S. 815: Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013

S. 815: Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013

This Bill may be voted on this week

 A bill to prohibit the employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

By clicking or tapping the link below you will be able to "Track" the bill and easily find and contact your Representatives in the House or Senate.

GovTrack.us Page for S 815

Medic3569's What Did the House of Representatives Accomplish Yesterday?

With Nothing Better To Do The House Disapproved of President Obama Exercising Authority To Suspend the Debt Ceiling 

 and Moved Forward on exempting any major swap participant or major security-based swap participant from from the prohibition against federal assistance 

H.J. Res 99 Passed  222-191

 H. R. 992 Was Passed 292-122

H. J. Res 99 

Relating to the disapproval of the President's exercise of authority to suspend the debt limit, as submitted under section 1002(b) of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014 on October 17, 2013. Disapproves of the President's exercise of authority to suspend the debt limit. On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 222 - 191, 2 Present (Roll no. 570). See how YOUR Representative voted on H. R. 99 here

H.R. 992 (Related Bills H.RES.391, and H. R. 2374)

Their activities Floor Summary of Legislative Activities for October 30, 2013 included voting on ammending Section 716 of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. H. Res.391 passed on Tuesday by recorded vote: 230 - 188 (Roll no. 564,) providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 992); which passed yesterday by a recorded vote: 292 - 122 (Roll no. 569.) See how YOUR Representative voted on H. R. 992 here

H.R. 992 is to amend provisions in section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act relating to Federal assistance for swaps entities, and providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 2374*) to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to provide protections for retail customers, and for other purposes. 

H.R. 992 would extend to any major swap participant or major security-based swap participant that is an uninsured U.S. branch or agency of a foreign bank the exemption from the prohibition against federal assistance to swaps entities which is currently limited to any major swap participant or major security-based swap participant that is an FDIC-insured bank or savings association.
  
*H.R. 2374 
(Sec. 3) Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prohibit the SEC from promulgating a rule establishing an investment advisor standard of conduct as the standard of conduct of brokers and dealers before it has ascertained: (1) if retail customers are systematically harmed or disadvantaged owing to the operation of brokers or dealers under different standards of conduct than those that apply to investment advisors under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and (2) whether adoption of a uniform fiduciary standard of care for brokers or dealers and investment advisors would adversely impact retail investor access or availability to personalized investment advice and recommendations. See how YOUR Representative voted on H. R. 2374 here

H.R. 4173 (111^th): Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law on July 21, 2010 and yet very little has actually been implemented. This law is supposed to put back the regulations from 1934 which prevented financial institutions from becoming too big to fail. Since the financial industry took most of middle America's net worth with the financial collapse of 2009 these institutions have actually grown, leaving us in the precarious position of it happening again. We need people to contact their representatives and tell them we want Dodd-Frank implemented completely, and now. 

To find YOUR Congressmen/women, and Senators, and how to contact them use:

Find YOUR Congressmen/women and how to Contact Them 

Find YOUR Senators and how to Contact Them

To TRACK  these and other Bills, or to TRACK your Representatives use: 

POPVOX allows you to TRACK your Representatives and Bills in the House and Senate

Please check out www.Facebook.com/StoptheObstructionistTeaParty and "Like" us.

 

 

HR 992 "Swaps Regulatory Improvment Act" May be Considered in the House Next Week, Find Out More and Take Action

On October 25, 2013 House Majority Leader said HR 992  to amend section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act may be considered. The sponsor of the bill,  Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL 14) wishes to extend the exemption from the prohibition against federal government government assistance to (bailouts of) swaps entities to any major swap participant or major security-based swap participant that is a U.S. uninsured branch or agency of a foreign bank.

It doesn't get any easier than this to learn about a bill that is coming up for consideration next week in the House of Representatives.  Below you can find out more about Rep. Randy Hultgren and more importantly you can click on the "Read the Bill" link to find out all about the actual bill. 

 You can use the link below to Read, Track, and contact your Representative. Click on "What Can I do?" to find your Representative, send a letter to him/her, and choose "Support/Oppose" and share it on Facebook.

Track HR 992 and Click on "What Can I Do?" for options 
 

Medic3569's What's News for October 26, 2013? JP Morgan, Rep. Marsha Blackburn/Congressman Frank Pallone, HIPAA and Don Yeltin and Racism

 Medic3569's What's News

for October 26, 2013

Firmwide Litigation Reserves

Analysis: Stop freaking out over $13B JPMorgan settlement

USA article about Analyst Freaking out About $13B Fine 

Being as JP Morgan Chase will be giving out about $10B in annual bonuses, and they stole many Americans self-worth, and took people's homes and 401k's, I don't think  the fine is excessive at all. Let's remember that they pushed out mortgages to anyone willing to take them, (people were wrong too for taking mortgages they couldn't afford,) bundled them up into mutual funds and sold them worldwide by creating ab useless product called a "Credit Swap." This caused many Americans to lose their retirement savings. They sold mortgages at such a frenzied to make the fees, that on many cases they didn't even have the proper work, like a "Transfer of Deed." When they went to foreclose later they needed paperwork,, the "Transfer of Deed" so they actually hired many people to forge these documents at $8.00/hr. This was discovered by an actual investigator whom the bank tried to foreclose on. She noticed there was no Transfer of Deed and they gave her a hard time until they finally produced one. She investigated that on the internet because she was wondering where they came up with the document all of a sudden. She found that the signature of the Vice-President of the bank that signed the "Transfer of Deed" was evidently the same Vice-President for at least 7 other banks. Investigating further she saw that these forged documents were being produced in bankruptcy courts all over the country. Evidently the employees hired at $8.00/hr had to sign at least 300 documents in an 8-hour w3ork day or they would be fired. Portrayed on a 60 minute episode this still didn't stop the crimes, hard to believe, isn't it?

