Yesterday, the Occupy movement began occupying foreclosed homes to save fellow members of the 99 percent from economic ruin, not to mention homelessness–good for them. But it’s important to add that many of the millions of pending foreclosures in the United States could have been prevented–and still could be–if the federal government so orders. In fact, such a move would be one of the strongest steps the Obama administration could take to reduce human suffering and revive the economy. When Washington pumped billions of dollars into the nation’s banks in 2008 and 2009, there was good reason to do so: It kept the US and arguably the global financial system from outright crashing, which would have brought even greater human and economic suffering than was experienced otherwise. But… Read more

And now it’s official. The U.S. State Department just announced that it would delay making a decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline until after it had undergone extensive further review, including a search for an alternate routing. In effect, this puts off any decision until 2013 at the earliest and may well dooms the project, espeically if Obama is re-elected. Score another victory, and against very long odds, for street protests. And not a moment too soon. The International Energy Agency released its annual World Energy Outlook report yesterday, which warned that the world has five years to make fairly radical changes in its fossil-fuel dominated energy infrastructure if we are to avoid irreversible climate change. What exactly the IEA–which is a very… Read more

And the protests just keep on coming, don’t they? Yesterday it was the White House that got targeted: an estimated twelve thousand people surrounded the White House to urge President Obama to block the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Here in San Francisco, I watched the live feed of the event on the tarsandsaction.org website and interviewed some of the protestors in real time as they chanted, “Stop The Pipeline, Yes We Can.” Their spirit and creativity was a sight to behold. Most impressive was the mock pipeline, at least 100 feet long, that protestors hoisted above their heads and carried through the crowd, emblazoned with the slogan, “Stop the XL Pipeline.” And guess what? The White House protests generated lots of media coverage, including in mainstream outlets. I suspect… Read more