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September 30th, 2016

9/30/2016

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Maryland's political reporting is basically repeating what a two party captured system says----no holding power accountable--no outing pols as posing progressive or conservative but below we see an article written that actually addresses a REAL ISSUE.  We spoke a few days ago about the march to deregulate and dismantle all our public K-12 structures under the guise of fixing long-standing neglect of oversight and accountability.  With that comes the move to capture all public K-12 policy to yet another quasi-governmental appointed committee/commission.  They people who will be appointed will be those having allowed widespread misappropriation of our Maryland and Baltimore education funds no doubt.

Clinton/Bush/Obama terms were an exercise in moving the power of legislation from our elected Congress, state assemblies, and city halls to the EXECUTIVE BRANCH----PRESIDENT, GOVERNOR, MAYOR----by what we describe above---but also we see below--the executive order.  Presidents have illegally used this process and now it is coming more and more to our state and local executives.  The idea that starting our K-12 before or after Labor Day is so critical as to come to these kinds of power-grabs is a red flag.  Maryland has been CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA Wall Street corporate through modern history that is why we have a YAWNING GAP BETWEEN PARTIES.  

'In a state where there’s a yawning gap between the Republican governor and Democratic legislature, Hogan’s action could set a dangerous precedent. In the future, Hogan might decide to rule by executive fiat rather than tangle with a legislature determined to block his moves'.

The idea that a pol would be labelled a DEMOCRAT for standing with policy stances designed to USURP our elected legislature even more IS FALSE.  DEMOCRATS ARE EXACTLY THAT ---WE STAND FOR CITIZEN VOICE AND POWER.  Executive Orders do the opposite.  Comptroller Franchot is simply being a FAR-RIGHT WALL STREET GLOBAL POL.

The second issue is allowing a court to decide power issues at a time when all Maryland courts are filled with the most Wall Street and corporate judges who always rule against citizen rights and justice.  The abuse of executive order should be in the Supreme Court----but that court is captured to Wall Street as well. 


THE POINT IS THIS---AS THE ARTICLE STATES---THIS IS A SMALL ISSUE FOR A GOVERNOR TO BE USING EXECUTIVE ORDER AND AS A TEST CASE FOR WHETHER A GOVERNOR HAS THAT RIGHT OF EXECUTIVE OVERREACH----WE NEED TO BE SHOUTING 'STOP THIS EXECUTIVE BRANCH OVERREACH'.




'Does Gov. Larry Hogan Jr. have the power to issue an executive order mandating when the school year begins and ends? It’s not the most pressing question facing Maryland – but the answer could have a dramatic impact on the state’s future governance'.



Rascovar: Let courts decide who sets Md. school calendar


By Barry Rascovar | September 25, 2016

By Barry Rascovar
For MarylandReporter.com


Gov. Larry Hogan signs executive order declaring schools will strart after Labor Day. He is joined by Comptroller Peter Franchot applauding on the left and Sen. Jim Mathias with arms raised on the right. Governor’s Office Photo.


Does Gov. Larry Hogan Jr. have the power to issue an executive order mandating when the school year begins and ends? It’s not the most pressing question facing Maryland – but the answer could have a dramatic impact on the state’s future governance.


Indeed, there’s an urgent need for someone on either side of this issue to take the matter to court. A constitutional question of enormous consequence is at stake.
Hogan’s claim to executive powers over local school systems appears shaky. They are not part of the executive branch.
Similarly, the State Board of Education isn’t beholden to Hogan’s mandates. By law, the governor names board members but it then is up to this independent panel to pick a superintendent and enact statewide school policies without interference.
So how can Hogan claim authority to lay out parameters for the annual school calendar?

Setting a precedent?


In a state where there’s a yawning gap between the Republican governor and Democratic legislature, Hogan’s action could set a dangerous precedent. In the future, Hogan might decide to rule by executive fiat rather than tangle with a legislature determined to block his moves.
Repeatedly, Hogan has expressed disdain for the legislature and frustration with lawmakers’ refusal to give him 100% of what he wants. He has mocked and derided Democratic legislators. In the dispute over when to begin the school year he accused Democrats of being in the pocket of the state teachers union.
In the past, lawmakers have defeated attempts to accommodate Ocean City businesses by commencing school after Labor Day.
Opposition has come not just from the teachers union but from statewide groups representing local education boards, PTAs and local school superintendents.
Their argument is based on doing what is best from an education standpoint.
Hogan’s argument is based on doing what is in the best interests of Ocean City and Deep Creek Lake businesses that see a decline in revenue when families can’t extend their vacations through the Labor Day weekend because of early school openings.
Practical considerations
Hogan is being a practical, tactical politician seeking to win cheers from parents and his political base. Returning Maryland to an earlier time when all school systems waited till after Labor Day to begin classes is in line with Republican ideology that insists we can, indeed, roll back the clock.
Educators want to be practical, too, but not in a political sense. If you want to keep the current time off for holidays, religious observances and professional training days, then the school year must start before Labor Day or extend nearly till July.
The other concern is that a later school-year start compresses the time students have to prepare for nationwide testing. Educators worry about lower test scores and harming students’ ability to qualify for gifted and talented courses or getting into colleges.
But there’s a much bigger issue at stake.

Can the governor promulgate additional executive orders telling local schools and the state education panel what to do or what they are forbidden from doing?

Can he, for example, prevent a local school system from closing for Muslim holidays? If local school boards truncate spring break to comply with his order, can Hogan then tell them not to eliminate Good Friday and Easter Monday as holidays?
Could he or a future conservative governor require the end to sex education in local schools? Could he overrule school board decisions on the treatment of transgender children?
Could he issue an executive order allowing students to attend local schools without having been vaccinated? Could he decree that the conservative constitutional doctrine of “original intent” be taught in all high school civics classes?


Dividing line of power


At the same time, Hogan might decide to issue an executive order requiring Baltimore City and Baltimore County to air-condition all of its schools immediately, regardless of the cost to local governments. He might also use executive orders to fire local superintendents or board members who don’t follow his commands.
What happens if a local school board defies Hogan this time and sets its 2017 calendar with a pre-Labor Day opening? How does Hogan make that board comply? Does he deny the jurisdiction state funds? Does he sue the board?


And where does Maryland’s law-making body come into play? Isn’t that the group given the constitutional power to enact statutes governing local education?
Where, precisely, is the dividing line between executive authority and legislative authority?


Definitive answers are sorely needed. Not off-the-cuff “I’m right” comments from the governor or “we feel strongly both ways” conclusions from the attorney general’s office. Only the Maryland Court of Appeals is in position to deliver a clarifying ruling.
It doesn’t help matters for the General Assembly to reverse Hogan’s school-schedule mandate in January and then pass a law setting out new ground rules for executive orders. This would only produce more bad blood and finger-pointing for political gain.
A court determination, on the other hand, would settle this dispute and resolve a murky area of constitutional law.
All it takes is someone to pursue legal action. So far, no one has had the courage to do so

__________________________________________

As an academic having worked in all venues of public education these are the issues many teachers and administrators consider over these start-date issues.  The push for start BEFORE LABOR DAY had the same media attention and push some decades ago as we now have from corporate pols to reverse this policy. 

The window between Sept to December is about 3 1/2 months---coming back after holidays Jan to May giving about 4 months with spring break.  As a teacher tasked with learning skills development, achievement and progress in subject matter  these windows are ALREADY TOO SHORT.  We have a strong movement towards year-around school because of this with shorter intermittent breaks throughout the year. 

The time before Labor Day has always been used to do administrative duties and getting students used to the routine of coming to class.  Then they are ready for academics when they return from Labor Day weekend.
Are businesses really losing profits when our highways, trains, and planes seemed booked over three day holidays.

WHAT WE THE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES OF THIS ONE ISSUE NEED TO PLACE AS A PRIORITY----ANY DECISIONS MUST STAY WITH OUR LOCAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS FOR PARENTS AND CITIZENS TO HAVE THAT VOICE.

At a time we are already struggling with the corporatization of our local public school boards---we don't want more avenues for executives to usurp these powers given in the US Constitution.


Covering Northern Virginia
Julie Carey, David Culver and the News4 team covering where you live

Fairfax County School Board Considers Pre-Labor Day Start for 2017-18 Year


By Alex Kist

After racking up multiple snow days due to January's harsh winter storm, Fairfax County schools could push up the start date for the 2017-2018 school year. 
The Fairfax County School Board is considering starting school before Labor Day now that the school district qualifies to waive the state's post-Labor Day requirement, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) announced Tuesday. 


Typically, schools in Virginia start classes the week after the final summer holiday, complying with a state code known as the "Kings Dominion Law." The 1986 legislation grants students an extra weekend of vacation to boost local tourism and amusement park business in Virginia, as well as keep teen employees working through the end of summer. 
However, Virginia's Board of Education offers an opt-out option if a school district is closed for an average of eight days per year during five of the past 10 years. 

Fairfax County has averaged 8.4 missed days due to adverse weather conditions and other emergencies for five of the past 10 years, FCPS said Tuesday. 
However, a later start date is not a done deal. The school board will discuss the matter further during a future work session, and will ask for feedback from parents, faculty and community members before taking a vote. 


FCSP will maintain its post-Labor Day start date for the 2016-2017 school year. Classes will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 6 this fall.



__________________________________________

While the media tells Maryland citizens that Maryland Assembly pols were outraged at the sudden closure of a vital hospital making it outpatient-only here we see legislation passed that does the opposite----Maryland's state health system is the most corporate and profit health reform in the nation and Maryland citizens already had great disparity in health access. The goals of Maryland health reform is consolidation, deregulation, maximizing profits, and expanding those consolidated systems globally. The money to do all that is coming from what used to be ordinary hospital access for routine medical procedures ---and going to preventative outpatient-clinic care access only. Where low-income Maryland citizens were pushed to this decades ago with exclusion from Medicare oversight----now Maryland is expanding exclusion as hospitals are made more profit-driven.

Below we see this decline----the drops in admissions are being touted as EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE discharge processes but the real reasons for declining accesses is PEOPLE'S HEALTH PLANS ARE SLOWLY MAKING INPATIENT ACCESS TOO EXPENSIVE.


'Inpatient admissions at Maryland's hospitals declined by nearly 100,000, or 15 percent, in the past decade, according to the hospital association'.

Of course where this leads is more telemedicine where citizens' access to doctors come primarily through a computer screen.  This is exactly what The Affordable Care Act was written to do-----so think who shouted out in support of ACA----and now we will hear these same pols coming out with outrage over all the losses to our public health system.  CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA was about dismantling all our public health agencies privatizing and moving Federal funding to build corporate medical/PHARMA research patenting mills.  Our public health funding is now subsidizing medical patent-mills.


Citizens are silent as they tell us IT IS A REALITY that care is being shifted to outpatient settings


Legislation would make it easier to convert hospitals to outpatient centers in Maryland


Mark Arsenault, vice president for the Bowie Health Campus, is pictured in the Lab Annex.
(Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun)
Andrea K. McDanielsContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
March 17, 2016



Hospitals trying to get more outpatient center


When it opened in the 1970s, Bowie Health Center was the first of its kind in the state — an emergency center not attached to a hospital and in a free-standing building.
Only two other stand-alone medical facilities have opened in Maryland since then, one in Germantown and another in Queenstown. But demand is growing for these facilities, and they could become even more common now under legislation pending in the General Assembly.
The legislation sponsored by two powerful committee heads — state Sen. Thomas Middleton, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Del. Peter A. Hammen, chair of the House Health and Government Operations Committee — would make it easier for hospitals to shut down and convert to stand-alone facilities focused solely on outpatient and emergency care.
It's an effort to catch up with the reality hospitals face today as admissions decline, more care is shifted to outpatient settings and the costs of maintaining aging facilities mount. Such conversions already are happening in Laurel and Havre de Grace and are expected elsewhere.

Hospital officials say the growth of free-standing facilities certainly does not mean the end of traditional inpatient hospitals. Patients still need surgeries requiring overnight stays in hospitals, and the outpatient and emergency centers can offer complementary care and serve as feeders to hospitals.
Mark Arsenault is vice president for the Bowie Health Campus, one of three free-standing ambulatory care centers in the state.
(Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun)"Hospitals aren't going anywhere, but they're going to shrink," said Mark Arsenault, vice president of Bowie Health Center, which has added a new CT scan machine and is renovating to add private rooms and ultimately serve twice as many patients. "They're going to be much smaller."
Making it easier to get smaller is the point of the legislation. Under current law, hospital administrators must go through what they call a drawn-out process to secure a "certificate of need" from the Maryland Health Care Commission. If the legislation passes, free-standing facilities affiliated with full-service hospitals that already have a certificate of need would face a more streamlined process.

Chestertown residents fighting hospital closure get support of state officials
Hospital officials say they need the ability to quickly open these centers as they face increasing pressure to reduce inpatient stays and readmissions, and meet cost constraints set by the state's rate-setting commission.

Opponents of the legislation say it would make it easier for hospitals to reduce services and avoid the backlash they might face from communities when they try to shutter a hospital.



"Hospitals have been given incentives to treat people in the hospital when necessary, but if at all possible to treat people in the lower-cost community settings," said Carmela Coyle, president of the Maryland Hospital Association.
Inpatient admissions at Maryland's hospitals declined by nearly 100,000, or 15 percent, in the past decade, according to the hospital association.
Members of the 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East labor union are fighting the legislation, in part to protect jobs.
They say it creates a much-too-rapid timetable for such an important decision on whether a community loses a hospital. Under the proposed legislation, a hospital would apply for a conversion and get community input, then the Maryland Health Care Commission would have 45 days to make a decision. The certificate of need process can take many months and sometimes years under the current law.


"We recognize why they want to do this, but we can't see how this is in any way collaborative," said Claudia Balog, a SEIU senior researcher. "We want to see that the community will have a voice in what their health care looks like."
Middleton said he proposed the legislation to help hospitals meet requirements to keep a special Medicare waiver the state has that allows it to set the rates hospitals charge private insurers and Medicare. Maryland is the only state in the nation with such a waiver from the federal government.
Elsewhere, Medicare typically reimburses hospitals at a low rate, and hospitals make up for it by charging patients with private insurance a higher rate. While Medicare may pay more in Maryland, state officials have been able to keep the rate of hospital cost increases lower than in other states.
A recent update to the waiver agreement required hospitals to meet new criteria that focused on preventive care and keeping costs down. The hospitals agreed that their costs cannot grow faster than 3.58 percent in the first five years of the revised waiver. Failing to do so could result in a loss of the waiver.
"It is very, very important to keep the waiver," Middleton said. "Hospitals have got to perform. They have to push a lot of the services out into a community setting."
Decisions on whether to close a community hospital can be contentious.
When Dimensions Healthcare announced last summer that it would transition Laurel Regional Hospital into a $24 million ambulatory care center with 30 inpatient beds and limited services by 2018, the news sparked resentment from members of the community.
Dimensions said the hospital was losing money and patients, but many wondered if the company wanted to shift resources and patients to a new hospital it's planning with the University of Maryland Medical System in Largo. The Senate recently passed a bill that would set aside about $461 million from the state and matching funds from Prince George's County over a four-year period to build the new hospital.
University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health recently announced plans to replace Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace with a new hybrid care center closer to Interstate 95 even as it expands its Bel Air hospital.
And residents of Chestertown are worried that University of Maryland Shore Regional Health may convert its hospital in the Eastern Shore town into an ambulatory care center with outpatient service and emergency care, while shifting those hospital beds to its hospital in Easton. They fear a closure would mean having to travel many miles to get to a hospital, putting people in danger.
State health officials and the legislation sponsored by Middleton and Hammen exempts that hospital from the bill because of these concerns. They said the exemption gives lawmakers and the health care system that runs the hospital more time to work with community members to develop a plan to address health care access problems unique to rural communities.
The new legislation would require the hospitals to get public input, a lesson Middleton said the legislators learned from the situation in Laurel.
"When you look how at how people felt when they found out that Laurel would be shut down — the community was in outrage — it tells you there needs to be more community input."
The legislation has a good chance of passing because of the support of Middleton and Hammen. It is also backed by the Maryland Health Care Commission and the Health Services Cost Review Commission, which sets hospital rates in the state.
Democratic Del. Geraldine Valentino-Smith of Prince George's County, who represents parts of Laurel and sits on the health subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers should make sure adequate access to health services is a key component of the legislation.
"As policymakers we remain conscious of the need to continue to make sure there is access to affordable and quality health care in all geographic regions," she said.

_____________________________________


One might think this is great for government transparency but if we looks at the process for bill-making we know the devil is in the details and all that committee process---from county/city committee meetings to policy committees---these are the stages that need to be on video-tape. As someone who attends these meetings you cannot see name plates even sitting in the room and the primary public testimony is tied again to corporations and organizations. Very few individual citizens come to testify. What we see in floor sessions of the general assembly is a very sanitized final addressing of these bills.
PLEASE ENGAGE IN POLITICS ---BEING A CITIZEN MEANS TAKING THE TIME TO TRAVEL TO THAT STATE HOUSE, THAT CITY HALL, AND AS MANY PUBLIC FORUMS AND MEETINGS AS POSSIBLE.

O'Malley was hailed as great for government transparency with City Stat and Open Government. As we watched public private outsourcing make more and more government meetings CLOSED AND PROPRIETARY----we now know that Open Government meant SELLING GOVERNMENT DATA TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER. This article does the same to a Bush neo-conservative Larry Hogan ----watching this stage of bill-making is when a bill is a done deal one way or another.


Next on Hogan’s agenda: livestreaming Maryland’s legislative sessions


Gov. Larry Hogan, pictured here giving his 2016 State of the State Address, wants live streaming of all General Assembly sessions. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
By Josh Hicks February 24
Gov. Larry Hogan went out of his way Wednesday to endorse a little-known legislative proposal that would require live video streaming and archived video recordings of floor sessions of the Maryland General Assembly.
Hogan (R), who has been trading increasingly sharp barbs with Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks, said Maryland is one of only seven states that do not offer video streaming and recording of any floor proceedings. The other states are Delaware, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Vermont and Wyoming, according to a 2015 report from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Maryland’s citizens, the governor said in a statement, “deserve accountability and transparency from their elected leaders.”

The public can watch General Assembly floor sessions only in person. Audio streaming and archives are available, but listeners generally cannot discern who is speaking, because lawmakers are prohibited from using each others’ names during discussion without permission from the presiding officers of their respective chambers.
Common Cause Maryland, a nonpartisan advocacy group that promotes government openness and accountability, has also backed the bill, which is sponsored by House Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County) and Del. David Moon (D-Montgomery).
Legislative analysts said it would cost $1.2 million to outfit the House and Senate chambers with equipment and $400,000 a year to operate the system.
Hogan, however, suggested the cost would be lower. He pointed out that the Board of Public Works, of which he is a member, live-streams and archives its weekly meetings at an annual cost of between $3,000 and $3,500.
House and Senate committees live-stream and archive their hearings, but those recordings sometimes exclude debates and voting sessions. The Senate did not allow live-streaming of any committee voting sessions until 2013, when the chairman of a panel decided to broadcast the debate of controversial gun-control legislation.


The offices of House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) did not respond to requests for comment on the live-streaming legislation.
The two legislative leaders and others in the Democratic caucus have sparred frequently with Hogan during this year’s General Assembly. Last week, black lawmakers accused Hogan of racial bias, and the governor compared members of the General Assembly to rowdy college students on spring break.

“They come here for a few weeks, they start breaking up the furniture and throwing beer bottles off the balcony,” Hogan said.

_________________________________________

I just wanted to remind everyone that progressive posing by Obama showed he was a master of Clinton Wall Street global corporate neo-liberalism---everything pushed was from a Republican or far-right global corporate neo-liberal think tank and then they throw these funding programs for the 99% and as we see below----these programs are either written to make access impossible or they are written to subprime.  If it is going to WE THE PEOPLE---it will be written as hard to access.

Whether this was simply a bailout for small banks or not-----the amount of funding going to global corporate campus STARTUP AND INNOVATION CENTERS tied to funding projects that these corporations then look to patent----while absolutely know funding by our Federal, state, and local small business associations for our local small business economies providing goods and services everyone needs--IS THE PROBLEM. 

ONE WORLD GLOBAL POLS DO NOT WANT ANY LOCAL ECONOMIES---THEY WILL ONLY PUSH AND FUND GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUSES AND CORPORATE PATRONAGE.


The US Treasury and FED sent trillions of dollars of free money to global corporations and banks during this same time.



'Reading Treasury Department’s recent reports on the Small Business Lending Fund, you might think it had actually worked. “Billions of dollars in SBLF funds are now being put to use in communities all across the nation, spurring small business growth and job creation,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin said in a press release last month. The investment “is good for our economy and good for America’s small businesses.”'

'Treasury only started approving applications in early July, three months before the program’s expiration date'


In Baltimore city hall only allows citizens to be subcontractor to subcontractors or PAY TO PLAY CORPORATE NON-PROFITS---the economic structures that exist in developing nations.


Take Our Free Money, Please!

2.1k 1
Why Obama’s $30 billion small-business loan program has flopped.

By Annie Lowrey  SLATE

What happened to Obama's plan to help small businesses?


When the recovery started to flag in 2010, the Obama White House and Congressional Democrats attempted to pass a series of stimulus bills. A $150 billion, spending-heavy jobs package became $17.5 billion in tax cuts. Proposals for aid for the unemployed and the extension of Recovery Act programs faltered. But one bill that did pass was the Small Business Jobs Act, a law designed to funnel cheap money to small businesses.
The signature portion of the bill was the Small Business Lending Fund, a $30-billion pool of money for small banks meant to facilitate lending to small businesses. Little, local companies, the White House had long held, were the “engine” of the recovery and the creators of job growth. Help them, and you’d help the economy get back to growing.
Reading Treasury Department’s recent reports on the Small Business Lending Fund, you might think it had actually worked. “Billions of dollars in SBLF funds are now being put to use in communities all across the nation, spurring small business growth and job creation,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin said in a press release last month. The investment “is good for our economy and good for America’s small businesses.”
Treasury’s sunny spin aside, the program has largely flopped. It expired at the end of September having disbursed not $30 billion, or $15 billion, or even $5 billion. The SBLF is returning $26 billion to the government’s coffers. According to the Treasury Department, just 933 out of the country’s 7,700 or so community banks applied to the program. They requested just $12 billion in loans. And one-third of that sum got approved.
What happened? Well, first off, community banking organizations and small banks themselves argue that Treasury and the Federal Reserve made the program’s requirements too stringent and that they were too slow to get it off the ground. Treasury only started approving applications in early July, three months before the program’s expiration date.
The Independent Community Bankers of America lobbying group, for instance, sent repeated public letters to Treasury, asking it to clarify and loosen requirements and speed the application process. In September, with the program’s sunset in sight, it wrote: “[We] again implore Treasury and all the bank regulators to do everything in their power to ensure all SBLF applicants’ concerns are addressed … We urge Treasury to respond expeditiously to the community banks that still have questions and concerns … [W]e ask that Treasury take a hard second look.” In its defense, Treasury says that many of the community banks’ applications just did not pass muster: The banks could not prove they could make required dividend payments, or they already had missed a Treasury payment, or they were on a problem-bank list.
More troubling, the $4 billion in loans the government did make might not really help small businesses anyway. A Wall Street Journal analysis of Treasury data found that about half of the banks that took cash from the fund used some of it to pay back the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Rather than giving money to the restaurant around the corner or the startup in your neighbor’s garage, the banks gave it right back to Uncle Sam, bettering their balance sheets but doing little to spur business expansion or job growth. The Chamber of Commerce howled, branding the program little better than a bailout for small banks.
But there is another reason the program faltered—and might never have been able to succeed in the first place. Small businesses need credit to grow, to acquire equipment and hire workers to make sure more and more customers come in. But if small businesses don’t really believe that those customers are going to come in, well, they tend not to want to take on any debt. At some point, the problem isn’t a lack of credit. It’s an economy-wide lack of demand.
Have we hit that point? Almost certainly, and we’ve been there for years. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, the small business lobbying group, company owners routinely cite a lack of sales as the biggest problem for their business, more so than onerous regulatory requirements, high taxes, or trouble getting loans.
At a congressional hearing last week, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., therefore argued that the whole program was misguided, “[wasting] today’s resources on yesterday’s problems.” In response, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted, “We’re a little surprised by the take up” but maintained the program was “well targeted.”

In a way, they're both right. Small businesses could use loans, and Treasury should be taking on risk and bending over backwards to make sure small banks are throwing free money at them. But that free money through the back door is no substitute for a flood of customers through your front door.

___________________________________________
We discussed how this economic crash from sovereign bond market fraud will take out broad sectors of many industries----there has been a loading of debt onto corporations identified to FAIL----with the intent of enfolding them into global corporations.  This will take out what is left of a US corporation not a MULTI-NATIONAL.  The industry hit hardest will be the INSURANCE industry as with AIG these insurers were allowed to sell CDS---credit default swaps---to insure what everyone knew was a goal of imploding the bond market.  Insurance corporations also invest heavily in the bond market because before 2008 it was the most stable market.  Then Obama and Congress deregulated that sovereign market while investors still flock to bonds as the safe investment.

Below we see an article telling us this national insurer is having to fire staff because of low interest rates. It is far more likely it is downsizing because of increasing losses from bond investments.  Remember I showed how Maryland's revenue claims hundreds of millions in shortfalls----from the same thing---a collapsing bond market.

What is more insulting is this major national insurer is getting financial incentives for being in Milwaukee just as in Baltimore where each time these incentives are given NO JOBS OCCUR.



THIS NATIONAL INSURANCE CORPORATION AND THAT MILWAUKEE CITY HALL BOTH KNEW BACK IN 2013 THE ECONOMY WAS GOING TO CRASH AND A DEEP RECESSION WILL GRIP THE US FOR AT LEAST A DECADE. 


Baltimore City has these same financial incentives with national/global insurance corporations downtown that will fail just as this NW Mutual. Look to see if these insurance corporations are not full of US Treasury and state municipal bond insurance and swaps.


Northwestern Mutual to cut 'hundreds' of jobs
Paul Gores, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 10:48 p.m. CDT September 29, 2016
(Photo: Paul Gores/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. plans to eliminate about 100 jobs this year and "hundreds" more in 2017, the company's top executive told employees Thursday morning.
"As we invest in our strategic priorities to meet our clients’ current and future needs, we are also committed to maintaining our strong financial position during this period of unprecedented low interest rates," Betsy Hoylman, a spokeswoman for Northwestern Mutual, said in a statement. "To balance these two goals, we’ve been evaluating how we work to better serve our clients. While we will continue to focus on hiring people with the skills we need and developing our teams, some positions will be impacted and these decisions have not been easy."
John Schlifske, the chairman and chief executive of Northwestern Mutual, made the job news official during an employee town hall meeting.
The company said earlier this month that it expected to eliminate some jobs as it dealt with lingering low interest rates that have made it harder to increase profits. Low interest rates make it more difficult for insurers to grow earnings because insurance companies invest premiums from policy owners mostly in relatively safe investments tied to rates.

The Milwaukee-based insurer is one of the metro area's largest employers, with a workforce of about 5,900 at its downtown and Franklin campuses.
Information on the types of jobs that will be cut wasn't immediately available.
"We don’t have job descriptions. It’s not an across-the-board approach," Hoylman said. "Our decisions are based on our strategic needs for the future."
The company currently is constructing a $450 million, 32-story skyscraper near Milwaukee's lakefront. To some observers, the construction of a new building and an announcement about job cuts seem to conflict.
Of the jobs situation, Hoylman said, the company is "investing in certain areas and changing the way we work in others to reallocate resources" and better serve our clients
"Our Tower and Commons is an important part of our investment in the future because it provides the type of collaborative space we will need to attract talented employees and serve our clients," she said. "Our new building is part of our commitment to playing a role in this community for generations to come."
She also said Northwestern Mutual's long-term jobs commitment to the city, going back to 2013 when City of Milwaukee officials approved financial incentives for the company to expand downtown instead of at its Franklin campus, remains intact.
"We’re still committed to creating 1,900 new jobs by 2030 as well as maintaining the 1,100 jobs that were shifted when we razed our previous building on the site," Hoylman said.


WITH A COMING ECONOMIC CRASH LARGER THAN 2008 COMING??  REALLY???

In a meeting with community business leaders two weeks ago, Schlifske said the tower project will provide the kind of facility the company needs to be able to draw “knowledge workers” who can keep Northwestern Mutual at the top of its industry over time. The interior of the building will be especially geared toward the “collaborative” and around-the-clock work styles of millennials, featuring health facilities, dining and other amenities they seek.
He said the company is trying to manage expenses in the short run while planning for the future with the tower project.


.


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September 29th, 2016

9/29/2016

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BIZJOURNALS----is a national media outlet with local sounding names like Baltimore Business Journal---it is actually probably owned by a global investment firm. Here we have health care policy news in Baltimore and of course a global health insurance corporation would come to Maryland to do pilots that will lead to citizens being more uninformed. Look who is writing this article-----the global health systems partner to Johns Hopkins. So, we already know this information will be slanted to mis-inform consumers and indeed it does.

CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA far-right 1% Wall Street neo-liberals and Republicans POSED PROGRESSIVE by pretending breaking up our Social Security Trust and creating privatized stock market accounts---that handing control of local pension investments to individuals----and now this idea that individual citizens have the power and resources needed to make sound consumer decisions with the information we have available----WHEN A PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC WHO STUDIES NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY CAN BARELY DO SO----is only meant to push people into bad health policies thinking they made a choice.

UnitedHealthcare is a global health insurance corporation made large from these few decades of massive Medicare and Medicaid frauds----and it has no intentions of changing its ways. US citizens cannot get real information from these kinds of corporate media reports.

Watch for the reporter below as she is likely hired because she is a 5% to the 1% ONE WORLD media citizens.  Learn to question when these media players are involved.


I sit on the local bus often hearing our local public sector employees trying to figure out the best investments for their assets.  Not to short change those citizens it is almost impossible for main street investors to know all the global economic MANIPULATIONS AND CORRUPTION that affect their investments----this will be true of HEALTH CARE POLICIES.

Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal


Industry News Health Care

UnitedHealthcare testing new customer service program in Maryland
Sep 26, 2016, 10:24am EDT

Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal

UnitedHealthcare is testing a new customer service pilot program in Maryland, part of an attempt to help consumers get a better grasp on their insurance plans and health care options.
The company is the second-largest health insurer in Maryland and operates in the small group market, with a market share of 17 percent, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. For its pilot, UnitedHealthcare is deviating from the traditional customer service approach, to try and improve consumer experiences after a survey revealed consumers's attitudes and concerns regarding insurance and health care.


Instead of waiting for consumers to call in with questions about their plans or coverage, UnitedHealthcare is reaching out to members who enroll in a plan, asking if they have questions about finding a physician, their pharmacy benefits and what their plan covers.
The carrier is aiming to better serve its customers amid a increasingly competitive and complex insurance market, said David Smith, vice president of small business sales at UnitedHealthcare.
With open enrollment starting Nov. 1 for the 2017 health insurance market, UnitedHealthcare conducted a survey of consumers examining opinions on health care topics including comparison shopping, wellness programs, health literacy and customer service. Results from the survey revealed most Americans do not enjoy shopping for health coverage and don’t understand the terms of their insurance plans.


“We’re at a crossroads of inspiring people to become more engaged and more accountable for their care,” Smith said. “And that’s the piece we’ve really been focusing in on — how do we inspire them to take part in their own health and wellness?"

The survey of 1,011 U.S. adults found just 7 percent of respondents were successfully able to define four basic health insurance concepts: plan premium, deductible, co-insurance and out-of-pocket maximum. Part of the problem is that the health care world, even with the advantages of the internet today, can still be complex and often confusing to consumers, Smith said.
Open enrollment season is the number one time that people are looking at policies and options and trying to figure out what they are buying or what they are covered for, Smith said. UnitedHealthcare is beefing up its customer service efforts and trying to “meet consumers where they are” to help them navigate health care options.


“We recognize there is sort of this avoidance or challenge with getting people to take the time reviewing their options so we really have to make that initial experience simple and personable,” Smith said.
Smith said there are two factors are especially important in reaching and inspiring consumers: they want something that is simple and personally meaningful.
“That follow-up is crucial…and that component is usually missing,” Smith said. “We want to be more proactive, connecting to these members, guiding them, educating them and showing them all the resources after they’ve purchased so they can get the best out of their plan.”


The goal is make health care a more understandable, personal experience at all levels, Smith said, and to avoid the occasion of a consumer asking questions like “Why didn’t you tell me…?”


Morgan is a reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal. She covers technology, education and health care.

______________________________________


Here is Morgan again telling us about global corporate neo-liberal privatization education policy and yes, Baltimore would be ground zero for all those structures and is ground zero for TEACH FOR AMERICA----Baltimore is a far-right neo-conservative Johns Hopkins and Wall Street Baltimore Development----capturing all our local and state pols.

I am sure Morgan is a nice person but we need to know the stances our media take to understand the articles they write are meant to keep us UNINFORMED as to why global corporate policies are bad.  So, who is writing why global Wall Street neo-liberal K-university is bad?  Find that citizen and you have a left-leaning voice.

Constellation is now global Exelon and Exelon is Chicago and Chicago is one of the most 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL NEO-LIBERALISM outside of NYC.  Below we see Exelon which was allowed to build a global corporate headquarters on a Harbor Point deal typically filled with wrongful subsidy.  Exelon posed progressive in donating $1 million to build what will be its own corporate charter school on its campus.  That was a CHARITABLE DONATION and Exelon donates all over the nation to Teach for America, corporate charter chains, and pols deregulating our public K-university---as in all Baltimore Wall Street player pols.


Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal


By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011


If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.

If we look at the MARYLAND DAILY RECORD----of course they are business news but they did used to provide some articles holding power accountable. Now Daily Record is folded into Baltimore Sun -----which controls almost all our local printed media.


Industry News Education

Teach for America - Baltimore lands largest gift in its history from local philanthropists

Sep 27, 2016, 7:40am EDT
Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal

Teach For America - Baltimore has received the largest gift in its 24-year history, a pledge from local philanthropists Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.
The amount of the gift was not disclosed. But previously the largest Teach for America - Baltimore announced was $1 million over four years from Constellation Energy in 2011.
Meyerhoff and Becker have supported the organization since 2009, when they made another large donation that allowed the group to double its corps in Baltimore.


The new gift from Meyerhoff and Becker will support Teach for America - Baltimore’s new vision and strategy to better connect and support its network of 1,100 members and alumni.

Since its founding in 1992, the primary focus has been recruiting and developing first and second-year teachers in its local network. Teach for America - Baltimore currently includes over 550 corps members as well as an extended network of alumni working as classroom teachers, school principals and administrators, as well as nonprofit leaders, startup founders, policy makers and advocates.


"What we’ve seen is that the initial belief we had that by recruiting the nation’s most promising future leaders and getting them to teach for two years in low-income schools, it would have a life-changing impact, is really playing out," said Courtney Cass, executive director of Teach For America - Baltimore. "About 89 percent of our network still work directly in education and are having an impact at the school level. But they also don’t know each other."


Through broader programming, Cass said the organization will aim to support a lifelong continuum within its network that includes a focus on recruiting and retaining leaders and providing more intensive and customized support for first and second-year teachers. There will also be a focus on leadership development to alumni through learning communities, which will host peer-to-peer courses throughout the year on topics like starting a nonprofit and how to lead a school. The new strategy, she said, marks a shift from a sort of advising role for alumni to building out a talent-sourcing arm for the organization.


"It's about bringing people together, creating more intensive support models for our teachers and alumni to increase impact," Cass said.
The organization wants to offer its expanding network opportunities "whether you're a 15-year veteran teacher or new principal or an entrepreneur," Cass said, and create a lasting connection among people who share a mission of improving educational inequity.


Morgan is a reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal. She covers technology, education and health care.

___________________________________________


Here is Morgan again telling us about global corporate neo-liberal privatization education policy and yes, Baltimore would be ground zero for all those structures and is ground zero for TEACH FOR AMERICA----Baltimore is a far-right neo-conservative Johns Hopkins and Wall Street Baltimore Development----capturing all our local and state pols.
I am sure Morgan is a nice person but we need to know the stances our media take to understand the articles they write are meant to keep us UNINFORMED as to why global corporate policies are bad. So, who is writing why global Wall Street neo-liberal K-university is bad? Find that citizen and you have a left-leaning voice.
Constellation is now global Exelon and Exelon is Chicago and Chicago is one of the most 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL NEO-LIBERALISM outside of NYC. Below we see Exelon which was allowed to build a global corporate headquarters on a Harbor Point deal typically filled with wrongful subsidy. Exelon posed progressive in donating $1 million to build what will be its own corporate charter school on its campus. That was a CHARITABLE DONATION and Exelon donates all over the nation to Teach for America, corporate charter chains, and pols deregulating our public K-university---as in all Baltimore Wall Street player pols.

**********************************************
Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal

By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011

If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.
**************************************************


Our Wall Street progressively getting richer former mayor and governor O'Malley brokered this critical energy deal handing our energy to global corporations. O'Malley has of course his Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations that pretend this is all about the poor and jobs.

1% Wall Street pols in Maryland made this merger deal sound environmentally progressive by throwing things like green energy and getting rid of coal---which it did neither.



Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal

By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011



If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.


On Thursday, the boards of directors of Exelon and Constellation signed off on an all-stock deal valued at $7.9 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Constellation shareholders would get 0.93 shares of Exelon for each share of Constellation. Based on Wednesday’s closing price of Exelon’s shares, Constellation stockholders would receive shares valued at $38.59, an 18 percent premium.


The deal is expected to close in early 2012, and if completed, Exelon shareholders would own 78 percent of the company with Constellation shareholders owning the rest. The deal requires approval from shareholders and regulators at the federal and state levels.

The new company would keep the Exelon name and the headquarters would remain in Chicago. The Constellation name would live on in the new company’s power marketing and retail and wholesale businesses, which would be headquartered in Baltimore. The companies’ renewable energy businesses would also be consolidated and be based in Baltimore.
Constellation’s regulated utility, Baltimore Gas & Electric, would also keep its name and headquarters, but would become a subsidiary of Exelon.


“We believe this brings a whole new growth engine to the Baltimore community,” Exelon CEO John W. Rowe said.
The new company will be led by current Exelon President and Chief Operating Officer Christopher M. Crane, who will be the CEO. Constellation CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III will serve as executive chairman, and Rowe will retire after the deal is completed.
Experts approved of the deal, especially for what it brings to shareholders of Constellation.


“We think it’s a very good deal for Constellation shareholders,” said Travis Miller, an analyst with Morningstar Inc., in Chicago. “But, it’s a very poor deal for Exelon shareholders.”
Shares of Constellation closed at $36.26, up $1.96, a 5.7 percent increase. Exelon’s shares gained 69 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $42.18.
To help ease the sting of losing a corporate headquarters, the deal includes a package of investments in the state that the companies said amounts to $250 million. This includes a $100 credit to each BGE customer within 90 days of the deal closing. BGE would see no impact on employment for two years, and the companies agreed to keep charitable giving at $10 million a year for a decade after the close of the deal.


Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the deal will mean more jobs for the city since the combined company’s biggest growth area — the power marketing, retail and wholesale businesses — would be based in Baltimore.


Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, said it was a positive sign that the deal would bring the renewable energy and power trading businesses to Baltimore.

HMMMM---having our own Maryland public energy utility vs having what will be global green corporations.  WE WANT OUR ENERGY PUBLIC AND LOCAL!


“New growth industries and new construction are always a plus to the economic and job creation future of a community and serve as a sign of growth and progress,” Fry said in a prepared statement. “The bottom line is that a major employer and corporate leader in Baltimore is evolving to its next stage of growth.”
Shattuck said the combined units in Baltimore would need a larger space than the company’s headquarters along Pratt Street off the Inner Harbor has to offer.
A new office for the company would either be built or significantly renovated to meet green building standards. But, Shattuck said, the location would remain within Baltimore.


“We’re committed to the city,” Shattuck said.


Anirban Basu, CEO of the Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore-based economic and policy consulting firm, said while creation of jobs is always welcome, moving a corporate headquarters out of the city can have a ripple effect. Basu said one area that can be affected is who the company does business with, and where.


“A firm headquartered in Baltimore is more likely to hire an accountant in Baltimore, or bank with bankers in Baltimore,” Basu said. “The loss of another corporate headquarters makes it more likely that business won’t take place in Baltimore — that’s the harm.”


Basu said the loss of Constellation also underscored a recurring theme of businesses in Baltimore being acquired by others outside the city. He pointed to previous sales of institutions like Alex. Brown and Sons and USF&G, which changed hands and saw corporate headquarters leave the city.
“I am really looking forward to when this generation of corporate leaders in Baltimore retires — what they have been very adept at is selling off companies,” Basu said. “They have not created anything like a Microsoft, Sun MicroSystems or an Apple. What they have managed to do is to sell off Baltimore’s most historic and profitable companies.”

Third time’s the charm


The Exelon deal marks the third time in six years that Constellation has tried to sell itself. In 2006, a merger with the Florida Power & Light Co. fell through after significant pushback by elected officials.
In 2008, Constellation was beset with credit concerns and saw its stock and market value plummet and the threat of bankruptcy was even a potential outcome. A deal was quickly enacted to sell the company to Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy for $4.7 billion. But that deal was called off after Constellation agreed to what it considered a better offer from Electricite de France, which bought 49 percent of Constellation’s nuclear business for $4.5 billion.
“Over the last five years, Constellation has consistently been in the market to grow its business, and the easiest way to do that is with a merger,” Morningstar’s Miller said.
Exelon and Constellation officials said they are optimistic the deal will be successful. In a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Rowe said the Constellation deal was thoroughly examined and the companies were optimistic it made sense and had a good chance of passing regulatory and shareholder approval.
“We are confident we can execute this deal,” Rowe said.
“This one is going to work.”
If the deal falls through, breakup fees would amount to $200 million for Constellation and $800 million for Exelon. The agreement includes provision excluding breakup fees if regulators nix the deal.
Farewell to coal?
The proposed deal will also alter Constellation’s electric generation footprint in Maryland. The companies plan to sell the three coal-fired power plants that Constellation owns — Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner and C.P. Crane.

HOW IS IT REDUCING COAL-FIRE POLLUTION IF WE ARE SIMPLY SELLING THEM?

The plants, along with Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant, make up the backbone of the state’s generating capability. Together, the plants, which have been outfitted to meet Maryland’s clean air legislation, can generate 2,648 megawatts of electricity.
“Those are valuable assets,” Exelon’s Crane said.
But with stringent federal air pollution regulations looming, the demand for coal-fired plants is not strong.
“We really don’t think the companies will get top dollar for those plants,” Miller said.

___________________________________________
All US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones like Baltimore have had their global corporate campus or two taking all revenue these few decades.  Moving Forward means adding more and more global corporate campuses and as we do they continue to be made the only game in town for everything---from job creation to charity, from subsidiary businesses filling our local economies to creating corporate non-profits to write all our societal policies.  Once only Johns Hopkins'/Wall Street's job we are now blessed with one more global corporate campus patron.

We discussed how venture capitalists and innovation investment funds are targeting only ONLINE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY BUSINESSES because these are the ones Wall Street wants to grab if a startup becomes successful.  These startup competitions will first be awarded skewed to individual connections----then by ability to succeed----the funding that comes then goes if the business is successful making these ENTREPRENEURS sell out, go out of business, but certainly not allowed to be local business competition to existing corporations.

Federal, state, and local funding going to this UNDERARMOUR global campus is tracked into these economic innovation schemes.  IT'S ALL ABOUT JOB CREATION!

In just a few years of being told UnderArmour was are new global corporate rule campus----we have UnderArmour subsidiary businesses everywhere.  We have UnderArmour development and global real estate, UnderArmour as corporate sponsors for schools, events, all coming with a free UnderArmour TEE SHIRT----or school uniform.  When the Asian nations saw Wall Street International Economic Zones installed---as South Korea, Singapore, China-----this is the same slow walk to re-educating citizens that they are human capital owned and operated by those global corporate campuses. 

ANYONE UNDERSTANDING ECONOMICS AND FREE MARKET KNOWS THAT EXTREME MONOPOLY IS NOT FOUND IN GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT.



Eight startups to pitch during venture contest during Beta City


A file photo of the City Garage property in Port Covington.
(Caitlin Faw / Baltimore Sun)

Sarah GantzContact Reporter
The Baltimore Sun


Eight startups to pitch during venture contest during Beta City
Eight startups will face off Thursday in a pitch competition for investments at City Garage, the bus depot-turned-innovation center by Sagamore Ventures.


The Venture Capital Pitch Day is part of Beta City, a day-long startup showcase put on by Sagamore Ventures, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank's private venture investing arm, and Betamore. Beta City, now in its second year, aims to cast Baltimore as an emerging hub for entrepreneurship and technology, by highlighting promising young companies and entrepreneurs.

