Daily Thoughts

We don’t like to say it out loud, because the religious right will jump on us, but to many people, Christmas means nothing.

I’m not talking about Jews or Muslims or any other religion, I’m talking about those of us who are not Christians, and are sick and tired of the commercialism and hype.

Why would retailers depend on one day every year to save their a$$e$?? That’s not a good business model, believe me. If there was no Christmas, then maybe they would be finding other ways to make money all year long.

This country’s economy is way too dependent on holidays. All the big sales revolve around them. Why don’t they just have sales for sake of sales? I personally think they should just mark everything down 25% once a month. That would probably be much better than waiting for Christmas to bail them out.

Power companies LOVE Christmas! All those glowing lights line their pockets plenty, let me tell you, and they don’t need to get back into the red. The power companies are some of the most profitable businesses on earth.

Turkey and hog farmers love Christmas. Nothing wrong with helping out our farmers, though…except those heavily subsidized corporate farms that are taking our tax dollars every year.

Whatever happened to letting businesses thrive or fail on their own? Why does the government have to bail everybody out? Boy, the bailout was HUGE Christmas gift to the banks and auto industry, while millions of families sit and wait to lose their homes after the first of the year when the moratoriums on foreclosures expire.

I have closets full of Christmas stuff, because believe it or not, I used to love Christmas. That was then, when I believed that people were basically good. I don’t believe that anymore, and I refuse to participate in the farce anymore.

There is no peace on earth, goodwill to men. There is no Santa Claus. Christmas is just another day that Christians can pull out their holier than thou attitudes, and the stores can make us believe that we can buy the love of our friends and family by giving them gifts, while putting ourselves in debt.

And don’t tell me Christmas is about family. Most families don’t get along. So many people dread having to get together with their families on the holidays, but it’s left unsaid because…well…it’s the freaking holidays! Well, I’m saying it. I have no desire to see my family, holidays or not. I haven’t had much to do with them in the past 11 years, and don’t plan to have much to do with them anymore.

Christmas is a bunch of people trying to buy love from people who don’t give a damn about them in the first place.

It’s just another day, people, and it’s a made up day at that. If there was a Jesus (which is debateable by many religious scholars), he was born in August.

I guess I should print a retraction, because I checked my county clerk’s website, and there has been no foreclosure notice filed against me. I guess that house must have been the other one on my street that was just auctioned off. I just find it very strange that they would even have a mortgage on that house, since they told me they didn’t write mortgages in Florida. I’ve found out that isn’t true. They do have several offices here.

I also found out that my county has a new law which requires mortgage companies to try to work out something with mortgage holders before they foreclose. I’m checking into that as well.

When I told her I was blogging all my financial woes, my friend said she would be embarrassed to do that. I figure if even one person can get helped by my situation, I’ve done a good thing. There are millions of people in my situation, so maybe it will give someone encouragement.

In the meantime, I’m decluttering and getting rid of just about everything I own just in case I have to move quickly. Once the decluttering is done, and I’ve literally packed up whatever I want to take with me, I may look into selling the house.

It will break my heart that I will lose out on making a decent profit. If I had sold two years ago, like I was planning, I would have made at least $70 thousand. Now, I’ll be lucky if I make $10, but at least I’ll be out of here.

The problem is, I don’t want to be out of here. I just want to be able to live without stressing every day.

Remember those names, because when I’m through, they will never forget mine. Merle Whitehead owns the largest real estate company in NY State, and the 7th largest in the country, Realty USA . This is the most recent article I could find on him.
His company bought First Priority Mortgage, and he is the CEO of that company. He is a very rich man.

This man bought my privately held mortgage. His company didn’t buy it, HE bought it. I was never given an account number or a payment coupon book. I was never put into their computers, from what I was told. Someone in his company just sent me a letter every month asking for my money. They haven’t sent one lately. That’s because I will be three months behind as of this month.

Two months ago, I wrote to them asking for a renegotiation. I laid out exactly what I needed to get on my feet. I got no response, so I contacted the President of the company (who I was told owns my mortgage, but I then found out I was wrong). I got a letter from their attorney informing me that they were considering my proposal. I haven’t heard anything since, despite my making several attempts to communicate with them.

