Regards,

Brian Hulbert
Executive Producer
Mantis Pictures
mantispics@gmail.com

Depending on what the Government decides to do in the near future, there is a possibility that the original home owner could work out a new deal with the bank or mortgage holder and keep their homes. I know this is just too simple (like me) to work.

Republicans, please, please, please demand that your eventual Presidential nominee select Michelle as their Vice Presidential running mate.

The free market is for men. Not fraidy-cat pusses who get all goose-bumped just ’cause some bank or 2 or 3 might go belly-up.

Cowardly assholes. People like you make me sick with your “hospital safety compliance” and your silly ass “mine inspections”. If it were up to you all our damned cars would look like giant god-damned faggot-ass pillows and whatnot.

Seems like maybe if millions of borrowers had broken the law, the FBI would be investigating said borrowers, right? Sadly, no!

Name-calling? Check.
Goalpost-shifting? Check.
Demands for proof against an extraordinary claim? Check.

Now that leaves me with just one question: do you like pie? Well, do ya… punk?

I know how politically correct everybody is these days.

From now on, I shall restrict my comments about veterans to the pre-approved vomit-inducing pablum because I know how upset conservatives get when you depart from the script.

Certainly not some whiny little chickenshit who has nothing to do except gripe and moan when somebody actually exercises the rights he was ostensibly fighting for.

Thing is, I never heard a real veteran ever say anything more than that he was just doing his job. This whiny “They were fighting for you” bullshit always comes from people who are presuming to speak for the veterans.

Let me explain how this whole internet thing works.

For Christ’s sake. Is this the best you guys can do?

You can’t argue the facts of the matter so the last guy in is a wounded bird?

You want to sacrifice this guy? For what? Tell me why you are letting him
stand up for you.

When you can prove this is true,

“fraud is not a significant fraction of the current problem”

call me.

Until then, you are just a bullshit artist.

If we were a large and modern country we could care about such things, but since we yeoman farmers cannot afford to hire people with eyeglasses then we will just have to live with parts of our financial systems teetering close to collapse.

Also, some people might think it unmanly to do all this inspecting and regulating and stuff, and we have to listen to them, otherwise they will call us unmanly.

Pardon me for stealing this line from someone on HousigPanic, but I would like to drive BMW. I can’t afford it. When the company comes to take the car back, which of you will cry for me?

Fair enough. Living beyond your means is a bad strategy, and I don’t think anyone here would seriously argue the point. Tigrismus’ response, though, points up the flaw in your analogy: you’re not planning on living in that BMW.

Believe it or not, people will lie when it comes to making a living. Blame Jesus or blame the government. Who cares? When you lie on your loan papers, you are a criminal.

That’s true, but fraud is not a significant fraction of the current problem. Far more significant are the loans made to people who were honest about their credit and income and later became unable to meet their payments, as well as “no-doc” loans made to people who didn’t have to lie–because the questions never got asked.

No one must take responsibility for anything!

It’s all the fault of the Big Money Boys!

Bullshit.

No one said or implied this. The current crisis is not solely the fault of the Big Money Boys, but they were certainly complicit.

And just for the record, I never took a cent from the VA, even when I was entitled to, moron.

I like America. We are relatively free here. I put my life up for you.

Thanks for your service, but neither of these sentences is related to the argument you seem to be trying to make.

Jeez, you guys are harsh. And I don’t care.

I will continue being an MLK Liberal despite your juvenile attacks.

I realize you kids are chicken down to the bone. That’s OK.

Real men stand guard over you every day.

One juvenile attack deserves another, I always say. On the other hand, if you want to be taken seriously, maybe a little less of the “fuck you, girlie man-chickens!” and a little more of the argumentation.

“Kevinplex”? What does that have to do with the issue at hand? Never heard of it.

The issue here is whether the borrower’s word is good or not. Debate it if you like. I know what my word is worth

“Kevinplex” is one way to indicate an infestation of troll we’ve been having lately. It’s the same guy, with a minimum of four different handles.

If that’s the issue you believe is at stake, you’re oversimplifying drastically. You’ve assumed that everyone being foreclosed on is a liar who deserves what he gets, and if you google “foreclosure” or “credit crunch” or “mortgage crisis” you’ll quickly discover that’s not the case.

Yeah, that’s right. Ignore the “liars loans” and those who were so stupid that they bought more than they could afford. That’s the ticket. Make aspersions.

