A Con On Top Of Another Con?

For God's sakes....when will it stop?  I just read that mortgage brokers or going to become credit counselors.  Now, these are the same mortgage brokers that conned all of those home owners into the those sub prime mortgages that are causing them all of these problems?  Now you've got these con men going after the same people they scammed before.  What?  They didn't get enough of their money before?  I guess these con artists are going to keep going until they get every single penny the poor homeowner victim has, huh?  Or, maybe not.  Maybe these con artists (i.e. mortgage brokers/credit counselors) will keep the victim "alive" enough to keep their cash cow viable.  Are these guys now going to go into the credit counseling business, muddy up the water so much that when they victimize more people it will still be hard to determine who is at fault, who did what, etc.?  I'll bet my money that they will.  After all, they did it to the mortgage industry. 

I think that ANYONE who built their mortgage brokerage business primarily on selling sub prime loans should be forbidden from doing ANYTHING in the financial arena and forced to work for minimum wage in the fast food industry.

The Stupid Cow

Do you remember when you were in grade school you had that one classmate that would be the one to constantly run to the teacher to tell about something another classmate did? Well, that is The Stupid Cow in my workplace. I previously explained who The Stupid Cow was in my blog about The Estrogen Club.

The difference between that tattle-tailer classmate and The Stupid Cow is that the classmate didn't go running around to the others within their clique and tell them what they found that someone did "wrong" or offended them. The Stupid Cow does.

I just witnessed The Stupid Cow bitch and complain about something that The Stupid Cow perceived as being offensive to them. The Stupid Cow (I will refer to them as TSC from now on) made a point of going out of their way to tell The Hen (TH) and Miss Piggy (MP) all about it. TSC then proceeded to spend an hour bitching and complaining to another executive about the whole situation. Essentially, backstabbing the one person whose nature is not to offend and makes every attempt to work with everyone. This person has gone out of their way numerous times to help TSC out.

What was the offense? Well, the person (I will refer to them as The Victim) did nothing more then go into TSC's department to look up some information about a specific job that was stored company files that were in TSC's department. What was offensive was that The Victim did NOT ask if she could look in the COMPANY files, didn't fully explain what she needed and why, didn't give TSC the full scoop of what was going on. Never mind that The Victim was well within her job-rights and responsibility to access those files without having to ask permission (the file contents are NOT under any confidentially rule or such...the files are stored as back-up and for reference).

Interestingly, ALL of the members of the Estrogen Club feel and act as if they run the company. They manipulate, arrange, or do whatever it takes for the executives to believe ONLY what they tell them. Using whatever means they can. And the executives are too stupid to see any pattern or verify that they are running with valid information.

I pray every day that if there is a God that these people get everything they have coming to them. I just hope it happens before they destroy too many other people's careers or job paths.

WHAT COSTS MORE PER YEAR THAN THE IRAQ WAR?

Illegal Aliens Cause Massive Cuts For US Seniors (http://rense.com/general79/seniors.htm)

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL's for verification of the following

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare and Social Services by the American taxpayers.http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two-and-a-half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report.http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period."http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States".http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

Total cost is a whooping... $338.3 BILLION A YEAR!!!

If this doesn't bother you then just ignore this blog, but on the other hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, then let others know about it.

Snopes is provided for doubters:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

Social Security Change For 2008

The United States Senate voted to extend Social Security Benefits to Illegal Aliens beginning in 2008. The following are the senatorswho voted to give illegal aliens Social Security benefits. They are grouped by home state. If a state is not listed, there was no voting representative.

