con·cept

What are some actual reasons why people think Donald Trump would be a bad president, not including his appearance/wealth?

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 14:42:00 -0600

Make America Hate Again?

Answer by Matthew Lee Myers:

I grew up in Atlantic City and have lived in Manhattan. I've had the opportunity to interact with quite a few people who worked with or for Trump. More than anything else, it is my familiarity with Trump as a business owner that has influenced my opposition to his candidacy.

To be blunt, when Trump says he will "Make America Great Again", it is laughable for anyone with any familiarity with his business dealings.

When Trump says he is one of the best businessmen ever and one of the smartest men on the planet, it is laughable for anyone with any familiarity with his business dealings. He is a rich man, having inherited a quarter of a billion dollars and doing fairly well with it, growing to to somewhere between $3-4 billion. In about 40 years, he has multiplied his wealth by a factor of about 12-16. That's pretty good. A compound interest rate of 7.2 over 40 years would yield a 16x multiplier. So he did a little worse than "average". Though he certainly hasn't done as well as someone like Warren Buffet, who was also worth a quarter of a million in 1974, and is now worth 66 billion. And not as well as someone like Mark Cuban ($3B) who built a similar fortune from nothing. And certainly not as well as Jeff Bezos ($46B), Bill Gates ($80B), or Elon Musk ($13B) who built fortunes that completely eclipse Trump's and started with significantly less. He's done well. But he's far from the richest or most successful.

When Trump talks about caring about the middle class, it is laughable for anyone with any familiarity with his business dealings. Whenever Trump was faced with the choice between "America" and "Trump's bank account" he routinely chose his bank account. He pays his hotel workers less than any other in Vegas and refuses to let them organize (currently ignoring a court order to allow them to do so). His construction projects routinely use inferior quality windows made in China rather than slightly (about 10%) more expensive American models. When his Atlantic City casinos were in trouble he raided his employee pensions and healthcare accounts before declaring bankruptcy, screwing not only his employees but also his investors.

When he talks about Mexicans coming over to take our jobs, it's laughable for anyone with any familiarity with his business dealings. He routinely brings in workers on temporary work visas so that he can pay them less than American workers, taking not only those jobs from American workers but also driving down wages throughout the industry. Meanwhile his merchandising line was being produced in China and Mexico, despite the fact that they could have been produced in America for only slightly more.

When he talks about being able to negotiate and be tough with China and Mexico, it's laughable for anyone with any familiarity with his business dealings. The Riverside South project saw him bailed out by Hong Kong investors who ended up screwing him out of millions. He later sued them and lost. His Trump Ocean Resort in Baja Mexico was a spectacular failure. He fleeced his investors with promises about being able to get it done, but the project collapsed due partly to his inability to deal with the Mexican government. His investors sued him and won. Even friendly nations like the UK have stymied him and won. As recently as the last few months Trump lost his lawsuit to prevent a windfarm from being built off the shore near his golf course in Scotland, despite taking the case all the way to the British supreme court.

So I think it's only sensible to distrust his claims. He's had plenty of chances to put ordinary Americans before his own interests, and he hasn't. He's had plenty of chances to keep jobs here in the US, and he hasn't. He's had plenty of chances to stick it to Mexico, or China, or even the UK, and he hasn't been able to pull it off. And he's really only a mediocre businessman. So why would I believe he'd be able to do it now?

What are some actual reasons why people think Donald Trump would be a bad president, not including his appearance/wealth?

Shocking South Carolina video no isolated case | Center for Public Integrity

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Tue, 3 Nov 2015 15:02:00 -0600

Commentary: School discipline disputes detailed in Center pieces

Source: Shocking South Carolina video no isolated case | Center for Public Integrity

The real shocker isn’t racial. It’s the enormous percentage of disabled and special needs kids who are dumped into the court system. Of course, they are the least likely to upload video ti YouTube, and apparantly, theleast likely to have others do so on their behalf.

In state after state, if black kids are sent to court at twice the rate of all students, the disabled are sent at tree to four times that rate.

We’re criminalizing kids for acting like kids, in direct proportion to their lack of community and parental resources, punishing those with the least the most.

For those who converted from Republican to Democratic political views, what were your reasons for supporting Republicans and conservatism…

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Tue, 6 Oct 2015 18:28:00 -0500

I was never a registered Republican but I was a registered nonpartisan for decades. Republican policies forced me to finally choose. Foecing people like Lowell Weiker and Charles Percy out forced me to choose.

