Happy Friday, Everyone!

Being that it’s Friday, I thought this write would get your lips flapping.

From The Guardian:

9/11 tapes reveal raw and emotional Hillary Clinton

 We partnered with WNYC to look back at Clinton’s time at Ground Zero – a far cry from the controlled figure now a step away from the presidency

 Hillary Clinton listens to firefighters during a tour of the World Trade Center disaster site in September 2001. Photograph: Reuters

 Andrea Bernstein, senior editor politics and policy for WNYC, listens back to Hillary Clinton’s comments in the wake of 9/11. If you are experiencing audio issues in Safari please try an alternative browser.

The Clinton who emerges from the WNYC tapes is passionate, raw and unrestrained. Above all, she is livid. She had just learned that the Bush administration instructed officials of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reassure New Yorkers after 9/11 that the air over Ground Zero was safe. In fact, they had a pretty good idea that it was a toxic pall of asbestos, cement, glass dust, heavy metals, fuels and PCBs.

“I am outraged,” Clinton went on. “In the immediate aftermath, the first couple of days, nobody could know. But a week later? Two weeks later? Two months later? Six months later? Give me a break!”

Of all the varied chapters of Clinton’s tumultuous 30 years in public life, the story of her response to the attacks on the twin towers is one of the richest in terms of the clues it provides as to what to expect from a Clinton presidency. It reveals elements of her character, of her domestic policy strengths, as well as her tendency to lean towards the hawkish side in international affairs.

As the 15th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the memories of those days, and her role in them, remain fresh for many who stood by her side. Richard Alles was on the smoldering pile on 12 September, the day after the attacks, when Clinton turned up and proclaimed: “This attack on New York is an attack on America, it’s an attack on every American.”

 Hillary Clinton greets New York City firefighters at the funeral for department chaplain the Rev Mychal Judge, who died at the World Trade Center. Photograph: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

Then a uniformed firefighter with battalion 58 in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Alles arrived at Ground Zero 20 minutes after the second tower collapsed. He stayed there for two days and nights, seeking survivors amid the ruins. What struck him most about Clinton that day, he said, was what he called her “compassion”.

“She really went out of her way to speak to the first responders on the site to reassure them,” he said. “I never forgot it.”

Alles was also struck by how Clinton quickly grasped the potential health risks of Ground Zero, and how doggedly she pursued treatment for those who suffered. “We all knew from the get-go that the air was contaminated,” he said, “but we had a job to do so we kept on working. Senator Clinton was at the forefront over dealing with it, she showed herself to be a fighter.”

On 9/11, Peter Gorman was president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association of New York City, a union that represents largely white, blue-collar workers of the sort who today might back Donald Trump. The union had pointedly put its weight behind Clinton’s opponent in the 2000 senatorial race, Republican Rick Lazio.

Yet Gorman recalls being pleasantly surprised by Clinton’s commitment, both in terms of her mastery of policy detail and on a personal level. “She would call me on my cellphone to ask how I was doing, how my members were doing,” he said. “One time I was pumping gas at a Texaco station, it was Christmas Eve, and she wanted to know how things were going. When a senator calls someone on my level, that’s impressive.”

That same personal care made a profound impression on Lauren Manning, one of very few people who survived severe injuries from the planes crashing into the towers. She was engulfed by a fireball of jet fuel as she was entering the elevators in the north tower to go up to work at Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 105th floor.

She was burned on 83% of her body; 658 of her colleagues died.

A few months later, Manning was in treatment at the Burke rehabilitation hospital in White Plains, New York, when she had a visitor. Clinton walked into her small hospital room and “embraced me as best she could”, she said. “She was kind and gentle, and she very specifically said to me that she was here for me and that she would remain at my side.”

Manning, who gave a keynote speech on behalf of Clinton at the Democratic national convention in July, said that her most vivid memory was of the senator’s eyes.

Hillary Clinton attends a memorial event at Ground Zero. Photograph: Jennifer S. Altman/WireImage

“I was covered and swathed in bandages,” she said, “dealing with a great deal of pain, but she captured me with her eyes. They were wide open and expressive, and they remained on mine. She didn’t lose sight of what I was saying to her. To me, that was the mark of somebody who is sincere, who you want on your side.”

