Fuck these guys.

The Washington Post had an article by Michael Sallah and Debbie Cenziper about Aeon Financial’s foreclosures. Aeon Financial has no owners, officers, or website, but it has been threatening to foreclose on hundreds of struggling homeowners. Aeon Financial is incorporated in Delaware, but has mail drop boxes in Chicago and is represented by a law firm with an address on an estate near Vail, Colorado. Because all of this makes since.

Naturally, Aeon has been accused of predatory and unlawful practices because of course. They have also been accused by local judges of overbilling. They have pushed to foreclose on more than 700 homes in DC. Aeon is a tax lien company that has little government oversight that moves from city to city with clever lawyers. Aeon employs a ton of different tactics. In the District they sent families threatening letters demanding $5,000 or more in legal fees. In Maryland, they filed 1,000 foreclosure cases in some of the poorest counties. In Cleveland, they took the deeds to dozens of houses and then failed to care for them prompting the city to level 100 code violations. Naturally, the Aeon execs didn’t return any calls about the Washington Post piece.

The District hasn’t been able to determine who owns the company and when city lawyers challenged Aeon to divulge its owners, the company filed a protective order. The Post spent three months looking at Aeon’s corporate history traveling between Chicago, Cleveland, and Maryland. They found that the trail began and ended with a Chicago lawyer named Mark Alan Schwartz. He is Aeon’s lawyer that bought 89 liens worth $65,000 from DC’s public auction. Over the next four years the company became one of the top purchasers in DC.

Aeon has been described as a machine, buying lien after lien and then demanding these high fees and payments showing no sympathy for the clients being foreclosed upon. In 2009, local judges stepped in and found Aeon’s charges unusually high and excessive. In 2010, Aeon stopped buying liens in DC, but they still have 300 active foreclosures. After this they moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland,oh Cleveland. Some of you may know that Cleveland was high hard by the foreclosing crisis right off the bat in 2007. That link takes you to an aerial view of where I grew up, Slavic Village (or South Broadway). It is pretty dated though because there is a school shown that has been a vacant leveled lot for at least six months to a year old. However, you can see all the vacant lots, well some there are many more, and with the foliage it is hard to see some of them unless you zoom in close. Although, I think I can count eight. The map also does you as a viewer a disservice because you can’t see which homes are vacant. For example, both of the houses next to my parents’ are vacant, recently one had the aluminum siding stripped off it because aluminum is still worth something, well that and copper. The spray paint on the doors which houses are vacant because of drugs and which one’s are missing the copper because people were stripping it incorrectly and the homes were burning down.

Aeon spent $25 million buying thousands of homes in Cleveland and the surrounding Cuyahoga County. In DC, homeowners tried to pay the fees. In Ohio, we didn’t. I mean that shouldn’t shock anyone. There is no money here. There never has been in the neighborhood I’m showing. Aeon foreclosed on more than 400 properties in Slavic Village. Aeon then couldn’t sell the properties because obviously no one has any money to buy them. The houses were left to rot, which prompted city inspectors to condemn 41 properties and issue 100 code violations. It is hard to describe this kind of decay and the impact it has on those who live there.

One of Aeon’s major lenders was CapitalSource Bank, which was founded in 2000 by John Delaney, who of course was elected to the US House of Representatives. Because where else would the men responsible for this be? One of Delaney’s spokesmen claimed he had no knowledge of the Aeon’s problems in Ohio or DC.

An attorney for Aeon in Cleveland didn’t comment, but over the last year, attorney Kirk Liederbach claimed Aeon had invested heavily in the city and “didn’t contemplate” taking title of so many rundown properties. I can’t say I’m sorry for them. Reap what you sow, buddy. Prey on the weak, vulnerable, and very literally powerless (44105 as some of the lowest property rates in Cuyahoga County making it a Mecca of sorts for the recently released from prison, you know men of color who can’t vote), but you can’t get blood from a stone.

Jay Westbrook, a 33 year member of the Cleveland City Council, says the company refuses to take responsibility, “Aeon has an extra-vicious business model—take no prisoners, take no responsibility.” Aeon is dropping property in Cleveland fast, which has prompted some city council member to question whether the sales are legal or attempts to get out of the fines and violations. Aeon’s lead agent who signed the deeds was John A. Lord, who was permanently disbarred in 2007 for deceiving and abandoning clients and keeping their money. He had no comment either, of course. Lord also signed legal documents to foreclose on homes in Baltimore.

DC officials still don’t know who owns Aeon. Aeon refused to share financial records filing a protective order. The District agreed to stop pressing the issue if Aeon swore the Schwartz’ law firm had no ownership, but Aeon refused again. A judge focused on Aeon’s legal bill saying it is “rife with inaccuracies and vague descriptions.”