Answer by Chris Joosse:

What happened… was the Bush years. During this timeframe, the party stopped even paying lip service to fiscal restraint, limited governance, or the idea of consistent rule of law. Instead, we got

medicare part D (unfunded)

a couple of wars (unfunded),

tax cuts that proved not to generate promised economic growth while squandering the only balanced budget we've seen in my lifetime,

non-enforcement of financial regulation for the better part of a decade and the sort of financial collapse that predictably follows,

the Orwellian-named 'Patriot Act' (and the un-accountable, un-auditable 4th branch of government it chartered),

the embarrassment of Abu Ghiraib and Gitmo, the knowledge that war funds are unaccountable and have disappeared by the pallet under inadequate and corrupt supervision, and

a host of needless regulatory punishment of gayness and being a woman.

I was a Republican because I like limited government, rule of law and fiscal sensibility, and I believed then that supporting the GOP was my best way of expressing these values.

When the financial crisis went down, it took with it more than half of my net worth, which made it personal. When McCain campaigned on more Bush economic policy, it told me that the GOP refused to acknowledge that financial deregulation had anything to do with the crash, and the massive bailouts of the same people who'd profited wildly from a decade of fraud looked to me not like responsible economic policy, but a massive expansion of the role of government in economic matters, on the side of and in the pocket of Wall Street. This broke forever the illusion I'd once had that we have a free market- what we have is socialism for the wealthy and rugged capitalism for everyone else.

On social issues (like gay marriage, reproductive politics, the war on drugs) I've never thought that legislating morality accomplishes anything but state-sanctioned discrimination. In light of their fall from grace on economic policy in my eyes, their new priorities (thwart the president, punish gays and women for being gay or sexual, supporting draconian prison sentencing, infringing on voting practices), I found the party's positions on social/moral legislation to be not just without merit, but repugnant.

In foreign policy I'd like to see more unified politics, in which partisanship ends at our shores. I'd also like to see a lot less in the way of saber-rattling, and a lot more exercise of soft power and moral leadership- that's always less expensive, and tends not to make so many enemies out of folks who could be partners or allies. At best, the GOP's position on foreign policy is that it's never a wrong time to undermine the president as long as it plays well back home.

On fiscal issues, I'd like to see a lot less corporate welfare and the obvious corruption that accompanies it. I think the party's talking-point focus on 'urban takers' exploits xenophobia and bigotry, a distraction at best from where the real money is being squandered- into corporate pockets.

In terms of rule of law, I'd like to see us enforce the same set of standards on big bankers and corporate polluters as we impose on the poorest and most-marginal among us. But we don't. The GOP has declined to embrace policies that work, but has rushed to defend ones that don't- for example, trickle-down austerity, "bigger dick" foreign policy, the War on Drugs, privileging the interests of the political donor class above that of everyone else. I see a party determined to usher in a new age of religio-oligarchy, with itself as the nexus of corporate patronage and power.

I remain conservative, but have no more faith that the GOP is a vehicle for expressing my political or moral values. What happened to my political views can best be explained in a word: disillusionment. The things that used to appeal to me about the GOP as I grew up (rule of law, smart economics, sensible budgeting, limited government, etc) haven't actually been real party priorities in my lifetime. That's all been an illusion. They were never anything but talking points, and in buying them I was never anything but a useful idiot to the GOP.

I started looking differently at policy matters, and what I saw made me angry. In my lifetime, so-called 'conservative' efforts to outsource government functions to private contractors (because 'free markets', ha) have given rise to significant amounts of government patronage and corruption. [cite: Portal:Outsourcing America Exposed]
Maddeningly, these often dysfunctional and corrupt arrangements are cited by their authors as more evidence that 'government doesn't work', and therefore more outsourcing, more dismantling of government capacity, is desirable.

During the Bush years, I began to see that the party hadn't been expressing my values at any point in my political lifetime. I learned this after the spectacular political, moral, and economic failures of these years. What it appears to have learned is that it 'wasn't conservative enough', in the sense that it didn't pander deeply enough to its corporate masters, or perhaps in that it wasn't hateful enough to gays, women, the poor, and minorities. And perhaps most insultingly, it still claims to represent my values while doubling down on policies that go completely against them.

