CHANGE CHICAGO AS WE KNOW IT! END TYRANNY!

BUILD BACK BEING “THE CITY OF BIG SHOULDERS”!
LET’S REALLY BE “THE CITY THAT WORKS” NOT
“THE CITY THAT WORKS YOU OVER”!

• Ignore Political Parties and Vote for Great New Candidates.
• Ignore the D or R behind their name, that’s just for fundraising.
• Ignore your Precinct Captain and Alderman’s advice, they want to keep you in their control.
• Ignore your Family Voting Traditions, they will betray you again and again.

• – No more BS Politicians
• – No more soft on crime Prosecutors
• – No more quick release of habitual criminals
• – No more broken families
• – No more dumbed-down Schools
• – No more favors to School Unions – Yes to Kids and Vouchers
• – No more favors to big Corporations
• – No more favors to Banksters
• – No more disrespecting Police, Fire, and other Emergency People
• – No more believing the Media, they are proven liars and love to divide us.

“Winken, Blinken, and Nod” is a popular children’s poem by Eugene Field describing a fantasy about three children sailing and fishing for Herring among the stars in a wooden shoe.

What every property owner, past, present and future needs to know!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XGZ7F3IPY8

An in-depth investigation into the 2008 financial crisis nine years in the making. Through interviews with regulators, former officials, foreclosure victims, industry whistleblowers, and journalists, THE CON connects the dots to what America used to be and where we’re headed in 2020, as nearly 40 million American’s are currently claiming unemployment. Stay tuned for a live conversation with the filmmakers and voices from THE CON after the screening. https://www.thecon.tv/

Watch the next Episodes here:
https://www.thecon.tv/watch

While you’re thinking about this – come join our newest affiliate “APON” the American Property Owners Network, a non-partisan, not-for-profit activist group of homeowners and experts dedicated to changing the balance of power in court between Big Banks working with Government Swampsters and YOU!
> Tell them The Gallant Goose sent you!
Email Ann Chin at: apropertyownersnetwork@gmail.com
Web: https://apropertyownersnetwork.org/

Here is a message from APON Secretary Ann Chin:
We are a new 501(c)(4) organization-less than 1 year old- whose mission is to unite homeowners and property owners against fraudulent foreclosures. We hope to organize mass litigation—such as Petitions to state Supreme Courts and multi-plaintiff actions—and to put massive public pressure on government officials to act on behalf of all homeowners in order to protect our Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

If you are joining APON to stand up for the rights of all property owners, we are humbly grateful and applaud you. If you have faced—or are facing—fraudulent foreclosure (which some of us call “fraudclosure”), we empathize with you, as we know fraudclosure is one of the most devastating things that anyone can face. We know from personal experience, as every one of us on the board has either lost our homes or is STILL fighting in court to save our homes or get justice—we’ve lost sleep, money, professional time and irreplaceable personal time with family and friends, and we have suffered physically and mentally—just like you.

Fraudulent foreclosure can be devastating and our hearts and prayers go out to each and every one of you. We would like to meet you, if we haven’t already. We will have regular Zoom meetings to discuss our shared interests and needs. If any of you are interested in volunteering or joining our leadership, please let us know. If you know any courageous “Lawyers Who Get It” in your state, please pass this along to them as well.

To begin with, we are starting litigation led by Attorney Neil Garfield in Florida which will change the rules governing how courts determine if a foreclosure plaintiff has a legitimate claim. If we are successful, we will greatly reduce the number of people who must face foreclosure in Florida and we hope to repeat the process in other states. In the face of the tidal wave of foreclosures which the pandemic threatens to initiate, this is hugely important. A lot of what we will be able to do will depend on our members, as we are volunteer-run.

We will also need to do organizing and fund-raising, membership drives and outreach, public education and lobbying. We will also discuss how we can all help with the membership drive and Q and A which will occur at a Zoom meeting June 23rd at 8:30 pm with Neil Garfield.

Hope to see you soon!

Greg ‘da Goose & The Team at The Gallant Goose & Friends

Find more here:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=who+is+legally+affected+by+a+presidential+executive+order&t=h_&ia=web
 
THEREFORE: EXECUTIVE ORDERS DO NOT DIRECTLY AFFECT THE AMERICAN CITIZENS… ONLY THOSE PEOPLE AND FUNCTIONS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH.

