Although people have sought to effect change through economic and social pressure since at least the 1700s, the concept became more widely known in the latter years of the following century, earning its moniker by way of one of the individuals targeted.

From 1879 to 1882, Ireland’s first Land War pitted rural tenants, reeling from years of economic downturn, against the rental policies of wealthy and often-absentee English landlords. Caught in the crossfire was former English army officer “Captain” Charles Boycott, whose position as a land agent for one such landlord in County Mayo came with the responsibility of evicting delinquent tenants. Organized locals made life miserable for Boycott by behaving coldly toward him in public, refusing to provide him with goods and services, and harassing his employees into quitting, a process dubbed “boycotting” by parish priest John O’Malley.

After Boycott’s complaints about the situation were published in London’s The Times in October 1880, around 50 volunteers from Ireland’s northern border journeyed to County Mayo to help the short-staffed officer harvest his farm crops. However, these charitable souls required the protection of a Royal Irish Constabulary regiment, whose members proceeded to trample the grounds and poach the livestock during their two-week stay at Boycott’s property. Although the volunteer mission was successful (albeit at an estimated cost of £10,000 to harvest £350 worth of crops), Boycott’s abandonment of his farm in late November marked a victory for the tenants and the effective method of persuasion that rapidly earned recognition under its new name.

Trump’s VA is ending a rescue program that’s saved 17,000 military veterans’ homes

APRIL 3, 202511:08 PM ET

By 

Chris Arnold

, 

Quil Lawrence

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that it will end a mortgage-rescue program designed to help veterans who have fallen behind on their mortgages keep their homes.

But the scant details offered so far by the VA make it unclear whether the program will be replaced by a different rescue program — or whether the move will strand thousands of other vets, many of whom are in financial peril because of the VA’s own mistakes.

Tens of thousands of veterans were left facing foreclosure after the VA abruptly cancelled a key part of a pandemic-era mortgage relief program that allowed vets to skip mortgage payments if they had trouble paying. When NPR first uncovered the VA’s move in late 2023, there were about 40,000 vets in danger of losing their homes.

The VA responded by halting foreclosures for a full year while it rolled out a rescue plan. That rescue plan, called VASP, has now put 17,109 veterans and their families into new, low-interest-rate, affordable mortgages, according to the VA.

In a statement to NPR Thursday, the VA said it was ending the VASP program. “Beginning May 1, 2025, VA’s Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program [VASP]… will stop accepting new enrollees,” it said. “This change is necessary because VA is not set up or intended to be a mortgage loan restructuring service.”

Republican critics in Congress don’t like that VASP buys the rescued loans from the mortgage industry, and then holds the loans on the VA’s own books. They say that puts too much taxpayer money at risk. 

“The Trump administration rightfully put an end to VA’s VASP program,” said a joint press release Thursday from U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, an Illinois Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Wisconsin Republican. 

Veterans groups, housing advocates, and mortgage company executives all say they believe that ending VASP without replacing it with another affordable option for veterans who have fallen behind on their loan payments could result in unnecessary foreclosures.

At a recent hearing before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, a representative of a trade group that works to advance the interests of real estate lenders said that would be a disaster.

 ”Without VASP, VA would have foreclosed on tens of thousands of borrowers,” said Elizabeth Balce, representing the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

Balce said scuttling the VASP program, especially before VA stands up an alternative, would have one clear result.

“Foreclosure. Period,” she said, “That’s really where it’s gonna come to. The short answer is foreclosure.”

For thousands of veterans, it’s not their fault that they’re in this predicament. The vets had reached out to their mortgage companies during a time of financial hardship and were told that by taking advantage of the VA’s mortgage forbearance program they could skip some mortgage payments and have an affordable way to get current on their mortgages again. 

After mortgage rates spiked from around 3 percent to 7 percent in 2022, however, the only affordable way for these vets to do that was through what’s called a “partial claim” that allowed the vets to move the missed payments to the back of their loan term, and then just resume paying their mortgage. But in October of 2022, the VA suddenly pulled the plug on that partial claim program, stranding tens of thousands of vets with no affordable way to get current and start paying their loans again. 

The Republican critics of VASP have been pressuring the VA to restore the partial claim program because they prefer that option to VASP.

“This action underscores House Republicans’ intent to establish a partial claims program at VA to ensure veterans’ can stay in their homes if they’re in financial hardship,” Van Orden and Bost said in their statement.

But during the Biden administration, VA maintained that it lacked the authority to do that without an act of Congress, and it is unclear if or when Congress would pass legislation that Van Orden has introduced to that end. 

VA officials did not say Thursday whether the agency now plans to stand up a partial claim or some other option for veterans to replace VASP, or whether agency officials are worried that this move to end the program will result in thousands of veterans losing their homes.

