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September 06th, 2014

9/6/2014

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I WATCHED AS FROSH-----THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR MARYLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL STOOD WITH ANTHONY BROWN ON THE STAGE ELECTION NIGHT----HERE IS SUPPOSEDLY THE NEXT MARYLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL PARTICIPATING IN AND KNOWING THAT MARYLAND ELECTIONS HAVE WIDESPREAD IRREGULARITIES AND ELECTION RIGGING.
ANTHONY BROWN WON WITH 12% OF REGISTERED DEMOCRATIC VOTES----

Now we hear Anthony Brown vs Larry Hogan running for Governor of Maryland.  Brown is the Clinton neo-liberal and Hogan is the neo-conservative and both of them will do the very same thing in office-----move all public wealth to the top and hand control of all public policy to global corporations.  The only difference is that Brown and Hogan represent a different set of rich/corporations.

MEANWHILE, CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR IS IN COURT TO INVALIDATE THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY FOR WIDESPREAD ELECTION IRREGULARITIES......WHICH IS A VERY REAL AND VALID CASE.  THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND NEED TO GET BEHIND A LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATE FOR THIS EXECUTIVE OFFICE-----

Simply the power of appointment will have Cindy Walsh appointing to these commissions and committees people working in the public interest and end this neo-liberal corporate hold.  Fight these election irregularities in court that are only designed to keep labor and justice out of elections and corporate pols in control.

The article below opens with 'measuring what matters'....neo-liberals in Congress took the Cost Benefit Analysis that was connected to what is described in this Vermont 'New Economy' and turned it into corporate profit as the end result of Cost Benefit.
We simply need to move away from profit as the benefit and back to social health and welfare.

I understand Maryland is a conservative state----but if you do not put domestic health back into economic models----you will not rebuild a domestic economy.  Social welfare does not have to be Welfare and Food Stamps.  It is the backbone of building a domestic economy focused infrastructure that leads to the health of all in Maryland.  If you Google 'domestic economy' you will see nothing----the' 21st century economy'----the 'innovation economy' are all neo-liberal terms for spending more money making new products for the existing global corporations to profit.  We all know a domestic economy is small and regional businesses producing what we consume right here in the state for our own citizens.  This doesn't mean there is no global markets---it simply means the domestic economy drives the Maryland economy.  That is what this article from Vermont speaks to.  It is not socialism to have a strong public sector that does the work of government---oversight and accountability is needed even for free-market Republicans.  Neo-liberals and neo-cons have outsourced everything and this is why the domestic economy is stagnant.  They are consolidating against anti-trust and monopoly laws that are in place to allow that Republican ideal of competition. 

So, whether Democrat or Republican----neither Brown nor Hogan will speak to any of this.


CHANGE THE COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS BACK TO USING SOCIAL WELFARE AS THE STANDARD!


The article addresses GDP measures as well as returning to a socially-based cost benefit analysis.  This group plays on the Constitutional rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.....neo-liberals have eliminated that Constitutional phrase because there is no profit in it.


Jones: Building a new economy by measuring what matters

Commentary Oct. 21 2013, 9:31 pm

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dan Jones, who was a member of the original steering committee of Vermonters for a New Economy and sits on the board of Gross National Happiness USA. He lives in Montpelier.

For a lot of us, it has become evident (even before the shutdown debacle in Washington) that the current economy isn’t working. The gap between the rich and the rest has never been wider; the world is under enormous threat from climate change and other disruptors. If you care about these problems, you understand that we need to do something.

Many Vermonters believe that we need to get about inventing a new set of rules that will work for all of our well-being. In general terms, we call these rules a “new economy.” The premise is based on a question: How do we get about building a sustainable economic system that encompasses the social and environmental values we all share?


Let’s start with imagining that maybe the current economic system isn’t as permanent and all-powerful as we think. It certainly isn’t giving most of us any sense of security these days. What else is possible? Could we imagine an economic system where there were more opportunities for ourselves and our children, and one that would not hurt, but help, society and the planet? If such an economy were imaginable, what laws and agreements would be needed to create a new system based on these values?

Why do we need a new economy? Because the old one, now measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has failed us. In the last Depression, government planners figured that if we all knew there was more money being spent every year, then somehow we would all assume that life was getting better for everyone. To measure the amount of money being spent they invented the GDP to tell us how things are going.
So for 75 years we have been using the ideal of a growing monetary transactions as a promise that we will all be doing better in the near future. But according to Gus Speth, dean of the Vermont Law School (a founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council and author of “America the Possible”), the era of GDP as a measurement of well-being has passed, and we now need an alternative measurement.

“Enlightened political leaders have long known how misleading GDP is as a measure of national progress and well-being, In his last major speech, in 1968, Robert Kennedy summoned his great eloquence in aid of dethroning GDP: ‘And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.’”


Speth suggests, “We can now envision a dashboard of new indicators that can tell truly how we are doing as a society. Currently, efforts are under way to develop (1) measures of economic progress that correct and adjust GDP so that we can gauge sustainable economic welfare in society, (2) indicators of objective social welfare such as the status of health, education, and economic security, (3) indexes of environmental conditions and trends, (4) indicators of political conditions and democracy, and (5) measures of subjective well-being such as life satisfaction, happiness, and trust.”


Vermont is the first state to compile an official GPI through law rather than executive order. And it’s on track to be the first to use GPI in program evaluation, development planning, and state budgeting processes.


He details Vermont’s response as: “responding to this challenge with an idea that corrects the shortcomings of GDP as a measure of social well-being and that can be compared with the movements of GDP and GDP per capita on a regular, quarterly basis – the so-called Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), and it is wonderful to see Vermont in the lead nationally in this regard.” In the spring of 2010 the Legislature passed, and the governor signed, a bill directing the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont to compile an official GPI for the state.

This is very exciting stuff. Vermont is the first state to compile an official GPI through law rather than executive order. And it’s on track to be the first to use GPI in program evaluation, development planning, and state budgeting processes. The first official report of the index was given to the Legislature at the end of this past summer, and a complete technical report, giving the formulas behind the calculations, the raw data, and the sources of the more than 75 data sets that were used, will be released this fall.

The GPI offers some comforting news to Vermonters, says Eric Zencey, Gund fellow and coordinator of the Vermont GPI project. “GPI is lower than GDP,” he says, “which is to be expected; GPI subtracts costs that GDP doesn’t count, like the damage we do to the environment through some kinds of economic development. In Vermont that gap is smaller than elsewhere.”

Zencey emphasizes that other state compilations are unofficial, and often use different methodologies, so cross-state comparison is difficult. “We’re working on standardizing the methodology,” he says, noting that “the Vermont model is now the one other states are using and want to emulate.”


The really comforting news, he says, is that state GPI increased faster last year than the Gross State Product (GSP) did. “Last year’s increase in GSP was an anemic three tenths of one percent, while GPI rose a very satisfactory 5.34%.” Most of that improvement, he said, can be ascribed to a lessening of income inequality in the state.


Beyond the dollar values added to our environmental protection, we still have another area to add to our desired measurement schemes. That is the value of our social capital and our collective feeling of well-being. This is addressed by another Vermont effort: Gross National Happiness (GNHUSA). The GNH metrics include variables such as social costs (family changes, loss of leisure time to commuting and underemployment), and non-financial participation and resources (like volunteer work, investing in improving the natural and built environments).

Tom Barefoot, a founder of Gross National Happiness USA and Michael Moser from the Center for Rural Studies at UVM have developed a new baseline survey of well-being in Vermont. These measures are now used by many countries to provide evidence of progress in increasing the well-being of people in communities. Barefoot says, “By discussing well-being in 10 domains, we are able to be more specific about key components of a thriving society and to develop evidence for what will provide us with better time balance, vital communities, healthy environment, etc. By repeating these surveys over time in the same communities we see whether progress is continuing or not.”

Today it is possible to see how these measures, taken together, can build a vision of a new and sustainable future for Vermont, and possibly for the nation and the world.

On Oct 17, there was a unique statewide teleconference introducing theses new ways of measuring our progress. Experts such as Gus Speth, Tom Barefoot and Sam Carlson of the Gund explored how all Vermonters can start measuring what matters. People can now find a video record of this event on Youtube.

We’re at a turning point in the environmental and social consciousness of the world; we can either give in to cynicism and despair, or we can become active members of a movement to make things better. If you, like so many Vermonters, are of the latter camp, I urge you to join in this growing movement towards defining a New Economy.

_____________________________________________
Meanwhile------this is what we have with neo-liberals and neo-cons:

DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLITICIAN SHOUTING OUT AGAINST PRIVATE COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS IN PUBLIC POLICY-WRITING?  NOT WHEN NEO-LIBERALS HAVE CORPORATIONS WRITING ALL OF PUBLIC POLICY!  THIS IS THE #2 ISSUE FOR DEMOCRATIC LABOR AND JUSTICE FOLLOWING REINSTATING RULE OF LAW!




RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU UNDERSTAND THAT INTRODUCING COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS AT THE SAME TIME EMBRACING NEO-LIBERALISM WOULD LEAD TO ALL LAWS WRITTEN FOR THE BENEFIT OF PROFIT OVER PUBLIC INTEREST------
EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS THAT!



The democratic party platform states the opposite as regards policy stance.  So, having neo-liberals in control of the democratic party is counter to the very platform on which they run.




'In social cost benefit analysis, not only profit but also other effects like how will it affect life of others are considered. Whereas, in private cost benefit analysis, the focus of the analysis is on maximizing profits'.



Importance of Social Cost Benefit Analysis


Social cost benefit analysis is a process in which the social impact of a project or a policy is assessed and evaluated by the government before approving a project contract.
Social cost benefit analysis is a part of calculating the merits of a project or a government policy. As the name suggests, social cost-benefit analysis of anything is associated with its social impact. This means that how a project or a policy will affect people is analyzed. Only after calculating the opportunity cost of a project, it is approved.

The scope of social cost benefits can be applied to public investment and also to private investment. In case of public investment, it plays a major role in the economic development of a developing country. And, in case of private investments social cost benefit analysis is important as investments are to be sanctioned and are monitored by the government. There are two aspects of calculating the cost benefit analysis of any project. One is the private cost-benefit analysis and the other is social cost-benefit analysis. Though, social cost-benefit analysis is usually undertaken by the government.

Social cost is often in contrast with private cost. Major differences between social cost benefit analysis and private cost benefit analysis are as follows:

1. In social cost benefit analysis, not only profit but also other effects like how will it affect life of others are considered. Whereas, in private cost benefit analysis, the focus of the analysis is on maximizing profits.

2. For calculating social cost benefit, market prices for the factors to be considered cannot exist. Therefore, market price is not the main factor taken into consideration while calculating social cost benefit. Whereas, for private cost benefit analysis market price forms the base of the analysis and the key factor that determines if a project is viable.

Social Cost = Negative Impact
Social Benefit = Positive Impact

Social cost benefit analysis has been introduced to develop systematic ways of analyzing cost and benefits of factors which do not have market prices, like effect on environment and traffic. Social cost-benefit calculates non-monetized benefits/ losses. It is normally used for large fund projects like constructing a dam, a road. Such projects have higher social cost-benefits and also affects the price level to an extent.

Example: If a bridge is to be constructed then how much will it benefit the people who live in that particular area, is to be analyzed. Therefore, how many people are willing to use the bridge, how much traffic will be reduced and what is the increase in cost of traveling, will have to be assessed as a whole to come to a conclusion. Suppose, if people are not willing to use the bridge if the cost of traveling from the bridge is $5 and if $7 has to be charged per vehicle to make this project feasible, then the government may consider dropping the project out.

On the other hand, if people are willing to travel using the bridge, being indifferent to the toll price-difference of $2, and the traffic is reduced by a good amount, then the government will sanction the project. Therefore, it is beneficial to take up a project if its total benefits (B) are more than its total costs (C).

It can be put up as, a project should be undertaken if, B/C > 1 or even when B=C. That is, when the cost-benefit ratio exceeds unity or when benefit derived and the cost of the project is equal. Before sanctioning a project, cost and benefit of alternative projects are assessed too. For example, the opportunity cost of setting up a hospital instead of a school.

Importance of Social Cost Benefit Analysis

The importance has been explained with the help of the following factors that affect the general masses as a whole.

Market Failure
Market failure when a big project is not affecting everyone but only a few. A private firm would only look at profitability and related market prices to take up a deal but the government has to look at other factors. To determine the social cost in case of market failure and when market prices are unable to define them. These social costs are known as shadow prices.

Savings & Investment
Impact of the project on general savings and investment level. A project that induces more savings are investment in an economy and not the other way round.

Distribution & Redistribution of Income
The project should not lead to accumulating income in the hands of a few but, it should equally distribute the income.

Employment and Standard of Living
How a project affects employment and standard of living will be taken into account as well. The deal should lead to increase in employment and standard of living.

Externalities
Externalities are impacts of a project which can be both harmful and beneficial. Therefore, both the effects are to be assessed before sanctioning a deal. Positive-externalities could be in the form improvement in technology and negative-externalities could be in the form of increase in pollution and destruction of ecology.

Taxes and Subsidies
In a general cost benefit calculation, taxes and subsidies are considered as expenses and income respectively. Though in case of social-cost benefit analysis, taxes and subsidies are considered as transfer payments.

Social cost benefit analysis enables the government to take up new developments which will benefit everyone and not just a few. Also, it helps in bringing about an overall development in an economy and can help make decisions that will increase employment, investments, saving and consumption, thus, improving the economic activities in an economy.
Read more at Buzzle:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/importance-of-social-cost-benefit-analysis.html

______________________________________________

Consider that the same time Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) of government policy-making was coming to the forefront in the Reagan/Clinton years, so too was neo-liberalism.  So, you have the political philosophy of limited regulation and global expansion tied to Cost Benefit Analysis and you see that the social costs and benefits are out of the door.  Social Benefit Analysis cuts into profit-maximization and will not be apart of neo-liberal public policy.

This is why we have a nation in the state it is today.  Criminal, corrupt, predatory in its push to enrich a few and control the social damage.

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS (CBA) IS NOT A BAD TOOL.  WE NEED TO CONSIDER WHETHER POLICY IS EFFECTIVE.  IT IS A BAD TOOL WHEN THE POLS USING IT ARE ONLY LOOKING AT HOW PUBLIC POLICY CAN ENHANCE WEALTH AND PROFIT.


Think about the state of Mexico's society today to see where neglecting the costs to society over the benefits to profit will take the US if Trans Pacific Trade Pact (TPP) is enacted.  TPP does to the US what NAFTA did to Mexico.  While Americans suffered under NAFTA, TPP will take the US to third world standards as all US law protecting the public will be eliminated.

Mexican farmers were left with no livelihood and turned to drug dealing; US manufacturing created sweat shops that impoverished people; the environment was destroyed and food distribution systems distorted.  Rule of Law disappeared as corporate fraud and government corruption infused the Mexican society-----SOUND FAMILIAR????


THAT'S NEO-LIBERALS FOR YOU----WEALTH AND PROFIT OVER PUBLIC INTEREST!  SHAKE THE NEO-LIBERAL BUGS FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY RUNNING AND VOTING FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!


Remember, Trans Pacific Trade Pact is NAFTA on steroids and most of it has nothing to do with trade----it restructures the world's national sovereignty giving a global corporate tribunal control of what happens in your country, state, and community.
Disadvantages of NAFTA

By Kimberly Amadeo




U.S. Wages Were Suppressed:

Not all companies in these industries moved to Mexico. The ones that used the threat of moving during union organizing drives. When it became a choice between joining the union or losing the factory, workers chose the factory. Without union support, the workers had little bargaining power. This suppressed wage growth. Between 1993 and 1995, 50% of all companies in the industries that were moving to Mexico used the threat of closing the factory. By 1999, that rate had grown to 65%.

Mexico's Farmers Were Put Out of Business:

Thanks to NAFTA, Mexico lost 1.3 million farm jobs. The 2002 Farm Bill subsidized U.S. agribusiness by as much as 40% of net farm income. When NAFTA removed tariffs, corn and other grains were exported to Mexico below cost. Rural Mexican farmers could not compete. At the same time, Mexico reduced its subsidies to farmers from 33.2% of total farm income in 1990 to 13.2% in 2001. Most of those subsidies went to Mexico's large farms, anyway.(Source: International Forum on Globalization, Exposing the Myth of Free Trade, February 25, 2003; The Economist, Tariffs and Tortillas, January 24, 2008)

Maquiladora Workers Were Exploited:

NAFTA expanded the maquiladora program, in which U.S.-owned companies employed Mexican workers near the border to cheaply assemble products for export to the U.S. This grew to 30% of Mexico's labor force. These workers have "no labor rights or health protections, workdays stretch out 12 hours or more, and if you are a woman, you could be forced to take a pregnancy test when applying for a job," according to Continental Social Alliance. (Source: Worldpress.org, Lessons of NAFTA, April 20, 2001)

Mexico's Environment Deteriorated:

In response to NAFTA competitive pressure, Mexico agribusiness used more fertilizers and other chemicals, costing $36 billion per year in pollution. Rural farmers expanded into more marginal land, resulting in deforestation at a rate of 630,000 hectares per year. (Source: Carnegie Endowment, NAFTA's Promise and Reality, 2004)

NAFTA Called for Free Access for Mexican Trucks:

Another agreement within NAFTA has not been implemented. NAFTA would have allowed trucks from Mexico to travel within the United States beyond the current 20-mile commercial zone limit. A demonstration project by the Department of Transportation (DoT) was set up to review the practicality of this. In 2008, the House of Representatives terminated this project, and prohibited the DoT from allowing this provision of NAFTA to ever be implemented without Congressional approval.Congress was concerned that Mexican trucks would have presented a road hazard. They are not subject to the same safety standards as U.S. trucks. In addition, this portion of NAFTA was opposed by the U.S. truckers' organizations and companies, who would have lost business. Currently, Mexican trucks must stop at the 20-mile limit and have their goods transferred to U.S. trucks.

There was also a question of reciprocity. The NAFTA agreement would also have allowed unlimited access for U.S. trucks throughout Mexico. A similar agreement works well between the other NAFTA partner, Canada. However, U.S. trucks are larger and carry heavier loads. This violates size and weight restrictions imposed by the Mexican government. (Article updated August 26, 2013)


____________________________________
When we listen to neo-liberals speak of the high costs of health care, they are not talking about costs for the public, they are talking about costs for corporations.  Cost Benefit Analysis would look at how health corporations can maximize profits while limiting the costs to public programs because government revenue will continually decline as corporations and the rich pay no taxes. This is why, given that the costs of US health care are driven by health industry fraud and profiteering, the ACA focuses on ending corporate health plan costs and gutting entitlement spending and actually increase the conditions for fraud and profiteering. People are seeing that none of these health policies are written in the public interest.

THAT'S PRIVATE COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS FOR YOU!

Below you see the private CBA reasoning behind ACA.....the coming baby boomer health needs would tap the Trusts that are now empty with no plans to replenish with corporate taxation/fraud recovery.  This is the demographic shift.  Inflation in health care has been allowed to reach triple digits and ACA does not address this, but recognizes corporations will not pay for this hyper-inflation in the health industry.  You see corporations paying for 1/2 of health expenditures via wage and benefit packages.  Workers gave up wage increases in exchange for these health plans. Private CBA won't have this.  Placing health technology as the next global market strategy means costs/profiteering rise and access becomes even more limited.

Then you look at the local social benefit analysis and you see all of the social CBA is eliminated by the private CBA.


'At a local level, health care spending growth is more likely to be viewed as beneficial.  It creates health care jobs, increases wages for health care workers, expands local tax revenues, and increases demand for related goods and services'.



Effects of Health Care Spending on the U.S. Economy

This report is available on the Internet at:

http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/costgrowth


Introduction In recent years, considerable attention has focused on aggregate health care spending increases. Emphasis has been given to identifying and examining the factors that have contributed to spending growth, and proposing policy solutions to reduce spending growth. Factors that contribute to spending growth encompass changes in health care utilization, population demographics, price inflation, and advances in medical technology.[1]

This background paper focuses on a somewhat broader topic—how health care spending impacts the economy of the United States.  The relationship between health care spending growth and the U.S. economy is inherently complex and multidimensional.

At an aggregate level, economists have cautioned that rising health care spending could lower economic growth and employment.[2]. A December 2004 survey of CEOs found that employee health care costs are the foremost cost concern in the minds of America’s business leaders (Figure 1).[3]  Further, rising health care spending has a significant impact on the federal budget.[4] Many employers are seeking to limit their exposure to rising health care costs by requiring their employees to increase their contributions or by providing different forms of coverage, potentially reducing household available income finances as more costs are shifted from employers to employees.

Some economists note that rising health care spending has important benefits, often outweighing the increased costs.[5] When adjusted for improvements in quality, these economists found that the cost of medical care is in fact in decreasing. In this view, increased health care spending improves increases access to new technologies — providing both new options of treatment (substitution) and treatment for a greater number of individuals (expansion).

“Technology often leads to more spending, but outcomes improve by even more.” [6] At a local level, health care spending growth is more likely to be viewed as beneficial.  It creates health care jobs, increases wages for health care workers, expands local tax revenues, and increases demand for related goods and services.



Source:  Business Roundtable December 2004 CEO Survey.



______________________________________
Below you see how social benefit loses every time with private CBA.  What is the CBA of global warming?  Look to the UK and its cap and trade enactment and you see the entire program is engulfed in fraud and corruption---neo-liberalism will not allow any social CBA.  Offering to make carbon a market is simply another neo-liberal way of creating profit from movement of money from public coffers and pockets under the guise of environmentalism.  Republicans do not like this because it places restrictions -----neo-liberals simply want yet another market.

Simply move to another energy source.....but wait-----neo-liberals push natural gas and fracking like neo-cons push oil......



GET RID OF NEO-LIBERALS SO WE CAN GET BACK TO SOCIAL COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS!


This article may be too technical/boring for most----it just states that creating a market to solve an environment problem will not work.

Waxman-Markey Cost-Benefit Analysis



by Jim Manzi

05/19/09

Filed under:Climate Change

Costs vs. Benefits of Waxman-Markey

Let’s start with the costs. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has done the first cost estimate for Waxman-Markey. It finds (page 17) that by 2020 Waxman-Markey would cause a typical U.S. household to consume about $160 less per year than it otherwise would, and about $1,100 less per year by 2050 (before any potential benefits from avoiding warming). That doesn’t sound like the end of the world, but this cost estimate is based on a number of assumptions that seem pretty unrealistic, to put it mildly.

First, it assumes that every dollar collected by selling the right to emit carbon dioxide will be returned to taxpayers through rebates or lowered taxes. Waxman-Markey establishes this intention but doesn’t (as of the time I’m writing this) describe how it would be achieved, which reflects the political difficulty of achieving it. Second, it assumes no costs for enforcement and other compliance measures, which would be awfully nice. Third, it assumes that large numbers of foreign offsets will be available for purchase; without these, costs would be far higher. Fourth, it assumes that the rest of the world will begin similar carbon-reduction programs. Lack of such foreign action would either increase U.S. costs or risk a trade war if we tried to compensate for lack of international cooperation with targeted tariffs. Fifth, it assumes that there will be no exemptions or other side deals—that is, no economic drag created by the kind of complexity that has attached to every large, long-term revenue-collection program in history. And so on.

