Protest Before Bill de Blasio Secured a TRO to Save LICH (for now)

"We Need A Hospital. We Don't Need Condos."

On Friday, approximately 100 community activists endured an unconscionable heat wave to denounce efforts by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close Long Island College Hospital ("LICH").

The noon-time rally took place at the LICH campus in Brooklyn. LICH has been facing imminent closure through several backchannel attempts by the Cuomo administration to close any hospital in Brooklyn as part of radical cuts to healthcare that Gov. Cuomo wants to make to window-dress the New York State budget.

Unfortunately for Gov. Cuomo, New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio has found the courage to challenge the governor's quest to shut down LICH.

A few hours after this photograph was taken, Mr. de Blasio triumphantly returned to LICH with a Temporary Restraining Order in a last-minute effort to keep LICH open.

2013 07 19 Bill de Blasio TRO LICH

The next few weeks will tell whether Mr. de Blasio's efforts will prove successful.

Five More GetEQUAL TX Activists Arrested For Blocking Traffic For Job Protections

From The Dallas Voice :

Five GetEQUAL TX activists were arrested this evening for blocking traffic near the state Capitol while protesting for LGBT nondiscrimination in the workforce.

Holding a sign that read, “We Work Together,” the group blocked the intersection at 11th and Congress in Austin, calling for the Texas Senate to stop blocking the progress of SB 237, which was left pending in committee. This is the second set of arrests in as many weeks for activists protesting SB 237.

The Austin action was part of a new national GetEQUAL campaign that launched today to urge Congress to pass the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which was recently reintroduced. In Washington, D.C., activists held light panels on the grounds of Congress, reading “PASS ENDA NOW.”

The campaign, “Workplace INclusion: Winning LGBT Workplace Protections (WIN),” kicks off a week of action across the country to draw attention to need for workplace protections for LGBT employees. The actions will end May 14, the anniversary of Bella Abzug’s Equality Act of 1974, which was the first piece of pro-LGBT legislation in the U.S. ....

Madrid Protest To Save Healthcare

Madrid: Living streaming video of healthcare workers taking to the streets to demand saving a public healthcare system.

Thousands demanding "not to privatize" health care system Why sell something that works? #Madrid PIC via @ja_santoro twitter.com/acampadabcn_in…

— acampadabcn_int (@acampadabcn_int) December 16, 2012

Occupy Sandy Protest Near Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Mansion

Several hundred citizens affected by Hurricane Sandy, healthcare professionals, activists, and members of Occupy Sandy relief effort participated in a rally and march near Fifth Avenue and East 79th Street to protest what organisers said was a lack of care and concern by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Hospitals that were evacuated due to hurricane damage have not reopened, and hurricane survivors are dealing with mold, no heat, no hot water, and no electricity in the winter. Healthcare professionals describe conditions that could lead to a public healthcare crisis. Yet, rally participants kept asking, "Where is Mayor Bloomberg?"

It wasn't confirmed, but many people speculated that Mayor Bloomberg could be spending this weekend in his palatial compound in the tropical island of Bermuda.

This independent video was made in solidarity with rally organizers to educate the public about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's lack of care and concern for survivors of Hurricane Sandy, and this video includes information about Bill Rudin : another billionaire, who also bears responsibility for some of the issues raised by some rally participants.

Read also : Nurses Will Picket Mayor Bloomberg's Mansion

For more information about hurricane relief efforts, please visit : http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/

Stein, Honkala Denied Entry To Presidential Debate; Arrested

Democratic and Republican Parties Shut Out Third Party Candidates

Green Party running mates Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala denounced the Commission on Presidential Debates as an "unfair entity" set up by Democratic and Republican leaders to lock third party candidates out of the democratic process, reported Gawker.

From Huffington Post :

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested outside of Hofstra University on Tuesday after attempted to enter debate grounds.

According to Stein's campaign press statement, Stein and running mate Cheri Honkala joined supporters outside the Hofstra campus at 2pm, where Stein declared, "We are here to bring the courage of those excluded from our politics to this mock debate, this mockery of democracy." When they started to walk onto the debate grounds, they were stopped by police officers, and then the two women sat down on the ground. ...

Chicago Police Beat NATO Protesters With Batons ; Police Use Of Violence Against Citizens Highlights Need To End War, Conflict (Raw Video)

"The police have several demonstrators detained behind their lines, calling for medics. Bloodied protesters being dragged out of sight now," Occupy Chicago group wrote on its Twitter page earlier in the day.

A city official, who was not authorized to talk to the media on police matters, told CNN that between 75-100 protesters had refused to leave the area after being told to disperse.

St. Vincent's Activists Will Visit Scott Stringer

2011-11-14 St Vincent's Activists Will Visit Scott Stringer

Bill Rudin St. Vincent's Activists Meeting

2011-11-14 St Vincents Activists - Bill Rudin Invitation (St. Vincent's)

Peninsula Hospital Closing Protest

Peninsula Hospital Center - Protesters Take Over Lobby - Hospital Closings in NYC

Approximately 200 union employees, residents of Far Rockaway, in Queens, and local officials, gathered in the rain outside Peninsula Hospital Center, across the bay from JFK Airport. Peninsula Hospital Center has filed a plan to shut its doors. The hospital’s owner is embroiled in a political and financial scandal, but employees and residents are worried about the threat to public health, should the hospital’s closure plan be approved.

Attendees of the rally braved the rain, then, once the rally had ended, stormed into one of the lobbies of the hospital, until hospital officials called the police, to clear the lobby of its own employees.

In the time that Christine Quinn had been speaker of the City Council, eight hospitals (not counting Peninsula) have closed. If Peninsula closes, it would mark the ninth hospital to close under Speaker Quinn's watch.

This week, President Obama agreed to severe budget cuts to social safety net programs, that underpin the social contract we make with our government and amongst ourselves. More budget cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will lead to a further collapse of our healthcare system. Is Christine Quinn in Bermuda with Mayor Michael Bloomberg each time a hospital closes in New York City ? Is President Obama surfing in Hawaii each time a hospital closes in America ?

If we obediently listen to people, who are in power (the same people who work for us, the very same people who are closing our hospitals), telling us to leave the lobby of a closing hospital, then it just makes it that much easier for the New York State Department of Health/Christine Quinn to keep closing hospitals.

CityTime Protest Rally Today