$1B coerced from “racist” lenders ….. and we’ve “Only Just Begun” …..

From Investor’s Business Daily:

“…..So “victims” were never actually identified. That’s why the complaint has to estimate that Ally discriminated against “approximately” 100,000 African-American borrowers.

More shocking, civil-rights prosecutors never actually checked the creditworthiness of those borrowers. That’s right, they never looked at credit scores, down payments, debt or other key risk-related factors banks consider to set interest rates. Not for blacks, or for supposedly “similarly situated” whites.

So how in the world can Justice claim “Ally’s specific policy and practice are not justified by a legitimate business need?”

It really can’t. That’s why it relies on statistics to “prove” such policies had a “disparate impact” on minorities, while arbitrarily finding those disparities so “significant” they can’t be explained by chance.

Arbitrary, because neither Justice nor CFPB will reveal its threshold for “significant,” despite repeated bipartisan requests from Congress.

What a clever fraud by your own government.”

The Credit Rating service Fitch notes that it may be more than just a desire to extort from the banks which lend in the auto market:

Fitch also notes that CFPB does not have jurisdiction over auto dealers and their practices. Actions taken against lenders could be an indirect way to regulate dealers.

A look through the CFPB “Advisory Groups” listings will show a “who’s-who” of Progressives with tentacles to well known fraud front groups, such as ACORN.

The official news release for the latest shakedown , er, “settlement” states it will consist of several parts: (more…)

Following our public records request (actually, on the same day) the Maryland Transportation Authority Police (MDTA) posted the following statement on their FaceBook Page:

In response to a recent complaint about the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) Police and a Jan. 12, 2014, Tampa Tribune article, a preliminary review indicates that all proper protocols were followed throughout the Dec. 30, 2013, 55-minute traffic stop on I-95, which was initiated for a speeding violation. The MDTA takes these allegations seriously and will continue to investigate this personnel matter. (link)

As we wait for the records of the incident it’s interesting to note the position of the MTA.

If “proper protocols were followed” then why did the MDTA Chief and Internal Affairs apologize to Mr. Filippidis?    Also, if “proper protocols were followed” then why then is this a “personnel matter“?

Apply logic between the parseltongue and you can come away with a possibility the MDTA wants attention on the officer rather than on the actual capability which allowed the officer to make his assumptions.

Their initial response reeks of similarity to James Clapper’s initial response when he was asked by congress if the NSA was collecting information on U.S. citizens.    Our curiosity is really peaked now because Occam’s razor would infer the MDTA wants to present this as a “personnel matter” for how an officer responded.   That’s not the real issue.

The bigger issue is what technology existed, which is used by MDTA, and spurred the officer to know Mr. Filippidis was a CCW holder.   THAT is the bigger interest.

It’s not what the officer DID with the information, it’s why the officer HAD the information to begin with.  In addition, did the fact the incident happened at one of the Federal Homeland Security sensitive site areas, the Fort McHenry Tunnel, have any bearing on the technology capability used by the state authority encountered.   (more…)

UPDATE: FULLERTON, Calif. — Thirteen people have been arrested while protesting the acquittal of two former California police officers charged in the beating death of a homeless man.

Police Sgt. Jeff Stuart says Saturday’s demonstration in Fullerton, which drew about 200 people, turned violent when someone assaulted a KCBS-TV camerawoman. Stuart says the camerawoman fled into her news van, and her crew called 911 when a group surrounded the van.

Stuart says officers in riot gear came to disperse the crowd, and arrested 10 for not complying.  Police also arrested a woman in the assault and two others for scrawling an obscenity and an anarchist symbol on police property.  (LINK)

Another Report from the LA Times HERE

HatTip Jello – CALIFORNIA – An Orange County jury Monday found two former Fullerton police officers accused of killing a schizophrenic homeless man, Kelly Thomas, not guilty.

I’ll admit to being a little frustrated with the Charles Krauthammer’s of the world who talk about ObamaCare self-destructing because it is financially “unsustainable”.   This they also call the “death spiral” to describe the possible collapse of ObamaCare because the financial arrangements inherent within ObamaCare do not support it continuing.

Intellectually accurate.    BUT, when you think about how current political progressives operate, PROFOUNDLY NAIVE  and structurally false.