I have been given a runaround and lied to by this company ever since I lost my job and informed them that I did not know how much longer I would be able to make the payments. I made my payment last month. I tried to make enough money to do it this month, but I couldn’t.

My house isn’t even worth much more than what I owe them, not because I was stupid and got an ARM I couldn’t pay. I’ve never refinanced my mortgage. I just live in one of the most economically depressed areas of Florida, and fell on hard times, like millions of other U.S. citizens.

I have said before that part of this is my fault, but not all of it. I won’t take responsibility for all of it. I’ve done everything I am able to do to pull myself out of this hole, but I have physical and mental problems that have made it impossible. I take responsibility for what was my fault.

On a whim today, I decided to see if First Priority had foreclosures listed on their website. They do. I believe my house is one of those listed, because it is the only on on my street listed, even though it has no address.

I’ve received no notices, nothing from this company, yet they possibly have foreclosed on my house and have it listed for sale. I don’t know if this is even legal. Could they have foreclosed on a Florida property through the NY courts without serving me with notice? Slimier things have been done.

I’ve been noticing people riding by my house very slowly. I think that First Priority is letting them drive by in an attempt to sell my house out from under me.

I can’t find out if First Priority Mortgage got any of the bailout money. I’m sure they did, considering who owns it.

When I am done, no one will ever forget the name Merle Whitehead or First Priority Mortgage. I won’t be just another statistic. Somebody needs to make this known, that this man, who has bought and sold more real estate than anyone in the United States, and is a multi-multi-millionaire, maybe even a billionaire, may not be what he seems on the outside. I don’t know him personally,so I can’t tell you for sure. I’m just stating the facts in my case.

There is no doubt whatever that he made multi-millions from the housing boom, that much is clear. He owned the realty company and the finance company. I thought that was illegal, but evidently not.  How can our government allow the people who are selling you the house to also finance it?  That should be covered under anti-trust or something.  It’s just plain wrong, in any case.

I’ve never been into social networking, but I will be now. I’m going to post this to every social networking site I can find. I’d appreciate it if you’d help me.

My friend got fired from Publix because he “stole” a pack of cigarettes. He was a manager, and had been for many years. He didn’t really steal them. He was closing, the registers had all been closed, so he took the cigarettes and left the money in the back room so they could put it into the next day’s till.

So, if someone can be fired from Publix for supposedly “stealing” a pack of cigarettes, what are we to do with the multi-millionaire executives who stole $700 BILLION of the taxpayer’s money? My money…your money…everyone’s money.

I do not use the world “stole” lightly. To my way of thinking, the whole bailout is a pyramid scheme cooked up by Bush and Co. to get their buddies as much money as they could before they left office.

How do we fix this? Can they redo the deal once Bush and Co. are gone? By then, will all the money be gone? And where the hell is all this money coming from? We have an astronomical deficit, so where did they get $700 BILLION dollars for these crooks?

And who is ever going to be held accountable for this? Will the execs ever be prosecuted? Where is all the money the mortgage brokers made from their crooked dealings? Will they have to pay any of it back?

I swear, I just can’t take much more of this. The anger is killing me! I’m struggling, and I mean really struggling, and these crooks are walking away with BILLIONS!!

No wonder people are killing themselves right and left.

I’m selling some items on Craigslist. One of them is microphone stands. These are generic, standard, $20 mike stands. I’m selling them for $10.

Someone contacted me about them, and wanted to know if I was ever in Sarasota (30 miles away), and if I would be willing to drive halfway to BeeRidge Road (20 miles away) to bring one of them to her for her 5 year old.

I thought she was pretty stupid, and probably had more money then sense. Sarasota women tend to be spoiled, rich women who marry for money, and never really develop any common sense. I told her that it would not be worth my gas or hers to do this, and that she could buy one for $20 in any music store. I was trying to be nice. Nice sometimes doesn’t work…entirely.

She wrote me back, said thank you for being honest, that she “didn’t realize” how far away I was. Nice, but still stupid. Ever hear of MapQuest? Then she closed it with “Which music store?”

WHAT!! I’m sorry to say I lost it. For one thing, we had already established that I do not live in her city, so how on earth would I know that??? Sent her a reply telling her to please use her brain and the yellow pages and look it up for herself. I admit, I sprinkled a couple of expletives here and there.