The EPA forecast is something like an estimate of the pure loss in economic productivity from replacing some fossil fuels with less economically efficient fuels or conservation in a laboratory setting; in the real world, expected costs are far above 0.8 percent of economic consumption by 2050. The EPA does not forecast costs beyond 2050.

Remember that the U.S. should not expect any net economic damage from global warming before 2100. That is, the bill’s benefits would accrue to U.S. consumers—who are also bearing its costs—sometime in the next century. The EPA underestimate has costs rising from zero to 0.8 percent of consumption between now and 2050, and offers no projection beyond that year; but to what level would costs rise over the more than 50 years between 2050 and the point in 22nd century when we might actually expect some net economic losses from global warming? The answer is likely to be much higher.

Now consider the benefits. Climatologist Chip Knappenberger has applied standard climate models to project that, under the scenario for global economic and population growth referenced above (A1B), Waxman-Markey’s emissions reductions would have the net effect of lowering global temperatures by about 0.1°C by 2100. Remember that the estimated cost of a 4°C increase in temperature (40 times this amount) is about 3 percent of global economic output. Assume for the moment that global warming has the same impact on the U.S. as a percentage of GDP as it does on the world as a whole (an assumption that almost certainly exaggerates the impact on the U.S.). A crude estimate of the U.S. economic costs that Waxman-Markey would avoid sometime later than 2100 would then be about one-fortieth of 3 percent, or about 0.08 percent of economic output. This number is one-tenth of 0.8 percent, the EPA’s estimate of consumption loss from Waxman-Markey by 2050.
To repeat: The costs would be more than ten times the benefits, even under extremely unrealistic assumptions of low costs and high benefits. More realistic assumptions would make for a comparison far less favorable to the bill.

I’ve had to rely on informal studies and back-of-envelope calculations to do this cost/benefit analysis. Why haven’t advocates and sponsors of the proposal done their own? Why are they urging Congress to make an incredible commitment of resources without even cursory analysis of the net economic consequences? The answer should be obvious: This is a terrible deal for American taxpayers.

Two Potential Objections

One potential objection to my analysis is that the bill is part of a global drive for all countries to reduce emissions, and that the U.S. needs to “show leadership.” By this logic, we should ascribe much larger benefits to the Waxman-Markey bill—specifically, the benefits to American consumers of the whole world’s engaging in similar programs. There are two obvious problems with this argument, however. First, ascribing all of the benefits of a global deal to reduce emissions to a specific bill that does not create such a commitment on the part of any other countries is loading the dice. The benefit we should ascribe to the bill is rather that of an increase in the odds of such a global deal. But would Waxman-Markey actually increase them, or would it decrease them instead? Whenever one nation sacrifices economic growth in order to reduce emissions, the whole world can expect to benefit, because future temperature should decrease for the entire globe. Every nation’s incentive, therefore, is to free ride on everybody else. Our most obvious leverage with other emitting nations would be to offer to reduce our emissions if they reduced theirs. Giving up this leverage and hoping that our unilateral reductions would put moral pressure on China, Russia, Brazil, and similar countries to reduce their emissions reveals a touchingly sunny view of human nature, but it strikes me as a poor negotiating strategy. Second and more fundamentally, even if the whole world were to enact similar restraints on emissions, the cost / benefit economics would still not be compelling, for the reasons outlined at the beginning of this post.

A second and more serious potential objection to my analysis is that while Waxman-Markey may not create benefits if the projections I offered above turn out to be accurate, climate science is highly inexact, and the bill is an insurance policy against higher-than-expected costs. Now, climate and economics modelers aren’t idiots, so it’s not as though this hadn’t occurred to them. Competent modelers don’t assume only the most likely case, but build probability distributions for levels of warming and associated economic impacts (e.g., there is a 5 percent chance of 4.5°C warming, a 10 percent chance of 4.0°C warming, and so on). The economic calculations that compose, for example, the analysis by William Nordhaus that I cited earlier are executed in just this manner. So the possibility of “worse than expected” impacts means, more precisely, the possibility of “impacts worse than those derived from our current probability distribution.” That is, we are concerned here with the inherently unquantifiable possibility that our entire probability distribution is wrong.

This concept has been called, somewhat grandiosely, the “Precautionary Principle.” Once you get past all the table-pounding, this is the crux of the argument for emissions abatement. It is an emotionally appealing political position, as it easy to argue that we should reduce some consumption now to head off even a low-odds possibility of disaster. The most compelling version of this argument, by far, has been presented by Martin Weitzman. You can read my detailed response here (note that this was to a slightly earlier edition of the paper). The essence of my response is that in order to drive a decision, Weitzman must take his argument from the conceptual idea of a “fat-tailed distribution” of danger to a numerical estimate of risk. He recognizes that the logic of his argument entails this. In his article, he ends up having to do the kind of armchair climate science that has been the bane of the “global warming is all a hoax” set. He uses a couple of ice bore studies to develop his own probability distribution for potential warming that calls for a 1% chance of 22.6C or more of warming by 2100. To put this in perspective, a 22.6C increase in the earth’s temperature would mean that the average global year-round temperature would be the same as summertime Death Valley is today. If you could convince me that there was a reliably-quantified 1% chance of this happening, you wouldn’t need all of the mathematical formalism of Weitzman’s paper –
I’d be the biggest emissions mitigation proponent on earth. The problem is that the IPCC has already built a distribution of potential temperature changes (see Figure 10.28, page 808) that looks nothing like this. If you don’t want to believe me, read Cass Sunstein’s book about why the Precautionary Principle, even in sophisticated form, is a very bad decision rule.

In the end, clarity about costs and benefits is the enemy of Waxman Markey. It is hard to get around the conclusion that it can not be justified rationally based on the avoidance of climate change damages.






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September 03rd, 2014

9/3/2014

0 Comments

 
MARYLAND LEADS IN COMMISSIONS, BOARDS, AND COMMITTEES THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PUBLIC INTEREST OR OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY----THEY ARE THERE TO MAKE SURE THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN!

I want to spend a few days looking at individual government commissions at each level of government to show how dysfunctional they are.    Policy goes there to die or it is called one thing while doing another.
  You see just that in the article below about Massachusetts and its commissions.....I give an example of the same in Maryland.

The surge in states creating commissions and quasi-status for NGOs was a step towards moving the business of legislating away from state and local legislators and handing major public policy decisions to whatever appointee a Governor or Mayor made. Fast forward to neo-liberals and neo-cons controlling our major parties and you have global corporate pols appointing corporate people working in corporate/shareholder interest and against public interest. WE DO NOT WANT COMMISSIONS ETC CIRCUMVENTING OUR LEGISLATURES. This same process has Congress with appointed committees that write entire policy ------ten pols writing critical public policy and then taking it to the floor of Congress to 'tweak'. NONE OF THIS IS REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY.

A DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN WOULD NOT SUPPORT THESE CENTRALIZED POLICY-MAKING ENTITIES. GET RID OF THE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.

Meanwhile the committees that were once filled with the general public in local communities/boards are languishing.  In their place----private corporate non-profits headed by directors appointed by corporations funding an issue.  As the article below states, and this is true in Maryland-----no oversight or accountability or even attention to staffing is happening with public committees and community groups.

In Maryland, the commissions that are active and filled with appointees by Governor or Mayor have most of their meetings behind closed doors calling issues proprietary and minutes reflect that lack of transparency.  This is why Maryland citizens never know what is happening in policy until it comes to vote......too late to organize and protest.


Imagine if all of those boards and committees met in our local schools in the evenings to discuss the issue assigned to these committees.......that is what we used to do.  This is the democratic discussion of issues that has been allowed to wither as boards meet during a workday in places not convenient to the general public. 

WE NEED EVERYONE DEMANDING PUBLIC COMMITTEES AND BOARDS AND GETTING OUT TO PARTICIPATE.  YOU ARE THE ONE WHO LEGISLATES.


State study confirms unfilled job boards


By Todd Wallack  | Globe Staff   July 30, 2014

Massachusetts is failing to properly staff and track hundreds of state boards, committees, and commissions, a Senate panel concluded in a report released Wednesday, resulting in what some call “zombie boards” that never meet.

The Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight discovered dozens of state panels that have not met or produced reports in years, alongside new committees that have not been able to start because of empty seats, while still other panels appear to be redundant. The review found that 48 boards are probably no longer needed either because they have completed their work or outlived their missions, such as one that issued its final report on the future of Boston Harbor beaches in the 1990s.

“I was surprised that we hadn’t taken action earlier,” said Senator Cynthia S. Creem, the Newton Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, who added that many people count on state boards to champion issues they care about. “I think it’s been neglected.”

The Senate researchers’ work was complicated, however, by the fact that the governor’s website for boards and commissions omitted some panels where the governor does not make appointments. And information for the roughly 700 boards that were listed was “often absent, incomplete, out-of-date and/or incorrect.”

“The Commonwealth’s current system for appointing commission members and monitoring commissions’ activities is inadequate,” the report found.

The Senate launched the review last spring after the Globe reported that more than one-third of the seats on state boards and commissions were either vacant or filled with holdovers whose terms had officially expired months or years ago — a figure that took many state officials by surprise. The Globe also found that some boards had not met in decades (including at least one with a member who was dead), while others struggled to gather a quorum because of the vacancies.

The problem is aggravated by the fact that Massachusetts appears to have far more boards than other states its size, according to a Globe survey of a dozen other states,making it difficult to keep track of them and fill all the vacant positions.

Senator Robert L. Hedlund, a Weymouth Republican on the post audit committee, said he believes lawmakers and the executive branch have become too eager to set up commissions and too reluctant to eliminate them when they are no longer useful.

“It seems as though government in general expands and it never really contracts,” said Hedlund, the assistant minority leader. “I would like us to be a little more serious when we form a commission and be judicious, so that when we do form a commission it is taken seriously.”

Officials in the governor’s office, which controls the majority of board appointments,
said they are already working on ways to eliminate unneeded boards.

“We have made tremendous progress in deactivating boards and commissions that are no longer current, where it is within our power to do so,” said Heather Nichols, a spokeswoman in the governor’s office. “Where it is not, we are happy to work with the Legislature to sunset those boards and commissions that have already served out their purpose.”

Patrick administration staffers said they do the best they can to fill vacant positions, but noted that it can be challenging because the vast majority of positions are unpaid and require significant hours to attend meetings, often during the day. Many vacant seats are also controlled by state lawmakers and other officials outside the adminstration’s control.

The Senate review made a number of recommendations to address the problems, some of which would require legislation:

■ Requiring the governor’s office and departments to review whether commissions are riddled with vacancies, struggled to gather a quorum, have not met in a year, or are no longer needed;

■ Creating a sunset review commission to determine whether boards or commissions should be dissolved because they are redundant or defunct;

■ Streamlining the background check for new board members;

■  Giving the governor more flexibility to fill seats when he cannot find someone meeting all the requirements specified in state law;

■ Reappointing holdover members to new terms if new members cannot be found;

■ Making greater efforts to update the state’s boards and commissions website, as well as to add details on panels that are currently missing;

■ Posting meeting agendas, minutes, and reports for all commissions online;

■ Changing the law to automatically eliminate special commissions after they have issued their final reports.

But Hedlund, the Republican committee member, worried that the government has become so lax about following up on commissions that it probably will not follow through on the Senate panel’s recommendations either.

“It will be treated in the same way,” Hedlund predicted. “Tomororrow, it will be yesterday’s news.”


__________________________________________
This is one example of a commission on fracking created by O'Malley and neo-liberals under the guise of protecting Maryland from fracking abuses.  Neo-liberals support fracking and O'Malley led the Governor's Commission on exporting natural gas----an action that places fracking on steroids.  So, we have pols painted as being 'green' because they formed a commission that did absolutely nothing and never had any intent to protect Maryland Marcellus Shale from fracking.

The millions of dollars sent to this 'study' more than likely went to subsidize natural gas exploration in Maryland to find the best land to frack and then allowing the same connected people to buy that land.



For Immediate Release Thursday, April 3, 2014 - 4:05pmFood & Water WatchContact: Jorge Aguilar – 202-683-2529; JAguilar@fwwatch.org
Rich Bindell – 202-683-2457; RBindell@fwwatch.org

Fracking Health Study Narrow, Hasty, and Underfunded Say Health Experts

Call On Gov. O’Malley and Maryland Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission To Extend Deadline On Health Study

WASHINGTON - Today, a commissioner from Governor Martin O’Malley’s Marcellus Shale Commission joined three leading medical advocacy groups at a press conference in Baltimore in critiquing the timeline and scope of a study on the possible health impacts of shale gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” that is scheduled for release in June.

Representatives from the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE), Maryland Environment Health Network (MdEHN), Concerned Health Professionals of New York  (CHPNY), Food and Water Watch and Ann Bristow warned that the study is poised to fall woefully short of meeting international standards and health study guidelines for protecting public health.

They called on Governor O’Malley to commit more resources and to extend the health study deadline in order to fully assess the potential health effects to all Marylanders. They also noted that the study is limited to investigating possible impacts on public health only among residents of Western Maryland, even though exploitable shale gas reserves are located across the state.

“We are watching the emerging science from other states show increasing harms from fracking. We’re hearing about poisoned drinking water and radioactive waste, as well as smog in places that used to have pristine air.  So it is clear that an eight month study period, funded at $150,000 does not suffice to assess even the top tier of costly health impacts that fracking will likely have in Western Maryland, let alone the rest of the state,” said Rebecca Ruggles, Director of the Maryland Environmental Health Network said.

 “As it currently stands, the State of Maryland is conducting a flawed, rushed, and superficial study that will not help inform Maryland residents—nor their elected officials—about the full burden of possible health risks from the entire process of shale gas extraction,” said Katie Huffling, a registered nurse and the director of programs for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. “As nurses, we are also gravely concerned that they will not be including a health cost assessment in their study. If the public is being asked to assume health risks from fracking, it deserves a comprehensive investigation of those risks and their economic costs, not a fig leaf."

Health professionals across the country have argued that a Health Impact Assessment (HIA)—a specific National Research Council-sanctioned process developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization (among others)—must be conducted to inform any decision as critical as whether or not fracking should be permitted in states.

“Drilling and fracking operations are inherently dangerous and pose demonstrable risks to health, especially for children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people living nearby,” said Sandra Steingraber, PhD and cofounder of Concerned Health Professionals of New York. “The proper tool for investigating these impacts is a comprehensive Health Impact Assessment with its vetted protocols and seal of approval by national and international public health institutions. A comprehensive HIA with full public participation, not a rushed study with a political deadline, is what the people of Maryland need and deserve. “

The Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission is currently scheduled to make a final recommendation on fracking in August to Governor Martin O’Malley that will include the health assessment report. 

Ann Bristow, a current commissioner on the Advisory Commission, also joined the medical advocates in calling for more time.

“As a member of Governor O’Malley’s Safe Drilling Initiative Commission, I am very worried that we are moving too fast and not getting all the health data we need to make protective recommendations to the residents of Maryland," said Bristow. “Several commissioners have repeatedly asked for more time and a more thorough scope of work on these critical health issues. If the health study team were on schedule, we would have received the baseline health assessment, with public commentary, last month. We need more time and a guarantee of transparency and public participation."


Food & Water Watch Southern Region Director Jorge Aguilar added that the O’Malley administration should pay attention to the demands of the health community.

“After two years of a largely unfunded process, Governor O’Malley’s administration now seems to be rushing through the final year, when specific studies just got started,” said Food & Water Watch Regional Organizing Director Jorge Aguilar. “The health study team has already missed its first deadline and it’s not clear that the health community will have time to comment on the final report.  The writing is on the wall: this will be an inadequate study unless the time line is drastically modified to address the concerns of the health community.”

###Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.


____________________________________________

You will note that it was an out-of-state organization that outed this commission for failing to do its duties on the mission tasked----not any Maryland organization.  Note as well Heather Mizeur is on this commission and ran as protecting Marylanders from fracking. 

YOU WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ON THIS COMMISSION IF YOU WANTED TO DO THAT.

Now, as this out-of-state organization says----this commission ----NARROW, HASTY, AND UNDERFUNDED----never meaning to find anything.  What this commission should be is a long-term, citizen-filled exploratory group committed to research and planning for the public interest.  This is why public committees and boards
tasked with doing just that are languishing without support.

WE MUST ENGAGE IN POLITICS----BE THE CITIZENS FILLING THESE BOARDS, COMMITTEES, AND COMMISSIONS IF WE ARE GOING TO REMAIN CITIZENS.


MARCELLUS SHALE SAFE-DRILLING INITIATIVE ADVISORY COMMISSION


David A. Vanko, Ph.D., Chair (appointed by Secretary of the Environment & Secretary of Natural Resources)

Appointed by Secretary of the Environment & Secretary of Natural Resources:
Shawn Bender; Ann R. Bristow, Ph.D.; Stephen M. Bunker; George C. Edwards; Margaret J. (Peggy) Jamison; Jeffrey F. Kupfer, Esq.; Clifford S. Mitchell, M.D.; Heather R. Mizeur; Dominick E. Murray; James M. Raley; Paul Roberts; William R. Valentine; Nicholas Weber, Ph.D.; Harry Weiss, Esq. Montgomery Park Business Center, 1800 Washington Blvd., Baltimore, Maryland, February 2004. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.


Staff: Brigid E. Kenney c/o Department of the Environment
Montgomery Park Business Center, 1800 Washington Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 537-3085
e-mail: bkenney@mde.state.md.us
web: www.mde.state.md.us/programs/land/mining/marcellus/pages/index.aspx

  • Maryland Marcellus Shale Public Health Study, July 2014
  • Interim Report, July 2014
  • Initial Report, December 2011
Final Report (with Dept. of the Environment & Dept. of Natural Resources) due Aug. 1, 2014.

In June 2011, the Governor created the Marcellus Shale Safe-Drilling Initiative Advisory Commission (Executive Order 01.01.2011.11). With the Department of the Environment and the Department of Natural Resources, the Commission is studying the short-term, long-term and cumulative effects of producing natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation. This formation underlies portions of Western Maryland: Allegany and Garrett counties being the only parts of the State with natural gas reserves in Marcellus Shale. Drilling for natural gas from the Marcellus shale involves a process called hydraulic fracturing. This requires very deep wells with long horizontal sections through which pressurized water, sand, and chemicals are blasted to crack rock and release the natural gas.

Authorization for the Commission extends through May 1, 2015.

_______________________________________
Keep in mind who supports O'Malley and neo-liberals every election in Maryland-----labor and justice leaders.  Anthony Brown will be worse than O'Malley if that is possible.  Of course all of these corporate policies are Republican so you do not vote Republican to get environmental policy.

Let's look at who these people are that O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly placed in charge of Departments that protect our land and water.


Keep in mind, this happens all the time and all Maryland pols know this is what Maryland Assembly and neo-liberals and neo-cons do with all these commissions.


Department of the Environment

21 August 2014

doe    DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Governor Martin J. O'Malley

Water Management      Jay G. Sakai
Robert M. Summers            Secretary

Guess what!  Sakai is from Baltimore with Baltimore's Public Works and a Hopkins graduate.  Hopkins is VEOLA Environment----privatizing public water works and Hopkins is a great big shareholder in natural gas and exporting raw energy.
  That is someone you would put in an agency to make sure commissions like this Marcellus Shale protects the fracking interests.

DO YOU HEAR MARYLAND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS SHOUTING THIS COLLUSION WITH CORPORATIONS THAT KILL THE ENVIRONMENT?  I DON'T.



Previously, Mr. Sakai also directed the technical support functions for the City of Baltimore’s Department of Public Works, an agency with more than 3,400 employees, where he administered application development contracts and large-scale information technology implementations.

He serves on the board of the Maryland Association of Municipal Wastewater Agencies. Mr. Sakai is also a member of the American Water Works Association and the American Public Works Association.

Mr. Sakai succeeds Robert M. Summers, Ph.D., who is now MDE’s Deputy Secretary. A licensed professional engineer, Mr. Sakai holds a Master of Science in Business and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.


WOW------another Johns Hopkins grad in Natural Resources---water agency.  Don't forget, Hopkins is behind the collapse of our Baltimore water system as all of state and city revenue that should have gone to upgrading infrastructure went to building Hopkins global corporation...... and it's bid to take Baltimore Harbor global will kill the Chesapeake Bay with invasive species and pollution.  The Baltimore Harbor recently received an 'F' in pollution, and it was this Department of Natural Resources with the Department of Environment that approved the construction at Harbor Point on toxic waste dump.
  So, it takes lots of failed policy to remain at 'F' in environment for decades.

SEE WHY THIS MARCELLUS SHALE COMMISSION IS KNOWN FOR BEING NARROW, HASTY, AND UNDERFUNDED.





Dr. Summers received his B.A. (1976) and Ph.D. (1982) in Environmental Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining Maryland’s environmental programs, he worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the State University of New York, Marine Sciences Research Center in Stony Brook, NY and as a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins University’s Chesapeake Bay Institute.




DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES


Governor Martin J. O'Malley

Joseph P. Gill    Secretary


Land Resources    Kristin Saunders Evans



Mr Gill is a Georgetown grad in law with a history of leading a quasi-public land trust.
  Now, if you live in Maryland you know that public land is disappearing faster than ever usually under the guise of public private partnerships.  You place M and T Bank Stadium on public land and it is no longer public land.  You give the Port of Baltimore to a private investment firm and you no longer have public land/water.  You hand public land to expand natural gas export terminal and you lose public land.  You place a private residential high-rise on public housing land and you no longer have public land.  You privatize public schools to private charters and you no longer have public land.  You hand all waterfront property in Baltimore and National Harbor et al to private developers and you no longer have public land.  You give public parks/mansions -----public universities over to private non-profits and you no longer have public land.  You privatize public water and waste----you give private rights to natural gas, BGE, and CSX lines and the public loses large swaths of land.  All this is happening today in Maryland.  Baltimore is seeing all of its public land handed to private developers.

What is Maryland Environmental Land Trust?  Well, the development in Maryland is anything but environmental.



Maryland Environmental Trust


Company Description:

 The Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) is quasi-public statewide land trust established in 1967. Staffed with funds from the Department of Natural Resources, it is directed by an independent Board of Trustees. This unusual structure has resulted in the protection of over 100,000 acres of privately-owned forest, farm, and open space land across the State of Maryland with permanent, donated easements.



Below you see Ed Rendell of PA.....a state totally destroyed by fracking and a pol handing complete control of public land to fracking corporations.....teamed with Anthony Brown---do you hear Maryland Environmental Trust going crazy over all this?  Not a word.  They are represented on this Marcellus Shale commission by Mr Gill's appointee.