Lynn Syzmoniak sued and won an $18M case against JP Morgan Chase and others for fraudulent and robo-signed documents used to  foreclose on people's homes. She blew the whistle, claiming that the country's four largest mortgage services had defrauded the federal government by creating fake documents to replace lost or nonexistent ones in order to receive government-funded payments. The government joined Syzmoniak's complaint, and it was announced this week that those banks -- Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co, and Citigroup Inc. -- settled the case for $95 million. Under law, the whistleblower is entitled to a share of the money recovered by the U.S. government, in this case $18 million.

Read More about Lynn Syzmoniak and the 60 Minutes report. 

NC GOPer Who Called Blacks 'Lazy' Uses N-Word To Defend Himself

Don Yeltin NC Republican Precinct Chairman and GOP Executive Committee Member photo by TPM

Republican Precinct Chairman in NC and GOP Executive Committee Member Don Yeltin has evidently been fired after an appearance on The Daily Show where he said "the voter ID law is not racist." He also said "one of my best friends is black," and when asked if he is racist he said "well, I have been called a bigot."  Read More from TPM

The Monkey Court Is Now in Session

Monkey Court Now In Session!

Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone: I started out in my opening statements saying there was no legitimacy to this hearing, and the last line of questioning certainly confirms that. HIPAA only applies when there's health information being provided. That's not in play here today—no health information is required in the application process, and why is that? Because pre-existing conditions don't matter! So once again, here we have my Republican colleagues trying to scare everybody—

Barton: Will the gentleman yield?

Pallone: No, I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever this thing is.

Barton: This is not a monkey court.

Pallone: Do whatever you want. I'm not yielding. I am trying to tell you—

Barton: Protecting American citizens is a legitimate concern of this committee.

Pallone: —the pre-existing conditions don't matter. HIPAA doesn't apply. There's no health information in the process. You're asked about your address, your date of birth, you're not asked health information. So why are we going down this path? Because you are trying to scare people so they don't apply!

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Doesn't Know What She's Talking About on CNN Live, She doesn't Even  Speak Correctly

Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was put in place to protect "Identifiable Health Information." Privacy Rule provides federal protections for individually identifiable health information held by covered entities and their business associates and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of health information needed for patient care and other important purposes.

 The latest TeaPublican/Republican Party attempt to stop/defund/block/convince people not to sign up for has been rolling out for the past two days. Yesterday on CNN Live Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said what they've all been saying for 2 days, "The Affordable Care Act violates HIPAA Laws! Simply put, in NO WAY does "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," aka "Obamacare," violate the law.

 When HIPAA was introduced in 1996 I was included in the "roll-outs" done by the government because I was an Instructor Coordinator for the NYC Emergency Medical Services (NYC*EMS,) Suffolk County EMS (SCEMS,) , and the NorthshoreLIJ Healthcare System. It was made very clear that "Protected Health Information" (PHI) and Protected Medical Information (PMI) was not to be exposed/divulged except to someone "Directly involved in Patient Care" and a few other situations.

  Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on CNN LIVE was asked a very simple question; "What question, on the application are people asked that would cause the ACA to violate the HIPAA Law of 1996. She gave numerous non-answers like "it's not the questions, it's how they're "transited", she obviously meant "transmitted." The correspondent said, "but the only question asked that is remotely medical information in nature is "Do you Smoke," how is the law being violated. Rep. Blackburn kept saying stupid things and that it's "how it's transited." Unbelievable stupidity, defiance, and rhetoric designed to attack the ACA and she didn't know anything but the talking points, and didn't even understand them. 

 If there are any great legal minds out there that can tell me something I can do to STOP TeaPublicans and Republicans from making things up and then going onto media and spreading misinformation, false rhetoric, and outright lies, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me what to do to help expose this rhetoric for what it is.

Senator Stacey Campfield Responds to the E-mail I Sent him After He Said "Aids Was Caused By One Man Having Sex With A Monkey"

Senator Stacey Campfield Responds to E-mail About "Monkey" and Heterosexual Sex Not Transmitting HIV

"My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex...very rarely [transmitted]."

