A Judge Smacks Down U.S. Bank

by Jbearlaw     Tue Nov 15, 2011

This is a depressing time to try to believe in the rule of law in this country, because of so much in the way of rampant fraud on behalf of the banking industry, the robo-signing, the delays and obfuscations, the obvious collusion, etc.  However, there is still a long history of the rule of law in this country, and even despite our philosophical and political differences, there are lots of good actors involved, at every level.   I have no idea of what political persuasion Judge Dennis Blackmon is, but Tea Partiers and Occupiers alike should be able to applaud his opinion in Otis Wayne Phillips v. US Bank.

Sometimes, only the courts of law stand to protect the taxpayer. Somewhere, someone has to stand up. Well, sometimes is now, and the place is the Great State of Georgia. The Defendant’s Motion is hereby Denied.

The court finds the following to be the facts and law applicable to this motion: 

                                                     1.

-Otis Phillips is behind on his house payments and is in grave danger of foreclosure. 

-The United States Government paid taxpayer dollars to the largest of our financial institutions, and to European Union Banks, in order to prop up those poorly run organizations.

-Twenty Billion of those dollars were handed over to the defendant, U.S. Bank. 

-U.S. Bank agreed to participate in the U.S. Government's HAMP program to help struggling homeowners.

-U.S. Bank signed a Service Participation Agreement (SPA), in which the bailed out bank agreed to comply with the HAMP Guidelines for loan modification 

-The HAMP guidelines require U.S. Bank to perform modification services for all morgage loans it services. 

-Otis Phillips applied to modify his mortgage with U.S. Bank. 

-U..S. Bank denied the request, without numbers, figures, or explanation, reasoning, comparison to the guidelines, or anything.  U.S. Bank would not reveal to Mr. Phillips how his income, or his house, or his expenses would make him ineligible according to HAMP guidelines. 

(This court cannot imagine why U.S. Bank will not make known to Mr. Phillips, a taxpayer, how his numbers put him outside the federal guidelines to receive a loan modification.  Taking $20 Billion of taxpayer money was no problem for U.S. Bank. A cynical Judge might believe that this entire motion to dismiss is a desperate attempt to avoid the discovery period, where U.S. Bank would have to tell Mr. Phillips how his financial situation did not qualify him for a modification. Or, perhaps he was qualified, yet didn’t receive the modification, in violation of U.S. Bank’s Service Participation Agreement (SPA).  A cynical judge might think that, if the guidelines clearly prevented Mr Phillips from getting his modification, then US Bank would have trotted out that fact in mathematic equations, pie charts, and bar graphs, all on 8 by 10 glossy photo paper, with circles and arrows and paragraphs on the back explaining each winning number.1  U.S. Bank’s silence on this issue might heighten the suspicions of such a cynical jurist.  I, on the other hand, am sure that nothing of the sort could be true. Maybe US Bank no longer has any of the $20 billion dollars left, and so their lack of written explanation might be attributed to some kind of ink reduction program to save money. I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why US  Bank will not print out the ONE page of figures that show that Mr. Phillip’s financials compared to the HAMP guidelines to clear this all up.)

1.  Apologies to Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant. 

-Otis Phillips claims to have suffered as a result of U.S. Bank's actions, and

-Otis Phillips wishes to avoid foreclosure. 

[snip]

Clearly, U.S. Bank cannot take the money, contract with our government to provide a a service to the taxpayer, violate that agreement, and then say no one on earth can sue them for it. That is not the law in Georgia. In fact, since no administrative review is provided in HAMP [which is something you should put in your OCC letter demanding review], the courts are the only recourse.  The Bank claims that the intended beneficiaries of HAMP are the very people who CAN'T sue.  Such argument is absurd.

[snip] 

Georgia prohibits wrongful foreclosures.  In fact, Federal law also prohibits wrongful foreclosures.  Mr. Phillips claims that U.S. Bank is not the proper party to pursue such an action, and is merely the servicer of the loan, not the holder.  Further, Mr. Phillips asserts that compliance with HAMP guidelines is a condition precedent to foreclosure. 

                                                      Conclusion

There is no merit to Defendant's motion to dismiss, and same is hereby denied.

That's the kind of thing that makes you believe in this country.  Congratulations, Judge Blackmon!  Picture of Judge Blackmon here. 

12:15 PM PT: Just want to say thanks to all who've stopped to read and rec.  Hope you enjoyed Judge Blackmon's wit as much as I did.  This is exactly the kind of thing that the Banks are trying to get immunity from, in the negotiations with Attorneys General all across the country, and from the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments.  Judge Blackmon's opinion demonstrates just how stupid it would be for the A.G.'s, Tres., and Justice to do so; it's just common sense that these banks need to be held accountable, and the law provides a means to do so, if only they will let it. 

2:39 PM PT: Once again, thanks to all.  Time to go, so won't be responding to any more comments. 

Originally posted to Jbearlaw on Tue Nov 15, 2011

Also republished by ClassWarfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS Working Class Global Occupy movement.

Technorati Tags: U.S. Bank,Dennis Blackmon,Georgia,Mortgage Fraud,The Economy,Current Events,An American Gothic

Bank Of America Makes Millions Charging Fees To Withdraw Unemployment Benefits

by Marie Diamond

Published on Monday, November 14, 2011 by ThinkProgress

Late last month, a national backlash forced Bank of America to abandon its plan to charge customers $5 a month to use their debit cards. But Huffington Post reports that the corporation has quietly been mining other sources of fees, preying on its most vulnerable customers to rake in millions in revenue:

  Shawana Busby does not seem like the sort of customer who would be at the center of a major bank’s business plan. Out of work for much of the last three years, she depends upon a $264-a-week unemployment check from the state of South Carolina. But the state has contracted with Bank of America to administer its unemployment benefits, and Busby has frequently found herself incurring bank fees to get her money.