During the pitch contest, companies will present their business plans to a panel of judges, who will award about $75,000 in prizes.


Here are the companies that will be pitching:

•Emocha, a mobile health platform being used to improve medication adherence;
•Fixt, a mobile app for smartphone maintenance and repairs;
•Sickweather, a company using social media networks to map and track illness in real-time;

Caption Google competes with Amazon Prime

Caption Young men choosing video games over working, study says
•

Sisu Global Health, a medical technology company developing health care tools for underdeveloped countries;

•SnobSwap, an e-commerce platform for consignment boutiques;

•Tissue Analytics, a mobile app used to track wound healing;

•TopBox, asoftware program that helps call centers analyze customer issues;

•Workbench, an online community for makers, educators and students connect and share projects.
Another 17 companies were selected to present their companies at booths set up inside City Garage.

____________________________________________

'Kevin Plank grew up in Kensington, Maryland, a suburb of Washington D.C., one of five brothers. His father William was a prominent Maryland land developer. His mother, Jayne (née Harper), is a former mayor of Kensington, who went on to direct the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the United States Department of State under President Ronald Reagan'.[3]

I'm not trying to debunk that almost all of today's billionaires are not self-made success stories in business--I simply want to debunk all the national and local media that tries to sell this idea to WE THE PEOPLE. These are not people who come up with that great idea----it is highly likely a research facility like Johns Hopkins developed UnderArmour sports material that went on to be those sports wear people love to buy. Guess who could have BOUGHT that patent? Plank's rich father and mother no doubt would give him a financial boost. So, what happens when someone buys that patent especially from an IVY LEAGUE like Johns Hopkins? Well, that self-made PLANK immediately gets investment funds from global investment firms, hedge funds, and other global Wall Street
Investment firms. Did Plank really sell his products from the back of a vehicle filing funding requests and other ordinary steps WE THE PEOPLE are told we must take? Not likely.

When Plank took his Wall Street funding overseas to International Economic Zones---he then had all the help of our Federal IMPORT EXPORT BANK that simply subsidizes the global expansion of already rich people. We know the rest as UnderArmour is known as a global sweat shop factory manufacturing in those International Economic Zones.

'Plank grew up playing football for the Maplewood Maple Leafs, which have appeared in a few Under Armour commercials. He left Georgetown Preparatory School because of poor academic performance and behavioral issues, but went on to play football at Fork Union Military Academy. He graduated from St. John's College High School.[4] He later attended the University of Maryland and graduated in 1996.[5]
Plank married Desiree Guerzon in 2003.[6] Plank has made donations to numerous Republican candidates, including $2,000 to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign in 2008.[7][8]
According to Federal Election Commission, Plank has donated to both parties and to individuals of both parties'.

'In 2013, Plank purchased a mansion in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. for $7.85 million'.

What should be part of Baltimore's public transportation has been outsourced from corporate non-profit to now simply global corporations. Global VEOLA Transportation was in the running ---but WE THE PEOPLE----not so much.

Under Armour Founder to Take Over Baltimore’s Water Taxis

August 19, 2016

Under Armour founder Kevin Plank hopes to buy the company that operates Baltimore’s Water Taxis, Harbor Boating Inc. Harbor Boating was founded in the 1970s and has been the city’s sole water taxi operator since 2005. The company operates both the water taxi, which caters to tourists, and the free Harbor Connector Service for commuters.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the Board of Estimates is expected to approve an agreement that would give Harbor Boating exclusive rights to the city’s docks and wharves for at least 20 years, renewable for up to 10 more.
New water taxi design to be launched by Sagamore Ventures. Photo courtesy Baltimore Sun


Plank’s firm, Sagamore Ventures, is expected to purchase Harbor Boating as the city agrees to award the firm another long-term contract to operate passenger service around the Inner Harbor. The purchase is expected to close in 30 days if the city contract is approved.


Sagamore plans to add new boats to the line, more stops, longer hours, and an on-demand offering in conjunction with Uber. The goal is also to bridge the gap between the $8 one-way tourist prices and the commuter-friendly fares. Price changes are expected to appear next spring. The first new vessel in the line, which will be able to carry about 50 people, should be ready for launch this fall.

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September 28th, 2016

9/28/2016

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If we look at headlines in Baltimore we see media pushing ONE WORLD programs and anyone listening to NPR should be on the lookout for any programming coming from WYPR BALTIMORE. This is the Johns Hopkins global neo-conservative/Bloomberg Wall Street media outlet taking our public media corporate. Any programming and most people allowed to be interviewed or given programming time will be ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNMENT ----and below we see this very thing in a program calling itself FUTURE CITY. One can be sure Future City is tied to global mayors of city states as we discussed yesterday and this program will tell us these ONE WORLD city policies are best and of course as usual are all about helping the poor and labor.

Please listen to the WYPR radio program below ----David Warnock is a local Venture Capitalist and Wall Street Baltimore Development citizen and is indeed tied to the Venture Capitalist global education startup Wes Moore is promoting. Warnock has his own national charter chain in the works with GREEN ACADEMY. So everything on this WYPR/NPR programming will be about building US cities deemed International Economic Zones into global city states. AND IT WILL BE ALL ABOUT WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE POOR AND LABOR!

Sadly for black citizens these kinds of programming are targeted and marketed to underserved communities and this is why our low-income citizens--black, brown, and white ---are never able to receive the REAL information they need to be citizens.

Wes Moore has all those ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNMENT CREDS====



Baltimore's Future: Wes Moore
By David Warnock • Aug 13, 2015
Baltimore's Future with David Warnock


'After High School, Moore graduated Phi Theta Kappa from Valley Forge Military College, a Junior College in Pennsylvania. He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University and graduated in 2001. Immediately after, he attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar where he earned a master's degree in International Relations'.


Baltimore's Future: Wes Moore


By David Warnock • Aug 13, 2015
Baltimore's Future with David Warnock
 

Credit www.apbspeakers.com
David talks with Wes Moore, author and Founder and CEO of BridgeEdU.  Wes visited with David and talked about his new book.

Wes founded BridgeEdU to become a better onramp to higher education and career preparedness. By providing an innovative path to higher education excellence, BridgeEdU aims to engage scholars in a new way while democratizing the pathway to college completion.

___________________________________
Baltimore and Maryland were ground zero for last decade's for-profit higher education frauds and as we have discussed these corporate K-12 national charter chains have already been identified as full of fraud.  The post above shows the 5% to the 1% promoting more and more of the same.

When a city/county school board is stacked with corporate education appointments as in Baltimore with the citizens shouting loudly to stop all the misappropriation of public education funds ----we see all kinds of dancing between a corrupt city council and school board in the attempts to PRETEND they are trying to do something.  I haven't followed Howard County's School Board as much as Baltimore and Baltimore County but it is likely these K-12 school boards are under attack by the same global corporate neo-liberal education reforms being pushed by CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA.

This is how ridiculous it has become in Maryland and Baltimore----the corruption is so bad there is no way for citizens to get real audits and data and what we will eventually hear is that there is no need to try -----that is when the US has become completely third world.


THE REAL SOLUTION WHICH LEFT-LEANING EDUCATION GROUPS WOULD BE DOING----CITIZENS CAN AUDIT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AND PROGRAMS---WE NEED CITIZEN GROUPS NOT TIED TO WALL STREET BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT TO DO THESE AUDITS.


It is a real concern from where these auditing corporations are coming because we know we are not getting REAL information from audits by captured corporations.  Our educators are under attack and too often bad data is being used to install this new global corporate neo-liberal replacement for teaching professionals.



County audit of school system stalled


The county’s financial audit of the Howard County Public School System is stalled, according to the county’s auditor. (Fatimah Waseem)


Fatimah WaseemContact Reporterfwaseem@baltsun.com


County auditor: "I've asked to be treated like every other audit."


Privacy Policy
The county's financial audit of the Howard County Public School System is stalled because the school system is limiting space for staff and access to employees and systems necessary for gathering information, according to the county's auditor.
Howard County Council Chairman Calvin Ball threatened possible legal action against the school system in early September to push officials to comply with the auditor's requests.
Last week, Ball said the school system provided requested documents. But on Monday, the county's auditor, Craig Glendenning, told the council the school system said there "will be no space available to do an audit." The auditor's office has not received a response to its requests for access from the school system since Sept. 15.

County solicitor says school budget review committee does not violate state law
The school system, in return, requested information about the auditor's previous audits, accounting permits and other documentation.

_____________________________________________

'Council legal counsel: School oversight committee doesn't violate state law'.

For those citizens in regions of the nation NOT yet caught in these MICHELLE RHEE global corporate neo-liberal privatization of K-12 public schools ---Baltimore as usual is ground zero for vocationally tracked corporate K-12----look at how the far-right is deregulating and breaking down what was first the Federal education policies around K-12 that included equal protection and solid, broad course curricula---now they are going after school boards and creating committees that circumvent what is our state education structures.  Below we see a disagreement stemming from Wall Street corporate players using the COMMITTEE approach ----as we see in all our public agencies-----that committee is then appointed by those executives we cannot get out of office. Our public service commission ---public works commission----our economic development all turned quasi-governmental before they became completely controlled by now global corporations and Wall Street.

THAT IS WHAT THIS PUSH TOWARDS CREATING A 'COMMITTEE' THAT PROVIDE OVERSIGHTS AND POLICY SUGGESTIONS IS ABOUT.

Keep in mind, there are no good players right now in our Maryland Public Education system---the entire administration is corrupted ---it is our teachers, our community schools, parents, and students having no voice ----who are being locked out. 

IF A PUBLIC AGENCY HAS ALLOWED ITSELF TO BECOME TOO CORRUPT TO BE TRUSTED ---IT IS WORKING FOR ITS OWN DISMANTLEMENT----and that is what we see here.



As we know-----the corruption of all state and local government data happens because these same county council members do not have a public structure within each public school with checks and balances to assure all the data is real---it is this lack of an entire middle-management in our city schools----because they were fired these few decades ---that then opens all this discussion on who will replace that centuries-old standard of internal checks and balances.
 The county/city officials creating that dismantled oversight and accountability are now pushing for yet another COMMITTEE for oversight...same thing that happened with our public works, public services, and our economic development---now happening to our public education and public health as they take all appointments corporate.




'Ball's proposal, which will be considered on July 8, creates a committee with representation from the council, the county executive and community groups, to review the school system's budget and recommend improvements to next year's budget.

Board chairwoman Christine O'Connor, who in late May said the proposal to create the review committee attempts to "undermine" the board's independence and "politicize education as never before," said this week the board looks forward to working closely with the council.
"The school system is already audited multiple times," O'Connor added in a statement'.



County solicitor says school budget review committee does not violate state law


Last month, educators and community members pushed the school system to maintain negotiated salary raises. Now, the focus is on a new budget oversight committee to help advise the council on the school system's budget.


Fatimah WaseemContact Reporter
Howard County Times

#HoCoMd Council legal counsel: School oversight committe doesn't violate state law.



Privacy Policy


The Howard County Council's legal counsel said Monday a committee proposed by Council Chairman Calvin Ball to review the school system's budget does not violate state law, rebutting statements by the school system's attorney who said the committee oversteps the council's authority and compromises the school system's independence from the county government.
Ball's proposal, which will be considered on July 8, creates a committee with representation from the council, the county executive and community groups, to review the school system's budget and recommend improvements to next year's budget. The proposal caps a contentious budget season during which the county government did not fund roughly $50 million of the school system's record high request this year.
Jim Vannoy, the senior assistant county solicitor of Howard County's Office of Law, said the legislation does not give the committee any authority over the superintendent and the Board of Education. The committee, which is purely advisory to the council, also does not require the board to take any specific steps.
Ball said Vannoy's legal advice was important to address recent statements made by school system officials.


"In listening to the board and superintendent's attorney, I just wanted to purposefully clarify some things," said Ball.
In a meeting earlier this month, Leslie Stellman, an attorney contracted by the school system, said the "county's fiscal authority" through the committee would erode the board's "immunity as a state agency."

Howard school leadership pressed to 'stand with educators' at crowded hearing
At a public hearing Monday, the proposal, which includes a financial audit of the school system by the council's auditing office, drew support from residents who reiterated coined terms that have become common vernacular at open meetings related to the school system: transparency and accountability.

This year's budget process put the council in an "untenable position" due to "lack of information or trust" in the school system, said Joshua Kaufman, who was a member a

nd county school board chairman of the board from 2003 to 2006.

Residents acclaimed the committee as a welcome replacement for the school system's own operating budget review committee, which the board disbanded two years ago after questions about its effectiveness. An internal audit by the school system following the suspension found the committee was inconsistent with the board's policy and direction.

Kittleman fully funds salary increases, special education as school system warns of looming health fund deficit


Many recommendations in the last three years were "not viable or had already been recommended," according to the audit, which concluded the board should rely on other methods to engage the public instead of relying on a committee that was not "a prevailing practice" in other jurisdictions.
Since suspending the budget review committee, the board has created new opportunities for public feedback, in addition to submitted and oral testimony, including an annual guide on the superintendent's budget, televised and online explanations of the budget and a new budget survey which garnered more than 1,000 responses, according to John White, the school system's spokesman.
Christina Delmont-Small, who is running for a seat on the board and served as co-chairwoman of the school's budget review committee, said as a committee member she witnessed "the school system's reluctance" and "downright refusal" to provide information necessary to analyze the budget.


"The school system continues to hold all the cards," she said.
While residents lauded the council's proposed committee as a step in the right direction, Paul Lemle, president of the Howard County Education Association, cautioned the success of the committee, if approved, was contingent on access to data from the school board.

DO CITIZENS LAUDING THE COUNCIL'S PROPOSED COMMITTEE KNOW IT IS CREATING YET ANOTHER QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY THAT WILL IGNORE THEM MORE THAN THIS CORRUPT PUBLIC AGENCY?



The union has not received information requested from the school system in early May related to health claims, which may prompt the union to file a grievance claim against the school system, Lemle said.



Board chairwoman Christine O'Connor, who in late May said the proposal to create the review committee attempts to "undermine" the board's independence and "politicize education as never before," said this week the board looks forward to working closely with the council.
"The school system is already audited multiple times," O'Connor added in a statement.

The council will meet with the school board at a quarterly meeting at 8:30 a.m on July 6. The council will consider the legislation at its meeting at 7 p.m. on July 8. 
________________________________________
Back to the first article where Wes Moore and David Warnock are promoting global for-profit universities and K-12=====as we see the break down of public K-12 oversight into what will become a quasi-governmental committee filled with Wall Street corporate appointments---we see David Warnock the venture capitalist PRETENDING its all about the low-income kids working to break down another Federal and State Administrative structure----the fact that our public schools have districts tied ti city/county boundaries.

'Council legal counsel: School oversight committee doesn't violate state law'.


  We have always called our public schools------Baltimore City Public Schools----Howard County Public Schools ---and control for those schools was balanced between state and city.  What Warnock and Wall Street education privatizers are trying to do is allow a GREEN STREET ACADEMY 'PUBLIC' CHARTER EXPAND UNDER THAT 'PUBLIC' MISNOMER TO ANY COUNTY IN MARYLAND.  This is the dismantling of education regulations needed to allow a national charter chain to expand all over first the state ----and then across state borders to go national. 

The importance here is that what are clearly corporate charter schools want to remain 'public' so they can use Federal, state, and local public school funding while expanding their brands nationally and globally.  This is what happened to our public universities last decade----they went from having a student population geared towards local and state citizen students----to recruiting students nationally---and now globally all with our Federal, state, and local funding for our public universities----now they are basically corporate ----not public universities. 

THIS IS WHAT WALL STREET PLAYERS ARE NOW DOING TO OUR PUBLIC K-12-----AND THESE SINGLE-ISSUES ONE BY ONE DOES THIS.


Forming quasi-governmental committees while trying to say a corporate charter that expands statewide and then nationally is PUBLIC.

To watch as our once great public media is reduced to lying, cheating, and stealing promotion is truly a crisis in our democratic education and information sourcing.


Innovation & Job News
Green Street Academy Plots Expansion


Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Green Street Academy, a Baltimore City public school, will more than double enrollment and relocate to a new home to accommodate the expanded student population.

That's according to Green Street Co-founder and Chairman David Warnock who calls the academy a "transformation" school. Warnock says that means it operates within the public school system and is funded by the Baltimore City school system, along with $500,000 from corporate sponsors and private donors. The city school system also provides administrative and janitorial services, unlike a charter school that operates totally independent of the school system.

Besides the standard academic studies, the academy focuses on the environment and sustainability. “We use the green economy to inspire kids. We work with our corporate and private partners to create real world skills,” says Warnock.
 
The academy opened in fall of 2011 with 270 middle school students in grades 6, 7 and 8. In fall 2013, it will add a 9th grade and a 6th grade class, turning it into a combined middle/high school. When fully built out, Warnock expects the school to have about 700 students. Acceptance is by lottery.

“We will follow the students through high school,” Warnock says.

The academy is currently housed in a public school building, the former West Baltimore Middle School, on North Bend Road. To accommodate the increased enrollment, Warnock is searching for a new, larger home, preferably on the city's west side. He expects to move within the next two years. Warnock is raising money for the new home but declined to give a figure.
 
To showcase their skills, academy students are hosting an expo June 6-8 for parents, sponsors and community members. Energy and environmentally focused businesses will give demonstrations, sponsored by Accenture. Chef Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen will give a cooking demonstration from the academy’s own tilapia farm (in the school basement). Students will race the electric vehicles they’ve built, sponsored by Constellation Energy.
 
Source: David Warnock, Green Street Academy
Writer: Barbara Pash

_________________________________________

Here we have our Baltimore Sun education news reporters who will not connect those dots I just showed above with Warnock/Wes Moore and promoting global corporate education.  They will not open the discussion on how PARCC scores will be used in the future if these global corporate neo-liberal education policies are installed.  PARCC will of course be used to create that tiering and tracking of students into corporate schools and they are an assessment of a corporate charter competing on Wall Street for market share.

The citizens of Maryland have always gotten a raw deal on public education policy from funding to quality of education policy----Maryland citizens have shouted for decades the lack of rigor was harming children's ability to be competitive.  It was never the child's fault---often not the teachers' fault-----it was the education policy installed in classrooms and it was the constant push to provide A's and B's to elevate Maryland in national education testing scores.  As always Maryland tries to market its brand as best while creating policy that is the worst.
  While Education Week ranks Maryland #1 we see the Maryland Assessments were always some of the weakest in the nation----but Maryland is #1 in building global corporate K-UNIVERSITY

'The PARCC exams are considerably more rigorous than the Maryland School Assessment tests they replaced in 2015'.


The problem for our Maryland students going from the weakest assessment to a strong assessment is---it takes time to build those learning skills left undeveloped for decades.  We want the rigor-----we do not want PARCC used to track and tier our students in what will be corporate campus schools.

'Scores on the PARCC give educators a window into how well students are learning, but they don’t count yet for students or school systems'.



Maryland to release district-level PARCC scores

Liz Bowie and Erica L. GreenContact Reporters
The Baltimore Sun



PARCC results will be released statewide Tuesday, showing how Maryland students perform on standardized test.Maryland education officials are expected to release data Tuesday morning showing how public school students did on the state’s annual standardized test.


The new test data will show the district and school level scores. Statewide results on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers were released last month showing a modest gain in math and flat scores in English.
The PARCC was given last spring in grades three through eight, and in algebra and english in high school.
The PARCC exams are considerably more rigorous than the Maryland School Assessment tests they replaced in 2015.



Scores on the PARCC give educators a window into how well students are learning, but they don’t count yet for students or school systems. The state is currently revamping its school accountability system under the new federal law called the Every Student Succeeds Act.


___________________________________________

'Ten Things to Know About the New
K-12 PARCC Assessments
'


To understand PARCC one has to remember that before CLINTON era our public K-12 had that PARCC level of rigor----our K-12 students graduated with a broad, quality education that allowed most students to pursue vocational or academic higher education or simply enter the workforce.  Testing our students for progress or weaknesses is not bad. It is the goals of these policies that ARE bad.

We see below where PARCC guidelines clearly state these are internationally benchmarked learning standards---COMMON CORE is that international education curricula to which PARCC will be tied.



'to see how well students are achieving under new, more rigorous and internationally benchmarked learning
standards in English language arts (ELA) and math'.


Here we see PARCC guidelines telling us these scores will be used to create a MORE EFFICIENT path to vocation----and that indeed will be the tiered tracking with apprenticeship at 6th grade vs apprenticeships at 9th grade----with our high school grades turning into community college degree ---HOW EFFICIENT IS THAT?


'The PARCC supports efforts to provide
more efficient path to a college degree and career skills'.


For US citizens thinking sending children off to work at young ages as was done before child labor laws of last century is not a bad thing----we see the Rifleman on TV speaking about how children often left school in 8th grade-----female students often left after grade 6 for example.  The life for children in a global industrial economy is not what work was in early America.  Working for one's parents building a business is far different than being sent off to support families in deep poverty to global factories. These are third world societal structures and we do not want to return to extreme wealth and extreme poverty driving our American citizens' futures.


Ten Things to Know About the New
K-12 PARCC Assessments


1.
Kindergarten teachers through college-level professors from across the country, including Illinois, helped develop the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments to see how well students are achieving under new, more rigorous and internationally benchmarked learning standards in English language arts (ELA) and math.
•
The PARCC assessment is administered to all third- through eighth-graders and some high school students in Illinois public schools.

2.
The PARCC assessments measure a broad range of knowledge and skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking, that are essential for success. The PARCC assessments also measure writing at all grade levels, a valuable indicator of college and career readiness and a skill that was only assessed intermittently and for certain grade levels on previous state tests.

•
The PARCC assessments emphasize rigor, depth and application of knowledge –not just rote memorization. Performance-based exercises and technology-enhanced features yield more information than what was generated through previous state tests.


3.
The PARCC assessments provide a clear marker to show if students are on track for college and career, contributing to statewide efforts to support students’ education from cradle to career.


PARCC tests represent the first K-12 coherent assessments and replaced the Illinois Standard Achievement Test and the Prairie State Achievement Examination, which were used for more than a decade but were not aligned to one another, resulting in a disconnect that showed a greater portion of elementary students than high school students meeting state standards.
•
Now Illinois students will face consistent and high expectations at each grade level, giving parents and educators more accurate and timely information to intervene and determine
whether students need remediation or more advanced instruction.


4.
Staying on track for college and career means saving money. The PARCC supports efforts to provide a more efficient path to a college degree and career skills. We know that when students can start their postsecondary education in college credit-bearing courses, they’re more likely to graduate. A 2011
national report shows 56 percent of students nationwide earn a bachelor’s degree within six years. That falls to 35 percent when we look at students who have taken remedial courses.

________________________________________________



'Why not? In a word, because singling out advanced students for special coursework involves tracking'

Brookings Institution is the far-right global neo-liberal think tank that has written neo-liberal policy for several decades. This is how an academic KNOWS what goals 1% Wall Street global pols have with policy. The American people are still focused on Congressional policy being about US citizens and have not adopted that the goals are global ONE WORLD. When WE THE PEOPLE speak of education policy using terms with which Americans are familiar----terms like ADVANCED PLACEMENT AND EXCEPTIONAL have US parents thinking old-school public school measures.
If we look at that bell curve showing most students are average----and the small percentage on each side of that curve failing or advanced we know that the percentage of American students tracked into what will be strong 4 year universities-----IVY LEAGUE will be the only schools being that strong university---will be small. Add to that the fact that global IVY LEAGUES will be recruiting and accepting global students and VOILA---American students have such competition ----what was strong public education K-12 will be limited for a few percent of citizens. What is the number of advanced placement today in a US high school does not consider how that US high school advanced placement student competes globally.

This article acts as though black and brown students will be the ones at risk but WHITE CITIZENS must WAKE UP---because there will be no racial preference to BEST OF THE BEST IN THE WORLD. Having our US citizens competing against one another under US Constitutional equal protection, opportunity, and access provides far more opportunity to excel than competing globally.

Citizens in all nations want the best education structures in their own nations----it is as important to global citizens to keep their sovereign rights in education. 

NO ONE WANTS TO BE A COG IN A GLOBAL LABOR POOL!


Report

Tracking and Advanced Placement

Tom Loveless Thursday, March 24, 2016


This section presents a time-lagged analysis of the relationship between tracking—the practice of assigning students to different academic classes based on prior achievement[1]—in eighth grade and two later outcomes related to the Advanced Placement program (AP): participation rates and successful performance on AP tests in high school. The theory motivating the analysis is that academically advanced students may gain long term benefits from accelerated coursework in middle school. Just as star high school athletes do not walk onto a basketball court or football field for the first time as seniors in high school, successful AP calculus students do not encounter advanced mathematics for the first time in 12th grade.
Preparation matters. In communities across the country, pipelines are in place to nurture and develop promising young athletes.[2] Not so with academic stars. Why not? In a word, because singling out advanced students for special coursework involves tracking. Accelerated or honors courses, offering above grade level curricula to students who are ready for it, typically start in middle school. They allow high-achieving youngsters to move at a faster pace than their grade level peers.



But tracking is controversial. By definition, it involves differentiating students in terms of their skills and knowledge. Black, Hispanic, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students are historically underrepresented in accelerated tracks. As such, the charge that tracking discriminates against these students has shaped the frequency of its use across different communities. Tracking is more prevalent in suburban middle class communities and in schools serving white and Asian students and less prevalent in urban schools and schools serving predominantly black, Hispanic, or disadvantaged populations.

Whether middle school tracking is associated with AP outcomes is a timely question. Recent research on tracking that employs techniques to minimize selection bias and other shortcomings of previous research, has documented examples of tracking being used to promote equity. AP classes, along with the International Baccalaureate program, represent the pinnacle of advanced coursework in U.S. high schools. They are the end of the pipeline preparing academically gifted students for college. Boosting access to AP classes for groups historically underrepresented in AP is a key element of the contemporary equity agenda for high schools. In opposition to these trends, tracking’s critics remain steadfast. The advent of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) may furnish critics with a politically powerful shield for dismantling tracking in middle schools (see the study of Common Core in this issue).


Background


In the 1970s, the charge that tracking produces discriminatory social effects rose to public awareness just as tracking itself was changing. Since the early 20th century, curriculum differentiation occurred by assigning students to tracks that encompassed all academic subjects. The names of tracks vaguely denoted post-secondary destinations, with “college prep,” “vocational,” and “general” being the most common labels. Students were assigned to tracks based on IQ tests measuring general aptitude or achievement tests measuring prior learning. By the 1970s, tracking had changed. Omnibus tracking was replaced by subject-specific assignment to courses (i.e., students simultaneously could be placed in remedial reading and a higher level math class), IQ testing fell into disfavor, and parents increasingly could override schools’ initial placement and demand a different track if they wanted more or less challenge for their children than schools recommended.


The anti-tracking movement gained steam in the 1990s. It had little effect on high schools, but middle schools were another story.


IT'S NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE 1990S IS WHEN OUR PUBLIC K-12 WAS EXPERIENCING THE WORST OF DEFUNDING AND LACK OF RESOURCES.  THIS IS WHY ANTI-TRACKING GAINED STEAM.

The changes did not reduce the attacks on tracking. In 1985, Jeannie Oakes’ “Keeping Track” was published. Oakes acknowledged that tracking had changed but dismissed the modifications as trivial. Schools, Oakes charged, were still systematically denying kids opportunity in ways that correlated with race and class. Oakes built her critique on the theories of Marxian analysts Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, whose 1976 book, “Schooling in Capitalist America,” argued that schools are structured with the intention to reproduce social inequalities. Despite its ideological underpinnings, the tracking critique drew surprising support across the political spectrum.  In What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know?, two former members of the Reagan and Bush administrations respectively, Checker Finn and Diane Ravitch single out tracking as a cause of students’ poor performance on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests of history and literature.[3]


The anti-tracking movement gained steam in the 1990s. It had little effect on high schools, but middle schools were another story. Across the country, middle schools began paring back tracking, especially in English-language arts, science, and history. By the end of the decade, a majority of middle school students attended heterogeneously grouped classes in those subjects.[4 ]Math classes remained tracked, but with fewer levels—typically just one level offering algebra and one level offering pre-algebra or a general eighth grade math course. The frequency of tracking in academic subjects remains similar today.
Recent research on tracking and equity




A challenge to research on the effects of tracking has been adequately controlling for selection effects. In this case, the term “selection effect” refers to the nonrandom assignment of students to tracks. High- and low-track students are assigned to their respective tracks  because of different amounts of prior learning and the anticipation of different amounts of future learning. To discover that high-track students learn more than low-track students may simply be an extension of how the students were “selected” into respective tracks in the first place and may have nothing to do with tracking itself. In addition, schools do not make policy choices randomly, and they may have decided to track or to heterogeneously group students for reasons related to achievement.


Recent research indicates that high-achieving students may benefit from tracking.


Experiments in which students are randomly assigned to tracked and untracked settings are rare. In 2005, an experiment in Kenya could be conducted because schools were granted extra funds to hire first grade teachers.[5] More than a hundred schools (121) had only one first grade teacher, and the new money allowed the addition of a second teacher. The schools were randomly assigned to either a tracked or untracked condition. In the tracked schools, one of the classes was made up of higher achievers, the other of lower achievers. Students were placed in either the higher- or lower-achieving class based on whether they scored above or below the median for all students. Students in the untracked schools were assigned to the two classes randomly, creating classes heterogeneous in ability.


The experiment ran for 18 months. Both high- and low-achievers in the tracked schools gained more on achievement tests compared to students in the untracked schools. The benefit for students in higher-achieving classes  was 0.19 standard deviations and for those in the lower-achieving classes,0.16 standard deviations.
Conditions that allow for experiments are quite unique, so analysts have also used quasi-experimental designs to evaluate tracking. Takako Nomi investigated a 1997 policy in Chicago that abolished remedial math classes in ninth grade and created mixed-ability algebra classes in their place. Employing an interrupted time-series design and difference-in-differences analysis, Nomi found that high achievers paid a price for abandoning tracking in favor of heterogeneously grouped classes. An analysis of class composition using instrumental variables indicated that peer effects were driving much of the effect. A one standard deviation decline in peer skills was associated with about a one-quarter standard deviation decline in high achievers’ test scores.[6]



David N. Figlio and Marianne E. Page (2000) also used an instrumental variable strategy to isolate the effects of tracking. They found that wealthier families consider whether a school tracks when making enrollment decisions. After controlling for those parental decisions, Figlio and Page found that disadvantaged students benefitted from tracking, contradicting the notion that abolishing tracking promotes equity. As they put it, “…tracking programs are associated with test score gains for students in the bottom third of the initial test score distribution. We conclude that the move to end tracking may harm the very students it is intended to help.”

Chao Fu and Nirav Mehta (2015) looked at tracking using data from the Early Childhood Longtitudinal Study, a large national database. In contrast to Figlio and Page, they found a trade-off, with tracking benefitting high-ability students and hurting low-ability students. Defining low- and high-ability students in the same manner as the study in Kenya (above and below the median of achievement), Fu and Mehta’s model predicts that de-tracking would raise the test scores of low-achieving students by 0.04 standard deviations and depress high-achievers’ scores by 0.05 standard deviations.


David Card and Laura Giuliano (2014) studied the effects of gifted classes in a large Eastern school district. The district had mandated that schools with even a single gifted student (most of whom were identified by IQ tests) must provide separate gifted classes in fourth and fifth grades, with open seats in these classes filled by high achievers—the school’s highest performers on the annual state assessment.  The policy dramatically increased the proportion of disadvantaged students in the gifted classes to about 40 percent districtwide. The researchers found significant positive effects for high achievers in the program, in particular for low-income black and Hispanic students. Card and Giuliano concluded, “Our findings suggest that a comprehensive tracking program that establishes a separate classroom in every school for the top-performing students could significantly boost the performance of the most talented students in even the poorest neighborhoods, at little or no cost to other students or the District’s budget.”[7]
In sum, recent research indicates that high-achieving students may benefit from tracking and suffer losses from heterogeneous grouping. The studies have primarily assessed achievement effects from one to two years of attending high tracks. The following study takes a longer perspective and examines outcomes at the end of high school that may be associated with tracking in eighth grade.


Data

The analysis below examines data from the national cohort of students who were eighth graders in 2009 and graduated from high school in 2013.[8] Data on eighth grade tracking come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.[9] The percentage of students attending schools with tracked eighth grade math classes, aggregated to the state level, serves as a proxy for middle school tracking practices. Data on AP participation and performance come from the “Tenth Annual AP Report to the Nation.”[10] As with the NAEP data, state-level data are used in the analysis. AP participation refers to the percentage of each state’s public high school graduates who took at least one AP exam during high school. AP performance represents the percentage of each state’s AP test takers who scored a three or better on at least one test. That is the typical threshold that colleges and universities require for granting college credit.

The following study examines outcomes at the end of high school that may be associated with tracking in eighth grade.

The data possess several limitations. Tracking practices are modeled using information from only one subject. Math is the most commonly tracked subject in middle schools, but using data from other subjects might yield different results. Taking an AP test is not the same as taking an AP course. Some students take AP courses but do not sit for the AP exam. Students are counted as AP participants if they took an AP exam at any point in their high school careers. Students who took multiple AP tests only count as one test taker in the data, and the count of students scoring three or higher (3+) are those who did so on any single AP test, regardless of their scores on other AP tests.
The initial research question this study examines is: Were state tracking practices for eighth graders in 2009 related to AP outcomes in 2013? A question pertinent to equity will also be explored: Do the results vary by race? AP outcomes for black, Hispanic, and white students are scrutinized.


Analysis

Table 2-1 displays the study’s data, with summary statistics reported in the bottom rows. The state average for AP participation in 2013 was 29 percent, meaning that for the typical state almost three out of 10 graduates in the class of 2013 had taken an AP exam at some point during their high school years. Participation rates ranged from a low of 13 percent in Mississippi to a high of 56 percent in the District of Columbia. In the average state, more than half (58 percent) of students who had taken an AP exam earned a score of three or higher. The lowest 3+ rate was registered by the District of Columbia (25 percent) and the highest by New Hampshire (76 percent), suggesting a possible trade-off between heightened access to AP and selectivity. As just mentioned, D.C.’s participation rate was the highest in the country; New Hampshire ranked 35th.


Tracking is significantly correlated with performance on AP tests.


The contrast is merely suggestive. The data do not allow for one to tease out whether access and selectivity are inversely related. Trade-offs made by educators at the school or district levels may be masked by aggregating data to the state level. Further research is needed using school or district data, collected, in other words, at the policymaking level where AP offerings are decided.


The popularity of tracking in eighth grade math is evident. The average state tracked about three-quarters of its math students, with Arkansas the least tracked state (50 percent) and Nevada the most tracked (97 percent). The percentage of eighth graders scoring at the “advanced” performance level on the 2009 NAEP math test is included as a control variable. Notice how stringent the NAEP advanced level is. The average state has only about 7 percent of eighth graders scoring at this level. Prior achievement is an important covariate in any model predicting academic outcomes, whether the outcomes of interest are measured at the individual, school, or state level. Considering the current study’s focus on high achievers, a state’s percentage of students reaching the NAEP advanced level is an appropriate control. States that had a lot of high-achieving eighth graders in 2009 probably also had a lot of high-achieving high school graduates in 2013—and that will surely influence the AP outcome variables. The final column shows the percentage of children in poverty for each state.


Table 2-2 reports correlation coefficients for the relationship of eighth grade tracking to AP outcomes. Correlations are also reported for AP outcomes disaggregated by race and ethnicity. Eighth grade tracking shows no statistically significant relationship with AP participation. The percentage of a state’s graduating class that has taken an AP test is unrelated statistically with the amount of tracking going on four years earlier. Tracking is significantly correlated with performance on AP tests, and the positive relationship holds for the performance of black, Hispanic, and white subgroups.
The positive relationship holds for the performance of black, Hispanic, and white subgroups.
States with larger percentages of tracked eighth graders produce larger percentages of high-scoring AP test takers. States where tracking is less prevalent tend to have a smaller proportion of high scorers. Highly tracked states with an above average share of 3+ AP scorers include: California (88 percent tracked), Colorado (91 percent), Connecticut (90 percent), Maryland (94 percent), Minnesota (87 percent), and Utah (89 percent). States with sparser eighth grade tracking and a below average proportion of high-scoring AP students include: Delaware (64 percent tracked), District of Columbia (63 percent), Louisiana (54 percent), Mississippi (52 percent), and Texas (57 percent).


The significantly positive correlations for black and Hispanic high performers on AP are important for equity considerations. Two sets of figures are presented. The adjusted correlations were calculated after dropping states with fewer than 50 AP participants. The number of black AP test takers fell below that criterion in eight states; for Hispanics, the shortfall occurred in four states. All states had at least 50 white AP tests takers, which is why adjusted figures for whites are not presented. States with small numbers of participants may produce unstable AP scores. AP has dramatically increased the participation of black and Hispanic students in the past decade—and continues to push for greater participation—so the adjusted figures are probably better indicators of future statistical relationships.

Let’s consider the pipeline hypothesis, the idea that eighth grade tracking offers high achieving students an opportunity for acceleration that can pay off in high school. The current study cannot test the causal claims of the hypothesis, but the findings do support further research on the topic. States with a larger percentage of kids scoring 3 or better on AP tests in 2013 had a larger percentage of kids in tracked classes four years earlier. That association occurs without any apparent increase in selectivity. The relationship of tracking with AP participation is indistinguishable from zero. Moreover, the finding holds for black, Hispanic, and white subgroups. If eighth grade tracking operates in a manner discriminatory to blacks and Hispanics, it is not apparent here. The sign of the correlation for Hispanic participation in AP tests is negative, however; and even though the value doesn’t reach statistical significance, it should be investigated further with more precise data and hierarchical models that can tease out state, district, and school effects.


Regression analysis is useful for parsing out the influence that confounding variables may exercise in making two variables appear correlated when they in fact are not.  Table 2-3 exhibits regression output controlling for two potential confounders.  Tracking in eighth grade maintains a significantly positive relationship with later AP performance even while controlling for states’ advanced achievement on NAEP and level of child poverty.[11 ]As expected, both control variables are also statistically significantly associated with AP performance.  Neither regression nor correlation coefficients are sufficient to determine causality.
To put the tracking coefficient in simpler terms, an increase of 10 percentage points in 8th grade tracking is associated with a two percentage point increase in high performing AP students. That effect is equivalent to about 0.18 standard deviations. The increase associated with boosting tracking by ten percentage points is over 1,300 additional high scoring AP students in New York and more than 2,000 in Texas. Nationally, a ten percentage point increase in eighth grade tracking is associated with an additional 20,000 students scoring 3 or higher on AP exams.



Conclusion

This section of the Brown Center Report examined the relationship of eighth grade tracking in 2009 with two AP outcomes in 2013: participation and high performance on AP tests.  State level data were analyzed.  No association was found between the percentage of a state’s students who were tracked in eighth grade mathematics and—four years later–the percentage of graduating seniors who had taken an AP test.  A positive relationship was found between tracking and superior performance on AP tests, the percentage of test takers scoring a 3 or better on AP tests.  The positive relationship was statistically significant for white, black, and Hispanic students.
The analysis cannot prove or disprove that tracking caused the heightened success on AP tests.  The findings do support future research on the hypothesis that tracking benefits high achieving students—in particular, high achieving students of color—by offering accelerated coursework that they would not otherwise get in untracked schools.  That hypothesis is supported by several recent studies, as described above, including that of David Card and Laura Giuliano (2014).


The hypothesis that middle school tracking is associated with AP outcomes rests on the notion of an academic pipeline—that superior academic performance must be nurtured and developed over time. Think of how the following three phenomena coalesce to shape opportunity. First, students are assigned to tracks primarily based on achievement test scores. Because of the test score gaps between white and Asian students, on the one hand, and black and Hispanic students, on the other hand, honors classes or tracks designed to accelerate students often are demographically unrepresentative of their schools. That fact has invited severe criticism. Second, in accordance with political opposition, schools in communities serving large numbers of black and Hispanic students tend to shun tracking. Accelerated classes are less likely to exist for students of color. Third, much of the research on tracking has found that students in high tracks benefit academically from separate, accelerated coursework. Researchers believe that high-track students receive a boost from exposure to academically-oriented peers, teachers trained in acceleration, and a challenging curriculum.

These three phenomena combine to limit opportunity for black and Hispanic youngsters. If tracking and accelerated coursework in eighth grade represent the beginning of a pipeline for promising young stars in mathematics or literature, that opportunity is more open to white and Asian students in suburban schools than to disadvantaged youngsters in schools serving students of color.


AP courses represent the end of the pipeline for academically gifted students. If we are serious about expanding opportunity, and serious about increasing the numbers of students of color who not only take AP courses but also score extraordinarily well on AP tests, policymakers need to take another look at strategies for nurturing academic talent in middle schools.  Long condemned by political opponents, tracking has been overlooked as a potential tool for promoting equity.


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September 27th, 2016

9/27/2016

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ThinkProgress
Moving news forward.
Dec 3, 20123 min read

Today we are going to discuss the economy and again look at the bond market using the local media news telling us the problems we are now having.  I wanted to post the above to show ThinkProgress ---as I used one of their articles yesterday.  MOVING NEWS FORWARD----please know these media outlets are Clinton neo-liberal.

When we know Congressional laws passed at the beginning of Obama's terms were tied to SUBPRIMING OUR US TREASURY AND MUNICIPAL BONDS to prepare to take the US to the status of Greece ---then we understand Wall Street uses our bond debt as an ATM----and it always ends up killing the wealth and assets of WE THE PEOPLE including now our actual government agencies and buildings.  I outed a media outlet last week that included a CA State Treasurer posing social progressive when we know state treasurers have been tied to CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA 1% Wall Street economic policies.  We must understand that the economic crash of 2008 exposing all that systemic Wall Street fraud was the point any elected or appointed US official would legally be required to move away from Wall Street in regards to our Federal, state, and local governments AS STEWARDS WITH A DUTY TOWARDS PUBLIC INTEREST.  Yet these pols and state treasurers DOUBLED-DOWN on Wall Street exposure posing progressive or conservative in order to do this.  Looking from 2006 in Maryland we see each time an election occurs there are state deficits problems here and there requiring the worst kinds of economic solutions. 

THE DEFICITS ARE DRIVEN BY THE WALL STREET DEALS OUR STATES AND CITIES ARE TIED TO AS THE MARKET IS WORKING SIMPLY TO MILK WE THE PEOPLE AND OUR GOVERNMENT COFFERS.


We watched in 2006 as earlier this transition of our economies to financial industries from Wall Street to casinos setting the stage for fleecing the middle/working class. This was the governor's race surrounding Erhlich and O'Malley---both far-right Reagan Wall Street neo-liberals



STATE TREASURER
ORIGIN & FUNCTIONS



A single treasurer of the State to be elected for a two-year term by joint ballot of both houses of the General Assembly was authorized by the Constitution of 1851 (Art. 6, sec. 1). In 1922, the term was increased to four years (Chapter 140, Acts of 1922). The first full-time State Treasurer was not elected by the Legislature until 1973.
Today, the State Treasurer is chosen by joint ballot of both houses of the General Assembly at the first regular session of the Legislature in each gubernatorial term of office. The State Treasurer thus serves a four-year term coinciding with that of the Governor.
The State Treasurer is responsible for the management and protection of State funds and property. In this connection, the Treasurer selects and manages the depository facilities for State funds, issues or authorizes agents to issue payments of State funds, invests excess funds, safekeeps all State securities and investments, and provides insurance protection against sudden and unanticipated damage to State property or liability of State employees. Moreover, the State Treasurer is custodian of all stocks, bonds, promissory notes, certificates, and other negotiable investment instruments of the State. In addition, the State Treasurer is custodian of all such instruments held for the State Retirement and Pension System, the Maryland Insurance Commissioner, foreign building and homestead associations, the Department of the Environment's Coal Mining Division [Bureau of Mines]; and all collateral pledged as security over deposits of State funds in Maryland banks.

State of Maryland General Obligation Bond issues are planned, prepared, and advertised by the State Treasurer. With the approval of the Board of Public Works, the Treasurer arranges bond sales; prepares the State's Official Statement; receives bids; and arranges settlement, delivery of bonds, and tracking of the proceeds for these General Obligation Bonds. Due to new restrictions by the federal government on income generated through the sale of tax-exempt obligations, the Treasurer most recently has played an increasing role in the administration of the State's capital program. In 1990, the State issued the first Maryland Mini Bonds, which are small denomination capital appreciation bonds. This program is administered by the Treasurer.

