Stranglehold

Capitalism run amok continues to destroy middle class America. This time a marine's home is being repossessed, and the "Occupy" movement is trying to help.

According to the Vally News:

"A Riverside man occupying a home from which he and his family were evicted in a foreclosure said today that he's trying to negotiate to get the property back and hoped that, in the meantime, Riverside County sheriff's deputies wouldn't arrest him.

"'But if I get arrested, at least it'll be making the point that the bank is messing up,' Arturo de los Santos told City News Service.

"De los Santos, 46, was one of 30 people who took part in last month's 'National Occupy Homes Day,' a spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street movement intended to spotlight alleged abuses in the mortgage industry.

"Since Dec. 6, de los Santos has been staying in a three-bedroom house in the 3700 block of Layton Court that he, his wife Magdalena, and their two boys and two girls called home for eight years. The entire family has been back together in the residence since Christmas Eve. Lawyers for Freddie Mac were expected to seek a judicial writ ordering de los Santos and his family out of the house under threat of arrest. But according to the former U.S. Marine, errors in court paperwork led a judge to vacate the hearing.

"De los Santos said he doesn't know what's next."

Stories like this are all too common, and today's compromise agreement between the US States and some of the nation's biggest, nastiest banks doesn't do much to ease the pain:

"The deal requires five of the largest banks to reduce loans for about 1 million households at risk of foreclosure. Reuters reports The lenders will also send checks of $2,000 to about 750,000 Americans who were improperly foreclosed upon. The banks will have three years to fulfill the terms of the deal."

Lawmakers are hailing this as a landmark win for the little guy. Are they serious? $2,000 for defrauding a working person, turning the family onto the street, and ruining their lives?  And they have THREE YEARS to pay that pittance?

The article continues...

"The settlement ends a painful chapter that emerged from the financial crisis, when home values sank and millions edged toward foreclosure. Many companies processed foreclosures without verifying documents. Some employees signed papers they hadn't read or used fake signatures to speed foreclosures -- an action known as robo-signing.

"Under the deal, the states said they won't pursue civil charges related to these types of abuses ... consumer advocates and housing activists said the deal is flawed because it covers only a fraction of at-risk homeowners. Critics note that the settlement will apply only to privately held mortgages issued from 2008 through 2011."

Wow, what a victory for the people! 

And also, more trouble is brewing in Wisconsin. Governor Scott Walker's abuses were bad enough, now Republican lawmakers are trying to conceal the fact that they redrew voting districts unfairly to influence election results. Minority communities were shuffled into tiny districts, or were diluted so their votes would have little or no impact. There is a federal lawsuit scheduled to begin this month, but a Democratic state representative wants the Wisconsin Department of Justice to get involved, too. 

It gets better...

"Rep. John Richards said Thursday he was circulating a letter calling for an investigation in the redistricting process, the AP reports. A federal lawsuit over redistricting is scheduled to begin in Milwaukee later this month. Richards says he is calling for the investigation following reports that most Republican lawmakers signed a legal agreement in which they promised to not comment publicly about redistricting discussions while new GOP-friendly maps were being drafted. (here's the kicker) Republican leaders say the agreements were signed to protect lawmakers from getting involved in lawsuits over the drawing of the maps."

No kidding? The Republicans signed a secret agreement so they would be protected from lawsuits. And they openly admit it. Why should they try to hide their fraud and deceit? They'll get away with it anyway. They always do.