I posted a copy of an e-mail that I sent to Senator Stacey Campfield  Blog post showing e-mail sent to Senator Stacey Campfield at  sen.stacey.campfield@capitol.tn.gov

 On Oct 24, 2013, at 1:15 PM, "John A Smith" <jasmith3569@gmail.comjasmith3569@gmail.com
>> wrote:

You can't possibly believe 10% of the crap you spew. Have you ever read a Morbidity and Mortality Report from the CDC? Do you live in this world, or your own? Have you NO decency, pride? honesty, intelligence, education? Here is a link to the CDC website, ask someone to show you how to use the computer to get to this website and download the latest MMR  for HIV/AIDS and then have them explain to you that heterosexual sex can indeed transmit HIV as it does with other STD's. You saying what your saying is DANGEROUS because some people will actually believe what you say because, after all, you are a Senator. How, or why, your a Senator I have no idea. After someone has explained the facts to you I would appreciate your response, I'll enjoy the laugh.
By the way here is the CDC website again: http://www.cdc.gov/

 I do want to thank his office for responding to me, however, I don't see how his answer in anyway backs up his statement of "Aids was caused by One Man Having Sex With A Monkey." In addition, when I was teaching Paramedics at the NYC*EMS academy, at the direction of Dr. Gillette (one of eight doctors chosen by the government to disseminate evolving information about HIV and AIDS as it was becoming available in 1985,) I learned that using phrases like "full blown Aids" was not only inappropriate but ignorant. The Congressman uses this phrase often in his response. "Full Blown AIDS" makes no sense because if you are unfortunate enough to contract the virus, you actually contract the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes the Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease (AIDS.) You don't contract the disease. So saying someone has full blown AIDS  is just ignorant. You either have the disease or you don't. You can't be "almost" pregnant, you are either pregnant or your not. With AIDS, you either have the disease or you don't. The most dangerous thing about his statements are about transmission of HIV in heterosexual persons. In his response below where he is trying to justify that HIV is virtually not transmitted by heterosexual sex he fails miserably because it just isn't true. It certainly doesn't say anything that would back up the ignorance he showed when he said AIDS was caused by a "One Man Having Sex With One Monkey."

What he actually said was "My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex...very rarely [transmitted]."

Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community — it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall. My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex…very rarely [transmitted].
Read more at http://wonkette.com/461721/tennessee-bigot-aids-is-all-the-fault-of-this-one-monkey-loving-pilot#UttsYwiPiuk7HZXK.99

Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community — it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall. My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex…very rarely [transmitted].
Read more at http://wonkette.com/461721/tennessee-bigot-aids-is-all-the-fault-of-this-one-monkey-loving-pilot#UttsYwiPiuk7HZXK.99

Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community — it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall. My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex…very rarely [transmitted].
Read more at http://wonkette.com/461721/tennessee-bigot-aids-is-all-the-fault-of-this-one-monkey-loving-pilot#UttsYwiPiuk7HZXK.99

Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community — it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall. My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex…very rarely [transmitted].
Read more at http://wonkette.com/461721/tennessee-bigot-aids-is-all-the-fault-of-this-one-monkey-loving-pilot#UttsYwiPiuk7HZXK.99

Here is his response, where, by the way, he says he "never claimed to be an AIDS historian!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stacey Campfield	8:36 AM (2 hours ago)
to me

The odds of transmission to a US man through unprotected vaginal intercourse is about 1 in 2000 if the person they are having sex with has full blown AIDS. It is about 1 in 1000 for the female (Both without any contraception). If you factor in the actual odds of a US heterosexual having sexual relations with someone with AIDS the odds go into the 1 in multi  millions (sic) .

Even with the CDCs (sic) own numbers of 28% of HIV positive US population are heterosexual, of the 305,000 that have HIV in the US that is only 85,596 people. (In my opinion, even that number is off as the CDC admits they report men who sleep with men as heterosexual if that is how they self identify, but we can go with their numbers) multiply that by the odds of a female having HIV (51% of the population by most numbers) and you are at 43,653 in the US. Seeing as the current US population is 311,800,000, Your odds of interaction with an HIV infected female  is 1 in 7,142. Multiply that by the odds of transmission when having unprotected vaginal intercourse with someone with full blown AIDS of 1 in 2000 and you are at 1 in 14,285,387. That is if every single HIV person is still sexually active and not telling their partner. I would hope and expect that is not the case. At worst I would estimate/hope at least 50% are not sexually active with a non infected partner. That puts your odds at 1 in 28,570,774. As I said, Not impossible but highly unlikely.

Even if we cut out 50% of the population for possible math error that's still over 1 in 14,000,000.  I have never said "Never" or it was "Impossible" I said highly unlikely and virtually impossible. I think even  a 1 in 14 MILLION chance fits that criteria.

As for the history of AIDS, I never claimed to be an AIDS historian. I was asked a question on a radio show. My origional (sic) assumptions came from the well known AIDS book "And the band played on" that tracked the modern US outbreak down to Gayton Dugas.  No one knows the true "world Patient 0". For a long time it was thought to be Gaton Dugas (An airline steward and prolific homosexual) it was later found to be possibly someone from the 1920's.

No one knows how SIV (sic) jumped from simians to humans and transformed into HIV for the true "patient 0" but the ways of transmission are well known. While none can be ruled out,  Oral transmission is now thought to be all but impossible, I doubt someone was sharing needles with a monkey or got a blood transfusion from a monkey (but I cant say its impossible so I will still say its possible), what's left?

The CDC does not make any definitive claim as they do not know for sure who it was or how definitely  it happened. If they (nor you) can say with certainty who "patient 0" was or how it happened definitively then the door is open for all possibilities.

Now, if you can find fault with my math or  the CDC/WHO numbers or you have some definitive new proof of some new discovery as to the history of AIDS I stand ready to correct myself and admit I was wrong. Are you?