At the hearing last month, nonprofit consumer protection groups submitted a letter to the House Veterans Affairscommittee warning of unnecessary foreclosures if VASP were to be scrapped, but also supporting a new partial claim program at VA.

Housing, industry, and veterans groups all say that if the VA ends its VASP program without first replacing it with another affordable option such as a partial claim, that will leave veterans with far worse options than most other American homeowners.

Loans backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA all have low-interest rate loan modification or partial claim programs for homeowners, but VA will not once VASP ends. That’s despite the fact that for generations VA home loans have been a path to the middle class for those who serve in the military.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The tariff situation is reminiscent to an international hostage crisis expect Donny has no reasonable demands. Those that don’t understand that our consumer based economy is dependent on foreign made goods and in order for those products to be available retailers in the UNITED STATES will have to buy those products. So let me put this simply, the retailer pays the tariff not the country exporting the goods and that retailers, i.e. Walmart, Target, most grocery chains, automakers, will in turn pass that increase on to consumers, you… you are eventually paying that tariff .

We do not have the manufacturing capability to produce a lot of the goods we consume.

Trump is pissing in the wind and we are the ones getting pissed on.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Donald in less than 100 days has destroyed our global alliances, collapsed the stock market and absolutely made America great. (Statement thick with sarcasm)

He has done such a good job that Fox Business yesterday stopped showing their stock tracker… the age of FAFO is in full swing. Those that voted for the malignant narcissist are losing their 401k’s just as Donny and Elon are trying to decimate Society. I guess since very few if any people that lived through the Great Depression are still around we have to relive it, guess we can look forward to another World War.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

DOGE, Trump and Musk policies and seemingly random cuts to departments and programs will most definitely hurt many people, but that is a sacrifice that Donald and Elon are willing to make.

Cuts to HHS, some will suffer and others will die… sacrifices are needed.

Tariffs will raise prices, we must stop complaining about the minor inconvenience.

Jobs will be lost, people will suffer but the wealthy will be fine.

All these sacrifices that we will feel , Donald is willing to ready to make.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

So today is the big impose tariffs on our allies day. The day that dear leader has the masses believing that by imposing these tariffs that Canada, Mexico, China and anyone else he is slapping these tariffs on will just start handing the treasury millions of dollars. Sadly doesn’t work that way… importers of goods from those countries pay the tariff, let’s just call it a tax, and they intern pass it on to us.

The “business man” also seems to believe that magically manufacturing and supply lines will just appear. Factories that have been shut down for decades will by the will of Trump reopen , fields will suddenly produce more vegetables and fruits, just like professor Dumbledore snapping his fingers in the great hall and feeding all the students at Hogwarts.

We don’t live in Donald’s imagination and his mistaken interpretation of how this will work is going to cause a  recession or worse.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The scales have forever in our body politic been between We the People and Money and Corporate Greed and any time a party is on the side of the people they are considered Left.

Lincoln recognized the rights of a million enslaved people above the corporate plantations of the south… that leftist ideal of humanity caused the Civil War.

Even though we in name got rid of slavery we didn’t impose many restrictions of corporate greed. Theodore Roosevelt turned his gaze on the rights of workers above that of the Steel Mills, Railroads, and Oil Companies and supported unions. Another leftist ideal hurting corporate profits.

FDR brought in Social Security so that seniors could retire with dignity. Even Eisenhower supported unions and he was a Republican.

Since Reagan the role of government has been viewed as trying to harm the people which is 100% opposite of the truth . The bias has been spewed for so long the public believes that corporations and the ultra wealthy need to have more breaks because they are the only ones that can save us.

The scales have been tipped so far to the right that even ideas that would have been considered in the center, 50 or 60 years ago are considered ultra leftist. So when Republicans want Democrats to move more to the center that Center is no longer in the middle. If you took a ruler and saw the center was at 6 inches the Democrats were 6 to 12 inches and the Republicans were 0 to 6 inches. That scale has been moved now the Republicans are 0 to 9 inches on the conservative side and the Democrats only have 2 inches of wiggle room so if we try to get toward the center, the center is actually very much still in the conservative realm. 

Bernie Sanders is considered to be ultra left-wing in today’s body politic but in reality Bernie is right of the ideas that Eisenhower had in 56 so it’s hard to justify moving to the center when the center doesn’t even balance the scale anymore. 

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I hate to even use the word illegal when it comes to immigration because people are not illegal they may be undocumented, but they are not illegal. We don’t have any legal worker issue if we didn’t have employers actually soliciting people in Mexico or Central America to come work in their fields or food processing plants, so let’s prosecute the employers not the employees that are just trying to support their families.

Sadly, this will never happen because we never prosecute the wealthy that are trying to take advantage of a situation where they can increase their profits and decrease their overhead.