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.