Yours in service,

Sen. Stacey Campfield
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some problems with the Senator's response:

"If you factor in the actual odds of a US heterosexual having sexual relations with someone with AIDS the odds go into the 1 in multi millions (sic)." So then it IS transmitted through heterosexual sex, good your learning.

"The odds of transmission to a US man through unprotected vaginal intercourse is about 1 in 2000 if the person they are having sex with has full blown AIDS." As opposed to what? Having sex with someone who "almost" has AIDS?

"Even with the CDCs (sic) own numbers of 28% of HIV positive US population are heterosexual, of the 305,000 that have HIV in the US that is only 85,596 people. (In my opinion, even that number is off as the CDC admits they report men who sleep with men as heterosexual if that is how they self identify, but we can go with their numbers) multiply that by the odds of a female having HIV (51% of the population by most numbers) and you are at 43,653 in the US. Seeing as the current US population is 311,800,000, Your odds of interaction with an HIV infected female  is 1 in 7,142. Multiply that by the odds of transmission when having unprotected vaginal intercourse with someone with full blown AIDS of 1 in 2000 and you are at 1 in 14,285,387. That is if every single HIV person is still sexually active and not telling their partner. I would hope and expect that is not the case. At worst I would estimate/hope at least 50% are not sexually active with a non infected partner. That puts your odds at 1 in 28,570,774. As I said, Not impossible but highly unlikely."

305,000 people in the US  have HIV? WRONG:
1,148 ,200 Americans aged 13 and older were living with HIV in 2009and as far as "hoping" and "expecting" sexually active people would tell their partner they are infected; "About 18 % of those infected with HIV in the United States are unaware of their infection."

In the United States

The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 1,148 ,200 Americans aged 13 and older were living with HIV in 2009 .¹ Of these:

• 279 ,100 were female¹
• 76 ,4 00 were youths aged 13 to 24¹
• About 473,000 had AIDS the disease, not just the virus

About 18 % of those infected with HIV in the United States are unaware of their infection.2 Young adults aged 25 to 34 accounted for 28% of new HIV infections in the United States in 2011, and young people 13 to 24 years old accounted for 21 % .² That year, women accounted for an estimated 10,512, or 21%, of the estimated 50,199 new HIV cases in the United States .²

From National Institute of Health (NIH.) "How Many people Have HIV/AIDS?' by NIH

"Even if we cut out 50% of the population for possible math error that's still over 1 in 14,000,000.  I have never said "Never" or it was "Impossible" I said highly unlikely and virtually impossible. I think even  a 1 in 14 MILLION chance fits that criteria." I'm glad you admit that your math is possibly off by 50% but how does your admitting that transmission of HIV is possible, remember now, AIDS, the disease is not transmitted, and people develop the disease of AIDS, not "full-blown AIDS, how does that explain your ignorance that AIDS was caused by "One Man Having Sex With a Monkey?"

 "No one knows how SIV jumped (sic) from simians to humans and transformed into HIV for the true "patient 0" but the ways of transmission are well known. While none can be ruled out,  Oral transmission is now thought to be all but impossible, I doubt someone was sharing needles with a monkey or got a blood transfusion from a monkey (but I cant say its impossible so I will still say its possible), what's left?" HIV IS A BLOODBORNE PATHOGEN. True. No one knows how SIV (HIV stems from SIV) was transmitted (it doesn't "jump") but we know the following; 

From Frontline: The Age of AIDS:  Frontline article HIV: Before the age of AIDS
There are two forms of human AIDS virus, human immunodeficiency virus types 1 and 2 (HIV-1 and HIV-2). Related simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) are found in more than 30 species of primates in sub-Saharan Africa; each species has its own form of SIV. HIV-1 is classified into three groups, M, N and O. HIV-2 is also classified into multiple groups, but only groups A and B have been found in more than one person.
The evolutionary tree shows that:
   - HIV-1 and HIV-2 originate from SIVs in different primate species
   - HIV-1 strains are closely related to SIVcpz/s, from the chimpanzee subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes
   - HIV-2 strains are closely related to SIVsmm, from sooty mangabey monkeys (Cercocebus atys).
   - HIV-1 groups M, N and O must have originated from three separate chimpanzee-to-human transmissions, because these lineages are interspersed among the SIVcpz/s branches.
   -HIV-2 groups A and B must have originated from two separate sooty mangabey-to-human transmissions for similar reasons.

So, I ask you Senator, will you retract your statements that "AIDS was started by one man having sex with a monkey?" Will you make clear that HIV can be transmitted through heterosexual sex and that since 18% of people who have contracted HIV don't even know they have it and that your statement "My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex...very rarely [transmitted]." is wrong? Unprotected, heterosexual sex is a dangerous route of transmission?

I do very much appreciate your response as I said in the beginning.

To contact YOUR Congressmen/women, and Senators, use the links on the left margin of this blog to find/and/or contact them. As you can see by Senator Stacey Campfield's response, some of them actually listen and respond to you.