Right-wing wealth and corporate power install gambling to drain wealth from the working class and poor.  The rich do not lose that money-----WE THE PEOPLE do and we see in 2006 the state deficit was used to expand gambling.  A TAX ON MAIN STREET as corporations and the rich were paying less and less.
  Gambling is a regressive tax. If Republican voters are mad about higher taxes this is one of them.   This is why our labor unions which no doubt want to expand union jobs become that push for gambling because of unionized casinos.  IT'S NOT JUST ANY JOB FOLKS---


ISSUING MUNICIPAL OR US TREASURY BONDS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MECHANISM FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH BUT WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT IS NOW TAINTED AND CORRUPT.

It was at this point our government deficits were being driven by Wall government funds tied to Wall Street bond markets...an Erhlich comes to office saying OH LOOK AT THOSE DEFICITS----an O'Malley comes to office saying OH LOOK AT THOSE DEFICITS----a Hogan comes to office saying OH LOOK AT THOSE DEFICITS----when the deficits come from the deals all of the above make with Wall Street and all the outsourced corporate frauds from government agencies.


Maryland budget deficit looms as lottery revenue falls off

Nov 29, 2006, 8:21 am  Lottery Post



Maryland Lottery: Maryland budget deficit looms as lottery revenue falls off


Maryland's lottery has been slowing down as a revenue source for years and will continue to underperform as residents seek other gambling ventures, including betting on slot machines in neighboring states, budget analysts and state officials say.

The lottery "has been, until very recently, the third-largest general fund revenues source," said David Roose, director of the state's Bureau of Revenue Estimates. "But in the last few years the corporate income tax has become the third-largest."
"They may have seen some growth in the lottery [sales], but relative to growth in the economy, it's not keeping track," said Tori Gorman, a former economist for the state legislature.
At its peak in fiscal 1986, the Maryland Lottery provided $323 million, or 7.8 percent of the state's $4.2 billion in revenue, a state official said.
In fiscal 2006, which ended June 30, the lottery produced $480 million, or 3.9 percent of the state's $12.9 billion in revenue. The state lottery was created in 1973 and first produced revenue in fiscal 1975.
The lottery's diminishing contribution to the state budget is one of many reasons why Maryland is facing nearly $8 billion in deficits over the next five years, analysts say.
Most of the state's economic growth has occurred among high-income earners, who do not regularly play the lottery, said Mrs. Gorman, who co-wrote a recent budget study for the Maryland Public Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group.
That is one reason the lottery, despite its growing ticket sales, does not add as much to the budget, she said, adding that lottery players tend to be lower-income workers.
But Maryland Lottery Director Buddy W. Roogow said the state is losing customers to slot machine gambling in Delaware, West Virginia, and Atlantic City, N.J.
"The biggest customers of Delaware slots are Marylanders," Mr. Roogow said. "I've been told by the Delaware Lottery folks that around 35 percent of their players come from Maryland."
Marylanders account for as much as 40 percent of slot machine players in Charlestown, W.Va., he said.
The Democrat-controlled General Assembly stymied attempts by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, to legalize slot machines.
State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Southern Maryland Democrat, strongly supports slots, but House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Anne Arundel County Democrat, still strongly opposes them, as do many state lawmakers.
Although Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley, Democrat, has said that he favors limited slots at horse-racing tracks, he also has said that he does not see them as a source of revenue.
Some legislators disagree.
"We know without a doubt that there's $400 [million] to $500 million a year leaving the state right now to go play slots in West Virginia and Delaware, and Pennsylvania just approved 1,000 machines that will be up and running within another 12 months," said state Sen. Patrick J. Hogan, Montgomery County Democrat.
Mr. Hogan is vice chairman of the budget committee, which will be the legislature's ground zero for the next few years as it tries to reconcile spending totals with revenue totals.
The state is required by the constitution to balance the budget each year.
Mrs. Gorman said the state could cut the anticipated budget deficits by about 40 percent by maximizing revenue from in-state gambling and from the sales tax, which she said is not keeping pace with economic growth.
"The state has a relatively narrow tax base on sales tax because it doesn't include a lot of services," said Mahlon Straszheim, economics professor at the University of Maryland at College Park.
State Sen.-elect Richard S. Madaleno, Montgomery County Democrat, has said that the state should consider broadening the number of items covered under the sales tax.
The remaining 60 percent of the deficit, Mrs. Gorman said, would have to come from spending cuts and waste elimination.
Income and sales taxes account for about 75 percent of the state's revenue.

_____________________________________________
The article above shows the graduation of policy where our bond market is being taken and controlled in ways that harm the American people.  From that 2006 we can watch as things keep getting worse until today the municipal and US Treasury bond market will be used to EXTREME WEALTH AND POWER ACCUMULATION.  This occurred because WE THE PEOPLE allowed far-right politicians take our political parties. 

IT MATTERS WHO WINS THESE ELECTIONS.

O'Malley wins that 2006 election and takes over from Ehrlich in super-sizing attachment of Maryland's economy to more and more and more bond debt.  O'Malley left office in 2014 pushing bond debt as hard as he could right up to what we call LAME DUCK.  O'Malley as a 1% Wall Street global pol was behind the subprime mortgage frauds in Baltimore and was then behind placing Maryland and especially Baltimore to the eyes in bond debt.

NATIONAL MEDIA PAINTS O'MALLEY AS SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE WITH O'MALLEY'S WALL STREET BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION's 'labor and justice organizations' giving him cover.

So now Hogan comes to office and there is all that state budget deficit and again it is tied to losses in the Wall Street market and all the deals attached to them.  What does Hogan do?  He blames it on Democrats and then super-sizes the state and Baltimore bond debt.

ALL OF THIS IS REPUBLICAN WEALTH AND CORPORATE POWER POLICY----THERE IS NOTHING DEMOCRATIC---DEFINITELY NOTHING SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE IN PUSHING ALL GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES TO WALL STREET AND GAMBLING.

This is why voters have these few decades whether electing Republican or Democrat had to listen to these same excuses----and our media reporters KNOW THIS.
 2014 was the start of the bond market collapse and these deficits are being driven by these bad bond deals. 
Of course far-right Clinton neo-liberals and Republicans are saying it is about too much agency spending.

"Every day that ticks by, the agencies spend money that we can't get back," Getty said. "When [Hogan] takes office, there will only be five months left."


This is how Clinton/Bush/Obama dismantled all FDR New Deal and MLK's War on Poverty programs----systematically creating these fake budget deficits.


Maryland's budget shortfall grows to $1.2 billion

Educators worried about what Md. budget deficit means for schools. Governor-elect Larry Hogan takes office in January.


Erin CoxContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun


Maryland's budget shortfall is larger than previously thought
Maryland's budget hole has deepened.
The financial problem Maryland's incoming governor already described as "a crisis" worsened Monday, as officials announced the state's budget shortfall is even larger than previously thought.
Over the next 18 months, state revenue is expected to fall nearly $1.2 billion short of Maryland's expenses. The new numbers suggest the state must trim more than $420 million before the fiscal year ends in June, and an additional nearly $750 million out of the first budget Gov.-elect Larry Hogan will submit next year.
A spokesman said that Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley does not have plans to formally cut the state's current budget during December, and that the governor is "still evaluating what additional action might make sense."

Hogan, a Republican who takes office Jan. 21, said Monday's new numbers were "no surprise." He cautioned residents to prepare for what may be painful budget cuts next year.
"I ask that Marylanders understand that these latest downward numbers mean the upcoming budget choices will be even harder and more difficult than expected," he said in a statement. Hogan was elected on a platform of curbing state spending.
Most of the budget woes announced by the Board of Revenue Estimates stem from Maryland's job market's improving more slowly than officials predicted when they put together projections a year ago. Although Maryland's revenue continues to increase year over year, it is not growing fast enough to keep up with spending plans.
Officials blamed gridlock on Capitol Hill and the reverberating effects of last year's sequester as the prime culprits suppressing Maryland's recovery.
Comptroller Peter A. Franchot said it was time to end the state's reliance on federal jobs — which employ about 300,000 people in Maryland — and federal contracts to buoy the state's economy.
"Rather than building a diversified state economy, we've effectively put all of our eggs in one federal basket, and we're seeing the immediate and direct economic impact of that approach," said Franchot, a Democrat. "We need to accept that this has become our new normal, and it requires a new economic model."
Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, a Democrat and like Franchot a member of the revenue board, also faulted the economic uncertainty caused by Congress.

OH REALLY?????  IT IS NOT WALL STREET AND THE FED???


But Kopp cautioned not to be too pessimistic about the revenue shortfall, pointing out the state reduces its projections every year. Kopp noted that Maryland will take in more cash this year than last, and even more in 2015, signs that the economy continues to improve.
"It is a heck of a lot better than it was only a few years ago," she said.
Some of the budget problem stems from higher-than-expected spending, in part from swelling Medicaid caseloads and overtime costs at Maryland prisons, said Warren Deschenaux, director of the office of policy analysis for the Department of Legislative Services.


Deschenaux said closing the budget gap, as Maryland is required to do by law, becomes more complicated if officials want to do that only by cutting programs. About 80 percent of Maryland's spending is required by law, and the remaining 20 percent isn't enough to cover the shortfall, Deschenaux said.
"The more solutions you take off the table, the bigger the problem becomes," he said.
Officials announced in November the state faced a $300 million shortfall for this year, and another $600 million next year. On Monday, the Board of Revenue Estimates said state coffers would be short an additional $123 million this year and $147.9 million next year.
State universities have already called for a hiring freeze to help stem costs. State Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster called on state agencies in November to trim expenses. On Monday, Foster she said that she did not yet know how much had been saved.


Franchot called on O'Malley to seek cuts to the current budget at the Jan. 7 meeting of the Board of Public Works, which has the authority to approve such reductions. Foster declined to comment.


Hogan's chief lobbyist, Republican Sen. Joe Getty of Carroll County, said fixing the hole in this year's budget is a greater challenge than crafting a leaner spending plan for next year.
"Every day that ticks by, the agencies spend money that we can't get back," Getty said. "When [Hogan] takes office, there will only be five months left."
Hogan's approach to trimming state spending is likely to hit objections from Maryland's Democratic-controlled legislature, which has closed deep budget holes in previous years while still spending record amounts on education.
Sen. Roger Manno, a Democrat who will lead the Spending Affordability Committee next year, said the problem should be seen in context. "It could be a lot worse," Manno said, noting that Virginia has a $2.4 billion budget shortfall.

Manno said that for the past eight years, the revenue estimates have consistently been revised downward. And every year, he said, the governor and the General Assembly found a way to pass balanced budgets that preserved core services Maryland residents demand.
"We've done this every year," Manno said. "We're accustomed to it."


_______________________________________

No one knows better from where these losses are coming than our Business media outlets like Daily Record and Baltimore Business yet they NEVER MENTION government bond debt is bad---never mention that the bond market is collapsing as it began in 2013 and by 2014---the time of this article the bond market was already being called a REALLY BAD PLACE FOR MONEY.

Yet, Hogan made more state and Baltimore bond debt his agenda as with O'Malley----and it was Hogan who tied massive deals to GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT under the guise of FIX BALTIMORE.

A fiscally responsible governor as mayor would never have allowed state and city bond debt be tied to CORE====Hogan's global corporate campus development---Harbor Point and now UnderArmour to the extreme. 

IF WE HAD GOOD PEOPLE IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS NONE OF THESE BUDGET DEFICITS AND GOVERNMENT REVENUE LOSSES WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.


When our business journals think HIDING BAD BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT INVESTMENTS is their job---we have a failed media journalism and this is when we know our media is working for 1% Wall Street global wealth and power and not American economic health and welfare.

My friends across the nation have these same politicians and media saying these same things---and cities in your neck of the woods have the same Wall Street Development Corporations tying onto all this debt with their 'labor and justice' organizations PRETENDING all this is needed for the poor and jobs.




Maryland's Fiscal 2015 Budget

Md. deficit $270M worse than previously thought

By: Bryan P. Sears Daily Record Government Reporter December 15, 2014
UPDATE


ANNAPOLIS — Maryland’s revenues fell short of projections by an additional $270 million for the current and fiscal 2016 budget years. The shortfall is part of a report that will be presented to the Board of Revenue Estimates later this afternoon.

The board is expected to be told that revenue for the current year fell short of projections by an additional $123 million.
The write down is on top of a $405 million write down the board announced in September.
Earlier in the day, one state fiscal leader said he was expecting bad news.

“My guess is that it’s going to be worse than we thought,” said Sen. Roger Manno, D-Montgomery  County and the newly appointed Senate chairman of the Spending Affordability Committee,.
The reductions would likely have an effect on the current budget year and the budget for incoming Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.
This would be the second time since the fiscal year began in July that the state has revised its revenue estimates down. Just two days into the budget year, Gov. Martin J. O’Malley and the Board of Public Works, approved more than $84 million in combined budget cuts, job eliminations and fund transfers in anticipation of downward trending revenues.


Two months later, those fears were confirmed with the Board of Revenue Estimates revised the state’s revenue estimates downward by about $405 million for fiscal years 2015 and 2016.
Currently, Maryland legislators and the incoming governor face a nearly $300 million budget deficit in fiscal 2015 and another $600 million projected for fiscal 2016.
Earlier this month, officials with the University System of Maryland confirmed that most state universities implemented hiring and spending freezes in anticipation of budget concerns. A spokeswoman for the governor’s office said similar actions were underway within state  agencies.
Manno said the expected downward revisions that could be announced today would likely widen both gaps.
__________________________________________

'As we stay on this path, our improving fiscal situation will allow us to provide much needed tax
relief to struggling Maryland families, seniors and small businesses.
Together, we are truly changing Maryland for the better'.


Keep in mind this was released in January 2016=====projecting for 2017 we have since passed that UnderArmour Bond deal with others.  All economists are now saying this economic crash is coming and the bond market collapse assured---and we will see all the promises made by this 'Republican' who is really a Bush neo-conservative ONE WORLD NEO-LIBERALISM guy----never occur because this bond market collapse will cause EXTREME SEVERE GOVERNMENT DEFICITS AND LONG-TERM DEBT.  What will continue unabated are those municipal bond deals tied to global corporate campuses and to our Baltimore Public Schools taking those schools to privatized hands-----those global corporate campuses.


I wanted to post this video because now people Republican and corporate voters think KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING are saying what I was saying back in 2012. All of these people knew back in 2012 this bond market collapse was being built by subpriming our US Treasury and municipal bond market BUT THEY WERE NOT TELLING US THEN---they are telling us now because we cannot stop it.
Larry Hogan knows all of this financial news----and we will see in the next article Hogan giving Maryland citizens his STATE OF MARYLAND address without any mention of crashing economies or with absolutely no vetting of bond debt to prepare for this----
THIS IS WHAT 1%WALL STREET PLAYERS DO---AND IT IS INDEED ALL VERY ILLEGAL.


2016 Crash | Bond Market Collapse | Carl Icahn

Saving Truth


Published on Jan 1, 2016
The increasing warnings against investing in the reckless Wall Street bull market have just reached a tipping point — ultimate Wall Street insider and New York City financier Carl Icahn has just leveled a blast at the stock and bond market cheerleaders who still believe the current record-setting market valuations are not a problem.

“I think the public is walking into a trap again as they did in 2007,” Icahn told CNBC’s “Fast Money Halftime Report.” “I think it’s almost the duty of well-respected investors, like myself I hope, to warn people, to tell people, that really you are making errors.”

Icahn went on to tell his CNBC hosts that “he was very concerned” about the “overheated” stock and bond markets and that small investors from the general public were “walking into a trap”. Icahn cautioned the public away from the high-yield bond market especially, claiming that “it’s almost the duty of well-respected investors like himself” to warn people- then Icahn followed up with comparisons of the current investment climate to the heady pre-crash days of 2007
.


I apologize for the use of HONORABLE in this post but the 1% Wall Street crowd like to PRETEND what they are doing is legitimate.
  This is what third world government and media look like.


January 20, 2016
The Honorable Thomas V. “Mike” Miller and the Senate of Maryland
The Honorable Michael E. Busch and the Maryland House of Delegates
The People of Maryland


Dear Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Maryland General Assembly, and Fellow Marylanders:


This past year has been a successful one for Maryland and for the people who live here. My
administration came in with a plan to put our State economy back on track, attract new businesses, create
jobs, and to address our inherited $5.1 billion structural deficit; and I’m proud to say we’ve done just that.
Our plan is working; our current-year tax revenues are projected to be $150 million higher than
they were at this time last year. It’s not because we raised taxes, but instead, it’s because Maryland is
beginning to shed its anti-business image. Since last year, more than 50,000 new jobs have been created
and our State has nearly 7,000 more businesses than we had just a few years ago.
Our fiscal discipline throughout the year, combined with our improving business climate, means
that we’ll be able to deliver an operating budget that spends $17.1 billion, but still leaves the State with
a $449 million dollar surplus and nearly $1.1 billion in the Rainy Day Fund. Our budget also addresses
the more than $35 million in long-standing deficiencies – bills left by previous administrations – some
unpaid for years.
Included in this budget, for the second straight year, is a record level of funding going toward the
education of our children. We are putting $6.3 billion into K-12 education, which is about $140 million
more than last year. We are fully funding education aid, including the Geographic Cost of Education
Index.
Our commitment to education does not end there. We are also putting forward $314 million
for school construction, and we are allocating resources for important programs like P-Tech. The State’s
investment in K-12 education, including school construction, has grown by $828 million during my
Administration.
With regard to higher education, thanks to our investments, the University System of Maryland
and Morgan State University have agreed to cap their tuition growth at 2 percent for their students.
Further, the Governor is spending about $8 million to fund programs aimed at ensuring college
completion at these institutions. We also appreciate the crucial role community colleges play in our
education and our economy, and because of that, they will see growth in State aid of 6 percent, to $314
million.


Understanding the importance of protecting the natural beauty of our great State, we fully
fund programs from the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund for the first time ever since its creation.
Additionally, we are adding $60 million in funding to land preservation programs over the next two
years.
This budget also includes $3.1 billion in capital spending to improve our transportation infrastructure and spur economic development across the State. In addition to $177 million in formula
Highway User Revenue funds, the budget includes $53.6 million in capital grants to local jurisdictions to
help improve local roads and transportation facilities.
We are also reining in how much we borrow. Simply put, we’ve borrowed too much over the past
decade – way too much. This budget limits borrowing to $994 million, something we must do in order to
keep our debt service payments from ballooning.




While we are proud of what we’ve accomplished and are encouraged by our progress, the fact
remains that in the years to come, the spending mandated by law here in Maryland is projected to grow
faster than our revenues, and our pension funding must continue to be addressed. We must remain
vigilant and manage our budget responsibly. There is still work to be done.
As we stay on this path, our improving fiscal situation will allow us to provide much needed tax
relief to struggling Maryland families, seniors and small businesses.


Together, we are truly changing Maryland for the better.


Sincerely,
Larry Hogan
Governor

____________________________________________
Nowhere in our media's discussion of bond deals does the REAL information of collapsing bond markets surface.  We saw how all the emphasis was placed on TIFs and other problems when all a REAL justice group had to do what shout BOND MARKET COLLAPSE and head to court for public malfeasance.  As this article states---we really will be talking about this decision for 30 years---but not really----if these global corporate campuses and Foreign Economic Zones continue WE THE PEOPLE will not have a voice and will be AFRAID TO DOUBT THE 1% WALL STREET CROWD. 

As I said in talking about the 5% to the 1% religious leaders connected to Wall Street Development Corporations marching out and making all these deals sound socially progressive----THEY KNOW THIS BOND MARKET COLLAPSE IS COMING TOO----and that all of this is about building EXTREME WEALTH AND EXTREME CORPORATE POWER---and maybe it is their tie to IVY LEAGUE Divinity like Columbia and Harvard---that is CLOUDING their vision of what fair development actually is.

IS IT AN OXYMORON TO SAY HARVARD DIVINITY???

  WHEN OUR RELIGIONS SET UP ON CAMPUSES OF WEALTH/WALL STREET/AND POWER we get that 5% to the 1% working towards that aim.  If we think taking our religious leaders to task now is controversial ----then we have not read what life was like in the DARK AGES----with 1% Wall Street authoritarian extreme wealth and extreme corporate power. We do not want a far-right authoritarian and wealth religious ethos.


As we see the talking points given on each side are tied to property taxes ----which will soar BECAUSE OF THIS DEAL as they pretend it will lower them----and on generating funds for our public agencies----when have our revenue funds for our public agencies ACTUALLY GOTTEN TO THOSE AGENCIES?  Both the public schools and the fire fighters listed here are in the pathway to being privatized to global corporations ---so yes, global corporate campuses will be behind all those public services AS IF THAT IS GOOD.

'Proponents see such deals as a creative way to finance infrastructure in a city with high property taxes. Critics contend that they divert money from the city's general fund, where it could be used to pay for needs such as firefighters and schools'.

The bonds will never be repaid---Wall Street using bonds as an ATM is like paying that credit card minimum balance and paying on interest and not principle forever.
Absolutely no mention of collapsing bond markets even when main stream financial people are calling for it. This was how Americans were caught during the subprime mortgage frauds and 2008 economic crash with national media painting all this AS A SURPRISE.


City Council approves $660 million bond deal for Port Covington project

What's next for the Port Covington project. (Baltimore Sun video)


Luke BroadwaterContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun


"I think we're making the right decision," on Port Covington, City Council president says.
The Baltimore City Council gave its final approval Monday to a $660 million public financing package for Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank's massive Port Covington project — a deal supporters say will bring thousands of jobs to Baltimore, but critics say is corporate welfare.
City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young said the waterfront development proposed by Plank's Sagamore Development Co. was too good to pass up.
Young said the $5.5 billion project, which includes an expanded headquarters for Under Armour, shops, restaurants, housing, offices and manufacturing space, will spur economic growth in Baltimore.
"Under Armour is No. 2, next to Nike. We don't want Under Armour to move out of the city of Baltimore," Young said. "We've done what we could do. [Sagamore] is going to take care of the six neighborhoods surrounding Port Covington. I think we're making the right decision."


The council voted 12-1 to approve the subsidy. Councilman Warren Branch voted against the deal; council members Mary Pat Clarke and Bill Henry abstained.

Plank's $5.5 billion Port Covington plan advanced quietly, then loudly
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake plans to sign the bill next week, according to her spokesman.
Rawlings-Blake's approval would allow the start of decades of work on the development.
Sagamore asked the city to float $660 million in bonds to build infrastructure for the project. The developer would pay the bonds back through future taxes. It's the largest tax-increment-financing deal in the city's history, and among the largest in the country.
Proponents see such deals as a creative way to finance infrastructure in a city with high property taxes. Critics contend that they divert money from the city's general fund, where it could be used to pay for needs such as firefighters and schools.

In Port Covington debate, echoes of decades-old fight over Inner Harbor redevelopment
The Port Covington project is projected to create 26,500 permanent jobs and have a $4.3 billion annual economic impact, once complete. The land includes the site of The Baltimore Sun's printing press. The Sun has a long-term lease on the property.
"When we look back years from now, the city will be much better off with this happening than not happening," City Councilman Robert W. Curran said.
Clarke said the project stands to offer significant opportunities for the city but fell short of meeting its potential — especially in guaranteeing good wages for workers.



"A lot of good is involved in Port Covington, so I didn't want to vote against it," she said. "There are crucial elements that would have been so wonderful to include as a model for the future of Baltimore. It is great to contribute money, but it's even better to help people earn fair salaries and wages so they can take care of themselves and their families."
Sagamore President Marc Weller said the tax-increment-financing deal will allow the firm to ramp up construction before the end of the year.
Sagamore is to begin by building a $19.6 million East Waterfront Park that will "provide public access to the waterfront and contribute to the ecological uplift of the Middle Branch," he said.
"We are excited to get started creating tens of thousands of jobs, generating long-term positive economic impact for Baltimore City and building this transformational, inclusive redevelopment, together," Weller said in a statement after the vote.
Sagamore has entered into a profit-sharing agreement with the city. If the Port Covington development reaps a profit greater than 15 percent, the city will get 25 percent of any additional profit.
A profit-sharing agreement with the developer of Harbor Point, by comparison, doesn't kick in unless that development's profit exceeds 20 percent.
Groups have emerged to both support and oppose the tax deal.
Supporters, including Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the Progressive Baptist Convention of Maryland and six neighborhood associations representing communities near Port Covington have argued that a $100 million citywide benefits agreement, already approved by the city's Board of Estimates, makes the deal "unprecedented" for Baltimore.

The $100 million deal builds off a $39 million agreement between the developer and six neighborhoods near the project. It includes $25 million to train workers at a new Port Covington training center and $10 million for no-interest loans or other funding streams for minority- or women-owned startups.


The developers agreed to hire at least 30 percent of all infrastructure construction workers from Baltimore, pay a wage of at least $17.48 an hour, and set aside 20 percent of housing units for poor and middle-class families (40 percent of such housing may be built elsewhere in the city).
Opponents, including Maryland Working Families, several labor unions and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, argue the development does too little to help Baltimore's poor. They say a subsidized development should pay "prevailing wages" — several dollars higher than proposed — on all construction jobs, and living wages thereafter.
Critics contend the affordable housing agreement is too weak. It requires 10 percent of Port Covington's affordable housing units be built for people who make less than $26,000, but it contains what the critics call a "loophole" that allows the developer to pay money into an inclusionary housing fund instead of building the units.
The developers do not have to build the housing for the poor unless they receive federal low-income housing credits.
"The current agreement fails to ensure the creation of a minimally adequate number of units — either on-site or off — that are inclusionary and affordable to households at a range of income levels below the area median," said Monisha Cherayil, an attorney with the Public Justice Center.
Critics also say the development will cause the city to lose millions of dollars in state aid to Baltimore's public schools because it will cause the city to look wealthier on paper, but will not contribute money to the city budget until after the bonds are repaid.
A city-funded analysis found that the development would cost Baltimore schools about $315 million in lost state aid over 40 years under current funding formulas.
Leaders of the General Assembly have promised city officials they will enact a long-term fix to the formula to prevent any loss in state aid for schools. Frank Patinella, co-chair of the Baltimore Education Coalition, said he and other advocates urged state lawmakers to make such a pledge.
The debates over affordable housing and minority and local hiring have set a precedent for future requests, said Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee.
"If any company is looking to come to Baltimore and get some form of government assistance or support in the nature of TIF or [payment in lieu of taxes], I think they're going to know there are some things that are going to be expected," Fry said.

Baltimore Sun reporters Natalie Sherman and Yvonne Wenger contributed to this article.

_____________________________________________


A common way 1% Wall Street players stay in office is posing on votes----they will make a socially progressive vote here while making 1% Wall Street votes most of the time or in the case of this bond deal article just posted they ABSTAIN or in the example here vote PRESENT. This is done because media will always only print which pols voted yes or no----so these abstaining pols are skirting that stat. Please look closely on how pols vote---Clarke and Henry are just as guilty of public malfeasance for avoiding this vote. Take a look at Obama's voting record in Illinois and we would have known he was a Wall Street player.

The media will make very public that progressive posing vote while never mentioning the bad public policy votes made by that pol.


'Why would a lawmaker abstain from voting on a measure'?

The option that a legislator or member of congress has to not vote at all on an amendment , a resolution or a bill confuses me. Why would you not want help make an important policy decision? That is what you were elected to do.
2 Answers
Michael Lee
Michael Lee, Public Policy Analyst


Written 7 Apr · Upvoted by Marc Bodnick, Former Stanford PhD student in Politics


One reason? The lawmaker might have future ambitions that he or she doesn't want to endanger by making tough decisions.


Then-Sen. Hillary Clinton accused our current President of this action when they were competing for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008. Sen. Clinton accused then-Sen. Obama of "taking a pass" on the tough issues, a point of attack that Republicans later picked up.


Factcheck dot org later examined the claim and noted that as a state Senator, Mr. Obama voted "present" 129 times, or about 3 percent of the votes he cast in the state legislature. (See Obama’s Legislative Record). Factcheck, quoting from the Times, explained that this practice is relatively common among Illinois legislators who want to avoid "political fall-out":


The Illinois state Legislature allows members to vote "present" rather than "yes" or "no." TheTimes reported in December that "present" votes provide a way for lawmakers to voice opposition to an issue. Such votes can also help them avoid the political fall-out of voting "no":


The New York Times (Dec. 20, 2007): In Illinois, political experts say voting present is a relatively common way for lawmakers to express disapproval of a measure. It can at times help avoid running the risks of voting no, they add. “If you are worried about your next election, the present vote gives you political cover,” said Kent D. Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “This is an option that does not exist [in] every state and reflects Illinois political culture.”


It's a cynical move, but given the tremendous scrutiny to which politicians are subjected these days, and the ease with which a typical voting record may be distorted by one's opposition, it's not exactly irrational.
__________________________________________
'What are the ingredients of the common law offence of misconduct in a public office?

In particular is it necessary, in proceedings for an offence of misconduct in a public office, for the prosecution to prove ‘bad faith’ and, if so, what does faith mean in this context'?.



To understand why global 1% Wall Street put their 'labor and justice' players out in front of what we all know will be very bad, far-right authoritarian policies----like global military community policing and all policies being passed leading to this---and with our religious and other justice organizations coming out for 30 years to support MASTER PLAN GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS development in Baltimore over and over KNOWING it is bad for our city economy, bad for the poor and labor....we need to look at the definition of PUBLIC MALFEASANCE.
If none of those progressive posing groups came out all those pols and Wall Street would be guilty of fraud and corruption (malfeasance)---these bond deals are a clear case of willful, deliberate, and with malice harm to the citizens of Maryland and Baltimore. HANDS DOWN A COURT WOULD HAVE TO CONVICT ON BOND MARKET FRAUD.
If we go to court for malfeasance with groups like religious leaders and labor pushing to pass these deals----VOILA----the judge says these deals were IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. There is no public interest in these deals---yet Wall Street and its 'labor and justice' organizations create that view.
This does not mean a court cannot rule fraud and corruption---it simply gives them cover not to.

If WE THE PEOPLE do not hold those 'labor and justice' organization responsible for supporting these very, very, very, very, very bad public policies----we cannot reverse this march to ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNMENT


The Difficulties of Defining Misconduct in Public Office

Misconduct in public office is an offence at common law triable only on indictment. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It is an offence confined to those who are public office holders and is committed when the office holder acts (or fails to act) in a way that constitutes a breach of the duties of that office.


A historical background

The crime of misconduct in a public office is said to date back to the case of R v Rembridge (1783) 3 Doug 327. The defendant in this case was an accountant in the office of the Receiver and Paymaster General of the Forces and was accused of corruptly concealing from his superior his knowledge that certain sums of money had been omitted in the final accounts. Lord Mansfield CJ’s judgment defined the crime of misconduct as involving two principles:


…first, that a man accepting an office of trust concerning the public, especially if attended with profit, is answerable criminally to the King for misbehaviour in his office; this is true, by whomever and in whatever way the officer is appointed… Secondly, where there is a breach of trust, fraud or imposition, in a matter concerning the public, though as between individuals it would be actionable, yet as between the King and the subject it is indictable. That such should be the rule is essential to the existence of the country.[1]

Essentially, the crime is where a person, having a public duty entrusted to him, wilfully neglects to carry out that duty…
However, what is difficult to determine is whether ‘misbehaviour in his office’ embraces a wide variety of misconduct for this common law crime which can further complicate its definition. Essentially, the crime is where a person, having a public duty entrusted to him, wilfully neglects to carry out that duty (nonfeasance) or wilfully abuses it for some improper motive (misfeasance). However, due to the elements of the crime being so uncertain, there should also be consideration of alternative crimes that could come under the definition.



The offence today


In Attorney General’s Reference (No. 3 of 2003) [2004] EWCA Crim 868, the misconduct charges alleged that each defendant ‘misconducted himself whilst serving as a police officer, by wilfully failing to take reasonable and proper care of [A], an arrested person in police custody’.[2] The Attorney-General sought the opinion of the court on the following questions:
  • What are the ingredients of the common law offence of misconduct in a public office?
  • In particular is it necessary, in proceedings for an offence of misconduct in a public office, for the prosecution to prove ‘bad faith’ and, if so, what does faith mean in this context?[3]
…it has been made clear that the offence of misconduct in a public office is a crime defined by conduct as opposed to results…The court summarised the required elements and stated that the offence is committed when:
  1. A public officer, acting as such,
  2. Wilfully neglects to perform his duty and/or wilfully misconducts himself,
  3. To such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder,
  4. Without reasonable excuse or justification.[4]
Bearing these elements in mind, it has been made clear that the offence of misconduct in a public office is a crime defined by conduct as opposed to results, which in that case means that any harmful result only informs the necessary degree of seriousness — which is a question for the jury.
The case of Christopher Galley in 2008 was given a great amount of publicity. Mr Galley, a Home Office civil servant in the office of the Home Secretary, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office for allegedly passing confidential and restricted documents to Damien Green. Mr Green was also arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit, and being an accessory to, the alleged offence by Mr Galley. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, announced a year later that he had decided not to prosecute Mr Galley and Mr Green because, whilst there was damage to the Home Office’s arrangements for handling such documents, there needed to be additional damage — such as a threat to national security — and without that damage there was no realistic prospect of conviction.[5]


As highlighted by David Lusty,[6] what is peculiar about Mr Starmer’s decision is the fact that he stated that Mr Galley seriously breached the trust placed in him by the public. In doing so, he had effectively concluded that the third element of the offence was satisfied and that his conduct was sufficiently serious to pass the threshold for criminal conviction. Nonetheless, he then proceeded on the basis that damage was the determinative issue in the case. Is there a way in fact to measure this high threshold before criminal proceedings can properly be brought for misconduct in public office?


Despite the court in Attorney-General’s Reference (No. 3 of 2003) delivering a modern twist on the definition of the misconduct offence, there has been continued difficulty in deciding whether cases should be prosecuted based on this definition. The issues are that it provides inadequate certainty for public officials to judge their future conduct, as well as the legal intricacies involved for lay juries in these type of trials.
This was seen in the case of R v W [2010] EWCA Crim 372,[7] where the Court of Appeal exacerbated the difficulty of the common law misconduct offence by adding the following actions to the definition:
  1. Frauds and deceits (fraud in office)
  2. Wilful excesses of official authority (malfeasance)
  3. The intentional infliction of bodily harm, imprisonment or other injury upon a person (oppression).[8]
Subsequently, these facts have shown how the misconduct offence has gone beyond its original rationale of punishing serious nonfeasance or misfeasance.
Proposals for a statutory offenceIt has been commented that misconduct in a public office is one of those common law offences that cries out for an authoritative restatement, preferably after a thorough examination by the Law Commission.[9] The Law Commission has in fact undertaken this project and is due to produce a final report in summer 2016:

It will involve the simplification, clarification and codification of a common law offence. It will also ensure that the law takes into account practices whereby traditionally public functions are discharged by private individuals and volunteers to ensure that the scope of the offence is neither over- nor under-inclusive.[10]
Having recommended for there to be a newly developed statutory offence in 1997, the Committee on Standards in Public Life considered the in depth analyses and stated the following:


…the unifying factor of the common law cases appears to be the existence of some improper, dishonest or oppressive motive in the exercise or refusal to exercise some public function, rather than a mere abuse of power. There are few prosecutions, suggesting that action is taken only when misconduct is particularly gross. The advantage of creating a statutory offence of misuse of public office would be that some clearer indication could be given in the statute of the circumstances in which an offence might occur. The limits should not have to be drawn by the jury unguided.[11]

It has been commented that misconduct in a public office is one of those common law offences that cries out for an authoritative restatement.
On the one hand, it has been argued that there is a necessary duty to produce a comprehensive definition of the misconduct offence in public office. On the other hand, however, there are those sceptics who feel that the common law will fundamentally ensure the availability of the offence, whereas a statutory definition may well be drafted so as to be more favourable to the executive.



Conclusion

The misconduct offence is regarded as an extremely severe offence — it is triable only on indictment and it is punished with a maximum of life imprisonment. Having recognised this crucial matter, the Crown Prosecution Service has made it clear that the misconduct offence should only be used for serious examples of misconduct, where there is no appropriate statutory offence that would adequately describe the nature of the misconduct or give the court sufficient sentencing powers. Finally, it has been argued that the misconduct offence has no place in the modern criminal law since it has a tendency to spread in all directions and, unless it is kept carefully in check, it will take over any and every case.[12] However, can it be argued that it is better left to the common law to decide on such matters?



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September 26th, 2016

9/26/2016

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We will spend a few days looking at current events and tie public policy goals to those media headlines.  A perfect transition from  the goal of moving the US to a far-right authoritarian, militaristic corporate state like Singapore and International Economic Zones around the world is the article below.  People think some of what I say is conspiracy theory but it becomes easy to follow when we look at the BIG GLOBAL PICTURE.  As I said Baltimore is ground zero for much of this SINGAPORE SLING----because we are captured by Wall Street Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins which are the movers and shakers of these ONE WORLD global corporate rule policies.

All International Economic Zones have global military security forces and policing and I have shouted that is to where US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones are going----1% Wall Street is privatizing our community police forces these few decades of BUSH/OBAMA and this is behind the spike in open police abuses in our US cities beyond the stop and frisk unconstitutional policing in earlier decades.  We know some US cities like Baltimore have contracted out police training to global militarized security forces and this is why Baltimore is central in increased police abuses.  I identified the source of BLACK LIVES MATTER as the United Nations/Wall Street global neo-liberal organizations with US media using the national movement to put its own leaders at the front.  This was done in the 1960s and 70s during the civil and labor rights movement as well.  Al Sharpton was always that Wall Street player placed in the media to be the voice of all local populist movements.  Sharpton has through CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA been that ACCUMULATING EXTREME WEALTH AND CORPORATE POWER PLAYER ---not a civil rights leader.  We see the same with our labor and women's leaders at the national level as well.

The American people knew the level of police violence was not the norm for the US and as we see it created a crisis -----a manufactured crisis----where now 1% Wall Street is using these abuses as an excuse for a NATIONAL POLICE FORCE.  This will become that global militarized security in our communities and will move community police training of our police to privatized global security forces.  Here we have more power being given our National Executive branch -----US military troops and now our local community policing.  This is the structure third world nations use -----and it is the very picture of authoritarian power.


'​A leaked document has exposed a billionaire's plan to fuel police protests in order to spark a national movement. The movement, the man hopes, will abolish local police and put in place U.S. federal police force that would answer directly to the president. The fact that the man has significant influence over a current U.S. presidential candidate reveals there may be a major plot cooking'.

Here is far-right billionaire SOROS----who spent decades over in Eastern Europe creating these same authoritarian societal structures.

​


Billionaire Soros In Hot Water After Leaked Emails Show What He Hopes BLM Riots Will Accomplish

By Mackenzie Wright on 2016-09-21

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A leaked document has exposed a billionaire's plan to fuel police protests in order to spark a national movement. The movement, the man hopes, will abolish local police and put in place U.S. federal police force that would answer directly to the president. The fact that the man has significant influence over a current U.S. presidential candidate reveals there may be a major plot cooking.
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business entrepreneur and political activist. The multi-billionaire has long had a hand in manipulating politics and world events. He's known as the man who 'broke the Bank of England' after he manipulated finances to force England to pull out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.


A memo that was leaked by Soros last month shows that Soros hopes to 'take advantage of the crisis' that has strained relationships between police and people of color as a way to 'create a national movement.' He's funded a number of progressive organizations, including BLM, in hopes that fueling the fires will help further his agenda. "The police killings of African-American men in Ferguson, Staten Island, most recently in North Charleston, Baltimore, and many other American cities, highlight that reform of policing policy and practice must be integral to our criminal justice agenda," reads the memo, according to 'Breitbart News.'


Soros's ties to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton go way back and make his efforts to manipulate politics according to his own agenda questionable. He's donated some $8 million to Clinton's presidential campaign, as well as millions to other Clinton-backing super PACs. He's donated $25 million in total to Democratic candidates.


In a series of leaked Clinton emails from when she was Secretary of State, Soros apparently sent her orders on how to conduct U.S. foreign policy. An email forwarded to Clinton from Soros outlined what look like step-by-step instructions for Clinton to take after a situation in Albania. Days after the email was sent, Clinton took the exact actions Soros had listed.
Soros ultimately would like to see all country borders dissolved and a one-world nation run by the UN. The United States is not the only country in which he has a heavy hand manipulating key political players and causes. Some speculate that Clinton, if elected, would be just another puppet with strings for Soros to pull.

____________________________________________


Here is a right-leaning news source saying the same-----these are not Republican/Democratic stances -----it attacks our sovereignty and cripples our rights to a public policing/military. CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA will outsource these functions to a global corporation and say this is simply our Federal government acting. OUR GOVERNMENT AT NATIONAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEVELS HAVE BEEN OUTSOURCED TO GLOBAL CORPORATIONS. Baltimore City has outsourced every city agency and we know these policies and actions do not come from an elected official working for WE THE PEOPLE.

Democratic voters must stop allowing CLINTON WALL STREET PLAYERS be sold as left-leaning. If one follows International news we see SOROS creating these same conditions across Eastern Europe where authoritarian, criminal leaderships are also always installed.

Sharpton's Call for National Police Force Ill-Advised

By John Fund
Monday, 13 Apr 2015 08:21 AM by John Fund



Al Sharpton gave a sermon at a South Carolina church service on Sunday that mourned the death of Walter Scott, who was killed by a North Charleston police officer last week. A video shot by a bystander showed Scott being shot in the back while fleeing. The police officer involved is in jail while the killing is investigated.

Sharpton was uncharacteristically subdued in his sermon, in part because the family of Walter Scott asked him not into inject himself into the tragedy. “We don’t want another Ferguson type of circus here,” a source close to the Scott family told the New York Daily News.

Ferguson was the scene of protests and violent demonstrations for weeks after teenager Michael Brown was shot by a white cop in an incident in which the Obama Justice Department ultimately concluded there was no civil rights violation. Sharpton was a major polarizing speaker at Brown’s funeral, which was attended by a crowd of thousands.

Scott family attorney Chris Stewart told the Daily News “the funeral is only to close family members.”

Sharpton may have shown restraint in the Scott case while in South Carolina, but back in New York City last week he used the platform of his annual National Action Network convention to take his demands to a new level.

“There must be national policy and national law on policing,” Sharpton thundered at the event’s kickoff. “We can’t go from state to state, we’ve got to have national law to protect people against these continued questions.”


After his audience gave him thunderous applause, he continued: “We cannot have a justice system that hopes we have a mayor in the right city or a police chief. We have to have one policy that is national.”

Despite local incidents that are often are disturbing or outrageous, the last thing the country needs is a national police policy. Over 100 federal agencies already have the equivalent of their own SWAT teams, and the history of such teams is rife with abuse.

Adding to that record is the horrific “Fast and Furous” scandal in which the Obama Justice Department allowed illegal guns to be infiltrated into Mexican drug gangs, resulting in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and hundreds of Mexican civilians.

Nor was that the first time that a national police policy overrode the sensible conclusions of local law enforcement officials. Jack Cashill, a writer with the American Thinker, recalls how the FBI ignored the advice of local Texas officials and tried to end a siege that began with a botched and suspect raid by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) launched a tank attack on a Branch Davidian religious compound in Waco in 1993.

“The assault did not work quite as planned. The wood frame buildings caught fire, and seventy-four Davidians died, twenty of them children,” Cashill recalls. Thirty-nine of those who died were racial minorities. “I do not know how much Sharpton knows about Waco, but he can be confident his followers know nothing at all. If they knew the truth, they might not have applauded his call for nationalization of the police.”

Al Sharpton has had a checkered career when it comes to law enforcement, ranging from his involvement in the Tawana Brawley rape hoax to his fiery speeches that preceded the fatal arson attack on a fashion store in Harlem in the 1990s.

When it comes to recommendations on police policy, common decency would suggest he restrain himself. But that has never been Al Sharpton’s style.


__________________________________

The American people must WAKE UP to the degree our US military is being dismantled, privatized, and restructured.  A colonial America was not allowed to have a NAVY or standing army and we have watched these few decades as Bush/Obama have privatized our US military into a global mercenary force complete with branches covering global security policing.  This is what Al Sharpton is trying to sell to black citizens once again filling America with DIS-INFORMATION FOR WALL STREET.


Why Afghanistan Might Be the Marines’ Last Fight


Is It Time to Abolish the U.S. Air Force?

A political scientist says yes.


Read more: http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/air-force-robert-farley-interview-180956612/#V6kGx8zblgP8WdAK.99

We have watched these few decades as our NAVAL vessels have been de-commissioned with no replacements.


We know the restructuring these few decades is expanding  a NATO alliance to that geared towards protecting INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ZONES with nations allowing these zones tied to this global policing structure. 

THIS IS WHAT SOROS, AL SHARPTON, AND WALL STREET CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH NEO-CONS ARE SELLING WHEN THEY PUSH THIS NATIONAL COMMUNITY POLICING POLICY.



