy cow, you can't afford NOT to get one!

Click it:

June 2, 2012

"99 Airlines", or "Why MoveOn Sucks"

Because nothing says, "proletariat" like flying an airplane


MoveOn has a glaringly blind eye towards Obama.

Obama, whose plutocratic, power-grabbing, constitution violating presidency (new boss, same as the old boss), is a large part of why we're protesting to start with. While I'm confident that this movement isn't going to get sidelined with presidential politicking for wall street's puppets, and this just goes to show that MoveOn is potentially a worse enemy than FoxNews.

At least with FoxNews, we KNOW they're against us. MoveOn is the worst kind of enemy, the kind who smiles and compliments you while they smother you in your sleep.

Sure, Mitt Romney and his allies have millions of dollars. But Obama has the same allies on Wall Street. And they're also giving Obama millions of dollars. And is wasting money on airplane banners really "making sure our dollars go far?" Just... WTF MoveOn?

Dear MoveOn.org. Please try this: Instead of trying to make this into an anti-Romney, or anti-Republican thing (which Occupy has never been), why not make this an "anti-money" thing? Pressure Obama to run as a clean elections candidate? Pressure congress to create a Clean Elections system modeled after the one in Maine? Why not take a firm stance against corporate contributions and the use of SuperPACs by ANY candidate? Until then, you're just hacks for the Democratic party, who turn a blind eye to the DNC doing the same things you are berating the GOP for doing.
via an email from MoveOn.org:
99airlines is off the ground, and we need ideas for airplane banners to fly over high-profile Mitt Romney events. Rate, submit, and share an idea today.

Submit Your IdeaDear MoveOn member,
We just launched 99airlines, our program to fly airplane banners over high-profile Mitt Romney events with messages from the 99%.
And what's the coolest part? You get to decide what the banners say! If you could fly a message over Mitt Romney's head, what would it be?
Will you suggest a short, pithy, memorable phrase for a 99airlines banner? Or check out and rate other people's ideas?
Click here to submit or vote for a 99airlines banner.
Imagine if Mitt Romney and his Super PAC friends had to deal with the sights and sounds of airplanes following them everywhere, reminding Americans how Romney stands for corporations and the 1%. Reporters at the events will film and write about the banners—it'll drive Romney and his corporate backers crazy.
That's why we're taking it to Romney, exposing him as Mr. 1%. Here's the banner we flew over a Romney fundraiser in Boston last week.

We're ready to fly a whole lot more over his high-profile appearances this summer, including fundraisers and a major event with Latino political leaders.
We need you to submit your ideas today. And the highest-rated, most shared, and most timely messages from the 99% will get flown over Romney's head. So get your ideas online today!
Click here to submit or vote for a 99airlines banner.
MoveOn members stepped up and funded 99airlines as a way to combat the Super PAC ads and corporate money that will flood into this year's election. We're transforming Mitt Romney's 1% fundraising tour into an airborne progressive message machine that will be seen by the people at the events and the media covering them.
They've got millions of dollars, but we've got more people and more creativity than they can muster. If you submit your ideas—-and make sure as many people as possible rate and contribute ideas—99airlines can define Mitt Romney and the people he represents in a visible, memorable way.
Click here to submit or vote for a 99airlines banner.
Thanks for all you do.
–Garlin, Elena, Emily, Victoria, and the rest of the team
Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 7 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to andrew pollack on June 1, 2012. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

Occupy Minneapolis Stepping It UP!

