dixiegrrrrl
dixiegrrrrl's JournalRepubs contradict each other today re: gov't snooping:
NSA is not listening to American's phone calls and it is not monitoring their emails" @RepMikeRogers says "That is just not happening."from Tweet...he is Repub from Ala.
and
Sen. Lindsay Graham: If we don't monitor terrorist phone calls/emails, another terrorist attack is likely
- @meetthepress broadcast
Facebook tracks you even if you do not have an account.
Logged in, or logged out, or not a member...doesn't matter.
Those "like" buttons, seen on so many web pages, including DU, are trackers.
From Facebook FAQs...
If you’re logged out
or don’t have a Facebook account
and visit a website with the Like button or another social plugin,
your browser sends us a more limited set of information.
Like other sites on the Internet, we receive information:
about the web page you're visiting,
the date and time and other browser-related information.
http://www.facebook.com/help/293506123997323/
What to do about it:
Lifehacker article has some tips, here: ( at bottom of article there are links to some privacy apps for Chrome and FF)
http://lifehacker.com/5843969/facebook-is-tracking-your-every-move-on-the-web-heres-how-to-stop-it
for those who do not know what "persistant storage cookies" are:
Some Flash-cookie (LSO) properties in short...
- they are never expiring - staying on your computer for an unlimited time.
- by default they offer a storage of 100 KB (compare: Usual cookies 4 KB).
- browsers are not fully aware of LSO's, They often cannot be displayed or managed by browsers.
- via Flash they can access and store highly specific personal and technical information (system, user name, files,...).
- ability to send the stored information to the appropriate server, without user's permission.
- Flash applications do not need to be visible
- there is no easy way to tell which Flash-cookie sites are tracking you.
- shared folders allow cross-browser tracking, LSO's work in every flash-enabled application
- the Flash company doesn't provide a user-friendly way to manage LSO's, In fact it's incredible cumbersome.
- many domains and tracking companies make extensive use of Flash-cookies.
This kind of cookies is not harmless.
What to do about it:
One option ( I would love to hear about others)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy/
Edited to add:
Ghostery for Firefox stops trackers very well.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/?src=cb-dl-mostpopular
I use both of the above, plus Ad-Block.
Pages load much faster, too.
Highly recommend: Kill Anything that Moves..by Nick Turse
from the Amazon review:
Not a happy book, but a vital one.
Even MORE details how BOA screwed HAMP customers...
SIX former employees, not just one, have told of BOA dirty tricks.
* the bank rewarded customer service representatives who foreclosed on homes with cash bonuses and gift cards
For example, an employee who placed 10 or more accounts into foreclosure a month could get a $500 bonus.
*About twice a month, the bank cleaned out its HAMP backlog in an operation called "blitz," where it declined thousands of loan modification requests just because the documents were more than 60 months old.
* former employees said they were told to falsify electronic records
*the bank falsified information it gave the government, saying it had given out HAMP loan modifications when it had not.
*Once a HAMP application was delayed or rejected, Bank of America would offer an in-house alternative,
charging as high as 5 percent when the loan could have been modified for 2 percent under HAMP.
Link to story:
http://www.oregonherald.com/news/show-story.cfm?id=371471
NOTE:
The gov. paid banks to do HAMP mods.
So BOA lied to Gov't about how many they did, got paid, then turned around and made MORE money by offering HAMP customers higher than normal loan rates OR by foreclosing and selling the house.
UPDATE to my Bank of America LIED about HAMP post
found here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023019762
Judging by the # of views and recs, this is a hot topic indeed.
I am so hopeful the rest of the country feels like we do here at DU.
For those who suggested sending story to MSM....
as of 15 hours ago, the MSM has had the story.
Google Bank of America lied HAMP
I am sending the info, and angry letter, to my Congress people, even tho they are Repub.
If we ALL did that......just one email, folks, to your State and National Reps...just one....
you can quote the MSM story nearest to where you live....
and come back to this post to say you did it, that would be lovely.
tis the weekend, perfect time to share this info. with your personal mailing list,
and ask THEM to contact their state and National Reps.
If everybody did that, can you imagine the fun come Monday when the lawmakers open their inboxes???
Lastly...
For all those who are still banking at BOA, WFargo,Chase, etc..
Please consider not playing nice with the enemy.
If a credit union is not an alternative, consider a local community bank.
NOTHING will change till we change it.
and now is the perfect time to strike while the iron is hot.
Whadda you say, DU????
Where are this week's Duzy?????????
I want Duzys.!
I want Duzys.!
I want Duzys.!
I want Duzys.!
gonna hold my breath till I turn blue........warning ya, I will really do it.........just wait and see.......
Remember the bank loan modification nightmare that cost millions their homes? BOMBSHELL:
BANK OF AMERICA'S SENIOR LOAN COLLECTOR ADMITS TO LYING BECAUSE HE WAS TOLD TO LIE
Attached is an affidavit of a senior loan collector for BOA that was filed in United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts under case number MDL 2193.
