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CINDY WALSH FOR MAYOR OF BALTIMORE----SOCIAL DEMOCRAT
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June 05th, 2014

6/5/2014

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DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLS AND CANDIDATES IN PRIMARIES SHOUTING ANY OF WHAT MY WEBSITE WRITES AND MOST EVERYONE KNOWS IS THE TRUTH?  IF NOT, THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.  SEE WHY CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND IS CENSURED IN MARYLAND MEDIA?

Below you see an article that let's you know the Wall Street banks are still as systemically criminal as they were before the crash and Obama----they have not been held accountable and there are no laws changed to protect us no matter how much neo-liberals pretend they there are.  Trans Pacific Trade Pact has as a center-piece that banks will be completely deregulated globally which means here in the US they will continue the fleecing and ignoring of US law without consequence and all neo-liberals are building the structures that allow TPP to take hold-----ESPECIALLY HERE IN MARYLAND!  So, what the people need is a Public Banking system that allows those wanting to escape this criminal financial system and receive a reasonable interest return on savings to go.  Public Banks will also take those low-wage earners that neo-liberals serve up to payday and check cashing systems----and mainstream banks openly killing with illegal fines and fees-----and give them a safe place to cash checks and deposit their money.  Lastly, a state would not want to support a known criminal system like Wall Street by allowing state revenue to bring profits to Wall Street banks with state revenue deposits in these banks.  We certainly wouldn't want the state entering any contracts with banks we know were still systemically criminal and soaking the public of hundreds of millions of dollars in Maryland every year.


ONLY A NEO-LIBERAL AND A NEO-CON WOULD DO THAT.  THIS IS HOW YOU KNOW WHICH CANDIDATES WORK FOR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS AND WHICH FOR PUBLIC INTEREST.


The first thing Maryland's pols did after the crash-----mortgage the state and local government with all kinds of Wall Street financial instruments all knowing an economic crash bigger than 2008 is coming. 

FOR THOSE THINKING THIS IS SOCIALISM------STOP ALLOWING THESE TERMS TO CONFUSE SIMPLY PUBLIC PROTECTIONS AND US CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS TO EQUAL PROTECTION!!!!!  I KNOW MARYLAND REPUBLICANS LIKE CINDY WALSH.

The first thing a legitimate government would have done after the economic crash in 2008 is establish a public banking system in the state to protect citizens from a criminal financial system until we can reform this system.

I think Ezra Klein was the most honest of mainstream media as to the scandal that is Wall Street.  Not surprisingly he left Washington Post recently----probably too much truth in journalism.  News journals and public policy and government watchdogs all call Wall Street systemically criminal and yet Congress, Maryland Assembly, and Baltimore City Hall still has Wall Street front and center of all business transactions.  These banks should have been nationalized, investigated, fraud recovered, and downsized to regional banks.  THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN RULE OF LAW AND EQUAL PROTECTION.  Then, they would have been sold to begin life as new private banking interests.  The banking executives would be in jail and those implicated in these massive fraud banned from the financial industry for life.  THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN RULE OF LAW AND EQUAL PROTECTION.



Wonkbook: The financial system was systemically corrupt
  • By Ezra Klein Washington Post
  • July 20, 2012 at 7:27 am
Very few banks came out of the financial crisis looking good. But JPMorgan and Barclays were in that elite club. Their apparent rectitude raised the possibility -- as JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said over and over again -- that what we'd had were a few bad banks, not a hopelessly corrupted financial system. Fast forward a couple of years, and JPMorgan and Barclays are not looking so good anymore. And the particular way in which they're not looking so good points to the fact that we did, indeed, have a hopelessly corrupted financial system.

If you haven't been following the Libor scandal, read Dylan Matthews' great primer. But if you refuse to do even that, here it is in a few sentences: Libor is the rate at which banks lend to each other. It's considered a measure of how safe the financial system is. As such, many banks use it as a benchmark to set the rate on the consumer debt you and I buy -- they start with the Libor rate and then they add on whatever they think our risk is. But there's something odd about Libor: It's a rate the banks report themselves. And, in recent weeks, we've found out Barclays was lying about it.

In recent days, however, we've found out that it wasn't just Barclays lying about it. Everybody was lying about it. Citigroup was lying about it. German banks were lying about it. We know a number of banks -- though we don't know exactly who -- are talking to the feds about a settlement. We know HSBC, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase are being investigated.

On Wednesday, Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, was asked about Libor. "The biggest impact is once more undermining the integrity of a system that has already been undermined substantially. There was this huge hole to dig out of in terms of getting trust back and now it's that much deeper."

Remember when Ronald Reagan said "trust, but verify"? Well, we've spent the last few years verifying. And when it comes to the financial system, the lesson is not to have too much trust.

_______________________________________________


Now, I am always skeptical of of all new private non-profits because of the neo-liberal practice of using non-profits as 'progressive posers'.  So, I do not know if the Public Banking Institute is the good guy----but the policy is right on.  Vermont has adopted Public Banking and there is a completely guideline to rolling these structures out that I would use here in Maryland.  Remember, if you do not have Rule of Law and you leave the public justice system dismantled----even public banking will become corrupt.  Look at MECU to see public funds used in questionable deals.

We must starve Wall Street not feed it.  When the Maryland Assembly and Baltimore City Hall send public pensions to Wall Street in the guise of 401Ks-----used as fodder by Wall Street even more than pension funds......you know you have pols working for global corporations and not you and I.


  LET'S LISTEN TO A CRIMINAL WALL STREET RATING AGENCY LIKE MOODY'S AND STANDARD AND POOR WHO TELL US TO CUT BACK PUBLIC PENSIONS BECAUSE THEY WERE VICTIMS TO 1/2 OF THEIR VALUE STOLEN IN FRAUD AND PUBLIC MALFEASANCE SAY THESE NEO-LIBERALS.


This is not socialism-----it is public justice and equal protection!



Why Public Banking? Large Private Banks Are Fleecing America.  What are YOU going to do about it?


The Public Banking Institute (PBI) is actively enrolling leading organizations to participate in a national coalition to create a network of public banks. These banks can be capitalized from several sources, including public employee and other labor pensions, with the core deposits coming from tax and other revenues from city/county/state governments. 

Organizations supporting this coalition include large associations and established organizations in the following areas: independent business, labor, new economy, food systems, religious institutions, and others. These organizations will be announced soon.

We will focus campaigns for public banking in 5-7 targeted areas that have a good chance of succeeding with teams already formed on the ground. Once we score some victories, we can expand to other areas. 

We propose the immediate formation and funding of a coalition that will create public banks with specific focus on key states, such as Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and Hawaii, and cities and large counties in other states (California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and others).

Our Vision We envision a network of sustainable state and local publicly owned banks that create affordable credit as an alternative to the current unsustainable, high-risk, centralized private banking system.This network of public banks will provide affordable credit to local communities, which are able to develop their economies and create well-paying jobs and provide the livelihoods needed for working families.

Localization of credit is key to restoring the financial security that our communities and middle class once enjoyed – and to providing communities new tools to address economic, racial, and social inequities.


Do you share this vision?  Then join us!  


____________________________________________
The American people want to get rid of global corporate dominance and rebuild the domestic economy of small and regional businesses to drive Maryland's economy.  Until we receive justice from Wall Street-----that will take a decade or more----we need to provide the safety of public banking.  It meets the requirements of focusing on domestic economy-building in that lending would be centralized to just that----local business ownership and home-ownership------JUST WHAT WALL STREET AND YOUR NEO-LIBERAL IS TRYING TO KILL!

WALL STREET IS HOLDING THE US ECONOMY HOSTAGE TO STAGNATION AND NO FINANCIAL INVESTMENT THAT IS NOT EXPANDING GLOBAL CORPORATE CONTROL AND YOUR POL IS MAKING SURE OF THIS!

Keep in mind public banking can be taken by fraud and corruption as much as private-----look at Spain and Greece to see a public banking system that captured politicians imploded with fraud and corruption.....so, the goals of this group sound good----but if we are not rebuilding public justice and equal protection-----it will be used against us as well.

IF A GROUP IS NOT SHOUTING THAT RULE OF LAW IS SUSPENDED AND NEEDS TO BE REBUILT WHILE OFFERING THESE PUBLIC SOLUTIONS---THEY ARE WORKING AGAINST THE PUBLIC INTEREST.


Vision

We envision a network of sustainable state and local publicly owned banks that create affordable credit as an alternative to the current unsustainable, high-risk, centralized private banking system and that provide affordable credit to local communities, which are able to then develop their economies and create well-paying jobs and provide the livelihoods needed for working families. Localization of credit is key to restoring the financial security that our communities and middle class once enjoyed – and to providing communities new tools to address economic, racial, and social inequities.

Pledge We support public banking as a solution to provide affordable credit to individuals, municipalities, students and businesses and pledge to advocate for and promote public banking whenever possible. 

General Plan We have been building on the research, education and grassroots organizing fom the last 20 months. Our path for the Public Banking Coalition is to take what we have learned and create a model of public banking at every level of public governance. 



Build the coalition- This movement needs political power. Political power will come from organizations, workers, students, businesses, and influential individuals organizing and talking to decision makers from a position of strength.
  • Core staff is currently traveling the country gaining partners and growing support.
  • The Public Banking Coalition needs to establish base agreements and ways and means for reaching and activating membership as well as helping lift voices in local communities.
  • Identify target states, counties and cities in which success is most likely and focus our efforts.
Educate at the national level

  • Create a media campaign to reach and educate people that public banking is an attractive and real possibility; media will be intensified in our target areas.
  • Over 2.6 million people have viewed one video from our first national conference. 
  • Conduct feasibility studies demonstrating how public banking can work in specific localities.
Train at ground Level 

  • Each of our target areas needs educated and activated leadership to make the right contacts in the right places in local communities, business and government, as well as provide opportunities for the electorate to get involved.
  • Publish a legislative guide, training presentations, and handouts to aide local public banking initiatives.
  • Hold local public forums that educate and grow public banking efforts.
Open the next public bank

  • Move a legislative body to say yes!
  • Create banks through initiatives, going directly to the electorate where possible and advisable.
  • Publish research on the legal requirements, structure, and daily operations of existing and proposed public banks and financing systems.
  • Hire banking professionals, with accountability to the people through oversight from elected officials and respected parties who are required to conduct business in a transparent and public process.
Strategy  Build national narrative for public banking through press releases and online campaigns (with active assistance of many groups including The Agenda Project) while focusing on grassroots organizing to establish public banks in key states (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and Hawaii), counties in California, Illinois and Pennsylvania and in the District of Columbia.

Roadmap Documents  

Roadmap -- Final 060213.doc click to download

Roadmap -- Presentation 060213.doc click to download   Objectives The objectives of the national Public Banking Coalition include:

  1. Position public banking as a compelling and legitimate alternative to the private banking monopoly;
  2. Fund and publish studies that accelerate the creation of public banks;
  3. Frame the media narrative so more people understand the possibility and benefits of public banking; and,
  4. Work through established organizations to organize and educate local and state groups who advocate for and establish a public bank in their respective area.
Projects to be funded: The Public Banking Coalition is soliciting funding for the following projects:



  • Measuring the counter-cyclical impact of the Bank of North Dakota from 2008 - 2010
  • Determining the velocity of money in North Dakota and the connection between the new money created by BND and the state's $40B GDP
  • Projecting the impact (on those who are unbanked or underbanked) of a US Postal Savings Bank in a sampling of states
  • Developing the technical specs for a dual-currency (USD and local currency) payment system on a mobile platform
  • Identifying the conversion rate, and its baseline valuation, for public bank-issued currency
  • Projecting the economic impact on locally generated food and energy with funding from a public bank in targeted states and counties
  • Researching and writing the case study of the extent to which the Sparkassen banks funded the upsurge in local energy production in Germany
Open Letter to Philadelphia City Council Members



PA Project- PBI Letter to PHL Council 04.2513 (1).pdf click to download Use this letter as a template for your county supervisors!

Petition  Sign a petition to all State and County Public Finance Officeholders



__________________________________________

This article gives a good overview of private banking's takeover of all finance in Canada----one of the most progressive nations in the world.  It was done in Canada just as it happened in the US and Europe---global corporate pols took over political parties pretending to be people's candidates when they were not.    Blair in the UK pretended to be Labor Party---Clinton in the US pretended to be progressive democrat----and in Spain and Greece even the Socialist Party was taken by neo-liberal posers.  This was a huge political takeover orchestrated by Wall Street.

As you see below, Canada has the mechanism we need in the US---the public bank---to take back control of economic functions from private banking.  EASY PEASY.

IT IS NOT SOCIALISM ----IT IS EQUAL PROTECTION FOR THE PUBLIC.   




Oh Canada! Time to Bring Back Your Public Banking System

.April 27th, 2012

- See more at: http://www.helladelicious.com


In December 2011, this charge was echoed in a lawsuit filed in Canadian federal court by two Canadians and a Canadian economic think tank. Constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati filed an action on behalf of William Krehm, Ann Emmett, and COMER (the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform) to restore the use of the Bank of Canada to its original purpose, including making interest free loans to municipal, provincial and federal governments for “human capital” expenditures (education, health, and other social services) and for infrastructure. The plaintiffs state that since 1974, the Bank of Canada and Canada’s monetary and financial policy have been dictated by private foreign banks and financial interests led by the BIS, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), bypassing the sovereign rule of Canada through its Parliament.

Today this silent coup has been so well obscured that governments and gamers alike are convinced that the only alternatives for addressing the debt crisis are to raise taxes, slash services, or sell off public assets. We have forgotten that there is another option: cut the debt by borrowing from the government’s own bank, which returns its profits to public coffers. Cutting out interest has been shown to reduce the average cost of public projects by about 40%.

Game over: we win.


Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of 11 books. Her websites are http://WebofDebt.com, http://EllenBrown.com, and http://PublicBankingInstitute.org. In her latest book, “Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free,” she shows how the power to create money has been usurped from the people and how we can get it back.

- See more at: http://www.helladelicious.com/diy/2012/04/oh-canada-time-to-bring-back-your-public-banking-system/#sthash.D3Cmz7En.dpuf



________________________________________________
       So, how does Wall Street stop the current calls for public banking and get hold of the next public agency it wants to implode?  Post Office banking!  Just look at the neo-liberals flying to this policy.  Remember, the Post Office is not in financial trouble----it is simply having all of its revenue-making operations privatized and there is that hundreds of billions in pension pre-payment. 

THE POST OFFICE IS FINE ON ITS OWN AND DOES NOT NEED BANKING TO HELP IT!

Think about this----neo-liberals and neo-cons started this public private partnership policy with the Federal Housing Agency by creating Fannie and Freddie.  FANNIE AND FREDDIE IMPLODED THE FHA WITH FRAUD AND CORRUPTION.  Then neo-liberals and neo-cons created Sallie Mae privatizing Federal Student Loans and imploded that with fraud and corruption.  Now, neo-liberals are working to end these two Federal agencies that were working fine before these partnerships and helped low-income people for decades with strong quality service.

TAKE A WELL-WORKING OPERATION AND BLOW IT UP WITH FRAUD AND CORRUPTION---THE BAINS CAPITAL APPROACH TO KILLING A FEDERAL AGENCY!

Neo-liberals and republicans have worked for decades to dismantle the Post Office.  It was not only the republicans--neo-liberals as well.  With a super-majority of democrats in 2009 why did they not take 10 minutes to end pension pre-funding that is killing the Post Office?  It was on their radar and they didn't because they intend to end this service.  No, what neo-liberals and republicans do is place the Post Office in the business that is filled with fraud and corruption AND IT WILL IMPLODE THE POST OFFICE.  We have a credit union system that was built to do just what neo-liberals aer now calling for the Post Office to do and these credit unions are now operating just like WALL STREET BANKS.  If you notice it is again the low-income used as an excuse to take this great public agency into harms way----Freddie was created to give low-income people more opportunities to own homes.....Sallie Mae was created to give low-income people more opportunity at student loans and in both cases low-income people and taxpayers were fleeced in fraud.

DON'T ALLOW NEO-LIBERALS TO STEAL THIS ISSUE.  WE NEED A PUBLIC BANKING SYSTEM AND IT NEEDS TO STAND ALONE. 


Democrats say struggling post office branches could dabble in banking

By Bernie Becker - 02/05/14 06:00 AM EST  The Hill Blog


 Congressional Democrats are coalescing behind the idea of allowing local post offices to fill gaps in the banking business.


They say the move would be a victory for both the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service and for low-income communities that are often underserved by the major banks.

The idea gained steam after the Postal Service’s inspector general said in a report last week that the USPS could likely add billions of dollars a year to its coffers by offering prepaid cards or loans to the 68 millions adults who currently get little or no services from banks.If the Postal Service partnered with banks to offer more services, those customers would then have an alternative to the often hefty fees charged by payday lenders and other banking alternatives, the inspector general said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, had released legislation to give the USPS more authority to open new revenue streams like check cashing even before the inspector general’s recommendations.

In recent days, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the populist champion embraced by progressive groups, endorsed the idea in a Huffington Post op-ed.

“There’s a lot of low-income people who no longer have banking access, who need the opportunity to cash a check or do modest kinds of banking,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another backer of the idea, told The Hill. “So I think there is an opportunity there.”

But to the banking industry and congressional Republicans, the idea is far from the win-win that Democrats and the inspector general claim.

GOP lawmakers argue that local post offices shouldn’t be given more leeway to compete with private-sector companies because of a host of inherent advantages it would have — including generally being exempt from a host of taxes. 

“There are unique things that the Postal Service can offer. But being your local loan shark is not one of them,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).

“To try to sell T-shirts, coffee and give you a bridge loan — I don’t think is going to solve the problem the post office has,” Chaffetz added.

Advocates for the banking industry dismiss the idea that they’re afraid of the competition and argue that an agency bleeding cash should hardly be allowed to wade into financial services.

“This is the worst idea since the introduction of the Edsel,” said Camden Fine, the chief executive of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

“They can’t even deliver your mail on time. The track record speaks for itself,” Fine added. “If this was about competition, give me all the sloppy competitors I can get.”

The debate is part of a broader argument among lawmakers and stakeholders about how to best put the agency — which has racked up more than $25 billion in losses over the last three years — on more solid financial footing.

Lawmakers and outside groups have for years sought to craft postal reform proposals that would strike a balance between making cuts to an agency that has seen plunging mail volume in recent years, and giving the USPS access to new revenue streams.

Top Republican lawmakers have generally been more willing to let the Postal Service roll back its Saturday delivery. But liberals and postal unions have pushed back on those and other cost-cutting ideas, and sought to give the agency the opportunity to expand its business portfolio.

The last major postal reform bill, which was enacted in 2006, bars the Postal Service from offering new products that aren’t mail-related in most cases.

But the inspector general report issued last week suggests that the USPS — which already sells money orders — could explore new financial services options within its existing authority.

In all, the Postal Service inspector general says that customers underserved by banks spent about $89 billion on interest and fees on alternative services in 2012, or roughly $2,400 per underserved household. The USPS could bring in close to $9 billion — far more than its 2013 losses of $5 billion — if it got just a tenth of the interest and fees now going elsewhere.

The options raised by the inspector general include partnering with banks to offer prepaid cards that consumers could use to pay bills or take out cash, and to offer products that encourage consumers in low-income areas to boost their savings.

Customers with the prepaid postal cards could also have access to smaller loans, instead of having to seek out a payday lender.

The inspector general argued that the Postal Service is well suited for banking, given that it has more than 35,000 locations around the country.

At the same time, roughly 2,300 banks closed in 2012, the inspector general noted — with the vast majority of closures since the fiscal crisis coming in areas below the median household income level.

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Oversight Committee, said he sympathized with the concerns voiced by banks and the GOP.

“I understand the skepticism. I share it,” Lynch said. “But I think there might be a way to address the needs of some of those under banked communities.”

Leading postal reform proposals also weigh in on the idea.

A House GOP measure, crafted by Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), would require that Congress approve any new non-postal products offered by the USPS.

On the other side of the Capitol, a bipartisan Senate measure, to be considered by the Homeland Security panel this week, would give the USPS wide latitude to explore non-postal offerings.

But the bill from Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) would also allow the agency’s regulator to weigh in on whether the USPS has the authority to offer certain products.

Either way, banking officials said they will continue their efforts to limit the Postal Service’s work on financial services.

Advocates for the industry say there are plenty of banking options for customers in low-income areas, and that there’s no guarantee the sorts of services the Postal Service might offer would be profitable.

Plus, Richard Hunt of the Consumer Bankers Association noted that federal regulators had effectively forced some banks to not offer a sort of advance loan that he said could be similar to what the Postal Service offers. Consumer groups have slammed that advance loan, which would be tied to a customer’s paycheck.

“We’re not monolithic. We have 7,000 competitors, and credit unions,” Hunt told The Hill. “There’s nobody in the Postal Service right now that’s experienced in the banking sector.”



Democrats say struggling post office branches could dabble in banking

________________________________________



Thursday, May 30, 2013

Cameron hands UK Post Office to Goldman Sachs
Britain Plans I.P.O. for Postal Service LONDON –

Britain is preparing to privatize Royal Mail, the country’s postal service, whose origins date to 1516 and the carrying of post for Henry VIII and the Tudor court.
The government said on Wednesday that it had appointed Goldman Sachs and UBS as the lead banks to manage a planned initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange later this year. Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will also work on the sale. The planned offering could value Royal Mail at about £3 billion ($4.5 billion), according to some analysts.
The government has been considering a sale of Royal Mail for years, but plans became more concrete over the last year when the company’s finances started to improve. Pressure is also growing on the government to find additional savings to reduce the budget deficit. Like other postal services, Royal Mail was hurt as more people swapped handwritten letters for e-mail. But earnings have improved recently, and the company reported that profit more than doubled for the year ended March 31 as more people shopped online and received their purchases by post.
The sale of the service, which was opened to the public by Charles I in 1635, would be the biggest privatization in Britain since the railroads in the 1990s. Royal Mail is one of Britain’s largest employers, and the government plans to set aside about 10 percent of Royal Mail’s shares to be held by its workers.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/britain-plans-i-p-o-for-postal-service/

Comment by Road Hog -

I blogged about this a few years ago.

This is where neo-liberals in Congress are going with this Post Office as bank policy.  Believe me, republicans have been trying to do this for decades so they are not against it----it is a Wall Street policy.  The UK Postal System---one of the oldest in the WEST has been completely captured into a global corporate structure.


Post Office announces plans to launch current account Customers want 'simplicity, transparency and good value for money', says Post Office director of financial services
  • Hilary Osborne
  • The Guardian, Wednesday 10 April 2013

The Post Office is set to launch a current account market this spring. Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA Post Office has announced plans to re-enter the current account market with a new banking deal for consumers over the next few weeks. Details of the account are scant, but it is thought that the combination of a well-known brand and a large branch network could make it a serious challenger to the big four banks, particularly when new rules making it easier to switch accounts come into force later this year.

Nick Kennett, director of financial services at Post Office, said that research into the current account market had suggested customers primarily want "simplicity, transparency and good value for money".

He added: "With over 11,500 branches, which is more than all the UK banks combined, we can provide this through the most convenient and accessible retail network in the UK."

Post Office already offers a range of financial services including savings, credit cards and travel money, and recently introduced in-branch mortgage advice for consumers. Kennett said that the launch of a current account was part of the "significant transformation" of the brand.

The account will initially be launched in a small number of branches, before a wider-roll out next year.