Really, kids, I don’t care what you think. Who does?

I won’t be doing business with you and thank God for that.

I’m ignoring them because they’re not significant. Fraud is not the problem; picture yourself in the position of a homeowner who bought at the height of the real estate bubble, and as a result now has an increasing mortgage payment and a decreasing property value (and therefore less money, in very real terms, than you had when you bought the house). Those folks make up the majority of those affected by the wave of foreclosures.

No one has come here to tell me how buying more than you can afford is better than breakfast.

No one has had the nerve to tell me how lying on a mortgage application is a good thing.

There are folks you never met who are standing guard over you, whether you like it or not. Mostly, they are just guys who needed a job. But they will die for you.

Screw you. Those guys matter in this world. And you?

Done with this. See you next time you need a Liberal voice. Like, tomorrow.

No one has come to explain those things because they’re straw men. Buying more than you can afford is a mistake, and an easy one to make when your financial adviser (i.e., bank or mortgage lender) is telling you you can afford it. Breakfast, on the other hand, is a delicious meal often involving pancakes, and sometimes pie. And speaking of pie, borrowers who lied on their loan applications are STILL a tiny slice of the recession pie, just like they were a few paragraphs ago.

Also, this is the first time of four where you threaten to leave and then, inexplicably, fail to do so. I’ll omit the rest.

Even though you did not refute my previous point (which I will now call proven, you had your chance) I didn’t claim that “a sizable minority of people who are now experiencing trouble with their ARMs are now lying”.

You never actually typed those words, no. On the other hand, you did type “lie”, “lying”, and “liars” five different times. If you include “whether the borrower’s word is good or not”, that’s six times. The only claim you’ve made is that those affected by the foreclosure epidemic are either fradulent or stupid; you provide no evidence and no argument other than asserting your point again and again.

Here’s the best part, though: even if I accept your claim, which is absurd, it still doesn’t preclude a bail-out. See, lenders are nervous, which means the supply of money is drying up. Combined the shrinking money supply with rising inflation and falling real wages, and you get consumers with less money to spend (and more trepidation about doing so). The US economy is driven–for better or for worse–by consumer spending, so when the spending slows, the economy slows.

Whether you’re facing foreclosure or not, and even whether you’re a homeowner or not, you need something done about this economic crisis. I found out this week that I’m losing my job in April; fortunately, I have several weeks to find a new job, savings to make up for potential shortfalls, and no car payments. Not everyone is as lucky as I am, and I’m smart enough to realize it. Care to join me, or would you rather hurl insults?

Everybody here has been lulled into complacency by Gary/Saul/Booger — they of the hackneyed “The fact is…” and other dumb tells. LibVet comes in, yanks chains, pushes buttons, has everybody dancing.

But I see the same old macho belligerence, along with the implicit support-the-troops-or-you-hate-America and the entirely empty “argument” which somehow disagrees with everyone else in the discussion.

I must disagree. Screw the homeowners who lied on their mortgage applications. Those loans are called “liars loans”.

Screw the ones who assumed that rising house prices would bail them out. They are gamblers.

There are no guarantees in life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

There’s no actual factual assertion here, so there’s nothing explicit to refute. However, you are suggesting here that “liars” and “gamblers” comprise a significant proportion of defaulting homeowners. My basis for this inference is your first statement, “I must disagree,” when the consensus was that defaulting homeowners deserve sympathy. By way of argument, you state that homeowners who lied on their applications and those who gambled on their house prices are undeserving of sympathy. That is:

Assertion: Defaulting homeowners are deserving of sympathy.
Your Counter-Assertion: Defaulting homeowners are not deserving of sympathy. (“I disagree.”)
Your Arguments:
1) Homeowners who lied on their mortgage applications are not deserving of sympathy. (“Screw [them.]“)
2) Homeowners who gambled on the price of their homes are not deserving of sympathy. (“Screw [them.]“)
3) Life’s not fair.

However, your counter-assertion does not follow from arguments 1 and 2 unless you additionally assert and prove that the unsympathetic homeowners in those arguments comprise a significant portion or even the entirety of defaulting homeowners. You have not done so, and your argument remains the logical equivalent of shrugging off the deaths of football players who were shot on the field by suggesting NASCAR drivers and alligator wrestlers know what they are doing is dangerous.