This even when tutors are made available to all public school students in most districts at parents’ request.

 “I came to America because I believe in the American Dream of hard work and merit” “Do Americans still believe in the American Dream?” –  Suparna Dutta, an immigrant woman from India and parent of a TJ sophomore

Last year, students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, one of the nation’s most prestigious public schools, marked a map hanging in a hallway with their families’ far-flung places of origin: from Seoul to Beijing to Hyderabad. Twenty years ago, 70 percent of TJ students were white; today, 79 percent are minority, most from Asian immigrant families.

TJ is a testament to American meritocracy’s melting pot—but last week, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand announced a plan to reduce the number of Asian students at this selective high school. In a four-hour online “work session”alongside the district’s all-Democratic school board, Brabrand laid out an initiative to eliminate TJ’s race-blind, merit-based admissions test and replace it with a “merit lottery” open to all eighth-graders with a minimum GPA of 3.5 in order to increase “equity of opportunity.”

This is not a novel development in American public education. The New York Times has covered activist efforts in New York City to abolish selective high schools on the grounds that sorting students by standardized test scores amounts to “institutional racism.” Asian-American parents objecting to this proposal have been accused by academics of fighting to “keep unjust structures in tact [sic] by denying historical and contemporary systemic anti-Black racial oppression.” For their part, New York’s education bureaucrats have taken aim at the concepts of academic merit and objectivity as manifestations of “white supremacy culture.”

The Left has redefined educational “equity” to mean not just lifting the bottom up but also tearing the top down. Two weeks ago, in a town hall with TJ students, Virginia Education secretary Atif Qarni compared students who study with private tutors to athletes who take illegal “performance enhancement drugs.” Last week’s TJ “work session” came on the heels of an afternoon session where Braband unveiled plans to implement an “anti-racism and anti-bias” curriculum in Fairfax County schools, including TJ. During the meeting on TJ admissions, Brabrand and school officials took repeated digs at TJ’s achievement-driven (and Asian-dominated) culture.

Brabrand lamented an “underside” to the school’s “reputation”—one that, he claimed, made “students of color” feel unwelcome. Yet TJ is nearly 80 percent nonwhite. Board member Melanie Meren blasted TJ’s “toxic” culture of “bullying” students, repeating the story of a black student who said that she felt she had to “bleach her skin” to be accepted at TJ. Yet the school’s students are largely of Indian descent.

Brabrand made clear that his plan is designed to transform the school’s racial demographics. School officials contend that a lottery would have reduced the share of Asian students in the class of 2024 from 73 percent to 54 percent, though TJ parents project, based on public-records data, that the share of Asian students would actually be slashed by more than half, to 33 percent. The share of black and Hispanic students would increase slightly, but ironically, white students would be the plan’s greatest beneficiaries, increasing from 18 percent to 45 percent of the student body.

The true stakes of this debate transcend racial bean-counting. Suparna Dutta, an immigrant from India and the parent of a TJ sophomore, watched the debate in shock. “I came to America because I believe in the American Dream of hard work and merit,” she said. “Do Americans still believe in the American Dream?”

An increasingly powerful ideological minority in the in K-12 public education bureaucracy has absorbed the teachings of critical race theory, which teaches that racism is permanently embedded in American society and that “whiteness” is an evil that cannot be redeemed. Adherents of these views in Fairfax County see Dutta and her peers—though nonwhite themselves—as benefiting from and perpetuating white supremacy. In a letter to a parent, Virginia Education secretary Qarni labeled the objections of the mostly Asian immigrant parents as “white supremacist” rhetoric.

The power of this cohort is no longer confined to major urban school districts like New York, Chicago, and Seattle. Virginia governor Ralph Northam brought likeminded ideologues to power in the state education bureaucracy, and a Joe Biden presidential victory in November could well usher them into the halls of the U.S. Department of Education.

As critical race theory gains currency among those who govern public education, we can expect more school districts and states to take aim at magnet schools and gifted programs. Parents who care about educational excellence will need to take a stand—at the ballot box.

