Should Voters Call Orkin?

Aunt Debra @ Tybee


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Collusion is the mass media's word of the day and they are trying to hang it around Trump's neck in order to collar/contain/restrict his ability to carry out his campaign pledges.  There really is no collusion, none has been found nor is likely to be found but there has been plenty of stupidity. However, stupidity is something voters have come to expect from our politicians who, after all, are drawn from America's gene pool..

However, real collusion is something politicians practice full time, ie. 24/7.  They do it to stay in office. They are simply intoxicated by the aroma of power.

In the case of Democrats they are good at passing legislation because they are united and do not fear Republicans but their results are generally terrible and costly because their ideas are progressive and do not measure up to their promises and/or predictions. They love doling out your money to buy their re-elections.

In the case of Republicans, their more conservative ideas may be better but they seldom get anything done because they are generally disunited and are paralyzed by the threats from Democrats. They too love spending your money but profess they are averse to doing that.

This is the conundrum Americans face. This is why Congress is held in such low repute and why less than half of America even chooses to take the time to vote.  Many believe term limits will solve the problem but that is what voting is supposed to accomplish, ie. rotation.

Maybe if we called Orkin they would have a solution because The Halls of Congress are infested with varmints. (See 1 below.)
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Did Trump ignore Israel in his discussion with Putin regarding a Syrian cease fire?  (See 2 below.)
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Is the government allowing one of the greatest scams to be perpetrated on citizens and, in the process, sending a lesson that escaping an obligation is acceptable behaviour?

Certainly Obama was planning on allowing repayment of college debt to be excused. (See 3 below.)
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Meaningful lessons we all learned from our wonderful parents. (See 4 below.)
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Dick
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1)

"Corruption is about greed and private interests put ahead of the public good.  Whether influence is bought through a bribe, outside spending, outside income or campaign contributions, the public suffers in the same way.  Until we move past scandals toward structural change, our democracy will suffer, too.”

    — Zephyr Rain Teachout, American educator who is an associate professor of law at Fordham University; from her 2016 book, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United.

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2)

Trump is falling into the same trap as Obama on Iran

By Jonathan S. Tobin

When President Trump met earlier this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin, their exchange about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election was all anyone seemed to care about. Trump’s efforts to present an agreement between the two countries on a cease-fire in Syria as a major achievement were largely ignored by a media determined to focus exclusively on allegations of collusion between the Republicans and Russia.

But it turns out his critics were wrong to dismiss the Syrian pact as a distraction. It’s now clear that in his eagerness for a deal, the president fell into virtually the same trap his predecessor did when he signed the Iran nuclear deal.

The real surprise here is that the biggest critic of the Syrian pact is one of the president’s staunchest friends: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He spoke out once he discovered that Trump hadn’t taken into account Israel’s concerns about Iran being the real beneficiary of the agreement.

Like it or not, the Russian and Iranian forces fighting on behalf of the barbarous Bashar al-Assad regime appear to have prevailed. Yet Russia and Iran aren’t content with just keeping their client in power. They want Western recognition not just of Assad’s victory but also of their occupation of Syrian territory.

US acquiescence to the Russian presence in Syria is the first step toward the realization of Putin’s dream of reassembling the old Soviet empire. Once President Barack Obama punted enforcement of his “red line” about Assad’s use of chemical weapons to the Russians, there was probably no way to roll back Putin’s ambitions.

But what Trump has done now by trying to pull a foreign-policy victory out of his meeting with Putin is arguably almost as bad as Obama’s feckless Syrian retreat. The cease-fire terms would ensure that Iran and its Hezbollah auxiliaries get a free hand in southern Syria — and that the Iranian presence will become permanent.

Israel has kept a close watch on Hezbollah’s activities in Syria and launched strikes to prevent Iran from using the civil war as cover to transfer heavy arms to its Lebanese allies or allowing the group to establish bases close to its border. Yet if Trump’s cease-fire lets Iran put military facilities adjacent to Israel — something Jerusalem has said it can’t tolerate — that increases the chances of conflict with an Islamist regime that is dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

Just as troubling is that this will enable Tehran to achieve its dream of a land bridge from Iran to the Mediterranean. Just as Obama’s bugout from Iraq allowed Iran to become the dominant power in that nation, the Trump seal of approval on Assad’s victory could give it the same power in Syria and enable it to link up with a Lebanon dominated by its terrorist errand boys.

That’s the same nightmare of Iranian regional hegemony that scared Arab nations as much as it did the Israelis about the nuclear deal.

Unlike Obama, Trump isn’t laboring under the delusion that Iran’s leaders are moderates. He understands the Iranians are a threat to both the United States and its allies. The problem is that he still refuses to accept that he must choose between his good relations with Russia and getting tough with Iran.

Trump spent the 2016 campaign talking up cooperation with Russia against ISIS and denouncing Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. But events in Syria have proved him wrong. Russia and Iran are interested in Syria for reasons that have nothing to do with fighting ISIS. Indeed, the survival of their man Assad ensures that the terrorist group will continue to retain Sunni support since it is seen as the only local force resisting the regime.