The Post continued to do some digging and found the Aeon Properties, the predecessor of Aeon Financial, was run by Schwartz’s younger sister, Stacy Lynn Schwartz, a clinical social worker. To which I scream shenanigans. WTF? A social worker has a code of ethics and values, this woman if she proves to be involved in this should lose her license. In 2011, records should Schwartz listed as a director, as was his sister and a neighbor, Robert Mesch; these records were in Kentucky because why not?

Records show that Axis Investment Holdings Trust, which apparently shares an office with Aeon in Chicago’s Willis Tower, has ownership of both Aeon Financial and Axis Capital. Someone should probably check out Axis Capital. Schwartz is CEO of Axis Capital, which has a subsidiary, Records Direct. The suite in Willis Tower is registered to Records Direct. I’m going to need a flow chart.

In Schwartz’s divorce proceedings it came out that Schwartz and his wife were used to a lush lifestyle, but the economy hurt him. *sads* People in DC think the city should continue to go after Aeon and determine ownership. Nickles, a former DC attorney general, said DC should pursue the case, “This is debt collecting that leads to the destruction of the lower economic level of the community. Anyone who would be behind that kind of scheme—and it was a well-thought-out scheme—I don’t think they would be very happy about their names being disclosed on the public record.”

Names on the public record? That’s the worst we can do to them? I take issue with some of what Nickles says because as long as we employ an economic system that encourages the exploitation of some for the benefit of others I don’t see how what Aeon is doing is different than what Walmart, McDonalds, or any other poverty-wage employer. I’m reminded of that tactic going around after the banks sold all these bad loans, which was refuse to pay until they show you the paperwork. Well, fingers-crossed, DC goes after these bastards and get some kind of results.

Steubenville defendants found guilty and everyone learns nothing

I shouldn’t have been worried. I shouldn’t have been holding my breath when the verdict came down, but I was. Like a lot of other people. It is because so few rapes are prosecuted and even fewer have convictions, and this was all taking place in a town where no one wanted a guilty verdicts. There isn’t a doubt in anyone’s minds that these two men raped this girl, but their futures are somehow more important than her future just ask CNN (which I’m going to get to).

Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond were found to be delinquent (which is a juvenile version of guilty) on all three counts as charged and have to serve a minimum of one year, but could serve a max until there are 21. Additionally, both men were told to avoid contact with the victim until they were 21. The fourth day of testimony included the testimony of Jane Doe, who was raped by the two men after a night of partying. Obviously, the defense trying to make it about Jane’s behavior as if that gives anyone the right to violate another human being, while the men got a “boys will be boys” defense.

Just to be clear, yes, both men were crying after the verdict, but no, they didn’t show any remorse. Because they still don’t think they’ve done anything wrong by degrading a human being and capturing it on film. Opps, yep, they do feel bad they kept the evidence. The guilty verdict doesn’t place both men on the sex offenders’ registry in Ohio that will be determined after time served.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced he wants Jefferson County Common Pleas Court to convene a grand jury to find it “any other individuals committed any crimes.” Like covering up a rape? Conspiring and facilitating the sexual exploitation of a minor? Maybe even trafficking for the purposes of sex if they took her over state lines? Yeah, other crimes were committed. DeWine said this:

“A grand jury is an investigative tool that is uniquely suited to ensure fairness and to complete this investigation. And this community needs assurance that no stone has been left unturned in our search for the truth. Rape is not a recreational activity. We, as a society, have an obligation do more to educate our young people about rape. They need to know it is a horrible crime of violence. And it is not ok.”

 An aside, I heard on podcast this morning, there may have been more victims. That while the police were gathering evidence they found images of two more girls in states of undressed on distinctive carpeting. I don’t have a link for this. I’m going to have nightmares the book Our Boys tonight.

Judge Lipps explained his verdict: “I came in early this morning and I closely examined all the evidence and I re-read all the text messages that were admitted in this case. Many of the things that we learned during this trial, that our children were saying and doing, were profane, were ugly, with alcohol consumption shown as a particular danger to our teenage youth.”

Yeah, it was the alcohol and social media, not a culture and society that told these people Jane isn’t a person who should be respected. A culture that told these two men they can violate a woman and walk away fine.

Richmond is quoted to have said to his lawyer, “My life is over.”

Lipps listened to pleas for leniency for both men. The men made the following statements to the court:

Mays: “I would truly like to apologize to (Jane Doe), her family, my family and the community. No pictures of (Jane Doe) should have been sent around, let alone be taken.”