Having declared 9/11 to be an attack on all Americans, Clinton soon discovered that the national response was not entirely united or favorable to struggling New Yorkers. The head of the EPA at the time, Christine Todd Whitman, repeatedly insisted the air at Ground Zero was safe even as early as three days after the towers collapsed, as did Mayor Rudy Giuliani despite worries within City Hall that they were facing thousands of liability claims.

Confronted by this wall of denial, Clinton was one of the most powerful voices warning of an impending health crisis. Ben Chevat, chief of staff to congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York on 9/11, recalls the impact.

“The Bush administration was saying, ‘There’s no problem, move along’,” he said, “and so it was hard work getting any traction in the media. Yet we knew there was a problem because people were getting sick with respiratory diseases and cancers.”

Chevat, now executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, said: “It took Clinton to put a spotlight on the issue and change the frame.”

‘She was a sponge for knowledge’

Clinton and her allies started small but over time succeeded in dramatically expanding the health program for those who became ill after
9/11. Within weeks of the attacks she had helped secure $12m for a pilot project at Mount Sinai hospital, screening some 9,000 workers with suspected Ground Zero illnesses.

By April 2004 the program had grown to a $90m fund offering three free medical exams a year to 50,000 first responders and residents of lower Manhattan. In 2010, Clinton having passed on the baton to her successor in the US senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, reluctant Republicans in Congress were cajoled into passing the $4bn Zadroga Act, covering the health costs of those impaired by the toxic fumes. Last year the program was extended for 75 years, and now serves 65,000 emergency responders and almost 10,000 9/11 resident survivors.

Philip Landrigan, who hosted the first World Trade Center medical program at Mount Sinai, puts this success story in no small part down to Clinton’s relentless pursuit of the subject coupled with her attention to detail.

“She was angry at the Washington political leaders who would come to Ground Zero, have photos taken and then go back to DC and do nothing,” he said.

Hillary Clinton tours the site of the World Trade Center the day after 9/11 with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Governor George Pataki, left. Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AFP/Getty Images

“She became deeply knowledgable on the subject, not just fiscal and administrative details, but also about medical and mental health problems. She was a sponge for knowledge.”

Clinton’s powerful engagement in the 9/11 health cause makes for a strong contrast with how her presidential rival, Donald Trump, spent his time in the wake of the terrorist attacks. He used a loophole in federal funding to help small businesses hurt by the disaster to claim $150,000 in subsidies for a Wall Street real estate project.

Yet when it comes to this year’s presidential race, several of the people who worked closely with Clinton after 9/11 said they were puzzled by her struggle to win over voters. As a senator operating on the ground, and one to one, she came across as an effective and empathetic leader, they said. Writ large across the nation, her persona struggled to come across.

“She may not be the most natural politician,” said former firefighters union president Peter Gorman. “I regret that sometimes she doesn’t come across well in front of a crowd as people don’t know her as so many of us do.”

Alles, the firefighter, put her troubles with popularity in 2016 – she has anunfavorable rating of 55%, according to the RealClearPolitics.com average of polls – down to the criticism she has endured from political opponents and enemies over decades, from Whitewater in the 1990s to Benghazi and the email controversy today. He doubted many of his fellow firefighters would back her in November, as the good work she did after 9/11 has faded from view.

“Younger fire officers aren’t aware of what she did as senator,” he said. “While they were growing up all they heard was this bad stuff about Clinton – the damage has been done.”

What hasn’t faded from view is something else that has frequently bugged Clinton: her vote in October 2002 to authorize the use of military force in Iraq, a resolution that paved the way for the invasion the following year. The controversial decision – the hardest of her political life, she has said – was predicated on her response to the collapse of the twin towers.

As she told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, the 9/11 attacks “marked me, and made me feel [fighting terrorism] was my No1 obligation as a senator”.

