RANT: Email option isn’t an option

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

–Original Message–Date; 2/24/2012 2;33;22 PMSubject; When will I get my first pension check?I turned 65 on 1/13/12. It’s says retire 2/1/12/.So where is the check?fjohnp.s., the secondary authentication questions are an invitation to identity theft.

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Pretty straight forward. I hate having phone sex with automated agents. Especially when a human (somewhere in the world) answers the phone and asks me my name.

So this is what I get back. Not so quickly. (I’m thinking auto-responder to clear away old email.)

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To FERDINAND J REINKE JRFrom Credit Suisse Benefits Service CenterDate 02-24-2012 12:00 a.m. Central Standard TimeSubject Re; When will I get my first pension check?Our Response Hello from Your Benefits Resources [TM].

Ferdinand,
Please call the Credit Suisse Benefits Service Center and request to speak with a pension representative. Benefits Service Center Representatives are available by calling 1-888-325-2732 between 9;00 a.m. to 5;00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday excluding holidays.
Thank you for using Your Benefits Resources.

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So why bother with email.

So, I call. Nothing I love better than phone sex.

Six minutes of Q&A and holding.

“Name”!

ARRRRrrrrrgggghhhhhh!

Then the lady wants my computer password.

Argh!

And, she’s upset when it’s a 24 character random string.

(What stupidity is this? Why should I share my shared secret with another human being? I’d have never permitted it when I was their VP Info Sec.)

Lots of checking.

I’m getting a double check in March.

BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), no apology or explanation of why.

SO who gets the interest for that month. You screw every retiree and I bet it adds up.

Argh!

If I had time, I’d get a Gooferment bureaucrat involved.

Argh!

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RANT: Secondary authentication questions are an invitation to identity theft

Friday, February 24, 2012

FORCED BY A “HUMAN RESOURCE” SYSTEM TO ANSWER:

*** begin quote ***

What’s your father’s middle name?

What’s your spouse’s middle name?

What’s your first child’s middle name?

What was your grandfather’s occupation?

What was the name of the first car you drove?

*** end quote ***

Of course, everyone knows or can find out the answers to these questions.

To save the identity theives time and trouble, the answers are:

bkd7ce5bw9d3

tm7d59c8zyyj

4w2uqfr77vyn

uqfz2rq2tyjv

w84p6ze8u22s

Yes that “w84 p6z e8u 22s” was some little car.

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Anyone see the LIFELOCK commercial where the identity thief steals your money by knowing Mother’s Maiden Name and some other factoid?

Yeah, you can guess how well that works.

When at the bank and they asked that question, I whipped out my sheet of one time passwords and with a straight face told the nice lady “dpdes5 mkkey9”. And, she said: “Seriously?” I quipped: “Yes, she was Armenian.” And, that ended that conversation.

Now when I go to the bank she asks how “dp” is. I say: “Fine”.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Feb-24 @ 14:35

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RANT: BHO44 is stuck with the “gas price” crisis!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Richard Billies: “Barack Obama Claims It Wasn’t Me that caused higher gas prices, it was the other guys: http://t.co/aeCiCY7X Retweet it if you like it.”

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He did the following:

(1) Drilling in the Gulf? (But we give money to Brazil to do it!)

(2) No or slow oil leases.

(3) ANWAR off-limits.

(4) Keystone pipeline

What he could do today?

(a) Preempt all the “blends of gas” nonsense with a sweeping Federal regulation.

(b) Gas tax relief paid for by tariff.

(c) Tariff on gas exports.

(d) Open ANWAR and the Gulf

(e) Sic the IRS on the Oil Companies

(f) Have every Gooferment department come up with a real 1% cut.

(g) …

Guess that’s enough for the first day.

Argh!

He’s hung with this millstone.

He might want to think about calming the Middle East as opposed to appeasing the crazies.

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RANT: Triple the tax

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204880404577225493025537660.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

REVIEW & OUTLOOK    FEBRUARY 22, 2012
Obama’s Dividend Assault
A plan to triple the tax rate would hurt all shareholders.