Kevin Mountford, head of banking at comparison website MoneySupermarket, said the launch was "big news" for consumers. "The fact that the Post Office is a popular trusted brand, already has a large savings account portfolio, and has over 11,500 branches throughout the country means it can be a serious challenger in the current account market," he said.

Michael Ossei, personal finance expert at uSwitch.com, said the banks should see Post Office as "a serious threat", with those in rural areas especially likely to be attracted by its branch network.

However, Andrew Hagger, director of Moneycomms.co.uk, cautioned that more detail is needed, pointing out that the excitement surrounding Marks & Spencer's entrance to the market last year quickly subsided when it emerged the accounts had fees of up to £20 a month.

This is not the first foray into current account banking by Post Office, which was the home of the state-owned Girobank for two decades until its sale to Alliance & Leicester building society in 1990. At that point, it was the sixth-largest provider of current accounts in the UK. It comes at a time when competition in the market is heating up, with Tesco and Virgin Money known to be working on their own launches, and existing providers enhancing their deals to attract consumers.



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May 20th, 2014

5/20/2014

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DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLS SHOUTING ABOUT HOW THESE COMMUNICATION POLICIES WILL ALL END IF LEFT TO CONTINUE?  IF NOT, THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONSERVATIVES

The Federal Communications Commission has opened a new inbox at openinternet@fcc.gov for public comments on #NetNeutrality tell them what you think.

Stop Staples!

see video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtbh2rK5i9I — with Tom Dodge at STOP STAPLES PROTEST.
  Privatizing the US Post Office


I want to take this week to overview the extent we are losing our public sector and why it is important to stop it.  Republican voters need to stop listening to the mantra of small government because this is what has given us massive and systemic corporate fraud and government corruption and it is taking basic public agencies geared towards providing necessities of life.  These public agencies make the difference between first world and third world social societies and neo-liberals and neo-cons are going for the third world model.

I attended a Post Office protest this weekend as events like this occur all across the nation.  The issue is huge and yet there is no dialog.  People are being sold a bag of goods when corporations tell them the mail is outdated and not a viable service.  THE POST OFFICE USES NO PUBLIC TAX BASE AND IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN VIABLE AND IS NOW.  The problem is that neo-liberals and neo-cons are dismantling the Post Office taking all means of revenue development away and legislating hardships on the Post Office as regards pre-payment of employee benefits decades in advance-----something no other business in America is made to do.  So, Congress has declared war on this public agency tasked with the important duty of providing the American people with a quality means of communication at an affordable cost.

THE PROBLEMS WITH FINANCE FOR THE POST OFFICE IS CONGRESSIONAL LAWS DISMANTLING THIS AGENCY'S ABILITY TO GENERATE REVENUE.


I remind people to look at the goals of the corporation's in power.  As they take more and more control of government and dismantle our democracy they need to control an angry group of 300 million people and that includes making sure they cannot communicate easily.  Watch as these communication industries consolidate so as to become so large that competition is destroyed and they have free reign to soak consumers and gut services and quality.  Everyone knows this is what happens in each industry.  Imagine that cell phone costs soar as people are made to pay for every minute or share plans are priced at a few hundreds of dollars as the cost of living rises for things like health care and food.  People will not have the disposable income for the very basic need of making a phone call.  Think again about these net neutrality laws they intend to dismantle giving communications industries a green light to push rates for ordinary internet actions so high that most people will not be able to access the internet for basic things as email and accessing any site having streaming video------and that is every site.  So, most people will be priced out of internet service and access to email to a great degree.  There goes that method of communication!


PRICED OUT OF PHONE AND INTERNET SERVICE------HOW WILL MOST AMERICANS COMMUNICATE?

These same corporations are now trying to privatize and kill our Post Office as letters and mail are now the only communication they do not control.  If they are successful-----which is why your Post Office workers are protesting as hard as they can-----the mail service will end under the guise it is not profitable----at the very least the mail will be gutted in the level of service.  So, the US mail disappears as an option for communication.


HOW WILL YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN COMMUNICATE IF ALL THIS HAPPENS?  BY SMOKE SIGNALS!!!!  LITERALLY.  THIS IS WHAT A THIRD WORLD NATION LOOKS LIKE.  THE PEOPLE HAVE NO RELIABLE MODE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND ARE THEREFOR LEFT DISCONNECTED.


Below you see a deliberate model of moving people first from landline phones onto cellular and then moving people towards pre-paid.  Most people are making these moves because the rates and equipment is getting more and more expensive for most.  That is because the global market is targeting people with lots of money.  Most people are now paying for their phones as we are now leasing our cars because families are becoming too poor to afford basic services.  What happens when they have most people on pre-pay cellphones?  They can do whatever they want to your ability to access any communication.
People with pre-pay and plans that sell by minute know you are becoming saturated with robo-calls and advertizing/collection calls that eat most of your time.  Think again at the growing wait for customer service and even government agencies now have long wait times on phones that make people unable to access simple service calls.  THIS IS DELIBERATE.  Most people cannot even make a call to check the status of a city water bill because of the kind of phone service they have and the dismantling of customer service across all government services.  Keep in mind that once businesses move people to a favored service----that price goes up.  So, we are losing our landline connections that are cheap and allow universal communication.
  This is not innovation----it is how you capture a market to a model you want being the only choice.

Your options in cellular will disappear.

Prepaid Cell Phones: The New Growth Industry


By Lewis Medlock 
  editor of Prepaid Phone Pro.

The landscape of the mobile cellular phone market has shifted in recent years. While the overall mobile phone market continues to grow, traditional post paid plans are shrinking in total market share. Contract plans are quickly being replaced by cheaper prepaid cell phones.

Prepaid vs. Post Paid
The two general types of mobile phone plans are prepaid and post paid. With prepaid, you pay for your minutes upfront. With post paid, you pay for minutes at the end of each month. Post paid plans require a credit check and a contract because you pay for your minutes after you've used them.

Growth Statistics
The cell phone market has grown every year since its inception, and the overall market continues to grow. In the United States, over 80% of the population now uses cell phones. That trend continues to grow, although much slower now than in previous years.

Traditional contract phone plans have been the primary niche within the cell phone market and that niche grew year after year. However, in 2008 the growth trend started to slow. From 2008 to 2009 the net additions of post-paid customers across all major carriers fell 58 percent. In 2009 the post paid subscriber growth actually reversed and the market share is currently shrinking.

Meanwhile, prepaid customers are increasing. In 2008 about 50 percent of new cell phone users signed up for prepaid cell phone service. The next year, in 2009, about 80 percent of phone subscriber growth came from prepaid plans.

Historically, prepaid phone plans have been used by two types of people: young people and people with bad credit. Because traditional post paid plans require a credit check, many people have been unable to purchase a traditional post paid cell phone. Traditionally, those people with no credit or bad credit have made up the bulk of the prepaid market. The one disadvantage of prepaid plans, up until recently, was that prepaid cell phone plans have been more expensive than post paid plans.Prepaid Is Now Cheaper
However, a few years ago the price of prepaid plans started to come down. Now prepaid cellular phone plans are significantly less expensive than post paid plans. Many prepaid carriers are now even offering unlimited minutes plans that are less expensive than comparable contract plans that have 500 minutes. The current low cost of prepaid plans and the downturn in the economy are fueling the explosive growth of the prepaid cell phone market.

Of course, the major cellular phone companies are not happy about this, since they make much more money on contract plans than they do on prepaid. There are three reasons for this is. The first is that post paid plans are more expensive than prepaid plans. Traditional contract plans can run upwards of $80 a month while a prepaid plan with the same minutes could be as cheap as $40. Second, not only do mobile phone companies make more money on contract plans, but they have a secure recurring income stream by locking their customers in with long term contracts. The third reason post paid plans are so lucrative for the cell phone companies is that they charge exorbitant rates if you go over your minutes allowance, sometime 25 or 50 cents per minute. This adds up very quickly and many people have accidentally run up huge cell phone bills of several hundred dollars.

Of course, with prepaid plans, you don't have this issue. Prepaid plans are now cheaper per minute and they don't have contracts. Also, if you go over the minutes that you've purchased, you can simply buy more minutes.

The Future of Cell Phone Plans
Contract cell phone plans continue to be popular with consumers, though. The primary reason is that the handsets that they offer are cheaper, at least up front. Many consumers continue to pick contract plans because they can't afford a $600 phone. The carriers will subsidize the price of the phone when customers sign a two year contract. In contrast, prepaid handsets are more expensive since none of the price is subsidized. Consumers have to pay full price for prepaid handsets. What consumers don't realize is that the carriers are able to subsidize the cost of the handset because they know that over the course of that two year contract they'll make up the cost of the phone (and much more.)

Prepaid plans continue to gain market share, though. They just make more sense for consumers financially. The economy has been bad for years and there's no end in sight. The lower overall cost of prepaid cell phone plans will continue to boost their popularity and more consumers will choose prep
aid plans over the traditional post paid contract plans.


_________________________________________
Think of how much of your use of the internet includes streaming video----advertisement with streaming video is even infused in your email with Yahoo and Google.  Net neutrality makes the costs of all internet access equal for all just as the cost of electricity coming into your house is charged the same whether you are a business using lots of electricity or a homeowner using a much smaller amount.  Both have access to as much as they need with the same conditions of contract.  Ending net neutrality says that if you pay a much higher rate you get to continue to access what is available now for everyone.....if you cannot afford these higher rates, you will be relegated to a service of slow access with all kinds of crashing and freezing that makes internet use frustrating and impossible.  We are already seeing this in Maryland today.

Most of the news we receive is now online and infused with streaming video.  The movies and video games are all streaming video----social media is infused with streaming video.....all will be too expensive to afford for most people.  The rates will climb slowly, but in a handful of years-----you will be blocked from much of access.

THERE GOES EMAIL AND BEING PART OF WEBSITE COMMUNITY CHAT LINES!


Net Neutrality


Saving the InternetBroadbandCableCybersecurityDeclaration of Internet FreedomGlobal Internet FreedomMobileSurveillanceVerizon/Cable DealSpectrumSOPA

On Jan. 14, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order.

And on May 15, the FCC voted to propose a new “open Internet” rule that may let Internet service providers charge content companies for priority treatment, relegating other content to a slower tier of service.

Under these rules, telecom giants like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon would be able to pick winners and losers online and discriminate against online content and applications. 

We must stop the FCC from moving forward with these rules.

Here’s how we got here:

The open Internet rules, adopted in 2010, were designed to prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or slowing users’ connections to online content and apps.

This ruling means that just a few powerful phone and cable companies could control the Internet. Without Net Neutrality, ISPs will be able to devise new schemes to charge users more for access and services, making it harder for us to communicate online — and easier for companies to censor our speech. The Internet could come to resemble cable TV, where gatekeepers exert control over where you go and what you see.

Without Net Neutrality, ISPs like AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon will be able to block content and speech they don’t like, reject apps that compete with their own offerings, and prioritize Web traffic (reserving the fastest loading speeds for the highest bidders and sticking everyone else with the slowest).

The tools ISPs use to block and control our communications aren’t different from the ones the NSA uses to watch us. Whether it’s a government or a corporation wielding these tools or the two working together, this behavior breaks the Internet as we know it and makes it less open and secure.

We must fight to ensure that the Internet we love won’t simply become a platform for corporate speech or another tool for government spying. We must protect the Internet that lets us connect and create, that rejects censorship and values our right to privacy.

The Internet shouldn’t be a walled garden. It should remain a forum for innovation and free expression. As so many startups and political activists know, open, affordable, fast and universal communications networks are essential to our individual, economic and political futures.

For our 101 on Net Neutrality, click here.

_____________________________________
This is a really long article on the history of the policy towards privatization.  Please take time to glance through.  It gained traction with neo-liberals Reagan/Clinton and Bush super-sized the efforts and neo-liberal Obama endorses these steps.  While you may hear your pol shout out DON'T CLOSE THAT POST OFFICE......Congress votes each time with neo-liberals joining for these policies dismantling the Post Office at every step.  Maryland has adopted all of these policies below, the kiosk as post office now being built across Maryland and will adopt the Staples policy if this pilot program is approved.   Remember, the Post Office is a viable business and can remain viable if all of its revenue sources are not taken away.

It is pension-pre-funding of hundreds of billions of dollars that guts the Post Office revenue generation.


The corporatization of the Postal Service: Post office closures, suspensions, relocations, and reductions in 2013


January 7, 2014



One of the most persistent refrains in the debate about the Postal Service is that it needs to act more like a business.  That means different things to different people, but for many, the model for where the Postal Service needs to go is to be found in Europe.  In the EU countries, where the process of liberalization has been going on for fifteen years, the government monopolies have come to an end and the marketplace has been opened to more competition.  According to free-market doctrine, the competiton was supposed to lead to lower prices and better services, but things haven't quite worked out that way.

According to a new report on the recent history of postal systems in Europe, “liberalization has not improved services and reduced prices as promised by the European Commission and others.” 
Instead, in countries where the postal systems have been deregulated and privatized, large corporations have come out the winners and average citizens and postal workers have come out the losers.

Consumers see their post offices close and get replaced by postal counters in private businesses.  The mail is delivered only two or three days a week and primarily in highly populated areas.  For postal workers, liberalization has led to lower wages and more part-time and self-employed contract jobs with little security and few benefits.

While consumers and workers get the short end, large mailers get their mail picked up more frequently, and in many cases their rates have gone down thanks to lower labor costs, cutbacks in postal services for the general public, and the special deals mailers can negotiate with the carriers.  The private shareholders in the former public monopolies and the executives of postal businesses are also coming out ahead.  Even with declining volumes in letter mail, there are big profits to be had in the mail industry.  


The corporatization of the Postal Service The citizens of the United States have never voted to privatize the Postal Service, but the process of corporatization has been going on for a long time.  With each passing year, the Postal Service acts less and less like a public service and more and more "like a business." The scenario that has played out in Europe is playing out in the U.S., just in its own way.

Since 2000, the total number of USPS employees has been reduced by a third, and part-time workers now comprise over 20 percent of the workforce.  The Postal Service outsources wherever it can — over $12 billion of its $65 billion in annual expenses go to private contractors and suppliers.  Over half of the Postal Service's processing plants have been consolidated, while the workshare system has led to the creation of a huge private-sector consolidation industry, with companies like Pitney Bowes and Quad/Graphics reaping huge profits.

Consumers aren't seeing post offices closing by the thousands, but the hours are being reduced, sometimes to two or four hours a day.  A huge network of "alternate retail access points" has been developed to replace brick-and-mortar post offices.  Collection boxes are being removed from city streets, the speed and reliability of mail delivery are going down, more customers are getting cluster boxes, postal properties paid for by taxpayers are being sold off, and the lines at post offices are as long as ever, maybe longer.

The Postal Service and Congressional leaders typically blame the service cutbacks and downsizing on the big drop in mail volumes, but the transition toward a corporatized postal system predates declining volumes by a long time.  As Christopher Shaw tells it in Preserving the People’s Post Office, there’s nothing new about efforts to close post offices, reduce window hours, get rid of collection boxes, shift to cluster boxes, and everything else we’ve been seeing. 

The first big step toward corporatization was the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act, which turned the Department of the Post Office into the Postal Service.  The process got a big boost in 2003, when President Bush appointed a Commission on the Postal Service.  Its report, which seems to have served as a blueprint for Darrell Issa’s postal reform agenda, said that while the country wasn't ready for postal privatization the Postal Service should be run more like a private business.
 The Commission recommended expanding retail services to private stores, making it easier to close post offices, outsourcing more to the private sector, offering more workshare discounts, setting up a BRAC-like commission to consolidate processing plants, “rightsizing” the workforce, and disposing of postal real estate to “provide benefits to the public in the form of moderated rate increases.”

Many of these recommendations were implemented in the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.  For example, PAEA directed the Postal Service to expand “alternate retail options” like vending machines, kiosks, the Internet, and “retail facilities in which overhead costs are shared with private businesses" (sec. 302).  These alternatives were not intended simply to improve consumers’ access to postal services.  They were about developing an infrastructure that would make it easier to close post offices.

Bush’s Commission came out with its report in 2003, when mail volumes were increasing. PAEA was enacted in 2006 — the year Shaw’s book was published — when mail volumes were at their peak.  Declining mail volumes thus had little if anything to do with the rationale for cutting services and closing facilities. 

The rationale then, as it is now, was about something else. 
As Shaw makes clear in his book, the goal has always been to commercialize, corporatize, and eventually privatize the Postal Service in order to enhance the profits and wealth of the corporate stakeholders of the mail industry. 

Measuring “customer satisfaction” Given the influence of these stakeholders in Congress, it’s no surprise that there is little in current postal laws — and much less in proposed legislation — to protect the interests of average consumers and postal workers.  PAEA does make a nod, however, toward showing some concern about what is vaguely described as “customer satisfaction.”  Section 3652 of the act requires the Postal Service, as part of its Annual Compliance Report (ACR) to the Postal Regulatory Commission, to report on the degree of customer satisfaction.

The main way the Postal Service fulfills this requirement is by conducting a Customer Experience Measurement (CEM) survey.  About 300,000 residential customers and 310,000 businesses rate the Postal Service’s performance with respect to each type of mail.  In most cases, around 85 percent of the respondents say they are very or mostly satisfied. 

The survey may be helpful, but a survey can only tell part of the story.  The PRC has therefore developed regulations that require the Postal Service to provide more information in order to help the Commission gauge customer satisfaction when it reviews the ACR for its Annual Compliance Determination Review (ACDR). 

According to these regulations (39 CFR 3055.91), the Postal Service must provide the following information: The number of post offices, emergency suspensions, delivery points, and collection boxes that existed at the beginning of the fiscal year and at the end of the year, along with the total number of closings, suspensions, new delivery points, and collection boxes removed and added.  The ACR must also provide data on average customer wait time. 

The main purpose of the compliance review is to determine whether or not the Postal Service is in compliance with service standards and the requirement that each type of mail cover attributable costs.  Matters involving consumer satisfaction represent a relatively small part of the review.

The Postal Service has been resistant to providing even a minimal amount of data about the subject, however.  When the PRC was first developing the section 3652 regulations in 2009, the Postal Service objected to the new reporting requirements.  Valpak, which thinks that providing services for average customers drive up its rates, supported the Postal Service in its objections.  In the end, however, the PRC argued that given the vagueness of the “customer satisfaction” requirement in section 3652, it was necessary to review more than the CEM survey results.  (See PRC Order 465.)

The compliance review does not do very much to ensure the quality of postal services for the general public, but it does provide some degree of transparency about topics like consumer access to postal services.  It may also provide some incentive for the Postal Service to keep up its ratings on customer satisfaction. 

The information that comes out as a result of the compliance review actually does something more, however.  In looking at the data on post office closings and suspensions and the growth of alternative retail access and so on, one can chart the progress of postal liberalization and see in quantitative terms how the Postal Service is slowly being transformed from a public service into a postal corporation. 

The ACR numbers The Postal Service submitted the ACR on December 27, and over the next few weeks, the Commission will review the report and then issue the ACDR sometime in March.  The Commission has asked the Postal Service to fulfill its obligation under PAEA by providing the following data (in essentially this form, as described in PRC Order No. 465).  The complete data tables are in Library Reference USPS FY13-22-2; we've put them on Google Docs here.
That is about all the regulations require the Postal Service to provide in its ACR, but the Commission will ask for more in order to prepare the ACDR.  PRC Chairman Ruth Goldway has already issued her first information request.  It asks for lists of post offices that closed and were suspended, as well as more information about CPUs, revenue data on POStPlan post offices, etc.  It’s anyone’s guess why the Postal Service doesn’t just provide the additional information to begin with, since it knows what it was asked for last time around, but the Postal Service doesn’t like to provide any more than required.

Since the PRC’s ACDR won’t be out for a couple of months, here's an overview of what happened during FY 2013 with respect to consumer access to postal services.  The Annual Compliance Report is here, the PRC Docket is No. ACR2013, and last year’s article on Save the Post Office about the ACR data and customer access is here. 


Post office closures One of the most direct assaults on people’s access to the postal system — and one of the main goals of postal liberalization — is closing post offices, but it’s also one of the most controversial.
 People value their post offices.  But corporate mailers don’t use post offices, and they typically advocate closures as a way to cut costs, avoid rate increases, and shift postal retail profits to the private sector.  That’s what has happened under postal liberalization in Europe.  In the U.K., they have closed almost half of their 23,000 post offices.  Germany closed virtually all of its government-run post offices and replaced them with privately owned retail outlets.  Sweden has very few government post offices anymore.

The Postal Service has been talking about closing thousands of post offices since the late 1970s, and the idea of replacing them with postal counters in convenience stores
(which we now see in the Village Post Office initiative) goes back decades.  But progress toward closing them has been relatively slow.  Over the past 40 years, the number of government-run post offices in the U.S. has dropped from about 36,000 to 32,000 — about a hundred closures per year.

The past year was somewhat below average for closures.  The ACR reports that the Postal Service closed 73 retail offices in FY 2013 — 60 post offices and 13 stations and branches.  That’s in contrast to the previous two years, which saw the beginning of a big push toward mass closures.  According to the PRC’s 2012 ACDR, the Postal Service closed 289 post offices, stations, and branches in FY 2012 and 382 in FY 2011.

The PRC has asked the Postal Service for a list of the closures in FY 2013, and it should be available soon.  In the meantime, there are several sources for information about post office closings.

Postal Bulletin regularly publishes discontinuances.  A list of discontinuances implemented during FY 2013 based on these announcements is here.  It shows 68 discontinuances: 58 post offices and 10 stations and branches.  It looks like all but ten of these closures were based on discontinuance studies done before the fiscal year began.

Postmasters Advocate, the publication of the League of Postmasters, published a list of its own a few weeks ago showing 70 closings during FY 2013.  That list is here.  A table based on the Advocate list, with additional information from the USPS facilities lists, is here. 

One can also search for post office discontinuances on USPS Postmaster Finder.  It shows 57 post office closures and does not include stations and branches.  A table based on Postmaster Finder is here.

These lists are largely the same, but there are several inconsistencies — closures on one list don't show up on the others.  It also appears that many of these closings did not actually occur during FY 2013.  Keene Valley, New York, for example, shows up on the lists, but it closed for an emergency suspension in 2010 over a lease issue, and it was replaced in 2011 by a Village Post Office.  Perhaps the PRC can get all this straightened out with the Postal Service so that there's a correct list of which post offices actually closed in FY 2013 after a discontinuance review.

It also appears that nearly all of the closures in FY 2013 were based on discontinuance studies that were done in 2011, before the five-month moratorium on closures when into effect in December of 2011.  If that’s correct, it should be a matter of some concern.  Much of the data on which those final determinations were based is probably out of date, and circumstances may have changed.  If the Postal Service is going to continue to close post offices based on 2011 studies, that problem will become even more pronounced.

There may also be a question about how many post offices actually closed.  In the USPS 10-K for 2012, the Postal Service reports that there were 31,150 post offices, stations, and branches in 2013, as opposed to 31,272 in 2012 — a net decrease of 122.  In the Reply Comments it filed in the exigent rate case a few weeks ago, the Postal Service said that during FY 2013 the number of retail facilities had been reduced by 155.  These numbers are both much larger than the 73 reported in the ACR.  The source of these discrepancies is unclear.


Appeals on closures The ACR doesn’t discuss post office appeals, but here’s a recap for FY 2013. Since there were so few new final determinations to close post offices issued during the year, there were very few post office appeals brought before the PRC.  Only ten appeals were filed between October 1, 2012 and October 1, 2013.  That’s in contrast to 127 for the previous fiscal year. 