Micah Zenko, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who has studied Clinton’s changing approach to Iraq, suggested her views were more nuanced and thoughtful than she has been credited for. He pointed to her speech to the Senate floor before casting her war vote.

Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer bow their heads during a moment of silence at Ground Zero. Photograph: Ruth Fremson/AP

“She emphasizes the UN and sanctions route, and doesn’t emphasise neo-conservative nation building,” he said. “She was very conscious that this was not a blank check.”

On the other hand, Clinton continued to support the military escapade in Iraq until 2005 and only fully disavowed her vote a couple of years ago, when she wrote in her memoir Hard Choices that she “got it wrong”. That she continues to wrestle with this vexed subject, and her record on it, was shown on Wednesday night when she used a foreign policy town hall in New York City to state bluntlythat she would not put US ground troops into Iraq “ever again”.

That has not assuaged anti-war campaigners who were active in 2002 and 2003. They are still angry about Clinton’s pro-war vote, given the warnings they raised at the time.

“There were many concerns raised, and one of the biggest was that little wars lead to big wars and big wars lead to bigger wars and this is going to be a quagmire,” said Leslie Cagan, co-chair of the anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice. “There is no endgame here … and of course that’s what happened.”

As early as 2004, Clinton was back on the Brian Lehrer show slamming the Bush administration again, this time for having misled the American people over weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein’s purported links to al-Qaida. “There wouldn’t have been a vote … if everything we knew now had been known then,” she said.

But that further peeves the anti-war campaigners because it ignores the fact that before the invasion happened they were sounding the alarm about precisely those issues.

As Cagan put it: “There were many warnings: don’t do this, don’t go into Iraq, don’t start a war that doesn’t need to be started. It wasn’t like you couldn’t hear that, if you were listening.”

• Andrea Bernstein is the senior editor, politics and policy, for WNYC

❤️♀💪🏽

Readers: Hillary is a true public servant. She’s done a thousand times more for the American people than what’s his face. (I’m tired of writing his name.) While she was helping those injured in 9/11, that traitor was busy milking the system to get a kickback setup by the federal government to help small business hurt by 9/11.

Why anyone would think he would be good for the economy…good for small business…good for anything is not thinking. Amazing how many people will vote against their best interest in the interest of keeping the country white and in control. Sigh…thank god Hillary’s got lots of supporters. And we won’t let that man bring this country to hell in the proverbial handbasket.

What’s your take? Blog me.

Peace out.

CORRECTION: I made a mistake a few days ago when I posted the naked photos of Trump. I noted that Trump claimed that Mark Rubio’s father was involved with the assassination of President Kennedy. It should have read: “Trump also claimed Ted Cruz’s father was involved with the assassination of President Kennedy.” My apologies. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning.

Raven: I liked your answer to Eric. Excellent examples. I will just add, because of course Eric and I’m sure other men will agree with him and say there is no such thing as “rape” culture,” don’t ever have to worry about walking the streets in the evening and fear getting raped. Hell, it’s not even about just the evening anymore because nowadays, rape happens in broad daylight.

Society accepts rape. We know this because the punishment for rape is not even close to what it should be for how horrific the act of rape actually is. Not only is the woman blamed (Reread Raven’s points again if you didn’t get it the first time) over and over again, many men get off easily because men don’t think rape is so bad. Remember what the father of the Stanford rapist said? - “That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20-plus years of life.” This is “rape culture.” And we’re living in it.

Eric, if you think a society doesn’t encourage rape think again. Men encourage men to “take it” all the time. How many stories have we read where men encourage each other to “take a piece of that meat?” How the many times it has been voiced here in the comments section. That is “rape culture” plain and simple. What part of that don’t you get, Eric?

From WAVAW:

Emilie Buchwald, author of Transforming a Rape Culture, describes that when society normalizes sexualized violence, it accepts and creates rape culture. In her book she defines rape culture as a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women.

It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm . . . In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable . . . However . . . much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change. 

The website Force: Upsetting the Rape Culture explains how rape culture is the images, language, laws and other everyday phenomena that we see and hear everyday that validate and perpetuate rape.