Richmond: “I would like to apologize. I had no intention to do anything like that. I’m sorry to put you guys through this.” Then he started sobbing.

Nathan Richmond (Ma’Lik’s father) said this: “I apologize to the world, not only my community, for the bad light that has been shined upon Steubenville and everybody else. I feel responsible for (Ma’Lik’s) actions. I’m gonna bear his pain with him. I’m sure Trent and Ma’Lik will learn a valuable lesson from this and become productive citizens in this world one day.”

Yep, we’re so sorry we were caught, and made everyone realize that our football obsessed town lets us get away with anything, and it would have been way better for us if no one paid attention this time. Sorry for taking a photo. Sorry for putting out parents through this. Anyone notice no one apologized for RAPING SOMEONE?

Jane Doe’s mother said this to the court:

“It did not matter what school you went to, what city you lived in, or what sport you’ve played. Human compassion is not taught by a teacher, a coach or a parent. It is a God-given gift instilled in all of us. You displayed not only a lack of this compassion but a lack of any moral code.”

 To recap before moving on:

Rape wasn’t the problem here. It was someone accusing two men of rape, who deserve to be treated as children because rape isn’t really that big of a deal you guys. We have to blame the drinking and the social media after all if they didn’t have a camera phone, instagram, twitter, and facebook we never would have known and then everything would have been ok. #IHateEverything.

Moving on to CNN. Fuck these guys. The end.

Reporters at CNN thought it was a good idea to defend the rapists. General correspondent Poppy Harlow, speaking to Candy Crowley, said this about the verdict:

“Incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that has such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart…when that sentence came down [Ma’Lik] collapsed in the arms of his attorney…He said to him, ‘My life is over. No one is going to want me now.’ Very serious crime here, both found guilty of raping the sixteen-year-old girl at a series of parties back in August.”

 Crowley asked Paul Callan, a legal expert to discuss the futures of the two men after stressing their emotional vulnerability”

“Sixteen-year-olds…..what’s the lasting effect, though, on two young men being found guilty in juvenile court of rape, essentially?”

“The most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law…That will haunt them for the rest of their lived. Employers, when looking up their background, will see that they’re registered sex offenders. When they move into a new neighborhood and somebody goes on the Internet, where these things are posted, neighbors will know that they are registered sex offenders.”

So, the men won’t be registered sex offenders until after they serve their time, and fingers crossed they have to carry that label because they are rapists. I get you want to speculate on the futures of the perpetrators, but maybe call them convicted rapist instead of “good student” because you know he wouldn’t be called a rapist if he didn’t rape somebody. Just a thought. Jezebel did a great, what CNN should have said.

More horrifying fun? Well, Jane is getting threats and the defenders of rape are out in full force check out Public Shaming and Freak Out Nation for screenshots. I had to stop reading due to rage.

Threats of violence against Jane Doe:

http://freakoutnation.com/2013/03/18/steubenville-death-threats-slut-shaming-and-other-insane-reactions-to-the-verdict-the-rape-victim/

Shaming and defending the rapists:

http://publicshaming.tumblr.com/day/2013/03/17

http://publicshaming.tumblr.com/tagged/steubenville

Well, now it is my turn to lack compassion and empathy. I’m confused as to why when there is a rape we’re all about lighter sentences. I want these two men in jail for a long time, and then maybe this will matter. Then maybe men won’t think they can rape someone and walk away if they’re good students or good at sports. I hope that Jane and her family can move on and put this behind her, but I have my doubts given the town’s response. No one seems to concerned about her future though, I guess it is because Steubenville and CNN see her the same way Ma’Lik and Trent did, as an inconsequential prop who is breaking the rules by speaking out. Moreover, I suspect Jane isn’t the first victim nor the last. I have this awful feeling that this isn’t even over yet.

We’re in desperate need of a conversation on rape that doesn’t place the responsibility on women. I remember my freshman orientation and the sexual assault warning given to us by our RA. It was our responsibility to protect ourselves, but if something happened then to handle it in the University instead of involving the police. I also remember when we have a lot of sexual assaults on campus and local news and the University tried to make it sound like a stranger off campus attacking women on campus, when it was like two guys living in one of the dorms. I remember how funny it was when a guy performed a song about being accused of rape at open mic night. Where is our conversation about how men shouldn’t rape, and we should intercede for others? When are we going to deconstruct masculinity and its impact on our society? Perhaps most important, when are we going to start talking about women like human beings? There is an obvious connection between the way women’s issues are discussed by politicians and the media and the dehumanizing way women are viewed in society. When phrases like “legitimate rape” are used as defense women aren’t seen as people. When the life of a fetus is more important than the life of the woman carrying it women are not seen as human. 