O.K., I earlier in this blog established that I’m NOT the kindest or most patient person in the world, but I did feel bad the minute I hit the “send” button. I thought I should write and apologize, but really, it wouldn’t do any good.

Anyway, someone who has enough (or little enough) sense to have a 5 year old child should have enough common sense to know how to find a music store in town, right? I thought so too.

Just for a moment though, I had a picture of her in my head, calling a friend to ask them instead.

I’m depressed, the economy is depressed, and apparently everyone in New York City is on drugs.

Seriously, I read today that more people in NYC are now taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds. Great deal for the pharmaceutical companies, huh?

That was probably part of this whole plan. Raise gas prices to outrageously ridiculous heights to make your oil buddies rich; give loans to people who didn’t actually qualify for them to make your banking buddies rich on fees and charges (and to make sure they got REAL property back for the FAKE money they were loaning); collapse the economy, but make sure you and your buddies get rich off of it first by making the already overburdened taxpayers pay for their yearly multimillion dollar bonuses, then make sure people get so depressed or stressed that your buddies in Big Pharm get their share as well.

God, I hate this President and all his lying, conniving, Ponzi scheming friends! I hate them so much I just cannot stand it.

We, the citizens, the ones who work our ASSES OFF to keep things going, have been turned into serfs. I don’t know how people are going to stand this. How will they survive it, emotionally? I may not, I tell you that.

I’m already chronically depressed, and every day, I feel like I’m slipping away a little bit more with every little tap that drives us further into the ground. I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. People tell me how strong I am, so what’s happening to the people who aren’t strong? Are they already sitting, babbling in the corner of a room in an insane asylum?

Suicide rates among the middle aged are rising drastically. I haven’t researched psychiatric admissions, but what do you want to be bet they have as well?

I can’t say anymore. I have to go cry now.

I seriously cannot see how anyone can think that giving bonuses to executives of companies like the mortgage banks that put us into this crisis are appropriate under ANY circumstances.  I think they all should be fire, no golden umbrellas, no bonus packages, and furthermore have their stock paid out at today’s prices.

I’ve long said that this whole $700 Billion deal was just a way to get a lot of taxpayer money to Bush’s buddies before he left office.  I think everyone knows that, but it’s so unspeakable, that no one will say it.

Well, I’m saying it!  This whole thing was orchestrated to give the most despicable, most corrupt, and most unspeakably horrendous group of elite businessmen mo’ money! mo’ money! mo’ money! before the Republicans got out of office and they didn’t have a chance to get it.  

 This country has been RAPED!!!  I do not speak that word lightly. The wealthy and powerful have literally RAPED our economy, and are walking away unscathed.  

WHY AREN’T WE MORE ANGRY???  WHY AREN’T WE MARCHING ON WASHINGTON, OR EVEN ON WALL STREET??? 

I’ll tell you why.  Because we are afraid.  We are now terrified of our own government, and what they will do to us, or know about us.  We are afraid that Homeland Security will come knocking on our doors if we dare to speak out, just like the Germans were afraid of the Gestapo, the Russians were afraid of the KGB, and the Iraqis were afraid of Saddam Husseins Elite Guard.

I’m not afraid.  I don’t have much, so they can’t take much away from me.  I’m telling you, something has to be done!  I would rather die than to see this country go down in flames while those asshats walk away with money falling out of their pockets and purses.

Anybody got any ideas?  Well, in the meantime, watch this, and maybe it will give you some. 

Appropriate  Compensation for AIG Executives

The gravy train has jumped the tracks, and the UAW is being toppled off of its throne. Just as the Steel Workers union and the Textile Workers Union destroyed their own industries, the UAW has just about done the same for the auto builders.

Auto workers in the American based Toyota and Honda factories make an average of $48 an hour in wages and benefits, as opposed to $70.51 for Ford, $73.26 for GM, and $75.86 for Chrysler. Even at this, the Japanese autos are better built, and they have kicked our butts where hybrid vehicles are concerned.

But the most outrageous statistics at all are these:

When a D3 (Detroit 3 carmaker) lays an employee off, that employee continues to receive all benefits - medical, retirement, etc., etc., PLUS an hourly wage of $31/hour.
Here’s a typical story….
Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working — on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.
“We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper,” he says. “Otherwise, I just sit.”
Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers as demanded by the United Auto Workers Union - UAW - as part of an extraordinary job security agreement.