Rape culture includes jokes, TV, music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery, that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable. Rather than viewing the culture of rape as a problem to change, people in a rape culture think about the persistence of rape as “just the way things are.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Until women’s health, and her body, including rights of her body, is respected, until rape is not considered “normal,” until the woman stops being blamed for the sick actions of men, and until the punishment for rape remains lenient, we will live in a “rape culture.”

We’re just lucky that the men in our country haven’t gone as far as other CULTures where men not only blame women for being too seductive, or too sexy, or too pretty, or too _______(You fill in the blank), they mutilate her genitals causing her to suffer incredibly, physically and emotionally, and for many the result is death. Why? Because men can’t handle their sexual desires.

So instead of taking responsibility of their lack of control (Hey, how about putting your dick under the knife), they mutilate the women. Yeah, men can still get their thrills, but not the ladies – they have to reduce their sexual desires because the men are “sexually weak.” Truly sick stuff.

Here’s the write from the Wash Po. It shows the reason why Islam is a dangerous cult to women. When a god is used to justify something that couldn’t be legally, or logically, or ethically.

Female genital mutilation needed because Egyptian men are ‘sexually weak,’ lawmaker says

CAIRO — It was an outrageous argument, by any measure: Women should “reduce their sexual desires” because Egyptian men are “sexually weak.”

This is what an Egyptian lawmaker, Elhamy Agina, claimed over the weekend in making an argument in favor of female genital mutilation or FGM.

“We are a population whose men suffer from sexual weakness, which is evident because Egypt is among the biggest consumers of sexual stimulants that only the weak will consume,” Agina said, according to a translation in Egyptian Streets, an English-language local news website. “If we stop FGM, we will need strong men and we don’t have men of that sort.”

So it is better for women, he continued, to undergo the brutal practice to “reduce a woman’s sexual appetite.” And by doing so, he added, women would “stand by their men” and life would proceed smoothly.

Of course, this led to a maelstrom on Twitter and other online sites.

The centuries-old practice involves the partial or full removal of the external sex organs, usually with a knife or razor blade, in a belief that doing so reduces sexual desires. The cutting can lead to urinary infections, menstrual problems, infertility and death, in addition to psychological trauma.

The practice was banned in Egypt in 2008. Since then, circumcising girls has been punishable by a prison sentence of between three months and three years as well as a hefty fine. Still, FGM remains a widespread practice here, as it is in many other African nations and parts of the Middle East.

According to the World Health Organization, Egypt has some of the highest rates of FGM, in company with Somalia, Djibouti and Sierra Leone. A UNICEF study in 2013 found that as many as 27.2 million women in Egypt have been circumcised.

The Egyptian cabinet recently approved a draft law that would impose stiffer penalties for those who force girls and women into FGM. Jail terms would range between five and seven years, and harsher sentences would be imposed if the procedure leads to death or deformity. In May, an Egyptian teenager died of complications after undergoing FGM, propelling the United Nations to urge Egypt to enact stricter punishments. The new legislation is awaiting ratification by the parliament before it can become law.

By this week, Agina was backtracking on his comments. In one local newspaper, Al Masry Al Youm, or the Egyptian Today, he clarified that his rejection of the toughening of penalties for FGM was based on how ”it is hard to apply in Egypt.”

And in a phone interview with TV host Eman Ezzuldine on Mehwar Channel that his comments were to be considered only a “jest.”

“I don’t get afraid, and I meant no offense to Egyptian men,” Agina continued. “Egyptian men are true men, and I am a true man.”

*****

Readers: The logic of Agina escapes me. Really there is no logic. And then after all he states, he says it was only said in “jest?” Really? Like mutilating women is a joking matter. What did I post above about “jokes?”

This too is “rape culture.”

Thoughts? Blog me. 

Peace & Love – where is the love?

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning! How is everyone? Happy to see all of you here. 😘

Did you know that Obama’s approval rating is over 50%? As it should be because he continues to  move forward and get stuff done – this is no lame duck president. If he can get this rule approved, I would love to add that feather in our beloved president Obama’s hat, thank you.

