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May 29th, 2015

5/29/2015

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To end for now the topic of real estate capture by the rich I wanted to bring back the policy of handing all that is public to corporations as is happening in Baltimore.  Hopkins dismantled the public sector in Baltimore and became the public sector controlling all avenues of government function including real estate and public property.  Every public sector function has a private non--profit attached with a director that moves that non-profit towards Hopkins' goals.  Keep in mind when you have a very neo-conservative institution in a city filled with working class, poor, seniors, disabled, and people of color-----you must build an entire non-profit system that pretends to be progressive and all new legislation has to have 'progressive titles and language' while having a repressive goal. 

THAT IS THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE OF BALTIMORE-----EVERYTHING IS MADE TO LOOK LIKE WHAT IT IS NOT!

This is why only 17% of citizens come out to vote in a system filled with election fraud. 

HOW THIRD WORLD IS ALL OF THIS?  RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU KNOW DEMOCRATS DO NOT ACT THIS WAY!

I attended a typical city non-profit meeting last night on community greening.  Since corporations pay no taxes and get huge subsidy and are allowing to commit massive fraud----there is no money for public works.  THE MANTRA FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT----VOLUNTEER AND BE A HERO IN YOUR COMMUNITY!!!!!!!  So, not only are Baltimore citizens brought to poverty and left unemployed by global corporate public policy----they are now being made soldiers of the state in giving the time and disposable income to doing all public sector work in the city!  BALTIMORE PRIDE!

Each time you attend these community non-profit meeting you have a young person made to work for nothing training to spend the entire time talking about structures that could easily have been a handout and then allowing 7 minutes for dozens of people to ask questions.  All these meetings occur in private non-profit space that has to be evacuated right after these meetings so there is no time to talk policy or make connections.  You are required to come, listen, leave and do everything else over the internet.  You are awards some cash for projects that have no public sector support and the project dies when interest dies.  The intent is to make an area to be developed attractive with funds controlled by the development corporations. 


Republicans love to call this government by non-profit 'socialism' painting the pols behind it as liberals-----but these are not warm and fuzzy community non-profits----they are controlled by corporations and their tax deductible 'donations'.  Baltimore and Maryland created Maryland Non-Profits and Associated Granting Baltimore just as a conduit for corporations in lieu of paying taxes to control social and societal programs through these non-profits.  The appointment of directors at the head of these agencies who then do what these donor corporations tell them. 

BALTIMORE IS ONE BIG CORPORATE NON-PROFIT ALL CONTROLLED BY JOHNS HOPKINS AND BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT.

So, the Plantation that is Baltimore/Johns Hopkins not only has the business sector, education sector, and real estate captured----it has taken all public sector control as well.

THIS IS FASCISM AND AS TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT AND THESE STRUCTURES ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE HOLD-----IT WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE AUTOCRATIC AND REPRESSIVE.  AUTOCRATIC LEADERS ALWAYS HAVE THE PEOPLE PROUD TO SERVE WITH VOLUNTEERISM AND SHOUTS OF CIVIC PRIDE WHILE CREATING MASS INJUSTICE!

This article is long so please glance through to the next article-----this is the NEW WORLD ORDER THAT HAS GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNALS CONTROLLING ITS COLONIES THROUGH THESE CORPORATE NON-PROFIT STRUCTURES.


Baltimore neo-conservatives love to call all of this corporate non-profit LIBERAL---and our new Republican Governor Larry Hogan calls Baltimore's third world conditions a product of liberal policy gone wrong when Baltimore has been under Johns Hopkins and neo-conservative rule for decades.  It is neo-conservative policy that kept progressive liberalism away and created this third world mess we have today.


Detroit was brought to deliberate bankruptcy through fraud and corruption as is happening in Baltimore----remember, O'Malley and Maryland Assembly deliberately loaded Baltimore with loads of credit bond debt leverage just to implode it into bankruptcy so Baltimore can be taken to this International Economic Zone structure just as Detroit is now.

Welcome to Your New Government

Can Non-Profits Run Cities?


Story by Anna Clark   New City

Photography by Marvin Shaouni

Published on Jul 9, 2012



Sue Mosey spends a lot of time telling stories. When I first met her, she breezed through two hours of narration about the behind-the-scenes practicalities of cultivating a vibrant center in the city of Detroit, a story she is clearly well-practiced at delivering to the many national journalists who come to her with questions. A few days after our meeting, I saw her again at Fourteen East, a Midtown café that opened one year ago after Mosey inspired the owner to host her new venture on Woodward Avenue, Detroit’s central corridor. Mosey was at the café to pose for photographs before meeting a potential funder for lunch, where her strategic storytelling was again called upon — this time, to inspire concrete commitments for the non-profit that Mosey leads, and which, in turn, is headlining the city’s revival.

Home to key anchor institutions — including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center — the Midtown neighborhood sits just north of the city’s downtown and riverfront. Throughout the last five years, the neighborhood has seen a remarkable revival, with independent businesses veering from national trends to open their doors and restore life in previously dark storefronts. New residents are moving into rehabilitated housing, and community gardens are thriving in what had been vacant lots. Indeed, almost no Midtown businesses were lost during the economic recession — incredible, given that Detroit entered the recession at what might politely be called a disadvantage.

Midtown’s vigor belies the narrative of Detroit as an utterly disinvested city. And coordinating the show is Midtown Detroit, Inc., a peculiarly influential community development corporation that has transformed nearly every aspect of the neighborhood. Founded in 1976 by community activists rooted in the affordable housing movement of the 1960s, Midtown, Inc. evolved along with the city. In the last two decades, the scrappy non-profit’s tactical collaborations with major anchor institutions in Detroit — including City Hall — have elevated it from the antiestablishment fringe and into the establishment itself.

While, historically, power in Detroit was synonymous with the auto industry and labor unions, both the decentralization and economic fluctuations of the car business has left space for Midtown, Inc. to make its mark on the city. These days, it provides landscaping on boulevard medians. It partners with Wayne State’s police department, which patrols the neighborhood beyond campus borders. It puts strings of lights in the trees along Woodward during the holidays. It is installing LED street lighting. And with its popular Live Midtown initiative, which offers financial incentives to employees of anchor institutions to buy or rent homes in the neighborhood, Midtown, Inc. is coming full circle, returning to the business of creating housing options. Even in a shrinking city with a high vacancy rate, Midtown’s apartments are 95 percent occupied.

The organization’s work moved Reuters to describe the neighborhood as “the centerpiece for Detroit’s revival” in an article about the construction of a 21,000-square-foot Whole Foods store on a vacant corner in Midtown. This is the first time the chain has set up shop in a distressed urban center. At the groundbreaking in May, company CEO Walter Robb told the Detroit Free Press that, “the richness that we discovered here was very encouraging. That’s special for me.”

Midtown Detroit, Inc. President Sue Mosey is often called the unofficial mayor of Motor City. Increasingly, the city’s real mayor, David Bing, depends on her and her organization to help manage the city’s neighborhoods.

The advent of Whole Foods — a retailer that serves as a stabilizer and signifier of a particular sort of bourgeoisie arrival — is a bright feather in the cap of Midtown, Inc. President Sue Mosey. Robb credited her for convincing the company to commit to Detroit, as she helped put together the complex financial deal that is backing the new store. While there are many independent grocers and farmer’s markets in the city, Mosey acknowledges that Whole Foods is a game-changer, and not just because more Detroiters will have food choices that parallel those of their neighbors in tweedy Ann Arbor, which got its second Whole Foods in 2007. The store’s opening “not only meets the need for fresh produce, but it signals that something is going on here in Detroit,” said Mosey.

With a remarkable ability to get things done in a city that has been on the brink of state emergency management, Midtown, Inc. has a reputation for being better at performing the role of government than government itself. But what are the stakes of ceding public sector work to non-profits? Some argue that if private organizations like this one aren’t making sure trash is picked up and the neighborhood is promoted as a positive place to invest, the jobs won’t get done — and neighborhood will languish. On the other hand, communities cede a certain amount of accountability when private hands, whether a community development corporation like Midtown, Inc. or a for-profit company, take charge of public services.

Is there a risk when common-good public services are — at least some of the time — defined by neighborhood borders rather than city ones? De facto or otherwise, will cities be less likely to make high-quality services and innovation available to all its neighborhoods, or will some be left (perhaps all too literally) in the dark?

StruggleBurnt-out buildings, abandoned lots, teeming garbage and a heavy-handed police presence. That was what Sen. Robert F. Kennedy saw on his tour of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn in February 1966. The impoverished community was the site of one of the decade’s first riots in 1964, as well as a major gerrymandering lawsuit in 1965. Community activists called for “substance, not studies,” as put by Elsie Richardson, Kennedy’s tour guide. Richardson and her team worked with Kennedy’s staff to hone plans for Bed-Stuy’s revival and 10 months later, after another rough summer punctuated by violence (including the "thing" that kept secretary Dawn from riding the bus home last season on Mad Men), Kennedy announced the nation’s first community development corporation.

Known as the Bedford-Stuyvesant Development and Service Corporation, it pioneered a new model for public-private community development that prioritized both local leadership and professional management. Kennedy, along with Republican Sen. Jacob Javits, laid the groundwork for community development corporations with a special amendment to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The new CDC was not only for Brooklyn’s sake; in his speech, Kennedy spotlighted a seven-point program that he said would serve as a standard-bearer for community development nationwide.

“The program for the development of Bedford-Stuyvesant will combine the best of community action with the best of the private enterprise system,” Kennedy told a group of neighborhood residents assembled at local public school to hear about the initiative that he debuted alongside Javits and Mayor John Lindsay. “Neither by itself is enough, but in their combination lies our hope for the future.”

“Before the advent of CDCs, ‘unless you were super-rich, you had zero control over space.’”

Built out of the organizing structure of churches, unions and block associations, CDCs were envisioned as a way for citizens to have direct control over their neighborhoods while leveraging the tools of government and business. Since 1967, the first CDC, now called the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, has constructed or renovated 2,200 housing units and helped bring more than $475 million in investments to central Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the East Los Angeles Community Union formed in 1968 and was also funded through the Kennedy-Javits legislation. It is now the largest CDC in the country: It builds homes, operates a family of businesses and supports college education for Latino students. Another original CDC, the Mississippi Action for Community Education, was led by a founding team of civil rights activists, including Fannie Lou Hamer, to develop affordable housing for Delta citizens.

Once the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development started providing incentives, CDCs took off nationwide, though there is no single legally binding definition of a “community development corporation,” which partly explains the range of their structures, purposes and effectiveness. However, state and federal incentive programs in the 1970s led CDCs to focus more tightly on affordable housing, according to Sam Butler, a board member of Community Development Advocates of Detroit.

“I see it as a social justice issue,” said Butler about the origin of CDCs. Before the advent of CDCs, “unless you were super-rich, you had zero control over space.” In this way, CDCs literally changed the landscape of cities.

AdaptationsSue Mosey came to what was then called the University Cultural Center Association in 1988. Coleman Young was in his 15th year as Detroit’s mayor (he’d remain in office through 1993). As Mosey describes it, there was not much going on in the city: Few were investing, and fresh ideas were rare. While the city’s prosperous past was visible in its strong institutions — including a world-recognized symphony orchestra, the Henry Ford Hospital and the College for Creative Studies — the neighborhoods that housed them waned. In fact, the mixed-use area now known as Midtown did not exist. The CDC that now bears its name had not yet coined the term to unify the disparate community.

“How do you build institutions when the neighborhood is a real liability?” That was the question Mosey said she faced when she was brought in as Midtown, Inc.’s community development director. (Three years later, she became executive director.) Her strategy was to focus on pivotal projects that she felt held the potential to improve the neighborhood while benefitting institutions and bringing lasting good to the city. First step: Getting the neighborhood placed on the National Register of Historic Places so redevelopment projects could qualify for federal tax credits. The move jump-started investment in a place that had been without it for years.

“By the time I came, whole blocks had been removed with urban renewal, which made everything unstable,” Mosey said.

One way to describe Midtown, Inc. is to say that it curates development. The non-profit supports carefully chosen projects expected to contribute to a coherent and creative community. It offers stable assistance and a wealth of resources throughout a sometimes-chaotic development process. Through partnerships with local funders and foundations, as well as key city departments, it has seeded at least 40 projects in Midtown — some of them new construction, but the majority historic rehabilitations. By instigating smaller, local development, Mosey said the community demonstrates that “there is a market here.”

At a time when neighborhoods nationwide are struggling to rebound from years of recession, Midtown is experiencing steady growth. New residents and businesses, such as the Avalon Bakery on W. Willis Street, are setting down roots.

Though it remains a neighborhood-based organization — albeit a large and well-funded one comprised of more than 100 stakeholders — the influence of Midtown, Inc. is amplified in the context of a cash-strapped city. In 2009 — the same year General Motors and Chrysler received government loans, and when a parcel survey revealed that about one-fourth of the city’s residential lots were undeveloped or vacant — the organization reported revenue of about $3.4 million almost entirely in contributions and grants (by last year, that number had more than doubled to over $7.5 million).

And Midtown, Inc. amplifies those funds: In January 2009, it received $2.5 million in grant money over two years to leverage $34 million in governmental and private funds that would collectively revitalize the Sugar Hill Arts District, a two-block neighborhood with a rich history in jazz music that had been blotted out by urban renewal programs of the 1960s.

Today, the district is home to the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, as well as a contemporary art museum and a rehabilitated building designed for artist residences and studios, featuring solar power, geothermal heating and water reclamation. These projects hold disproportionate resonance in a city where officials scrambling to keep the lights on don’t have the time or money for bold plans.

Midtown, Inc.’s success has made Mosey something of a rock star among those in the economic development circuit. “Fantastically powerful” is how Jennifer Bradley, a Brookings Institution fellow focusing on Great Lakes metropolitan areas, describes the organization, and Mosey herself. [Disclosure: Bradley is a previous Forefront contributor. – Ed.]

“They are a great model for an engaged, creative and adaptive institution, and it’s great to see [Mosey] get recognition for that,” Bradley said.

“People have heard about what’s happening [in Midtown], and the work they’ve done is a large reason why there’s so much investment in that neighborhood,” Bradley added. “They had a good vision for what was possible.”

Mosey is not the only contemporary inheritor to the CDC legacy, adapting urban revival to the considerably more market-based reform happening today. But the rising influence of CDCs parallels broader trends in local government that have resonance and relevance beyond the borders of any particular neighborhood.

The Partnered GovernmentUniversity Circle sits on the east side of Cleveland and, like Detroit’s Midtown, is home to key civic institutions, including Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Orchestra and the University Hospitals system. It is served by University Circle, Inc., a CDC that has come to characterize itself as a “community service corporation” in order to better represent the scope of its programming.

The roots of the non-profit corporation extend back more than half a century. It began as a development foundation in 1957 tasked by the Cleveland City Council with being a “service organization to all institutions.” Initially, the foundation functioned as a land bank to assist institutions in expansions. It soon came to develop collaborative services, providing parking, transportation, public safety programs and neighborhood landscaping in order to buoy the area’s cultural and medical centers. In 1970, the foundation re-formed as University Circle, Inc., partly to better bridge the relationship between their community and its bordering neighborhoods, many of them low-income.

Today, UCI (and the Cleveland Foundation, one of the CDC’s biggest supporters) is persistent in characterizing the community it serves not as University Circle, but as “Greater University Circle” in order to suggest a porous border. Along the region’s Euclid Avenue corridor, UCI is responsible for $3 billion in projects, said organization president Chris Ronayne. It has hosted a private police force for decades that employs 25 officers, including plainclothes detectives that patrol the neighborhood and respond to both institutions and residences. UCI operates a bus line and has worked for years to make area streets more welcoming with new pedestrian signage and redesigned intersections that feature pervious concrete, reclaimed timber benches, native plants and a custom-built LED light fixture that doubles as an art piece.

The growing influence of today’s CDCs, particularly those in cities that are strapped for cash, speaks to larger trends of governments outsourcing what had once been their own jobs. There is some precedent for this: For years, non-profit conservancies have “adopted” city parks in Detroit in order to provide consistent maintenance and programming that City Hall could not, unintentionally resulting in a diffused system of authority for parks and recreation in the city. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources is about to take over management of Belle Isle, a large and popular city-owned park in the Detroit River.

“[I] don’t want to make it seem like the city is not supportive of our work to the degree that they can be,” Mosey added. “[It’s] just very limited capacity versus many years ago when, for instance, the City Planning Department had specific project managers assigned to work with local community organizations.”

The CDC shift from a focus on brick-and-mortar to more comprehensive services is a national trend, according to Tom Kingsley, senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Kingsley, however, suggests that most CDCs aren’t taking on public services because “most of them don’t have the resources to take on those responsibilities, even if they wanted to. And they’d be in a strange liability situation if they try to take on the delivery of big urban services. By law, a city is still responsible for this.”

Kingsley is right about the law. But the fact remains that Midtown, Inc. and UCI have more resources for public services than their respective cities do. And so, after making an agreement with the city, they are doing it. But where does it leave the other neighborhoods in Detroit and Cleveland that still depend on City Hall for services and programming? Will service delivery for all citizens become uneven, and civic accountability even more obscured? And is it any concern of Midtown, Inc. and UCI — or should it be?

UCI’s Chris Ronayne acknowledges worries. But in his mind, they stem simply from fear of the unknown. “Times have changed,” he said. “Desperate times call for — innovative measures. Last I looked, the city budgets could use some help.”

True. But also true is that the dominating influence of a handful of non-profits can create a sort of civic hierarchy that exaggerates differences — you could call it inequalities — between neighborhoods. This unintended consequence can be seen in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit, where a recent scuffle over a housing program administered by Midtown, Inc. has raised questions about keeping private organizations and unelected leaders like Mosey accountable to the communities most affected by their work.

Bike through Corktown and you’ll find the hollow park where Tiger Stadium once stood and the Michigan Central train station that has been empty since 1989, fascinating urban explorers and photographers ever since. Like its busier neighbor Midtown, Corktown is home to a number of energetic small businesses, but it also has more expansive vacant space and famously pothole-riddled roads. In July 2011, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, a public-private coalition of corporate and civic leaders, announced a significant expansion to the housing incentives made popular in Midtown, which subsidize rent and mortgage payments. With $5 million available over five years, the expanded program — which, though created and marketed by DDP, is run by Midtown, Inc. — targets not just downtown and Midtown, but also the bordering neighborhoods of Eastern Market, Lafayette Park and Corktown.

The incentives came as sudden news to those already living in Corktown, said Jeff DeBruyn, former president of the neighborhood’s resident council and president of Imagination Station of Roosevelt Park, a non-profit arts group in Corktown that has transformed two of the neighborhood’s abandoned homes into art spaces. DeBruyn fears the program will have a significant impact on the neighborhood’s makeup and how much rent current residents pay. “Nobody in North Corktown knew about it. Nobody had heard anything,” DeBruyn said. “They just announced it without talking to any of us. They don’t ask, or listen.”

Mosey said that only two people in the expanded incentives program have moved to Corktown so far, out of about 160 participants. (To date, more than 450 people overall have taken advantage of Detroit residency incentives.) Corktown has fairly little housing and rentals available, she said, and “when it comes on the market, it moves quickly.”

“So whether our folks move in or not, the housing is strong there and will fill and rents will go up,” Mosey said. “I am sure the homeowners in Corktown who represent most of the folks in this neighborhood would welcome higher housing values which come with more market demand.” She added that while rents and property values might not be as low as some would like when the neighborhood strengthens, avoiding opportunities to raise market value is “not a very good long-term strategy, I would say.”

The key way that CDCs establish themselves as representatives of their community is by allotting a certain number of seats on their board to residents, said Jamie Schriner-Hooper, executive director of the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan. But of course the appointed residents are vetted for a shared organizational philosophy, and in practice, not all board members have equal influence over the organization’s direction. Midtown, Inc. lists 24 members of its board on its website. While some may be residents of affected neighborhoods such as Corktown, none are identified as such; instead, each are identified by their professional affiliation with a local anchor institution or business. No Corktown businesses are listed as affiliations of the Midtown, Inc. board (or the DDP board, for that matter). So, if the primary way that CDCs stay accountable to their neighborhood is by representation on its board of directors, Corktown is out of luck.

As far as community accountability goes, Chris Ronayne in Cleveland said that careful contracts and MOUs ensure good-faith community partnerships. He said that UCI has a “pretty interactive dialogue with the constituency,” in part through online comments, and many residents know UCI staff much better than they know their city workers or representatives. “I get calls a city would,” Ronayne said. “Calls about graffiti and trash removal.”

Mosey detailed six city departments and committees that Midtown, Inc. works with. The city’s Planning Commission staff is “helping us with a critical rezoning of our neighborhood to special districts zoning which will encourage more mixed-use development,” she said. The City Planning Department “provided loan dollars [utilizing federal funds] to numerous Midtown developments. They are also working to update zoning standards for Woodward Avenue with input from us and other organizations impacted.”

Both Ronayne and Mosey emphasized that their interest in building vibrant neighborhoods is directly linked to their interest in cultivating vibrant cities. In Cleveland, University Circle bills itself as “the neighborhood without borders,” as it works to provide security, transportation and marketing.

“All of this together is aimed at enhancing the Circle and branding it in terms of a diverse, broad neighborhood that lures people in, rather than shuts people out,” said Ronayne.

Perhaps what most illustrates how the reach of these CDCs extends beyond their core corridors is Midtown, Inc. urging anchor institutions to tip more of their purchases to Detroit vendors. Mosey said that, over the last year, they have tipped about $6.8 million in new procurement investments in the city, a number expected to grow in the coming years. What’s more, Midtown, Inc. has recently expanded the very definition of the neighborhood it serves — in a merger last year with New Center Council, another CDC, it came to take responsibility for a further 60 blocks of the city (including the block where I live and work).

Almost LostCities in dire straits make it possible for large CDCs to gain huge influence. On April 4, less than 24 hours before a deadline that would give unprecedented control of the city to an emergency manager, the Detroit City Council voted for a consent agreement with the state of Michigan. Under the new deal, a financial advisory board with members appointed by the governor, mayor and council will review all budget matters and grant approval of union contracts. It’s designed to support a city struggling under crushing debt: Detroit owes more than $12 billion in long-term pension and benefit obligations, and as a shrinking city, it is gasping under a loss of property tax revenue even as it must provide services to over 139 square miles.

The consent agreement is nonetheless controversial: It squeaked by on a 5-4 vote and just last month, a lawsuit challenging the agreement filed by the city attorney — against the wishes of the mayor—was dismissed in court. Despite concerns about the city ceding control to the state — which, for many residents, echoes morally bankrupt urban renewal polices of the 20th century that decimated neighborhoods of primarily African-American and immigrant communities — the agreement sidesteps receivership, which would put all power to sell assets, eliminate departments and gut contracts into the hands of an appointee of the governor. (This would be under Michigan’s new emergency management law, which continues to make national headlines.) Relying on private groups like Midtown, Inc. makes it possible for the city of Detroit to avoid some of the most immediate and painful consequences of its financial problems.

In Cleveland, the city’s credit rating on $248 million of debt was downgraded one notch last year by Fitch Ratings: The concerns came down to the city’s lack of savings, combined with its shrinking population and lethargic economy. According to the Plain-Dealer, the city “has been borrowing about $30 million a year with general obligation bonds to pay for city projects and improvements.”

Representatives of both UCI and Midtown, Inc. told me that they are not interested in replacing City Hall, even as they take the lead on many of its services. Rather, they mean to work mutually. Mosey calls Detroit’s Department of Public Works a particularly important partner and ally to, for example, facilitate street repaving and administer streetscape and greenway funds. Ronayne is careful to call UCI’s work “adjunct, or additive to city services in a city that is stretched.”

“The city should look to us as a provider,” he added. “We could be agents for cities.”

As Ronayne sees it, the old world way of thinking is: Local-state-federal. That has slipped away. Now, he says, the thinking is neighborhood-regional-global.

“We can provide the very hands-on work, the eyes on the street, the corner view,” Ronayne said. “And cities need to outsource that to organizations like us, because they have bigger fires to fight.”

But if CDCs and other non-profits are going to take on more and more public services, then they have a proportional amount of responsibility to be democratically structured. That means that both transparency and meaningful community accountability are crucial.

“I believe strongly in ground-up community development,” said DeBruyn of Detroit’s Corktown. But in neighborhoods where large organizations are less intimately engaged with residents, DeBruyn has struggled to carve out avenues for effective grass-roots programs that operate outside their influence. He has tried a resident’s council, and a Better Building for Michigan initiative: “Really organic, ground-up programs.” But, he said, it “seems that institutions of influence, the foundations and powers that be, not only don’t support them, but do everything possible to actively thwart them.” If neither the CDC nor the city is making it a priority to partner with residents in the leveraging of public services and neighborhood visioning, where are the people who want to contribute to the making of their community to turn?

“We could be agents for cities.”

As an alternative, DeBruyn pointed to the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation, a thriving organization in a northwest neighborhood that is somewhat overlooked as one of Detroit’s “success stories.” It is home to more than 14,000 people, 92 percent of them African-American, most of them homeowners. At GRDC, local residents make up a well-run, well-organized management team. GRDC develops vacant homes, provides home repair for low-income residents, maintains vacant property, organizes a community safety patrol and hosts a neighborhood garden and farmer’s market. Volunteers are the fuel that makes these programs possible. And it does all this through constant engagement with its citizens: Besides employing residents in its management, it hosts well-attended open houses and community visioning sessions and shares the results online. Its board of directors is comprised entirely of neighborhood residents.

As with Midtown, Inc, UCI and CDCs across the nation, GRDC has expanded beyond the brick-and-mortar work so that it can be more responsive to a complex community. Even with a City Hall that is struggling to remain viable, GRDC has proven effective. It has facilitated more than $20 million in new investments since 1989 in an area that is barely two square miles, even though it is well outside Detroit’s main business corridor and lacks the anchor institutions that enhance Midtown and University Circle. It does this work without detaching from concrete community engagement and democratic process, with residents actively participating in the stabilization and revitalization of their neighborhood. Its example is a stark reminder that the “ends justify the means” is not a viable excuse for shifting services for the public good to systems where the public does not participate.

Thanks to Mosey’s work and that of peers like GRDC, thousands of new residents are making a home in Detroit. But as the city’s numbers continue to grow, and Detroiters make a habit of stoop-sitting and block parties, the question will be how Mosey intends to create space for these newly engaged residents — not only in Midtown’s historic homes, but also in its decision-making apparatus.


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Let's take a look at what the Clinton Initiative and Bush neo-cons have been doing since the Reagan/Clinton neo-liberal capture of both Republican and Democratic Parties.  The neo-cons are the war/security/spying/surveillance/and oil and energy branch of the global corporate tribunal and the neo-liberals are the Wall Street banking/corporate economic zone/food and water branch.  Together they are the world trade tribunal that pretends all of this is free trade and open market.  THEY ARE THE GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL PARTY CAPTURING ALL POLITICS IN THE US.

THAT IS THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE OF BALTIMORE-----EVERYTHING IS MADE TO LOOK LIKE WHAT IT IS NOT!

They took US politics by using a simply political strategy from the playbook of Leo Strauss-----TELL THEM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR AND THEN DO WHAT YOU WANT.  Everytime we elect a pol pretending to be progressive and they serve right of center----that is Leo Strauss working against the American people.  Leo started as the neo-con ideal political philosophy---but neo-liberals embraced him as well.  University of Chicago is the center of Leo Strauss neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism and who worked at University of  Chicago? Obama, who is the epitome of Leo Strauss.  Had the American people understood Obama's past as it understood Hillary's in 2008----we would have understood the Democratic primaries had no Democrat running----only global corporate tribunal candidates working against the American people.


IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT GLOBAL CORPORATE RULE IS FASCIST----PLEASE READ UP ON FASCISM.  HITLER STIRRED UP NATIONAL PRIDE AND THEN TOOK ALL GOVERNMENT TO CORPORATE CONTROL AS IT DID THE NATION'S CONQUERED.

Keep in mind that real Republican conservatives hate Bush neo-cons as much as real progressive liberal labor and justice hate Clinton neo-liberals because none of this has anything to do with national pride or national sovereignty and the US Constitution.


Neocons: the Echo of German Fascism EDITOR'S CHOICE | 28.03.2015 | 09:00
'Rather than continuing with this “strategy,” driven by our own modern Conservative Revolutionaries and entailing the eventual bankrupting or destruction of the nation, it might be more prudent for Americans to demand that we go back to the original national security strategy of the United States, as expressed by early presidents as avoiding “foreign entanglements” and start abiding by the republican goals expressed by the Preamble to the Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”'






Remember during the Presidential campaign when media stated that Obama's mother worked in Malaysia and Obama lived there for a while? Well, this was at a time when the US was installing neo-liberalism in Malaysia. Remember when the media told us Hillary went to Myanmar to sell the Generals on opening former Burma? Well, the Generals are bringing Economic Zones to Myanmar and the Generals are about to become rich. This is what TPP seeks to bring to the US and indeed, Obama and Congressional neo-liberals teamed with Bush neo-cons made Obama's terms in office about building the structures needed for installing TPP----and states like Maryland are busy with their own International Economic Zones-----THIS WILL NOT END WELL FOR ANYONE---WE NEED AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS TO WAKE UP AND USE YOUR VOICE ----



GLOBAL SCENARIO

China was one of the earliest countries to implement SEZ. It created the first SEZ in the early 80's under the government of DENG XIAPING. This is the most popular SEZ in the world. Today there are more than 3000 SEZ's in the world spreading across 120 countries. They account for over 600 billion dollars in exports and generating close to 50 million jobs all over the world.


Following the Chinese examples, Special Economic Zones have been established in several countries, including Brazil, India, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, and North Korea.



Economic Zones only exist in developing nations because they are third world in needing autocratic structures and no Rule of Law protecting citizens and environment from abuse and exploitation-----THAT IS WHY WHEN THEY COME TO THE US AMERICA HAD TO HAVE MOVED TO SECOND WORLD AND WITH TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT----THIRD WORLD STATUS.



Special Economic Zones in Myanmar


Posted on June 28, 2013 by ASEAN Briefing By Collin Baffa

Jun. 28 – Myanmar has seen rapid economic growth following its recent democratic and economic reforms, which included the repealing of Myanmar’s export taxes, decreasing import taxes and providing greater access for foreign direct investment. FDI into Myanmar increased from US$300 million in 2009-10 to US$20 billion in 2010-11, with its GDP rising from a rate of 5 percent in 2009 to over 6 percent in 2012.




Modern-day slavery rife in Malaysia’s electronics industry

Report says a third of migrant workers in industry are trapped in debt bondage and have their passports illegally withheld Women work at an electronics factory in Malaysia. A report says forced labour is used in the supply chains of many household brands. Photograph: Jonathan Drake/Getty Images Annie Kelly

Wednesday 17 September 2014 11.01 EDT

  One-third of migrant workers in the Malaysian electronics industry, which produces goods for some of the world’s best-known brands, are trapped in forced labour, a form of modern-day slavery, according to new research.


A report by Verité, an NGO working on supply chain accountability, found that forced labour is present in the supply chains of a wide cross-section of household electronics brands, which use Malaysian factories to produce billions of pounds worth of goods every year.

The NGO interviewed more than 500 workers and concluded that debt bondage and the illegal confiscation of passports and documents were the main drivers of this “systemic” forced labour, which traps workers in low-paid jobs and prevents them from returning home.

Once in the workplace, migrant workers face further exploitation and abuse due to their inability to leave. Verité’s investigations found that workers were forced to live in cramped and dangerous accommodation, that female workers experienced sexual abuse by their supervisors, and migrants were forced to work excessive overtime under the threat of losing their jobs, which would leave them saddled with large debts they couldn’t pay off.

A large number of multinational companies from the US, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea use Malaysia as their manufacturing base. In 2013, more than $2.6bn (£1.6bn) of investment originated from overseas.

“What was most shocking to us was that this was happening in modern facilities, some of which were owned and operated by major international brands,” said Dan Viederman, chief executive of Verité. “This work has led us to conclude that forced labour in this industry is systemic and that every company operating in this sector in Malaysia faces a high risk of forced labour in their operations.”

Thousands of people from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Vietnam and other countries travel to Malaysia every year for work. According to a 2010 Amnesty International report, many enter the workplace at least $1,000 in debt, after being charged high fees by recruitment agents. The vast majority of workers interviewed by Verité were found to have been charged excessive fees by recruitment agencies, both in their home countries and in Malaysia.

Verité’s investigation revealed that 77% of migrant workers had to borrow money for recruitment fees. Some 95% of those interviewed said they didn’t feel they could leave their jobs until they had paid off their debts. Their situation was made worse after a 2013 change in Malaysian law made it possible for employers to pass on the cost of a per-capita levy the government charges on the use of foreign labour to the workers themselves, increasing their debt by almost $400.

The interviews revealed that although it is illegal under Malaysian law, more than 90% of workers had their passports taken by managers at their place of work or by recruitment agents, with most saying they were unable to get them back.

This year the US state department downgraded Malaysia to the lowest tier of its Trafficking in Persons report, which ranks countries on efforts to end modern-day slavery.

In the report, the state department criticised Malaysia for widespread abuse of its 4 million migrant workforce. Most of the electronics workers interviewed by Verité said they had been detained, harassed, blackmailed or threatened by immigration officials, police or the much-feared Rela, Malaysia’s voluntary citizen security corps, which is charged with rooting out illegal migrants.

Verité refuses to name brands it found to be using forced labour to produce goods, because it fears that would be counterproductive to its mission to create greater accountability in supply chains.

“We didn’t go into this research looking to name and shame,” Viederman said. “What we are concerned about is that the use of forced labour is absolutely systemic and that any company that produces or sources electronics from Malaysia must work to ensure that they are proactively taking actions to eliminate that risk.”



______________________________________________
The important thing to remember ----this is easily reversed.  They want you to believe all of this is a done deal but two election cycles and we can be rid of these corporate pols working with this global corporate tribunal.  TWO ELECTION CYCLES OF RUNNING REAL PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES AGAINST CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS IN ALL PRIMARIES.  I know elections are rigged but if people engage in politics ----if 90% of Baltimore citizens become voters and candidates----we have critical mass to keep elections free and fair.  It is the neglect of the political process that has allowed very bad people to gain power.

'Clearly, if we have both Republican and Democratic Presidents asking, and Republican and Democratic Congresses voting for trade pacts that they negotiate in secret and then vote on as immutable faits accompli — pacts which surrender US sovereignty over worker safety, food safety, environmental protection and other laws passed by our elected Congress, we do not have a democracy at all. We have a government that is the property of the multinational corporations that have financed the passage of these treacherous trade pacts.

There is a direct causal link between these trade pacts and the ongoing destruction of America’s working class (euphemistically called the “middle class” in a nation that is still terrified at talking in terms of class and that even has trouble uttering the word “capitalism”). The more the government surrenders its right to pass laws in the public interest, in order to increase the profits of corporations, the fewer jobs there will be that pay a decent living in the US, and the worse American living standards will be.

More importantly, these trade deals expose the ugly reality that American democracy is essentially dead. At this point, to restore any sense of public control over Washington it will take a revolution by the public — one that would involve ousting all the millionaires in Congress, and removing private money entirely from campaigns.

America is not being threatened by Muslims. It’s not being threatened by black helicopters from the UN either. The America that was founded in blood in 1776, and that has been handed down to us through almost two and a half centuries, is threatened by giant corporations loyal only to wealthy capitalist owners, and by a political class that has decided it’s much more profitable to legislate in favor of those fat cats with their fat wallets than to legislate in favor of the people who voted them into office.

Get out your pitchforks'!


Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are the same politicians with the same goals.  That is why from Reagan Clinton to now Bush Obama we have one string of right of center politics with the American people losing at every turn.  As the blurb above states---we are not under threat by Muslims----we are being looted by VISIGOTHS and taken by global corporations. None of this has to do with religion folks----and it is why nations of the world want to strike back at the US---and it is all over global markets.


Obama’s Drones in the Global War on Terror

Illustration by Bronwyn Seedeen Posted July 6, 2013

By Rashad Seedeen
Updated August 4, 2013 (see below)

May 23, 2013 – In a speech at the National Defense University, US President, Barack Obama outlined the future direction of his controversial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone campaign. Drones are remotely-controlled vehicles that carry out surveillance and assassination missions. Even though drones have been around for a long time, and were employed to carry-out surveillance, assassination and military activities during George W. Bush’s time as President, under the Obama administration missions have increased six-fold. Furthermore assassination missions outside of war-zones are secretly signed off by Obama in what has been aptly termed his, “kill-list”. In his speech he indicated the potential for greater transparency, government oversight (a judicial court that also signs-off on assassinations) and engagement with the Muslim world. However, he did not indicate an end to drone attacks nor did he introduce actual policy on how he would address the growing concern of drone attacks.




Johns Hopkins Students Protest University’s Drone Research Program

 Written by: Rachel Monroe | Wednesday, Mar 06, 2013 10:36am

Photo by Casey McKeel

On February 27, during General Stanley McChrystal’s lecture at Johns Hopkins, the exterior of the building was illuminated with large-scale projections. But instead of advertising the lecture inside — the first in this year’s student-organized Foreign Affairs Symposium — the projections showed injured children and images of warfare. “JHU Research at Work:  Reckless, Wrong, Illegal,” read the words projected on the building’s facade.



The projections were coordinated by the JHU Human Rights Working Group and Luminous Intervention, an artist group that creates large-scale, politically-minded outdoor projections. The groups joined forces to protest the university’s involvement in developing drone technology for the Pentagon.



McChrystal pioneered the use of drones in Afghanistan, but earlier this year he seemed to warn the administration against relying on them.  “What scares me about drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world,” he told Reuters in January. “The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes … is much greater than the average American appreciates. They are hated on a visceral level, even by people who’ve never seen one or seen the effects of one…[drone warfare creates] perception of American arrogance that says, ‘Well we can fly where we want, we can shoot where we want, because we can.'” (Excerpts from these quotations were also included in the rotating series of projections.)



The Human Rights Working Group has created a petition calling for the cessation of Pentagon-funded drone research at the university. “We are worried that our country is leading the way to a new type of warfare in which most of the killing will be done by remote control. Allowing government leaders to dispatch robots rather than soldiers is lowering the threshold of war, making the world a much more dangerous place. Moreover, the drone program has been a covert operation, with little accountability or transparency. The involvement of Johns Hopkins in this program has also been shrouded in secrecy, and little is known about it outside the cloistered grounds of the APL (even President Daniels is not allowed to view its Pentagon contracts),” they note.




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Clinton neo-liberalism is the same as Bush neo-conservatism----naked capitalism fueled by winning at any cost----shake these bugs out of the rug by running for office at all levels in Democratic primaries against Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons.

Below you see a very long article about this history of neo-conservatism.  I am not interested in Hitler and the Israeli state----I am working to educate on American politics and policy.  To understand the big pictures we must understand the politics moving our local institutions of power.  Baltimore is a picture of neo-conservatism----yet, all of its pols run as Democrats and pretend to be progressive.  All of this shape-shifting let's us know something is not right.

Baltimore is filled with citizens able to bring politics back to focus on building the domestic economy with small businesses and equal protection and Rule of Law.  Stop allowing Hopkins to reduce people's ability to work and move up the economic ladder to doing as they say!!!!  These are not smart people----they do not have good solutions----they simply live for advancing their own financial interests!!!!


Remember, US corporations are no longer US---they are multi-national-----and the amount of money that will be spent protecting markets of these global corporations not even American anymore will be huge.  Imagine the Roman Empire expansion and people paying taxes just to be protected from invaders---and you have today's mix.  The US has enough wealth and military power to protect itself from outside invaders while keeping its economy domestic----WE THE PEOPLE CAN CONSUME ENOUGH TO FUEL OUR ECONOMY IF WE ARE NOT IMPOVERISHED AND LEFT UNABLE TO HAVE A FIRST WORLD QUALITY OF LIFE.

