Paying To Be Raped

Every single day millions of us are being subjected to the shameful processes of being searched, screened and viewed naked, patted, groped, fondled, poked and stroked by badge-wearing strangers – police under a different name. Every single day. Millions of us, Americans. Being violated. Being degraded. You know exactly what I am talking about. I am taking about me, you, your mother, her brother, his brother’s wife and toddler son, their grandmothers. I am talking about the systematic degradation of our people. I am talking about being raped of our dignity, privacy, and decency. I am talking about a daily systematic rape we actually pay to be subjected to. I am talking about severe violations we elect people to bring upon us. Yes, I am talking about traveling, TSA police, and being reduced to naked and helpless subjects of government police practices.

Considering its short tenure, the motherland police force, aka Department of Homeland Security, has had a one-of-a-kind success. In less than a decade it is now the third largest cabinet police department. It has around 200,000 employees, and that’s without counting contract employees – which exceed this number. Now remember, we still have the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA…plus all the other state and local police forces from before. TSA makes up over 60,000 of DHS employees. This 60,000 federal police force oversees 450 airports, so that makes it around 133 police per airport. And that’s in addition to local airport police.

What do I mean by not so gradual and systematic degradation? I mean in less than ten years, they went from this:

to This then to This

And now to this, this, this, and this all together:

Next, coming soon, very soon, it will be This

and This

Last week TSA announced that airline passengers should expect to see and feel additional pat-down procedures at U.S. airports over the coming weeks to provide another layer of security. They said passengers should continue to expect “an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, among others.”

The following blurb comes from CNN, thanks to one of its employees who chose to speak up a little, only a little (all emphasis in bold are mine):

Rosemary Fitzpatrick, a CNN employee, said she was subjected to a pat-down at the Orlando, Florida, airport on Wednesday night after her underwire bra set off a magnetometer. She said she was taken to a private area and searched, with transportation screening officers telling her the pat-down was a new procedure.

According to Fitzpatrick, a female screener ran her hands around her breasts, over her stomach, buttocks and her inner thighs, and briefly touched her crotch.” I felt helpless, I felt violated, and I felt humiliated,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that she was reduced to tears at the checkpoint. She particularly objected to the fact that travelers were not warned about the new procedures.

Okay, up to this point I was pleasantly surprised to see this piece being run by a mainstream outlet, and the fact that this woman didn’t take the rape in silence and go away the way most do when it comes to these government sanctioned and implemented systematic rapes, but then I reached the following:

“I am appalled and disgusted at the new search procedures and the fact that passengers have not been made aware of the new invasive steps prior to entering the security area,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “It appears once you enter the security area, passengers forfeit their rights. There were no signs, video information, etc. at the entrance of the security area at the airport. Why?”

She added: “As an experienced traveler for work who was in tears for most of the search process, I have never experienced a more traumatic and invasive travel event!”

First, let me give her due credit for saying out loud that she objected and felt: helpless, violated, humiliated, appalled and disgusted. But after that, it is my turn to be appalled. Is the process supposed to get less humiliating, appalling, traumatic, and disgusting if the violators give prior notice about the violations, the rapes, to come??!!! Please walk with me through the following reasoning:

Two rapists are brought before a judge. One had caught his victim by surprise through a blitz attack, then violently raped her. The other had stalked his victim for a while, sent her some disturbing warning notes, and then violently raped her. Victim one turns around and tells victim two: Why do you feel violated?! Your rapist gave you the courtesy of warning notes – and that makes his rape much less of an offense than my rapist!!

My question to CNN’s Fitzpatrick is this: Next time, when these people squeeze your breast, poke your buttocks and stomach, and grab your crotch, will you feel okay? Far less violated? All because now you know what to expect?!

After reading the piece I quickly scanned other news sites, both mainstream and alternative. Almost all of them picked up the story and reported it per the original, and the strongest cursory comment at one site was that the story and Fitzpatrick’s experience was “unsettling.” Wow! How hard-hitting! But that was not what I found, and find, so very “unsettling.” Not at all.

What I find truly unsettling is that we only have a handful like Fitzpatrick who come forward screaming about the horrifying, humiliating, violating, traumatic …nature of these federal police practices (abuses) in all our airports. Now that is truly unsettling, shocking, and appalling as far as I am concerned. Millions are going through these routine rape processes (Yes, RAPE: raping you of your dignity, privacy, humanity, and more. Ok?!) without a peep. What is going on here? Have “their” systematic humiliation and degradation practices been so successful that millions take it regularly without any protest, objection, action, counteraction?!