Maryland’s New Public-Private Partnerships



Date: Thursday, May 9, 2013 « Back to Events Start:May 9, 2013 8:30 amEnd:May 9, 2013 11:30 amCategory:News

Maryland’s New P3 Legislation Maryland’s New Public-Private Partnerships Legislation Maryland’s newly passed P3 Legislation sets the stage for Public-Private
Partnerships to increase investment in the state. This is the best and first
chance to hear about Maryland’s new P3 law from people who know what this means
for Maryland’s economy. The panel, moderated by Ballard Spahr, includes leaders
from the public and private sectors with extensive P3 experience in commercial
and institutional development, as well as infrastructure projects. Keynote
speakers include Maryland’s Lt. Governor Anthony Brown and former Pennsylvania
Governor Ed Rendell.
Plan to join us on May 9 at the BWI Hilton. We will be announcing the panel in
the near future, so check baltimore.uli.org for details and updates. Featured Speakers:
· Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown
· Ben Stutz, State of Maryland
· Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell

Moderator: Brian Walsh, Ballard Spahr
· Chuck Watters, Hines
· Andy Garbutt, KPMG
· Leif Dormsjo. Acting Deputy Secretary, MDOT
· Chris Guthkeltch, Skanska USA
· Tom Rousakis, Goldman Sachs

Master of Ceremonies:
· Sandy Apgar, Apgar Company


__________________________________________
Below you see a Department of Natural Resources staff charged with such things as appointing members of commissions like the Marcellus Shale with a long history of bad environmental results.  All of Maryland's environment is at risk because the Department of Natural Resources has such a skeleton staffing that no oversight happens.  As you see below stewardship of the land is not key in this public agency.

When we elect pols like O'Malley who are simply working for corporations they will staff agencies with people looking to move money to the right people and not to doing the work of the public.  Then, you compound that by having these same appointees choosing who participates on these commissions and you get the results outlined at the top. 

Public commissions, public committees, and public boards should have people passionate about the issues from the public perspective, not corporate profit.

YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS KEEP SUPPORTING THE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS CREATING THESE POLICIES-----PLEASE GET RID OF THESE INCUMBENTS!


Below you see who will be involved in these fracking and land use issues and who is appointed to commissions developing plans.

Remember, Maryland is one of the richest states in the nation----plenty of money for this stuff being lost to fraud and corruption.


   Kristin Saunders Evans

Secretary for Land Resources.


Study finds Md.'s parks, after deep cuts in staff and services in recent years, need an infusion

State parks in peril


November 09, 2007|

By Candus Thomson | Candus Thomson,Sun reporter



"I don't think anyone was surprised by the findings," said Kristin Saunders Evans, assistant secretary of the Department of Natural Resources who oversees parks. "We're trying to the best of our ability and resources, but in some instances we've let our stakeholders down."


Below you see yet another 'nationally recognized program' in Maryland that does not really exist.  It is all propaganda to make Maryland look progressive.
  Our Health Care reform and our Education reform is all called 'a national model' and is a mess because we have no oversight and accountability or pols in office working in the public interest.  JUKING THE STATS makes everything done a national model.


Indoor projects raise questions

Md. auditors criticize use of funds designated for open-space projects


August 08, 2008

|By Laura Smitherman | Laura Smitherman,Sun reporter

Program Open Space, Maryland's nationally recognized effort to create outdoor recreational opportunities and preserve untouched lands, has been spending money on the indoors - including golf-course building renovations, community centers and an indoor aquatic center.

Call it Program Enclosed Space.

State auditors criticized the longstanding practice in a report yesterday on the Department of Natural Resources and said that the General Assembly's counsel advised them that the use of open-space funding for indoor recreational facilities doesn't appear to be within the law.

Agency officials told auditors that they believed the indoor projects qualified for funding because the facilities accommodate recreational activities, such as swimming, that are typically done outdoors. And, agency officials noted, the public would be able to enjoy year-round use of the indoor facilities, making them a better investment.

John R. Griffin, natural resources secretary, promised to seek clarifying legislative language in the next General Assembly session to ensure that such expenditures follow the letter of the law. Nonetheless, agency officials said they were surprised by the dispute.

The open-space program has been used to build or acquire indoor facilities since the 1970s, they said, and state lawmakers are typically enthusiastically supportive, attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the projects throughout the summer. They said the indoor facilities must be related to the mission of the program and are often nature centers or recreational facilities.

"Bottom line is, this has been going on for a long time, and this is the first time we've seen it raised by legislative auditors,"
said Eric Schwaab, the agency's deputy secretary. "These local projects have long been supported. It's not like this has been conducted in secret."

In recent months, $2 million in open-space funding has been approved for Calvert County's first indoor aquatic center, $1.4 million for the purchase of the Sonic Sports Arena in Cecil County and about $240,000 for indoor tennis lights in Montgomery County.

Program Open Space, established in 1969, is funded through transfer taxes on real estate transactions. The money is split between the state government and local communities based on a complicated formula, and much of it goes toward buying large tracts of land for preservation or parks. About $276 million has been allocated to the program over the last two years.

Local governments develop long-range plans on land preservation and recreation, and individual projects for which they seek reimbursement must be approved by the state's Board of Public Works. Public comment can be made at several times in the process.


"It's a wide-open, very public process," said Kristin Saunders Evans, assistant secretary for land resources at the natural resources department.






Logging GRSF 3

In the coming months, the Forest Service will publish the FY2011plan for the Green Ridge State Forest. As with previous plans, the Forest Service will propose cutting down more than 200 acres of trees in several sites.Most of the logging will leave about six trees per acre.DNR cuts trees that are 90-100 years old, far short of their biological maturity,1with the stated goal of optimizing production of timber.2Other goals, such as encouraging wildlife growth and breeding, providing healthy forests for Maryland citizens, stabilization of soil, or sequestering carbon are subsidiary or have not been considered.


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August 30th, 2014

8/30/2014

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As the article stated yesterday---costs for PIP are not going up----there is simply more fraud and corruption lifting the costs as with Medicare and Medicaid.  We are reforming Medicare and Medicaid because the health industry fraud sucked the Trusts dry.  That is what is happening with PIP.  The insurance and health industries are inflation costs by fraud with soaring profits and then claiming PIP needs to be dismantled because it is too costly.....same as Medicare.  So, rather than having the costs of your health care covered with this auto insurance that is required by law---you are now going to be pushed into Medicaid which now mostly covers only preventative health care.  This eliminates yet another outlet for health coverage for the working and middle-class while insurance and health industry profits soar.

Notice the Maryland Assembly is about to end PIP and push Maryland citizens into the most private and profit-driven health system in the nation---Medicaid and preventative care.
  The No Fault auto premiums are no small payment---as many times as people use it the total premium amounts paid often covered costs.

Think that at the same time, your rates go higher and higher for simply being in an accident no matter it wasn't your fault.  That is what deregulating the insurance industry looks like.  It gives them the ability to charge anything they want as laws are on the books requiring you to have some kind of insurance.  Deregulating while making insurance mandatory----watch that disposable income disappear with rate hikes.

Tort-based auto insurance means the ambulance-personal injury lawyers that you see on TV will be the only recourse for paying medical bills and we all know these lawyers pocket most of the money won in the lawsuit with the plaintiff often receiving pennies on the dollar.  So, this will cost health care more and that money will go to lawyers and it will come from taxpayer Medicaid.
So, now the insurance, the health care, and lawyers are getting a cut money that always went to actual care for the patient who will be bankrupt and/or left with little access to care.

THESE ARE NEO-LIBERAL AND NEO-CON POLICIES MOVING ALL MONEY TO CORPORATE PROFIT ON THE BACKS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.


All Maryland pols are neo-liberal and neo-cons doing all of the above.

'Rates did go down initially'---before the fraud and corruption sent them soaring.

PIP and No-Fault Auto Insurance Reform


More and more states are abandoning the PIP/No-Fault form of auto insurance in favor of a tort-based set of laws. PIP/No Fault originated in the 1930s as an alternative to the often slow and expensive process of litigating claims. The intent was to speed up the process by shifting the dispute resolution from the courts to the insurance companies. In theory, this was supposed to reduce insurance rates—and rates did go down initially.

By the mid-70s, almost 20 states had some form of no-fault insurance laws. However, over time, rates again rose until "No-Fault" states had higher rates than tort-based states. Beginning in 1980, states started repealing their no-fault laws, and now only nine states (Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota and Utah) have mandatory no-fault laws. Eleven states plus the District of Columbia have hybrid laws (Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia), which are a combination of no-fault and tort systems.

The pendulum seems to be swinging back to tort-based auto insurance. What does this mean for you as a policyholder?

The Good News

Tort-based systems, in theory, give you more choices for medical payments and could save you substantial amounts of money. As an example, depending on the insurance company and coverages selected, those with Colorado car insurance (the most recent state to revert to a tort-based system) could see savings of 10 percent to 30 percent, according to several recent Denver Post articles.

The Choices

PIP, or Personal Injury Protection, is still available (in most cases), should you wish (or need) to pay for it. If you choose to drop this coverage, or if you are already under a tort-based system and don't have this coverage, you can still purchase it with most policies to cover medical expenses. However, coverage will be limited, with a general ceiling of $50,000. This additional coverage, if purchased, will pay expenses incurred by you and your immediate family for injuries resulting from an at-fault auto accident.

Since many drivers are uninsured or underinsured, it is essential that you understand the ramifications of this and make an informed decision about the "Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists" coverage option.

What if?

What happens if you are at fault? Your auto policy should pay the other person's claims. Companies normally negotiate this with each other. If you have insufficient coverage, you may have to go to court—thus displaying the tort aspect of the law. Either you or your health insurance company will pay medical expenses for you and your family once those expenses exceed your auto policy coverages.

What if you are injured by another driver who is at fault? Generally, the two auto insurance companies will work together to determine fault and pay benefits accordingly. This resolves the problem in most cases. If not, or if the amounts paid are insufficient, it may be necessary to resort back to the court system to recover damages.

What if the other driver is at-fault and has no (or inadequate) insurance? Your insurance company normally covers your medical expenses. This protection is provided under the uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. If you do not have this coverage, your health insurance usually pays the bills, or you can sue the other party.

Consider the "Deductible Gap"

Generally, under a tort system, medical payments from your own policy are limited. However, in most cases you can choose "additional medical payments" and "Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists" coverage as part of your auto insurance policy.

After years of rising rates, many people may choose to forgo any additional coverages. Adding these coverages creates financial strain if you have high-deductible health insurance, or no health insurance at all. However, there is a potentially huge gap between the amount paid under a tort-based policy and your health insurance deductible. If you have no insurance, the out-of-pocket costs could be staggering. If you are not at fault in the accident, the tort-based system allows you to go to court to receive compensation for these costs, as well as for pain and suffering. But you must do so within a specified time period, and a lot of out-of-pocket expenses may be involved.

What does this mean for health insurance?

As more costs are shifted to the health insurance system, your insurance costs are likely to rise. This also means more people will be without health insurance.

So, what is next?

This is a good time to look at your health insurance to make sure you will have adequate coverage if you drop your PIP/No-Fault coverage. Don't wait until you're in an unpleasant situation to find out if you need more insurance. Be prepared!

_______________________________________________

This is when PIP was working in the interest of citizens and government coffers.  Insurance corporations were earning profits in the millions while the Uninsured auto insurance pool was bursting at the seams with revenue. 

NOW, HOW CAN WE DIVERT THE MONEY PAID INTO THIS FUND FOR HEALTH CARE INTO PROJECTS THAT BENEFIT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS.

This is when a good program was targeted for fraud and corruption just as with the other Federal programs Medicare and Federal Housing Authority.  Working well for citizens, leaving government coffers flush to handle future events, allowing millions in profits to be earned---BUT THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH.  You see the article below was written in 1993----HERE COMES NEO-LIBERAL CLINTON TO DEREGULATE ALL THAT HE CAN SEE......this is the deregulation that sent all of this surplus in the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund to development corporations like Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.  There's Donald Schaefer funneling money from Transporation Trusts and now MAIF to balance the budget with the public's designated money.  Baltimore Development paraded all kinds of working class and poor out to praise Schaefer who was behind creating Baltimore Development Corporations to funnel all the city's revenue from where it was to go----to where they wanted to send it.

You see the insurance corporations were able to move more and more people into MAIF clearing its rolls of all but the best of drivers.  It went from helping low-income people to subsidizing the costs of these auto insurance corporations.  It was gutted of its funds for
pet projects.  I know Ravens fans love their stadium----but most of the fans are the ones no longer affording auto insurance because of the subsidy.  Note that the Uninsured Motorist insurance had high premiums and should have paid all health care costs when needed.

Remember, this was done through fraud and corruption because this money was not to be fungible.  It needs to come back to this government coffer.



I KNOW---LET'S SEND THIS PIP MONEY TO BUILD THE NEW FOOTBALL FIELD.----M AND T STADIUM AND BALANCE THE BUDGET WITH IT.


MAIF's embarrassment of riches

March 04, 1993|
By Frank A. DeFilippo  Baltimore Sun

THE Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund has a big-time problem. It's rich. So rich, in fact, that other state agencies are itching to get their hot little hands on MAIF's $118 million surplus.

MAIF's been approached about financing a new football stadium in Baltimore. Sen. George W. Della Jr. of Baltimore has sponsored a bill that would shift $50 million of MAIF's money to the general fund. And the Schaefer administration is pilfering $5.4 million from MAIF to help balance the budget.

MAIF is Maryland's state-run insurer of last resort. Any Maryland motorist who's turned down by at least two commercial insurers is automatically MAIFed.

MAIF's rates aren't cheap.
Depending on how bad a motorist's record is, the driver's age and ZIP code, bare-bones coverage can range from $2,559 to a stick-it-to-'em high of $8,677 a year.

That MAIF should be suffering such an embarrassment of riches during a time of budget cuts and deficits is an embarrassment itself. MAIF's $118 million surplus is larger than the $100 million budget shortfall that's being plugged with keno proceeds and other money.

In theory, at least, MAIF is supposed to be non-profit. It was created in 1973 as an antidote to the no-fault insurance craze at the time, kind of an everybody's-fault approach. It's run by a board of trustees and receives no state funds, nor are its assets part of the state treasury. To settle claims, MAIF has the power to attach salaries and seize property.

Over the years, the commercial insurance companies in Maryland have pumped $137 million into MAIF. In effect, good drivers subsidize the insurance of bad drivers. In 1980, MAIF had 30,000 policies. Today it has 135,000.

Much of MAIF's excess is due to changes in the way it does business as well as some shrewd investments. At the same time MAIF has reduced rates over the past three years, it's also lowered awards. MAIF is also now doing all of its work in-house instead of farming it out to free-lance adjusters and collectors.

So it should come as no surprise that the Schaefer administration's pie-slicers approached MAIF about lending the Maryland Stadium Authority $100 million to help finance a new football stadium if Baltimore wins one of two NFL expansion franchises.

There are serious legal questions about whether the Stadium Authority has a funding mechanism for another stadium if the city is awarded a team. Because of a change in the tax code, the use of tax-free bonds to finance stadiums expired at the end of 1990.


The authority argues, though, that it's confident that it can float tax-free bonds because there have been a number of test cases around the country that might allow it.

Moreover, the authority has a bonding limit of $220 million, of which it has already used $170 million to build the new baseball stadium. The authority will pocket another $30 million over three years from lottery proceeds -- on top of the $50 million in bond money left over from the ballyard -- a total of $74 million. But a new topless football stadium will cost about $130 million. Put a lid on it, and it'll cost millions more.

So here's the catch: If the authority can't float tax-free bonds, it will have to go to market with bonds at a much higher interest rate. But before it can go to market with bonds, the authority will need the General Assembly's approval to increase its bonding capacity. This could hoist the total bond package over the spending affordability limit. Allowing this is action the legislature is reluctant to take.

It's for this reason that Gov. William Donald Schaefer is bypassing the spending affordability limit and proposing the use of transportation bonds to finance improvements to Baltimore's Convention Center. Now he's trying to scoot around the spending limit again just in case there's a football team in the city's future.

So drive carefully. Get MAIFed, and the premiums you pay could wind up helping to finance some government geegaw.

Frank A. DeFilippo writes every other Thursday on Maryland politics.

_______________________________________

Here we are just a handful of years later and what the first article stated was in fact true in Maryland----it was the hybrid model Maryland adopted that sent auto insurance money to lawyers and doctors.

Now, they are working to end hybrid and make it all tort. 
People not being able to afford strong health coverage will be preyed upon -----80% of the American people.

Again, another public program that worked fine for the people gutted and dismantled by neo-liberals and neo-cons.  Profit over people every time

Again, we are at the height of Reagan/Clinton's deregulation frenzy.
I wonder if those voters wanting small government wanted to be pushed out of driving because they can no longer afford car insurance? 

Your Public Trusts are being gutted by small government and deregulation.


Why car insurance is so high Law suits: System encourages excessive litigation, raises premiums $130 to $150 a year

.
December 23, 1996  Baltimore Sun

WANT TO LOWER your car-insurance premiums? It could happen -- if legislators in Annapolis stop catering to powerful special interests. More than 60 percent of your premium covers liability. Of that amount, 19 percent could be saved if excessive litigation and fraudulent claims were eliminated.Sadly, state legislators yawned at the problem when a gubernatorial commission sought reforms this year. Too many of them want to please trial lawyers and doctors who vigorously fight for the status quo. These special interests know that lower insurance premiums would come out of their pockets.



_________________________________________



I have talked about AIG spinoff HighStar and its connection with the Ivy League schools like Johns Hopkins.  The subprime mortgage fraudulent loans were insured here with the idea that HighStar would break from AIG with the equity and leave taxpayers to pay 100% on the dollar for the fraudulent Credit Default Swaps.   This article does a good job doing this.  Geithner was the NY FED chief that watched as trillions of dollars of fraud ran through the mortgage industry and did nothing about it----he aided and abetted the massive fraud.  What many people may  not know AIG was more a Life Insurance agency with this HighStar hedge fund sucking all its profits into their bank accounts.  Indeed, the taxpayer bailout of AIG saved the shareholders and those insured by CDS-----but it left an AIG still in business and limping along saying it is healthy when indeed it is not.  AIG Life Insurance advertises on Free TV---you know , where you get life insurance with no checkup.  Like you get a house without having a job. 

SAME THING.  THIS IS THE SUBPRIMING OF LIFE INSURANCE.


They are simply selling as many policies as they can and gaining those monthly payments knowing the coming economic collapse will bankrupt them again.

You are guaranteed to get back what you put into this Life Insurance plan-----OH REALLY????  They will spin that Life Insurance money off as they did with HighStar----probably to HighStar just as the economy is ready to crash.  THEN WE WILL HEAR----WE CAN'T PAY YOUR PREMIUMS BACK!


They will keep doing this with every business sector until you and I get rid of the neo-liberals and neo-cons that have allowed this corporate system to be deregulated with no oversight and accountability.

AIG's Collapse: The Part Nobody Likes to Talk About


Hester Peirce JUN 16, 2014 12:00pm ET

  Earlier this month, American International Group announced the departure of Robert Benmosche, the CEO who led the company through most of its recovery from the financial crisis. Now that the company’s postcrisis chapter is underway, it is worth taking a fresh look at AIG’s downfall and rescue and the implications for reform.

The standard AIG story lays all the blame for the company’s problems on AIG Financial Products—an allegedly unregulated, irresponsible, derivatives dealer hiding within an otherwise solid insurance company.

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner repeats this traditional line in his recent book, where he recounts how an aggressive “hedge fund-like subsidiary called AIG Financial Products” brought the otherwise healthy insurance company to its knees and ultimately drove it into the Fed’s welcoming arms. Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke made a similar claim when he told Congress how angry he was about AIG’s Financial Products unit—“a hedge fund attached [to] a large and stable insurance company.” And former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, with typical dramatic flair, explained that AIG’s “subsidiary, AIG Financial Products, operating out of London, brought down the company and nearly toppled the U.S. economy.”

This widely repeated narrative ignores or downplays a critical aspect of AIG’s downfall--the insurer’s securities lending program run for the benefit of its regulated life insurance subsidiaries.

An endnote in Geithner’s tome explains that securities lending was one of “AIG’s major liquidity needs” at the time of its rescue. As I describe in a recent working paper, the company got itself into hot water by lending securities from its life insurance companies’ portfolios. AIG took the cash collateral it received for these short-term loans and—in a departure from insurance industry practice—invested much of it in longer term, illiquid residential mortgage-backed securities.

The securities lending program grew from about $10 billion at the end of 2001 to over $80 billion by the end of 2007. When borrowers stopped renewing the loans, returned their securities, and asking for their cash back, AIG was in a bind—the borrowers’ cash was tied up in reinvestments. 

To meet borrowers’ demands, AIG lent more securities and used the cash collateral from new borrowers to return to existing borrowers. This solution only aggravated the problem. When CEO Robert Willumstad took the reins of AIG in June 2008, the cash drain from securities lending worried him more than AIG Financial Products’ liquidity needs.

Losses from the securities lending program threatened the viability of a number of AIG’s regulated life insurance subsidiaries. To save them from falling below minimum capital requirements, AIG pumped billions of dollars into these units.

Government rescue money was critical to this recapitalization effort. Taxpayer funds were also critical in meeting securities borrowers’ demands for cash. Securities lending counterparties received $43.8 billion in the last quarter of 2008, comparable to $49.6 billion in collateral postings and payments to AIG’s derivatives counterparties.

As consequential as it was to AIG in a time of crisis, nobody likes to tell the securities lending part of the story. First, it doesn’t feed as nicely into the vilification of derivatives that laced crisis narratives and fueled calls for an intense derivatives regulatory regime. Second, the fact that heavily regulated insurance companies got into trouble does not support the call for greater reliance on government regulators. Finally, the rescue of a deeply troubled company is less defensible than the rescue of a healthy insurance company with a troubled derivatives subsidiary.

The Fed’s contention that its loan was adequately secured rested on the supposition that apart from the derivatives unit, AIG was sound. The banks that went in to AIG in September 2008 to assess whether it was worth rescuing concluded that it was not.

As one of the private bankers subsequently explained, “The value of the company in its entirety was not necessarily sufficient to cover the liquidity need that the company had.”


Geithner recounts in his book that—looking for confirmation that a loan to AIG would comply with the legal requirement that “the Fed can only lend against reasonably solid collateral”—he asked Warren Buffett “what he thought about the earning power of AIG’s traditional insurance subsidiaries.” Buffett “was pretty positive about their underlying value, which made [Geithner] more confident that [the Fed] could meet the legal test of being secured to [its] satisfaction.” Buffett’s words of assurance to Geithner weren’t matched by a willingness to put his own money on the line; he refused AIG’s overtures to invest during 2008.

AIG was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy when the Fed stepped in with a better deal for shareholders and creditors. The government subsequently re-rescued the company by devoting additional taxpayer funds to it and softening the lending terms.
 At any of these re-rescue points, the government could instead have let the company go through bankruptcy.

By continuing to prop up AIG, the government shielded the company from the toughest regulator of all—the markets. AIG’s problems were not confined to one unregulated corner; problems also arose in full view of insurance regulators. Rather than assuming the Fed will be better than AIG’s other regulators, we ought to allow the truly superior regulator—the market—to do its job.







_____________________________________________

I spoke yesterday about Life Insurance corporations being the most leveraged and ready to collapse of the insurance industry but guess what is the next in line of threatened insurance corporations-----

THAT'S RIGHT----WORKMAN'S COMP.

They have been allowed to create the same over-leveraged financial status that will have them bankrupt with this coming economic collapse.  No more worker's compensation----

THAT'S HOW YOU GET RID OF THE NEW DEAL SAY NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS!  BLOW THEM UP AS WE DID THE HOUSING MARKET WITH FRAUD AND CORRUPTION!


Coming after more public wealth and no public justice in place to protect or give us recourse....that is what neo-liberals and neo-cons have been building these few decades-----Clinton and Obama taking the people's party and handing it to Wall Street.  Run and vote for labor and justice in all Democratic Primaries!  WE CAN REVERSE THIS!


