The Economy Killing Patriot Act?

Unconstitional, Destroyes Business, and Leads To A Police State. A Repulicrat Trifecta. LGMC

By Jamie

This is something I never thought of, the stronger hand of our government, at the behest of the Patriot Act, actually hurting us on the tech front. It turns out that is exactly what is happening:

Cloud computing is a gold mine for the U.S. tech industry, but American firms are encountering resistance from an unexpected enemy overseas: the PATRIOT Act.
The Sept. 11-era law was supposed to help the intelligence community gather data on suspected terrorists. But competitors overseas are using it as a way to discourage foreign countries from signing on with U.S. cloud computing providers like Google and Microsoft: Put your data on a U.S.-based cloud, they warn, and you may just put it in the hands of the U.S. government.

Cloud computing is a huge boom right now. Instead of having to buy one big server, you get little slices of servers all over the place and they can work together as one. Think of it as turning a computer into an actual service, where you use what you need and only pay for that.
Need more power? Not a problem as the cloud will instantly grow to what you need.
To the layman this might not seem that important, but it is. Cloud storage is actually becoming common in smart phones. Instead of having to buy larger memory cards, you can store your documents on a cloud drive and access them from anywhere. The technology is still relatively new, so expect it to grow rapidly. as matter of fact, expect it to grow a lot:

enlarge

In the next year or so there's a good chance cloud computing will be part of your life if you know it or not. There's actually a big chance that it already it.
This service has also been pretty much offered only in the U.S., but other countries are now starting to offer the technology. That means things like this can be a good deterrent to foreign companies from using our service:

The PATRIOT Act, which had key provisions extended by President Barack Obama in May, has become a flash point in sales of cloud computing services to governments in parts of Europe, Asia and elsewhere around the globe because of fears that under the law, providers can be compelled to hand over data to U.S. authorities.
While no foreign governments have moved to block U.S. tech companies, authorities in the Netherlands as recently as September floated the idea of banning U.S.-based cloud firms from competing for government contracts. And Verveer said on a trip to Germany in October that technology firms based in that country were openly using the PATRIOT Act as a “marketing proposition” to raise questions about U.S. cloud firms.

Not only that, but it also means U.S. companies might consider using foreign cloud services to store data in hopes that the U.S. can't easily/legally access their data. Think of it as swiss banks for data.
With the big boom in cloud computing and the stagnant U.S. economy, keeping this product here at home should be a priority. Instead we have washed away freedoms and rights because of that horrible day in 2001. Now our "safety" trumps anything else and that even includes our potential to exceed in a 21st century. Maybe it's time we reverse that thinking and try to make America the envy of the world again?

Another Debt Serf Wakes Up And Takes Charge Of Their Life.

I Said No to My Student Loan: One Borrower's Decision to Stop Paying

By Natalia Antonova, December 4, 2011  

I am aware of the total lack of consumer protection associated with student debt. But I took a long, hard look at the numbers, and I realized that I am already a slave.
  

 I’ve been in a panic these last few months. Making minimum payments on my student loans serviced by Sallie Mae Inc. was no longer merely a challenge – it was getting impossible. After making some awful sacrifices to refrain from defaulting (see more on that below), I’m in a corner.

I am aware of the total lack of consumer protection associated with student debt. I knew that if I was unable to make my minimum payments, they would hit me with late fees, penalties, etc. They would harass me. In ruining my credit history, they would make it impossible for me to get access to basic services. Forget about taking out another loan – I’m talking about not being able to rent an apartment. And defaulting would not only mean a ruined credit history, it would mean that my debt would double, triple, quadruple, etc…I would be a slave forever.

But I took a long, hard look at the numbers, and I realized that I am already a slave.

Here is a screenshot of the current status of my Sallie Mae loans as of November 27, 2011 (click to enlarge):

Notice anything?

Original balance: $37,099.00

Current balance: $35, 908. 41

I’ve been in repayment since 2006. I had to do one deferral – as to not default. I signed up for a program to minimize my payments that, I was told, was beneficial to someone who is going through financial difficulties – yet I regularly made payments over the minimum payment.