To withdraw her benefits, Busby, 33, uses a Bank of America prepaid debit card on which the state deposits her funds…Busby visits the ATMs in her area and begrudgingly accepts the fees, which reach as high as five dollars per transaction. She estimates that she has paid at least $350 in fees to tap her unemployment benefits. [...]

In short, the same banks whose speculation delivered a financial crisis that has destroyed millions of jobs have figured out how to turn widespread unemployment into a profit center: The larger the number of people who are out of work and dependent upon the state for sustenance, the greater the potential gains through administering their benefits.

Millions of jobless Americans like Busby have little choice but to rely on the bank’s prepaid debit cards to collect their monthly benefits. Forty-one states have contracted with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and other banks to provide access to public benefits, allowing them to collect unlimited fees, both from the unemployed and state governments. South Carolina, for instance, pays Bank of America a fee for each transfer it facilitates on a debit card, and for handling direct deposit of unemployment benefits.

Families who are living hand-to-mouth are outraged to discover that banks worth trillions of dollars are taking such a big cut of their benefits, when they depend on every penny. The New York Times reports today that banks have been quietly raising fees on everything from replacing lost cards to monthly maintenance. BofA customers can be charged $1.50 for speaking to a customer service operator more than once a month, $1.50 for using an “out-of-network” ATM, and $0.50 for entering the wrong PIN number too many times.

Bryce Covert at New Deal 2.0 reported earlier this month that, “big banks are making a tidy profit by acting as middlemen for what should be publicly provided services.” U.S. Bancorp made $357 million in revenue from its unemployment benefit card division — more than one-fourth of its total revenue. Meanwhile JP Morgan “made $5.47 billion in net revenue for most of last year in the division that handles food stamp cards.”

Fed up with big banks’ exorbitant and never-ending fees, customers have been flocking to credit unions. One survey found that credit unions gained at least 650,000 new customers since September 29, the day Bank of America announced its debit card fee.

© 2005-2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund

    Also republished to Commondreams.org

Technorati Tags: BoA,Bank Of America,Unemployment Benefits,Bank Fees,Credit Unions,Wells Fargo,JP Morgan Chase,Current Events,An American Gothic,1%

NY Times Previews Life in America under Romney

By Dartagnan       Sun Nov 13, 2011

And America under Romney gets, well, screwed.

In exploring the machinations of Bain Capital, Romney's private equity firm,  which Romney holds out as a cornerstone of his campaign to convince Americans of his business savvy, the Times obliquely opens a window into what we all could expect from a Romney Administration.

Mr. Romney’s career at Bain Capital, which he owned and ran as chief executive, is a cornerstone of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination — a credential, he argues, that showcases the management skills and business acumen that America needs to revive a stalled economy. Creating jobs, Mr. Romney says, is exactly what he knows how to do.

The White House, though, is already preparing a less flattering portrayal, trying to frame Mr. Romney’s record at Bain as evidence that he would pursue slash and burn economics and that his business career thrived by enriching the elite at the expense of the working class.

If that latter paragraph sounds familiar, it should. Although they may not have pitched tents in Zuccotti Park, the Obama Administration's campaign team knows full well that Americans are seething right now, and are unlikely to be enamored with a candidate who made his fortune performing the same function as a corporate raider.

Bain Capital's behavior towards the Illinois medical supply company Dade International is a perfect microcosm of what Americans feel has been done to their country over the past twenty years.  While Romney's firm netted 242 million dollars, eight times its original investment, the company ended up laying off 1700 workers and filing for bankruptcy.  The only word that adequately captures what Romney and Bain did here would be "looting:"

They extracted cash from the company at almost every turn — paying themselves nearly $100 million in fees, first for buying the company and then for helping to run it. Later, just after Mr. Romney stepped down from his role, Bain took $242 million out of the business in a transaction that, according to bankruptcy documents and several former Dade officials, weakened the company.

It seems clear from some of Romney's more infamous statements on the campaign trail that while he may have left Bain in a physical sense his spirit remains entwined with the philosophy of his beloved company:

Romney the candidate can still frequently sound like Romney the C.E.O. On the campaign trail, he has taken a tough-love approach to the economy, suggesting that the best remedy for the housing market is to allow foreclosures to “hit the bottom”; railing against wasteful spending by the government-backed solar company Solyndra; and arguing that companies with poor strategies, like General Motors, should be allowed to go bankrupt, without a federal bailout.
It was the same approach he took with Bain, as he explained in an interview with The New York Times in 2007, when asked about layoffs at the companies he bought.

“Sometimes the medicine is a little bitter,” he said, “but it is necessary to save the life of the patient.”

Except in Dade's case, the patient died.  The history of the Dade acquisitions shows that it was less "business acumen" than Romney's personal greed guiding Bain's actions.  Perhaps in the context of a private equity firm whose goal is to make money for its investors, those terms are interchangeable. But as a philosophy of government, the consequences of adopting this kind of mindset  are obvious.

The story of Dade is a familiar one. Aided by a 450 million dollar influx from Goldman Sachs, the company began making acquisitions of its own.  Its annual sales doubled.   But so did its debt. And when the tipping point was reached, the workers were treated to the "mantra" of cost-cutting while Bain, Goldman, and Mitt Romney continued to rake in the profits. 

Pensions were replaced by 401k's. Salaries were cut. Workers were laid off. Plants were closed. Sound familiar?

By 1998 Mitt and his Bain buddies were looking to cash out. So what did they do?  Why, they increased the company's debt. Because no one could foresee how that would turn out.

Bain settled on a common tactic in private equity: In April 1999, it pushed Dade to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to buy half of Bain’s shares in the company — and half of those of its investment partners.

Bain pocketed the $242 million. Goldman received $121 million. Top Dade executives got $55 million, records show. The total payout to shareholders reached $420 million — nearly as much as the purchase price for Dade.