McResource's Hotline Pushing Employees to Apply for SNAP and Medicaid

 

McDonald's Taking Cues from Walmart - Who Cost Taxpayers $80M Per Year for Assistance with Food and Healthcare

 

McResource's Hotline pushes people to join SNAP and Medicaid

California Discourages Eligible Applicants From Applying for SNAP (Food Stamps)

 I posted about an article back in August of this year based an article by the L. A. Times about how people were being discouraged from applying for food stamps even though they were eligible, because they probably wouldn't get them. You heard right. Here's the article I based my post on: L. A. Times article "California discourages needy from signing up for Food Stamps"

 You would think that someone who truly needs help to feed themselves and their children would get it if they are eligible. Not so, not where onerous paperwork requirements, inhospitable county benefits offices and confusing online applications often prevail. In California, sometimes even those who qualify get rejected, as understaffed agencies prove unable to properly process applications.The state's participation rate is the lowest in the U.S. — only about half of those that qualify get assistance — making it the envy of more-conservative states. 

Wal-Mart: Leader in Costing Taxpayers for Employees Benefit

   The cost of low wages at Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) are at the center of a new report released last week by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Low wages are an issue across the economy, but Wal-Mart, as the country's largest private employer, has long faced closer scrutiny than other companies.Wal-Mart's low wages and refusal to offer healthcare to their employees cost taxpayers $80 Million per year. money.cnn.com June 5, 2013

McDonald's Wants Taxpayers to Pay Their Employee's Food and Healthcare 

This is a NOT COCA-COLA  But it is THE REAL THING - McResource's Hotline for Employee Assistance

 Listen to an actual call from an employee of McDonald's asking the McResource's Hotline for help and how their help line pushes her to the SNAP (Food Stamps) program, and Medicaid programs, to have taxpayers support their employees. Mind you this employee is full-time worker making $8.25/hr and has not received av raise in TEN YEARS!

Here's a link to the article from ABC News: McDonald's Helpline article by GMA

I was outraged when I saw Zain Asher of CNN Newsroom play a phone conversation between this 10-year employee, who has not received a single raise in that 10 years, making $8.25 /hr.

This is a link to a very informative article from CNN on the same topic: CNN article on McDonald's 

Here is an article from rt.com on the same: rt.com/usa article  

These companies are making HUGH profits and their workers often make less than $25,000/yr, making them eligible for food stamps and Medicaid.  Please contact your Congressmen/women and Senators and tell them it is time to raise the minimum wage to $11.00/hr.

To Find and or get contact information for YOUR Congressmen/women and Senators use the links on the left margin of this blog.

 

 

 

Senator Stacey Campfield Uses Ignorance From 1985 About HIV - Don't Re-Elected Idiots!

We Must Not Re-Elected Stupid! TN Senator Stacey Campfield Uses Stupid about HIV and AIDS

My "Comment" to a post shared by Donavon C. Reed October 24, 2013

I don't know if Donavon https://www.facebook.com/donavon.reed expected the kind of response he got when he shared a post with a Teabonics photo https://www.facebook.com/Teabonics about a TN Senator Stacey Campfield showing his deplorable ignorance, but he sure got it. I met Donavon on Facebook when I didn't know anything about using social media and he was willing to have patience with my ignorance and guide me on how to use this media for good. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to hopefully educate some about the ridiculous people that have actually been elected by people into an office that should represent good people.  Donavon. 

Take a look at this post:

Senator Stacey Campfield's Idiotic Facebook Post Shared by Donavon C. Reed


I, as many others lost a coworker, partly because of the ignorance that surrounded HIV and AIDS back in 1985. Back then the virus and disease was emerging and we just didn't know much about it. There was also prejudice and mistreatment. Tracey (an Emergency Medical Technician ((EMT),) worked for New York City's Emergency Medical Service NYC*EMS as did I. When she contracted the HIV the city decided to try to prosecute her instead of paying for her care or giving any assistance whatever.

I explain in my comment to Donavon's post which I put here and is the photo above:

 In 1985, while HIV was emerging and we didn't know much about it at all, I was teaching Paramedics at the New York City Emergency Medical Services academy. It was a scary time for healthcare providers and first responders. We weren't really sure of all the ways it could be contracted, and not be contracted. Think about treating bloody, vomiting, spitting, patients and not knowing if you would contract a virus of which there was no cure for. I was very fortunate to be taught by Dr. Gillette who was one of eight physicians chosen by the government to disseminate information throughout the medical community as it was learned by the scientific and medical communities. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was initially known as LTV-1 and then LTV-2, (lymphatic T-cell Virus.) One of the biggest fears, and problems, was not knowing about how the the virus could be, and could not be, transmitted. An Emergency Medical Technician (EMT,) Tracey, contracted HIV by treated a patient in cardiac arrest. It progressed into Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease (AIDS.) She died at a very young age from treating a patient. There was a lot of prejudice back then. NYC*EMS chose to fight paying her medical bills and give any assistance, and instead chose to attack this EMT and spend a lot of money trying to prove that the disease was not work related and that she was promiscuous, and that she "probably contracted the disease through unprotected heterosexual sex." She died after just a few tears while her and her family were actually going hungry. About a year after her death a judge decided that the city was "insane" with their claims and went off pretty good at the citie4s attorneys. He awarded the family some money. She was not able to get whatever little treatment that became available because the city chose to use the ignorance that was surrounding the disease. That was in 1985! We now know a tremendous amount about the virus and disease, how can this Senator, and other Tea Party members, and Republicans continue to use ignorance to try to win political gain is beyond me. Please go to www.Medic3569.blogspot.com

to find your Congressmen/women, and Senators, and their e-mail addresses and phone numbers to contact them about this, or any issue that you are passionate about. We must inundate their offices with our concerns to have any chance of being heard. I took the liberty of looking up this jackass' contact information should you want to contact him. Please visit www.medic3569.blogspot.com

to contact YOUR representatives.