Because Sallie Mae helpfully provides a payment history, I was able to whip out a calculator and count up the exact amount I have paid over these last few years.

That amount is $23, 449.65

I was done before I even knew it. And applying for more deferrals will send me deeper and deeper into debt. Decades and decades of payments – as I grow old. There’s no end in sight. The system counts on this. The people setting it up knew that most of us would not be able to sustain payments over time.

Read More: Here

Easy Action For Every "Human" Person. Return The Constituion To The Original Intent.

January 20, 2012: Move to Amend Occupies the Courts!

Inspired by our friends at Occupy Wall Street, and Dr. Cornel West, Move To Amend is planning bold action to mark the second anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. FEC decision!

Occupy the Courts will be a one day occupation of Federal courthouses across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday January 20, 2012.

Move to Amend volunteers across the USA will lead the charge on the judiciary which created — and continues to expand — corporate personhood rights.

Americans across the country are on the march, and they are marching OUR way. They carry signs that say, “Corporations are NOT people! Money is NOT Speech!” And they are chanting those truths at the top of their lungs! The time has come to make these truths evident to the courts.

Join us Friday, January 20, 2012 at a Federal Court building near you!

LAPD Lies and Then Offers Anonymous Reports And No Evidence To Support Their Actions.

Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Undercover LAPD Infiltrated Occupy LA

By: Kevin Gosztola Saturday December 3, 2011 8:45 am

(photo: Occupy LA)

At least a dozen Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers went undercover to infiltrate Occupy LA, AP reports. A “police source” says they wanted to uncover information on the protester’s “intentions,” like what they were planning to do to “resist the eviction” or what plans they had to “use weapons against police.”

The source, who asked to remain anonymous, told AP “some protesters were preparing bamboo spears and other potentially dangerous weapons in advance of an expected eviction, none of which were used.” The AP report further notes “police downplayed the significance of the undercover work since Occupy meetings were public and easily tracked.”

Let’s put this all together: LAPD, in a city with at least a $72 million budget shortfall, paid for undercover police officers, who were unnecessary because Occupy meetings are open to the public. An anonymous police officer, who cannot be held accountable for his or her outlandish claim, says “bamboo spears and other potentially dangerous weapons” were being prepared to use against police but were not because Occupy LA probably never prepared any such weapons for attacking police. And if they were going to do use weapons, they would have mentioned them in their General Assembly so meeting notes would show whether protesters had planned to do anything in self-defense that police would construe as “resistance” or “violent.”

This is no different from Phoenix police alleging Occupy ALEC protesters assaulted them with “nail-filled sticks.” Such nonsense is police speak for when we were doing “crowd control” we were touched by the sticks holding up protesters’ signs. So, something in the camp can be in some alternative reality made to seem like a bamboo spear and some other objects are in a parallel universe possibly similar to weapons one would use to hurt people and that is what this “police source” is citing.

Additionally, nearly 200 of the remaining Occupy LA protesters, who had been arrested and were in jail, were released yesterday. Some of them had endured what can be only characterized as sadistic abuse while in police custody. In fact, Yasha Levine of eXiled Online was arrested and wrote a post about being in jail that included horrifying examples of abuse. Levine also noted:

292 people arrested at Occupy LA. About 75 of them have been released or have gotten out on bail, according the National Lawyers Guild. Most are still inside, slapped with $5,000 to $10,000 bail. According to a bail bondsman I know, this is unprecedented. Misdemeanors are almost always released on their own recognizance, which means that they don’t pay any bail at all. Or at most it’s a $100.

Read More: Here

The Deception of Media - 12/5/11 Times Cover

We love America, don't get us wrong, and realize there are different editions for different parts of the world BUT when you see the difference of what the world is reading vs America, it is sad.  Watch the first 8 mins 15 sec - the last part is a bit much since no one can really predict currency but the majority of this brief video offers a poignant message.
    
   FRONT PAGE IN THE U.S.     FRONT PAGE IN THE WORLD

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Judgment day for housing shadow inventory already here – Foreclosure inventories reach an all-time high. FHA and GSE loans only game in town.

