| This is really embarrassing. | |
| Remember all that stuff we told you about 97% of scientists agreeing that climate change was real? And all those sad polar bears hanging off of icebergs? And all the dire warnings about catastrophic sea-level rise? | |
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| We just learned that none of it is true. It was all a huge prank pulled off by the world’s scientists. Senator Inhofe was right. Watch this video and learn the unvarnished truth about the climate change hoax. | |
| Once again, we’re really sorry about this huge misunderstanding. | |
| Thanks, | |
| Jesse Thomas Digital Director NextGen Climate |
Daily Archives: 04/02/2015
End Payday Lending …
Market your loan as a one-time quick fix, charge 300-400% interest, and dig borrowers into a hole they can’t climb out of – it’s the payday lenders’ business model. We’re talking about an industry that generates 75% of its $3.4 billion in annual revenues from borrowers who get stuck in a long-term cycle of debt. “You borrow money to pay for the money you already borrowed” is how President Obama described the routine in a speech at Lawson State College in Alabama last week. Loan fees usually end up exceeding the amount of the original loan. (Car-title lenders play a similar game, to the tune of close to another $5 billion in annual revenues.)
But now, finally, there’s a real chance to end this debt trap. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – the agency conceived by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and created in response to the financial and economic meltdown of 2008 – is preparing to regulate abusive payday, car-title and installment lending, and it has put out a promising first look at the rules it has in mind.
Now that we have seen a rough outline of the Bureau’s thinking, the real battle begins. The initial proposal, while strong in some ways, includes worrisome gaps that could allow triple-digit-interest lenders to skip the essential process of verifying a borrower’s ability to repay. We need the CFPB to close this loophole before it puts out a final rule. Meanwhile, payday and car-title lenders will be fighting back hard – pushing to make the rules weaker or narrower, and doing all they can to undermine the authority and funding of CFPB itself.
Experience in the states tells us to demand strong, evasion-proof rules. State after state has tried to crack down predatory small dollar-loans, and too often the lenders have figured out a way to keep their abusive business model going. We must not allow that to happen again.
Together we have won and defended a CFPB willing to take on tough jobs like this one. Together we can keep pushing, and end the payday and car-title debt trap once and for all.
Sincerely,
Lisa Donner
Americans for Financial Reform
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Indiana: Here’s what you can do
Indiana’s new “religious freedom” law is wrong. It is wrong to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, and it is wrong to use religious freedom as a justification for institutionalizing discrimination.
That’s why, today, I signed a directive instituting a state-funded travel ban to the state of Indiana.
This is the right thing to do. Will you take a stand for equality, and lend your support to this action?
Stand with me. Sign my petition, and show your support for Washington’s travel ban to Indiana today.
I’m proud to have Washington join cities, states, organizations, companies, and individuals across the country in opposing this hateful law.
Washington state stands for equality. Our own courts, at the request of the state attorney general, recently ordered a florist to pay a fine for discriminating against a gay couple — the same activity that Indiana’s law allows.
Sign my petition today: Stand in support of my administration’s travel ban to Indiana!
I invite any companies or organizations who oppose this law to bring their business to Washington. We are open for business for all.
Very truly yours,
Jay Inslee
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Ashley Schaeffer Yildiz, Rainforest Action Network
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Be a Seed for Change 
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