 Here is Senator Stacey Campfield's contact information should you have something to say to him:

Senator Stacey Campfield

R-Knoxville
District 7 — Part of Knox County

 

district address

2011 Flagler
Knoxville, TN 37912

nashville address

301 6th Avenue North
Suite 317 War Memorial Bldg.
Nashville, TN 37243
Phone (615) 741-1766
sen.stacey.campfield@capitol.tn.gov

 And remember,
To contact YOUR Congressmen/women about anything you wish to be heard on, go to;
 Link to find YOUR Congressmen/women, their contact information, and how they voted

 And remember, to contact YOUR Senators about anything you wish to be heard on, go to;
Link to find your Senators, their contact information, and see how they voted

Have You Contacted Your 2 Senators and Your Congressmen/women Recently?

Use these links to find your Senators and Congressmen/women and e-mail or call them. You can also see how they voted on bills that interest you. Get involved in your government, tell them how you feel about issues that effect YOU.

To Find Your Senators, their Contact Information, and how they voted click on this link:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

To Find Your Congressmen/women, their Contact Information, and how they voted click on this link:
 http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Will the JP Morgan $13B Settlement Deter Others? No! It's Time Criminals That Destroy Lives and the Economy Go To Jail!

 

Bloomberg: Who Really Wins and Will it Deter Others on JP Morgan $13B fine, but who does it really hurt?

JP Morgan Chase had $28.9 billion of pretax income last year. It probably would be a stretch to give the Justice Department credit for the full $13 billion. The matters JPMorgan would be resolving include a 2011 lawsuit by the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as a separate suit by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. It also isn’t clear how much of the $13 billion would be paid in cash.

Before continuing we need summarize what they, the entire financial industry, politicians, and the other greedy people behind the scenes, caused. 

The democrats passed a law intended to help people buy their own homes creating sub-prime loans. This allowed financial institutions, banks, investment firms, mortgage companies to borrow money at below prime rate, free money. The lenders pushed out mortgages to anyone that would take one, regardless whether they could pay the loan back. They would make money selling these mortgages. In fact, they set up mortgages that had very low monthly payments for the first few years so people thought they would be able to afford them. But just prior to the crash people's monthly mortgage payments exploded, $600/mo went to $2800/mo and there was no way people could afford to keep their homes. People who took these mortgages are to blame too.

I had a student that worked for a mortgage company. One day she called a business to check on a mortgage applicants employment and salary history. The business that he put down as his place of employment never heard of him. When she told her boss what the company had said, he replied, "don't worry about it, approve the mortgage." This same scenario was playing out all over the country because they were making money selling the mortgages, the more they sold, the richer they got. 

Another part of the disaster is that President George W. Bush deregulated the financial industry removing all safeguards and allowed banks, investment firms, securities houses, all to be joined into companies that became "Too Big To Fail." Think about this when you here the Republicans screaming about too many regulations! So the Bear Sterns, AIG (the biggest) and others were acquiring all these mortgages, making a great deal of money, but they knew that they were bad mortgages because in a few years people were going to realize that they couldn't pay the monthly payments once they exploded. They had to figure a way to dump them.

This is when they decided to bunch these bad mortgages together and make them mutual funds. They were selling bad investments to their own customers, and they knew it! but they still had a problem. Their customers would realize that the funds were risky. So, here came the gem of an idea that went so far over the line that everyone involved from this point on should go right the F%^K to jail. 

The "Credit Swap" is born. If a company sells an insurance policy they have to show assets, capitol, to show that if the insurance policy has to be paid off, that they have the assets to pay it off.  That means that if an insurance company sold insurance policies worth $1 Billion on their face value, they actually had the $1 Billion to pay them off. Also, this is important, insurance is REGULATED. So, the "Credit Swap" was born. The potential buyers of the mutual funds, who would not buy such risky funds were told they could buy a "Credit Swap" "which would ACT as an insurance policy so that if the Mutual Fund didn't pay off it's projected amount that they could use the credit swap to get the face amount of the fund, like getting your insurance policy to pay the benefit in full. So they sold these horrible funds filled with bad mortgages all over the world, selling credit swaps to assure they would pay off.

Here's the problem,  they were NOT insurance policies and were completely made up, NOT requiring the seller to have the assets to pay them off. When people starting getting the increases in their monthly mortgage payments and knew immediately they could never afford them they either gave their lender the keys back or were foreclosed on. This made the mutual funds worthless. The buyers of the mutual finds started to say they wanted their credit swaps to pay off what they were due. The problem with that is that the sellers of the credit didn't have the money to pay them. Remember if an insurance company sold $1B worth of policies they had the assets. These financial giants sold, we still don't know how much,  much more in credit swaps then they had assets to pay them off. In some cases a company that had $50B in assets sold more than $300B in credit swaps it is suggested. But, in actuality it is believed to be much worse. These companies, to this day, will not tell how much they sold in credit swaps, even though we, the taxpayers had to bail out the ones that were too big to fail.  