Rapidly writing new contracts for worker's comp that they could not afford----sound familiar?


IMPLODING ALL OF THE NEW DEAL PROGRAMS TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DURING HARD TIMES.


After Tower Group collapse, lingering concerns about industry’s reserve adequacy

By Adam Cancryn and Saurabh Nair, SNL Financial Posted: May 6, 2014

...................................................

Most of the concern centers on long-tailed commercial lines, particularly workers’ compensation. Claims behavior takes longer to develop than in other sectors, making it more difficult to tell how much money should be set aside even years after a policy is written. Misjudging those reserving needs can be disastrous. SeaBright Holdings Inc. sold in 2013 after reserve charges pressured its operations, and Meadowbrook’s stock dropped nearly 35% from 2012 through 2013 amid several quarters of reserve charges. Tower Group served as the highest-profile example of reserving gone wrong, with its shares losing more than 80% in the six months before it hastily agreed to a sale.

Those companies ran into problems with business written during a softer market between 2007 and 2011, when they grew their books rapidly just as the rates being charged for coverage were at their most inadequate. When claim costs far outstripped the rates they originally charged, the insurers had to quickly build up their loss reserves. Analysts now consider the 2010 accident year one of the worst performers of the cycle, attributing the troubles to low prices and more expensive claims driven by high unemployment.

“The troubles they have now is on stuff they wrote years ago,” Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Robert Farnam told SNL.


The 10 workers’ comp insurers with the greatest adverse development in 2013 reported an aggregate $702.6 million in charges. SeaBright and Meadowbrook did not make that list. Tower Group was also absent, as it has not yet submitted all of its filings, but it said in February that its U.S.-taxed subsidiaries recorded $269.2 million of 2013 reserve charges.

Despite the issues, the sector continues to steadily release reserves.
Companies argue that Meadowbrook and Tower Group in particular are isolated situations, driven just as much by reckless growth as the broader industry conditions.
The rest of the industry, they contend, was more prudent in writing business during the soft market, leaving it with less risk and the ability to make up for a few unfavorable accident years with better results from other parts of their books of business. The insurers themselves are also working with much more detailed data than analysts and outside actuaries, they say, allowing them to most accurately evaluate their reserves.

“We look at it on a much more granular basis, and we think we have certainly better information,” W. R. Berkley Corp. Vice President of External Financial Communications Karen Horvath told SNL. Analysts have singled out W.R. Berkley’s reserving position as one of the more concerning in the industry, predicting that its quarterly releases would soon slow. But the company in the first quarter released about $25 million, extending a string of favorable reserve development that dates back to 2007.

Even so, skeptics are not quite willing to accept insurers’ assurances as fact. They worry that companies are already drawing down their reserves for the 2012 and 2013 accident years to supplement earnings or balance out problems in earlier years, without enough data to be sure about how those most recent years will ultimately perform.


“There is just no way a company would know or have the type of certainty under which they would be able to release reserves from some of the most recent business,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Siddhartha Ghosh, who warned that the workers’ comp sector will eventually have to strengthen reserves significantly. “We don’t think that’s a prudent way of addressing reserves.”

He pointed to the previous market cycle, when workers’ comp companies released $12.4 billion of reserves between 1994 and 2000 and then had to scramble to add back $10.6 billion from 2001 to 2005 to make up for their overconfidence.

The sector’s fortunes over the next several years will depend heavily on whether insurers can keep raising prices, analysts said.
The workers’ comp business is still not reliably profitable despite recent pricing actions, and low interest rates continue to pressure investment income. If companies can continue to move their prices considerably and consistently higher over the next couple years, the new premium should be enough to cover costs. If the rate hikes falter and claims from recent policies start piling up, though, the reserving actions that insurers used to buoy earnings for so long could stick them with a deficit that will take years to fill.

“It’s a simple equation,” Ghosh said. “The premium coming in has to be higher than the losses going out.”


________________________________________________
This is a pretty good analysis of the coming bond market crash.  Notice it states that the insurance market will be taken out----Life Insurance the first to go.  See why you are seeing all those Life Insurance ads requiring no medical checkup or anything-----

THEY ARE SIMPLY GOING TO POCKET THOSE MONTHLY PREMIUMS.


This was written in 2013 acting as if the crash would come in 2014 but Bernanke allowed the QE bond bubble machine to continue another year and Yellen is now having to address it as the FED is leveraged out.  The crash will come soon......the FED is simply manipulating the inevitable.

'The most vulnerable are those who can least afford to suffer losses: Seniors who are approaching or in retirement, who have shifted large amounts of their money into fixed income investments.

Your tax-free municipal bonds could tank.

Your annuities and other insurance policies could turn to dust.

Your money invested in bank and insurance company stocks could vanish right before your very eyes'.


All of this is pretty important----yet, we do not hear a thing about it from media, labor or justice, our pols---and all of these national leaders know it is coming.  Their policies created this mess and labor and justice leaders are constantly backing neo-liberals.
  It is important to have Governors and Mayors that will work through this in the people's interest and not corporate interest.

This article is not
hyperbole---it will happen.
I did edit out his marketing ---

The Next Great Bubble about to Collapse

Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. | Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 7:30 am

130 Senator Orrin Hatch warns that the bubble has the power to “destroy the retirement savings of millions of Americans.”

Famed economist Leonard E. Burman of Syracuse University is warning the U.S. Senate of “disastrous consequences for ourselves and the rest of the world.”

Goldman Sachs … Bank of America … Morgan Stanley … Royal Bank of Scotland … JPMorgan … and Oppenheimer Funds are all warning that it could bankrupt millions of investors.

Congressman Ron Paul says, simply, “this country will be ruined.”

These and many other authorities are talking about the greatest financial bubble in human history:

A bubble that is now more than EIGHT times larger than all the stock exchanges in the United States combined.

A bubble so massive, it is four times larger than the dot-com bubble of the 1990s and the housing bubble of the 2000s combined.

Now that bubble has begun to burst.

As it implodes, it will launch interest rates into the stratosphere … crush the feeble U.S. economy … destroy major U.S. banks and insurance companies … drive your cost of living through the roof, threaten your standard of living and financial security … and push the U.S. government to the very brink of financial collapse.

But the best defense is a strong offense -- and this crisis will also create windfall profit opportunities for a select group of investors who make the right moves now.

Just a few days ago, Weiss Research analyst Tom Essaye hosted a special online summit meeting to explain exactly how, and I’ll give you a transcript of the meeting in a moment.

In our online summit, he was joined by Safe Money editor Mike Larson and Real Wealth editor Larry Edelson. Here’s the transcript…

The Next Great Bubble about to Collapse
with Tom Essaye, Mike Larson and Larry Edelson — abridged transcript

Tom Essaye: If there’s anyone who knows how to capitalize on bursting bubbles, it’s our firm, Weiss Research.



For nearly a year now, I’ve been sounding the alarm again; NOT for the bursting of a bubble in the tech sector or housing sector … but in a market that is many times larger than all the stock exchanges in the United States COMBINED.


Debt is created in the bond market. That’s where the government goes to borrow money. So do states and local governments. Companies, too.

Borrowers sell bonds — or notes and bills — that guarantee investors a certain rate of interest or “yield” over time.

Since the turn of the century, the U.S. bond market has simply exploded in size — adding $20.7 trillion in new debt.


But now, despite massive new initiatives by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the meteoric rise in prices that characterized the debt market since the turn of the century has sputtered, stalled and is now dead in its tracks.

Millions of investors all over the world — including many of the world’s richest central banks — have started to stampede for the bond market’s exit.

And now, we’re beginning to see the first cracks appearing in this massive bubble.


This chart of the PIMCO Total Return Bond Fund is a perfect picture of the bubble in the bond market — and also the beginning of the crash.

On the left side of the chart, you can see the bubble in the bond market being inflated.

On the right-hand side, you can see how prices just plunged well below their support levels.

And just look at this chart of the iShares Municipal Bond ETF: It just fell off the proverbial cliff, giving back every penny it gained since last July!

But this crash has barely begun. The last few Treasury auctions showed that bidding from foreign central banks is plunging to the lowest level in years.

In addition, U.S. investors are starting to turn bearish on Treasuries. A recent report from a top industry watchdog showed that nearly 20% of all Treasury investors have started to cut back their holdings.

Even Fitch — the normally conservative ratings firm — is warning that a massive bubble has been created in the bond market.

This is huge. Bubbles are like an enormous Ponzi scheme: They collapse when the money stops flowing in.

The moment that happens, it’s over. And it’s beginning to happen right now!

As this bubble — the greatest bubble mankind has ever seen — implodes, the consequences will be devastating for millions of unprepared investors, just like the tech bubble was and just like the housing bubble was.


The most vulnerable are those who can least afford to suffer losses: Seniors who are approaching or in retirement, who have shifted large amounts of their money into fixed income investments.

Your tax-free municipal bonds could tank.

Your annuities and other insurance policies could turn to dust.

Your money invested in bank and insurance company stocks could vanish right before your very eyes.






0 Comments

August 29th, 2014

8/29/2014

0 Comments

 
THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IS THE NEXT VEHICLE FOR PREDATORY FRAUD AND GUTTING OF PUBLIC WEALTH. FOR OVER A DECADE CONGRESS HAS LOOSENED POLICY TO ALLOW INSURANCE CORPORATIONS TO OPERATE LIKE BANKS WITH THE MONEY THEY COLLECT.  THEY ARE NOW USING THEM WITH LEVERAGING SCHEMES AND COMPLETE DISREGARD TO THE SAFETY OF YOUR FUNDS.  A CRASH IS COMING THAT WILL CAUSE THESE CORPORATIONS TO GO INTO BANKRUPTCY JUST AS AIG INSURANCE DID IN 2008.  PLEASE CONSIDER THAT PLACING YOUR MONEY IN THESE POLICIES WILL RESULT IN THE SAME FRAUD AND USE OF FUNDS AS FODDER AS HAS HAPPENED WITH OUR PENSIONS. 


IFAwebnews.com > National >

P&C industry enjoys portfolio boost from soaring stocks in 2013

P&C industry enjoys portfolio boost from soaring stocks in 2013
By IFAwebnews Staff Posted: May 30, 2014


When Republican pols say they are going to rebuild oversight and accountability they mean they are going to stop all that Food Stamp or pension fraud by employees faking injury.  They do not mean they are going to stop the billions of dollars in corporate fraud from corporate fleecing of consumers and policy holders.  Neo-liberals simply say nothing and let it all continue because their goal is to empty government coffers to restructure for Trans Pacific Trade Pact and global tribunal rule.

I have shown so much data that shows the billions of dollars in corporate fraud and yet this corporation working for the insurance industry states that 90% of insurance fraud is by the consumers or 'non-professional' fraudsters.  That's the 99% for you and me.
  Given that most Americans were pushed into poverty with last decade's massive corporate fraud, no doubt some average Americans are looking for ways to survive the stagnant jobless economy.  Insurance corporations might want to join the fight to get rid of neo-liberals and neo-cons so we can rebuild a domestic economy and citizens have jobs to and consume.

Insurers continue to count the cost of soaring fraud

July 2012  Experian Identity and Fraud


'The vast majority of fraud – more than 90 per cent - is being carried out by consumers or ‘non-professional’ fraudsters, so-called first-party fraud'.

Below you see what is really happening----insurance corporations are creating reasons to get rid of all consumer protections regarding policies that create some level of cost protection.
You will notice that this article refers to pushing the cost of business onto Medicaid and the public as does health care reform.  Yet another move to send most Americans to Medicaid-level of care for all health care.

Is insurance fraud causing auto No-Fault premiums to rise, or are insurance companies price-gouging and trying to hide the truth?


February 20, 2012 by Steven Gursten

Insurance lawyer says truth is not what the insurance industry would like public to believe

There is a lie being spread by the auto No-Fault insurance industry in Michigan --
a lie that our auto insurance premiums are more expensive due to insurance fraud.

This from an insurance industry that is making record-breaking profits– and on the heels of a $1 billion raise. The insurance industry would love to divert attention away from its own profits and find something – anything – to blame the cost of our premiums on.

In a recent press release from the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), the group stated that fraud is “forcing” drivers into paying more for their auto insurance, especially in states like Michigan:

Soaring medical bills, high attorney fees and rampant fraud and abuse are forcing drivers in (several of the nation’s largest states including Michigan) to pay significantly more for auto insurance than they should,” said Paul Blume, senior vice president of state government relations for PCI. “Over the last several years, fraud rings and abuses of the system have cost consumers over $1.6 billion in New York and Florida alone. This amounts to a “fraud tax” on hardworking citizens and the cost trends in these states are unsustainable.”

This fraud and abuse argument couldn’t be farther from the truth. The insurance industry always lumps Michigan into its paint-with-a-broad brush approach. Yet the insurance industry has not produced actual cases of No-Fault insurance fraud in Michigan.


Yes, there have been widely publicized abuses occurring in other states. Yes, I will be the first to say there are some No-Fault insurance lawyers who are too aggressive today, and from time to time I blog about these excesses as well.

But unlike what is happening in some states, in Michigan the insurance companies are making record-breaking profits. In other words, the real cost driver of auto insurance remains an insurance industry that is almost entirely unregulated in what it can charge Michigan drivers who are forced by law to purchase No-Fault insurance.


Want to really curb insurance fraud? I’d start with empowering our insurance commissioner to regulate clearly excessive premiums that insurance companies charge here in Michigan. And then watch the cost of No-Fault insurance premiums plummet.

There is no reason why insurance companies should make more money off the backs of Michigan drivers in this state than they do in any other state in the US.

And fraud goes two ways. If we are really serious about fraud, then why not start tackling the insurance company IME industry of cut-off doctors that find nothing wrong with anyone, and that always deny people their PIP benefits, no matter how serious the injuries?  THAT'S WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!

There will always be accusations by the insurance industry’s spin doctors, but so far these accusations have been without any factual support. In fact, this report from the National Crime Insurance Bureau puts Michigan at the lower end of questionable claims.

Let’s control excessive insurance industry profits before we pass No-Fault “reform” Meanwhile, this same insurance industry wants to increase profits even more. There is a huge push by the insurance industry for No-Fault “reform” that would eliminate vital insurance protections. In exchange for the suggestion of lower premiums (they refuse to promise), drivers would be able to choose lower amounts of PIP insurance coverage that provide limited No-Fault (PIP) benefits – including levels clearly insufficient if someone is seriously injured in a car accident, truck accident or motorcycle accident.

These auto accident victims would simply be pushed onto Medicaid. And taxpayers will be stuck footing the bill.

So while the deep-pocketed insurance industry is aiming to take away our most important insurance protections – touted by the insurance industry itself as the best No-Fault system in the nation — I’d look to the insurance industry first as the reason why our No-Fault insurance premiums are so expensive.

It’s not because there’s rampant insurance fraud in Michigan. And it is not because of the cost of medical care or No-Fault attorney fees, as the insurance industry spin-doctors would like us to believe.

It is because, again, Michigan is one of the only states that does not allow our insurance commissioner the power to regulate excessive profit-gouging by our own auto insurance companies. To put it simply, our insurance is high because the insurance industry makes it that way, in order to charge more and make higher profits in Michigan than in any other state in the country!


- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top insurance attorneys handling auto accident lawsuits. He is head of Michigan Auto Law and president of the Motor Vehicle Trial Lawyers Association. Steve frequently writes about Michigan auto insurance and insurance company abuse, and is available for comment.

Related Information:

Help save Michigan No-Fault: Write your representatives


Charade over “savings” from Michigan No-Fault “reform” has finally stopped

Michigan No-Fault insurance resource center

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (888) 996-0279 for a free consultation with one of our Michigan insurance attorneys.

__________________________________________

This is a great article written last decade by New York's Attorney General Spitzer known to be actually fighting for corporate responsibility at the time.  This shows the degree of fraud and corruption that existed before the economic crash of 2008------everyone knew AIG insurance corporation was loading itself with fraudulent debt----and it shows what exists today as no attempts to change this environment have happened.  In fact, neo-liberals Obama and Congress are making it worse.

So, when insurance corporations paint consumers as driving fraud in order to hide profiteering and fraud by these very corporations-----you have a free-for-all as regards Rule of Law and accountability.  The American people are being required by law to buy these No Fault Insurance plans-----or with Affordable Care Act----the Catastrophic Care policies with rates that just keep rising.  You cannot escape them unless you opt out of driving and/or accessing health care.
......WHICH IS THE POINT.


I actually cried when Spitzer was brought down with prostitution charges.  You can believe these charges came to light to get rid of him although his behavior was unexcusable.  The point now is that this corporate fraud is going to soar with Trans Pacific Trade Pact seeking to end all US Constitutional rights of WE THE PEOPLE.


This is only a partial post of this article----you should check out the whole article.



 
State Attorney Generals And Other Agencies ?Investigate? Insurance Industry "Widespread Fraud And Corruption" Charges

Extent Of Government Agencies Insurance Industry Investigations, Results
[Notes: the "Headlines" lists (below) tell the extent of the investigations for each agency.
"Articles Library" following the headlines lists (farther below) includes the articles full text.]





Introduction - AGs Investigations, Results (various states)

On October 14, 2004,

NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer Announced A Lawsuit Brought Against Marsh & McLennan Companies, "The Nation's Leading Insurance Brokerage Firm", For "Fraud, Bid-rigging and Antitrust Violations".  The following Major Insurance Companies AIG, Hartford, ACE, and Munich American Risk Partners" were named in the Complaint as Participants." AG Spitzer said, "The insurance industry needs to take a long, hard look at itself."  "If the practices identified in our suit are as widespread as they appear to be, then the industry's fundamental business model needs major corrective action and reform." "There is simply no responsible argument for a system that rigs bids, stifles competition and cheats customers," he added, "alleging that it steered unsuspecting clients to insurers with whom it had lucrative payoff agreements, and that the firm solicited rigged bids for insurance contracts."  "The Attorney General's office has uncovered extensive evidence showing that it distorts and corrupts the insurance marketplace and cheats insurance customers." "Marsh, at times, solicited fake bids" "even as it claimed in public statements that its "guiding principle" was to always consider its client's best interests." The "immediate victims of the illegal practices were ... mainly large corporations seeking property and casualty coverage, but also small and mid-size businesses, municipal governments, school districts and some individuals." In a press conference, Attorney General Spitzer indicated, as referenced by the title of his Press Release, "Investigation Reveals Widespread Corruption In Insurance Industry", that as the investigation continues, it could proceed further into property & casualty, expand into auto, health and other areas of insurance. "Trust me," Spitzer said upon filing his complaint against Marsh, "this is Day 1".





Introduction - National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and States Departments Of Insurance (DOIs) Investigations, Results (if any)
[also includes other related state and federal agencies as may be applicable].

It Is Proven Extremely Doubtful For Most DOIs, If Any, To Investigate Or Take Real Criminal Action Against Insurance Companies That They Are Supposed To Regulate, Which Historically They Have Had A Warm And Cozy Relationship With For 150 Years. If Ever, There Has To Be A Legal Action Taken And/Or Criminal Conviction First Before DOIs Might Take Any Meaningful Action, If Any, ... And That Is To Justify Their Reason For Being. Instead state DOIs' do occasional "Market Conduct Examinations" which is no more than fluff for the Press and to deceptively show state citizens that they are supposedly doing their jobs and to justify their Agency's reason for being and to protect their jobs. EXPECT the usual politically correct announcements of alleged cooperation with state Attorney General Probes, an alleged task force set-up to investigate that we will never hear from again ... and then, even after Attorney General investigations and criminal prosecutions take place, expect no actions from the state DOIs and NAIC. This section nonetheless will cover their deceptions and announcements of their intent to cooperate with state Attorney General probes (esp. as they have all of the state insureds complaints, etc.) even though they won't share these files or information or ultimately will not cooperate with their state Attorney General's investigation ... this section also includes comments, studies and reports from FBIC and outside industry experts.

Unfortunately, based on decades of industry knowledge and experience, one should not expect any meaningful new investigative or prosecutorial results from the NAIC or state DOIs with exception of a token prosecution from a few states DOIs … who know in cases that if they don't prosecute, NY Attorney General Spitzer's office will. Otherwise, expect "the usual deception, cover-up, well disguised lack of 'real' and 'meaningful' cooperation or actions in most if not all cases. Expect their appearances of going through the exercises to satisfy the media, possibly a few meaningless fines from insurance companies which usually each state DOI gets to keep, along with a meaningless company warning or reprimand and/or temporary suspension of an employee (with pay) ... But in the whole grand scheme of things, any actions will be meaningless and have no measurable effect or contribution toward reform and the final results ... in fact expect just the opposite and maintenance of the status quo.

The truth of the matter is the NAIC’s and state DOIs’ historical record of duplicitous rhetoric, consistently staunch, pro-insurer allegiance and secretive anti-consumer positions being well disguised to the contrary for decades as they deceptively continue to portray themselves as champions of the consumer and protectionists of the people. This deception has been well maintained under a strict industry non-transparent cloak of secrecy tightly hidden behind a wall of silence made possible by decades of successful industry legislative lobbying affording them unnecessary special laws and an exemption from federal laws that are exclusive only to the insurance industry.  Regardless, in the interest of objectivity, FBIC will look to report the announcements along with outcomes and results of the NAIC and state DOI investigations and cooperation with state Attorney General offices which NONE are expected ... and then let you be the judge. The investigations are indicated as of this writing and date have just begun ...


The NAIC's and individual states DOIs' past three decades actions and track record strongly indicates a strong biased favoring of insurers versus a near total lack of actions in the protection of consumers from the unscrupulous and unlawful actions by many of the country's largest and most powerful national interstate insurers which are indicated as bad faith insurers. From research, experience and input from the many thousands of Americans, FBIC knows not to expect any meaningful actions or any real cooperation by the NAIC or individual states DOI commissioners and the Departments they oversee. Instead, FBIC expects the usual politically correct press releases from them espousing the same rhetoric and hyperboles in the past, indicating the alleged actions they are supposedly taking to investigate the insurers related criminal activities. According to their alleged usual routine, they will issue these periodic press releases to the media which espouse and give the implication that investigations are underway, active, and ongoing. As usual they hope their press releases will be adequate enough to stave off the persistence of the Press looking for interviews and more specific details. Their preferred modus operandi in between press releases is the exact opposite, that is to run and hide quietly behind their vaulted tightly closed doors and remain as quiet as possible. But when given no choice by a persistent reporter for the Press, their canned routine is to comment only on their last press release, no more and no less.  When cornered and really pressured into a corner for comment, the occasional use of the "we never comment on ongoing investigations" appears to be most suitable.


_______________________________________


Below is a stat that has a broad range.....actually most government watchdogs place the amount at $400 billion a year and rising.  This amount is staggering and it is why neo-liberals and neo-cons are claiming that the Medicare Trusts will be empty in just a decade.  IT WAS LOOTED BY THE HEALTH INDUSTRY AND FRAUDULENT INSURANCE CLAIMS.  Then, neo-liberals allowed these same health institutions write the Affordable Care Act privatizing all public health and deregulating and making global corporations of our health care.

Please stop allowing neo-liberals to control the Democratic Party.  The people's party is the one that should put protecting public wealth first.



Industry Execs Targeted for Health Fraud
Posted in Health Insurance , Medicaid , Medicare


June 1st, 2011



Health care fraud, especially in the areas of Medicare and Medicaid, is known to be costly. In fact, the government is said to lose between $60 billion and $2 trillion to fraud every year.

