First things first: Gail Leeks inherited her house from her mother, Marjorie Gibson, who died of cancer. Gail is 65, but still works full-time and can still make her mortgage payments -- if Wells Fargo would take them! Wells Fargo won't, because they say the house still belongs to Marjorie, and won't deal with anyone but Marjorie even though she's dead. And Wells Fargo has begun foreclosure proceedings on the home. The bank even returned a $5,000 check from Ms. Leeks, saying it "wasn't enough" without revealing, you know, what "enough" would look like -- and apparently they were in a talkative mood that day. Is this all a simple misunderstanding -- or is this another big bankster trying to steal someone's house out from under them? I'm sure you know what I think. Anyway, change.org helps you tell Wells Fargo to stop the shenanigans with Ms. Leeks's home. Seriously, if Wells Fargo wants to take things like this to the Pearly Gates, I don't think they're going to get very far.
Meanwhile, I've got bad news and good news about Pussy Riot, the feminist punk band whose 40-second anti-Putin "prayer" in an Orthodox church landed them in trouble with the Russian authorities. The bad news: three of their members got two years in a labor camp. The good news: two other members have bolted the country. Well, good for them! But Russia's still hunting them down, having never learned, apparently, that the Soviet Union was the most unpopular government of the 20th century because it killed or imprisoned everyone who disagreed with them, and that acting like Soviets remains extraordinarily unpopular. I suppose Russian authorities would bristle at the comparison -- but we've come so far! Our capitalists break more heads than American capitalists! I suppose they'll also tell us they're just following the law. Silly Russians! Acting like governments never invent laws about "hooliganism" just to suppress free speech! Amnesty International helps you tell Russia to give up on oppressing Pussy Riot any longer.
Finally, if you've missed any previous opportunities to tell Ohio's Secretary of State to reinstate weekend early voting, the ACLU provides another one. Now, just because Mr. Husted doesn't actually break any heads open so that the Republicans can consolidate their power, that doesn't mean he's a much better guy than any of the other idiots I've mentioned so far today -- it just means he was lucky enough to be born in a nation where you can't steal votes so brazenly. So he claims that the mishmash of county rules for early voting just won't do, and won't allow early weekend voting in Ohio, such that folks who work during voting hours during the week won't be able to vote unless they take a day off -- and, hello, not everyone gets paid days off. Does Jon Husted want Ohio's workers to call out sick, with or without pay, just to avoid the long lines they had in Cleveland in 2004? That wouldn't be very upstanding of him. And anyway, the Franklin County GOP Chair already gave up the game earlier this week, when he spoke about not "accommodating" the "African-American machine."
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