Here's what happened with these ten appeals.  Two were not even considered because the appeal was filed late (in one case, by just one day late, in another, by just a few days).  Five appeals were dismissed — three because the closure was part of a relocation (even though no new location had been identified); one because it was premature (the post office was under emergency suspension, not discontinued); and one because the Postal Service withdrew the final determination.  Of the appeals that were actually reviewed by the Commission, two final determinations were affirmed, and one was remanded.  Here's a list of the ten appeals with links to the final orders.

Post Office Outcome Reason for decision Docket No. Order No. Santa Monica, CA dismissed relocation A2013-1 1558 Evansdale, IA affirmed   A2013-2 1674 Glenoaks, Burbank, CA affirmed   A2013-5 1866 Climax, GA dismissed suspension A2013-3 1852 Francitas, TX dismissed PS withdrew FD A2013-4 1737 Bronx GPO, NY dismissed relocation A2013-6 1802 Berkeley, CA dismissed relocation A2013-9 1817 Freistatt, MO not considered late appeal A2013-8 1839 Franklin Station, Somerset, NJ not considered late appeal A2013-10 Letter Fernandina Beach, FL remanded problems in FD A2013-7 1880 It does not appear that FY 2014 will be much different.  So far, three months into the fiscal year, only one appeal has been filed (on Stamford, Connecticut), and there seem to be only a handful of discontinuance studies underway.  One notable case is Redlands, California, where a historic post office is under review for closure.  If this post office is discontinued, the decision will almost certainly be appealed to the PRC.

For now, then, the Postal Service seems to have backed off of big initiatives to dismantle its legacy of brick-and-mortar post offices.
 That may change, however, if new legislation makes it easier to close post offices.  Darrell Issa’s Postal Reform Act (H.R. 2748) would help.  It would remove the prohibition on closing post offices solely for operating at a deficit; shorten the appeals process from 120 days to 60; deny a community the right to appeal a closure if a contract postal unit is opened within two miles of the closed post office; and strike “a maximum degree of” from the requirement that “the Postal Service shall provide a maximum degree of effective and regular postal services to rural areas, communities, and small towns where post offices are not self-sustaining.” 

Emergency suspensions The Postal Service has a long history of bending the rules on emergency suspensions in order to close post offices without going through a long discontinuance review.  In 1997, Congress became sufficiently concerned that it asked the GAO to do a report, and in 2010, the PRC initiated an investigation into the problems (the docket, PI2010-1, is still open).

The ACR reports there were 254 post offices and 56 stations and branches under suspension when FY 2013 began, and there were 99 post offices and 31 stations and branches under suspension when the year ended.  During the year, 126 post offices and 36 stations and branches were placed under emergency suspension. 

Some of these suspensions are long-standing and represent unresolved issues, while others lasted a relatively short period of time and the post office soon reopened (like after a weather-related emergency).  The PRC has previously expressed concern about how long some post offices remain under suspension without being reopened or formally discontinued, and it may need to reiterate that concern this year.

The ACR materials do not include a list of those offices under suspension, but the Chairman’s first information request has asked for one.  It will be interesting to see the reason for each suspension. 

As in previous years, many offices have closed during FY 2013 because of problems that arose when it was time to renew the lease, and in many instances, the problems seemed manufactured by the Postal Service.  In other cases, health and safety issues were cited, even though the problem seemed minor — like a little mold in the building — or long-standing and not an “emergency” at all.  In some cases, the problem was an inability to staff the office, but that too seems as though it was a problem of the Postal Service’s own making.  When it reduces hours at a post office to two or four a day and is paying $12 an hour, whose fault is it when no one wants the job?

With over 160 post offices being suspended during the year, it’s likely that in many cases the reason cited by the Postal Service is suspect.  There have been numerous news reports about suspensions in which elected officials and citizens in the community expressed skepticism about the legitimacy of the Postal Service’s claims.  People believe that the Postal Service simply wanted to close the post office and basically cooked up the “emergency.” 

A list of suspensions in FY 2013 based on these news items is here.  It contains about two dozen cases — fifteen involving lease issues; four due to unsafe building conditions (three due to mold); and five caused by an inability to find adequate personnel to run the office.  Most of these suspensions are discussed in posts on Save the Post Office, which are archived here. 

POStPlan reductions The Postal Service has been reducing window and counter hours at post offices for decades.  In 2003, for example, the Postal Service began reducing hours in many locations, such as three quarters of the post offices in Maine.   (For more on this history, see Shaw, pp. 98-100.)

The current plan to reduce hours, POStPlan, is by far the most extensive effort in this regard.  By the end of 2014, hours will be reduced at 13,000 post offices.  The process is well underway.


The ACR says that since 2012, the Postal Service has reduced hours at 7,985 post offices under POStPlan.  Of these, 1,090 post offices have been converted to two hours per day; 4,203 have been converted to four hours per day; and 2,692 have been converted to six hours daily.  A list of 8,591 offices where POStPlan has been implemented is here.

The ACR says that more than 8,400 meetings have been held with community members.  A list of 8,512 meetings held between October 9, 2012, and November 15, 2013, is here.

The ACR says that the purpose of these meetings was to discuss the new hours of operations “as well as alternatives.”  But the community's preferences on the hours are typically trumped by the Postal Service's "operational needs," and the only "alternatives" to reducing the hours — like “transitioning” services to a nearby post office or using rural carriers — also involve closing the post office.  These aren’t real alternatives, and no community chooses one of them.  In fact, the PRC ought to ask the Postal Service for a breakdown of what “options” each of these 8,400 communities have chosen.  Has a single one elected to have the post office close?  Was it really necessary to hold 13,000 meetings and send out surveys to customers at each one of these post offices?  What was accomplished?

The PRC’s first information request has asked about closures at POStPlan offices.  That could be an issue, since the whole purpose of POStPlan was to keep post offices open, not close them.  It appears that a couple of dozen POStPlan post offices closed during the fiscal year for one reason or another.  A list is here.

In the ACR, the Postal Service says that so far POStPlan has saved $171 million in annual costs.  That’s about a third of what the annual estimated savings will be when POStPlan is fully implemented.  (There’s a detailed discussion of the cost-savings here.)

The Postal Service’s estimates on cost savings don’t include lost revenue, and that too could be a question for the Commission to consider.  The Postal Service has assumed from the beginning that there wouldn’t be any significant loss in revenue.  If revenue numbers were to go down at a POStPlan post office, it was assumed that the revenues had migrated somewhere else within the postal system.  That’s almost impossible to prove one way or another, but the PRC has nonetheless asked the Postal Service to provide revenue data for all the POStPlan offices.  If a significant amount of revenue has been lost at these offices, it could raise questions about the overall impact of the plan.

The numbers on POStPlan also don’t capture a lot of what’s happening at these post offices.  In a recent news report about POStPlan implementation in Montana, for example, the part-time PMR responsible for running one office said that she finds it impossible to get all the work done without working overtime, but whenever she puts in for extra hours, she’s questioned about it, so she feels like she’s working full-time for half-time pay.  “I’ll never work for the post office again,” she vowed.  Another PMR in Montana said the reduced hours since February have no doubt cost the post office business, but he doesn’t know if customers are going to another post office or not.

Overall, POStPlan has drastically diminished access to postal services for millions of Americans, and over the coming years, things will only get worse.  Another five thousand offices will have their hours reduced in FY 2014, and every POStPlan office will be reviewed annually to see if revenues have fallen to the point that the hours need to be reduced even further.  This year the Postal Service is also going to begin reviewing Level 18 offices for hour reductions as part of the next phase of POStPlan, which would be implemented in 2016.

Post office relocations One of the biggest sources of customer dissatisfaction during FY 2013 involved post office relocations.  As with reducing the hours, this practice has a long history.  The general pattern is for the Postal Service to close a large, historic post office in the center of town and to replace it with a small retail facility outside of downtown, often in a carrier annex.  Since the post office is being “relocated,” not closed, the Postal Service says it does not need to go through a formal discontinuance process, which keeps the public’s opportunity for input at a minimum.

For many years, the Postal Service barely even considered the community’s views at all when making relocation decisions.  That changed somewhat in 1998, when the Postal Service added a section to the federal regulations (39 CFR 241.4) guaranteeing at least some opportunity for community participation in relocation decisions.  That change may have been the result of what happened in places like Livingston, Montana, where the Postal Service decided to close the landmark downtown post office and replace it with a new one on the outskirts of town.  The town protested, the case drew national attention, and the historic post office remained where it was — and where it remains today. (For more on the history of relocations, see Shaw, pp. 54ff.)



The ACR does not discuss relocations, but during FY 2013 they were a much bigger source of controversy that post office closures and suspensions.  Issues about how the Postal Service has been conducting the relocation procedures have led to an audit investigation by the USPS OIG, now underway, and several of the post office appeal cases brought before the PRC involved these relocations. 

It would be helpful if the PRC included the issue in its compliance review.  Perhaps the Postal Service could prepare a list of relocations similar to those the PRC has requested concerning closures and suspensions, with information about when the relocation notice was posted at the post office, the date of the community meeting, the final decision date, the disposition of any appeals, the new location if it has been identified, and the current status of the relocation. 

A list of relocations over the past three years based on the news is here.  It doesn’t have the dates when the decision was made or implemented, so some of them were before or after FY 2013.  A discussion of the relocation issues can be found in this recent post.

Disposal of properties The most blatant form of privatization is the transfer of public property into private hands, and the sale of post offices and other postal properties has therefore been another matter of controversy over the past year.  As with relocations, this is not a subject covered in the ACR, but for many communities, when it comes to “consumer access to postal services” and “customer satisfaction,” nothing matters more than having your historic post office sold out from under you. 

Over two thousand towns and cities have a historic post office that is a landmark presence in the community.  Many contain priceless art commissioned during the New Deal.  The Postal Service has clearly embarked on a plan to sell many of these post offices, as well as properties of more recent vintage, but it refuses to provide a list of those that have been reviewed and those that have been earmarked for disposal, so the full scale of the plan remains unknown.  The National Trust and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation have expressed their concerns, but the sales go on.

The USPS Annual Report to Congress says that there were 44 property disposals in FY 2013 and 49 in FY 2012.  That obviously does not include facilities currently on the market or being considered for sale.  The Postal Service has not released a list of those sold or for sale, but as with relocations, there’s information out there in news articles and in information gathered by Peter Byrne for his investigation into the sale of postal properties by CBRE. 

As with relocations, the PRC should consider including the sale of post offices part of its ACDR.  Since that probably won’t be happening, a list of recently sold properties is here, and a list of historic post offices sold, for sale, or under review for sale, is here.  For more, see this post and check out Byrne’s book.

Premier and Competitive Post Offices While hours are being cut at rural post offices and historic post offices are being sold off and replaced by small leased facilities, the Postal Service has been focused on increasing revenues at a few select post offices.  Over the past two years, two new classifications of post offices have been created — Premier and Competitive.  The ACR doesn’t have anything to say about these new classes of post office, but perhaps the PRC should ask for more information about them.

In 2011, the Postal Service designated about 3,100 of its most profitable post offices as Premier.  While they represent only about 10 percent of the retail network, these post offices account for 44 percent of all walk-in and self-service kiosk revenue.  The purpose of the program is to improve the customer experience and maximize revenues at these offices by giving the staff special training and by offering special products.  When the Harry Potter stamps were released, for example, they were initially available only at Premier post offices.  During the busy holiday mailing season, hours were extended at many Premier offices.  The Premier program thus raises questions about why customers at other post offices should get second-class treatment and why products and services aren't uniformly available.  A list of the Premier Post Offices is here.

In 2012 the Postal Service designated 6,800 post offices as Competitive post offices.  At these offices, the Postal Service charges more for post office boxes than it does at its regular post offices, while providing additional services like those offered by competitors, such as email notification of mail delivery, receiving packages from private carriers, and delivery on Saturday. The Competitive post office idea has met with opposition by FedEx and private mailing centers because of the competition they represent.  Like Premier post offices, the Competitive post offices also raise the question of why some post offices would offer services not widely available.  A list of the Competitive Post Offices is here.

About 1,280 of the Competitive offices are also classified as Premier, so at these post offices, customers are getting special treatment — and paying extra for it.  A list of these offices is here.

Coming next: The year in review, part 2: Alternate access, collection boxes, delivery points, and wait time

(Photo credits: Protesting the sale of the Bronx GPO; former post office in Keene Valley, NY; Glenoaks Station, Burbank, CA; suspended post office in Climax, GA; post office in Blue Mountain Lake, NY, on the POStPlan list; post office in Berkeley, CA, approved for relocation; post office in York, PA, sold; special flower box at the Premier post office in Hartford, CT.)



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April 25th, 2014

4/25/2014

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I OCCASIONALLY MISS A DAY OF BLOGGING WHEN ATTENDING SYMPOSIUMS OR RALLIES....PLEASE COME BACK.  I BLOG ON WEEKDAYS.....

CORPORATE POLS ARE DISMANTLING EVERY AVENUE FOR COMMUNICATIONS FOR WHAT WILL BE 90% OF AMERICANS.  IF YOU DO NOT SHOUT OUT TO SAVE NET NEUTRALITY AND THE POST OFFICE-----ALL COMMUNICATIONS WILL BE CONTROLLED BY CORPORATIONS AND LIMITED TO A FEW PEOPLE.



I attended a rally yesterday of Postal workers fighting to keep the US Post Office public.  The USPS is the only method of communication left that is public and that will always work in the public interest in providing quality service and make communications accessible to all.  Allowing neo-liberals and neo-cons to privatize USPS will open the door to millions of people having no means of communication.

CORPORATE POLITICIANS IN BOTH PARTIES ARE DISMANTLING THE POST OFFICE PIECE BY PIECE IN HANDING ALL REVENUE-GENERATING OPERATIONS TO PRIVATE CORPORATIONS.  THEY HAVE CREATED POLICY THAT DELIBERATELY TAKES REVENUE THAT WOULD MAKE THE USPS A PROFITABLE AGENCY
-----PRE-FUNDING OF PENSIONS DECADES IN ADVANCE----JUST TO STARVE THE POST OFFICE BUDGET.  REMEMBER, THE USPS TAKES NO TAXPAYER MONEY.  IT IS SELF-FUNDING.

Let's look at the goal of neo-liberal/neo-con policy as regards communications.  Think what is needed to take a nation of 300 million people from a first world society to a third world society ------kill education, control communication, and create a surveillance society.  This has been the recipe of totalitarianism for centuries.

How are your cell phone plans going?  Lot's of free phones and each member of the family using them.  Not missing the $15 phone bill with unlimited local calls when we had our public utility.  Wall Street intends to end the compartmentalization of services and go with an everything or nothing plan.   Just as we are forced to pay for 100 cable channels in order to watch a half dozen......they are going to require people to buy unlimited/shared plans that will price many people out of the market. A few hundred a month for phone and internet will keep many families away. There goes the phone for everyone in the family.  What is happening at the same time is a culture of robo-calls hitting our phones.  Collection agencies and marketing firms
are now filling the time we have bought with daily calls sometimes two and three firms each day.  So, the public is now paying to receive more calls it does not want and having smaller amounts of time to use in communicating.  CALL TO STOP THESE HARASSING MESSAGES YOU SAY!  The phone services have allowed these businesses the ability to over-ride MUTING......to over-ride CALL ENDING.....AND phones are being built so people cannot block calls from numbers they do not want.  Imagine if you pay $30 for hundred minutes of time and half of this is taken in robo-calls.      THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW TO LOW-INCOME PEOPLE AND IT IS GETTING WORSE.  WHY BUY TIME FOR A PHONE THAT WILL BE LOST TO CORPORATE ROBO-CALLS.  There goes that means of communication.  This is 'de-phoning' the working class but you can bet the middle-class is not far behind in seeing phone bills eating too much of disposable income.  People are being left to count the minutes they can get to talk so forget making calls that require long wait times----you know, customer service.

DE-PHONING.....DE-BANKING.....what is next?

It was announced that the Obama Administration is moving forward with ending net neutrality after making this issue central in his election in 2008.  PROTECTING PEOPLE ACCESS TO WHAT HAS BECOME AS ESSENTIAL AS ELECTRICITY AND FUEL IN LIVING LIFE IN AMERICA.  There's profit to be made say neo-liberals!  So, rather than appoint an FCC head that moved forward with declaring the internet a UTILITY so rates would be controlled as electricity and water is now....everyone paying the same for the same products...Neo-liberals are going to create a tiered system of accessing the internet with corporations taking all of the high speed capability and you and I being able to afford what will be ever slower and limited access to much information on the internet.  Remember, email is considered data and as the charges for data climb as it will with the end of net neutrality......you will be counting the words you send.   Video streaming will become too expensive to afford and as you know, most of the websites we open are now full of video/graphics that will make costs soar.  MOST PEOPLE WILL NO LONGER HAVE ACCESS TO MUCH ON THE INTERNET AND EMAIL WILL BECOME RATIONED. 

THIS IS THE TOTALITY OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS FOLKS.  PHONES AND EMAIL BECOME TOO EXPENSIVE WHAT DO YOU HAVE?  You write a letter.  But wait.......there is no mail service because the USPS was privatized and mail delivery is not a profitable business.  Prices for stamps are high now because of the privatization and loss of revenue ----think what the price will become when  global corporations control the stamp!

What the Post Office privatizers are now doing is eliminating the Post Office as a place and door-to-door delivery and centralizing where you will go every day to pick up mail.  STAPLES has just been awarded the ability to receive letters you want to send, ending the protections of mail traveling in public hands.  FED-X and UPS do a great job you say!

FED-X AND UPS DO NOT WANT THE MAIL BUSINESS BECAUSE IT IS NOT PROFITABLE......LETTER HANDLING WILL END.



WE THE PEOPLE WILL BE LEFT TO SEND SMOKE SIGNALS IF YOU ALLOW CORPORATIONS TO END OUR LAST PUBLIC METHOD OF COMMUNICATIONS.



AT&T Puts an End to Unlimited Data Plans


By Liane CassavoyJune 2, 2010


AT&T has rolled out new mobile data plans for users of its smartphones and tablets. Starting next Monday -- the same day that Apple is widely expected to unveil a new iPhone -- AT&T will no longer offer its $30-per-month unlimited data plan to new users. Instead, customers will have to pick between plans that allow them a certain amount of data access each month.

In a statement announcing the new plans, AT&T says the new options will "make it more affordable for more people to enjoy the benefits of the mobile Internet." The new data plans include three options:

- DataPlus: This $15-per-month plan allows users to access 200MB of data per month. If customers go over the 200MB limit, they will receive another 200MB for an additional $15 per month. AT&T says that 65 percent of its smartphone customers currently use less than 200MB of data per month on average, so this plan should save them money.

- DataPro: This $25-per-month plan allows users to access 2GB of data per month. If you go over that limit, each additional GB of data will cost $10. AT&T says that 98 percent of its smartphone customers user less than 2GB of data a month.

- Tethering: If you choose to use your smartphone as tethered modem, you'll have to spring for the tethering plan in addition to the DataPro plan. Tethering costs an extra $20 per month. AT&T says that tethering for iPhones will be available this summer, when Apple releases the iPhone OS 4 update.

Current AT&T smartphone customers will be able to keep their unlimited data plans, for now, at least. But users of the iPad 3G may see a change in their plan: iPad users who currently subscribe to the $29.99-per-month unlimited plan will be switched to the DataPro plan.

__________________________________________

For those not wanting or needing all the bells and whistles you are being forced out of buying what you need because of predatory marketing and credit collection.  If a family cannot afford internet connection they will not be able to switch to unlimited/shared option plans....they will be de-phoned. 

BETTER THE MASSES NOT COMMUNICATE IN AN AUTOCRATIC SOCIETY!

If 70% of Americans are at the poverty line and the percentage will rise if Trans Pacific Trade Pact TPP is ended....most Americans will not be able to afford ordinary communications.


Even the middle-class needs to be concerned as ending net neutrality will mean prices for what are now ordinary downloads....like movie streaming.....will skyrocket.  These shared plans will rise from $99 to well over a few hundred dollars a month if you are to retain the quality you have now.
  With health care costs rising, just when does that disposable income disappear?  Communications will go before food, health, and shelter!

APSeptember 17, 2012, 3:12 PM

Robocall complaints up despite do-not-call list

(Skip Peterson/AP, file)

(AP) WASHINGTON - So much for silence from telemarketers at the cherished dinner hour, or any other hour of the day.

Complaints to the government are up sharply about unwanted phone solicitations, raising questions about how well the federal "do-not-call" registry is working. The biggest category of complaint: those annoying prerecorded pitches called robocalls that hawk everything from lower credit card interest rates to new windows for your home.

Robert Madison, 43, of Shawnee, Kan., says he gets automated calls almost daily from "Ann, with credit services," offering to lower his interest rates.


"I am completely fed up," Madison said in an interview. "I've repeatedly asked them to take me off their call list." When he challenges their right to call, the solicitors become combative, he said. "There's just nothing that they won't do."

Madison, who works for a software company, says his phone number has been on the do-not-call list for years. Since he hasn't made any progress getting "Ann" to stop calling, Madison has started to file complaints about her to the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees the list.

Amid fanfare from consumer advocates, the federal do-not-call list was put in place nearly a decade ago as a tool to limit telemarketing sales calls to people who didn't want to be bothered. The registry has more than 209 million phone numbers on it. That's a significant chunk of the country, considering that there are about 84 million residential customers with traditional landline phones and plenty more people with cellphone numbers, which can also be placed on the list.

Telemarketers are supposed to check the list at least every 31 days for numbers they can't call. But some are calling anyway, and complaints about phone pitches are climbing even as the number of telemarketers checking the registry has dropped dramatically.

Government figures show monthly robocall complaints have climbed from about 65,000 in October 2010 to more than 212,000 this April. More general complaints from people asking a telemarketer to stop calling them also rose during that period, from about 71,000 to 182,000.

At the same time, fewer telemarketers are checking the FTC list to see which numbers are off limits. In 2007, more than 65,000 telemarketers checked the list. Last year, only about 34,000 did so.


Despite those numbers, the FTC says the registry is doing an effective job fighting unwanted sales calls.

"It's absolutely working," Lois Greisman, associate director of the agency's marketing practices division, said in an interview with The Associated Press. But, she said, "the proliferation of robocalls creates a challenge for us."

Greisman said prerecorded messages weren't used as a major marketing tool in 2003, when the registry began. "In part because of technology and in part because of greater competitiveness in the marketplace, they have become the marketing vehicle of choice for fraudsters," she said.

For people trying to scam people out of their money, it's an attractive option. Robocalls are hard to trace and cheap to make.

With an autodialer, millions of calls can be blasted out in a matter of hours, bombarding people in a struggling economy with promises of debt assistance and cheap loans. Even if a consumer does not have a phone number on the do-not-call list, robocalls are illegal. A 2009 rule specifically banned this type of phone sales pitch unless a consumer has given written permission to a company to call.

Political robocalls and automated calls from charities, or informational robocalls, such as an airline calling about a flight delay, are exempt from the ban. But those exemptions are being abused, too, with consumers complaining of getting calls that begin as a legitimate call, say from a charity or survey, but then eventually switch to an illegal telemarketing sales pitch.

Robocalls can be highly annoying to consumers because they're hard to stop. Fraudsters use caller-ID spoofing so that when a person tries to call back the robocaller, they get a disconnected number or something other than the source of the original call.

The best thing people can do when they get an illegal robocall is to hang up.
Do not press "1'' to speak to a live operator to get off the call list. If you do, the FTC says, it will probably just lead to more robocalls. The caller will know you're there and willing to answer, and may continue to call.