I'm not the only one with this experience: Revenge of the Reality-Based Community

Subsequently, during the Obama years, the GOP has only further damaged its standing in my esteem:

It's work to erode voting rights protections for the poor and politically marginalized

Its naked pandering to the will of dark money organizations and organized religion

Its willingness to manufacture bogus 'scandals' and credulously entertain them for years on end, spending taxpayer money to do so (for example, congress has spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars 'investigating' non-stories like Benghazi, the IRS profiling affair), Birtherism, Jade Helm, claims that Michelle Obama is secretly a man, that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim, etc.

It's willingness to deny climate science in the face of overwhelming evidence and scientific consensus

Its willingness to convict the victims of violence if they are black or poor (yep, thug, had it coming, no need for due process here)

Its willingness to rally to the defense of bigotry, its willingness to invent 'facts' that justify it, etc.

**Edit: in the run-up to the 2016 primaries, I've observed that the sole candidate in the field who's consistently expressed my own political values is Bernie Sanders. Even Hillary appears to be too much a creature of the establishment for my views. The bulk of the GOP field seem to be a pack of bullies, poseurs, and would-be theocrats long on bluster, but short on leadership.

For those who converted from Republican to Democratic political views, what were your reasons for supporting Republicans and conservatism…

Businesses’ Doors Creak Open in a West Bank ‘Ghost Town,’ Decades After Massacre – The New York Times

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Thu, 2 Jul 2015 22:57:00 -0500

Businesses’ Doors Creak Open in a West Bank ‘Ghost Town,’ Decades After Massacre – The New York Times:

Before the intifadas, yet foreshadowing them, an Ameican born Israeli murdered people at prayer in Hebron. As usual, the Palestinians were punished. Businesses were shuttered, movement restricted. 200,000 Palestinians had their lives restricted for the benefit of 700 Israeli settlers after a crime committed by one of the settlers.

Now, supposedly, restrictions are being lifted. Lifted in such a way that it’s hard to see any real change at all.

Perhaps real change isn’t the desired result. We will watch. We will see.

‘via Blog this’

via Blogger http://ift.tt/1LFL0zU

from Blogger http://ift.tt/1Hz9dpF

from Blogger http://ift.tt/1NAGW30

from Blogger http://ift.tt/1KysQPF

from Blogger http://ift.tt/1UfbnQM

Grief and Graphics

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:38:00 -0600

My graphics tablet died today. I bought it when Barack Obama was still an obscure state senator. Because it was on sale, because I needed a more natural way to work on screen, because using a mouse just didn't cut it.

You can draw with a mouse. With enough determination and practice, you can do contour drawing with a brick but pencils, Pens and brushes are more natural. Easier. Faster to work with.

Add pressure sensitivity, angle and velocity and work becomes play, becomes mind to spirit to hand. Image is a road with no potholes and you drive in sync with the lights, cruising.

A few months back the tablet started losing connection in the middle of a work. I'd jiggle the USB connector, the blue light would come back on and I began to grieve a future loss. more and more often the map of tablet to screen and the function of opacity to pressure, velocity to width was lost. Like watching a companion with a chronic progressive illness.

Today, I tried to shake my companion awake but the poor thing wasn't breathing

Alfred C. Ingram
Conceptual Design & Imaging

DIY filmmaking – Use IKEA trash can for light, scooter for dolly!

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 02:07:00 -0500

Source: vimeo.com

Follow Robb Montgomery for expert information about Visual Storytelling.

See on Scoop.it – Life, The Universe and Everything

Watch out for this Netflix “tech support” scam

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Tue, 4 Mar 2014 01:47:00 -0600

See on Scoop.it – Life, The Universe and Everything

A security researcher has found a new twist on the traditional security hoodwink.

See on arstechnica.com

Obama’s Trauma Team

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:23:00 -0600

See on Scoop.it – Life, The Universe and Everything

Last Oct. 17–more than two weeks after the launch of HealthCare.gov–White House chief of staff Denis McDonough came back from Baltimore rattled by what he had learned at the headquarters of the…

See on www.readability.com

You're virtual money or you're virtual life?

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 17:56:00 -0600

Apparent Theft at Mt. Gox Shakes Bitcoin World - NYTimes.com:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/business/apparent-theft-at-mt-gox-shakes-bitcoin-world.html?nl=technology&emc=edit_tu_20140225

We're forever blowing up bubbles. Pretty bubbles in our heads.