A COOPERATIVE STRATEGY FOR 21ST CENTURY SEAPOWER,
MARCH 2015

America’s Sea Services—the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—uniquely provide presence around the globe. During peacetime and times of conflict, across the full spectrum—from supporting an ally with humanitarian assistance or disaster relief to deterring or defeating an adversary in kinetic action—Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen are deployed at sea and in far-flung posts to be
wherever we are needed, when we are needed. Coming from the sea, we get there sooner, stay there longer, bring everything we need with us, and we don’t have to ask anyone’s permission.  Our founders recognized the United States as a maritime nation and the importance of maritime forces, including in our Constitution the requirement that Congress “maintain a Navy.”
In today’s dynamic security
environment, with multiple challenges from state and non-state actors that are often fed by social disorder, political upheaval, and technological advancements, that requirement is even more prescient. The United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are our Nation’s first line of defense, often far from our shores. As such, maintaining America’s leadership role in the world requires our Nation’s Sea Services to return to our maritime strategy on occasion and reassess
our approach to shifting relationships and global responsibilities. This necessary review has affirmed our focus on providing presence around the world in order to ensure stability, build on our relationships with allies and partners, prevent wars, and provide our Nation’s leaders with options
in times of crisis. It has confirmed our continued commitment to maintain the combat power necessary to deter potential adversaries and to fight and win when required.

Our responsibility to the American people dictates an efficient use of our fiscal resources and an approach that adapts to the evolving security environment. The adjustments made in this document do just that. Looking at how we support our people, build the right platforms, power them to achieve efficient global capability, and develop critical partnerships will be central to its successful execution and to providing that unique
capability: presence.


Seapower has been and will continue to be the critical foundation of national power and prosperity and international prestige for the United States of America. Our Sea Services will integrate with the rest of our national efforts, and those of our friends and allies. This revision to A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower builds on the heritageand complementary capabilities of the Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard team to advance the prosperity and guarantee the security of our Nation.

The demands of a changing world and the defense of the American people and our interests require nothing less

_____________________________________
Baltimore and Philadelphia outsourced their police training several years ago to global military policing corporations and below we see community colleges tied to what are global police and fire corporations in their training.  We are told these connections are simply outsourced training but we know these police and fire departments are being privatized.  I wrote a few years ago that was what all policies coming from the Maryland Assembly introduced by BALTIMORE POLS had as a goal.  Baltimore City Hall pols as well moved all these gradual single policies through marching towards a global security force in Baltimore as a US city deemed Foreign Economic Zone.

Each time Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations would bring citizens out to shout for what was sold as a protection from overreaching police.  It was never about that---it was always about deregulating how and who polices.  I testified against our Baltimore pols trying to give arresting power to parking ticket employees---then we had the police cameras sold as protecting citizens when it is all part of what the global militarized police force needs in controlling WE THE PEOPLE.

All of this is wrapped under HOMELAND SECURITY and it has moved every kind of militarized equipment and security into our US cities.  All one has to do is read how overseas International Economic Zones have be secured to see the same structures overseas being moved into our cities.  If authoritarian dictators have populations of citizens SCARED TO DO ANYTHING----this is why.


'Cubic equipped the training facility with its Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System – Individual Weapons System (MILES - IWS) and its Miles After Action Review System (MAARS).
MILES has been a staple of military training for many years, but this is the first facility for police and first-responder training using MILES gear'.




More security firms getting police powers / Some see benefits to public safety, but others are wary


Amy Goldstein, Washington Post
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, January 7, 2007




2007-01-07 04:00:00 PDT Raleigh, N.C. -- Kevin Watt crouched down to search the rusted Cadillac he had stopped for cruising the parking lot of a Raleigh apartment complex with a broken light. He pulled out two open Bud Light cans, an empty Corona bottle, rolling papers, a knife, a hammer, a stereo speaker, and a car radio sprouting with wires.

"Who's this belong to, man?" Watt asked the six young Latinos he had frisked and lined up behind the car. Five were too young to drink. None had a driver's license. One had under his hooded sweat shirt the tattoo of a Hispanic gang across his back.

A gang initiation, Watt thought.
With the sleeve patch on his black shirt, the 9mm gun on his hip and the blue light on his patrol car, he looked like an ordinary police officer as he stopped the car on a Friday night in December. Watt works, though, for a business called Capitol Special Police. It is one of dozens of private security companies given police powers by the state of North Carolina -- and part of a pattern across the United States in which public safety is shifting into private hands.


Private firms with outright police powers have been proliferating in some places -- and trying to expand their terrain. The "company police agencies," as businesses such as Capitol Special Police are called here, are lobbying the state Legislature to broaden their jurisdiction, currently limited to the private property of those who hire them, to adjacent streets. Elsewhere -- including wealthy gated communities in South Florida and the Tri-Rail commuter trains between Miami and West Palm Beach -- private security patrols without police authority carry weapons, sometimes dress like SWAT teams and make citizen arrests.


Private security guards have outnumbered police officers since the 1980s, predating the heightened concern about security brought on by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. What is new is that police forces, including the Durham Police Department here in North Carolina's Research Triangle, are increasingly turning to private companies for help. Moreover, private-sector security is expanding into spheres -- complex criminal investigations and patrols of downtown districts and residential neighborhoods -- that used to be the sole province of law enforcement agencies.
The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. The enormous Wackenhut Corp. guards the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and screens visitors to the Statue of Liberty.


"You can see the public police becoming like the public health system," said Thomas Seamon, a former deputy police commissioner for Philadelphia who is president of Hallcrest Systems, a leading security consultant.

"It's basically, the government provides a certain base level. If you want more than that, you pay for it yourself."


The trend is triggering debate over whether the privatization of public safety is wise. Some police and many security officials say communities benefit from the extra eyes and ears. Yet civil libertarians, academics, tenant rights organizations and even a trade group that represents the nation's large security firms say some private security officers are not adequately trained or regulated. Ten states in the South and West do not regulate them at all.


Some warn, too, that the constitutional safeguards that cover police questioning and searches do not apply in the private sector. In Boston, tenant groups have complained that "special police," hired by property managers to keep low-income apartment complexes orderly, were overstepping their bounds, arresting young men who lived there for trespassing.
In 2005, three of the private officers were charged with assault after they approached a man talking on a cell phone outside his front door. They asked for identification and, when he refused, followed him inside and beat him in front of his wife and three children.
Lisa Thurau-Gray, director of the Juvenile Justice Center at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, said private police "are focusing on the priority of their employer, rather than the priority of public safety and individual rights." But Boston police Sgt. Raymond Mosher, who oversees licensing of special police, says such instances are rare.


Private police officers "do some tremendously good things," Mosher said, recalling one who chased down a teenager running with a loaded gun.
In Durham, after shootings on city buses, the transit authority hired Wackenhut police to work in the main terminal in tandem with city police officers stationed on buses.
"There is a limit to the amount of law enforcement you can expect taxpayers to support," said Ron Hodge, Durham's deputy police chief, who said some of his requests for additional officers have been turned down in recent years. Although, as in most cities, some Durham police work privately while they are off-duty, Hodge said the demand for off-duty police outstrips the supply.

In one of the country's most ambitious collaborations, the Minneapolis Police Department three years ago started a project called "SafeZone" with private security officers downtown, estimated to outnumber the police there 13 to 1. Target and other local companies paid for a wireless video camera system in downtown office buildings that is shared with the police. The police department created a shared radio frequency. So far, the department has trained 600 security officers on elements of an arrest, how to write incident reports and how to testify in court.


When a bank was robbed in the fall, a police dispatcher broadcast the suspect's description over the radio. Within five minutes, a security officer spotted the man, bag of cash in hand, and helped arrest him.
In Virginia, the Wintergreen Resort has a private police department with 11 sworn officers. They include an investigator who last year helped solve a string of break-ins along the Appalachian Trail, identifying the burglar with images from the department's video camera when he drove out of the resort with a stolen car.
The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services is also trying to foster closer ties between security companies without police powers and the police and sheriff's departments. The agency has begun training and certifying "Private Crime Prevention Practitioners" and soon plans to send security companies e-mails with unclassified Homeland Security threats and crime alerts.
Some of the most sophisticated private security operations have expanded in part because of shrinking local and federal resources. The nation's largest bank, Bank of America, hired Chris Swecker as its corporate security executive last year when he retired as assistant director of the FBI. Even as identity theft and other fraud schemes have been booming, Swecker said, fewer federal investigators are devoted to solving such crimes, and many U.S. attorney's offices will not prosecute them unless their value reaches $100,000.


As a result, he said, federal officials now ask the bank's own investigators to do the work, including a three-year probe that helped police and the FBI piece together an identity-theft ring that defrauded 800 bank customers of $11 million.
In North Carolina, the state Department of Justice requires company police to go through the same basic training as public officers. They have full police powers on the property they are hired to protect.


Capitol Special Police's owner, Roy Taylor, had been chief of three small nearby police departments and held state law enforcement jobs before starting the company in 2002. As Hispanic gangs were increasing, he said, "I saw a niche." The company has eight officers, some of whom are part time while working for area police departments.
They have used batons and pepper spray but have not fired a service weapon, Taylor said
Today, charging $35 per hour, the firm has contracts with four apartment complexes, a bowling alley, two shopping centers and a pair of private nightclubs. A few weeks ago, two of the Taylors' employees, Capt. Kenny Mangum and Officer Matt Saylors, walked over to a car at the nightclub Black Tie to warn the men inside not to loiter in the parking lot. Catching a whiff of marijuana, they found seven rocks of crack cocaine in the ashtray and two handguns under the seat of the driver, who was a convicted felon. They called the Raleigh police to handle the arrest.
Because they are part of a private company, Taylor and his officers are mindful that customers are billed for the time they spend testifying in court.
"I try to make arrests only when absolutely necessary," said Watt, the officer who stopped the six men with the open beer cans. The company's marked patrol cars, he said, do not have radios to call for backup help or computers to check immediately for outstanding warrants or criminal records.
After satisfying himself that the six young men, lined up nervously and shivering in the cold night air, had no drugs, Watt let them go.


________________________________________

Baltimore installed these policies as well and it is this widespread stop and search of cars that created many abusive police encounters with citizens stating just as this article states-----searches often lead to seizures that are deemed improper. As this article shows---these are private police training firms---we know they have global policing connections.



'The effort succeeded, but it had an impact that has been largely hidden from public view: the spread of an aggressive brand of policing that has spurred the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from motorists and others not charged with crimes, a Washington Post investigation found. Thousands of people have been forced to fight legal battles that can last more than a year to get their money back'.

It appears that roughing up the drivers in some cases is a pretense to creating conditions of 'passive assault' to justify these car searches. Officers are doing this because that is the global corporate police training ----and it has nothing to do with American community policing where our officers are employed to serve and protect.


'Only a sixth of the seizures were legally challenged, in part because of the costs of legal action against the government. But in 41 percent of cases -- 4,455 -- where there was a challenge, the government agreed to return money'.

Citizens living in US cities that have not installed these kinds of policing policies as Baltimore has may not understand how these policies create bad situations for citizens who are guilty in most cases of nothing.



Crime
posted: 9/7/2014 2:01 AM

Police seizures of cash rise, fueled by private training firms
  •   Drivers enter the town of Waldo, Fla., where motorists can encounter many different speed limits in a roughly two-mile drive. The AAA auto club named the tiny town between Jacksonville and Gainesville one of only two "traffic traps" nationwide. The other town is nearby Lawtey. Now Waldo is facing a scandal over its traffic tickets.
    Associated Press/Aug. 29
By Michael Sallah, Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Steven Rich
The Washington Post


After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the government called on
Local officers, county deputies and state troopers were encouraged to act more aggressively in searching for suspicious people, drugs and other contraband. The departments of Homeland Security and Justice spent millions on police training.


The effort succeeded, but it had an impact that has been largely hidden from public view: the spread of an aggressive brand of policing that has spurred the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from motorists and others not charged with crimes, a Washington Post investigation found. Thousands of people have been forced to fight legal battles that can last more than a year to get their money back.


Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of "highway interdiction" to departments across the country.

One of those firms created a private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System that enabled police nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists -- criminals and the innocent alike -- including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.
Many of the reports have been funneled to federal agencies and fusion centers as part of the government's burgeoning law enforcement intelligence systems -- despite warnings from state and federal authorities that the information could violate privacy and constitutional protections.


A thriving subculture of road officers on the network now competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband, describing their exploits in the network's chat rooms and sharing "trophy shots" of money and drugs. Some police advocate highway interdiction as a way of raising revenue for cash-strapped municipalities.


"All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine," Deputy Ron Hain of Kane County, Illinois wrote in a self-published book under a pseudonym. Hain is a marketing specialist for Desert Snow, a leading interdiction training firm based in Guthrie, Oklahoma whose founders also created Black Asphalt.
Hain's book calls for "turning our police forces into present-day Robin Hoods."


Cash seizures can be made under state or federal civil law. One of the primary ways police departments are able to seize money and share in the proceeds at the federal level is through a long-standing Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program known as Equitable Sharing. Asset forfeiture is a powerful law enforcement tool that allows the government to take cash and property without pressing criminal charges and then requires the owner to prove their possessions were legally acquired.


The practice has been controversial since its inception at the height of the drug war more than three decades ago, and its abuses have been the subject of journalistic exposes and congressional hearings. But unexplored until now is the role of the federal government and the private police trainers in encouraging officers to target cash on the nation's highways since 9/11.


"Those laws were meant to take a guy out for selling $1 million in cocaine or who was trying to launder large amounts of money," said Mark Overton, the police chief in Bal Harbour, Florida who once oversaw a federal drug task force in South Florida. "It was never meant for a street cop to take a few thousand dollars from a driver by the side of the road."


To examine the scope of asset forfeiture since the terror attacks, The Washington Post analyzed a database of hundreds of thousands of seizure records at the Justice Department, reviewed hundreds of federal court cases, obtained internal records from training firms and interviewed scores of police, prosecutors and motorists.


The Post found:


• There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
• Only a sixth of the seizures were legally challenged, in part because of the costs of legal action against the government. But in 41 percent of cases -- 4,455 -- where there was a challenge, the government agreed to return money. The appeals process took more than a year in 40 percent of those cases and often required owners of the cash to sign agreements not to sue police over the seizures.


• Hundreds of state and local departments and drug task forces appear to rely on seized cash, despite a federal ban on the money to pay salaries or otherwise support budgets. The Washington Post found that 298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008.


• Agencies with police known to be participating in the Black Asphalt intelligence network have seen a 32 percent jump in seizures beginning in 2005, three times the rate of other police departments. Desert Snow-trained officers reported more than $427 million in cash seizures during highway stops in just one five-year period, according to company officials. More than 25,000 police have belonged to Black Asphalt, company officials said.


• State law enforcement officials in Iowa and Kansas prohibited the use of the Black Asphalt network because of concerns that it might not be a legal law enforcement tool. A federal prosecutor in Nebraska warned that Black Asphalt reports could violate laws governing civil liberties, the handling of sensitive law enforcement information and the disclosure of pretrial information to defendants. But officials at Justice and Homeland Security continued to use it.


Justice spokesman Peter Carr said the department had no comment on The Washington Post's overall findings. But he said the department has a compliance review process in place for the Equitable Sharing Program and attorneys for federal agencies must review the seizures before they are "adopted" for inclusion in the program.


"Adoptions of state and local seizures -- when a state and local law enforcement agency requests a federal seizing agency to adopt a state and local seizure for federal forfeiture -- represent an average of only 3 percent of the total forfeiture amount since 2007," Carr said.
The Justice Department data released to The Washington Post does not contain information about race. Carr said the department prohibits racial profiling. In 400 federal court cases examined by The Washington Post where people challenged seizures and received some money back, the majority were black, Hispanic or another minority.


For many innocents caught in the seizure net, the biggest misstep was carrying more cash than police thought was normal for law-abiding citizens.


A 55-year-old Chinese American restaurateur from Georgia was pulled over for minor speeding on Interstate 10 in Alabama and detained for nearly two hours. He was carrying $75,000 raised from relatives to buy a Chinese restaurant in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He got back his money 10 months later but only after spending thousands of dollars on a lawyer and losing out on the restaurant deal.

A 40-year-old Hispanic carpenter from New Jersey was stopped on Interstate 95 in Virginia for having tinted windows. Police said he appeared nervous and consented to a search. They took $18,000 that he said was meant to buy a used car. He had to hire a lawyer to get back his money.


Mandrel Stuart, a 35-year-old African American owner of a small barbecue restaurant in Staunton, Virginia, was stunned when police took $17,550 from him during a stop in 2012 for a minor traffic infraction on Interstate 66 in Fairfax. He rejected a settlement with the government for half of his money and demanded a jury trial. He eventually got his money back but lost his business because he didn't have the cash to pay his overhead.
"I paid taxes on that money. I worked for that money," Stuart said. "Why should I give them my money?"


- - -
Steven Peterson, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who arranged highway interdiction training through a company called the 4:20 Group, said that patrol officers used to try to make their names with large drug busts. He said he saw that change when agency leaders realized that cash seizures could help their departments during lean times.


"They saw this as a way to provide equipment and training for their guys," Peterson said. "If you seized large amounts of cash, that's the gift that keeps on giving."


There is no question that state and federal forfeiture programs have crippled powerful drug-trafficking organizations, thwarted an assortment of criminals and brought millions to financially stressed police departments.
Advocates of highway interdiction say it plays a important role in protecting the public and that officers take care to respect the rights of citizens.
"We don't go hunting for money in general," said Officer Mike DeWald, a member of the police department in Sandy Springs, Georgia who has served as a trainer for 4:20. "I never have been pressured to go after money. We are in pursuit of the criminal element."
Police trainers said that their work has helped make the country safer by teaching police to be more vigilant in identifying drug smugglers and terrorists.
"9/11 caused a lot of officers to realize they should be out there looking for those kind of people," said David Frye, a part-time Nebraska county deputy sheriff who serves as chief instructor at Desert Snow and was operations director of Black Asphalt. "When money is taken from an organization, it hurts them more than when they lose the drugs."


Frye and Desert Snow's founder, a former California highway patrolman named Joe David, defended Black Asphalt, which David started in 2004. They said they have taken steps in recent years to ensure that the informal police network complies with state and federal laws. David declined to speak to The Washington Post.
"The Black Asphalt is not flawless, however the intent behind it is," David and Frye wrote in a letter in 2012 sent to police and obtained by The Washington Post. "The information being moved through the system has proven itself reliable on hundreds of occasions. Much more reliable than any criminal informant. The results have been staggering. It has proven itself an extremely valuable tool for law enforcement."


Hain, Desert Snow's marketing official, said "the operational and software platforms of the Desert Snow site and Black Asphalt site are completely separate." He said Black Asphalt is "a secure system for intelligence sharing" and does not store information.
"No personal identifying information from seizure reports have ever been collected or stored by the Black Asphalt," Hain said. "The Black Asphalt software is simply a pass-through system that allows the user to input data, which is then sent directly, via email, to a select group of law enforcement (i.e. local investigators, ICE Bulk Cash Smuggling Center, DEA agents, etc.). Again, none of the personal information is held within the system, only the summary of the seizure. And then the seizure narratives are only maintained for 21 days before they get purged."
The Washington Post obtained hundreds of Black Asphalt records from law enforcement sources with access to the system.

Among Black Asphalt's features is a section called BOLO, or "be on the lookout," where police who join the network can post tips and hunches. In April, Aurora, Colorado Police Officer James Waselkow pulled over a white Ford pickup for tinted windows. Waselkow said he thought the driver, a Mexican national, was suspicious in part because he wore a University of Wyoming cap.
"He had no idea where he was going, what hotel he was staying in or who with," Waselkow wrote. The officer searched the vehicle with the driver's consent but found no contraband. But he was still suspicious, so he posted the driver's license plate on Black Asphalt. "Released so someone else can locate the contraband," he wrote. "Happy hunting!"
Waselkow's department did not respond to a request for an interview.


The Washington Post's review of 400 court cases, which encompassed seizures in 17 states, provided insights into stops and seizures.
In case after case, highway interdictors appeared to follow a similar script. Police set up what amounted to rolling checkpoints on busy highways and pulled over motorists for minor violations, such as following too closely or improper signaling. They quickly issued warnings or tickets. They studied drivers for signs of nervousness, including pulsing carotid arteries, clenched jaws and perspiration. They also looked for supposed "indicators" of criminal activity, which can include such things as trash on the floor of a vehicle, abundant energy drinks or air-fresheners hanging from rearview mirrors.
One recent stop shows how the process can work in the field.

In December 2012, Frye was working in his capacity as a part-time deputy in Seward County, Nebraska. He pulled over John Anderson of San Clemente, California, who was driving a BMW on Interstate 80 near Lincoln. Frye issued a warning ticket within 13 minutes for failing to signal promptly when changing lanes.
He told Anderson he was finished with the stop. But Frye later noted in court papers that he found several indicators of possible suspicious activity: an air freshener, a radar detector and inconsistencies in the driver's description of his travels.


The officer then asked whether the driver had any cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin or large amounts of cash and sought permission to search the BMW, according to a video of the stop. Anderson denied having drugs or large amounts of cash in his car. He declined to give permission for a search. Frye then radioed for a drug-sniffing dog, and the driver had to wait another 36 minutes for the dog to arrive.
"I'm just going to, basically, have you wait here," Frye told Anderson.
The dog arrived and the handler said it indicated the presence of drugs. But when they searched the car, none was found. They did find money: $25,180.

Frye handcuffed Anderson and told him he was placing him under arrest.
"In Nebraska, drug currency is illegal," Frye said. "Let me tell you something, I've seized millions out here. When I say that, I mean millions. . . . This is what I do."

Frye suggested to Anderson that he might not have been aware of the money in his vehicle and began pressing him to sign a waiver relinquishing the cash, mentioning it at least five times over the next hour, the video shows.

"You're going to be given an opportunity to disclaim the currency," Frye told Anderson. "To sign a form that says, 'That is not my money. I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it. I don't want to come back to court.' "

Frye said that unless the driver agreed to give up the money, a prosecutor would "want to charge" him with a crime, "so that means you'll go to jail."



An hour and six minutes into the stop, Frye read Anderson his Miranda rights.
Anderson, who told Frye he worked as a self-employed debt counselor, said the money was not illicit and he was carrying it to pay off a gambling debt. He would later say it was from investors and meant to buy silver bullion and coins. More than two hours after the stop had begun, he finally agreed to give up the cash and Frye let him go. Now Anderson has gone to court to get the money back, saying he signed the waiver and mentioned the gambling debt only because he felt intimidated by Frye.
A magistrate has ruled at a preliminary step in the case that Frye had reasonable suspicion to detain Anderson. Frye said he always follows the law and has never had a seizure overturned.
Legal scholars who viewed the video of the stop told The Washington Post that such practices push constitutional limits. Officers often are taught not to tell the driver they have a right to leave at any time after a traffic stop is concluded. But extended stops in which the officer uses psychological pressure on the driver without charges or Miranda warnings can cross the line.
"Encouraging police to initiate searches for the purpose of seizing cash or other assets, rather than to seize evidence to be used in a prosecution, is a dangerous development," said Clifford Fishman, a law professor at Catholic University and former New York City prosecutor. "It is particularly troubling if police officers are trained to manipulate the suspect into forfeiting the assets or waiving the right to contest the search."


David Harris, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, said Frye's stop crossed the line when he detained the driver while summoning a canine.
"You cannot elongate the stop to bring in the dogs," he said. "In doing that, you're detaining the person without probable cause. That ain't kosher."

- - -
Civil asset forfeiture law is among the more unusual areas of American jurisprudence. It does not involve evidence of a crime or criminal charges. It is a civil action against an object, such as currency or a boat, rather than a person. It has its basis in British admiralty law, which allowed the taking of a ship to recover damages.

In 1970, Congress turned the federal civil asset forfeiture law into a weapon against the illegal drug trade, allowing for the seizure of aircraft, boats and vehicles used to transport drugs. The federal law was eventually expanded to include cash tied to drug trafficking and to allow the money to be shared with local and state police, who could keep up to 80 percent of the seized assets.
It was a much more effective tool for federal prosecutors than criminal forfeiture, which required the conviction of a defendant with proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Most significantly, the law places the burden of proof on the property owner to demonstrate that an object is not tied to criminal activity.

As the drug trade ramped up throughout the 1980s, Justice's federal forfeitures increased from $27 million in 1985 to $556 million in 1993. (They reached $2.6 billion in 2007.) Some of that increase was driven by Operation Pipeline, a nationwide DEA program launched in 1986 that promoted highway interdiction training for state and local police.
Several newspapers later wrote exposes about innocent people being caught up in the forfeiture net and police spending on luxuries. The Orlando Sentinel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for pointing out that the Volusia County Sheriff's Office had used state seizure laws to take $8 million from motorists, nine out of 10 of them minorities.


The attention prompted Congress to reform federal seizure laws in 2000, allowing owners to be reimbursed for their legal fees after successful lawsuits. But a key reform was cut. It would have removed what some lawmakers called the "perverse incentive" to target cash -- the sharing of money between the feds and locals. It died after police and Justice waged a "voracious lobbying" campaign, according to former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
"We didn't have the votes," said Frank, who is still an ardent critic of asset forfeiture. "There is this terrible unfairness. It is about as fundamental a denial of their constitutional rights as I can think of."


After Sept. 11, 2001, civil forfeiture and the war on drugs became entwined with efforts to improve homeland security. Smugglers of all kinds turned away from airports because of the tightened security and took to the nation's interstate highway system. With federal encouragement, police from small towns, rural counties and big cities sought specialized training.


Among those that met the demand was Desert Snow, a family-owned company founded in 1989 by Joe David, a California highway patrolman. Other firms also stepped up, including the 4:20 Group, Caltraps, Hits, Diamondback Training, and Global Counter-Smuggling Training Consultants. Soon more than a dozen companies were competing for millions in state and federal grants and contracts, along with fees from local departments across the country.


The training had an immediate effect in some areas.
After the Kansas Highway Patrol arranged sessions through Desert Snow for state and local police in 2005 and 2006, the amount of cash flowing into police budgets from seizures nearly doubled, from an average of $2.6 million a year between 2000 and 2006 to $4.9 million a year after 2007.
After 25 Wisconsin State Patrol officers received training from Desert Snow in 2010, the agency's cash seizures the following year more than doubled to $585,657. "It creates a surge period," said Sgt. Nate Clarke, a state patrol supervisor. "These guys get all fired up because they're seeing photo after photo of seizures on the PowerPoints."


The number of agencies participating yearly under Equitable Sharing went up 22 percent to 2,842 between 2003 and 2007, while cash seizures without search warrants or indictments during that period rose more than 50 percent, to $242 million. Under the Obama administration, police have made more than 22,000 such seizures worth about $1 billion through the Justice Department program.

Federal support helped drive the surge. In Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin alone, police spent a total of at least $1 million during the last decade in Justice and Homeland Security grants for Desert Snow training. The DEA, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others spent another $2.3 million in contracts on Desert Snow training for police, records show. The DEA also paid more than $2 million for training from the 4:20 Group. Individual local and state police forces across the country paid millions more for the training using seized cash, one of the uses permitted by Equitable Sharing rules.
The police trainers estimate they have taught more than 5o,000 police officers in the more aggressive techniques during the last decade.
Some trainers say they worry that an overemphasis on seizing money has distorted policing.



"Over a period of a single decade, the culture was now totally changed," said Shawn Pardazi, a detective in Pearl, Mississippi and owner of Global Counter-Smuggling Training Consultants and a former Desert Snow trainer.
As the demand for training grew, the competition among the firms for business became fierce.
"It's all about the money," said James Eagleson, owner of the 4:20 Group, who also once worked at Desert Snow.
- - -
Decisions that police make during brief roadway stops take motorists who challenge the seizures a year on average to undo, according to a Washington Post analysis. For 350 owners, it took more than two years to get their money back.


Last year, Ming Tong Liu, 55, a Chinese-born American from Newnan, Georgia was stopped on I-10 in Alabama for driving 10 miles over the speed limit while heading to Louisiana to buy the Hong Kong Chinese restaurant in Lake Charles for himself and his investors -- two daughters and another relative.
A Mobile County sheriff's deputy gave Liu a ticket for speeding and asked for permission to search the car. The deputy found $75,195 in a suitcase in the back seat, neatly wrapped in white napkins and placed in a black plastic bag and then took the money after the deputy said Liu gave conflicting accounts of his travel plans.
The deputy took Liu to a sheriff's department office and called for an officer from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which stood to share in the money.
Liu's attorney, Rebecca Ding-Lee, said the officers overstepped their authority, held Liu for nearly two hours and searched his car unlawfully without a warrant. "He cannot speak English," she said. "He didn't understand what the police said."
Ten months after the cash was seized, customs officials agreed to return the money, documents show.
Police often rely on drug-sniffing dogs to justify warrantless searches when a driver refuses to give consent. In 48 cases examined by The Washington Post, dogs alerted to the presence of drugs but the officers found only money.



In October 2008, Benjamin Molina, 40, a permanent resident from El Salvador, was traveling through Virginia on I-95 when an Emporia police officer pulled him over for tinted windows. A carpenter, Molina was going from North Carolina to his home in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The officer wrote him a warning ticket and began asking him questions, including whether he had cash in the car.
Molina told the officer that he was shopping for a used car and had $18,000 in his pockets. Molina's face began to tremble, which police said they took as a sign of possible wrongdoing. Molina said his cheek twitched from medication he was taking for a health condition that included kidney disease. Molina also had duct tape in his car, which police said is "commonly used by traffickers."
The officer asked Molina, who had no criminal history, to hand over the cash. The officer placed the money in an envelope, which he set down on the ground alongside two empty envelopes.
A dog called to the scene sat down next to the envelope with the cash, indicating the presence of drugs, according to police.
The police took the money, but Molina took steps to get it back.
He hired David Smith, an Alexandria, Virginia attorney and former federal prosecutor who once headed the federal government's forfeiture program in the Eastern District of Virginia.
After Molina appealed, a federal prosecutor refunded the money. It took four months.


Smith said the Molina case is an example of the kind of overreach that the civil asset forfeiture reforms passed by Congress in 2000 were aimed at preventing.
"This type of police bounty hunting is antithetical to everything our criminal justice system is supposed to stand for," said Smith, who helped craft the reform legislation.

Among the indicators police look for are rental cars, which are often used by smugglers.
On Nov. 1, 2011, Jose Jeronimo Sorto and his brother-in-law, Victor Ramos Guzman, were driving a rented sedan on I-95 south of Richmond, Virginia when a state trooper stopped them. Both were lay leaders of the Pentecostal Nuevo Renacer church in Baltimore. They were carrying $28,500 in church funds meant for the purchase of land to build a church in El Salvador and a trailer for a new congregation in North Carolina.


Their experience has been cited as a case study in civil forfeiture abuse by The Washington Post's editorial page, The New Yorker magazine and others. Unknown until now in the public debate is the fact that the trooper who made the stop, C.L. Murphy, is a top interdiction trainer for Virginia State Police and Desert Snow, as well as a member of Black Asphalt.


Murphy told Sorto and Guzman that they were speeding and following too closely. Murphy said Guzman told him about the cash and consented to a search of the car.
Guzman, 39, of Sterling, Virginia, said he showed the trooper documents indicating that he belonged to a tax-exempt church, and he said the cash had been collected from congregation members. But Murphy disregarded their explanations, saying they contained inconsistencies. He called Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which accepted the seizure for the Equitable Sharing Program, and he escorted the men to a nearby police station. He did not issue a ticket but seized the cash after Guzman signed a waiver.
Three lawyers agreed to represent the church members for free. Three months later, they received a check from ICE for $28,500.


Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller would only say, "The facts of the stop speak for themselves."
ICE spokeswoman Marsha Catron defended the seizure, saying in a statement "the situation was indicative of bulk cash smuggling" and that Guzman consented by signing a waiver for the money.
"Both the male driver and passenger disclaimed ownership of the money and provided inconsistent and contradictory statements," Catron said. She added: "Money was ultimately returned to Mr. Ramos Guzman after he provided documentation that the cash belonged to his church."

Guzman told The Washington Post he was truthful to the trooper the entire time. The experience left him shaken.
"They didn't give me a chance to explain," Guzman said. "There was no way out."
________________________________________


It is no coincidence that this article was written by a FAR-RIGHT LIBERTARIAN and I leave his open ended question for citizens to ponder. If one believes these few decades of policing was public and not private policing----I would suggest we look at the transition during Clinton era ----when zero tolerance and privatized prisons with prison pipelines soared. Indeed, NYC Police Commissioner Bradley was that start towards privatized policing and THAT is why policing went from protect and serve---to policing stats that made police encounters soar.
Every organization has memberships having all kinds of political stances----I hope my friends with CopBlock do not lean far-right Libertarian.

We cannot get police accountability because we have city halls filled with Wall Street players ----not because public police departments are bad.



Public vs. Private Police: Which Would You Choose?
May 7, 2010 by Ademo Freeman  COPBLOCK

As a believer in removing government from just about every aspect of our lives,  I wanted to write about the differences in public police vs. private security forces. To understand this you must realize that several things need to change before this is even possible. Allowing people to own land (like roads, parks, ect.), to conduct business (trash collection, policing, ect.) as they see fit (even if done poorly) and not allowing government the authority to preside over any of it would be a great start.

A good source for understanding negative impact of government on society is Murray N. Rothbard’s book For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifest.

In this post I intend to cover several aspects of policing/protection. From how it’s funded, accountability, customer service and more. I hope to show you that even though policing will never be perfect, there are ways to limit the hardships the current system is often responsible for. I’ll try not to bore you with an endless amount of facts or quotes from others who share the same belief. Instead I’ll just try to highlight some basic points on each topic, explaining how today’s public police force could be better served in the private sector. This is a very controversial topic, one that could take a series of posts to explain, but I’ll do my best.


Funding

The difference in funding of public police to those that are private is simple: one is backed by force and the other is voluntary. Taxation is the payment method of the public sector, where budgets balloon and collectivism is the constant bailout for those who fail to properly manage their department. The public option of policing is paid before you receive any good or service, and still taken if you refuse or fail to use such service. The public sector of police does a horrible job of managing their growth, budget and needs of the consumer.  Their budgets, power, and influence grow without the checks and balances of those who operate private businesses.



A company that makes widgets (for example) would base future investments, whether that be hiring more employees, investing in equipment or building space, on research that would show areas of needed growth and areas that can be scaled back based off the demands of their consumers. Failure to realize these trends and growth of the times would be disastrous for a private company. They would lose customers and therefore jeopardize the entire business.
That’s exactly why the private sector is a better answer. Companies who choose to do business as private police forces would know this. They would only provide services which people agree to pay for, e.g, conducting investigations of break-ins, working with other agencies (presumably private) to retrieve stolen property, or monitoring the property (such as roads, businesses, and homes) of their customers.


The private police would have to worry about maintaining relationships with its consumer for fear going out of business. Public police don’t have to worry about being put out of business and it’s proven in how they treat their consumers, which brings me to the next point.


Customer Service

As any business owner knows customer service is a critical factor in maintaining a business. Even those with a highly demanded product know customer service tops everything. Failure to keep customers happy only leads to a ‘going out of business’ sale. At least in the private sector.

It’s hard to talk about the public police and the customer service they have, as it’s pretty much non-existent. Not to mention the ‘duties’ of public police would be broken into several different fields of private policing/security forces (some might police private roads, businesses, ect.). For this example we’ll use a traffic stop to highlight the difference in customer relations.


The public police, whom you’re paying for regardless, pull you over for speeding. The officer comes to your window, states that s/he’s pulled you over for speeding and demands ID.  If you’re lucky the incident ends with a warning and you’re mildly inconvenienced. For most, one or several of the following things happen; you’re asked to step out of your car, you and your property are searched extensively, you’re questioned and/or threatened, you’re taken away to booking or even to jail.  The public police demand respect and answers to their questions, along with your cooperation — no matter how immoral, illegal, or insane the request.


Then there is the court process you, in most cases, must go through. Again,  you lose time, money, and possibly your right to travel or even your freedom. The process favors the public police because those who partake in this system all work for the same organization: the state.  They also create the man-made “laws” they claim you’ve broken, even benefiting from the result (if putting something on paper deems it just).  Even though money generated from tickets does go back into the system, rarely does it cover the cost of the system, making the justice system one of the poorest run businesses on the planet.


When you speed on a private road, owned by Company X, that has ‘police’ patrolling to ensure the safety of other customers, it would be a day and night experience. First of all, the private officer would most likely treat you with respect, instead of demanding it from you. They wouldn’t have the right, let alone the desire, to search your personal belongings. They would attempt several options like, educating you, offering discounts for consecutive safe driving days and more as opposed to taking you to arbitration. As a business that relies on you to drive on their roads to make a profit, they would realize that lengthy court hearings are expensive. If you ending up abusing their rules, you would either pay a higher price to travel on their property or not be allowed to at all.  If the company instituted an aggressive policy of searching property, violating rights and abusing people physically, their reputation would suffer.  And so would the profits, making the business worthless and likely to be sold off to better investors/business men.


Which brings us to the next topic.


Accountability

Accountability can be tricky when talking about public vs. private policing as both are accountable for their actions in monetary terms.  The difference though is who pays for that accountability and how it differs from the organization to the employee.

In the public policing system when an employee uses bad judgment or commits a physical offense against someone, rarely do they pay for it directly. Normally in lawsuits against public police departments it’s the taxpayers who foots the bill for the actions of abusive police. I know there are some lawsuits paid for by insurance companies, but who pays the increased premium next billing cycle? Yep, taxpayers.   So you’re not only paying for a service you rarely use, but one that’s more likely to aggress on you, then still stick you with the bill for their misbehaving employees on top of it.  From a business perspective, this is not only wrong, it’s downright evil, as all of it is backed with force.

IS THIS REALLY HOW OUR PUBLIC POLICE DEPARTMENTS EVER WORKED BEFORE THESE FEW DECADES?



The accountability only gets worse when you try to get an employee of public police held accountable for their actions. With a monopoly on policing it’s easy for other public police to cover the bad acts of other employees. Even when found in the wrong, through whatever means, rarely do public police face the same punishments or hardships that those without badges do. Police commonly get reduced sentences, fines, and often keep their jobs. The lack of accountability and the double standard in police is an extremely dangerous combination, especially when you add the endless income from taxation.

IS THAT HOW OUR SYSTEM IS SUPPOSED TO WORK?  OF COURSE NOT.


On the other hand, private police companies would be responsible for their employees.  Employees might be responsible in extreme cases where they flat out defy company policy. Private police wouldn’t have such an aggressive policy, therefore reducing the risk factor that public police often put themselves into.


YOU MEAN LIKE GLOBAL BLACKWATER ET AL KNOWN TO FLAUNT EVERY LAW IN ALL NATIONS?


Then there is the all mighty dollar, where if a company protected its own by hiding evidence or engaging in rights violating activities that public police do, they would lose customers.  And unlike the public police they don’t have money given (stolen if you ask me) to them to cover such acts.  They know they could be held financially responsible to the fullest and would do everything to prevent costly payouts that public police seem to have no problem paying, seeing as how it’s not their money.



Conclusion


If you fear that one of these private protection agencies could take over the world or have bigger guns than you, that’s no different than what we have today. The public police seem to be doing one hell of a job at limiting our rights and taking our money at the same time. The fact is that it would be almost impossible for one company to grow to the size of the  police state in this country due to the beauty of competition.


To me it is clear: privatization and removal of government as our protectors is a must.  After looking into how the police system works, it’s beyond me why anyone would allow a monopoly on something as important as protection. It’s obvious that funding, customer service and accountability would  improve across the board. That 100’s or 1,000’s of competing business would provide a better, safer service for us all.

Which would you choose?

_______________________________________

As this article states it was NYC, Boston ---and here is Oakland CA that went to privatizing police early on. When Police Commissioner Batts was brought to Baltimore we discussed his connections to Oakland----to what was then a global surveillance structure tied to Johns Hopkins and its security corporations. Batts was sent to Harvard---Boston for training then coming to Baltimore when police abuses soared. Here we see the chain of pushing police cameras as good for citizen protection when police cameras are a militarized policing tool used for decades and they are part of the global militarized policing equipment. So, Batts was always tied to moving to install privatized policing policies and we should not worry that he was fired----he will no doubt move to the next US city deemed Foreign Economic Zone to install global military policing or back to Harvard to teach these policies----

'Oakland, California is one of many municipalities like Boston, Massachusetts that are handing over general policing responsibilities to private armed guards'.

'He said Rawlings-Blake hired police chief Anthony Batts in part due to his experience implementing body cameras in Oakland, Calif'.


The reason 1% Wall Street needed to make this police camera policy about protecting citizens is our US Constitutional rights to privacy has always protected police cameras inside our private residences---------they deregulated our rights to being filmed in our homes by making it appear to be about protecting us.  Rawlings-Blake with Batts who sat silent as some of the worst cases of police abuses unfolded in Baltimore these few years is then in the national media sounding like they want to protect citizens.


article



Navy SEAL Helmet Cams: Obama Watched bin Laden Raid Video
Obama and officials in the White House Situation Room were able to watch the raid against bin Laden live, the Washington Post confirms. Ian Yarett on how helmet-cam combat video works.
Ian Yarett
05.06.11 5:20 PM ET


Baltimore mayor supports body cameras on cops amid criticism


Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake rejected a bill in November to equip nearly 3,000 cops with body cameras. But the mayor, however, created a task force to look at a pilot program for cops to wear body cameras.(Cliff Owen/AP)

BY Nancy Dillon
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, April 29, 2015, 7:28 PM


Body-worn police cameras are a focal point in Baltimore again, with many questioning why the riot-rocked city isn't using them yet.
Embattled Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is adamant she supports their use and convened a task force that proposed a $1.4 million, six-month pilot program for 100 officers in February.
The recommendation came after she vetoed a bill passed by the City Council in November that would have required Baltimore's nearly 3,000 police officers to wear them.

Rawlings-Blake called the bill "well-intentioned" but said it failed to adequately address legal, privacy and funding issues.

"Make no mistake, this mayor is very committed to a body camera program," lawyer and task force co-chair James R. Benjamin Jr. told the Daily News Wednesday.


He said the pilot program should start this year and lead to a full roll-out in 2016.
"The mayor believes 100 percent in transparency and accountability — and she wanted it done right," he said.
Critics, meanwhile, say it's taking too long.
"I think this process has been unbelievably delayed. She didn't really need a committee," Tyrone Powers, a former FBI agent and professor in the Criminal Justice department at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, told The News.

Tyrone Powers, a former FBI agent and professor in the Criminal Justice department at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, said Rawlings-Blake hired police chief Anthony Batts (pictured) in part due to his experience implementing body cameras in Oakland, Calif.(Patrick Semansky/AP)


He said Rawlings-Blake hired police chief Anthony Batts in part due to his experience implementing body cameras in Oakland, Calif.


"He already knows how to do this. All he needed was the funding. Now he's in the position of not having had cameras to help determine what happened to Freddie Gray," Powers said, referring to the man whose death in police custody has sparked violent protests.
"This unfortunate situation that we're in now may finally speed up the process," Powers said. "Just allow Commissioner Batts to say we need these cameras and find the money. Show that you have faith in him to get it right."


For his part, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio voiced his support of Rawlings-Black on Wednesday.


"She's a very capable leader, a very thoughtful leader," he said, adding that he spoke to her by phone on Saturday.
"I think this was a tough moment, obviously, for Baltimore. I think they were quick to make adjustments and obviously last night went a lot better," he said.
"We know the history of Baltimore well before she got there. It's a city that's been through a lot. It's a city that really dealt with some of the worst crime dynamics of any city in America, some of the toughest economic changes and she's been trying to push that city forward, and I really wish her luck, and I think mayors all around the country stand in solidarity with her," he said.


______________________________________

Here we see the progression towards authoritarian policing. Maryland Assembly passed these laws targeting cities like Baltimore for these police swat teams---if citizens think what these US cities as Foreign Economic Zones will look like if installed-----they will be GREATER BALTIMORE----this means huge. As well, most citizens living around these regions will be moved inside these zones so the laws passed for Baltimore as a Foreign Economic Zone will expand to the entire state.

Warrentless entry with broadly written criteria for these entrances already have some city police departments abusing these policies.


4th Amendment?

What 4th Amendment?

Supremes Say Police Can Create Conditions To Enter Home Without A Warrant


from the did-they-really-say-that? dept

About Techdirt.


Started in 1997 by Floor64 founder Mike Masnick and then growing into a group blogging effort, the Techdirt blog uses a proven economic framework to analyze and offer insight into news stories about changes in government policy, technology and legal issues that affect companies' ability to innovate and grow.