The citizens of Baltimore are interested in simply having jobs and feeding and shelter for their families----that is why these bad pols keep shouting jobs, jobs, jobs.  We need people to be as interested in what kind of jobs and what kind of society all live in---and that means educating on public policy and knowing your politicians and the goals of policy!




Please glance through this article:

Neocons: the Echo of German Fascism



EDITOR'S CHOICE | 28.03.2015 | 09:00  


With the Likud Party electoral victory in Israel, the Republican Party is on a roll, having won two major elections in a row. The first was winning control of the U.S. Congress last fall. The second is the victory by the Republicans’ de facto party leader Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s recent election. As the Israeli Prime Minister puts together a coalition with other parties “in the national camp,” as he describes them, meaning the ultra-nationalist parties of Israel, it will be a coalition that today’s Republicans would feel right at home in.

The common thread linking Republicans and Netanyahu’s “national camp” is a belief of each in their own country’s “exceptionalism,” with a consequent right of military intervention wherever and whenever their “Commander in Chief” orders it, as well as the need for oppressive laws to suppress dissent.




Leo Strauss, an intellectual bridge between Germany’s inter-war Conservative Revolutionaries and today’s American neoconservatives.


William Kristol, neoconservative editor of the Weekly Standard, would agree. Celebrating Netanyahu’s victory, Kristol told the New York Times, “It will strengthen the hawkish types in the Republican Party.” Kristol added that Netanyahu would win the GOP’s nomination, if he could run, because “Republican primary voters are at least as hawkish as the Israeli public.”

The loser in both the Israeli and U.S. elections was the rule of law and real democracy, not the sham democracy presented for public relations purposes in both counties. In both countries today, money controls elections, and as Michael Glennon has written in National Security and Double Government, real power is in the hands of the national security apparatus.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership role in the U.S. Congress was on full display to the world when he accepted House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address Congress. Showing their eagerness to be part of any political coalition being formed under Netanyahu’s leadership, many Congressional Democrats also showed their support by attending the speech.

It was left to Israeli Uri Avnery to best capture the spirit of Netanyahu’s enthusiastic ideological supporters in Congress. Avnery wrote that he was reminded of something when seeing “Row upon row of men in suits (and the occasional woman), jumping up and down, up and down, applauding wildly, shouting approval.”

Where had he heard that type of shouting before? Then it came to him: “It was another parliament in the mid-1930s. The Leader was speaking. Rows upon rows of Reichstag members were listening raptly. Every few minutes they jumped up and shouted their approval.”

He added, “the Congress of the United States of America is no Reichstag. Members wear dark suits, not brown shirts. They do not shout ‘Heil’ but something unintelligible.” Nevertheless, “the sound of the shouting had the same effect. Rather shocking.”

Right-wing Politics in Pre-Nazi Germany

While Avnery’s analogy of how Congress responded to its de facto leader was apt, it isn’t necessary to go to the extreme example that he uses to analogize today’s right-wing U.S. and Israeli parties and policy to an earlier German precedent. Instead, it is sufficient to note how similar the right-wing parties of Israel and the U.S. of today are to what was known in 1920s Weimar Germany as the Conservative Revolutionary Movement.

This “movement” did not include the Nazis but instead the Nazis were political competitors with the party which largely represented Conservative Revolutionary ideas: the German National People’s Party (DNVP).

The institution to which the Conservative Revolutionaries saw as best representing German “values,” the Reichswehr, the German Army, was also opposed by the Nazis as “competitors” to Ernst Rohm’s Brownshirts. But the Conservative Revolutionary Movement, the DNVP, and the German Army could all be characterized as “proto-fascist,” if not Fascist. In fact, when the Nazis took over Germany, it was with the support of many of the proto-fascists making up the Conservative Revolutionary Movement, as well as those with the DNVP and the Reichswehr.

Consequently, many of the Reichstag members that Uri Avnery refers to above as listening raptly and jumping up and shouting their approval of “The Leader” were not Nazis. The Nazis had failed to obtain an absolute majority on their own and needed the votes of the “national camp,” primarily the German National People’s Party (DNVP), for a Reichstag majority.

The DNVP members would have been cheering The Leader right alongside Nazi members of the Reichstag. DNVP members also voted along with Nazi members in passing the Enabling Act of 1933, which abolished constitutional liberties and dissolved the Reichstag.

Not enough has been written on the German Conservative Revolutionary Movement , the DNVP and the Reichswehr because they have too often been seen as victims of the Nazis themselves or, at worst, mere precursors.

The DNVP was the political party which best represented the viewpoint of the German Conservative Revolutionary Movement. The Reichswehr itself, as described in The Nemesis of Power by John W. Wheeler-Bennett, has been called a “state within a state,” much like the intelligence and security services of the U.S. and Israel are today, wielding extraordinary powers.

The Reichswehr was militaristic and anti-democratic in its purest form and indeed was “fascist” in the term’s classic definition of “an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.” Mussolini merely modeled much of his hyper-militaristic political movement on the martial values of the Reichswehr.

German Army officers even had authority to punish civilians for failing to show “proper respect.” In its essence, the viewpoint of the DNVP and the Conservative Revolutionaries was virtually identical to today’s Republican Party along with those Democrats who align with them on national security issues.

These groups have in common a worshipful attitude toward the military as best embodying those martial virtues that are central to fascism. Sister parties, though they may all prefer to be seen as “brothers in arms,” would be Netanyahu’s “national camp” parties.

German Conservative Revolutionary Movement

The Conservative Revolutionary Movement began within the German Right after World War I with a number of writers advocating a nationalist ideology but one in keeping with modern times and not restricted by traditional Prussian conservatism.

It must be noted that Prussian conservatism, standing for militaristic ideas traditional to Prussia, was the antithesis of traditional American conservatism, which professed to stand for upholding the classical liberal ideas of government embedded in the U.S. Constitution.

Inherent to those U.S. constitutional ideas was antipathy toward militarism and militaristic rule of any sort, though Native Americans have good cause to disagree. (In fact, stories of the American conquest of Native Americans with its solution of placing them on reservations were particularly popular in Germany early in the Twentieth Century including with Adolf Hitler).

Historians have noted that when the German Army went to war in World War I, the soldiers and officers carried with them “a shared sense of German superiority and the imagined bestiality of the enemy.” This was manifested particularly harshly upon the citizens of Belgium in 1914 with the German occupation. Later, after their experience in the trenches, the Reichswehr was nearly as harsh in suppressing domestic dissent in Germany after the war.

According to Richard Wolin, in The Seduction of Unreason, Ernst Troeltsch, a German Protestant theologian, “realized that in the course of World War I the ethos of Germanocentrism, as embodied in the ‘ideas of 1914,’ had assumed a heightened stridency.” Under the peace of the Versailles Treaty, “instead of muting the idiom of German exceptionalism that Troeltsch viewed with such mistrust, it seemed only to fan its flames.”

This belief in German “exceptionalism” was the common belief of German Conservative Revolutionaries, the DNVP and the Reichswehr. For Republicans of today and those who share their ideological belief, substitute “American” for “German” Exceptionalism and you have the identical ideology.

“Exceptionalism” in the sense of a nation can be understood in two ways. One is a belief in the nation’s superiority to others. The other way is the belief that the “exceptional” nation stands above the law, similar to the claim made by dictators in declaring martial law or a state of emergency. The U.S. and Israel exhibit both forms of this belief.

German Exceptionalism

The belief in German Exceptionalism was the starting point, not the ending point, for the Conservative Revolutionaries just as it is with today’s Republicans such as Sen. Tom Cotton or Sen. Lindsey Graham. This Exceptionalist ideology gives the nation the right to interfere in other country’s internal affairs for whatever reason the “exceptional” country deems necessary, such as desiring more living space for their population, fearing the potential of some future security threat, or even just by denying the “exceptional” country access within its borders — or a “denial of access threat” as the U.S. government terms it.

The fundamental ideas of the Conservative Revolutionaries have been described as vehement opposition to the Weimar Republic (identifying it with the lost war and the Versailles Treaty) and political “liberalism” (as opposed to Prussia’s traditional authoritarianism).

This “liberalism,” which offended the Conservative Revolutionaries, was democracy and individual rights against state power. Instead, the Conservative Revolutionaries envisaged a new reich of enormous strength and unity. They rejected the view that political action should be guided by rational criteria. They idealized violence for its own sake.

That idealization of violence would have meant “state” violence in the form of military expansionism and suppression of “enemies,” domestic and foreign, by right-thinking Germans.

The Conservative Revolutionaries called for a “primacy of politics” which was to be “a reassertion of an expansion in foreign policy and repression against the trade unions at home.” This “primacy of politics” for the Conservative Revolutionaries meant the erasure of a distinction between war and politics.

Citing Hannah Arendt, Jeffrey Herf, a professor of modern European history, wrote: “The explicit implications of the primacy of politics in the conservative revolution were totalitarian. From now on there were to be no limits to ideological politics. The utilitarian and humanistic considerations of nineteenth-century liberalism were to be abandoned in order to establish a state of constant dynamism and movement.” That sounds a lot like the “creative destruction” that neoconservative theorist Michael Ledeen is so fond of.

Herf wrote in 1984 that Conservative Revolutionaries were characterized as “the intellectual advance guard of the rightist revolution that was to be effected in 1933,” which, although contemptuous of Hitler, “did much to pave his road to power.”

Unlike the Nazis, their belief in German superiority was based in historical traditions and ideas, not biological racism. Nevertheless, some saw German Jews as the “enemy” of Germany for being “incompatible with a united nation.”

It is one of the bitterest of ironies that Israel as a “Jewish nation” has adopted similar attitudes toward its Arab citizens. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently proclaimed: “Those who are with us deserve everything, but those who are against us deserve to have their heads chopped off with an axe.”

Within Israel, these “Conservative Revolutionary” ideas were manifested in one of their founding political parties, Herut, whose founders came out of the same central European political milieu of interwar Europe and from which Netanyahu’s Likud party is descended.

Ernst Junger

Author Ernst Junger was the most important contributor to the celebration of war by the Conservative Revolutionaries and was an influence and an enabler of the Nazis coming to power. He serialized his celebration of war and his belief in its “redeeming” qualities in a number of popular books with “war porn” titles such as, in English, The Storm of Steel, The Battle as an Inner Experience, and Fire and Blood.

The title of a collection of Junger essays in 1930, Krieg und Krieger (War and the Warriors) captures the spirit of America in the Twenty-first Century as much as it did the German spirit in 1930. While members of the U.S. military once went by terms such as soldier, sailor and marine, now they are routinely generically called “Warriors,” especially by the highest ranks, a term never before used to describe what were once “citizen soldiers.”

Putting a book with a “Warrior” title out on the shelf in a Barnes and Noble would almost guarantee a best-seller, even when competing with all the U.S. SEALS’ reminiscences and American sniper stories. But German philosopher Walter Benjamin understood the meaning of Junger’s Krieg und Krieger, explaining it in the appropriately titled Theories of German Fascism.

Fundamental to Junger’s celebration of war was a metaphysical belief in “totale Mobilmachung” or total mobilization to describe the functioning of a society that fully grasps the meaning of war. With World War I, Junger saw the battlefield as the scene of struggle “for life and death,” pushing all historical and political considerations aside. But he saw in the war the fact that “in it the genius of war permeated the spirit of progress.”

According to Jeffrey Herf in Reactionary Modernism, Junger saw total mobilization as “a worldwide trend toward state-directed mobilization in which individual freedom would be sacrificed to the demands of authoritarian planning.” Welcoming this, Junger believed “that different currents of energy were coalescing into one powerful torrent. The era of total mobilization would bring about an ‘unleashing’ (Entfesselung) of a nevertheless disciplined life.”

In practical terms, Junger’s metaphysical view of war meant that Germany had lost World War I because its economic and technological mobilization had only been partial and not total. He lamented that Germany had been unable to place the “spirit of the age” in the service of nationalism. Consequently, he believed that “bourgeois legality,” which placed restrictions on the powers of the authoritarian state, “must be abolished in order to liberate technological advance.”

Today, total mobilization for the U.S. begins with the Republicans’ budgeting efforts to strip away funding for domestic civilian uses and shifting it to military and intelligence spending. Army veteran, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, exemplifies this belief in “total mobilization” of society with his calls for dramatically increased military spending and his belief that “We must again show the U.S. is willing and prepared to [get into] a war in the first place” by making clear that potential “aggressors will pay an unspeakable price if they challenge the United States.”

That is the true purpose of Twenty-first Century Republican economics: total mobilization of the economy for war. Just as defeated German generals and the Conservative Revolutionaries believed that Germany lost World War I because their economy and nation was only “partially mobilized,” so too did many American Vietnam War-era generals and right-wing politicians believe the same of the Vietnam War. Retired Gen. David Petraeus and today’s neoconservatives have made similar arguments about President Barack Obama’s failure to sustain the Iraq War. [See, for instance, this fawning Washington Post interview with Petraeus.]

What all these militarists failed to understand is that, according to Clausewitz, when a war’s costs exceed its benefits, the sound strategy is to end the costly war. The Germans failed to understand this in World War II and the Soviet Union in their Afghan War.

Paradoxically in the Vietnam War, it was the anti-war movement that enhanced U.S. strength by bringing that wasteful war to an end, not the American militarists who would have continued it to a bitter end of economic collapse. We are now seeing a similar debate about whether to continue and expand U.S. military operations across the Middle East.

Carl Schmitt

While Ernst Junger was the celebrant and the publicist for total mobilization of society for endless war, including the need for authoritarian government, Carl Schmitt was the ideological theoretician, both legally and politically, who helped bring about the totalitarian and militaristic society. Except when it happened, it came under different ownership than what they had hoped and planned for.

Contrary to Schmitt’s latter-day apologists and/or advocates, who include prominent law professors teaching at Harvard and the University of Chicago, his legal writings weren’t about preserving the Weimar Republic against its totalitarian enemies, the Communists and Nazis. Rather, he worked on behalf of a rival fascist faction, members of the German Army General Staff. He acted as a legal adviser to General Kurt von Schleicher, who in turn advised President Paul von Hindenburg, former Chief of the German General Staff during World War I.

German historian Eberhard Kolb observed, “from the mid-1920s onwards the Army leaders had developed and propagated new social conceptions of a militarist kind, tending towards a fusion of the military and civilian sectors and ultimately a totalitarian military state (Wehrstaat).”

When General Schleicher helped bring about the political fall of Reichswehr Commander in Chief, General von Seekt, it was a “triumph of the ‘modern’ faction within the Reichswehr who favored a total war ideology and wanted Germany to become a dictatorship that would wage total war upon the other nations of Europe,” according to Kolb.

When Hitler and the Nazis outmaneuvered the Army politically, Schmitt, as well as most other Conservative Revolutionaries, went over to the Nazis.

Reading Schmitt gives one a greater understanding of the Conservative Revolutionary’s call for a “primacy of politics,” explained previously as “a reassertion of an expansion in foreign policy.”

Schmitt said: “A world in which the possibility of war is utterly eliminated, a completely pacified globe, would be a world without the distinction of friend and enemy and hence a world without politics. It is conceivable that such a world might contain many very interesting antitheses and contrasts, competitions and intrigues of every kind, but there would not be a meaningful antithesis whereby men could be required to sacrifice life, authorized to shed blood, and kill other human beings. For the definition of the political, it is here even irrelevant whether such a world without politics is desirable as an ideal situation.”

As evident in this statement, to Schmitt, the norm isn’t peace, nor is peace even desirable, but rather perpetual war is the natural and preferable condition.

This dream of a Martial State is not isolated to German history. A Republican aligned neoconservative, Thomas Sowell, expressed the same longing in 2007 in a National Review article, “Don’t Get Weak.” Sowell wrote; “When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.”

Leo Strauss, Conservative Revolutionaries and Republicans

Political philosopher Leo Strauss had yearned for the glorious German Conservative Revolution but was despondent when it took the form of the Nazi Third Reich, from which he was excluded because he was Jewish regardless of his fascist ideology.

He wrote to a German Jewish friend, Karl Loewith: “the fact that the new right-wing Germany does not tolerate us says nothing against the principles of the right. To the contrary: only from the principles of the right, that is from fascist, authoritarian and imperial principles, is it possible with seemliness, that is, without resort to the ludicrous and despicable appeal to the droits imprescriptibles de l’homme [inalienable rights of man] to protest against the shabby abomination.”

Strauss was in agreement politically with Schmitt, and they were close friends.

Professor Alan Gilbert of Denver University has written: “As a Jew, Strauss was forbidden from following Schmitt and [German philosopher Martin] Heidegger into the Nazi party. ‘But he was a man of the Right. Like some other Zionists, those who admired Mussolini for instance, Strauss’ principles, as the 1933 letter relates, were ‘fascist, authoritarian, imperial.’”

Strauss was intelligent enough when he arrived in the U.S. to disguise and channel his fascist thought by going back to like-minded “ancient” philosophers and thereby presenting fascism as part of our “western heritage,” just as the current neocon classicist Victor Davis Hanson does.

Needless to say, fascism is built on the belief in a dictator, as was Sparta and the Roman Empire and as propounded by Socrates and Plato, so turning to the thought of ancient philosophers and historians makes a good “cover” for fascist thought.

Leo Strauss must be seen as the Godfather of the modern Republican Party’s political ideology. His legacy continues now through the innumerable “Neoconservative Revolutionary” front groups with cover names frequently invoking “democracy” or “security,” such as Sen. Lindsey Graham’s “Security Through Strength.”

Typifying the Straussian neoconservative revolutionary whose hunger for military aggression can never be satiated would be former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra fame and practitioner of the “big lie,” who returned to government under President George W. Bush to push the Iraq War and is currently promoting a U.S. war against Iran.

In a classic example of “projection,” Abrams writes that “Ideology is the raison d’etre of Iran’s regime, legitimating its rule and inspiring its leaders and their supporters. In this sense, it is akin to communist, fascist and Nazi regimes that set out to transform the world.” That can as truthfully be said of his own Neoconservative Revolutionary ideology and its adherents.

That ideology explains Bill Kristol’s crowing over Netanyahu’s victory and claiming Netanyahu as the Republicans’ de facto leader. For years, the U.S. and Israel under Netanyahu have had nearly identical foreign policy approaches though they are at the moment in some disagreement because President Obama has resisted war with Iran while Netanyahu is essentially demanding it.

But at a deeper level the two countries share a common outlook, calling for continuous military interventionism outside each country’s borders with increased exercise of authority by the military and other security services within their borders. This is no accident. It can be traced back to joint right-wing extremist efforts in both countries with American neoconservatives playing key roles.

The best example of this joint effort was when U.S. neocons joined with the right-wing, Likud-connected Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies in 1996 to publish their joint plan for continuous military interventionism in the Mideast in “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” which envisioned “regime change” instead of negotiations. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “How Israel Outfoxed U.S. Presidents.”]

While ostensibly written for Netanyahu’s political campaign, “A Clean Break” became the blueprint for subsequent war policies advocated by the Project for the New American Century, founded by neocons William Kristol and Robert Kagan. The chief contribution of the American neocons in this strategy was to marshal U.S. military resources to do the heavy lifting in attacking Israel’s neighbors beginning with Iraq.

With these policy preferences goes a belief inside each country’s political parties, across the spectrum but particularly on the Right, that Israel and the United States each stand apart from all other nations as “Exceptional.” This is continuously repeated to ensure imprinting it in the population’s consciousness in the tradition of fascist states through history.

It is believed today in both the U.S. and Israel, just as the German Conservative Revolutionaries believed it in the 1920s and 1930s of their homeland, Germany, and then carried on by the Nazis until 1945.

Israeli Herut Party       

The Knesset website describes the original Herut party (1948-1988) as the main opposition party (against the early domination by the Labor Party). Herut was the most right-wing party in the years before the Likud party came into being and absorbed Herut into a coalition. Its expansionist slogan was “To the banks to the Jordan River” and it refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Jordan. Economically, Herut supported private enterprise and a reduction of government intervention.

In “A Clean Break,” the authors were advising Netanyahu to reclaim the belligerent and expansionist principles of the Herut party.

Herut was founded in 1948 by Menachem Begin, the leader of the right-wing militant group Irgun, which was widely regarded as a terrorist organization responsible for killing Palestinians and cleansing them from land claimed by Israel, including the infamous Deir Yassin massacre.

Herut’s nature as a party and movement was best explained in a critical letter to the New York Times on Dec. 4, 1948, signed by over two dozen prominent Jewish intellectuals including Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt.

The letter read: “Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the ‘Freedom Party’ (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.

“It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine. (…) It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents. …

“Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.”

According to author Joseph Heller, Herut was a one-issue party intent on expanding Israel’s borders. That Netanyahu has never set aside Herut’s ideology can be gleaned from his book last revised in 2000, A Durable Peace. There, Netanyahu praises Herut’s predecessors – the Irgun paramilitary and Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang, a self-declared “terrorist” group. He also marginalizes their Israeli adversary of the time, the Hagana under Israel’s primary founder and first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.

Regardless of methods used, the Stern Gang was indisputably “fascist,” even receiving military training from Fascist Italy. One does not need to speculate as to its ideological influences.

According to Colin Shindler, writing in Triumph of Military Zionism: Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right, “Stern devotedly believed that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ so he approached Nazi Germany. With German armies at the gates of Palestine, he offered co-operation and an alliance with a new totalitarian Hebrew republic.”

Netanyahu in his recent election campaign would seem to have re-embraced his fascist origins, both with its racism and his declaration that as long as he was prime minister he would block a Palestinian state and would continue building Jewish settlements on what international law recognizes as Palestinian land.

In other words, maintaining a state of war on the Palestinian people with a military occupation and governing by military rule, while continuing to make further territorial gains with the IDF acting as shock troops for the settlers.

Why Does This Matter?

Sun-Tzu famously wrote “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

When we allow our “Conservative Revolutionaries” (or neoconservative militarists or proto-fascists or whatever term best describes them) to make foreign policy, the United States loses legitimacy in the world as a “rule of law” state. Instead, we present a “fascist” justification for our wars which is blatantly illicit.

As the American political establishment has become so enamored with war and the “warriors” who fight them, it has become child’s play for our militarists to manipulate the U.S. into wars or foreign aggression through promiscuous economic sanctions or inciting and arming foreign groups to destabilize the countries that we target.

No better example for this can be shown than the role that America’s First Family of Militarism, the Kagans, plays in pushing total war mobilization of the U.S. economy and inciting war, at the expense of civilian and domestic needs, as Robert Parry wrote.

This can be seen with Robert Kagan invoking the martial virtue of “courage” in demanding greater military spending by our elected officials and a greater wealth transfer to the Military Industrial Complex which funds the various war advocacy projects that he and his family are involved with.

Kagan recently wrote: “Those who propose to lead the United States in the coming years, Republicans and Democrats, need to show what kind of political courage they have, right now, when the crucial budget decisions are being made.”

But as Parry pointed out, showing “courage,” “in Kagan’s view – is to ladle ever more billions into the Military-Industrial Complex, thus putting money where the Republican mouths are regarding the need to ‘defend Ukraine’ and resist ‘a bad nuclear deal with Iran.’” But Parry noted that if it weren’t for Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, Kagan’s spouse, the Ukraine crisis might not exist.

What must certainly be seen as neo-fascist under any system of government but especially under a nominal “constitutional republic” as the U.S. claims to be, is Sen. Lindsey Graham’s threat that the first thing he would do if elected President of the United States would be to use the military to detain members of Congress, keeping them in session in Washington, until all so-called “defense cuts” are restored to the budget.

In Graham’s words, “I wouldn’t let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We’re not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts.”

And he would have that power according to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s “unitary executivetheory” of Presidential power, originally formulated by Carl Schmitt and adopted by Republican attorneys and incorporated into government under the Bush-Cheney administration. Sen. Tom Cotton and other Republicans would no doubt support such an abuse of power if it meant increasing military spending.

But even more dangerous for the U.S. as well as other nations in the world is that one day, our militarists’ constant incitement and provocation to war is going to “payoff,” and the U.S. will be in a real war with an enemy with nuclear weapons, like the one Victoria Nuland is creating on Russia’s border.

Today’s American “Conservative Revolutionary” lust for war was summed up by prominent neoconservative Richard Perle, a co-author of “A Clean Break.” Echoing the views on war from Ernst Junger and Carl Schmitt, Perle once explained U.S. strategy in the neoconservative view, according to John Pilger:

“There will be no stages,” he said. “This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there . . . If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don’t try to piece together clever diplomacy but just wage a total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from now.”

That goal was the same fantasy professed by German Conservative Revolutionaries and it led directly to a wartime defeat never imagined by Germany before, with all the “collateral damage” along the way that always results from “total war.”

Rather than continuing with this “strategy,” driven by our own modern Conservative Revolutionaries and entailing the eventual bankrupting or destruction of the nation, it might be more prudent for Americans to demand that we go back to the original national security strategy of the United States, as expressed by early presidents as avoiding “foreign entanglements” and start abiding by the republican goals expressed by the Preamble to the Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”



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May 28th, 2015

5/28/2015

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'Indian doctors are among the least paid doctors in the world.That is why they migrate to US where their salary becomes comparable with CEO'.


GLOBAL SCENARIO

China was one of the earliest countries to implement SEZ. It created the first SEZ in the early 80's under the government of DENG XIAPING. This is the most popular SEZ in the world. Today there are more than 3000 SEZ's in the world spreading across 120 countries. They account for over 600 billion dollars in exports and generating close to 50 million jobs all over the world.

Following the Chinese examples, Special Economic Zones have been established in several countries, including Brazil, India, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, and North Korea.


Economic Zones only exist in developing nations because they are third world in needing autocratic structures and no Rule of Law protecting citizens and environment from abuse and exploitation-----THAT IS WHY WHEN THEY COME TO THE US AMERICA HAD TO HAVE MOVED TO SECOND WORLD AND WITH TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT----THIRD WORLD STATUS.




Remember, the goal of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism is to bring the US down to third world levels seeking to use Trans Pacific Trade Pact to allow global corporations to operate in the US as they do in these third world nations like India and China.  So, all of these immigrants---even high-skilled come to the US thinking they will increase earnings----and they are being brought to work as they would in India and China bringing US workers along. 
THAT IS WHAT PLANTATION BALTIMORE IS ALL ABOUT!
 
This is a lose-lose for the immigrants and the US workers.  Reagan/Clinton neo-liberalism and Bush neo-con policies have the US at second world status----TPP will bring US to this third world status.

DOCTORS, LAWYERS, TEACHERS, AND FIRE FIGHTERS IN THIRD WORLD NATIONS LIVE AT POVERTY LEVELS.

Again, I LOVE IMMIGRANTS!  WE DO NOT WANT TO BLAME IMMIGRANTS FOR THIS THIRD WORLD POLICY GOAL ----IT IS POLITICIANS AND CORPORATIONS THAT ARE THE PROBLEM.

As I showed yesterday the Bloomberg Economic Zone will have FOXCONN factories with sweat shop labor and housing and food right there at the factory just as a plantation would.  Both urban and rural low-income will be moved to these factories just as in China.  The same structure for the skilled class will have those working at the research and development living near these centers but they will move from being paid what professionals earn in the US today to being paid what professionals earn in India and China.  With over 600,000 Baltimore citizens largely unemployed or underemployed, Baltimore pols are recruiting that immigrant-class to exploit.  Hispanic workers already here will tell you they are being abused and exploited.  We do not want to allow this culture of abuse for ANYONE because injustice for one becomes injustice for all.

You can believe this mayor could care less about families and their well-being----she is simply working to build the International Economic Zone and third world society from which these immigrants are trying to escape!

Video Encourages Immigrant Families To Move To Baltimore

July 8, 2014 5:44 PM   Pat Warren Pat Warren joined the Eyewitness News team in 1992. Pat came to WJZ...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake encourages Marylanders to remember the contributions of immigrants in building Baltimore and the state.

Political reporter Pat Warren has more on a new video encouraging immigrant families to move to Baltimore.

The mayor has a goal to bring 10,000 new families to Baltimore in 10 years and this video may help keep the city on track.

The non-profit media group Next City has released a video outlining how the rise of an immigrant population figures into the mayor’s plan to reverse the city’s decline in numbers.

“I think it’s important for us to remember our history in Baltimore,” Rawlings-Blake said.

She spoke with WJZ Tuesday about her continuing efforts to encourage immigrants to make Baltimore their home.

“It’s built on immigrants. Immigrants coming to this country, building a sense of community, building businesses, creating jobs and my administration wants to welcome that,” she said.

“Immigrants and refugees are some of the most resilient people on the planet,” said Baltimore activist Angelo Solera.

Solera says people come here expecting to improve their lives.

“Here you have to work, pay taxes, take care of your responsibilities,” Solera said.

In 2012, the mayor ordered city agencies not to question anyone’s legal status.

“Some people in other cities want to focus on what the status of an individual is; I’m focused on having a thriving community,” Rawlings-Blake said.

And, as this video promotes, immigrants are a target demographic.

“I really want us to focus on how we can continue to have a thriving city by welcoming a diverse population,” she said.

That includes services for immigrant business owners.

The intended result is to drive down crime and vacancy rates, as well.

The video is called Building Resilience in Baltimore and is posted on the video website Vimeo.


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I was talking to a black friend from a family having some wealth telling me he tried to buy a parcel of land in West Baltimore to build small businesses and was told by the Baltimore City Council person -- ---  I'M SAVING THAT LAND FOR SOMEONE----indeed, this is where our Baltimore City Hall and Maryland Assembly pols are getting their rewards----no Baltimore citizen need apply all of this development is going to global investment firms connected to this International Economic Zone model.  Below you see an article that addresses another piece of this Economic Zone puzzle and the pols working to make sure the right people get the land----BILL HENRY, HELEN HOLTON, ED REISINGER, CARL STOKES-----ET AL.  This is the next sector that is the University of Maryland Medical System----ANOTHER WORLD CLASS HEALTH INSTITUTION----      You might say---why does a city with huge poverty and average earnings just above poverty with most people pushed to preventative care need all these world-class medical centers ----GLOBAL HEALTH TOURISM----IT'S FOR THE RICH OF THE WORLD---NOT THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE.

University of Maryland Medical System was taken private decades ago with the quasi-governmental status that makes it a corporation and not a state university.  Since then it has acted as a profit-driven health system just as Hopkins has.  Hopkins policies control UMMS.  Today I will talk about this campus as part of the Baltimore Plantation.


The answer to all of the unrest from Baltimore's poor communities is to come in and push them out and build structures for the NEW CITIZENS.  It's all about the subsidy-----we can rebuild Baltimore ourselves when a billion dollars a year is lost to corporate fraud and government corruption!

Pete Welch pushing the same development that took East Baltimore on his constituents....no doubt receiving real estate in what will be the Oliver Community of West Baltimore.  Welch knows what these International Economic Zones will do to the citizens NEW and OLD---he says -----SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!!!  This project as with East Baltimore will push all current homeowners out and as this article states-----they need to sequester dozens more pieces of real estate before moving forward so watch out for those $6,000 water bills and tax liens!


'Calling the Poppleton project “inclusive,” Welch cited La Cite’s plan to allocate 20% of first-phase housing (52 apartments) to low-income residents. Deputy Housing Commissioner Peter Engle echoed that sentiment, saying the city has the opportunity for “place setting” or putting a new brand on a whole community'.

West Baltimore residents urge subsidy for Poppleton development Rendering of the apartment buildings in first phase of the Poppleton redevelopment.

(Courtesy of Gensler / Baltimore Sun) By Luke Broadwater The Baltimore Sun
  • Clipper Mill
  • Bill Henry
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Inner Harbor
  • Helen Holton
  • Edward L. Reisinger III
  • Carl Stokes
Developer can make $12 million more in profit with subsidy

Residents say West Baltimore should get subsidies, as Harbor did West Baltimore residents urged a City Council committee Thursday to approve a $58 million subsidy for a mixed-use development in the Poppleton neighborhood, saying it is urgently needed after last month's unrest.

"We had trouble a few weeks ago in Baltimore," said City Councilman William "Pete" Welch, who represents the area and is backing the tax increment financing plan. After the unrest over the death of Freddie Gray, many people are counting on the city to use development incentives in impoverished areas rather than at sites by the waterfront, Welch said.

"We need to start using TIFs in West Baltimore," he told his fellow council members. "We need more housing in West Baltimore. This is that project. West Baltimore has needed this type of development for many, many years. This is a game changer."


Under tax increment financing deals, the city issues bonds to give the developer money to pay for infrastructure improvements and other project costs. The city then uses the increased tax revenue generated by the development to pay off the bonds and their interest.

  The planned Poppleton development includes roughly 1,600 new apartments and other residences, 52,000 square feet of commercial space, a park and a school in a neighborhood close to the University of Maryland BioPark. Co-developers La Cite and Diversified Realty Partners LLC estimate that redeveloping the 13.8 acres would cost $460 million over more than 15 years.

Daniel Bythewood Jr., president of New York-based La Cite, said he is "incredibly excited to be able to bring this amazing project to West Baltimore." His firm has worked on projects in Harlem, Miami and Las Vegas.

Bythewood said the Poppleton development will include parks near Edgar Allan Poe's house, including a dog park. He added that the project could do for Poppleton what the Harbor East development did for a vacant piece of land by the Inner Harbor. "It creates a new location for people to come to," Bythewood said.

Officials predict the project would have a rate of return of 9.5 percent without the subsidy — for a profit of $19.5 million — but nearly 15 percent with the TIF, for a profit of $31.4 million. The project also is in line to receive about $520,000 in Enterprise Zone tax credits.

Once built, the properties would pay $8.4 million a year in property taxes, up from $26,000 that comes from the site currently, officials say.

Four of five members of the council's Economic Development Committee were present for the discussion: Chairman Carl Stokes, Warren Branch, Bill Henry and Edward Reisinger. Council member Helen Holton was absent. Stokes said he believed the committee would approve the deal to go to the full City Council for a vote next month.

Poppleton resident William Gunn asked the committee to vote for the project. He said he doesn't want to move out of the city despite his neighborhood being known for "drug dealers and blight."

"Help us out," he said. "Help revitalize my area. You have to put some money in to get some money back out."

Cecil Clarke, who owns property in Poppleton, also urged approval. "The community is desperate for this project to see a new birth," he said.

Lembit Jogi, a city housing development manager, said the project would "transform" more than 500 blighted properties. The neighborhood's vacancy rate is about four times the city average. About 19 percent of its families live in poverty.

Jogi said development at the site is "not feasible" without the incentives.

The agreement with the developer calls for 20 percent of units to be "affordable," In the first phase, 52 of 257 units will be considered affordable — meaning they will rent for $600 to $800 per month versus $1,200 to $2,400 for more expensive units. For each acre devoted to affordable housing, the developer makes $635,000 less, officials said.

Jogi said the plan would draw 4,100 new residents to abandoned blocks and create 226 full-time jobs.

Since 2000, city TIF projects have included improvements at Mondawmin Mall and Belvedere Square, and conversions of former industrial sites such as Clipper Mill and the Procter & Gamble factory used as Under Armour's headquarters. The most recent TIF was awarded to a $1 billion Harbor Point development near Harbor East.

The city has acquired 450 of the 524 parcels of land needed for the project — spending $10 million to date on acquiring property, demolishing it and relocating people.

The deal was approved by the city's Board of Finance last month after board members raised questions about the project's long-term prospects, questioning the financial projections and the affordability of the new apartments for the area's residents. No one raised such concerns Thursday.



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If you are wondering why Baltimore could not have local architects and building contractors handle these development constructions it is because all of the local professional class has been eliminated-----put out of business and replaced by global corporations and Johns Hopkins.  Our Baltimore City and Maryland public works which would have all of the expertise and equipment to handle all of this construction locally has been dismantled so every project now goes to a global corporation that then subcontracts to subcontractors keeping Maryland and Baltimore contractors so impoverished as to close them down....no worries....there are foreign subcontractors to bring in.

As you see below, UMMS is being built by and the real estate owned and managed by global investment firms----this is a state university which is nothing more than a corporation.  It has expanded to take all of what was left of public hospital facilities in Maryland.

UMMS has the same patented research structure as Johns Hopkins and works on for-profit mission.  Once taking all citizens coming through their doors-----since the health care reform UMMS now sends patients not having the right health insurance elsewhere and this will get worse.  UMMS sees itself as a global health tourism destination as does Hopkins----with a city full of people not able to afford to buy health insurance.



Company Profile

La Cité Development, LLC is a real estate development corporation investing in strategic real estate ventures throughout the eastern seaboard, as well as specific markets elsewhere in the United States and abroad. The predominant focus of La Cité’s interests is on residential and mixed-use properties spanning from rehab to new construction, with investment primarily being placed within the residential marketplace.

 Wexford Science & Technology is known nationally for partnering with anchor institutions to create large-scale multi-use developments such as Wake Forest Innovation Quarter in North Carolina and the University of Maryland BioPark.



The University of Maryland BioPark is a biomedical research park on the vibrant academic medical center campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The BioPark’s community of life sciences companies and academic research centers are commercializing new drugs, diagnostics and devices and advancing biomedical research. The BioPark buildings are designed to maximize flexibility to accommodate a range of occupancies from small-scale pre-built lab and office space in the BioInnovation Center to full-floor users. Infrastructure meets the requirements of the most demanding science environments while permitting optimum internal planning flexibility with minimum intrusions.

Situated in the midst of Maryland’s significant regional bioscience cluster, the University of Maryland BioPark is also at the mid-point of what is arguably the world’s largest bioscience corridor stretching from Boston to North Carolina. The BioPark’s strategic location ideally positions its tenants for growth.

_______________________________________________

Below you see what happens when even our public universities like UMMS are taken corporate----you do not have dissent and protest and you do not have Federal, state, or local public sector research protecting the citizens of Maryland and providing data that is in the public interest.

America would be at the height of national protest if American universities were not captured to this International Economic Zone scheme.  Clinton started this privatization of universities and Obama has made hundreds of billions of dollars in education funding about building these university as economic zone anchors.
  As nurses unions and SEIU health workers protest the ever lowering of wages and loss of benefits----they may not know the goal is third world wages but their labor union leaders do----AND THEY SUPPORT CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS AND BALTIMORE CITY HALL POLS EVERY ELECTION.

The only winners in these global health structures are the research facility that are simply corporate research executives and the top administrators of the network of players in this corporate structure....all other staff will be taken third world. 
Even what were public universities are now being staffed at the top with Ivy League grads and foreign partners.


Collections by Subject: Vietnam-Era Protest Activities on the University of Maryland, College Park, Campus


A Selected List of Holdings in Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries

For more information about how to access materials in this guide, please visit the Maryland Room web page or fill out an information request.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this Subject Guide: http://digital.lib.umd.edu/archivesum/rguide/viet.jsp.

United States universities experienced a period of unrest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, as students protested against U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Students at the University of Maryland protested throughout this period against the Vietnam War, but their outrage against the conflict peaked in a series of violent protests between 1970 and 1972. On three occasions during this period, Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel declared a state of emergency on campus and sent in National Guardsmen to restore and maintain order. The main conflict on campus occurred in May 1970, when students reacted violently to the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. Thousands of students and protestors occupied and vandalized the university's Main Administration building and the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) offices, set fires around campus, blocked Route 1, and fought running battles with riot police. Students threw bricks, rocks, and bottles, while police fought back with teargas, riot batons, and dogs. The violent disorder led to a toughening of student disciplinary procedures and regulations, as well as a tightening of professional codes of behavior for faculty. The administration also began to make an effort to be more open to the views of students and faculty and to involve them increasingly in the operation of the university.This resource guide describes holdings in the Archives and Manuscripts Department which document the protests against the Vietnam War at the University of Maryland College Park, campus. It also lists other potential sources outside the Archives and Manuscripts Department.

****************************************


Nations like UK and Canada that had a national health system are having their systems attacked as well----you see here how the fights in Europe, UK, and Canada have lots and lots of protests with hundreds of thousands of people and in the US----people do not know what is happening because all of the labor and justice organization leaders have been captured by neo-liberalism.  Remember, US labor unions now only represent 17% of labor so they are greatly weakened which is why the leadership sold out!