The money was hard to resist, acknowledged Mr. Brightfelt, the former Dade president. “We were all glad to get some cash out,” he said, “and we thought we deserved it.”

The money was "hard to resist."  They "thought they deserved it." Coincidentally, things then went south for Dade:

With the amount of money that Dade owed to creditors and vendors at nearly $2 billion, some executives worried that the company would have little maneuvering room if its financial situation suddenly deteriorated.

Soon enough, it did. Interest rates rose, increasing Dade’s debt payments. The value of the euro, then a new currency, slid, reducing Dade’s European revenue. And a new distribution center had unexpected delays.

Creditors, unsettled by deteriorating finances and high debts, began to pounce. More layoffs followed. And in August of 2002, Dade filed for bankruptcy protection.

The creditors threatened litigation against Bain and its investment partners, accusing them of “professional negligence” and “unjust enrichment,” according to bankruptcy documents. Bain and the other investors argued that the claims were baseless, but agreed to forgo about $68 million owed to them by Dade. And seven years after buying the company, Bain forfeited its remaining ownership stake.

After going through  Bankruptcy, Dade was bought by Siemens. And the cycle goes on.

The article describes the emotional and financial problems faced by many of Dade's workers as they faced relocation and layoffs while Romney began to hone his political ambitions.      This is apparently the "bitter medicine"  Romney is talking about:

Arsenio Muñiz Rosado, a 51-year-old father who had spent 23 years at the plant, starting out as a groundskeeper, sank into a debilitating depression. Still jobless six months after he was let go, he tried to commit suicide with a bottle full of Xanax pills. It was the first of several attempts.

For all intents and purposes, he said of the plant, “I died in there.

This story is why I cringe when I hear these candidates suggests their CEO experience provides them with the tools needed for good governance. In fact it would appear that for a good many CEO's the experience provides exactly the wrong message. By all indications, Romney's brand of "business acumen" would simply accelerate the downward spiral of the middle class and sharpen income inequality.  It would fatten the investor class at the expense of the people who do the actual work for these companies that people like Romney buy and sell like Monopoly pieces. Because that's what he knows.  That is his primary source of funding. And he hasn't demonstrated a shred of empathy towards anyone else.

Originally posted to Dartagnan on Sun Nov 13, 2011

Also republished by ClassWarfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS Working Class Global Occupy movement.

Technorati Tags: 2012 Elections,Mitt Romney,Republicans,Wall Street,Barack Obama,New York Times,Politics,Current Events,An American Gothic

Herman Cain: Now God Wants Him To Be President…

    …. so now I have to go and find me a very quiet location in order to have a chat with God about this development, as God seems to be suffering from a bout of confusion over which Republican should be in the White House. I am believing that God will tell me that He is just having some innocent fun with all of those Christian Conservative fakes, and that He  has not told any one of them that they would win.. Maybe God is hoping that these people will see the errors of their ways and repent? Sorry God, but that is not going to happen because they would have to denounce their corporate masters in order to escape from the dark side, which isn’t in their best interest.

   So let’s count all of the butt-wipes from the GOP who God has called to run for the White House.  Are you ready for this? Are you sure?

    Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Perry. It should be noted that Perry did not speak directly with God, his wife got that message instead. I think that Perry’s cellphone battery had died earlier that morning so God couldn’t get through to him with his orders.

   So Herman Cain, as most Republicans have done, has decided to take the low road just to get the votes from the conservative Republicans, mostly inhabiting the South.

Yahoo News

In a speech Saturday to a national meeting of young Republicans, Cain said the Lord persuaded him after much prayer.

"That's when I prayed and prayed and prayed. I'm a man of faith — I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I've ever done before in my life," Cain said. "And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. 'You've got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?'"

Cain spoke in advance of a Republican debate Saturday in South Carolina focused on foreign policy.

  We have a conflict, Mr. Cain. God told you to run for President, and at the same time He told me not to vote for you or any other “ conservative Christian,” so which one of us is hearing from the wrong God?

    As a Christian ( not nearly perfect ) who tries to do the right thing when other people are in need of help, I find Mr. Cain and his ilk insulting to the faith and to the slow-minded followers who will believe his line of crap. These Christians stand for nothing in which God or His son, Jesus Christ, would condone. Jesus was most certainly no kind of conservative, and he most surely did not get along with most of the rich. He absolutely did not have any of the ideas that the Republican Party lives by, and he would be overturning their tables of filthy lucre as he did with the moneychangers back in the day. Of course, the Republicans are not the only ones partaking in this kind of crap. The Democrats are guilty also, only to a somewhat lesser degree.

   Keep your fraudulent religious ideas out of the political arena as our founding fathers intended. People like Cain and Perry are the reason why government and religion should be on different wavelengths.

   So, what do I find so wrong with the Conservative Christian Republican/Tea Party? An op-ed piece by past lobbyist for the  National Association of Evangelicals ( Richard Cizik ) in Friday’s Washington Post covers a bit of the problem.

The “compassionate conservatism” espoused by President George W. Bush and many prominent evangelical leaders has been supplanted by a Tea Party ideology that bears more resemblance to the anti-Christian philosophy of Ayn Rand than it does to the Gospel.

Whether the Christian duty to love our neighbors is compatible with a political movement that embraces radical individualism and rejects the ethic of collective responsibility is a central question as the GOP attempts to cement the Tea Party and the religious right into a cohesive base. Tea Party activists and Republican leaders have consistently targeted for cutbacks vital government programs that protect the poor, the elderly, children and other vulnerable Americans. Yet calls for shared sacrifice and proposals to modestly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to fund investments and protections that promote the common good are derided as “class warfare.” This is what passes for family values?

Tony Perkins' Family Research Council has made the suggestion that "the priorities of corporations and the GOP fit snugly with the teachings of Jesus."  Which Bible do these clown read from?