Asra Nomani (Twitter: @AsraNomani) is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and the parent of a TJ senior. Max Eden (Twitter: @MaxEden99) is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

https://www.city-journal.org/lefts-campaign-against-educational-excellence-suburbs

In an email I received dated Monday 2020-09-14, Gary describes an attack on him by the Hawaii Attorney Office of Disciplinary Council (ODC).  Last Wednesday, the ODC pushed the Hawaii Supreme Court to disbar him. This came as a big surprise. It was supported, in part, by an anonymous complaint from some “Joe Smith”. It is not yet final, and he will be filing for reconsideration at the end of this week by Friday 2020-09-18.

Greg:

When I started foreclosure defense in Hawaii in ‘bank town’, I knew that I would be irritating vested interests. It seems the more cases I have won, the more local enemies I have made, both inside and outside the legal and banking professions.

The recent Hawaii Supreme Court Monalim decision seems to have been the final trigger for some. It is cases like Monalim that have in part caused me these problems. (see attached file: Monalim HISC Final Order.pdf)

It took me more than 11 years in case after case and constant efforts on my radio show to finally get the Hawaii deficiency judgment law changed, capstoned by the Monalim decision to change the official interpretation of the law. It saves homeowners and businesses potentially tens of millions of dollars or more yearly by preventing lenders from ripping off property owners, by henceforth measuring losses not in terms of a lender’s recoupment of forced auction sale proceeds, by instead measuring losses if any in terms of the true market value of the foreclosed property.

And not only is the recent Monalim decision this year already having national impact in other US courts, but now in Canada as well, yesterday stopping the eviction of an 87 year old widow (see attached file: Alberta Court of Appeal.pdf)

Ironically, this good news only exacerbates in my mind the unfairness of the disbarment decision, based on no supporting facts whatsoever, similar only to the falsity that today marks American politics. Considering how much good I and my team have done, the present disbarment order, unless reversed, will prevent me from continuing in the future to contribute to so many lives.

Last Wednesday’s licensing decision of the Hawaii Supreme Court to disbar me came as a big surprise, but is not yet final, and I will be filing for reconsideration at the end of this week pointing out the clear mistakes in the order, since the Court’s conclusions are not supported in the record, assuming there is honest justice left anywhere in America.

Sometimes I wonder. 

Once again, in part because homeowners and their lawyers fail to organize and by being divided they don’t fear us, they are picking us off one by one.

For your information, and before you form any opinions about the case, please read my defense attached in my opening brief. (see attached file: Opening Brief-Defense.pdf)

The order, for instance, cites as aggravating factors my supposedly having two prior disciplinary sanctions, although I have never before been disciplined for any ethical misconduct involving a client. Never. Not one.

It seems like standard operating procedure to manufacture facts when someone unseen targets you.

I have great confidence in the members of the Hawaii Supreme Court however who it appears did not themselves have time to read the record, understandably preoccupied with other matters including the pandemic’s impact upon the courts, but relied upon a staff memo that was and is clearly erroneous or some other not well meaning source.

Failing reconsideration, and based on the numerous federal due process violations detailed in the attached brief, if the Hawaii Supreme Court fails to reverse, I will seek relief in the US federal courts.

Thank you and your readers for your continued support. The war against foreclosure defense attorneys continues unabated…

Gary

Greg ‘da Goose & The Team at The Gallant Goose & Friends

The “US Post Office” (USPO) is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. The “US Postal Service” (USPS) is not. It is a sub-contractor to the “US Post Office” to assist in carrying out its duties.

First of all, for all you folks who were born after 1960 – the “US Postal Service” (USPS) IS NOT the “US Post Office” (USPO).
In 1970, a Democrat controlled House and Senate (Congress) and Nixon killed it. This was after Kennedy had granted the postal workers collective bargaining in 1962. In 1970 postal workers launched wildcat strikes, stopping the mail. They laid off all the workers and created a new business that they had to apply for, ending the former union’s control and signing a new no-strike contract (like FAA traffic controllers). The Postmaster General, who was a top level cabinet position since Ben Franklin, was then demoted to being a subject under the Secretary of State and since has little authority. The “US Postal Service” (USPS) is now nothing more than a quasi-public large business enterprise operated by the federal government under the Executive branch. Ben Franklin is rolling in his grave.

For a detailed history of its successes and failures read this article (10 min).