Orders of the Day Unions representing federal scientists protest 'partisan interference'


By Kady O'Malley, CBC News Posted: May 19, 2015 6:19 AM ET Last Updated: May 19, 2015 6:19 AM ET



Representatives from Canada's major public sector unions, including the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Canadian Association of Professional Employees and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada will protest "the muzzling of Canada's public scientists and partisan interference in the development of public science" by holding "mobilization and information activities" at Tunney's Pasture.

  • Muzzling federal scientists may be damaging to government itself
  • Foreign scientists call on Stephen Harper to restore science funding, freedom
  • Muzzling of federal scientists widespread, survey suggests
  • Alleged scientist muzzling probed by information commissioner
According to the advisory, similar events slated to take place in Montreal, Quebec City and Vancouver.

Back on the Hill, the Commons Chamber may be shuttered for the week-long Victoria Day constituency break, but Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast are still slated to join representatives from Canada's beef and pork sectors in the House Foyer later this morning to take questions on the latest rejection of US meat labelling requirements by the World Trade Organization.


_______________________________________________

Morgan State and Coppin State Universities are not Ivy League and they will be closed.  Coppin is becoming an online presence as will Morgan State and both are being transformed into Community non-profit campuses.

Coppin is connected to the UMMS expansion in that people living in Poppleton will be pushed into Coppin creating a more distressed area.  Remember, the areas at the east and west bounderies of Baltimore will become the sweat shop factories for the patented products created by the Ivy League research facilities.

WHERE DID IVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITIES GET ALL THIS MONEY----FROM THE MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUDS OF OUR TREASURIES AND PEOPLE'S POCKETS AND FROM ALL OF THE FEDERAL AND STATE FUNDING BEING SENT EXCLUSIVELY TO THESE IVY LEAGUE 'ANCHORS' BY CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH NEO-CONS.


This is the breakdown of all public education structures geared towards equal protection opportunity and access education whether black or white-----public higher education for 90% of Americans are being dismantled as these Ivy League universities as Economic Zone anchors allows only a few access to strong higher education.  Baltimore is ground zero for this.  Remember as well, all this is happening as the quality of people entering these Ivy League schools declines and those entering are doing so because of connections and willingness to do anything to 'win'...profit.  This is the personality of fascism.


THE LEADERS IN PLACE AT MORGAN AND COPPIN WERE PLACED THERE TO DISMANTLE THESE INSTITUTIONS AND INSTALL THE STRUCTURES FOR THEIR NEW MISSION-----COMMUNITY NON-PROFITS PUSHING THE BUILDING OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ZONES IN BALTIMORE.



Coppin-area revitalization saddled by federal budget cut Elimination of fund could stall group’s redevelopment plans




Apr 29, 2011, 6:00am EDT Emily Mullin Staff Nicholas Griner | Staff  Baltimore Business Journal


Coppin State University’s efforts to spur economic development in West Baltimore could be stalled now that a $25 million federal program that helps universities improve their neighborhoods has been put on the chopping block.


In April, Congress voted to eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s University Communities Fund, which gives grants to historically black colleges and universities for community development projects. Maryland schools like Coppin, Morgan State University and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore have all benefited from the program for development projects in the past several years.

For Coppin, elimination of the program could hamper the school’s plans to buy and rebuild foreclosed homes in West Baltimore, said Gary Rodwell, executive director of the Coppin Heights Community Development Corp.


  The university-affiliated group has received $3 million from the program since 1995 and planned to ask for at least $600,000 more this year to help spruce up its West Baltimore neighborhood and encourage families and businesses to relocate to the area.

Lacking money from the universities fund, Coppin Heights CDC has applied for a portion of the state’s allotment of federal community development block grants, Rodwell said. [See related story below.] The group also will work to shore up other investments, he said.


“Now that that money is not there, hopefully we will be able to have our partners maintain their investment,” Rodwell said.

In January, Coppin Heights CDC unveiled plans to build seven student and public housing buildings along North Avenue. The group also wants to complete seven more houses this year. Over the next 10 years, Coppin Heights CDC plans to renovate 80 to 100 homes within a half-mile radius of North Avenue near campus.

Charles Halm, Maryland’s field office director for HUD Community Planning Development, said Coppin applied for a grant from the University Communities Fund program last year but wasn’t approved.

“For any competitive program, the demand is always going to exceed the available resources,” Halm said.

Although elimination of the University Communities Fund may not impact other local historically black colleges as much as it could Coppin, some of them previously have tapped the program for money. In 2004, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore won $470,000 in funds to help build the Garland Hayward Youth Center in Princess Anne. Morgan State in Northeast Baltimore also received $600,000 in 2006.

“Many historically black colleges and universities are in communities that need improvement,” said Ackneil M. “Neil” Muldrow II, co-chairman of Coppin State’s board of visitors and CEO of Parker Muldrow & Associates LLC in Baltimore.

Harold Young, Maryland’s former HUD director of nine years, said black colleges and universities have typically not had as much funding as other four-year institutions and tend to be located in predominantly underserved African-American communities.


“These funds are of course very essential because most universities now act as economic hubs,” said Young, who now is an attorney in Baltimore. “If you don’t sustain a vibrant economic hub in these universities’ communities, then they become less attractive for students to want to attend.”

________________________________________________
The areas outside of Poppleton will become less stable and as the article below shows, the gentrification will move the crime and violence into what is now Coppin just as has happened to the Morgan State communities where gentrification pushed from East Baltimore.

We know that is the pattern and yet we cannot grasp the value of inclusive development.  We can grasp it, they are simply ignoring it.  When the goal has a lower class tied to factory facilities and huge injustice then there is the need for exclusivity.... there does not seem to be the need for income integration beyond that few percent of population in a community.  When the goal is this International Economic Zone model of third world society----the development becomes about luxury residence in city center.

The schools in these West Baltimore area are already slated to becoming vocational pre-K to 12 apprenticeships for the UMMS and MICA product mills as are the schools in East Baltimore for the Johns Hopkins product mills.

DEMOCRATS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS KIND OF POLICY FOLKS----THIS IS AS REPUBLICAN AND NEO-CONSERVATIVE AS IT GETS AND CLINTON WALL STREET NEO-LIBERALS ARE REPUBLICANS!



Gentrification is not bad-----what is happening in Baltimore is bad because it is being done by neo-conservatives with the goal of creating a third world society!


Baltimore's Greenmount West Neighborhood Faces Fears of Gentrification





August 9, 2014, 1pm PDT James Brasuell 

The neighborhood of Greenmount West provides a case study of neighborhoods exposed to the risks of gentrification as a result of cultural changes and pointed policy measures meant to reverse the status quo in crime and poverty ridden neighborhoods
.The Greenmount West neighborhood in Baltimore is a ten-minute walk from Baltimore's Penn station, and home to one of the country's highest concentrations of subsidized housing units. And change is coming to Greenmount West, according to an article by Andrew Zaleski. For evidence of the change, "[simply] look at East Oliver Street, now the site of new and renovated townhouses, a tool library, a makerspace, the year-old Baltimore Design School for students in grades six through nine, and City Arts, an apartment building with 69 affordable-housing units for local artists."

"But Greenmount West’s transformation comes at a cost. Greenmount West’s median home price rose from $10,000 in 2002 to $184,900 in 2013, when 19 housing units were sold. Property taxes have increased as people with higher incomes have moved in and rehabbed older or vacant buildings."


The increased investment, and subsequent rise in the cost of living, is a result of local and state policies, like a state program that formally designated the neighborhood as an "arts and entertainment district…in 2002" and a city designation of the neighborhood as a "community development cluster," which "[encourages] developers capable of renovating entire blocks of vacant houses."

Right now, at least, "there are legacy residents eager to live alongside a new creative class," but the question for Baltimore's planners and politicians is how to ensure that the neighborhood continues to improve its quality of life without altering its character or displacing at-risk populations to other locations without Greenmount West's inherent benefits.





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May 27th, 2015

5/27/2015

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As I said yesterday, MICA has been taken from a classical fine arts college to a product-oriented college with the same drive as Johns Hopkins' patent and product producing mission.  It has been corporatized.  Wherever a community is being readied for gentrification the joke is MICA HAS SENT IN THE VAN OF ARTISTS TO DO MURALS.  Autocratic societies always take control of art and move out academics----which is what this corporatized structure with Hopkins is about.  Art is being used to promote global corporate tribunal structures like International Economic Zones and this need for innovation and products as the measure of WINNING.   

Stalin in Russia had its fascist art movement-----fascism in Germany took control of art----and as the article below on Italian fascism----it's not about egalitarian or democracy----it is about how incapable the masses of people are.
 
Hopkins is capturing every education sector in the city and turning each branch of education into its own dispensation of philosophy....

IT IS INCREDIBLE.....AND THESE ARE CRIMINAL AND SOCIOPATHS AT THE LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AT HOPKINS.


So, Hopkins Medical campus in East Baltimore is built with everything around it focused on health and medical application-----Hopkins Homewood focuses on international politics and the building and protection of markets overseas-----MICA will give us the artistic voice behind the glory in all this as well as more products with a community built to create those products.....the K-12 schools and community colleges are all tied to the vocational needs of each of these Hopkins product sectors.  Meanwhile, Hopkins brings all of its international partners and recruited immigrants to cycle through this system to run the Hopkins' businesses and work on the cheap being moved from one location to another to keep the entire Baltimore central in flux----no citizen control or participation ----no ability to organize as everything from non-profit to education to employment to end of life is Johns Hopkins.


The M.B.A./M.A. in Design Leadership program will enable students to:

• Earn an M.B.A. and an M.A. in Design Leadership in this 18- to 20-month, 66-credit program of study and gain double the skill sets of a traditional M.B.A. program in a compressed period of time.

• Enhance in-depth knowledge in diverse areas including strategy, finance, statistics, economics, ethics, law, marketing, operations and human capital management along with visualization, prototyping, cultural relevance and awareness, design theory, sustainability and social responsiveness.




'Futurism that was both an artistic-cultural movement and initially a political movement in Italy led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti who founded the Futurist Manifesto (1908), that championed the causes of modernism, action, and political violence as necessary elements of politics while denouncing liberalism and parliamentary politics. Marinetti rejected conventional democracy based on majority rule and egalitarianism, for a new form of democracy, promoting what he described in his work "The Futurist Conception of Democracy" as the following: "We are therefore able to give the directions to create and to dismantle to numbers, to quantity, to the mass, for with us number, quantity and mass will never be—as they are in Germany and Russia—the number, quantity and mass of mediocre men, incapable and indecisive"  '.[86]


THIS IS WHAT AN INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ZONE LOOKS LIKE----IF LEFT TO GROW IT WILL BE THE WORST OF ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION.

_____________________________________________

We all know rich white men are behind this but it has not moved forward without the help of the labor and justice organization leaders that should have been educating and advocating against all of this.  That is why Clinton in taking the people's Democratic Party had to neutralize those organizations by appealing to self-interest-----just as US corporations did to the Chinese politburo. 

If you are ending equal opportunity housing and education and gentrifying the city you need Urban League as the source of dis-information.  In cities across the nation major black organizations work with Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins in moving these International Enterprise Zones forward.  Look below at the current Urban League leader-----from the city known world-wide for its corruption, abusive police force, and if you look at the period Morial was Mayor of New Orleans-----the scandal behind the Army Corp of Engineers and the dykes that broke wiping New Orleans to a clean slate developmentally-----you would find Morial as the last person to head an organization with a voice in urban development----but Clinton knows the weak links when he sees them-----and indeed, Morial is the man ready to move Chinese-style Economic Zones to replace our sovereign nation, state, and cities.


Marc Morial


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marc H. Morial 59th Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana

In office
May 2, 1994 – May 6, 2002 Preceded by Sidney Barthelemy Succeeded by Ray Nagin Louisiana Senate In office
1992–1994 Preceded by Ben Bagert Succeeded by Paulette Irons Personal details Born January 3, 1958 (age 57)
New Orleans, Louisiana Political party Democratic Spouse(s) Michelle Miller Profession President and Chief Executive Officer, National Urban League Religion Roman Catholic 

Marc Haydel Morial (born January 3, 1958) is an American political and civic leader and the current president of the National Urban League. Morial served as mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1994 to 2002.[1] He is married to Michelle Miller, who has won awards as a CBS News Correspondent.[2]

Early life and education Marc Morial grew up in the Seventh Ward in New Orleans. He is the son of New Orleans' first African-American mayor, Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, and teacher Sybil (Haydel) Morial. He is the second of five children. Morial graduated from Jesuit High School in 1976, then received a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1980. Morial joined Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Morial then earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1983 from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.[3]


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Clinton not only used the subprime mortgage fraud to take city real estate and move trillions of dollars in fraud to the banks so they could then use that money to build International Economic Zones----he created the mortgage fraud to blow up the Federal Housing Agency----low-income housing.  Bush was all to happy to oblige with open fraud and Obama made sure no justice could be had in this massive fraud.  Low-income housing funds have virtually disappeared after tens of millions of citizens lost their homes to fraud.
THAT WAS A PLAN FOLKS---


It would have been organizations like Urban League that educated people away from these fraudulent loans---it would be shouting today for the billions of dollars in subprime mortgage fraud owed to Baltimore citizens----but it is busy in its partnership to advance Johns Hopkins development plans.  It was not a bad thing to end high-rise public housing----but as everyone knows absolutely nothing is being done to replace or augment the housing crisis in Baltimore except to juke the stats on the amount of homelessness exists.  This is a great motivating factor in the violence in Baltimore brought to us by Hopkins development policy.


All of these schemes were called----genius.  Hillary for Smart People thinks that cartel behavior is a sign of intelligence....anyone can knock people on the head and steal their lunch money.

Reading this article that states their emphasis on veterans and housing----the bond market crash is coming and veterans are being targeted with subprime housing loans just as in 2007 before that economic crash.  HARP and these veterans housing loan programs are all setting the stage for another round of people defaulting with the coming bond market crash.
It appears to me that NACA is promoting these same subprime mortgage loan deals just as was done by 'progressive' organizations during the last housing fraud.

About NACA

NACA is a non-profit HUD Certified homeownership and advocacy organization that has been in the forefront in the fight for economic justice. NACA has made the dream of homeownership a reality for hundreds of thousands of working people enabling those with credit issues, limited assets or subject to discrimination to purchase a home or modify their predatory loan on the most affordable terms. NACA continues to set the national standard in its advocacy for affordable homeownership and access to credit.

“Fierce advocate for struggling homeowners”

- CNN


Homeownership advocates suing HUD and criticizing Obama



July 20, 2011   American Genius

HUD and Obama under fire The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), who claims to be the largest homeownership organization in America is criticizing President Obama and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development claiming both have been ineffective in helping the American homeowners.

NACA said it has joined homeowners with government backed loans to file a lawsuit against HUD for “trying to silence and undermine NACA” and American homeowners and putting them at risk for foreclosure.

Criticizing Obama

NACA is known for criticizing Obama’s foreclosure prevention programs and note that “the government mortgage programs which constitute 80% of the total mortgages (i.e. FHA, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) are the least effective in preventing foreclosures and in restructuring/modifying mortgages to make them affordable.”

The organization says that because of the ineffectiveness of these programs, the American taxpayers are foreclosing on themselves. “It’s the height of hypocrisy for our President and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to pretend they are working to keep people in their homes when they control the most problematic loans,” said NACA CEO Bruce Marks.



  NACA points to veterans as being mistreated. “This contrast is most appalling when veterans, those willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice, are often able to modify a non-government mortgage, as low as 2% permanently and/or a principal reduction, while veterans with a VA mortgage cannot achieve this and must meet nearly impossible conditions to qualify for a loan modification. One of the VA conditions requires the military member to be significantly delinquent which could jeopardize their clearance and job in the armed services.”

NACA suing HUD

NACA has sued HUD “for what amounts to political retaliation and government interference putting families facing foreclosure at risk” as HUD has withheld NACA’s grants which NACA calls blackmail.

“NACA with hundreds of thousands of members will not be silenced. We will start by stopping our veteran homeowners from losing their American Dream. NACA will continue to lead the campaign including our extraordinary Save-the-Dream events to protect our veterans here at home and the millions of homeowners at risk of foreclosure.”

_______________________________________

In order for Johns Hopkins to bring all of that offshored fraud back into the US to fund development of its International Economic Zone, it had to make sure all of the Constitutional rights to opportunity and access housing and education was ignored and that was what Obama did in embracing Clinton's Federalism Act.  Housing and Urban Development under Obama's Donovan sent all HUD funds to Enterprise Zones and the Hopkins Development corporations.....all of this with silence from the major housing justice organizations which during every election support the Clinton neo-liberals and Johns Hopkins neo-conservatives moving all this policy forward.  No education on the suspension of Constitutional rights of Equal Protection but support for the pols installing Hopkins policies.

All of the funding for Hopkins development in this massive International Economic Zone comes from global investment firms and Federal HUD money while low-income housing disappears.

Remember, Clinton neo-liberals like Obama work to dismantle all of War on Poverty, New Deal, and labor and justice rights----they see Americans as human capital ready to create the same conditions in the US as exist in developing nations.  All of this is simply Republican policy----


Clinton promoted Enterprise Zones at the same time he championed the subprime mortgage fraud scheme that did the opposite of what he states here------progressive posing extraordinaire!!!!!


“Americans have an interest in seeing that economic
opportunities in every community are
seized. We must keep working to do what we
can to revitalize communities, not by ignoring
them or by trying to impose one-size-fits-all
programs, but by doing what we’ve been trying to
do— being a partner with people who live in each
community and being a catalyst to bring the
spark of private enterprise to these communities.
That’s what we are doing with Empowerment
Zones and Enterprise Communities— providing
the tools for people to do what they want to do.”
— President William Jefferson Clinton


Obama Signs Deep HUD Budget Cuts



November 28, 2011

  Several important housing and homelessness programs will receive significantly less funding this year, as will HUD overall, due to a bill containing the HUD spending levels passed by the Congress and signed by President Obama last week.

The minibus bill combines three appropriations bills - Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD); Agriculture, Rural Housing, and Food and Drug Administration; and Commerce, Justice, and Science. The remaining 10 appropriations bills have not been passed, and those areas of government will continue under a continuing resolution through December 16.

The cuts to HUD programs will cause increased hardship among a growing number of individuals and families can’t afford rent, and many of them are becoming homeless. Links to more detailed information are below, but the highlights include:

  • $18.91 billion for Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA).  According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the bill underfunds TBRA contract renewals by $93 million, which could result in loss of between 12,000 and 24,000 vouchers.
  • $1.88 billion for Public Housing Capital, which is 8% less than last year, and 22% less than President Obama proposed in his budget. HUD estimates a $25 billion backlog of unaddressed repairs and other capital needs.
  • $3.96 billion for Public Housing Operating funds - a 14% decrease. And, HUD is instructed to use up to $750 million of public housing authorities’ reserves toward that amount.
  • Earlier versions of the bill included provisions to de-fund state-funded public housing that recently converted to federal under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ACT) of 2008.  These provisions did not pass.
  • The HOME program was cut to $1 billion from $1.6 billion, and new oversight and monitoring provisions were added. These are likely stemming from recent Washington Post coverage of fraud by some entities funded by the program.  HUD estimates the loss of HOME funds will result in 31,000 fewer affordable homes.
  • Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) formula grants were cut to $2.95 billion - 12% below last year and 20% below President Obama’s request.
  • $1.9 billion for McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance grants, the same as last year.  In the days before this bill passed 47 Members of Congress - including Connecticut’s Rep. Joe Courtney - signed a letter to appropriators requesting they protect this important program.
  • Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly was funded at $374 million - 6% below FY11 levels, but 55% below FY10 levels.
  • Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities increased 10% to $165 million. This funding year HUD will begin implementing changes to the program from the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act. In particular, the bill instructs HUD to conduct the Project Rental Assistance Demonstration which allows developers to combine Section 811 rental assistance with other capital funding programs.
  • $75 million for Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers, an increase over last year’s $49 million, which will fund approximately 11,000 new vouchers.

    ______________________________________

    How does one institution control all real estate in a city?  It has NYC former Mayor Bloomberg buy $4 billion in stock options and has the FED use fraudulent means to replenish a bankrupt university endowment!

    Most of the Wall Street banks are no longer giving  loans for the average family and we know HUD is not in that business any more.  The subprime loan settlement for Maryland is being used to fund selected middle-class families in these Hopkins employment zones and as this article states----Hopkins now has 46,000 employees and owns much of the real estate.  Now, with this fortune amassed it is subsidizing the sale of houses around the area to its own employees.  This includes the communities of Remington, Harwood, Old Goucher, and East Baltimore.

    When you place people in residential housing that are tied to your corporation----the future of that corporation becomes the focus of those families......so everybody attached to this central district of Baltimore will have a vested interest in all of Johns Hopkins' endeavors moving forward.

    As with artists sent into neighborhoods to gentrify who then get priced out of these communities once they are gentrified----so too will these families moved in as a temporary fill for this Manhattan project.

    They problem is having Hopkins with so much money and all of the public sector that is Baltimore is now Hopkins along with all of the city's revenue streams.  There is no disconnecting what is Hopkins and what is the City of Baltimore all while a billion dollars in corporate fraud and government corruption occur each year.

    THE FOXCONN MODEL HAS EMPLOYEES LIVING RIGHT WHERE THEY WORK.

    Hopkins is famous for illegal hiring of people deemed independent contractors when they are not-----temporary agency hires that are paid the worst of wages----and foreign workers who come to work at Hopkins thinking they will move up and end up working for peanuts and then frustrated move back to their own country.  The pay for these Hopkins workers now earning a Living Wage will drop if Trans Pacific Trade Pact is installed and they will lose these homes Hopkins is financing in the short term.


  • Johns Hopkins Boosts Live Near Your Work Home-Buying Benefits


  •  April 12, 2011
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    MEDIA CONTACT: Phil Sneiderman
    443-287-9960
    prs@jhu.edu
    Live Near Your Work, a program that helps Johns Hopkins Institutions employees buy homes in select Baltimore neighborhoods near Johns Hopkins campuses, has announced several enhancements that will provide larger base grants to eligible homebuyers and expanded opportunities to receive home-buying aid. The program also has added a new neighborhood to one of its target areas that are eligible for grants worth $17,000.

    These improvements, supported in part by extended funding from The Rouse Company Foundation and more dollars from the City of Baltimore, became effective April 1. In yet another enhancement, the Live Near Your Work website, which includes videos of featured neighborhoods, listings of eligible homes for sale and other program details, recently received a significant makeover. The site is at http://web.jhu.edu/lnyw .

    Administrators of the program, which has assisted more than 450 homebuyers since its inception in 1997, hope that the improvements will allow even more Johns Hopkins employees to reside in neighborhoods nearer to their workplaces.

    “There are so many benefits associated with living closer to where we work, and our program, which helps employees do just that, has gotten even better,” said Michelle Carlstrom, senior director of the university’s Office of Work, Life and Engagement. Carlstrom oversees the program and has herself purchased a home through Live Near Your Work. Since doing so, her daily drive from home to office has dropped from nearly 90 minutes to just four.

    “This program helps employees cut down on their commuting costs and travel time, and it could allow us to build home equity,” she said. “We can enjoy the benefits of urban living while contributing to the vitality of our new neighborhoods.”

    Johns Hopkins—which, with more than 46,000 in-state employees, is Maryland’s largest private employer—began offering Live Near Your Work grants in 1997 through a collaboration with Baltimore City and the state. The maximum a homeowner then could receive was $3,500 to be applied to closing costs. But as property values rose, these grants covered a smaller portion of these costs.

    In 2008, Johns Hopkins enhanced the program with help from a $2.5 million grant from The Rouse Company Foundation. The revised program established two large Live Near Your Work zones: one near the university’s Homewood campus, the other surrounding Johns Hopkins Hospital. Within these two areas, smaller neighborhood clusters, identified as tiers, became eligible for home-buying grants ranging from $6,000 to $17,000. Areas within the Live Near Your Work footprints but outside the tiers became eligible for grants worth $2,500.

    Maps showing the eligible neighborhoods are posted on the Live Near Your Work website.

    Recently, The Rouse Company Foundation extended its support for the program through July 31, 2014, and the partnership with Baltimore City has opened the door to further program enhancements:

    ● Johns Hopkins is now participating in the city’s Vacants to Value program, which offers an extra $500 from the city for people who buy a vacant home in certain target areas and meet city guidelines.

    ● The $2,500 grant for home purchases within the Live Near Your Work footprints but outside the target tiers has been increased to $3,000, thanks to additional city funding.

    ● An East Baltimore target area that is eligible for grants worth $17,000 has been expanded to include the Oliver neighborhood.

    ● Because of another boost in city funding for the tier areas, Johns Hopkins is now offering an additional $1,000 for employees who attend an eligible Johns Hopkins Live Near Your Work home-buying event and settle on a house in target areas A, B or C by June 30, 2012.

    The first such home-buying event, called LNYW on Wheels, took place on April 2. Two charter buses transported interested employees on a three-hour tour of neighborhoods that are within the Live Near Your Work footprint. Beginning later this month, a series of walking tours will introduce employees to a wide range of areas [see list below].

    Grants are available to full-time, benefits-eligible employees of The Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Health Care, Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, Johns Hopkins Bayview and Johns Hopkins Home Care Group. Grant recipients must occupy their Live Near Your Work home as a primary residence for at least five years.

    Johns Hopkins residents, postdoctoral fellows, house staff and students, and employees of the Applied Physics Laboratory are not eligible for the Live Near Your Work program.

    ***

    Schedule of Live Near Your Work Neighborhood Walking Tours

    These upcoming Live Near Your Work walking tours of neighborhoods and developments, being offered in partnership with various community associations, can enable an employee to qualify for the $1,000 bonus. More information on the walking tours, including starting locations, is available by going to http://web.jhu.edu/lnyw/ or calling 443-997-7000.

    Saturday, April 30, 9 a.m. to noon. Waverly, Better Waverly and Abell.

    Thursday, May 12, 6 to 8 p.m. Patterson Park and Highlandtown.

    Thursday, June 9, 6 to 8 p.m. Bayview and Greektown.

    Saturday, July 9, 9 a.m. to noon. Remington.

    Thursday, Aug. 11, 6 to 8 p.m. Preston Place and Oliver at Heritage.

    Thursday, Sept. 8, 5 to 8 p.m. Central Baltimore.

    


    _______________________________________

    The affluent sector of Johns Hopkins' Economic Zone has rental housing for what will be the core staff at its facilities.  Remember, the entire Economic Zone structure has Hopkins students, staff, and graduates filling all city operations and Hopkins is bringing more and more foreign students with most US students coming from private schools.  We see a residential structure comprised primarily of less than 5% of the population having all of the employment that pays a solid salary augmented by foreign workers who are exploited with low wages and constant movement to new job assignments.  The 95% of Baltimore citizens will fit into the service sector and these FOXCONN factories.

    As the article below shows, FOXCONN controlled all avenues of life with housing and food.  Think of all the global retail restaurants and hotels that make up downtown development and know all of these global corporations are owned by the same investment firms-----


  • 'Even when workers are off, the restrictive living conditions provide no relief from work. Workers, who have to pay for both food and housing, live in crowded rooms that each sleep up to 24, and are not permitted to use hairdryers or electric kettles. Workers interviewed by SACOM say the food provided by Foxconn is close to inedible'


    EZ is the term for Enterprise Zone which is the American term for Economic Zone.  If you look at where O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly placed the Health Enterprise Zones you will see what will likely be the location of these factory sweat shops and the housing and food connected to these jobs.

  • Inside Foxconn's Factory: Report Exposes Conditions At Apple Manufacturer




  •  The Huffington Post  |  By Amy Lee


    Posted: 05/06/2011 3:52 pm EDT Updated: 07/06/2011 5:12 am EDT


    "Some of my roommates weep in the dormitory. I want to cry as well but my tears have not come out."

    These are the words of a 22-year-old woman working at the Foxconn factory in Chengdu, China, a manufacturing facility that solely produces Apple products, as recorded in a new report by the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), two non-profit advocacy groups.

    Foxconn became infamous last summer, when a rash of suicides at its Shenzhen factory made national news. Apple returned to Foxconn to check out conditions, and judged that the appropriate measures had been taken to ensure that workers were safe. Workers at the Shenzhen location received a raise, though it was not shared by those at the Chengdu and Chongqing factories.

    The report reveals that conditions at Foxconn's Chengdu manufacturing facility do not meet the standards of the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct, which states that workers can work no more than is legal, must work voluntarily and in safe conditions, and that workers be "treated with respect and dignity." Employees are now required to sign a pledge that they will not try to kill themselves, and that if they do, their families will not seek legal damages beyond the minimum.

    Workers at Foxconn are overworked, underpaid, and made to live, in their words, like "robots," according to information provided in the report.

    Though the legal limit for overtime is 36 hours a month, workers regularly work 80 to 100 hours of overtime in continuous shifts that cut or reduce meal breaks. While such overtime is technically voluntary, those who do not agree to work overtime say they are often penalized by being denied overtime in off-season months, when they need the money for living expenses, the report says.

    “If there is no overtime at all, I will only receive the basic salary. Hence, I have no choice,” one worker told the researchers that compiled the report.

    According to SACOM, an average day for a Foxconn worker begins at 6:45 AM, when the workers wake and begin to line up for the half-hour long bus ride to the factory. Each bus is crammed with 70 people, all of whom must stand the entire way to work. Once they get there, they work for three hours until lunch, after which they work for another five hours, break for dinner, and then work again for two more hours. In continuous shifts, workers must skip a meal, and reduce the length of the other from an hour to half an hour. When the day is over, they crowd back into the buses to stand all the way back to the dorms.

    "Yes, I am hungry and exhausted when I have to skip dinner. During night shift, I cannot stand continuous shift at all. It’s very difficult to endure the non-stop work,” one worker was quoted as saying.

    Most workers, asked what they would want to do on a vacation, answer, “sleep.”

    Even when workers can break, the only place they can go to rest is the floor. There, they nap or smoke alone, with little interaction with each other.

    "We have to queue up all the time. Queuing up for bus, toilet, card-punching, food, etc. During recess, we don’t have a place to sit. We can only sit on the floor," one said.

    Workers accused of slacking, or otherwise failing to fulfill their duty, are forced to write a confession letter to their supervisor, or, if the mistake is especially large, read the letter out in front of all their co-workers in a scene of public humiliation, the report says. One worker was made to stand in the corner of the factory with his hands behind his body for giggling and talking with a co-worker.

    Louis Woo, a spokesperson for Foxconn told the Daily Mail that the humiliations are "not something we endorse or encourage. However, I would not exclude that this might happen given the diverse and large population of our workforce. But we are working to change it."

    The report describes extremely poor health conditions at the factory, with sick leave difficult to obtain. Chemicals used in assembly are often harmful, but workers are not told about the possible dangers. One woman, whose job it was to remove extra glue from iPad cases, developed a red rash on her legs, arms and face from using industrial alcohol to complete her task.

    In another department at the factory, aluminum dust fills the air, covering their hands, clothes, and faces.

    “I’m breathing in dust at Foxconn just like a vacuum cleaner. My nostrils are totally black everyday,” one worker reported.


    Even when workers are off, the restrictive living conditions provide no relief from work. Workers, who have to pay for both food and housing, live in crowded rooms that each sleep up to 24, and are not permitted to use hairdryers or electric kettles. Workers interviewed by SACOM say the food provided by Foxconn is close to inedible

    “On the first day, I almost vomited after eating the food in canteen. I’ve never eaten something which tasted worse than that," one man said.

    Though workers are paid 1,300 CNY, about half of what living wage would be in the area, they are often underpaid due to common miscalculations in wages and missing pay slips. Foxconn workers tell SACOM that the complaints are often met with silence or inaction.

    In January, such a miscalculation sparked unrest in the dormitory where workers threw bottles and trash in protest, according to what workers told SACOM. Over 200 police came in to put the incident down and about 20 workers were arrested. Foxconn told media, however, that the clash was not work related, but a result of personal issues workers had with each other.

    Apple, which saw its revenue hit a record-breaking high at $26.74 billion in the first quarter of 2011, has already sold over 20 million iPads. Workers at Foxconn's Chengu factory would have to spend at least 2 months' salary to afford an iPad.

    "I cannot afford it," one worker said. "I come from a village to sell my labor at Foxconn, all I want is to improve the living conditions of my family."

    __________________________________________


    Clinton took what was a real progressive use of Enterprise Zone and made it the International Economic zone model.  The Harlem Enterprise Zone was one that worked lifting people in a community up with small businesses and the community as non-profit support.....now national corporate non-profits replace the community members with all of the structures associated with public service and program tied to corporations as well. 

    The Maryland Health Enterprise Zone is that structure and if you watch where these HEZ are installed----you will see where a FOXCONN factory system will be built.  As the article shows here----the factory was the sole source of all the needs of the impoverished workers----health care as well.  The HEZ in West Baltimore and what looks to be one further East on Eastern Avenue seem to correspond with University of Maryland BioTech Park and MICA-----while Eastern Ave is an extension of the Hopkins BioTech Park.

    Do the pols like Jones-Rodwell and Anthony Brown/O'Malley as well as Bon Secours know what the goal of these Economic Zone structures will be?  OF COURSE THEY DO!!!!

    Coppin University and Morgan State are slated to be closed-----I heard the head of Morgan State say 4 years----and these areas around these Historically Black Colleges will be developed for the factory sector of this Hopkins Economic Zone.

    All of America's middle-class is being killed so we are talking about 90% of Americans falling into this factory global export of products developed by patenting at Johns Hopkins' educational campuses.  So, we need the middle-class to shout out NOW-----against these structures and get engaged in politics NOW.  Be the candidates running against these Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons and we can reverse all of this mess.

State designates five 'health enterprise zones'New program will address disparities in health careJanuary 24, 2013|By Michael Dresser, The Baltimore SunThe O'Malley administration launched an effort Thursday to bring medical services to disadvantaged neighborhoods by designating the state's first five "health enterprise zones" created under a law passed last year.

One of the areas selected for such a zone, aimed at bringing health care to the poor, is in West Baltimore, where the Bon Secours Health System will take a lead role.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, who led the administration's efforts to start the four-year, $16 million pilot project, announced that the other four zones will be in Annapolis, Capitol Heights (Prince George's County), Greater Lexington Park (St. Mary's County) and Dorchester-Caroline counties.

The program's goals include reducing health disparities among races and ethnic groups, improving access to care in communities that lack services, and reducing costs and hospital admissions.

The program will offer tax breaks and other incentives to physicians and community groups to bring medical care to underserved neighborhoods. The zones were chosen after community coalitions identified areas with a documented history of poverty and poor health. The five zones were selected from 19 proposals submitted by local health care coalitions.

Where a person lives is considered one of the best predictors of overall health. In Baltimore, for example, a recent study found that the life expectancy of white residents of Roland Park is about 30 years longer than that of African-Americans who live in Upton/Druid Heights.

Brown, who was credited by health care advocates as the driving force behind the initiative, said the program will bring more than 100 health care providers, including 37 primary-care physicians, to the selected communities. The bill creating the program was part of the administration's 2012 legislative agenda and was the first bill Gov. Martin O'Malley signed last year.

Sen. Verna Jones-Rodwell, a Democrat who represents many of the West Baltimore neighborhoods included in the zone, said the program will bring needed services to communities that have been neglected for decades.

"This has been in the making for three years," she said. "This is the first time this kind of collaboration has happened in the city of Baltimore."

Dr. Samuel Ross, chief executive of Bon Secours, said the program will emphasize connecting residents of low-income neighborhoods with primary care and preventive services.

"What we can do free, we will. Otherwise it will have to be low-cost to be available to this population that we serve," he said. The West Baltimore zone is defined as the areas with ZIP codes 21216, 21217, 21223 and 21229.

Among other things, Ross said, the zone coalition will hire community outreach workers from the local population to bring information to residents and encourage them to seek the help they need

Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of health and mental hygiene, said the state will seek grant money in the hope that it can expand the zone program to some of the 14 areas that were not selected.

"We do not want to have to wait for four years," he says.



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May 26th, 2015

5/26/2015

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HOPE ALL HAD A GREAT MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY!!!!!

I am writing to you from Bloomberg International Economic Zone 2 North America-----formerly known as Baltimore, Maryland USA.


This week I would like to expand on the real estate capture by global real estate investment firms by looking at residential real estate capture.  I have spoken much about the downtown and city center corporate real estate and infrastructure handed to global corporations----but a FOXCONN-style International Economic Zone also controls how its labor force lives-----all of the residential property as well. 

THAT IS WHAT AUTOCRATIC SOCIETIES DO----CONTROL EVERY AVENUE OF LIFE AS IN BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND.


Many people may not know The Peabody Institute of Music and the Maryland Institute College for the Arts were world-class independent institutions that were gobbled up by Johns Hopkins in their real estate development grab.  Now, don't tell anyone but these institutions never wanted to be gobbled up-----they were forced from declining funding all caused by Hopkins along with the starving of communities all around Baltimore but especially city center.  The MASTER PLAN DESIGNED IN THE 1980s led to the crumbling neighborhoods and this HOPKINS AS SAVIOR OF CITY DEVELOPMENT.  Hopkins trashes the city, steals all the Federal, state, and local revenue to become a global corporation and then comes back to rebuild the city in its own image.  HOW TOTALITARIAN OF THEM.


Hopkins declared its institutions as ANCHORS FOR DEVELOPMENT----so, we have EasT Baltimore Development at the Hopkins Medical campus, Homewood Development as Hopkins' Central Academic Campus, Maryland Institute College of Art as Hopkins in Central Baltimore along with Peabody Institution  as Hopkins at Mount Vernon.  So, the entire development of a massive city center is in the hands of Hopkins real estate developers with the greater Baltimore communities slated to be the factory/manufacturing sector of this Hopkins FOXCONN.

Keep in mind all of these communities were literally allowed to fall to decay as the GIANT SQUID THAT IS HOPKINS/WALL STREET SUCKED ALL OF THE WEALTH AND REVENUE FROM THE CITY.


Every avenue of funding for development growth----from Federal, state, and local government funding to private corporations 'donating' to this city growth now go directly to a Hopkins development corporation and not to city coffers where it might be sent to other communities with people wanting their own development ideas-----IT IS CRAZY STUFF!
  John Hopkins is MICA is PEABODY INSTITUTION SO ACTING AS IF THIS IS CROSS-INSTITUTION COOPERATION IS PROPAGANDA.


Johns Hopkins, MICA put down roots in Station North Arts and Entertainment District



Brennen Jensen / Nov-Dec 2014 Posted in Arts+Culture


Thomas Dolby, the first Homewood Professor of the Arts, in the former Center Theatre, which next fall will house the Johns Hopkins–MICA Film Center. Of the revitalization of the Station North neighborhood, Dolby says, “Given the broader implications for the city of Baltimore and the state, it’s a much grander project than I’ve been involved with in the past. It’s exciting.” Image: DAVE COOPER

Related Articles Station North film center gift Nov-Dec 2014 / Gazette It's noisy and dusty up on the second floor of 10 E. North Ave., the century-old building about a mile south of the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus whose sleek (if somewhat battered) moderne facade of contrasting travertine and soapstone dates to the 1939 opening of the erstwhile Centre Theatre here. The voluminous, three-story structure between Charles and St. Paul streets had begun life as a garage for Packards and Studebakers and in the late 1950s was ignobly carved up into banking offices. Then came vacancy and decay.

On this fall afternoon, however, power tools roar away and welding sparks rain down as scores of construction workers endeavor to repurpose it for its latest role: a cutting-edge film and audio facility to be co-managed by Johns Hopkins and the Maryland Institute College of Art. There's really not much to see within the bare brick walls at present, and it's so loud you can barely hear yourself think, but come next fall, this is precisely where Hopkins and MICA students will gather to think about the artistic pairing of sights and sounds.