   An almost worse problem is the fact that the majority of churches on this planet have become nothing but big-business enterprises who use fear tactics on their congregations in order to suck their money out of their wallets and purses.

   Sad for a Christian to say this, but, I’d rather see our government run by Atheist instead of these frauds who pass themselves off as something which they are not. The Atheist that I know adhere more to the biblical teachings of Jesus than most Christians do, especially those Conservative ones. An Atheist House, Senate, and President could do no worse than the current crop of assholes in Washington, D.C., and may do even better. At least most believe in caring for their fellow man, rich and poor alike.

   As a side-note it should be noted that at the last Republican debate, a few of the Christians in the group stated that the United States should maybe plan on attacking Iran in order to stop the country from producing a nuclear weapon. Republicans have been playing the fear card forever, and it is worth noting that these Christians always seem to want to start a war somewhere.

    Do we really want another Republican sitting in the White House for even 4 years?

Technorati Tags: Conservative Christians,Religious Right,Tea Party,Richard Cizik,Herman Cain,Rick Perry,Michele Bachmann,Current Events,An American Gothic,Politics

  

  

Banks should worry: Now mortgage brokers are moving money

by monster        Fri Nov 11, 2011      Source

I'm in the process of refinancing the mortgage on my house, and in the process I learned something that should make the big bankers very, very worried.

For my new mortgage, I knew I would prefer to use a local credit union. But I also wanted to give the mortgage broker on my original loan a chance to get my business, since she was so helpful the first time around. So I got quotes from the credit union where I have my checking account, and also from the broker, who works with commercial lenders. Unsurprisingly, the quote I got from my credit union was much, much better than what I got from the broker. I told this to my broker, and also told her that because of the banks' recent behavior I preferred, morally, to go with a credit union. Therefore she wouldn't be getting my business.

But my mortgage broker isn't like the big banks. She didn't try to bluff, bribe, or threaten me to keep my business the way the likes of BofA and Wells Fargo are. Instead, she decided to make an effort to work with me. The happy (unless you're a big bank) conclusion over the jump.

My mortgage broker did some research and made some phone calls. And she discovered that she could originate loans for a credit union association. Lo and behold, the quote she gave me for a loan through that association was identical to the quote I'd gotten from my credit union. Far from being angry with me for ditching the commercial banks, she was grateful to me for pointing her in the direction of credit unions. She's now working with her boss to sign her agency up with the credit union association, and once that's done, she'll have much better loan products to offer all her customers. And I can get the best of all worlds: I can do business with a credit union, get the best rates available, and work with a broker I trust, all at the same time. I win, big banks lose.

Big banks should be very worried at the prospect of mortgage brokers working with credit unions. Brokers will almost certainly be able to get better rates through a credit union for most of their customers. And loans are how banks actually make money, through the fees and interest. So while folks moving checking and savings accounts out of commercial banks deprive them of capital, taking the loans away deprives them of profit. And that'll hit them where it hurts -- their bottom line.

If you're a mortgage broker, look into originating for credit unions. And if you're working with a broker to get a loan, ask them to look into it. They might not even know it's possible.

Originally posted to monster on Fri Nov 11, 2011

Also republished by Class Warfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS the Working Class Occupy movement..

Technorati Tags: BoA,Banking,Credit Unions,The Economy,Class Warfare,Current Events,An American Gothic

Saturday Satire: Dumb Debaters Edition

Rick Perry
''I will tell you: It's three agencies of government, when I get there, that are gone: Commerce, Education and the -- what's the third one there? Let's see. ... OK. So Commerce, Education and the — ... The third agency of government I would — I would do away with the Education, the ... Commerce and — let's see — I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops.'' —Rick Perry, experiencing an epic onstage meltdown during a GOP debate, forgetting his plan to abolish the Department of Energy (Watch video)

Herman Cain
"They [China] have indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.'' —Herman Cain, unaware that China has had nuclear weapons since 1964

Michele Bachmann
"Well what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That's the kind of spirit that I have, too." —Michele Bachmann, getting her John Waynes mixed up during an interview after launching her presidential campaign in Waterloo, Iowa, where she grew up. The beloved movie star John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, three hours away. The John Wayne that Waterloo was home to is John Wayne Gacy, a notorious serial killer.

  New Ice Cream Flavor From Herman Cain

Introducing Herman Cain's HarassMint Chocolate Chip with Fondled Fudge Chunks and Assaulted Peanuts. (via BuzzFeed)

Copyright © 2011 Creators Syndicate

Copyright © 2011 Universal Press Syndicate

Copyright © 2011 Universal Press Syndicate

Jay Leno: "As you know by now, a fourth woman has come forward and accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment. This woman gave the details, pretty graphic. She said that Herman Cain tried to put his hand up her. So now when Cain says he is reaching out to the American people, you know what he’s reaching for."

  "At the press conference earlier tonight, Herman Cain said he doesn't remember the woman, he doesn’t recognize her name or her face…her ass he kind of remembers…"
  "Earlier today Herman Cain rejected calls that he should withdraw from the race. He said, 'It ain't gonna happen!' That’s what he said. Ironically, that's what women say to him when he'd put his hand up their skirt."

Technorati Tags: Republicans,Debates,Rick Perry,Herman Cain,Jay Leno,Michele Bachmann,Current Events,An American Gothic,Politics,Political Humor

Extreme Poverty At Highest Levels In America

The Daily Mail:

About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 per cent or less of the official poverty level.

Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.

That 6.7 percent share is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has maintained such records, surpassing previous highs in 2009 and 1993 of just over 6 percent.

Bloomberg:

At least 2.2 million more Americans, a 33 percent jump since 2000, live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is 40 percent or higher, according to a study released today by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

19 Statistics about the poor. The wealthiest country ( ? ) on earth does not take very good care of its citizens.       

Alternet:

#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

#2 Last year, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty.  That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#3 It isn't just the ranks of the "very poor" that are rising.  The number of those just considered to be "poor" is rapidly increasing as well.  Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty.  Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

#4 The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.