“The Lost Genius of the Post Office” By KEVIN KOSAR
For almost two centuries, the humble-seeming mail was a hotbed of new ideas. What happened?
https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/06/08/us-post-office-technical-difficulties-000449/

This new-look Post Office had been conceived by a Nixon-appointed corps of braintrusters and businessmen with the aim of turning the agency into a public corporation with minimal political interference. Instead, the plan infused the new agency’s DNA with some of the same clashing political interests that were hobbling the agency. Big mailers benefit from subsidies written into the law. Postal workers must be unionized and are entitled to bargain collectively over wages, compensation and working conditions. Folks in far-flung Alaska and Hawaii are entitled to the same postage rates and services as everyone else—no matter the cost—and Congress continues to insist that mail be delivered six days per week to appease certain big mailers, postal unions and some rural residents. The baroque rate-setting structure meant the USPS had to plod through quasi-judicial proceedings lasting many months each time it needed to raise postage prices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…

FULL QUOTE ON PASTOR MARTIN NIEMOLLER’S TOMBSTONE:

• “They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
• Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
• Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
• Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
• Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

HERE IS A 2020 VERSION BY AN AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS CHRISTIAN MODERATE DESCRIBING WHAT THE RADICAL LEFTISTS HAVE DONE TO US – SAME PROCESS, DIFFERENT ADVERSARY, SAME RESULT:

• They came first for Conservatives, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Conservative.
• Then they came for Libertarians, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Libertarian.
• Then they came for Liberals, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Liberal.
• Then they came for Big Businesses, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Big Business.
• Then they came for the Major Networks, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Major  Network.
• Then they came for Social Media, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t Social Media.
• Then they came for Orthodox Christians, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an Orthodox Christian.
• Then they came for Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
• Then they came for Muslims, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Muslim.
• Then they came for Police, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t the Police.
• Then they came for Government, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t the Government.
• Then they came for ME, and by that time NO ONE ELSE REMAINED to speak up alongside ME.

WHY DIDN’T THEY EVER COME FOR THE BIG BANKS AND FINANCIERS? COULD IT BE BECAUSE THEY ARE IN ON IT?

PLEASE GET OUT THERE AND EXPRESS YOUR POSITIONS – DON’T BE AFRAID – YOUR SILENCE WILL CAUSE AN OUTCOME MUCH WORSE THAN YOUR VOICE. DO IT WHILE THE 1ST AMENDMENT STILL STANDS.

THANK YOU!

greg da’ goose

Note: greg da’ goose is a contributing author to the Gallant Goose and other blogs. Opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the position of The Gallant Goose & Friends.

Greg ‘da Goose & The Team at The Gallant Goose & Friends

This series is presently the only way that homeowners and their attorneys as well as judges and legislators can keep up-to-date on new developments nationwide in this important ever changing area of the law…

———————————
*Note from Greg da’ Goose: Remember, as good as he is, Gary is in Hawaii and is just one man in a sea of 400 million Americans. He probably can’t be there for you when the poop hits the fan. If in your jurisdiction,  you can’t afford a lawyer or they blow you off, you can’t do wrong by subscribing to this important legal educational program by following this link. You’ll be glad you did. I was! click here: “How to Win in Court with or without a lawyer”
———————————

http://www.foreclosurehour.com/

Listen Live on the Internet from I-Heart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/live/news-radio-830-khvh-4748/
Sundays *(8PM Eastern, 7PM Central, 6PM Mountain, 5PM Pacific, 3PM Hawaii)

* Please note that during Daylight Standard Time – from 11/03/2019 through 03/10/2020 – the Foreclosure Hour is heard as shown by the times listed above.

Have your questions answered on the air.
CALL IN LIVE AT (808) 521-8383 or Submit questions a few hours in advance to info@foreclosurehour.com

Go here listen to replays of previous shows and find reference documents:
http://www.foreclosurehour.com/past-broadcasts.html

——————————-
By Gary Dubin

Our attention today, time permitting, is focused on recent important foreclosure defense related events reported in the past month while we have aired rebroadcasts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, having we believe national importance, including:

1. The Hawaii Supreme Court in PennyMac v. Godinez, CAAP-18-0000185 (May 13, 2020) (certiorari granted to review denial, based on res judicata, of post-judgment Rule 60(b) Motion challenging unappealed foreclosure summary judgment);

2. The Illinois Appellate Court, First District, in US Bank v. Miller, 2020 IL App. 2d) 191029 (2020) (held statute of limitations is one year for both TILA damage and rescission claims);

3. The Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, in JP Chase Bank v. Robinson, 2020 IL App (2d) 190275 (2020) (held bona fide foreclosure sale not void by personal service defect not apparent in record below);

4. The Indiana Court of Appeals in its recent Mannion decision (2020) (held successive filing and dismissing of foreclosure complaints invoke res judicata protection with prejudice for mortgage borrowers giving them their property “free and clear”).

