This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: An op-ed by Joe Nocera in today’s New York Times reveals that Steven J. Baum, New York’s largest “foreclosure mill” firm — defined by Word Spy as “a law firm that processes foreclosures perfunctorily and without due process” — held a Halloween party last year that featured a particularly nauseating theme: Homelessness.
Damning photos sent in to Nocera by a former employee show Steven J. Baum personnel covered in soot and dressed in rags, holding signs that say “I was never served” — reportedly meant to mock the “typical excuse” of homeowners attempting to avoid being foreclosed upon.
“When we spoke later,” Nocera writes, “[the former employee] added that the snapshots are an accurate representation of the firm’s mind-set.” ”There is this really cavalier attitude,” she told him. “It doesn’t matter that people are going to lose their homes.”
The firm, which represents Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, among other mortgage lending behemoths, is currently being investigated by New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman.
Furthermore, it recently resolved a Department of Justice investigation into the filing of “misleading pleadings, affidavits, and mortgage assignments” by agreeing to pay $2 million. A class-action lawsuit on behalf of homeowners is currently pending.
A spokesman for Steven J. Baum denied the “suggestion” that employees dressed “in attire that mocks or attempts to belittle the plight of those who have lost their homes,” claiming that this op-ed is simply “another attempt by The New York Times to attack our firm and our work.”
The photos, however, suggest otherwise.
[nyt.]
![thedailywhat:
This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: An op-ed by Joe Nocera in today’s New York Times reveals that Steven J. Baum, New York’s largest “foreclosure mill” firm — defined by Word Spy as “a law firm that processes foreclosures perfunctorily and without due process” — held a Halloween party last year that featured a particularly nauseating theme: Homelessness.
Damning photos sent in to Nocera by a former employee show Steven J. Baum personnel covered in soot and dressed in rags, holding signs that say “I was never served” — reportedly meant to mock the “typical excuse” of homeowners attempting to avoid being foreclosed upon.
“When we spoke later,” Nocera writes, “[the former employee] added that the snapshots are an accurate representation of the firm’s mind-set.” ”There is this really cavalier attitude,” she told him. “It doesn’t matter that people are going to lose their homes.”
The firm, which represents Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, among other mortgage lending behemoths, is currently being investigated by New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman.
Furthermore, it recently resolved a Department of Justice investigation into the filing of “misleading pleadings, affidavits, and mortgage assignments” by agreeing to pay $2 million. A class-action lawsuit on behalf of homeowners is currently pending.
A spokesman for Steven J. Baum denied the “suggestion” that employees dressed “in attire that mocks or attempts to belittle the plight of those who have lost their homes,” claiming that this op-ed is simply “another attempt by The New York Times to attack our firm and our work.”
The photos, however, suggest otherwise.
[nyt.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltusqcU6l21qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
Lego Jason Voorhees and Lego Freddy Krueger, in time for Halloween.
Raise your hand if you’re going to be a superhero this weekend (or in general)!
Design by Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.
via andrewharlow
(Source: andrewharlow)
Postage Paid Protest of the Day: YouTuber ransackedroom — a San Francisco-based “poet, editor, and marketer” — has come up with a rather ingenious way ordinary people can support the Occupy Wall Street movement without ever leaving their homes.
It involves taking the business reply mail envelope that comes with most unsolicited credit card offers, and sending it back to the banks with a message inside that ransacked hopes will help open “a dialogue.”
He says:
This isn’t really about running up the postage bill on the big banks, although that’s a nice side effect. The real effect of this is to force banks to react to us.
If they start getting hundreds and thousands of weird responses to their credit card applications, well they’re going to have to have meetings. They going to have to develop new procedures and every hour banks spend reacting to us is an hour banks don’t spend lobbying Congress on how to screw us. It’s an hour banks don’t spend foreclosing on our houses.
So I think that that’s progress.
YouTube Comment of Note: “This supports the United States Postal Service also, maybe keeping several thousand postal workers out of the unemployment line. Good idea.”
[thanks mike!]
…it would be hilarious if it didn’t make me shake my head so much.
Client: “When I Google ‘Open Sundays’, our company website doesn’t even come up.”
Me: “Why would it?”
Client: “Uh, because we’re open Sundays. Obviously.”
Me: “There are a lot of places that are open on Sunday, though.”
Client: “But I wasn’t looking for those other sites, I was looking for ours. Are you even paying attention!?”
THIS is adorable! What a smart kid!!!
Story behind this: Kid had lost his dad in the crowd, freaked out until he saw Flash and Wonderwoman, went up to Flash to ask for help because he knows him. SO CUTE. ;_;
I love that Fox News can get away with “mistakes” like this and STILL be viewed as a legitimate news source.
WTF is in that Republican Kool Aid anyway? Geez.
