Back in December, I wrote about the story of Minneapolis resident Bobby Hull, a Marine veteran and longtime skilled master plasterer who fell behind in his payments to US Bank when age and illness (in the form of three heart attacks, a collapsed lung, and surgery on both shoulders) forced him off the job and into the hospital. Occupy Minneapolis’ Occupy Homes branch, led by Nick Espinosa, and the local group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, led by Anthony Newby, joined forces to try to save Bobby’s home — which was not only his home, but that of his entire extended family.

Today, we got the word from Occupy Homes and NOC in a joint press release that they have succeeded: “On Monday, February 27th at noon, South Minneapolis homeowner Bobby Hull, supporters from Occupy Homes MN and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) and will publicly declare victory in their fight to save Hull’s family home from an unfair and avoidable foreclosure. Following a three-month public campaign, Hull’s lender has agreed to renegotiate his mortgage so that he and his family can keep their home!”

Congratulations to Bobby and many thanks to Occupy Homes MN and NOC for helping him stay in his home!

On Wednesday, January 18, the OccuPirates of OccupyMN, led by Nick Espinosa, will be making their own special variant of a Booty Call on US Bank. They demand that the US Bank pirates, who are far more rapacious than Henry Morgan or Edward “Blackbeard” Teach could ever hope to be, return their ill-gotten gains to the 99% from whom they were taken.

Those interested in joining the merry band of OccuPirates are advised to be at the People’s Plaza (aka Hennepin County Government Plaza) at high noon. (If you are in need of pirate garb, be there at 11:00 am and your fellow pirates will find something for you to don.) For more information, visit http://www.occupyminneapolis.mn/, which is the new web address of the Minneapolis branch of OccupyMN.

‘Tis a fine time to be had by all, me hearties!

(Crossposted to Mercury Rising.)

Like many other Occupy branches around the nation and the world, the members of the Minneapolis mothership wing of Occupy MN have been involved in helping foreclosure victims. In Occupy Minneapolis’ case, the homeowners assisted range from impoverished single mothers like Monique White (who didn’t know that her home had been sold out from under her until she tried to turn on the gas one day) to a person living with her disabled and elderly father to a college professor. Occupy’s efforts often result in good things, as they did in Ruth Murman’s case: US Bank and GMAC went from not even bothering to answer her phone calls to giving her an extra four weeks to move, plus paying her and her disabled father’s moving expenses in a cash-for-keys arrangement.

This nationwide movement now has a name: Occupy Our Homes. It may be the part of the Occupy phenomenon that has the most immediate effect on people’s lives.

Here in the Twin Cities, Occupy Minneapolis’ next action in the Occupy Our Homes movement is going to take place on the National Day of Occupation, December 6 — that’s tomorrow, folks. It will be on behalf of a gent named Bobby Hull.

Bobby Hull’s not a famous hockey player — as far as I know, anyway — but he is a good man, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam whose mother bought the house he’s now living in back in 1968. The title transferred to him and he was able to make timely payments for years until a series of work-related health problems (he was a master plasterer for 38 years) laid him low. Over the past ten years, he has had to have surgery upon surgery for his shoulders, each surgery taking him out of commission for six to twelve months. Bank of America were the owners of his mortgage, but US Bank purchased the home at the sheriff’s sale and are the current owners — and the ones planning to evict him in February.

If you’re in the Twin Cities and can spare some time tomorrow afternoon, come and help Bobby keep his home. At 12:00 PM, there will be a carpool from the People’s Plaza (aka the Hennepin County Government Center Plaza), then a 1:00 PM rally and set up at Bobby’s home at 3712 Columbus Avenue South. 5:30 PM will feature a community dinner at Bobby’s place.

The Occupy movement in Minnesota seems to have unleashed a lot of pent-up energy, frustration, and creativity. One example of the latter is a “bake sale” held for US Bank by the Twin Cities faith-based social justice movement Spirit of Truth, whose Facebook page is here. The goal was to spotlight the huge amounts of money made by US Bank — $11.45 billion this year alone, a record — even as its CEO and other officers pretend that they just can’t afford to stop kicking people out of their homes.

Judging from the reactions of potential “customers” in the video above, I think they succeeded.

Remember that little US Bank and Minnesota Chamber of Commerce shindig scheduled for earlier today? The gathering of the elites to both circle their cloth-of-gold-covered wagons and to nervously pat themselves on their Brooks-Brothers-clad backs?

Well, US Bank president Richard Davis must figure that having wealth on the order of Ozymandias gives him a similar imagined immunity from the consequences of his own words and actions. Not only does he not acknowledge that he and his buds might have done anything wrong (much less the throngs gathered outside courtesy of OccupyMN to protest him and his buds), he chides the nervous Nellies among them who might still have concerns over what’s been going on. Check this out, courtesy of City Pages‘ Gregory Pratt:

Davis did comment on the economic woes facing the country, saying “fear,” “loss of faith,” and “uncertainty” were damaging American society. Davis called these feelings “really lame reasons to not get up in the morning.”

“‘Everybody’s breaking the rules, blah blah blah,’” Davis said at one point, admonishing the assembled business leaders to “get over it.”

Clap louder, guys! C’mon, clap louder! Gotta drown out the sounds of the protesters outside! Don’t you know that every time Tinkerbell’s allowed to hear a protester, it’s another dagger in her heart?!

Geez, this guy wins the Marie Antoinette Award for callous cluelessness — or is it clueless callousness?