We Must Stop the Rampant Fraud in the Health Care Industry

www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/we-must-stop...  

Jun 29, 2009 · What we have seen over the last several decades is the systemic fraud perpetrated by private insurance companies, private drug companies, and private for ...

_______________________________________

I am shouting about this corporate fraud because it is expanding into insurance industries like LIFE INSURANCE.  If you watch free TV the commercials are on Life Insurance corporation after another.  They are using the decline in American people's wealth as the scare tactic behind buying LIFE INSURANCE.....you don't want to leave your family with your expense.  This is the same industry that used AIG to bring down the economy and take millions of people's homes through the subprime mortgage fraud.  We got your house, now come to us to protect you after you die......OH REALLY?????

What they are doing is setting the stage for the exact economic collapse that took AIG into bankruptcy unable to pay its debt and having US taxpayers paying 100% of insurance bets on subprime mortgage loans.  Only this time, it will be Life Insurance.  They are taking all that equity you and I are paying each month and using it to leverage 1,000 times what they can afford and guess what?  AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE BOND MARKET IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER.  They will be taken into bankruptcy with your equity disappearing.

NEO-LIBERALS IN CONGRESS ACTUALLY PASSED LEGISLATION ALLOWING INSURANCE CORPORATIONS TO ACT AS BANKS WITH THE POLICY INSTALLMENTS----LEVERAGING BEYOND WHAT CAN BE COVERED.


ALL OF MARYLAND'S POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.


This is a partial clip of a great look at how the insurance industry is being allowed to become as entwined and leveraged as the financial industry creating the same conditions of too-big-to-fail and propensity to collapse.

Systemic Risk and the U.S. Insurance
Sector

By J. David Cummins and Mary A. Weiss
Temple University




Systemic Risk and the U.S. Insurance Sector

Abstract

This paper examines the potential for the U.S. insurance industry to cause systemic risk events that spill over to other segments of the economy. We examine primary indicators that determine whether institutions are systemically risky as well as contributing factors that exacerbate vulnerability to systemic events. Evaluation of systemic risk is based on a detailed financial analysis of the insurance industry, its role in the economy, and the interconnectedness of insurers. The primary conclusion is that the core activities of the U.S. insurers do not pose systemic risk.
However, life insurers are vulnerable to intra-sector crises because of leverage and liquidity risk; and both life and property-casualty insurers are vulnerable to reinsurance crises arising from counterparty credit exposure. Non-core activities such as derivatives trading have the potential to cause systemic risk, and most global insurance organizations have exposure to derivatives markets. To reduce systemic risk from non-core activities, regulators need to develop better mechanisms for insurance group supervision.



By way of preview, the analysis suggests that the core activities of insurers are not a major source of systemic risk. However, there are several sources of exposure to intra-sector crises, which could potentially spill over into the broader economy if sufficiently severe. For example, a substantial proportion of insurers have very high exposure to one or a few reinsurance counterparties, suggesting the possibility of a reinsurance spiral that could lead to substantial financial deterioration. In the life insurance industry, the high leverage of the life insurers, exposure of surplus to reinsurance defaults, and insurer investment in mortgage backed securities raise concerns about sectoral stability.


MEANWHILE-----

While they are leveraging themselves to the point of collapse-----they have a new revenue source-----SELLING YOUR PERSONAL INSURANCE DATA
....a profit bonanza.  So, too-big-to-fail and emergency bailouts with bankruptcy clearing all that need to pay consumer LIFE INSURANCE policies and VOILA-----you have AIG all over again.

THAT'S WHERE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ARE TAKING US!


All of that data you send in that is supposed to be confidential?  FORGET ABOUT IT-----IT IS EARNING INSURANCE INDUSTRIES BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AS A PRODUCT.


How the Insurance Industry Should Leverage Big Data

  Posted February 27, 2014


The Insurance Industry generates vast amounts of data, from legacy systems, call centre dialogues to customer records and it is multiplying rapidly. It is time for the insurance companies to start getting access to all this available data and start analysing it. In this video, Laura Hay – National Leader Insurance KPMG, talks about the massive potential of Big Data, Mobile and Predictive Analytics for the Insurance industry.


0 Comments

August 27th, 2014

8/27/2014

0 Comments

 
Here in Baltimore the media and watchdogs expose scandals and corruption all the time and nothing happens.  If you go to a Baltimore Board of Estimates meeting you will see no one protesting anymore because the Board has worn down all of the contractors seeing what is widespread bid rigging and inflation.  I was at a meeting where an out of state contractor's bid was so much lower and he was as qualified and was incredulous as he was turned away from protest.  People no longer go to the meetings because they are so closed to justice there is no way through normal public channels to seek justice.  This is what happens on the state and Federal level as well.  Now that global corporations are getting contract bids from all levels of government and subcontracting ----they are the only ones pocketing all of this fraud and corruption.  Local contractors are left to the status of subcontractor having to bid so low as to not be able to earn a profit.  They then lower the standards for their workers so everyone is effected by this massive and systemic fraud.  Let's take a look again today at a local fraud and then national.  Remember, your pols are creating these conditions.  They could shout loudly, place pressure on the people in the process or the Attorney General to give due process and equal protection but the laws they are passing moves to further keep the public from accessing justice. 

NEO-LIBERALS ARE WORKING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS AND NOT YOU AND ME!  STOP VOTING FOR THE SAME INCUMBENTS AND RUN FOR POLITICAL OFFICE!

Below you see how our public utilities are being corrupted by this privatization push.  My concern for Smart Meters is they are set to gather data to sell and that the goal will be to ration water and electricity.  Even greater than that is that the process has already been filled with fraud and corruption.  California, Texas, and Arizona were ground zero for this privatization and installation of Smart Meters and tons of articles exist speaking of billing inflation-----the high cost of the product and installation----all when the public system we used for a century has worked just fine until the last decade when public employees were fired and bills were 'estimated'. 

When global corporations commit fraud----no one goes after them.  Imagine a $600 utility bill and how you would get that back?  Well, those already exposed to this are shouting -----YOU DON'T GET IT BACK AND YOUR STATE WILL NOT HELP YOU!


In Maryland, O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly are so neo-liberal as to pass laws that fine you for opting out and making those fines grow too costly to have a choice.  They say----YOU WILL CONNECT---WE WANT THAT DATA!


Another Attorney General exposes "smart" meter scam
Written by Donna Hancock
Date: 04-22-2013
Subject: Big Brother
Sent from at reader:

“What the record sadly lacks is a discussion of competing considerations regarding the program or the necessity of the program and its costs as related to any net benefit to customers.”
~ Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette

Warren Woodward

55 Ross Circle

Sedona, Arizona 86336

928 204 6434

April 20, 2013

Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC)

Docket Control Center

1200 West Washington Street

Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Re: Docket # E-00000C-11-0328

Commissioners;

           In addition to both the Attorneys General of Illinois and Connecticut, the Attorney General of Michigan has also issued a statement calling into question the efficacy of “smart” meters and the “smart” grid.

           Salient excerpts:

·         “A net economic benefit to electric utility ratepayers from ... smart meter programs has yet to be established.”

·         “Any assumption that large numbers of residential customers will have the time, ability and motivation to attend to, and act upon daily or even hourly changes in their electrical is questionable.”

·         “What the record sadly lacks is a discussion of competing considerations regarding the program or the necessity of the program and its costs as related to any net benefit to customers.” [italics in original]

           The Michigan Attorney General's statement (enclosed and available online here: http://efile.mpsc.state.mi.us/efile/docs/17000/0408.pdf) reinforces what I have said repeatedly: the only benefit of the “smart” grid is to utilities, not ratepayers. Utilities are gaming the system through their 8 to 10% guaranteed rate of return on so-called “capital investments”.

           Of course another part of the scam is the proven over-billing of “smart” meters. California's KION/FOX35 TV did a three month side-by-side comparison of a “smart” meter and a calibrated mechanical analog meter. After three months the “smart” meter showed an extra 37 kilowatt hours. The test is consistent with anecdotal over-billing reports I receive from Arizonans. Do the math. I calculate a similar rip-off in Arizona would net APS over $20 million more per year. (“PG&E Smart Meter Side By Side Test Final Results” – http://www.kionrightnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14016659)

           What a miserable pity for Arizona ratepayers that the ACC never followed through on its 2007 decision that called for the costs and benefits of the “smart” grid to be considered. Indeed, “What the record sadly lacks is a discussion of competing considerations regarding the program or the necessity of the program and its costs as related to any net benefit to customers.”

           When will it be admitted that the ACC made a colossal mistake by allowing the utilities to install “smart” meters without any regulatory oversight or examination? How much more ratepayer money will be wasted on this utility scam, while the already bloated salaries of APS executives are set to double and triple? (“APS offering executives potential bonuses for 2013” - http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2012/12/28/aps-offering-executives-potential.html?ana=yfcpc)

Sincerely,

 Warren Woodward

Cc: Governor Jan Brewer, Attorney General Tom Horne



_____________________________________________
I had a friend run into these problems where late water bills end in your house being placed for auction.  The City Hall allows citizens homes to be handed to an investment firm buying the debt.  My friend asked 'DO YOU WANT MY HOUSE' to which the City Council person said----yes they do.  It's in a valuable section of the city.  The article below is from 2012 but it is still happening today.  Nothing has changed.

Baltimore uses fraud and corruption to take people's houses from them and it of course hits those struggling financially as it is.  WHEN GOVERNMENT PREYS ON THE PUBLIC FOR REVENUE RATHER THAN COLLECT IT FROM CORPORATIONS----

You have a neo-liberal or neo-con working City Hall.  GET RID OF THEM!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         Contact: Lester Davis Monday, March 5, 2012        410-396-4804 (office)   443-835-0784 (mobile)
Council President Young Calls for Moratorium on Placing Liens Against Properties Based Solely on Unpaid Water or Sewer Charges
Legislation comes after audit reveals dozens of homes were placed under lien based on estimated water bills


BALTIMORE
, MD –City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young has taken the bold step of calling for a moratorium on listing properties in the City’s annual tax sale based solely on unpaid water or sewer charges.

Council President Young will introduce a resolution at tonight’s City Council meeting requesting a moratorium on placing liens on properties with unpaid water or sewer charges. The moratorium would be in place for a two year period, or until the Departments of Public Works and Finance are able to create a viable and fair system for billing the more than 400,000 city and Baltimore County customers served by DPW. Tonight’s resolution will be followed on Monday, March 26, 2012, by the introduction of an ordinance that would enforce the moratorium through a change in city law.

Council President Young’s legislation was prompted by a recent audit that found widespread problems with the integrity of the billing system used by the Department of Public Works to charge residents for water and sewer usage.

Some of the troubling findings from the audit include:

  • 38,000 customers in Baltimore City and Baltimore County were over-billed, resulting in refunds totaling more than $4 million.
  • More than 18,000 properties were billed based solely on estimates, with no actual meter readings for a year or longer.
  • More than 2,600 customers were billed based solely on estimated meter readings for at least 4 ½ years.
  • Efforts by customers to correct these billing issues by requesting actual meter readings often resulted in the customers subsequently being over-billed.
  • $31.7 million, or 25 percent, of the total adjusted water billings for the year examined resulted from estimated billing.
Council President Young has a history of working to solve long-standing problems with the city’s water billing system. As recently as 2010, Council President Young supported legislation by Maryland State Sen. James Brochin that sought to stop the forced sale or foreclosure of properties due to unpaid water or sewer bills. Council President Young has also introduced legislation in the City Council to address this persistent problem.

“I’ve encountered too many constituents on fixed incomes, who routinely have to choose between feeding their families and buying needed medication or paying improperly estimated water bills, which if left unpaid have the danger of forcing them into homelessness,” Council President Young said. “It’s time we do something serious to remedy this situation, which has driven too many Baltimoreans further into poverty.”

In May 2010, 851 properties were included in the city’s tax sale based solely on estimated readings for one or more years. Some of these bills were for just hundreds of dollars, and a DPW review suggested that in at least one instance a property would not have been eligible for the tax sale if actual readings, instead of estimates, had been used.

Ms. Lelia Ellerbe, who has lived at Alameda Place in North Baltimore for 18 years, said that she recently contacted Council President Young’s office after growing increasingly suspicious about inflated water bills. Ms. Ellerbe said her research showed that nearly a dozen of her neighbors had received identical water bills over several billing cycles, despite differences in their water consumption.

“If you’re on a fixed income, a discrepancy with your water bill could be extremely detrimental,” Ms. Ellerbe said.

Placing unnecessary financial burdens on families during difficult economic times is harmful and unacceptable, but overcharges on water and sewer bills are especially dangerous because the charges, if left unpaid, are routinely converted into liens against the properties. The liens can then be sold or foreclosed on, which could lead to a family losing its home because of an unpaid water or sewer bill.

Click here for a copy of Council President Young’s resolution

_____________________________________

If corporations are not paying taxes, getting all kinds of subsidy, and committing huge frauds-----we need the working and middle-class paying lots of fines and fees to state and local government.  That is what speed cameras is about.  In Baltimore it became so corrupt and fraudulent that thousands of people were ticketed without cause and we could not get City Hall to turn off the cameras.  It took a huge upswell of citizen rage to have these faulty cameras turned off.

Again, a public employee used to do just fine randomly setting up speed zones to keep citizens aware.  THAT IS ALL THAT IS NEEDED.   Now, you have no idea when an infraction happens and almost no way to fight it.

The reason all this exists is no oversight and accountability and no public justice makes the conditions for a free-for-all in corporate operations.  Remember, all these businesss getting these contracts are global corporations.


This article is long but it does a great job at showing how massive the corporate grab for money has become.

Speed Cameras: A Scam the Motorist Cannot Win

It's all about the revenue

May 9, 2013 by Doug Gill

So glad we are all better drivers these days. No cell phone calls, no texting, no smoking with the snowflakes present, mandatory seat belts, helmet laws, the crackdown on drunk drivers, sobriety checkpoints, red light cameras, work zone cameras, speed cameras – why, getting behind the wheel these days is the motoring equivalent of being a babe in its mama’s arms.

Well, one may think that is so – especially the way the elected ninnies tout all the “safety” regulations they’ve enacted, particularly when it comes to traffic surveillance.
But the truth? Well, the reality belies what our lawmakers are shoveling, as 2012 saw the highway death total climb faster than at any time since 1975.

Yet, fudged safety stats notwithstanding, the real truth about traffic cameras lies not in the amount of lives saved and accidents avoided, but in the enormous amount of revenue it supplies both the camera manufacturer and the jurisdictions that embrace these forms of policing for profit.

And in most instances the profits roll in whether the cameras are accurate or not… and these contraptions are proving to be anything but precise.

The evidence of that inaccuracy is overwhelming.
In mid-April, Baltimore City became the latest jurisdiction to join the ever-growing list of cities/municipalities that are revamping, reevaluating or in some cases eliminating their revenue-generating speed camera programs.

The Department of Transportation issued a news release saying Baltimore City has temporarily suspended use of its red light and speed cameras because “the devices haven’t been accurate.”
Of course, that explanation reeks of dishonesty; if accuracy was the true reason for shelving the automated cash-snatchers they would have been abandoned six months after implementation.

As of April 1, more than 580 communities had welcomed some form – red light, speed, work zone – of traffic enforcement cameras. And while 29 states currently have no camera enforcement laws on the books, only 12 states have banned the use of speed cameras.
Seven states currently prohibit red light cameras.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 66 bills related to photo enforcement have been presented nationwide so far in 2013.

But at the same time, the critical chorus against these boxed money-grabs is growing exponentially.

In New York, the same state senate that nearly always accepts Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Liberal credit card put the kibosh on a plan for cameras in New York City, prompting Emperor Michael Bloomberg to throw a hissy and announce that the next time a speeder kills a kid it will be the legislature’s fault.

Shocking, I know: Bloomberg desperate to support for-profit businesses other than his own.

In Ohio, Judge Robert Ruehlman ordered the Elmwood Place township to halt usage of the cameras saying they are “a scam” and described the issuing of thousands of $105 citations as a “high-tech game of 3-Card Monty.”

Similar rulings have ignited debate from sea to strobe-flashing sea, and Baltimore’s actions are now at the forefront of the discussions.

Not only did the city suspend use of the cameras, officials also agreed to nullify more than 6,000 tickets that had been mailed to the alleged violators.

Total cost? Over 300 grand. In the last fiscal year the city’s speed cameras – just the speed cameras – generated $19 million.

Gesture, meet token.

Obviously, the business partnerships between camera companies and cities willing to deliberately tweak their speed limits, camera locations and caution lights for maximum ticket profits, rather than for safety, are thriving in spite of symbolic damage control.
“The cameras have never really fully been tested,” Gene Simmers, a retired Maryland State Highway Administration employee, told CBS Philadelphia. Simmers was referencing a state report that found the cameras were not tested as many times as they should have been and that the type of speed detection equipment used by the cameras in highway work zones was not approved by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Pennsylvania media is interested in the thoughts of a former SHA employee because the state legislature in Harrisburg had been considering expanding the automated enforcement programs.

Now, thanks to some of the laughable examples of Baltimore City’s camera follies, even AAA Mid-Atlantic has joined the anti-camera chorus.

“It wasn’t even moving and it got a ticket,” AAA spokesperson Jenny Robinson told CBS News, referencing a Baltimore delivery truck that was issued a citation for traveling 57 miles-per-hour in a 25-mph zone even though video from the camera showed the truck was nearly at a standstill.
“That’s one example of the concerns that we have with automatic enforcement,” Robinson continued. “If it’s not accurate then there’s no point in using it.”
But there is a point in using them, and that purpose is to continue reaping the benefits of the $6 billion per year that Americans pay for speeding violations.

According to an extensive investigation by The Baltimore Sun we’ve learned – through the former camera company’s own admission – that the error rate for these devices exceeds five percent. And more than 1.6 million tickets have been issued since 2009.
And the city nullified 6,000.


“The troubles with Baltimore’s speed camera system have raised the eyebrows of motorists, legislators and traffic safety advocates,” wrote AAA spokesperson Ragina Averella, “and have truly called the integrity of the city’s entire program into question.”
But it’s not just Baltimore. Prince George’s County is taking action to stop Fairmount Heights from issuing any camera citations because the town appears to be in violation of a state law that allows photo enforcement only in school zones and requires that cameras are properly announced via signage.

In Laurel, the city is under fire for circumventing state requirements for independent calibration of the cameras.

Dozens of other national jurisdictions are waking up to elected officials trying to follow the lead of former D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty who, in 2010, accelerated the revenue-vs-safety debate when he raised traffic fines – in one instance from $50 – $125 – to help balance his city’s budget.
And why not? In a report released by AAA one camera on one stretch of the District’s New York Avenue raised $11 million in two years.

That kind of cash comes in mighty handy when you need to grease the lobbyists that help government skim the taxpayer.

If the actions of Fenty and other such kindred governmentals don’t offer proof enough of automated enforcement offering no more than a direct line to your wallet, witness the actions of the Maryland Legislature during the just-concluded General Assembly sessions.
Delegate John Cluster (R – Baltimore County) introduced a bill that would have imposed a daily calibration check on the cameras. Delegate Jon Cardin’s (D – Baltimore County) legislation would have forced the courts to impose a $1,000 fine on the camera company if it were found that a citation was issued erroneously. Delegate Frank Conaway (D – Baltimore City) wanted those who maintain the speed enforcement systems to pay a $250 penalty to the motorist who received said erroneous ticket.

Various speed camera bills were introduced by Sen. James Brochin, Sen. E.J. Pipkin, Del. Carolyn Howard and Del. Mike Smigiel and they not only addressed accuracy and effectiveness, but some also called for outright elimination of the program.
When the confetti dropped (made from shredded taxpayer dollars) in early April to signal the end of the session not a single traffic camera bill had passed, including a final version that would have placed stricter limits on where local governments could put speed cameras, required appointments of ombudsmen to hear complaints, and strengthened language prohibiting governments from entering into new contracts under which they paid private companies for each ticket issued.

Noting the bill’s failure, Sen. Brochin told the Baltimore Sun that the final product would have helped protect Maryland drivers from abuses of the camera system.
Of course, Marylanders are use to having elected officials that continually fail to do the right thing – even if it is our own fault for sending the same repeat offenders back to Annapolis.

No amount of information – no amount of facts counteracting the myths of these devices – will prevent lawmakers from trumping-up the safety angle while gorging at the predatory revenue trough.
“We’ve been able to achieve a pretty significant reduction in traffic fatalities,” Gov. Martin O’Malley weighed in on the safety aspects of traffic cameras in Maryland. “I think part of that has to do with better technology and all of us taking it a little slower. We are saving a lot of lives and reducing traffic fatalities.”

Well, save for that pesky spike in 2012 – and even though he ignored the numbers that showed fatal crashes on state highways dropped in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

State wide use of speed cameras wasn’t authorized until 2009.

In Baltimore the focus remains on getting the cash IV back into the arm of the motoring public. In January the city switched from its current camera provider – Xerox State & Local Solutions – to Brekford, a Maryland-based “upstart” in the industry that has been contracted to install/replace 72 speed cameras throughout the city. In addition to costing $2.2 million, the contract will allow a vendor to share in the proceeds of the fines collected – for every $75 traffic ticket generated by the cameras and collected by the city, Brekford is rebated $21. For every $40 ticket, Brekford gets $11.20.
Also of interest is an April 19 report by Baltimore Brew that notes that members of Brekford’s board include Douglas DeLeaver, a former chief of the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) Police; Jessie Lee Jr., executive director of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (which has longstanding ties to the Baltimore City Police Department).

The Brew also reported that the head of Brekford’s speed camera division, Maurice Nelson, was hired from Montgomery County’s automated traffic enforcement program.
In addition, the $2.2 million was handed over to Brekford even though that company’s “clerical mistakes” (and software compatibility issues) are what resulted in an undisclosed number of erroneous tickets given out to motorists.
And, Brekford scored all the repeat business without having to jump through the hoops of competitive bidding
.

“We decided it was not practical to seek competitive bids on these additional cameras,” Timothy M. Krus, the city’s chief purchasing agent said in response to City Comptroller Joan Pratt questioning the process.

When it comes to the cameras themselves as well as the government officials who vote to authorize them, it becomes more apparent that Judge Reuhlman’s said it best: automated traffic enforcement is “a scam the motorist cannot win.”


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August 26th, 2014

8/26/2014

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TO REBUILD OUR ECONOMY AND DEMOCRACY WE NEED TO REINSTATE RULE OF LAW AND REBUILD OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY.  DO NOT BELIEVE THE SMALL GOVERNMENT MANTRA. 

Trillions of dollars are still being lost every year from our Federal, state, and local government coffers from fraud and corruption.  It is simply being redirected from public programs and into the pockets of connected corporations.  Obama has been as committed to dismantling all government oversight and accountability and placed Wall Street people in our public agencies to do that redirecting of public funds.  It's like having an invading army looting your Treasury.

When a neo-liberal calls for Open Government they do not mean public transparency----they mean selling the public's data to whatever corporation can use it.

Neo-cons don't even try to disguise that they do not recognize our rights as citizens to privacy and equal protection from this fleecing of our government coffers and personal wealth.  Maryland has pretty much dismantled all of public justice.

Let's take a few days to see the scope of this looting.  It is not only one corporate industry....the financial industry drives it but there is literally a free for all.