Hopkins and MICA are sharing the $10 million cost for an initial 10-year lease of the entire, roughly 25,000-square-foot, second floor and a build-out to include recording studio, soundstage, screening rooms, editing suites, and classrooms. The collaboration is to be known as the Johns Hopkins–MICA Film Center. (The building's other tenants, at this writing, are a nonprofit jewelry-making center, neighborhood revitalization charities, and a pair of restaurants.)

The din doesn't deter Thomas Dolby, the 1980s synth-pop icon turned soundtrack composer turned audio entrepreneur—and most recently, turned Johns Hopkins' first Homewood Professor of the Arts. He strides amid the cacophony unfazed, enjoying his first in-the-flesh look at what will eventually be his domain. A dapper fedora temporarily swapped out for a hard hat, the English-born professor scans architectural drawings as he explores the bustling space. It seems he could add design consultant to his resumé.

"Initially, the recording layout was not really ideal," he manages to say above the noise, a hand sweeping across the drawings. "Along with the recording arts folks from Peabody, we sort of stuck our noses in and made some suggestions about the recording studio orientation and so on."

From windows in the building's southwest corner (glassless at this point) you can easily see the buff-brick Parkway Theatre a block away. This long-neglected 1915 movie palace is slated for a $17 million renovation into a three-screen, 600-seat film center by the Maryland Film Festival, a nonprofit organization celebrating the cinematic arts. It, too, will have facilities for Hopkins and MICA film students, and the schools will be able to do some programming within, hosting visiting filmmakers and the like. The Hopkins Development Office is busily assisting the Film Festival with fundraising efforts. Construction crews could be at work by summer.

"It's going to be amazing here—just fantastic," Dolby says. "I can't help thinking it's all going to trigger big changes in the neighborhood."

In a very real sense, these sentiments have been part of the plan all along.

The Centre and Parkway theaters are in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, a roughly 20-block chunk of midtown where state tax breaks and other incentives aimed to spur artistic activity have already brought some big changes to an area long scarred by vacancy and disinvestment. Since the area's arts designation in 2002, boards have come off windows and lights turned back on as galleries, performance venues, and arts-oriented restaurants and cafés have bloomed. The Maryland Institute, whose campus adjoins the district to the southwest, was the first large institution to get involved, when it opened its five-story Graduate Studio Center in a vacant clothing factory on North Avenue in 2012. And now it's Hopkins' turn.

"A lot had to happen before Station North became a good place for Hopkins and MICA, and fortunately it did," says Charles Duff, president of Jubilee Baltimore, the nonprofit development and revitalization firm that owns the Centre and will soon break ground in the district on its second apartment building offering affordable artist housing. "Still, the idea of a Homewood academic department moving to North Avenue? I never dreamed of that in a million years, and it's very exciting."

"Hopkins and MICA don't make decisions on a whim," adds Ben Stone, president of Station North Arts and Entertainment Inc., the nonprofit that oversees and promotes the district's artistic development. "When they invest in a building and move programs into it, you know they are going to be there long term. It sends a positive message to others interested in investing here that things really are moving in a different direction."

Andrew Frank, special adviser to Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels on economic development matters, says the university is committed to supporting Station North in multiple ways. One, he says, is the big ticket: "The university is collaborating with MICA to create a small campus for Hopkins that's about halfway between Peabody and Homewood to try and connect them through a strong spine up Charles Street."

Repurposing two hulking and vacant theaters can only spur additional economic activity and vitality in the area. "I know a lot of people in Station North are interested in more daytime foot traffic, which the students will bring, and that will be great," says Stone, mindful of the many vacant storefronts and underutilized properties remaining within the district.

This economic development argument for investing in the district is in keeping with the Homewood Community Partners Initiative, a collaborative effort with area stakeholders and civic leaders that the university launched two years ago to improve conditions within 10 neighborhoods near Homewood; included in its footprint are Charles North and Greenmount West, which make up much of Station North. Johns Hopkins has pledged $10 million—and the partnership has raised an additional $14 million—to support activities and projects that strengthen the 10 communities.

A more low-key example of Hopkins' involvement lies right across the street from the Parkway at the northwest corner of Charles Street and North Avenue. A burned-out building was pulled down here a few years ago, leaving an unsightly trash-strewn lot in a prominent location. Frank says that the university, as an "anchor institution," can impact the community in ways large and small. An example of the latter occurred last year when President Daniels and he arranged to have dinner with the lot's owner, a prominent property owner in the district, to discuss the university's increased interest in the area. "More specifically, we asked for him to lease the lot to Station North on a short-term basis so that they could use it for outdoor events," Frank says.

From this casual dinner came the Ynot Lot, an unsightly patch of rubble reborn as an open-air performance venue and impromptu park, with a small wooden stage and decorative murals. Its creation was also fueled by a $25,000 Spruce Up Grant from the Homewood Community Partners Initiative and set in motion last fall when Daniels and student volunteers cleaned and seeded the lot during the annual President's Day of Service. It's now used for a range of activities—from musical performances to yoga classes to badminton matches—and Station North is currently soliciting proposals from artists and performers for additional uses. While Stone says nothing would make him happier than to be kicked off the lot because the owner was going to build on it, for now an eyesore has become an artistic asset.

Such revitalizations have a ripple effect: As the neighborhood gets better looking and more bustling, public safety improves, and more and more business and cultural amenities set up shop, bolstering the momentum anew. There already appears to be a pent-up demand for more housing in the district. But beyond economic redevelopment, there are academic reasons that Hopkins planted its flag in Station North, and they go back to well before the hammers and saws got busy on North Avenue and the university hired a rock-star professor.

"Filmmaking is a team sport," says Patrick Wright, chair of MICA's Film and Video Department and director of its new MFA in Filmmaking program. "It requires all different kinds of key creative positions to make a great film, from sound folks to writers to cinematographers. I think this gives us the opportunity to bring all these kinds of students together."

There are two collaborative tracks here. One is intra-institutional, involving student filmmakers in the Krieger School's Homewood-based Program in Film and Media Studies and student composers and recording engineers from the Peabody Institute, who have been coming together in a class called Sound on Film for five years now (and which Dolby took over this fall). "From my perspective, this was all student-driven," says Hollis Robbins, chair of the Department of Humanities at Peabody. "It was the students who asked for a film sound class."

Meanwhile, inter-institutional collaboration between Hopkins and MICA film departments was bubbling away, too. In its 20 years of existence, the Hopkins Film and Media Studies Program has grown into one of the most popular and successful within the humanities, with its graduates working in all facets of the industry. But how to take it to the next level and raise its profile further?

"Two programs are just better than one," says Linda DeLibero, director of the Hopkins Film and Media Studies Program, of the decision dating back as far as 2005 to begin working with her counterparts over at MICA. "They have faculty that complement ours, and I think their students complement ours. Theirs are art students and dedicated filmmakers, while ours come from broader backgrounds. Some of our students don't know they are going to major in film until they get to Hopkins and discover the program."

The two schools' first collaborative film class, Narrative Production, was held in 2008. (DeLibero notes that former Arts and Sciences Dean Katherine Newman, who left Johns Hopkins last spring, strongly supported the collaborations and was later quite bullish on her school's involvement with Station North.)

The initial opportunity to physically unite these diverse student bodies came two years ago, when the Maryland Film Festival moved to acquire the boarded-up Parkway Theatre from the city. Both MICA and Hopkins agreed to move some film programming into the theater and the pair of adjacent row houses included with the property. As exciting as this prospect was, it quickly became apparent that there just wasn't enough room for all the facilities that a conjoined film program would require. Cutting up the ornate, if faded, main auditorium space was not an option.

As it turned out, Jubilee Baltimore's Centre Theatre—barely a block away—soon emerged as a viable alternative. The long-neglected building had been awarded $6 million in historic tax credits to help spur its restoration. While its conversion to offices 50-odd years ago destroyed its stylish 1930s auditorium, the rangy building offered plenty of rehab opportunities, even, quite fortuitously, a high-ceilinged soundstage area from days when it also housed a radio station.

Meanwhile, on the academic-funding front, in May 2013 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Johns Hopkins a $1.2 million grant to spur collaboration between Peabody and the Krieger School—specifically, to engage jointly appointed "bridge" professors with a foot on each campus. A portion of these funds was earmarked for hiring a designated professor for the Sound on Film class. The position was advertised in a variety of academic outlets, and Thomas Dolby responded in January from his native England.

DeLibero and Scott Metcalfe, chair of Peabody's Recording Arts and Sciences Department and another big advocate of the collaborative approach, never imagined that the ad would attract such a notable industry figure. Robbins recalls DeLibero's excited words when she shared with her Dolby's emailed application: "Look at this! Can you believe it? This can really take off!"

Back in the Centre building construction zone, in the quietest corner to be found, Dolby picks up the tale of how he chose to come to teach in Baltimore. He and his American wife, actress Kathleen Beller, had previously lived for a long stretch in California and wanted to return to the States. Dolby, who had grown up amid academia as the son, grandson, and great-grandson of professors at Oxford and Cambridge, was looking for teaching opportunities on the East Coast. Some larger film and audio programs piqued his interest, but he selected Hopkins specifically because the new film/sound partnership and cutting-edge facility could take an already thriving program into bold, new waters. He'd also seen the arts help revive and enliven old port cities back home, such as Liverpool and Glasgow. Baltimore's prospects were enticing. "It's a blank canvas, really, and that's exciting to me," he says.

The newly minted professor, who has five albums of original music under his belt, says he has long made peace with his invariably being linked to the quirky, new wave–era song "She Blinded Me With Science," his top-five hit of 32 years ago.

"I've gotten used to it," Dolby says. "It's good to have a point of recognition, and, fortunately, the other stuff that I've done in my career closely follows on it." After his brush with pop stardom, he composed soundtracks for A-list directors like George Lucas and Barry Levinson and channeled his pioneering work with synthesizers into a Silicon Valley startup whose audio technology wound up in half the world's cellphones. And two years ago, he shot and edited his first film, the award-winning short documentary The Invisible Lighthouse about the decommissioning of a beloved beacon near his boyhood home on the South of England coast.

But in a way, his career arc has come full circle, from pop star to his present role as instructor of the pivotal duality of sight and sound on the screen. It was the playful video for "She Blinded Me With Science," wherein Dolby is seen visiting a home for deranged scientists, and its heavy rotation on then-fledgling MTV that really birthed the hit.

"I managed to persuade my record company to put up the money for me to make the video myself, and I showed them a story board, which they approved," Dolby says. "When they asked when they could hear the song, I said, 'Well, Monday,' and I went home and wrote it. I was pretty much writing a soundtrack for the storyboard when I wrote that song."

Now the professor whose talents took him from the pop charts to Hollywood and Silicon Valley has set his sights on midtown Baltimore and its work-in-progress arts district. It may be his biggest challenge yet.

"This is a very different opportunity," he says, looking out a glassless window at a streetscape in transition. "I think, given the broader implications for the city of Baltimore and the state, it's a much grander project than I've been involved with in the past. It's exciting."


____________________________________________

I like attending events by Baltimore Jubilee as with any of Hopkins' development non-profits because they are sooooo enamoured in their own ability to vision for the city and they have this sense of entitlement that makes BLUE BLOOD sound like a warm and fuzzy social group.  You hear joking about the latest Wall Street fraud of trillions of dollars which is of course what is funding all of this Hopkins as International Economic Zone----OUR MONEY.  Then you hear about how the people with money get to decide what development looks like as I remind them that all of the institutions involved in this development are bankrupt and criminal with the public simply waiting to get their money back....imagine a group of people that think stealing money makes them wealthy?

Then you listen about how back in the day lawyers were all rich----all of the building surrounding Baltimore City Hall were filled with wealthy lawyers and I remind them that the lawyers that facilitated these massive corporate frauds ----AND THEY WERE CENTRAL AND MARYLAND LAWYERS LED THE NATION IN BEING INVOLVED IN THESE FRAUDS----and indeed they are now wealthy---are criminals that will have their wealth seized as fraud and need not think of themselves with prestige.

Baltimore's BLUE BLOODS are of course wealthy from one long history of fraud and corruption and have no ability to know right and wrong which does not bode well for gentrification with justice!  WE CALL THEM THE WHITE GUERRILLA GANG BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SAME AS THE CRIPS AND BLOODS.  This is the reason this development is so bad for everyone.

Centre Theatre houses all of the corporations and non-profits that will make Baltimore City Center North into the same big corporate campus as was East Baltimore this time with art as industry.  MICA was transformed from a classical art as art College to art as industry a few decades ago in anticipation of all this.  So, MICA now has 'public schools' attached to it that deal with graphic art for advertisement, fashion design for the garment industry, and technology as interior design=====one long K-career college tied to these art industries and all connected to Johns Hopkins.


TELESIS CORPORATION IS A GLOBAL REAL ESTATE FIRM BEING HANDED THE ENTIRE TRACT OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY BETWEEN MICA AND HOPKINS WEST.  GUESS WHAT THE GOAL OF NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING SERVICES WILL BE?

Centre Theatre nears reopening Caption
The Centre


Algerina Perna, Baltimore Sun


Centre Theatre to again light up North Avenue


Costly renovation of Centre Theatre nears completion When Baltimore developer Charlie Duff placed the winning bid on a vacant former theater in Station North, it looked like the possible setting of an Indiana Jones movie: Green mold grew on surfaces throughout the building, a tree sprouted through the middle of a staircase.

Baltimore signs: Night and day Three years and $18.5 million later, the Centre remains a place where movies might be made — but now as renovated offices set to house film departments for the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Johns Hopkins University, among other tenants.

On Tuesday, Duff's nonprofit development firm, Jubilee Baltimore, plans to light the old movie marquee in celebration of the nearly complete rehabilitation of 10 E. North Ave. The first of the new occupants, Neighborhood Housing Services, is scheduled to move in next month.

Opened around 1913 as a car dealership, the Centre operated as a theater from 1939 to 1959, with a 1,000-seat auditorium and a radio station that hosted live performances. The building later became a check-processing center for Equitable Trust Co. and a church before going to auction in 2012.

Duff said he had no plans for the building when he purchased it for $93,000, except to make it contribute to efforts by nearby universities, neighborhood groups and businesses to develop the arts district and strengthen the Central Baltimore corridor.

"We knew that we wanted the building to be a part of a vibrant Station North. We didn't know anything else," said Duff, whose Jubilee Baltimore has worked on the rehab of hundreds of rowhouses as well as the nearby housing for artists at the City Arts building and was invited to participate by another neighborhood group working in the area.

Station North has this great potential ... to make Baltimore a hub of emerging artists and designers. - Michael Molla, vice president of operations for MICA This is Jubilee Baltimore's first project without a residential component and its single-most expensive, with financing cobbled together from sources that include roughly $6.5 million in state and federal historic tax credits and investments by Chase Bank, Philadelphia-based Reinvestment Fund and Telesis Corp., the latter two of which have redevelopment projects nearby.

The rehab, which involves Ziger/Snead Architects and Southway Builders, got underway about a year ago, starting with months of asbestos removal, Duff said. Crews installed new mechancial systems, elevators and stairways. They rewired the soundstage and opened up walls with windows, in homage to the building's days as a car dealership.

  MICA and Hopkins are expected to move their film departments into the second floor this summer, bringing about 150 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff.

The Baltimore Jewelry Center, a so-called makerspace for jewelry and metalwork for the public, is taking about 3,500 square feet on the ground floor. Five nonprofits, including Jubilee and Neighborhood Housing Services, are leasing space in the building as well, as part of a consortium dubbed the Center for Neighborhoods.

The film departments at MICA and Johns Hopkins started talking about increasing collaboration 10 years ago and began offering joint courses in 2008, said Linda DeLibero, director of film and media studies for Johns Hopkins. The Centre's redevelopment helped push those discussions forward, she said.

The new space coincides with the launch of graduate programs focused on film at MICA and Johns Hopkins, a reflection of increased interest in film as technology has made the discipline more accessible.

Students will be able to cross-register, and some courses will be jointly taught, DeLibero said. The programs also will use space at the nearby Parkway Theatre, where renovation is scheduled to start in the fall for an opening in 2016.

Andy Frank, special adviser to Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels, said the decision to locate the film program off campus was part of a commitment by the university to invest in its host neighborhoods.

"Locating real estate off campus is a way the university can serve its own interests, but also the interests of the community," he said.

Michael Molla, vice president of operations for MICA, said his hope is to turn Station North into an area that rivals arts districts in other major cities, such as New York. MICA opened its Fred Lazarus IV Building at 131 W. North Ave. in 2012 and also owns property at 1801 Falls Road nearby.

"Station North has this great potential … to make Baltimore a hub of emerging artists and designers," he said.

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These local names like Baltimore Development Corporation and in this case Telesis Baltimore is only meant to hide these are development firms controlled by global real estate investment firms.  Below you see that Telesis went to the state known world-wide for allowing shell corporations be created at the drop of a hat and then work to hide and shelter all of their financial activities----MISTER BLUE COLLAR JOE BIDEN------GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL EXTRAORDINAIRE AND HIS STATE DELAWARE.

So, global real estate investment firms can be Chinese----Mayalasian----African-----or all of the above because they are simply global corporate tribunal members and probably partners of global Johns Hopkins-----buying real estate in Baltimore Maryland. 

Imagine, the sector of housing between Charles and Greenmount from Mount Vernon to Charles Village---what locals call Old Goucher----this is a huge amount of residential housing the City of Baltimore has been holding for a few decades waiting and not developing to hand as a parcel to a global real estate firm like Telesis----this is all of the tens of trillions of dollars that was stolen by corporate and Wall Street fraud coming back to own all of what is Baltimore City.


THESE ARE NOT WARM AND FUZZY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS WITH ALL THE INTENTIONS OF CREATING A BAILEYS SAVINGS AND LOAN DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL----IT IS A POTTERSVILLE DEVELOPMENT THAT KEEPS RICH TO ITSELF AND THE REST OF US ELSEWHERE.


In third world nations the rich are sequestered behind security areas highly guarded from the masses they are exploiting and abusing----which is why security and policing is the number one job category in Baltimore.


Telesis is simply a shell corporation funnelling offshore money back into the US----in this case Baltimore.


TELESIS BALTIMORE CORPORATION
DELAWARE CORPORATION

Data Updated April 17, 2014





Telesis Baltimore Corporation is a Delaware Corporation filed on February 25, 2008. The company's File Number is listed as 4509460.

The Registered Agent on file for this company is The Corporation Trust Company and is located at Corporation Trust Center 1209 Orange Street Wilmington, DE 19801.Company InformationCompany Name:  TELESIS BALTIMORE CORPORATION
File Number:  4509460
Filing State:  Delaware (DE)
Filing Status:  Unknown
Filing Date:  February 25, 2008
Company Age:  7 Years, 3 Months
Registered Agent:  The Corporation Trust Company
Corporation Trust Center 1209 Orange Street
Wilmington, DE 19801


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Barclay and Margaret Brent Elementary Schools are under the control of Johns Hopkins Homewood Development with the goal of gentrification of what has been underserved black schools.  This is now called 'the international school district' with schools filling with Johns Hopkins global employees as they move from place to place in the US.  It is actually a great sight to see a school filled with children of color ----if the goal was a happy one for many of the children being shuffled including the international students.

Clinton/Bush/ and now Obama have dismantled the Federal Housing Urban Development and the Equal Opportunity and Access that was its core mission because as you remember, Clinton write the Federalism Act which says WE DO NOT RECOGNIZE ALL OF THE LABOR AND JUSTICE LAWS ATTACHED TO THE US CONSTITUTIONAL EQUAL PROTECTION LAWS.  So, Clinton needed to put into place organizations that would push for development that took the heavily black and  lower class out of cities and moved the rich and corporations into cities and it needed to have black leadership or else everyone would know it was simply a bunch of rich white men using the most unjust methods to move hundreds of thousands of people out of the city.  You impoverish them by taking away the ability to work----then steal all of what would have been Federal, state, and local funding to stabilize these communities, force people into a level of poverty as great as any third world nation forcing people to criminal activity to survive, and then you kick them out to areas outside city center that will become sweat shop factories.....

WOW---CAN YOU IMAGINE THE PEOPLE THAT SIT AROUND A TABLE THINKING OF ALL OF THIS WHEN ALL OF BALTIMORE'S COMMUNITIES COULD BE STABLE AND MOST PEOPLE EMPLOYED IF JOHNS HOPKINS DIDN'T STEAL ALL THE CITY'S MONEY TO BECOME A GLOBAL CORPORATION.

Here we have Baltimore City Hall filled with Johns Hopkins politicians working as neo-conservatives and all running as Democrats handing this huge parcel of residential real estate to Telesis------no doubt a Hopkins global real estate investment firm. This is now the focus of Baltimore Jubilee and their offices are right there in THE CENTRE====NEXT TO MICA READY TO CONTROL DEVELOPMENT IN CITY CENTER NORTH JUST AS HOPKINS DID EAST BALTIMORE.



New apartments planned for Barclay  Second phase of redevelopment project to start in September



April 12, 2012|By Lorraine Mirabella, The Baltimore SunA developer working to transform vacant, city-owned properties in a North Baltimore neighborhood into hundreds of new and rehabbed homes received city design approval Thursday for 69 new apartments that will get under way this fall.

The city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel approved the layout and plans for five new buildings that Telesis Corp. will develop in the blocks bounded by East 20th and East 21st streets, Barclay Street and Greenmount Avenue. The company plans to start construction in September on 69 one-, two- and three-bedroom units in buildings that will resemble traditional Baltimore rowhouses.

City housing officials chose Telesis in 2006 to build about 325 rental units and homes in neighborhoods between Charles Village and Station North. The $85 million plan, which could take a decade to complete, targets city-owned vacant and rundown rowhouses and lots for redevelopment in the neighborhoods of Barclay, Midway and Old Goucher.

The proposed apartments, which Telesis estimates will cost $14.5 million, represent the second phase of the redevelopment. The company has completed 80 homes in the area, including renovating a former public housing building, said Catherine Stokes, senior project manager for Telesis.

The company also has been renovating rowhouses to sell as market-rate homes. Of eight completed in the 2200 and 2300 blocks of North Calvert St., seven have sold at prices of $199,000 to $249,000 and the eighth is under contract. A dozen more rowhouse renovations are under way in the 2200 block of Guilford Ave., Stokes said.

"We're doing smaller phases because of the economy but seeing good demand," Stokes said Thursday.

The site for the new apartments includes small gardens and parks off rear alleys. All of the apartments will be new construction except for two units in a rehabbed rowhouse.

While the city design panel approved the final design, it did recommend revisions to unify the proposed brick facades that feature roofline cornices and dormer and bay windows.

The developer will use public and private financing, Stokes said. Along with a private bank loan, financing has been secured through low-income housing tax credits, funds from a state rental housing subsidy program, a federal loan available through the city and acquisition financing from the Housing Authority of Baltimore.

Telesis started building the first phase of 72 rental homes in mid 2010 and completed those last fall. They include 19 new units in the 2100 and 2200 blocks of Barclay St.; a renovated, 29-unit former public housing building on Homewood Avenue; and 24 renovated units in rowhouses throughout the neighborhood.

During Thursday's design panel session, members also recommended approval of a preliminary design for Johns Hopkins Health System's planned $35 million expanded emergency department at Bayview Medical Center.

Hospital officials and architects from Ewing Cole showed plans for a three-story glass and metal panel structure with brick accents. The design calls for a ground-level emergency room, long-term observation rooms on the second floor and a children's emergency department with acute care inpatient rooms on the third floor.

Hopkins hopes to open the facility, an expansion of about 60 percent, by January 2014 to meet growing demand.

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com


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Telesis Corporation as with all of the residential high-rise buildings downtown have a goal of luxury rentals in what will be an exclusively affluent Baltimore City Center.  Remember, gentrification is not a bad thing-----it is the way it is done.  The Subprime mortgage frauds were created in Clinton's terms and executed in Bush's terms just to clear these city centers.  It created a double-whammy by draining trillions of dollars of Federal revenue with it.  So, working class home owners were shepparded into these loans not knowing they would not be given time to repay them often by 'housing justice' non-profits created by Hopkins and Baltimore City Hall pols.  Then Baltimore City Hall comes along to grab even more of this real estate in tax and water bill frauds against homeowners in these development areas all while handing prime real estate to the pay-to-play people helping with this scam....politicians and churches----residential homes in the most affluent up and coming neighborhoods while massive frauds stole the wealth of the working and middle-class. 

THESE ARE REAL SOCIOPATHS FOLKS! ALL THAT TIME AND ENERGY SIMPLY TO BE THE RICHEST---AT THE EXCLUSION OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND ACCESS LAWS

Hopkins is the face of all this injustice while black leaders are the sellouts only thinking of how wealthy they can be made----JUST LIKE THE CHINESE POLITBURO TAKEN BY WALL STREET AND US CORPORATION WEALTH.

Equal Protection laws are still right there in the US Constitution----they have not disappeared although that is what Trans Pacific Trade Pact has as a goal.  Simply reinstating Rule of Law and Equal Protection will open up this Baltimore City Center to development that has housing for low and middle-income people.  If you think you can afford a $1300 one bedroom now----wait until this coming bond market crash that has a goal of keeping the US in Depression-era stagnation and then think how this Hopkins Economic Zone will go on working overseas with international employees rotating through its FOXCONN----and you see all Baltimore citizens being brought down to poverty or near poverty no matter what your job title is now.  That $1300 for a one bedroom is just the start----you see Hopkins has Manhattan on its mind because it is Bloomberg University 2!

ALL OF THIS FUNDED BY THE TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS STOLEN IN CORPORATE FRAUD FROM OUR FEDERAL PUBLIC TRUSTS, SAVINGS, RETIREMENT AND PENSIONS, AND A LEVERAGED BOND DEAL THAT HANDS PHYSICAL GOVERNMENT ASSETS OVER TO JOHNS HOPKINS
.

Stop thinking it is OK to do this to the underserved because an injustice for one becomes injustice for all----

Keep in mind these claims of a market of people wanting these luxury rentals is bogus as Baltimore has one of the largest rate of IN-occupancy in its luxury buildings in the nation....they are built simply to control the space for future occupancy and are subsidized while they wait.

In Many Cities, Rent Is Rising Out of Reach of Middle Class


By SHAILA DEWANAPRIL 14, 2014

Photo Christine Menedis tours a condominium in Miami Beach that rents for $7,000 a month. In Miami, average rents consume 43 percent of the typical household income, up from a historical average of just over a quarter. Credit Angel Valentin for The New York Times Advertisement

MIAMI — For rent and utilities to be considered affordable, they are supposed to take up no more than 30 percent of a household’s income. But that goal is increasingly unattainable for middle-income families as a tightening market pushes up rents ever faster, outrunning modest rises in pay.

The strain is not limited to the usual high-cost cities like New York and San Francisco. An analysis for The New York Times by Zillow, the real estate website, found 90 cities where the median rent — not including utilities — was more than 30 percent of the median gross income.

In Chicago, rent as a percentage of income has risen to 31 percent, from a historical average of 21 percent. In New Orleans, it has more than doubled, to 35 percent from 14 percent. Zillow calculated the historical average using data from 1985 to 2000.

Nationally, half of all renters are now spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to a comprehensive Harvard study, up from 38 percent of renters in 2000. In December, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan declared “the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has ever known.”

Photo Arturo Breton, left, and Aurelio Medina consult their smartphones during an apartment rental search. Credit Angel Valentin for The New York Times Apartment vacancy rates have dropped so low that forecasters at Capital Economics, a research firm, said rents could rise, on average, as much as 4 percent this year, compared with 2.8 percent last year. But rents are rising faster than that in many cities even as overall inflation is running at little more than 1 percent annually.

One of the most expensive cities for renters is Miami, where rents, on average, consume 43 percent of the typical household income, up from a historical average of just over a quarter.

Stella Santamaria, a divorced 40-year-old math teacher, has been looking for an apartment in Miami for more than six months. “We’re kind of sick of talking about it,” she said of herself and fellow teachers in the same boat. “It’s like, are you still living with your mom? Yeah, are you? Yeah.” After 11 years as a teacher, Ms. Santamaria makes $41,000, considerably less than the city’s median income, which is $48,000, according to Zillow.

Even dual-income professional couples are being priced out of the walkable urban-core neighborhoods where many of them want to live. Stuart Kennedy, 29, a senior program officer at a nonprofit group, said he and his girlfriend, a lawyer, will be losing their $2,300 a month rental house in Buena Vista in June. Since they found the place a year ago, rents in the area have increased sharply.

“If you go by a third of your income, that formula, even with how comfortable our incomes are, it looks like it’s going to be impossible,” Mr. Kennedy said.

 
And as rents head higher in the tightest markets, many are discovering that living on their own is proving unaffordable, forcing them to double up again. Arturo Breton, a 37-year-old waiter in Miami Beach, said that after years living on his own, he was joining forces with a roommate who works as a manager at J. C. Penney. “I’ve come down to the conclusion that in this country, it’s easier for two people to pay the rent than for one person,” he said.

For many middle- and lower-income people, high rents choke spending on other goods and services, impeding the economic recovery. Low-income families that spend more than half their income on housing spend about a third less on food, 50 percent less on clothing, and 80 percent less on medical care compared with low-income families with affordable rents, according to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. And renters amass less wealth, even non-housing wealth, than homeowners do.

The problem threatens to get worse before it gets better. Apartment builders have raced to build more units, creating a wave of supply that is beginning to crest. Miami added 2,500 rental apartments last year, and 7,500 more are expected in the next two years, according to the CoStar Group, a real estate research firm.

But demand has shown no signs of slackening. And as long as there are plenty of upper-income renters looking for apartments, there is little incentive to build anything other than expensive units. As a result, there are in effect two separate rental markets that are so far apart in price that they have little impact on each other. In one extreme case, a glut of new luxury apartments in Washington has pushed high-end rents down, even while midrange rents continue to rise.

“Increasing the supply is not going to increase the number of affordable units; that is a complete and utter fallacy,” said Jaimie Ross, the president of the Florida Housing Coalition. “People say if there really was a great need, the market would provide it; the market would correct itself. Well, the market has never corrected itself and it’s only getting worse.”

Money for affordable housing has dried up at a time when it is needed most. Federal housing funds, in a form now known as HOME grants, have been cut in half over the last decade. The percentage of eligible families who receive rental subsidies has shrunk, to 23.8 percent from 27.4 percent, the Harvard study found. And Florida, which like other states faced large budget shortfalls after the financial crisis, has raided its housing trust fund, funded by a real estate transfer tax, for several years running. This year, the Legislature has proposed restoring at least part of the money.

Cities have been left to address the problem on their own, with some granting exceptions to their own zoning laws to allow for things like micro-apartments. Miami has allowed some variances to its urban plan for projects like Brickell View Terrace, which will have 176 units in a prime location near a Metrorail station. Ninety of the units will be affordable for people making 60 percent of the median income, 10 for people making less, and the rest will be market rate.

But a seemingly insatiable demand for luxury condos in Miami, created in part by wealthy Latin Americans, has caused land prices to soar,
making affordable housing projects harder to build anywhere close to downtown. Moving farther out is cheaper, but the cost savings on housing can be quickly wiped out by transportation costs. A 2012 study by the Center for Housing Policy found that Miami was the most expensive metropolitan area in the country when housing and transportation costs were combined.

In many markets, buying a home is considerably cheaper than renting, and Miami is no exception. But many people are shut out of buying because their income is too low, they don’t qualify for a mortgage or they are burdened by other debt. In 2008, a quarter of rental applicants were still paying off student loans, according to CoreLogic, but as of last fall half of them were doing so.

Steve Gunn, 25, the marketing director for a Miami real estate brokerage firm, said he could certainly afford an apartment on his salary of $52,500 — if he weren’t paying more than $800 a month in student loan debt. Instead, he commutes 90 minutes to work. From his mother’s house.

Correction: April 19, 2014
A chart on Tuesday with the continuation of an article about rising rents that are out of the reach of the middle class misstated the time span of the data shown. The chart tracked the rise of median rent in various cities from the first quarter of 2000 through the fourth quarter of 2013, not the third.

A version of this article appears in print on April 15, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Many Cities, Rent Is Rising Out of Reach of Middle Class.


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Below you see two of the leading black figures Clinton was able to place at the head of this suspended Equal Protection and movement to global Economic Zones and corporate wealth.  It is very sad for people who worked so hard in the 1960s and 70s to see the leading civil rights and women rights leaders bought into dismantling all of what they supposedly fought to instate.  MR JORDAN was made a board member and corporate insider of major global corporations as was other Clinton recruits......Vernon Jordan is the face of The Urban League as the Housing and Urban Development without all of the equal opportunity and access-----and Baltimore Urban League is the face of Johns Hopkins Economic Zone development plans.  You see as well Mfume as head of NAACP right there during the Clinton era and he was recruited to be the face of this dismantling of Equal Protection HUD as well.  This is why today all of what were black justice organizations are now partnered with Johns Hopkins and its most regressive and repressive development----Baltimore Urban League and NAACP are Hopkins' partners----those black faces needed when rich white men do huge injustice to people of color and women.

I will talk this week on all these entities as well as the labor unions who are right there with the NAACP and Urban League backing the worst of Clinton neo-liberals doing all this.


YOU SEE CLINTON WENT AFTER THE FRATS AND SORORITIES WITH THIS VISION OF INDIVIDUAL WEALTH OVER EQUAL PROTECTION AND EQUAL RIGHTS OF ALL CITIZENS.

Vernon Jordan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


US Lawyer Vernon Jordan Vernon Eulion Jordan, Jr. (born August 15, 1935) is an American business executive and civil rights activist in the United States. A leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement, he was chosen by President Bill Clinton as a close adviser. Jordan has become known as an influential figure in American politics.


While still with the National Urban League, Jordan in 1981 said of the Ronald Reagan administration:

“ I do not challenge the conservatism of this administration. I do challenge its failure to exhibit a compassionate conservatism that adapts itself to the realities of a society ridden by class and race distinction.[8] ” That year he resigned from the National Urban League to take a position as legal counsel with the Washington, D.C., office of the Dallas law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Clinton administration Vernon Jordan shares conversation with famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. At the time, Jordan was visiting President Clinton on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Jordan, a friend and political adviser to Bill Clinton, served as part of Clinton's transition team in 1992–93, shortly after he was elected president. In the words of The New York Times:

"For Mr. Clinton, Mr. Jordan's roles have been manifold: Golfing companion. Smoother of ruffled feathers (he put the president back in touch with Zoë Baird after the withdrawal of her nomination to be attorney general). Consoler in chief (after Mr. Clinton was defeated for re-election as governor in 1980, after the suicide of Vincent W. Foster Jr. in 1993). Conduit to the high and mighty (he took Mr. Clinton in 1991 to the Bilderberg conference in Germany, an exclusive annual retreat for politicians and businessmen). Go-between (he told Mike Espy he had to go as secretary of agriculture, helped win Warren Christopher a larger role as secretary of state and sounded out Gen. Colin L. Powell for a Cabinet job).[9]



*********************************************************

Kweisi Mfume

(born Frizzell Gerald Gray; October 24, 1948) is the former President/CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as a five-term Democratic Congressman from Maryland's 7th congressional district, serving in the 100th through 104th Congress. On September 12, 2006, he lost a primary campaign for the United States Senate seat that was being vacated by Maryland U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes.



In February 1996, Mfume left the House to accept the presidency of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), stating that he could do more to improve American civil rights there than in the Congress. He reformed the association's finances to pay off its considerable debt while pursuing the cause of civil rights advancement for African Americans. Though many in Baltimore wanted Mfume to run for mayor in the 1999 election, Mfume stayed with the NAACP.[1] Mfume served this position for nine years before stepping down in 2004 to pursue other interests.

Mfume is a member of the Prince Hall Freemasons[2] and Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

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May 23rd, 2015

5/23/2015

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I wanted to talk elections using what I discussed this week-----so people will look at public policy and see which politician or political pundit or media outlet is telling the truth.  Right now, almost none of them are.  Please look at history and fascist movements in modern times when people living in those fascist nations are asked----WHY DID YOU ALLOW THOSE SOCIOPATHS GAIN POWER?  FASCISM always draws its support initially with civil and national pride----Stalin, Hitler, Mao all gained power toting the idea of a nation being the best and needing to protect against losses of some kind.  So, we have a Congress telling us we must spend all of our Federal funds and time expanding overseas and building markets to compete with China at the same time US corporations have merged and acquired tons of Chinese businesses, the US national debt is tied to Chinese investment, and Trans Pacific Trade Pact with Clinton/Bush/Obama seeks to bring Chinese global corporations to the US to operate as they did in that nation.  US corporations said---let us come in and abuse your environment and people and we will make China's politburo rich and then China can come to the US and abuse US environment and people while making US politburo----Congress and state and local politicians----rich.

THE US IS NOT COMPETING WITH CHINA----IT IS ON THE BOARD OF GLOBAL CORPORATIONS WITH CHINESE. 

The fear is not of Chinese investment or Chinese immigrants----it is the bringing back to the US corporate structures that operated in China and made these Chinese wealthy!

Isn't it interesting that an article like this does not mention TPP and what the terms of these trade deals mean for all of this foreign investment and corporate development in the US as a driver of all this migration of the wealthy to Europe and US.  The point is ----the American government and Wall Street love this partnership---

China's investments in the US are growing. Should we be concerned?

Steven Hill  The Guardian

A majority of Americans believe China poses the greatest threat to the US economy. Such fears are unwarranted The China Center, which assists Chinese investors and companies in the US, will be one of the biggest tenants in One World Trade Center, taking up six floors and 190,000 square feet of office space.

Photograph: Paul Owen/The Guardian Paul Owen/Guardian Friday 24 January 2014 10.51 EST Last modified on Monday 6 October 2014 09.38 EDT

Leaked documents this week revealed what many already knew: Chinese investors are storing their money – and investing – more and more overseas. China's rich and powerful seem to prefer the British Virgin Islands for their offshore transactions, but the US and Europe remain top destinations for their actual investments. The question is: should we be concerned?

Polls show that a majority of Americans believe China poses the greatest threat to the US economy, and a third aren't comfortable with any investment by Chinese firms into US companies. In the past, the US government has killed Chinese investments in American companies, such as an infamous deal where China's state-owned CNOOC tried to buy petroleum company Unocal corp for $18.5bn in 2005.

On the one hand, people look at the high-profile investments that China is making in the west, especially US real estate, and they question whether such iconic places should be in a communist country's hands. In the Big Apple, Beijing real-estate tycoon Zhang Xin led an investment group's $1.4bn purchase of the General Motors office tower last year, a 50-story monster that reportedly is the most expensive building in the US. Another headliner was Fosun International Ltd's purchase of the landmark building One Chase Manhattan Plaza for $725mn from JP Morgan Chase. Anticipating a surge in Chinese commercial activity, Fosun billionaire co-founder Guo Guangchang projects that eventually his company will fill as much as one-third of the building with Chinese companies. No doubt they will be assisted by the China Center (CCNY), a pro-business headquarters for Chinese investors and companies seeking to gain a foothold in the US. CCNY will be one of the biggest tenants in the new One World Trade Center (the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack), taking up six floors and 190,000 square feet of office space.

This kind of investment is good for New York City, and a sign of Chinese investors' confidence in the Big Apple during a time of economic uncertainty.

But money from China isn't just flowing into big time projects in Manhattan. It's also going to unlikely places, such as bankrupted Detroit, where financing is badly needed. Motown has become the fourth most popular US destination for Chinese real estate investors (behind New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia). With thousands of homes foreclosed, some two-storey homes have been auctioned off for as little as $39. This attracted attention in China, with state broadcaster China Central Television reporting that houses in Detroit cost the same as "a pair of leather shoes".