We've been discussing various ways that our government and the courts have been slowly chipping away at the 4th Amendment, what with warrantless wiretaps, searching laptops, TSA agents groping people, etc. And the Supreme Court just took a huge chunk out of the 4th Amendment in saying that police can raid homes without a warrant if there are "exigent circumstances" -- even if those "exigent circumstances" are created by the police themselves.

The law, to date, had been that police cannot enter a home without a warrant unless they had both (a) probable cause and (b) "exigent circumstances" in which getting a warrant would not make sense. In this case, police were searching for a drug dealer who had gone into an apartment complex. Outside of one apartment, they smelled marijuana -- which created probable cause. At this point, they should have obtained a warrant. Instead, they banged on the door and shouted police. At which point they heard a scramble inside, and busted in the door, claiming that they believed the scramble was the possible destruction of the drugs. The argument then was that this noise -- even though it was entirely created due to police action -- represented exigent circumstances that allowed them to bust in the door without a warrant. The Kentucky Supreme Court said that while the noise might be exigent circumstances, since it was illegally created by the police, it could not be used.

Tragically, the Supreme Court -- by an 8-to-1 vote -- has now disagreed, saying that this is perfectly consistent with the 4th Amendment. With all due respect to the 8 Justices and the Court, I can't see how that's reasonable at all. This sets up a dreadful situation which will be abused regularly by law enforcement. It lets them create yet another situation where they may avoid oversight, by creating their own exigent circumstances, and then using that as an excuse for avoiding a warrant and any required oversight or limitations. I believe that Justice Ginsburg's dissent is much more compelling. Her dissent points out that exigent circumstances are only supposed to be used in very rare circumstances when getting a warrant is not possible or practical. Yet, in this case, the police easily could have secured a warrant quickly upon smelling marijuana.


That heavy burden has not been carried here. There was little risk that drug-related evidence would have been destroyed had the police delayed the search pending a magistrate�s authorization. As the Court recognizes, "[p]ersons in possession of valuable drugs are unlikely to destroy them unless they fear discovery by the police." ... Nothing in the record shows that, prior to the knock at the apartment door, the occupants were apprehensive about police proximity.

In fact, she notes that "Home intrusions, the Court has said, are indeed 'the chief evil against which . . .the Fourth Amendment is directed.'" So it seems positively ridiculous to claim that such a home invasion is acceptable under the 4th Amendment. This is a tragically bad ruling by the Supreme Court that will have massive and dangerous consequences. We already have law enforcement pushing the boundaries of individual privacy rights, and now they have even more tools to take that further.

_____________________________________


Citizens in third world nations have no protections and expectations of privacy----that is our US Constitutional Bill of Rights unique to America. We have a right-wing Supreme Court who thinks corporations have rights to privacy while chipping away at our rights as citizens to our privacy. Police and video/camera issues have been through history on the side of the citizens.



'The Wahchumwah case exemplifies this: on suspicion of nothing more than the benign misdemeanor of selling eagle feathers, the government got to intrude inside the home and record every intimate detail it could: books on a shelf, letters on a coffee table, pictures on a wall'.


In the Smart Cities technology of BIG DATA every aspect of our life is now sold as data---the only thing they haven't done is actually film us in our homes-----think about drone surveillance technology---the hummingbird drones and how they can film inside homes with no one knowing.

Ergo, police camera policies.

ThinkProgress
Moving news forward.
Dec 3, 20123 min read



Police Can Record Video Inside Your Home Without A Warrant, Appeals Court Says

By Nicole Flatow

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court provided some comfort to those fearing the seemingly limitless potential of new technologies to enable government privacy invasion. In holding that police could not attach a GPS device to a car and track it for 30 days without a warrant, the court said, “At bottom, we must ‘assur[e] preservation of that degree of privacy against government that existed when the Fourth Amendment was adopted.’”


But don’t get too comfortable. A federal appeals court ruled last week that police can secretly videotape a suspect’s home without a warrant. In a case about the suspected sale of bald eagle feathers and pelts — a misdemeanor crime — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that undercover police admitted into the suspect’s home as interested buyers of pelts did not violate the Fourth Amendment when they secretly videotaped the suspect’s home:


We are persuaded that it is not “constitutionally relevant” whether an informant utilizes an audio-video device, rather than merely an audio recording device, to record activities occurring inside a home, into which the informer has been invited. When Wahchumwah invited Agent Romero into his home, he forfeited his expectation of privacy as to those areas that were “knowingly expose[d] to” Agent Romero. Wahchumwah cannot reasonably argue that the recording violates his legitimate privacy interests when it reveals no more than what was already visible to the agent.The decision doesn’t entirely break new ground. At least one other federal appeals court has upheld the use of video recordings inside the home, and just last month, a lower federal court reached a similar conclusion.

But the case raises the same sorts of concerns that several concurring justices emphasized in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last term in United States v. Jones: What scope of surveillance will not violate our present understanding of a “reasonable expectation of privacy”? At what point are we, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor cautions in Jones, “making available at a relatively low cost such a substantial quantum of intimate information about any person whom the Government, in its unfettered discretion, chooses to track, may ‘alter the relationship between citizen and government in a way that is inimical to democratic society’”? Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Hanni Fakhoury elaborates on this concern:
[T]he sad truth is that as technology continues to advance, surveillance becomes “voluntary” only by virtue of the fact we live in a modern society where technology is becoming cheaper, easier and more invasive. The Wahchumwah case exemplifies this: on suspicion of nothing more than the benign misdemeanor of selling eagle feathers, the government got to intrude inside the home and record every intimate detail it could: books on a shelf, letters on a coffee table, pictures on a wall. And we’re entering an age where criminal suspicion is no longer even necessary. Whether you’re calling a friend’s stolen cell phone and landing on the NYPD massive database of call logs, driving into one of the increasing number of cities using licenseplatescanners to record who comes in or out, or walking somewhere close to hovering drones, innocent people are running the risk of having their personal details stored in criminal databases for years to come.The fractured majority in United States v. Jones didn’t provide much guidance about where the court will draw future lines on surveillance, relying instead upon the fact that the Jones case involved a physical trespass — a type of privacy violation of particular constitutional concern. Of course, the Ninth Circuit case involved a physical intrusion in the place subject to the greatest Fourth Amendment protection — the home. Whether it became something other than a trespass — and sufficient grounds to authorize invasive surveillance — because the suspect unknowingly admitted the undercover officer into his home is another question that may be for ripe for Supreme Court consideration.

___________________________________________


I don't have time to format this article but it is critical that the American people see that it is not a Trump that is trying to take the US authoritarian----it is the morphing of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA NEO-CONS/NEO-LIBERALS ----into this far-right Wall Street Libertarianism that is trying to take the US authoritarian. Both Democratic and Republican voters know this is happening and neither the right wing or left wing citizens WANT AN AUTHORITARIAN AMERICA----NO FREEDOM AND JUSTICE THERE! Yet we see over and again media trying to say it is US citizens pushing towards authoritarian policies----as with the growing Homeland Security and global militarized policing policies-----they are doing all this to protect WE THE PEOPLE while WE THE PEOPLE are shouting STOP THESE AUTHORITARIAN POLICIES.
THIS IS AUTHORITARIAN NEO-LIBERALISM FOLKS---FAR-RIGHT 1% WALL STREET EXTREME WEALTH AND EXTREME POWER----no American citizen should want to go there.

Wall Street has Trump acting like the authoritarian Republican when it is the CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA march to authoritarian neo-liberalism of which Trump is the same team-----to confuse US and global citizens.
  This is why Al Sharpton, Libertarians, and other progressive posers are pretending we need a Federal community police force----

Below you see why 1% Wall Street global pols are trying to codify these authoritarian policing laws while using the pretext they are doing it for the safety of US citizens-----A LEGITIMATE AIM.



Universal Periodic Review
Stakeholder Report: 24th Session, Singapore
The Right to Privacy
in Singapore


The right to privacy
3.
Privacy is a fundamental human right, enshrined in numerous international human rights instruments.
1
It is central to the protection of human dignity and
forms the basis of any democratic society.
4.
Activities that restrict the right to privacy, such as surveillance and censorship, can only be justified when they are prescribed by law, necessary
to achieve a legitimate aim, and proportionate to the aim pursued.




Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies
, Issue 5 (2012)
114
.
Authoritarian Neoliberalism, the Occupy Movements, and IPE


Ian Bruff


In the absence of any kind of hegemonic aura, neoli
beral practices have proved
increasingly unable to garner the consent, or even
the reluctant acquiescence, necessary
for more ‘normal’ modes of governance.
Of particula
r importance in the post-2007 crisis
has been the growing frequency with which constitut
ional and legal changes, in the name
of economic ‘necessity’, are seeking to reshape the
purpose of the state and associated
institutions.

This attempted reconfiguration is thr
ee-fold:

(1) the more immediate appeal
to material circumstances as a reason for the state
being unable, despite ‘the best will in
the world’, to reverse processes such as greater so
cioeconomic inequality and dislocation;

(2) the deeper and longer-term recalibration of wha
t kind of activity is feasible and
appropriate for ‘non-market’ institutions to engage
in, diminishing expectations in the
process; and

(3) the reconceptualisation of the sta
te as increasingly non-democratic
through its subordination to constitutional and leg
al rules that are ‘necessary’ for
prosperity to be achieved.


This process, of states reconfiguring themselves in
increasingly non-
democratic ways in response to profound capitalist
crisis, is what I view as the rise of
authoritarian neoliberalism.


Authoritarian neoliber
alism does not represent a wholesale
‘break’ from earlier neoliberal practices, yet it i
s qualitatively distinctive due to way in
which dominant social groups are less interested in
neutralising resistance and dissent via
concessions and forms of compromise that maintain t
heir hegemony, favouring instead
the explicit exclusion and marginalisation of such
groups. However, the global crisis has
intensified the crisis of legitimation
already
confronting various capitalist states – for
instance, declining voter turnout and party members
hip, greater electoral volatility,
growing mistrust of the political elite – meaning t
hat authoritarian neoliberalism is
simultaneously strengthening
and
weakening the state as the latter reconfigures int
o a less
open and therefore more fragile polity.


As a result
, the attempted ‘authoritarian fix’ is
potentially a sticking plaster rather than anything
more epochal.
The question, therefore, is whether the contradicti
ons inherent to
authoritarian neoliberalism – especially with regar
d to the strengthening/weakening of
Authoritarian Neoliberalism
, Bruff
115
the state – will create the conditions in which a m
ore progressive and radical politics can
begin to reverse the tide of the last three decades
. As things stand, the crisis has
ambiguous implications for radical/progressive poli
tics of the Left, not least because
radical politics is often being practised most succ
essfully by radical Right movements and
parties.
This is the case if one considers the rise
of xenophobia and racism in Europe, the
Tea Party in the US, or indeed the more general ‘an
ti-party’ dominance of charismatic
figureheads such as Putin in various countries. How
ever, the occupy movements have
proved to be a welcome corrective to the pessimism
that the above observations
encourage (regarding Putin, too, as we have seen in
recent weeks). In particular, they have
forced onto the agenda a fundamental challenge to t
he dominant narratives of the crisis,
which – combined with the decline of mass political
parties and the imbrication of all
main parties with a system in crisis –
has made the
state an increasingly direct target of a
range of popular struggles, demands and discontent.
This is crucial, because the state and its associat
ed institutions have often been
viewed as somehow inherently more progressive and d
emocratic than the ‘market’. As a
result, ‘Left’ politics has frequently been guilty
of taking the law to be somehow neutral,
ignoring in the process how ‘non-market’ social for
ms have been
central
to the rise of
neoliberalism and thus the growing inequalities of
power which characterise the world in
which we live. This was expressed vividly in the cl
earing of Zuccotti Park in New York,
which not only displayed clearly (despite the attem
pts to herd journalists into one part of
the park) the brute coercive capacities of state po
wer, but also the denial of the
constitutional right to expressive protest in the n
ame of ‘democracy’. However, it is not an
isolated case, with justifications of police violen
ce and the mobilisation of juridical power
against the occupy and other movements being a rout
ine part of events across the globe
(see for example the rather different response, com
pared to several months earlier, by the
Egyptian security apparatuses to the occupation of
Tahrir Square in late 2011). In
consequence, the occupy movements have exposed the
authoritarian neoliberal state to
protest and struggle, and its continued delegitimat
ion, from a radical/progressive
perspective that
continues
to affirm the values embodied in notions of solida
rity, equality
and cooperation.
This alerts us in a more expansive
way to how inequalities of power are
produced and reproduced in capitalist societies, en
abling us to consider how other, more
emancipatory and progressive, worlds are possible.
So what of IPE? As with many aspects of the broader
discipline of Political
Science, IPE has been comfortable with dividing our
world into distinct spheres, each
with their own ‘intrinsic’ properties and norms. Th
erefore, now would be the time to
overcome these artificial dichotomies and reinvigor
ate the study of the international
political economy; even if the scholar in question
is not interested in emancipatory issues,
then surely the need for more adequate, holistic an
alyses is now necessary as well as
desirable. Apparently not: journals and conferences
continue to talk of ‘the market’
over here
and ‘the state’
over there
, ‘interests’
over here
and ‘values’
over there
, ‘economic
crisis’
over here
and ‘political responses’
over there
, ‘democracy’
over here
and
‘authoritarianism’
over there
.
I could go on... As things stand, IPE asks intere
sting
questions about the world, but it is increasingly u
nfit for the purpose of exploring these
questions.



Ian Bruff
Ian BruffIan Bruff


Ian Bruff is Lecturer in International Relations in
the Department of Politics, History and
International Relations at Loughborough University.
He has been Chair of the Critical
Political Economy Research Network of the European
Sociological Association since
2009, and a member of the Steering Committee for th
e Standing Group on International
Relations of the European Consortium for Political
Research since 2010. He recently
joined the editorial team for the Routledge/RIPE Se
ries in Global Political Economy, and
from 2012-14 will be the Chair of the Book Prize pa
nel of judges for the International
Political Economy working group of the British Inte
rnational Studies Association


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September 24th, 2016

9/24/2016

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We will finish for now on public policy around media by looking at ways to be PROACTIVE in taking the FOURTH ESTATE----THE MEDIA BACK TO WE THE PEOPLE.  We discussed the need to rebuild local, diverse media outlets----we talked about outing captured media outlets and reporters----and we talked about how our public universities and public K-12 should be ground zero for democratic education and holding power/media accountable.  All of these venues have been taken by the 1% Wall Street.

About


The Civics Renewal Network is an alliance of 26 nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations that provide free online classroom resources for civics education. The organizations gathered in April 2013 during a Civics Summit convened at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.



A post from yesterday identified an organization called THE CIVICS RENEWAL NETWORK.  This is exactly what we need but here is a national network being formed and guess what---if WE THE PEOPLE allow this national network to be filled with these same 2% or 5% to the 1%---they will be creating a civics network tied to ONE WORLD FAR-RIGHT AUTHORITARIAN MARXISM---not American civics for a democratic republic.  I can imagine the same national leaders from National Organization of Women-----far-right neo-liberal supporters of Hillary, the national ACLU with lawyers tied to the same global neo-liberal policies of civil liberties----national labor union leaders----still tied to Clinton ignoring a century of US labor laws and allowing American workers to be taken to third world global labor pool status.  If the 99% sit back and keep allowing these 5% of each population group take the lead in rebuilding our local civics education---it will look like MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD SOCIETAL CIVICS.

We will finish for now on public policy around media by looking at ways to be PROACTIVE in taking the FOURTH ESTATE----THE MEDIA BACK TO WE THE PEOPLE. We discussed the need to rebuild local, diverse media outlets----we talked about outing captured media outlets and reporters----and we talked about how our public universities and public K-12 should be ground zero for democratic education and holding power/media accountable. All of these venues have been taken by the 1% Wall Street.

A post from yesterday identified an organization called THE CIVICS RENEWAL NETWORK. This is exactly what we need but here is a national network being formed and guess what---if WE THE PEOPLE allow this national network to be filled with these same 2% or 5% to the 1%---they will be creating a civics network tied to ONE WORLD FAR-RIGHT AUTHORITARIAN MARXISM---not American civics for a democratic republic. I can imagine the same national leaders from National Organization of Women-----far-right neo-liberal supporters of Hillary, the national ACLU with lawyers tied to the same global neo-liberal policies of civil liberties----national labor union leaders----still tied to Clinton ignoring a century of US labor laws and allowing American workers to be taken to third world global labor pool status. If the 99% sit back and keep allowing these 5% of each population group take the lead in rebuilding our local civics education---it will look like MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD SOCIETAL CIVICS.

We know the Annenberg Foundation is simply a 1% Wall Street organization no matter how they make their information sound socially progressive. Here we have their organization marketing to our PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS their website for views on the history of civics. The left-leaning voters better know that the entire century of FDR and socially progressive history is being erased and the right wing are taking us back to colonial days where a foreign aristocracy bent on empire-building ruled America.

WE DO NOT WANT OUR AMERICAN SCHOOL TEACHERS GOING TO GLOBAL FOUNDATIONS FOR OUR AMERICAN HISTORY. WE DO NOT WANT GLOBAL COMMON CORE BY THE GLOBAL 1% BECOMING OUR ONLY SOURCE OF US CIVICS.


We know most of our US universities both private and now public have executive leadership seeing themselves as corporate CEOs----they are not the leadership we want driving these discussions.

The Civics Renewal Network



To address the problem, APPC and 25 other nonpartisan organizations, including the Library of Congress, the National Constitution Center, the U.S. Courts, the National Archives, and the Newseum, announced the launch of the Civics Renewal Network, a unique partnership among some of the nation’s leaders in civics education. The network offers free, high-quality resources for teachers through the one-stop website www.civicsrenewalnetwork.org.



CIVICS RENEWAL NETWORK
A Republic, If We Can Teach It

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Constitution of the United States with Index and the Declaration of Independence, Pocket Edition

This is the 25th pocket edition of the complete text of two core documents of American democracy, the Constitution of the United States (with...
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-112hdoc129/pdf/CDOC-112hdoc129.pdf
Subject: Federal government
Grades: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7
Resource Type: Primary sources
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Freedom of the Press: New York Times v. United States

This documentary examines the First Amendment's protection of a free press as well as the historic origins of this right and the ramifications...
http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/freedom-of-the-press-new-york-times-v-uni...
Subject: Foundations of democracy
Grades: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7
Resource Type: Video
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Labor Day Collection

Learn more about how the meaning of Labor Day, labor history, and how Labor Day got its name with these free resources from Share My Lesson. How do...
https://sharemylesson.com/content/labor-union-history-social-justice?utm_campaig...
Subject: State/local government
Grades: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, K
Resource Type: Media
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Election 2016: Chaotic Conventions Debate

1. Ask students what they know about the bumpy road from presidential candidate to party nominee. What steps and events do contenders have to go...
https://newseumed.org/our-edcollections/
Subject: Voting, elections, politics
Grades: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6
Resource Type: Video
Bookmarked
1
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Getting Counted: Is the system fair?

OBJECTIVE: Students will understand why people are critical of the political process. EXPLORE THE DEBATE: Do all voters have an equal voice in...
https://newseumed.org/casestudy/is-the-system-fair/
Subject: Voting, elections, politics
Grades: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6
Resource Type: Lesson plans
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James Madison and Religion

This short video reviews James Madison’s attitudes towards religion. Although he believed that religious belief was essential in a virtuous republic...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHVb8Ud7N2o
Subject: Rights and responsibilities
Grades: 12, 11
Resource Type: Video
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Religion and the States: Why the Constitution is Silent on God

This short video explains why the Constitution is silent on religion. The Founders believed that religion was a matter left to the states. As...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWQU2_GZWv0
Subject: Federal government
Grades: 12, 11
Resource Type: Video
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James Madison and the First Amendment

This short video traces the evolution of Madison’s attitude towards the religious liberty guarantees of the First Amendment. Initially opposed to a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcvPzcXZ_2c
Subject: Rights and responsibilities
Grades: 12, 11
Resource Type: Video
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Women Before the American Revolution

This short video explores the limited rights of women prior to the American Revolution. According to the idea of femme covert, women were legally...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsgurh4wE1A
Subject: Citizenship
Grades: 12, 11, 10, 9
Resource Type: Video
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Women Vote in New Jersey (1776-1807)

This short video focuses on late 18th century New Jersey—the only state which (temporarily) enfranchised (some) women. The 1776 New Jersey...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1cRyHpogXQ
Subject: Voting, elections, politics
Grades: 12, 11, 10, 9
Resource Type: Video

__________________________________________

Did you know that Obama and Clinton neo-liberals in Congress as well as our state assembly and city halls ERASED and placed a nail in MLK'S LEGACY these several years?  All of the policies Obama pushed as well as his embrace of Executive Order Federalism Act was tied to making sure MLK's legacy policies were not enforced.  KARL MARX'S gradualism was to use that Executive Order THE FEDERALISM ACT to wash all of our socially progressive US Constitutional rights, Federal laws, and a century of Federal court precedent away----and slowly citizens didn't even expect to receive their rights---as in Baltimore.

Media made sure we did not know that century of FDR social Democracy and it surely made sure we did not know MLK's War on Poverty was being dismantled.  Baltimore City Hall is the worst offender.

Below we see an article by EDUCATION WEEK----the Bill Gates global corporate education journal that provides education PROPAGANDA tied to ONE WORLD ONE GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERAL EDUCATION AND INFORMATION STANDARD.


The last thing CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA want in these education reforms right now is civics lessons ---they want to wait until this coming decade installs global corporate campus rule in US cities deemed International Economic Zones---like Baltimore.  So, when Education Week starts saying ---WHERE IS COMMON CORE CIVICS ----they are priming the information pipeline for installing just that ---global civics for all Foreign Economic Zones around the world.


'In honor of Martin Luther King's faith in education's democratizing power, we should insist that civics be added to the core's standards and unfinished assessments. A first civics standard could cover democracy, scaffolding K-12 students toward expertise in democratic citizenship.

Instead of high-stakes tests, the core could promote authentic assessments, such as participation in a model United Nations simulation'.


If a media outlet has not these several years been shouting that Obama and Congress dismantled all that was MLK but instead are using MLK to rebuild a global civics structure----then don't look to that media outlet for REAL information.

THE LAST THING WE THE PEOPLE WANT IS A GLOBAL COMMON CORE STANDARD FOR CIVICS EDUCATION.


Published Online: August 6, 2013
Published in Print: August 7, 2013, as

Civics in the Core
Commentary


Civics in the Common Core

By Web Hutchins


Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.—Martin Luther King Jr., Letter From Birmingham Jail (1963)



This year, educators and their fellow citizens celebrate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s ethereal "I Have a Dream" speech and his prophetic "Letter From Birmingham Jail." The unbridled urgency of King's passion for justice almost jumps from the page, transcending time and inspiring us today to build civically engaging schools for all our children.
In 1963, King penned his letter on the margins of a newspaper in the confines of his "narrow" jail cell during the pivotal civil rights march on Birmingham, Ala. His still-unfulfilled ultimatum, "Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy," could be the mission statement for the swelling 21st-century "new civics" movement, which is pressing to restore civics in America's schools.
Civics proponents' wishes have fallen mostly on deaf ears. Through promotion of the Common Core State Standards, the Obama administration and its allies orchestrated one of the most dramatic assertions of federal power into K-12 education since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, but failed to promote civics where it counts—in the common core's package of standards and assessments. These documents determine what will be taught, and what will not be taught, to more than 40 million children across the United States. Because the core is barren of civics—the word does not appear in the 66-page standards document for English/language arts—the imperatives of the "not tested, not taught" mindset will diminish time for citizenship education, as it did under the No Child Left Behind Act.

—Jori Bolton

In honor of Martin Luther King's faith in education's democratizing power, we should insist that civics be added to the core's standards and unfinished assessments. A first civics standard could cover democracy, scaffolding K-12 students toward expertise in democratic citizenship. Instead of high-stakes tests, the core could promote authentic assessments, such as participation in a model United Nations simulation.


A half-century after his iconic address in Washington, King's dream seems worse than deferred. It seems forgotten. Racial and socioeconomic segregation in K-12 schools is now worse than it was in the 1970s. In the NCLB era, nearly 14 million students dropped out of school (an average of 7,000 per day), and gaps between the academic performance of white and minority students persist. In too many communities, a specter of hopelessness and violence haunts young people. A student I was fond of was shot, in the back, this spring while I was writing this essay. Since 2008 in Chicago, more than 530 young people under the age of 21 have been killed.
NCLB's high-stakes, civics-free stance absolutely failed our children and our democracy. In 2010, approximately three-quarters of the 4th, 8th, and 12th graders who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress civics test failed to score "proficient."
Time is a stern master. Learning to operate democracy's levers requires sustained K-12 attention. But under NCLB, precious minutes for social studies disappeared as principals anxious about "adequate yearly progress" narrowed curricula to test-prep kids in math and literacy boot camps. This ongoing trend, which is disproportionately common in schools in poor communities, contributes to the widening civics gap. Will the core be NCLB redux?
If so, it will be because of "the appalling silence of good people," as King suggested in his letter. How much longer can we ignore the U.S. Supreme Court's mandate in Brown that "education ... is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms"?
Civics education is the silver bullet for America's schools. It is a pedagogical imperative because it often fuels tremendous academic growth by stimulating and leveraging the dynamic interplay of cognitive and, especially, affective, or emotional, learning. In a 10-paper research compendium published in 2011, the American Enterprise Institute asserted that civic literacy was just as critical to student success as literacy in math and English.


"If our schools are nurseries of democracy, we must patiently teach our children the complex and rewarding arts of citizenship."Civics benefits teachers and administrators as well as students. It is an interdisciplinary silo-buster—civics texts and principles easily link all subjects and grades while aligning with the common core's emphasis on formulating evidence-based claims from nonfiction readings. In 23 years as a Seattle high school teacher, I've seen civics-centric history and English classes empower perhaps thousands of low-income, predominantly black students to make enormous intellectual, personal, and academic strides. Civics involves the study of citizenship, government, ethics, current events, and politics. It engages and empowers struggling learners—especially hard-to-reach boys—because it is verbal, current, and contentious.


Such will be the atmosphere this fall when teachers address the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and frame the case's issues of race, law, and politics within the thematic structures of their courses. Students' voices need to be heard. By confronting sometimes combustible "teachable moments" like the Martin case, civics-minded teachers honor their students' concerns, which helps build meaningful, productive classroom relationships. Yet without civics standards and school cultures that encourage teachers to use class time for such seminal current events, tragedies like the Trayvon Martin case are too often glossed over or ignored completely. When this happens, everyone loses. But thoughtful analysis challenges students to develop, and back up, their own civic credo or code. This is personalized education writ large.
When civics becomes service, magic happens. In 11 years of overseeing students' service-learning projects at our state legislature, I've seen at-risk students regularly stand up for the common good. For example, in 2007, my juniors petitioned, lobbied, and testified at the state Capitol to help pass legislation creating a college-bound scholarship for low-income students. Since then, this scholarship has helped many of their younger siblings and friends attend college.
Without civics, the common core is simply a gilded NCLB. As the 18-year-old King wrote while attending Morehouse College: "Intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education." Civics captures this—it offers thoughtful analysis of democracy's timeless tensions, which often unearths students' higher character as they learn to value integrity, compassion, and their unique conception of patriotism and the common good.
But mark "character" absent from the common-core. In its website, the core's narrow mission statement sounds less like a set of learning expectations for children than a parody of a sterile business plan. It talks about preparing America's students "for success in college and careers" so "our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy." Really? Wouldn't preparing America's students in order "to be successful, virtuous members of America's workforce and democracy" be more appropriate? As Abraham Lincoln warned, "The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."


A citizenship component in the common standards would promote a more open-minded, student-centered philosophy of education for the entire core cohort. While civics in the core is an imperfect solution, it is a viable, scalable one because it accesses a system with an enormous infrastructure, corporate backing, and absolute support in the Obama administration. And, should the common core collapse, at least civics will have been woven into lessons nationwide.
A corollary approach is to invite David Coleman, the College Board's chief executive officer, to include civics in the board's realignment of the SAT with the core.
And, what is not taught is neither learned nor lived. If our schools are the nurseries of democracy, we must patiently teach our children the complex and rewarding arts of citizenship. Soon, they will reinvigorate our schools and our polity with their blunt honesty, fresh thinking, and, especially, their infectious idealism.
In his letter from Birmingham, when King invokes the Brown decision's rallying cry, "Justice too long delayed is justice denied," he is speaking to us. He is challenging us, a half-century later, to finally give our nation's children the skills and the platform to "make real the promise of democracy."


Let's heed his call. Let's let their voices be heard!

_____________________________________________
As a former citizen of Seattle having loved the North West I know as does the citizens of Seattle that its governance is captured to billionaires and global Trans Pacific Trade Pact.  Seattle, like San Francisco, and LA are well on their way to ONE WORLD global corporate rule.  Here we see  just what we warned against above----a standard on civics from a city seeing itself ONE WORLD BILL GATES GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERAL EDUCATION.

Citizens must recognize that our K-12 and public university administrations are now staffed with leaders tied to MOVING FORWARD with schools as businesses and they will embrace whatever these Wall Street corporate pols tell them to.  Here in Baltimore we will have all teachers looking and saying they want a global ONE WORLD COMMON CORE CIVICS STANDARD.

THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF REBUILDING OUR AMERICAN VOICE IN COMMUNITY CIVICS---IT CAPTURES IT TO 1% WALL STREET AND THESE POLS AND EDUCATORS KNOW THIS.


This is from where all our national and local media will pull their article discussions in the future ---if we allow the rewriting of our civics history by global Wall Street that is what media will repeat.


Where our last few generations of citizens have not had the opportunity of a strong, broad civics education baby boomers did and we need citizens looking closely at what these groups are writing regarding our US history and civics----

PLEASE DON'T ALLOW YET ANOTHER GROUP STATE THEY HAVE THE NATIONAL MODEL FOR PUBLIC POLICY!



'Once implemented universally, at all schools, Seattle will become a model civics education city for the nation'! 



CIVICS FOR ALL SUCCESS!!! FINALLY!!!Success!!!

 After five long years of lobbying, Seattle’s Civics for All Initiative was finally recommended for adoption by the Seattle Public Schools!!!  With enthusiastic school board support, planning for implementation of the bulk of the proposal has begun!  



Teacher engagement begins this spring and mock elections next fall will be optional for the first year.  Implementation is in great hands under the leadership of the district’s K-12 social studies coordinator, Ms. Vasquez, who has formed an excellent civics education partnership with King County Elections.
Civics for All’s  centerpiece program, annual K-12 mock elections – funded with a $250,000,  5 year county grant –  will enliven democratic practices & principles across schools and communities district-wide. Once implemented universally, at all schools, Seattle will become a model civics education city for the nation! 
This streamlined, non-partisan policy proposal calls for increased media literacy and civics instruction in each grade of the social studies, district-wide voting in mock elections each November, and K-12 civics instructional awareness “across the curriculum” when efficacious.
King County Elections to fund five year K-12 mock elections
Civics for All was “born” on June 15,  2011, when a dozen students of Web Hutchins, the initiative’s founder, presented this student-centered, teacher-friendly proposal to the Seattle Public Schools’  Board of Directors.   Since then we have worked to convince the board and, especially, the Seattle School District administration to formally adopt and implement  the Civics for All curricular frameworks.


School board support has grown tremendously over the years, pioneered by SB President Sharon Peaslee,  Marty McClaren, and Sue Peters.

Current School Board Directors Supporting CFA (Feb. 2015)
  • Sue Peters, Seattle School Board Director, District 4
  • Leslie Harris, Seattle School Board Dir., District 6
  • Jill Geary, Seattle School Board Dir., District 3
  • Rick Burke, Seattle School Board Dir., District 2
  • Scott Pinkham, Seattle School Board Dir., District 1
  • Betty Patu, Seattle School Board Dir., District 5
  • Uncommitted:
    • Stefan Blanford, Seattle School Board Dir., District 7
Also, many of the other leading candidates in the 2015 fall school board race declared their support for Civics for All, including Lauren McGuire and  Michael Christophersen.


This is great news because since 2011,  district leadership (Superintendents Enfield/Banda/Nyland) has shown uneven interest in adopting the Civics for All proposal, despite the overwhelming support across the city, in all of our legislative bodies (both city and state level delegations), from civics experts around the country, and elsewhere.  The school board, ideally with unanimous support including the votes of directors Patu and Blanford, is best situated to convince district staff  to adopt the proposal so that all of SPS’s 53,000 students learn the levers of democracy.  As Diana Hess, a former UW Husky and now preeminent national civics voice and dean of the U. of Wisconsin College of Education writes: Should Schools Teach Students to Vote? YES!
We need your help in convincing them that providing our students a quality civics-based program is the right thing to do! Please Get Involved and help convince all of our school board members, Superintendent Nyland and JSCEE staff to support Civics for All adoption in time for the 2016 election.
If Seattle Public Schools does not adopt the proposal it risks losing our year and a half old $250,000 grant from King County Elections via the King County Council , which endorsed Civics for All in tandem, unanimous “Resolutions of Support for the Civics for All Initiative” with the the Seattle City Council on March 17, 2014.



Civics for All is “Civics in the Core” because civics studies align so smoothly with the coming Common Core State Standards‘ emphasis on distilling argumentative claims from non-fiction texts.  Civics for All aligns directly with and will facilitate student success on the “New SAT,”  which emphasizes America’s founding documents and current events analysis for the first time in the history of the test. Civics for All, featured in the April 2012 edition of Educational Leadership magazine, proposes that citizenship education is a fundamental student right that is central to our schools’ purpose. To restore this neglected right is a civic imperative that is being proudly embraced across Seattle!


Civics for All emphasis on equity for ALL students dovetails with the civic spirit of so many developments around Seattle, including the Pre-K education initiative as well as Mayor Ed Murray’s  recently penned Executive Order reaffirming the City’s commitment to the Race and Social Justice Initiative.


Support has been tremendous! Peter Levine,  a Tufts University professor who is the nation’s preeminent civics educator , the author of six books on civics and the executive director of CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, has written endorsement letters to Superintendent Banda and Mayor Murray.   See our complete list of Supporters here.


Citizens seem most excited by the Initiative’s proposed city-wide mock elections in which 50,000 scholar citizens will annually participate in democracy’s most sacred act: VOTING!  Research by CIRCLE “shows emphasizing elections in civics classes has a (long-term) positive impact on political knowledge and voting.”  If Superintendent Banda endorses the Initiative, King County Elections and the Secretary of State’s office have both committed to helping facilitate a student-friendly experience, with KCE providing customized, age-appropriate voter’s pamphlets, ballots,and voter registration materials and SOS providing on-line voting and detailed statistical voting analysis. Abundant research proves that when we teach youth the civic values, habits, and skills of citizenship they vote at much higher rates and tend to become voters for life.
The Plano Texas School District began doing doing mock elections across their city in 2008.  Check out the Plano student voting experience here.


Just picture it: Seattle’s civic life will POP each fall as 50,000 students from 97 schools  select candidates and choose sides within their families on the issues, ideas, and initiatives of the day!  Doing so will help ALL Seattle 18 year olds respond with a resounding “YES” to the  the New York Times recent query: “When You Are Old Enough to Vote, Will You?” 


Amazing Legislative Supporters and Others
Seattle City Council Resolution Record

 On March 17, 2014, the Seattle City Council and King County Council both  unanimously voted to adopt and issue co-Resolutions of Support for the Civics for All Initiative. KCC Chair Larry Phillips and SCC members Bruce Harrell and Nick Licata sponsored the resolutions. Also supporting the proposal: numerous Washington State Legislators, including Eric Pettigrew, Sharon Tomiko-Santos, Reuven Carlyle, Adam Kline, Bob Hasegawa, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and Eileen Cody; numerous Secretary of State staff, including Sec. Kim Wyman and former Sec. Sam Reed; leading education professors from Seattle U., the UW, UVA, and Stanford; organizations like CityClub; and teachers and citizens from all around the district and city.   


_______________________________________________

'Gardner agrees that today’s Web is hostile to self-organized collective efforts, likening it to a city that has lost its public parks. “Our time is spent on an increasingly small number of increasingly large corporate sites,” she says. “We need more public space online.”'


The next critical source of media and information is WIKIPEDIA----nothing controls information like our dictionaries and encyclopedias.  I am 100% aware that the 1% have throughout history been the source of these definitions---but what WIKIPEDIA has done is become that encyclopedia source that has no foundation in checks and balances.  We are told there are editors and it is made to seem egalitarian----but I certainly haven't been able to be one of those editors---my edits never hold-----as someone with 60 years of growing knowledge I can tell when entries are suspect but most Americans will assume what they read is right.  Again, being right stems from one's political stance, cultural stance, nationality---so it is impossible to have one encyclopedia source.

Over these several years WIKIPEDIA was marketed and has indeed become the go-to source for quick definitions when as we see below we now no longer can depend on any or what kind of oversight in what is written occurs.  I think this was a fine effort at citizen voice-----I don't know that the folks behind this vehicle were 99%.


As always---when researching information on ANYTHING----always look at several sources from the right to the left---from corporate to citizen to understand where policy/information sits that you can support.

'Those participants left seem incapable of fixing the flaws that keep Wikipedia from becoming a high-quality encyclopedia by any standard, including the project’s own'.

The Decline of Wikipedia

The community that built the largest encyclopedia in history is shrinking, even as more people and Internet services depend on it than ever. Can it be revived, or is this the end of the Web’s idealistic era?
  • by Tom Simonite
  • October 22, 2013
Wikipedia is the largest free source of information in the world.


The sixth most widely used website in the world is not run anything like the others in the top 10. It is not operated by a sophisticated corporation but by a leaderless collection of volunteers who generally work under pseudonyms and habitually bicker with each other. It rarely tries new things in the hope of luring visitors; in fact, it has changed little in a decade. And yet every month 10 billion pages are viewed on the English version of Wikipedia alone. When a major news event takes place, such as the Boston Marathon bombings, complex, widely sourced entries spring up within hours and evolve by the minute. Because there is no other free information source like it, many online services rely on Wikipedia. Look something up on Google or ask Siri a question on your iPhone, and you’ll often get back tidbits of information pulled from the encyclopedia and delivered as straight-up facts.
Yet Wikipedia and its stated ambition to “compile the sum of all human knowledge” are in trouble. The volunteer workforce that built the project’s flagship, the English-language Wikipedia—and must defend it against vandalism, hoaxes, and manipulation—has shrunk by more than a third since 2007 and is still shrinking. Those participants left seem incapable of fixing the flaws that keep Wikipedia from becoming a high-quality encyclopedia by any standard, including the project’s own. Among the significant problems that aren’t getting resolved is the site’s skewed coverage: its entries on Pokemon and female porn stars are comprehensive, but its pages on female novelists or places in sub-Saharan Africa are sketchy. Authoritative entries remain elusive. Of the 1,000 articles that the project’s own volunteers have tagged as forming the core of a good encyclopedia, most don’t earn even Wikipedia’s own middle-­ranking quality scores.
The main source of those problems is not mysterious. The loose collective running the site today, estimated to be 90 percent male, operates a crushing bureaucracy with an often abrasive atmosphere that deters newcomers who might increase participation in Wikipedia and broaden its coverage.


When Wikipedians achieved their most impressive feat of leaderless collective organization, they unwittingly set in motion the decline in participation that troubles their project today.
In response, the Wikimedia Foundation, the 187-person nonprofit that pays for the legal and technical infrastructure supporting Wikipedia, is staging a kind of rescue mission. The foundation can’t order the volunteer community to change the way it operates. But by tweaking Wikipedia’s website and software, it hopes to steer the encyclopedia onto a more sustainable path.


The foundation’s campaign will bring the first major changes in years to a site that is a time capsule from the Web’s earlier, clunkier days, far removed from the easy-to-use social and commercial sites that dominate today. “Everything that Wikipedia is was utterly appropriate in 2001 and it’s become increasingly out of date since,” says Sue Gardner, executive director of the foundation, which is housed on two drab floors of a downtown San Francisco building with a faulty elevator. “This is very much our attempt to get caught up.” She and Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, say the project needs to attract a new crowd to make progress. “The biggest issue is editor diversity,” says Wales. He hopes to “grow the number of editors in topics that need work.”
Whether that can happen depends on whether enough people still believe in the notion of online collaboration for the greater good—the ideal that propelled Wikipedia in the beginning. But the attempt is crucial; Wikipedia matters to many more people than its editors and students who didn’t make time to read their assigned books. More of us than ever use the information found there, both directly and via other services. Meanwhile, Wikipedia has either killed off the alternatives or pushed them down the Google search results. In 2009 Microsoft closed Encarta, which was based on content from several storied encyclopedias. Encyclopaedia Britannica, which charges $70 a year for online access to its 120,000 articles, offers just a handful of free entries plastered with banner and pop-up ads.


Newcomers Unwelcome


When Wikipedia launched in 2001, it wasn’t intended to be an information source in its own right. Wales, a financial trader turned Internet entrepreneur, and Larry Sanger, a freshly minted philosophy PhD, started the site to boost Nupedia, a free online encyclopedia started by Wales that relied on contributions from experts. After a year, Nupedia offered a strange collection of only 13 articles on such topics as Virgil and the Donegal fiddle tradition. Sanger and Wales hoped Wikipedia, where anyone could start or modify an entry, would rapidly generate new articles that experts could then finish up.




When they saw how enthusiastically people embraced the notion of an encyclopedia that anyone could edit, Wales and Sanger quickly made Wikipedia their main project. By the end of its first year it had more than 20,000 articles in 18 languages, and its growth was accelerating fast. In 2003, Wales formed the Wikimedia Foundation to operate the servers and software that run Wikipedia and raise money to support them. But control of the site’s content remained with the community dubbed Wikipedians, who over the next few years compiled an encyclopedia larger than any before. Without any traditional power structure, they developed sophisticated workflows and guidelines for producing and maintaining entries. Their only real nod to hierarchy was electing a small group of “administrators” who could wield special powers such as deleting articles or temporarily banning other editors. (There are now 635 active admins on the English Wikipedia.)
The project seemed laughable or shocking to many. Wikipedia inherited and embraced the cultural expectations that an encyclopedia ought to be authoritative, comprehensive, and underpinned by the rational spirit of the Enlightenment. But it threw out centuries of accepted methods for attaining that. In the established model, advisory boards, editors, and contributors selected from society’s highest intellectual echelons drew up a list of everything worth knowing, then created the necessary entries. Wikipedia eschewed central planning and didn’t solicit conventional expertise. In fact, its rules effectively discouraged experts from contributing, given that their work, like anyone else’s, could be overwritten within minutes. Wikipedia was propelled instead by the notion that articles should pile up quickly, in the hope that one Borgesian day the collection would have covered everything in the world.


Progress was swift.

The English-language Wikipedia alone had about 750,000 entries by late 2005, when a boom in media coverage and a spike in participation pushed the project across the line from Internet oddity to part of everyday life. Around that time, Wikipedians achieved their most impressive feat of leaderless collective organization—one, it turns out, that set in motion the decline in participation that troubles their project today. At some time in 2006, the established editors began to feel control of the site slipping from their grasp. As the number of new contributions—well-meaning and otherwise—was growing, the task of policing them all for quality began to feel impossible. Because of Wikipedia’s higher public profile and commitment to letting anyone contribute even anonymously, many updates were pure vandalism. High-profile incidents such as the posting of a defamatory hoax article about the journalist John Seigenthaler raised serious questions about whether crowdsourcing an encyclopedia, or anything else, could ever work.



As is typical with Wikipedians, a response emerged from a mixture of cordial discussions, tedious arguments, and online wrestling matches—but it was sophisticated. The project’s most active volunteers introduced a raft of new editing tools and bureaucratic procedures intended to combat the bad edits. They created software that allowed fellow editors to quickly survey recent changes and reject them or admonish their authors with a single mouse click. They set loose automated “bots” that could reverse any incorrectly formatted changes or those that were likely to be vandalism and dispatch warning messages to the offending editors.


The tough new measures worked.

Vandalism was brought under control, and hoaxes and scandals became less common. Newly stabilized, and still growing in scope and quality, the encyclopedia became embedded in the firmament of the Web. Today the English Wikipedia has 4.4 million articles; there are 23.1 million more in 286 other languages. But those tougher rules and the more suspicious atmosphere that came along with them had an unintended consequence. Newcomers to Wikipedia making their first, tentative edits—and the inevitable mistakes—became less likely to stick around. Being steamrollered by the newly efficient, impersonal editing machine was no fun. The number of active editors on the English-language Wikipedia peaked in 2007 at more than 51,000 and has been declining ever since as the supply of new ones got choked off. This past summer only 31,000 people could be considered active editors.

“I categorize from 2007 until now as the decline phase of Wikipedia,” says Aaron Halfaker, a grad student at the University of Minnesota who has worked for the Wikimedia Foundation as a contractor and this year published the most detailed assessment of the problem. “It looks like Wikipedia is strangling itself for this resource of new editors.”