In addition to this nonsense, retired workers also cost the company $31.00 an hour in pensions and benefits. That’s over $1240 a week, or almost $65,000 a year, per retiree. Since retirees now outnumber working employees 2 to 1, that’s quite a chunk of money.

Living in Florida, we have a lot of these retirees in our midst. Having lived here for 12 years, and worked in retail most of that time, I can tell you for a fact, that the retired Michigan auto workers are some of the rudest, most obnoxious people we have to deal with. They also have the strongest sense of entitlement. I guess that comes from making way too much money for way too long without having to get an education.

I, for one, will be happy to see the auto workers and the UAW get its comeuppance. It’s long overdue, and maybe it will humble some of these retirees that make our lives in Florida so miserable.

Sources:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?52,862419,862509
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/wm2162.cfm

This is the email I received from Google today:

Hello,

We understand you are concerned about the overdraft fee that your bank
charged you. Per your request, we are crediting your account balance with
an amount of $8 for the overdraft fee. However, please note that this
credit is a one-time exception, and it is not standard Google policy.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.

For any other questions, please visit our Help center at:
http://www.google.com/adsense/support.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Could it be I will actually get all this money? I doubt it. It just isn’t within the realm of their understanding, so this was my reply:

Thank you for responding to reason. Now please add all this together ($xxx.xx, $x.xx, and $8 for a total of $xxx.xx) and send it to me in a check ASAP, and I will never darken your door again. The worse thing that could happen at this point is for me to have to put Adsense back on my pages for the purpose of trying to work back up to $100 to actually GET that $8. No doubt, you’d find a reason to suspend my account once again so I would never receive it, and I would be forced to keep blogging about you forever. I’m sure neither one of us wants that.

Actually, it’s been pretty good for me, because I get a lot of traffic from this. Do you realize how many people out there actually don’t like Google? Amazing.

So just send me $117.88 and close my adsense account, and we’ll be done. How soon can I expect that check?

Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXX
Ex-Google Junkie

I fully expect to get an email saying that they can’t send me the $8 until I earn $92 more to go with it. Tune in for what will hopefully be the final chapter in the Google Adsense Saga.

This is the email I received from Google today:

Hello,

We understand that you are concerned about the payments of your AdSense
account. As mentioned earlier, a credit of $x.xx was applied to your
AdSense account for your earning for the current month and also $xxx.xx from the stopped check was credited back to your account balance. You will
receive a check this month for your finalized earnings.

Please know that Google is not liable for bank fees due to stopped checks.
According to our Terms and Conditions, publishers disabled for invalid
click activity may not receive any further payment and therefore,
payments on any outstanding checks may be stopped. We appreciate your
patience, and apologize for any inconvenience. If you
have any questions, please visit our Help Center at
http://www.google.com/adsense/support, or contact us at
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

What a load of BS. They screw me out of my adsense money, cost me overdraft fees, give me BACK my money (pretty much admitting they shouldn’t have done the aforementioned in the first place), then hide behind their policies to keep from paying me back a measly $8. This is my reply:

Sorry, not good enough. I know you aren’t going to listen, but a lot of other people are, because I’m putting this whole story, every letter, on my blog. You’re coming across sounding very arrogant and unconcerned with the pain you inflict on others.

I understand that according to your policies, you aren’t liable for bank fees, but this was YOUR fault, not mine. It would be a good moral gesture, and since I’m blogging all of this, it would be letting people know that you aren’t so petty as to make a mistake that costs someone money, then to use your policies as an excuse not to compensate them for YOUR mistake. I don’t even know why you closed my adsense. You’ve never given me a reason, just a nightmare. I tell you what. I’ll put up a poll, and people can vote on whether you should give me back my measly little $8.

It may be legal for you not to pay it, but your morality and general business sense is what is in question here. I can see not paying it back if I was the one at fault, but (by your own admission) I wasn’t, was I? Should I get punished for trying as hard as I could to obey the rules?

Your call, but your company is already getting a very bad rep with the government, so I read. Good will goes a long way.

Sincerely,

I’m sure it’s not over yet. They seem to possess a seemingly endless repertoire of canned BS to toss out when the occasion suits.

I will not give up. I want my money, and I want my $8, and I WANT IT NOW!