via Occupy Sandy Relief NYC:

A train service starting Sunday at Howard Beach station.

Shuttle buses starting Sunday between Howard Beach and Mott Avenue.

howtosharpenpencils:

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

From Occupy Sandy Relief NYC:

Kids out in Rockaway Park have been living without heat, hot water, electricity and train service for 9 days. They are out of touch with their friends and family in other areas. They are out of contact with television & internet. They are getting warm burning charcoal on the streets. Because, well, why not? We spoke with a man on the street in front of YANA Community Center that told us that they were expecting the electricity to be restored by 2 am in two large buildings. He said that they pulled 3 bodies out of a building up the block and he suspected there would be more discovered when they turn the power back on in the other buildings. We’ve been systematically going, block by block, with teams of volunteers, canvassing the buildings, finding elderly people, getting them medications they need, giving them hot meals, candles, flashlights, batteries, whatever they need. This was not supposed to be our job. We dont #GotThis, actually. Many of the key organizers are getting worn out, no one is getting paid. We are all working frantically in this disaster response because it needs to be done. Because if it doesn’t get done, who will save these people? Like the man I spoke to tonite said, “it’s a labor of love”

An observation from another occupy sandy organizer when asked what they felt about FEMA’s shutting down for the day yesterday during a snowstorm: “We are not getting paid to do their jobs while they are getting paid to not do their jobs.”

claytoncubitt:

On getting things done in a disaster:

A few days ago I saw a blog post showing a local Brooklyn startup company named BioLite which recently launched a product that’s basically a small portable camp stove with an ultra-efficient burn rate and an attached thermal-electric USB charging station. In the power outage caused by hurricane Sandy the guys at BioLite had come out of their offices in DUMBO and were offering hot coffee and phone charging using their handy little stoves.

I had been out to the Far Rockaways and seen the devastation out there, very reminiscent of Katrina, and I saw the hard work being done on the ground by Occupy Sandy, and I knew immediately I needed to connect these two amazing, yet disparate groups.

So I did. I tweeted at BioLite and asked if they were interested in donating some units for the effort in the Far Rockaways. And then I got in touch with Occupy Sandy to coordinate getting these delivered to where they’d make a difference.

We all set a time and a place to meet up, and today we loaded up a loaned van full of these stoves and took them out to the Rockaways. Two representatives from BioLite demo’d the safe use of the stoves to ten representatives of Occupy Sandy, who’ll in turn share the 20 or so stoves with whomever needs them, to heat up donated soup, and charge cell phones, or just to keep their hands warm.

FEMA didn’t coordinate this. The Red Cross didn’t organize this. This is just one cool company and a bunch of concerned citizens pooling their resources and skills to take care of neighbors in a disaster zone. 

And that’s how I’d recommend helping, if you’re looking to help. Don’t text Red Cross $10. Instead, check out the Occupy Sandy website. They’ve even hacked Amazon’s Wedding Registry service to facilitate shipments and donations. If you’re local to the disaster area, even though your lights might be back on, know that it might be weeks or longer for areas like the Rockaways, Staten Island, and Jersey Shore, and it’s going to be a brutal winter.

This is not to say that FEMA or the Red Cross don’t do good things. But in a time like this, what’s really needed is smart motivated individuals like you and me to just say, “What’s needed? I’ll make it happen.” 

Special thanks again to BioLite for the innovative stoves, and Occupy Sandy for the sweat and boots on the ground. Amazing people!

aleskot:

Walmart brought out this LRAD cannon against peaceful protesters.

Vote with your wallets - don’t support this. 

BBC TV once covered how to defeat an LRAD, but most protesters won’t be showing up to demos with huge fishbowl helmets. (Wired)

Doughnut fishing.

A whiteshirt directs traffic on #S17.

Smile! You are beautiful.

Eden. #OWS Jail Support. Chatham Square.

Occupy fashion/reading.

It may be convenient to shove reading material in your waistband at rallies, but it also covers NYPD’s favorite strike-zones of lower spine and kidneys. When they raise the billy clubs, they intend to damage their target enough to make them drop, and often do lasting damage.

During Occupy actions, NYPD has also targeted activists’ and journalists’ pockets, wherever they see the outline of a cellphone which can be used to record them.

Eden and Nicole both did jail support during S17.

One of those rabble-rousing kids at Occupy Wall Street. S17.