Foreclosure: More Consumers Should Speak Up
The Massachusetts court decision [that foreclosures cannot proceed without proper documentation of ownership; see “Putting the Brake on Foreclosures,” January 13, 2011] is fantastic news because Wells Fargo in particular is engaged in illegal mortgage schemes along with certain foreclosure mills. In fact, prior to the attorney general “deals” with lenders who deliberately engage in foreclosure fraud, some people definitely should have been jailed.
Whether or not property owners should have loans—and whether or not people understand the basis for opposing home repossessions, serious foreclosure frauds are being deliberately committed by certain foreclosure lawyers. Intentional foreclosure fraud entails foreclosures naming defunct lenders, or ones without note ownership; charging fees beyond “acceleration clauses,” impairing ability to pay arrears; and false Bankruptcy Court “Lift Stay” and “Proof of Claim” documents to accomplish “simulated” foreclosure auctions via straw buyers.
Homeowners do not contest foreclosures because they do not have legal knowledge, or because of lack of funds for legal representation; and they are told to come to foreclosure auctions with money they do not have.
American consumers will remain hopelessly victimized by consumer fraud without intervention from all state attorneys general. However, limited facts and evidence can leave authorities with little choice except to “deal” (like plea bargain?). Lawmakers, news media, and particularly investigative reporters who put their safety on the line, are not solely responsible for a better America.
Instead of hoping and/or demanding that out-of-control judicial and political systems somehow right themselves, Americans need to do our part! Pro-action works better than (notwithstanding any justification) posting commiserating statements or angry Internet comments about the mortgage crisis.
The petition to the Congressional Foreclosure Panel (http://t.co/riJXgou) gives specific details and illustrations about foreclosure frauds. Similar to the descriptions of illegal acts in that petition, information from the public (consumers) will go a long way in helping lawmakers to curtail and prosecute foreclosure fraud.
Hopefully people will continue to sign and share the petition, and consider heaping upon the offices of attorneys general information/evidence about foreclosure-judicial wrongdoing (see “Commentary on: “Emerging Battleground on Mortgage Abuses: Foreclosure Mills” @ http://t.co/riJXgou).
Barbara Ann Jackson
Law and Grace, Inc.
New Orleans, La.
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The Farming Valley
Nice story [“Pioneer Valley Terroir,” January 6, 2011]; my memories of growing up in South Deerfield in the ’50’s include the farming and the food. Our own Polish and Ukrainian dishes were delicious and tasty, but a lack of spices and seasonings made other recipes flat and plain. The food fresh from the fields was the best, especially corn and beefsteak tomatoes, for which my father was famous. The seed catalogs and the seed starts were a late winter ritual.
Big agro had a hand even then in wiping out farmers and dairymen. I remember when we lost the large-leaf field tobacco market and when dairy practices changed and drove many farms under.
When I recently went to visit my grandfather’s farm on the Connecticut River, horses were residing in the fields. I wept, remembering counting cucumbers under the weeping willow and cooking golumpki and pierogi on the wood stove.
We lived in another era and this new awareness of the value of farming and food is all good. Many of us scattered around the country still raise our food and value the soil.
Joan Hudyma Tucker
Seattle
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Russian Connection
I have enjoyed reading your article “Werewolf, Pandemics and Sinking Islands.” You made [a] few nice connections and [were] absolutely right about games being “deep stuff.”
A couple of comments:
1. Though Mafia game is “free to play,” the rules are not “in the public domain” as you stated. There are licensed versions of the game on the market and more on the way.
2. I thought for some time about why Dungeons & Dragons (or Murder Mystery Game) would not lead to the Mafia game model. The answer is a complex one, but from my perspective, one of my aims was to get rid of “roles.” Roles lead to “bad vs. good,” and I was trying to avoid that simplified model of life.
3. What the Mafia game actually proves [is] that no matter how members of [the] Mafia are skillful at deception, [the] open collaboration of honest citizens will always trump that.
Dimma Davidoff
via email
Editor’s note: Dimma Davidoff is the Russian psychology professor who invented the game Mafia (known as Werewolf to American audiences) as a teaching tool at the Moscow University in 1986.
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Shooter “Just a Nut?”
The shooter in Arizona has been widely acknowledged as not being aligned with any party—just a ‘nut.’ It has been widely noted that he was influenced by others.
Who?
One of the people he killed was a federal judge.
In any case, consider words Representative Giffords sent to the Nogales International newspaper just the day before she was shot.
She wrote, “The first [matter] is of special concern to those of us in Southern Arizona: the continued inability of our federal government to secure our border with Mexico.
“We must extend the stay of National Guard troops. We must increase the number of Border Patrol agents on the border.
“The second threat is our dependence on imported oil—much of which comes from nations hostile to our principles.
“The Department of Defense is the world’s largest consumer of energy. We must accelerate the production of biofuels for aviation, promote large-scale renewable energy projects at defense facilities, study the integration of hybrid technology into tactical vehicles and require the military to derive 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
“The fourth, and most important, threat to our nation is our $14 trillion debt. This is why I introduced legislation on the first full day of the new session to cut the salaries of members of Congress by 5 percent.
“We are a great nation, but these threats to our national security can leave us fragile. We cannot succumb to such menaces.”
Bang!
Any questions?
Alfred Brock
Wayne, Mich.