Alaska: Stevens (R)
Arizona: McCain (R)
Arkansas: Lincoln (D) Pryor (D)
California: Boxer (D) Feinstein (D)
Colorado: Salazar (D)
Connecticut: Dodd (D) Lieberman (D)
Delaware: Biden (D) Carper (D)
Florida: Martinez (R)
Hawaii: Akaka (D) Inouye (D)
Illinois: Durbin (D) Obama (D)
Indiana: Bayh (D) Lugar (R)
Iowa: Harkin (D)
Kansas: Brownback (R)
Louisiana: Landrieu (D)
Maryland: Mikulski (D) Sarbanes (D)
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D) Kerry (D)
Montana: Baucus (D)
Nebraska: Hagel (R)
Nevada: Reid (D)
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D) Menendez (D)
New Mexico: Bingaman (D)
New York: Clinton (D) Schumer (D)
North Dakota: Dorgan (D)
Ohio: DeWine (R) Voinovich(R)
Oregon: Wyden (D)
Pennsylvania: Specter (R)
Rhode Island: Chafee (R) Reed (D)
South Carolina: Graham (R)
South Dakota: Johnson (D)
Vermont: Jeffords (I) Leahy (D)
Washington: Cantwell (D) Murray (D)
West Virginia: Rockefeller (D), by Not Voting
Wisconsin: Feingold (D) Kohl (D)

(note there are 9 Republicans, including Presidential candidate McCain!)

TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW. THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION, UNLESS THEY DON'T MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS who didn't pay in a dime.

I emboldened 3 senator's names because...they are running for President of the United States!

Your Life For The Almighty Dollar

Have you heard?  The Red Light Cameras are working TOO well.  The cameras were meant to stop people from running red light.  Well, now it seems that drivers are taking heed of those cameras as drive more carefully and don't run red lights.  That is what was told to the public by the Fat Cat Politicians who were promoting the traffic light cameras as others who were concerned about the abuse of those cameras opposed their use.

According to MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23710970/), drivers are so careful now that the municipalities are not getting enough money from fines from tickets given to drivers for running those red lights.  But a federal study found a small but measurable reduction in injuries nationwide in accidents at intersections monitored by cameras.  You would think that this would be fantastic news for the municipal officials because their intersections are now safer and the potential for people to get hurt decreases.  Nope.  They find other studies that show the cameras are not as beneficial for safety as previously thought.  But the truth be known it is a case of money.  With less money collected from tickets the cash cow, the one they said didn't exist nor was the purpose of the cameras for collecting money.  So, what are they going to do?  They are going to shut down the cameras...again citing safety concerns, but the real truth is that they can no longer fleece any money from drivers. 

City officials in Charlotte and Fayetteville, N.C., recently turned off all of their red light cameras, concluding that a state law diverting much of the revenue they generate in fines to schools meant their general funds were actually losing money and in Bolingbrook, Ill., officials ended their red light camera program after statistics showed a 40 percent drop in ticketable offenses.

So, the Fat Cat municipal officials could care less if you live or die...just leave them your money.  That's ALL they care about. Because as long as they could get money out of you, they fought tooth and nail to get to put up the cameras.  Now that they're not able to get your money, they are shutting them down.  When they wanted them up they cited safety issues, now that they want to shut them down they are citing safety issues.  The fact is that they fought for the cameras when they thought they were a cash cow....and now that they aren't, they don't care for them.

 

Let's Just Crap on the Little Guy...We Got Ours!

I read an interesting news story today.  It had to do with the on-going saga of Bear Stearns and their debacle.  It seems that while the executives were propping up their companies stock value with the scams from the sub prime mortgage loans, they themselves were taking in large amounts of money in forms of compensation and bonuses for the great job they were doing with the sub prime loans.  Over five years, from 2002 through 2006, Chairman Cayne took home total compensation — salary, bonus, restricted stock, and stock options — worth a combined $156 million. Current CEO Schwartz made $141 million. Former Co-President Warren Spector, deposed after the hedge fund debacle, did the best of them all, reaping $168 million. From 2002 through 2005, Bear Stearns proxy statements show that Cayne and his lieutenants, Schwartz and Spector, took home bonuses of between $9 million and $12 million each.

And the executives weren't stupid.  In 2006 they eliminated the nine metrics for bonuses and moved to basing them entirely on one measure — return on equity, a number easily met by Bear's executives once they were on the sub prime bandwagon. Cash bonuses jumped to more than $16 million for Cayne, Schwartz, and Spector in 2006. So, while they their compensation went up based on "good" performance, there are no clauses calling for the return of Bear executive bonuses if their previous performance was deemed bogus or their compensation does not get reduced based on bad performance. Cayne, Schwartz, and Spector will get to keep their money, a circumstance decried by the Corporate Library. "If you don't have callbacks," said Corporate Library's Nell Minow, "it perpetuates a musical-chairs culture where you hope your check clears before the music stops."

