The problem for the United States is that there’s no understanding of how much exposure US financial firms have to the expected fallout, especially if there’s a default event. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs announced their overall derivatives risk from sovereigns today, but wouldn’t pinpoint how much of that comes from Italy or Spain.

Really, there was no “need” for the police forces of these cities to spend the past two months engaged in gradually-escalating warfare against the Occupiers in their locales. There was only the growing irritation of the one-percenters at seeing a bunch of “rabble”, to use the Murdoch-owned New York Post’s own term for the ninety-nine percenters, suddenly changing the terms of political discussion from “how much can we destroy of the social safety net so we can give more tax breaks to our wealthy campaign financiers?” to “um, maybe we’d better stop talking so much about cutting things and start talking about jobs and income inequality”.

A judge issued a temporary restraining order early this afternoon in favor of Occupy Boston. The order prevents the city from having the police raid the camp in the dark of night, as has happened in Oakland, Portland, New York, and other cities. It does, however, allow the city to evict the camp if there is an emergency (for example, if violence breaks out, if there is a fire, if there is a health/medical/sanitary issue, etc).

In one of the largest day of raids on marijuana dispensaries since President Obama took office, at least 14 dispensaries were hit in Washington state yesterday in a coordinated set of actions. The DoJ claims it was in support of enforcement of state laws, even though the Administration has acted consistently to undermine those state marijuana laws.

Monday night, KrisA and I met at the occupation in Austin to deliver OccupySupply’s first shipment of 8 hats and 10 pairs of socks to our occupation. We were accompanied by CBL and nonplussed of firedoglake. Since I’m afraid to be in the parking garage below City Hall where we occupy, nonplussed and I caught a ride with a friend of his who hadn’t been to the occupation yet.

The multiple sexual harassment stories about Herman Cain have apparently caused his formerly sky high intensity of support to collapse. On the other hand Newt Gingrich continues a steady improvement that has now moved him into top tier status.

Over the past week, I have been organizing what is being called my “OccupySupply Shop.” I have neatly organized all the supplies that have come in, minus around 250 blankets, that just won’t fit anywhere. Those are getting shipped out quickly.

I remember all too well the food served in public schools back in the day. In high school, the main course offerings were, um, basic: “Lasagna” (perfect square, little piece of bread to go with it), Salisbury “steak”, Filet-o-”fish”, and yes, a perfectly rectangular piece of pizza. I also recall actual vegetables, like green beans and salad (nondescript iceberg lettuce with cherry tomatoes).

A new report finds that prosecution of financial fraud has fallen to a 20-year low. If you’re like me, you don’t believe that the financial industry stands at its cleanest point in the past 20 years.

These massive late night raids on occupations can’t be cheap. They involve dozens, perhaps hundreds of police officers, often brought in from other nearby jurisdictions. There just aren’t that many police on the graveyard shift, so the bulk of them must be getting paid costly overtime to work evictions in the middle of the night. Who is paying for this?