Feds Transparency Website Can’t Account for $619 Billion


By: Rachel Blevins Aug 7, 2014

In the midst of the Obama administration’s attempt to implement the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, a recent government audit shows that $619 billion is missing from 302 federal programs.

The Transparency Act was passed by Congress last year to “expand the amount of federal spending data available to the public.”

USASpending.gov was originally created as a way to make government spending more transparent. However, a report from the Government Accountability Office revealed that only 2% to 7% of the recorded spending data in 2012 is “fully consistent with agencies’ records.”

The report stated that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should implement more oversight of the spending data from federal agencies, and that until it does, “any effort to use the data will be hampered by uncertainties about accuracy.”

Jamal Brown, a spokesman for the OMB, made a statement insisting that the OMB is “committed to federal spending transparency and working with agencies to improve the completeness and accuracy of data submissions.”


According to USA Today, The Department of Health and Human Services was one of the 302 federal agencies, which failed to report money it had spent. This agency “failed to report nearly $544 billion, mostly in direct assistance programs like Medicare.”

The Department of the Interior neglected to report $5.3 billion it had spent, due to the fact that it claimed its accounting systems “were not compatible with the data formats required by USASpending.gov.”

USA Today also reported that for more than 22% of federal awards, “the spending website literally doesn’t know where the money went.”

The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Senator Tom Carper, acknowledged the problem saying, “We live in a world in which information drives decisions, and given the budget constraints that our government faces, we need reliable information on how and where our money is being spent.“


____________________________________________________


The health data once protected under HIPPA is now an open market.  States are selling public health data they now consider a new revenue source.  Johns Hopkins has a huge computer network that does nothing but receive and process data from around the state and from NSA networks.  All the money made from this data is pocketed as profit.  We see all kinds of efforts at protecting data----at the same time we have credit cards using fingerprints for easy access....liking simply signing is too hard.  Hackers access this data and now identity theft will include people's fingerprints. 

DIDN'T COMMIT THAT CRIME------WE HAVE YOUR FINGERPRINTS THAT SAY YOU DID!  JUST THINK HOW THAT CAN BE USED BY AN AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP.

I won't go into the national fingerprinting goal of Republicans for decades to say that is what this will do---I want to look at how people's money is being made more vulnerable and we are being forced at some point to use these technologies.
It was said this year that Wall Street and the NSA stated hackers like Snowden and Anonymous are making it impossible for NSA systems to keep data secure and our businesses systems are tens of thousands time more vulnerable to people around the world wanting to steal our money.  They do not secure these systems they build---they simply build and sell them. 

There is no thought given to societal implications.


Discover testing fingerprint payments

November 26, 2012|By Becky Yerak | Tribune staff reporter

Discover Financial Services Inc. employees will be able to pay by finger at their Riverwoods headquarters' cafeteria and convenience stores as they become the first to test a new payment system.

Discover, which is working with French biometrics firm Natural Security on the project and which plans to get the pilot underway in the next three months, has previously used hundreds of its employees to test new technologies including various "contactless" payments, in which credit cards are simply tap. It plans to test the fingerprint payment system with 300 to 350 employees.

Discover employees who want to participate will register at an on-site kiosk, which will read an index fingerprint and assign a number to it. Each employee will also receive a key fob with a chip that includes information about their individual credit-card account as well as their fingerprint.
 
To complete a purchase, the user will place his or her finger on a fingerprint reader near checkout, with the key fob kept nearby, such as in a pocket or purse, for the transaction to go through. One security benefit to the process is that it guarantees that the fob or credit card and its owner are at the same place at the same time. It could also be faster and more convenient as people won't have to fumble around with their credit cards.
 
The credit-card company's test comes a few years after U.S. grocer Jewel abandoned its program with Pay by Touch, which got about $300 million in debt and equity financing from investors. 

In 2006, Pay by Touch said about 10,000 Chicagoans had signed up for its fingerprint-payment program. A year later, some creditors tried forcing the owner of Pay by Touch into involuntary bankruptcy as its finances went into disarray. By 2008, the Pay by Touch machines were removed  from Jewel stores.
 
Troy Bernard, Discover's global head of emerging payments, said his company is working on several payment technologies that could come to fruition both in the short- and long-term.
 
"Biometrics falls into long-term solutions," Bernard said, acknowledging potential concerns about both biometrics as well as the barrier to entry of making someone register for something.


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You see below Wall Street is selling this as a means to cut down on identity theft but as this article states----it will be just as vulnerable with much more of your identity to steal.  So, you have a credit card stolen----you close the account.  You have a biometric credit card stolen and they have you for life.

Monkeetech announces iris-based credit card fraud prevention ...www.biometricupdate.com/201306/...based-credit-card-fraud...   Cached

Monkeetech has announced the development of a new (patent-pending) iris scan biometric credit card fraud prevention system, called EyeWatch.


Your Biometric Identity Proof Positive


By Jake Stroup Identity Theft Expert

One way that shows a lot of promise in trying to combat identity theft is implementing biometric identification. You can see this on television crime shows like CSI, NCIS, etc. Biometrics include fingerprints, facial recognition, voice patterns, retinal scans, DNA, the list goes on.

Although it has been a scapegoat for many identity thefts, in many ways technology has provided some of the most solid defenses against the rising tide of identity theft. RFID tags, data encryption and innovations along those lines have gone a long way to helping us secure our personal information. The Federal government is even considering using biometric ID cards to combat illegal immigration. In fact, it's easy to make the argument that the problem isn't in the technology but in our lack of interest in protecting personal information.


Victims of identity theft report that it can take three to five years, or even longer to fix an identity theft problem. Keep in mind, you can get a new credit card in two weeks, once you have all the information to the bank or credit issuing authority. But who's going to the issue you a new set of fingerprints if they get stolen?

The idea of somebody stealing your biometric information isn't as farfetched as you might hope. It has already been shown how simple it would be to plant false DNA evidence. This article even goes so far as to say, "Any biology undergraduate can perform this."

In the end we will probably see the same problems arise, and some think the problem may get even worse. This is because the way biometrics work isn't really any different from credit cards.

What's The Difference? It's easy to think of credit in terms of the plastic cards in our pocket, since we can touch them, and that makes it more real. But this isn't the case. Today, credit is really nothing more than a long string of numbers stored in a computer somewhere. When you swipe your card at the local Wal-Mart, the information stored on your card is converted into a number as well and sent to your bank. If the numbers match up you get to walk home with a bag full of goodies.

  Biometric identification works in a similar manner, but you're using your fingerprint instead of a card. It will still be turned into a string of numbers and run through a computer network. In the end does it really matter where the string of numbers comes from when an identity thief gets hold of it?


Despite the predictions of some experts, a database is still just a database. A hacker can still steal data from a computer or network, it doesn't matter if that data is a credit card number, or a digital voice print.

As far as security is concerned, many experts agree that maintaining "token" forms of identification are probably superior. Token identification is a card, password, PIN etc. – something that can be canceled, or changed if it is lost, misplaced or stolen. On the other hand biometric identification can't be lost, misplaced, or loaned to a friend, but it can't be replaced if it's compromised, either. This, combined with certain privacy issues (tracking, profiling, consumer-related privacy issues etc.) are making experts give serious consideration to whether or not biometrics are a viable option on a large scale.

It's easy to understand why this brings a sense of security, since no two fingerprints are the same. On the surface it seems like a secure form of identification. But security doesn't come from knowing that you are you, security only comes from knowing the information associated with your name is accurate, no matter what database that information might be in. In other words, if an identity thief managed to convince a fingerprint scanner that they were you, they will probably not come back to court if they manage to get released on bail/bond. In that situation, proving who you are won't help.

Biometrics have a few quirks of their own, though. For example, some states have started implementing a "no–smiles" policy for driver's licenses. This is because those states are now using facial recognition software to stem the flow of driver's license fraud. But the software might get confused if the subject smiles.

Furthermore, advocates like to say it's impossible to duplicate (for example) a fingerprint, but that's already been proven wrong. In fact, it's easy to do with a simple laser printer, and a little bit of spit.

But the biggest consideration is that a biometric identity system is only going to be as good as the information that's put into it in the first place. In other words, your fingerprint won't tell anyone who you are, all it can really do is keep you from using somebody else's identity once you are in that system. In fact, identity theft expert John Sileo said, "If we implement biometrics without doing our due diligence on protecting the identity,
we are doomed to repeat history — and our thumbprint will become just another Social Security Number."


And that would be a grim future indeed.

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The American people need to look at the Bush/Obama years as the USSR Perestroika where all the common public wealth was divided between a few connected families.  That is what is happening now.  We had our Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler who worked hard to see Maryland citizens got as little money from massive subprime mortgage fraud as possible making the small payments made into charitable contributions and tax write-offs just as the article below says.  That has happened to all settlement money.  Most of the money goes back to the government which then hands it to corporate subsidy.

I think Gansler was actually surprised when he received 5% of Democratic votes for Maryland governor as if people don't know.  He did almost beat Anthony Brown with 12% of the Democratic vote.  For some reason people just don't like this systemic fraud and corruption.


REMEMBER, WHEN A GOVERNMENT SUSPENDS RULE OF LAW AND DUE PROCESS---IT SUSPENDS STATUTE OF LIMITATION.



'We have seen this pattern - creating the appearance of punishing wrongdoing while actually leaving the bank basically unscathed and unchanged in its practices - over and over again from the Obama administration in the last few years'.


Friday, 22 August 2014 05:29


Bank of America's $16.6 Billion Mortgage Fraud Agreement Is Another Public Relations Stunt


MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT


BuzzFlash at Truthout has written many commentaries on how the Obama administration has been - and continues to be - quite lenient with Wall Street when it comes to financial malfeasance. In particular, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have assiduously avoided, for the most part, any serious institutional or personal criminal responsibility for massive fraud committed by banks too big to fail and other mega-financial institutions. 


The settlement this week between the DOJ and Bank of America for its role in the financial fraud that busted the economy in 2008 (including its acquisition of the scam company it acquired, Countrywide Financial) is yet another example of a large fine that looks like punishment, but amounts to much, much less than meets the eye. Indeed, that is the assessment of an August 21 article in the "Dealmaker" section of The New York Times (NYT): 

"The real financial cost to the bank could be considerably lower," said Laurie Goodman, a specialist in housing at the Urban Institute. "This is helping consumers, but it may not be costing the bank."

The actual pain to the bank could also be significantly reduced by tax deductions. Tax analysts, for instance, estimate that Bank of America could derive $1.6 billion of tax savings on the $4.63 billion of payments to the states and some federal agencies under the settlement. Shares of Bank of America jumped 4 percent on Thursday, suggesting investors believe that the bank could take the settlement in stride.

"The American public is expecting the Justice Department to hold the banks accountable for its misdeeds in the mortgage meltdown," said Phineas Baxandall, an analyst with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization. "But these tax write-offs shift the burden back onto taxpayers and send the wrong message by treating parts of the settlement as an ordinary business expense."

Given that we are talking about a dominant Wall Street bank and financial behemoth, the takeaway sentence from The New York Times is: "Shares of Bank of America jumped 4 percent on Thursday, suggesting investors believe that the bank could take the settlement in stride." When a bank's stock goes up after what initially appears to be a huge fine, you know that it is nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

We have seen this pattern - creating the appearance of punishing wrongdoing while actually leaving the bank basically unscathed and unchanged in its practices - over and over again from the Obama administration in the last few years.


It is true that at least one part of the Bank of America settlement could benefit mortgage holders desperately in need of readjusting the terms of their home loans. That is good:

The consumer relief is expected to help tens of thousands of homeowners across the country. Most notably, the deal could result in Bank of America forgiving billions of dollars in mortgage principal. Unlike the other settlements, a person briefed on the matter said, the Bank of America plan could involve cutting the principal on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a move that will primarily help low- and moderate-income borrowers.

However, as The New York Times points out, this relief is coming much too late for the large number of people who lost their homes to foreclosure in the six years since 2008. It would have assisted tens of thousands more individuals and families if the DOJ had forced Bank of America years ago to be more flexible with underwater mortgage holders. 

The Times notes that the restructuring of loans will have little impact on the finances of Bank of America:

At issue is how much of the cost of the $7 billion in "soft dollars," or help for borrowers, the bank will bear under the settlement. Some of the relief the bank will provide involves cutting the principal of a loan to make it easier for the borrower to pay. The dollar amount of that reduction gets credited toward what it needs to fulfill the settlement. But Bank of America wrote down many of its troubled mortgages years ago. And investment firms, not Bank of America, may now own some of the loans that get written down, potentially shielding the bank from a financial hit. 

Taking a closer look at the Bank of America fine, The New York Times finds that at least half of the $16.8 billion dollars is in the form of soft money or tax breaks. There are also additional financial offsets.

In what has become a traditional part of any DOJ settlement with a bank too big to fail, unnamed DOJ sources are promising to pursue charges against individual executives. Of course, the indictments never appear, but the statements make for good politics with a citizenry that wants to see some personal accountability for fraudulent bank practices.

It is clear now, with a little over two years left in the Obama presidency, that one of his key legacies will be casting little more than a wink and a nod at Wall Street's violations of the law, including a failure to prosecute any high-ranking officials for the illegal and deceptive practices that led to the near-collapse of the United States economy.

_______________________________________
As we watch Wall Street go from billions to trillions of dollars in wealth much from fraud-----the American people are being soaked with fees, fines, and taxes to make up for the government revenue stolen.  Students are deliberately left unemployed//underemployed and mid-life adults are left with no retirement because of the crash and stagnation.  Obama has placed the Department of Education in the hands of Wall Street to treat citizens most in need as if a predator.  Old student loans for a few thousands of dollars grows with thousands of fees and fines in just a few years????


Retirees' Social Security checks garnished for student loans Many had forgotten of old loans

Author: By Patrick M. Sheridan Published On: Aug 24 2014 11:33:31 AM CDT   Updated On: Aug 24 2014 06:30:52 PM CDT



What's surprised Cohen lately is the increasing number of gray-haired people walking in his doors with a problem: A portion of their meager Social Security benefits are being taken by the government to pay for old student loans they had mostly forgotten about.

It's a growing national trend. Last year, 156,000 Americans had their Social Security checks garnished because of student loans they had defaulted on. It's tripled in number from 47,500 in 2006, before the Great Recession. That's according to analysis done by the U.S. Treasury for CNNMoney.


Like Cohen, other groups have noticed the increase too. A leading nonprofit group that works with students on repaying loans, American Student Assistance, has worked this past year with over 1,000 Americans who have had their social security payments garnished to repay outstanding student loans. That's a sharp increase from 200 people in the previous year.

For retirees, any cuts to their Social Security benefits really hurts.

"Social Security means survival. It means food, shelter, medication," said Cohen, a Connecticut attorney, who works with people on debt collection harassment and student loan repayments.

What's worse is that even if the unpaid student loan was small, the amount they owe now is usually a lot larger because of compounding interest rates.

Retired Americans can start collecting Social Security benefits at 62. However, the folks that Cohen has worked with are in their 70's and 80's.

The amount taken from these checks isn't small. The average Social Security monthly check is $1200, the typical amount taken is $180.


Very few student loans can be refinanced and many people have outstanding loans with interest rates locked at over 7%, even though rates have fallen in recent years to below 3%.

Repayment terms on student loans are extremely rigid. They are rarely forgiven even in bankruptcy and people can have their wages garnished if they default.

The issue caught the attention of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who introduced a bill earlier this year to allow millions of people like Anderson to refinance their student loans. However, the bill was blocked in June.

Social workers are also seeing an increase in the number of people with mental and health issues having their Social Security disability checks garnished.

"I had a Korean War veteran in his 80's who had taken out a student loan for his son and then began having health problems. The government took money from his Social Security disability checks - money that he needed to buy medications," said Deanne Loonin, a director at the National Consumer Law Center, which works to provide economic security to low income and disadvantaged people, including the elderly.

According to the government data, the total amount garnished from social security checks last year came to $150 million.

  • Copyright 2014 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
    ___________________________________________



While seniors have their SS seized, the IRS has been allowed to be dismantled and defunded so it is now being fleeced just as Medicare and Medicaid Trusts are.  They make it sound like average people are the avoiders but most of this is corporate tax fraud.


Neo-liberals and neo-cons are simply allowing all public wealth to be gutted and stolen.  We see it to a large extent in Baltimore with Baltimore Development Corporation and Johns Hopkins leading the culture of corruption in the city.

This creates a culture of non-compliance.  Nations like Greece and Italy have never been able to develop structurally because of the massive tax evasion gutting government revenue.  That is what is happening here.....
strangling all sources of revenue to justify AUSTERITY
.  For people that want less IRS you need to know---the working and middle class will take more and more of the burden of revenue no matter the talk of reduced taxes.

ALL OF MARYLAND'S POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS

IRS Funding Cut Days Before Report Shows $330 Billion In Uncollected Taxes Posted: 04/11/2011 6:03 pm EDT Updated: 06/11/2011 5:12 am EDT Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- As part of the budget deal hashed out on Friday evening, lawmakers agreed that no additional federal funds would be used to hire new IRS agents.

Then on Monday, the Government Accountability Office publicly released a study showing that, as of the end of fiscal year 2010, roughly $330 billion in federal taxes had never been paid -- an amount that, if collected, would represent nearly nine times the amount of savings as the budget itself.

The dual developments aren’t shocking. Despite evidence that a single dollar spent on enforcing the tax code could result in up to ten dollars in revenue, politicians, naturally, are reluctant to align themselves with tax collectors. And yet, the sacrificing of funds for IRS agents in the continuing resolution deal underscores a particular problem that seems bound to confront fiscally conscious lawmakers.

“Cutting back on IRS enforcement could easily cost the treasury much more in revenue than it saves,” said Chuck Marr, Director of Federal Tax Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The GAO report, which looks specifically at the issue of passport holders who have failed to pay their full share of taxes, underscores Marr’s point. Titled “Federal Tax Collection: Potential for Using Passport Issuance to Increase Collection of Unpaid Taxes,” the study labels poor enforcement of tax laws and the tax code as a “high-risk” hole in government policy. In fiscal year 2008, passports were issued to about 16 million individuals. Of those, more than 224,000 owed more than $5.8 billion in unpaid federal taxes.

A good chunk of the evasion, the GAO concluded, was committed by individuals with “substantial personal assets” including multi-million-dollar homes and “luxury cars.” One passport recipient bought a house for $2 million and another property for $1.5 million despite owing $1 million in federal taxes.

“If you look, you can find records of most capital gains income,” said Rob Shapiro, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce. “People deposit it in their bank accounts or the institutions may issue reports if it is capital gains on stock transactions. So it is not hard to pick it up if you have the manpower to look for it. And again, given that the salary of an IRS agent is at least as high as the average salary in America, the fact that there is a ten-to-one ratio for the returns on auditing tells you that [tax evasion] is coming from the high-income brackets.”

Regardless of who the worst evaders are, the GAO concludes that “IRS enforcement of federal tax laws is vital,” not just to pinpoint the offenders but to promote “broader compliance.” And what do the study’s authors cite as a compelling reason to beef up IRS functions? A “federal deficit” that “continue[s] to mount.”

Indeed, several close observers of the budget debate have wondered exactly how lawmakers can shudder at going after tax evasion while simultaneously preaching fiscal responsibility on the stump. Marr, for one, noted that Congress has already disbanded a tax reporting provision in the president’s health care reform law that would have resulted in stronger compliance. That was scuttled for politically obvious reasons: the paperwork it placed on small businesses was deemed well beyond burdensome. But the decision to deny funding for more IRS agents doesn’t have such an easy-to-distill an explanation.

“Hiring more IRS agents would have allowed the Obama administration to enforce its agenda, insofar as its agenda is to make sure that people don't cheat on their taxes,” wrote Jonathan Cohn in The New Republic.

Obama has made buffing up the IRS a relative hush-hush plank of his tax reform agenda. Upon entering office he advocated for more funds for the agency, and as part of his 2012 budget, he proposed a 9.4 percent increase so that it could hire roughly 5100 new employees. The proposal, which pivoted off of previous studies that reached similar conclusions as the GAO's, was met with somewhat frenzied pushback from conservative circles -- the specter of black-suited tax collectors roaming the streets undoubtedly on the mind. And almost immediately, the suggested increase in IRS funds became a target of cut-happy legislators.


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August 23rd, 2014

8/23/2014

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Sorry I've been posting these blogs later in the afternoon.....my summertime schedule makes consistency hard.  Please keep coming back-----I am lucky to have thousands of visits.


FOLKS....NEO-LIBERAL MARYLAND HAS NOT ONLY SYSTEMIC ELECTION FRAUD IN THE CASE OF THE ELECTION FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND BUT A NEW LAW THAT PLACES ONLY ANNE ARUNDEL COURTS AS JURISDICTION FOR ELECTION LAWSUITS SHOULD HAVE EVERYONE UP IN ARMS.....THIS IS A REAL POWER-GRAB THAT THREATENS CIVIL RIGHTS AND ELECTION FREEDOM.
  THESE CONDITIONS ARE WHAT HAS EXCLUDED LABOR AND JUSTICE AND SEEK TO MAKE THAT PERMANENT!  Subject Jurisdiction always allows courts in each county/city to handle that subject----for example----disability court/family court.  Law that limits a subject (election) to just one county looks to be unconstitutional.

CINDY WALSH IS STILL EXPECTING TO BE IN THE GENERAL ELECTION FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND!

I want to use today to talk election issues by looking at my lawsuit claiming widespread election irregularities in the Democratic Primary race for Governor of Maryland should invalidate the election results.   As neo-liberals pretend to protect election rights they are consolidating the power of these incumbents with legislation threatening the public's ability to hold the elections process accountable.


Below you see the next step of my court case in Maryland.  I have filed the complaint, served the defendants, written an amended complaint, and the 30 day response period for defendants just passed.  We now need the court to set the trial date and verify it will accept jurisdiction.  In other words----if the court is going to dismiss this case it needs to do it now.  Routine cases can see a wait of 4 months just for jurisdiction and trial date....my case is expedited because Maryland law requires a speedy process for contests to elections for Governor.  I'm not a lawyer so all that I do is not correct or the best approach----but it should get to the end result.

I want to note some of the concerns I have while doing this.  First, the Maryland Assembly moved the cost of funding for Legal Aid---a Federal/Maryland Constitutional right from the state budget to people who file complaints in court nearly doubling the cost to the public to go to court.  The average person will feel the expense of $135 filing fee.  Then Maryland has the plaintiff bare the costs of serving the defendants.  In many cases courts include this serving with the filing fee.  Not too bad with one defendant---but it becomes pretty expensive if you have multiple defendants.  Maryland also has the laws that place the burden of trial costs on plaintiff if case is not won.  I know this cuts on frivolous lawsuits but in an atmosphere of fraud and corruption one doesn't have to have a bad case to not win.  Remember, my case should have been handled by the Maryland Attorney General protecting my rights as a candidate so I should not even be self-representing or taking this to court. All the costs of multiple copies of trial evidence and motions----all the costs of mailing to all defendants should be falling on Maryland Attorney General's office.  They do not have a public justice section or funding allotted to it.  So costs can easily grow to thousands of dollars by the trial's end.