Halfaker’s study, which he conducted with a Minnesota colleague and researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, analyzed Wikipedia’s public activity logs. The results paint a numerical picture of a community dominated by bureaucracy. Since 2007, when the new controls began to bite, the likelihood of a new participant’s edit being immediately deleted has steadily climbed. Over the same period, the proportion of those deletions made by automated tools rather than humans grew. Unsurprisingly, the data also indicate that well-intentioned newcomers are far less likely to still be editing Wikipedia two months after their first try.


In their paper on those findings, the researchers suggest updating Wikipedia’s motto, “The encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” Their version reads: “The encyclopedia that anyone who understands the norms, socializes him or herself, dodges the impersonal wall of semi-automated rejection and still wants to voluntarily contribute his or her time and energy can edit.”
Because Wikipedia has failed to replenish its supply of editors, its skew toward technical, Western, and male-dominated subject matter has persisted. In 2011, researchers from the University of Minnesota and three other schools showed that articles worked on mostly by female editors—which presumably were more likely to be of interest to women—were significantly shorter than those worked on mostly by male editors or by men and women equally. Another 2011 study, from the University of Oxford, found that 84 percent of entries tagged with a location were about Europe or North America. Antarctica had more entries than any nation in Africa or South America.


The Upgrade


When asked about the decline in the number of editors, Gardner carefully explains that she is addressing it only as a precaution, because there’s no proof it is harming Wikipedia. But after a few minutes discussing the issue, it is clear that she believes Wikipedia needs help. A career journalist who headed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s online operations before taking her current position, Gardner reaches for an analogy from the newsroom to explain why the trend matters. “The Wikipedians remind me of the crusty old desk guy who knows the style guide backwards,” she says. “But where are the eager cub reporters? You don’t get the crusty old desk guy out at three in the morning to cover a fire. That’s for the new guy, who’s got a lot of energy and potential. At Wikipedia we don’t have a sufficient influx of cub reporters.”

In 2012 Gardner formed two teams—now called Growth and Core Features—to try to reverse the decline by making changes to Wikipedia’s website. One idea from the researchers, software engineers, and designers in these groups was the “Thank” button, Wikipedia’s answer to Facebook’s ubiquitous “Like.” Since May, editors have been able to click the Thank button to quickly acknowledge good contributions by others. It’s the first time they have been given a tool designed solely to deliver positive feedback for individual edits, says Steven Walling, product manager on the Growth team. “There have always been one-button-push tools to react to negative edits,” he says. “But there’s never been a way to just be, like, ‘Well, that was pretty good, thanks.’” ­Walling’s group has focused much of its work on making life easier for new editors. One idea being tested offers newcomers suggestions about what to work on, steering them toward easy tasks such as copyediting articles that need it. The hope is this will give people time to gain confidence before they break a rule and experience the tough side of Wikipedia.


These might seem like small changes, but it is all but impossible for the foundation to get the community to support bigger adjustments. Nothing exemplifies this better than the effort to introduce the text editing approach that most people are familiar with: the one found in everyday word processing programs.
Since Wikipedia began, editing has required using “wikitext,” a markup language painful to the untrained eye. It makes the first sentence of Wikipedia’s entry for the United States look like this:
The ”’United States of America”’ (”’USA”’ or ”’U.S.A.”’), commonly referred to as the ”’United States”’ (”’US”’ or ”’U.S.”’) and ”’America”’, is a [[federal republic]]<ref>}</ref><ref>}</ref> consisting of 50 [[U.S. state|states]] and a [[Federal district (United States)|federal district]].


After years of planning, the foundation finally unveiled Visual Editor, an interface that hides the wikitext and offers “what you see is what you get” editing. It rolled out in a site-wide trial in July, with the expectation that it would soon become a permanent fixture.
But in the topsy-turvy world of the encyclopedia anyone can edit, it’s not a fringe opinion that making editing easier is a waste of time. The characteristics of a dedicated volunteer editor—Gardner lists “fussy,” “persnickety,” and “intellectually self-confident”—are not those that urge the acceptance of changes like Visual Editor. 
After the foundation made Visual Editor the default way to edit entries, Wikipedians rebelled and complained of bugs in the software. In September, a Request for Comment, a survey of the community, concluded that the new interface should be hidden by default. The foundation initially refused, but in September a community–elected administrator released a modification to Wikipedia’s code to hide Visual Editor. The foundation gave in. It made Visual Editor opt-in rather than opt-out—meaning that the flagship project to help newcomers is in fact invisible to newcomers, unless they dig through account settings to switch the new interface on.


Many opponents of Visual Editor dispute the idea that it will help Wikipedia. “I don’t think this is the cure the foundation’s looking for,” says Oliver Moran, an Irish software engineer who has made thousands of edits since 2004 and is a top administrator. Like some other vocal Wikipedians, he considers it patronizing to say that wikitext keeps out certain people. “Look at something like Twitter,” he says. “People pick up the hashtags and @ signs straight away.” Much criticism of Visual Editor is also underpinned by a feeling that it proves the foundation is happy to make unilateral changes to a supposedly collaborative project. Moran says Visual Editor was rolled out without enough input from the people providing the voluntary labor Wikipedia is built on.


When asked to identify Wikipedia’s real problem, Moran cites the bureaucratic culture that has formed around the rules and guidelines on contributing, which have become labyrinthine over the years. The page explaining a policy called Neutral Point of View, one of “five pillars” fundamental to Wikipedia, is almost 5,000 words long. “That is the real barrier: policy creep,” he says. But whatever role that plays in Wikipedia’s travails, any effort to prune its bureaucracy is hard to imagine. It would have to be led by Wikipedians, and the most active volunteers have come to rely on bureaucratic incantations. Citing “WP:NPV” (the neutral point of view policy) or threatening to take a matter to ARBCOM (the arbitration committee for dispute resolution) in a way that suggests you know a lot about such arcana is easier than having a more substantive discussion.
This is not to say all Wikipedians disagree with the Wikimedia Foundation’s assessment of the site’s problems and its ideas for addressing them. But even grassroots initiatives to help Wikipedia can’t escape the community’s tendency to get bogged down in navel-gazing ­arguments.


In July 2012, some editors started a page called WikiProject Editor Retention with the idea of creating a place to brainstorm ideas about helping newcomers and fostering a friendlier atmosphere. Today the most vibrant parts of that project’s discussion page have gripes about “bullying done by administrators,” debates over whether “Wikipedia has become a bloody madhouse,” and disputes featuring accusations such as “You registered an account today just to have a go at me?”


Public Good


Even though Wikipedia has far fewer active editors than it did in its heyday, the number and length of its articles continue to grow. This means the volunteers who remain have more to do, and Gardner says she can sense the effects: “Anecdotally, the editing community has a sense of feeling a little bit beleaguered and overworked.” A 2011 survey by the Wikimedia Foundation suggested that being an active editor already required a significant time commitment. Of 5,200 Wikipedians from all language editions of the project, 50 percent contributed more than one hour a day, and 20 percent edited for three or more hours a day. Wikipedia’s anti-abuse systems are probably effective enough to keep vandalism in check, says Halfaker, but the more complex work of improving, expanding, and updating articles may suffer: “When there’s fewer people working, less work gets done.”

When the topic of quality comes up, anyone affiliated with Wikipedia often points out that it is “a work in progress.” But such caveats aren’t very meaningful when the project’s content is put to use. When Google’s search engine puts Wikipedia content into a fact box to answer a query, or Apple’s Siri uses it to answer a question, the information is presented as authoritative. Google users are invited to report inaccuracies, but only if they spot and then click an easy-to-miss link to “feedback/more info.” Even then, the feedback goes to Google, not to Wikipedia itself.


Jimmy Wales, now just a regular Wikipedian but still influential with editors and the Wikimedia Foundation, dismisses suggestions that the project will get worse. But he believes it can’t get significantly better without an influx of new editors who have different interests and emphases. “When you look at the article on the USB standard, you see it is really amazing and core to our competency as a tech geek community, but look at an entry about somebody famous in sociology, or Elizabethan poets, and it is quite limited and short and could be improved,” he says. “That’s not likely to happen until we diversify the community.” Wales hopes Visual Editor will do that by attracting people who are similar to those already editing the site but have interests beyond the male- and tech-centric—as he puts it, “geeks who are not computer geeks.” But he admits to worrying that making Wikipedia simpler to edit could instead confirm that the project doesn’t appeal to people who are not computer geeks.
Indeed, larger cultural trends will probably make it a challenge to appeal to a broader section of the public. As commercial websites have risen to prominence, online life has moved away from open, self-governed crowdsourcing communities like the one that runs Wikipedia, says Clay Shirky, a professor in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. Shirky was one of the biggest boosters of an idea, popular during the previous decade, that the Web encouraged strangers to come together and achieve things impossible for a conventional organization. Wikipedia is proof there was some truth to that notion. But today’s Web is dominated by sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where people maintain personal, egocentric feeds. Outside specific settings like massive multiplayer games, relatively few people mingle in shared virtual space. Instead, they use mobile devices that are unsuited to complex creative work and favor neatly self-­contained apps over messier, interconnected Web pages. Shirky, who is an advisor to the Wikimedia Foundation, says people steeped in that model will struggle to understand how and why they should contribute to Wikipedia or any project like it. “Facebook is the largest participatory culture today, but their mode of participation is different,” he says. “It’s aggregating rather than collaborating.”
Gardner agrees that today’s Web is hostile to self-organized collective efforts, likening it to a city that has lost its public parks. “Our time is spent on an increasingly small number of increasingly large corporate sites,” she says. “We need more public space online.” In fact, Gardner is leaving the foundation at the end of the year in search of new projects to work on that very problem. She contends that even with all its troubles, Wikipedia is one of the Web’s few public parks that won’t disappear.
She is surely right that Wikipedia isn’t going away. On Gardner’s watch, the funds the Wikimedia Foundation has raised each year to support the site have grown from $4 million to $45 million. Because the encyclopedia has little competition, Web developers will continue to build services that treat its content as fact, and ordinary people will rely on Wikipedia for information.
Yet it may be unable to get much closer to its lofty goal of compiling all human knowledge. Wikipedia’s community built a system and resource unique in the history of civilization. It proved a worthy, perhaps fatal, match for conventional ways of building encyclopedias. But that community also constructed barriers that deter the newcomers needed to finish the job. Perhaps it was too much to expect that a crowd of Internet strangers would truly democratize knowledge. Today’s Wikipedia, even with its middling quality and poor representation of the world’s diversity, could be the best encyclopedia we will get.

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September 23rd, 2016

9/23/2016

0 Comments

 
My organization does not even participate in this 2016 general election because it is so fraudulent and the candidates are all so criminal we are not voting at all.  Clinton Wall Street global corporate neo-liberal media outlets are calling TRUMP authoritarian and a brutal dictator while the Bush neo-conservatives ramp up the posing that the Clintons and Obamas are far-left wing socialists, communists, MARXISTS.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the media message machine filling the American people with what they see as MOVING FORWARD----far-right 1% Wall Street Libertarian Marxism.  The extreme wealth and extreme poverty of third world International Economic Zones.


Below is a right-wing media outlet promoting far-right Libertarian Marxism to a conservative Republican voter pool-----EVERYONE KNOW THE CLINTONS ARE AS WALL STREET AND EXTREME WEALTH AND POWER AS IT GETS----we do not allow media to tell us---'but now these same pols are far-left'.

Whether it is the radio or internet political commentators working for Wall Street by sending dis-information to both Democrats and Republicans-----our US media and academies once the best in the world at HOLDING POWER ACCOUNTABLE----are now the source of third world propaganda.
  Johns Hopkins----University of Maryland----University of Baltimore----the 15 religious leaders partnered with Wall Street Baltimore Development and that Foreign Economic Zone ONE WORLD plan----all Maryland Assembly and Baltimore City Hall pols KNOW THIS and as the 5% to the 1% they will keep LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING.

ONE WORLD has a 1% and their 2% very rich holding 99% in extreme poverty ----that is SLAVERY----NOT COMMUNISM/SOCIALISM.  The far-right wing has used MARXISM as the tool to move societal structures to the far-right, authoritarian, militaristic, rule by the rich and have always called this LEFT-LEANING -----MAO, STALIN, OTHER BRUTAL DICTATORS saying they are socialist are simply sociopaths wanting all their nations' wealth to themselves.

MARXIST GRADUALISM IS NOT LEFT-LEANING IT IS FAR-RIGHT CORPORATE WEALTH AND POWER.

If a media outlet is selling these propaganda terms----STOP LISTENING TO THEM and educate citizens about why that media outlet is WALL STREET CAPTURED.

Trump will MOVE FORWARD with ONE WORLD just as Hillary has spent her entire political career doing---it will be brutal for all population groups no matter which of these two players are tapped to win rigged elections.

 If the American people do not HOLD MEDIA accountable for deliberately protecting 1% Wall Street----we cannot stop this dis-information---make those local, state, and national media outlet SHAMED.

All of Baltimore's media reporters-----private, non-profit, government----are propagandizing.





A Marxist Hillary Fantasizes About Redistributing Trump’s Wealth When He’s DEAD
by S. Noble • August 12, 2016  INDEPENDENT SENTINEL

And She's Applauded For It

Hillary Clinton showed off her true Marxist-Communist values and her vision of what she – as the government -would do with Trump’s money after he’s dead during her speech on the economy Thursday and she did so to rousing applause.
The media should be grabbing on to this in no time.
Envisioning a dead Trump, she saw his hard-earned money going, not to his heirs, but to the government that would first take their slice and then pass it on somewhere to their liking, mostly to cronies who donate and some would go to their special interest voters.
“And then there’s the estate tax,” Hillary said, “which Trump wants to eliminate altogether.” Now if you believe that he’s as wealthy as he says, that alone would save the Trump family four billion dollars. It would do nothing for 99.8% of Americans. So they’d get a four billion dollar tax cut, and 99.8% of Americans would get nothing.
“Just think of what we could do with those four billion dollars. We could pay for more than forty-seven thousand veterans to get a four-year college degree. We could provide a year’s worth of health care to nearly three million kids. Or we could fund a year’s worth of federal assistance to state and local law enforcement. I think there are a lot of better ways to spend the money.”
This is no different than a thief desiring another person’s money and going up to them with a gun and demanding it.
The estate tax is theft plain and simple but a lot of Americans now believe it’s the government’s money and that they will share it appropriately after they take their slice and pay off union workers.
So successful is man’s greed and jealousy that people will be happy simply to see the rich have their money stolen from them, even after death. They see the rich as evil and everyone else as good when in fact most rich are good and generous people but not all poor are good.
Her communist tenets of class warfare and redistribution of wealth with the government as thief are now accepted by many Democrats and some Republicans. where is the media?
Hillary will kill small business who will be taxed as richer than they are because they are taxed before deductions. She will make the super rich and corporations pay more though the top 1% already pay more than 45.7% of the federal taxes with nearly half the country – 45% – paying nothing – they have no stake in this country.
That is not moral. Listen to what she is saying — it’s moral for the government to confiscate wealth and put it in the pockets of those who did nothing to earn it. She is saying it’s moral to tax someone 60 to 70 percent or more of their income and it’s just fine to tax them after death on money that has already been taxed and that they earned.
And, no, you didn’t build that, they did.
Then there is leftist cry of “The Buffet Rule,” which is built on a lie. It’s a campaign gimmick.
The Buffett rule is a fraud and next to the faux war on women, it is one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the American people.
For example, the 30% income tax rate on capital gains would raise less than 6% of the total cost of the stimulus and would raise roughly the same amount in one year as the U.S. government accumulates in debt in a single day.

The Buffett rule is totally meaningless, not serious. Reporters should do their job and put this in perspective.
The media is going along with this hoax and pretending that the Buffett rule will make the difference. They investigate nothing Hillary or Obama say.




Hillary is echoing Obama’s bad policies for the economy. Buffett didn’t even define the rule the way Obama is defining it – check his video at the end to see how confused he is. This is nothing more than a political ruse.
Prosperity comes from the producers, notably when they are able to hire people, invent, build. It does not come from the government. We saw eight years of the government “building” at slightly better than 1% growth in the GDP.

Obama is not telling the American people the truth.

Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg disputed the Buffett doctrine and said that, “A very small percentage in this country pay a big chunk of the taxes” which we noted above.

Our tax system is already overly progressive and it’s about to get worse with Obama’s doppelgänger Hillary, only she’s far more corrupt.


__________________________________________

I don't want to get into tax policy now but to point once more to dis-information coming from this time the right-wing media---it is CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA as far-right Wall Street global pols who created extreme wealth and extreme poverty.  It is this extreme poverty whether low wages or unemployment that has 45% of US citizens paying no taxes----if you want people paying more taxes raise wages and stop deliberately creating national and local STAGNANT economies.  Second, Foreign Economic Zone policies keep global corporations from paying taxes----they are called TAX-FREE ZONES----and the IRS has not audited the rich for tax evasion since Reagan.  We know Obama's IRS has allowed hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate tax evasion---SO THE 1% ARE NOT PAYING 45.7% OF THE FEDERAL TAXES.

THE SOON TO BE 99% OF AMERICANS HAVING NO STAKE IN THIS COUNTRY BECAUSE THEY ARE BEING DRIVEN TO THIRD WORLD WAGES AND DEEP POVERTY SAY THE RIGHT-WING.

The right-wing media are saying all this because the coming CONGRESSIONAL TAX REFORM is about installing ONE WORLD World Bank written tax standards that will continue the current structures having the 99% paying more and more and more taxes to subsidize global corporate campus development.  We hear our US citizens repeating all this because they do not educate themselves BROADLY to know these media outlets are LYING.


'She will make the super rich and corporations pay more though the top 1% already pay more than 45.7% of the federal taxes with nearly half the country – 45% – paying nothing – they have no stake in this country'.

____________________

Remember, these 1% Wall Street media outlets are neither Republican or Democrat---they are global 1% media dis-information.  LIBERTY ALLIANCE has a website with religious verse bringing that FAKE RELIGIOUS calling to their views.  Note that religious leaders calling a global corporate campus like UnderArmour good for jobs and poor communities are just as FAKE tied to IVY LEAGUE wealth and power.
It does not take much to see what China or USSR citizens were receiving as far as media as Stalin and Mao were being installed.  These same distortions as to goals.  The last thing that comes from far-right Libertarianism is freedom and liberty unless you are the 1% and their 2%---yet right-wing voters have fallen for this over these few decades just as left-wing voters have allowed media to paint Clinton/Obama neo-liberals as left-leaning.


Exposing the Marxist/Communist Past of Hillary Clinton

By Liberty Alliance on April 16, 2015

 I left off on the last article with how Hillary Rodham Clinton wants a revolutionary change and the building of a new society founded on Marxist principles. Hillary Rodham Clinton is an evil individual who has been taught that the United States has to change to a more Socialistic/Marxist way. She was against the Vietnam War and led protests against it, showing her disregard for the military and what they were doing to try and hold Communism at bay in Vietnam. That did not matter to Hillary at all; her ideas were more like Stalin and Hitler than any of our ideas of the United States.



Please take the time to educate on these people tied to LIBERTY ALLIANCE and then follow them to other connections to know the organizations that are captured to Wall Street.  Democratic voters need to know both sides of the aisles in order to know when the far-right are posing as left-leaning media sources----like REAL NEWS.


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'About the Center For American Progress'

Below you see ThinkProgress is tied to one of the most progressively MOVING FORWARD NEO-LIBERAL ORGANIZATIONS ----CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS.  The title it tied to empire-building as progressive economics.....AKA---neo-liberalism.



'The Writers Guild of America East announced Thursday that the staffers of ThinkProgress, the liberal blog of the nonprofit Center for American Progress Action Fund, had joined the union. The guild said management had agreed to voluntarily recognize the union and forego holding a workplace election'.

About the Center For American Progress


Our mission

The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Our aim is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country.



Our values

As progressives, we believe America should be a land of boundless opportunity, where people can climb the ladder of economic mobility. We believe we owe it to future generations to protect the planet and promote peace and shared global prosperity.
And we believe an effective government can earn the trust of the American people, champion the common good over narrow self-interest, and harness the strength of our diversity.


Below we see Media Matters tied to SOROS----clearly tied to Clinton and economic empire-building Clinton neo-liberalism.  Brock is called a turncoat for leaving what was a conservative Republican media outlet for a far-right Wall Street neo-liberal one.  Nothing left-leaning media happening with GAWKER, THINKPROGRESS, MEDIA MATTERS, OR CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS.


'Brock is a famous turncoat, working as a conservative reporter for The American Spectator in the 1990’s before crafting an elaborate conversion to liberalism'.




Politics


Media Matters Founder David Brock: We Appreciate Soros Funding To Pursue Journalists
Patrick Howley
Political Reporter

9:06 PM 04/27/2014

 
  Billionaire investor George Soros of Soros Fund Management attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 26, 2013. REUTERS/Pascal Lauener
Media Matters founder David Brock said Sunday that he’s grateful for progressive billionaire George Soros’ “generosity” and confirmed that he chooses to “pursue” journalists if he “starts to see patterns” in their work.

Brock, his silver mane and bizarre vocal intonations lending him the likeness of a socially awkward Bond villain, sat in San Francisco for a softball interview with CNN’s Reliable Sources to respond to the controversy surrounding former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson. The liberal smear machine Media Matters has been hammering the brilliant female investigative reporter with the term “shoddy reporting” to describe her exposes on Obama administration scandals including Fast and Furious and Benghazi.


Attkisson said that she was discouraged from reporting negatively on the Obama administration while at CBS News and claimed that Media Matters was paid to target her work specifically. Brock denied the accusation, but confirmed that his group pursues journalists who emerge on his “radar screen.”
“Look, we’re almost 24/7 monitoring a cross range of national political media and she came on our radar screen in the normal course of events. There was nothing unusual about it. We noticed a pattern of misinformation in her work, we posted critiques to our website of her work, and it was all transparent,” Brock said.
 

“You do pursue individual journalists who you feel are inaccurate or are biased,” the host asked.
“Sure we do. Right. It’s well beyond Sharryl Atkisson. We’re watching, we’re monitoring all of national journalism and once we start to see patterns we will stay on a story just like a journalist will stay on a story. And so in her case we did stay on her story,” Brock said.
“We do work with reporters. We’re a media watchdog group,” Brock said.
Media Matters’ smears of conservative journalists, which often link right-leaning outlets and commentators to accusations of bigotry of some variety, are routinely parroted by the mainstream media.
“We appreciate George Soros’ generosity. He is a major donor but it’s not a huge percentage of our budget,” Brock said, placing Soros’ contributions to his funding at “less than ten percent.”


Brock either struggled with his earpiece or scratched his head at one point in the interview, prompting a CNN cutaway, and generally looked and sounded even more out of touch with reality than usual.
The Daily Caller famously exposed Media Matters in a 2012 investigation, in which TheDC revealed that Brock travels with armed bodyguards to protect himself against imagined right-wing snipers and that he wanted to fire an employee for being physically unattractive.
“There were a lot of conversations about David’s mental health,” said an attendee of a 2008 Democracy Alliance meeting that Brock attended, where he made an aggressive alienating scene. A number of people in Brock’s orbit believed that he was using illegal drugs including cocaine.
Brock is a famous turncoat, working as a conservative reporter for The American Spectator in the 1990’s before crafting an elaborate conversion to liberalism.

_______________________________________

The videos from yesterday from LOU DOBBS to United We Fall----speak of the term FOURTH ESTATE.  This is not conspiracy theory it is an actual network of what I call the 5% to the 1% of media citizens.  We must educate as to their bias in reporting just enough not to tell the real truth------they will not interview anyone considered really populist because they do not want left-leaning gaining name recognition.  These folks are mostly Ivy League grads------fraternity and sorority citizens thinking they are part of this empire-building.  They are tied to FREEMASONRY-----those professionals thinking that secret knock and funny hat really has them with the global 1%!

Baltimore's media is TOTALLY CAPTURED to these 5% to the 1% and they are committed to keeping the focus on MOVING FORWARD and hiding what the real goals of US CITIES DEEMED INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ZONES UNDER TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT----feeding our youth with false ideas about what a COSMOPOLITAN BALTIMORE will look like.


'The origins of the term “the fourth estate” are best explained within the context of the medieval “estates of the realm.” In medieval society, three “estates” were formally recognized: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners'.

We see above where the medieval structures around society were clergy tied to nobility over commoners and this is just what the 1% Wall Street global corporate pols with a captured media are trying to install.  It is why we are seeing that 5% to the 1% RELIGIOUS citizens working hard for Wall Street Development Corporations as in Baltimore.  Providing fake left-leaning cover for very bad extreme wealth and extreme authoritarian corporate power!

IT'S ALL GOOD FOR THE POOR AND WORKERS!



What is the Fourth Estate?

Fourth Estate
Meeting Of The Estates General
  • The media constitutes the fourth estate.
  • The fourth estate, or the press, is considered an important aspect of a democracy.
View slideshow of images above
Watch the Did-You-Know slideshow


Article Details
  • Written By: Mary McMahon
  • Edited By: Bronwyn Harris
  • Last Modified Date: 16 August 2016
  • Copyright Protected:
    2003-2016
    Conjecture Corporation


The fourth estate is the public press, referred to as a collective and encompassing photographers, journalists, television broadcasters, and radio announcers, among others. Many people generally agree that the press, or media, has immense political and social power, thanks to the fact that it can be used to shape societies while imparting news of note and commentary of interest. Because it is recognized as such an important body, many nations have laws which protect the rights of the press, ensuring that citizens have access to reporting on matters of interest and of note.
The origins of the term “the fourth estate” are best explained within the context of the medieval “estates of the realm.” In medieval society, three “estates” were formally recognized: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. Each estate had a very distinct social role and a certain level of power, and the idea became so entrenched in European society that it still lives on, to some extent, although society is far more egalitarian today.

In the middle of the 19th century, people began referring to the press as a fourth estate, referencing the fact that most parliaments and other houses of government had an area set aside specifically for the use of the press, and pointing out that the press was a distinct group within the larger framework of the realm. Several historians credit the coinage of the term to Edmund Burke, who is said to have referenced it when discussing the French Revolution, and Thomas Carlyle, a 19th century author, popularized the term.


The press plays a very important role in most societies, reporting on a wide variety of topics and creating powerful personalities who are relied upon for sources of information and commentary. Writing about the first estate in 1841, Thomas Carlyle pointed out that the press had a powerful role in parliamentary procedure, shaping the will of the people and influencing the outcome of votes among the government, as well. Carlyle also argued that the press was an important part of a democratic society, saying that writing gives people “a tongue which others will listen to.”


Because of the importance of journalism in society, most members of the media abide by certain professional and personal ethics. Many journalists attempt to cultivate an air of neutrality, focusing on reporting of the issues as they are so that people can judge the facts for themselves, while others focus on offering commentary and analysis from the perspective of a particular position. Journalists are careful as a whole to protect the integrity of the press, protecting sources, verifying information before publication, and using a variety of other techniques to convey a trustworthy appearance to the public, encouraging people to put their faith in the media.



List of television reporters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
United StatesNational newscasts
  • Chris Jury
  • Julie Chen
  • Katie Couric
  • Anderson Cooper
  • Christen Craig
  • Walter Cronkite
  • Jason Dasey
  • John Donvan
  • Hugh Downs
  • Lisa Fletcher
  • Brit Hume
  • Peter Jennings
  • Greg Kelly
  • Ted Koppel
  • Steve Kroft
  • Don Lemon
  • Rick Leventhal
  • Javed Malik
  • Dave Marash
  • Michel Martin
  • Dan Patrick
  • Scott Pelley
  • Mari Ramos
  • Dan Rather
  • Birmania Rios
  • Geraldo Rivera
  • Diane Sawyer
  • Bob Schieffer
  • Carole Simpson
  • Lesley Stahl
  • Charlie Steiner
  • George Stephanopoulos
  • Hannah Storm
  • John Stossel
  • Ray Suarez
  • Mike Wallace
  • Barbara Walters
  • Brian Williams
  • John Yang
  • Dave Malkoff
  • Eunice Yoon
  • Shepard Smith
Local newscasts
  • Cyndy Brucato
  • Ken Case
  • Joel Connable
  • Lin Sue Cooney
  • Nancy Cox
  • Jim Gardner
  • Emily Gimmel
  • Julius Hunter
  • Jackie Hyland
  • Kelsey Kerwin
  • Nancy Loo
  • Jackie Nespral
  • Vicky Nguyen
  • Kent Ninomiya
  • Naibe Reynoso
  • Kate Sullivan
  • Liz Swaine
  • Dave Ward
  • Marvin Zindler


The Fourth Estate Restaurant is open to the public and serves stylish American food in the historic National Press Club. Executive chef Susan Delbert uses locally grown produce and meats for a menu that elevates taste above trendiness. The atmosphere is ideal for a meal with a source or a sweetheart.
While the venue is historic, the food is rooted in here and now. Susan works with organic and small farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, giving her access to the freshest, most flavorful produce, cheeses, and meats.
The Winners' Room is our private dining room seating up to 36 that features a sun-filled room named after the winners of the prestigious Fourth Estate Award. Enjoy lunch or dinner where the newsworthy aren’t just pictures on the wall -- they’re probably speaking in the next room.

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  • Brunch Sat Seating from 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
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  • Dinner Tues - Sat Seating from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. (Saturday seating begins at 5:00 p.m.)
  • Call (202) 662-7638 to inquire about days and times available for private events.
  • The Fourth Estate is closed on all Federal holidays and holiday weekends.
_____________________________________________
All of this is of course why the American people have no clue as to goals of public policy or how to fix the corruption that holds our governance.  It is why as well as the MARXIST GRADUALISM states from CLINTON TO BUSH TO OBAMA the 1% Wall Street was allowed to ignore our US Constitution---pass laws killing democracy and our status as republic and loot all the wealth of our nation during those times----the Robber Baron years were not televised nor will this coming people's revolutions.

Baby boomers know what a societal structure built for CIVICS AND CIVIL ENGAGEMENT looks like.  We had strong public structures----our city government and state government funded those public forums for public policy discussion and debate among citizens.  Our public universities were filled with professors wanting to promote that civil engagement as citizens decided if they wanted to attend a conservative university in a Republican state or a socially liberal one in a Democratic state.  Today our public universities have CEOs trying hard to close or privatize to corporate R AND D------our once strong public universities.


Americans know surprisingly little about their government, survey finds

September 17, 2014



PHILADELPHIA – Americans show great uncertainty when it comes to answering basic questions about how their government works, a national survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has found.

The survey of 1,416 adults, released for Constitution Day (Sept. 17) in conjunction with the launch of the Civics Renewal Network, found that:
  • While little more than a third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, just as many (35 percent) could not name a single one.
  • Just over a quarter of Americans (27 percent) know it takes a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto.
  • One in five Americans (21 percent) incorrectly thinks that a 5-4 Supreme Court decision is sent back to Congress for reconsideration.
“Although surveys reflect disapproval of the way Congress, the President and the Supreme Court are conducting their affairs, the Annenberg survey demonstrates that many know surprisingly little about these branches of government,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). “This survey offers dramatic evidence of the need for more and better civics education.”



The Civics Renewal Network


To address the problem, APPC and 25 other nonpartisan organizations, including the Library of Congress, the National Constitution Center, the U.S. Courts, the National Archives, and the Newseum, announced the launch of the Civics Renewal Network, a unique partnership among some of the nation’s leaders in civics education. The network offers free, high-quality resources for teachers through the one-stop website www.civicsrenewalnetwork.org.


The Civics Renewal Network is celebrating Constitution Day with coast-to-coast activities and running public service ads in some major television markets encouraging viewers to learn about the Constitution. The ads can be seen on YouTube here and here.
In a first, the U.S. Courts are holding 27 naturalization ceremonies at iconic sites from Maine to Alaska. Students at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and more than 550 schools nationwide will take the “Preamble Challenge,” reciting the 52-word Preamble to the Constitution. An American Academy of Arts & Sciences symposium at the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center in Washington, D.C., will examine the role of civics in American life, followed by a keynote address from new National Endowment for the Humanities chairman William “Bro” Adams. Those events will be video-streamed by the Academy here. The full day’s schedule can be found on the APPC site here. A 10:30 a.m. news conference by the Civics Renewal Network also will be video-streamed on its site.


Most Americans do not know which parties control the House and Senate


The study also found that more than half of Americans do not know which party controls the House and Senate:
  • Asked which party has the most members in the House of Representatives, 38 percent said they knew the Republicans are the majority, but 17 percent responded the Democrats, and 44 percent reported that they did not know (up from 27 percent who said they did not know in 2011).
  • Asked which party controls the Senate, 38 percent correctly said the Democrats, 20 percent said the Republicans, and 42 percent said they did not know (also up from 27 percent who said they did not know in 2011).
For the complete release on the survey, click here. For additional information on methodology and data, click here.
0 Comments

September 22nd, 2016

9/22/2016

0 Comments

 
I always hassle our local mainstream media reporters for being that 5% to the 1% ---telling them to MENTOR REAL CITIZEN JOURNALISM on the side after DOING WHAT THEY ARE TOLD.  This is how they respond.  Citizens can protect their jobs while also stepping out of that role to fuel some local media development.  One thing these media reporters love to say when I shout to HOLD POWER ACCOUNTABLE----'that's what they are doing in California'.  The far-right love that the most left-leaning social Democratic state of CA was taken far-right 1% Wall Street during the REAGAN/SCHWARZNEGGER years and indeed CA is MOVING FORWARD as hard as they can to this ONE WORLD GLOBAL CORPORATE RULE.  Hollywood is grand central in creating media selling this idea-----the stars come out to sell Wall Street candidates----and below we see the contribution to the global corporate neo-liberal reform -----the national charter chain saying it all.

EVERYWHERE WE TURN THOSE GLAMOROUS HOLLYWOOD AND MUSIC STARS ARE TELLING US-----WE ARE CITIZENS OF THE WORLD----NOT OF A SOVEREIGN NATION.




Citizens of the World Charter Schoools


K-8|Public charter|Los Angeles Unified School District|402 students

1316 North Bronson Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90028|Contact info

As the flagship school of the first national charter school network with a commitment to economic and racial diversity, CWC Hollywood is helping to guide the conversation about defining excellent education, while building a broader base of support for reform. We believe our success will inspire a renewed respect and support for public schools, and the excellent education they can deliver to all students.


CWC schools are located in communities where parents are demanding challenging and joyful learning environments that serve diverse communities. As of the 2015-16 school year, CWC has two schools in New York serving some 500 children. Meet Chad Ferguson, Executive Director of CWC New York.
CWC New York Website
CWC Williamsburg opened in 2013
CWC Crown Heights opened in 2013
____________________________________________

'I don't think that cosmopolitanism has to be either elitist or unpatriotic; I think it's perfectly possible to combine a sense of real responsibility for other human beings as human beings with a deeper sense of commitment to a political community'.


OH, REALLY??? SO, THESE FEW DECADES OF CREATING EXTREME WEALTH AND POWER IS NOT YOUR DEFINITION OF COSMOPOLITAN?


I always hassle our local mainstream media reporters for being that 5% to the 1% ---telling them to MENTOR REAL CITIZEN JOURNALISM on the side after DOING WHAT THEY ARE TOLD. This is how they respond. Citizens can protect their jobs while also stepping out of that role to fuel some local media development. One thing these media reporters love to say when I shout to HOLD POWER ACCOUNTABLE----'that's what they are doing in California'. The far-right love that the most left-leaning social Democratic state of CA was taken far-right 1% Wall Street during the REAGAN/SCHWARTZNEGGER years and indeed CA is MOVING FORWARD as hard as they can to this ONE WORLD GLOBAL CORPORATE RULE. Hollywood is grand central in creating media selling this idea-----the stars come out to sell Wall Street candidates----and below we see the contribution to the global corporate neo-liberal reform -----the national charter change saying it all.

EVERYWHERE WE TURN THOSE GLAMOROUS HOLLYWOOD AND MUSIC STARS ARE TELLING US-----WE ARE CITIZENS OF THE WORLD----NOT OF A SOVEREIGN NATION.




Nations around the world have always had their largest cities known to be COSMOPOLITAN-----NYC and LA have been those cities in the US. Cosmopolitan in modern history never meant-------NO NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY------DEVELOPED NATIONS HAVING REAL ESTATE SET ASIDE TO OPERATE UNDER GLOBAL RULES. No doubt the rich in NYC and LA do what they want but the real estate and governance within those cities fell to US authority. In developing nations these several decades US corporations entered deals with third world leaders in exchange for wealth to do just that within THOSE DEVELOPING NATIONS---carve out real estate where foreign corporations like the US built global corporate campuses and global factories and were free to operate under their own rules inside those International Economic Zones. Some of Asia's more 'cosmopolitan' cities are inside these Foreign Economic Zones. The citizens are enslaved by a 1% and their 2% living that global life----with no rights as global citizens.

Now CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA want to bring that arrangement back to the US-----allow foreign corporations to come to our US cities to operate as they do in their own nations ignoring US governance and law----and doing so themselves BECAUSE multi-national corporations are the only corporations soon to exist in large part.

WE ARE NOT LUDDITES FOR REFUSING THIS DEFINITION OF CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.


Remember we discussed once left-leaning terms and journals now being bought and owned by 1% Wall Street now posing Marxist.....Here is our labor heroes------MOTHER JONES----

 Who are global Wall Street pols waging all the empire-building wars for? These CITIZENS OF THE WORLD. Sure, all of that is civilized.



Cosmopolitanism: How To Be a Citizen of the World

A philosopher issues a call for a pragmatic, humane stance toward difference in a world of strangers.


Julian BrookesFeb. 23, 2006 4:00 AM  MOTHER JONES



At a time when talk of a "clash of civilizations" looks increasingly like a self-fulfilling prophecy, when bin Laden-ites seek to reshape the world in the image of universal Islam, when our own leaders blithely hive off the good from the evil, us from them, Anthony Appiah issues a call for a more helpful posture toward a world of stubborn difference, an approach he calls, reaching back to the 4th Century Greece, "cosmopolitanism."



The cosmopolitan ethic starts from the thought that human knowledge is fallible—that no culture or individual has a lock on truth—and upholds "conversation," broadly defined as the respectful and candid exchange of views among individuals and cultures—as a good in its own right; agreement is not its ultimate goal. It understands individuals in the context of their cultures but tends, where the two clash, to give primacy to the former. What cosmopolitanism does not permit, however, is a kind of flaccid relativism; it insists that there are some universals—basic human rights, for instance—which are non-negotiable. Otherwise, it says, difference and disagreement are so much grist for mutually enriching dialogue.

Cosmopolitanism is a title in the "Issues of Our Time" series from W.W. Norton, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., in which big-name intellectuals tackle important contemporary themes. (The series launched with, in addition to Appiah's, books by Amartya Sen and Alan Dershowitz.)

Kwame Anthony Appiah, who was raised in Ghana and educated in England, is professor of philosophy at Princeton University. His books include In My Father's House, Thinking It Through, and The Ethics of Identity. He's the editor, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., of Africana.
Mother Jones: "Cosmopolitan" is a word with a certain pedigree, a certain amount of baggage, so let's start by defining terms.


Kwame Anthony Appiah: Sure. The word comes from a Greek phrase, which means "citizen of the world." The first person we know to have used the word about himself was Diogenes the Cynic in the 4th Century BC. It was a metaphor then and still is. It's been attacked from both the left and the right. From the right, as you know, it was used as a term of anti-Semitic abuse, and their point was that people who had a sense of responsibility to the human community as a whole were going to be bad nationalists, bad patriots. The other direction of attack, from the left, was that cosmopolitanism was something very elitist. It came to mean a kind of free-floating attitude of the rich person who can afford to travel all over the world tasting a little bit of this culture and that one and not being very responsible about any of it.

I don't think that cosmopolitanism has to be either elitist or unpatriotic; I think it's perfectly possible to combine a sense of real responsibility for other human beings as human beings with a deeper sense of commitment to a political community. As far as I'm concerned, the key things in cosmopolitanism are, first, that global concern--the acceptance that we're all responsible for the human community, which is the fundamental idea of morality. What's distinctive about the cosmopolitan attitude is that it comes with a recognition that encounters with other people aren't about making them like us. Cosmopolitans accept and indeed like the fact that people live in different ways; that free human beings will choose to live in different ways and will choose to express themselves in different ways. And that openness to difference comes, I think, from a kind of toleration combined with a recognition of human fallibility. One of the reasons why we're glad there are people out there who aren't like us is that we're pretty certain that there are a lot of things we're wrong about.


MJ: So the goal isn't to have everybody agree.


KAA: Absolutely not. It's not evangelical. You enter a conversation, and conversation is about listening as well as talking; it's about being open to being changed yourself, but it's not about expecting consensus or seeking agreement. You can seek understanding without seeking agreement.


MJ: Sounds like a sort of relativism.


KAA: Well, there's a certain truth to the relativist view, which is that very often when people evaluate other people and other societies they haven't the slightest idea what they're talking about. You can't make a sensible evaluation of, say, the Turkish university regulation about the wearing of headscarves if you haven't the faintest idea of the historical context or the meaning of that practice. Blithely wading in and saying whatever you want to say about it without that knowledge is just silly, and it's wrong. If you're going to have a productive cross-cultural conversation, or, within a society, a cross-identity conversation, you've got to listen and understand what you're evaluating.


MJ: And not to seek to impose values on others.



KAA: Not at all. The world is full of people trying to make everybody else like themselves. Mormons, Catholics, Wahhabi Muslims. I happen to prefer them in this order: Catholicism, Mormonism, Wahhabism; but that's not important here. What's important is that they share a problem, which is that they're not open, in their standard forms, to the second element that cosmopolitanism depends upon, which is that it's okay for people to be different. Now, just to be clear, there are forms of Islam, for example, that are open to that form of cosmopolitanism. I'm not objecting to religion, because I don't think religion has to be universalist.

There are two strands to cosmpolitanism, and both are essential. The first is universalist: it says everybody matters. But they matter in their specificity, as who they are, not who you want them to be. The problem is that there are people going around who want to reshape the world, want to reshape everybody else, in their own image. That's dangerous. Some of them are more violent than others; some aren't violent at all. But none of them are cosmopolitan, and in that sense I'm against them.


MJ: But aren't there some things that we do want to universalize, right? Like basic human rights.


KAA: Yes, and the challenge is to identify those things. I would say the cosmopolitan view about that has to be that nobody can decide that by himself or herself; we have to engage in a global conversation in order to create instruments, like the human rights instruments of the United Nations, that are the product of a dialogue among nations and across civilizations. Now, we might disagree on what those things we want to universalize. I have no objection, for instance, to the Catholic claim to know what the universals are. They're entitled to their claim; what they're not entitled to do is impose these things without negotiation.


MJ: But, again, from the cosmopolitan point of view some things are not negotiable.


KAA:That's right, because cosmopolitanism starts from the core thought that everybody matters. Each person is entitled, in the context of his or her community, to seek a life of significance and dignity. Well, that sets a boundary on tolerance, because you can't tolerate those who actively prevent people from doing that. So cosmopolitans have to be hard-line about that; they can't be tolerant of people, say, who think that torture is just fine, or that it doesn't matter what a woman wants—if a male member of her family wants her to marry someone that's the way it's going to be.

You want to converse with anyone who's conversible. So the mere fact that somebody has an illiberal thought or idea isn't a reason for not talking to them. The liberal tradition is one in which even intolerant speech and thought is permitted until it crosses a boundary to intolerant or dangerous acts, or threatens to. At that point you have to take sides. And in many cases it's easy for me to know which side I'm on.
Now, of course there are going to be cases where we differ about whether a boundary is being crossed, but my view is that if you think the boundary is being crossed and you've made a serious effort to understand what the other person is doing then you're entitled to stop the conversation and start trying to get something done.


MJ: Okay, so let's apply this frame to the row over these Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.



KAA: Well, I think that representing the prophet Mohammed in the way that they did is genuinely insulting, and it's not the sort of thing that a person who cared about cross-cultural communication would do. It's perfectly fine to say that of course people have the right to do this—of course they do—but they shouldn't be surprised if it upsets people. And the corollary is that the upset people have a right to express their upset—again, so long as it doesn't cross that boundary I mentioned.

On the other hand, carefully phrased criticisms of, say, the fact that women aren't allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, seem to me very much on the agenda. And I don't think we should be troubled by the fact that some people in Saudi Arabia will say, What business is it of yours? A deep part of cosmopolitanism is an engagement with making the world a place in which everybody has, as a baseline, the resources to live a life of dignity and significance. It seems to me perfectly fair to point out that that standard is not met in Saudi Arabia, not only in respect to gender but in respect to lots of things, as of course it isn't fully met in the United States.