#5 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#6 In Washington D.C., the "child food insecurity rate" is 32.3%.

#7 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#8 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#9 Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.

#10 According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.

#11 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#12 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

#13 We are told that the economy is recovering, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by another 8 percent over the past year.

#14 Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#15 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#16 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid.  Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#17 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.

#18 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

#19 It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

Technorati Tags: United States,Poverty,U.S. Census Bureau,Brookings Institution,SNAP,Unemployment,Medicaid,Food Stamps,99%,1%,Current Events,An American Gothic

 

Koch’s Eat The Dirt In Ohio Issue 2

 Ohio Gov. Kasich admits that, on Issue 2, 'the people have spoken clearly'

by Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Wed Nov 09, 2011

The fight to defeat Ohio's Issue 2 was one more look at what a determined mobilization of the 99 percent can look like. And holy crap, what a victory it led to: with 99 percent of votes reporting, the margin is 61-39. ModernEsquire notes that turnout was barely lower than in 2010, when Ohio was voting for both a governor and a senator, and just a handful of counties voted to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers—many counties that would be red in a partisan election voted no.

Today, we get to see a chastened Gov. John Kasich—but not quite chastened enough:

At a news conference Tuesday night, Mr. Kasich congratulated the winners and said he would assess the situation before proposing any new legislation. “It’s time to pause,” he said. “The people have spoken clearly.”

When asked about the people’s message, Mr. Kasich said, “They might have said it was too much too soon.”

Dude. Your polling is hilariously bad (PDF); just 33 percent of voters approve of you, and if they could do 2010 over, you'd lose big. In an off-off-year election, the vote against your signature measure was bigger than the vote for you in your own election year. The one voters wish they could do over. Maybe you're still lingering in the bargaining stage of grief? If so, get over it. The voters of your state didn't say that taking collective bargaining rights from workers was "too much too soon." They said it was unacceptable, now or in the future.

Hopefully, the force with which Ohio voters jammed Issue 2 back down Kasich's throat will be enough to make not just him but Republican governors and legislators in a few other states take pause.

Originally posted to Daily Kos Labor on Wed Nov 09, 2011

Also republished by Daily Kos.

Technorati Tags: Issue 2,Labor,Unions,John Kasich,Ohio,Koch,Republicans,1%,99%,Occupy Wall Street,Current Events,An American Gothic

Taxpayers Getting Shafted By Bank Of America?

   On Tuesday:

BoA Dumps $75 Trillion In Derivatives On Taxpayers, Super Committee Looks Away. Seize BoA Now.

by Ralph Lopez     Tue Nov 08, 2011     Original Article

It's real money, especially since "Bank of America Deathwatch" financial pundits have multiplied on the web and it has become a bit of a geek guessing game.  When will BoA finally tank?  And when it tanks, the question becomes, who will walk away with all their money, and who will be left holding the bag?  The deal just snuck through with the Federal Reserve's, and implicitly, Congress's approval insures Wall Street casino gambler's debts by moving them into accounts meant for penny-pinching grandmas. 

Citing Bloomberg, financial commentator Avery Goodman tells us:

Even if we net out the notional value of the derivatives involved, down to the net potential obligation, the amount is so large that the United States could not hope to pay it off without a major dollar devaluation, if a major contingency actually occurred and a large part of the derivatives were triggered.

A bailout for one company's most irresponsible investors triggering a major dollar devaluation?  This is the kind of thing that starts revolutions. 

Goodman reports:

Bank of America (BAC) has shifted about $22 trillion worth of derivative obligations from Merrill Lynch and the BAC holding company to the FDIC insured retail deposit division. Along with this information came the revelation that the FDIC insured unit was already stuffed with $53 trillion worth of these potentially toxic obligations, making a total of $75 trillion.

Without going too far into bewildering financial jargon, it's like this: Your wildest son is asking you to co-sign for a debt.  If he can't make his payments, you are on the hook.  How much is the debt?  He doesn't know.  Just sign on the dotted line.

Meanwhile the "super committee" is looking for a trillion or so dollars in hits to everything, including Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, to keep the budget from going any more out of whack.  It's urgent, they say, for us to stop spending like drunken sailors.  But at the same time they just whipped out a pen and signed for junior, crossing their fingers that something won't happen which is almost inevitable.

Where did I stumble across this news item?  Sure as heck not on MSM, which is focused on the smoke grenade of BoAs recent $400 million fee case settlement.  $400 million fits into $72 trillion almost 2 million times.  Now which is the bigger story?

I stumbled across it posted by an outraged Occupy Wall Street-type on one of their Facebooks.  You don't need to read Karl Marx to become an Occupy Wall Streeter.  The American financial pages will do it.

It is unlikely the taxpayer's hit will be as much as $72 trillion.  Again, no one knows.  But it will be a chunk of money.

BusinessWeek writers Phil Mattingly and Bob Ivry point out that Dodd-Frank is not strong enough to prevent the BoA move:

Separating complex transactions from FDIC-insured savings has been a cornerstone of U.S. regulation for decades, including Dodd-Frank, the regulatory overhaul enacted last year. Bank of America’s transfer prompted some lawmakers to push for stronger rules than were included in that sweeping law.  Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent who supported legislation to separate trading operations from commercial banking, said the transaction is a “perfect example why we should break up too-big-to-fail financial behemoths.”

Representative Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat who pushed to require splitting commercial and investment banking, said “What Bank of America is doing is perfectly legal -- and that’s the problem.”

Hinchey is among more than 40 House lawmakers who have signed on to a bill that would reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that enforced separation of depository institutions from investment operations.  Most are Democrats, but that leaves roughly 180 House Democrats who have not signed onto the bill, and at the moment have no intention to.  Not to mention the "super committee" eyeing your Social Security.  Nor Obama.