Who gets hurt?  Bear's biggest shareholders. Money manager Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss, owner of 11.5 million shares, and investor Joe Lewis, with 11 million, can only smart over their enormous losses — and hope that the company winds up fetching more than $2 a share. But they don't care about the other people that will get hurt...the employees of Bear Stearns.  Even though the employees owned about 1/3 of the outstanding shares, they never received anything close to the compensation packages the executives did.  Everyone else will move forward and life will go on for them, but the employees that get laid off...they will need to figure out how they are going to live until they find another job.  After all, they didn't make millions scamming the shareholders and others. 

But if justice REALLY exists, all of the executives should have ALL of their wealth taken away (after all they acquired it through scams and deceit) and be forced to work at minimum paying jobs for the foreseeable future.  Because after everything is said and done, they really don't care.  They got theirs.  They don't have to worry about being thrown out on the street.  They don't need to worrying how they are going to put food on the table (how much better can the executives and their families eat with over $150 million?).  I can't think of anything that could be bad enough to happen to those executives.  But then they have enough money to buy whatever kind of justice they want.

The Hypocrisy of the Workplace

Has anyone else noticed that there is a hypocrisy in their workplace or is it just mine?  I just watch certain situations where the current person in a position gets all of these special dispensations to their errors, miscalculations, and general faux pas.  Yet, when I remember their predecessor and how every little minor error (i.e. they signed an authorization in the wrong place, they miscalculated a timeline by a day or so, etc.) got blown up by certain people and "reported" to top management. 

Now, the current person in the same position miscalculated by weeks, doesn't even sign authorizations sometimes (they say they forgot), etc. and no one says a word.  Why is this?  It could be that the current person is liked by all of the others and is part of that special clique.  I guess it's true....it's not what you know, but who you know.  And the person you know doesn't even have to be placed that high up, they just have to have a big mouth.  You get enough of these type of people behind you and you can ruin anyone else and get what you want (not necessarily what you deserve) while getting rid of those you feel stand in your way.

Chickens Coming Home to Roost?

On Friday, Bear Stearns was on the verge of collapse (read about it here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23638138/).  Their competitor, JP Morgan, will be buying them out.  Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost.  It makes one wonder if the right people and businesses are paying the price for the scam, called sub-prime loans, that was foisted on the public.  Oh, yes...the people that are currently in default got into homes that normally they wouldn't even be able to afford to even look at.  But someone had to have told and assured them that they could afford them.  Someone had to have told them that they would be able to come out ahead...be richer for it in the future, or at least not be damaged by this scam.  Yes, people bought into it...but when dfo you stop blaming the victim of the con job?  Yes, it was a con job.  People were enticed and manipulated using the 3 key focus points that all con jobs and advertisements have in common:

1.  Make offers appealing to people's greed.
2.  Make offers appealing to people's ego.
3.  Make offers appealing to people's fear of loss.

The sub-prime loan was a purely manipulative con job.  Someone was going to get burned.  After all, how long and far could home prices go up?  But the people who came up with this con were not the ones that were going to be on the losing end.  Con artists generally don't.  Now who might these people be that were the sole winners in the sub-prime scam?  Follow the money.  Who gained the most from it?  Don't stop at the actual business entity...a business entity does NOT make any decisions or take actions on its own.  Someone there had to make the decision and put things into action.  Look through the news archives and find out who was the BIGGEST proponent/champion for the sub-prime loans.  Who gained the most and lost the least?  I think that if you follow the money you may be surprised.  None of the governemnt regulators are interested in getting to the bottom of the con.  And the politicians are only interested in getting re-elected.

