COFFEE N' EELS

"Aye! 'Tis so, 'tis so!"

Oh What The Hell.


Here are a few more pages that I really think you young kids in your 20's and 30's ought to see.


It is one thing to talk about such things, and another to show the actual letter from the State Gov. that talks about such things--it somehow makes it more real and immediate maybe? 


And look, you ain't gonna get, or see these papers unless you live through the whole experience, so why not live it sort of vicariously thru me and the miracle of blogging?


But don't lose sight of my older posts. Please take some time to read them.


And I'll be posting the old Bar Exam grades when I get them. (Last attempt was Y2K)


I really wish someone had done all this before I went to Law School and borrowed all that money. But back then, there was no blogging, since computers were still made with vacuum tubes, and Windows and the Internet were still being figured out from the wreckage found at Roswell. 

COFFEE N' EELS

Down by the Docks

where the rusty winch squeals

Old Ma serves the Sailors,
burnt coffee and eels.

A bitter meal

for bitter men

who grimace an' squinch,
it makes them half-sick.

then its back to hard work

'till later on when 

at quarter past ten, 

in cups cracked and dirty

black coffee, no sugar, 

no laughter, 

till ten- thirty.

Then they hoist and they haul

till Ma makes the call 

for lunchtime at two

when Pops takes his pan

and serves, to a man 

fried slices of eel,

and scalding black coffee

thick as glue.

It's the same fare for dinner

an' every man's thinner

but there'll be no variety
fer all are in debt,

an' sufferin's Piety;

so it steamin' black coffee

te wash down them eels, 
before they set sail
on the Sea of Regret.

     

                                              JD Painter

                                                                   Paumanok, Spring, 2011 

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Anyway, here is how NY Higher Ed sort of explained to old Johnny Painter the way they was gonna embarrass him if he didn't tow the line.  You know, cause me to blush and flush and stammer under the stern moral gaze of the newly administratively burdened employer, and all that sort of stuff. 


But seriously, with respect to this letter, does it seem problematic to anyone? In a very basic sense, does it seem like a Gov't threatening humiliation on a citizen? A tiny bit at least?


I mean, they really didn't have to phrase things the way that they did in this letter. They could have got the message across about wage garnishment in a different way, and believe you me I felt sick when I read about how I was gonna be embarrassed.  A bitter draught for sure.


I have similar letters from the same time from Sallie Mae, (which I will Post) and I scratch my head over the Nexus between Sallie Mae making these threats, followed up by NY State. I mean--Sallie Mae the Private Co, with Al Lord at its head--the Private Citizen, calling in the power of the State Gov't to enforce Sallie Mae's collection efforts-thru threats of "embarrassment" (at work no less, where one earns a living so as to survive in the world), and in print.  But maybe I misunderstand the relationship. 


I do know that NY Higher Ed. Bought my loan from Sallie Mae in 09, and then used thier Private Company Collection Agency, GC Services (The "Vendor") to collect, and at a cost of 40 thousand dollars, which was added onto my loan. 

http://www.gcserv.com/

Now, did NY State get some of that 40K? or did it all go to GC Services and into Private hands? I mean, GC Services also collects on a lot of other types of debts besides Student Loans. I seem to recall reading about Auto Loans that they handle.


I even have another letter from NY Higher Ed that states that GC Services is our "Collector"


But all this goes again to how Student Loans are a "Phantom Industry" and always have been, and I muse:  "Is Touro Law School and/or all the other Law Schools aware of how the Student Lending System works?"


Anyway, here is the letter, and the big problem here is that with ruined credit, the SL Borrower cannot land a decent job. So there will be no wages to garnish anyway.


And even if the SL borrower gets a low wage job somewhere, the cat will be out of the bag about Law School, and the co-workers )possibly jealous) will heckle and harass the ex-Law Student to death, or until he or she quits. That's just the way it is. Might not happen, but is sure as hell likely and possible.


Again, here is the letter:

As I say, prior to all this, this loan was, for a number of years,  with Sallie Mae, a Private Company.

NY Higher Ed, the "Guarantor" referred to in the letter below, through my default,  was forced  to purchase my loan from Sallie Mae........I think. 

Then that means.....I think....that Sallie Mae collected in full, or the full balance on my loan at that point in time, from NY State, which also means that Sallie must have been ecstatic over my default. Must have been.

Is anyone following me?

Next came NY Higher Ed's assigning the loan to the Private Collection Agency, who made 40K off of NY State, and placed my loan with Direct Loans or the Federal Gov't.

What did NY State Higher Ed collect? Nothing I think. All the state did was pay off a couple of private corporations with tax dollars. Federal Tax dollars that is,  I guess,  that the state had the authority to handle and spend for the payoff of Student Loans to Co's like Sallie Mae.

Note: At the time (2008 and 2009) I had no idea that Sallie Mae was a Private Company. I thought Sallie Mae was the "Government" somehow.

It was only after I read the work of Allan Collinge that I learned the whole strange and, come on folks, shady history of Sallie Mae and the Student Lending Industry. Let's call it what it is.

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This one is another gracious clarification by NY Higher Ed. It explains how an even bigger bloake, the  US Dept. of ED has the ability to dip into one's Social Security, and possibly kick a blighter down a flight of stairs as well, as he totters along someday after earning the unenviable and, lets face it,  unforgiving sobriquet of Octoganarian.

_______________________________________________________________

Here is another RE: the few and only ways out of the Student Loan Trap (highlighted in yellow).

BTW, to satisfy #1, you gotta be beyond dead, because the Bankruptcy Judge will simply order your body to be disinterred, and put your corpse to work somehow.....as soylent green or something. 

And to satisfy #2, you gotta be smashed to atoms, because getting run over by a steamroller will not be enough. The Bankruptcy Judge will order that they peel you off the pavement, and put you to work as a doormat somewhere. Maybe at the courthouse.

As a last and seemingly ridiculous question:


Is Sallie Mae a Bank? A Corporation? (Private or Public?) A quasi-Government Entity? Both? or Neither?

I mean, again, if I was Sallie Mae, I'd sure as hell be hoping the borrower could default, so that NY State will step in and purchase the loan (as it says in the letter above).