These institutions, except for a few, like Lehman Bothers are back on their feet, thanks to the tax payers, enjoying hugh bonuses and profits again. They are using part of their gigantic profits today to lobby and fight the regulations in the Dodd-Frank bill that passed from becoming reality. The Dodd-Frank bill was passed to restore the regulations that were removed and allowed companies to become too big to fail. These companies are supposed to be broken up into smaller companies so that this could never happen again. Well, big money has been able to block these regulations from being put back into place and these firms are actually BIGGER than they were when they caused the atrocities that they caused in 2008. 

When the customers of the funds and the credit started demanding payment on the credit swap, because the funds became worthless the crash came. When the stock market dropped it wiped out peoples retirement funds, 401k's. People who worked 40+ years and had contributed to their retirement were now now without their life's savings. People had to either forfeit their homes or be foreclosed on.  Here's a real kicker, how can this not be illegal? 60 Minutes did a piece where someone who was a regulator got a foreclosure notice. She checked and found that the bank didn't have a "Transfer of Deed." A document the bank would absolutely need to foreclose. After a lot of wrangling she was given one. After doing some searching on the internet she seen that the Vice President of the bank that signed her transfer of deed, was apparently the Vice-President of many banks. The mortgage lenders were in such a frenzy to sell mortgages that tens of thousands of the mortgages didn't even have the proper paperwork when they sold them. No problem, they actually created a company, hired hundreds of workers, at $8/hr to forge documents, I'm not kidding! I believe the employees had to sign a minimum of 300 documents per day or they were let go.

Back to the Bloomberg article; 
About $4 billion would be earmarked for consumer relief, details of which are fuzzy. For all we know this could take the form of coupons, discounts or other soft benefits, which might not cost JPMorgan anywhere near $4 billion in the end. This month the Association of Mortgage Investors sent U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a letter to complain that some of the government’s settlements with large banks “have resulted in the responsible party shifting a portion of the settlement costs” to investors in residential mortgage-backed securities. If the government lets JPMorgan finance breaks for homeowners with other people’s money rather than its own, that isn’t much punishment.

Another $4 billion would go toward resolving the lawsuit related to Fannie and Freddie. For the Justice Department to include this accord in its total settlement figure would be akin to the rooster taking credit for the dawn. The suit isn’t a law-enforcement matter. It’s a business dispute.
Back in 2011 the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is the conservator for Fannie and Freddie, hired the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to litigate the two companies’ mortgage-bond claims against JPMorgan and other large banks. The agency’s lawsuit covers $33 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities issued from 2005 to 2007 that Fannie and Freddie brought from JPMorgan and other companies it later acquired, including Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns.

In court papers, Quinn Emanuel attorneys have said Fannie and Freddie lost billions of dollars on those bonds, without specifying more precisely. Perhaps $4 billion (before attorneys’ fees) is a good deal for Fannie and Freddie. Or maybe it’s an even better bargain for JPMorgan, at about 12 percent of the bonds’ face value. It’s hard to say.

The settlement wouldn’t end the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of JPMorgan. The bank was told it won’t receive a waiver from prosecution, and would have to cooperate with the Justice Department’s probes of individuals still under investigation.

Bloomberg Article on "Who Really Wins"

What Do We Do?

The problem going forward is that there is no deterrent from them doing the same thing or worse. These firms are doing better than ever, and using part of their profits to block regulation. What they did, on so many levels, is in fact criminal. They have even admitted fraud. We need to start putting CEO's CFO's and the others responsible for ruining so many people's lives in jail, and not some country club. Let's not forget that they caused us to go into a recession and a financial crisis of the magnitude that we have not seen since the depression. The entire world economy was in danger, and was damaged. We need to regulate the industry and cause a deterrent by putting these criminals in a real jail.

The President Lays Out Where We Should Go in the Next Few Weeks

Photo mavericksquared.com

From David Simas
Deputy Senior Advisor
The White House

October 18, 2013

In his remarks, the President asked Congress to focus on finishing three specific policy priorities in the weeks to come.

First, that means passing a budget that invests in the things that will create a better bargain for the middle class -- like educating our children, and improving our infrastructure -- while continuing to cut our deficit in a balanced way.

Second, it means fixing our broken immigration system so everyone plays by the same rules. The Senate has already passed a bill that would continue to strengthen our borders and grow our economy by bringing millions of undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and give them the chance to earn their citizenship by paying a fine and taxes, passing a background check, and going to the back of the line.

And third, it means passing a farm bill that ranching and farming families can rely on: one that protects working families and gives rural communities opportunities to grow.
We'll be back in touch soon with more specific ways that every one of us can support this work. But for now, we should all have the facts on exactly what ending this shutdown means for all of us -- today, and in the weeks to come.

Take a look at the President's remarks from yesterday, and pass them along to the folks you think need to see them:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/the-shutdown-is-over

 P.S. -- It's been a while since we've talked about immigration reform, and how it would help make our economy a lot better. Let's change that. Take a look at this whiteboard video our team put together. 