August 26, 2014




                              
Cindy Walsh files motion to Baltimore City Circuit Court regarding date of trial and jurisdiction
                    Civil Action # 24-C-14-004156





Plaintiff notice to court and defendants of prospective trial dates

Plaintiff's Notice Requirement

It is the responsibility of the plaintiff's counsel to give notice of trial and settlement conference dates, times and departments. Only dates set by the court will be noticed by the court.



Your Full Name: Cindy Walsh - Plaintiff

Phone Number (with area code):

Email Address:

Case Number: 24-C-14-004156

Case Title: Cindy Walsh vs Bobbie Mack et al

Name of Party Representing: Self-representing----Cindy Walsh

Cindy Walsh vs Bobbie Mack is an expedited case due to the case being a contest of the election for Governor. The plaintiff requests the trial dates of September 8, 10, or 12, 2014 to meet the expedited requirement set by Maryland law and to give the defendant Linda Lamone added with an amended complaint a two week preparatory period. The original complaint filing and affidavit of process serving of summons was July 21, 2014 with August 21 meeting the original 30 day period for defendant response. The plaintiff has received no response from any defendant as of August 21 so the court should not have pending responses. Due to the expedited nature of this case the plaintiff calls for the court to shorten these scheduling proceedings to include the court's moving forward with setting the trial dates as listed above.


Cindy Walsh is self-representing

Cindy Walsh

2522 N Calvert St

Baltimore, Maryland 21218


_______________________________________

The plaintiff filed this complaint in the Circuit Court of Baltimore and not Anne Arundel County because this case is not protesting actions at the polls, actions regarding ballot presentation or presentation of election material by Maryland Board of Elections. This is not an official capacity lawsuit; it is an individual capacity lawsuit claiming willful and deliberate violation of Federal and State law and Civil Rights. The plaintiff also seeks to challenged the Maryland Assembly's right to legislate which court is given jurisdiction in contests to elections. It has been the right of a plaintiff to file suit in any court qualifying for jurisdiction and the election process effects all citizens of the state. This case and elections do not qualify for special jurisdiction.  Special jurisdiction such as family court has a presence in all counties/cities and is not particular to any one county.  It without a doubt creates an environment of conflict of interest, bias, and/or undue power to have one court system handling all cases especially of a subject having strong civil rights implications like elections.

Many of the election irregularities included in this case occurred in Baltimore City, the plaintiff lives in Baltimore City, and the Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, a defendant has his office in Baltimore City. This motion not only seeks to bring to the attention of the court that this case contesting the election for Governor of Maryland is by law directed to be handled in an expedited manner, but seeks to avoid dismissal on the grounds of jurisdiction. This is an ongoing election with the General Election for Governor of Maryland officially beginning after Labor Day so the Baltimore Circuit Court has the power to rule on jurisdiction without regard to the constitutional challenge and must set the trial date or dismiss sooner rather than later due to the expedited rules of the case.

The plaintiff concerns regarding delays in setting a court trial include:

  • The 30 day period after serving of summons with no response from defendants should provide the court with rights to set a trial date earlier than normal cases. The plaintiff includes in this motion the request for trial dates with the dates desired listed.

  • The plaintiff filed an amended complaint and does not receive summons for two weeks and only by making two calls. The rule of summons has a three-day turn-around from time complaint is filed to issuing summons. The plaintiff loses two weeks in setting trial date because of this delay. Second, the summons for the new defendant in this amended complaint is given 30days for response rather than falling into the time line of the original complaint. If the summons had been sent to the plaintiff in three days this window of two weeks remaining in the original time line would have given the new defendant time to respond to the court. As it is the court looks to add another month and a half to setting a trial date which fails to meet the expedited nature of this case and denies justice for the plaintiff. The new defendant, Linda Lamone needs to be made aware by the court she does not have 30 days to respond in this case and will instead have two weeks (14 days). The 30 day period for the original defendants to respond was over August 22, 2014 ----Lamone will be served by August 25 so we need the trial date set two weeks after this service date. Resolving this court case the first week in September falls into the ongoing election cycle. If the Baltimore Circuit Court decides to dismiss on grounds of jurisdiction the 5 day Appeal requirement of this Maryland election law will have the case resolved with expediency.

  • The plaintiff was told on August 22, 2014 by the court clerks handling filings that the court has not even reviewed defendant responses for this case and will take time to do that before setting a trial date. This sounds like more delay. Since the plaintiff has received no communication from any of the defendants, and the defendants are required by law to include the plaintiff in any communication with the court, it is safe to say the court had no response issues to consider. We need to set the trial date in two weeks to meet the expedited nature of this case.


  • The plaintiff provided proof of process to all defendants in this case by certified mail with restricted delivery.  Signatures were obtained at the addresses attached to each defendant.  On August 4, 2014, the envelope with all of the court documents and summons delivered to Heather Mizeur was returned to Cindy Walsh at her address unopened and stripped of all identifying delivery indicators such as the certified mail and restricted delivery paperwork attached the said envelope as if never delivered.  Plaintiff does not want this used as reason to delay trial date.




The plaintiff asks this court to set this trial date with the original filing date in mind and notify the new defendant Linda Lamone that the 30 day period to respond is actually 14 days. Plaintiff will not receive justice in this case if a decision on trial date does not occur soon after Labor Day.



Self-representing:

Cindy Walsh

2522 N Calvert St

Baltimore, Maryland 21218






MARYLAND ELECTION LAW:

Title 12 Subtitle 2.    Judicial Review of Elections

12-202.  Judicial challenges

a)  In general--- If no other timely and adequate remedy is provided by this article, a registered voter may seek judicial relief from any act or omission relating to an election, whether or not the election has been held, on the grounds that the act or omission:

1)  is inconsistent with this article or other law applicable to the elections process; and
2)  may change or has changed the outcome of the election.

b)  Place and time of filing.---- A registered voter may seek judicial relief under this section in the appropriate circuit court within the earlier of:

1)  10 days after the act or omission or the date the act or omission became known to the petitioner; or

2)  7 days after the election results are certified, unless the election was a gubernatorial primary or special primary election, in which case 3 days after the election results are certified.  (An Code 1957, art. 33, 12-202; 2002, ch.291, 2, 4)


12-204.  Judgement.

a)  In general.  ------- The court may provide a remedy as provided in subsection (b) or (c) if this section if the court determines that the alleged act or omission materially affected the rights of interested parties or the purity of the elections process and:

1) may have changed the outcome of an election already held; or

2) may change the outcome of a pending election.

b)  Act or omission that changed election outcome.  ----If the court makes an affirmative determination that an act or omission was committed that changed the
outcome of an election already held, the court shall:
1)  declare void the election for the office or question involved and order that the election be held again at a date set by the court; or

2)  order any other relief that will provide an adequate remedy.

c)  Act or omission that may change outcome of pending election.  -----  If the court makes an affirmative determination that an act or omission has been committed that may change the outcome of a pending election, the court may:


1)  order any relief it considers appropriate under the circumstances; and

2)  if the court determines that it is the only relief that will provide a remedy,, direct that the elections for the office or question involved be postponed and rescheduled on a date set by the court.

d)  Clear and convincing evidence.  -----  A determination of the court under subsection (a) of this section shall be based on clear and convincing evidence.  (An Code 1957, art. 33, 12-204; 2002, ch. 291, 2, 4)




 

The motion below addresses what I feel is a real threat to the public's ability for impartial judicial action.  Maryland just passed a law that requires contests of elections be given to the courts in Anne Arundel.  Special jurisdiction for elections.  This mirrors having jurisdiction for Wall Street banks in the states having a strong banking presence.  It gives the defendant the immediate advantage with the plaintiff having no control of jurisdiction.  This is why if we sue banks we are taken to New York or North Carolina because that is where Wall Street and Wall Street South is located.  Having special jurisdiction for something as general as elections taken to one county takes the plaintiff out of his/her district and into what we all know is a very crony  Annapolis system.....which is what this lawsuit is about.  A plaintiff has always had the right to file where he/she wants if the jurisdiction rules are met.....I live/work in Baltimore/many of the crimes were committed here.....for example.  I ate lunch one day in Annapolis and asked where to go to share my views on issues and the restaurant owner told me----they don't want you there----they do as they like.  Is there bias against this kind of lawsuit in Anne Arundel courts?  Let's stay with the historical precedent of plaintiffs filing in any court they want and even special jurisdiction courts are available in every county/city. 

So, I am challenging the law setting Anne Arundel with special jurisdiction for elections.  Now, I filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court rather than Anne Arundel because I want this court to decide whether to take jurisdiction or dismiss this case for lack of jurisdiction.  The contest of constitutionality will still go to Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler as he is a defendant in this lawsuit.  As a plaintiff I can take this to the Maryland AG and then the US AG if necessary to fight this special status.


The law states that the Baltimore City Court does not have to wait for the resolution of constitutionality to set a date of trial or dismiss so none of this should delay this court case.  If Baltimore moves to dismiss----I will head to the Appeals Court with this case.  What is most important is getting the court to keep the spirit of the Maryland law calling for expedited trial for contests of Maryland election for Governor.





Contesting the 2013 Maryland Statute assigning Anne Arundel County as the only court to hear election contests.


The Plaintiff asserts that the law setting Anne Arundel County as the only jurisdiction for a plaintiff to file election lawsuits is not valid, or do not constitutionally exist as they do not conform to certain constitutional prerequisites, and thus are no laws at all, which prevents subject matter jurisdiction to the above-named court. A state statute cannot undermine Federal law. This is not an official capacity lawsuit.

Special jurisdiction such as family court has a presence in all counties/cities and is not particular to any one county.  It without a doubt creates an environment of conflict of interest, bias, and/or undue power to have one court system handling all cases especially of a subject having strong civil rights implications like elections.


Subject matter jurisdiction is the power of a court to hear particular types of cases. In state court systems, statutes that create different courts generally set boundaries on their subject matter jurisdiction. One state court or another has subject matter jurisdiction of any controversy that can be heard in courts of that state.

The plaintiff filed this election lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Baltimore because that is where the plaintiff lives, that is where much of the election irregularities occurred, and the Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, a defendant in this case has his office in Baltimore. The plaintiff has legal history as the one deciding jurisdiction. I am sending this contest to constitutionality to the Maryland Attorney General as part of this lawsuit. The Circuit Court of Baltimore must rule on jurisdiction in this particular case in an expedited manner as Maryland law places urgency on any contest of election for Maryland Governor. This is an ongoing election and a ruling of jurisdiction cannot wait. The case was filed and summons served to the original defendants over 30 days ago giving defendants time to petition the court. As yet no trial date has been set damaging the plaintiff's right to due process and expedited trial. This court can rule on jurisdiction before the Maryland Attorney General makes a ruling on constitutionality. If the Baltimore Court finds it does not have jurisdiction it will dismiss the case as such allowing the plaintiff to appeal.

Jurisdiction may refer to the origin of a court's authority. A court may be designated either as a court of general jurisdiction or as a court of special jurisdiction. A court of general jurisdiction is a trial court that is empowered to hear all cases that are not specifically reserved for courts of special jurisdiction. A court of special jurisdiction is empowered to hear only certain kinds of cases.


ARTICLE IV Part III - Circuit Courts.


SEC. 20. (a) There shall be a Circuit Court for each County and for Baltimore City. The Circuit Courts shall have and exercise, in the respective counties, and Baltimore City, all the power, authority and jurisdiction, original and appellate, which the Circuit Courts of the counties exercised on the effective date of these amendments, and the greater or lesser jurisdiction hereafter prescribed by law.




By rule, each of the Circuit Courts is required to have a differentiated case management plan “for the prompt and efficient scheduling and disposition of actions[.]”[20] Such plans vary by jurisdiction, but include the classification of cases by complexity and priority, to be assigned to particular scheduling “tracks” based on that classification.[20] Consistent with applicable court rule, the Circuit Courts have endeavored to make their differentiated case management plans as similar as possible;[21] in practice, however, the plans do vary somewhat among the Circuit Courts.



In a federal and state civil law suit, the plaintiff decides where a case is going to be heard by filing the complaint at whatever court she chooses. An individual or a company may file a claim in any jurisdiction for any reason.  The historical precedence is long-standing.



Rule 5.1. Constitutional Challenge to a Statute



(a) Notice by a Party. A party that files a pleading, written motion, or other paper drawing into question the constitutionality of a federal or state statute must promptly:

(1) file a notice of constitutional question stating the question and identifying the paper that raises it, if:

(A) a federal statute is questioned and the parties do not include the United States, one of its agencies, or one of its officers or employees in an official capacity; or

(B) a state statute is questioned and the parties do not include the state, one of its agencies, or one of its officers or employees in an official capacity; and

(2) serve the notice and paper on the Attorney General of the United States if a federal statute is questioned—or on the state attorney general if a state statute is questioned—either by certified or registered mail or by sending it to an electronic address designated by the attorney general for this purpose.

(b) Certification by the Court. The court must, under 28 U.S.C. §2403, certify to the appropriate attorney general that a statute has been questioned.


(c) Intervention; Final Decision on the Merits. Unless the court sets a later time, the attorney general may intervene within 60 days after the notice is filed or after the court certifies the challenge, whichever is earlier. Before the time to intervene expires, the court may reject the constitutional challenge, but may not enter a final judgment holding the statute unconstitutional.

(d) No Forfeiture. A party's failure to file and serve the notice, or the court's failure to certify, does not forfeit a constitutional claim or defense that is otherwise timely asserted.

Notes (As added Apr. 12, 2006, eff. Dec. 1, 2006; amended Apr. 30, 2007, eff. Dec. 1, 2007.)

Committee Notes on Rules—2006

Rule 5.1 implements 28 U.S.C. §2403, replacing the final three sentences of Rule 24(c). New Rule 5.1 requires a party that files a pleading, written motion, or other paper drawing in question the constitutionality of a federal or state statute to file a notice of constitutional question and serve it on the United States Attorney General or state attorney general. The party must promptly file and serve the notice of constitutional question. This notice requirement supplements the court's duty to certify a constitutional challenge to the United States Attorney General or state attorney general. The notice of constitutional question will ensure that the attorney general is notified of constitutional challenges and has an opportunity to exercise the statutory right to intervene at the earliest possible point in the litigation. The court's certification obligation remains, and is the only notice when the constitutionality of a federal or state statute is drawn in question by means other than a party's pleading, written motion, or other paper.

Moving the notice and certification provisions from Rule 24(c) to a new rule is designed to attract the parties’ attention to these provisions by locating them in the vicinity of the rules that require notice by service and pleading.


Rule 5.1 goes beyond the requirements of §2403 and the former Rule 24(c) provisions by requiring notice and certification of a constitutional challenge to any federal or state statute, not only those “affecting the public interest.” It is better to assure, through notice, that the attorney general is able to determine whether to seek intervention on the ground that the act or statute affects a public interest. Rule 5.1 refers to a “federal statute,” rather than the §2403 reference to an “Act of Congress,” to maintain consistency in the Civil Rules vocabulary. In Rule 5.1 “statute” means any congressional enactment that would qualify as an “Act of Congress.”

Unless the court sets a later time, the 60-day period for intervention runs from the time a party files a notice of constitutional question or from the time the court certifies a constitutional challenge, whichever is earlier. Rule 5.1(a) directs that a party promptly serve the notice of constitutional question. The court may extend the 60-[day] period on its own or on motion. One occasion for extension may arise if the court certifies a challenge under §2403 after a party files a notice of constitutional question. Pretrial activities may continue without interruption during the intervention period, and the court retains authority to grant interlocutory relief. The court may reject a constitutional challenge to a statute at any time. But the court may not enter a final judgment holding a statute unconstitutional before the attorney general has responded or the intervention period has expired without response. This rule does not displace any of the statutory or rule procedures that permit dismissal of all or part of an action—including a constitutional challenge—at any time, even before service of process.

Changes Made After Publication and Comment. Rule 5.1 as proposed for adoption incorporates several changes from the published draft. The changes were made in response to public comments and Advisory Committee discussion.

The Advisory Committee debated at length the question whether the party who files a notice of constitutional question should be required to serve the notice on the appropriate attorney general. The service requirement was retained, but the time for intervention was set to run from the earlier of the notice filing or the court's certification. The definition of the time to intervene was changed in tandem with this change. The published rule directed the court to set an intervention time not less than 60 days from the court's certification. This was changed to set a 60-day period in the rule “[u]nless the court sets a later time.” The Committee Note points out that the court may extend the 60-day period on its own or on motion, and recognizes that an occasion for extension may arise if the 60-day period begins with the filing of the notice of constitutional question.


The method of serving the notice of constitutional question set by the published rule called for serving the United States Attorney General under Civil Rule 4, and for serving a state attorney general by certified or registered mail. This proposal has been changed to provide service in all cases either by certified or registered mail or by sending the Notice to an electronic address designated by the attorney general for this purpose.

The rule proposed for adoption brings into subdivision (c) matters that were stated in the published Committee Note but not in the rule text. The court may reject a constitutional challenge at any time, but may not enter a final judgment holding a statute unconstitutional before the time set to intervene expires.

The published rule would have required notice and certification when an officer of the United States or a state brings suit in an official capacity. There is no need for notice in such circumstances. The words “is sued” were deleted to correct this oversight.

Several style changes were made at the Style Subcommittee's suggestion. One change that straddles the line between substance and style appears in Rule 5.1(d). The published version adopted the language of present Rule 24(c): failure to comply with the Notice or certification requirements does not forfeit a constitutional “right.” This expression is changed to “claim or defense” from concern that reference to a “right” may invite confusion of the no-forfeiture provision with the merits of the claim or defense that is not forfeited.

Committee Notes on Rules—2007 Amendment

The language of Rule 5.1 has been amended as part of the general restyling of the Civil Rules to make them more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. These changes are intended to be stylistic only.



Determining the Constitutionality of Laws By John DiMotto




Today, I wa
nt to examine the Rules of Statutory Construction that are considered by the courts when a constitutional challenge to legislation is raised.

When a party claims that a law is unconstitutional, that party is claiming that the law is at odds with a provision in either the US or the Wisconsin Constitution or both and, as such, the law cannot stand or be enforced. Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edition defines "Constitution" as:

"The organic and fundamental law of a nation or a state...establishing the character and conception of its government, laying the basic principles to which its internal life is to be conformed, organizing the government, and regulating, distributing, and limiting the functions of its different departments, and prescribing the extent and manner of the exercise of sovereign powers. A charter of government deriving its whole authority from the governed. The written instrument agreed upon by the people ... of a particular state, as the absolute rule of action and decision for all departments (ie. branches) and officers of the government in respect to all the points covered by it, which must control until is shall be changed by the authority which established it (ie. by amendment), and in opposition to which any act or ordinance of any such department or officer is null and void."

It is a fundamental bedrock of our government, by virtue of the "separation of powers," that:

1) The Legislature enacts the law.


2) The Executive enforces the law.

3) The Judiciary interprets the law.

Thus, when a law is challenged as being unconstitutional -- an affront to the constitution -- it is the judiciary which makes the final decision.

A party has standing to challenge a statute's constitutionality if that party has a sufficient interest in the outcome of a justiciable controversy to obtain a judicial resolution of that controversy. Standing involves a two step analysis. The court must determine whether the plaintiff has suffered threatened or actual injury and the interest asserted must be recognized by law. see State v. Oak Creek, 232 Wis.2d 612 (2000).

The Rules of Statutory Construction as they pertain to constitutionality provide that:

1) Statutes enjoy a presumption of constitutionality, and,

2) All doubts are resolved in favor of constitutionality.

3) Therefore, a party challenging a statute's constitutionality bears a heavy burden and must demonstrate the statute is unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt.

see Ferdon v. Wisconsin Patients Compensation Fund, 284 Wis.2d 573 (2005).

The only exception to the challenger bearing the burden of proof is when a statute infringes on a First Amendment Right. In this instance, the State has the burden of proving constitutionality beyond a reasonable doubt. see State v. Trochinski, 253 Wis.2d 38 (2002).

A constitutional challenge to a law can be:

1) A "facial" challenge; that is, on its face, the law is unconstitutional in every context, or

2) An "as applied" challenge; that is, the law is unconstitutional as to the challenger alone.

see State v. Smith, 323 Wis.2d 377 (2010).


A constitutional challenge to a law can be based on:

1) Overbreadth -- a statute is overbroad when its language is so sweeping that its sanctions may be applied to constitutionally protected conduct which the State is not permitted to regulate. see County of Kenosha v. C & S Management Inc., 223 Wis.2d 373 (1999). In order to assert a claim of overbreadth, it is not necessary that a person's own conduct be constitutionally protected. The overbreadth analysis reflects the conclusion that possible harm to society from allowing unprotected speech to go unpunished is outweighed by the possibility that protected speech will be muted. Thus, if a statute included in its prohibition conduct which is constitutionally protected, it is void even if the person's own conduct is unprotected and may be prohibited by a more narrowly drawn law. see State v. Johnson, 108 Wis.2d 703 (Ct. App. 1982). The danger in overbroad statutes is that they provide practically unbridled administrative and prosecutorial discretion that may result in selected prosecution based on certain views deem objectionable law enforcement. However, overbreadth must be real and substantial. Marginal infringement or fanciful hypotheticals of inhibition which are unlikely to occur will not render a statute unconstitutional on overbreadth grounds. see State v. Stevenson, 236 Wis.2d 86 (2000).

2) Vagueness -- a statute is vague if it fails to afford proper notice of the conduct it seeks to proscribe. The test for vagueness is whether a statute is so obscure that men of ordinary intelligence must guess as to its meaning and differ as to its applicability. To withstand a vagueness challenge it must be sufficiently definite so that potential offenders are able to discern boundaries of proscribed conduct. see Johnson, supra. Procedural due process is at issue. see County of Kenosha, supra.

3) Procedural Due Process -- requires that a person who has life, liberty or property at stake must be afforded the opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner. Failure of a statute to so provide renders a statute unconstitutional. see
Estate of Makos v. Masons Health Care Fund, 211 Wis.2d 41 (1997).

4) Substantive Due Process -- the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause is a guarantee of "more than a fair process." It contains a substantive sphere as well barring certain government actions regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them. The threshold inquiry when analyzing an alleged violation of substantive due process is whether the challenger has established a deprivation of a liberty or property interest protected by the constitution. see Dowhower v. West Bend Mutual Ins. Co., 236 Wis.2d 113 (2000).

5) Equal Protection -- a statute which treats members of similarly situated classes differently violates the Fourteenth Amendment. If the challenge implicates a fundamental right or suspect classification the statute is subject to a strict scrutiny test. It must be shown by the State that the regulation is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and that it is narrowly drawn. see State v. Baron, 318 Wis.2d 60 (2009). If the challenge does not implicate a fundamental right or suspect classification then the statute is subject to a rational basis test. It must be shown by the challenger that the regulation is not rational. All doubts are resolved in favor of constitutionality. see Nankin v. Village of Shorewood, 245 Wis.2d 86 (2001).

Whenever there is a challenge to the constitutionality of a state statute, notice must be given to the Wisconsin Attorney General under 806.04(11) so he/she can decide whether the State wishes to be heard above and beyond the parties to the lawsuit.

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August 18th, 2014

8/18/2014

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NEO-LIBERALISM AND NEO-CONSERVATISM HAVE DECLARED WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE US AND AROUND THE WORLD.  CLINTON AND OBAMA ARE THE FACE OF NEO-LIBERALISM AND CONGRESS IS CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS.  TAKE BACK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!