Chinese investors have made bulk purchases of dozens of cheap homes in the urban rings surrounding the city center, many of them bought without even having been seen. Then Dongdu International Group of Shanghai bought two downtown icons: the Detroit Free Press building for $9.4mn and the David Stott building for $4.2mn. Yes, Chinese investors have purchased the former headquarters of the free press in Motor Town.


Most of these investments should be welcome, not only in the US but also in Europe. Indeed, Europe has attracted twice as much Chinese investment as the US, as investors have seized commercial opportunities arising from the eurozone crisis. The Chinese have been providing fresh capital when western investors are tapped out or weary of troubled places like Detroit or Greece. This is a sign of China's further integration into the global market, and should be welcomed, not feared. The more the Chinese invest abroad, the more they have reason to want to partner with western countries and see them succeed.

But it goes beyond that. Americans need to understand what's driving Chinese investors. Many have begun looking abroad because of tight policy measures by China's communist government aimed at cooling off the country's overheated real estate market.


Some experts also believe that the parking of wealth offshore may indicate an increase in capital flight from China. A study conducted by Bank of China and Hurun found that more than half of China's millionaires have taken steps to emigrate or are considering doing so. Chinese individuals already have stashed offshore anywhere from $450bn to $658bn in assets, with Boston Consulting predicting that amount will double in three years. CNBC recently called the movement of Chinese capital "one of the largest and most rapid wealth migrations of our time". That's not a strong sign of Chinese investors' confidence in their own country.

On the other hand, the Chinese have only 13% of their wealth outside China, while the global average is 20% to 30%, according to Oliver Williams of WealthInsight. In a developing society like China, it's normal for the wealthy to geographically diversify their investment portfolios and send more of their wealth abroad.

While there's something ironic about investors from the land of "communism-capitalism" exploiting the west's economic vulnerabilities to snatch up valuable properties, that's how capitalism's "creative destruction" is supposed to work. Adam Smith would be pleased.

Unfortunately, the Chinese seem to want to play both sides of the coin. The Chinese government doesn't allow foreign investors to acquire properties of significance, whether real estate or companies. Other investment restrictions and requirements are applied to foreign enterprises in China, such as usually requiring foreign companies to enter into joint venture agreements with local Chinese partners.

While some consideration should be given to the fact that China is still a developing nation, in general East-West relations should live by the Investor's Golden Rule: "Invest in others as you would have them invest in you."

This principle should be enshrined in trade agreements, and be part of the findings whenever US or European regulators consider whether to approve Chinese investments.

The world should welcome China's further integration into the global market, since the more Chinese and western economies are integrated, the more it will build political bridges and diffuse tension. But the rules have to be fair and equal, and right now, they're not. China should be nudged to further open its economy. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.


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Looking below at what the article above describes nationally----thinking about the building of this Chinese Economic Zone in Baltimore and how these few decades moved all of this forward----sounds just like Robert Paxton's idea of fascism......the corporate state.

It's misleading because fascism has a specific historical meaning. The best definition I've seen is from the historian Robert Paxton's The Anatomy of FascismFor Paxton, fascism is:

"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."




When Martin O'Malley creates the slogan Moving Maryland Forward---which is a global corporate tribunal slogan by the way.....all the while installing Trans Pacific Trade Pact structures in Baltimore and Maryland that ends US, Maryland, and Baltimore sovereignty----ALL WHILE BEING CALLED A PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT IN THE MEDIA AND BY NATIONAL LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATION LEADERS---that is fascism.  MARYLAND MUST COMPETE WITH ITS NEIGHBORS TO WIN!   Meanwhile, O'Malley is connected to another neo-conservative Ivy League University ----Brown University of Rhode Island known in history for slave running----as with Johns Hopkins known today for human capital trafficing---and involved with a neo-conservative San Diego to create the same International Economic Zone as in Baltimore.  Look internationally, and you see these same Economic Zones being built all around the world by global corporate development.  So, we know Martin O'Malley is not progressive and never was---he simply threw a few progressive bones to keep labor and justice quiet.

Then you have the Baltimore black caucus working it hard for Johns Hopkins and the building of International Economic Zone Baltimore.....neo-conservative policy all by pols running as Democrats.  These pols are handing the most valuable of Baltimore's real estate to global investment firms and shareholders leaving the idea of 'Baltimore' in the dust while using the slogan 'Baltimore Pride'---Baltimore media literally played that over and over====this is FASCISM.


The article below is long please glance through to the next article-----do you really think global corporations are going to come back to the US under TPP and not look like they do overseas?   REALLY? 

REMEMBER, TPP IS ILLEGAL AND A COUP AGAINST THE US CONSTITUTION AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE----IT CAN BE VOIDED.  AS WELL, THE US CONSTITUTION HAS ANTI-TRUST LAWS THAT WILL BREAK DOWN ALL US GLOBAL CORPORATIONS---WE SIMPLY NEED TO ELECT POLS THAT WANT TO DO THAT!



This is what Trans Pacific seeks to bring to the US and cities like Baltimore under Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins are leading the way......all with pols running as Democrats....


By: Dexter Roberts in Zhongshan and Aaron Bernstein in Washington

Inside a Chinese Sweatshop: "A Life of Fines and Beating"

Wal-Mart's self-policing in the Chun Si factory was a disaster. What kind of monitoring system works?

RELATED ITEMS
Inside a Chinese Sweatshop: ``A Life of Fines and Beating''

MAP: China

TABLE: What Are the Auditors Missing?

Liu Zhang (not his real name) was apprehensive about taking a job at the Chun Si Enterprise Handbag Factory in Zhongshan, a booming city in Guangdong Province in southern China, where thousands of factories churn out goods for Western companies. Chun Si, which made Kathie Lee Gifford handbags sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ( WMT) as well as handbags sold by Kansas-based Payless ShoeSource Inc. ( PSS), advertised decent working conditions and a fair salary. But word among migrant workers in the area was that managers there demanded long hours of their workers and sometimes hit them. Still, Liu, a 32-year-old former farmer and construction worker from far-off Henan province, was desperate for work. A factory job would give him living quarters and the temporary-residence permit internal migrants need to avoid being locked up by police in special detention centers. So in late August, 1999, he signed up.

Liu quickly realized that the factory was even worse than its reputation. Chun Si, owned by Chun Kwan, a Macau businessman, charged workers $15 a month for food and lodging in a crowded dorm--a crushing sum given the $22 Liu cleared his first month. What's more, the factory gave Liu an expired temporary-resident permit; and in return, Liu had to hand over his personal identification card. This left him a virtual captive. Only the local police near the factory knew that Chun Si issued expired cards, Liu says, so workers risked arrest if they ventured out of the immediate neighborhood.

HALF A CENT. Liu also found that Chun Si's 900 workers were locked in the walled factory compound for all but a total of 60 minutes a day for meals. Guards regularly punched and hit workers for talking back to managers or even for walking too fast, he says. And they fined them up to $1 for infractions such as taking too long in the bathroom. Liu left the factory for good in December, after he and about 60 other workers descended on the local labor office to protest Chun Si's latest offenses: requiring cash payments for dinner and a phony factory it set up to dupe Wal-Mart's auditors. In his pocket was a total of $6 for three months of 90-hour weeks--an average of about one-half cent an hour. ''Workers there face a life of fines and beating,'' says Liu. Chun Kwan couldn't be reached, but his daughter, Selina Chun, one of the factory managers, says ''this is not true, none of this.'' She concedes that Chun Si did not pay overtime but says few other factories do, either. In a face-to-face interview in August, she also admitted that workers have tried to sue Chun Si.

Liu's Dickensian tale stands in stark contrast to the reassurances that Wal-Mart, Payless, and other U.S. companies give American consumers that their goods aren't produced under sweatshop conditions. Since 1992, Wal-Mart has required its suppliers to sign a code of basic labor standards. After exposes in the mid-1990s of abuses in factories making Kathie Lee products, which the chain carries, Wal-Mart and Kathie Lee both began hiring outside auditing firms to inspect supplier factories to ensure their compliance with the code. Many other companies that produce or sell goods made in low-wage countries do similar self-policing, from Toys 'R' Us to Nike and Gap. While no company suggests that its auditing systems are perfect, most say they catch major abuses and either force suppliers to fix them or yank production.

What happened at Chun Si suggests that these auditing systems can miss serious problems--and that self-policing allows companies to avoid painful public revelations about them. Allegations about Chun Si first surfaced this May in a report by the National Labor Committee (NLC), a small anti-sweatshop group in New York that in 1997 exposed Kathie Lee's connection to labor violations in Central America. For several months, Wal-Mart repeatedly denied any connection to Chun Si. Wal-Mart and Kathie Lee even went so far as to pass out a press release when the report came out dismissing it as ''lies'' and insisting that they never had ''any relationship with a company or factory by this name anywhere in the world.''

But in mid-September, after a three-month BUSINESS WEEK investigation that involved a visit to the factory, tracking down ex-Chun Si workers, and obtaining copies of records they had smuggled out of the factory, Wal-Mart conceded that it had produced the Kathie Lee bags there until December, 1999. Wal-Mart Vice-President of Corporate Affairs Jay Allen now says that Wal-Mart denied using Chun Si because it was ''defensive'' about the sweatshop issue.

Wal-Mart Director of Corporate Compliance Denise Fenton says its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ( PWC) and Cal Safety Compliance Corp., had inspected Chun Si five times in 1999 and found that the factory didn't pay the legal overtime rate and had required excessive work hours. Because the factory didn't fix the problems, she says, Wal-Mart stopped making Kathie Lee bags there. Kathie Lee, who licenses her name to Wal-Mart, which handles production, concurred with the chain's action at Chun Si, says her lawyer Richard Hofstetter. Payless also stopped production there after an investigation, a spokesman says.

Still, the auditors failed to uncover many of the egregious conditions in the factory despite interviews with dozens of workers, concedes Fenton. Charges NLC Executive Director Charles Kernaghan: ''The real issue here is why anyone should believe their audits.''

A SECOND LOOK. And it's not just Wal-Mart. The NLC's report, entitled Made in China, detailed labor abuses in a dozen factories producing for household-name U.S. companies (www.nlcnet.org). After it came out, bootmaker Timberland Co. asked its auditors to revisit its plant, also in Zhongshan. They found that the factory hadn't fixed most of the violations cited the first time, despite repeated assurances to Timberland that it had (table). Similarly, in mid-September, Social Accountability International (SAI), a New York group that started a factory monitoring system last year, revoked its certification of a Chinese factory that makes shoes for New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. after auditors reinspected the plant following the NLC report. ''The auditors found that indeed there were many violations they had not picked up the first time,'' says SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin.

Because such efforts to reassure consumers have proven so unsatisfactory, a handful of companies, including Nike Inc. and Reebok International Ltd.--so far, the companies most tarnished by anti-sweatshop activists--have concluded that self-policing isn't enough. They--along with Kathie Lee--helped form the Fair Labor Assn., created in 1998 after a White House-sponsored initiative. The FLA now has a dozen members and is setting up an independent monitoring system that includes human rights groups.

Wal-Mart and many other companies, though, reject such efforts, saying they don't want to tell critics or rivals where their products are made. Yet without independent inspections, such companies leave themselves open to critics' accusations that self-policing doesn't work. ''The big retailers, such as Wal-Mart, drive the market today, yet...they're not committed to changing the way they do business,'' says Michael Posner, head of New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and an FLA board member. Wal-Mart's Allen says that after three years of talks, the company may soon set up independent monitoring with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a religious group in New York City.

Certainly, what happened at Chun Si illustrates the inadequacy of many labor-auditing systems in place today. Wal-Mart uses nine auditing firms, including PWC. Like other big accounting firms, PWC has a booming labor-auditing business inspecting many of the thousands of factories making toys and clothes made by Wal-Mart and other companies. After Kathie Lee's drubbing by sweatshop critics, she hired Cal Safety, a Los Angeles-based labor-auditing firm, to do separate audits of the factories that produce the clothing and accessories bearing her name. According to Wal-Mart's Fenton, Cal Safety inspected the factory four times from March to December of last year, and PWC inspected it once, in September. The auditors found that Chun Si had numerous problems, including overtime violations and excessively long hours, says Fenton.

But otherwise, concedes Fenton, the audits missed most of the more serious abuses listed in the NLC report and confirmed by BUSINESS WEEK, including beatings and confiscated identity papers. (Wal-Mart declined to allow BUSINESS WEEK to talk in detail to Cal Safety or PWC, citing confidentiality agreements. Randal H. Rankin, head of PWC's labor practices unit, insists his audit did catch many of the abuses found by the NLC, though he wouldn't provide specifics, also citing Wal-Mart's confidentiality agreement. Cal Safety President Carol Pender says her firm caught some, though not all, of the abuses.)

All the while, evidence was piling up at the local labor office in Zhongshan. There, officials received a constant stream of worker complaints--several a month since the factory opened 10 years ago, says Mr. Chen, the head of the local labor office, who declined to give his full name. ''Since they opened their factory, the complaints never stopped,'' he says. Officials would call or go to the factory once a month or so to mediate disputes, but new complaints kept arising, he says. Neither Wal-Mart's nor Kathie Lee's auditors discovered this history.

Chun Si also tried to hoodwink the auditors, according to the workers BUSINESS WEEK interviewed. After Cal Safety's initial inspection in March, 1999, Wal-Mart (through its U.S. supplier, which placed the order with the factory) insisted that Chun Si remedy the violations or it would pull the contract. Cal Safety found little improvement when it returned in June, as did PWC in September.

DOUBLE STANDARD. Chun Si then took drastic steps, apparently in an effort to pass the final audit upon which its contract depended. In early November, management gave a facelift to the two attached five-story factory buildings, painting walls, cleaning workshops, even putting high-quality toilet paper in the dank bathrooms, according to Liu and Pang Yinguang (also not his real name), another worker employed there at the time whom BUSINESS WEEK interviewed in mid-September. Management then split the factory into two groups. The first, with about 200 workers, was assigned to work on the fixed-up second floor, while the remaining 700 or so worked on the fourth floor, leaving the other floors largely vacant. Managers announced that those on the fourth floor were no longer working for Chun Si but for a new factory they called Yecheng. Workers signed new labor contracts with Yecheng, whose name went up outside the fourth floor.

The reality soon became clear. Workers on the fourth floor, including Liu and Pang, were still laboring under the old egregious conditions--illegally low pay, 14-hour days, exorbitant fees for meals--and still making the same Kathie Lee handbags. ''It felt like being in prison,'' says Pang, 22. But those on the second floor now received the local minimum wage of $55 a month and no longer had to do mandatory overtime. A new sign went up in the cafeteria used by workers on all floors explaining that the factory was a Wal-Mart supplier and should live up to certain labor standards. Liu says there was even a phone number workers could call with problems: 1-800-WM-ETHIC. ''When we saw the Wal-Mart statement, we felt very excited and happy because we thought that now there was a possibility to improve our conditions,'' says Liu.

LAST STRAW. Instead, they got worse. On Nov. 28, a second notice went up stating that starting on Dec. 10, all workers would be required to pay cash for dinner rather than just have money subtracted from their paychecks as before, say Liu and Pang. With up to 80% of workers already skipping breakfast to save money, the upper-floor employees were aghast, says Liu. ''If we had left the factory then, we wouldn't have had even enough money for a bus ticket home,'' he says. ''But if we stayed, we knew we wouldn't have enough money to eat.''

A group of workers, including Liu and Pang, met around a small pond on the factory grounds on one of the following evenings. They knew that workers had fruitlessly complained before to the local labor office. So they decided on a plan to smuggle out documents to prove Chun Si's illegal fees and subminimum wages. On Dec. 1, 58 workers overcame their fears of retaliation and marched out the factory gates, down to the labor office.

Faced with the throng of workers, local labor officials visited Chun Si and forced the factory to immediately pay the workers and return the illegally collected fees. But the officials also told these workers they would have to give up their jobs at Chun Si. Days later, some 40 labor officials returned, ordered Chun Si to properly register or shut down the so-called Yecheng factory, and fined the company about $8,500. Shortly after the blow-up, Wal-Mart ended production at Chun Si.

Kernaghan and other labor activists concede that Chun Si is an extreme example of working conditions in China today. Yet many experts think most factories in China producing for Western companies routinely break China's labor laws. Some Western companies' monitoring efforts do catch and fix some of these problems. But unless companies and governments alike take more serious steps, labor watchdogs will give little credence to company claims that they're doing the best they can.

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fas·cism  (făsh′ĭz′əm)n.1. often Fascisma. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.


Baltimore has been in the grips of fascism for decades with Johns Hopkins running it as a company town....it is now noticable to all because they are tightening the grip.

The good news is fascism never keeps hold of a society---people always get tired of being abused and send them sociopaths packing.  What Americans and Maryland/Baltimore citizens need to do is START NOW.  There are no winners in this---.0001% will fight for it all.

  DO NOT WAIT UNTIL IT BECOMES UNBEARABLE.  WAKE UP AND GET ENGAGED!


As Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley begins to campaign for President telling Americans he is a progressive Democrat-----here is O'Malley's history for all to see.  The American people must stop relying on what used to be labor and justice organizations that educated about public policy but are now tied to Clinton neo-liberalism----TAKE TIME TO EDUCATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS ON PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICIANS---BE THE CANDIDATE THAT DOES NOT SELL OUT!

This is what Fascism looks like----


Sunday, May 17, 2015 11:00 AM EST  Salon

The ghosts of Baltimore: How plunder, violence and intimidation built a great American city The Freddie Gray protests are merely the epilogue to a decades-long story of corruption and crippling inequality

SHELLEY PUHAK, The Weeklings


Baltimore, May 1, 2015. (Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer) This article originally appeared on The Weeklings. EVERY CITY HAS SEAMS where the past peeks through, spots especially vulnerable to echoes and reverberations. Take Camden Yards, the iconic retro stadium where drunk baseball fans and splinter groups of protestors clashed in Baltimore. Before Camden Yards was a stadium, it was a B&O railyard; before that, it was the “Frenchtown” neighborhood, and before that, a packed dirt camp for colonial troops.

Baltimore is haunted, but I mean that in the 13th century sense, when to haunt was to frequent, to be familiar with. Baltimore has a habit of brawling and plundering and brick-throwing, with most instances dwarfing the recent destruction. Camden Yards (once Camden Station, before that Camden Street, and before that just an oak tree at the end of what was called Forest Street, and before that a sapling, and before that a seed) is a spot more haunted than most. Like the waterfront Pratt Street, Camden Street was named after Charles Pratt, first Earl of Camden. This Englishman never set foot in Baltimore, but he did side with the Colonies against the Stamp Tax, which had inspired riots of its own.

Two weeks ago Saturday, when police moved in when protesters neared the stadium itself, when some white suburban fans taunted protesters with racial slurs, scuffles erupted. Most of those fans had entered the stadium that afternoon via the pedestrian walkway at the intersection of Camden and Eutaw Streets, right at centerfield. They had milled around the shops and restaurants, treading on brick stacked upon asphalt paving over what was once Donovan’s slave jail. Most of these fans would have no idea they were doing so— there is no plaque or marker. Most of these fans would end up stuck inside the stadium, where beleaguered Union troops barricaded themselves another mild April evening 154 years earlier. Coincidence or convergence?

By now, you’ve probably heard references to Baltimore’s Pratt Street riots, which erupted on April 19, 1861, when a mob attacked a Massachusetts regiment on its way to D.C. Shots had been fired at Fort Sumter the past week, both sides had been posturing, but there had been no casualties. It was in Baltimore that the very first blood of the Civil War was drawn— four soldiers and twelve civilians died that day. After that, there was no backing down.

The song “Maryland! My Maryland!” was inspired by the Pratt Street Riots and written by a local English teacher. Set to the tune of “O Tannenbaum,” this Confederate fight song called upon troops to “Avenge the patriotic gore/That flecked the streets of Baltimore.”

This is our official state song, a song that opens with a reference to Lincoln as a “despot” and wraps up by praising how our state “spurn[ed] the Northern scum!” Note that “Maryland! My Maryland!” was adopted by the state legislature in 1939, almost 75 years after the end of the Civil War.

Traditionally, the third verse of “Maryland, My Maryland” is sung at the Preakness Stakes by the Naval Academy’s Glee Club, a verse that was intended to intimidate on the battlefield, which rejoices that our “beaming sword shall never rust,” immortalizing our propensity for violence.

~

The 1861 riots are not even the incident that earned Baltimore its moniker of Mobtown. The city’s nickname was probably coined during the 1812 riots, which culminated in an angry mob setting upon a newspaper editor and his armed supporters (which included the father of Robert E. Lee) holed up with muskets in what is now trendy Federal Hill. But there were also the Bank Riots of 1832, the Nunnery Riots of 1839, the Know Nothing Election Riots that occurred annually between 1856-1859, the Federal Hill and Fells Point Riots of 1858, the Railroad Strike of 1877, the Red Summer race riots of 1919, and, of course, the MLK riots of 1968.

These riots that occur cyclically are pressure-valves built into our system to keep it from imploding.

Baltimore has enjoyed periods of integration during prosperity and cycles of ethnic or racial strife in tough times. The city depends upon having the working poor police those even poorer, upon setting their interests against one another.

In 1835, a year after the state Bank of Maryland failed and lost millions of the common people’s dollars, those on its board were accused of fraud and corruption. The board had promised a financial settlement but had been dragging its feet for well over a year.

In an attempt to speed the process along, an angry throng smashed a few windows at the home of the powerful Bank Director (and U.S. senator) Reverdy Johnson. The mayor not only called up troops to protect his friend’s property from the mob, but went himself to try to personally dissuade them.

Unable to destroy the bank director’s home, the mob satisfied itself with trashing the homes of other board members.

After the violence subsided, the mob leaders were jailed. The bank directors who had already bankrupted the taxpayers went on to successfully sue the state of Maryland for failing to protect their property.

~

I teach at a small university in Baltimore bordered by two thoroughfares: Charles Street, with its million-dollar Federalist and Tudor homes; and York Road, with its check cashing places and fast food restaurants, a short stretch one visiting poet said reminded her of her hometown of Harlem. They are separated by a distance of a half mile.

In the past quarter century I’ve lived in the neighborhoods of Waverly, Charles Village, Hampden, and Cedmont, before becoming part of the problem and moving across the county line. I know my white flight makes me complicit. Still, I can no longer believe farm-to-table/organic/eat local/hipster-quirky/Main Street initiatives are going to be enough to plaster over our past.

Baltimore is like no other city. Baltimore is like too many other cities. It is not just a city that has fostered inequality, but one founded upon it, upon a Land of Pleasant Living forged through violence and intimidation.

At the same spot Confederate sympathizers fired upon Union troops, the Maryland National Guard fired upon a large group of railroad workers and their families in 1877. The workers had been out on strike because the B&O had cut their wages at the same time they paid their shareholders a record 10% dividend. Ten civilians were killed and more than two dozen were wounded.

That regiment also ended up barricaded in Camden Station, trapped for days until Marines were sent in to rescue them. In the meantime, to avenge the protestor’s deaths, the mob set to burning down anything that was not brick.

The National Guard had been sent in in the first place not to keep the peace and protect the citizens of Baltimore, but to protect the railroad.

Protect and serve. Protect the bank director’s home. Protect the B&O. Protect the Orioles.

What if Baltimore’s demonstrators had chanted the following at police:

We will not crook to your control,

Better the fire upon us roll,

Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,

Than crucifixion of the soul.

Would we have thought them patriots for singing our state song?

Maryland, My Maryland!

Oh, Baltimore, my Baltimore.

All a ghost, any ghost asks, is to be acknowledged. Every legend, every story, starts with this premise. Or else we remain haunted, throwing the same bricks and shouting the same slogans. And while we are busy sweeping up the glass and putting out the fires, the same folks keep making money.


______________________________________

Creation of global economic zones in the US with the goal of rotating immigrants through one employment situation after another under Trans Pacific Trade Pact will create the very structures for poverty that leads to inequity and abuse.  The problem is never the immigrant----the US has the potential to employ all Americans and any immigrants that want to come IF IT RETURNED TO A DOMESTIC ECONOMY FUELED BY US WORKERS AND CORPORATIONS THAT PAID TAXES AND WERE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IN THE WORKPLACE.  Global markets are built to keep workers of the world always needing more---always afraid of losing jobs.  Domestic economies create stability and that works well for immigrant labor.  WHEN WE SHOUT AGAINST TPP AND THE MARKET-BASED IMMIGRATION REFORM-----AGAINST CHINESE-STYLE ECONOMIC ZONES -----WE ARE SHOUTING AGAINST PUBLIC POLICY AND NOT AGAINST IMMIGRANTS.


'But to group low-paid workers of different nationalities against each other is just another aspect of the divide and rule culture that will help to foster tensions and divisions between communities. The answer to poverty isn’t to pitch one worker against another of a different nationality; it’s to combat the systems and structures that lead to such inequality'.



Structural inequality, not immigration, is the UK’s problem

George Gillett 27 May, 2014 1.3k041

The answer to poverty isn’t to pitch one worker against another of a different nationality; it’s to combat the systems and structures that lead to such inequality.

The answer to poverty isn’t to pitch one worker against another of a different nationality; it’s to combat the systems and structures that lead to such inequality

In light of the European election results, it is clear that UKIP’s rhetoric has resonated among the public. With more MEPs than any other party and over 27 per cent of the vote, fear about immigration and the harmful effects of EU membership is widespread. UKIP’s popularity, however, means that it’s now more important than ever to scrutinise their rhetoric.

Of course, much has been written about the economic benefits of membership to the EU, and specifically, immigration. Reports have highlighted that migration increases the UK’s GDP, and aids public finances. Yet it’s been claimed that these economic benefits aren’t felt by low-paid workers, a viewpoint that may indeed be valid considering the worrying increase in inequality within the UK over recent decades.

Depending on the measurement, it is thought that the UK has the sixth or seventh largest economy in the world. We benefit from an excellent National Health Service and state education system until the age of 18. The notion that the UK is ‘under threat’ is absurd, and represents a huge misunderstanding of our place in the world. We are immensely fortunate to be born into such a lifestyle when comparing the UK to other countries.

Why aren’t others entitled to this good fortune and lifestyle? What is it out about Britons that, just because we had the luck of being born here, makes us more deserving than immigrants? UKIP’s rhetoric is shrouded in the pernicious notion of birth-rights – the language that ‘we’ deserve ‘our’ land, ‘our’ hospitals and ‘our’ schools more than others who differ from us only by birthplace.

Considering this, it’s unsurprising that Farage’s party are so often described as racist, when so fundamental to their philosophy is the idea that British people are more deserving than others. When Farage speaks about the ‘people’s army’, he talks about an exclusively British ‘people’s army’, which concerns itself with improving life for British people, at the deliberate exclusion of others.

Yet foreign migrants are as deserving as anyone born in the UK, especially when considering that they are often attempting to escape poverty or to better their economic position.

To prioritise the curbing of immigration on the political agenda is to enthusiastically embrace structural global inequality. And not only to embrace such inequality, but to benefit from it, to maintain our privilege at the neglect of others. For anyone with any sense of a belief in equal opportunity, social mobility or economic equality, the issue is fundamentally the same; to accept privilege and to deny somebody else of similar opportunity is inherently unjust.

This is what is so concerning about the EU election results. We had a chance to mandate our representatives to act on a number of issues; to combat global poverty, to take measures on climate change or to prevent international organised crime such as sex trafficking. The kind of issues that fundamentally require international co-operation, and that UKIP ignore in favour of nationalistic entitlement.

Despite the privilege that the UK grants us, it would of course be unfair to deny that the UK faces significant challenges. In recent years, inequality has increased rapidly, food bank usage has soared, and many, both in and out of work, are struggling with poverty.

But to group low-paid workers of different nationalities against each other is just another aspect of the divide and rule culture that will help to foster tensions and divisions between communities. The answer to poverty isn’t to pitch one worker against another of a different nationality; it’s to combat the systems and structures that lead to such inequality.

We need to better represent workers and their rights, an end to zero-hours contracts and the implementation of a Living Wage, which pays all employees enough to maintain a reasonable quality of life. Similarly, the housing crisis can’t be solved by scapegoating foreigners – instead, the government must take responsibility and increase the building of council homes.

Indeed, between 2002-2012, a total of 9,860 council homes were built, less than 4 per cent of the number built over the same period 30 years ago. This is clearly inadequate for the UK’s growing population.

It would be foolish and wrong to argue that UK poverty doesn’t exist. However, it’s absurd to respond to such poverty by victimising fellow low-paid workers in other nations, whilst ignoring the structural inequality that exists within the UK. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, our fixation with immigration can only be described as a self-serving maintenance of our own privilege, which only reinforces the lottery of birth and stifles any essence of equal opportunities.

Farage claims that he’s leading a ‘people’s army’. In reality, he’s a public-schooled, millionaire City trader, playing divide and rule with oppressed communities. He knows who benefits from inequality and injustice, and he has no intention of changing it.






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May 22nd, 2015

5/22/2015

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MARYLAND ASSEMBLY BILL FERGUSON THE NEXT MARTIN O'MALLEY?  THEY ARE TRYING! 

I will end today by looking one more time at the big picture and how Information Technology Systems play into these global corporate tribunal economic zones around the world.  One more Information System going into place in Baltimore-----SMART METERS.  If you think how much data is being collected through surveillance----through medical microchips as health care-----and today SMART METERS you see why all of the space on the internet is being taken by these global corporations ------ergo, ending NET NEUTRALITY.


This is the same global corporate health/medical structure that includes University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. These are FOXCONN medical/health factories that create an entire social structure around this facility------tying K-12 and career college apprenticeships to provide free labor and all taxpayer revenue sent to subsidize the research and to create tax shelters for all corporate product development. So, what we see happening in Baltimore to our public University of Maryland Baltimore and Johns Hopkins is happening in several locations around the country often tied to Ivy League cities......As citizens in Baltimore can see all of what is planned here is the mirror of Hopkins' East Baltimore hub and what is now becoming UMMS bio-tech hub.

Why does this matter? This is the same kind of consolidation of the financial industry that gave us global Wall Street controlling all aspects of finance in our economy. Consolidation this great is what kills competition and free markets---small business and allows local and state governments be controlled by these corporate entities as in Baltimore. These will be international corporate hubs that will keep Americans with high unemployment and bring third world wages as that will be the only wage offered soon. This is not about job creation or good jobs......it is bringing FOXCONN in China home to the US.



From a friend in San Diego-----Do you know anything about Wexford Science & Technology. I think they are a subsidiary of a San Diego based company called BioMed Realty, a Real Estate Investment Trust but is, itself, located in Maryland. They've set up "innovation hubs" in various cities across the country, including Baltimore with the University of Maryland. Our governor, who has Martin O'Malley's, Stephen Neuman in tow, as well as former Newark mayor's, Corey Booker, Stefan Pryor?

There you see Baltimore's University of Maryland Medical System tied to this global economic zone creation mostly connected to Ivy League universities that received all of the Federal funding to build this research infrastructure----and without coincidence----lead the Wall Street corporate schemes to loot the US, State, and local government coffers with fraud in the trillions.  These Ivy League endowment investments were heavily connected to the subprime mortgage frauds and corporate fraud tied to government outsourcing.

O'Malley's brother has joined the staff of Providence RI governor and is now working with Brown University doing the same in RI as was done in Baltimore----making one giant global economic zone in that area.


The American people not knowing the goals are told this is about jobs, jobs, jobs and they do not see the implications of controlled information----but the American people do understand that the US corporations that moved overseas to China to give us cheap products here in the US involved huge US factories with Chinese citizens working in the worst of conditions for $2 a day.  That is the FOXCONN economic zone model.  The Clinton Initiative was all about wheeling and dealing with Chinese government officials to allow the building of these huge economic zones in exchange for making these Chinese officials rich----see what is happening to US government officials?  The American people never see the jobs, jobs, jobs because the initial development means bringing US global corporate partners from overseas to set up shop in the US and take the lead in our institutions.  Baltimore sees this in spades----and the unemployment in Baltimore is 37% and 50% for black youth.  An entire city filled with what will be sweat American shop workers.  This is all aboard----but people of color and women are always hurt most.

  THAT IS WHAT MOTIVATES THESE CLINTON NEO-LIBERAL AND BUSH NEO-CON POLS.
CHINESE POLITBURO BOUGHT JUST AS EGYPTIAN GENERALS INTO LOVING GLOBAL CORPORATE NAKED CAPITALISM!


Major life-sciences complex proposed for 195 land Wexford and CV Properties say development could top 1 million square feet of space


By Ted Nesi Published: May 20, 2015, 12:15 pm Updated: May 20, 2015, 6:55 pm



PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Gov. Gina Raimondo is one step closer to her dream of putting a sizable innovation hub on the old I-195 land.

Two private developers – Wexford Science & Technology LLC and CV Properties LLC – submitted a proposal last week to the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission seeking approval for a million-square-foot-plus multi-use project on parcel 22 and parcel 25 of the vacant former highway property, WPRI.com confirmed Wednesday.

“It is a major life-sciences complex that includes lab space, academic research space, a hotel with meeting space and residential and retail components,” Eric Cote, a spokesman for CV Properties, told WPRI.com.

“It is a very large proposed complex,” he said. “The size that it may ultimately be will depend on our discussions with the 195 Commission, so it could change, but it’s currently envisioned as a project in excess of 1 million square feet.”

Dick Galvin, president of CV Properties, said the total investment in the project is projected to be several hundred million dollars. “It’s on a scale we’re not used to seeing in Rhode Island,” he told WPRI.com.

In an email, Wexford spokesman Jim Cullinan said his company “sees great potential and opportunity in Providence … to create an innovation district to keep innovation in the state.” As evidence, he cited the research happening at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, along with “strong political leadership.”

“Wexford develops projects in partnership with research universities across the country, and we believe that Governor Raimondo is doing a tremendous job creating the right environment and incentives for new development in Rhode Island,” he said.


It’s likely Brown will play some sort of significant role in the Wexford-CV project. The Ivy League school is hoping to receive an infusion of new cash over the next few years once it launches another major capital campaign.

In a statement, Brown President Christina Paxson said the new proposal shows Brown’s investments in the Jewelry District “are having the intended effect of fueling interest in further economic development.” She declined to give details on how Brown may become involved in the new development; the school is already partnering with CV Properties and the state to redevelop the old South Street Power Station.

“If the proposal progresses, we are prepared to work in close partnership with Wexford, the city and the state to seize opportunities to support our ongoing investments in academic research and education to spur discoveries that can improve people’s lives,” Paxson said.

The adjoining parcels that Wexford and CV want encompass about five acres of land bounded by Dyer, Clifford, Richmond and Ship streets. One side of the new complex would be across Dyer Street from the proposed site of the new Pawtucket Red Sox ballpark. The life-sciences company Nabsys, whose CEO is a 195 Commission member, occupies a Brown-owned building along Clifford Street that cuts into the proposed Wexford-CV site.

  • Q&A: CV Properties President Dick Galvin breaks down his 195 proposal
“Regardless of how you feel about them, this proposal, the PawSox stadium, the parking garage at the Garrahy complex, and the student housing proposed at Parcel 28 would transform this section of the city,” Jef Nickerson, who writes the development-focused blog Greater City Providence, wrote Wednesday.

Raimondo – who campaigned for governor last year in part on a proposal to build what she called an “innovation institute” on the 195 land – was quick to praise the Wexford-CV proposal, which the business community has been whispering about for a few weeks.

“This is an exciting preliminary proposal that could begin the transformation of the I-195 land from vacant lots to a thriving innovation district that highlights the potential of partnering with our outstanding research institutions and our proximity to Boston and Cambridge,” Raimondo said in a statement.

CV’s Cote said it’s too soon to say when construction could begin or in what order the multi-phase development’s components would be constructed, saying the developers first need to engage in discussions with the I-195 Commission about its size and shape.

A spokeswoman for the governor said her office expects the 195 Commission to evaluate the Wexford-CV proposal “in the coming weeks,” and that construction of the complex would occur over “several years.” A 195 Commission spokeswoman said initial discussions about the project will take place at the panel’s June 15 meeting.

“The proposed mixed-use development plan, with its focus on research and development facilities to serve local institutions and attract new employers to the city, is consistent with the vision we have,” 195 Commission Chairman Joseph Azrack said in a statement. He added: “We look forward to working with the sponsors to bring this plan to fruition.”

“We are pleased that there is already such strong interest in the I-195 land – as well as in our hoped-for financial tools for the redevelopment of this land,” Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said in his own statement.

It’s not clear yet which of those “financial tools” the developers want to tap for the project. The proposals on the table include significant tax credits and a new $25-million fund to subsidize development on the 195 land. The developers could also seek tax breaks from the city of Providence. The law that created the 195 Commission already allows significant tax credits for life sciences.

“We’re still exploring how they may be able to support our proposed development but it’s clear that some form of tax credits and incentives will be essential to make our proposed project a reality,” Dick Galvin, CV Properties’ president, said in a statement.

CV Properties and Galvin have become familiar names in Rhode Island: the Connecticut-based developer is currently turning the South Street Power Station into a new state nursing school. Wexford Science & Technology is known nationally for partnering with anchor institutions to create large-scale multi-use developments such as Wake Forest Innovation Quarter in North Carolina and the University of Maryland BioPark.

“Wexford has a strong track record of innovation and development in other cities, including Boston and Philadelphia,” Raimondo said. The Baltimore-based company is a division of publicly traded BioMed Realty Trust Inc., based in San Diego.

The University of Rhode Island, another partner in the nursing school project, “is excited about the possibilities with the proposed I-195 project and hopes to work with the applicants to define collaborations between URI, Brown University and other research entities to bring innovation and development to the state,” David Dooley, the school’s president, said in a statement.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed all also expressed enthusiasm for the Wexford-CV proposal on Wednesday.

“The administration is excited by initial discussions around developing a state-of-the-art, innovative facility which would encourage the high-tech, forward-looking jobs and investments that are central to the vision for the I-195 land,” Elorza spokesman Evan England said in a statement.

Cote gave a number of reasons for the two developers’ interest.

“Rhode Island and Providence offer a great deal of opportunity for developers, especially in the life sciences area,” he said. “There is excellent political leadership from the state level, from the governor to the General Assembly to the mayor of Providence, all taking important steps to encourage investment and development in life sciences.”

“We’ve got phenomenal research institutions at Brown University and URI that are already making big investments in life sciences in Providence,” he continued. “Those are all very good factors that contribute to our interest in Providence.”

Ted Nesi (tnesi@wpri.com) covers politics and the economy for WPRI.com. He hosts Executive Suite and writes the Nesi’s Notes blog. Follow him on Twitter: @tednesi



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Baltimore is so starved of city revenue from all of this global corporate development by Hopkins and Baltimore Development Corporation that we have to watch Baltimore pols pretending to fight for public school education funding as they pass laws that keep Baltimore from having any revenue that could easily go to support public schools.  Totally exempt global corporations from taxes and then pretend to be concerned about public schools and services being unfunded.  THAT'S A CLINTON NEO-LIBERAL AND BUSH NEO-CON FOR YOU!

Maryland is ground zero for corporate tax breaks and especially real estate tax breaks----not only TIFS et al----but REIT====Baltimore is the land of REIT and all of this economic zone development is tied to REIT real estate deals----meaning they protect these global economic zones from any taxation at just about all levels.  This is why Baltimore communities are crumbling and called 'unsustainable'----all the revenue paid by citizens of Baltimore have gone to subsidize all of the development in economic zones.  As you see below Johns Hopkins East Baltimore BioTech Park and University of Maryland Medical Center BioTech Park both fall into the hands of what we know are global investment firms----coming from Maryland as well.  The article below tells of how devastating these policies are to communities and citizens -----and they are brought to you by ALL OF BALTIMORE'S POLITICIANS WORKING FOR A VERY VERY NEO-CONSERVATIVE JOHNS HOPKINS.  O'Malley of course spread these policies all around so all of Maryland is now losing all corporate tax revenue even as wages by workers fall so too does what they pay in taxes----ergo---all of the fines and fees.  In Maryland---this is Republican policy so don't think that Clinton neo-liberals and the Hopkins' neo-conservative pols running as Democrats represent Democratic policy----THERE IS NO DEMOCRATIC POLICY HAPPENING IN MARYLAND.