This will not surprised those of us *enlightened & educated* but the next 5 years look grim - a massive amount of foreclosures in the pipeline and Obama & the Federal Reserve are still in the business of protecting the big banks and NOT the middle class - corrupt, sinful, insert your word here _____.

**************************************************************************
By: Dr. Housing Bubble
12/1/11

With the Federal Reserve promising to bailout the entire world it is hard to grab any headlines away from that kind of action.  In spite of putting the American taxpayer at risk for global debt issues especially when we have big enough problems at home we have now reached an all-time high with foreclosure inventories.  That is correct, the shadow inventory is still enormous and the number of homes owned by banks is now at record levels.  Of course this was all predictable like seeing a pig work its way through a python.  The large bet that has failed was the belief that simply holding onto overpriced assets for two, three, and even four years would somehow allow home prices to catch up.  The suspension of mark-to-market accounting and other shenanigans are now coming home to roost and home prices are making post-bubble lows.  In other words, the day of reckoning for housing is already here.  Don’t look now but foreclosure inventories are at record levels.  What does this mean for housing going forward?

Foreclosure inventories at record levels

Foreclosure inventories are now at post-bubble records:



Total home listed as “foreclosed” has shot up to 2.21 million.  The other two categories above show that there are still millions of other homes in the foreclosure pipeline.  What this means is that for a few more years, we will have pricing pressure to the downside.  Now most of the other two categories don’t even show up in MLS data since these are not completed foreclosures.  But with five years of data it is very likely that these loans will go through the entire process and become REOs.

There is no debate that the housing market is now fully into a double-dip:




READ FULL STORY HERE

Think about it this way...the banks probably did illegally foreclose and having said that, if this is how *they* treat America's *finest*, how do you think they are treating the rest of us in the 99%?  SHAME ON ON YOU BofA, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and the rest of your corrupt brothers...

US Military, please take this as a CALL to ACTION - you are out there sacrificing your lives for this country and should not return home to a foreclosure, joblessness and despair - you are a part of the 99%. 
*****************************************************

Did banks illegally foreclose on active-duty troops?

By FRANCO ORDONEZ, McClatchy Newspapers

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C.The U.S. Treasury Department is investigating whether Bank of America, Wells Fargo and eight other major banks may have illegally foreclosed on 4,500 active-duty servicemen and women.
Bank of America has agreed to review more than 2,400 foreclosures of homeowners who indicated they were eligible for relief under a federal law called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, according to the Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Wells Fargo has agreed to review 871 foreclosures of homeowners who indicated they were eligible under the act. The law is intended to postpone or suspend certain civil obligations to allow active-duty service members to devote their full attention to their military duty.

The other banks being investigated are Aurora Bank, Citibank, EverBank, HSBC, MetLife Bank, OneWest, Sovereign and U.S. Bank.

Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., called the alleged improper foreclosures a "flagrant disregard for a law that has been on the books continuously since the First World War."

"If you're wearing the nation's uniform, if you're deployed in harm's way in service of your country, you should be able to focus your entire energy to our nation's service without worrying what's happening in a courthouse back home," Miller said.

The review is part of a larger examination that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is conducting on 4 million borrowers who may have been improperly foreclosed on in 2009 and 2010.

Bank of America spokesman Rick Simon said it's unlikely that there will be a large number of improper foreclosures from the broad population of 2,400 loans identified in the initial process. "And if any are found, we will pay compensation, as we are doing in the 157 cases identified in the settlement with (the Department of Justice)," he said.

Wells Fargo officials say the investigation doesn't mean anything improper was done.
"These foreclosure actions will be reviewed by our independent consultant to determine if there was financial injury due to service error and, if so, the borrower may be eligible for compensation or other remediation," said Tom Goyda, a spokesman for Wells Fargo.

Bank of America officials said the bank is building up programs to provide more support for military customers that would exceed the requirements imposed by the service members act.

"We work hard to ensure our military customers receive high-quality service that caters to their unique needs," Simon said. "When we find mistakes, we address them."