**Just to be clear, I've seen mixed reports, but they don't have to register for the sex offenders' registry unless a judge says so after they finish their time. 

WTF? A Democratic President Cutting Entitlement Programs?

Sometimes I'm seriously ashamed of us. Obama is looking for money anywhere to get on the offensive with the upcoming epic battle royale over spending with the Republicans. The Obama Administration is promising to go slow and not hack up entitlements (the article uses a bladed weapons metaphor). The highlights are taking on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. However, he may tax the rich, to which all I can say is about damn time.

The Post's article goes on to talk about how Obama has to walk the line between being serious about cutting government debt and spending and convincing liberals that he is concerned about protecting federal programs. Because conservatives are the only people concerned about cutting spending.

The whole approach is being employed to get ahead in this epic death match over federal spending and borrowing:

The new approach is coming as the president seeks a way to defuse a potentially damaging battle over how much the federal government can borrow. The debt limit is set to be reached in mid-May, and the government will be able to meet all of its obligations only through early July at the latest. Many Republicans have said they will not vote to increase the limit without significant cuts in spending.

So one again we're placating Republicans because they're going to vote for him one day if he is a non-threatening liberal/black man. Wait that's not right.

This is just gross. I know we need to bring down the federal debt, but I'm not sure why we're going after entitlements instead of cutting back military spending. There is nothing in our government as out of control as military spending and of course conservatives.

A Lament...

Goodbye Governor Strickland. I hate to think my inability to vote for you had something to do with your defeat, but hell it was close. Ohio goes red once again, and more than likely, the federal government will shut down.

May those who voted for the Republicans get what they deserve: tax breaks for the rich, cuts in school funding, and the movement of jobs out of the state.

At some point when my headache dissipates I'll write about Kentucky and the shit show that is happening there.

OK Dems pull your shit together and pretend like you're a political party

Oh, Joe. I know you get to run your mouth off and it is part of your gimmick, but really. "Stop whining." I expect more when Dems trip over themselves. President Obama hasn't kept his promises, specifically DADT among several others. Where's President Obama's love for women? No love. No concern for women in health care, why because it was hard.

Now, being a woman I get it. I'm used to being disappointed in the guys I vote for. It comes with the territory. But as long as I vote I'm going to complain.

So I reiterate...Please Pull Your Shit Together!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/27/joe-biden-stop-whining-democratic-base_n_741160.html

MIA

Oh, how I’ve neglected you and without cause…well maybe a little cause. I’ve moved! I am officially a resident of DC, so tourist: watch yourselves. I’ve also quit my job without one, which is a novelty in itself because those of you who know me understand my compulsive disorder requiring control over everything. It is working out though. I’ve found a new job, and start in a week and a half. I’m excited to be doing something I care about and in a field that will help with my Masters.

I’d like to take a moment and rail against Comcast, and this is entirely their fault and not my lack of computer knowledge. I’ve been without cable and internet for a week…the cable I can live without, but no internet. I feel like less of a person. So after our Comcast person was late, and that is late in respect to the massive amount of time they are allotted to get here. I still lack internet. I’m writing this in Word, with the hopes of traveling to a coffee shop and posting there. I am wasting away to nothing…and blaming Comcast for my lack of information on Lebron.

Speaking of: Lebron, Miami? WTF. We’re going to win without him just watch. Because we have a good team and no one player makes the team. Yeah, I said it. However, I wish him no ill will, and like all Cleveland sports fans I now have a post season team…just in case.

I’ll be back to commenting on the sad state of women and politics in this country and books once I have the internet.

WalMart Supports Workers' Right to Health Insurance Now

Walmart now supports workers' right to health insurance. This is a pretty drastic change for a corporation which used to hand our federal assistance forms to new employees.

Specifically, Walmart has come out in support of requiring companies to provide health insurance/coverage to their employees. The mandate requiring health coverage and benefits is largely contested by just about every business association in DC, including, but not limited to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business.

Walmart wrote a joint letter with SEIU and the Center for American Progress...yeah, you read that right. This could mean a variety of things, and trust me I'm running through all the devious scenarios that Walmart could be up to. The article implies, Walmart could be attempting to mend fences with the liberals and make friends in Washington. Walmart has expanded benefits for workers in the recent past, but it has also been successfully fighting and winning lawsuits on the state evel which would have required companies to provide insurance.

The typical arguments apply on each side for and against the mandate: it is essential for health care reform and it is an unnecessary burden for small businesses. The letter composed by Walmart, SEIU, and the Center for American Progress calls for varying degrees of contributions by different size companies.

I'm still scratching my head over this one...