A commenter in a Columbia Journalism Review piece on the Bloomberg reportage says:

The government should not be on the hook for the bets of an investment bank which is impossible when you allow a deposit and investment bank to merge.

The re-instatement of Glass_Steagall, which prevents bankers from going to Vegas with grandma's money, is consistently on lists of reforms being being debated by OWS.

Glass-Steagall began to be dismantled under Ronald Reagan, with Bill Clinton finishing the job for Wall Street in 1999.  When Bill Clinton signed the law, Progressive Historian notes:

it symbolized the ending of the twentieth century Democratic Party that had created the New Deal. Although the 1999 law did not repeal all of the banking Act of 1933, retaining the FDIC, it did once again allow banks to enter the securities business...

The repeal of one of the most important pieces of legislation in this nation's history came about as a result of another Clinton "triangulation,"...

The transaction is against the Federal Reserve's own regulations, but as Avery Goodman points out, Congress has given ultimate power to the Federal Reserve to ignore its own enabling Act legislation.  The pertinent passage of the enabling legislation reads:

The Board may, at its discretion, by regulation or order exempt transactions or relationships from the requirements of this section if it finds such exemptions to be in the public interest

Dave Johnson writing for Truthout.org summarizes the absurdity well:

This situation of crony government protecting the connected rich while people are in the streets demanding change is more and more reminiscent of Egypt under Mubarak.... Currently in Washington Congress' elite "super committee" represents the 1%, looking at ways to take more money out of the economy, discussing cutting Social Security at a time when many people have lost their pensions and savings. They are discussing cutting Medicare and other health services at a time when more and more people are in need. They are discussing cuts and cuts and cuts, when working people are falling behind and behind and behind.

But the actual causes of the deficits that have Congress so concerned are ignored. Reagan and the Bushes cut taxes on the rich and increased military spending, and the deficits and resulting debt soared. It is right there in front of our faces. But even with such "concern" about deficits the tax cuts for the rich continue and the huge increases in military spending are left alone. Instead Congress discusses austerity - making the 99% pay for the benefits and bailouts for the 1%.

Now why are those protesters out there again?   Simple.  The ones whose interviews the MSM does not air read the financial pages.   At the same time many politicians, including Obama, give plenty of lip service about busting up banks which are "too big to fail."  But unless someone does something soon, BoA is a done deal.  As always, never listen to what politicians say.  Watch what they do.  A couple of currency devaluations, and we're in Greece.

It is something when financial geeks in conservative business pages are calling for the government to seize Bank of America now, before it brings just America down with it.  That's when you know we are all in this together.

White House contact page

Congress contact page (including the "super committee")

Distribution of wealth in America: one percent own one-third of all assets:

Technorati Tags: Bank Of America,BoA,Wall Street,Derivatives,Congress,Current Events,An American Gothic,Occupy Wall Street

Don’t Let Obama Take A Koch Check

by RobertGreenwald       Sun Nov 06, 2011

Tens of thousands of Americans and citizens around the world have rightfully spoken out about the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a roughly 2,000 mile long development that would carve up six states and enrich the 1% even more.

Few personify the wealthiest 1% more than Charles and David Koch, who're among the largest financial beneficiaries of dirty tar sands oil. The Keystone XL pipeline would hurt America and make the Koch brothers richer. In other words, it would give the Koch brothers more billions of dollars to buy American democracy and bend it to their whims.

This doesn't have to be the case. The State Department and White House can veto the pipeline's permits because it crosses an international border with Canada.

The pressure's on. The State Department was rightfully exposed for shoddy oversight. Leaders in Congress continue fighting to further investigate the Koch brothers' involvement, and just recently, President Obama said he would personally approve or deny the Keystone XL pipeline.

It's the biggest environmental issue from now until next year. Will President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chose American safety or will they hand the Koch brothers billions more in profit that they'll politically use against them?

The world's top scientists agree that the tar sands is virtually game-over for the climate. More than that, why would this administration lend a lifeline to its wealthiest adversaries?

As Jamie Henn, one of the partners for today's rally outside the White House, wrote:

President Obama can deny the permit, right now, and shut down this flow of cash to the Kochs. In doing so, he'll show that our national interest isn't always determined by the 1%, in this case a few big oil companies and the Koch Brothers, but by the 99% of us who have to pay the price for their greed.

Let' s not forget that the pipeline would raise the price of gasoline in the Midwest and jeopardize one of our nation's most strategic and vital aquifers.

The Keystone XL oil pipeline is emblematic of a lot that we've learned about the Koch brothers since our Koch Brothers Exposed campaign began earlier this year. Whenever possible, the brothers try operating in the shadows and attacking the truth so they can get richer in secret.

We must continue holding them accountable. And we must pressure our leaders to make sure they don't enrich two of the biggest threats to American democracy.

Technorati Tags: Brave New Foundation,Charles Koch,David Koch,Hillary Clinton,Barack Obama,Koch Industries,Robert Greenwald,Current Events,An American Gothic,Keystone XL

Voter Fraud, Republican Style

From John Nichols on Monday, November 7, 2011 by The Nation

Block the Vote: Ohio GOP Bars Early Voting to Suppress Pro-Labor Turnout

TOLEDO — When Mitt Romney’s dad was a candidate for president back in the 1960s, Republicans competed on the strength of their personalities and ideas.

It was the same when Newt Gingrich was an up-and-coming Republican leader in the 1980s and the early 1990s.

But no more?

Republicans have a new strategy for competing in tight elections.

They cheat.

In Ohio this fall, the party faces a serious challenge. Republican Governor John Kasich, a GOP “star” for the better part of three decades, has staked his political fortunes on an attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees while undermining the ability of their unions to function.