The FTC says people can also contact their phone providers to ask them to block the number. But be sure to ask whether they charge for that. Telemarketers change caller-ID information often, so it might not be worth paying a fee to block a number that will soon change.

The industry says most legitimate telemarketers don't utilize robocalls to generate sales.

"They give a bad name to telemarketers and hurt everybody," says Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president of government affairs at Direct Marketing Association, a trade group.

Cerasale says the do-not-call list has resulted in telemarketers making far fewer cold calls to random people. Instead, he says, marketers have shifted to other methods of reaching people, such as mail, email or targeted advertisements on websites. That, he said, could be one of the reasons that the number of telemarketers checking the registry has dropped so sharply.

In light of the increased complaints, the FTC is stepping up efforts to combat robocalls. It recently released two consumer videos to explain what robocalls are and what to do about them. It also announced an October summit to examine the problem and explore the possibility of emerging technology that might help trace robocalls and prevent scammers from spoofing their caller ID.

Enforcement is another tool. The FTC has brought cases against about a dozen companies since 2009, including Talbots, DirecTV and Dish Network. The cases have yielded $5.6 million in penalties.

The agency said this month that it was mailing refund checks to more than 4,000 consumers nationwide who were caught up in a scam where the telemarketer used robocalls from names like "Heather from card services" to pitch worthless credit card rate reduction programs for an up-front fee. Checks to consumers range from $31 to $1,300 depending on how much was lost.

_______________________________________

When ATT ends unlimited data-----the most widely used option----you know the market is on the way to creating conditions you don't want or need to one that is most profitable.  That is what this shared packaging will be......paying for the 100 cable stations for a few wanted channels.

As the prices for SMART PHONE and technology rise, the tech industries are filling our schools with processes that require more and more operational exposure.  Society is being built around the need to access more of this and the ability to afford it is growing for most people.  THIS IS WHAT BEING WINNERS AND LOSERS IS ABOUT.

REMEMBER, HAVING PUBLIC UTILITIES IS WHAT MADE ALL CITIZENS EQUALLY ABLE TO BUILD THEIR FUTURES AND RISE IN ANY DIRECTION.  THIS MASS-PRIVATIZATION OF ALL THAT IS PUBLIC WILL IMPOVERISH AND DISENFRANCHISE MOST IN AMERICAN SOCIETY.

Ending net neutrality will give large corporations the ability to access ever faster and larger data packages while the employee has no access and computers at work protected against private use. 

ERGO------MOST AMERICANS WILL NOT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON AS IS TRUE IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES!


Opinion: It’s a trap! Beware carriers’ new unlimited talk and text plans


By Brad Chacos  —   July 20, 2012 6 44 23 12 2 The most effective chains are the ones you don’t realize bind you.

After AT&T unveiled its own version of a shared data plan on Wednesday, dozens upon dozens of posts hit the Web heralding the news and weighing Mobile Share against both traditional data plans and Verizon’s Share Everything. (Even yours truly got in on the frenzy.)

Most posts considered the deal’s advantages for the consumer. But how do shared data plans benefit the carriers? Ah, that’s where things get a bit more devious.

Pooled data is the bait on the trap AT&T and Verizon have structured shared data to give themselves several advantages. The plans meet customer demands for a family data pool. Low subscription prices for tablets should drive more consumers to connect their slates to cellular networks. And both Mobile Share and Share Everything include unlimited talk and text minutes.

Wait! That last one’s a consumer benefit, not a carrier benefit. Isn’t it?

Not quite.

Analysts who have studied the plans agree: If you aren’t already on an unlimited talk and texting plan, shared data plans will actually cost you more money — often, a lot more money. Being for-profit businesses, carriers of course love pulling down more dough, but even more than that, they like the idea of getting you used to paying for unlimited talk and text.

That’s because talk and text deliver insane profit margins. It is a cash cow for carriers, and the cow’s milk is running dry.

Data killed the voice plan star Don’t take my word for it, though. Back in June, the Wall Street Journal reported that cellular subscribers have spent less time talking on the phone ever since the iPhone launched in 2007. That follows several years of an upward usage trend prior to the arrival of smartphones.

You never hear anybody complaining about their rollover minutes any more, do you? Now you know why.

Carriers have been keen to the mass migration for a while now, which helps explain why Skype had to fight a terrible struggle to even land on the original iPhone. (AT&T only caved in after both consumers and the FCC complained heavily.) That griping isn’t a thing of the past, either; this past May, Nokia tried to blame its Lumia struggles on Skype’s Windows Phone app.

In a 2011 New York Times report, Verizon vice president Brian Higgins conceded that as Internet speeds and availability increase, “Eventually, everything migrates to a data channel. We’re moving away from silos of communication to one where everything is combined together.”

That worries carriers, who see much more profit from voice subscriptions than data subscriptions.

After Apple announced that FaceTime would begin working over cellular networks in iOS 6, GigaOm and 9to5Mac examined the situation and found that chatting over FaceTime uses 3MB of data per minute. On a 2GB plan, that’s good for 666 minutes; a 3GB bumps that to an even 1,000. Comparable minutes on a voice plan cost significantly more than those on data plans — sometimes more than twice as much, the publications found.

Surprise! It’s rumored that AT&T might charge iPhone users an additional fee if they want to use FaceTime over Cellular. (Sprint definitely won’t, though.)

Data also killed the SMS star Carrier profits are even more gargantuan when it comes to text messages. In the wake of Apple’s iMessage service, CNET’s Steve Shankland did the math and found that on per-text SMS plans, which normally charge 20 cents per text, carriers receive the equivalent of $1,250 for every MB — not GB — of data — a 8,333 percent markup over the $30/2GB data plan Verizon had available at the time.

Shankland said the $20/month unlimited texting plan was “a better deal if you send and receive more than 100 messages a month.” No matter which way you cut it, though, carriers make a ton of money on texting.

That’s why iMessage and services like Kik (which send texts via data networks) have the carriers worked up. Data-based texting services were estimated to cost carriers $13.9 billion (with a “B”) in lost revenue in 2011.

“You lie awake at night worrying about what is that will disrupt your business model,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in May. “Apple iMessage is a classic example. If you’re using iMessage, you’re not using one of our messaging services, right? That’s disruptive to our messaging revenue stream.”

People who talk and text less often drop down to lower-priced limited service plans. But carriers won’t have to lose revenue or leave their messaging services lying dormant if they can convince you to pay for unlimited talk and text as part of a shared data plan.

Coincidentally, shared data plans began appearing shortly after Stephenson made his comments.

Can you escape the trap? If you don’t chat on the phone very often and don’t want to pay a premium for a service you don’t use — things are looking grim.

After introducing its Share Everything plans, Verizon did away with all the rest of its individual offerings. Unlimited talk and text is now the only way to fly on the nation’s largest 4G LTE network. Existing subscribers can keep their current plans, but be prepared to say sayonara to your low-cost limited voice minutes when you upgrade to a new handset.

AT&T’s a better option for tentative talkers and texters. It is still offering its traditional individual and family plans alongside Mobile Share — at least for now. Don’t expect that to last forever, though. As AT&T Mobility honcho Ralph de la Vega said in the aforementioned June WSJ article:

“The industry’s definitely moving towards unlimited… . Especially as more people adopt smartphones that have voice capabilities over the Internet, segmented voice plans will become less relevant.”

In other words, the talk and text cash cow isn’t dead. If shared data plans give us a glimpse of the future, we’ll be paying for its life support for a long, long time.
__________________________________________

We want to be clear-----Obama is not forced to do this.  He understands that the only way to have net neutrality was to declare it an utility.  His FCC refused to do that and sent the the Supreme Court policy they knew would be refused and now use this as an excuse to move forward with ending net neutrality.

When we have politicians who campaign on issue stances and then ignore them----we have not had free and fair elections.  One cannot vote for a politician if you have to guess if they will or won't do what they say.  That is politics in Iran or Nigeria.....


THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE POLICIES AS REGARDS MOVING TO A THIRD WORLD SOCIETY AND YOU DO NOT HEAR IT DISCUSSED AT ALL ON MEDIA.....DO YOU HEAR YOUR PUBLIC MEDIA DISCUSSING THESE POLICIES?  THEN, SHAKE THEM OUT!  THEY SHOULD NOT BE RECEIVING TAXPAYER MONEY IF THEIR GOAL IS TO KEEP YOU UNINFORMED!



April 24, 2014
Goodbye, Net Neutrality; Hello, Net Discrimination
Posted by Tim Wu  The New Yorker

In 2007, at a public forum at Coe College, in Iowa, Presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked about net neutrality. Specifically, “Would you make it a priority in your first year of office to reinstate net neutrality as the law of the land? And would you pledge to only appoint F.C.C. commissioners that support open Internet principles like net neutrality?”

“The answer is yes,” Obama replied. “I am a strong supporter of net neutrality.”
Explaining, he said, “What you’ve been seeing is some lobbying that says that the servers and the various portals through which you’re getting information over the Internet should be able to be gatekeepers and to charge different rates to different Web sites…. And that I think destroys one of the best things about the Internet—which is that there is this incredible equality there.”

If reports in the Wall Street Journal are correct, Obama’s chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Thomas Wheeler, has proposed a new rule that is an explicit and blatant violation of this promise. In fact, it permits and encourages exactly what Obama warned against: broadband carriers acting as gatekeepers and charging Web sites a payola payment to reach customers through a “fast lane.”

Late last night Wheeler released a statement accusing the Wall Street Journal of being “flat-out wrong.” Yet the Washington Post has confirmed, based on inside sources, that the new rule gives broadband providers “the ability to enter into individual negotiations with content providers … in a commercially reasonable matter.” That’s telecom-speak for payola payments, and a clear violation of Obama’s promise.

This is what one might call a net-discrimination rule, and, if enacted, it will profoundly change the Internet as a platform for free speech and small-scale innovation. It threatens to make the Internet just like everything else in American society: unequal in a way that deeply threatens our long-term prosperity.

Some history may help explain the situation. The new rule gives broadband providers what they’ve wanted for about a decade now: the right to speed up some traffic and degrade others. (With broadband, there is no such thing as accelerating some traffic without degrading other traffic.) We take it for granted that bloggers, start-ups, or nonprofits on an open Internet reach their audiences roughly the same way as everyone else. Now they won’t. They’ll be behind in the queue, watching as companies that can pay tolls to the cable companies speed ahead. The motivation is not complicated. The broadband carriers want to make more money for doing what they already do. Never mind that American carriers already charge some of the world’s highest prices, around sixty dollars or more per month for broadband, a service that costs less than five dollars to provide. To put it mildly, the cable and telephone companies don’t need more money.

In 2007, Obama understood all of this. Without net neutrality, the result would be “much better quality from the Fox News site and you’d be getting rotten service from the mom and pop sites.” That year, he swore to me personally that he was committed to defending net neutrality. Unfortunately, his F.C.C. chairman is in the process of violating a core promise to innovators, to the technology sector, and, really, to all of us who use the Internet.

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Since the goal of privatization is busting public sector unions and send more taxpayer money to corporate profit....what is this mantra from neo-liberals shouting they are working to build the middle-class?

IT IS A COMPLETE LIE!  NEO-LIBERALS ARE THE ONES WHO KILLED THE MIDDLE-CLASS WITH CLINTON AND HIS EMPIRE-BUILDING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS SCHEMES.

Right now sending a letter is getting more and more problematic because the Post Office is being defunded and losing control of avenues of delivery.  Closing sorting facilities because hundreds of billions of dollars in pre-paid pensions is taken from annual revenues is a deliberate move to make the USPS unable to provide competitive service.  Where is all those billions in pension pre-payments going?  Well, as you know, the US Treasury is broke......these pensions are being spent as with our payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare to build and maintain the NSA spying and Homeland Security.

WE NEED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO BE OUTRAGED!!!!!!  STOP ALLOWING THESE POSTAL EMPLOYEES TO FIGHT FOR WHAT IS ESSENTIAL IN A DEMOCRACY-----COMMUNICATIONS!



AlterNet / By Jodie Gummow

  Post Office Privatization Deal in the Works: Activists Take to the Streets The Postal Service plans to replace well-paid postal workers with low-wage Staples employees.

American Postal Workers Union protest in New York.
Photo Credit: Jodie Gummow

April 24, 2014  |     “U.S. mail is not for sale!” This was the hard-hitting message of hundreds of local activists who joined forces across the country in a national day of action protesting a privatization deal between the U.S. Postal Services and Staples.  

The USPS pilot program establishing unsecured postal counters in more than 80 Staples stores in four geographic areas began late last year.  


In response, American Postal Workers Union (APWU) members and associates rallied outside Staples stores around the country demanding an end to the deal which they say is aimed at replacing good, living-wage postal jobs with low-wage, high-turnover jobs filled with untrained Staples employees.  They say it may eventually lead to layoffs and the closing of post offices.

In New York, members of the New York Metro Area Postal Workers Union (APWU) joined forces outside the 5 th Avenue Staples store to deliver a clear message to the American people:

“What we’re trying to do is send a message to the U.S. Postal Service and Staples that the U.S. mail is not for sale,” Jonathan Smith, president of the New York APWU who led the New York charge explained to AlterNet. “We will not allow them to hire employees with no minimum wage, with no benefits and who are not trained to do the job properly.  With all the concern about privacy and identity theft, that’s just not the right way to handle the U.S. mail.  The mail needs to be handled by experienced postal employees who swear an oath and who are accountable to the American people. This is a disservice to the American people and the constitution,” he said.

While Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has denied the USPS-Staples scheme is privatization, the APWU recently obtained a copy of the heavily redacted  USPS agreement, which reveals the true goal of the program is to replace jobs held by USPS employees with low-wage jobs in the private sector, as well as expand the program to 1,500 Staples stores nationwide.

Smith explained to AlterNet how this directly comprises the quality, security and reliability that consumers expect and deserve in the handling of their mail as the struggling U.S postal service looks for ways to cut costs and boost revenue.

“Donahoe is trying to turn the postal service into a for-profit organization. We are here to tell the American people that we will not allow the Postal Service to take our work away and give it to people that are not trained. We are the 99 percent and if we don't fight for our rights, they will take it away.”

Likewise, Bobby Blum, Vice President of the  National Postal Mail Handlers Union spoke of the importance of unions to join together in postal alliance to fight against global corporations and privatization. 

 “We’re here today to stop the transfer of middle-class jobs to low-wage jobs and to stop the transfer of union jobs to non-union jobs,” he said. “We stand shoulder to shoulder to stop the privatization of the people’s postal service.   The CEO of Staples averages a $15 million a year salary, while the average Staples employee makes less than $9 an hour…We must stand together to fight. We can’t let postal employment go to the corporate elite and the cronies in congress dismantle the people’s service.  An injury to one is an injury to all – we stand with you today and say, ‘Stop staples! Stop staples now!” he said.

Fuelling further outage is the recent Staples announcement that it will close 225 stores by 2015, which has many furious employees wondering how such an important public asset could be turned over to a struggling private company, as Times Square postal worker Diane Erlanger explained to AlterNet at the protest.





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January 21st, 2014

1/21/2014

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THE 1% ARE KILLING ALL AVENUES FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ABILITY OF THE PUBLIC TO NETWORK WITHIN THEIR COMMUNITIES!  WE SHOULD SEE A FLOOD OF PROTEST OVER ENDING NET NEUTRALITY, THE WAR ON THE POST OFFICE, THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY CENTERS, AND THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS/DATA MINING  WITHIN SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE NON-PROFITS TAKING THESE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

TOTALITARIANISM LOOKS JUST LIKE THIS!!!!!


Regarding news outlets the American people no longer listen to:

If you listen to the social media bunch you never hear or see any mainstream media repeated or posted and MSNBC is losing any viewership because they are neo-liberal.  I happen to watch a Sunday CBS talk show that showed why.  The commentator asks the Obama representative about NSA and the fact that it is run by hedge funds and is not really a public agency and the Obama spokesman ignored the question and went on to say the issue is whether the government or private businesses should store the data,......THE POINT IS THAT THE GOVERNMENT AS A PUBLIC AGENCY IS NOT INVOLVED....IT IS PRIVATE BUSINESSES RUNNING NSA.  Then we read where Microsoft's Seattle is trying to pass anti-spying on the world legislation because since they are part of the hedge funds running NSA, tech companies are losing the world's business because no one trusts them.  So, they are pretending to be against the spying system they helped develop.  Today corporate NPR/APM's Marketplace tells us the world's monied elite and elite politicians need to do something about wealth inequity because the natives are getting restless.  This is like listening to the monied Godfather called elite and his Goodfellas called elite politicians.  Absolutely no one thinks of the crew at the top as elite.  People have even stopped viewing Ivy League schools as good academic institutions.  Abroad, American universities are looked at as the least of choices because they are now so sullied and thuggish.

This is why no one watches/listens to mainstream news.
This is also what people in second/third world autocracies hear when they listen to the news.  They sit there for a minute looking at news people saying nothing that is true, other nations are telling their citizens Russia and Iranian news is propaganda because they are doing the same thing.  Meanwhile the citizens have a completely separate system of media and communication. This is the state of US news media.

The important things for the American people in this regard are two-fold.  As we listen to neo-liberals handing the US Post Office over to Staples and cuts to buildings and employees we are seeing the VISIGOTH politicians dismantling the only public means of communication....if you think 46 cents is a lot for a letter wait until neo-liberals get rid of public mail.  The Maryland pols are all neo-liberals and when a supermajority of democrats had all branches of government.....they pretended to be writing a Financial Reform bill that has nothing enacted and is totally dismantled.  Maryland in fact is the most naked capitalist state in the country with its neo-liberals running as democrats pretending they are fighting for public interests!  Indeed, creating postal kiosks and giving Staples the rights to postal activities is simply killing the Post Office.  So, do you think two global corporations like UPS and FED-X will be looking for quality and cost competition without the Post Office?  Of course not.  Do you think they will be delivering RAIN, HAIL, SLEET, OR SNOW.....OR SOCIAL REVOLUTION?  Good luck, as people in third world countries get mail a few times a month.  The Post Office is the best run company in the country, it is just having a BAINS CAPITAL gutting of all of its assets so it cannot do its job. 

THOSE CRAZY PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS HANDING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC TO PRIVATE HANDS IN A RUSSIAN PERESTROIKA COUP AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE'S WEALTH!

IF YOU KEEP ALLOWING THE SAME NEO-LIBERALS TO RUN FOR OFFICE EVERY ELECTION....IF YOU ALLOW A NEO-LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES, YOU WILL LOSE ALL PUBLIC POST OFFICES AND THE LAST METHOD OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION!  NET NEUTRALITY?  NEO-LIBERALS SAID FORGET-ABOUT-IT!  WE CAN TURN THAT AROUND.

The second issue is depending too much on social media.  As we saw a few years ago, the first thing neo-liberals did when the economic collapse revealed the entire business and government system in the US was criminal and corrupt was to pass laws allowing the government to do a wholesale shut down of all media in the US in the case of civil unrest.....just as third world Egypt and other revolutionary nations.  You see, since the US is going to have a revolution because VISIGOTHS have stolen all our wealth and intend to keep it.....they are preparing to be the autocratic crowd they are.  Indefinite detention, mass communication shut down, and spying extraordinaire!!!  Now we know what Muslim countries are feeling when they shout DEATH TO AMERICA, which means Wall Street and the TROIKA.  We know what they mean now don't we!  When you go from being hated around the world for your IMF activities taking over government control of undeveloped nations to doing the same in US cities and government.....you are pretty much hated by everyone.  This is what Obama and his NSA are all about.

 EVERYONE IS THE ENEMY.....WE WANT ALL WEALTH AND CONTROL.....ERGO, WE MUST BE THE MOST TOTALLY REPRESSIVE NATION IN THE WORLD.  THAT IS WHAT THESE PACIFIC TRADE AGREEMENTS.....TPP DO.  IT IS NOT SO MUCH ABOUT TRADE.....IT IS ABOUT ENDING NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONS TO BUILDING A GLOBAL  NETWORK THAT CONTROLS ALL NATIONS. PRETTY TALL ORDER.

So, this is why Market Place said that the 'elite' need to get busy giving the poor some way to have money to survive....notice they did not suggest simply reinstating Rule of Law to recover tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud giving each person in America some hundreds of thousands of dollars.....and a democracy!!



REMEMBER, THE FINANCIAL PROBLEMS WITH THE POST OFFICE ARE A DISMANTLING OF ALL ITS ABILITY TO GENERATE REVENUE WITH SPINOFFS OF IT BASIC BUSINESS AND THE INCREDIBLE PRE-FUNDING OF PENSIONS IN THE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS, WHICH IS NOW BEING STOLEN BY WALL STREET THROUGH PENSION FRAUD AND GOVERNMENT RAIDING.

YES, YOUR MARYLAND NEO-LIBERAL IS NOT ONLY RESPONSIBLE.....THEY ARE WORKING AS HARD AS THEY CAN TO HAND ALL THAT IS PUBLIC TO PRIVATE HANDS.


Staples' mini post offices draw union ire
By Gregory Wallace  @gregorywallace January 19, 2014: 9:04 PM ET  CNN Money



"The Staples-USPS deal has to be looked at in the context of a drive towards privatizing the U.S. Postal Service," said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. His group is a network of local unions that represents over 220,000 current and retired mail workers.

"We are willing to support this program as long as it's staffed with United States Postal Service employees," he said.

Staples declined to comment on the unions' concerns and said it doesn't discuss agreements with vendors, but said the pilot program is intended to offer "added convenience for our customers."

"Staples continually tests new products and services to better meet the needs of our customers," said spokeswoman Carrie McElwee.


And Postal Service spokeswoman Darleen Reid-MeMeo rejected the idea that the Staples program was "an attempt to replace stand alone Post Offices."

The post office, whose financial struggles are well-known, is adapting, Reid-MeMeo said. The Staples pilot is the next step of a program that already has over 65,000 retail partners -- including grocery stores and pharmacies that sell stamps and village stores that sell flat-rate boxes in rural areas.

Sarah Ryan, a faculty member at The Evergreen State College in Washington, said she thinks the Staples partnership does little to help traditionally underserved postal customers.

"The interesting thing is this won't do anything to help people who are in rural or lower income neighborhoods," Ryan said. She has studied privatization and the Postal Service and is a former retail clerk at a Seattle post office and held elected positions in the local postal union.


"This is the first time since the Sears deal that there's an effort to move the retail into a national, corporate chain," she said.

In the 1980s, the Postal Service and Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500) struck an arrangement similar to the one at Staples today. Postal unions protested and the program was eventually canceled.

This time around, Dimondstein said, the union president, said workers want guarantees their jobs will be protected and not outsourced to Staples.

"We do not have any problem with the people of this country getting expanded access to postal service," said Dimondstein. "We are willing to support this program as long as it's staffed with United States Postal Service employees."

The Postal Service counters are currently available at just over 80 Staples stores in and around San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Worcester, Massachusetts, said Reid-MeMeo, the USPS spokeswoman. She said the postal service is "always looking to expand access to postal products and services in locations where our customers frequent."


_________________________________________
Well, if they kill the public Post Office we will go to our community schools and communicate in public meetings and networking!!!!  Oh, that's right....they are privatizing all public education and schools are going to be run by national charter chains.  In Baltimore, people do not see their schools as center of community public forums and there goes the public community centers handed over to private non-profits run by corporate interests that just won't allow public dialog on political issues.  What is a person fighting for democracy to do in Baltimore and Maryland?