Rather than ignore Israel’s warnings, the president must wake up and realize that acting as if he can tilt toward Russia while also resisting Iran means that Trump is, in effect, making his own awful Iran deal with implications that could be almost as deadly in the long run as Obama’s folly.

Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS.org and a contributor to National Review.

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3) NYT: Missing Paperwork May Erase $5 Billion in Student Loan Debt

Missing paperwork reportedly may ultimately erase $5 billion dollars of debt for loans that tens of thousands of former students took out over a decade ago.

National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts — a 15-trust company that purchases private student loan debt — reportedly lost the paperwork documenting these loans’ chains of ownership, according to cases brought forward in Pennsylvania and Delaware, the New York Times reported.

The shoddy record-keeping means that if the trust tries to come after students who default on them, they may see the entire debt written off. Judges have dismissed dozens of lawsuits against borrowers who defaulted on student loans from private creditors, the Times reported.

“A review of court records by The New York Times shows that many other collection cases are deeply flawed, with incomplete ownership records and mass-produced documentation,” thew newspaper said.

The trust bought the loans from the banks which granted them originally and not all of the paperwork clearly states who can now rightfully demand payment, the Times reported.

The trusts win many of the lawsuits they file automatically, because borrowers often do not show up to fight. Those court victories, which can be used to garnish paychecks and federal benefits like Social Security, can haunt borrowers for decades.

However, “judges throughout the country, including recently in cases in New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas, have tossed out lawsuits by National Collegiate, ruling that it did not prove it owned the debt on which it was trying to collect,” the Times reported.

The $5 billion accounts for roughly 160,000 loans worth around $30,000, the national average, the Times reported.

“Some of the problems playing out now in the $108 billion private student loan market are reminiscent of those that arose from the subprime mortgage crisis a decade ago, when billions of dollars in subprime mortgage loans were ruled uncollectible by courts because of missing or fake documentation,” the Times reported.

“And like those troubled mortgages, private student loans — which come with higher interest rates and fewer consumer protections than federal loans — are often targeted at the most vulnerable borrowers, like those attending for-profit schools,” the Times reported.

Meanwhile, despite a record-high U.S. stock market and a positive economic outlook, U.S. parents spent less on college tuition during the 2016-17 school year, according to Sallie Mae's 10th annual "How America Pays for College" report.

Out-of-pocket spending by parents fell to 23 percent from 29 percent of the average amount the typical family pays for college, according to a survey released Monday. That translates to about $5,527 out of the average $23,757 yearly tab, Reuters reported.

That's the lowest dollar amount spent by parents since 2009, as well as the smallest percentage of the total tuition spent since the study started.

Much of the difference was made up by a big jump in student borrowing to 19 percent of the total, from 13 percent.

To be sure, college tuition hikes and the resulting increase in student debt burdens in recent years have caused a significant drop in homeownership among young Americans, according to new research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The study is the first to quantify the impact of the recent and significant rise in college-related borrowing—student debt has doubled since 2009 to more than $1.4 trillion—on the decline in homeownership among Americans ages 28 to 30. The news has negative implications for local economies where debt loads have swelled and workers' paychecks aren't big enough to counter the impact. Homebuying typically leads to additional spending—on furniture, and gardening equipment, and repairs—so the drop is likely affecting the economy in other ways, Bloomberg reported.

(Newsmax wires services contributed to this report).

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4)Thank God for good old Mom & Dad

1)    My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE: "If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning." 2)    My mother taught me RELIGION: "You better pray that will come out of the carpet." 3)    My father taught me about TIME TRAVEL: "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!" 4)    My father taught me LOGIC: "Because I said so, that's why!” 5)    My mother taught me MORE LOGIC: "If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me." 6)    My mother taught me FORESIGHT: "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident." 7)    My father taught me IRONY: "Keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about." 8)    My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS: "Shut your mouth and eat your supper." 9)    My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM: "Just you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!" 10)                       My mother taught me about STAMINA: "You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone." 11)                       My mother taught me about WEATHER: "This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it." 12)                       My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY: "If I told you once, I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate!" 13)                       My father taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE: "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out. 14)                       My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION: "Stop acting like your father!" 15)                       My mother taught me about ENVY: "There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do." 16)                       My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION: "Just wait until we get home." 17)                       My mother taught me about RECEIVING: "You are going to get it from your father when you get home!" 18)                       My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE: "If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way." 19)                       My mother taught me ESP:                                      "Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?" 20)                       My father taught me HUMOR: "When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me." 21)                       My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT: "If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up." 22)                       My mother taught me genetics: "You're just like your father." 23)                       My mother taught me about my ROOTS: "Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?" 24)                       My mother taught me WISDOM: "When you get to be my age, you'll understand. 25)                       My father taught me about JUSTICE: "One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!”

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