If we have a cosmopolitan conversation one of the things that will come out of it is, for instance, how many Europeans find it morally astonishing that the United States tolerate the level of racial inequality that it does, and that our prisons fall way below what anyone in Europe would take to be appropriate human rights minimums. The fact that, in the United States, the attitudes of white people and black people toward these questions is so different suggests that there isn't an adequate conversation going on. If it's a conversation, that's part of what we should expect to hear, and I would have thought we would be enriched by it as it will make us think about things we need to think about.


MJ: How does the cosmopolitan balance regard for the individual with consideration for the community?


KAA: Well, the deeply liberal view—and this has been the project of much of my recent work—takes the central question of ethics to be the shaping of the social world in order to give each person the chance to make a life of significance to himself or herself. And it takes things like identities and nations as valuable to the extent that they contribute to that, but not as valuable in themselves.


MJ: In light of that, how should we think about identity politics, which put such a high value on membership of a group?


KAA: Well, there are limits to identity politics, of course. Identity can be an instrument of individuality, but when it's invoked to constrain or resist individuality it's usually bad. But you can't responsibly talk about identity politics without taking into account that it arose in response to genuine injustices, and that it was helpful, in the first instance, in response to those injustices, around gender, race, sexual orientation, religion. It's a way of coming together as a way to establish a sense of self-respect. So, there's a good side to it.
Also, when people on the right criticize identity politics they tend to forget that one of the most vigorous and effective forms of identity politics by far is nationalism, and many people on the right are nationalist. Now, I've nothing against nationalism as such; I think there's good nationalism and bad nationalism. But to object to the very idea of caring about identity as a political matter would rule our nationalism.

However, if you're a cosmopolitan you understand that it's important not to be captured by any one identity and not to feel that because you don' t have identity as a basis for communicating with other people that you shouldn't communicate with them. We have lots to share and gain from one another, whether we have exchanges based on shared identity or based on the fact that we have different identities. Another problem is that often identity politics looks like asking for symbolic acknowledgments when what's actually needed is readjustments of power and money. Turns out, it's relatively easy to get a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but much harder to abolish racial discrimination in employment.



MJ: You argue in the book that one of the standard criticisms of economic globalization--that it threatens the survival of "authentic" local culture—is misplaced, precisely because such a view implicitly sets a higher value on the group (the cultural community) than the individual.



KAA: Well, first of all, once you start out on the cosmopolitan exploration, one of the things that's bound to strike you is that among the most interesting civilizations that the planet has produced, hardly any have produced what's interesting about them by themselves. Think of the places we think of historically as great centers of civilization—Mogul India, Venice in the Renaissance, Greece in the 5th Century BC, London in the 19th Century—they all borrow; and this is what people do, they borrow, they exchange, that's how cultures work. Often when people talk about things that are supposedly "authentically" this or that—what could be more authentically Italian than spaghetti, say; except that the Chinese invented it. What could be more authentically American than jazz, which in fact comes out of a city that was black and Irish and Latin and French? You can go on all day. So the first thing to say about the apostles of purity is—what are they talking about?


Now, the people who make these arguments are responding to a genuine problem, which is that there are places where people who want to go on with certain practices are prevented from doing so by force. Tibet is a perfect contemporary example. A historical example is the eradication the traditional religions of Latin America by the Spanish. That's terrible. And yet, if everyone in Latin America had consented to become a Catholic, then who would be against it?
The other genuine problem is that there's often a kind of crowding out because the things some people would like to continue with become expensive relative to things from other places. The proportion of people in my home town in Ghana who still wear what we call a cloth, which is a sort of toga, has noticeably declined in my lifetime, and it's because t-shirts and shorts are cheaper. We're not a particularly poor place, so there are people who still wear the cloth, particularly on certain formal occasions, because they can afford it. If they stopped wearing it because they couldn't afford it, that would be very sad, because they wouldn't be able to do what they wanted to do, not—again—because the culture was changing. But even then, the solution isn't to force them to wear the cloth no matter what, but to change the world economy so that they can afford to wear it.


MJ: Isn't another problem that the global cultural exchange is lopsided—that the rest of the world gets American cultural products, but the US doesn't get much of anyone else's


Well, that's a problem for us—that's to say, we miss out. Remember, though, that, if you take the example of movies, while it's true that not many movies from elsewhere gain real traction in the United States, especially if they're not in English, nevertheless more movies from India, or Turkey, or Hong Kong are watched in much of Asia and Africa than are movies from Hollywood. Nigerian films--they call it "Nollywood"—are very big in West Africa. Because of new technology it's much cheaper than it used to be to make and distribute films. So there are lots of exciting things happening in the world that the United States is depriving itself of, and it does so at its own cost.
The cost to other people is that because of the great penetration of especially American culture, they have a little bit better sense of what we're like than they do of what we're like. That's a problem for them, because we're busy reshaping the world. And if you're doing that the very least you ought to do is know the contours of what you're reshaping, and we don't. It's also a problem for us, because they notice our lack of interest and they resent it, and that's the kind of attitude that, at the extreme, turns Osama bin Laden into somebody's hero.


MJ: You also argue in the book that when people complain about American-led globalization making the world "homogenous" they're overstating things.


KAA: Yes. The world is full of people consuming things we know nothing about here. And anyway, even if they were (God forbid) force-fed a diet of American television they'd interpret it in their own context. They literally wouldn't see what you see. There are famous studies—I mention two of them in my book—that show this. People tend to borrow the things they find useful and ignore the rest. They interpret and respond; they're not a wax on which you're imprinting an image. People even interpret plot in their own cultural context. There are these famous studies of the reception of the American television series Dallas in Israel and Palestine. They talk about a moment when a female character leaves her home and goes to stay with an older man. They saw her going back to her father. In fact he's her boyfriend, but in that world that would never be. They saw her doing what they would do in like circumstances. When you send a television series to Ghana or Mexico or South Africa you don't send a guy with it to interpret it; people interpret it for themselves.


_______________________________________________

From TV reality shows to gossip media we have these several years been hit with the phrase----OH, HE/SHE IS A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.  They have no national ties and this is making they and their children better world citizens.  I don't know about anyone else---but the NOVEAU EXTREME RICH with their global income are not the examples of world citizenship WE THE PEOPLE want.  They are setting that stage where we do not see ourselves as Americans but as following these global 1% wanting to be just like them.

This is taken so far as to be in an underserved community in Baltimore talking to a black community leader who tells me----it's not about this one community---it's a global world now you know.

If these leaders inside a US city thinks taking the US to a third world societal structure will end well for the 5%----we need everyone researching what life looks like for the 99% in third world nations.


IF CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA ARE WINNING THIS PR CAMPAIGN IN US UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES SAYING ----TOO LATE WE ARE ONE WORLD COSMOPOLITAN NOW----WE WILL NOT REVERSE THESE POLICIES.  REMIND ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS WHAT LIFE WILL LOOK LIKE IF THEY THINK OUR US CITIES ARE UNJUST.


These stars were of course designated the UN CITIZENS OF THE WORLD.  Meanwhile citizens in these African nations are saying----STOP TAKING OUR CHILDREN.


'lah, I disagree...those kids (if they are raising them with values, and passion, and compassion) are going to be true citizens of the world'.


Are Brad and Angelina homeless?

Seriously, everytime I turn around I see photos of them in every country you can imagine. Where the hell do they actually live?


—Anonymous
(3 views)

13 replies
05/05/2008
In our hearts.

—Anonymous

reply 1
05/05/2008
Those are going to be some messed up kids.

—Anonymous

reply 2
05/05/2008
lah, I disagree...those kids (if they are raising them with values, and passion, and compassion) are going to be true citizens of the world.

—Anonymous


05/05/2008
I appreciate your position [R3], but I stick by my position based upon the recent research that is being based down to us [workers in domestic courts/I get it because both my girlfriend and law partner are domestic attorneys] which is disavowing the implimentation of joint custody/week to week on the basis that a child who lacks continuity of education lacks necessary socialization, despite opportunities presented by the family. There is also a movement against home-schooling for the same reason.
No, I am not a fan of the Pitts. I think that they are both morons, actually. But, I appreciate their charitable work, even though I believe that they could achieve more if they finished a charitable project rather than hopscotching over the globe.
Anyway... I am rambling. Just my opinion.

—Anonymous

reply 4
05/05/2008
No, they just bathe that way.

—Anonymous

reply 5
05/05/2008
lah, I agree with you. I think those kids are going to have tough times. Although, it is nice they have each other, they are so isolated from any sort of normalcy and it is impossible for them to form any relationships outside their family because they aren't in any one place enough.
Even military families stay places for a few years before moving on, thus they do go to school and integrate in their community.

—Anonymous

reply 6
05/05/2008
How many homes do they own? I know they have one home in New Orleans and another that's somewhere in Europe.

—Anonymous

reply 7
05/05/2008
I know they attend the Lycee Francaise (or close to the spelling) that has branches all over the world. That's one reason they picked it and it has an excellent reputation. Also, they have likely arranged to have homework at projects to take along between schools since they continue to go to the same international school program. People with these kind of advantages are very different from people of lower SES that are itinerant.
Also, home schooling when properly done can be very advantageous. It can give kids a much better education that they would get in a local school in a poor neighborhood.

—Anonymous

reply 8
05/05/2008
When Maddox had his birthday party, they had to invite their bodyguards children. He doesn't have any friends of his own.
The Lycee might be a great school, but how much of an advantage is it when you change your school every couple of weeks?
I agree with lah.

—Anonymous

reply 9
05/05/2008
Exactly, [R9]. The point isn't that they continue with the same school franchise. Kids need stability and friends. They go for a few months at a time to a place. These kids have no friends, and I assume that's how that needy control-freak AJ likes it.

—Anonymous

reply 10
05/05/2008
Normally I'd say they seem like great parents and then I heard about the decoy birthday party for Maddox that he wasn't allowed to attend. I can't wait for the tell-alls.

—Anonymous

reply 11
05/05/2008
bourgeoisie fraus alert! When posters start getting huffy about "the children!' "the children" we're deep into frau normative territory.
Go back to Iowa bitches.

—Anonymous

reply 12
05/05/2008
You know nothing [R8]. Maddox only attended Lycee Francais when he was in NY. We are bombarded by them constantly so it is always pointed out where the kids go to school. Maddox went to two other schools when they moved to LA and Austin, unrelated to the Lycee Francais. Notice no more pictures in his uniform after they left NY?

I completely agree with lah, those kids are going to be fucked up for many reasons.
__________________________________________
When the American people especially right wing Republicans get mad about all those illegal aliens----global labor pool ----shouting at Obama----we know Foreign Economic Zones were designated by Congress at the end of Clinton/beginning of Bush and Bush was the one MOVING FORWARD with ONE WORLD. Obama simply super-sized this. As an academic I knew all this occurred around 2000----as this CNN video shows-----but no US media ever discussed this AT ALL. THAT IS WHAT WE CALL MEDIA CAPTURE. This is why BUSH/OBAMA felt free to just allow massive and systemic corporate and Wall Street fraud go wild....the designation of FEZ in the US was tied to this Clinton/Bush era open borders policies. It was not only a trade agreement just as TPP is not only a trade agreement----and terms like ONE WORLD---GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL RULE---were used but only in these international discussions. Our local and national media never mentioned a word through Bush/Obama.

This is when WE THE PEOPLE understand we have no journalism----no news media-----and certainly no left-leaning leaders.

Doesn't it seem these issues are more important than the issues pushed by Aspen or Roosevelt Institute ----home of Clinton/Obama 1% Wall Street global corporate neo-liberal policies? The 5% to the 1% of citizens working towards this these few decades have known to where this leads----from Erhlich/O'Malley/Hogan----to Dixon/Rawlings-Blake/ Pugh and the establishment Baltimore mayoral candidates----all Maryland pols have been MOVING FORWARD to install these ONE WORLD policies.


Lou Dobbs was a great journalist and we thank him for holding power accountable. CNN was sold to 1% Wall Street that will not allow these kinds of new reports in the future.


Please Google this video-----


NORTH AMERICAN UNION

baronderothchild  CNN with Lou Dobbs


Uploaded on Aug 24, 2006
george bush has already sold our country to big business...slavery begins shortly.
  • Category
    • News & Politics
  • License
    • Standard YouTube License
*******************************************************
United We Fall: North American Union


The Unfeigned Witness 2.0  YOU TUBE
Published on Nov 23, 2015


United We Fall is a documentary about a North American Union that is being developed right now between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. For years this topic has been debated in the news and in political circles as being a possible future for North America. In recent years, the mood has shifted and a rift is developing between those who want a deeply integrated North American community, and those who wish to retain their national sovereignty. This film takes a look at both sides of the issue by interviewing insiders such as members of the ultra-secretive Bilderberg group, the Trilateral Commission and the Council On Foreign Relations and also journalists and activists such as Luke Rudkowski, Alex Jones and producer Dan Dicks who have been at the heart of this heated debate. The film also explores the global elite’s broader agenda for the formation of a One World Government. Will a North American Union be beneficial to you and your family, or will it be the downfall of three sovereign nations? You be the judge!!! United We Fall.

____________________________________________

In Baltimore there are lots of citizens walking around---new to Baltimore and mostly young citizens saying----BALTIMORE WILL BE MADE COSMOPOLITAN to what has been largely a middle/working class city for a century and more. I will bet that almost NONE of those citizens know what COSMOPOLITAN means to the 1% Wall Street global rich and their pols. If one imagines two decades from today how city expanded around Owings Mill downward to Upper Park Heights-----then imagine a Towson expanding as described in this article-----and add the global corporate campuses and global factories that will take Greater Baltimore---and then allow them to grow together one can see the size of an International Economic Zone all controlled by the same global 1% and their 2% with no developed nation Rule of Law or rights as citizens. WE DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE.
'County Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican who represents Towson, said he has been guided by Master Plan 2020 in many of the decisions he has made for the area'.
The New Towson: Emerging cosmopolitan hub or chaotic patchwork of developments?

By Jordan BranchTowson Times
  • Architecture
As girls soccer coach Crosby Healy looked out at his team practicing on a field at Meadowood Regional Park in Lutherville, he saw five other teams on a field where there should have been two.
A few nights later, the coach stood his ground against three football teams trying to use the field when he was scheduled to use it for soccer practice.
The Towson resident of nine years said the two instances last fall are symptomatic of the lack of recreational space in and around Towson as it undergoes transformational development.
Click on the pinpoint in the map above to learn more about a particular development.


A Baltimore business owner, Healy sees the new development as positive. He enjoys a beer at the Towson Tavern and a lively nightlife in downtown. He also appreciates the opportunity for his 15-year-old daughter and some of the other young soccer players he coaches to catch a movie at the new Cinemark theater at Towson Square.
With more than $1 billion in private investment in Towson's redevelopment since 2009 – which includes 2,700 completed and proposed townhomes and apartments — Healy is among many looking for the funding necessary to provide more open space in Towson to accommodate that growth.


In addition to the residential developments, a new fire station is under construction. Towson has also added to its office, entertainment and retail space Towson Commons, which features a L.A. Fitness; the $27 million renovation of Towson City Center, a 155,000 square-foot, 12-story commercial space; and a 4.2-acre entertainment center, Towson Square, which is anchored by a Cinemark movie theater.
"It doesn't mean that we think that the movie plex took over a space that could have (been) a baseball field," Healy said. "What we're saying is the funds that should be there to allow us to develop other green space in other parts of the community should be made available."
Towson officials and residents are split on the execution of the development prescribed in the Baltimore County government's Master Plan 2020, released in 2010, which includes a vision for the future of Towson as the urban center of the county. County officials and business leaders look forward to a revitalized Towson as a modern cosmopolitan community with a thriving economy, while many community members take issue with the density and speed of development, which they say is being approved without attention to traffic, infrastructural and open space needs.
Above: The Mews at Towson
County Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican who represents Towson, said he has been guided by Master Plan 2020 in many of the decisions he has made for the area.
Del. Stephen Lafferty said that while much of the redevelopment has been positive, no one has taken a "comprehensive look at Towson's growth and how to accommodate that growth."
"I don't think Baltimore County is unique in that their failure to plan the cumulative impacts has a lot greater impact overall than what people expect. They do it project by project," said Lafferty, a Democrat whose district includes Towson. "If it gets to a level where it's too much, that's when the county ratchets back."
Klaus Philipsen, architect and president of ArchPlans, an urban design, planning and architecture firm in Baltimore, said transit, pedestrian mobility and open space, all of which have been part of the dialogue surrounding Towson's redevelopment, must be looked at when designing an urban core.
Philipsen, who also helps form master plans for nonprofits, businesses, government agencies and private owners, called Master Plan 2020 "loosey goosey." He said a comprehensive plan should layout specific guidelines that create a complete puzzle for new development to fit into a thriving urban area.
Philipsen, president of the land preservation group NeighborSpace, said the Urban Rural Demarcation Line, developed in 1967 to protect rural areas from dense development, has successfully kept part of the county rural but that within the boundary, development has been chaotic. As a result, 90 percent of Baltimore County residents live inside the URDL.
"Baltimore County was successful in restricting development outside the URDL, but inside, it's kind of a free for all," he said.


Towson under construction

The largest piece of the puzzle in Towson's redevelopment has been Towson Row, a $350 million, 1 million-square-foot project that would include 61,250 square feet of retail space, 226,000 square feet of office space, 374 apartments, a 170-room hotel, 900 beds of student housing, 1,586 parking spaces and a Whole Foods. The project's land, which is bounded by York Road, Towsontown Boulevard and Washington and Chesapeake avenues, has been cleared and its open space requirement waived.
The project's final hearing before the Planning Board is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Aug. 6 in the county's Jefferson Building, said Darryl Putty, a Baltimore County project manager.


Towson Row, which is being developed by Caves Valley Partners, is joined by a number of other projects in the works, including The Flats at 703, a 105-unit apartment complex on Washington Avenue; Southerly Square, with 175 apartments at 901 Southerly Road; and Towson Mews, with 34 townhomes, bounded by East Pennsylvania, Jefferson and Virginia avenues.
Completed projects include Towson Green Townhomes and The Winthrop, The Quarters, The Palisades and Towson Promenade apartment complexes.
Marks said he has also discussed with property owners the possibility of building an apartment complex above Towson Circle, where Barnes & Noble bookstore and Trader Joe's, among other shops, are located.
Above: The proposed Royal Farms at former Towson fire station site
The conversation on new developments has also included the controversial student housing complex 101 York, which Marks said recently withdrew its second planning proposal after the project grew to be larger than what was initially presented. The project's original proposal, which was never withdrawn, is still in the planning process. Also discussed was redevelopment of the old Towson fire station property that was purchased by Caves Valley Partners after it proposed a Royal Farms for the lot.




Open space at a premium

Mike Ertel, Greater Towson Council of Community Associations president, has lived in Towson for two decades. He said young families began moving to the area in the late 1990s and that that demographic has continued to grow.
To keep them here and attract more people, he said, amenities, such as community pools, fields and walking trails, need to be updated along with new developments.
"When you have a young family, they want to drive a 2013 Toyota minivan and what you're giving them is a 1992 Ford Escort wagon," Ertel said. "They don't want it. They want something newer, nicer, that's got the amenities in it."
The county's decision to waive Towson Row's open space requirement for a fee of $55,000 has many residents concerned that other projects on the planning department's agenda will receive the same treatment.
Below: Towson Row
Towson Recreation Council President Janine Schofield said developers should be charged fairly and apolitically to waive open space and that any change to the open space requirement should be retroactively applied to current developments.


"We'd like to use that money to rehab the fields that we have and explore options for acquiring more fields," Schofield said. "We are the ones who are directly affected by the development that's going up downtown, directly affected by the traffic and we're directly affected by the increase in population."
State Sen. Jim Brochin said that while well-thought-out redevelopment is positive, "packing everything into every square inch that's available is not the way to do it."
"It should be a quality-of-life issue," said Brochin, a Democrat whose district includes Towson. Towson Row "could be a beautiful project if it was scaled down, and it would be an amazing project if, right adjacent to it, there was a ball field or a soccer field," he said.


County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced in June that the county had purchased 2.5 acres of property off Aigburth Avenue to create a park in Towson. The county is also contributing $3.2 million to new turf fields at Towson High School and the Carver Center for Arts and Technology and to repurpose Patriot Plaza into a small, city park near the courthouse.
County Councilman Tom Quirk, a Democrat who represents Catonsville, is working to introduce a countywide revised open space bill that could increase the price developers might have to pay to waive this requirement.
But, Katie Pinheiro, executive director of The Greater Towson Committee, a nonprofit that supports investment to redevelop Towson for its community, said the county should be careful to increase open space fees for developers so it doesn't "chase them away."
Above: Site of the new Towson fire station
"We don't feel that developers — who are doing a great job in turning Towson into an urban atmosphere — need to be charged so much that it doesn't make sense for them to develop in Towson," she said.
David Schlachman, of DMS Development, which is proposing the 101 York student housing complex, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Arthur Adler, of Caves Valley Partners, which is developing Towson Row, said he did not wish to comment on the development for this story.


Mobility issues

Towson resident and professional architect and planner Fred Hiser said, though he welcomes the private investment coming to Towson, its current infrastructure can't handle the development's mass.
He said this is evidenced by intersections with F ratings from the Department of Public Works. In 2011, the intersection at Burke Avenue and York Road, between Towson University and the location of the proposed 101 York, received an F rating that was upgraded to an E rating the next year.
"Anyone that lives in Towson or works in Towson that either tries to get home or leave in the evenings ... can sit through any number of traffic signal cycles," Hiser said.
To remedy some of the city's transportation needs, Marks has been working to get a Towson Circulator bus, similar to Baltimore City's, with the help of funding from Gov. Larry Hogan's administration.
"We don't have any more room to build highways in Towson," he said. "We have to do a better job with what we have."
But Kamenetz said Towson doesn't have a traffic problem and that discussions about a Circulator are premature.
"Most people who will live in downtown Towson will walk and those people who are arriving are beyond the radius of a Circulator so that doesn't fit into this core," Kamenetz said.
Though a circulator is necessary to provide mobility to Towson residents, Philipsen said, many people often get the traffic issue backward. Urban areas make for fewer drivers as people walk and take other forms of transportation, he said.
A widespread area of development creates more traffic than an urban core, he said. Philipsen said this explains why large urban areas like Manhattan have the same amount of traffic as Towson.
Above: Southerly Square
At the same time, county officials see a bright future for Towson. Marks said he envisions "a cosmopolitan community that reflects the best of college life and family amenities."
Kamenetz said he sees the future of Towson as being similar to that of Bethesda, in Montgomery County, but better.

About eight years ago storefronts were empty and the new development has boosted the city's economy, said Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce.
"We want more than anything more bodies living here in Towson, because the more people that live here, the more people support the business community, not just 9 to 5, but on Saturdays and Sundays, too," said Hafford, who is also an at-large member of the Baltimore County Planning Board.
Officials do listen to the communities when it comes to development plans, though someone is always going to be dissatisfied with the result, Hafford said.

"Baltimore County doesn't spoon feed everybody. There was a lot of input that went in for a long time," she said. "You can never make everybody happy whenever you make a change."
Kamenetz said he looks forward to a city with round-the-clock bustle.

"Towson traditionally has been a sleepy little town that goes to bed very early," Kamenetz said. "What we're trying to do is create a wonderful downtown experience, not only during the daytime but also at night."


0 Comments

September 21st, 2016

9/21/2016

0 Comments

 
'The United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"'

DOES A SOCIETY HAVE THAT FREEDOM IF PEOPLE ARE TOO AFRAID TO SPEAK THAT OPINION?  OF COURSE NOT.


One of the best friends of left-leaning activism is the printing press. The invention of the printing press dates to the Age of Enlightenment and the revolutions bringing information to the 99%.  A campaign talking point for the left-leaning candidate would be A PRINTING PRESS IN EVERY COMMUNITY!  Indeed, the costs to a local government to subsidize community newsletters and journals pales in costs of corporate subsidies.  WE THE PEOPLE must take very seriously the need to rebuild a diverse, open and accessible media not worrying about whether access is being given to the right or left----just keep it local and small business.

Below we see an article written during the Clinton Administration assessing the print industry.  This was the same time the internet and online media and corporations were taking hold and Clinton worked for those technology industries.  We see the assessment taking an environmental stance---which is good to consider----the environmental struggle back in the 1990s was over paper taking our timber----over inking waste.  As an environmentalist I agree we were using too much of our natural resources in raw paper.  We speak of using hemp---we went with controlled, domestic tree farms with pine being fast and cheap to grow.

The other factor supposedly a problem for hard copy print is mailing costs/distribution. All of our hard copy newspapers disappeared/downsized because of costs.  The solution to that comes with our hard copy print needing to go national rather than having strong media focusing on local or regional issues.  The costs lie on sending reporters all over the world.  Investigative journalism ----like the police foot-patrol is the least costly if avenues of investigation are OPEN. 

THIS IS WHERE WE THE PEOPLE ARE LOSING GROUND IN OUR RACE TO REVERSE ONE WORLD CLOSED MEDIA CONTROL----OUR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ARE BEING ALLOWED TO BE PROPRIETARY AND OUR RIGHTS TO INVESTIGATE CORPORATE ACTIVITY CURBED.

In 1990s we see printing industry is diverse, small business, the largest industry in the US. We have seen consolidations----movement of printing to digital computer printing more and more----and today a single national newspaper like the TRIBUNE can own not only a Baltimore Sun but all of the community news journals.  Actually the Tribune is spinning off these brands but in the Baltimore region the Sun controls most print media.

'Interestingly, while the industry does account for a significant share of the nation's total volume and goods, services and employment, at the same time, it is the ultimate small business. Nearly 80 percent of the printers in the US employ fewer than 20 people. While there are some printers dealing in national and international scope, most serve local or regional markets. This is an industry largely populated by small, neighborhood shops, rather than sprawling multi-acre industrial complexes. You just don't find that many printing plants employing 20,000 people'.


The U.S. Domestic Printing Industry

Overview  1994

Who is the bigger employer in the United States, the printing or the automotive industry? If you guessed printing, take a bow—an $83+ billion bow. Yes, believe it or not, in the US, printing isn't just big business, it's the biggest. Printers employ nearly 1 million people across the country, placing the meager 780,000 in the auto industry a distant second. Sounds pretty outrageous until you stop to think about it. In a society that's constantly in search of access to information and literally obsessed with record-keeping, it stands to reason that printing is ubiquitous. From new car manuals to tabloid newspapers to t-shirts to those little tags on mattresses, nearly every product calls on the printing industry somewhere along the line. Put in that light, the numbers don't seem quite so farfetched. So the big question is, if it's such a big industry, how come we've never noticed?

The relative invisibility of the industry is due primarily to the nature of the business and the way it has evolved. To understand how the industry works and how to effectively target printing facilities for pollution prevention programs, we need to understand who they are, what they do, and perhaps most importantly, where is everybody?


According to the 6th Annual Report to Congress by the Printing Industry of America (PIA), printers are defined as: "Those firms engaged primarily in commercial printing, business forms, book printing, prepress services, quick printing and blank books and binders." This definition does not include firms mainly involved in publishing. Figure 1 (PIA, 1994) illustrates the economic breakdown of the industry into these seven major areas. Before the screaming begins, according to USEPA data, letterpress really did account for 11 percent of the economic market and screen only 3 percent. However, of all the major printing processes, screen printers are the most undocumented. So, in this case, 3 percent is the number that can be physically established.


Figure 1. From: 6th Annual Report to Congress: Printing Industry. Printing Industries of America, Inc. 1994.


For the purposes of this report, printers are defined by the Bureau of Census' Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 27. A word of warning about SIC codes might be in order at this time. Anyone who has attempted to use them has no doubt found them to be vague at best and just downright obsolete at worst. SIC 27, Printing, Publishing, and Allied Industries, is unfortunately no exception. While this definition of the printing industry is similar to the PIA's, it doesn't necessarily include firms engaged in fabric and textile printing (largely a screen process), manufacturers of products containing incidental printing or circuit board printers. But, it could. Broad headings and subjective interpretation of various industries leaves the SIC codes open to a great deal of confusion when it comes to actual statistics. It's often difficult to determine what counts under SIC 27 and what doesn't.



There is some good news on the horizon. Even as this manual is heading towards publication, efforts are underway to clarify and to expand SIC 27. In particular, screen printing will be given two separate listings. So, hopefully, two or three years down the road will see a new, improved SIC 27 that will make it much easier to get a numerical handle on printing in the United States. However, for the moment, and for this overview, the current SIC 27, confusing as it may be, is it.
This sort of uncertainty about the codes leads to some large statistical ranging, depending on the source consulted, and what the authors chose to classify under which SIC. But it should be kept in mind that these numbers, while not necessarily deadly accurate, still serve to illustrate the magnitude and the diverse nature of the industry. Also, it's good to note that, if anything, the numbers quoted here underestimate reality. So, while the 1994 SIC 27 may leave out a potentially sizable number of printing operations, it still provides plenty to keep everyone busy for some time to come.
SIC 27 is made up of firms printing by the five most common processes (lithography, screen, flexography, letterpress, and gravure) as well as newspaper, book and periodical publishers (whether or not they do their own printing). The primary focus of this manual is on the five processes mentioned above. They account for about 97 percent of the economic output in the domestic printing industry (US EPA, 1994), and by necessity, are the first step to anything else in SIC 27. (Bookbinders may have their own pollutants, but they can't do much until someone has printed their books.) Figure 2 shows the financial breakdown of the industry by process-type.


Figure 2. From: US EPA Printing Industry Cluster Profile, 1994, p. 5


At the moment, a number of alternative printing processes and technologies are in use and being further refined and developed. These include various electronic, thermographic ion-deposition, ink-jet and Mead Cycolor printing processes. While these newer methods currently account for about 3 percent of the market, their share is expected to be nearer 20 percent by 2025 (US EPA, 1994). Also afoot are numerous "paperless" publishing and recording technologies. It's not inconceivable, given the increasing popularity of the "information superhighway" and new computer imaging and transmitting equipment, that a net-reduction in printed materials could eventually impact the industry. However, that appears to be a few years down the road, at the very least, and until that comes to pass, there is every indication that old-fashioned printing will remain a very growing concern.


Companies, Presses and Employees

Various estimates place the number of printing establishments in the US somewhere between 60,000 - 70,000. However, these estimates are thought to exclude most-to-all of the 40,000+ plants with screen presses, placing the total nearer to 100,000 facilities.(US EPA, 1994). Apparently, screen printers are even more difficult to put a finger on than are the others. So, with that in mind, be warned that many of the numbers in this chapter should be considered suspect in terms of the impact of screen printers. Figure 3 illustrates plant distribution by press/process-type.



Figure 3. From: US EPA Printing Industry Cluster Profile, 1994, p. 15


Interestingly, while the industry does account for a significant share of the nation's total volume and goods, services and employment, at the same time, it is the ultimate small business. Nearly 80 percent of the printers in the US employ fewer than 20 people. While there are some printers dealing in national and international scope, most serve local or regional markets. This is an industry largely populated by small, neighborhood shops, rather than sprawling multi-acre industrial complexes. You just don't find that many printing plants employing 20,000 people.
Of the operating plants in the US, about 46 percent have fewer than five employees, 24.5 percent have between five and nine, and 14.1 percent have between ten and nineteen. Roughly 12 percent employ between 20 and 99, leaving less than 3 percent of all printers in the country employing more than 100 people. Figure 4 shows the distribution of plants by number of employees. This distribution of employment size matches fairly closely with the type of presses in operation. Gravure and flexographic plants tend to be the larger operations. Over half of the flexographic and about one-quarter of the gravure shops employ more than 20. The majority of the shops utilizing letterpress, lithographic and screen presses fall in the under-20 category (US EPA, 1994).


Figure 4. From: US EPA Printing Industry Cluster Profile, 1994, p. 18.



The conclusions, with regard to pollution prevention efforts, drawn from this section should be pretty clear. The majority of the shops that need assistance aren't going to be multi-national conglomerates with the corresponding resources. Odds are, the average
printer is running a lithographic or screen press, employing less than 20, and quite probably, working on a thin profit-margin, without vast pools of cash available for major capital improvements or process reengineering. Knowing the profile of the individual operation will help identify the psychological approach that will be most effective, as well as the technical considerations.


Geographic Distribution


At this point, we have a good idea of who constitutes the US printing industry and we know that there are thousands of printers out there. However, we still don't know where they are hiding. With the majority being so small, they could turn up just about anywhere. And, in fact, that's almost exactly the case. From Alaska to Wyoming, you will not find a shortage of printers. In fact, every single state has at least one plant employing over 100 and hundreds of smaller plants. But, if you want to play Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Printer at a party, ten states stand out above the rest.
California, New York, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan, and Massachusetts by themselves account for more than 60 percent of the entire industry. The top three alone are home to over 1/3 of all the plants. Figure 5 shows the ten states by their percentage of the total.


Figure 5. From: US EPA Printing Industry Cluster Profile, 1994, p. 10.


Conclusion

The US domestic printing industry is an entity unlike almost any other. It's the largest employer-one of the largest in terms of economic output-and, if you were to judge by the response of the average person on the street, the printing industry maintains a profile so low that it just about disappears from sight. Instead of a rampaging giant of economic clout, it's a diverse, dispersed swarm of small businesses. The average printing facility is small (<20 employees), probably runs a lithographic or screen press, and has a better than average chance of finding itself in one of ten particular states. But, it could also be 120 people running gravure presses in Nome, Alaska. Probably more so than any other industry of comparable size today, printing is a quickly shifting, unpredictable business.


The US printing industry is nothing else, if not proof of strength in numbers. They don't take up lots of real estate. They aren't generally the major employers in a given area. Individually, they are usually not a major environmental concern. But, when you examine the industry as a whole, you face an entirely different animal. Comprised of thousands of small, independent units, the printing industry employs nearly 1 million in some 60,000-100,000 plants and accounts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 billion dollars in business every single year, while at the same time, contributing to toxic air emissions and solid and chemical waste problems on an ever-growing scale. It's too big to be ignored on all fronts, economic, social and environmental.
Looking at each plant individually, it might not seem like the average printer is responsible for all that much pollution. However, whether that assumption is grounded or not, 100,000 individual sources of VOC emissions, petroleum ink wastes, and various types of waste chemicals can add up to a very considerable problem in a very short time.



Unfortunately, the diversity and wide-spread dispersion of the printing industry contributes to its economic survival and viability, and creates a number of sticky logistical problems in bringing wholesale pollution prevention and waste management to the entire industry. With some 100,000 shops operating in nearly every corner of the country, there is, at present, no "short-cut" access to the industry as a whole. Simply reaching these plants presents an enormous challenge, to say nothing of the other factors, such as size, financial situation and location that will also have considerable influence on any pollution prevention strategies that might be suggested.
Facing that and knowing that the printing industry is projected to grow by 3.8-5.3 percent annually during this decade (US EPA, 1994), the environmental problems created by the printing industry aren't going to disappear on their own and without action, will simply become that much more unmanageable each year.

IF WE RECOGNIZE THAT IN 1994 COMPUTER PRINTING WAS JUST GETTING STARTED AND OF COURSE COMPUTER HARDWARE AND INK IS WORSE ENVIRONMENTALLY THAN HARD COPY PRINTING.



Regulatory and legislative actions may come about, but the size and distribution of the industry again will insulate it from much of this. It's simply not possible to effectively regulate and monitor this many institutions. Printers are going to have to decide on their own that pollution prevention and waste management can be an environmentally and economically productive innovation. Like any other industry, the most effective policing method isn't a regulatory agency, but the bottom line. Nothing motivates like the prospect of increased profits. Skilled technical assistance with a feel for the requirements and conditions of the printing industry is one of the most promising routes to this re-education process.

This is still no quick fix. There is no such thing, at least not to be found under SIC 27. Faced with such overwhelming numbers, even directed technical assistance efforts targeting the industry will initially be a shotgun approach. But, with personnel armed with a little background about the printing industry and some practical knowledge of the various major processes,

It's not possible to overstate the value of understanding the printing industry as a whole--what are each individual printers' characteristics, how do they do business and what are their limitations. Going into a technical assistance visit with only an understanding of how the press works, you can make suggestions that will be quite effective in theory, but only by understanding how the printer works, can you make suggestions that are going to be practiced.
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Know what our US cities need as small business manufacturing? Nothing fancy------but lots of printing presses. Not the images kind----the news print kind. All emphasis on printing today is digital, social media, and we need old-fashion news/book print.

It seems a high school shop class could build each community its own printing press with education subsidies for our shop classes.


 OH, WELL THAT IS SO NOT 21 CENTURY ECONOMY-----CITIZENS WILL BE LEFT BEHIND IF THEY RETURN TO WHAT WORKED.

Craft and Concept
makes art and machines that make art.
So you think you can build a press?

Date:March 2, 2012
Author:McAfee


    Making custom printing presses is an industry and skill that has dwindled in response to fine art schools and print shops being the only ones who needed such machines anymore. Of course things like etching presses and Lithography presses are not needed in a economical since these days, but they are still used to make fine art more accessible. There are still people all across the globe that build handmade printing presses. Anyone that really wants to can make a printing press. Experienced makers can build more complex designs of a press, and even fewer can design the parts and assemble them to make a machine on their own. Building your own printing press takes a variety of skills and a good plan. It takes a little bit of space and time, and most likely some problem solving. But once you have your press put together, you will always know how to take it apart if you made a press that has to be dismantled to move. A press gives you the ability to make fine art prints, hand made zenes, or album covers for your band. It also gives you a sense of empowerment when you are done making the machine and use it to reproduce art. When done right, wood can be used just as effectively as metal and can be made with tools that are easier to access. There are many types of presses, and many different skill levels depending on the materials and process your printing press would require. The Print Factory designs and builds all of the printing equipment used for our projects and has been making printing presses for five years. We have made many presses, including presses that we commissioned, and presses done as collaborations.  Both metal and wood have different pros and cons when it comes time to build in the shop and potentially transport your press.


You will find a variety of opinions on how precise a press should be made. Printing presses are machines that we invented to distribute information more fairly and efficiently. Now we have many other avenues to get information of course, but the machine that could reproduce an image or decree is the precursor for all of those other avenues of information. Making a printing press today is part homage to the invention, part shop project, and also makes you think about the history of the printed image in a different way. There are a number of ways to go about actually constructing the press, and a lot of it depends on what you need in a press and how much money you have. It can all be made from scratch if you have the skills and the access to a shop. If you are not an experienced maker, and have no access to a shop, there are other options.
If you design a press right, you can get all the parts you need from a metal supplier (have them cut the parts), a hardware store and maybe a lumber yard. From there, you could finish the press with a drill or drill press, and various hand tools. Other ways involve everything from using a CNC router or plasma cutter, a lathe for the drums, making gears and so forth. Some fabricators will tell you that you have to make an etching press within such a tolerance or it won’t work properly. Others point out that Vermeer was printing etchings long before the kind of shop technologies that can offer accuracy like presses today. In other words, a perfect press is great, but the masters made some of their art on machines that were just making do as it turns out. Craft & Concept has made everything from personal printing kits, electric printing presses, to things like our backpack printing press called the S.C.O.P.E.

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'In other words, it was illegal to build a printing press in the Colonies. It wasn't until The United States separated from England that Americans had the freedom to not only print what they wanted, but to build the presses to print them on...'

The American people are losing their sense of history when they do not remember what life in America was as COLONISTS.  Since this is to where CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA are taking the US we need to revisit what our founding fathers thought important as a new nation.  When someone argues for a private global militia as part of US history they are looking at what America as a colony was not allowed----its own national armed forces or navy.  This is why our revolution was fought by foreign nations and their naval ships for the most part.

This was true of media and printing.  As colonists our global corporate rule included control of what we read or said----

We want to return to what our founding fathers found important and that is building structures we can access and control and right now that is not moving all communications to the internet and online---

WE THE PEOPLE CANNOT CONTROL THAT VENUE.


 Ben Franklin's Horizontal
Platen Press aka "The Common Press"



The Standard - 1600

Ben Franklin, like nearly every American printer of his era, printed using a wooden "Common Press" which was the standard printing press used throughout the world until the advent of the steel toggle presses which became available - and quickly popular - around 1780.


"Ben Franklin's" Hand Press was of a standard design, an essentially all-wood, floor-standing press, much like those used in both America and in Europe from Gutenberg's time until the end of the 18th century.

This press, sometimes known as the "American Common Press", is actually the "English Common Press.

In fact, until Independence, when American Press Makers were legally allowed to build presses here, most presses used in the world came from Europe - specifically, England. In this case, Ben Franklin's press was very much like the press that would have been found in a 1750's Printing Office whether in London or Philadelphia.

When we queried press historian Bob Oldham about why these presses were shipped to the Colonies from England, instead of being made here, he explained that "For the first 150 years of the American colonies almost all goods had to be purchased in England, by English law -- the colonists were forbidden to make their own."

In other words, it was illegal to build a printing press in the Colonies. It wasn't until The United States separated from England that Americans had the freedom to not only print what they wanted, but to build the presses to print them on...

The photo below shows a colonial printer operating the Common Press in use at The Printing Office of Edes & Gill in Boston see: http://bostongazette.org/



The press in the photo below is the press that Ben Franklin is reputed to have used as a young printer in England in the 1730s. It is now in the collection of The Smithsonian Institution.

A complete report on this press can be found in The Common Press by Elizabeth Harris and Clinton Sisson - which includes the drawings used to reproduce a Common Press for a special display at the Smithsonian Institution.

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Here are those right-wing Wall Street corporate types blaming yet another industry manufacturing on workers earning a decent living.  Know what?  They do this because global monopolies and manufacturing overseas has killed market in the US.  What if we rebuild our local printing press economy and these local paper mills are reopened as labor co-ops and WE THE PEOPLE buy only from those local paper mills?

We simply need to change two economic prospectives------the local print industry needs to accept costs of paper a little higher and paper mill owners need to look for lower profit-margins. 

THIS IS WHAT REBUILDING OUR LOCAL ECONOMIES LOOKS LIKE AND WE DO NOT NEED WALL STREET LOANS----


'He continued by placing blame on the workers themselves. “This community has been dependent on one industry for such a long time,” he said. “As we look back several years down the road, I believe this could be a positive'.

Watching the old Westerns on TV where settlers building new towns brought that blacksmith, general store, cafe---these small business owners knew they had to curb profit-making to what people could afford.  Would a labor co-op paper mill need to press to maximize profits or simply maintain jobs and sustainable income? 


Our timber is now exported for higher profits---raw wood that we should be using for our US economy.

Alabama paper mill to be closed in 2014


By Matthew MacEgan


25 September 2013

Last week, International Paper (IP), one of the leading paper producers in the United States, announced that it will close its mill in Courtland, Alabama, leaving 1,100 workers jobless. The shuttering of the plant, one of the firm’s largest, will be done in stages, reaching completion in March 2014.


The announcement that the plant will be closed comes in spite of increasing profits. The day before the plant closure announcement, IP showed that it had boosted its dividend 17 percent and stated that it would buy back $1.5 billion of stock. IP’s net earnings for the first six months of the year rose 79 percent from a year earlier to $577 million, or $1.29 a share. Sales increased 5 percent to $14.4 billion. The company anticipates recording even greater profits during the remainder of 2013 and 2014 due to the closing of the mill.
Closing the Courtland plant will cut the company’s paper making capacity by about one third, or 950,000 tons a year.


Most of the product produced is uncoated paper, used in copy machines, while the rest consists of shinier, coated paper used for magazines and catalogs. The market for copy paper and envelopes has been decreasing for a decade as result of increased use of email, on-line bill payment, and electronic data storage.

IP accounts for about 25 percent of the North American production capacity for uncoated paper. The closing of the Courtland mill will lower the industry’s overall capacity by 8 percent.
The cost of upgraded production lines to keep the plant profitable in a shrinking market is an investment that “doesn’t make sense,” IP executives say.
Tim Nicholls, senior vice president for IP’s printing and communications business, stated, “We explored numerous business and repurposing options for the Courtland mill, but concluded that permanently closing the mill best positions us for the future.”

The mill’s closure is a disaster for its workers. “We never dreamed it would be us,” said Johnny Phillips, who has been working in the mill for over three decades. “The hardest part for me is looking at the youngest members. There aren’t many private employers in the area that pay what we get paid.”
With an annual payroll of $86 million, the mill was the largest employer in Lawrence County. Most workers at the mill averaged between $20 and $32 per hour in wages. Now over 40 years old, the mill also played a strong role in the local community, providing free copy paper to schools.
“It’s hard for us to understand how a mill that has put as much money in their coffers as ours could close,” Phillips said.
While the Courtland mill is being closed, other IP mills which produce containerboard for cardboard boxes and packaging products are thriving.


