The GAR offices are closed today in honor of the white men who freed the slaves (UPDATED)

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Battle of antietam, september 17, 1862. Pennsylvania 161st Volunteers were there

Although it slipped by my attention when Biden signed it into law last year (2021 — who knew?) today is apparently now a national holiday called “Juneteenth”, a day, I assume, for honoring and remembering the brave Union soldiers who fought and died to end slavery in this country. Great-grandfather Caldwell would be so pleased.

Can we now restore the statues of Lincoln that have been vandalized and removed from our public spaces?

UPDATE: As it turns out, the blacks are also celebrating … something today, and some of them don’t want us at their party. I’m happy to oblige.

Some Blacks on Social Media Don't Want White People Celebrating Juneteenth

My first reaction to this headline was a lack of sympathy — you borrowed the money, you owe the money. But the details, if true, put me on her side

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Nurse shocked to find family home of 17 years sold behind her back - due to mysterious loophole that could affect vast numbers of Americans

So-called 'zombie mortgages' are coming back to life across the US as home prices rise, experts are warning.

In the run up to the housing crash in 2008, millions of Americans took out second mortgages on their homes that they then defaulted on during the crisis.

Lenders didn't pursue foreclosure because the home price crash made it unlikely they would recoup the money. Homeowners often assumed the debt was cancelled.  

But these dormant loans are now coming back to life - hence the term 'zombie mortgage'.

The forgotten mortgages had been bought for pennies on the dollar by debt collectors who have patiently waited for house prices to rise to record levels - to make it worthwhile chasing the money.

Now, having tacked on retroactive fees and interest, they are coming to collect the money, and this often means foreclosing on the homes to grab a huge slice of the rise in value.

Karen McDonough, from Quincy, Massachusetts, believed her second mortgage had been written off. That was until she stumbled into a foreclosure auction on her front lawn.

When she had purchased the property in 2005, she had taken out a 80/20 loan, which meant she had two mortgages - one covering 80 percent of the value of the home and another covering the remaining 20 percent. [WTF???!!!]

But two years later, her first mortgage adjusted and the monthly payments were suddenly $700 a month higher.

A year later, McDonough was able to get her loan modified to lower the interest rate and make it affordable again. 

“She said her mortgage company told her that as part of the modification, the second mortgage had been forgiven. 

She stopped getting statements on the second mortgage and assumed it was dead. 

Fast forward to 2022 when a group of men were gathered on her driveway for a foreclosure auction. 

McDonough had been receiving phone calls demanding money, but had thought it was a scam. 

She claims she was also told by her first mortgage company to ignore the calls as it was most likely fraud.”

It turned out her second mortgage had been sold off to a company within a batch of 600 others, rather than being written off as she had thought.

A few months after the auction, she got an orange eviction notice posted on her front door. 

>>>>

“One key detail that may be used against debt collectors is that in many cases they are adding years' worth of interest and late fees on top of the amount the homeowner initially borrowed. 

“While companies are allowed to do this under federal regulations, they have to send monthly statements to the homeowner detailing the added costs.

“In many cases like McDonough's, homeowners did not receive any information about the loans for years.”

And she is by no means alone. 

In New York, NPR found at least 10,000 old second mortgages that foreclosure activity had been initiated on in just the last two years. The loans originated back to during the sub-prime-lending housing bubble of 2004 to 2008. 

It also found at least 500 old second mortgages in Maryland where steps towards foreclosure had been taken.

'The numbers to me are very scary,' Andrea Bopp Stark, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, told the outlet.

The problem is feared to be widespread across America. 

'If you're looking at the number of these foreclosure filings, or at least the attempts to collect on this zombie debt, you're starting to see the numbers tick up dramatically into the thousands, if not more, in individual jurisdictions,' David Weber, a professor at the Creighton University School of Law told The New York Times. 

'That's a lot of activity.'

He attributed the increased attention in zombie mortgages to the rise in home prices. 

Rising property values build equity into a property, enabling a secondary mortgage holder to make money even after the first mortgage holder is paid, Weber said.

I don’t know whether the original bank’s negligence and misrepresentations can be extended to the secondary lender — they might be, especially if they’re still in business, and many aren’t — but the independent actions of these foreclosure vultures should make them vulnerable to the special defenses of laches (sitting on their cause of action) and unjust enrichment, as well as their failure to comply with federal regulations by neglecting to send monthly bills.

The loan purchasers bought those loans for pennies, and that’s what they should get, if anything.

