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Gary Aguirre Major Source in Taibbi Blockbuster
Actually, no I absolutely dont think they are dumb. I think the robo-signing was all planned so that when all this mortgage fraud happened they could say "oh well we were victims of our own scam", instead of being held accountable because they intentionally participated in the fraud. Derivatives were created so that the bankers could cover their crimes and not be held accountable. So all these fraudulant mortgages that they supposedly accidentally wrote were repackaged as derivatives and now are in a million pieces. And now they can say "oops, we have no idea where all the money is". Most people dont understand that we are on the hook for 23.7 TRILLON dollars in derivatives. The banking meltdown was all coordinated not to get the 750 billion but to change the rules and to put the taxpayer on the hook for these trillions instead of them. I like Matt Tabaii, but my issue w/ him is that #1: he was a little late in his assessment. Even I could grasp at some level the fraud that was happening and was happening intentionally not as a result of incompetence and I could not believe no one was talking about it. Have you ever heard Catherine Austin Fitz? She is a wonderful whistleblower that worked for Bush 41 and was in charge of HUD. She has been speaking out about this for years and years and points to the fact that the fraud all centers around the housing market. #2: my issue w/ Matt is that he thinks all this fraud was accidental and not carefully choreographed and its just a bunch of bumbling idiots. Even Madoff said that there is no way the banks didnt know about all of the mortgage fraud. Sure if the banks were actually being held accountable and allowed to fall I may believe they it wasnt intentional, but what is the 1st thing that happened when Lehman fell? The investment banks quickly became regular banks. Thats because they knew all of their bad bets would be covered and they would never be held accountable.— February 18, 2011 1:27 p.m.
Waverunners on City's Shopping List
OK this is an issue we need to address. I have been swimming in the ocean for the passed 10 years. it is my favorite part about summer, but now I am absolutely terrified, not of drowning or being eaten by a shark but of being decapitated by a lifeguard on a waverunner. I wish I had had my camera. When I was in coronado I witnessed the lifeguards taking turns on the waverunner and FLYING like 70 miles an hour parallel to the shore 20-30 feet behind swimmers. they werent rescuing anyone just playing. they spent the whole day playing on these things. I was too scared to go for a swim and it really bummed me out that this was now so pervasive. I thought it was just a matter of time until someone was killed by 1 of these things the same way the lifeguards flying down the beach in there buggy ran over a sunbather and killed her. This is a bad bad bad idea.— February 18, 2011 12:33 a.m.
San Diego's water’s monopoly
I was just going to say everyone should rent "Blue-Gold". it is an excellent documentary on the issue. It shows everytime water has been privatized, quality and service has gone way down and prices way up. Its a bad bad bad idea. as horrible as the city is w/ water, the private companies are even worse. When I was combing through campaign contributions and lobbyists in the 2008 election I was struck by the amount of money by water lobbyists. That had not occurred to me prior. Also I'd like to say that it is contemptible that we live in a city where we cant drink our own tap water. LA and san Francisco, even New York City have excellent drinkable tap. I wont even cook w/ tap water. I tested the PH 1 day because it is supposed to be around 7. it was way way off the charts at 10!!!!— February 18, 2011 12:26 a.m.
Gary Aguirre Major Source in Taibbi Blockbuster
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/ive-got-iss… Here is the award Winning project. I went there today and low and behold there was a homeless guy sleeping in front of the empty commercial anchor store that has remained empty for years now despite the project being fully operational since 2006. It appears to me that the units are mostly empty judging by the fact that for the past 3 years I have been driving by at night and it remains in almost complete darkness. At any rate, I think that there was a tremendous amount of mortgage fraud where units were sold to non-existent buyers or ghost buyers. I used to work next to these lenders and they told us they pulled this scam of getting people w/ horrible credit and getting them huge loans for condos. They and the buyer knew they would intentionally default. They both made of w/ 10s of 1000s. Now obviously banks aren't dumb, they would never loan $500,000 to someone if they thought they couldnt pay it back....unless they knew there would be a bailout and unless they had a tool like a derivative where they could break that loan up into a 1000 pieces and no one could ever trace it. I suspect this is what B of A did. They played along and encouraged the fraud because they knew they would never be caught.— February 17, 2011 11:55 p.m.
Gary Aguirre Major Source in Taibbi Blockbuster
Hmmmm, very interesting. I knew Sd was an epicenter for alot of this evil. I bet the road will lead to Bank of America since the city does most of its financing through them and most of these "affordable housing" projects are funded by them. They need to write billions of dollars in fraudulant bonds. there is alot of chatter about the bond market and the lack of oversight or accurate info. BTW Don, did you see how the city of SD is scrambling to lock up 4 billion dollars in redevelopment projects before March 1st in case the Gov shuts it down. Its absolutely disgusting and someone has got to stop it. I was so appalled I went out today w/ my camera so I could take pics of a model award winning redevelopment project so people can see what we are about to get everywhere.— February 17, 2011 11:47 p.m.