Below you see what school privatizers have already thought on that issue.  You see a Department of Education agency network designed specifically to give private education businesses the means to education data and how to capture a communities communications through schools.....

THERE GOES THAT PUBLIC OUTLET......OBAMA, ARNE DUNCAN, AND MARYLAND NEO-LIBERALS HAVE BEEN BUSY DISMANTLING ALL AVENUES FOR PUBLIC GATHERING FOR DIALOG AND NETWORKING.....OH, THAT IS WHY ALL THE PUBLIC COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTERS IN THE CITY ARE NOW CLOSED AND RUN BY PRIVATE NON-PROFITS!!!!!


A School-Community Communication Model:

1. Specific Behavioral Concerns of the Community for Its Youth. A Report on the Instructional Tasks Project.Abbot, William P.; And OthersThe longrange goal of the Instructional Tasks Project is to determine the requirements for an effective community-school communication model and its implementation. In the project's first year, the critical incident technique was used to identify the specific behavioral concerns of the community served by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, for its youth. Over 1,000 persons sampled from parents, youth, school staff, and the social community contributed data from which several thousand specific valued behaviors were abstracted and then classified via content analysis into a taxonomy of community concerns. Although subsequent data obtained from nonrespondents to the original sample and selected citizens indicated that the taxonomy was comprehensive, ratings of importance were not significantly associated with frequency of behavioral concerns mentioned by respondents in the initial sample. Hopefully this taxonomy will serve to progress further toward (1) an effective model and language for school-community communications about student performances, (2) development of instructional objectives based on community concerns, and (3) a description of similarities and differences among parts of the community in their concerns for youth. [Fig.1, p14 & Table 22, p46-56 may be of doubtful legibility in HC because of size of print.] (Author/JH)


THINK WE HAVE A DO-NOTHING CONGRESS AND WHITE HOUSE......MAN......THERE IS NOT AN AGENCY LEFT WITHOUT PRIVATIZATION AND IT IS AUTOCRATIC AS CAN BE!!!!!


WHEN OBAMA AND O'MALLEY SAYS THEY SUPPORT OPEN GOVERNMENT.....THEY DO NOT MEAN PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY.....THEY MEAN BUSINESSES CAN COME AND TAKE ALL DATA ACCUMULATED BY GOVERNMENT AND SELL IT, USE IT FOR RESEARCH.....WHATEVER. 


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____________________________________________

Obama and neo-liberals just allowed for the end of internet neutrality by not declaring the internet a utility regulated just as any vital service system in the US......electricity, water, communications.  What neo-liberals want to do is keep most people from being able to access the one ubiquitous means of communication by placing it in tiered payment levels that have full access too expensive except for the wealthiest.  Consolidation in the US has openly broken all ant-trust and monopoly laws and is allowing a few global corporations decide how the public's internet will run and be accessed.  The public paid for the internet.....it is our internet.  Not now say the VISIGOTHS and their neo-liberal pols!


I DON'T HEAR YOU SHOUTING LOUDLY AND STRONGLY AGAINST TAKING A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY THIRD WORLD!!!!!  RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!!!!!


Living in the Third World of Communications

March 8, 2007 digg  TMCNet Bloggers

If you haven’t heard, a court decided Vonage needs to pay Verizon $58 million in past damages for patent infringement in the following areas:  
  • Technology used to bridge Internet calls to the traditional phone system
  • Features such as call-waiting and voice-mail
  • Wireless Internet phone calls
  Now I know many people at Verizon and they are very smart, well rounded and seem nice enough. From an investment perspective they did a good thing by using patents as a competitive weapon against a small provider who has revolutionized the telecom industry and made telcos wake up and realize they need to compete.   The question worth posing however is how is the consumer benefiting from this lawsuit?   My concern is with the government and the various agencies who are supposed to be protecting me, my family and friends’ from monopolistic practices such as this.   When I learn about large companies using the legal and regulatory systems, to flush their competitors down the toilet I have to stop and remember what country I am living in.   I am a US citizen. I was born in the US and I am proud of it. I want consumers to have the best of everything. Lower prices, better quality – again, the best of everything.   VoIP has afforded consumers many benefits. FCC Chairman Michael Powell realized this and used Vonage as a poster child for competition that was pro consumer.   Unfortunately the massive amount of telco consolidation leaves a few large service providers with war chests full of cash and patents they will use to wipe out any and all competition in the market.   The system is so broken it is tough to imagine it can be called a system. How could the FCC feel good about this sort of decision? How could it ever be argued that a huge patent portfolio wielded like nuclear weapons can benefit consumers?   Merger after merger gets approved and no one puts an end to it.   This patent case is but one result of consolidation.   The damage of these mergers is not only to consumers but to the very telcos who are merging. I am speaking tomorrow at the VPF in Miami and as I sat through the sessions today I almost started tearing as I heard the amazing technologies and services being rolled out by companies like BT.   It seems phone companies in every country in the world are rolling out services that are many years ahead of the US.   The United States of America is the third world of telecom. It is an embarrassment and an outrage. Worse yet, we invent the leading edge technologies which actually get deployed on our shores next to last!   The few telcos in this country are falling behind in innovation and to be honest I do not blame them one bit. If I were a shareholder I would be proud of these accomplishments. In fact the way things are going, AT&T will be a single telephone company left to battle a single cable company.   At what point does the FCC need to stop mergers? It looks like there will soon be one choice in satellite radio for example.   Who decides how much competition is enough?   I remember a telecom market with no choice. I do not recall any innovation taking place with one company at the helm. Disruption and fear breeds competition and makes companies experiment with new products to get consumers excited. Duopolies do not.   When the old AT&T saw the threat from Vonage they rolled out a competitive service called CallVantage and you know what ? Tthey had a bunch of enthusiastic people at the helm of this organization and they innovated regularly. It was very refreshing to see AT&T act like a start up.   CallVantage now has pretty much been left for dead.   Every day I worry the path the US is going down is very wrong. We have to focus more on expanding competition and stop killing it at every turn. All government officials are responsible for what is happening to consumers through rulings such as the one above.   I suppose all I can ask is does anyone want to be responsible for telling their kids they are the reason there are 2 choices for telephone service where there was once thousands? Is this a legacy anyone wants to leave? How do you want to be remembered?   One day your kids may read this article – or even your grandchildren. Are you concerned at all? Please tell me you are.   I am very interested in opinions to this entry and I apologize if I come out harsh. Unfortunately some things just have to be said and someone has to start protecting consumers and keep them from getting thrown to the sharks.
___________________________________________
It is important for the American people to develop community-wide communications and having DEMOCRACY NOW MEETINGS STARTS THAT.  Whether newsletter or using local school networks, develop a strong system of communication that is not tied with social media and private phone services.  Democracy depends on free press and free speech and a national shut down of communications because of threats of civil unrest does not meet this mark.  We do not have as of now the mainstream media reporting on millions of people in the US and Europe marching and rallying....so think what will happen when everyone sees how TOTALITARIAN these neo-liberals are with TPP!!!!!

GO OLD SCHOOL WITH YOUR COMMUNICATION NETWORKS!!!!



New Bill Gives Obama ‘Kill Switch’ To Shut Down The Internet



Government would have “absolute power” to seize control of the world wide web under Lieberman legislation



Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The federal government would have “absolute power” to shut down the Internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Joe Lieberman, legislation which would hand President Obama a figurative “kill switch” to seize control of the world wide web in response to a Homeland Security directive.

Lieberman has been pushing for government regulation of the Internet for years under the guise of cybersecurity, but this new bill goes even further in handing emergency powers over to the feds which could be used to silence free speech under the pretext of a national emergency.

“The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects “shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed” by the Department of Homeland Security. Anyone failing to comply would be fined,” reports ZDNet’s Declan McCullagh.

The 197-page bill (PDF) is entitled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA.

Technology lobbying group TechAmerica warned that the legislation created “the potential for absolute power,” while the Center for Democracy and Technology worried that the bill’s emergency powers “include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems.”



The bill has the vehement support of Senator Jay Rockefeller, who last year asked during a congressional hearing, “Would it had been better if we’d have never invented the Internet?” while fearmongering about cyber-terrorists preparing attacks.

The largest Internet-based corporations are seemingly happy with the bill, primarily because it contains language that will give them immunity from civil lawsuits and also reimburse them for any costs incurred if the Internet is shut down for a period of time.

“If there’s an “incident related to a cyber vulnerability” after the President has declared an emergency and the affected company has followed federal standards, plaintiffs’ lawyers cannot collect damages for economic harm. And if the harm is caused by an emergency order from the Feds, not only does the possibility of damages virtually disappear, but the US Treasury will even pick up the private company’s tab,” writes McCullagh.


Tom Gann, McAfee’s vice president for government relations, described the bill as a “very important piece of legislation”.

As we have repeatedly warned for years, the federal government is desperate to seize control of the Internet because the establishment is petrified at the fact that alternative and independent media outlets are now eclipsing corporate media outlets in terms of audience share, trust, and influence.

We witnessed another example of this on Monday when establishment Congressman Bob Etheridge was publicly shamed after he was shown on video assaulting two college students who asked him a question. Two kids with a flip cam and a You Tube account could very well have changed the course of a state election, another startling reminder of the power of the Internet and independent media, and why the establishment is desperate to take that power away.

The government has been searching for any avenue possible through which to regulate free speech on the Internet and strangle alternative media outlets, with the FTC recently proposing a “Drudge Tax” that would force independent media organizations to pay fees that would be used to fund mainstream newspapers.

Similar legislation aimed at imposing Chinese-style censorship of the Internet and giving the state the power to shut down networks has already been passed globally, including in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

We have extensively covered efforts to scrap the internet as we know it and move toward a greatly restricted “internet 2″ system. Handing government the power to control the Internet would only be the first step towards this system, whereby individual ID’s and government permission would be required simply to operate a website.

The Lieberman bill needs to be met with fierce opposition at every level and from across the political spectrum. Regulation of the Internet would not only represent a massive assault on free speech, it would also create new roadblocks for e-commerce and as a consequence further devastate the economy.






0 Comments

November 25th, 2013

11/25/2013

0 Comments

 
PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THESE POLICIES I HIGHLIGHT LATELY AND HOW THEY ARE A PRECURSOR TO THE COMING TPP-----PACIFIC TRADE PACT AGREEMENTS.  THE 1% AND THEIR CORPORATE POLS ARE ACTING AS IF THESE LAWS ARE ALREADY IN PLACE AND THIS IS WHY PUBLIC JUSTICE AND WIDESPREAD FRAUD AND CORRUPTION GOES WITHOUT JUSTICE.  NOW, IMAGINE THESE LAWS PASSED GIVING THESE SAME PEOPLE WHAT THEY THINK WILL BE OPEN SEASON FOR ALL OF THIS!!!


LOOK AT THE END FOR A LIST OF WHICH DEMOCRATS/NEO-LIBERALS ARE ON BOARD WITH THIS!

Below you see what the latest in leaks regarding the TPP policy are telling us.  The citizens of the world have not been allowed to know what the details are because-----corporations rule in these policies and need not address the peasants after all!  If you go to a public meeting in Maryland you already get such a level of distain from these appointed officials at having the public involved, and every effort to see the public is not able to talk.  This should give you a clue as to how things will get worse unless stopped now.

PLEASE GET ACTIVE AND INVOLVED.  THIS IS NOT A DONE DEAL.  THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE IS FAR GREATER THAT A FEW SOCIOPATHS AT THE TOP!





Regarding Brody and downtown development:

We know Baltimore Development Corporation goes further than the buildings and businesses it places downtown, it is felt more deeply in the dismantling of all public assets and services because when you have development based on massive losses in revenue from corporations and the wealthy......you need to get rid of public costs. We heard last week that the TAXI TAX was off the table in city hall until after the 2014 elections because the level of social protest would have swept city hall out of office. Well, we all know the ploy and these corporate pols are going to go anyway! I spoke about Humanim, public health, public education, public transportation, social services et al being handed to private non-profits that are simply an extension of corporations. Below you see how the same is happening to the Post Office and government offices. We in Maryland see that. Johns Hopkins has a mantra for its grads to run for office and enter government in order to control government towards global policy. City Hall and Maryland Assembly is filling with pols willing to move government in this direction. VISTAS are filling community employment spots in an effort to eliminate organization of existing families. So, it is pervasive in Baltimore and Baltimore is exporting it to all Maryland. Mike Miller wanting to send funding for public schools to localities to force schools to partner with corporations? REALLY????

THE TPP-----PACIFIC TRADE PACT AGREEMENTS WILL TRY TO STANDARDIZE ALL OF WHAT THE BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION HAS BEEN BUILDING BECAUSE THEY ASSUME THESE DEALS WILL GO THROUGH. THE PROBLEM IS IF CONGRESS IS WILLING TO TAKE THE CHANCE AND PASS THEM.....THE MOVEMENT IN THE US IS SO LARGE AND GROWING....IT WILL BE REVERSED!

The good news is that the word is spreading like wild fire and no one likes it. This is what moves apathy into action and we will see a reversal of this corporate rule policy! Did you hear MarketPlace APM/NPR tell you TPP is done and see this list of nations supposedly signing this deal that rewrites Constitutions in developed worlds to meet third world deregulation and oversight of business? Look below at the reality.......every country in this agreement has rising resentment and protest from most of its citizens. No matter of repression will stop the reversal of these illegal trade agreements if THIS CONGRESS DARES PASS THEM!


WE KNOW CONGRESS KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON.....THERE IS NO WAY THAT A POLICY IS NEGOTIATED FOR TWELVE YEARS WITH CONGRESS NOT INVOLVED!  BELOW YOU WANT TO LET THEM KNOW YOU KNOW!

Public Citizen and Flush the TPP
are good resources for TPP policy as it is leaked and how it will affect Americans.  REmember, this is happening to Canada, Australia, and Europe as well as smaller developing nations and people in all these countries are protesting and fighting just as we are.  CITIZENS OF THE WORLD DO NOT WANT THIS!


Help Make Senators Aware of Trans-Pacific Partnership Secrecy Request a Copy of the TPP Draft

From Your Senators President Obama and his counterparts in countries across the Pacific have called for completion of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations this October. Leaks have shown the TPP is shaping up to be a NAFTA-on-steroids: Millions more offshored jobs, unsafe food and products flooding into our borders, bans on “Buy American” policies and much more.

Six hundred official corporate advisors have access to the text while the public, press and even Congress are being kept in the dark.

Help raise awareness of the dangers and secrecy of the TPP in Congress by writing your senators requesting a copy of the TPP draft texts.




TPP: Corporate Power Tool of the 1% Have you heard?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “free trade” agreement is a stealthy policy being pressed by corporate America, a dream of the 1 percent, that in one blow could:


  • offshore millions of American jobs,
  • free the banksters from oversight,
  • ban Buy America policies needed to create green jobs and rebuild our economy,
  • decrease access to medicine,
  • flood the U.S. with unsafe food and products,
  • and empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards.

Closed-door talks are on-going between the U.S. and Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam; with other countries, including China, potentially joining later. 600 corporate advisors have access to the text, while the public, Members of Congress, journalists, and civil society are excluded. And so far what we know about what's in there is very scary!



___________________________________________

The Post Office is just one public agency that is being threatened.  It is in the Constitution, but TPP rewrites the Constitution and you can bet UPS and FED X will win over Post Office in these deals.  WE MUST HAVE A PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK!



Postal Workers United
The Push To Privatize Public Assets

Privatization means dismantling government and public assets and turning them over to private companies. It involves “contracting out” or even ending the services that were performed by We, the People (government) to make our lives better. Instead these services are operated for profit, which the citizens (and certainly not the employees) share none of the gains.

To be clear about this: contracting out government services “saves money” by laying off people who have good wages with benefits, and rehiring them at minimum wage with no benefits, while removing the accountability that goes along with a government service. For example, when a city “contracts out” its garbage collection, what happens is all the city employees who had government jobs doing this work are laid off. The private company that contracts to do the service “saves money” by hiring employees at a much lower wage with no benefits. It doesn’t have to meet the standards of government agencies, doesn’t have to be transparent, doesn’t have to use well-maintained equipment, etc. Obviously the city employees and the places they used to shop are worse off, but their lower wages mean everyone else’s wages come under pressure, too. So the “money saved” comes at a great cost to the public.


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I talk about VISTAS here in Baltimore working for cheap and taking community jobs and power in local non-profits.  It not only eliminates the most readily available source of leadership development within a community.....it captures all of a communities ability to democratic political conversations as non-profits claim not to be allowed to have politics in there mission.

IT IS A DELIBERATE DISMANTLING OF ALL AVENUES OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ISSUES!

Add to that the capture of public education and the 1% has captured all avenues of public organization and dissent!


I WANT TO EMPHASIZE THAT THE PEOPLE SERVING AS VISTAS ARE NOT BAD-----THEY JUST WANT A JOB.  IT IS THE GOAL OF USING VISTAS THAT HAS A CHILLING EFFECT ON COMMUNITIES!



The Privatization of Public Service

November 21, 2013by Zaid Jilani Moyers and Company

A Syracuse University logo is displayed inside the lobby of the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

A few weeks ago, the massive consulting firm Deloitte came to my public policy school – the Maxwell School at Syracuse University – to conduct what it called a “case challenge.” The students who participated were separated into groups and presented with a sample consulting challenge. At the end of the multi-day exercise, one team was declared the winner. After the case challenge concluded, the students were offered an opportunity to apply for a job at the firm – an incredibly early application, given that the Masters of Public Administration (MPA) students applying are in a one-year program that started last July and concludes in June 2014.Deloitte’s heavy presence and early recruiting at the Maxwell School is ironic. After all, my school began not as a recruitment center for for-profit corporations like Deloitte but as a “school of American citizenship,” as its founder George Holmes Maxwell described it, with a primary goal of training Americans to work in government.

Deloitte does have government links. It rakes in billions of dollars from government contracts across the world. Its 2012 investor report shows $3.2 billion from work directly with the public sector.

Yet, while the government generously pays the firm to do work that many argue it should be doing itself, Deloitte has been repeatedly caught up in scandals of mismanagement and poor performance. For example, this past August, the state of Massachusetts fired Deloitte after having paid it $54 million to design a computer system that, by the time the contract was terminated, “couldn’t print forms or calculate interest and penalties,” both of which were functions specified in the contract.

Over the summer, the firm agreed to pay $10 million and suspend consulting work at financial institutions in New York following revelations that its consultants “hid details from regulators about Standard Chartered Bank’s transactions with Iranian clients.” Despite this involvement in facilitating money laundering, the firm ironically advertises “anti-money laundering consulting” on its website.

This behavior certainly isn’t what George Holmes Maxwell intended when he created a school of citizenship. But Deloitte is a for-profit firm, chiefly responsible to its investors, not to citizens or the government or various constituent groups such as nonprofits. The goal of its aggressive recruitment at my school and others is not to recruit civic-minded students to serve the public, but to bring on staff who will increase its bottom line.

In doing so, Deloitte and other commercial firms have been remarkably successful in recent years. In 2008, 10 percent of graduates who responded to the post-employment survey went to work in the private sector and 10 percent went to “public work in the private sector” – Maxwell’s terminology for consultants within the public sector. In last year’s class, the percentage of graduates who went to work in the private sector rose to 27 percent (the portion who did public work in the private sector remained at 10 percent). Meanwhile, graduates who went to work for the federal government declined from 25 percent in 2008 to 16 percent in 2012. Graduates who went to work for nonprofits plummeted from 29 to 14 percent.

It’s not only Maxwell that’s seen an increase in private sector employment among graduates, but a trend that has been consistent across multiple top public policy and administration graduate schools. [See below for a breakdown of post graduation jobs by university.] The trend mirrors the privatization of government overall and it’s happening at least partly as a result of the desire for greater compensation by for-profit firms, not because of well thought out social needs.

When graduates at my school and others are faced with massive loan payments and few recruitment opportunities from the public sector, their dreams of working for their local municipal government or the Department of Labor are quickly put aside when smiling recruiters from for-profit consulting firms appear promising high salaries. The moral qualms of working for companies that essentially do jobs the government should be doing itself – while paying executives literally 50 times what the president of the United States makes – fade away. Few students start their public affairs education dreaming of being for-profit consultants, but the nightmare of debt is a great motivator.

Post Graduate Job Trends by University

“At the [University of Chicago's] Harris School, we have seen about a third of our graduates going into the private sector for many years,” says Leslie Andersen, associate director of the school’s career development office. “In the past few years, partly as a result of decreased government hiring, some students who might have gone to the public sector have found employment in the private sector working with consultants to the public sector, and we also have noted an increase in the number of students joining social enterprise/social entrepreneurial organizations, which are counted as private sector employers.”

The hiring decrease in the public sector is a phenomenon that may indeed be driving these trends. President Obama famously caught flack when he claimed that the “private sector is doing fine,” compared to the public sector, but the data backed him up. Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum pointed out that last year, the public sector was still shedding 200,000 jobs per year while the private sector was adding two million jobs per year.

Perhaps that shift partly explains hiring statistics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where 30.7 percent of students went into the private sector – with private sector graduates earning a median salary of $80,000, a 45 percent higher salary than their public sector counterparts. Coupled with a 2013-2014 tuition of $49,788, it’s easy to see the allure of that compensation.

Although many top schools in the field have seen their graduates go to work for for-profit organizations instead of working in direct public service, recent data shows that nonprofits and government do continue to capture the most graduates when looking at the field as a whole. The Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration, which gives accreditation to public affairs schools, estimates that 18 percent of MPA/MPP graduates went to the private sector in 2012, while 27 percent went to work for nonprofits and 46 percent went to work for the government (although the private sector gained 3 percentage points from the previous year).

But some students, particularly at public schools, continue to trend towards the public and nonprofit sectors. For example, at the University of Georgia, only 12 percent of students from the class of 2012’s MPA program went private. “Approximately 80 percent of our students are pre-service and 20 percent are in-service. As to why we have a higher percentage that go into public service, I guess it is because we place a great emphasis on the value of public service in our program,” noted department head Dr. Edward Kellough. At the University of California-Berkeley, 18 percent of grads went to work in the private sector, versus 44 percent who went to work for local government. About two-thirds of graduates from the University of Washington’s MPP program went to work in the public or nonprofit sectors, as opposed to the third who took jobs in the private sector.

Whatever the allure of the private sector to public policy program graduates, it is powerful at the University of Virginia. At the school’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, which began its accelerated Bachelors-to-Masters in Public Policy (MPP) program in 2007, the private sector has been strongly represented in the pool of those hiring graduates, taking 39 percent of them. Because the school is relatively new, it’s likely still establishing its alumni network and career office; consulting firms have swooped in to fill that void, with Bain & Co, Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers all hiring MPP graduates.

For prestigious Georgetown University MPP graduates, the private sector was also well-represented among graduates’ jobs. The mean compensation for those who went to nonprofits was $65,090; for the public sector it was $68,858; for the private sector it was $75,107.

At the elite Harvard Kennedy School, 35 percent of reporting 2012 grads from its public policy and administration programs went to the private sector, capturing a plurality of students. The cost of attendance likely plays a large role in these graduates’ employment decisions. At Kennedy, for the 2013-2014 academic year, the school estimates a total cost (including tuition, fees, and room and board) of $72,302.

At Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Service, only eight percent of MPP graduates went to the private sector in 2013. One thing unique about Princeton’s program is that it offers generous aid and full scholarships to its students, an advantage over most other schools. “An important component… is that students graduate debt-free, so they can make decisions about where to work based on what they want to do, not what they have to pay back in loans,” notes Elisabeth Donahue, the associate dean for public and external affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School.