REITS are sold on the stock market all over the world----global investment firms own rights to and control these real estate developments.

"REITs in the real estate sectors encourage the irreversible replacement of long-term social investment at low rates of profit by short-term financial investment at very high rates of profit. REITs stimulate public, municipal, industrial and other such owners to sell off and privatise their properties.
REITs within the rented housing sectors lead to higher rents, disinvestment and demolition, large-scale privatisation, the splitting of rented housing into individual leaseholds and freeholds, the replacement of social housing by expensive condominiums, forced evictions and loss of social accountability, participation and local jobs. Municipalities and other public institutions lose strategic instruments with which to promote affordable housing and socially inclusive cities.
REITs, which are tax-free investments as long as most of the profits are returned to shareholders, lead to loss of tax receipts and to the selling off of public infrastructures. They lead to a massive concentration of financial power and anti- democratic political influence and make housing markets dependent on international speculation bubbles. They are a threat to tenants world wide.

http://base.d-p-h.info/en/dossiers/dossier-84.html
Rights but REITs : opposing the global introduction and consequences of Real...base.d-p-h.info


All of these economic zones being created as the central source of the economy in Baltimore and Maryland are completely protected from paying any taxes---when Baltimore's Rawlings-Blake ran for mayor as with other candidates claiming they would reduce residential and small business property taxes AND NOW THEY SAY THEY CANNOT-----this is why---and they know it each time they lie in these election primaries. All of the Federal, state, and local tax funding is being sent to these economic zone developers meaning citizens have absolutely no say in public policy or how public money is spent.  Citizens in Baltimore have experienced this for a few decades but it is now coming to your neck of the woods!


Baltimore's City STAT and Maryland's STATE STAT will not see any of this land use made public----these REIT deals are proprietary----so you see how more and more data that used to be public is not.....so much for really fighting for transparency!


Rights but REITs : opposing the global introduction and consequences of Real Estate Investment Trust Created


by Knut Unger, Habitat Netz

2006

Throughout the world, Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) are playing a rapidly increasing role in organizing private financial investments in housing and cities. After a longer period of development in Northern America – with disastrous consequences on social housing – about 20 important countries have introduced national REITs during the recent years and another half dozen is planning to do the same within the coming year.


Although negative consequences in the USA, Canada and elsewhere are obvious, the introduction of REITs in most of the countries took place without protests and even without critical debate. They just happened in the extra-democratic spaces where financial lobbyists make their deals with governments. REITs are one of the examples of the silent over-taking of the worlds’ economic governance by the neo-liberal promoters and profiteers of financial globalism.

Germany in this game – maybe besides Honkong - plays the curious role of an exception. Since 2005 the huge national tenants association as well as a majority of the co-governing Social Democrats (SPD) and other political and housing actors developed a fundamental opposition to the so called rationalism and transparency of REITs.

This dossier aims to give an overview on available information about the global role of REITs and it’s consequences. Based on the critical debates in Germany it tries to suggest arguments against copying the US-REITs-model. It raises questions about the needs and chances to make REITs a prominent issue in international housing rights – and anti-privatisation struggles.


Context

Vancouver, World Urban Forum, June 2006. During the opening ceremony of the third World Urban Forum HIC and a couple of other organisations celebrate a protest in front of the entrance of the luxury conference hall. “Peoples orders” against violations of housing rights had been discussed and prepared in the movements the weeks before.
Now representatives explain and read them to the protesting crowd: Forced mass evictions an Nigeria, Zimbabwe, India, the Philippines… Cuts of subventions on social housing in the USA, in Canada… Missing support for the victims of natural disasters like the Tsunami and Katrina…

Among them: One “order” which at the first view seems come from a totally other sphere. The sphere of yields, assets and securitization, normally populated by bankers and fund managers but not by social movements.

A “peoples order”, prepared by tenant activists from Germany, the UK and USA, states:

« By introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) at national stock exchanges the U.K. and Germany government plan to open given sectors of regularized, public, social or affordable rental housing for concentrated financial speculation at large scales, as experience, for instance in the United States has shown.

REITs in the real estate sectors encourage the irreversible replacement of long-term social investment at low rates of profit by short-term financial investment at very high rates of profit. REITs stimulate public, municipal, industrial and other such owners to sell off and privatise their properties.

REITs within the rented housing sectors lead to higher rents, disinvestment and demolition, large-scale privatisation, the splitting of rented housing into individual leaseholds and freeholds, the replacement of social housing by expensive condominiums, forced evictions and loss of social accountability, participation and local jobs. Municipalities and other public institutions lose strategic instruments with which to promote affordable housing and socially inclusive cities.

REITs, which are tax-free investments as long as most of the profits are returned to shareholders, lead to loss of tax receipts and to the selling off of public infrastructures. They lead to a massive concentration of financial power and anti- democratic political influence and make housing markets dependent on international speculation bubbles. They are a threat to tenants world wide. »

What did happen that social housing movements not only blame governments for results of their policies on people – as they normally do – but warn against some future plan, which normally only financial experts are aware about? Let’s go back some months in time and only some hundred miles south the American Pacific cost.



_________________________________________

I have spoken before of the information systems around SMART METERS.  None of the Big Brothers issues are ever discussed----health issues are allowed-----but the data collected by BGE energy and by what will be a privatized water corporation as in Baltimore with Johns Hopkins' VEOLA ENVIRONMENT---represents a level of data collection inside the homes as would be inside our bodies with the microchips.  From knowing the kinds of appliances and when you use them to knowing what food you buy ----when you are home and not home----and being able to stop usage of vital utilities as privatization of water and energy to global corporations creates rates at whatever the market will bear.  Remember, fresh water is being sold globally so shipping water from Marcellus Aquifer while it remains uncontaminated would create higher water bills for the people---not the corporations.  California is already dealing with this issue.  Water and electricity meters collected by public agencies are private----private corporate water and energy meters collect data that then is sold.

HighStar investment corporation is one place where Ivy League universities placed their endowment funds and in this case is the private corporation behind VEOLA ENVIRONMENT......here in Baltimore that is Johns Hopkins.  All of that water and waste data then goes to this same Hopkins system of information and not our government records.  Privatizing our vital utilities and Port of Baltimore is a security risk that would not have happened under a Democrat-----but Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons work for global corporate tribunal ----not the American or Maryland people.  See how all of what makes the US a sovereign nation and what makes Maryland a sovereign state is being dismantled and a completely separate system tied to this global corporate tribunal is being built----with Ivy League universities as corporations acting as ANCHORS FOR THIS DEVELOPMENT.

The developing nations where US corporations went had no Constitution or Rule of Law---the people had no rights as citizens----and that is the environment that US corporations growing larger and merging into global corporations have worked since Reagan Clinton global free market neo-liberalism.  Clinton Initiative did not work to protect the people in these developing nations from the abuse of US corporations overseas----they worked to allow these corporations to be free to do as they please. 

THAT IS WHAT TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT IS ABOUT---BRINGING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS BACK TO THE US TO OPERATE AS THEY DID OVERSEAS.

This is why the American people must know these policies are being implemented by people that have no intention of protecting the US Constitution or our status as citizens.  It has no intention of keeping public trusts and social safety nets----labor rights----civil rights----women's rights ---equal protection and this is why over the last few decades corporations and government fraud and corruption has soared. 

THESE CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH NEO-CONS KNEW THEY WERE BUILDING THE CONDITIONS FOR THIRD WORLD SOCIETY WITH NO CONSTITUTION---ONLY PUBLIC POLICY WRITTEN BY GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNALS AND ENFORCED BY TRIBUNAL COURTS.

This is why all public justice in Maryland----all access to courts and all oversight and accountability was dismantled -----installing a global corporate government.


Foes fight the tide of 'smart' water meters



Brian Eason, USA TODAY
12:38 a.m. EST February 15, 2013Often when new meters are installed, bills go up even without a rate increase, because old meters can read lower levels of water than people are using.(Photo: Andy Manis for USA TODAY)

Moves to modernize water utilities across the U.S. are coming under fire from opponents who say the costs will outpace the benefits of new technology.

At issue are smart meters, new devices that measure water usage digitally, then transmit the data wirelessly to the utility.

Industry officials tout their efficiency — utilities can save money by getting rid of manual meter readers, for one thing. They also say the new meters will help residents conserve water and monitor their usage online.

"If I call in right now and I say, 'My water bill went up by $100, why is that?'" said Chris McNeil, senior account manager with energy giant Siemens, which packages water meters with billing software. "There's no system in place to be able to answer that" in cities with older billing technology.


Opponents, though, dismiss these as talking points with little basis in reality.

"That's really twisted — because really they're going to raise our bills," says Maria Powell, an environmental scientist from Madison, Wis. "The whole premise that people are going to go online and look at their water usage day to day, it's baloney. Most people aren't going to do that."


The opposition mirrors that of fights against smart meters used by electric companies. Residents have bitterly opposed electric smart meters across the country, with some success. StopSmartMeters.org, an advocacy group in California, reports that 13 city and county governments in the state have banned smart meter installations within their areas. The fight over meters in Texas has become so heated that the Public Utilities Commission keeps reports on smart meters prominently displayed on its homepage. Web visitors can read staff reports extolling the virtues of smart meters, alongside more than 600 collected filings on the subject, many of them petitions from opponents.

Pike Research, a firm specializing in clean technology research, cited the fights over electric smart meters in revising downward its own projections for the industry. But the firm still expects smart water meters to boom in coming years to an installed base of 29.9 million meters by 2017 from 10.3 million in 2011.

Delores Kester, also of Madison, complains that residents will bear high up-front costs, as utilities go about changing out thousands of functioning analog meters.


"It's tough times for a lot of people," said Kester, who organized a petition opposing the meters. "Atlanta had non-stop problems with huge water rate increases."


Indeed, the opposition comes at a time when residents are spending larger and larger shares of their household budget on water. Costs are easily outpacing inflation, according to Fitch Ratings, a market research group. In the most extreme cases like Atlanta, residents are paying three times more for water today than they were 10 years ago, as utilities grapple with costly infrastructure needs.

Often when new meters are installed, bills go up even without a rate increase because old meters can read lower levels of water than people are using.

When new meters were installed in Greenville, Miss., some residents' bills doubled, increasing by hundreds of dollars in some cases, according to reports from a local newspaper, the Delta Democrat Times. And in nearby Jackson, Miss., smart meters are projected to generate $60 million over 15 years, money that will be earmarked for work on the city's crumbling water and sewer system, according to city documents.

Opponents also complain of privacy issues, and they say the wireless technology used in them — which is not unlike signals emitted by your cellphone — can cause health problems. Federal regulators insist the signals are safe, and health researchers haven't found a consistent link between radio frequencies and cancer, as opponents suggest.

Still, Powell and Kester successfully lobbied their public utility to allow residents to opt out of the new meters if they wish — for a $7.78 monthly fee.

"We might have wanted more if it was Christmas," Kester said. "But we worked together to develop the policy that we have."

Eason also reports for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

____________________________________________
The American people keep being told all of this SMART GRID consolidation of our energy sources----once ALL PUBLIC UTILITIES ----is 'sustainability and going green'.  Creating mass computer data bases that use more energy than a major Chinese city is not 'going green'.  What they are doing is placing vital national infrastructure into the hands of global corporations that are then tied to the global corporate tribunal.  This consolidation allows just a few executives at a few energy corporations to take down the entire US energy grid and that is not what the citizens in a free democracy want as policy.

We now hear constant talk of terrorists attacking our energy grid---trillions of Federal, state, and local dollars are going to cyber security of these grids and the answer to this problem is

WE NEVER NEEDED TO CONSOLIDATE AND TAKE THESE ENERGY UTILITIES AWAY FROM LOCAL AND STATE CONTROL.

California was indeed the lead in all of this craziness all the while calling it 'green' but Baltimore now has been handed to a national Exelon Corporation that will soon merge with these ever larger regional energy corporations.  Global corporations are being sold shares in these deals so we have a captured energy sector courtesy of Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons-----and all of Maryland pols are global corporate pols passing these laws locally!


The fight for an energy consumer to access data whether for research or fighting inflated bills will become impossible.  These SMART METER information systems have been installed in third world nations these last decades of neo-liberalism and citizens in these nations are being driven crazy with abuse and exploitation from corruption and fraud with vital resources taken from them......this is where these policies go.

DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLS -----YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATION LEADERS EDUCATING ON THESE POLICIES?  IN THE US----ALL TALK ON GLOBAL CORPORATE TAKEOVER IS MISSING LARGELY BECAUSE OF JUSTICE ORGANIZATION CAPTURE AND THE CORPORATIZATION OF OUR UNIVERSITIES THAT WOULD BE EDUCATING ON CAMPUSES WHERE THIS ALL LEADS.

An “Energy Data Center” for California’s Smart Grid? A briefing paper from state utility regulators asks deep questions about how smart meter customer data will be made public—and kept anonymous.

Jeff St. John
November 15, 2012 California leads the nation in green policies and programs, from its decades-long battle to keep per-capita energy consumption flat via efficiency (accomplished), to getting one-third of its power from renewable resources (still in the works). It’s also a leader in smart grid, with more than 16 million smart electric and gas meters deployed by its big three investor-owned utilities, and millions more coming from municipal utilities around the state.

Just how all that data is sorted, collected and managed has been a hot-button topic. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has spent the past few years working on rules for protecting the privacy and security of customer data collected by smart meters, in-home energy devices, demand response programs and other forms of smart grid technology.

At the same time, the CPUC has been trying to make smart grid data as open and accessible as possible -- primarily to the customers who own the data, but more broadly to as wide a set of third-party software, hardware and service providers as possible, to jumpstart a market for smart grid-to-home energy efficiency.

Last month saw a new proposal from the CPUC for an “Energy Data Center” (PDF) that could help solve the problem. Essentially, authors Audrey Lee and Marzia Zafar propose a central database to hold all the state’s smart grid data, scrubbed or “anonymized” to protect individual privacy, but otherwise open and available to all comers to do with as they wish. The CPUC issued a “scoping ruling” this week (PDF) to set the terms for public comment and involvement in the discussion.

The Energy Data Center is a fascinating concept, and in an important market for setting smart grid trends and standards. The CPUC has created an intricate set of categories for data in its smart grid privacy and security proceedings, but has largely excluded “aggregated data that does not contain personally identifiable information” from its strictest protections -- or restrictions, depending on your point of view.

Indeed, one of the key concepts is to make this anonymized bulk data available to the public, whether for a curious customer or a dedicated research team. But the CPUC’s proposal also lays out several use cases that would require the Energy Data Center to handle non-scrubbed data -- such as smart meter reads with a customer name or address attached -- in more secure ways.

For example, the CPUC is already providing non-anonymized data to state universities or local governments via nondisclosure agreements, the paper noted. The Energy Data Center would ideally be a central repository of that secured, private data, as well as a clearinghouse for NDA-bound research partners to access it, analyze it, and churn out reports -- again, with any public disclosures scrubbed of personal identifiers.

Indeed, because the CPUC is only allowed to enter into NDAs with other government entities, the Energy Data Center itself will have to be hosted by a government player, such as a University of California campus, the paper noted. That means that the CPUC needs to hash out the rules for what it’s legally allowed to do to promote the creation of an Energy Data Center before it proceeds. In other words, this thing could take years.

Where’s all of the state’s smart grid data going now? Today, it’s pretty much contained on the servers and storage devices of the utility and its various smart grid vendors. But the sheer scale of data has pushed the meter vendors into partnerships with big data experts. Itron is working with IBM and Teradata on a data center to store and manage the flood of data coming from its multi-million-meter deployment with Southern California Edison, for example, and Silver Spring Networks, the startup that networks smart meters for PG&E, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is working on big data with investor and partner EMC.

At the same time, meter data management (MDM) providers in the California market, such as Itron, Ecologic Analytics (now owned by Toshiba’s Landis+Gyr) and Aclara, are all key players in converting smart meter data to a multitude of formats and functions, including customer presentment. No doubt they’ll be working closely with utility partners on whatever level of scrubbed, anonymized data the proposed Energy Data Center might require.

Beyond just managing the flood, California’s utilities are striving to squeeze more value out of their smart meter deployments. The CPUC has been putting pressure on PG&E, SCE and SDG&E to start turning on their meter-to-home ZigBee radios, to start providing customer data via web portal and Green Button download, and to start making the back-end IT changes that will allow third-party devices and software to link up with whatever platforms and marketplaces emerge for the state’s smart-metered customers. 

Indeed, the CPUC’s briefing paper takes a pretty adversarial tone to utilities regarding their data-sharing ways to date:

Currently, many organizations request access to customer usage information to research customer usage patterns and to measure the effectiveness of various State and Commission energy-related programs, such as energy efficiency and demand response. Yet, such information is not readily available.
When a utility does make it available, it is often out of scope, aggregated beyond what is necessary to protect customer privacy and not useful to the requestors, and outdated. An ongoing concern is whether, and to what extent if any, the utilities act against the interests or wishes of the customer and erect barriers to limit the opportunity for authorized third parties to obtain customer usage information. An additional concern is whether the utility acts as barrier against the sharing of aggregated data with governmental organizations that are seeking data for research or operational purposes.

What might a California Energy Data Center look like? Texas may provide a model with its Smart Meter Texas portal, where the state’s smart metered utilities share information with customers via a common platform run via the state’s grid operator, ERCOT. Of course, Texas also allows retail electricity providers in its deregulated market to provide their own customer web portals, iPhone thermostat control apps, text-message information alerts, Green Button data downloads, and the like.

California’s market, while not competitive like Texas', is still a bit of a hodgepodge. Beyond the state’s big three investor-owned utilities, there are big municipal utilities like SMUD, or Glendale and Burbank in the San Fernando Valley, collectively adding millions more smart meters to the state’s tally. Big natural gas provider Southern California Gas has embarked on its own 1.5 million smart meter upgrade with partners including Itron, Aclara and Capgemini.

If the CPUC’s decisions so far are any guide, it’s likely that all of these entities will be contributing to the Energy Data Center. The CPUC ruled in August that municipal utilities and natural gas providers were subject to the same data privacy and security rules as were the big three IOUs, although the issue is still being contested by some parties.

___________________________________________

Already I hear in Baltimore attitudes from employees that make working for a corporation the same as being Baltimore-----for example.  We are Baltimore Proud because of all this development that is killing most citizens in Baltimore.  An employee for Hopkins who must earn poverty wages says to another person----HE DIDN'T KNOW WHO HE WAS MESSING WITH WHEN HE DID THAT TO A HOPKINS EMPLOYEE.

Hopkins deliberately starved the city of jobs and social service funding to make supporting and working for Hopkins the only game in town.  This in turn creates the motivation to protect all of these global corporate policies even as they will in the long run bring what is already third world conditions down even further.  Labor unions have shouted for decades Johns Hopkins is the entity keeping Baltimore wages some of the lowest in the nation---so super-size Hopkins and add global corporate power and you see an institution dying to make Chinese sweat shop labor of the citizens of Baltimore.  Baltimore pols today are almost all tied to Hopkins as graduates-----they are increasingly all corporate lawyers----and none of them see themselves as working for their constituents----they are most definitely working for this vision of 'global economic zone'.  That is why Baltimore pols and the 15 black ministers that work for Hopkins came out enforce to stop the riots and protests after being silent for years of the worst abuse----IT'S ALL ABOUT PROTECTING THE ECONOMIC ZONE.

Meanwhile, the policies that would actually lead to Baltimore having a healthy thriving economy and quality of life -----small business economy with Baltimore citizens all running their own small businesses and hiring people in their own neighborhoods----WHICH IS WHAT AN ENTERPRISE ZONE REALLY IS-----all of the laws pushed by Baltimore's Maryland Assembly pols and Baltimore City Hall pols dismantle all of this.  The winners and losers in a game with no Rule of Law has the same few people at the top winning all the time----IN GAMBLING---THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS!  When I hear Baltimore Black contractors shout they are being forced out of business en mass as immigrant contractors get the awards----I say----black contractors played the corruption game and allowed Rule of Law to be ignored when they were selected to be winners....not it is coming around.


Maryland has had no Department of Labor, Licencing, and Regulation for decades----DLLR is completely dismantled allowing all of this fraud, corruption, and workplace abuse.  As the entire Federal structure for DLLR is dismantled as well-----as the current Labor Secretary Perez is doing courtesy Obama----the American people will have no workplace protections even as labor unions pretend to be fighting to bring these rights back.  You know they are pretending because they keep

SUPPORTING THE CLINTON WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS EVERY ELECTION THAT ARE DOING THIS.



China plans special economic zones in the US:

website
  • Staff Reporter
  • 2011-06-13
  • 17:10 (GMT+8)
China plans to establish a special economic zone in Idaho, a website claims. Picture: Shenzhen went from a fishing village to a sprawling metropolis as one of China's special economic zones. (Photo/CFP)

China has decided to buy up pieces of the United States with the aim of setting up "special economic zones" according to a website called The American Dream. One of the zones would reportedly be located just south of Boise, Idaho.

It is reported that China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach) plans to construct a technology zone south of Boise airport which would ultimately be up to 50 square miles in size and the Idaho government is supposedly eager to give it to them. The planned technology zone would include manufacturing facilities, warehouses, retail centers and large numbers of homes for Chinese workers in a "self-sustaining city."

The major owner behind the Sinomach plan is the Chinese Communist Party, so the planned city would essentially belong to the Chinese government.

The idea would be to build a self-contained city with all services included, according to the Idaho Statesman. It would be modeled after the special economic zones that currently exist in China.

The most famous example of these special economic zones is Shenzhen. Back in the 1970s, Shenzhen was just a very small fishing village across the border from Hong Kong. Today it is a sprawling metropolis of over 14 million people.

If the US government really gives the plan the green light, it could be the first of many in the US. Sinomach is not only targeting Idaho but is in discussions to develop such zones all over the United States.

Sinomach has recently dispatched delegations to Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania to explore the possibility of establishing zones in those states also.

The website reports that Americans are afraid that once China develops more and more self-sustaining cites inside the country, these communities would pose a threat to US security. Despite benefits to the local economy , the Chinese could potentially bring in and store massive amounts of military equipment virtually undetected.


Some internet users view the prospect as colonialism, while others cannot understand why the government would offer the fertile agricultural land of the US midwest to China.

One netizen called march21 commented: "That's exactly how India came to be ruled by the British. India or rather some Indian kings allowed East India Company to set up trading."

Another netizen going by the name Derpper said: "You shouldn't blame the economy, blame the traitors we 'elected' who are willing to sell our home to settle a paper money debt."


_______________________________________
As you see below----the US sold the idea of Economic Zones in China as early as the 1970s but this soared during the Reagan Clinton neo-liberal expansion overseas.  This was developed specifically for US corporations coming to China to create FOXCONN factory sites.  So, the use of the word Economic Zone in Maryland and across the US by Obama/Clinton and Bush mirrors this same Chinese corporate structure.....Texas was the first to make its economy heavily tied to economic zones and it is no coincidence that Texas has the lowest quality of life and more immigrants than citizens....

This is what Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins are creating for the Baltimore and Maryland economy and it will come with all of the repression as those in China.  The article above showed where the US is already allowing developing nations to bring entire Economic Zones to the US----that is what Trans Pacific Trade Pact makes official and you can bet that all of the global corporate ties to Economic Zones in Baltimore and Maryland have Chinese corporations partnered.  Atlanta is an East Coast hub for Chinese businesses coming to build Economic Zones as does Baltimore.

Why would you kill a local and domestic economy in a first world nation to take it third world?  POWER AND WEALTH AND THAT IS WHAT REPUBLICANS AND CLINTON WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS ARE ABOUT.  Who keeps the wealth?  The same few .0001%.

ALL OF THIS IS EASILY REVERSED=====WE SIMPLY WOULD NEED TO REBUILD RULE OF LAW, OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY, AND EQUAL PROTECTION.  WE NEED CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICAN VOTERS WHO HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED AGAINST THIS TO THEIR OWN PERIL TO WAKE UP!




Each Economic Zone is being allowed to build its own information technology system to be its own government that reports to the global corporate tribunal and court. This is what Obama and neo-liberals are funding with outsourced IT funding.

Special Economic Zones of China
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


History Since the late 1970s, and especially since the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, the Chinese government has decided to reform the national economic setup.

The basic state policy has focused on the formulation and implementation of overall reform and opening to the outside world.

During the 1980s, China passed several stages, ranging from the establishment of special economic zones and open coastal cities and areas, and designating open inland and coastal economic and technology development zones.

Since 1980, China has established special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province, and designated the entire province of Hainan a special economic zone.

In August 1980, the National People's Congress (NPC) passed "Regulations for The Special Economy Zone of Guangdong Province" and officially designated a portion of Shenzhen as the Shenzhen Special Economy Zone (SSEZ).

In 1984, China further opened 14 coastal cities to overseas investment: Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai.

Since 1988, mainland China's opening to the outside world has been extended to its border areas, areas along the Yangtze River and inland areas. First, the state decided to turn Hainan Island into mainland China's biggest special economic zone (approved by the 1st session of the 7th NPC in 1988) and to enlarge the other four special economic zones.

Shortly afterwards, the State Council expanded the open coastal areas, extending into an open coastal belt the open economic zones of the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Triangle in south Fujian, Shandong Peninsula, Liaodong Peninsula (Liaoning Province), Hebei and Guangxi.

In June 1990, the Chinese government opened the Pudong New Area in Shanghai to overseas investment, and additional cities along the Yangtze River valley, with Shanghai's Pudong New Area as its "dragon head."

Since 1992, the State Council has opened a number of border cities, and in addition, opened all the capital cities of inland provinces and autonomous regions.

In addition, 15 free trade zones, 32 state-level economic and technological development zones, and 53 new and high-tech industrial development zones have been established in large and medium-sized cities. As these open areas adopt different preferential policies, they play the dual roles of "windows" in developing the foreign-oriented economy, generating foreign exchanges through exporting products and importing advanced technologies and of "radiators" in accelerating inland economic development.

Primarily geared to exporting processed goods, the five special economic zones are foreign-oriented areas which integrate science and industry with trade, and benefit from preferential policies and special managerial systems. In 1999, Shenzhen's new-and high-tech industry became one with best prospects, and the output value of new-and high-tech products reached 81.98 billion yuan, making up 40.5% of the city's total industrial output value.

Since its founding in 1992, the Shanghai Pudong New Zone has made great progress in both absorbing foreign capital and accelerating the economic development of the Yangtze River valley. The state has extended special preferential policies to the Pudong New Zone that are not yet enjoyed by the special economic zones. For instance, in addition to the preferential policies of reducing or eliminating Customs duties and income tax common to the economic and technological development zones, the state also permits the zone to allow foreign business people to open financial institutions and run tertiary industries. In addition, the state has given Shanghai permission to set up a stock exchange, expand its examination and approval authority over investments and allow foreign-funded banks to engage in RMB business.

In 1999, the GDP of the Pudong New Zone came to 80 billion yuan, and the total industrial output value, 145 billion yuan.

In May 2010, the PRC designated the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang a SEZ. Kashgar's annual growth rate was 17.4 percent from 2009, and Kashgar's designation has since increased tourism and real estate prices in the city. Kashgar is close to China's border with the independent states of former Soviet Central Asia and the SEZ seeks to capitalize on international trade links between China and those states





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May 21st, 2015

5/21/2015

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If the American people understood the policy from Clinton Era---- Federalism Act ----it had as a goal to end all connections of the Federal government to the states and localities and turn the Federal government to international affairs only.  That is what Clinton/Bush/Obama has been about.  This means all of the data the Federal government used to collect from states and localities that then was analyzed and placed into tables and charts showing all kinds of social and government statistics and published by the Federal government would not exist anymore.  Indeed----from Clinton and Bush to now Obama---all these stats have been slowly disappearing----especially stats tied to Equal Protection, poverty, aging,  and labor rights.  If we are not enforcing the Bill of Rights and US Constitutional protections for citizens ----why create data?

Well, states were told by the neo-liberals and neo-cons dismantling the Federal government and building these global governing structures to create state and local government stats and data collection and gear it to what corporations need to know when deciding to send money in for investment.

THAT IS WHAT CITY STAT AND STATE STAT IS ALL ABOUT.  THIS IS HOW GLOBAL CORPORATIONS KNOW HOW TO PLAN TO BUILD ECONOMIC ZONES LIKE THE FOXCONN GLOBAL HEALTH ZONE THAT IS JOHNS HOPKINS AND UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEDICAL CENTER.


O'Malley was elected to Mayor of Baltimore with this idea of data that was to help the citizens in communities that were then victims of the worst of frauds and corrupts used to clear them out for these global development plans.  State Stat will do the same thing on a statewide scale-----as Economic Zones replace what are sovereign states----as Trans Pacific Trade Pact ends US national sovereignty.  So, neo-liberals and neo-cons do not see the State of Maryland or the United States----it sees a health economic zone for global corporations to build FOXCONN factory/product centers.

THEN MAYOR O'MALLEY AND MARYLAND GOVERNOR O'MALLEY LED THE NATION IN INSTALLING THIS TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT INFORMATION SYSTEM KNOWING IT WAS TO REPLACE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S INFORMATION SYSTEM.



Baltimore CitiStat


The Office of CitiStat is a small performance-based management group responsible for continually improving the quality of services provided to the citizens of Baltimore City. CitiStat evaluates policies and procedures practiced by City departments for delivering all manners of urban services from criminal investigation to pothole repair. Staff analysts examine data and perform investigations in order to identify areas in need of improvement. City agencies are required to participate in a highly particularized presentation format designed to maximize accountability. Agencies must be prepared to answer any question raised by the Mayor or her Cabinet at CitiStat sessions which are held every four weeks. As a result of its success,
the CitiStat model has been adopted by local governments across the U.S. and around the world.



I think most citizens in Baltimore know the realities of how effective citizens complaints were handled-----the 311 number is all but defunded now as the original intent of these stats were development. Policing no doubt does use these stats---but it replaces the Federal stat system that was used to build sustainable communities with equal access and opportunity.  You notice these stats are not geared to identify downtown development as unsustainable---or systemic corporate fraud and government corruption as unsustainable or needing to be tracked.

About StateStat


Introduction

StateStat is the O'Malley-Brown Administration's performance measurement and management tool. StateStat is how the Administration manages our state.

Modeled after the CitiStat program that he developed as Mayor of Baltimore City, Governor O'Malley is using this data-based management approach to make Maryland's government work again for the people of our State. The CitiStat program has been studied and emulated by countless jurisdictions from around the globe and awarded with honors such as the "Innovations in Government" Award by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

StateStat began in 2007 with a few select public safety and human services agencies. Today, StateStat "stats" 13 individual agencies each month and hosts a number of cross-agency stats, such as our award-wining BayStat.

Open Data Portal The StateStat team manages Maryland's Open Data Portal- an online database of over 500 searchable, machine readable datasets uploaded by Maryland's state agencies.

Earlier this year, Governor O'Malley signed SB 644 into law requiring Maryland's state agencies to publish open data and establishing a Council on Open Data to drive progress forwards. And recently, the Center for Data Innovation recognized our efforts naming Maryland one of the top states in the nation for open data.

Process Most governments monitor their performance at annual budget reviews- if they are tracking performance at all. At StateStat we monitor agency performance monthly, and in some cases bi-monthly, identifying data trends before they turn into problems. Through relentless follow-up with our agencies we ensure that the solutions we craft together are not only implemented efficiently and quickly but are effective in turning the data trends back in the right direction. The StateStat process consists of several constantly moving and ongoing steps:

1. Before Meetings: Agencies submit customized data templates each month. The StateStat team analyzes the data to identify trends, conducts site visits and meets with agency staff to evaluate programs. The analysts turn this analysis into detailed 'Executive Briefing Memos' shared with the 'StateStat Panel', including the Governor, prior to each meeting.

2. StateStat Meetings: The Director of StateStat leads the 'StateStat Panel' which includes the Governor and/or Lt. Governor, the Governor's Chief of Staff, the Governor's Legal Counsel, and staff from the Departments of Information Technology and Budget and Management. The 'Panel' questions agency leaders on the trends identified in the 'Executive Briefing Memos' and works with these leaders to develop solutions. Agencies bring a variety of staff to the table including their Secretary and Deputy Secretaries, Human Resources, Finance, and Program staff to assist in the disucssion. StateStat meetings are innately collaborative- not only does the 'Panel' ask questions of the agency but the agency can use the time to ask for assistance or guidance from the Governor, his Senior Staff, Legal Counsel, IT, etc.

3. After Meetings: The StateStat analysts prepare detailed follow-up memos for the agencies detailing the action items discussed in the meeting as well as any other questions or concerns. The agencies complete and submit the follow-up memos prior to the next StateStat meeting. The analysts work continuously with their agencies throughout the month in between meetings to ensure progress is being made quickly and efficiently.


_____________________________________
BAY STAT for example was created by O'Malley who has installed the worst of environmental policies written by Johns Hopkins his entire terms in office.  The health of the Chesapeake Bay has been under assault these few decades of dismantled EPA oversight with Baltimore's environmental policy leading in the failing health of the Bay.

So, if you have a Governor who could care less about the environment----who would throw his mother under a bus for Wall Street profit-----what does BAY STAT do?  Remember, Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons seek to bring back global corporations from China et al to operate as they do in China----complete with environmental devastation.  The key would be surveillance and security and the state's way of keeping quiet the extent of the environmental devastation as it happens.  If you go to BAY STAT you see beautiful pictures of the Bay with all kinds of stats saying the health of the bay is improving during O'Malley's terms in office--

WHEN AS WITH ALL STATS COLLECTED BY O'MALLEY-----FROM POLICE TO EDUCATION----THE STATS ARE JUKED.  ALL OF BALTIMORE SOCIAL STATS ARE JUKED AND THESE STATE STATS ARE AS WELL.

The Federal agencies would have found all of this data as false and worked to make it right---but with no Federal oversight----state and local pols simply make these stats say what they want.  Natural gas export terminal in Maryland?  Well, a global corporation coming in to build and run that terminal wants to be sure all of the environmental pollution stays under STATE STAT WRAP!
  Chesaoeake seafood in decline?  Well, opening global markets for crabs and shellfish drove over-harvesting---- an Erhlich/O'Malley global market adventure.....you won't hear about that on BAY STAT!


'O'Malley also pledged that all of the $3.9 billion in stimulus funds that have come through Maryland so far will be tracked on StateStat so the public knows where every dollar went'.

The number one cause for all of the human health concerns in the bay-----making the Port of Baltimore a global shipping cargo destination under O'Malley and the failure to enforce any EPA clean water laws.  O'Malley made himself head of the State Chesapeake Bay Foundation keeping all environmental activism captured.

Bad Water 2009: The Impact on Human Health
in the Chesapeake Bay Region



Group: Chesapeake Bay Health Worsening

Network News X Profile View More Activity TOOLBOX Resize Print E-mail Reprints By KRISTEN WYATT The Associated Press
Monday, December 3, 2007; 5:57 PM

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Chesapeake Bay's health is going from bad to worse, according to an environmental group that graded the bay's health a "D" for the ninth consecutive year.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation gave the bay a failing grade for one of its most persistent pollutants _ nitrogen _ along with Fs for water clarity and dissolved oxygen.

"The health of the Chesapeake Bay is dangerously out of balance," the report from the foundation concludes Monday.

The troubles are many.

Underwater grasses, which are important because they provide habitat and filter pollutants from the water, continue to struggle to reach historical levels. The watershed is losing wetlands to erosion. Chemicals from myriad household products _ anti-bacterial soap to face creams to birth control pills _ end up in the water, making some fish unsafe to eat.

. . Even blue crabs, the hallmark catch of the Chesapeake, are suffering from overharvesting and loss of habitat.

"We must all voice our outrage so that those with the power to effect change _ the governors and legislators at the state and federal levels _ do more to implement the known solutions of reducing pollution," Foundation President Will Baker said in a statement.

The overall score was 28, down from last year's score of 29.

The only A score came for rockfish, or striped bass, which are near historic high levels, a rebound long considered the greatest success of Chesapeake restoration efforts. The foundation also praised Pennsylvania for planting more than 600 miles of forest buffers along waterways in 2006. The buffers help absorb pollutants that would otherwise run into the bay.

However, the news was mostly bad.

Bill Dennison, a scientist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, did not help compile the foundation's report card but said it is in line with what he sees: nagging problems in the bay, with slower success than scientists would hope.

Especially discouraging was the fact that last summer's drought did not result in clearer water, Dennison said. Typically, drought leads to clearer water because there is less rainwater to wash pollutants down rivers and into the bay. Dennison said a drought earlier this decade led to clearer conditions than scientists had seen in years. But this year, the clarity wasn't there.

___________________________________________

Below you see the players in the Stat Stat data information system.  Imagine a data system designed to take the place of all Federal agencies----from Defense, EPA, Education, Health, Labor, IRS, Social Security and Medicare,  et al and then imagine all that data controlled at the state level.

Below you see the up and coming O'Malley in Baltimore.  Bill Ferguson of West Baltimore is there fighting for the children against school closures as he leads with Teach for America and Johns Hopkins education reform policies that tie public schools to vocational tracking K-college.  He is also key to State Stat in Baltimore.  He is the best neo-conservative Johns Hopkins has in pushing all of these policies-----running as a Democrat in an underserved community.

As you see all the connections to security and information technology----Bill is the point person for all for data collection and  Johns Hopkins super-computer network.

NONE OF THIS IS DEMOCRATIC FOLKS---DEMOCRATS DO NOT BREAK APART FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND HAND ALL DATA CREATION TO A VERY NEO-CONSERVATIVE JOHNS HOPKINS WHICH HAS AS A MOTTO-----WIN AND PROFIT AT ALL COST!


All of this looks like the makings of a state Pentagon for goodness sake!

Stat Stat in Maryland looking more and more like the Pentagon logistics operations command post!


BILL FERGUSON
Democrat, District 46, Baltimore City


    Miller Senate Office Building, Room 401
    11 Bladen St., Annapolis, MD 21401
    (410) 841-3600, (301) 858-3600
    1-800-492-7122, ext. 3600 (toll free)
    e-mail: bill.ferguson@senate.state.md.us
    fax: (410) 841-3161, (301) 858-3161

Member of Senate since January 12, 2011. Member, Budget and Taxation Committee, 2015- (education, business & administration subcommittee, 2015-; pensions subcommittee, 2015-). Member, Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, 2011-15 (education subcommittee, 2011-15; environment subcommittee, 2011-15; labor, licensing, & regulation subcommittee, 2011-15). Member, Joint Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, 2011-; Senate Special Committee on Ethics Reform, 2012-; Joint Committee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Biotechnology, 2015-; Special Joint Committee on Pensions, 2015-. Senate Chair, Joint Committee on Transparency and Open Government, 2011-14. Member, Joint Committee on Welfare Reform, 2011-14; Work Group to Review Disclosure Requirements of the Public Ethics Law, 2012-13. Part-time community liaison, President's Office, Baltimore City Council, 2005-06. Special Assistant to Chief Executive Officer, Baltimore City Public Schools, 2009-10 (graduate intern, 2007-09). Member, Wetlands and Waterways Program Funding Work Group, 2011; Task Force to Study the Procurement of Health, Education, and Social Services by State Agencies, 2011-12; Task Force to Study High-School Dropout Rates of Persons in the Criminal Justice System, 2011-13; Commission to Study Campaign Finance Law, 2011-13; Early Childhood Development Advisory Council, 2011-; Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities, 2011-; Task Force to Study the Impact of Ocean Acidification on State Waters, 2014-; Council on Open Data, 2014-; Neighborhood Stabilization and Homeownership Work Group, Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission, 2014.