5. The Massachusetts Federal District Court in ACA International v. Healey, CV 20-10767-RGS, 2020 WL 2198366 (May 6, 2020) (held state ban on debt collection calls during COVID-19 declared unconstitutional);

6. The New Jersey Chancery Court, Bergen County, in BV001 REO Blocker, LLC v. HB (USA) Properties, LLC (2020) (held tax sale reversed since owner was ill and missed appeal deadline due to wrong deadline advice from his counsel);

7. The New Mexico Bankruptcy Court in Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe v. United States Small Business Administration, Adversary No. 20-1026, No. 18-13027 D.N.M. May 1, 2020 (held SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) cannot exclude bankruptcy debtors otherwise eligible);

8. The Ohio Supreme Court in Farmers State Bank v. Sponaugle, 157 Ohio St. 3rd 151, 2019-Ohio-2518 (held foreclosure judgment is final and appealable even if ministerial computations are to be performed at a later date to determine amounts owing, with a concurring opinion stating that a confirmed sale can occur in Ohio even without a prior foreclosure decree);

9. E-Note and E-Mortgage and E-Closing usage is rapidly increasing due to COVID-19, challenging existing loan transactional doctrines;

10. COVID-19 state foreclosure moratorium alert: in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah;

11. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HUD and FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) announce COVID-19 payment deferrals for mortgage defaults;

12. Indiana law alert: allowing junior lienholder to strip senior lienholder of any participation in any foreclosure sale and distribution of net sale proceeds if senior lienholder does not appear in the foreclosure case;

13. Residential mortgage repurchase claims alert: repurchase claims expected to accelerate against mortgage originators and financial pressure upon loan services to pay securitized investors expected as a result of announced widespread CARES Act mortgage forbearances;

14. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Regulations alert: more paperwork coming signifying nothing;

15. COVID-19 Civil Litigation impact alert: proceedings criticized and deferred in civil cases, for example, in California, Florida, Indiana, and New York, including foreclosure proceedings, changes in credit reporting requirements, and discussions in Illinois about using equity receivers in foreclosure cases.

Listen in today for another of our timely law reviews, enabling our listeners to be the first to become aware of new developments in foreclosure defense and most importantly how those new developments might affect individual foreclosure cases.

Our law review shows also provide a contemporary teaching framework for analyzing significant foreclosure defense issues and trends for our listeners throughout the United States.

Our listeners in particular facing foreclosure cannot afford not to be aware of these latest cases, the knowledge of which could make the difference whether individual homes in foreclosure proceedings ultimately can be saved.

Thanks,

Gary

——————————-
Gary Victor Dubin
Dubin Law Offices
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Office: (808) 537-2300
Email: gdubin@dubinlaw.net
Licensed in California and Hawaii

Note: Gary Dubin is a contributing author to the Gallant Goose and other blogs. Opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the position of The Gallant Goose & Friends.

Greg ‘da Goose & The Team at The Gallant Goose & Friends

This series is presently the only way that homeowners and their attorneys as well as judges and legislators can keep up-to-date on new developments nationwide in this important ever changing area of the law…

———————————
*Note from Greg da’ Goose: Remember, as good as he is, Gary is in Hawaii and is just one man in a sea of 400 million Americans. He probably can’t be there for you when the poop hits the fan. If in your jurisdiction,  you can’t afford a lawyer or they blow you off, you can’t do wrong by subscribing to this important legal educational program by following this link. You’ll be glad you did. I was! click here: “How to Win in Court with or without a lawyer”
———————————

http://www.foreclosurehour.com/

Listen Live on the Internet from I-Heart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/live/news-radio-830-khvh-4748/
Sundays *(8PM Eastern, 7PM Central, 6PM Mountain, 5PM Pacific, 3PM Hawaii)

* Please note that during Daylight Standard Time – from 11/03/2019 through 03/10/2020 – the Foreclosure Hour is heard as shown by the times listed above.