Just maybe, private currencies don't cut it!

'via Blog this'

Florida County Eliminates Minority-Heavy Polling Places

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 13:11:00 -0600

See on Scoop.it – Life, The Universe and Everything

On a party-line vote, a Florida county’s Republican majority Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to eliminate almost one-third of the county’s voting sites.

Alfred C. Ingram‘s insight:

But they’re not racist, can’t be, they’ll tell you that racism is just a card their opponents play.

See on thinkprogress.org

Create Realistic Animated Snow in Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Thu, 5 Dec 2013 06:53:00 -0600

Create Realistic Animated Snow in Photoshop – YouTube http://ow.ly/rt7X8 Go Corey!

RSA Shorts – The Power of Quiet – YouTub

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Mon, 4 Nov 2013 14:41:00 -0600

RSA Shorts – The Power of Quiet – YouTube http://ow.ly/qtX9i

Organizing for Action | We’ve had enoug

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Tue, 8 Oct 2013 02:29:00 -0500

Organizing for Action | We’ve had enough http://ow.ly/pB6IY

The Voting Rights Act: An End to Racism by Judicial Order : The New Yorker

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 08:54:00 -0500

The Voting Rights Act: An End to Racism by Judicial Order : The New Yorker: "Race may still exist as a social reality—and so may racism—but no amalgamation of facts, studies, or disparities is sufficient to the cause of proving that there exists a system which produces inequality. In short: we have overcome whether the data agrees with us or not. "

'via Blog this'

GOP Official Calls Teenage Labor Advocate ‘A Radical B*tch’

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:41:00 -0500

See on Scoop.it – Life, The Universe and Everything

Steve Kush, the chairman of Bernalillo County Republican Party in New Mexico, called a 19-year-old Working America volunteer a “radical bitch” on Twitter Tuesday night after she testified before the county commission in favor of raising the minimum…

Alfred C. Ingram‘s insight:

It’s beginning to look like Republican’ts are a self-thinning herd.

See on www.huffingtonpost.com

Anatomy of a search-optimized photo gall

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:27:00 -0500

Anatomy of a search-optimized photo gallery http://ow.ly/jB50d http://ow.ly/jB55M

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:26:00 -0600

Reblogged from Health & Family:

1. Routine Care, Unforgettable Bills

When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie’s father had been treated there 10 years earlier, and she and her family credited the doctors and nurses at MD Anderson with extending his life by at least eight years.

*...one of the more depressing parts of the...

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:56:00 -0500

...one of the more depressing parts of the job of being a political reporter is watching an audience fully absorb a blatant and knowing lie. Which is, of course, what this is....

"I want you to know I heard something the other day that really surprised me... What I heard is that the president is taking the work requirement out of welfare. (Boos.) Yeah. We value work, our society which celebrates hard work, we look to a government to make it easier for jobs to be created and people to go to work. We do not look for a government that tries to find ways to provide for people who are not willing to work. And so I'm gonna put work back into welfare and make sure able-bodied people can get jobs."

At stop after stop, in ad after ad, Romney just keeps using it. How can this be possible?

Mark Twain said that there were "lies, damned lies and statistics."

Somehow the mainstream media has completely failed to report on Willard, AKA Mitt Romney, repeat "statistician."

It just doesn't seem to matter when a lie is told over and over to audiences who never knew that it was a lie.

And because the media is too lazy to refute a lie every time it's told, never will.

What to Do With Political Lies

Fact-checkers are no longer enough: If lies are going to be repeated, the truth needs to be, too.

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Education, housing, healthcare. *There...

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:52:00 -0500

Education, housing, healthcare.

There are no dreams when these aren't available.

The numbers tell a tale of constraint, not culture.

Infographic: How The Poor Spend Their Money Vs. The Middle Class

The rich get richer. It's one of those old mantras that's tough to really calculate. After all, didn't everyone's 401k tank in the last few years? Don't rising gas prices suck equally for everyone? Ye...

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*Got to love Insurance Companies. Such great...

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:36:00 -0500

Got to love Insurance Companies. Such great examples of decency.

Such fuel for cynicism and sarcasm.

The Reward for Donating a Kidney: No Insurance

It is unclear how often kidney donors have trouble obtaining insurance, but advocates say the fear of being uninsurable may be a powerful deterrent to donation.