I am talking about the hard-core ACLU following liberals. Where the he … are you?! I can’t hear or see you. Where is the protest? Give me a holler, and let me know where and when and I’ll be there to join. Here I’m hollering on the record. And no, don’t go file a couple of lawsuits and say that you’ve done your share; that lazy move hasn’t worked for at least a decade!!

I am talking about those on the extreme right of those mentioned above. What happened to your slogan of small government and keeping a tight rein on federal government practices? Isn’t this as close and personal it gets, when your feds are squeezing your testicles while breathing inches from your face, and while you are fully paying for these squeezing and probing services?! I thought you’d attributed these practices to those commies, shouldn’t you be barking when it is in your own backyard?

I am talking about old fashion patriarchal guys. Where are you macho and good ole cowboy mentality testosterone walking bags when your wives and daughters are being fondled, squeezed, and intimately probed? Shouldn’t you be roaring like lions and throwing punches like John Wayne when it comes to those who violate your “women”? Don’t you feel your manliness under attack when they make you stand in front of them, with your legs apart, arms up to each side, while their hands wrap around measuring your buttocks?

I am talking about us Americans, those to the right, the ones on the left, the upper class- lower class, and those in the middle…Here we are, the entire nation, being violated and raped on a daily basis by our servants whom we pay for dearly. Last time I checked we were paying them over $7 Billion – here it is with all the zeroes: $7,000,000,000. Please, don’t even try to bring up that “security” punch line so overused and abused, because last time I checked they were not providing much in terms of “security.” In fact they couldn’t even secure their own personnel files and records.

Soon they will be bending us over to give us a thorough cavity search. After that it will be all cavities… And after that…There will be one or two who may stand up and scream. And for “them,” one or two, even ten will be very easy to quash and “eliminate.” Yet, I am still here, still hoping; hoping that somehow I’ll get to see that number in the tens of thousands and beyond, and that’s the only hope I see to stop our expedited degradation process. They say it always starts with one. Well, here I am, willing to be one. How about you?

Reprinted with permission from BoilingFrogsPost.com.

November 13, 2010

Sibel Edmonds is the founder and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers. She has appeared on national radio and TV as a commentator on matters related to whistleblowers, national security, and excessive secrecy & classification, and has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The American Conservative, and others. Her book, Shooting the Messenger, co-authored with Professor William Weaver, is forthcoming from Kansas University Press in the fall of 2010.

Shock Therapy for Wall Street: JPMorgan Suspends 56,000 Foreclosures; GMAC and BOA Many More

Saturday 02 October 2010

by: Ellen Brown   |  WebofDebt.com | News Analysis

–Economist Karl E. Case, quoted in The New York Times.

The hits are coming fast and furiously. It appears major Wall Street mortgage lenders could again be in serious trouble – and looking again for handouts.

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: House Committee on Education and Labor, Emmanuel Huybrechts)

On September 20th, Ally Financial Inc., which owns GMAC Mortgage, the nation’s 4th largest lender, halted evictions and the resale of repossessed homes in 23 states. This was after a document processor for the company admitted that he had signed off on 10,000 pieces of foreclosure paperwork a month without reading them. The 23 states were all those where foreclosures must be approved by a court, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida and Illinois.

On September 24th, Representatives Alan Grayson (D-FL), Barney Frank (D- MA) and Corrine Brown (D-FL) directed a letter to Fannie Mae questioning its use of “foreclosure mills,” which were described as “law firms representing lenders that specialize in speeding up the foreclose process, often without regard to process, substance or legal propriety.” The letter followed a report by the Florida attorney general’s office in August that it was investigating three law firms that had allegedly fabricated documents in thousands of cases to obtain final judgments of foreclosure.

On September 24, California attorney general Jerry Brown asked GMAC to halt foreclosures in his state until the lender could prove it was complying with a law that prohibits lenders from taking steps to foreclose a home before making an effort to work with the borrower. California is a non-judicial foreclosure state, meaning foreclosures do not require the prior approval of a court.

On September 28, JPMorgan Chase said it was halting 56,000 foreclosures because some of its employees might have improperly prepared the necessary documents. All of the suspensions were in the 23 states where foreclosures require court approval.