*** begin quote ***

President Obama’s 2013 budget is the gift that keeps on giving—to government. One buried surprise is his proposal to triple the tax rate on corporate dividends, which believe it or not is higher than in his previous budgets.

Mr. Obama is proposing to raise the dividend tax rate to the higher personal income tax rate of 39.6% that will kick in next year. Add in the planned phase-out of deductions and exemptions, and the rate hits 41%. Then add the 3.8% investment tax surcharge in ObamaCare, and the new dividend tax rate in 2013 would be 44.8%—nearly three times today’s 15% rate.

Keep in mind that dividends are paid to shareholders only after the corporation pays taxes on its profits. So assuming a maximum 35% corporate tax rate and a 44.8% dividend tax, the total tax on corporate earnings passed through as dividends would be 64.1%.

*** end quote ***

So instead of reducing the corporate tax and the dividend tax, BHO44 is increasing it.

How stupid!

This election will be critical.

Reelect and we are so <synonym for the past tense of the procreation act.> Even the worst R, won’t follow through on these tax increases.

Why should a corporation be an “American” company?

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RANT: Child support – pro and con

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/01/26/exposing-the-child-support-myth

Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Posted by Jere Beery
Exposing the Child Support Myth

*** begin quote ***

Last weekend I was standing in the checkout line at our local Wal-Mart when I overheard a conversation between the cashier and a customer. The two women obviously knew one another and began talking like they were very good friends. The Cashier asked the customer if they were going to the Jason Aldean concert that upcoming weekend. The customer replied that they had just received “their” child support check and that “they” were going to use that money to purchase the tickets, get their hair done, and pay for a sitter. This conversation got me to thinking, how much of child support payments truely directly benefit the child?

*** end quote ***

Mixed reaction to this.

On the one hand, the cited anecdote is terrible. But the other side of the coin, seeing abandoned broke families deserted by the fathers living in shelters, makes me wonder.

The Gooferment is a big problem in this whole area.

They give the women support orders that are unenforceable. I’d have the Gooferment give the money to the spouse with the children regardless of sex and take upon itself the need to collect it. Think the IRS going after “child support”.

It’s like the Gooferment’s Courts giving battered spouses an “order of protection”. Worthless. Give them a gun and “hunting license” (i.e., if they defend themselves, they are presumed innocent).

Private charity is better than Gooferment welfare. More intelligent. More flexible.

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RANT: Anyone remember the 19 Americans hostage in Egypt

Monday, February 20, 2012

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/02/10/the-brewing-egyptian-hostage-crisis/

The Brewing Egyptian Hostage Crisis
Posted by Alan W. Dowd  on Feb 10th, 2012

*** begin quote ***

Nineteen American citizens working for well-known and well-established nonprofit groups are being held on trumped-up charges that they tried to destabilize Egypt. Their offices were raided in late December, some are holed up in the U.S. embassy and all of them have been barred from flying out of Egypt. As Time magazine notes, December is significant. December is when Congress passed a number of conditions for aid to the Egyptian military, including proving a “commitment to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, progress toward democratic reforms, and the protection of free expression, association and religion.” Not only are the last two of those conditions not being met by Egypt, but Time adds that Cairo’s case against the Americans is “propagated by the military-led regime.”

*** end quote ***

Never hear anything about this?

Remember Jimmy Carter?

See any similarities?

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RANT: Flash Editorials February 18, 2012, by Russell D. Longcore

Monday, February 20, 2012

Flash Editorials February 18, 2012, by Russell D. Longcore:

“Entertainment: Have you ever had someone in your life that was an addict? You watch this amazing person self-destruct and you are powerless to stop it. Meanwhile, it tears out your heart and messes up your life. Whitney Houston landed on this earth with stunning beauty, immense singing talent and a heart filled with love. She just could not seem to love herself. I will miss her. “

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Well said.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Feb-20 @ 16:03

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RANT: Boston Red Sox owners in a racial mess

Thursday, February 16, 2012

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Boston-Red-Sox-owners-have-a-big-problem—-racism-139431293.html

Boston Red Sox owners have a big problem — racism
Liverpool’s American owner now has some big decisions to make
By PAUL LARKIN, IrishCentral Contributing Writer
Published Thursday, February 16, 2012, 7:49 AM
Updated Thursday, February 16, 2012, 10:17 AM

*** begin quote ***

The Guardian reports that the banking group Standard Chartered, which pays £20m a year for having its name on the Liverpool kit made strong representations to the club after the game expressing its extreme displeasure at the way its image was being dragged through the mud.