via the Minneapolis Star Tribune





A protest over the foreclosure of a house in south Minneapolis has escalated into a nightly confrontation with police and created a political dilemma for city leaders, who loathe taking part in foreclosures but say they have to keep the peace.
Fifteen activists with the Occupy movement were arrested Wednesday after repeated episodes over the past week in which the city has tossed out protesters and boarded up the house, only to see the demonstrators peel back the boards and use chains, concrete-filled barrels and other obstacles to make it more difficult to carry them away.
The protesters say they're acting on behalf of David Cruz and his family, but neither he nor his family has lived in the residence at 4044 Cedar Av. S. for two months. After a foreclosure sale last year, the property belongs to Freddie Mac, the federally owned mortgage giant, which says no one has made a mortgage payment since July 2010.
Freddie Mac owns 59,000 foreclosed homes and has encountered protests before but, according to spokesman Brad German, this one stands out.
"What is unusual, in fact to our experience utterly unprecedented, is the level of aggression and defiance of the law by these activists," German said.
Gathering outside City Hall on Thursday, those activists say they will back at the house at 2 p.m. Friday, inviting another confrontation.
"We're using public resources to defend big banks and very little to keep people in their homes," said Anthony Newby, an organizer with Occupy Homes.
"They should know [that] if we haven't gone yet, we are never going to go," yelled activist Cat Salonek, who was among those arrested Wednesday.
Court records show that David Cruz-Sanchez got a $194,000 mortgage to buy the house in July 2007. Activists say the Cruzes became delinquent in 2010 because of an online bank glitch related to automatic mortgage payments. Newby said the family asked PNC Bank, the original lender, if the balance could be paid in increments -- but PNC said no.
German, the Freddie Mac spokesman, countered that PNC Bank attempted to reach the Cruzes several times in 2010 and 2011 to discuss a loan modification. He said they never responded.
The home was sold back to the lender at a sheriff's foreclosure auction in August 2011. Under the law, the Cruzes were allowed to stay in the house during the redemption period, which expired in February. In April, a Hennepin County judge ordered the eviction of the family, although the Cruzes had already moved out.
Yet Occupy protesters, who have fended off other foreclosures in the city, moved in.

Neighbor losing sleep
Next-door neighbor Margaret Kowalke, 63, said the singing and chanting and other noise from the protests interfere with her sleep.
"I do want this whole situation to end because it's wreaking havoc on my health," she said.
Kowalke said she called the police on Wednesday about noon when she saw protesters taking the boards off the back door. She called the police again during the night when she woke to the sounds of people trying to break in again.
Kowalke said that, while she understood the plight of the family, she didn't comprehend why protesters had to keep reoccupying the house.
"I think they're taking it too far," Kowalke said.
After Hennepin County sheriff's deputies arrested five people last week while carrying out the court order, three City Council members expressed sympathy with the Occupy protesters.
Then the protest became the province of Minneapolis police, and put council members and Mayor R.T. Rybak in a difficult situation.
City proclamations are only adding to the confusion: The city issued a statement Tuesday night that City Attorney Susan Segal had, at Rybak's direction, "reached out to [owner of the house] Freddie Mac to say that the city is not in the foreclosure business."
Activists took that to mean police would ease up on the arrests, which was proved erroneous on Wednesday night, when Chief Tim Dolan oversaw an operation carried out by about 20 officers.
"Mayor Rybak has said that they're not in the foreclosure business," activist Nick Espinosa said. "And that the house now is Freddie Mac's problem. But twice yesterday they evicted the house. Fifteen people were arrested in total. When is it going to stop?"
The mayor's spokesman, John Stiles, said Rybak wants Freddie Mac to renegotiate with the family and take physical care of securing the property. He added that the city has to respond to 911 calls from residents.
"We don't want to be involved in civil issues between property owners and tenants," Stiles said. "But if there's criminal trespass on a property, we're under obligation to respond."
Council Member Gary Schiff called the situation "unsustainable." Police and the city attorney's office should act when there is concern for the personal safety of neighbors, drivers or the security guards, he said.
"But shy of that, I don't think we should be involved," Schiff said, adding it should be up to the banks to secure their private property.
German said Freddie Mac is now securing the property with the intent to evaluate it and put it on the market. That process could take as long as two months, and selling it could take up to four.


24 Mai - Casseroles