Simone Gordan stated the following under oath:
"Using the Bank of America computer systems I saw that hundreds of customers had made their required trial payments, sent the documents requested of them, but had not received permanent modifications.
I also saw records showing that Bank of America employees have told people that documents had not been received when, in fact, the computer system showed that Bank of America had received the documents.
This was consistent with the instructions my colleagues and I were given.
We were told to lie to customers and claim that Bank of America had not received documents it had requested, and that it had not received trial payments (when in fact it had).
We were told that admitting that the bank received documents would "open a can of worms" since the bank was required to underwrite a loan modification within 30 days of receiving those documents and it did not have sufficient underwriting staff to complete the underwriting in that time....
Site leaders regularly told us that the more we delayed the HAMP modification process, the more fees Bank of America would collect.
We were regularly drilled that it was our job to maximize fees for the bank by fostering and extending the lay of the ... modification process by any means we could --- this included lying to customers.
For example, we were instructed by our supervisors at Bank of America to delay modifications by telling homeowners who called in at their documents were "under review," when, in fact, there had been no review or any other work done on the file."
" Employees who were caught admitting that Bank of America had received financial documents or that the borrower was actually entitled to a permanent loan modification where discipline and often terminated without warning."
Bank of America did not merely lie to its customers.
Bank of America makes a practice of lying to its own staff.
While the use of a "nonperforming" loan are higher than the fees paid on a "performing" loan, the real reason for this outrageous behavior is that the banks are attempting to protect and maintain their receipt of outrageous sums of money that they have declared to be proprietary trading profits.
The banks are mere intermediaries.
They are not and never were principals or real parties in interest in any transaction between the homeowner and the investors who put up the money.
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/bank-of-americas-senior-loan-collector-30147/
You can download a pdf file of this affadavit.
Keep all records of contact with BOA about your mortgage, and check out the lawsuit at the link.
2 explosions in 2 days at 2 Louisiana chemical plants 21 miles apart from each other....
Does that strike anyone as a bit too co-incidental?
First explosion at the Williams Olefins plant in Geismar, La., about 20 miles south of Baton Rouge.
Second explosion at DONALDSONVILLE, LA plant, 30 mins. ago, the plant produces anhydrous ammonia, urea, and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) solution, the three most used nitrogen products."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014509503#post3
which is what the plant in Texas produced, if I remember correctly.It exploded April 17th.
Texas uses electronic system to file automatic criminal charges against truant students.
Statewide, Texas changed its policy in 2001 to penalize disciplinary violations like truancy through the adult criminal court system, causing a “host of harms to children,” who are then funneled away from school and into the criminal justice system.
But in Dallas County, the harms are particularly acute, as students are regularly charged with “truancy” for mere tardiness, absence due to medical problems, a critically ill parent, and school-imposed suspension. The complaint by several public interest organizations paints a picture of a “byzantine legal process resulting in increasingly punitive measures including arrest, handcuffing, and threats of jail time and detention.” Some of these conditions include:
Youth are coerced and cajoled into pleading “guilty,” even when they have valid excuses for school absences.
Families already facing economic hardship are assessed high fines and court costs, with additional fees added each month that they are unable to pay in full.
Children who miss a truancy court hearing are arrested at school, put into a police car, brought into the courtroom in handcuffs, and then charged an additional $50 to cover the arrest warrant fee.
Youth who fail to fully comply with truancy court orders are arrested in court, handcuffed, and transferred without due process to the “Truancy Enforcement Center,” an arm of the county’s juvenile system, where they may face detention.
Youth may be jailed once they turn 17 if they have not paid their fines and costs in full.
Students are routinely threatened with jail time even before they are old enough under Texas law to be subjected to this punishment.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/14/2156481/texas-county-uses-electronic-system-to-file-automatic-criminal-charges-for-student-truancy-complaint-alleges/
Wow..perpetual criminalization.
Would it surprise anyone to find teh majority of the population in the county is black or hispanic?????
See my post # 8, below,
House votes to block Guantánamo detainee transfers to Yemen
As ticked off as I am about Gitmo, it is clear that the blame for not closing it needs to be at the House's obstruction.
The House voted 236-188 to pass a defense authorization bill amendment from Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) that prohibits using funds to transfer detainees to Yemen.
Transferring detainees to Yemen is a key part of ramping down the prison camp in Cuba, as 56 of the 86 detainees who have been cleared for release are from Yemen.
Obama had issued a moratorium on transferring detainees to Yemen in January 2010 after the U.S. learned that 2009 “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had obtained instructions from terrorists in Yemen.
But last month Obama said he would lift the restriction to jumpstart the transfer of cleared detainees.
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/305607-house-blocks-guantanamo-detainee-transfers-to-yemen
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: Washington state, for half my life
Home country: USA
Current location: SW Alabama. for the rest of my life
Member since: Wed Feb 27, 2008, 02:09 PM
Number of posts: 60,010
