Did anyone else see the lame TV movie called Too Big To Fail, which pretended to explain how and why the government gave the banksters more than $700 billion? It turns out the bansksters actually were given 7.7 trillion by 2009. In case you’re wondering why we’re really, really broke. More here.
Month: December 2011
Good news
This is really good news – it will generate paychecks and save a lot of energy. (See? I give props to Obama where indicated!) Bill Clinton talked about this at length at the blogger meeting I attended, I was surprised at the potential savings in retrofitting:
WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama today announced nearly $4 billion in combined federal and private sector energy upgrades to buildings over the next 2 years. These investments will save billions in energy costs, promote energy independence, and, according to independent estimates, create tens of thousands of jobs in the hard-hit construction sector. The $4 billion investment announced today includes a $2 billion commitment, made through the issuance of a Presidential Memorandum, to energy upgrades of federal buildings using long term energy savings to pay for up-front costs, at no cost to taxpayers. In addition, 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders today committed to invest nearly $2 billion of private capital into energy efficiency projects; and to upgrade energy performance by a minimum of 20% by 2020 in 1.6 billion square feet of office, industrial, municipal, hospital, university, community college and school buildings. This announcement builds on a commitment made by 14 partners at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in June to make energy upgrades across 300 million square feet, and to invest $500 million in private sector financing in energy efficiency projects.
Big news
Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley is suing the big banks for mortgage fraud. Be still, my heart!
So you can see a noose tightening around the necks of the banks, who would like nothing better than to strike a deal where AGs release them from liability in return for a nominal fee. Not all the AGs are willing to take that step, as detailed above. And now, Coakley, who has been very good on this issue, is out with perhaps the most wide-ranging lawsuit against the big banks over foreclosure fraud. Recall that some favorable court rulings in Massachusetts, including the Ibanez case, have ruled that banks don’t have standing to foreclose in cases where they improperly assigned mortgages. That is part of the case law in Massachusetts, making it a fertile environment in which to pursue this case.
According to the Boston Globe MERS is also named in the lawsuit:
The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, also names the private company Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc. and its parent, MERSCORP Inc., as defendants, according to the attorney general’s office.
“The AG’s lawsuit seeks accountability for the banks’ unlawful and deceptive conduct in the foreclosure process, including unlawful foreclosures, false documentation and robo-signing, MERS, and deceptive practices related to loan modifications,’’ the news release from Coakley’s office said.
Coakley’s name has become something of a punching bag in liberal circles because of her losing campaign against Scott Brown for US Senate. If she succeeds in prosecuting banks for foreclosure fraud, that loss could be the best thing ever to happen to the people of Massachusetts. And it should lead to a re-examination of her record.
UPDATE: GMAC is going to take its ball and go home:
NEW YORK—GMAC Mortgage, the mortgage lender of Ally Financial Inc., is exiting the vast majority of its lending in Massachusetts a day after the state sued it over its foreclosure practices.
The nation’s fifth-largest mortgage originator said it “has taken this action because recent developments have led mortgage lending in Massachusetts to no longer be viable,” ratcheting up the high-stakes mortgage fight there.
Jazz for cows
This cracks me up. Watch how the cows start bunching together:
The worship of the existence of Satanic cults
Maybe there really are some, although I’ve never been able to find any evidence that stood up to careful investigation. Usually these stories are implanted into vulnerable patients by poorly-trained and fundamentalist-affiliated therapists (in fact, many of the “therapists” are pastors who took a short counseling course.) Some of them, of course, are monsters on a power trip. Buyer, beware:
A psychologist accused of hypnotizing a woman into believing she possessed multiple personalities and participated in satanic rituals may be sued by several others who say they were also told they had been a part of a satanic cult, according to a Missouri attorney.
Lisa Nasseff, 41, of Saint Paul, Minn., is suing her former therapist, Mark Schwartz, and the Castlewood Treatment Center in St. Louis, Mo., where she received 15 months of treatment for anorexia, according to the complaint.
Instead of improving, the lawsuit alleges Nasseff suffered “great physical pain and suffering and anguish” during her time at the facility, and asserts that she will continue to suffer.
“She was hospitalized multiple times,” Nasseff’s lawyer, Kenneth Vuylsteke, told ABCNews.com. “One time she tried to commit suicide … she’s done much better now that she’s been away from there.”
Fundraiser
Juan Cole is a real treasure and major resource on Middle East politics. If you agree, throw him a few bucks.
Auto correct
Anyone who has an iPhone has seen the absolutely crazy things the Auto Correct function makes you say. These are really, really funny.
Climate change dominoes
Our world is dying, and no one in power seems to care:
WEST PARIS — Moose and deer tick infestations this year are among the worst that woodsmen and big-game meat processors have seen. They’re blaming the population boom on unseasonably warm weather and the lack of prolonged deep freezes during winter.
Shed antler hunters such as Jerrold Mason of West Paris and Eric Hall of Jackman noticed the problem this past spring when they found more than 60 dead moose from the Upper Androscoggin River Valley to the Jackman region.
“These are definitely not winter kill,” Mason said recently. “Of the typical winter kill animals like moose, it gets sick, it stands in a small area and basically you find 400 moose droppings and a dead moose in the middle of it.”
Continue reading “Climate change dominoes”
Drilled
What does it take for Americans to get over their touching if misguided trust in giant corporations and their “word of honor”?
Americans have signed millions of leases allowing companies to drill for oil and natural gas on their land in recent years. But some of these landowners — often in rural areas, and eager for quick payouts — are finding out too late what is, and what is not, in the fine print.
Energy company officials say that standard leases include language that protects landowners. But a review of more than 111,000 leases, addenda and related documents by The New York Times suggests otherwise:
¶ Fewer than half the leases require companies to compensate landowners for water contamination after drilling begins. And only about half the documents have language that lawyers suggest should be included to require payment for damages to livestock or crops.
¶ Most leases grant gas companies broad rights to decide where they can cut down trees, store chemicals, build roads and drill. Companies are also permitted to operate generators and spotlights through the night near homes during drilling.
¶ In the leases, drilling companies rarely describe to landowners the potential environmental and other risks that federal laws require them to disclose in filings to investors.
Continue reading “Drilled”
Do Idaho’s abortion laws discriminate against the poor?
Of course they do. Laws that restrict women’s reproductive options are ultimately meant to provide poorly paid and badly educated workers for the elite. That’s the point.