Born in Silver Spring, Maryland, April 15, 1983. Davidson College, B.A. (political science & economics), 2005; School of Education, The Johns Hopkins University, M.A.T., 2007; University of Maryland School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 2010. Admitted to Maryland Bar, 2011. Director of Reform Initiatives, School of Education, The Johns Hopkins University, 2012-. Teach for America high school teacher, Baltimore City Public Schools, 2005-07. Member, Canton Community Association, 2006-. Signatory member, Education Equality Project (national advocacy organization), 2010-. Ambassador, Envision Baltimore, 2010-. Board of Directors, Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance, 2013. Member, Baltimore EdTech Advisory Board, 2013. Distinguished Presidential Citation, Baltimore City Council President, 2006. Cunningham Award for Public Service and Academic Achievement, University of Maryland School of Law, 2010. Member, St. Casimir Catholic Church, Baltimore. Married; two children.



COUNCIL ON OPEN DATA Chair: David A. Garcia, Secretary of Information Technology. Vice-Chair: Kevin Conroy, Director, Governor's StateStat Office

Appointed by Governor to 4-year terms: Matthew S. Felton; Sharon Paley; Elliott R. Plack; Harash N. (Sonny) Segal; Robert D. Wray. Terms expire 2017.

William E. Dollins III; Allison J. Druin, Ph.D.; John E. (Bud) Gudmundson; Linda M. Loubert. Ph.D.; Michael S. Scott, Ph.D. Terms expire 2018.

Appointed by Senate President: Bill Ferguson

Appointed by House Speaker: Bonnie L. Cullison

Ex officio: Joseph Bartenfelder, Secretary of Agriculture; David R. Brinkley, Secretary of Budget & Management; R. Michael Gill, Secretary of Business & Economic Development; Lillian M. Lowery, Ed.D., State Superintendent of Schools; Benjamin H. Grumbles, Secretary of the Environment; C. Gail Bassette, Secretary of General Services; Van T. Mitchell, Secretary of Health & Mental Hygiene; Kenneth C. Holt, Secretary of Housing & Community Development; Samir Malhotra, Secretary of Human Resources; Kelly M. Schulz, Secretary of Labor, Licensing & Regulation; Mark J. Belton, Secretary of Natural Resources; David R. Craig, Secretary of Planning; Stephen T. Moyer, Secretary of Public Safety & Correctional Services; Col. William M. Pallozzi, Secretary of State Police; Peter K. Rahn, Secretary of Transportation; Maj. Gen. (MD) Linda L. Singh, Adjutant General; Christopher B. Shank, Executive Director, Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention; Thomas E. (Tim) Hutchins, Governor's Homeland Security Advisor; Karl S. Aro, Executive Director, Dept. of Legislative Services; Timothy D. Baker, Acting State Archivist; Owen C. Charles, Acting Director of Assessments & Taxation; Clay B. Stamp, Director, Maryland Emergency Management Agency; Kevin G. Seaman, M.D., Executive Director, Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems.


___________________________________________

The Federal government had all of the capacity to gather and store data and tons of Federal employees to analyze and create data tables for distribution so none of this city and state stat is necessary.  Since the goal is to eliminate the Federal government and its IT centralization and hand it to global corporate outsourcing-----in comes the state and local IT and all of the private partnerships joining this effort.

As Maryland public sector employees know------state and local public employees are being downsized to the max---and those still around are being made part time so where is all of this data analysis by states and local government to come?

Well. those great big super-computers like that at Johns Hopkins.  Each global economic zone will have a data center like this and anything Hopkins cannot handle can be outsourced to global corporations overseas----no job creation needed!

So, in what is basically the Sputnik spending of the US Space Race----or Reagan's nuclear race-----all of our Federal revenue is being spent to close down Federal agencies and preparing for economic zones that report to a global corporate tribunal and court.

YOU HAVE TO WONDER ABOUT THE POLITICIANS AND APPOINTMENTS TO STATE AND LOCAL AGENCIES DOING ALL OF THIS WORK----WHAT MOTIVATES PEOPLE TO DISMANTLE A DEMOCRACY TO CREATE A TOTALITARIAN AUTOCRACY?


The idea that the US needs to do this to remain competitive with China is absurd----all we need is to return to a US domestic economy with each state having its own domestic economy of regional businesses-----with each city having an economy of small businesses.  We can do that if people would engage in politics and become the candidates in all primary elections against Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons!

Big Data a Growing Problem for Government IT

 
  By Nathan Eddy  |  Posted 2013-04-30   e-week


      While they understand the promise of big data, just 59 percent of state and local agencies are analyzing the data they collect.

While state and local agencies express interest in leveraging data to improve decision making and meet mission objectives, they are struggling to process and analyze the data, according to the "State and Local Big Data Gap" study by MeriTalk, the government IT network, which was underwritten by NetApp. State and local IT professionals also report a gap between big data's promise and big data reality. State and local agencies estimate that they have just 46 percent of the data storage or access, 42 percent of the computational power and 35 percent of the personnel they need to successfully leverage big data. In addition, 57 percent say their current enterprise architecture is not able to support big data initiatives. Despite the challenges, the survey results indicated that some state and local agencies are working to close the technology gap. Thirty-nine percent of survey respondents said they are investing in IT systems and solutions to improve data processing, 39 percent are improving the security of stored data, and 37 percent are investing in IT infrastructure to improve data storage
. However, more than three-quarters (79 percent) of state and local IT professionals say they are just somewhat or not very familiar with the term "big data," and only 2 percent say they have a complete big data strategy. Big data isn’t even on the radar screen for 44 percent of state and local agencies—they are not even discussing it. While they understand the promise of big data, just 59 percent of state and local agencies are analyzing the data they collect and less than half are using it to make strategic decisions. On average, state and local IT professionals report that it will take their agencies at least three years to take full advantage of big data. "State and local agencies have made great strides in consolidating applications and data into fewer physical resources," Regina Kunkle, vice president of state and local government for NetApp, said in a statement. "Storage efficiencies like deduplication and compression help to manage the explosive storage growth by reducing the amount of storage required and simplifying data management. However, agencies still have data silos, and they are just beginning to explore how to effectively analyze this disparate data. To help them unlock this valuable wealth of information, agencies should look toward big data solutions." The current average state and local agency stores 499 terabytes of data, and those IT professionals indicated they expect that amount of data to continue to grow. The majority (87 percent) of state and local agencies say the size of their stored data has grown in the last two years, and 97 percent expect data to grow by an average of 53 percent in the next two years. The top challenge when it comes to managing large amounts of data is storage capacity (46 percent) followed by speed of analysis and processing (34 percent), and analysis (32 percent). To further complicate data management, agencies are unclear about who owns the data. Nearly half (47 percent) believe that IT owns the data, and 31 percent believe ownership belongs to the department that generated it.

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May 20th, 2015

5/20/2015

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 A BOT IN EVERY BODY
is the Clinton and Bush Wall Street global corporate tribunal party slogan for coming elections------since this is very repressive, regressive, and autocratic they will make this talking point HEALTH CARE FOR ALL as Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen neo-liberals who voted for all of this policy and funding are saying now!  Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen are proud NEW DEMOCRATS----Clinton neo-liberals!
 

THAT WILL HAPPEN TO 'THEM', NOT 'US'.


Van Hollen said the message in the Democratic caucus is “don’t run away from the Affordable Care Act.”

“Be strong about Obamacare


Donna Edwards | Single Payer Action www.singlepayeraction.org/2009/11/17/donna-edwards  single payer health care for


Continuing the talk on information systems and placing all Federal, state, and local information online-----as well as Google scanning the libraries of the world----centralizing information in databases in super computers controlled by global corporations like Johns Hopkins.  I pick on Hopkins because it is Baltimore---but this is happening at all Ivy League university corporations as that is to where Obama and Clinton neo-liberals sent all of this research and infrastructure funding.

If you read the novel by Eco called IN THE NAME OF THE ROSE----you saw the medieval times where books with knowledge were all kept in chambers of Catholic Monasteries.  The wealthy merchant-class as Johns Hopkins fancies itself to be====only the public owns Johns Hopkins====were the ones allowed to learn the wisdom of liberal arts, humanities, and read of the research done by the rich families.  The masses were kept in the dark====AGES=====with only the church feeding the masses the things needed to know. 
ALL THEY NEED TO KNOW IS HOW TO DO A JOB! 


THAT IS WHAT THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS ENDED---WITH 'WE THE PEOPLE' WRITTEN INTO CONSTITUTIONS.  This is what Clinton and Bush neo-liberals and neo-cons are trying to end.


One of the major tenets of Trans Pacific Trade Pact that gets the most dissent around the world is the US push on patent protections at a time when every avenue of corporate, government, and non-profit are involved in the patent process....that is called a corporate state.  So, when Johns Hopkins calls itself a private university partnered with a Federal NSA or NIH, and a corporate funding foundation----all avenues are tied to the patents Hopkins creates AND ALL OF IT IS CALLED PROPRIETARY BECAUSE IT IS PATENTED.

So, when Clinton and Obama neo-liberals----like O'Malley and Bush neo-cons like Larry Hogan claim they are working on open government and transparency -----it means handing public data to corporations----not citizens accessing Federal, state, and local documents about government operations.  When I say that Hopkins seeks to control all information in a Medici-style city state of their own building---these supercomputers will have all of the data produced from all of the Federal and state funding with all of the Federal data systems outsourced and dismantled.  Think in a near future when the only people accessing what is on Hopkins databases regardless of all the public funding are people approved/working for or with Hopkins.  THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS NOW----BUT THIS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESTRUCTURING IS SUPER-SIZING THIS.


In Maryland where all government policy is written behind closed doors with corporate partners much information cannot be accessed because it is called proprietary.  Now, our public and private universities using tons of taxpayer money are calling their research proprietary. 

HAVING FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS THAT HAVE STRONG PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENTS WITH EMPLOYEES WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC PRODUCING WORK THAT THE CITIZENS CAN ACCESS AND CONTROL-----THAT IS A DEMOCRACY FOLKS!

Republican voters who relish the downsizing and dismantling of Federal agencies are the ones shouting the loudest in Maryland about not being able to access any public policy.  NO ONE WANTS THIS YET WE ALLOW CLINTON AND BUSH WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL CANDIDATES TO WIN EVERY ELECTION.


Transparency and Intellectual Property Protection in
International Law



Michelangelo Temmerman and Thomas Cottier
University of Bern
NCCR Trade Regulation
Thun, 19 January 2012
Our paper
• Specific angle: Transparency and
innovation
– Patents (transparency/disclosure in return of
exclusion) v. trade secrecy (exclusion only)
• Both options are legitimate and anchored in
international law
• Question is which is the best for global innovation
– Answer is not available yet; (too?) many factors
– Importance differs from sector to sector and along the
levels of economic development
– From ‘public’ to ’private’ transparency
– Access to knowledge v. access to information


As this article below shows----all of this classification and proprietary information leads to levels of security taking all of our Federal, state, and local revenue.  Think how much money is being spent to make these Johns Hopkins super computers secure over decades.   IT'S A RACKET FOLKS!

WHO IS IN THE SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE BUSINESS?  JOHNS HOPKINS----SO THE GOVERNMENT PAYS JOHNS HOPKINS FOR RESEARCH, PAYS THEM TO SECURE IT, PAYS THEM FOR THE FACILITIES TO DO THE RESEARCH AND THEN HOPKINS PATENTS THE PRODUCTS AND PROFITS FROM THEM.





Is The Government Drinking Too Much Booz?

Jonathan Galaviz  Forbes

The seal of the U.S. National Security Agency. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With annual revenues exceeding $5.7 billion Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation is one of America’s largest government contractors. The company now finds itself in the middle of an emerging debate on the role that large corporations play in the U.S. national intelligence structure.

Booz Allen Hamilton (Booz Allen) contracts staff to U.S. government intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office, and many unnamed others. At the end of March 2013, the company had around 24,500 employees.

Until recently, one of those Booz Allen employees was Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower that leaked the existence of the now infamous PRISM program. Mr. Snowden, before becoming a whistleblower, was an employee of Booz Allen and was contracted by the NSA as an embedded staff member.

Many in Congress are now being asked what kind of role, if any, should large corporations like Booz Allen have in America’s global intelligence apparatus.

Others are asking whether the U.S. government intelligence agencies are simply addicted to companies like Booz Allen.

The reality is there may be no practical way for the U.S. government to lose its addiction to companies like Booz Allen, even if it wanted to.

To understand the addiction, one must understand the dynamics between the structure of employment in the U.S. intelligence field and how the complex world of federal government contracting interacts with it.

According to Booz Allen company reports, slightly over 26% of their employees held what is known as Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearances. The TS/SCI clearance is one of the highest levels that can be given to any government employee or government contractor.

The best way to think of a TS/SCI clearance is that it provides individuals with some of the highest levels of access to intelligence but without exposing them to the entire national intelligence framework.

To put it in raw numbers – slightly over 6,500 Booz Allen employees hold TS/SCI clearances. To illustrate the magnitude of that number, Booz Allen (as a private corporation) has more employees on staff that hold TS/SCI clearance than the U.S. Department of Education has in total employees.

The standards and background checks by which a TS/SCI clearance is granted are generally the same for both outside contractors and government employees. Many of the similarities stop there however – that is where the complexities of government contracting begin.

When U.S. government intelligence agencies have a need for people they can hire employees on their own payroll (known as insourcing) or they contract those employees from private-sector companies such as Booz Allen (outsourcing). While this process might seem pretty straightforward in the commercial sector, it’s not so simple in the government sector.

Firms like Booz Allen charge the government what is casually known in the world of U.S. government contracting as the ‘loaded-rate’. This rate is essentially the total price that the government must pay to Booze Allen to retain the services of its employees on either short or long-term contracts.

The loaded-rate includes costs such as fringe benefits, general costs, administrative support, and fees (profits) for the company- all of which are made transparent to the government. To be clear, the U.S. federal government knows upfront how much profit (fee) companies like Booz Allen make from the contracts it awards them.


_____________________________________________


Global corporations like SAIC are the face of all of this outsourcing of information systems, the security and surveillance behind it and in this case SAIC is a Hopkins' corporation.  When we elect global corporate pols they are moving as fast as they can to create the infrastructure making the US simply a colonial economic outpost for this global corporate tribunal.

Now, don't you think that would be the conversation in the Democratic Party?  Since the Democratic base of labor and justice was all about labor, civil, women's rights and civil liberties-----since Democrats are the party tied to public justice and power to the people----

WHY IS THERE SILENCE ABOUT THIS CORPORATE COUP FROM THE DEMOCRATIC BASE?  THE REPUBLICAN VOTERS ARE SHOUTING AGAINST THIS----AND YET, NONE OF THE SUPPOSED LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATION LEADERSHIP MENTION THIS.

If you are silent on TPP-----if you do not educate on the policies that make TPP and what Clinton neo-liberal policies have as a goal---then that labor and justice organization is working FOR THE GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL PARTY!



Centralized data and information control in the hands of a global corporation and not a US government at Federal, state, or local level?  THAT WAS WHAT WORLD WAR 2 WAS ABOUT!  If you think state's rights are more important and want death to the Federal government---then you need to get ready for lost national sovereignty and global corporate rule....which will be 1,000,000,000,000 times worse.


THIS IS WHAT THE JOHNS HOPKINS SUPER-COMPUTER IS ABOUT.

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)



is a leading technology integrator that provides full lifecycle services and solutions in the technical, engineering, and enterprise IT markets. SAIC has approximately 15,000 employees worldwide.

Innovative Applications of Technology and Expertise

We design, develop, and sustain offerings that empower diplomatic missions, support warfighter requirements, and advance exploration from the ocean floor to outer space. We maintain leadership positions in supply chain management, hardware integration, and global network integration. Our diversified contract base enables us to provide end-to-end capabilities and solutions across mission and enterprise lifecycles.

We do all this with the constant and deliberate commitment to ethical performance and integrity that has marked SAIC since its founding.

Supporting Programs of National Importance SAIC has a strong commitment to supporting programs of national importance—helping to solve or undertake our country’s most significant problems. We offer a broad range of services and solutions to address our customers' most complex and critical technology-related needs.

__________________________________________

As someone who reads journals all day long and posts some of what I read I can tell you it is getting harder and harder to find progressive criticism of anything happening today.  Whether dialog about research and development, public policy dissent, or movements away from this     21st Century GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL society----internet servers are being programmed to select out certain words that will keep articles from appearing in searches----or Google and the global providers are selling priority spots in searches so that I find a progressive criticism of policy on page 30-50 of the Google search.

Johns Hopkins has an internal server that it programs to stop the ability to open certain kinds of articles claiming the need to protect its databases from viral attacks from left-leaning groups I suppose.   I find today I cannot open as many search sites in Hopkins that I can open.  When data collection and production narrows to certain universities that then become able to program what information the public can see----we have a great big problem. 

The American people have always taken a newpaper or journal article and shared it with friends----cut it out=====made copies of it to send and share information.  Today, journals and newspapers are starting to claim that copyright allows them to claw-back articles shared....almost like a DVD movie being copied and shared.   I spoke of rising costs for subscriptions and the ever exclusivity of being a well-read American citizen.....

The centralization of information and data to these super-computers controlled by a FOXCONN - like global merchant-class is the return to the medieval days -----

WE DO NOT WANT TO WAIT TO FIGHT A REVOLUTION WHEN ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS ENGAGE AS CITIZENS ----RUN FOR OFFICE---BE THE CANDIDATES THAT DO NOT SELL OUT----RUNNING AGAINST ALL CLINTON WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH NEO-CONS.


December 3, 2014 | By Maira Sutton


Copyright Law as a Tool for State Censorship of the Internet


When state officials seek to censor online speech, they're going to use the quickest and easiest method available. For many, copyright takedown notices do the trick. After years of lobbying and increasing pressure from content industries on policymakers and tech companies, sending copyright notices to take media offline is easier than ever.

The copyright law that state actors most often invoke is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The DMCA was the first major digital copyright law passed in the United States, creating strict procedural rules for how and when a copyright holder can claim that uploaded content infringes on their copyright. US-based tech companies that receive these infringement notices must comply with these rules to receive their safe harbor—the protection they have from being liable for hosting unlawful user content.

The DMCA has become a global tool for censorship, precisely because it was designed to facilitate the removal of online media. The law carries provisions on intermediary liability, among many other strict copyright enforcement rules, which induce websites, Internet service providers, and other such "intermediaries" to remove content that is alleged to be a copyright infringement.

If the DMCA is US law, how can governments around the world use it to censor speech? The DMCA has become the default template for tech companies to respond to copyright infringement notices. Since many major tech companies have offices in the US, they must comply with US law. But even if they don't operate in this jurisdiction, most major companies have implemented a DMCA-style takedown procedure anyway because it has become a de facto legal norm.

It's a norm that is reinforced and exported abroad by dozens of trade agreements that carry provisions that mirror, and further entrench, restrictive interpretations of the DMCA. The South Korea-US free trade agreement (aka KORUS) and the Australia-US free trade agreement (aka AUSFTA) are just two examples. The language in those agreements were actually a lot like the DMCA. But the negotiators abstracted the language just enough so that US law could still be compliant with it, while the other countries could be pressured to enact even harsher domestic restrictions. Following their trade agreements with the US, South Korea enacted a three-strikes takedown regime, and Australia was pushed into enacting policies requiring intermediaries to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are two multilateral trade agreements that may contain similarly expansive copyright terms.

Now we're seeing a disturbing trend where governments and state-friendly agencies are abusing DMCA takedowns to silence political criticism. Here are the cases we know about where governments have misused US copyright law to censor the Internet.

DMCA and State Censorship Around the World: A Timeline of Case Studies

  • UNITED STATES: YouTube removed a 30-second Air Force recruitment ad after lawyers for the Air Force's Cyber Command sent a DMCA notice demanding it take it down. The notice was likely invalid, since US government works are in the public domain. (March 2008)
  • CANADA: The House of Commons sent takedown notices to Friends of Canadian Broadcasting for posting videos and podcasts of Parliamentary committee proceedings on their website. (May 2009)
  • CANADA: The Auditor General issued a takedown to both The Globe and Mail and Scribd, for posting one section of the Auditor General's report on immigration, claiming that crown copyright applies. (November 2009)
  • CANADA: Transport Canada issued a takedown notice to Scribd over an on-the-record response to a journalist. (February 2012)
  • CANADA: Department of National Defense demanded the removal of a widely discussed leaked copy of the Canadian Land Force Counter-Insurgency Operations Manual from the site PublicIntelligence.net. It is unknown if other websites that published the document received similar notices. (April 2012)
  • UNITED STATES: The Department of Homeland Security reportedly issued copyright takedowns to YouTube over some conspiracy theory videos, when federal agencies themselves cannot own copyrights—unless it has been assigned to them, which seems unlikely in this case. (August 2012)
  • ECUADOR: A law firm, Ares Rights, has been sending DMCA takedown notices to dozens of websites, companies and individuals over tweets, documentaries, and search results on behalf several Ecuadorian state officials. (2014 and ongoing)
  • SAUDI ARABIA: A satirical show on Youtube called "Fitnah" was censored when the primary, state-funded Saudi TV channel, Rotana, sent DCMA notices to take down several of their videos. Later, a Lebanese TV show did a report about the takedown, and then another DMCA notice was sent and it was also removed from Youtube. All of the videos were later restored. (September 2014)
  • BRAZIL: Videos critical of 2014 presidential candidate and former governor, Aécio Neves, have been targeted by copyright takedowns. Although the identity of the sender cannot be confirmed, there is much speculation that Neves himself is behind the takedowns. (October 2014)
There are likely many more notices that state actors have used to censor users. Rightsholders are sending more and more DMCA takedowns by the year, and a telling sign of this is that some companies have begun to quantify this abuse in their transparency reports. As companies are increasingly being forced to be complicit in this censorship, it's now more important as ever for them to be transparent about the notices they receive, and for them to take advantage of the flexibility they have under the DMCA to do what they can to protect users' speech.

If you know of any cases of state-mandated Internet censorship carried out through the DMCA or other copyright laws' takedown procedures, please send them to maira@eff.org. We already track general DMCA takedowns with our Takedown Hall of Shame. Now we're looking for more cases where governments and their agencies have directly sought to censor the Internet via their own takedown requests.

________________________________________________


Blocked websites are only becoming more common, with governments like the UK’s pushing ISPs to start filtering the Internet connections they provide to subscribers by default and laws like SOPA in the US demonstrating the kind of harsh blocking governments want to put into place.

When corporations like Johns Hopkins become the public sector as they have in Baltimore----as they are extending to state and Federal levels they have the power of using their servers to block information anyway they want.  Think how many workers in Baltimore connected to Hopkins' computers and you see how large a sector this is becoming.  We already have Hopkins filtering all of our public radio and media----

Maryland gives itself high marks for what would be progressive policy if these policies actually worked or were implemented-----as I talk about information technology and the dismantling of all our Federal databases to global corporate outsourcing---we look at state and local government information not yet outsourced and/or classified as proprietary----and we see procedures meant to deter the public from submitting Freedom of Information Requests.  Whether long waits-----huge charges----or claims to being unable to correlate the information because it is in too many places----'the complex financial instrument model for public recordkeeping'.....the citizens of Maryland and especially Baltimore are actively thwarted by these corporate pols by policies and outright illegal actions in getting public information.  So, O'Malley will run for President as an Open Government candidate using headlines like this while Maryland is the most captured of public policy information access in the nation.  The cost of $20,000 the City of Baltimore wanted to charge for documents surrounding a development question----THIS IS NOT HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS----

THESE ARE NOT DEMOCRATS----PLEASE JUST RUN FOR OFFICE AT ALL LEVELS IN PRIMARIES AGAINST CLINTON WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS AND IN BALTIMORE----BUSH NEO-CONSERVATIVES SERVING AS DEMOCRATS!




The idea of pushing all US citizens to poverty so they cannot consume and fuel the economy domestically ----but rather declare that the world's rich will fuel consumption and enrich these global corporations leads this downsizing of government into the hands of corporations.  We simply need to return to a domestic economy-----a Baltimore small business economy----a Maryland regional business economy ----and get away from this global economy hold Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are placing on American citizens.  It is easy to do----we have the power to be citizens and engage in politics-----JUST DO IT----



Maryland legislature revamps public information

law By Doug Donovan The Baltimore Sun


Seeking government documents in Maryland? New law may help. Obtaining documents from government agencies in Maryland is no simple task. The process typically involves filing a written request under the state's Public Information Act and waiting up to 30 days — but can also lead to disputes over photocopying fees, redacted details or outright denials.

Reporters, lawyers, nonprofits and others have long had only one way to resolve disputes: in the courts.

Senate OKs rewrite of public information law Until now. The General Assembly, which ended Monday, approved legislation that establishes a public information compliance board and an ombudsman position to mediate complaints. The board will primarily handle complaints when government agencies charge fees above $350. The ombudsman will attempt to resolve disputes about redacted information, untimely responses, overly broad requests and denials.

A separate piece of legislation requires government agencies to post contact information for their public information officers.

  "This is the first comprehensive update of the Public Information Act laws in 45 years," said Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Maryland. "For the first time under this law we'll finally have oversight, which has been sorely missing in the past."

Last summer, Common Cause Maryland helped organize a coalition of more than 30 nonprofit and labor groups to form Marylanders for Open Government, which pressed for changes.

The Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association, which represents 114 member publications, including The Baltimore Sun, also supported the reforms.

Public salaries archive Changes to the law shift Maryland from a "presumption of closure with public information" to a "presumption of openness," said Rebecca Snyder, executive director of the press association.

Having to go to court to fight for public information prevents media outlets from reporting on important issues in a timely manner, she said. "I hear from members all the time about how hard it is to get information. Now there is someone to complain to."

The cost for the Maryland attorney general's office to staff the Public Information Act Compliance Board and the office of public access ombudsman is projected to be $199,900 the first year, according to the Department of Legislative Services' fiscal note on the legislation introduced by Sen. Jamie Raskin and Del. Bonnie Cullison, Montgomery County Democrats.

"The bill could also have a significant operational and/or fiscal impact on state agencies, although the actual impact depends on the number of MPIA requests and related complaints filed as a result of the bill," the note states.










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May 19th, 2015

5/19/2015

0 Comments

 
It's sad to see rural areas with little or no health care facilities because all of the public health that serviced all areas of the country has been dismantled and it is Republican voters who have been told the public sector is bad.  Now, they are the ones that will be connected to telemedicine and not brick and mortar doctor's offices.  These global market policies effect every US citizen---Republican and Democrat so

GET RID OF WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH NEO-CONS---ALL MARYLAND POLS ARE GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS!
 

Do you know if we brought back the trillion dollars in Federal, state, and local tax revenue Johns Hopkins has taken illegally over several decades to build its global corporation the citizens of Baltimore would have Expanded and Improved  Medicare for All with public health facilities in all communities?




Improved Medicare for All
as per the
Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act  
  Questions and Answers        H.R. 676 Text with Explanations      H.R. 676 Table of Contents

H.R. 676 Summary United States House of Representatives Bill Number 676 is the proposed U.S. legislation to establish single-payer health care, improved Medicare for All, in the United States. It will establish lifelong health care: cradle to grave, womb to the tomb. The coverage will be complete; some people like to call that “comprehensive.” Every other free-market high-income country in the world automatically provides health care for its people with a largely or exclusively non-profit method of financing the health care. The best non-profit method is called “single-payer” because it is the simplest and most efficient. The specific funding details need to be established, such as the method(s) proposed in H.R. 676. What matters is not so much how we pay for it, since the costs will be dramatically lower, but what we will pay for:
— We will no longer be paying for a system that wastes $400 billion in excessive administrative costs.
— Much more of our health care dollars will be spent on health care.
— More of the doctors and nurses time will be spent on caring for people.
— The result will be more time spent on prevention and wellness and the U.S. dramatically raising its life expectancy, which is a dismal 30th in the world, having dropped from 28th to 30th in June 2008.

_____________________________________________

Obama has spent his entire time in office privatizing all remaining Federal agencies----health care and education the most.  The Center for Medicare and Medicaid CMM has the most sophisticated, most efficient and effective operating systems network in the world.  It has collected 50 years of all medical transactions for low-income and seniors with the range of data collection that would make any evidence-based care and cost analysis simple and equitable.  There was no need to create large numbers of managed care groups with hospital, health insurance, and medical product people all working to establish what they think are best practice and cost.  We all know they are simply trying to figure out how to divide the massive trillion dollars in public health funding between these three corporate groups and integrate global health systems into the mix.  As with the financial industry consolidation that gave us global Wall Street.....and the complete ending of competition and free markets because of this consolidation-----Obama and neo-liberals are pretending these groups of insurance, hospital, and medical product executives have to come up with these evidence-based figures.

Below is part of a long article---please take time to read the entire article as it shows were things where things were and where they are going.  The Federalism Act written by Bill Clinton and embraced by Obama states the Federal government can ignore all of its duties of oversight and accountability and that includes all of the monitoring for equal protection laws around health care for women, people of color, the poor, seniors, and the disabled.  So, Obama has told his appointed agency heads to stop creating data that makes sure Constitutional rights and health regulations are enforced.  This is why since Reagan Clinton the Medicare and Medicaid Trusts have been looted of hundreds of billions of dollars every year----dismantled and ignored Federal oversight.  
THIS IS WHY THE FEE FOR SERVICE FAILED---NO OVERSIGHT.  DOCTORS GRADUATE KNOWING HOW TO CARE FOR THEIR PATIENTS---WE SIMPLY NEED TO HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE AND STOP PROFITEERING. Who was pushing hardest this profiteering---the very three groups at the table today working on health procedures.

Obama and Congressional neo-liberals are wanting to make it permanent by privatizing and dismantling the very Center for Medicare and Medicaid information system network-----outsourcing one well-working system to tons of private contractors to undermine the performance-----just as has been done with all Federal agencies....defunded and dismantled to the point of becoming dysfunctional----THE POST OFFICE EMPLOYEES WOULD GIVE AN AMEN TO THAT!



When you are developing a global health system information network race and ethnicity becomes vital for meeting the needs of many cultures around the world.  It has nothing to do with Equal Rights and Protections of race, creed, and gender here in the US.  So, private contractors are reworking the Medicare and Medicaid structure to fit global patients----forget silly things like equal protection here in the US----women, people of color, and the disabled are the supermajority of people that will be pushed to preventative remote medicine anyway.

5. Improving Data Collection Across the Health Care System Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data: Standardization for Health Care Quality Improvement


U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
The White House
USA.gov: The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
540 Gaither Road
Rockville, MD 20850



While a range of health and health care entities collect data, the data do not flow among these entities in a cohesive or standardized way. Entities within the health care system face challenges when collecting race, ethnicity, and language data from patients, enrollees, members, and respondents. Explicitly expressing the rationale for the data collection and training staff, organizational leadership, and the public to appreciate the need to use valid collection mechanisms may improve the situation. Nevertheless, some entities face health information technology (Health IT) constraints and internal resistance. Indirect estimation techniques, when used with an understanding of the probabilistic nature of the data, can supplement direct data collection efforts.Addressing health and health care disparities requires the full involvement of organizations that have an existing infrastructure for quality measurement and improvement. Although hospitals, community health centers (CHCs), physician practices, health plans, and local, state, and federal agencies can all play key roles by incorporating race, ethnicity, and language data into existing data collection and quality reporting efforts, each faces opportunities and challenges in attempting to achieve this objective.

To identify the next steps toward improving data collection, it is helpful to understand these opportunities and challenges in the context of current practices. In some instances, the opportunities and challenges are unique to each type of organization; in others, they are common to all organizations and include:


  • How to ask patients and enrollees questions about race, ethnicity, and language and communication needs.
  • How to train staff to elicit this information in a respectful and efficient manner.
  • How to address the discomfort of registration/admission staff (hospitals and clinics) or call center staff (health plans) about requesting this information.
  • How to address potential patient or enrollee pushback respectfully.
  • How to address system-level issues, such as changes in patient registration screens and data flow.
Previous chapters have provided a framework for eliciting, categorizing, and coding data on race, ethnicity, and language need. This chapter considers strategies that can be applied by various entities to improve the collection of these data and facilitate subsequent reporting of stratified quality measures. It begins by examining current practices and issues related to collecting and sharing data across the health care system. Next is a discussion of steps that can be taken to address these issues and improve data collection processes. This is followed by a review of methods that can be used to derive race and ethnicity data through indirect estimation when obtaining data directly from many patients or enrollees is not possible.

Collecting and Sharing Data Across The Health Care System Health care involves a diverse set of public and private data collection systems, including health surveys, administrative enrollment and billing records, and medical records, used by various entities, including hospitals, CHCs, physicians, and health plans. Data on race, ethnicity, and language are collected, to some extent, by all these entities, suggesting the potential of each to contribute information on patients or enrollees. The flow of data illustrated in Figure 5-1 does not even fully reflect the complexity of the relationships involved or the disparate data requests within the health care system. Currently, fragmentation of data flow occurs because of silos of data collection (NRC, 2009).

No one of the entities in Figure 5-1 has the capability by itself to gather data on race, ethnicity, and language for the entire population of patients, nor does any single entity currently collect all health data on individual patients. One way to increase the usefulness of data is to integrate them with data from other sources (NRC, 2009). Thus there is a need for better integration and sharing of race, ethnicity, and language data within and across health care entities and even (in the absence of suitable information technology [IT] processes) within a single entity.

It should be noted that a substantial fraction of the U.S. population does not have a regular relationship with a provider who integrates their care (i.e., a medical home) (Beal et al., 2007). For some, a usual source of care is the emergency department (ED), a situation that complicates the capture and use of race, ethnicity, and language data and their integration with quality measurement. While health plans insure a large portion of the U.S. population, their direct contact tends to be minimal, even during enrollment. Hospitals, which tend to have more developed data collection systems, serve only a small fraction of the country's population. As a result, no one setting within the health care system can capture data on race, ethnicity, and language for every individual.

Health information technology (Health IT) may have the potential to improve the collection and exchange of self-reported race, ethnicity, and language data, as these data could be included, for example, in an individual's personal health record (PHR) and then utilized in electronic health record (EHR) and other data systems.1 There is little reliable evidence, though, on the adoption rates of EHRs (Jha et al., 2009). While substantial resources were devoted to this technology in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,2 it will take time to develop the infrastructure necessary to fully implement and support Health IT (Blumenthal, 2009). Thus, the consideration of other avenues of data collection and exchange is essential to the subcommittee's task.

Until data are better integrated across entities, some redundancy will remain in the collection of race, ethnicity, and language data from patients and enrollees, and equivalently stratified data will remain unavailable for comparison purposes unless entities adopt a nationally standardized approach. Methods should be considered for incorporating these data into currently operational data flows, with careful attention to concerns regarding efficiency and patient privacy.

Hospitals

Because hospitals tend to have information systems for data collection and reporting, staff who are used to collecting registration and admissions data, and an organizational culture that is familiar with the tools of quality improvement, they are relatively well positioned to collect patients' demographic data. In addition, hospitals have a history of collecting race data. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 19643 and Medicare legislation in 1965,4 there was a legislative mandate for equal access to and desegregation of hospitals (Reynolds, 1997). Therefore it is not surprising that more than 89 percent of hospitals report collecting race and ethnicity data, and 79 percent report collecting data on primary language (AHA, 2008).

 

This culture of data collection has limitations, however. Historically, the data were never intended for quality improvement purposes, but to allow analysis to ensure compliance with civil rights provisions. Additionally, hospital data collection practices are less than systematic as the categories collected vary by hospital, and hospitals obtain the information in various ways (e.g., self-report and observer report) (Regenstein and Sickler, 2006; Romano et al., 2003; Siegel et al., 2007). Furthermore, compared with the number of people who are insured or visit an ambulatory care provider, a relatively small number of people are hospitalized in any one year (Figure 5-2).
Thus, while hospitals are an important component of the health care system and represent a major percentage of health care expenditures, they are only one element of the system for collecting and reporting race, ethnicity, and language data.

_________________________________________
Below you see a directive from Federal Medicaid pushing the process of outsourcing Medicaid systems to US and International Information Technology corporations.  This has been Obama's main job just as it was Governor O'Malley of Maryland-----rebuilding all Federal, State, and local public health systems that worked within Medicare and Medicaid are now all privatized corporate systems as public health dismantled and health care is deregulated and globalized.

Notice the Office of Civil Rights director-----this is the office that would have shouted that breaking down and outsourcing all of Medicare and Medicaid to privatized global health is NOT PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS.  It is like the Obama Labor Secretary Perez appointed not to protect labor rights but to tie labor to corporations.


Remember, breaking up this Federal operating system not only has a goal of ending all civil rights protections regarding access to health care----it is exposing all of US health data to private global contractors who subcontract to subcontractors and we are told all of this is done with confidentiality required by US law......

AND NONE OF THESE PROTECTIONS ARE HAPPENING.  OUR HEALTH DATA IS BEING SOLD AND DISTRIBUTED ALL OVER THE WORLD BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH NEO-CONS DO.


DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL



 

TO:                 Marilyn Tavenner Administrator




WASHINGTON,  DC  20201





APR 1 1
2014


Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Leon Rodriguez Director

Office for Civil Rights

/S/

FROM:           Brian P. Ritchie

Acting Deputy Inspector General for Evaluation and Inspections

SUBJECT:      Memorandum Report:  Offshore Outsourcing of Administrative  Functions by State Medicaid Agencies, OEI-09-12-00530

This memorandum report provides information about State Medicaid agencies' requirements for outsourcing administrative functions offshore.  Outsourcing occurs

when Medicaid agencies enter into agreements with contractors to perform administrative functions.  Outsourcing can occur inside the United States (domestic outsourcing) or outside (offshore outsourcing). 
 In 2011, an Office oflnspector General (OIG) review found that one Medicaid agency was unaware that a contractor had sent electronic copies of Medicaid claims offshore for processing.  This Medicaid agency inquired whether OIG had information regarding how States regulate offshore outsourcing.  In response, we initiated the current study, obtaining information from all 56 Medicaid agencies regarding their requirements and practices for outsourcing administrative functions offshore.  This memorandum report summarizes the information we collected from those States.

SUMMARY

 

Only fifteen of fifty-six Medicaid agencies have some form of State-specific requirement that addresses the outsourcing of administrative functions offshore.  The remaining

41 Medicaid agencies reported no offshore outsourcing requirements and do not  outsource administrative functions offshore.  Among the 15 Medicaid agencies with requirements, 4 Medicaid agencies prohibit the outsourcing of administrative functions offshore and 11 Medicaid agencies allow it.  The 11 Medicaid agencies that allow offshore outsourcing of administrative functions each maintained Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with contractors, which is a requirement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).  Among other purposes, BAAs are intended to safeguard protected health information (PHI).  These 11 Medicaid agencies do not have additional State requirements that specifically address safeguarding PHI.

_________________________________________


Here's Maryland leading the way to outsourcing our Federal Medicare and Medicaid long before it became fashionable because Maryland was the only state that sought exemption from all of Federal laws while the Clinton Federalism Act allowed for no Federal oversight and accountability.  It doesn't matter if it was a neo-conservative Erhlich or a Clinton neo-liberal O'Malley----these global corporate pols are outsourcing and sending our medical data anywhere for any reason. 

REPUBLICAN VOTERS ARE SHOUTING ABOUT LOST PRIVACY JUST AS PROGRESSIVE LABOR AND JUSTICE WHEN BOTH NEO-CONS AND NEO-LIBERALS ARE INSTALLING THESE POLICIES.

Having attended Maryland Assembly meetings this year I listened as all of these deregulation and outsourcing laws for Medicaid and Medicare came from Baltimore politicians working for Johns Hopkins which writes all of these global health laws and ignores all of Federal equal protection and health regulation laws anyway!

WHEN YOU KEEP SENDING BACK THE SAME BALTIMORE POLS ONLY WORKING FOR JOHNS HOPKINS----YOU ARE SENDING THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR CITIZENS IN BALTIMORE NOT HAVING ACCESS TO CARE AND NOT BEING PROTECTED FROM HEALTH CARE ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION.