The state of Alabama has made no serious effort to keep the mill open. “We have absolutely nothing at present time that would help a company like this if they were going to close,” remarked Governor Robert Bentley.
State Representative Ken Johnson has told county residents that they should be encouraged by other prospective jobs which may come to the area, including a Jack Daniel’s cooperage which will purportedly create 200 jobs. “I’m glad to have these jobs that we didn’t have two or three years ago,” he told a press conference.
Regarding new jobs coming to the area, Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard told reporters, “I’m not able to discuss that right now, but there are a number of prospects that are interested in coming to Alabama because of the good, positive, pro-business climate we have created in this state that has already yielded results.”
He continued by placing blame on the workers themselves. “This community has been dependent on one industry for such a long time,” he said. “As we look back several years down the road, I believe this could be a positive.


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IMAGINE THAT!  A prologue to a FARCE.


'Rate Legislation to 1863
A popular Government, without popular information, or
the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a
Farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both
. James Madison, 1822'

Nothing is more vital to rebuilding our hard copy print media than protecting our USPS from being outsourced, privatized, and dismantled as is happening now.  These two issues go hand in hand as the USPS was thriving under expanding print industry.  We do not have to march into this 21st century internet-only media as is happening today.  We protect and save our USPS by rebuilding one of their major revenue sources----and we demand prices that are lower as this article shows.

We all know the USPS is being forced to raise rates more and more and it will price itself right out of viability.  We have Presidential appointed POSTMASTER GENERALS tied to Wall Street more than the viability of a critical public postal service so we fight this by being those businesses the USPS wants and needs as local print newsletters, journals.


If American citizens do not act now in rebuilding our small business local economies and stop waiting for Federal or corporate grants directing small business to only 21st century technology----we will lose all our middle-class next decade and there will literally be no personal revenue to invest.


USPS Responds to Newspaper Group’s Concerns and Walks Back Steep Rate Increase

Posted on May 12, 2015 by postal


 USPS Responds to NAA’s Concerns and Walks Back Steep Rate Increase


On May 7, 2015, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approved the U.S. Postal Service’s proposed rate increases for Standard Mail and Periodicals. The new rates take effect on May 31. (The PRC had previously approved new First Class rates, which also take effect on May 31).
The PRC’s approval of the rates comes after it denied previous USPS proposals that were filed on January 15 and March 12, respectively. The regulatory agency sent those proposal back to the Postal Service because discounts for commercial and non-profit mail were not “equal” as required by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2005, and the rates contained numerous other errors.
When the USPS responded on March 12 to the first remand of its January 15 rate proposals, newspapers were surprised that the new proposal would have significantly increased the rates for Total Market Coverage products that are mailed at High Density Plus rates. Specifically, USPS proposed a 5.75 percent increase in the per-piece charge for flats packages weighing over 3.3 ounces. Depending upon the carrier route, newspapers’ TMC packages typically weigh above 3.3 ounces. In addition, there has been a movement within the industry in recent years to increase the number of advertisers (thus, increasing the weight) in TMCs to increase margins for non-subscriber programs.
In response to this dramatic and surprising increase on heavier weight TMCs, NAA contacted Postal Service officials to express concerns and remind them that, in 2014, USPS lowered rates for High Density Plus mail by 11 percent in an effort to encourage newspapers to keep TMCs in the nation’s postal system and not shift this mail to private delivery. To its credit, the Postal Service recognized that the 5.75 percent per-piece increase would have had the effect of reversing the “stay-in-the-mail” incentive USPS had implemented in the previous year. On April 16, USPS submitted revised rates to the Postal Regulatory Commission that replaced the 5.75 percent per piece increase with a below rate-of-inflation 1.2 percent increase.

Attached is a chart with the new rates that go into effect later this month, including rates for “Within County” Periodicals used by community newspapers. This chart includes the 4.3 percent “exigent” surcharge – imposed in 2014 – which will remain in effect until later this summer. The PRC has directed the Postal Service to eliminate the surcharge when the agency has collected $2.8 billion in revenue that was lost due to the Great Recession. The Postal Service has filed an appeal of this decision to “sunset” the surcharge. NAA joined other mailer organizations to oppose the Postal Service’s appeal which currently sits before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

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This issue of rebuilding a diverse media economy cannot happen without saving our USPS.  If 1% Wall Street global pols succeed in dismantling it---and both CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA are working hard to do this----we will be removed from growing local and regional hard copy print media. 

Trans Pacific Trade Pact targets our USPS as attacking profits that should be earned by global corporations.  Around the world developing nations are privatizing their public postal services----the UK is attacking theirs----and Europeans are fighting as hard as they can against this ONE WORLD goal of captured communications and information.

Nothing says PRESS FREEDOM more than SAVE OUR USPS.


Oregon Occupies the Post Office

December 31, 2011


From the Rural Organizing Project:On Monday, December 19, the Rural Organizing Project coordinated rallies across the state of Oregon to protest the Postal Service’s plan to close rural post offices.  Over twenty-three communities  fought back against Congress' move to privatize the Postal Service for corporate profit.  Monday proved just how much rural Oregon cares about core community infrastructure that supports EVERYONE, not just the 1%.  We sent a clear message: we USE and OCCUPY our Post Offices!
You can help save rural post offices!
Sign our petition to Congress demanding that they FIX the USPS' financial crisis that they created in 2006 and that they save rural post offices!
Be sure to check your email on January 2: Our January Kitchen Table Activism will be out to collect signatures across Oregon so we can hand-deliver 3,000 signatures to Congress this February!  If you want to get started early, download the petition and signature sheet!
Read about the amazing work of each community — from the tiny town of Deadwood (population less than 200!) with its own Pony Express to signature collection of half of the population in Fort Klamath.  Check out the slideshow featuring pictures from across the state!


Here’s a rundown of what happened on December 19:


Deadwood: The parking lot of Deadwood's Post Office and General Store has never been as full as it was on Monday!  The Deadwood Pony Express — a pair of giant draft horses — pulled into the parking lot from 10 am to noon while 80 locals rallied to save their Post Office!  Everyone in town came, even the local loggers and construction workers.  One local construction worker parked his backhoe in the parking lot and put an "Occupied" sign in the bucket!  Families shared how important the post office is, ate cookies, signed the petition, and gave the Postmaster gifts of appreciation.  At the end of the day, the petition had 164 signatures — an impressive feat for a community with a population less than 200!
"The parking lot was full of folks chatting and meeting for the first time," said Leslie Benscoter, retired schoolteacher and Occupy the Post Office organizer in Deadwood. "Despite our differences, every single member of the community came out to rally around the one thing that brings us together: our post office. I have lived in this community more than fifty years and I still managed to meet new people."



Swisshome: Swisshome rallied outside of their Post Office with a fiddle, signs, and a lot of holiday cheer!  Cheering every time a passing car honked, they happily chatted and collected over 70 signatures.  Swisshome resident and Occupy the Post Office organizer Otan Logi wrote, "A few times, 4-7 neighbors would show up with posters. Cars and trucks passing by honked and the area was alive with people's enthusiasm!  People were talking about concerns with hope and expectation about making a difference."
Walton:The Walton General Store, which shares a storefront with the Walton Post Office, was decorated with signs that read, "OCCUPY THE POST OFFICE — NOT OTHER COUNTRIES" and "Don't Stamp Out the Stamp!"  Walton residents gathered around a bon-fire to hold signs facing Highway 126.  A local pharmacist and concerned Walton resident was there because he isn't physically able to make the drive to the next closest post office. "This is wrong," he said. "I need to get my medications and they are temperature-sensitive. This is really a matter of life-or-death."


Fort Klamath: Fort Klamath locals and Klamath Falls activists worked together to collect signatures from over half of the population of Fort Klamath!  Klamath Falls activist Kirk Oakes wrote, "Fort Klamath was inspirational. Everyone we spoke with was open and concerned and generally supportive. They KNOW what it would mean to them if that post office closed. In the space of time we were there we saw probably half of the population. It was totally worth freezing for."



Drewsey: Drewsey Occupied their Post Office even though it was only 11º outside!  They collected signatures and discussed the importance of the Post Office when it comes to the delivery of prescription medications.  With a population of less than 18, most folks who use the Drewsey Post Office live outside of town and already drive a treacherous road to get there.


Eddyville: Activists from Occupy Newport traveled to Eddyville to support the community which may be losing its post office.  ROP Board member Rennie Ferries wrote, "Just about everybody that drove by showed support in one way or another.  Not a single negative.  All of us left feeling very good about our participation!"  They delivered a plate of cookies to the Postmaster, who was happy to chat with them and share information!

Corvallis: Corvallis had a fun day at Occupy the Post Office. Joined by Santa, Corvallis rallied and gathered over 200 signatures on a petition to save rural and small town post offices.  Everyone reported that the entire event was invigorating, fun, and positive!  Watch the YouTube video, and read the media coverage.

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By Heather Stombaugh, JustWrite Solutions
Updated April 21, 2016

The New Landscape of Corporate Grant Making

Social media may not seem like the first place nonprofits look to win grants, but this 21st-century innovation has changed the landscape of grant funding, especially among corporate giving programs.


When we allow the 5% to the 1% to become our 'populist leaders' bringing 1% Wall Street talking points as our left-leaning goals---we get this 21st century economy filled with nothing but social media and online businesses while all the hard copy print industry shrivels on the vine.  That is the goal---they are consolidating not only our media outlets but the ways we can access media or participate in media.

All grants coming now from government grants, corporate non-profit grants is aimed at this 'innovation' economy bringing everyone to online media only.

WE THE PEOPLE know when we are being led down the wrong path and this is it.  There is nothing wrong with online media----Citizens' Oversight Maryland is largely online. 


'What We Fund

We are open to change and support the adoption of evolving technology to advance our core beliefs. Knight Foundation identifies, explores and invests in innovative technology approaches and applications with the greatest potential to advance the fields in which we work.

Technology is a part of all our grant-making and social investment programs. This requires collaboration among programs to examine core technology issues that cut across the foundation’s work, and to discover and implement program solutions.

Knight Foundation also supports innovative experiments in the use of digital media and technology to inform. We then reinvest in the most promising projects that emerge from early-stage grants'.




Citizens must get serious about supporting financially venues of media not tied to internet and our basic hard copy print press was a wonder of the world in opening the 99% to information and the power to create information and share opinions.

1% WALL STREET IS LEADING AMERICANS LIKE SHEEP TO THE MEDIA CONSOLIDATION AND MONOPOLY OF ONE WORLD INFORMATION CAPTURE.


 Social Media and Charity Contests Equal More Grants for Nonprofits

Grant Writers Get Savvy About Social Media and Competitions



By Heather Stombaugh, JustWrite Solutions
Updated April 21, 2016


The New Landscape of Corporate Grant Making


Social media may not seem like the first place nonprofits look to win grants, but this 21st-century innovation has changed the landscape of grant funding, especially among corporate giving programs.

For instance, companies such as Kohl’s, Chase Bank, and Tom's of Maine have moved some of their corporate social responsibility programs to social media, leading to well-publicized Facebook battles for “likes.”
Rather than these companies deciding who should get what, they use "crowd sourcing" techniques to make the decisions.
These charity contests as they are sometimes called, usually invite nonprofits to apply for inclusion, then a smaller number, that meets the basic requirements of participation, compete for the grants.
Even though some of the earliest charity contests, such as Pepsi Refresh, have quietly died away, many companies continue to convert or supplement their grants programs with social media. It is less expensive, easier to manage and requires fewer resources.
It is also phenomenal “free” advertising, in a space where millions of current and potential consumers gather daily, with the potential to go viral. 
Competition for these social media-driven funds can become fierce, even in small communities. Ultimately, corporations distribute millions of dollars a year in grants through social media.

However, a paper by Maya T. Prabhu, Assistant Editor at "eSchool News" suggests “the best applicants might not always win.” Why? Nonprofits with more resources and greater access to social media users often top the leader boards. Nonprofits that do not already have a social media capacity commonly fail.
Note that I did not say a lack of grant writing capacity. Indeed, few professional grant writing skills are needed for these competitions. Your communications and social media engagement skills are more important.


While participating in corporate charity contests to win grants can sometimes be disappointing,  a little know-how can go a long way.  So, how do you win these grants? Here are some tips:
  1. Tell a clear, concise, and compelling story. Convey why we should care. Why is your need greater than the needs of hundreds of other nonprofits also competing for funds?
  2. Implement a coordinated communications plan (including traditional media, ads, and other means) to “get out the vote” for your effort. This effort must be strategic, and your organization must invest time in getting votes every day to win.
  3. Engage volunteers to manage the “get out the vote” effort.  Regularly engage through social media, and  drive people to vote for your organization. 

    If you have access to hundreds of young people who use Facebook and Twitter regularly and are willing to help push their friends and followers to vote, you are in an excellent position.

    This element is critical. According to a Pew Charitable Trust study, people ages 18-29 are more likely to use social media than any other age group. Use that to your advantage.

How Social Media Influences Traditional Grant Seeking


The value of social media is not confined to non-traditional grant making such as charity contests, however. Even for traditional grant seeking, visibility on social media networks can benefit any nonprofit, even small ones.



According to a study by Kivi Leroux, the 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, “Nonprofits rely most on Facebook (94%), Twitter (62%), and YouTube (42%).”
There are strengths to each of these networks. For instance, more than a billion people use Facebook. It is the elephant in the social media room, so you'll likely want to have a presence there.
Twitter is much smaller, but you'll find lots of nonprofits, foundations, and other grant-making organizations present.
YouTube is just too good to pass up since the viewership is huge.  There is even a YouTube program just for nonprofits. Plus, the cost and ease of making video have improved dramatically over the past few years. Almost any nonprofit can establish a YouTube presence.
LinkedIn for nonprofits can lead you to professional connections, but also to potential board members and volunteers.


Here are some simple ways that you can position your nonprofit for success in the world of grant making using social media.
  1. Make a Facebook page for your nonprofit IF you will use it. Do not make a page just to have one. The purpose of social media is to engage, so someone needs to invest time every week to posting about your impact, stories from the people who use your services, photos of volunteers and from events, and news about new grants or major gifts. Create a conversation and keep it going.
  2. Put your organization on Twitter. Your executive director (minimally) should have a Twitter account and should tweet regularly about what is happening at your nonprofit. It's easy to have multiple people tweeting from your nonprofit. It's ok for them to use their real names too. If you have multiple accounts, just make sure that one of them is the "official" one. Alternatively, one official account could be maintained by more than one person.
  3. Explore the potential of LinkedIn. All the professionals in your organization should have a personal LinkedIn page. They should connect with other practitioners in the field, collaborators at other nonprofits, and with grant program officers. LinkedIn is a fabulous resource for professional development, and can even serve as a prospecting tool to locate donors and possible grantors.
  4. “Like” the Facebook pages of your current and targeted future funders. According to research from the Center on Effective Philanthropy, only 16% of nonprofits follow their foundations on Facebook or Twitter.
  5. Create videos about your work and post them on YouTube. Then promote your videos through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Just remember to get signed permission from anyone appearing in pictures or videos.
  6. Use apps to manage social media. Save time by using HootSuite, Buffer, or other social media applications to coordinate posts across as many social media sites as you wish, and to track how well you are doing. Metrics are just as important in social media as they are for things such as fundraising. Some of these apps can be used as "dashboards" for your information.
The point is that grant writers can and should use social media. You can find information about grants and grant makers, plus polish your organization's reputation. And, you do not have to be a social media guru to use it to your advantage to win more grants.

______________________________________
We cannot rebuild our hard copy printing if we don't have a public USPS to keep mailing costs down and delivery dependable.  As well, we already know corporations find the letter mail unprofitable ---they want to end that with only parcel deliveries which we already have with UPS/FEDX


  November 4, 2013UK's Royal Mail Privatized and Sold to Investors

John Weeks: The privatization of the Royal Mail will enrich investors but leave workers worse off.



transcriptJESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.



Britain's postal service, the Royal Mail, was recently privatized, as the government sold a majority stake to investors in an initial public offering. The Royal Mail and Communication Workers Union canceled a massive strike planned for Monday, with the exception of 4,000 Crown post workers.



Now joining us to discuss the issue is John Weeks. He is a professor emeritus of the University of London and author of the forthcoming book The Economics of the 1%: How Mainstream Economics Serves the Rich, Obscures Reality and Distorts Policy.



Thanks for joining us, John.



JOHN WEEKS, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, UNIV. OF LONDON: Well, thank you very much for inviting me. It's always a pleasure.



DESVARIEUX: So, John, let's just break down who are the winners and the likely losers of this privatization of the Royal Mail.



WEEKS: I think in order for an American audience--I think it should be obvious to everyone that I'm an American, But I've lived in Britain for a while. But I go back and forth. It took me a while to adjust to the role of the postal service.



Let me briefly explain to people the nature of it, so it--easier for you to understand who wins and loses, because it's not just a financial question. The postal service in Britain has, ever since the end of World War II, played a very major role social role. Small communities have post offices. We have a cottage in a village of 500 people. It has a post office. Another village next to us, a post office closed a few years ago because of budget cuts.



Now, to that post office elderly people can go and collect their pensions. They can actually collect it in cash, rather like collecting your Social Security in cash. They don't have to have bank accounts. If they want a bank account, they can have it through the Postal Service. They don't have to pay the fees that you would in a normal bank. And it has always been completely safe, because the government guaranteed money that was deposited in the postal service bank.



In addition, the post office would usually be in a shop, and the people that ran it would live in the community. And so they would know people coming in and out. So it played quite an important function. Several years ago, an elderly woman in a village here was ill, and the postmistress noticed that she hadn't been coming in for several days and called the emergency services. So that's not an unusual function for the post office to play.



Okay. So one of the big losers will be all the people who use the post office as a source of their, you might say, link to the wider community, because it will become more commercial. In fact, many of the local post offices will become de facto in private hands. That is, not only will they be a privatization process which has occurred in which shares are sold out, but the premises will be owned privately and the functions will be owned by a rather large company, which will then hire the postmaster, the postmistress to run the activity. So to a certain extent this privatization is an extension of what has occurred before.



So the first thing is that a very large number of people in Britain will have worse local services. And this applies to cities, too. There are--it's quite common where we lived in London. There is a post office within walking distance. And most people have a post office within walking distance. I think almost certainly with the privatization there will be fewer post offices. This will be downsized. And it's also a place, I should add--not our local post office, but in London, where you can use a computer--if you don't own the computer, you can go along and use the computer in the post office. Or you can have your photograph taken to get a passport. A whole range of things. There will be fewer of them. It will mean that either you'll have to have an automobile or you will have to travel by public transport, rather long distances, in order to access these same services.



I would say there the primary [incompr.] purely financially. Part of the shares, of course, are sold--well, are granted to the postal workers. But the controlling share has been sold off to private companies. Five percent of it is owned by a hedge fund. Then that 5 percent, usually, with a corporation, is enough to have control of it, particularly if the government is not particularly zealous about using its part, which I'm sure this government will not be. So then the big corporations that buy it out, I suspect what they will do is they will begin to run down the services in order to make less competitive with the same functions privately. As in the United States, there are many private providers (if I can use that, you know, neoliberal term) of postal services, delivery services, all of these things--American Express being--not American--Federal Express being the most obvious one. And so they will be [incompr.]



Then, in addition, there are the short-term gains. This is, you might say, the dirtiest part of the whole deal. When you privatize something well, when those who are prone to privatization--governments are prone to privatization, privatize [incompr.] they have to decide how much they're going to sell the shares for. The post--then you have to value what you're selling. And private consultants are hired, and the government on the basis of their advice valued the Postal Service at £10 billion. The shares went for about 40 percent more than that. So people were able to buy the shares at, say, a pound, and then the same day they were able to sell them at 40 percent more. Okay. This is a real scandal. Did the government do it on purpose, so that the big brokerage houses would make a killing? Well, I don't even think they have to do it on purpose. It comes so natural to them, 'cause this has been characteristic of previous privatizations under conservative governments, under Margaret Thatcher's government of valuing a public asset well below its market's price. And then the people who buy up the shares, most of whom are the wealthy, are able to resell them almost at once and make a large profit.



DESVARIEUX: Okay. John Weeks, thank you so much for joining us.



WEEKS: Well, thank you very much for having me. And I hope that next time I see you I'll be able to say that there's a strong movement against this privatization. I'm not terribly optimistic, but I hope so, because there is some opposition. It's not very strong now.



DESVARIEUX: Well, we'll certainly be tracking the story as well, John.


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September 20th, 2016

9/20/2016

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We have discussed quite often the threat to 99% of citizens of loss of internet access both as individuals and as small businesses from the selling of air waves to global corporations for use in high-speed global online businesses.  This is the #1 issue for internet media----innovation technology startups et al.

This week we will look at CENSORSHIP as it may play out through COPYRIGHT LAWS tied to Trans Pacific Trade Pact.  We all know copyright theft overseas is huge---Hollywood or the music industry wants to profit from records and movies that are copied and sold with impunity.  The problem comes from our ability to access journalism and what media outlets will be allowed to be freely accessed in the future.  Knowing we are already facing a kind of censoring in how servers are being programmed to block some sites as dangerous---we are seeing that broaden.  I now cannot open many international sites I have for these few decades. 

Americans have for centuries been allowed to subscribe to a magazine or journal and copy or share articles.  The movement of magazines and newspapers online came with that freedom to share articles.  If you notice some are now not allowing a share---some are not allowing people to copy.  This is especially true of academic research articles---government documents----once open because Federal, state, and local revenue backs those articles.  I am even finding government articles being released in coding that many computers will not accept.  There are many ways to keep citizens from accessing information these days.

So, if we can see the creep of censorship and exclusivity in the information we all have accessed through modern times---then as the article below states we MUST BE VERY, VERY CONCERNED over Trans Pacific Trade Pact's strong detailing of copyright and patent laws. As this article states---what looks to be legitimate concern by Hollywood or music industry in protecting sales can as well expand this censorship by making service providers too weary over copyright infringements.



April 25, 2014


Trans Pacific Partnership Provokes Fear Of Internet Censorship

Tara Dodrill

The Trans Pacific Partnership(TPP) has prompted fears of internet censorship and the creation of “internet police” on a global scale. The TPP has been billed as a “free trade agreement” similar to the NAFTA initiative of 1994.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1226094/trans-pacific-partnership-provokes-fear-of-internet-censorship/#qupr5eKKj6w5lljh.99

Electronic Frontier Foundation had this to say about the TPP and internet censorship:


“TPP raises significant concerns about citizens’ freedom of expression, due process, innovation, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and the right of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws that best meet their domestic priorities.”
Senator Ron Wyden was among those who staunchly oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership deal and addressed the lack of information about the plan being shared with Congress.


A host of internet freedom groups are also coming out in opposition to the TPP. The stopthesecrecy.net website began circulating a petition to thwart the Trans Pacific Partnership and has more than two million signatures. The petition and largely the internet freedom movement itself, is being led by OpenMedia, a Canada-based organization. The group wants safeguards put into place in order to keep cyber space free from censorship. Reddit and Avaaz are also involved in the initiative to stop the TPP mandates from taking effect.


OpenMedia Executive Director Steve Anderson had this to say about the TPP deal and how it will impact free speech on the internet:


“If the TPP’s censorship plan goes through, it will force ISPs to act as “Internet Police” monitoring our Internet use, censoring content, and removing whole websites. A deal this extreme would never pass with the whole world watching – that’s why U.S. lobbyists and bureaucrats are using these closed-door meetings to try to ram it through. Our projection will shine a light on this secretive and extreme agreement, sending decision-makers a clear message that we expect to take part in decisions that affect our daily lives.”
_____________________________________________


Stop the Great Firewall of America



By REBECCA MacKINNONNOV. 15, 2011  New York Times

China operates the world’s most elaborate and opaque system of Internet censorship. But Congress, under pressure to take action against the theft of intellectual property, is considering misguided legislation that would strengthen China’s Great Firewall and even bring major features of it to America.
The legislation — the Protect IP Act, which has been introduced in the Senate, and a House version known as the Stop Online Piracy Act — have an impressive array of well-financed backers, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Federation of Musicians, the Directors Guild of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Screen Actors Guild. The bills aim not to censor political or religious speech as China does, but to protect American intellectual property. Alarm at the infringement of creative works through the Internet is justifiable. The solutions offered by the legislation, however, threaten to inflict collateral damage on democratic discourse and dissent both at home and around the world.
The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial. The House version goes further, allowing private companies to sue service providers for even briefly and unknowingly hosting content that infringes on copyright — a sharp change from current law, which protects the service providers from civil liability if they remove the problematic content immediately upon notification. The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar.
Abuses under existing American law serve as troubling predictors for the kinds of abuse by private actors that the House bill would make possible. Take, for example, the cease-and-desist letters that Diebold, a maker of voting machines, sent in 2003, demanding that Internet service providers shut down Web sites that had published internal company e-mails about problems with the company’s voting machines. The letter cited copyright violations, and most of the service providers took down the content without question, despite the strong case to be made that the material was speech protected under the First Amendment.
The House bill would also emulate China’s system of corporate “self-discipline,” making companies liable for users’ actions. The burden would be on the Web site operator to prove that the site was not being used for copyright infringement. The effect on user-generated sites like YouTube would be chilling.
YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have played an important role in political movements from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park. At present, social networking services are protected by a “safe harbor” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which grants Web sites immunity from prosecution as long as they act in good faith to take down infringing content as soon as rights-holders point it out to them. The House bill would destroy that immunity, putting the onus on YouTube to vet videos in advance or risk legal action. It would put Twitter in a similar position to that of its Chinese cousin, Weibo, which reportedly employs around 1,000 people to monitor and censor user content and keep the company in good standing with authorities.
Compliance with the Stop Online Piracy Act would require huge overhead spending by Internet companies for staff and technologies dedicated to monitoring users and censoring any infringing material from being posted or transmitted. This in turn would create daunting financial burdens and legal risks for start-up companies, making it much harder for brilliant young entrepreneurs with limited resources to create small and innovative Internet companies that empower citizens and change the world.
Adding to the threat to free speech, recent academic research on global Internet censorship has found that in countries where heavy legal liability is imposed on companies, employees tasked with day-to-day censorship jobs have a strong incentive to play it safe and over-censor — even in the case of content whose legality might stand a good chance of holding up in a court of law. Why invite legal hassle when you can just hit “delete”?
The potential for abuse of power through digital networks — upon which we as citizens now depend for nearly everything, including our politics — is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age. We live in a time of tremendous political polarization. Public trust in both government and corporations is low, and deservedly so. This is no time for politicians and industry lobbyists in Washington to be devising new Internet censorship mechanisms, adding new opportunities for abuse of corporate and government power over online speech. While American intellectual property deserves protection, that protection must be won and defended in a manner that does not stifle innovation, erode due process under the law, and weaken the protection of political and civil rights on the Internet.
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As this article states the ability to be kicked off the internet for violation of some of these policies is huge.  With no avenue for redress when this may happen unjustly we can see a freeze on how citizens communicate and share information not only in the US but around the world.  As requirements for internet service providers to police copyright and patents so too will that price for access rise.  We already know rate increases are coming as high-speed internet consolidation is creating monopolies---we know it is cheaper to select users according to the kinds of activities that would not lead to copyright or patent infringement.  They always make cost prohibitively expensive for behaviors they want to curb.  If we know mainstream media is only hiring a 5% to the 1% who report what they are told ---the independent journalists are now being told they are not real journalists and they will be labelled as dangerous sites.   We are seeing it in third world nations as internet censorship is strong---and we will see TPP bring more of that censorship to the US for the same reasons.

When the news of China's abuse of labor and environment was allowed to escape the nation a few decades ago allowing the world to understand what global corporate factories were like---people researching these issues saw how censorship in those third world nations eliminated all internet discussions on those topics. 


'Throughout this week in Ottawa, negotiators worked to ink a binding international agreement behind closed doors, which experts say could block web content, invade your privacy, and make your Internet more expensive'.


Steve E. Anderson Become a fan

Founder and Executive Director, OpenMedia.ca

The TPP Censorship Circus Could Change The Way We Use The Internet Forever

Posted: 07/10/2014 5:40 pm EDT Updated: 09/09/2014 5:59 am EDT

The bureaucrats and industry lobbyists negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership have gone to great lengths to keep their plans a secret before, but this takes the cake. After scheduling the next round of bargaining for Vancouver, negotiators quietly made a last minute switch to Ottawa with only a week to go before the round began.
The TPP is an international agreement involving Canada and 11 other countries, involving 40 per cent of the global economy, that threatens to censor free expression online amongst other concerns spanning environmental protections, jobs, public health, and even our democratic rights.


Throughout this week in Ottawa, negotiators worked to ink a binding international agreement behind closed doors, which experts say could block web content, invade your privacy, and make your Internet more expensive.


In today's world where digital innovation is driven by the ability to access and leverage the open Internet, the TPP proposes regressive Internet regulations that would be imposed on 12 countries party to the agreement (including Canada) by unaccountable U.S. conglomerates, with little to no meaningful consultation with the public.


Canadians, and citizens across the globe, will be denied the democratic right of sovereign countries to make their own laws, and everyday users of the Internet will be the ones who suffer most.
Even our own representatives in Parliament are being kept in dark. Last year, NDP trade critic Don Davies argued it was unacceptable that U.S. representatives have been allowed access to the TPP text, but Canadian legislators, including MPs from the governing party, have been excluded from previewing the deal.


Despite the secrecy, we know that major changes are in store for Internet users if the agreement is ratified, and that negotiators and Trade Minister Ed Fast are doing their best to keep citizen and small business voices locked out. In fact, in late 2012, the Canadian government mistakenly included OpenMedia on an email containing a non-disclosure agreement for insider lobbyists, asking them to keep secret the information they learn about the negotiations.
What we do know from leaked documents is that this agreement is not about trade, but rather about expanding the rights of Big Media conglomerates who are pushing for extreme Internet censorship powers.
Consequences of this heavy-handedness range from criminalizing small-scale alleged copyright infringement, like uploading a home video with a popular song playing in the background, to blocking web content, and even quite literally kicking people -- and entire families -- off the web simply for being accused of breaking copyright rules, without any evidence or due process
.



During the Auckland round of negotiations in 2012, an OpenMedia rep travelled to meet with decision-makers, and presented them with an iPad streaming citizen comments about the TPP making our Internet more expensive, restricted and surveilled. During this visit, we also challenged Canada's chief negotiator to take a stand and commit to upholding Canadian law in the TPP, but she refused to do so.


After repeated attempts to have citizen stakeholder engagement taken seriously by negotiators and Trade Ministers, we decided to make our own trans-pacific partnership - one comprised of web users, innovators and organizations with the shared goal of an open and accessible Internet.


Thousands of citizens and over 30 major organizations from across the Pacific Region have already joined together in the Our Fair Deal Coalition that aims to put a stop to regressive rules for sharing and collaborating online. This spring, our partnership helped launch the Stop the Secrecy campaign, that saw 3.1 million people speak out against TPP secrecy.

Sadly, rather than open the process to public input, Canadian officials have increased the secrecy of these meetings by preventing public consultations and refusing to even disclose the location of the meetings until the last minute.



_________________________

Citizens need to look at two goals of internet usage by 1% Wall Street global pols---first, they need all high-speed internet capacity directed to global corporations, Wall Street banking, and NSA security structures and are going to push more and more Americans from ordinary internet access.  They will create programming that cannot be opened ---they will broaden payment packages to individual services raising those rates, or like Apple they will send out new products every other year and make them too expensive for most.

Secondly, the 1% and their 2% are returning to days of Medieval when 99% of people had no access to information and formal educations.  This is why research is becoming proprietary---it is why research journals we used to be able to read sitting in a university library saw prices climb---then libraries said they needed those subscriptions online----and now we are seeing a move towards universities not having access to that research now that it is being patented.  NASA for example is being outsourced and privatized ---think of all those images.  Then think if all that becomes proprietary how much knowledge and information WE THE PEOPLE will not access.  That was Medieval.  Across America we are already hearing everyone state they cannot access REAL information---they don't know what information is correct---that will become worse as people trying to provide REAL information are censored off the internet.

I'm not a fan of signing petitions but it is good to see what activism is out there ---make sure your email information is not being sold to Clinton neo-liberals as many petition sites do.


The Fair Deal campaign is about keeping the Trans-Pacific Partnership from changing our copyright laws.


A fair deal is one that opens up new trade opportunities, without forcing us to make changes to copyright law that would take a major toll on our society.
Make your voice heard by signing on to this simple statement for decision-makers now:


“Please reject copyright proposals that restrict the open Internet, access to knowledge, economic opportunity and our fundamental rights.”

Right now an international agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being negotiated by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. The changes to copyright required by the TPP would reduce our access to information and restrict our ability to innovate, both on and offline.

Changing our copyright laws in ways that restrict the open Internet and economic opportunity are unfair to citizens, businesses, creators, and civil society organizations. Not only could such changes raise prices for users of copyright works, but they could also stifle our knowledge economy and chill innovation.


The TPP negotiations are secret,so nobody can say for sure how you will lose or gain from the agreement, but a leaked document reveals that the U.S. wants copyright standards that would force change to many of the negotiating countries’ copyright laws. We want you to know more about what’s at stake so that you can have a say now, before the deal is done.
The TPP is no simple “trade agreement.” It goes further than tariffs and quotas. The TPP will reach beyond the border, into countries’ own policy-making and regulatory processes. For example, the TPP could stop future governments from making their own decisions on important issues including how long copyright lasts and how Internet service providers do business.


Support a Fair Deal for Citizens



Keep parallel importsThe TPP could give copyright holders the power to veto parallel imports. This would drive up the already high price of books, DVDs, and other items in several countries.

Don’t extend our copyright terms

The TPP could make copyright longer in most of the affected countries. Accepted standards for copyright terms are set out in international law. Under the TRIPS Agreement, copyright in books, for example, lasts for the life of the author plus 50 years after death.The TPP could add another 20 years to that, making copyright last the author’s life plus 70 years. Not only would citizens have to pay an extra 20 years in royalties, but several generations will go by before the book enters the public domain.


Keep us free from restrictive digital locks


A Technological Protection Measure (TPM) or digital lock is software designed to prevent people from copying digital products. But TPMs do more than that – they can prevent us from engaging in entirely legal activities. The TPP could expand digital locks and make it illegal to circumvent them even for non-infringing purposes – like changing an e-book into a format someone who is blind or has low vision could read. The TPP could effectively make it illegal for the blind to access e-books where digital locks are attached, even if they've purchased the e-book lawfully!


Support a Fair Deal for Innovators


Copyright law is meant to encourage people to create, but too strong copyright law can actually stifle innovation. This is especially true in the digital environment. As explained in a leaked text by New Zealand negotiators:


Many innovations are occurring in a rapid and sequential manner either through the clustering of innovation or by one innovator moving to quickly build on the work of another...In this environment, more people are arguing that overly strong rights can act as an inhibitor rather than as promoter of innovation.


Support a Fair Deal for our Internet


Keep our Internet open

The TPP could give copyright owners power over temporary electronic copies, for example cached, buffered or streamed data. The glaring problem is this: the Internet fundamentally depends on making temporary copies to move information from point A to point B, so the TPP’s “temporary electronic copy” right is like giving copyright owners the power to set up toll booths all along the information superhighway. This would seriously take away from the openness that makes the Internet so valuable.

Let ISPs do what they do best – provide Internet access, not police copyright


The TPP could force ISPs to be judge and jury when it comes to copyright infringement, making them—not a court—determine who “repeat infringers” of copyright are and cut them off from the Internet.


____________________________________

Citizens not involved with universities or research may not think the article below pertains to them but it most certainly does.  As we see today our universities are not leading in revolution and are almost void on public policy discussions and holding power accountable.  These are huge issues in a free society.  Public universities were ground zero for these actions.  Obama and Congressional neo-liberals deliberately created a tiered higher education structure handing the power of research to IVY LEAGUES and with that comes more and more proprietary actions around data, products, patents all of which used to be public because they are funded with public money.  The professors below are not targeting these problems because at Rutgers they are probably profiting from these patent policies BUT their concerns are just as valid in press/information freedom----it is tied to BIG DATA AND NSA the idea of rating global corporate universities and professors by opening all boundaries of personal data to data-mining corporations.

When academics are placed under a microscope---whether teachers being videotaped for all the information they share or these researchers having all contents of their research open to review before publishing-----it limits innovation and creativity it does not INSPIRE IT AS WALL STREET AND ITS INNOVATION marketing sells.  Rutgers is a public university that sees itself as IVY LEAGUE.  We will see almost all funding of academic research handed to private global universities with no access by 99% of citizens.


Refusing to Be Measured

Rutgers professors vote a second time to seek access to and limits on use of data from Academic Analytics -- as faculty advocates vow to take such criticism to other campuses.


May 11, 2016
ByColleen Flaherty



The faculty of the Graduate School at Rutgers University in New Brunswick took a stand against Academic Analytics on Tuesday, resolving that administrators shouldn’t use proprietary information about faculty productivity in decisions about divvying up resources among departments, or those affecting the makeup of the faculty, graduate teaching assignments, fellowships and grant writing. They also demanded to view their personal data profiles by Sept. 1. The vote was 114 to 2.



The new resolution is similar to one passed by the faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences in December, in that it expresses concern about the accuracy of the Academic Analytics data and the implications for academic freedom. Rutgers signed a nearly $500,000 contract with the data-mining company in 2013, in exchange for information about the scholarly productivity of individual professors and academic units and how they compare to those at peer institutions. Yet some faculty members who have seen their personal profiles -- an opportunity most professors haven’t had -- say the data are in some cases wrong, under- or overcounting publications. Many faculty critics also say the data lack nuance or accounting for research quality and innovation, and could chill the scholarly inquiry of junior faculty members in particular as they seek to boost their “stats” ahead of applying for tenure.


“The entirely quantitative methods and variables employed by Academic Analytics -- a corporation intruding upon academic freedom, peer evaluation and shared governance -- hardly capture the range and quality of scholarly inquiry, while utterly ignoring the teaching, service and civic engagement that faculty perform,” the graduate faculty resolution says. “Taken on their own terms, the measures of books, articles, awards, grants and citations within the Academic Analytics database frequently undercount, overcount or otherwise misrepresent the achievements of individual scholars,” and those measures “have the potential to influence, redirect and narrow scholarship as administrators incite faculty and departments to compete for higher scores.”


The School of Arts and Sciences’ resolution also demanded that Academic Analytics not be used in promotion and tenure decisions.


Pro-Academic Analytics administrators at Rutgers and elsewhere, meanwhile, say the service is just one tool among many used to track scholarly productivity, and that more information is better information. Even staff members at Academic Analytics say their data shouldn’t ever replace traditional forms of peer evaluation, but rather supplement it with facts, figures and comparisons that institutions might otherwise attempt to gather on their own -- likely less accurately and at greater expense.
“Researchers at Academic Analytics care very much about higher education and we look at ourselves as providing a service,” said Tricia Stapleton, company spokesperson. “We help institutions understand themselves because many are very large, complex beings and it’s not always easy to gather this kind of information.”
Yet Rutgers seems to be acting on some faculty concerns. Richard L. Edwards, chancellor of Rutgers at New Brunswick, said in an email to faculty members last week that he planned on announcing within the next month a mechanism “for individual Rutgers faculty members to review their [Academic Analytics] files and to make corrections if errors are discovered.”
Edwards said he’ll establish a campuswide committee of faculty and administrators charged with monitoring and making recommendations about the program’s use on campus by fall.
Addressing concerns about the cost of the four-year contract, the chancellor said it’s annually about the equivalent of hiring a midlevel analyst. But one person “could not possibly provide the information that we get from Academic Analytics, with data from hundreds of universities and thousands of faculty members.”


David Hughes, a professor of anthropology at Rutgers and president of its American Association of University Professors- and American Federation of Teachers-affiliated faculty union, said that beyond promises of access to faculty data, Edwards’s message fell short. In particular, he said that Edwards had “mischaracterized” Academic Analytics as consistent with the Leiden Manifesto, a sort of gold standard for research metrics -- including “Keep data collection and analytical processes open, transparent and simple.”


“I suspect that when he praises [Academic Analytics] for its transparency, involvement of stakeholders and so on, he is referring to its transparency to and involvement of client administrators -- not their faculties,” Hughes said.
It was only after some effort that Hughes was able to view his profile earlier this year; he said he’d been credited for three journal articles in a given period when he’d only written one, and undercredited on other kinds of publications. Beyond issues of transparency and basic accuracy, Hughes said he also wondered how an anthropologist who made a movie instead of publishing an article would be credited -- if at all. Other professors have expressed concern about how Academic Analytics measures interdisciplinary research and credits co-investigators on grants.
Academic Analytics says its approach is one of the most generous concerning interdisciplinary research, but co-principal investigators are not currently included in the default methodology; institutions must order a custom report that includes them.
Zach Hosseini, a Rutgers spokesperson, said via email that the university “is always looking for new ways to add to the many tools we use to measure our productivity and progress. Academic Analytics is the only tool we found that provides major national research universities like ours the chance to do an ‘apples to apples’ comparison of its programs to its peers. We intensively reviewed all products that could allow us to do this needed comparison and determined that the other tools couldn’t provide the accuracy and scope in data mining we required.”


But data comparisons are just part of how Rutgers assesses faculty productivity and institutional progress, Hosseini said. “We take a holistic view of both, looking at community service endeavors, the impact of our scholarly writing and the quality and quantity of the grants we receive.”


Hosseini said Rutgers saw no issue with the tool’s accuracy, and that it’s “very clear on what it measures and what it doesn’t. The university values the criteria it measures and understands that not every citation or grant in the academic universe will be appear in the tool’s reports.”


Part of Push Toward ‘Academic Intelligence’?


Academic Analytics, based in New York, was founded by Lawrence Martin, former dean of the Graduate School at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Anthony Olejniczak, a fellow anthropologist at Stony Brook. Their premise was that colleges and universities needed a more dynamic set of data, updated on an annual basis, than is included in the National Research Council’s periodic rankings of graduate programs. Initial institutional reports were released in 2005, with academic unit-level data. The main intention was for clients to be able to compare output on their campuses to other peer institutions. But over time, staff members said, the service yielded to demands to release professor-level productivity data to keep up with the marketplace. Yet academic unit-level external reviews are still the No. 1 driver of data requests. The company has about 90 Ph.D.-granting institutions as clients and a database of some 380 universities.
Regarding concerns about inaccuracy, Olejniczak said in an interview that Academic Analytics’s data tend to be more accurate and comprehensive that those found in other productivity indexes. That’s because they match up the names of professors obtained in client personnel rosters with their own databases for publications, research funding by federal agencies, citations, conference proceedings and honorific awards, he said. So a chemist who published in a medical journal would get credit even though she hadn’t published in a chemistry journal, for example.
And because these databases are now so vast -- including up to 30,000 journals -- it’s rare that any peer-reviewed publication, even an interdisciplinary or foreign-language one, goes uncounted in some way, he said. Any discrepancy is usually about how something was counted, not whether it was counted.
Olejniczak said he understood that Academic Analytics had a reputation for opacity or a being a “black box,” and said he felt that the “community” aspect of the operation is often neglected by critics. Institutions are welcome to suggest new publications to add to the algorithm, and the enterprise benefits as a result. At the same time, he acknowledged that contracts are negotiated with administrators, not professors, and the company’s main point of contact at any institution always resides somewhere in the central administration.


Asked whether Academic Analytics was philosophically opposed to being 100 percent open to faculty members, Olejniczak said no, but that the company had to balance transparency with commercial viability. That is, some of the information must remain proprietary.
Additionally, Rutgers’s contract with Academic Analytics, obtained by the union though a public open records request, says that the portal may be accessed only by those who hold “a position that involves [strategic] decision making and evaluation of productivity,” as approved by the company. The contract also limits what data may be distributed or shared.
Overall, Olejniczak said he thought that faculty opposition to Academic Analytics stemmed from basic discomfort with being measured.
“There was always inevitably going to be some pushback,” he said. “But I think this is a natural sort of evolution as academic intelligence becomes de rigueur in the U.S.”
Deepa Kumar, vice president of the Rutgers faculty union and a professor of communications, said she remained unswayed by such arguments. She said Tuesday’s meeting, at which a number of faculty members across the arts and sciences spoke out against Academic Analytics, was the start of a greater resistance against the program. Indeed, the national AAUP recently released a statement urging caution against the adoption of Academic Analytics and similar services.
The AAUP statement noted a 2015 report from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, where use of research metrics is now required at public institutions, that found “considerable skepticism among researchers, universities, representative bodies and learned societies about the broader use of metrics in research assessment and management.” Data points can be misused or “gamed,” the study says, and as underlying algorithms remain fragmented, “it is not currently feasible to assess research outputs or impacts … using quantitative indicators alone.”

Kumar said the next step -- likely next year -- is to campaign not just for the limited application of Academic Analytics or access to data but the end of its use on campus.
“Using this data to make decisions about allocation of resources to departments and schools is something that has serious consequences,” she said. “This is simply not one extra form of measurement.”


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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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