Have your questions answered on the air.
CALL IN LIVE AT (808) 521-8383 or Submit questions a few hours in advance to info@foreclosurehour.com

Go here listen to replays of previous shows and find reference documents:
http://www.foreclosurehour.com/past-broadcasts.html

——————————-
By Gary Dubin

Our attention today, time permitting, is focused on recent important foreclosure defense related events reported in the past two months while we have aired rebroadcasts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, having we believe national importance, from:

1. The Supreme Courts of Arkansas, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming; and

2. The United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Judicial Circuits.

Listen in today for another of our timely law reviews, enabling our listeners to be the first to become aware of new developments in foreclosure defense and most importantly how those new developments might affect individual foreclosure cases.

Our law review shows also provide a contemporary teaching framework for analyzing significant foreclosure defense issues and trends for our listeners throughout the United States.

Our listeners in particular facing foreclosure cannot afford not to be aware of these latest cases, the knowledge of which could make the difference whether individual homes in foreclosure proceedings ultimately can be saved.

Thanks,

Gary

——————————-
Gary Victor Dubin
Dubin Law Offices
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Office: (808) 537-2300
Email: gdubin@dubinlaw.net
Licensed in California and Hawaii

Note: Gary Dubin is a contributing author to the Gallant Goose and other blogs. Opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the position of The Gallant Goose & Friends.

Greg ‘da Goose & The Team at The Gallant Goose & Friends

$1.6T in century-old Chinese bonds offer USA unique leverage against Beijing

‘Americans pay their debts. China needs to do the same’

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/historic-chinese-bonds-trump-leverage-beijing

As the Trump administration seeks ways to penalize China for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, it need look no further than Tennessee.

The Lewisburg, Tennessee-based American Bondholder Foundation holds $1.6 trillion of century-old Chinese debt, including interest, dating to before the founding of the communist People’s Republic of China, that it wants the administration’s help in redeeming. There is an estimated $6 trillion or more of the debt outstanding worldwide.

The bonds were issued by the Republic of China — which ousted the imperial government in a coup — as far back as 1912 and backed by gold; they were defaulted on in 1938. The ROC government fled to Taiwan, where it remains the official ruling body, after Mao Zedong’s communist party took over following the 1949 end of the revolution.

Beijing maintains Taiwan is part of China, and under international law, successor governments are responsible for the debts of their predecessors.

President Trump is a “’promises made, promises kept’ president, and he said to my face that he was going to do this transaction, do this deal, and hold China accountable,” Jonna Bianco, president and chairwoman of the American Bondholder Foundation, told FOX Business.

Bianco, who has power of attorney for 95 percent of the thousands of U.S. bondholders, said making China repay its debt would “not be punishment,” but rather a basic fundamental of international finance.

There’s international precedent for such a move: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ordered Beijing in 1987 to make good on the bonds owned by Brits or lose access to the British capital markets. Then-Chinese President Li Xiannian’s government obliged, reaching a settlement of 23.5 million British pounds.

By paying some bondholders and not others, Beijing is technically in selective default, according to the ratings of bond-risk firms Moody’s, Standard & Poors and Fitch. Until China pays, it cannot sell debt on the international market, Bianco said.

The U.S. and China normalized relations in 1979, but cables dating as far back as May 1973 viewed by FOX Business show the State Department told Beijing that while the debt didn’t have to be paid at that time, it would not be forgiven.

There have been attempts to litigate pre-Communist party bonds in the past.

A class-action lawsuit brought by Hukung railway bondholders was thrown out in 1979 under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, which establishes limits on lawsuits against foreign governments.

Since then, developments in a few cases have suggested sovereign immunity might not be as strong with regard to certain types of debt, but those cases could be tied to specific language within the bond contracts themselves.

“It’s a difficult suit to bring just because at this point, it’s really very old,” Odette Lienau, associate dean and professor of law at Cornell University, told FOX Business. “Technically, these don’t necessarily expire, but in practice, doing something like this is going to be difficult. You have to be legally creative with how you would do it.”