On September 29, the Washington Post reported that a top federal bank regulator had directed seven of the nation’s largest lenders to review their foreclosure processes, after learning about widespread mishandling of homeowner evictions. Besides JPMorgan Chase, they included Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. The Washington Post noted:

“The paperwork problems range from potentially forged documents to bank employees who never read borrowers’ files before signing off on an eviction. . . .”While we don’t expect our review to find that consumers were harmed, we will take appropriate action if we find any impact,” JP Morgan spokesman Tom Kelly said.”

No harm perhaps except the illegal taking of thousands of homes without due process . . . .

On September 30, Rep. Alan Grayson posted a devastating seven-minute video, in which he gave four real-world examples of such travesties of justice, including a man who was foreclosed on when he didn’t have a mortgage and paid cash for the home; a home that had two foreclosure suits against it because both servicers claimed ownership of the title; and a couple foreclosed on over a contested $75 late fee.

Grayson blamed the massive foreclosure problems largely on the electronic shortcut called MERS. “The banks simply digitized mortgage titles into a privatized system, called the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (or MERS),” he said. “And it did the transfers by trading Excel spreadsheets among the banks and trusts, rather than endorsing the notes as required by their own contracts, by state real estate law and by IRS rules.” He stated that 60 million properties are recorded in the name of MERS — 60% of the mortgages in the USA, and 97% of the loans made between 2005 and 2008.

On October 1, Bank of America announced that it was delaying foreclosures in 23 states.

The same day, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal took the radical step of putting a halt to all foreclosures from all banks in his state.

All of this is a major headache for the banks, but according to the New York Times, “The companies say they are reviewing their procedures to take care of any violations.” They seem to think they can correct the problem by redoing some paperwork. But if the holdings in recent court decisions are upheld, it will not be just a question of hiring extra staff to clean up some files. For all those mortgages filed in the name of MERS, say these courts, the chain of title has been irretrievably broken. Humpty Dumpty has had a great fall and cannot be put back together again.

MERS is simply an electronic data base. On its website and in assorted court pleadings, it declares that it owns nothing. It was set up that way intentionally so that it would be “bankruptcy-remote,” something required by the credit rating agencies in order to turn the mortgages passing through it into highly rated securities that could be sold to investors. MERS not only has no assets; it has no employees. The thousands of people enlisted to sign affidavits on its behalf are merely conduits. The arrangement satisfied the ratings agencies, but it has not satisfied the courts. Increasingly, judges are holding that if MERS owns nothing, it cannot foreclose, and it cannot convey title by assignment so that the trustee for the investors can foreclose. MERS breaks the chain of title so that no one has standing to foreclose. The homes are effectively owned free and clear.

That does not mean the homeowners don’t owe money to someone. They do. But the claim for relief is not in “law” (by virtue of an enforceable contract or rule) but in “equity” (a remedy provided just because it is fair), and MERS is not the proper plaintiff. Every MERS case involves a securitization, which means the real parties in interest are a group of investors somewhere; and before the homeowners can be made to pay, the investors have to come forward and prove not only that they are the parties owed the money, but the actual sums they are owed. In some cases they might already have been paid; for example, by insurers on credit default swaps held by the investment pool. The investors are entitled to recover in equity only so much as they are actually out of pocket, not the full amount of the original promissory notes, since they were not parties to those notes and there is no way to re-establish the chain of title.

Foreclosures have been suspended by JPMorgan, GMAC and BOA in 23 states, but what about the rest? The others are non-judicial foreclosure states, which means they allow foreclosure through a power of sale clause in a deed of trust without going to court. The presumption is that if the lender doesn’t have to prove his standing to sue before a judge, he can proceed. State laws in non-judicial states allow the sale of a property to satisfy a foreclosure as long as the trustee follows the regulations concerning notice. That would seem to violate Constitutional due process, but the United States Constitution has held that due process protections apply only when the government is involved in the taking of property. When a deed of trust and promissory note are executed between two private parties (homeowners and lenders), there is no automatic due process protection. The homeowners agreed to it in writing; case closed.