The banking group, which has a high profile in Africa and the Middle East then took the unprecedented step of issuing a public statement effectively condemning the club it sponsors:  “We were very disappointed by Saturday’s incident and have discussed our concerns with the club,” John W Henry, and chairman, Tom Werner, are scheduled to visit Liverpool next week  for commercial and sponsorship reasons but it is now unthinkable that they will decline to issue a statement about the racism displayed by one of their own high profile employees and the tenacious support that was shown to that employee by a club they own.

Many Irish people are asking whether things would ever been allowed to go so far if a Red Sox player had behaved the same way.

*** end quote ***

I don’t know why, serendipity maybe, but I watched the very exciting game —  Manchester United versus Liverpool — and saw the refused handshake. At the time, I thought “Wow, their athletes are as big an <an anal opening surrounded by a sphincter> as ‘ours’!”

I didn’t realize the US connection.

I’m sure the corporate sponsor will clear this up in minutes. I can here it now: “Why don’t you pick up your check on your way out. And, don’t let the door hit you in the <synonym for donkey> as you leave.”

It was a good game. Drama equivalent to our standard fare.

Of course, the controversy intruded into a good product.

I also watched the Australian version of their baseball World Series. It to was good; not controversy.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Feb-16 @ 12:32  Boston Red Sox owners

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RANT: CSFB stupid “security theater”

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

OBVIOUS STUPIDITY!

Call up to find out where my pension check is.

Called, went through all the automated questions, and then the operator comes on after a short wait and asks me for my password.

What password?

(Ignores the concept that a “password” is a shared secret. If I knew and told her, then it’s no longer a secret. And, a static password! Please. Even Google two factor authentication is better.)

So we can do anything without them mailing me a new temporary password.

Now envision that I sent them in all my paperwork by certified mail and suggest that number as an authenticator. Or that they call me back. Or that they send me a fax or an email.

Argh!

And, who says that US Mail is secure, unless it’s sent certified mail. (We know they won’t do that because it costs more.)

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Feb-15 @ 13:32

 

 

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RANT: Cleaning the “housing” stable

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/a-modern-pecora-commission-could-right-wall-street-wrongs/

A modern Pecora Commission could right Wall Street wrongsEmail this post Print this post
By Barry Ritholtz – February 5th, 2012, 8:00AM

*** begin quote ***

• MERS: Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems was created by banks without any authority or enabling legislation. 
• Origination fraud: Why did lenders accept “stated income” loans? Why did they abandon traditional standards? 
• RMBS: Wall Street’s securitized mortgage pools (residential mortgage-backed securities) contained a broad variety of flaws, some so egregious that they amounted to fraud. 
• Insurance fraud: Look at a bank tactic in which legitimate home insurance is canceled and new insurance provided at a substantially higher fee through a subsidiary or affiliate of the bank mortgage holder. 
• “Pyramid” servicing fees: An illegal practice in which current payments are applied to past late fees, generating more late fees and additional interest owed and creating a delinquency where none existed. 
• Lost mortgage notes: How is it possible that the most important part of the mortgage contract — the promissory note — was consistently lost or misplaced by banks? 
•Document fraud for sale: There were many examples of alleged document fraud, but the one crying out for investigation involves Lender Processing Services’ DOCX subsidiary. 
•False affidavits, perjury (robo-signing): We do not know who ordered the robo-signing of foreclosure documents, the false notarizations, fraudulent written statements to courts and perjury. 
• Foreclosure mills, process servers: Law firms engaged in rampant fraud that corrupted the foreclosure process. 
• Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act: Federal law protects active-duty service members from foreclosure and eviction.

*** end quote ***

It would seem that these are easy to find, easy to investigate, and easy to get a conviction on.

As a notary, I’m insulted by most of these items.

There’s no excuse for prosecutors at all levels for them not doing their jobs!

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