Whether this trend towards private sector employment continues depends on a number of factors. Will the public sector recover and recruit as aggressively at schools as the big consulting firms? Will skyrocketing tuition costs be reined in? Will students themselves rebel against the trend and aggressively seek employment in the government or at nonprofits?

If the trend does not reverse, or worse, accelerates, we may see a mini-version of what happened on Wall Street in the past few decades – a massive shift of talented college grads landing in a for-profit industry that creates tenuous benefits for the country, while government offices and nonprofit organizations are denied some of the country’s top talent. It would effectively be a privatization of public service – something that would likely have made George Holmes Maxwell shudder.

Zaid Jilani is the former communications and outreach coordinator for United Republic and the former senior reporter-blogger for ThinkProgress. His work has also appeared in outlets including Salon and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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WHY DO YOU THINK ALL OF THIS MEDIA FOUND ON THE INTERNET NEVER MAKES IT TO CORPORATE MEDIA? OH, THAT'S RIGHT.....GLOBAL CORPORATE RULE ENDS FREE PRESS!



The Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty is the complete opposite of 'free trade'


The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. It's a win for corporations

Mark Weisbrot
theguardian.com, Tuesday 19 November 2013 10.49 EST


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Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations Meet Protests in Salt Lake City

Maira Sutton
Occupy.com / News Analysis
Published: Wednesday 20 November 2013

The U.S. trade office is negotiating TPP as if it already has fast-track authority, by deciding for itself which countries to negotiate with and what issues are on the table.

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Find out why you may want to think twice about that shrimp cocktail if the Trans-Pacific Partnership goes through!

http://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpacts_FoodSafety.html

After your stomach settles, please share this with your friends.


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The Trans-Pacific Partnership would result in more adults in the U.S. without work and more children in Vietnam forced to work.

We think this is outrageous. Share if you agree.

For more info on child labor in Vietnam: http://nyti.ms/1i0axXl
For more info on the TPP: www.ExposeTheTPP.org

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When the U.S. Trade Representative has to lie about the Trans-Pacific Partnership to get supporters, you know the real “free trade” deal must be pretty bad!

Read all about how the TPP is more restrictive than U.S. laws here: http://bit.ly/1aEfX3Q

Then write a letter to the editor about what the TPP is really about: http://www.exposethetpp.org/How_To_WriteLettertotheEditor.pdf


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Since NAFTA, the real median wage of U.S. workers has dropped to 1979 levels.

If the Trans-Pacific Partnership passes, the impacts on jobs, wages, and benefits will be felt for generations.

Learn more here: http://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpacts_OffshoringUSJobs.html

Help stop the TPP. Share this with your friends and family.


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How the TPP Would Impact Food Safety www.exposethetpp.orgHow the Trans-Pacific Partnership

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I want to add that the pols who voted to break Glass Steagall will be the ones who support this.  This policy is just an extension of Clinton-era free trade agreements.  In Maryland, it is Joe Cardin, Sarbanes (Sr), Cummings, Hoyer who broke Glass Steagall and will vote for this!  It is also interesting that Civil Rights leaders are the ones most represented in Fast Track. 

Breakdown of the 151 Democratic signatories on the DeLauro-Miller Fast Track Letter

151 Democratic Signatories to DeLauro-Miller Fast Track Letter


18 of 21 FULL COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBERS


Robert Brady - House Administration
John Conyers - Judiciary
Elijah Cummings - Oversight & Government Reform
Peter DeFazio - Natural Resources
Elliot Engel - Foreign Affairs
Eddie Bernice Johnson - Science, Space and Technology
Nita Lowey - Appropriations
Carolyn Maloney - Joint Economic Committee
Mike Michaud - Veterans’ Affairs
George Miller - Education and the Workforce
Nick Rahall - Transportation and Infrastructure
Dutch Ruppersberger - Intelligence
Linda Sánchez - Ethics
Louise Slaughter - Rules
Bennie Thompson - Homeland Security
Nydia Velazquez - Small Business
Maxine Waters - Financial Services
Henry Waxman - Energy and Commerce


LEADERSHIP

Jim Clyburn - Assistant Democratic Leader
Steve Israel – Chair Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Rosa DeLauro - Co-Chair Policy & Steering
Rob Andrews - Co-Chair Policy and Steering


7 WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Danny Davis
Lloyd Doggett
John Lewis
Jim McDermott
Bill Pascrell
Linda Sanchez
Allyson Schwartz

19 DEMOCRATS THAT VOTED FOR THE U.S.-KOREA FTA


Kathy Castor
Danny Davis
Elliot Engel
Anna Eshoo
Colleen Hanabusa
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Nita Lowey
Carolyn Maloney
Carolyn McCarthy
Jim McDermott
Bill Owens
Collin Peterson
Loretta Sanchez
Adam Schiff
Kurt Schrader
Allyson Schwartz
Bobby Scott
Terri Sewell
Tim Walz


35 OF 48 DEMOCRATIC STEERING AND POLICY COMMITTEE MEMBERS


Rosa DeLauro
Robert Andrews
Allyson Schwartz
Barbara Lee
Betty McCollum
Bobby Rush
Peter DeFazio
Ruben Hinojosa
John Yarmuth
Yvette Clark
Niki Tsongas
Bruce Braley
Mike Doyle
Keith Ellison
Carolyn Maloney
George Miller
Gwen Moore
Jackie Speier
Nydia Velazquez
Tim Walz
Frank Pallone
Tim Ryan
James Clyburn
Steve Israel
Karen Bass
John Lewis
G.K. Butterfield
Ed Pastor
Jan Schakowsky
Peter Welch
Dan Kildee
Nita Lowey
Henry Waxman
Maxine Waters Louise Slaughter


26 OF THE 51 MEMBERS OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC COALITION
Ron Barber
Lois Capps
Andre Carson
Joe Courtney
Eliot Engel
Elizabeth Esty
Colleen Hanabusa
Rush Holt
Ann McLane Kuster
Dan Maffei
Sean Patrick Maloney
Carolyn McCarthy
Mike McIntyre
Patrick Murphy
Bill Owens
Gary Peters
Scott Peters
Loretta Sanchez
Adam Schiff
Kurt Schrader
David Scott
Allyson Schwartz
Terri Sewell
Kyrsten Sinema
Juan Vargas
Filemon Vela


8 OF THE 14 MEMBERS OF THE BLUE DOG COALITION


Tim Bishop
Dan Lipinski
Mike McIntyre
Mike Michaud
Collin Peterson
Loretta Sanchez
David Scott
Kurt Schrader

12 OF 19 FRONTLINE MEMBERS


Ron Barber
Tim Bishop
Julia Brownley
Cheri Bustos
Lois Capps
Bill Enyart
Elizabeth Esty
Ann Kirkpatrick
Ann McLane Kuster
Sean Patrick Maloney
Dan Maffei
Mike McIntyre
Patrick Murphy
Bill Owens
Scott Peters
Raul Ruiz
Carol Shea-Porter
Kyrsten Sinema
John Tierney

I'M GOING TO PICK ON THE BLACK CAUCUS BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO BE HURT MOST BY THIS ATTEMPT TO END DEMOCRACY AND REWRITE THE CONSTITUTION MINUS ALL LABOR AND JUSTICE LAWS ARE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE US.  IT IS BIZARRE THAT ALL THESE BLACK LEADERS ARE DOING THIS!

36 OF 42 HOUSE MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

Karen Bass
Joyce Beatty
Sanford Bishop
Corrine Brown
G. K. Butterfield
André Carson
Yvette Clarke
Emanuel Cleaver
Jim Clyburn
John Conyers
Elijah Cummings
Danny K. Davis
Donna Edwards
Keith Ellison
Chaka Fattah
Marcia Fudge
Al Green
Alcee Hastings
Steven Horsford
Hakeem Jeffries
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Hank Johnson
Robin Kelly
Barbara Lee
Sheila Jackson Lee
John Lewis
Gwen Moore
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Donald Payne. Jr
Bobby Rush
Bobby Scott
David Scott
Terri Sewell
Bennie Thompson
Maxine Waters
Frederica Wilson


13 OF 19 HOUSE MEMBERS IN THE CONGRESSIONAL HISPANIC CAUCUS

Raúl Grijalva
Luis V. Gutierrez
Grace Napolitano
Gloria Negrete McLeod
Ed Pastor
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Raul Ruiz
Loretta Sánchez
José Serrano
Albio Sires
Nydia Velázquez
Juan Vargas
Filemon Vela, Jr

37 OF 51 DEMOCRATIC FRESHMEN

Ron Barber
Joyce Beatty
Julia Brownley
Cheri Bustos
Matt Cartwright
William L. Enyart
Elizabeth Esty
Lois Frankel
Tulsi Gabbard
Alan Grayson
Steve Horsford
Jared Huffman
Hakeem Jefferies
Robin Kelly
Joe Kennedy
Dan Kildee
Ann Kirkpatrick
Ann Kuster
Alan Lowenthal
Michelle Lujan Grisham
Sean Patrick Maloney
Daniel Maffei
Grace Meng
Patrick Murphy
Gloria Negrete
Richard Nolan
Beto O’Rourke
Donald M. Payne, Jr
Scott Peters
Mark Pocan
Raul Ruiz
Carol Shea-Porter
Eric Swalwell
Mark Takano
Dina Titus
Juan Vargas
Filemon Vela

73 SUBCOMMITTEES’ RANKING MEMBERS

1. Rob Andrews - Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions
2. Ron Barber - Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency
3. Karen Bass - Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations
4. Sanford Bishop - Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veteran Affairs and Related Agencies
5. Tim Bishop - Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
6. Corrine Brown - Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials
7. Julia Brownley – Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health
8. Matt Cartwright - Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs
9. Judy Chu - Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access
10. Yvette Clarke - Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies; Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations
11. Steve Cohen - Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law
12. Joe Courtney - Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
13. Rosa DeLauro – Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies
14. Ted Deutch - Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East and North Africa
15. Lloyd Doggett – Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources
16. Donna Edwards - Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Space
17. Anna Eshoo - Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
18. Sam Farr - Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and Food and Drug Administration
19. Chakah Fattah - Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies
20. Marcia Fudge - Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight and Nutrition
21. John Garamendi - Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
22. Raul Grijalva - Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation
23. Al Green - Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
24. Janice Hahn - Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology
25. Colleen Hanabusa - Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs
26. Alcee Hastings - Rules Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process
27. Brian Higgins - Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence
28. Ruben Hinojosa - Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training
29. Rush Holt - Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
30. Sheila Jackson Lee - Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime Security
31. Marcy Kaptur - Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
32. Bill Keating - Foreign Affairs: Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats
33. Ann Kirkpatrick – Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
34. Jim Langevin - Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities
35. John Lewis – Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight
36. Daniel Lipinski - Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research
37. Zoe Lofgren - Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security
38. Nita Lowey - Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
39. Stephen Lynch - Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census
40. Daniel Maffei - Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Oversight
41. Carolyn Maloney – Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises
42. Carolyn McCarthy - Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood. Elementary and Secondary Education
43. Jim McDermott – Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
44. Jim McGovern - Rules Subcommittee on Rules and Organization of the House
45. Mike McIntyre - Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces
46. Grace Meng - Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce
47. Patrick Murphy – Small Business Subcommittee on Agricultures, Energy and Trade
48. Jerry Nadler - Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution and Civil Justice
49. Grace Napolitano - Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power
50. Eleanor Holmes Norton - Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
51. Frank Pallone - Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health
52. Ed Pastor - Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
53. Donald Payne, Jr. - Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications
54. Bobby Rush - Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power
55. Loretta Sanchez - Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
56. Jan Schakowsky - Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade
57. Bobby Scott - Homeland Security Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations
58. David Scott - Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
59. Albio Sires - Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
60. Kurt Schrader - Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture
61. José Serrano - Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
62. Brad Sherman - Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade
63. Jackie Speier - Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Healthcare, and Entitlements
64. Eric Swalwell – Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Energy
65. Mark Takano - Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
66. John Tierney - Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security
67. Dina Titus – Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs
68. Paul Tonko - Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy
69. Niki Tsongas - Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
70. Pete Visclosky - Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
71. Tim Walz – Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry
72. Frederica Wilson - Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee

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January 29th, 2013

1/29/2013

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For those that say the working class do not need labor protections from unions so let them work like third world poor consider that these work conditions are hitting college educated workers as well.  Remember, the protesters in Egypt and other autocratic countries are professionals impoverished by regimes.   So, when educators, health care professionals, and postal employees hit the protest trail you see a war against all labor not only the working class. As Governor O'Malley and Mayor Rawlings-Blake duped the voters regarding the gambling referendum by saying these would be good paying jobs....that minorities would be hired to these good paying jobs.....that profits would go to education, THEY WERE LYING TO YOUR FACE YET AGAIN AND THE PEOPLE HAVE SAID ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  Every member of Baltimore City Council knew the move would be to have casinos without unions.....they knew that most of the hiring would have the best paid brought in from out of area and the positions for the minority workers would be horrible working conditions with part time work with continuously changing shifts and duties.  The Baltimore City Council and Maryland Assembly has not even addressed the 'felon' issue as regards Baltimore citizens as O'Malley's and Rawlings-Blake war on the poor has many people guilty of simply loitering registering as felons.  THERE IS NO INTENT TO HIRE ANY MINORITIES IN JOBS THAT WON'T BE EXPLOITATIVE.

What about those funds for education from gambling proceeds?  Well, we see already one county using the funds to pay for the transportation services from BWI to the casino and with the Baltimore casino we see the City pols already using taxpayer money to train casino staff.......that's the education these pols will give you with these gambling proceeds.  So, the labor unions, the teacher's unions, the justice organizations that all worked to get gambling approved WERE ALL SCREWED BY BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND POLITICIANS.  THIS IS WHY O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE ARE MOVING TO NATIONAL POSITIONS......WHEN IT COMES TO CONNING THE PUBLIC FOR CORPORATE PROFITS.....THEY ARE TEAM PLAYERS!!!

Ever more seriously is the attack on our postal service.  Third Way corporate democrats like Maryland's pols voted with the Republicans for policy designed to starve the Post Office of revenue.....killing it by taking its ability to compete with private services like FedX and UPS.  So, policy like taking Postal meters and postage stamps away from the Post Office and allowing sales everywhere took away great revenue from the Post Office as it does foot traffic that would lead to mailing.  Allowing private post offices to open when the need wasn't there all worked to take traffic away from the Post Office and place them with private carriers like UPS and FedX.  DID WE NEED COMPETITION WITH THE POST OFFICE WHICH HAD US PAYING PENNIES TO SEND A LETTER UNTIL IT WAS FORCED TO COMPETE WITH PRIVATE PROFIT?

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE PROFIT, NOT THE SERVICE AND THAT IS WHY THEY ARE SYSTEMATICALLY KILLING THE POST OFFICE.   The nail in the coffin was the policy of pre-paying employee pensions to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.  Now, if you are making the Post Office compete with private companies that do not pre-pay their pensions are you really creating a fair and free market?  Of course not, you are trying to kill a public service.  THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS VOTED WITH REPUBLICANS TO CREATE THIS BURDEN THAT IS KILLING YOUR LAST METHOD OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION!!!

How important is the fact that the post office is our only PUBLIC method of communication?  IT IS HUGE!!!! Think about how you will be able to afford the rates if private industry is allowed to go without competition.  We are seeing our phone bills become unbearable......we are seeing computer rates becoming unbearable......we will see our package rates become unbearable if the Post Office is not there.  SO HOW WILL PEOPLE COMMUNICATE IF RATES ARE TOO HIGH?  HOW LONG WILL GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZE THE POOR? 

THEY WILL NOT.  JUST AS WITH ENERGY COSTS THESE SUBSIDIES TO THE POOR WILL END AND A VAST NUMBER OF PEOPLE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HAVE ENERGY, HEALTH CARE, AND NOW COMMUNICATIONS ABILITY.  WHO ARE THOSE POOR.......LOOK AT EGYPT AND GREECE TO SEE PROFESSIONALS OF ALL STRIPES AS POOR AS ANY!!!!!

Lastly today let's look at another professional class being driven into poverty as yet another democratic platform is crushed by Third Way corporate democrats.  The teaching profession.  University campuses have always been the place of democratic activism and free speech as tenured professors were able to speak freely against government corruption and tyranny.  So, if you are building a corrupt and tyrannic society the first thing you want to do is get rid of the university campuses and those pesky academics........and that is what Third Way corporate democrats like O'Malley and Obama are doing.  This is why universities and colleges are being filled with adjuncts from the business-world who are only connected to the college as a part-timer......it is why we are seeing tenured positions disappear as academics are now afraid to speak and are indeed silent as the greatest transition from free and democratic to corrupt and autocratic happens right before us.  EVERYONE IS FEARFUL OF LOSING JOBS AT A PERIOD WHEN JOBS ARE BEING HELD DELIBERATELY SCARCE.  EVEN FACEBOOK ENTRIES ARE KEPT CLEAN OF DEBATE AS THESE SOCIAL MEDIA ARE SURVEILLED TO AN INCH OF THEIR LIVES.   This is deliberate silencing of political voice and academics are the foundation of  political voice.

Below you'll see what is happening across the country with all levels of education......K-college.  Teachers are being made paupers as their jobs are marginalized by manufactured budget cuts.  Part-time, Teach for America, principals required to pay back salaries in order to finance their schools as they are in Baltimore.....all of this is disturbing and unacceptable and all driven by Obama, O'Malley, and Third Way corporate democrats across the country.


YOUR THIRD WAY POL IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IMPOVERISHER.  THEY KNOW THAT TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD WOULD PAY FOR ALL OF THE NEEDS OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS BUT THEY KEEP CUTTING PUBLIC SERVICES/PROGRAMS AS CORPORATIONS BECOME FABULOUSLY WEALTHY.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!

Working Without Pay January 18, 2013 - 3:00am By Colleen Flaherty
Inside Higher Ed


College food drives are usually organized by student groups aiming to serve needy off-campus populations. The one this week at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan is different. It’s benefiting part-time faculty members who can’t make ends meet until their late paychecks arrive at the beginning of next month.

“This really came as surprise to a lot of people,” and the recent holidays and current tax season haven’t left many part-time faculty with a financial cushion, said Kelly O’Leary, part-time French and English instructor and co-president of the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Federation of Teachers, the part-time faculty union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan. About 300 part-time instructors, many of whom were expecting to be paid on Tuesday as usual, won’t be paid until Feb. 1 due to administrative issues.

“We have a number of single moms trying to support kids,” O’Leary said. “I don’t think people understand that they’re below poverty wages.”

To help bridge the gap, the union launched the food drive on Jan. 11. Since then, it has been flooded with food donations and gift cards to Meijer supermarket, where faculty can buy more food, gas and prescriptions. “We’ve had part-time faculty coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘I’m a diabetic and I need to buy insulin,’ ” said the union's co-president, Catherine Barnard, a part-time psychology instructor. “At first, we didn’t even think about medication, but many of these people don’t have benefits.”

Because some part-time faculty have expressed shame at publicly accepting help, Barnard said she’s arranged via e-mail to meet part-time faculty in the parking lot or elsewhere on campus with donations. Most of the help has come from full-time faculty and part-time faculty with heavier course loads, and the drive is being promoted on the union's Facebook page, where O'Leary has posted a virtual "I am working without pay" button.

Kalamazoo Valley pays part-time faculty about $2,400 per course on a term-to-term basis, compared to about $10,000 per course for some full-time, permanent professors paid an annual salary (not taking into account other full-time faculty duties), Barnard said. (By way of comparison, a 2010 survey of non-tenure-track faculty members by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce showed the median compensation rate for adjuncts to be $2,700 per three-credit course.) Barnard estimated that most part-time faculty teach two or three courses on campus each semester, which, without picking up additional courses at other area institutions, would amount to an annual income of less than $15,000.

A union member notified leaders of the payday delay on Jan. 7, at the start of the semester. O’Leary said she attempted to meet with the administration to change the payday, to no avail (the union co-president said administrators blamed part-time faculty who were slow to turn in their semester paperwork and low staffing during the holiday period for the delay).

College officials reject the idea that the pay schedule should have taken part-time faculty by surprise. Michael Collins, vice president for student and college relations, said in an e-mail that the pay calendar was first posted on the college intranet in August 2012, and that full-time and part-time pay faculty pay schedules have differed from each other going as far back as 30 years (Kalamazoo Valley’s 129 full-time faculty were paid on Tuesday).

O’Leary disagreed with that statement, saying the part-time faculty pay date was included in the faculty calendar in an obscure place that did not show up on most people’s computer screens, and went missing from the calendar for prolonged periods during the fall semester. Additionally, she said, most faculty who expect their pay at a certain time each month don’t check the calendar to verify that it will be arriving. (In her nearly two decades of working at the college, she said pay had only been delayed once before, at the start of the fall 2011 semester. The union was formed shortly after.) She also pointed to state wage and earnings laws that guard against late payments after a routine pay schedule has been established by an employer, although such laws pertain to a biweekly or weekly pay schedule; the college typically pays faculty on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Although it’s not a permanent fix for part-time faculty, Nancy Beers, a part-time history instructor, said the drive has been welcome news to families such as hers, with Michigan’s tough job market (her husband was laid off last year and she’s picked up fewer courses this semester – four, compared to eight at three different campuses in the fall – than she would have liked).

“The only way we’ve made it [this month] is that we saved everything we could from last semester,” she said.

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AS O'MALLEY SIGNS ON TO RACE TO THE TOP, HE REQUIRES SCHOOL TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS TO MEET ACCESSMENT REQUIREMENTS AND SALARY INCREASES BASED ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE.  BUT AS WE HEAR AGAIN AND AGAIN, FUNDING ISN'T THERE.....A CITY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL TOLD ME SHE'S SCRATCHING FOR MONEY FOR TOILET PAPER.  WE WERE TOLD THAT UNDERSERVED SCHOOLS WOULD GET HIGHER TEACHER PAY TO ATTRACT BEST TEACHERS.....WHAT WE SEE, JUST AS EXPECTED, THE HIGH PAY GOES TO THE WEALTHY COUNTIES WHILE THE UNDERSERVED SCHOOLS HAVE THE LOWEST PAY.  AFFLUENT SCHOOLS ARE SUPPLEMENTED BY PRIVATE DONATIONS.  NONE OF THESE POLICIES PRODUCE GOOD CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE, THEY ONLY MAKE TEACHING LESS ATTRACTIVE AS A CAREER.

City principals among lowest-paid school leaders in state School, union officials say new contract will make salaries more competitive City schools

CEO Andres Alonso, shown during a visit with The Sun's editorial board and reporters, has given the Baltimore system's principals more autonomy. (Christopher T. Assaf, Baltimore Sun / June 28, 2011)

By Erica L. Green, The Baltimore Sun 5:54 p.m. EST, February 2, 2012

YET THE QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION BELOW SOMEHOW GOT THESE SAME PRINCIPALS THAT WERE DESCRIBED AS THE LOWEST PAID IN THE STATE TO MAKE WHOPPING DONATIONS TO THEIR OWN SCHOOLS.......BASICALLY ERASING  ANY INCREASE IN THE CONTRACTS MENTIONED ABOVE. 

