This is so funny and exactly why I can’t enjoy the fruit of Monique’s labor…the chick HOLLERS for 95% of the show. It gives me a headache. Enjoy!

As always, be well

CF

Tavis is definitely in bed with Wells Fargo. The pair went around the country conducting financial wealth building seminars, selling black folks on Alternative Loans which was the clever name for “Subprime Mortgages.”

Wells’ plan for the seminars all along was to target black borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages, not for wealth-building, the suit charged. And the seminars were a part of the bank’s overall illegal and discriminatory practice of steering black and Hispanic borrowers into riskier and more expensive loans, the suit said.

This is your Tavis Smiley, the lover of Black Folks. He needs to admit that he is the lover of Tavis Smiley and all the ways in which he can make money off Black Folks.  For shame Tavis, for shame.

In a city of Baltimore lawsuit against Wells, former employees charged that Wells Fargo loan officers referred to minority borrowers as “mud people” and called subprime mortgages “ghetto loans.” But some prominent black bloggers find the “wealth building” seminars just as egregious, and question why Smiley, Boston, and anyone else who participated in them hasn’t been called on further to account for their actions.

Hey Tom Joyner, Cybill and Jay, why don’t we hear you giggling about this in the morning.? Why isn’t this one of your “Little Know Black History” facts? Russ Parr, Steve Harvey and all other black media where are your voices on this subject. It you’d stop taking their money for commercials, maybe we could hear you.

And all of you Black Folks who bank at Wachovia…it’s now owned by Wells Fargo.  Check your statements.

Here’s the entire article via The Washington Independent

As always, be well

CF

I’m sure there are more than just five. Banks can be complex, greedy, shameful and also helpful in most instances if you have a long term relationship with your bank. But be careful, they will snatch your wig off the first chance they get if charging you fees are involved. People need to begin to take responsibility for their financial health and stop depending on others or an imaginary future income; work with what ya got people. Don’t be a big hot mess financially.

Here is an article about five secrets the banks really don’t want you to know.

Laura Rowley Money & Happiness

Five Secrets Your Bank Doesn’t Want You to Know

by Laura Rowley

Posted on Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 12:00AM

Banks are squeezing customers with historically high fees and penalties, from overdraft charges to account service fees to new surcharges on foreign debit transactions.

But the pressures that have prompted the fee war with consumers started well before the financial meltdown, according to Jo Preuninger, a former management consultant who spent more than a decade in the consumer banking arena.

I asked Preuninger for a little history, as well as some of the tricks of the trade that banks would prefer to keep secret.

Number 5 is real special. If you’re paying for things with so many different payment vehicles, it can become impossible to keep track of what you are spending. Stop doing that, and keep a running log of all your expenditures, keep every receipt and log it in your journal as soon as possible after your purchase. Don’t let someone else control your money, do that shit yourself.

Secret #5: Banks want you to enjoy the “advantages” of paying with credit, debit, check and cash — because it will make you more likely to lose track of your money.

“One of most dangerous things going on with consumers is they are not paying attention to the variety of ways they are paying. They are balancing money back and forth because it’s too hard to account for,” Preuninger says. “If you pay seven different ways, you’ve just added complexity to your life. Consumers shouldn’t say to the bank ‘you’re responsible to tell me what I’m doing with my money.’”

But more banks are moving in that direction. PNC Bank, for instance, launched an account called Virtual Wallet that presents account information in calendar form, focused between today and the account holder’s next payday. A “danger day” appears on the calendar in red if the account is at risk of an overdraft. The user can either move bills later in the month, or shift money immediately from the savings portion of the account at no charge (the account does it automatically if the consumer doesn’t). Statements are only available online and the bank charges 50 cents per check for writing more than three a month.

Best bet? Simplify. Get a free checking account with no fees and a low minimum balance requirement, pay major household bills online, and then stick to cash. You’ll think twice about purchases, and avoid getting caught in the widening web of bank fees.

Read the rest of the article here.

As always, be well

Palin quits…or does she really?

This woman is a bag of tricks, some brilliant and some dumb as hell. Which is this?

She’s either a member of the Dumbass Brigade or she is secretly a brilliant politician, time will tell.

As always, be well

CF

Here is part of an excellent article about that fu*ked up fiasco that took place on Sunday night on BET (Black Entertainment Television…indeed) It is from a gentleman by the name of Jonathan Pitts-Wiley who does a blog called Pitts Indeed; he also does The Buzz Column over at The Roots.

It was around the time that Taraji P. Henson, Tyrese and a possibly drunk Ving Rhames took a Baby Boy sketch too far that the BET Awards lost me.

Before that, the show had been riddle with the chuckle-inducing–Aaron Hall trying breathe through his set with Guy; the mildly embarrassing but somehow digestible–Don Cornelius during the O’Jays tribute; and the applause-worthy–Jay Z performing “DOA.”

But the Baby Boy sketch made a show already failing to respectably honor Michael Jackson something that could only careen headlong into coonery. The kind of coonery that brought shame goosebumps to my skin up until Janet Jackson walked out on stage and showed BET and those who participated in this farce what grace and class and simplicity really looks like.

I understand Michael Jackson’s death threw a monkey wrench into their show’s plans. But you know what? Don’t one monkey wrench stop no show. They didn’t have to make some historic adjustment to acknowledge Michael’s passing; they merely needed to honor him; to gracefully acknowledge that his musical contributions were such that marking his passing was far bigger than anything that was scheduled to take place that night.

But they didn’t.

Instead, it was The Niggers Acting Up While Sometimes Acknowledging the Death of a Cultural Icon Who They Claim to Admire and Respect Show

Many spoke words of reverence, but they rang hollow. The energy of the show was of the macabre sort: Death was acknowledged, but not respected. Gravitas didn’t truly enter the building until Janet Jackson walked onstage and reminded people her big brother had died. The mood didn’t respect a legend’s passing until one song was sung in his honor.

BET has always been a member of the Dumbass Brigade, we are just now officially acknowledging them.

As always, be well
CF

…is an ASS!

and an official member of the Dumbass Brigade.

As always, be well

CF

I could ask what the hell the belt is for, but it does seem to break that mess up a bit.

So relax, close your eyes and imagine what is going on in the back of that outfit; she has got to be ass out or should I say BIG ASS OUT. This is one of those obesity side effects where you think you can wear anything…NOT! And look at the woman behind her; I can hear her saying “Lawd, help this child.”

I have to say though that I am proud of her in that she has accepted her fat and doesn’t give a shit what anyone else thinks about her.  You Go Girl!

As always, be well

CF