From Daily Kos:

President Obama moves to permanently protect Planned Parenthood funding

Planned Parenthood has been winning in the courts in 2016, as state after Republican-led state has tried to cripple the organization by defunding clinics. Now the Obama administration is stepping in to attempt to short-circuit those lawsuits with a proposed rule reinforcing existing law, preventing states from defunding Planned Parenthood or any other family planning provider for political reasons.

The proposed rule says that states cannot withhold Title X federal family planning funds from providers for any reason other than their “ability to deliver services to program beneficiaries in an effective manner.” This would essentially make the same laws that apply to Medicaid—states can’t pick and choose providers the federal funds go to in the absence of fraud—apply specifically to Title X funding. Bottom line: if the rule is approved, states could no longer bar Planned Parenthood funding because some of its clinics provide abortions.

“This will make a real difference in so many people’s lives,” said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards:

“The Obama Administration is protecting access to health care for millions of people. Women in nearly half the states in this country have faced political attacks on cancer screenings, birth control, and other basic care. This rule makes it clear that politicians cannot ignore the law as they pursue their agenda to stop women from getting the care they need.

Title X is a key program in providing necessary basic preventive care as well as birth control coverage to about 4 million low-income Americans, with about one-third of those patients getting care from Planned Parenthood. It uses that Title X funding, along with the Medicaid funds it receives, to provide subsidized birth control, and screening for and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

Speaking of sexually transmitted diseases and Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood: Zika.

In Little Haiti, Liberty City, and a number of other neighborhoods in Miami, canvassers are now walking door to door to spread the word about the risks of Zika, one household at a time — hoping to reach 25, 000 people the next six weeks. In some neighborhoods, these workers aren’t sponsored by federal or state health agencies, but by Planned Parenthood.

Lillian Tamayo, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida, told NPR that Miami-Dade County has the state’s largest population of people without health coverage, which leaves these residents particularly vulnerable to Zika. “More than one-third of Florida does not have an OB-GYN,” she said. “It also is among the worst states in the country for women’s health and women’s well-being. And it has staggering infection rates for sexually transmitted diseases. And now we have Zika.”

The proposed rule, which will become permanent after a 30-day comment period, wouldn’t stop a terrible Republican Congress from trying to keep public health funds away from Planned Parenthood—nor would it stop horror shows like the current House Republican “investigation” that’s endangering Planned Parenthood staff and fetal tissue researchers, but it would stop governors like Florida’s Rick Scott from doing it. So we need to take care of the Republican congressional horror show.

*****

Readers: Thank you, president Obama for all you do for women. Women’s health has always been a priority for Obama. It’s always been a priority for Hillary too. Let’s keep the momentum going.

Speaking of health, with respect to Clinton’s bout of pneumonia, most every politician gets sick on the campaign trail. With their constant running schedules from city to city and shaking hands, kissing, and contracting who know what, it’s surprising they don’t get sick more often, not to mention dehydrated and exhausted.

The difference between Clinton and Trump is that pneumonia is a treatable sickness and will pass, unlike Trump’s sicknesses of serial lying, misogynist comments, racist meme tweets…need I go on?…Cause I can very easily.

It’s your turn to do the talking. Something to say?

Blog me. 

Peace & Love: “Live it, Give it.”

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Hellooo…and good morning!

I found this on Las Vegas Now:

5,300 Wells Fargo employees fired over 2 million phony accounts

Accounts earned bank unwarranted fees

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Everyone hates paying bank fees. But imagine paying fees on a ghost account you didn’t even sign up for.

That’s exactly what happened to Wells Fargo customers nationwide.

On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts — without their customers knowing it — since 2011.

The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money.

“Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,” Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement.

Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees over the last few years related to the shady behavior. Employees went so far as to create phony PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll customers in online banking services, the CFPB said.

The scope of the scandal is shocking. An analysis conducted by a consulting firm hired by Wells Fargo concluded that bank employees opened over 1.5 million deposit accounts that may not have been authorized.