 

The Estrogen Club

What is the Estrogen Club, you ask? I'm sure that you have one in your workplace, too. You just need to look around and you'll find it. As a matter of fact, depending on the size of your company you may have more then one. But the Estrogen Club is a group of people that spend the majority of their time:

1. Talking about each other behind each other's backs,
2. Talking and spreading rumours about others to each other,
3. Believe that they are more important then they really are,
4. Believe that no one is as smart as they are, and therefore everyone else is stupid,
5. Stab those people they beleive are stupid in the back.

There's probably a few other points here but I can't think of them. But is the Estrogen Club comprised of only females? Majority of the time, yes. But not always. The one I have to live with in my workplace has at least one male...and he belongs so that he can get all of the "scoop" on others fresh as it comes out of the group. Hey, how else are you going to torpedo people and their careers?

What makes this group so much worse then any other is that the members usually have the "ear" of someone with power over someone else's job and workload. But one way ot figure out if you have an Estrogen Club is to locate a few of the following people and see if they hang around together. The Club here consists of:

1. The Stupid Cow - knows nothing about anything she talks about and is the quickest with the knife.
2. The Diva - believes that the world revolves around her and that would cease to exist if she wasn't here.
3. The Hen - always in the middle of things and is the key person responsible for making sure everyone else in the Club is in the know.
4. Miss Piggy - thinks she is the head of the Club and has all of the power. This one is the most vicious member.

Do you have an Estrogen Club at your workplace?

Life With Double-Standards

What a lousy week this is starting out to be.  In dealing with a major project I was in a discussion with a group of people pertaining to tasks that still needed to be completed.  We had just lost a person (I came to find out they were let go last Friday...but no one is saying why).  Another person stated that they were not going to be able to get their task completed in time (it is/was due tomorrow) and they were told that it was OK and no problem if they missed their due date.  Hmmm.  I was in the same position last week when I stated that I was possibly going to miss my due date of NEXT WEEK because of the delays from other areas and my current workload.  What was I told?  "WORK HARDER".  Maybe I should have waited until the day before it was due and said that I was going to miss my due date.  Or maybe it's because I don't spend vast amounts of my work-time BSing with the executives.  I know I'd love to take more time out of my schedule and spend it kibitzing with the corporate executives...BUT I CAN NEVER GET IN WITH THEM BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS HAVE ONE OF THEIR KISS-ASS "PETS" IN THERE WITH THEM.  And, yes, that includes the one announcing today that they are going to miss their due date.

Talk about stress.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.  I know I won't be able to push the issues too much...because I don't have another job set up for myself.  And I really don't want another one because things will NOT be any different.  I'm never going to be able to be the one that just sits back, barks orders, lets everyone else do the work, blame others when things are not done or done incorrectly, and be a member of the BS Club.

Boy, what I'd give for my own business.

Tired of Other People's Agendas

Another miserable day...another miserable dollar.  I am just soooo tired of having to deal with everyone else's agenda in the workplace.  I know that when I started working my current job that I didn't sign up to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that someone else didn't have to do anything except tell anyone who'd listen about great they are.  It is just so frustrating that I'm stuck here.  I'm stuck becuase no matter where I go, I'm going to run into tyhese same type of people.

All I want is a job that I get to do wiithout having to deal with anyone else or their agenda, hidden or otherwise.  I don't want a job where I have to pick up the slack for anyone else.  I want to know what I have to do and just be allowed to do it.  Without having to listen to anyone else on how they would do the job...because they've never done it.  I want to be able to set my own hours just like the executives do and still get paid the obscene salaries that they get.  No, I don't know the exact amount they get, but if they get more then $1 per hour for what they do, then the salries they get are obscene.

I like to believe that there are few regrets in my life, but there isn't a waking moment that I don't curse the career-path decision that I made years ago.  Now, because of obligations and the people around me, I'm absolutely stuck on the road and I can't change my career without adversely impacting my ability to pay my bills and feed my family.

But I am certain of one thing.  I am sure to go to heaven when I die becuase I am living myn purgatory now on earth.