Why Nothing Will Change - Money Has All The Power, Politicians, Courts, Business Not Regulated

Photo by threadless.com

Nothing Will Change Until We Get Money Out of Politics

Citizen's United Can Not Be Repealed - Very Unfortunate

When the U. S. Supreme Court  held that parts of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, BCRA §203,  (better known as the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002,  in a 5-4 decision,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipartisan_Campaign_Reform_Act held that held that portions of BCRA §203 violated the First Amendment, it was devastating to this country, and started us down the path we're currently on. The United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting political independent expenditures by corporations, associations, or labor unions. Thus allowing these organizations to contribute unlimited amounts of money to campaigns in the U. S. Basically it said to the Koch brothers, Karl Rove's Crossroads USA, and hundreds of non-profits to contribute any amount of money they were willing to spend. This, my fellow Americans, is why we are where we are. It would take a Constitutional Amendment to repeal this Act, which means it would require it to be presented to both houses and requires a two-thirds vote, which, in our day and age will never happen.

Photo by Timeline Photos

McCutcheon v Federal Election Committee (FEC) Could Be 10 Times Worse

Last week on October 8th the U. S. Supreme Court heard McCutcheon v FEC. For the 2013-2014 election cycle, Federal Election Commission rules state that a donor can give no more than $123,200 to all political committees with two sub-limits of $48,600 to candidates and $74,600 to political parties and political action committees. Without these overall caps, a single donor supporting one political party could theoretically give more than $5 million in individually limited contributions to every House candidate, every Senate candidate, every state party committee, every national party committee and every leadership PAC. Article by Huffington Post on McCutcheon v FEC. If this goes the way of McCutcheon we have given all future power to the rich. Look at how money being spent convinces people who only watch Fox News and listen to Talk Radio to vote Tea Party members into our Congress and Senate. People vote for politicians that totally ignore what they want. Look at when background checks for buying guns was wanted by the people everywhere, after the Newtown shooting where 20 children were killed. Many districts were in favor of background checks by 70% and up to 95% yet their representatives voted against the background checks, totally ignoring what the people, who voted them into office, wanted. That was because of the NRA lobby which had plenty of money backing it. In fact, after the background checks were defeated two democratic State Senators were ousted from their elected offices because they backed the background checks. "An epic national debate over gun rights in Colorado on Tuesday saw two Democratic state senators ousted for their support for stricter laws, a "ready, aim, fired" message intended to stop other politicians for pushing for firearms restrictions. Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron will be replaced in office with Republican candidates who petitioned onto the recall ballot." said  A Denver Post article from September 10, 2013.

The Koch Brothers, Evil, Very Rich, Greedy, and Willing to Destroy Our Environment, Economy, and Anything That Gets In Their Way

By kochbrothersexposed.com

October 17, 2013 article by PoliticusUSA exposed "The Koch-funded FreedomWorks issued a letter in February that said, “Conservatives should not approve a CR unless it defunds Obamacare.  This includes Obamacare’s unworkable exchanges, unsustainable Medicaid expansion, and attack on life and religious liberty.” If paying a surrogate to demand Republicans and teabaggers tie defunding the Affordable Care Act to keeping the government operating is not taking a position on the government shutdown and the continuing resolution, then the Sun rises in the West and the Earth orbits the moon." Read the Article

The Most Recent Example of Why There Is No Deterrent for The Greedy People To Stop Taking Everything From The American People;

 J. P. Morgan Chase

A month after JPMorgan Chase acknowledged that “severe breakdowns” had allowed a group of traders in London to run up $6 billion in losses, the bank has preliminarily reached a rare agreement to admit that the trading blowup itself represented reckless behavior, according to people briefed on the negotiations.

 Washington D.C., Sept. 19, 2013 — Securities Exchange Committee Press Release Sept., 19, 2013
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged JPMorgan Chase & Co. with misstating financial results and lacking effective internal controls to detect and prevent its traders from fraudulently overvaluing investments to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars in trading losses.

The SEC previously charged two former JPMorgan traders with committing fraud to hide the massive losses in one of the trading portfolios in the firm’s chief investment office (CIO).  The SEC’s subsequent action against JPMorgan faults its internal controls for failing to ensure that the traders were properly valuing the portfolio, and its senior management for failing to inform the firm’s audit committee about the severe breakdowns in CIO’s internal controls.

JPMorgan has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying a $200 million penalty, admitting the facts underlying the SEC’s charges, and publicly acknowledging that it violated the federal securities laws.

Firm Must Pay $920 Million in Total Penalties in Global Settlement. Now you might look at this and say, "that will teach them," but no it won't. If I said to you I will give you $6 Billion, but then later I'm going to take $1 Billion back, and NO ONE will go to jail, would you take that deal? Damn right you would! Everyday!

So there is no deterrent for these greedy, selfish, people to stop taking everything they can get from the rest of us. Period.

Photo by uphamscornernews.com

So, You Ask, What Can I Do? 

YOU CAN MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD BY CONTACTING YOUR CONGRESSMEN/WOMEN AND SENATORS ON A REGULAR BASIS ON ANYTHING THAT YOU FEEL STRONG ABOUT!!! Can I say it any louder?

Use these links to find out who your Congressmen/women are, if you don't already know. All you need to know is your address and zip code. These sites will allow you to contact your Representatives via e-mail or even call their offices. These Politicians DO feel pressure when many of their constituents (you) contact them.

CONGRESS: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

SENATE: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

We common, middle class, all Americans must take our country back. It won't be easy. We must stay on top of the politicians, because you can bet that the big money special interests will not stop putting more and more pressure on our elected officials. Join the fight for America or we can only expect more inequality, more damage to the environment, more stagnant wages, and overall a country that only serves the rich and powerful.