COMMUNISM - Calif. city to seize private property

Socialist Mayor Gayle McLaughlin raises the flag over what is left of Richmond, California.

The March of Communism

Richmond tries to invoke its power of imminent domain and

seize home mortgages and re-distribute that wealth

to government approved voters.

The People's Republic of California   -   Marxist Californians are on the march looking to seize the money, the private property, of banks and private individual lenders and re-distribute that wealth to voter home owners. Emphasis on the VOTER part please.

When you rob Peter and give the money to Paul, you will always get Paul's vote.

The Green Party Mayor of Democrat dominated Richmond, Calif., and a gaggle of activists and homeowners showed up at the Wells Fargo Bank headquarters in downtown San Francisco this month, they were on a mission to speak with the bank's chief executive.

They wanted the bank to drop a lawsuit aimed at stopping Richmond's first-in-the-nation plan to use the government's constitutional power of eminent domain to "seize" hundreds of mortgages from Wells Fargo and other financial institutions reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
 

As Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and the plan's backers approached the bank building, security guards locked the doors. After a bank official told her there would be no meeting then and that someone would call her later, she grabbed a bullhorn.
 

"I am absolutely not backing down," McLaughlin said, as curious tourists and lunching office workers milled about.
 

Wells Fargo, three other banks and even the Federal Housing Finance Agency think otherwise.
 

The banks have filed two lawsuits alleging that the plan is an illegal abuse of eminent domain, which allows governments to seize private property for public use — like a house in the path of a new highway or a piece of land needed for a new park.
 

The banks argue the plan would "severely disrupt the United States mortgage industry" because many other cities would likely adopt the same program to help homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.
 

So far, Richmond has sent out more than 600 offers, but has not yet begun any eminent domain proceedings. Newark, N.J., North Las Vegas, Nev., El Monte, Calif., and Seattle are considering similar plans, according to Wells Fargo's lawsuit reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

 

McLaughlin said cities are considering the program because they are desperate. Nearly half the mortgages in Richmond, for example, are "underwater," the owner owes more than the house is worth.
 

Richmond, working with San Francisco-based Mortgage Resolution Partners, offers $150,000 to buy a $300,000 bank loan on a house that is now worth $200,000 and is in danger of foreclosure.
 

If the bank refuses to sell the loan to Richmond, then the city invokes its power of imminent domain and seizes the mortgage. It would then offer the bank a fair market value for the home.
 

Mortgage Resolution Partners, the company partnering with the city, puts up the money and had promised to pay all Richmond's legal costs. City officials have not said how many homes they hope to refinance through eminent domain.

This Green is Pure Red.
Gayle McLaughlin, the Green Party Mayor of Richmond, is quoting Karl Marx.  Working with the Democrat city council she wants to use city power (for example) to confiscate $300,000 home mortgages from banks and pay them only $150,000 for their home loans.
. 
Naturally the grateful home owners with the "magically" lower house payment reward the liar, stealing politicians with their votes in the next election.

 

McLaughlin is a Green Party candidate who beat back opposition from the city's police and fire unions to win a second term in 2010.
 

She said she fears homeowners will begin to abandon their homes, leading to blighted neighborhoods and the draining of public coffers to the point of municipal bankruptcy experienced by Stockton, Calif., and Detroit.
 

"The city is stepping in where Wall Street and where the federal government have been unable or unwilling to do so," she said.

 

Federal regulators said eminent domain isn't the answer. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said plans to seize loans "present a clear threat to the safe and sound operations Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks."
 

Tim Cameron, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said there is more at play than a single person's underwater loan.
 

Cameron said pension funds, banks and other groups that made loans in Richmond stand to lose millions of dollars if the city is allowed to use eminent domain to force lenders into accepting less than the original terms of the loan.
 

He also predicted that cities using eminent domain will make lenders wary of doing business there.

"There's a domino effect in play here," he said.