So the media is giving us the impression these school officials are being paid more when they are simply being made to give it back to keep their jobs (think about the Hispanic workers I spoke of who work in Baltimore's Enterprise Zones who told us they are paid a wage as demanded by Living Wage and Green Card laws and then forced to give back $5 an hour to keep their jobs)  THIS IS REALLY EVIL PEOPLE AND IT IS ALL DRIVEN BY JOHNS HOPKINS AND THEIR QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES/NON-PROFITS

Waverly School Principal-------$20,000
Barclay School Principal -----  $8,750
Guilford School Principal ----- $20,000
Margaret Brent School Principal ----$3,434

THE SCHOOL'S STAFF ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO DONATE AS THESE WILL BE MATCHING FUNDS FOR LARGER DONATIONS.  REMEMBER, WE HAVE BUDGET DEFICITS BECAUSE OF MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD AND CORPORATE TAX BREAKS THAT HAVE THEM PAYING NOTHING......THIS IS THE PROBLEM AND THE PEOPLE ARE BEING MADE TO PAY THEIR WAGES IN DONATIONS AS WELL AS SEEING THEIR TAX REVENUE GIVEN TO THESE NGOs.......

THIS IS EVIL STUFF FOLKS!!!!!!

About FLBC The Family League of Baltimore City, Inc. is a quasi-governmental nonprofit organization that works with a range of partners to develop and implement initiatives that improve the well-being of Baltimore’s children, youth and families. The Family League’s work touches the lives of tens of thousands of Baltimore families each year.

The Family League is uniquely able to coordinate major initiatives, bring together a range of partners, and fashion new approaches to the city’s urgent problems.


HERE WE HAVE YET ANOTHER QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION DESIGNED TO FUNNEL PRIVATE MONEY TO DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS WITHOUT COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND WITH THE COMPLETE WISHES OF THE PEOPLE DONATING.....OR AT LEAST THE BIG DONORS AS WE SAW ABOVE, SOME OF THE LOW LEVEL DONORS ARE SIMPLY DONATING TO KEEP THEIR JOBS!!!!!
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US Postal Service faces ruin without rescue from Congress, watchdog warns Inspector general David Williams says cash-strapped service, saddled with debt and low revenues, is in 'very serious trouble'

The USPS lost over $16bn last year, and has lost about $41bn over the past five years, according to estimates. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The chief postal watchdog has warned that the troubled US Postal Service will go out of business this year unless Congress acts to rescue it.

David Williams, the inspector general of the USPS, says the service is in "very serious trouble", after five years lumbered with heavy debt and falling revenues.

In an interview with the Guardian, Williams warns that Congress, which has been distracted by November's elections and the fiscal cliff crisis, must act this year to save the service.

The USPS lost over $16bn last year, and has lost about $41bn over the past five years, according to Robert Taub, a vice-chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Since 2006, the postal service has been required – unlike any federal agency  – to pre-fund its retirement and healthcare benefits to workers. This costs it about $5.5bn a year. Currently, the post office has paid in $330bn for benefits, but the Office of Personnel Management recently told Williams that it will need $394bn to satisfy the legal requirement.  THIS IS A BIG REASON  WHY THE POST OFFICE IS STRAPPED AND THEY ARE USING THIS TO DISMANTLE OUR ONLY PUBLIC MEANS OF COMMUNICATION!!!!

At the same time, it has been unable to raise postal rates enough, because they are pegged to inflation, and inflation is low. (A long-awaited rise is coming on January 27, moving postal rates up by 2.75%).

The economic downturn in 2007 hit the postal service hard, as people sent less mail; it has also seen a steep decline in its most profitable product, first-class mail.

Richard Geddes, an assistant policy professor at Cornell and an American Enterprise Institute scholar who has studied the postal service, says first class mail has fallen from 103bn pieces in 2000 to just around 74bn pieces in 2011.

Even though it has shrunk from nearly 900,000 thousand employees in 1998 to about 530,000 now, many regulators and lawmakers see the US Postal Service's infrastructure as inefficient, and have talked about areas they would like to cut – the number of facilities that the USPS uses to process mail, for instance.

Williams, whose organisation audits the USPS, described the set of financial constraints on the service as "murder – it wasn't premeditated, but it was murder."

The postal service has reached its $15bn credit limit with the US Treasury, and has in effect run out of money."This is the year that they borrowed so much that they can't borrow any more," Williams said.

Asked whether the USPS will need a bailout this year, Williams replied: "Yes. The choices are that it would cease to exist or it would need a bailout." Williams said he did not expect the USPS to require taxpayer dollars, but instead that it would require congressional intervention, perhaps to reduce the pension payments.

The US Postal Service, which missed its last two payments into the benefit funds, has never made a single payment without having to borrow from the US Treasury. Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, notes the irony: the USPS pension payment goes to the US Treasury, so for the past five years it has been borrowing from the Treasury to pay the Treasury.

There are many possible solutions to the problem, but, as a start, Williams, Goldway and Taub believe that the pension payments should be reduced. "I favor a post office that is not burdened by this unrealistic pension obligation," Goldway said.

Goldway says the main reason for the dire financial state of the USPS is the debt it took on to meet its pension payments. "They wouldn't be in the situation they're in without having borrowed all this money," she said.

California congressman Darrell Issa, a Republican who has taken the lead on postal service reform along with congressman Dennis Ross, suggested last year that USPS employees should be required to pay into their health and life insurance benefits, like all federal workers.

Another school of thought holds that the postal service could shrink further, cutting staff and facilities. Williams suggests that if the post office took steps to reduce its size that it could save $12bn a year: "Which is more than enough to get them out of the trouble they're in."


__________________________________________________________________________________
IF YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOT RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES AGAINST INCUMBENTS.......THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME!!!!!!  ARE YOUR LEADERS WORKING WITH THE CORPORATE POLS OR ARE THEY WORKING FOR YOU???????

November 2, 2012 Teachers unions in Ohio seek to elect educators to office By Sarah Butrymowicz Hechinger Report

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Special-education teacher Donna O’Connor and 23 of her colleagues gathered at their union’s headquarters here in January for a first-of-its-kind campaign boot camp. Prompted by an intense battle over collective bargaining that has pitted unions against a Republican-controlled State Assembly, the Ohio Education Association started grooming its own candidates to take back control of state education policy.

O’Connor, who is currently running for a House seat in the Columbus suburbs, felt her own sense of urgency as she learned how to fundraise, write speeches and debate during the union training sessions. “I started connecting the dots about seven years ago [that] I couldn’t just shut my classroom door and the politicians would leave me alone,” she said.

(Photo by Progress Ohio)

Teachers have long run for office, often with encouragement and support from their unions. This year, however, educators in states with some of the biggest labor disputes and most controversial education policies have been campaigning in record numbers. It’s one of the most direct ways that teachers and unions are showing their frustration over mounting attacks on tenure, the growth of nonunionized charter schools and efforts to evaluate teachers based on student test scores.

“You’re starting to see a lot of teachers say, ‘Enough is enough. I want to run for office,’ ” said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. The group works to elect Democrats committed to making dramatic changes to education policy, including many that the unions oppose such as eliminating tenure. Williams said he expects the trend of educators vying for office to continue. Official statistics aren’t kept on how many teachers are running, but anecdotal evidence from several states suggests the numbers are up.

The teachers union in Wisconsin, which was the center of a lengthy battle over collective bargaining last year, has six members competing for statewide office. In Tennessee, the first state to pass a law tying teacher evaluations to test scores, nine out of 11 teacher-candidates survived state legislature primaries to advance to the November elections. (Typically, two or three teachers in Tennessee run for any sort of office in a given year, according to the state’s teachers union). And in Minnesota, where mounting class sizes and debates over changing the seniority system have upset teachers, 35 educators are on the ballot. Members of the Minnesota teachers union, Education Minnesota, have estimated that that number is about a third higher than normal.

“Unfortunately for the past two years, the Legislature has ignored the real problems and focused on bashing teachers,” Education Minnesota president Tom Dooher said in a written statement. “We’re hopeful more people with classroom experience will be elected and re-order its priorities next year.”

Ohio was thrust into the national spotlight last year when its legislature passed Senate Bill 5, which banned unions from collective bargaining. A ballot initiative that November repealed the law, but the memory—and the anger it inspired—has not faded.

Although many potential candidates who attended the OEA’s training sessions decided not to run this year (and one lost in a primary), 10 remain on the ballot for state office—an unprecedented number, according to the OEA. In the last six years, just three other OEA members have run. This year, an 11th educator, a former member of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) in his first year of retirement, is also running.

The Republicans have a stronghold in both houses of the Ohio State Assembly. In the House of Representatives, they are one member away from a super-majority, which would mean that any law passed as an “emergency measure” would take effect right away.

State congressional districts were redrawn in Ohio this year, in what supporters of the teachers union claim was gerrymandering meant to help Republican candidates. Still, the changes created new seats for some teachers to run and prompted others to challenge incumbents. Many teachers are now locked in tight races in districts that lean heavily red.

O’Connor, the special-education teacher, lost her current representative, Democrat John Carney, to another district during the redistricting process. Faced with an incumbent who had voted against collective bargaining and for a budget that cut state education funding by more than 10 percent, O’Connor decided it was time for her to get directly involved. She described the bill that outlawed collective bargaining as the “icing on the cake” in motivating her to run.

Tom Schmida, an OFT retiree up for election to the House in the Akron suburbs, was also spurred to run by a host of issues. A Democrat, Schmida is concerned about the future of collective bargaining, charter school accountability and a provision in the approved budget bill that will tie teacher evaluations to test scores. “An overreaching agenda by the extreme elements of the Republican Party, especially in the State House, [goes] beyond Senate Bill 5,” he said.

Schmida is in a close race against incumbent Republican Rep. Kristina Roegner, a staunch proponent of charters, vouchers and the elimination of collective-bargaining rights. Schmida’s grassroots campaign has knocked on about 7,500 doors and made 9,000 phone calls. Many of his volunteers are teachers and union members themselves, he said.

Both of the state’s teachers unions have endorsed all of the teacher-candidates. The OEA has also sent out mailings to members about its teacher-candidates, organized phone banks and helped produce a campaign video. “We’ve supported them through every means we possibly can,” said OEA president Patricia Frost-Brooks.

OEA declined to give specifics on the amount of money it has spent to help teacher-candidates get elected.

To Williams, these steps are a logical extension of unions’ long-time political involvement. “Teachers unions all over the country have been pretty successful at keeping the pipeline for potential candidates for office filled with good candidates,” he said. “We’re starting to see the unions take their message up a notch. It’s not just about good candidates … [but] getting teachers to be recruited.”

Yet Williams worries that too many teachers in office might derail the current education reform agenda. “As we move into an area where there’s lots of debates about teacher-quality issues and teacher-tenure issues, [the unions] are going to want people who will shut that debate down,” he said. He believes having more educators in office will be helpful only if they offer perspectives from the trenches without sidetracking the reform conversation.

Several Ohio teacher-candidates say they’re open to discussion and compromise. They add that their larger goals—like a better system of funding education—need not be divisive. It’s more about ensuring a teacher voice, they say.

“In 2011, that really showed us what happens when we don’t elect officials that are pro-workers, pro-public education and pro-teacher,” O’Connor said in her OEA-produced campaign video, referring to Senate Bill 5. “Electing pro-public education candidates is most important this time around. I think the teachers that are running, we can help protect and improve public education from the inside out.”

This story also appeared on NBCNews.com on November 2, 2012.
  

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January 18th, 2013

1/18/2013

0 Comments

 
THIS ATTACK ON LABOR IS NOT ONLY AT THE BOTTOM WAGE SCALE......IT IS HITTING THE MIDDLE-CLASS HARD. 

We have political pundits who are all 'centrists' that hold all of mainstream media....EJ Dionne and David Brooks for example as public media's voice for all things political.  These two are both Brookings Institution, free-trade corporate globalists who will not speak ill of corporations in any way and they represent 'democrats' and 'republican' view......AND THEY BELIEVE THE SAME THING. So when Brooks constantly tells his audience that what is happening isn't class-warfare but simply inequity caused by education status, he is lying to you and I.  These labor protests always seem to be about the lower-class because those protests make the news and higher professionals are fearful of being public even as these wage and benefit cuts move them closer to lower-class.  Teachers and academic professors, firefighters, postal workers, health industry workers have many people working for them who have degrees....some many degrees....and they are watching their quality of life disappear.  This impoverishment is hitting every labor sector and it is all driven by the consolidation of US business sector into the hands of a few people who are making billions in profits as we sink further in earnings.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

We hear over and again that it is about US businesses remaining 'COMPETITIVE' and we must have 'FREE-MARKETS' when in actuality they are working to end all of these things with hostile takeovers, capturing market share, and price-fixing at high levels to soak the consumer.  NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE FREE MARKET OR COMPETITIVE.  THEY CERTAINLY ARE NOT DEMOCRATIC.  So high unemployment was deliberately created with this massive collapse of the economy......they all knew the collapse was coming years before it happened as they worked to make it as deep as possible.  They are working to keep it with the Fed policy and the consolidation of businesses that will control all hiring.  Mom and Pop are even being stomped out of this economy.  THIS IS WHAT BROOKINGS INSTITUTE CALLS THE 'NEW ECONOMY'.

Below you will see the nurses unions on the street as these corporate execs squeeze a typically middle-class employment sector for all the profits it can.  This is important because it is health care that is identified as a leading growth industry.  We are told the other major growth industry, technology, will not create jobs as the number of people hired by that industry is a drop in the bucket.  THIS HIRING SITUATION WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE STILL HAD REGIONAL BUSINESSES WITH A DIVERSIFIED OWNERSHIP AND LAWS THAT PROTECTED AND NURTURED COMPETITION.....IT IS A PRODUCT OF THIRD WAY CORPORATE POLITICIANS AND THEIR GLOBAL MARKET POLICY.  The US is stagnant as these corporations grow in leaps and bounds overseas.  The businesses that come back to the US do so with the intent of having third world wages.

We can reverse this by simply demanding Rule of Law be reinstated and all of those trillions in corporate fraud is brought back to the US economy.  It is impossible with these Third Way corporate pols but we can RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES NEXT ELECTIONS!!!!

DO YOU HEAR YOUR LABOR LEADERS CHOOSING CANDIDATES TO RUN AT EVERY LEVEL?  DO YOU HAVE CANDIDATES CHOSEN FROM YOUR JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS?  IF NOT, YOUR LEADERS ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME!!!!!!

MAKE YOUR NEW JOB TITLE 'POLITICIAN' AND DON'T SELL THE PEOPLE OUT!!


Nurses are strong on union support for their members and for the general public health benefits!!! THANK YOU NURSES UNION FOR SHOUTING AGAINST DECLINING WAGES AND BENEFITS IN WHAT WILL BE ONE OF THE FEW GROWTH INDUSTRIES.  Below is a call to arms from one medical community that mirrors all in this country:

This weekend, dozens of nurses from Steward Quincy Medical Center were out in their community meeting with the public and distributing leaflets detailing their serious concerns about unsafe staffing conditions at the facility and their need for improvements in these conditions to ensure quality patient care. Nurses were at local shopping centers, T stations and other highly trafficked locations, where they received a very positive response from the public, handing out thousands of leaflets. Below is the text from the leaflet:

A Message to Our Community from the Nurses at Steward Quincy Medical Center

For nurses, working in a hospital is more than just a job. It comes with a sacred duty to our patients to provide the best care possible. That includes the duty to speak out when we believe our patients' well being may be at risk. We are so severely under-staffed at Quincy Medical Center that nurses believe this is the time for us to speak out:

• Registered nurse staffing at Quincy Medical Center is at a bare bones level, forcing nurses to care for too many patients at one time, which may compromise our ability to provide safe patient care.

• At the same time, there is not enough non-RN technical and support staff to provide the care our patients deserve.

• RNs have submitted more than 125 official written reports of unsafe staffing incidents to management in 2012.

• Our community hospital is now owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar private equity investment firm. Health care staffing decisions are now being made at the corporate level driven by the profit motive, and not at the local level based on the needs of our patients and community.

• There is no medical justification for this level of staffing. In fact, the only reason management has provided is that staffing costs money.

This is our community hospital. We are proud to be RNs at Quincy Medical Center and we are committed to its future success. We ask for your support to ensure that you and all our families receive the safe, quality care patients deserve.

Call Quincy Medical Center at 617- 773-6100 x4012 or email Daniel.Knell@steward.org and tell him to listen to his own staff! No hospital can ethically increase its profit by putting patients at risk by failing to provide enough staff.

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THESE STANDARDIZED TESTS ARE NOT ABOUT QUALITY EDUCATION...THEY ARE ABOUT MEASURING PERFORMANCE FOR WHAT IS TO BE AN AUTOCRATIC EDUCATION SYSTEM DESIGNED FROM THE CHINESE SCHOOL SYSTEM.  IT IS ABOUT TRACKING STUDENTS AND ABOUT MAKING SURE EDUCATORS PROVIDE ONLY THE INFORMATION DICTATED BY THESE COMMON CORE AND ONLINE REGISTERED LECTURES.

THERE IS NOT SO MUCH A PROBLEM IN STANDARDIZING HARD SCIENCES WHERE MATH AND SCIENCE HAVE DEFINITIVE LAWS....BUT THIS IS REACHING ALL LEVELS OF EDUCATION HUMANITIES AND LIBERAL ARTS THAT THRIVE BY DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT.

Standardized test backlash: Some Seattle teachers just say 'no' Resistance to standardized tests has been simmering for years, but now a group of Seattle teachers is in open revolt. No longer will they administer the tests, they say, citing a waste of public resources.

By Dean Paton, Correspondent / January 11, 2013  Christian Science Monitor


Students walk out of the lunchroom past a poster urging preparing for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessments System (MCAS) tests, in this March 1999 file photo. Massachusetts students who don't pass the test don't graduate.

John Nordell/Staff/File



Forty-five minutes after school let out Thursday afternoon, 19 teachers here at Seattle's Garfield High School worked their way to the front of an already-crowded classroom, then turned, leaned their backs against the wall of whiteboards, and fired the first salvo of open defiance against high-stakes standardized testing in America's public schools.

To a room full of TV cameras, reporters, students, and colleagues, the teachers announced their refusal to administer a standardized test that ninth-graders across the district are mandated to take in the first part of January. Known as the MAP test – for Measures of Academic Progress – it is intended to evaluate student progress and skill in reading and math.

First one teacher, then another, and then more stepped forward to charge that the test wastes time, money, and dwindling school resources. It is also used to evaluate teacher quality.

“Our teachers have come together and agreed that the MAP test is not good for our students, nor is it an appropriate or useful tool in measuring progress,” said Kris McBride, academic dean and testing coordinator at Garfield High. “Additionally, students don’t take it seriously. It produces specious results and wreaks havoc on limited school resources during the weeks and weeks the test is administered.”

RECOMMENDED: Are you as well read as the average 10th grader?

Garfield’s civil yet disobedient faculty appears to be the first group of teachers nationally to defy district edicts concerning a standardized test, but the backlash against high-stakes testing has been percolating in other parts of the country.

  • The New York State Principals association recently issued a scathing letter, nearly four pages of “unintended negative consequences” it claims such tests foment.
  • In Maryland, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr has called for a three-year moratorium on standardized testing.
  • In north Texas last year, superintendents of several high-performing school districts signed a letter to state officials and lawmakers saying high-stakes standardized testing is “strangling our public schools.” As of Jan. 8, 880 districts that educate more than 4.4 million Texas students have adopted a resolution opposing these tests. 
“This high-stakes testing – there needs to be a moratorium on it, because it’s out of control,” says Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, Long Island, N.Y. “None of these tests really have anything to do with curriculum. Maybe they have a little bit to do with math. But that’s it.”

Dr. Burris co-authored the letter for the New York State principals. On Dec. 31, she started a petition in New York opposing high-stakes testing. In 10 days, she says, 5,500 administrators, teachers, and parents have signed it.

“Parents are stressed. Teachers are stressed. Kids are stressed by these tests more than parents,” Burris says. “And when you tie teachers’ evaluations to these tests, the teachers end up focusing their lessons on the tests. And that’s starting to destroy elementary education.”
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I WANT TO INCLUDE THIS AGAIN TO EMPHASIZE THAT IT IS THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS WHO ARE WORKING AS HARD AS REPUBLICANS TO SHRINK UNIONS.  THE PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ARE THE LAST STRONGHOLD FOR UNIONIZING AND AS SUCH IT IS IMPORTANT TO FIGHT TO KEEP THEM STRONG AS THEY HELP STRENGTHEN PRIVATE SECTOR UNIONS.

BELOW YOU SEE WHERE O'MALLEY NEGOTIATED A DEAL THAT HE KNEW WOULD LEAD TO THE MTA EMPLOYEES WHO WERE UNIONIZED IN STATE UNIONS BEING SLOWLY IMPOVERISHED AND NOW FIRED AS UNION MEMBERS WITH THE OFFER OF REHIRE AS NON-UNION DOING THE SAME JOB.

THIS IS DELIBERATE UNION-BUSTING!!!

MY COMMENTS TO THE ARTICLE BELOW:

The key word here is other contractor.  This is our public transportation system and we do not want any of it to fall to private contractors because, as you see, there is no stability for the employees attached to these contractors.....which is the point says Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore City Council.  These are employees that should be working for the MTA making a middle-class salary with strong public sector benefits.  What Baltimore politicians are doing is privatizing public transportation a little at a time and throwing these employees into a private hiring situation that impoverishes them, takes their benefits, and now we see they are losing their jobs and seniority.  When Veola took jobs from the MTA there were contract protections for the workers.  The idea was that the employees would remain unionized just as they were with MTA but, as is the plan with all these public-private partnerships, they are brought down to poverty and then if unionized, a reason is found to dismiss.  Now, when/if these employees are rehired or moved to yet another private contractor will they be unionized?  You can bet that won't happen in Baltimore with this City Council and mayor.....they seek to make you as poor as possible!!


Veolia Transportation warns that it will lay off 78 Most could be hired by a competitor, company tells state
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun 1:02 p.m. EST, January 15, 2013

Veolia Transportation warned state officials that it will be laying off 78 employees in Baltimore as it stops servicing a portion of an unspecified contract, but added that most could be hired by the new contractor.

The cuts are expected March 3.

Veolia's notice to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said the workers are based at a Huntingdon Ave. location. Veolia's services in Baltimore include paratransit.

State labor officials said the company hopes that employees who don't switch to the new contractor will find other jobs at Veolia. The company is based in Illinois and has operations across the country.

jhopkins@baltsun.com



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September 30th, 2012

9/30/2012

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HERE ARE OUR POLITICAL ACTIONS FOR THIS WEEK-----CALL, EMAIL, WRITE, AND RALLY FOR:

WE KNOW THAT THESE THIRD WAY LEADERS VOTED WITH REPUBLICANS TO PLACE THIS HEAVY FINANCIAL BURDEN OF PENSION FUNDS ON THE POST OFFICE AND VOTED TO TAKE AWAY BY PRIVATIZING MANY OF THE POST OFFICE'S REVENUE MAKING BUSINESS.  THEY DID THIS BECAUSE THIRD WAY WANT TO PRIVATIZE THE POST OFFICE DESPITE WHAT YOUR INCUMBENT SAYS.  LOOK AT THE POLICY VOTES TO SEE THEY ARE WEAKENING THIS PUBLIC INSTITUTION.  CALL NOW AND CALL OFTEN TO SAY WE WANT POLICY THAT STRENGTHENS, NOT WEAKENS THE POST OFFICE.  POSTAL WORKERS DO NOT WANT TO LOSE SATURDAY DELIVERY BECAUSE THAT MAKES IT HARDER TO COMPETE.  THEY DO NOT WANT TO CLOSE OFFICES BECAUSE THAT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO PROCESS AND DELIVER MAIL AS FAST......ALL COMPETITIVE NEEDS AND ALL THINGS THE POST MASTER IS PUSHING.  WE SEE AGAIN A UNION LEADER PUSHING AGAINST THE WILL/INTERESTS OF ITS MEMBERSHIP.