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How old was I, when I became a suspect for life?

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 06:51:00 -0500

I'm trying to remember how old I was, when I discovered that I was "a real suspicious guy."

I was 18. It was the summer of 1968, in Chicago, just before the Democratic Convention. It was late evening. My dad owned a television repair business on 63rd Street.

When we closed up shop, we put the televisions we were working on in the vault and carried the repaired sets to the van out front, so we could make deliveries on the way home. That's where the trouble started.

As we were getting into the van, a police car, with lights flashing, blocked us in. Two officers got out, guns drawn, and told us to get out of the van with our hands up. They were convinced we were burglars.

I thought this would be straightened out immediately. The business name was "C. Ingram's Radio and Television." The Van was registered in his name, Case closed.

The policemen couldn't seem to get past two African Americans loading televisions into a van. They couldn't wrap their hears around the idea that we'd just come out of dad's legitimate business. Despite all the paperwork being in order, they called in to check if anyone had reported the van stolen.

Meanwhile, we "assumed the position." Against the side of the van, feet apart, leaning in on our outstretched hands. I suppose we were lucky we weren't handcuffed, but that's a damned uncomfortable position to hold for more than a few minutes. We held it for most of an hour.

Dad, raised in Mississippi, bent over backward (or, in this case forward), to not disagree with the officers about anything. Not even their absurd assumptions. When one of them said, "You're a couple of stupid thieves." and dad said, "Yes sir." I blew up.

We'd been in business there since I was 8 years old, 10 years. We went to the church across the street and their district commander was a member of that same church, knew who we were, so why didn't they ask him,instead of looking for some excuse to arrest us? I didn't think there was any shortage of real criminals who deserved their attention.

My dad, a light skinned man, turned white. You could see the jaw muscles clench in the officers' faces, but they left.

"Are you crazy?" dad asked. "What's with this 'Yes sir,' when someone calls you a thief?" I asked. I never got an answer I agreed with. I was over 50 before I dot an answer that I understood.

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What About Other People's Suffering? - NYTimes.com

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Mon, 5 Mar 2012 16:56:00 -0600

Losers suffer and the very thought that some people might consider them losers drives some people into a state of total rage.

Not at the winners, but at the people worse off than they are. The idea that they might have something in common with the long term unemployed, the ill housed and near homeless, is about as acceptable as sharing a toilet with black people was to a white Mississippean in, say, 1948.

Like them, they will tell you that the situation and its proposed solutions are "Un-American," even unconstitutional.

Like them they weren't raised to be magnanimous or compassionate in the face of change.

Even if they were born with their advantages, they feel that they've worked hard to gain them and they have the right to do whatever is necessary to keep them.

God knows what they'll do to get them back.

Other People's Suffering - NYTimes.com

“The publication last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior” provided fresh fodder for the liberal critique of the Republican Party and the corporate ethic.
The paper, by Paul K. Piff of the University of California, Berkeley, and four colleagues, reports that members of the upper class are more likely than others to behave unethically, to lie during negotiations, to drive illegally and to cheat when competing for a prize.”

“A third scholarly essay, “Power, Distress, and Compassion: Turning a Blind Eye to the Suffering of Others,” produced similarly striking findings. In a test measuring empathy, each participant was assigned to listen, face to face, from two feet away, to someone else describing real personal experiences of suffering and distress.
The listeners’ responses were measured two ways, first by self-reported levels of compassion and second by electrocardiogram readings to determine the intensity of their emotional response. The participants all took a test known as the “sense of power” scale, ranking themselves on such personal strengths and weaknesses as ‘‘I can get people to listen to what I say’’ and ‘‘I can get others to do what I want,” as well as ‘‘My wishes do not carry much weight’’ and ‘‘Even if I voice them, my views have little sway,’’ which are reverse scored.
The findings were noteworthy, to say the least. For “low-power” listeners, compassion levels shot up as the person describing suffering became more distressed. Exactly the opposite happened for “high-power” listeners: their compassion dropped as distress rose.”
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/other-peoples-suffering/?nl=opinion&emc=tya1

*Way too Politi to handle the facts, Politi_fact_...

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:55:00 -0600

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Way too Politi to handle the facts, Politi_fact_

Politifact, you're fired

Video on msnbc.com: Rachel Maddow reviews yet another instance of Politifact not living up to its name; this time by declaring two factual statements made by President Obama only "mostly true."