But here’s the catch: what if the lender signing the original documents is not the party foreclosing on the property? Then it becomes a question of fact whether the foreclosing party has authority to proceed, and that makes it a judicial issue – a question of fact for the courts. If the foreclosing party can show a clear chain of title – an assignment or progression of assignments from the original lender to himself – he is home free. But courts have increasingly been holding that MERS breaks the chain of title. Foreclosure expert Neil Garfield argues that even in non-judicial foreclosure states, that means the investors have to go to court to prove their case. And when they do, they will run up against the brick wall of MERS. He concludes:

“There will be a head-slapping moment when title carriers, attorneys, judges and administrative agencies and clerks suddenly realize that the monster created on Wall Street has its equivalent in the public records of counties across the nation. I doubt if more than 6-7% of all the foreclosures in the past 10 years have resulted in clear title delivered to anyone. And the only corrective instrument can come from the original owner. That homeowner is sitting in the catbird seat and doesn’t know it. Millions of people who THINK they have lost their homes still own them and if anyone wants a signature from those people to clear title, they are going to be required to pay dearly, which is at it should be. Eventually the purse gets returned to the victim from whom it was snatched.”

Where does that leave JPMorgan, GMAC, Bank of America, and the other major lenders? Investors have massive claims against these banks, and so do homeowners. A major title insurance company has already said it will not insure title to properties foreclosed upon by GMAC until further notice. Moody’s has placed the servicer ratings of GMAC and JPMorgan Chase on review for possible downgrade, and the Treasury is asking regulators for an investigation.

Investment adviser Christopher Whalen thinks we could soon be looking at more Wall Street bankruptcies. If so, hopefully we won’t fall into the trap this time of underwriting the losses while letting the banks keep the profits. If we the people are picking up the tab, we should insist on owning the banks.

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

CHICAGO (AFP) – Labor and religious leaders in Detroit announced plans Thursday to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars from JPMorgan Chase to protest the bank’s refusal to freeze foreclosures in Michigan.

“This is a matter of life and death,” said Pastor Alexander Bullock of the Rainbow PUSH coalition.

“The words of Chase officials that they are willing to help the thousands who are living in undervalued homes and facing possible eviction is unconvincing in light of their refusal to seriously consider a moratorium on foreclosures.”

Some 1.42 million US homes have been lost to foreclosure since April 2009 in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, credit crunch and economic downturn.

While the pace is finally slackening, nearly 339,000 properties — or one in every 381 US housing units — received a foreclosure filing in August, according to RealtyTrac.

Economically hard-hit Michigan has been devastated by the combined crises and nearly 18,000 homes there were in foreclosure last month.

The withdrawal of funds from Chase was also prompted by the bank’s continuing ties with tobacco company RJ Reynolds Corp, the United Auto Workers union said in a statement.

RJ Reynolds has come under fire for refusing to engage in negotiations with labor organizers over allegations of low wages and unsafe working conditions at farms of contract growers in North Carolina.

“Chase needs to help unemployed homeowners in Michigan and underpaid farm workers in the Carolinas,” UAW President Bob King said.

“The bank could make a huge difference by suspending foreclosures and pressuring RJ Reynolds to do the right thing.”

About 1,000 demonstrators marched on Chase earlier this year.

At a subsequent meeting, union and faith leaders urged bank officials to implement a temporary foreclosure freeze and participate in a federal program to assist homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

Chase spokesman Tom Kelly declined to comment on the withdrawals, but noted that the bank has offered more than 900,000 mortgage modifications since the beginning of 2009 and that two of its 51 mortgage counseling centers are in the Detroit area.

The groups called for congressional hearings “on the failure of Chase and other banks to effectively implement federal programs calling for mortgage modifications to keep people in their homes” and urged others to close their Chase accounts.

A UAW spokeswoman declined to disclose exactly how much money was being withdrawn from Chase. But the statement said the total would be “hundreds of millions” of dollars.

The real Stephen Colbert

Comedy Central news anchor Stephen Colbert testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security today about his experience doing farm work with committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren earlier this year.

Colbert’s presence brought a much needed jolt of attention to the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, and his trademark satire exposed the argument of opponents as both uninformed and morally flawed.

Colbert impressively managed to stay in character for the majority of the hearing, but poignantly let down his guard to answer a final question from Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA). Asked why he was interested in working on this issue, Colbert, a Catholic, quoted from the familiar Gospel passage Matthew 25 to explain his desire to speak for the powerless.

COLBERT: I like talking about people who don’t have any power, and this seemed like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come but don’t have any rights as a result. And yet we still invite them to come here and at the same time ask them to leave. That’s an interesting contradiction to me. And, you know, “whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers,” and these seem like the least of our brothers right now. A lot of people are least brothers right now because the economy is so hard. And I don’t want to take anyone’s hardship away from them or diminish anything like that, but migrant workers suffer and have no rights.

I thought it was an inspiring answer and a great example of putting faith into practice.

WATCH: