Con su esposa Magdalena, Arturo de Los Santos ha estando luchando por largos meses para conserver la casa en Riverside, California, en donde criaron a sus cuatro hijos y en donde tejieron sus sueños y esperanzas.
Pero a menos que ocurra un milagro de ultimo momento, el sheriff del condado de Riverside podría en cualquier momento evacuar a la familia de la casa que ya reocuparon una vez después de haber sido expulsados anteriormente.
De Los Santos dice que no se van a ninguna parte, que se quedan hasta que negocien con ellos.
Toda vez que a diferencia de muchos dueños de casa que simplemente abandonaron sus propiedades porque no los podían pagar, ellos sí pueden. Solamente que el banco no está dispuesto a recibir su dinero.
“Si tanto quiere [el banco] vender la casa, ¿por qué no la vendió durante los seis meses en que estuvo desocupada completamente?”, pregunta Peter Kuhns, organizador del grupo ACCE, que asiste a De Los Santos en su lucha.
Robert Greenwald and progressive radio host Stephanie Miller, of the Stephanie Miller Show, discuss how deeply invested the Koch Brothers are in the Keystone XL pipeline and how they are trying to influence the 2012 presidential election.
Even in an Occupy world, most Americans don’t know exactly how the 1 percent does what it does. The money media haven’t explained it, and the 1 percent likes things that way.
That’s how Robert Greenwald explained why he and the Brave New Foundation created a new video series. Each short video—one minute apiece—lays out the truth about a different one-percenter. They let their audience choose the subjects. They solicited suggestions on nominees, narrowed them down to thirty, and let their audience vote. The new videos represent five of the top vote-getters, with more videos on the way.
By Kate Childs Graham at AFSCME | February 13, 2012
For years now, millionaire lobbyist Rick Berman has been polluting the airwaves with his own particular brand of toxic waste, using front groups with benevolent-sounding names like the Center for Consumer Freedom and the Center for Union Facts to attack unions, the minimum wage – even Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Berman was richly rewarded by corporations such as Philip Morris to protect their interests, which apparently requires misleading the public.
But if anything, Berman’s latest effort – aired during the Super Bowl – seems to be the desperate act of a demagogue past his prime. While it wasn’t exactly a shock to see Berman’s Center for Union Facts spew its venomous fiction on the air, it did come as a surprise to see the once-slick, Washington insider cast himself as a union member, in a performance so fraudulent he didn’t even bother to lose the gold watch or rumple his shirt.
Wow. It takes a certain special kind of narcissism to star in your own astroturf campaign, but that’s exactly what Washington lobbyist Rick Berman did. And Berman didn’t star in just any old astroturf ad, he starred in an anti-union ad airing during the Super Bowl in a year and in a city where union-busting is front-and-center.
Berman specializes in creating nonprofit front groups that shill for corporate interests. His past clients include Phillip Morris, Coca Cola and Tyson Foods, and they hire Berman to shift public opinion in the form of issue-ads. Berman’s organizations always have innocent-sounding names like “The American Beverage Institute” and “The Employment Policies Institute” who push agendas like fighting minimum wage increases and pick fights with groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. And now they union bust.
In the ad that aired a group of “auto mechanics” complained that they had never voted fro the union they’re in. One of the mechanics: Berman.
Robert Greenwald discusses Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s decision to withdrawal combat troops from Afghanistan by 2013. Robert and host Lila Garrett then talk about the possibility of another war, this time with Iran.
Brave New Foundation’s Political Director Derrick Crowe talks to radio show host Randi Rhodes about what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s decision on Afghanistan really means for America’s future role in the area.
By Erin Schikowski at The Nation | February 3, 2012
In this clip by Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) invites the Koch brothers to testify before Congress regarding their stake in the Keystone XL Pipeline. Visit Koch Brothers Exposed to sign the petition asking Waxman to haul the brothers before Congress.
What’s happening to academia in Florida demands national attention. Billionaires Charles and David Koch are infringing on intellectual freedom and independence in colleges and universities. It’s an old fashioned quid pro quo where the Koch brothers get allied professors who’ll preach Ayn Rand, supply side economic policies and the values of the 19th century Guilded Age to students and the college gets some funding.
Every year, thousands of individuals move through the Koch-supported classes, lectures and fields of study, which in their totality amount to an ideological assembly line bought and paid for by the Koch brothers. There are Koch-funded agreements at more than 150 American colleges and universities.
“The Koch brothers have paid tens of millions of dollars to get their point of view instilled in classrooms, amongst faculty members and in students,” said Cary Nelson, President of the American Association of University Professors. “Programs they start tend to be one point of view only.”
The Koch brothers’ business has annual revenue that are about 200 times the size ($100 billion) in one year than the entirety of Florida State University’s endowment ($423 million). At a time when governors like Florida Gov. Rick Scott are slashing spending on education, colleges and universities are virtually forced into restrictive and ideological funding agreements with questionable sources to meet students’ demands. Instead, they’re meeting the Koch brothers needs and the students are paying the intellectual price.
Enter the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which has given more than $14.39 million in grants to universities like Florida State, Auburn, Clemson, West Virginia and Utah State. All five campuses are in financial agreements with Koch-supported groups requiring the university to hire candidates who adhere to defined ideological guidelines. In some cases, the Koch-supported groups recommend candidates to the faculty or have sway over the college’s hiring committee.
Conflicts of interest of this magnitude cannot be ignored, and Florida State students and professors didn’t swallow the Koch agreement willingly. There was an uproar on campus when the Koch brothers began infringing on academic freedom.
A campaign to organize the campus against the Koch brothers and wealthy so-called “philanthropists” who seek to use their wealth to influence academia is under way. Student leaders are fanning out across Tallahassee to organize against the Koch brothers and their ilk who would infringe on academic independence if given the chance. If the students are successful, they’ll have earned enough support to take action against the Koch brothers’ influence.
Billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch were stopped today. The Keystone XL oil pipeline will meet its end today in a Washington DC press conference. The pipeline would’ve been one of the largest oil developments in American history. The pipeline would’ve destroyed American homes, farmlands and sensitive ecosystems along the nearly 2,000-mile path from Northwest Canada and through six U.S. states to the Gulf of Mexico.
But it also represented a win for brothers Koch, who’ve used their net worth to influence politicians and the media to support policies that would make them richer.
What are the Kochs hiding? They won’t even answer questions from Joel Francis, a college student and military veteran who’s passionate about protecting the environment.
There have been many cases of legal misconduct behind the Keystone XL pipeline like cost miscalculations and conflicts of interests. For years, the state department had one person handling the entire $7 billion project who virtually outsourced oversight to an unaccountable consultant company.
The Koch brothers’ echo chamber has also had devastating effects on popular programs like Social Security. We’ve been producing videos and activism that illustrate how the Koch brothers use their wealth to write script and set the goals for politicians, activists and influentials to follow. The Kochs use their wealth to launch think tanks, family foundations and nonprofit organizations to foment policies that make the Koch brothers richer.
This case has a different ending and one that puts people over profit. Organized people beat organized money and that’s reason to have hope as we confront the Kochs in 2012.
Con su esposa Magdalena, Arturo de Los Santos ha estando luchando por largos meses para conserver la casa en Riverside, California, en donde criaron a sus cuatro hijos y en donde tejieron sus sueños y esperanzas.
Wow. It takes a certain special kind of narcissism to star in your own astroturf campaign, but that’s exactly what Washington lobbyist Rick Berman did. And Berman didn’t star in just any old astroturf ad, he starred in an anti-union ad airing during the Super Bowl in a year and in a city where union-busting is front-and-center.