 

The Workplace As A Social Environment

Do you feel that your workplace is an extension of your social network?  Do you view your co-workers as your friends?  This is a very interesting question.  Speaking for myself, I choose my friends very carefully and wisely.  Just because we work at the same place does NOT make us friends...automatically.  I know that friends are people that have some things in common and that sharing a place of employment may be considered as having something in common.  But in most cases that is where it starts and ends. 

I do not consider those that I work with as my friends.  Why?  Because people I choose to be my friends do not stab me in the back.  They don't try to weasel their way into my life in order to gain some information about me to use to their advantage, either in prestige or in their career.  At work I am a very closed person when it comes to my personal life.  Those that I choose to include in my life are the ones that I will open up to.  Those people are the ones that I will put on my list of trusted people.  However, once that trust is violated I remove those people from that list.  I still may be cordial to them and particiapte in meaningless chit-chat, but no longer will I allow them "in".  And once you are off of my "list", you have a better shot of growing wings and flying to the moon then ever getting back on my "trust list". 

The workplace may be a microcasm of the real world, but I don't trust everyone in the world.  I have seen too many people, too many times, endear themselves to people only to use that friendship to feather their own nest or to advance their own careers.  To illustrate what I am referring to, I knew a person who worked in the casino industry.  As usual he tended to gravitate toward the one group of people that he's been working with for years. 

Now, this person has always been a dependable dealer who didn't call out that often and was consciencious about their job.  He was always focused on the casino customer and always worked in such a sway that it was fun to be at the table with him.  In due time the union tried to make inroads in the casino.  The union would pass out info and such to the dealers.  Well, this one time the group is sitting in the break room discussing everyday things and one topic they discussed was the attempt by the union to get into the casino.  This person I knoew made only one comment...that maybe in light of what was going on in other casinos (i.e. very few part-timers being offerred full-time positions and that more and more full-time position schedule times were being filled by part-timers, etc.) that maybe they should find out more of what the union had to offer.  A few weeks later, this friend noticed that management was being very cold toward him and he got less of the desirable start times (as before they tended to be divided as equaly as possible).  At this same time he was trying to move up to a better shift (those that may be in the casino industry may relate to this) that would be more convenient for him.  Well, he didn't get the better shift...but another one of his "friends" from the group did.  Coincidence?  Needless to say, he wasn't happy.  Then one time a supervisor asked him for a favor and to work a bit later on a game.  He replied to the supervisor that he didn't know why he should do anyone a favor when they didn't do anything for him...referring to the request for shift change.  The reply he was told was that if he wanted anything from the casinos then he shouldn't be so pro-union.  Hmm, wonder where the casino got that idea from?  The "friend" who did get his request for shift change fulfilled?  well, he was out of the "group" because he moved to another shift and never got to see them.  But I guess he got what he wanted.

The workplace is for work.  As a social environment it sucks.  People are manipulative and will sacrifice anyone else for their own benefit.  Exactly like our politicians act.

YES!!!!!

I'm so happy when the right person finally gets to pay the consequences of their action.  No, I'm not referring to the current subprime mess where they're still trying to figure out what happened and why.  That one is a no brainer...just follow the money and you'll find the culprit; which individual(s) made the most money.

What I'm referring to is the recent news story that Conrad Black reported to prison to begin his 6 1/2 year sentence (read details at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23454519/).  I don't know what he bases his believe that his conviction will be overturned.  Maybe he paid off some people at the higher court level.  Maybe he belives that he has been annointed by God and had every right to swindle people out of their money.  After all, he IS Conrad Black and deserves as much money and wealth as he can defraud out of people.  I'm just sorry to read that is it a low-security prison.  I hope that he isn't extended any special priviledges that the other inmates doesn't receive. 

I wonder if anyone will ever see any of the $6.1 million that Black is suppose to pay in restitution.  I doubt it...all he has to do is pay, his lawyers, only a fraction of the amount he is ordered to pay and they'll find some type of loophole or technicality that will  allow Black to keep his money.  But, hey!  Black may be broke and penniless and can't pay back the money.  What can he do?  HE CAN WORK IT OFF!!  Give him a broom and dustbin.

The last question I have regarding this situation is...

Does Conrad Black still retain his membership in the British House of Lords?