As you see once again----this is why there are no jobs in Baltimore and Maryland----the entire public sector that did these Federal and state jobs have been dismissed and these jobs are outsourced to anywhere in the world all under the guise of being done cheaper.


The kind of people wanting to bring the US to a third world status just so a few can get super-rich-----ARE ALL OF MARYLAND'S POLITICIANS!  GET RID OF THESE SOCIO-PATHS.


As Medicaid grows, Maryland seeks help processing claims"




Publish Date 11/13/2009 Author CNSI


The state department overseeing Medicaid is planning to outsource its claims processing service in a move expected to save tens of millions of dollars and result in 100 lost jobs.The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene hopes to seek proposals early next year from information technology firms to develop and operate a new system to handle Medicaid claims, said Charles Lehman, executive director of the office of systems, operations and pharmacy at the state health department.As unemployment rises and people lose health care coverage, more people are qualifying for Medicaid. That, coupled with a recent expansion of the program and planned changes from the federal health care reform bills, is making the entitlement too big and expansive for Maryland to run.The number of Marylanders eligible for Medicaid has grown over the past few years from about 600, 000 to 800, 000, creating significant delays and backlogs for Lehman's 250-member claims processing department to work through. Complicating matters, Lehman cannot hire the 75 additional workers he would need to handle that increased workload because of Maryland's hiring freeze.So far, the proposal has drawn mixed reviews from the state's medical practitioners, said Gene M. Ransom III, CEO of the Maryland State Medical Society. Many doctors have opted to give free service to needy patients rather than try to wade through the time-consuming, complex process of submitting a claim.To that end, the system could be run more efficiently in the hands of a private company. But others are worried about their ability to to get help from elected leaders in challenging a denied Medicaid claim.The prospect could be lucrative for the dozens of IT firms in the state looking to compete for the contract. Potential bidders include Affiliated Computer Services, CNSI, CSC and Unisys, Lehman said. Avinder Singh, senior vice president of CNSI's health and human services division, said he is closely watching the process and his Gaithersburg company intends to bid for the contract when it is issued. CNSI already provides technical support for the aged Medicaid software program, and he believes the state is making the right choice in upgrading to a new system.But the practice has drawn its critics, who argue it has resulted in delays, glitches and a lack of proper oversight. Daraius Irani, an economist at Towson University's Regional Economic Studies Institute, said the state needs to make sure the Medicaid program continues to run efficiently and the confidentiality of patients is not compromised.It could then take about three years to transition from a state-run Medicaid program to one handled by an outside company.By then, federal health care reform being considered now could result in another expansion of Medicaid in Maryland and the rest of the states.Lehman said the state would look to shed about 100 employees in the department if it decides to outsource Medicaid.

_________________________________________________


Since the Affordable Care Act is about ending Federal Medicare and Medicaid Obama needed to defund and dismantle the Center for Medicare and Medicaid operating system and rebuild those on the state level to replace the Federal programs.  How better to dismantle the world's best Federal public health system but by outsourcing all of its functions all over the world----global corporations are now replacing all of the Federal Medicare agency employees!  THOSE CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF UNION-BUSTING AND INSTALLING TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT TAKING AMERICAN WORKERS TO THIRD WORLD LEVELS.

Since the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to push over 80% of Americans onto these preventative care-----remote access care and out of the health care system-----they need to connect those 80% of Americans to global health corporations that will provide that service very cheap. 

These ACO's-----the systems being created in your states consolidating health insurance, medical products, hospitals, and PHARMACY are already connected to overseas partners and that is what all of the hundreds of billions of dollars in Information Technology funding is paying to do. 

When any Democrat having supported this Republican health plan Affordable Care Act then shouts they want to make it better----or shouts at the number of  Americans losing their jobs and or being replaced by foreign workers-----THEY ARE LYING BECAUSE THEY KNEW THAT WAS WHERE THIS WAS GOING.  ALL OF MARYLAND POLS AND ESPECIALLY BALTIMORE POLS HAVE BEEN PUSHING BILLS FOR YEARS BUILDING THIS STRUCTURE FOR THE LIKES OF JOHNS HOPKINS.  Look below to see the biggest Wall Street Clinton neo-liberal----Corey Booker----pretending to be the defender of America's workers.



ObamaCare gets outsourced amid unemployment crisis

By Robert Oak

January 18, 2014 | 5:05pm

Modal Trigger Obama takes the stage for a speech about ObamaCare in 2013. Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder MORE ON: 

President Obama spent $831 billion of taxpayer money on a stimulus plan for the economy. He gave nearly $50 billion in aid to GM to keep it afloat. He lost $500 million on energy company Solyndra. All in the name of saving jobs.


Yet when it comes to his own signature initiative, the president doesn’t care about American workers. He’s outsourced ObamaCare.

After the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov, the administration hired Accenture as the new lead contractor. The deal is estimated to be worth $90 million and is now in the hands of the poster boy for global labor arbitrage and offshore tax havens.

Accenture has 80,000 Indian workers, 35,000 in the Philippines and only 40,000 in the United States. Over 40 percent of their worth comes from outsourcing. In all probability, the tech jobs awarded under this contract and paid for with US tax dollars are going abroad.

But even if the work is done locally, chances are the employees are foreigners brought in for lower wages using the controversial H-1B visa program — where companies are allowed to hire guest workers from abroad.


In 2012, Accenture ranked fifth among American companies in using H-1B visas. That year alone, Accenture brought into the United States 4,037 foreign workers on H-1B visas.

Modal TriggerAccenture is now ObamaCare’s chief contractor.Photo: Reuters/Mike Segar

Tech companies argue they need H-1B visas because there aren’t enough qualified American engineers, yet the facts do not bear this out. In truth there is no tech worker shortage or lack of skills and talent in America. The real motivation of offshore outsourcing companies like Accenture is cost. They use H-1B and other guest-worker visas to pay less wages than they would have to pay an equivalent American worker.

Accenture saves money by underpaying foreign guest workers they import — typically 25 percent less for their imported employees than the prevailing wage for a similar US citizen worker.

Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, analyzed Accenture’s use of the H-1B program. In 2005, the company had 12,684 H-1B foreign guest workers earning an average of $53,042 per year. That’s far less than the median $80,000 salary the same job responsibilities and skills required would fetch for an American worker. Accenture is so bad, they paid a foreign guest worker $25,113 per year — for the title of “chief programmer.” Typically chief programmers make six figures in the United States.

It appears undercutting wages with H-1B visas is part of Accenture’s business model. Hira found that, in 2012, the median salary paid for Accenture’s new H-1B workers was $64,700, while Amazon paid their equivalent H-1B workers a median salary of $95,000. Google, who also uses comparable technical skills sets to Accenture and Amazon, paid a median salary of $110,000 to their new H-1B visa hires.

Accenture also avoids American taxes. The company is headquartered in Chicago, but it’s incorporated in noted tax haven Ireland.

It’s unclear how much money Accenture has avoided paying to the US. But the company caused a scandal in the UK last year when it was revealed it paid only 3.5% in corporate income taxes, when the going rate is 25%.

If you’ve never heard of Accenture, the largest consulting company in the world, that’s by design. Accenture used to be called Andersen Consulting, which was associated with Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm found to be complicit in the Enron scandal.

But hey, new name, new advertising campaign — who remembers?

And chances are Accenture has kept its nose clean since . . . Except no.

Modal TriggerUS Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), left, and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), right, hold a news conference with unemployed Americans.Photo: Reuters /Jonathan Ernst

In 2011, Accenture agreed to pay the government nearly $64 million after being accused by the Justice Department of making false claims for payment with agencies for information-technology services. That’s right, they falsely billed the government for IT work. And now they’re running the government’s health-care website.

Accenture also allegedly “falsely inflated prices and rigged bids in connection with federal information technology contracts.” This year, the USPS inspector general also called for suspension of Accenture postal-service contracts due to an increased risk of fraud. Oh, well, sure they can be trusted this time.

So how did Accenture land such a plum contract? The $5.5 million they spent in lobbying in 2012, in addition to the $1.2 million in campaign donations, likely has something to do with it.

America needs jobs. The labor participation rate in the US has dropped to 62.8%, the lowest level since 1978. That’s a record 91 million adult Americans, many who have simply dropped out of the labor force due to a lack of work.

It has been proved repeatedly there is no shortage of Americans with technical skills and talent. In a recent study, Hal Salzman, Daniel Kuehn and B. Lindsay Lowell found there were 50% more college graduates with technical majors than were hired in related technical positions. Every year only one in two science and technology college graduates obtains employment in their major.

Employment in the fields of science and technology are at 2001 levels, and these figures count foreign guest-worker visa holders!

The president says the biggest problem with the economy is that we’re not spending enough money. Yet Obama doesn’t care that the money he does spend is going to Mumbai, Shanghai and Dublin, along with American jobs. It’s no surprise America’s middle class is becoming extinct.

Robert Oak is the nom de plume of the editor of the website The Economic Populist.


___________________________________

This need for data analysis and collection that once was handled by the Federal government by Federal employees working career jobs and doing things as routinely as possible has now moved to state systems that are using health data for profit----they are simply following the money trail to assign profit to the right consolidated partner----and they are selling data globally for profit.  So, all of the Federal funding to create what will be private global health system infrastructure all the while cutting funding to health services and access is what A CLINTON WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS DOES---NOT A DEMOCRAT FOLKS!

Johns Hopkins was awarded hundreds of billions of dollars from its pols Mikulski and Cardin to build a super-computer just so Hopkins could service all of this global data as Hopkins takes over Baltimore City with its global corporation.  Keep in mind----when these health systems outsource they are usually awarding these contracts to corporations they probably are invested in----so Federal, state, and local money going into this COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY HEALTH CARE REFORM is funnelled right into profit at every turn.


LOWER INPATIENT VOLUMES BECAUSE TIERED HEALTH PLANS AND GUTTED FUNDING OF MEDICARE AND MEDICAID KEEPS AMERICANS FROM ACCESSING ORDINARY HEALTH CARE?  WELL THEN ----THEY HAVE TO BUILD THEIR GLOBAL HEALTH TOURISM WHILE AMERICANS DIE DECADES EARLY!


    Remember, none of this is being done for quality service or care-----Americans have always felt safe and had the health care they needed----this is only about creatiing global, consolidated, and deregulated health corporations and the ending of Federal Medicare and Medicaid public health.

Outsourcing is Exploding in Healthcare — Will the Trend Last?
Written by Heather Punke October 04, 2013

  Several hospitals and health systems have begun to outsource more services as finances become tight. But, due to consolidation, the outsourcing trend may soon reverse.

Now, more than ever, hospitals and health systems are concerned about their bottom lines. The federal sequester took a 2 percent bite out of Medicare reimbursements,
and healthcare reform and other forces have led to lower inpatient volumes for many provider organizations. While several hospitals have turned to layoffs to address their cost concerns, still more are turning to another cost-saving solution: outsourcing.

"Healthcare is becoming such a cost-driven initiative," says John Boland, director of healthcare at Navigant. "Everyone is focused on costs and driving them down and getting quality results for less money."

Adam Higman, vice president at Soyring Consulting, agrees. "The driver is the cuts in reimbursement," he says. "[Hospitals] know they have to be more efficient and have to save money. That's helping drive [outsourcing] decisions."

Areas of outsourcing growth Traditionally, hospitals and health systems have outsourced support functions, such as housekeeping, laundry services, food services and even supply chain management — areas that do not fall under many hospitals' core competencies. With outsourcing on the rise, however, other functions have seen outsourcing growth, including the following:

Information technology. The U.S. healthcare IT outsourcing market is expected to grow by 42.8 percent in the next five years, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets. Mr. Higman says many systems are outsourcing IT services to vendors for help with ICD-10 preparation. Another reason outsourcing in this area is on the rise is because of the new emphasis on data collection and analysis.

"So much of what's going on now requires effective data collection and analytics of the data," says Barry H. Ostrowsky, president and CEO of Barnabas Health in West Orange, N.J. When the functions are outsourced, systems have access, through the vendors, to the most up-to-date technology for data collection and analysis without investing capital.

Clinical services. There has also been growth outsourcing clinical or patient care services. According to Mr. Boland, the top five most-outsourced patient care services are: anesthesia, emergency department staffing, dialysis services, diagnostic imaging and hospitalist staffing. "We will continue to see outsourcing in these areas in the next two to three years," he says.

These areas are ripe for outsourcing because, while they are essential to full-service acute-care hospitals, they are not dependent on a long-term physician-patient relationship. "Each of these services extends the ability of the hospital to provide full service without having to attract [or] retain a full complement of specialty physicians in a particular community," says Augustus Crocker, executive vice president and general manager of The Greeley Company, a healthcare quality, credentialing and compliance company.

At Barnabas Health, emergency department physician and hospitalist services have been outsourced for years at several of the system's hospitals. Mr. Ostrowsky says more organizations are starting to outsource these services because of a combination of focus and expertise. For example, physicians who focus exclusively on ED medicine know how to run an ED in the most high-quality, efficient way possible, he says. "Their ability to focus on simply one area makes the vendor more effective than part of a management team that has many other responsibilities."

Outsourcing's future Though some forces in the healthcare industry are contributing to an uptick in outsourcing for hospitals, that does not mean the trend toward outsourcing is stable. "There is a fair bit of oscillation back and forth where [systems] will outsource a function and then in-source it later," says Curt Bailey, head of Booz & Company's hospital practice.

In fact, there are other forces at play that may soon lead hospitals to begin to "in-source" again. For instance, as hospitals consolidate with other hospitals or physician groups in their market, the use of outsourcing may drop.

"What I think is going to happen is as hospital systems get bigger, they may begin creating their own operations," Mr. Ostrowsky says. "Outsourcing may start to decline as companies are big enough to perform the services in an equally efficient way." He gives the example of outsourcing ED medicine. If a system has enough hospitals, it may be able to put together its own group of ED providers instead of outsourcing to a third party group.

Taking it one step further, Mr. Bailey sees the possibility of larger systems "outsourcing" services to other systems in the area. For example, if a system has a large laboratory facility, he says they can provide lab testing for physicians or other hospitals in the geographic area. "I think you'll see people asking not what they can outsource, but what they can provide in the marketplace," he says.

So, though many hospitals and health systems are looking into outsourcing now due to the sequester, healthcare reform and other forces, consolidation may well lead to more in-sourcing in the industry.

___________________________________

What Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are doing is dismantling all of the Federal agencies tied to US citizens and national sovereignty -----and moving all of the government infrastructure to states with the goal of building CITY STATES----CORPORATE ENTERPRISE ZONES.  So, Johns Hopkins is getting all that Federal money to build health information systems like the one below that will be used to create data for its own global health businesses and to operate its RFID remote medicine with all that computing need.

  THIS IS TO WHERE BALTIMORE'S MEDICARE AND MEIDCAID FUNDING HAS GONE FOR YEARS AS BALTIMORE CITIZENS DIE 20 YEARS EARLIER THAN AFFLUENT CITIZENS DUE TO LACK OF ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE.

You can see why Baltimore's pols that run as Democrats but serve the very neo-conservative Johns Hopkins has not cared about Equal Protection or War on Poverty programs and funding----they have been working to undermine US citizens and their quality of life to build global corporations.

So, rather than have a Federal agency giving us statistics on health data and patient care through data collected by the Federal government-----we will have FOXCONN corporate factories like Johns Hopkins making data say whatever it wants.  As citizens of Maryland and all of the nation's academic institutions across the US have known for decades-----LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING NEVER BODES WELL FOR REAL SCIENCE.


This is why Baltimore is a city of global citizens coming and going using infrastructure paid for by Baltimore citizens and doing the work Baltimore citizens should be doing.  It is why Baltimore operates like a third world city----Hopkins sees the Baltimore region as its own global  corporate factory.


Is the Whitaker International Program For You?The Whitaker International Program sends emerging leaders in U.S. biomedical engineering (or bioengineering) overseas to undertake a self-designed project that will enhance their careers within the field.  The goal of the program is to assist the development of professional leaders who are not only superb scientists, but who also will advance the profession through an international outlook. Along with supporting grant projects in an academic setting, the Whitaker International Program encourages grantees to engage in policy work and propose projects in an industry setting.

What this article is saying while making it sound like a huge collaborative adventure is that this computer needed to be this big in order to service global health tourism and microchip patient care and will share information with its global partners.


IBM Supercomputer at Johns Hopkins to search for roots of heart and brain disease Baltimore 10 January 2000At the end of last year, Johns Hopkins University has installed an RS/6000 SP supercomputer in its Center for Imaging Science at the Whiting School of Engineering to help find cures for diseases of the heart and brain via image analysis. Specifically, Johns Hopkins researchers will utilise the IBM system to try to discover why, so often, the brain degenerates with age, and what exactly causes illnesses, such as schizophrenia and dementia. In addition, researchers hope to find out how heart attacks can be avoided by testing different medication combinations on heart models in pre-arrhythmia condition.

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RFID health products





The researchers will use IBM's deep computing technologies to construct 3D interactive computer models on the RS/6000 SP describing the body's anatomical structure and physiological behaviour. These models span from the model of a single gene up to the composite intricacies of organs, like the heart and brain. They may provide scientists with a better understanding of the relationships between microscopic structures and organ functions in both healthy and diseased brains and hearts. By conducting this pioneering research, scientists will seek to design new drugs and therapies, in order to help physicians and patients battle major organ disease. Using the RS/6000 SP, researchers aim at reducing research times and bringing drug therapies to market sooner.

"The RS/6000 SP supercomputing technology will allow us to analyse and access brain images from large numbers of individuals in databases, which provides an opportunity to make precise statistical statements about the onset of diseases related to the human brain", said Michael Miller, Director of the Center for Imaging Science at Johns Hopkins. This has not been possible until now because of the sheer complexity of the analysis, as Michael Miller stated.

Because of the human body's complexity and the enormous volume of data involved, computer modelling is currently emerging as both a powerful and necessary tool in understanding various cellular and tissue relationships, according to Dr. Raimond Winslow, head of the Center for Computational Medicine and Biology, a branch of the Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute. With computerised simulations, science is gaining understanding about the functions and processes of the human heart, and saving lives by managing the threat of heart attack and disease, as Dr. Winslow continued.

As part of the research programme, Dr. Miller and his colleagues will also have access to the IBM RS/6000 SP of NPACI, the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), that was expected to be capable of one teraflop performance by the end of 1999. The system will have more than 1000 microprocessors and will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. Computer modelling will be performed at both facilities, with the more computationally intensive work being done at SDSC.

Authorised researchers from around the world are invited to access SDSC's IBM supercomputer via the Internet. In this way, scientists at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the Washington University, and Cal Tech can generate tissue samples, have them analysed by algorithms from Johns Hopkins, and distribute them nationwide through SDSC's Supercomputer Center. SDSC's supercomputing power combined with our own RS/6000 SP will allow us to pool the expertise and data of numerous investigators and labs all around the world, according to Dr. Miller. "Such a collaborative effort, with its rapid information exchange, can only help researchers make great strides against modern-day diseases."

SDSC is a research unit of the University of California at San Diego and a national laboratory for computational science and engineering. It is also the leading edge site of the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), which was established to build the environment for tomorrow's scientific discovery.

The recently formed $34 million Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute was established by Johns Hopkins University in part with a grant from the Whitaker Foundation. Using computer imaging technology, some researchers at the institute will bring together two inherently different disciplines, which are computer engineering and biological research to advance medical science and the understanding of both human cellular and physiological functions and relationships.

The RS/6000 SP is the foundation of high performance computing, as stated by Rod Adkins, general manager, IBM RS/6000. "It is able to provide the world's major research centres with mathematical algorithms, computing power, performance, speed and scalability, all which they need to tackle the most important scientific puzzles of our time. Thus, IBM's high performance computing technology is revolutionising medical research."

Over 850.000 IBM RS/6000 systems were shipped to more than 125.000 commercial and technical customers around the world. The RS/6000 family of computers features IBM RISC-based microprocessors and runs the AIX, IBM's UNIX operating system. RS/6000 products range in size and capacity from workstations, workgroup and enterprise servers, to the RS/6000 SP supercomputer. Ranging from businesses deploying advanced technologies to become more efficient and profitable, to governments and universities seeking to solve the grand challenge problems of our time, the RS/6000 computers support a wide range of applications and provide the reliability, availability and price/performance that today's information technology managers demand.





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May 18th, 2015

5/18/2015

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I WILL END TALK ON HEALTH CARE BY SAYING-----YOUR LEADERSHIP WHETHER POLITICIANS-----LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS ----AS WELL AS UNIVERSITIES HAVE KNOWN WHERE CLINTON AND OBAMA NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH NEO-CONS WERE TAKING HEALTH CARE REFORM WITH AFFORDABLE CARE ACT....A REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE REFORM.  THINK WHO PROMOTED IT-----THINK WHO IS NOT SAYING ANYTHING BUT SLOGANS ON SINGLE-ISSUES----AND YOU KNOW WHO HAS TO GO!  GET ENGAGED---WE CAN REVERSE THIS MESS!


I want to segue from health care specifically to all of the Technology infrastructure that supports it.  This was Obama's first directive =====hundreds of billions of dollars in information systems development that would make health care more affordable and give your health information to any entity in the world partnered to your health system to provide care.  This is what the Affordable Care Act had as its primary goal----building these online structures that moves American citizens to remote care----and doctors and medical services anywhere in the world.  Progressive liberalism from FDR to the Reagan Clinton neo-liberalism built the structures that provided public access to health care for all----everyone went to a community clinic or public hospital-----they aged and went to retirement communities and/or state nursing homes THAT WERE WELL FUNDED AND HAD OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY---and people felt relatively safe with the fact that a doctor and hospital was doing all they could to provide quality and held our personal health information a confidential.  Health information was like a relationship with a lawyer.  These are Equal Protection and civil rights working in the public interest.  All of this was supported by corporations and the rich paying taxes and our tax base being sent to these public services and programs. 

CORPORATIONS EARNED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN PROFIT----SMALL BUSINESSES THRIVED-----AMERICAN CITIZENS EARNED WAGES AND BENEFITS TO FUEL THE CONSUMPTION OF THE US ECONOMY----NO GLOBAL MARKETS NEEDED.


Progressive liberalism would view this microchip technology in health with the same social seriousness as cloning and patenting DNA and body structures.  Medical ethics trumped any thought of profit.....social based market policy vs market based market policy.  It was the Reagan Clinton neo-liberal takeover of the Republican and Democratic Party that moved to market based policy and dismantled all of these public protections and placed profit ahead of social good.  AMERICA DOES NOT NEED GLOBAL MARKETS FOR JOBS----IT NEEDS TO REBUILD ITS DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND GET RID OF GLOBAL CORPORATIONS IN EACH STATE.



Global Telemedicine

Telemedicine has truly become a global industry. According to a report by BCC Research, the global telemedicine market reached $11.6 billion in 2011, and is expected to triple to $27.3 billion by 2016. In the U.S., the passage of new health insurance laws has sparked an increased focus on the use of telemedicine as a tool to reduce healthcare costs and streamline patient care. Telemedicine technologies can help healthcare providers meet the expected increase in demand for medical care without causing unnecessary delays in treatment or requiring cutbacks in other areas. With the use of telecare devices, software and services, physicians can diagnose and treat patients quickly and efficiently – from anywhere in the world.

The use of telemedicine technology, which is steadily growing in popularity in the U.S., has far-reaching applications worldwide. Telecare equipment, such as examination cameras, remote monitoring devices, digital scopes, and mobile telemedicine carts, allow patients in remote locations greater access to quality healthcare. By bringing the physician to the patient, telemedicine is truly transforming the way we think about traditional patient care. It is no longer necessary for rural patients, who often have limited resources, to travel great distances in order to receive quality medical care.

GlobalMed is poised to help medical care providers worldwide improve patient care with innovative telemedicine products, software and services. Whether you are just getting started with telemedicine, upgrading your existing technology or simply want more information about the products and services we offer, contact GlobalMed today to learn how we can help you. No matter where you are located in the world, we have a telemedicine representative near you.







  THIS TECHNOLOGY IS MOVING FORWARD AND WILL TAKE A REPRESSIVE TURN IF WE KEEP ALLOWING CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY.  WHO SUPPORTS CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS AND THESE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT MEDICAL POLICIES EACH ELECTION?  NATIONAL LABOR UNION AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATION LEADERSHIP. 


Before I start on the technology and computer wiring of all public services with health care at the top of the list----let's remember how Clinton neo-liberals have taken control of our national justice organizations, both women and people of color.  Look how all of these organizations have CONTRACEPTION as the top priority for women.  Emily's List is a Hillary Clinton organization and who did Emily's List support in Maryland elections?  Heather Mizeur and now Donna Edwards.  The Planned Parenthood has Wall Street's deBlasio's wife at the head and National Organization of Women push Hillary Clinton and think Janet Napolitano is right for the Supreme Court----

MS MILITARY POLICING AND EQUIPMENT IN OUR COMMUNITIES AND NSA IN EVERY TELECOMM AND INTERNET INTERACTION NAPOLITANO.  MS ----I AM THE HEAD OF THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM WITH NO BACKGROUND IN EDUCATION BECAUSE IT IS ALL ABOUT JOB TRAINING NAPOLITANO.

Sadly, we are at a time when people at the top of what used to be civil rights, women rights, and labor rights are Clinton neo-liberals working to dismantle all Constitutional rights with Trans Pacific Trade Pact.  Keep in mind---this is not about funding women's choice in prescription contraception---and Republicans are the source of mandated birth control. 


Planned Parenthood: Contraception suit 'unbelievable'


 
15 By Sam Baker - 05/21/12 06:29 PM EDT  The Hill

“This isn’t a religious or political issue — it’s a medical issue, and that’s where we should keep it,” Richards said in a statement. “Planned Parenthood remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting women’s access to preventive health services, including birth control, and we will work to ensure that no woman has to worry about how she will afford her next birth control prescription.”

The administration's policy requires most businesses to cover contraception in their employees' health plans. Churches and houses of worship are exempt. While religious-affiliated employers such as Catholic universities don't have to provide the coverage directly, their employees can get birth control through the insurance company, still without paying a co-pay or deductible.

Catholic groups challenging the mandate say passing the burden to insurers isn't sufficient. They want an exemption for all business owners who are Catholic.

The Health and Human Services Department based the mandate on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, an independent panel of healthcare experts
. President Obama's healthcare law requires certain preventive services to be covered without a co-pay, and the IOM said contraception should be included among those preventive services.


____________________________________________________
Below you see two women who are tied to the most neo-liberal and neo-conservative of institutions and people.  Pelosi is a Clinton neo-liberal extraordinaire and is completely Baltimore and Johns Hopkins in her politics.  Cecile Richards has a history of working for Clinton neo-liberals.  If you do not know about Trans Pacific Trade Pact and Affordable Care Act and the direction it takes health care ------global corporations behaving like Wall Street banks----she is the one that made sure you did not get that information.  Think about the number of women falling off of health care access with these reforms and dismantling of Medicare and Medicaid----and you get Ms Richards getting out the vote for Clinton neo-liberals like Nancy Pelosi.

Ms Johnson hails from the Bush neo-conservative Yale---she is committed to EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES in health care-----

When we have our justice organizations headed by people graduated from the very Ivy League universities giving us global corporations and corporate rule----we have people in place to promote these Clinton neo-liberal and Bush neo-con policies.  Women's health is more than contraception----it is the War on Poverty and Medicare and Medicaid that protected the poor and seniors a majority being women.  You do not hear about the dismantling of these public health programs because these few decades have seen leaders promoting neo-liberal policies-----not progressive liberal policies.

THIS IS WHY AMERICAN PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW PUBLIC POLICY---ITS HISTORY AND THE CURRENT POLICY GOALS----THESE ARE THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT SHOULD BE SHOUTING-----TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT KILLS OUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS AND ENDS NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND PUBLIC SERVICES AND PROGRAMS.



Before joining Planned Parenthood, Ms. Richards served as deputy chief of staff for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2004, she founded and served as president of America Votes, a coalition of 42 national grassroots organizations working to maximize registration, education, and voter participation.


Planned Parenthood Federation of America is led by women and men committed to ensuring access to quality health care, education, and information for all individuals and families worldwide.

Together with a staff of experts in medicine, sexual health, advocacy, communications, and law, these leaders offer a robust vision and commonsense solutions designed to protect women’s health and safety and the basic human rights of us all.

Cecile Richards
   President
   Planned Parenthood Federation of America and
   Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Alexis McGill Johnson
   Chair
   Planned Parenthood Federation of America


Ms. Johnson is currently the executive director at the American Values Institute, an Institute for America's Future project that uses evidence-based practices to combat prejudice in society. Graduate of Yale.


____________________________________________


When the NOW supports a Clinton neo-liberal------it says to the American people---we are a corporate feminist group----not an equal protection and civil rights organization.  Nowhere does NOW ever shout or educate as to the dismantling of equal protection and along with that civil rights, women's rights, and labor rights----the dismantling of War on Poverty and New Deal by Bill and Hillary.  Nowhere does NOW tell how neo-liberalism around the world exploits, abuses, and enslaves women and children and Trans Pacific Trade Pact brings all of this to the US-----THAT IS WHAT A WOMAN'S ORGANIZATION WOULD HAVE BEEN SAYING ABOUT THE CLINTON'S AND NEO-LIBERALISM FOR THESE FEW DECADES IF NOT FOR LEADERSHIP THAT SUPPORTS NEO-LIBERALISM.  Where does Affordable Care Act lead for women's health?  A progressive NOW back in the 1960s and 70s would have been shouting about the dangers for women in the ACA.

If you look at O'Neill's history she is right there in the south-----and Maryland especially has been captured by neo-liberals and neo-cons for these few decades-----you see the Clinton neo-liberal hold on our national justice leadership.  Progressive liberalism would not live in the southern states----that is why we have Clinton neo-liberals and absolutely no education of the health policy of Affordable Care Act and how it ties with Trans Pacific Trade Pact in dismantling Equal Protection and women's health programs.


Does any of these women's justice organizations educate as to microchip contraception and the dangers all of this medicine by bots will bring to what will be a super-majority of women?  Absolutely no discussion from what would have been the organizations tasked to these ethical debates affecting women.  IT IS HUGE----AND NO TALK.  THAT IS BECAUSE CORPORATE FEMINISTS SEE THE PRODUCTS AND PROFIT AS THE DRIVER OF POLICY AND NOT WOMEN'S RIGHTS.



O’Neill’s feminist activism began in the 1990s, fighting right-wing extremists in the Deep South, including David Duke. She has served as president of Louisiana NOW and New Orleans NOW and as a member of the National Racial Diversity Committee. She is a past president of Maryland NOW and served on the NOW National Board twice, representing the Mid-South Region (2000-2001) and the Mid-Atlantic Region (2007-2009). O’Neill was NOW’s membership vice president from 2001 to 2005, when she oversaw NOW’s membership development program as well as finances and government relations.


NOW Prez: Hillary Set to Bring a ‘Sea Change to Our Politics’; Will Suffer More ‘Silly’ Attacks


Original Publication:  By Curtis Houck, 1429228800 Author Chris Houck writes for NewsBusters: “Appearing on the Thursday edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, National Organization for Women (NOW) President Terry O’Neill ripped critics of Hillary Clinton from the 1990s to the present for leveling “silly” attacks on the Democratic presidential candidate as she’s looking to “bring another sea change to our politics.””

Watch the full video of the interview with Terry O’Neill.


Supreme Court Tackles Obamacare Contraception Controversy Posted April 23rd, 2014

Terry O’Neill explains that Hobby Lobby and companies like it are using corporate “religious freedom” as an excuse to oppress workers’ rights.






  • NARAL-----National Abortion Rights
Thank Hillary Clinton for Representing Pro-Choice Values We couldn’t be more grateful that Hillary’s in the race. From setting up one of the first rape crisis hotlines in the South when she was a young lawyer to being an unwavering advocate in the Senate to her incredible work through the State Department to empower women and girls, Hillary defines what being a champion looks like on these issues.

Now's the time for action. We have to ensure candidates like Hillary know we have their back when they stand up for pro-choice values.

Hillary’s in, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Will you thank Hillary for running and representing pro-choice values loud and proud?


________________________________________

The Affordable Care Act is the tool to bringing multinational corporations to the US and make accessible the American people to this global health system that covers mostly third world nations. So, telemedicine brings Americans to an online relationship with doctors not just to access doctors and health services in the US-----but to have global health insurance corporations tie the cheapest health care given to global partners. This is where telemedicine-----and remote microchips technology takes the American people. The rich of the world will access American first world medical institutions while 80% and more of Americans will be outsourced to lower cost international health care. Trans Pacific Trade Pact will allow those global health corporations to operate in the US as they do overseas-----so we will see the influx of foreign health corporations bringing their employees and treating them as they do in their own nations. US doctors will accept more and more foreign rich as their patients and charge whatever the market bears while Americans are tied to tiered health plans and health systems that can send them where they want. Johns Hopkins here in the US is well on its way to being exclusively a global health tourism institution mostly paid for by the Federal, state, and local taxpayers.
  • Abstract
Send to: J Health Soc Behav. 2004;45 Suppl:136-57.

Multinational corporations and health care in the United States and Latin America: strategies, actions, and effects.
Jasso-Aguilar R
1, Waitzkin H, Landwehr A.Author informationAbstract

In this article we analyze the corporate dominance of health care in the United States and the dynamics that have motivated the international expansion of multinational health care corporations, especially to Latin America. We identify the strategies, actions, and effects of multinational corporations in health care delivery and public health policies. Our methods have included systematic bibliographical research and in-depth interviews in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. Influenced by public policy makers in the United States, such organizations as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization have advocated policies that encourage reduction and privatization of health care and public health services previously provided in the public sector. Multinational managed care organizations have entered managed care markets in several Latin American countries at the same time as they were withdrawing from managed care activities in Medicaid and Medicare within the United States. Corporate strategies have culminated in a marked expansion of corporations' access to social security and related public sector funds for the support of privatized health services. International financial institutions and multinational corporations have influenced reforms that, while favorable to corporate interests, have worsened access to needed services and have strained the remaining public sector institutions. A theoretical approach to these problems emphasizes the falling rate of profit as an economic motivation of corporate actions, silent reform, and the subordination of polity to economy. Praxis to address these problems involves opposition to policies that enhance corporate interests while reducing public sector services, as well as alternative models that emphasize a strengthened public secto
r



______________________________________---


Think about all we know about TPP and how it affects health policy in the US and around the world----then think about the Affordable Care Act and the mandates tied to building the cheapest model to deliver health care----and we know that will lead to microchip and forced remote medicine----and ask----WHY WOULD NATIONAL WOMEN ORGANIZATIONS NOT HAVE BEEN OUT FRONT IN EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ABOUT HOW BAD THESE POLICIES ARE?  THE ANSWER IS THE CLINTON NEO-LIBERAL LEADERSHIP WORKING FOR HILLARY CLINTON.

IT IS AS IMPORTANT THESE DAYS TO KNOW WHO NOT TO LISTEN TO AS WE REBUILD OUR PROGRESSIVE LABOR AND JUSTICE CONTROL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!



TPP would make health care even more expensive, less accountable, less accessible

June 21, 2013
Health Council of the General Welfare Branch

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a deal that is being secretly negotiated by the White House, with help from more than 600 corporate advisors, and Pacific Rim nations including Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Chile, Peru, Australia and New Zealand. While the TPP is being called a trade agreement, the United States already has trade agreements covering 90 percent of the GDP of the countries involved in the talks. Instead, the TPP is a major power grab by large corporations.

The text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which concern trade. The remaining chapters are focused on changes that multinational corporations have not been able to pass in Congress such as restrictions on internet privacy, increased patent protections, greater access to litigation and further financial deregulation.

So far, all that is known about the contents of the TPP is from documents that have been leaked and reports from non-governmental organizations and industry meetings. Unlike other trade deals, the White House refuses to make the text available to the public. In fact, the negotiators refuse to publish the text until four years after it is signed into law.

From the information available, one thing is clear about the impacts of the TPP on health care. The intention of the TPP is to enhance and protect the profits of medical and pharmaceutical corporations without regard for the harmful effects their policies will have on human health.

We know that the TPP will extend pharmaceutical and medical device patents and provide other tools to keep the prices of these necessities high. This will make medications and treatments unaffordable for millions of people and raise the costs of national health programs, including public health systems in the U.S.. At its worst, the TPP will provide a pathway to infect the world’s health systems with the deadly parasite of for-profit health corporations that plague the United States.

The major health threats posed by the TPP include:

  • Extensive patent protections. Through the TPP, pharmaceutical and medical device corporations are seeking extensive patent protections using a process known as ‘Evergreening.’ The TPP gives twenty years of patent protection for pharmaceuticals and medical devices; however, patents can be renewed for another twenty years each time there is a change in an indication or delivery. 
    • Doctors without Borders criticized this practice, stating that patent protections in previous trade agreements raised the price of life-saving medications and made them unavailable to people in poorer countries. Patents prevent the production of low cost generic forms of medications. 
    • Because of the negative impact on public health from patent protections in previous trade agreements, such as the Korea Free Trade Agreement, former President Bush rolled some of these practices back. Unfortunately, the TPP will move them forward again. In fact, the TPP goes farther to require patents on surgical techniques, medical tests and treatments.
  • Prevention of necessary innovation. Doctors without Borders also expressed concern that patent protections encourage innovation based on profit instead of on the needs of people, particularly those in poor nations. Corporations do not see it as in their financial interest to address health conditions more prevalent in poor nations which do not have the financial resources to buy their products. But it is often in these situations where treatment can have the greatest impact on quality of life.
  • Attack on public health systems. An area of great concern is language within the TPP concerning State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). These are institutions that are fully or partially owned by governments, which could include public health systems.
    • Corporate lobbyists are concerned that SOEs have ‘unfair advantages’ over private industry. These advantages include government subsidies, preferred tax status, low finance rates and access to capital. According to a leaked chapter, corporate lobbyists believe that there is a conflict of interest because SOEs have political considerations such as functioning to provide basic goods and services for their population and believe that instead SOEs should operate strictly as commercial entities.
    • The TPP requires SOEs to disclose any special advantages they receive and the government to give the same advantages to corporations. It also provides methods for corporations to sue governments if they believe that they are not being treated fairly.
    • Text from a section of the TPP called “Annex on Transparency and Procedural Fairness for Healthcare Technologies” was leaked in June, 2011. It reveals that medical industries are pushing on all fronts to keep their prices and prevent public health systems from negotiating to keep prices affordable. To medical industries, price negotiation is one of the ‘unfair advantages’ of public health systems. When a public health system negotiates a lower price, it is said to be exerting its market power. On the flip side, when a government extends patent protections to medical industries, this is not considered to be a use of market power by the industry.
  • Greater control over reimbursement. Medical industries are pushing for other concessions within the TPP to ‘level the playing field,” also known as forcing public entities to operate as market-based entities, such as factoring the cost of not just research, development and production of drugs and medical devices but also the cost of marketing them into what is considered to be a fair market price. And they only view prices negotiated without any government influence as fair. These provisions are significant because the TPP allows pharmaceutical corporations and others to challenge the legitimacy of any reimbursement decisions made by public health systems through the courts.
    • Patent and price protections for multinational pharmaceutical and medical device corporations based in the U.S. will benefit their bottom line and their investor’s pockets, but may bounce back and undermine public health systems in the U.S.. The leaked text indicates that the above provisions only apply to health authorities under the jurisdiction of the federal government. However, the loop holes are large enough that all of the U.S. public health systems, which include Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare and the Veterans Health Administration, can arguably be considered to be federal.
To solve the health crisis in the U.S., we must move away from privatization of health care and towards a public health system with a mission to improve and protect the health of the public.

Therefore, the Health Council of the Green Shadow Cabinet opposes provisions within the TransPacific Partnership that make profit more important than public health. We oppose all provisions that restrict access to necessary medications, medical tests and treatments. Rather than the expansion of patent protections, there should be increased sharing of medical knowledge to promote improved global public health.



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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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