Purple waters majesty
Hurry, hurry step right this way! See it before your very own eyes. It will delight, dazzle and disorientate. It’s the Purple Waters of Saugerties. An unnatural spectacle rivaling Las Vegas, Dollywood and Coney Island, all combined. When bothersome zoning becomes too burdensome, mesmerize your neighbors with captivating purple waters. It’s sure to lure migrating night geese to their feathery graves. Diamond Mills Hotel and Tavern of Saugerties: dare to stare at the
glowing waters.
David Radovanovic
Saugerties
A new hope
It’s not easy to talk about what’s good in our country’s present state of being, so I decided to search for it. I began with looking up one of my few remaining hopes – Eric Schneiderman,
Our state attorney general, who heard us shouting against the BOGI’s (Big Oil and Gas Industries) for fracking up our water, has helped to delay that nightmare for a little while. So, I wanted to see what else he was doing. As I suspected, there was my present hero, standing up against the banksters, and specifically mortgages and foreclosures.
Now being a mortgage holder, this is a topic that interests me. Now I’d heard about Robo-signing, which became the norm, and that banks threw our mortgages to one another sort of like basketballs – move ‘em as fast as you can. They must have known that they had less of a chance of losing, if they weren’t caught holding the ball.
Some “lefties” have wondered why Schneiderman didn’t go after the banks earlier, but he explained on MSNBC’s Chris Hayes’s show, that New York State’s statute of limitations was almost up. So, knowing that time was running out, he joined a large army of lawyers and somehow, got the president to assign a investigative force from the FBI, the IRS, the SEC and more to help with the investigation. Schneiderman is now co-chair of this new federal task force, which is not under the restrictions of the state. He noted that 15 million families are at risk of foreclosure in the United States (out of a population of a bit over 300 million), and that this was a manmade disaster. He wants accountability, and wants to stop the de-regulation that allows the outright criminal behavior that blew up our economy.
Many of the foreclosures are based on pieces of paper that have been lost. In other words the banks can’t prove that they legally hold our mortgages. He stated that a decade ago, mortgage backed securities were once a way to finance people so they could buy homes, but turned into money makers for the banksters. So now, the IRS is in the process of investigation possible tax fraud, by the banks.
Chris Hayes asked if we were looking at “settlements” and Schneiderman answered that his group was concentrating on investigation of all possible charges at this point. That includes tax fraud, insurance fraud, and all fraud. When asked about the resources that the president gave him, he answered that there was a core group of 55 people and hundreds of people investigating and that each mortgage backed security can be looked into.
Chris asked why only poor people go to jail, and rich people with a few exceptions do not. Schneiderman answered that he believes that the president has asked for equal justice, and although everyone at the table on Chris Hayes’ show seemed to be skeptically hopeful, Schneiderman seemed calm and confident. It’s not for me to put out optimism at this time, but as I have for some time now, I will be following Eric Schneiderman on this issue and plan to let you know how it’s going.
Meanwhile, enjoy your drinking water, while you still can.
Jill Paperno
Glenford
Join the family! 