Bianco spent a year researching the issue and working with the White House, State Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, former Congressman Bart Gordon and former Congressman Walter Jones when the American Bondholder Foundation was founded in August 2001.

While not widely accepted in international law, the doctrine of odious debt, which is akin to China’s argument, states national debt incurred by an illegitimate regime is not enforceable.

The U.S. made a similar argument when faced with the burden of Confederate obligations following the end of the Civil War. Congress in 1868 passed the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says “neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

While there’s a “plausible legal argument” for redeeming the bonds, Lienau said, it’s “politically difficult.” Bianco, who met with Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about the matter in 2018 while the U.S. and China were negotiating a phase one trade deal, said the U.S. Treasury could take the bonds in and use them to offset the nation’s debt with China.

The U.S. might then say it considers the bonds paid, but China could still dispute that, bringing the two sides back to square one.

“Ultimately, this is going to have to be some kind of negotiated settlement if it gets taken up,” Lienau said. “If not, the U.S. just continues making the payments on the national debt.”

A spokesperson for the Treasury Department did not respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

The Foreign Bondholders Protective Council, established under former President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, helps U.S. citizens collect on defaulted bonds from foreign governments and has settled 47 cases. If the group were to successfully resolve this case, it would be the 48th.

Bianco’s clients would be willing to take “pennies on the dollar,” she said, letting the rest go toward helping repay a national debt that has swelled to more than $25 trillion as policymakers have taken unprecedented action to shield the economy from fallout related to COVID-19.

The government has extended trillions of dollars of aid to combat record job losses and the sharpest contraction of the post-World War II era, caused by a virtual shutdown of the U.S. economy through stay-at-home orders intended to limit the virus’ spread.

Both the Trump administration and some members of Congress have in recent weeks been looking at ways to punish Beijing for what they call an insufficient initial response to COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China, at the end of last year.

FOX Business learned on Monday that the administration is forging ahead with plans to divest $4 billion of worth of equity stakes in Chinese companies held by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. But other options are limited.

“There is almost no clean-cut tool that you can use to put pressure on China without hurting ourselves,” Xiaobo Lu, political science professor at Barnard College of Columbia University, told FOX Business.

Earlier this month, Sens. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. and Steve Daines, R-Mont., introduced the Stop China-Originated Viral Infectious Disease Act, which, if passed, would give Americans the right to sue China for the damage COVID-19 has caused to the economy and human life.

Another group of senators, led by Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have introduced the COVID-19 Accountability Act, which would give Trump the authority to impose sanctions and travel bans, restrict loans to Chinese businesses by U.S. firms and ban Chinese companies from listing on U.S. stock exchanges.

Lu pushed back on the feasibility of those options, however, noting that the U.S. has “already done quite a bit” in terms of sanctions and that Chinese companies can list their shares in other international markets.

Fighting to collect payment on the aging Republic of China notes would have none of those drawbacks, though it might prove as arduous a struggle as negotiating a trade deal. Still, Bianco says, the U.S. would have the weight of common law and moral responsibility on its side.

“Americans pay their debts,” Bianco said. “China needs to do the same.”

Gary Dubin, J.D. returns to the airwaves May 10, 2020 after a 90 day pause whilst recovering from surgery and rehab. We are delighted he has made a full recovery and is “back in the saddle”. Please join us in congratulating him for his tenacity and willingness to continue to share cutting edge information in the field of foreclosure law, defense and attack strategies. – Go Gary! Email: gdubin@dubinlaw.net

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*Note from Greg da’ Goose: Remember, as good as he is, Gary is in Hawaii and is just one man in a sea of 400 million Americans. He probably can’t be there for you when the poop hits the fan. If in your jurisdiction,  you can’t afford a lawyer or they blow you off, you can’t do wrong by subscribing to this important legal educational program by following this link. You’ll be glad you did. I was! click here: “How to Win in Court with or without a lawyer”
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Gary

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Gary Victor Dubin
Dubin Law Offices
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Office: (808) 537-2300
Email: gdubin@dubinlaw.net
Licensed in California and Hawaii

Note: Gary Dubin is a contributing author to the Gallant Goose and other blogs. Opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the position of The Gallant Goose & Friends.

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