I’ll note that it was the no-money down mortgages that caused the collapse of the housing market back in 2008, and now Biden and his handlers are bringing that same disastrous formula back; they probably intend to use taxpayer money to pay off the loans just before the next election cycle, just as they’ve done this year with their idiot student constituency.

How about "Glory Hole"?

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"Inclusive language in communications is essential to our union’s solidarity and collective strength and is an important factor in maintaining flight safety,"

Uh huh

Pilot union suggests phasing out masculine terms, says 'cockpit,' is offensive to DEI culture

The term 'cockpit' derives from 16th century bird fighting

The world's largest airline pilot union suggested airmen and women stop using terms purportedly offensive to women and LGBTQ individuals, calling out terms like "cockpit" as non-inclusive. 

Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, represents over 70,000 pilots worldwide and states that it collaborates with a United Nations agency on its policies. According to a diversity, equity and inclusion language guide released in 2021, the ALPA lists numerous terms and phrases to avoid — especially "masculine generalizations" — that it deemed to be non-inclusive.

"Inclusive language in communications is essential to our union’s solidarity and collective strength and is an important factor in maintaining flight safety," the guide states. "The purpose of this language guide is to offer examples of terms and phrases that promote inclusion and equity."

>>>

Wall Street Journal columnist and linguist Ben Zimmer wrote that the term "cockpit" originated from cockfighting in 16th century England.

"The circular pit was surrounded by a barrier to keep the gamecocks from escaping, with spectators" who viewed the "bloody sport" as entertainment, he wrote in 2019.

The term evolved to describe a boisterous and tense atmosphere, according to Zimmer. And by the 18th century, it referred to the area on British warships where surgeons treated the wounded.

"The confined space, the noise, the blood and the fetid air evidently reminded people of the original cockpits," the reporter wrote. 

Coming our way; in fact, they're here already

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David Strom, HotAir:

You Won't Be Surprised to Learn What Group Is Responsible for Over 3/4 of Rapes in Paris

Unfortunately, the majority of rapes committed in Paris remain unsolved, but of the perpetrators who have been caught, 77% are foreign nationals. 

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

Related: Illegal immigrants from 177 countries accept Biden’s 'open invite’ to US border

Nearly 1.4 million undocumented immigrants from a staggering 177 countries traveled through Mexico to the United States from January to May, according to Mexico's National Institute of Migration.

Surges of illegal immigration "over brief periods of time" have happened in the past, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, but this "huge variety" of countries is unprecedented.

Considering there are 193 member states in the United Nations, nearly the entire world is taking advantage of the president's "open invite," he said. 

"There were always a few exotics, that's kind of my term. They call them OTMs, other than Mexicans, because there were so few of them that they lumped them all together," Krikorian told Fox News Digital. But President Biden "essentially invited mass illegal immigration by letting people get across the border, and word spreads, so you're getting people from everywhere."

Sweden rape: Most convicted attackers foreign-born

22 August 2018

The steep rise in migration also raised questions about Sweden's ability to integrate immigrants. The centre-left Social Democrat-led government soon introduced restrictions and the number of arrivals fell dramatically.

The SVT programme revealed that in cases where the victim did not know the attacker, the proportion of foreign-born offenders was more than 80%.

A former police officer born in Afghanistan told the programme that some young Afghans who had come to Sweden in recent years had views that differed significantly from Sweden's idea of sexual equality.

“Views that differ significantly from Sweden’s idea of sexual equality”; that’s a nice way to put it.

And continuing: 2 February, 2023

Why you should never hire confused, ex- Burger King hamburger flippers: Florida Woman lays down the law: "You'll have it my way!"

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confessed after being grilled

Okay, I like my headline, but the NYPost has one at least as good, and probably a better one:

Trigger happy meal: Wild video shows McDonald’s employee shooting at customers during drive-thru fight

She wasn’t lovin’ it.

A 22-year-old McDonald’s employee in Florida was arrested after she took out a gun and shot at customers following a wild caught-on-camera drive-thru dispute.

Lakeland police said officers responded to the restaurant chain around 1 a.m. following the shooting, which stemmed from an argument between Gardner and the customers after they complained about an incorrect order.

Police said Gardner argued with a group of customers in the drive-thru before throwing a drink at the customers as they tried to drive away.

Video of the incident shows two of the customers then got out of their vehicle and opened up the drive-thru window to throw drinks at Gardner, who armed herself with a handgun.

Hilarity ensues.