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*"Back in 1994, while plotting his takeover...

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:51:00 -0600

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*"Back in 1994, while plotting his takeover of the House, Gingrich circulated a memo on how to use words as a weapon. It was called "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control." Republicans were advised to use certain words in describing opponents — sick, pathetic, lie, decay, failure, destroy. That was the year, of course, when Gingrich showed there was no floor to his descent into a dignity-free zone, equating Democratic Party values with the drowning of two young children by their mother, Susan Smith, in South Carolina.

Today, if you listen carefully to any Gingrich takedown, you'll usually hear words from the control memo.
He even used them, as former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams wrote in National Review Online this week, in going after President Reagan, calling him "pathetically incompetent," as Abrams reported. And he compared Reagan's meeting with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Neville Chamberlain in 1938 in Munich.""*

Deconstructing a Demagogue

Over four decades, Newt Gingrich has perfected the politics of personal destruction.

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Banks Taketh, but Don’t Giveth - NYTimes.com

noreply@blogger.com (Alfred C. Ingram) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:49:00 -0600

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/opinion/banks-taketh-but-dont-giveth.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

Nearly everyone I know has had a bank make errors in the bank's favor, but I don't know anyone whose bank made an error in their favor without somehow punishing them for the bank's mistake. What happened to the Ephrons is starting to look more like willful fraud than a mistake.

Say, for instance, they record a deposit as larger than it actually is. They are guaranteed to withdraw the amount just after you've paid a major bill while ignoring the deposit you just made that would have covered the cost.

Then, they assess their fees.

In the nineties, I had a bank that told me they'd never charge a fee for a bill paid electronically. In fact, they charged me $10.00 every time the monthly bill was paid. Unfortunately, I wound up in the emergency room a week after the account was opened, followed by a two week stay This was followed by a flare up of a chronic condition. I wasn't worried, I had enough in the account to cover six months, or so I thought.

Then I got the notice that my internet access account would be closed for non-payment. The phone company gave me 10 days notice. My electronic payments were going out days late. So, late fees were charged on top of the regular bills. Instead of no fees that ten dollars was assessed on each bill and charged again when the companies sent the bills, now overdue, a second time for payment. Oh, and they would finally pay the original bill but not the late charges which added up in just three months to more than I had left in the bank.

At that point the bank added a $60 fee and froze my account. It took a month to get the bank to reverse the charges for the 'no fee' service. I paid the phone company by money order. (Remember they gave a ten day notice,)

The bank still wanted me to pay $60 to unfreeze my account. I told them what the temperature range in hell would be on the day that ever happened.

I also told them I'd sue not just the bank, but the bank manager if their mistake was placed on my credit report by that bank.

The net result is I still have good credit, and a new and better bank.

The Ephron's bank makes mine look like child's play.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/opinion/banks-taketh-but-dont-giveth.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

con·cept

What are some actual reasons why people think Donald Trump would be a bad president, not including his appearance/wealth?

Shocking South Carolina video no isolated case | Center for Public Integrity

For those who converted from Republican to Democratic political views, what were your reasons for supporting Republicans and conservatism…

Businesses’ Doors Creak Open in a West Bank ‘Ghost Town,’ Decades After Massacre – The New York Times

Grief and Graphics

DIY filmmaking – Use IKEA trash can for light, scooter for dolly!

Watch out for this Netflix “tech support” scam

Obama’s Trauma Team

You're virtual money or you're virtual life?

Florida County Eliminates Minority-Heavy Polling Places

Create Realistic Animated Snow in Photos

RSA Shorts – The Power of Quiet – YouTub

Organizing for Action | We’ve had enoug

The Voting Rights Act: An End to Racism by Judicial Order : The New Yorker

GOP Official Calls Teenage Labor Advocate ‘A Radical B*tch’

Anatomy of a search-optimized photo gall

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

*...one of the more depressing parts of the...

*Education, housing, healthcare.* *There...

*Got to love Insurance Companies. Such great...

How old was I, when I became a suspect for life?

What About Other People's Suffering? - NYTimes.com

*Way too Politi to handle the facts, Politi_fact_...

*"Back in 1994, while plotting his takeover...

Banks Taketh, but Don’t Giveth - NYTimes.com

Education, housing, healthcare. *There...