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athena1

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3 weeks, 4 days ago

Something is happening with the housing market

By: athena1 Sunday January 6, 2013 7:46 am

And I don’t approve, personally.

I’ve been watching the housing market since the pre-2008 pop. Poor people around here started being able to get perfectly good homes for $6-12K around 2005 in my neighborhood. (the same houses that were selling for $60K just a year before.) I guess it makes sense that bubbles pop in the hood first.

But now prices are skyrocketing again. I guess the bankster “hoard [houses...don't put them on the market...just hold onto them] to inflate prices” trick is working? Housing prices have about doubled over here in the past few months. And this is not a gentrifying neighborhood, or a hood targeted for “urban renewal”. Blight is actually increasing again after several years of refilling with owner occupants.

I’ve seen this trend start and fall back a few times over the past several years, but never this hard-core. Is this bank house hoarding combined with QE3 kicking in?

15 Comments Recommend

Are the people screaming about pragmatism and ideological purity still around?

By: athena1 Sunday December 23, 2012 5:59 am

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/14/dean_baker_the_biggest_myth_in

On New Years Eve or on Christmas Eve or late Christmas night, we’re about to get screwed. That’ll probably be when votes are cast and bills are signed. Remember the NDAA? Remember how Olbermann was the one guy in the MSM freaked out about the NDAA? And then CNN assigned him to cover the dropping of the big apple, and he was giggling and tipsy while Washington was busy signing into law the NDAA?

Yeah.

2.0 about to happen.

I already have figured out how to fit my mom into my kids’ bedroom. It’ll be 6 people in a 600 square foot house now.

“Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

24 Comments Recommend

Hello, Congressional Progressive Caucus members and staff

By: athena1 Thursday December 20, 2012 11:29 pm

We are the watching and active and coordinating Left.

We’ve noticed how you operate, CPC reps and staffers. We are not amused. We are angry, coordinated, and at this early point semi-connected to the unions, churches, and various other “power players” in our local communities. If you agree to cuts in ANY parts of the safety net for the poor, not just Social Security, we will consider you a lost cause.

We need LEADERSHIP, and you’ve let us down, time and again. But we, your real constituents, are willing to just let the past go. But only if you stand up and LEAD. And Grayson, your following us, is NOT leading. Don’t pretend that you’re a real leader here, and we’re just hanging on your every word. Say something like “Thanks, Jane and FDL peeps, for showing the way. Here’s my ideas for fixing the political system,”. Because FDL peeps were weeks/months/years ahead of y’all.

I know we are willing to try, if not able, to bring a Green candidate to power in Washington. Or in a Mayoral office, even. But probably Washington.

We are everywhere. We organized globally.

You, Stoller, ( I don’t delude myself that Grayson would ever read/write here) have your ear on the ground. But hear this: We are angry to the extreme.

34 Comments Recommend

WONDERFUL video

By: athena1 Wednesday December 12, 2012 7:27 am

No comment. Just wow for now.

via

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The Austerity Anthems (warning, profanity)

By: athena1 Sunday December 9, 2012 11:33 pm

Let me introduce you to Katie Goodman, the funniest, most talented woman you’ve never heard of.

I’m not a fan of the “All Republican suckitude all the time” channel, but this is great:

This one is wonderful (pre-occupy, even!):

And her newest one, that she says she wrote for Occupy. (She stopped by our local OWS facebook page yesterday and gave us this little gift.)

All hail my new hero!

7 Comments Recommend

Potential electoral strategy for the future

By: athena1 Thursday December 6, 2012 2:03 am

Could we in Congressional Progressive Caucus districts transition the non-hack congresscritters into the Green Party/NPA/etc? My critter, for one, apparently takes no corporate money already. He’s funded by unions and volunteers. (And unions here are getting PISSED at the Dem Party in general but not this House Rep.) Even when he’s super out funded, he wins, pretty landslidey.We love him, usually for good reason.

He is responsive to the base, and I genuinely believe he and his staff are overall good people.

Is this idea Pony-Wishing? Or could this be do-able? (This is an alternative to Jane’s “challenge Sanders from the left idea, which was very good and I do believe has influenced CPC voting for the better.)

20 Comments Recommend

Open Letter to Congressman Steve Cohen

By: athena1 Wednesday November 28, 2012 12:57 am

Crossposted all over the internet, lol.

——————–

An Open Letter to Congressman Steve Cohen

I spoke to you on the phone once, around Y2K. I was only 18 years old.

Me: Hello? (I didn’t actually say hello…I said something different. You can remember why.)
You: This is Steve Cohen.
Me: Uhh…ok?
You: You know who I am, right?
Me: Um, no.
You: (insert relevant info. You were frustrated, for good reason.)

Me: Oh, wow, thanks!

——————————————-

End of conversation. (And yes, I did end up becoming politically active. Good advice you gave me there.)

I’m athena1 at firedoglake. I started the Occupy Memphis facebook page. I haven’t thanked you for protecting our occupation, by the way. Thank you. I mean that. I was sleeping out there with my kids (had to in order to occupy – because, poverty), and I was hoping I wasn’t risking their lives/sanity by exposing them to rubber bullets and teargas. Mentally ill homeless people I can deal with; a para-militarized police force sicked on the 99%? A bit out of my league.

Every New Years and 4th in the inner city, we play a fun game known as “Gunshots? Or Fireworks?” (The answer is obvious the rest of the year.) There is an apt metaphor here. All we leftie bloggers in Congressional Progressive Caucus zones are wondering about You Guys “Neoliberal hack? Or Revolutionary?”

I have decided for myself that you are the latter and not the former. Congratulations. But the 99% needs something from you. We need you to be willing to speak out against the Great Betrayal. We need you to disclose the 100% truth. We need you to do it LOUDLY and PROUDLY. We need you to know we’ll go Green Party in a Wall Street Second if you need us to. We are behind you.

No Comments Recommend

Unstoppable

By: athena1 Friday November 23, 2012 1:46 pm

The whole deal is breathtaking.

Fellow revolutionaries, I think we might be winning the public mind? There are empty-ish parking lots I’m seeing in pics all over the US. Twitter’s top 3 spots are all about the Walmart strikes, even #walmart and #blackfriday.

We’ve found Our voice, I think?

13 Comments Recommend