The way it worked was that employees moved funds from customers’ existing accounts into newly-created ones without their knowledge or consent, regulators say. The CFPB described this practice as “widespread.” Customers were being charged for insufficient funds or overdraft fees — because there wasn’t enough money in their original accounts.

Additionally, Wells Fargo employees also submitted applications for 565,443 credit card accounts without their customers’ knowledge or consent. Roughly 14,000 of those accounts incurred over $400,000 in fees, including annual fees, interest charges and overdraft-protection fees.

The CFPB said Wells Fargo will pay “full restitutions to all victims.”

Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers.

“We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request,” Wells Fargo said in a statement.

Wells Fargo has the highest market valuation among any bank in America, worth just north of $250 billion. Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm run legendary investor Warren Buffett, is the company’s biggest shareholder.

Of the total fines, $100 million will go toward the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund, $35 million will go to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and another $50 million will be paid to the City and County of Los Angeles.

“One wonders whether (the CFPB) penalty of $100 million is enough,” said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor and former director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “It sounds like a big number, but for a bank the size of Wells Fargo, it isn’t really.”

Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that the 5,300 firings took place over several years. The bank listed 265,000 employees as of the end of 2015.

“At Wells Fargo, when we make mistakes, we are open about it, we take responsibility, and we take action,” the bank said in a memo to employees on Thursday.

The CFPB declined to comment on when the investigation began and what sparked it, citing agency policy. “We don’t comment on how we uncover these matters,” a spokesman said.

As part of the settlement, Wells Fargo needs to make changes to its sales practices and internal oversight.

Customers are fuming. Brian Kennedy, a Maryland retiree, told CNNMoney he detected an unauthorized Wells Fargo account had been created in his name about a year ago. He asked Wells Fargo about it and the bank closed it, he said.

“I didn’t sign up for any bloody checking account,” Kennedy, who is 57 years old, told CNNMoney. “They lost me as a banking customer and I have warned family and friends.”

“Consumers must be able to trust their banks,” said Mike Feuer, the Los Angeles City Attorney who joined the settlement.

Feuer’s office sued Wells Fargo in May 2015 over allegations of unauthorized accounts. After filing the suit, his office received more than 1,000 calls and emails from customers as well as current and former Wells Fargo employees about the allegations.

Wells Fargo declined to say when it hired a consulting firm to investigate the allegations. However, a person familiar with the matter told CNNMoney the bank launched the review after the L.A. lawsuit was filed.

Even though the Wells Fargo scandal took place nationally, the settlement with L.A. requires the bank to specifically alert all its California customers to review their accounts and shut down ones they don’t recognize or want.

“How does a bank that is supposed to have robust internal controls permit the creation of over a half-million dummy accounts?” asked Vladeck. “If I were a Wells Fargo customer, and fortunately I am not, I’d think seriously about finding a new bank.”

–To reach the author of this article email Matt.Egan@cnn.com

$$$$$

Readers: I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth for years from the predatory lending practices and dealings of Wells Fargo Bank, the bailout and beyond. Actually I feel that way with most of the BIG banks. Why anyone would still be with a big bank if they could switch is beyond my reasoning. The takers keep taking  - Who knows what else will be exposed.

I’m headed home today. I look forward to catching up.  Happy Monday!

Thoughts? Blog me.

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning! Ladies: Listen up because you need to know about this.

From Harvard Health Publications: 

Harvard Women’s Health Watch

What’s the story with Fosamax?

Readers: Here is another instance of a drug company using the unknown public to experiment on. This drug was issued supposedly to prevent women from having brittle bones, but instead it makes the woman’s situation worse by making certain bones in her body so brittle they break without experiencing any trauma. If she had done nothing, her only concern would be falling down and breaking a bone.

Now that doesn’t even need to happen. Long term use of this drug causes a woman’s bones to break without her having to fall or experience any kind of trauma to her bones. The killer is, for those who have been taking it for a few years, stopping may not help because the drug remains in their systems for years, weakening their bones  year after year.

If you know someone who is on this drug, I hope you’ll pass it on. Thoughts? It’s Friday…start talkin’…

blog me.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"