The move has proven to be massively unpopular. More than 1.3 million Ohioans signed petitions that forced a referendum on whether to implement the anti-labor law. Polls show that Ohioans are ready to do just that when they weigh in on referendum Issue 2.

But Ohio’s Republican secretary of state is trying to make it a whole lot harder for Ohioans to cast those votes.

On Friday, across Ohio, county boards of elections shut down early voting for next Tuesday’s election. They did so on orders from Secretary of State Jon Husted. A Republican stalwart,

Husted served as the party’s legislative point man (rising to the rank of Ohio House Speaker), co-chaired GOP campaigns (including that of 2008 presidential candidate John McCain) and has been closely tied to national conservative groups working on issues such as school choice and privatization. While serving in the legislature, Husted was allied with the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, which has been promoting Voter ID laws and other rule changes designed to suppress turnout.

Husted claimed a hastily passed and deliberately vague new state law, which took effect just last week, prohibits early voting in the three days before the election. That’s a dramatic change from traditional practice in Ohio, where early voting on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before high-profile elections has been allowed for years—and has permitted tens of thousands of citizens to participate in the process.

The law in question, Ohio House Bill 224, was written primarily to deal with military ballots. Yet, Husted is interpreting it as a bar on early voting. State Representative Kathleen Clyde, a Democrat who represents Kent, says Hustad is essentially creating his own rules.

“When you take out major chunks” of the legislation, as Husted has, explains Clyde, “the bill is now unreadable and incomprehensible.”

But the confusion has worked for Husted and the GOP. County election officials have, at his behest, shut down early voting across Ohio.

That’s caused protests across Ohio. In Toledo, crowds showed up outside the offices of the Lucas County Board of Elections, which had scheduled business hours for Saturday and Sunday but canceled them to comply with Husted’s order.

“It’s un-American and undemocratic to close the polls the weekend before the vote,” said the Rev. Willie Perryman, pastor of Toledo’s Jerusalem Baptist Church. “The real reason is they want to suppress the vote.”

“For me, the voting booth is the one place where the rich man and the poor man stand as equals,” Larry Friedman, the president of a Toledo cleaning firm who showed up to protest the closing down of early voting.company, explained to reporters.

There was no question that qualified voters wanted to cast their ballots early—either because they would be away on election day or because they wanted to avoid lines. Newspapers, radio and television stations across the state reported on voters who came to local elections offices Saturday and Sunday, only to find doors that have historically been open on the eve of a major election to be locked.

In the last off-year election, 2009, the Toledo area saw 1,814 early votes, Lucas County Elections Board executive director Ben Roberts told the Toledo Blade.

In 2010, the number rose to 5,551.

This year, before Husted shut down the early voting, 5,602 ballots had been cast. Perryman and others who were protesting believe that thousands more would have been cast Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

So why erect a barrier to thousands of voters in one county, and to tens of thousands or more statewide?

As with moves made by Republican governors and legislators not just in Ohio but across the country to develop overly strict Voter ID laws, to limit same-day registration and to cut back on early voting, the point is to depress turnout, especially in working-class communities such as Toledo.

The barriers don’t just make it harder to vote; they reduce enthusiasm in communities that are trying to increase turnout.

“As you get closer to [election day] the excitement grows and therefore we’re going to miss the moment with the early vote,” explained the Rev. Cedric Brock of the Mount Nebo Church in Toledo, who told local reporters that the shuttering of the polls over the weekend was “un-American” and “un-democratic.” “Ohio being the battleground state for the country for the 2012 Presidential race, we feel this is a tag to slow that momentum down,” said Rev. Block.

The pastor’s point is well taken.

Opposition to Governor Kasich’s anti-labor law appears to be so intense that turnout will be strong Tuesday—and if polls are correct, the governor will be dealt a setback by the people.

But allowing assaults on democracy in an off-year election is a dangerous game. It sets a precedent for the presidential election year, when the gaming of the system could well tip the balance in battleground states.

© 2011 The Nation

John Nichols is Washington correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. His most recent book is The “S” Word: A Short History of an American Tradition. A co-founder of the media reform organization Free Press, Nichols is co-author with Robert W. McChesney of The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again and Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy. Nichols' other books include: Dick: The Man Who is President and The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism.

    Republished from Common Dreams

Technorati Tags: Ohio,Elections,Early Voting,Voter Suppression,John Kasich,Republicans,Ohio House Bill 224,Current Events,An American Gothic,Politics

Mitt Romney’s Conservative Christian Economic Plan: Favors The 1% Across The Board

  Millionaires, especially Christian Conservatives,making up the economic plans for the United States is one of the reasons that they should not be charged with doing the task as they make plans to help themselves keep more of their money while the remainder of us pay for their indulgences. Face it folks, the wealthy are not going to do anything that helps the 99% if it might cost them a few dollars.

Romney Economic Plan: Of The 1%, By The 1%, For The 1%

Nov 4, 2011 | By ThinkProgress War Room

A Plan Fit For a Billionaire (Or Two)

This afternoon, Mitt Romney delivered a fiscal policy speech at a “Defending the American Dream” conference sponsored by the Koch Brothers’ front group, Americans for Prosperity. See below and you’ll understand why David Koch himself was in the front clapping for millionaire Mitt Romney.

Romney’s Plan — The Lowlights

    $6.6 TRILLION in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations
    $6.5 TRILLION added to the deficit
    Cuts to Social Security
    The end of Medicare as we know it
    Cuts to Medicaid more draconian those in the House GOP budget plan
    Repeals the Affordable Care Act — eliminating health care coverage for 32 MILLION Americans
   

Specifically outlines cuts in funding for:
        Planned Parenthood and Title X women’s health programs
        Amtrak
        NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
        National Endowment for the Arts & Humanities
        Foreign aid
    Repeals the New Deal-era law that ensures government contractors pay their workers a fair wage
    Throws more than 400,000 federal employees out of work
    Increases defense spending

Fun Fact

Romney’s plan to completely eliminate the estate tax would mean an $8.7 BILLION windfall for each of the billionaire Koch Brothers.

