Saturday Open Thread [10.29.11]
The appalling lack of empathy from a NY-based foreclosure mill led to a Halloween Party last year where the employees dressed up to mock people who were losing their homes or who were homeless. Joe Nocera at the NYT has the details and some of the pictures. You really need to go look.
Let me describe a few of the photos. In one, two Baum employees are dressed like homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a sign around her neck that reads: “3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served.” My source said that “I was never served” is meant to mock “the typical excuse” of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure proceeding.
A second picture shows a coffin with a picture of a woman whose eyes have been cut out. A sign on the coffin reads: “Rest in Peace. Crazy Susie.” The reference is to Susan Chana Lask, a lawyer who had filed a class-action suit against Steven J. Baum — and had posted a YouTube video denouncing the firm’s foreclosure practices. “She was a thorn in their side,” said my source.
What’s on your mind this snowy Saturday?
Tags: Open Thread
Over 200 foreclosed homes being auctioned in New Castle County on Tuesday November 8 (and every month).
Lady Gaga finally wins me over.
If you like that, you’ll love this
Tony at the Kimmel next Friday night.
Jonathan Schwartz just played the Lady duet.
They are supposed to have empathy now? Why? My concern is the illegal foreclosures happening every day not whether or not the people doing it have empathy.
Empathy is for us not the people whose legitimate job is to get the homes. What I do want is empathy from the federal government that gave trillions to the banks to use through a myraid of programs and didn’t buy the bad loans like in the days of the RTC. It was unreal. By allowing the overhand of the failed mortgages to continue to weigh down the economy, it has continued to hurt growth. This could have been over two years ago. We didn’t need stimulus. We needed restructuring. Stimulus is for a cyclical downturn in the demand curve. This was more akin to the panic of 1893. Different medicine was needed.
How very Christian of you — sanctioning making fun of people losing their homes or who have lost them. No one made the case that this firms shouldn’t be doing its job (although they apparently have some issues there) — the argument is that making sport of other people’s tragedy is very bad form.
Not that you’d get that. The Beatitudes are as far from your so-called Christian experience and it gets. And, of course, defending indefensible behavior from your wingnut allies is apparently your job.
“Fox poll says Fox News is failing: Most Americans not scared of Obama’s reelection” I’m loving that Daily Kos headline.
It’s not just that I like the standards/cabaret genre (I do), but the Gaga duet made me see her in a different light. Gaga had swing, humor, and a great voice. I could always tell she had some kind of talent, but I guess I just don’t like her pop material much.
I didn’t really dig the Winehouse/Bennett duet so much. At some points Winehouse was just bleating, and she really didn’t have any swing. The song didn’t really call for a lot of vocal ornament, but she added it anyway.
Would it have killed Winehouse to swing a little? Probably.
Winehouse had a tough song to work with. It was supposed to convey its emotion in a more understated way.
Also, those giant retro mikes in the Gaga video were just props. Who knows where the sound was really coming from.
I hear abit of Dinah Washington in Winehouse’s delivery there — no where near as disciplined or nuanced, but you can hear it, I think. Lady Gaga was a really surprise — what a fabulous voice with a great deal of humor and wit. She needs to do more of this kind of thing, I think….
I am concerned about the substance of fixing bad policy and helping people not worrying about whether people make feel badly or not about doing their jobs. You see Cassandra, that is one major differences between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives focus on the problem. Liberals often get tied up over things like this. Oh, they are so mean–so what. This doesn’t bother in the least.
What bothers me is as I said the fact that we spent trillions of dollars to bail out the banks through a myriad of programs and didn’t take care of the mortgage problems which is why this is an issue in the first place. My empathy is directed to solving the problem and helping people. Then there won’t be so many people for them to poke fun of.
This is still more bullshit from you. Conservatives have not focused on the problem of foreclosure mills treating people who have lost their homes or who may be homeless with utter disrespect. And the fact that conservative policies utterly trashed this economy gives the lie to your “focusing on problems” idiocy. You people are just working on who is crazier — and apparently, who is more thoughtless. Leave that crap on your own blog where whoever reads you appreciates it.