Postal Service To Default On $5.6 Billion Payment by The Associated Press

September 28, 2012

The U.S. Postal Service, on the brink of default on a second multibillion-dollar payment it can't afford to pay, is sounding a new cautionary note that having squeezed out all the cost savings within its power, the mail agency's viability now lies almost entirely with Congress.

In an interview, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the mail agency will be forced to miss the $5.6 billion payment due to the Treasury on Sunday, its second default in as many months. Congress has left Washington until after the November elections, without approving a postal fix.

For more than a year, the Postal Service has been seeking legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce its $5 billion annual payment for future retiree health benefits. Since the House failed to act, the post office says it's been seeking to reassure anxious customers that service will not be disrupted, even with cash levels running perilously low.

"Absolutely, we would be profitable right now," Donahoe told The Associated Press, when asked whether congressional delays were to blame for much of the postal losses, expected to reach a record $15 billion this year.

He said the two missed payments totaling $11.1 billion for future retiree health benefits — payments ordered by Congress in 2006 that no other government agency or business is required to make — along with similar expenses make up the bulk of the annual loss. The remainder is nearly $3 billion in losses, he said, which would have been offset by savings if the service had been allowed to move to five-day mail delivery.

Donahoe said the post office will hit a low point in cash next month but avert immediate bankruptcy due to a series of retirement incentives, employee reductions and boosts in productivity among remaining staff that saved nearly $2 billion over the past year.

But the post office has few tools left to build its revenue, he said, without either having to pay upfront money it lacks or get approval from postal unions or Congress.

"We've done a lot to reduce cost out of our system," Donahoe said. "The problem now is this: There's nowhere to go."

Postal unions also say Congress is mostly to blame for losses, but disagree that a reduction to five-day delivery is an answer.

"What is needed is for Congress to undo the harm it has done with the prefunding mandate and for the Postal Service to develop a balanced plan moving forward," said Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. He said cutting Saturday delivery would in particular hurt rural residents and the elderly who depend more heavily on the mail for prescription drugs and other goods.

The Postal Service last month failed to pay $5.5 billion, its first default ever on a payment. While it will miss a second payment Sunday, it expects to make a $1.4 billion payment due to the Labor Department on Oct. 15 for workers' compensation. Cash levels are expected to hit a low after that labor payment before rising again due to increased volume from holiday and election mail, including ballots for early voting.

The mail agency said the two payment defaults will not affect day-to-day operations. Post offices will stay open, and suppliers and employees will get paid. Longer term, however, Donahoe has cautioned that a "crisis of confidence" over postal solvency could damage growth.

The post office also remains vulnerable to shifts in the economy that could suppress mail volume. Both FedEx Corp. and UPS recently have cut their earnings forecasts, citing in part slow global economic growth.

"The key thing is Congress must act during the lame-duck session and get this whole thing behind us," said Donahoe, referring to the few weeks lawmakers will be in session after the election before a new Congress takes office in January. "We can't have a Postal Service where customers are constantly worried about our ability to make payments."

"That's no way to run a business," he said.

Congress will have a full agenda of pressing fiscal issues when it returns in November, and some lawmakers have raised the possibility that postal legislation will get pushed over to the next Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is a sponsor of the House bill, has said he believes some kind of legislation can be passed in the lame-duck session, although it may not be as comprehensive as initially sought.

The Senate passed a postal bill in April that would have provided financial relief in part by reducing the annual health payments and providing an $11 billion cash infusion, basically a refund of overpayments the Postal Service made to a federal pension fund. The House, however, remains stalled over a separate bill that would allow for aggressive cuts, including an immediate end to Saturday delivery. Rural lawmakers in particular worry about the impact of post office closures in their communities.

The Postal Service originally planned to close low-revenue post offices in rural areas to save money, but after public opposition it now is moving forward with a new plan to keep 13,000 of them open with shorter operating hours. The Postal Service also will begin closing more than 200 mail processing centers next year, but the estimated annual savings of $2.1 billion won't be realized until the full cuts are completed in late 2014.

"Once again, we are watching the days slip away before the U.S. Postal Service faces the second default of its history. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have now had 11 months to do the right thing and fix the serious, but solvable, financial challenges," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a co-sponsor of the Senate bill. "Every day Congress delays fixing this problem, the financial challenge grows more difficult and the potential solutions become more expensive."

The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, does not receive tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.

Art Sackler, co-coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private-sector mailing industry, said many businesses are preparing their budgets for next year and have no idea whether to expect disrupted service or higher postage costs.

"Congress needs to act quickly on comprehensive postal reform," he said. "These defaults, mounting debts and declining revenues aren't just going to hurt the Postal Service; they're going to hurt the 8 million Americans whose jobs depend on the mail."


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PLEASE SEND BALTIMORE BREW YOUR MONEY AS THEY DO REAL INVESTIGATIVE WORK IN THE CITY!  BELOW YOU SEE HOW THESE ORGANIZATIONS HAVE BUILT A SYSTEM THAT KEEPS AWAY ALL PUBLIC SCRUTINY.  IT ALWAYS HAS A REASON.....TO PROTECT BUSINESS INTERESTS....WITH THE SUPERCOMMITTEES ON CAPITOL HILL IT WAS TO PROTECT THE POLITICIANS AS THEY NEGOTIATED.

THESE GROUPS ARE DOING PUBLIC BUSINESS.  THAT IS THE PROBLEM RIGHT THERE.  THESE ARE NGOs WHO SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED THIS PUBLIC FUNCTION.  TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, THEY ARE TELLING THE PUBLIC TO TAKE A HIKE!


SHOUT LOUDLY AGAINST THIS!!!!!


Inside City Hall: Behind closed doors, BDC hammers out deals The art of the exemption. Or how to keep news about a city development project out of the media.
Mark Reutter
September 27, 2012 at 5:10 pm Baltimore Brew

The BDC meets in a closed session this morning.

Every month a time-honored ritual takes place at the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC). After engaging in some preliminary discussion, the agency’s board gets down to business by kicking out the media and closing its doors.

The Maryland Open Meetings Act requires all public bodies to meet in open session unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.

The BDC board, which instigates and acts on the biggest development deals in Baltimore, has perfected the art of the exemption.

Today was no different. Not long after the meeting had started, board chairman Arnold Williams was calling for a vote to close it.

The Brew
has been voicing an objection to this process for months. Today we didn’t bother to object. Instead, we’re going to tell you what happened.

7:39 a.m.
– At what may be the earliest time for any public body to meet in Maryland, the board opens its monthly public session, nine minutes late.

7:44 a.m.
– Acting president Kimberly A. Clark gives her report to the board. One big success she reports: winning The Baltimore Sun‘s endorsement of a tax deal to help Under Armour expand at Locust Point.

Clark says she had spent an hour talking to the editorial writer about the $35 million deal, which exceeded the city’s own internal guidelines for a subsidy. Reading the favorable Sun editorial was “an ‘ah-ha’ moment instead of a ‘gotcha,’” she tells the board, looking pleased.

7:50 a.m.
– BDC officer Phil Croskey runs through a Powerpoint of two proposals for the rehabilitation of the now-vacant Parkway Theatre on North Ave.

One is by developer Sam Polakoff, whose previous bid on the Parkway was thrown out by the BDC. The other is by the Maryland Film Festival in collaboration with Seawall Development (Thibault and Donald Manekin), Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland Institute of Art.

After a brief overview of the proposals – both would have live music and studio space, with the film festival proposal including a film study educational component – Williams halts the presentation so that the board can discuss “the financials” in private.

8:07 a.m.
– Here it comes: Williams invokes three subsections of the Open Meetings Act to close the rest of the meeting.

The Parkway Theatre proposals: exempt under statute 10-508(a)(14) because public discussion or disclosure “would adversely impact . . . the bidding or proposal process,” Williams says.

A Business Retention and Expansion report: exempt under 10-508(a)(4) because it “concerns [a] proposal for a business or industrial organization to locate, expand or remain in the State,” Williams says.

A Loan and Audit Committee report: exempt under 10-508(a)(5), allowing a public board to “consider the investment of public funds” privately, Williams says.

8:11 a.m.
– The board unanimously votes to close the meeting. The conference room door is shut behind this reporter.

8:15-8:58 a.m.
– Sitting in the BDC reception area, The Brew reads the minutes of the Business Retention and Project Review Committees. (The material is in a loose-leaf notebook emblazoned with prohibitions against “removing” or “copying” the contents.)

Turns out, there’s not much to read. The last meeting of the Business Retention committee started at 4:09 p.m. on September 17. A minute later (4:10 p.m.), it was closed by chairman Atwood “Woody” Collins III, president of M&T Bank’s Mid-Atlantic Division. The meeting was reopened and adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

The Project Oversight committee met at 12:18 p.m. on September 19. It was closed at 12:32 p.m. The meeting remained private until it adjourned at an unspecified time.

8:58 a.m.
– Today’s closed session comes to a, well, close. The 15 members of the board (not all present today) begin to scatter through downtown.

Among its members: four top city officials, including finance chief Harry Black and Kaliope Parthemos, the mayor’s development chief.

There’s one union representative (Bert J. Hash, president of the municipal employees credit union), one accountant (Williams), two attorneys (Deborah Hunt Devan and Gilberto de Jesus) and five bankers (including Collins, Kenneth Moreland of T. Rowe Price and and Brian Tracey of Bank of America).

The board members are appointed by the mayor. Some of them, like Williams, have been appointed for a long time.

9:05 a.m.
– Asked why the BDC does not open up more of its meetings, Kimberly Clark replies, “There is a balancing act we have to perform.” She said that proprietary information from developers is reviewed during the closed sessions. If released, such information would spell doom to the developers at the hands of their competitors.

The board’s recommendations to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake – regarding what projects should receive TIFs, PILOTs (payment in lieu of taxes) or other government subsidies, and at what levels – are also not publicly revealed.

Again, this confidentiality is maintained “to protect that proprietary information” and to gain the most detailed insight into the financial aspects of any given project.

“How else,” Clark asks, “can we be certain we are presenting the best deal for the city?”

9:15 a.m.
– Leaving the BDC, Williams is spotted. He says he disagrees with critics who say the BDC is too secretive.

“The meetings are very open, I believe,” he said. “The only time we close them is when the discussion is in accordance with the statutes. I think during the board meeting [today], we made it pretty clear what statues we were using.”

A founding partner of a local accounting firm, Williams was appointed to the BDC by then-mayor Kurt Schmoke in the 1990s. He was named chairman by Mayor Martin O’Malley in January 2002 and has remained in that position ever since.



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THE BALTIMORE SUN PRINTED THIS EDITORIAL LAST WEEK.  IT APPEARS TO BE FROM A TENNESSEE NEWSPAPER, BUT THE TOPIC IS TIMELY HERE IN BALTIMORE AS THERE IS A MOVEMENT TO PETITION TO REFERENDUM RECALL/TERM LIMITS FOR CITY OFFICIALS.  IT APPEARS AS THOUGH THE BALTIMORE SUN IS HINTING TO THE COUNCIL THAT  IT NEEDS TO TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT ITSELF FROM A PUBLIC CHANGE OF CHARTER.  ONLY IN BALTIMORE, IT WON'T BE THE REPUBLICANS TRYING TO UNSEAT DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS, IT WILL BE EVERYONE TRYING TO UNSEAT CORPORATE POLITICIANS.  LIKE TENNESSEE, BALTIMORE'S THRESHOLD FOR SIGNATURES IS LOW BECAUSE WE HAVE LOW VOTER TURNOUT.  THIS IS NOT A HARD THING TO DO AND SHOULD BE EVERYONE'S FOCUS ALONG WITH WHO WILL CHALLENGE THE INCUMBENTS.  IS YOUR SOCIAL AND LABOR ORGANIZATION TALKING ABOUT WHO THEY WILL RUN AGAINST INCUMBENTS?  IF NOT, THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND I.  THIS IS HAPPENING ACROSS AMERICA AND WE WILL PREVAIL!!!!!!!

GET OUT TO PUSH THE PETITIONS FOR RECALL AND RETROACTIVE TERM LIMITS.....THE FIRST STEP IS ORGANIZING A NETWORK OF SIGNATURE COLLECTION !!!



EDITORIAL: City needs a new recall law
Baltimore Sun
Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn. 5:14 a.m. EDT, September 14, 2012


It's been clearly evident for two years that the fringe attempt to recall Mayor Ron Littlefield was groundless to a fault, and fatally flawed under legal guidelines. The recall's chief supporter, Jim Folkner, has refused to give up, however. We hope Wednesday's appeals court verdict, upholding most of the trial court's findings, will finally be acknowledged as the last word.

The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's ruling on the recall's key deficiencies: the city's two-step recall statute failed to meet the state's superior mandate for a three-step recall process, and there were too few qualified and dated signatures to meet recall petition requirements.

The former will absolutely require the City Council to adopt a revised recall charter to meet state guidelines. The latter should shame the Election Commission, and the majority Republic bloc that ap proved the petitions.

Commission workers allegedly told recall organizers that signatures on their petitions didn't have to be dated -- a requirement under state law to allow signers to change their mind and retract their signatures within 10 days. The partisan Republican Election Commissioners, who hold a 3-2 majority edge, negligently approved undated signatures to be counted anyway. Then they rushed to approve the recall petitions and put the question on the ballot despite warnings of flaws by the panel's two Democrats -- one of whom is Jerry Summers, a highly successful trial lawyer who formerly served as the Election Commission's attorney.

In fact, the Republicans' excessive partisanship seemed apparent at every turn. They also supported their attorney, Chris Clem, in the filing of lengthy petitions supporting the recall process and futilely challenging the constitutionality of the state's recall statute. Clem's fees pushed the Election Commission's $25,000 annual legal budget up to $35,000 by the end of the last fiscal year on June 30. His final bills for the last appeal, Election Commission administrator Charlotte Mullis-Morgan confirmed Thursday, have yet to be tallied.

There's a good argument to be made that the commission's members and Clem didn't have to get so heavily involved in the legal tangle over the recall petition. All they really had to do was acknowledge the court's authority and await the ruling in the legal contest between Folkner and Mayor Littlefield, who properly challenged the recall petition's flaws.

City officials must now move promptly to adopt a recall process that overrides their illogical two-step recall. Because of an exceedingly low turnout of 18,000 voters in the last mayoral election, it would have allowed the mayor's opponents to effectively accomplish a recall of the mayor with just 9,000 valid signatures on the petitions; that's less than 10 percent of the city's registered voters. Had the petitions and signatures been found adequate, the mayor automatically would have been removed, and a new election would have held.

State law prevents such an exceedingly low recall vote by requiring a three-step process: a successful petition, then a vote on whether to recall the mayor, and, then, if needed, a new election. That's a far fairer process. A revised charter is in order. ___

(c)2012 the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.)

Visit the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.) at http://www.timesfreepress.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services
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Post Title.

5/11/2012

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I WOULD LIKE TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO CONSIDER THE MEDIA HYPE WHEN READING OR LISTENING TO THE NEWS WE RECEIVE.  STATISTICS ARE JUST TOOLS TO PROMOTE WHATEVER VIEW IS BEING MADE.  ALSO TAKE A LOOK AT WHICH NEWS OUTLETS ARE PRESENTING THE BIAS....WHEN YOU MAKE A COUNTERPOINT TO AN ARTICLE IN THE 'COMMENTS' SECTION, DO THEY PRINT IT OR LEAVE IT 'PENDING'.  WE MUST MAKE OUR MEDIA OPEN AND BALANCED IF WE ARE GOING TO SHAKE THIS CRONYISM.  GO BACK TO SEE IF THEY PRINTED YOUR COMMENT AND IF NOT.....EMAIL A LETTER TO THE CONTENT MANAGER AND NEWS DIRECTOR.  DO NOT LET THEM OFF THE HOOK.  ATTEND PUBLIC MEETINGS TO DEMAND COUNTERPOINT AND BALANCE IN REPORTING.

Here are a few of my comments to today's news:


I encourage Basu to listen to Smith and McCord comment on statistics in the WYPR Maryland politics segment today so as to present a balanced view in his economics segment.  The reason New York and New England states, Maryland, and California are ranking high on social mobility is that all practice extreme baseline practices......high recruitment of immigrant labor, whether from Latin America or Asia with laws allowing for wages below an already low minimum wage that keep all wages artificially low.  It is easy to track mobility growth from this starting point......people only have to reach poverty to grow from immigrant wealth. 

He is right to say the Southern states are worse as they don't let even their domestic workers grow out of double poverty.  I think both camps have some work to do!

Maryland's economic mobility is among the best in U.S. 'Where you live matters' for earnings potential, Pew researchers say By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun May 10, 2012

If you're aiming to be upwardly mobile, living in Maryland might help.

The state is one of the best in the country for moving on up, what the study calls positive economic mobility, a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts concludes. States doing better than average are largely in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, while those doing worse are in the South, according to the report, released Wednesday.

Researchers at Pew's ongoing Economic Mobility Project say they're trying to answer a big question: Is the American dream alive and well? The report, which they say is the first to look at economic mobility by state, raises troubling questions.

"It shows that there is not equality of opportunity across the states," said Diana Elliott, the project's research manager.

"Where you live matters," added Erin Currier, the project manager.

The center tracked about 65,000 workers — all born between 1943 and 1958 — on three measures:their earnings andwhether those earnings went up or down relative to others in the period between their mid 30s and late 40s.

The Maryland residents saw a 21 percent average gain in earnings over that period, compared with 17 percent nationwide, Pew found. That was after accounting for the sapping effect of inflation.

More Marylanders in the bottom half for earnings saw their incomes rise relative to others, 42 percent vs. 34 percent nationwide. And fewer Marylanders in the top half saw a downward slide on the earnings ladder than people nationwide, 22 percent vs. 28 percent.

Just two other states beat the national average on all three measures, Pew said — New Jersey and New York. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Utah topped the national average on two measures.

Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina had worse upward mobility than the nation on all three measures, with six other states in the South falling behind on two.

Pew's researchers said it was beyond the scope of the study to explain why certain states did well and others didn't, but they noted that education beyond high school, savings, assets and neighborhood poverty during a worker's childhood can all affect economic mobility, up or down.

Several economists thought education was key: The top states have some of the largest shares of residents with advanced degrees.

Also, many jobs added to the state in the past generation, particularly in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, are in higher-wage professional and business services fields, said Stephen Fuller, director of
George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis. He and Daraius Irani, director of Towson University's Regional Economic Studies Institute, pointed to employment trends as a reason Marylanders might have better economic mobility.

"You're not seeing a lot of IT firms, say, in the South," Irani said.

Federal spending has played a role. Per capita, Maryland is one of the biggest beneficiaries of money flowing to federal contractors of all sorts. However, economists warn that the state is likely to feel an outsized hit when looming budget cuts arrive — a downward mobility risk for local workers.

"Since we are so entrenched with the federal government, this could have a disproportionate effect on our economy, with the caveat that perhaps the cuts won't be so severe in the cybersecurity arena," Irani said.

The Pew report, at economicmobility.org, followed residents now in their 50s and 60s — largely baby boomers — but looked at their earnings history from their prime working years. The most recent data was from 2007, just before the recession.

Workers who moved to a different state were more upwardly mobile than those who didn't, Pew found. But movers didn't drive the overall results. That's because most Americans don't leave their home state, Pew said.

jhopkins@baltsun.com

I encourage the Baltimore Sun to listen to WYPR's Smith and McCord comment on statistics in the Maryland politics segment today so as to present a balanced view in his economics segment.  With income inequity at a nation's high in Maryland, you must look at tax rankings by personal wealth not total revenue.  The Maryland legislature taxes regressively so that the masses do indeed feel overtaxed creating an anti-tax mentality to the benefit of the lightly taxed rich.....that is a Republican strategy.  The Fox News story below looks for this to push anti-tax fever when we know we need a strong tax base that is PROGRESIVE.  If local media gave the tax ratio using personal wealth, you would see that Maryland ranks in the middle nationally.   Someone tell Mike Miller that the structural budget deficit is the ballooning business tax credit bonanza for corporations.  Simply cutting this program will shore up the deficit without creating a casino economy!

 It's estimated the total of tax hikes passed during O'Malley's administration tops 200 billion dollars.

Political Analyst Blair Lee has been keeping track of tax increases saying the state has increased 20 different taxes.

If taxes continue to increase, the cost of living may be rise as well.

Melinda Roeder  of Fox News has the story.





The Federal government is legislating the Post Office out of business by restricting the government agency from expanding into services that would compete with private business while at the same time opening private business to many of the postal services revenue makers…..that is discrimination with prejudice against public sector unions. The law requiring a 100% funding of pensions just for the Post Office would be good for workers if it was made for private corporations as well. As it is, it is another overt attack on competitiveness.

It is true that the snail mail is dropping, but divestment in revenue streams is all that is needed. For example, I have proposed the Post Office expand its mail fraud investigation unit to cover all business fraud. That would be a trillion dollar revenue source given to public union workers who may be a bit more interested in protecting the American people from massive business fraud. No taxpayer money needed….all expenses paid by fraudulent profits recovered!

Postal Service loses $3.2B in 2nd quarter Posted: 12:25 pm Thu, May 10, 2012
By Associated Press   Maryland Daily Record

WASHINGTON — Drowning in red ink, the U.S. Postal Service on Thursday reported a quarterly loss of $3.2 billion and blamed Congress for blocking the agency’s cost-cutting efforts to offset declining mail volume and mounting costs for future retiree health benefits.

From January to March, losses were $1 billion more than during the same period in 2010. The mail agency said that without legislative action, it will be forced to default on more than $11 billion in health prepayments due to the Treasury this fall.

The Postal Service is seeking new leeway from Congress to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce health and other labor costs. The Senate last month passed a bill that would give the agency an $11 billion cash infusion while delaying a move to five-day delivery for two years; the House remains stalled over a separate bill allowing for aggressive cuts.

“We are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams and reducing costs within our control,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “These actions are not enough to return the Postal Service to profitability.”

Overall, the post office had income of $16.2 billion from January through March, the second quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. That was down a fraction from the same period last year. But quarterly expenses this year climbed to $19.4 billion, up 5 percent, largely driven by the health prepayments.

The Postal Service also has been rocked by declining mail volume as people and businesses continue switching to the Internet in place of letters and paper bills. The number of items mailed during the last quarter was 39.5 billion pieces, a 4 percent decrease, much of it in first-class mail.

On Wednesday, due to strong public opposition, the Postal Service backed off a cost-cutting plan to close thousands of rural post offices after May 15 and proposed keeping them open, but with shorter operating hours. The new strategy, which would take place over the next two years, would save the mail agency about $500 million a year.

Donahoe has said he hoped the latest plan will help allay much of rural America’s concern about postal cutbacks. He wants Congress to act quickly on legislation that will allow the agency to move ahead with its broader multi-billion dollar cost-cutting effort and return to profitability by 2015.

The agency has forecast a record $14.1 billion loss by the end of this year; without legislative changes, it said, annual losses will exceed $21 billion by 2016.

“These grim numbers should reinforce that the House of Representatives needs to address postal reform now,” said Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private sector mailing industry. “More than 8 million private sector workers will have their jobs put at risk if Congress fails to enact fundamental reforms of the Postal Service.”

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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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