Why Was Toni Atkins Consulting for Developers Vying for Redevelopment Dollars After She Was Elected to State Assembly?
Thanks Founder, I always appreciate your comments. You are right, I need to attend those meetings. I just worry that there is no reasoning, that this establishment has everyone under their thumb. Don Bauder points out that everytime we see these potholes and dirty streets and all our parks closing it is connected to this redevelopment sham. 10% of all property taxes state wide is 5 billion dollars a year. I am trying to figure out the most efficient way to fix things because I have realized that going project by project is exhausting and heart wrenching. I am trying to get to the root of it and that is the MONEY. And the roots of this problem lie w/in the State govt because they have not defined how this money is to be used. They have not defined blight nor have they defined what constitutes fixing blight.We also have to insist that the money can not be used to destroy the history or character of the existing neighborhoods. That is not what this money is supposed to be used for. If we could get the state to define that so that then these massive tenement slums are no longer an adequate use of funds because they are not adding value to the community. We have to take away the profit incentive and insist on REAL transparency so we see exactly how much profit they are making. $500k to build a 1200 sg ft piece of garbage is way way too much money. Obviously there is absolutely no transparency and its a win win for the developer and the politician. The developer is way overpaid, then the developer pays Toni Atkins and her wife to help them negotiate w/ the redevelopment agency to get the next windfall. Keep the public out of the process. For all we know Toni and LeSar could also be investors in these projects because they use Delaware LLCs so that the citizens only see the LLC name and never see the investors. This is illegal according to the Charter yet it is done over and over and over again and City Council never addresses it. I just hope Aguirre pops back on the scene. He was great at putting all these pieces together and coming up w/ solutions. Thanks again! :)— February 14, 2011 5:24 p.m.
Why Was Toni Atkins Consulting for Developers Vying for Redevelopment Dollars After She Was Elected to State Assembly?
It is such a scam!! Thats why they want the money so bad. They make way more money on these scam "affordable housing" projects than on private projects. The latest project at Folrida and El Cajon is allowing them to build a 7 story 175 unit complex in a single story craftsman neighborhood (originally approved by Atkins) and the developer was getting 15 million in property taxes so even if he built the 20% required for affordable housing thats only 35 units for 15 million dollars so they are getting almost 500K per unit!!!!! When you know it did not even cost 100K to build a unit.— February 12, 2011 10:59 p.m.
Why Was Toni Atkins Consulting for Developers Vying for Redevelopment Dollars After She Was Elected to State Assembly?
And really the impetus for me is my love of historic buildings and how fast we are losing them due to this multi billion dollar entitlement. Redevelopment should be a good thing but it is 1 of the worst things to ever happen to California and specifically to D3. It is amazing how fast buildings that have been in our neighborhood for 100 years are being demolished by these "redevelopment" projects that create blight rather than fixing it. Just drive down Florida Street and you will see what 8 years of Toni Atkins has done. 12 original craftsmans wiped out thrown into landfills. She didnt even try and relocate them or re-use the materials. Georgia Street is another example of how redevelopment destroyed the character and scale of that neighborhood. We have to address this ASAP before we lose everything. So I hope journalists may continue to investigate the roots of the redevelopment sham. We need people to wake up fast. Thanks!!!— February 10, 2011 12:29 a.m.
Why Was Toni Atkins Consulting for Developers Vying for Redevelopment Dollars After She Was Elected to State Assembly?
thank you so much! I'm just thrilled that people will take a closer look at these really objectionable conflicts of interest. This situation is very relevant as "redevelopment" is an enormous factor in the states budget deficit. It is also very very similar to what is happening w/ Judge Clarence Thomas right now. Many Democrats are asking him to recuse himself from the health care court cases because his wife is receiving alot of money as a lobbyist to kill health care reform. Atkins and LeSar are essentially lobbyists negotiating w/ local governments on behalf of their developer clients to get them as much state tax money as possible. It seems an obvious conflict, yet Atkins seems to think she can lead the Assembly in deciding whether to freeze redevelopment funds or not and her personal financial situation will not affect her decision. Of course the question is "is she representing her constituents or her clients"? She has always thought she could represent both and it is high time this issue is examined w/ a microscope. I suspect her and her wife have their money wrapped up in some Delawar LLCs so that we cannot see their direct financial gain from these developers.— February 10, 2011 12:01 a.m.
Jerry Brown Wants to Rein in Redevelopment Scams
My concern is that everytime I turn around Atkins is at an even higher position. She was just elected Majority WHIP! How did this criminal pull that off and why is no one speaking up? Atkins should be in prison not leading the House Majority.— January 28, 2011 2:03 p.m.