Ask The Experts

Here’s what Center for American Progress Action Fund experts had to say about Romney’s plan:

Michael Ettlinger, vice president for Economic Policy:

    “The plan that Governor Romney announced today….is a plan that is of the top 1 percent, by the top 1 percent, for the top 1 percent.”

    “Romney called reducing the deficit a moral imperative. Given that Romney’s plan adds trillions to the deficit, it would appear to be morally bankrupt.”

Michael Linden, director of Tax & Budget Policy:

    “For a speech that was billed as a plan to reduce the deficit, Romney’s numbers sure do add a lot to the national debt and deficits.”

    “The cuts that [Romney] does outline are very damaging to the middle class and senior citizens.”

Heather Boushey, senior economist:

    “We’ve seen this movie before. Quite frankly it won’t create any jobs.”

    “This is going to do nothing to help not only the 99 percent, but the 9 percent of folks who remain out of work today.”

IN ONE SENTENCE: Mitt Romney may claim his plan defends the American Dream, but it would be nothing but a nightmare for the 99 percent.

This material [Romney Economic Plan: Of The 1%, By The 1%, For The 1%] was created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund" http://www.americanprogressaction.org/

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Economic Plan,1%,Tax Cuts,The Wealthy,Social Security,Medicare,Medicaid,Planned Parenthood,Deficits,Politics,Current Events,An American Gothic,2012 Elections

Michele Bachmann’s Conservative Christian Idea

  Bachman, Perry, Cain, and the remainder of the pool of fools seeking the 2012 GOP nomination to run against President Obama have to be the type of  “ Christians “ which Ghandi was thinking of when he made the statement that  "i like your Christ, but not your Christians. they are not very Christ like."

   Bachmann’s latest tax idea for the poor:

Bachmann Would Eliminate Tax Credit That Kept Three Million Children Out Of Poverty Last Year

By Pat Garofalo on Nov 3, 2011

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who is campaigning for the 2012 GOP presidential nod, has already made it quite clear that she intends to raise taxes on the poorest Americans if elected. Today, she rolled out a new plan to hike taxes on those at the bottom of the income scale: eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit.

In an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, Bachmann said she would “do away with the EITC,” and force someone who made only $3 to pay taxes on it:

This would be through the income tax system because the problem is, and this is where I deviate from Reagan, he instituted the Earned Income Tax Credit, it’s known as the EITC, and that effectively took many many Americans out of even having to pay any tax liability at all. I would do away with the EITC and if a person has $3 in income they would be subject to something. Obviously, no one has $3 in income. But they would have to pay something through that system.

The EITC is a tax credit for those at the lowest end of the income scale, going to families with children that make less than $36,000 per year (though the income level can vary depending on year and number of dependents). Individuals making less than $18,000 annually can also qualify for a small credit.

President Reagan called the EITC “the best antipoverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.” According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “research indicates that families mostly use the EITC to pay for necessities, repair homes, maintain vehicles that are needed to commute to work, and in some cases, obtain additional education or training to boost their employability and earning power.” And in recent years, the EITC has been essential in lifting families out of poverty:

The EITC reduces poverty by supplementing the earnings of workers with low wages and low earnings. There has been broad bipartisan agreement that a two-parent family with two children with a full-time, minimum-wage worker should not have to raise its children in poverty. At the federal minimum wage’s current level, such a family can move above the poverty line for an average family of four only if it receives the EITC as well as SNAP (food stamp) benefits.

In each of the last two years, the EITC kept 3 million children out of poverty. But Bachmann would eliminate it in order to tax those who make the least amount of money. At the same time, she has said that she is “open to” eliminating the corporate income tax

    Just what part of help those less fortunate and needy do these “ Conservative Christians “ and their followers not understand? I hate to say it to these jerk-offs, but, I seriously believe that Jesus would have nothing to do with this group of frauds.

"This material [Bachmann Would Eliminate Tax Credit That Kept Three Million Children Out Of Poverty Last Year] was created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund" americanprogressaction.org

Technorati Tags: Michele Bachmann,EITC,Taxes,Income Tax,Earner Income Credit,Ronald Reagan,Poverty,Current Events,An American Gothic

The New Lobbyist Began At Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Office….

…. and this should be spread to ALL of the Congressional offices in D.C. and to their home-state offices also. Occupy the offices of both the Republicans and the Democrats as both parties are responsible for the current economic mess in America.

Protesters Occupy Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office

by roseeriter      Fri Nov 04, 2011

YES!!  Occupy the Do Nothing Senator!!

Protesters occupy Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office

How long before Mitch starts walking around with a tear gas mask? lol

About 20 unemployed and underemployed D.C. residents occupied the office of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) on Thursday, pledging to remain until the senator met with them about the Rebuild America Act.

An organizer for the group Our D.C., James Adams, told Raw Story that they had entered McConnell’s office around 10:30 am and vowed not to leave until they meet with him.

Legislative aides offered to meet with the protesters, but the group has made it clear they only wanted to meet with the senator face-to-face.

“We’re here until we meet with him,” Adams said. “The people here have suffered unbelievable hardship because they haven’t been able to find work and they believe that Senator McConnell needs to hear their story, needs to understand the pain… folks are angry and tired and they feel like he needs to hear them.”

These brave protesters are the NEW LOBBYISTS!!

I hope we get a OWS group outside all of the congresscritters offices!

Occupy the Filibusters!!

Originally posted to roseeriter on Fri Nov 04, 2011

Also republished by Occupy Virtual America: Progressive State Groups Newsletter and Class Warfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS the Working Class Occupy movement..

 

Technorati Tags: Mitch McConnell,Republicans,Democrats,Politics,OWS,Occupy Wall Street,Current Events,An American Gothic