U.S. taxpayers will make up the difference between costs and revenues via the Reinsurance program:

[WSJ] Robert Laszewski—a prominent consultant to health insurance companies—recently wrote in a remarkably candid blog post that, while Obamacare is almost certain to cause insurance costs to skyrocket even higher than it already has, “insurers won’t be losing a lot of sleep over it.”  How can this be?  Because insurance companies won’t bear the cost of their own losses—at least not more than about a quarter of them.  The other three-quarters will be borne by American taxpayers. (more…)

(Via Breitbart) The government watchdog group that revealed that President Barack Obama failed to attend over half of his daily intelligence briefings (known officially as the Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB) released a devastating Benghazi timeline Wednesday.

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Absolutely desperate to shield former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from accountability MSNBC goes ‘all in’ to blame Ambassador Stevens for his own death in Benghazi Libya.

https://www.mrctv.org/videos/katty-kay-fallible-ambassador-stevens-blame-his-own-death-hillary-hook

The Democrat chaired Senate Intelligence Committee released an outline yesterday placing the blame and failure to protect the State Dept. Benghazi consulate squarely on the shoulders of the State Dept itself.

As head of the State Department during 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Hillary Clinton carries the burden of accountability. (more…)

Democrat party operatives, big labor unions, and liberal financial operations are quickly organizing themselves to support the re-election goals of the following candidates…..  Is there anything more you need to know about why these Republicans should NOT be re-elected.

WASHINGTON DC – Labor unions are funneling cash to a super-PAC tied to a former lawmaker that is working to elect centrist Republicans to Congress.

Unions have contributed about $765,000 so far to the Defending Main Street Super-PAC, which is associated with former GOP lawmaker Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), according to Federal Election Commission records.

The total, while small in the new big money era of campaign politics, is an unusually strong show of support from labor for a Republican venture. (more…)

Yesterday we spotlighted a story about a Florida family driving through Maryland and mysteriously being targeted for a police stop.  They were questioned about owning a gun, detained, searched, their car contents emptied – searched, and after approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours of detention during the search they were released.

Obviously for the driver, John Filippidis, and his family, this was alarming.   What would prompt the Maryland Transportation Authority Police (MTAP) to randomly select their vehicle?

Because the first question to Mr. Filippidis was about his gun ownership, and the police search for the gun was based on his gun ownership, the Florida CCW permit that Filippidis holds was identified as the most likely impetus for the stop, questioning and search.   [His firearm was locked in a safe in his Florida home]

This strikes us as highly alarming – so we contacted MTAP and we immediately filed public records requests to research what took place.

However, our interest has also spurred numerous contacts, tips and directions to help understand what’s going on.    We now know where else to look to find out what exactly is going on.   Mr. Filippidis’ experience is merely the tip of the iceberg.

What is written below explains how the family was targeted; why the family was targeted; and what intentions were behind the MTAP engagement. (more…)

The New York Times has a lengthy article about the evolution of Obama’s ideology and perspective regarding NSA spying.    However, inside the article there is this admission from White House advisor/campaign director David Plouffe that everyone appears to be overlooking (emphasis mine):

[…]   “When you get the package every morning, it puts steel in your spine,” said David Plouffe, the president’s longtime adviser. “There are people out there every day who are plotting. The notion that we would put down a tool that would protect people here in America is hard to fathom.”

At the same time, aides said Mr. Obama was surprised to learn after leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, just how far the surveillance had gone. “Things seem to have grown at the N.S.A.,” Mr. Plouffe said, citing specifically the tapping of foreign leaders’ telephones. “I think it was disturbing to most people, and I think he found it disturbing.”

Yet it is hard to express indignation at actions of the government after five years of running it, and some involved in surveillance note that it was Mr. Obama who pushed national security agencies to be aggressive in hunting terrorists.  (read full article)

I have not had the opportunity to review the entire report – this article below is from the Washington Post.  All Senate Committees are chaired by Democrats.

WASHINGTON DC – A long-delayed Senate Intelligence Committee report released Wednesday faulted both the State Department and the intelligence community for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, about 16 months ago.

The bipartisan report laid out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on a diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the city. It said the State Department failed to increase security at its mission despite warnings, and blamed intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with the U.S. military.

The committee determined that the U.S. military command in Africa didn’t know about the CIA annex and that the Pentagon didn’t have the resources in place to defend the State Department compound in an emergency.

“The attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya — to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets — and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the panel said in a statement. (more…)