I will talk a few days about neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism and women.  Yesterday I shared a piece from an International Women's meeting in Europe--- for openDemocracy 5050  from the Nobel Women's Initiative conference.  I also want to remind people that Maryland League of Women Voters leaders knew all the candidates in Maryland's race for Governor ----Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur -----were neo-liberals.  It is critical to take back these organizations tasked with protecting labor and justice. 

If you listened to Tom Friedman and other neo-liberal economists over these few decades after Reagan/Clinton neo-liberalism joined the Bush neo-conservatives you would have heard that US sweat shops in developing worlds were good for those poor peasants.  Now that US corporations are being pushed out of these developing worlds and coming back to the US under the guise of job creation----they will bring these same conditions.  Do you know that many low-wage workers in the US both domestic and immigrant do not bring home much more than the developing world's $10 a day after wage theft and fraudulent independent contractor status is laid on them?  Indeed-----and Maryland leads in these policies.


THIS IS NEO-LIBERALISM AND NEO-CONSERVATISM.....IT IS NOT DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN AND IT KILLS WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND FAMILIES.


If you are going to push women back into poverty and out of the workforce in a meaningful way the first thing to do in a formerly first world where women gained freedom and independence because they were able to work and graduate to high positions is pretend they are winning in the race to the bottom.  Women paid more in part time jobs as women become the majority of part time workers.  As job creation becomes service industry this means poverty jobs.  Just a quick look locally I have noticed a change in banks in Baltimore---it seems that the once abundance of women bank management behind desks now looks to be all men.  I seriously have seen no women in my M and T banks except as tellers.  When jobs are made scarce you will see that mentality that men need the jobs because they are the breadwinner come back and that is what is happening.  Is it bad to remove financial freedom from women in the US?  Well, let's look at the rate of domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment growing in the US -----the growing sex traffic of women in the US to see abusing women comes with neo-liberalism.

  IF NO RULES/RULE OF LAW AND NO PUBLIC JUSTICE EXIST-----WOMEN LOSE.


This Is The One Area Where Women Earn More Than Men
  • Alison Griswold

  • Nov. 7, 2013, 9:28 AM


There's one area where the gender wage gap is irrelevant and even reversed. Women consistently earn more than men in part-time jobs, which women are also more likely to have.


_______________________________________________


Look below at the article written by Korean women rights groups to see the history of subjugation of women in that country to see where neo-liberalism is taking the US.  We are pummeled with news that women are graduating from college in higher numbers than men but we do not get the big picture.  First, college grads represent a large percentage of the 36% unemployed in the US and women more so than men.  So, women may be graduating in larger numbers but they represent those students with large student loan debts as well.

What we see is a gender change in careers that have been mostly female and paying the most to that of men.  Nursing and teaching are two careers that have paid well for women and these jobs are being taken more and more by men.  Then there comes the pay inequity within the same job categories.....women paid less.  What this all represents is the movement of women out of the workforce and into what will be increasingly part time or unemployed status....just as the Korean women state in the article below.  That is what neo-liberalism does----it marginalizes women and creates the poverty for women that dis-empowers.
  Now, Republicans have always pushed policy for women in the home----the problem is that with neo-liberals pushing 80% and more of Americans into poverty------women become trapped and abused----as in all third world countries. 
So, when neo-liberals place women pay equity on their policy stance as they knowingly push everyone into poverty with a loss of Rule of Law and Equal Protection and Trans Pacific Trade Pact moving US citizens to third world status----THEY ARE HANDING YOU PROPAGANDA. 


THAT IS WHERE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ARE TAKING WOMEN AND THEY ARE SIMPLY PROVIDING STATS THAT MAKE IT SOUND LIKE WOMEN ARE DOING GREAT.


ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.



Graduating to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation

(2012) AAUW

Foreword
Women are paid significantly less than men are in nearly every occupation.



Because pay equity affects
women and their families in all walks of life, it is not surprising that many women consider the issue
important. Many business leaders also believe that pay equity is “good business,” because it improves
morale and productivity. Yet progress in closing the gap between men’s and women’s pay has been slow
and, in recent years, has stagnated.
For more than 130 years, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) has advocated
for gender equity in education and the workplace. During this time, women have gone from a small
minority on college campuses to a majority of the student body. Today, women make up half the workforce,
but they continue to earn less than men do throughout their careers.

Why does this gender pay gap persist? This question is a focal point of AAUW’s research and advocacy
work. Graduating to a Pay Gap finds that women working full time already earn less than their
male counterparts do just one year after college graduation. Taking a closer look at the data, we find
that women’s choices—college major, occupation, hours at work—do account for part of the pay gap.
But about one-third of the gap remains unexplained, suggesting that bias and discrimination are still
problems in the workplace.
At AAUW, research informs action. As an organization of college-educated women, we believe that
the pay gap among college-educated workers and its ramifications—starting with higher student loan
debt burden immediately after college graduation—are of great importance. AAUW is proud to share
research that you can trust. We hope this report will inspire you to join us in taking action to eliminate
the pay gap.
_________________________________________

Keep in mind that the media presenting all of this news knows what the goal of neo-liberalism is---they know women will be targeted for impoverishment.  Yet, they pretend it is just that nasty stagnant economy!!!!  Neo-liberals pretend Republicans cause the stagnant economy ----Republicans pretend its the Democrats---when it is neo-liberals working with neo-cons deliberately creating the stagnant economy because they want US citizens to overwhelmingly become impoverished....third world.


Student Debt Weighs Down Women More. Blame The Wage Gap

by Jessica Glazer

April 06, 2014 5:18 AM ET NPR


When Kristine Leighton graduated from a private college five years ago with a degree in hospitality, she owed $75,000 in student loans. Each month, she paid the minimum amount of $450 and lived at home with her parents on Long Island, N.Y.

At first, she was working at a hotel for $10 an hour; money was tight. Even after she got a job in Manhattan making $75,000 a year, she still couldn't afford to move out. She funneled her earnings into car payments, credit card bills and debt, and a monthly commuter train pass. The loan payments left little extra money for things like an emergency fund.


______________________________________

Women are not choosing to stay home----they are being pushed out of the workforce and marginized into poverty careers and part time.


Global markets allow corporations to profit from a small number of very rich in nations around the world while keeping the majority of people in each nation in poverty.  That is what the Clinton Foundation has worked to do after his pushing of NAFTA and breaking Glass Steagall to grow global corporations and empire-colonialization.


You do not create an environment of suspended Rule of Law, corporate rule, and pervasive fraud and corruption, war and violence from poverty if you have good intentions.



The Mythical ‘Choice’ of the Stay-at-Home Mom

The fact that so much anger erupts at any perceived slight tells us many women are not truly choosing to be home with the kids



By Judith Warner @judithwarner  Time

The mood has shifted considerably on last week’s Ann Romney–Hilary Rosen fracas, with poll results showing that most women don’t really care about what Washington insiders have to say about Rosen’s word choice or, for that matter, how Romney chose to spend her time once she had children. Women are shrugging off political attempts to rekindle the tired old “mommy wars” debate, and are getting on with their busy and complicated lives.

I was shocked, nonetheless, by the degree of rage contained in some of the e-mails I received in response to my column last week. I was also deeply surprised this week when a readers’ panel I participated in on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show on the 1899 Kate Chopin novel, The Awakening, devolved, very quickly, back to Rosen-and-Romney talk once again.



The proximate cause: disagreement over the character of Edna Pontellier, a wealthy young New Orleans woman stifling within her loveless marriage and unstimulating, toil-free life (I believe I can say “toil-free” without unduly again stirring the pot: Edna’s children and home are cared for by ample domestic help), who, after experiencing an emotional and sensual “awakening” through infatuation, escapes her husband and children by taking her own life.

Some readers around the country, and I, distanced ourselves from Edna’s “selfishness” in abandoning her children. Others felt we owed much greater compassion to a woman who had such a stark lack of choices. All of which somehow looped back to Rosen and Romney, and maternal stay-at-home loneliness and despair. Diane Rehm, the radio talk-show host, and Jane Holmes Dixon, suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, recalled the stifling isolation they’d felt as mothers 50 odd years earlier; they could strongly relate to Edna, as could a number of listeners.

It quickly became clear that the link between this more-than-a-century-old fictional character and these moms writing or calling in to express their solidarity with Edna was simple: misery. It was feelings, current or remembered, of depression, of the sense of a vital loss of self and of a deep maroonedness. Rehm and Dixon, who have known each other for many decades, remembered how important it had been to be able to get together way back then and talk their way through all these feelings. It is still a great unifier of stay-at-home mothers today.

This reality, I think, fuels much of the anger, the desire for recognition, the demand for respect we’ve heard so often of late from this minority of mothers — only 30% of whom, in the U.S., are home full-time with children under 18. Recent research has shown that this group is considerably less happy than working mothers, and less contented than part-time working mothers in particular. Working moms are healthier and less depressed, the American Psychological Association reported late last year. Why they feel this way isn’t hard to imagine. Stay-at-home mothers give up their financial freedom, and with it many feel their sense of agency slip away. Their position of equality with their husbands is by necessity somewhat eroded. They lose the sense of strength that comes from knowing that, come what may, they can keep themselves and their children afloat economically. They lose intellectual stimulation (assuming that they were lucky enough to have it in their jobs anyway), the easy companionship and structure of the workplace, and recognition from the outside world. And if they don’t have the money to outsource domestic jobs, their freedom from paid work comes at the cost of repetitive thankless tasks — laundry, cleaning and the like — that test their patience and can chip away at their self-worth. The pleasure in this life of course is time with the children, but school-age kids leave a void that many find hard to meaningfully fill.


In the past, women lived constricted lives because society didn’t afford them much by way of choice. Today, our society in theory offers them a plethora of choices — so many, “that they’re overwhelmed by the stress of so many choices,” as Maureen Dowd said in her New York Times column this week — but in practice, far too many of these choices are false. A woman who ends up staying home with her kids because her work pays so badly that she can’t afford decent child care really has no choice. Ditto for a woman who has a special-needs child requiring constant medical visits and attention and whose husband earns more than she does, making her the natural, if not necessary, primary parent. The woman whose 55-hour-a-week job combines with her husband’s equally demanding career to produce a level of busyness that makes having a connected family life all but impossible unless one of them (the lower-paid one, of course) stays home isn’t really free in her choices either. How many women, after all — or men, for that matter — are in the enviable position of being able, like Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, to leave work at 5:30 p.m. in order to make it home for a nice dinner with their kids? If more could, we’d probably see women’s workforce participation sharply increase — economy permitting.


If women were truly choosing to be home full-time, I think there would probably be a whole lot less emphasis on the hard work involved in doing so and a lot more talk about the privilege that choice would then clearly be. The fact that so much anger — masking so much unhappiness — erupts at any perceived slight to stay-at-home mothers’ efforts should tell us that the condition of full-time motherhood is one we should talk about a great deal more — not through Hallmark-worthy platitudes, but with concern and an eye toward change.

____________________
This is why neo-liberals and neo-cons are working hard to privatize all public agencies charged with oversight and accountability.  No data is being generated from US universities that now dismantle sociology and humanities that created this data.  In Maryland, all of our data is questionable as we find time and again that stats reported one year are found to be skewed and/or false a few years later.  Create the headline with faulty data say neo-liberals and then bury the fact that the data was found false.

Whether women in the military, women on college campuses, women in marriages, women being used in sex traffic----these are US women being attacked and it all has to do with increasing poverty and suspension of Rule of Law, Equal Protection, and Bill of Rights by neo-liberals and neo-cons.
When neo-liberals in Congress pretend to try to fund these programs but it is the 'republicans' that keep them from doing it ----tell them

TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD FROM LAST DECADE WOULD PAY OFF THE ENTIRE NATIONAL DEBT AND MAKE GOVERNMENT COFFERS FLUSH WITH MONEY-----JUST RECOVER THE FRAUD!



US: Soaring Rates of Rape and Violence Against Women
More Accurate Methodology Shows Urgent Need for Preventive Action December 18, 2008


The National Crime Victimization Survey, based on projections from a national sample survey, says that at least 248,300 individuals were raped or sexually assaulted in 2007, up from 190,600 in 2005, the last year the survey was conducted. The study surveyed 73,600 individuals in 41,500 households. Among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increases. Except for simple assault, which increased by 3 percent, the incidence of every other crime surveyed decreased.

"The numbers in this survey show an alarmingly high rate of sexual violence in this country,"
said Sarah Tofte, researcher for the US Program at Human Rights Watch. "This should serve as a wake-up call that more must be done to address the problem in the US."

The projected number of violent crimes committed by intimate partners against women increased from 389,100 in 2005 to 554,260 in the 2007 report. By comparison, the number of violent crimes against men by intimate partners went down.

"Domestic violence is often a hidden crime, and these numbers are a stark reminder of how serious and widespread this problem is," said Tofte. "The Obama-Biden administration should make prevention and protection against all forms of domestic and sexual violence a top priority."

The National Crime Victimization Survey is conducted every two years, with data gathered in phone calls made to a sample of households across the United States. Due to criticism from experts in the subject, the survey's methodology was adjusted in 2007 to capture more accurately the incidence of gender-based violence. The authors say in the report that the higher numbers may reflect the new, more accurate methodology rather than an actual increase. Two major shifts were to describe types of sexual assault to those being interviewed, and to replace "computer-assisted telephone interviews conducted from two telephone centers" nationwide with interviews "by field representatives either by telephone or in person."

"The new numbers
indicate that previously, the government significantly underestimated the number of individuals affected by domestic and sexual violence in this country,"
said Tofte. "Authorities should urgently adjust public policies, law enforcement, and provision of support services accordingly."

Human Rights Watch is currently investigating and monitoring the criminal justice response to sexual violence. The organization's recent work includes investigating the backlog in untested DNA evidence collected in rape cases in the US. In Los Angeles City and County alone, there is a combined total of at least 13,000 untested sets of evidence, known as rape kits, sitting in storage.

Human Rights Watch's national recommendations include:

  • The Obama administration should appoint a special adviser on violence against women in the US;
  • Congress should restore full funding to the Office on Violence Against Women;
  • The Department of Justice, through the National Institute of Justice, should authorize comprehensive studies that more accurately track sexual and domestic violence in the US, especially among individuals who are least likely to be surveyed by the National Crime Victimization Survey;
  • Congress should increase funding for sexual and domestic violence prevention, intervention, and treatment programs;
  • Congress should amend the federal Debbie Smith Act, a grant program designed to eliminate the rape kit backlog, but that states can and have used for other kinds of DNA backlogs;
  • The US should ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to prevent, protect against, and punish violence against women.
________________

Below you can see what is coming to the US----Korea was taken neo-liberal after the Korean War in the late 1950s and shows the progression as it hit full-scale in the 1990s---Reagan/Clinton.  Koreans use the term 'irregular worker' for part time. This is long but please glance through because you will read in this history of Korea's takeover by neo-liberals exactly what is happening today.  It is women and children who's wealth fell the most in the last decade of corporate fraud---women are the majority of job losses----and the majority working part time in the US.  Indeed, women now make up a majority of the poor.  Given that women in the US make up a little over 50% of the population----the numbers in poverty are very high.

This is why you have women hitting the political races who are neo-liberals pretending to feel the pain of women driven into poverty by neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism.

HILLARY AND OBAMA REPRESENT THE TWO GROUPS KILLED BY NEO-LIBERALISM AND THAT IS WHY NEO-LIBERALS ARE PUTTING BLACK, HISPANIC, AND FEMALE FACES ON THEIR CANDIDATES.


Remember, less than 10% will be allowed to escape poverty as administrators of this global corporate mess.  Don't vote for a candidate because of race or gender!  Your chances of remaining in that 10% is slim to nothing.

NEOLIBERALISM THRHOUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN
Joo-Yeon Jeong & Seung-Min Choi, PICIS*


There is no place on Earth where neo-liberalism has not poisoned. It has allowed a handful of private interests to control as much as possible of social life in order to maximize personal profit. It has poisonous effects especially in the Third World, where imperial powers continue to pirate natural and human resources to fill the pockets of transnational capitalists. Initiated by Reagan and Thatcher, for the last two decades, neo-liberalism has become the dominant economic and political trend for much of the leftist (so they identify themselves) governments as well as the right.

However, as women fighting against global capitalism and its new phase, as women yearning for a better world where we will not be exploited and abused, we must go a step further into looking into this 'neo-liberalism' through the experiences of women. And it is not just about how women linearly experience it - we must go into the depths to manifest how neo-liberalism operates in a very gender-biased way.

WOMEN WORKERS AS SCAPEGOATS


In Korea, the process of being absorbed into global capitalism began earlier than the economic crisis, during the economic 'hyper '-development era of military dictatorship of Park Jung-Hee, with quite a bit of help from the US. Fluctuating together with global economic crises, the Korean economy started to show signs of a recession from the early 90s, as rate of profit decreased. Thus, capitalists started to adopt policies of introducing flexibility to the labour market. It was 'experimented' on women workers first before taking full force on the entire working class at the end of the millennium.

Jobs where women were predominant started to be transformed in the 1980s, beginning in the form of dispatch labour and eventually expanding to generalisation of irregular labour. However, this process was mainly targeted at women workers and the male-oriented labour movement did not give much importance to it, even though women worker's movement consistently called for the address of the issue.

Although the incorporation of Korean economy into the global capitalist system had already started around a decade ago, Korean people came to experience its destructive nature during and after the economic crisis of 1997. The structural adjustment program of the IMF shook the labour market and massive lay-offs were implemented. In particular, women workers were laid off first, and the working conditions of women workers fell to the ground.

The methods that the management used was subcontracting or abolishing those production lines and business sectors where women were predominant. Women in these places were usually typists or clerical assistants, who were considered not important and cumbersome, and thus provided the logic and justification for the lay-offs. Many companies would lay-off these women, and instead employ workers from dispatch companies - thus providing the management with ways in which to decrease labour costs and evade provision of insurances and benefits. Or in the case of banks, the same worker would be reemployed, but on a contract basis as irregular workers, again to decrease labour costs. Another method of laying off women workers or transforming them into irregular workers, was targeting foremost women who were married to someone in the same workplace, and also those who were pregnant or were on their maternal leave. They provided the management with strong justifications based on patriarchal values of 'women's place is at home'. This process of unjust and discriminatory lay-offs at the onset of the economic crisis saw the deterioration of maternal protection and women worker's rights in general. The achievements that the women worker's movement had accomplished over the last couple of decades were undermined.

"FLEXIBILITY" OF WOMEN WORKERS


The massive lay-offs that occurred after 1997 was obviously not 'inevitable' on the part of the management,
but was a calculated process of increasing the rate of profit through flexibility of the labour market. Because the need for lay-offs did not come simply from decrease in production, workers who were laid off were re-employed, but as irregular workers. And because flexibility measures were implemented foremost on women, women were also absorbed again in masses into the labour market, but this time as irregular workers with low wages and low protection.

Attaining flexibility of women workers was backed up by the patriarchal ideology of 'male as breadwinner'1 . Through this ideology, women workers are considered not really as workers, but as 'assistant income providers', the ideology that contributes to devaluation of women's work. And this in turn provided the justification for the primary lay-offs of women and transforming women's jobs into irregular jobs - a justification that quelled the possibility of resistance from the working class. Recently, capitalist institutions and mainstream media elaborate that the rate of women's employment is increasing faster that the rate of men. On one hand, this is due to the increase in absolute number of jobs-irregular jobs for women, but also due to the fact that women do not have much choice than take up highly unstable jobs without any hesitation to earn a living, whereas men can afford to be more 'selective'.

Now, the percentage of irregular workers is risen to higher levels than regular workers. In analyzing a census on the economically-active workforce implemented by the Korean Statistical Office in August 2001, the Korea Labor & Society Institute (www.klsi.org) estimated the number of irregular workers to be 7.37 million, constituting 55.7% of the total workforce2.According to studies made in 2000, out of entire irregular workers, the percentage of women is higher than that of men at 53%, and within the entire women workforce irregular workers take up 70%. These official statistics exclude specially employed labour (for example, the type of jobs that capitalists characterise as self-employment) such as private tutors, insurance sales, golf caddies etc., so if these jobs are included, the rate of irregular women workers will definitely rocket.

Irregular work pertaining to capital's flexibility measures has brought deterioration of working conditions and impoverishment for workers of both genders. But it has affected women workers more severely. At the moment, most of irregular women workers are employed in small enterprises of less than 10 employees. It has driven women's work into the ditches and has also increased mental stress from lack of self-confidence and the fear of losing their jobs. One feminist scholar was interviewing irregular women workers and told of how the interviewees were in constant fear of being seen throughout the interview. Many social psychologists point out that the increase of irregular work and the mental stress that comes from it is becoming a serious social problem that is bound to affect the whole society.

Moreover, with the automation of production lines and transfer of factories in capital's constant search for cheaper labour, many women workers who had originally constituted a large proportion of the workforce in the manufacturing sector are now being absorbed into the service sector - in areas such as the so-called 'entertainment' businesses and as domestic workers. The service sector has rapidly expanded over the last few years in Korea, and many women are being employed as narrator models, telemarketers, and as servers and entertainers in bars. These jobs are not only unstable, low waged and physically strenuous, but they also enforce the use of 'femininity' and sexuality to raise sales, making women more vulnerable to possibilities of sexual abuse and exploitation. Also, because the service sector has always shared a very thin borderline with the sex industry, it is not very surprising that more and more women workers, both young and aged, are being drawn into the sex industry. For example, many married women in their 30's and 40's are employed in the so-called 'telephone rooms (jeon-hwa-bang)' and are forced to have phone sex with men. Many other married women were employed as 'pager women', who are paged to come to bars to 'entertain' men. This became a very heated issue when Daewoo Motors unionists went to a bar, paged women, and came face to face with familiar faces. When Daewoo workers were laid-off, the wives had to find jobs to sustain their families and the only ones available were as 'pager women'. The ruling elite and the conservative media are enthusiastically deploring the moral collapse of Korean women, but the reality is that it is the capitalist system that is corrupting the people.

The situation is not much different on the international arena. Neo-liberal globalisation has paved the way for increase in migrant women workers, international trafficking and enforced sex work in the Third World. In Korea, many women from the Philippines and Russia come to Korea as domestic workers and 'entertainers', and then are tricked into providing sexual services to Korean men and the US military.

WIDENING GAP BETWEEN WOMEN


Neo-liberal globalisation has also impeded the widening of gap between different classes of women. The living standard between women in the developed countries and those in the Third World is now incomparable, as is the situation inside Korea. Rich women of the bourgeoisie can afford to wear fur coats that cost tens of million won, shop in department stores in their imported cars, buy US produced baby food, send their children to expensive private English language schools so that they are reproduced as the minority elite who rule the world of globalisation, and employ women from South-east Asia as housemaids. This is how the minority of women in Korea live, and furthermore, they are not living on the wealth that they had accumulated themselves, but on the wealth accumulated by their husbands. And this in turn is the wealth accumulated from exploiting women workers in Korea and elsewhere in the Third World. In contrast to the minority of women who enjoy the outcome of neo-liberal domination in a good part of the world, majority of women cannot find a proper job no matter how hard they try, and when they do find a job, it is an unstable job in slave-like conditions that can get snatched away from them. They cannot afford domestic help or a nanny - they work for long tiring hours outside and then come home to find piles of dishes to be washed and children to be fed. Also, studies by women's organizations have found that domestic abuse has increased, as husbands and fathers who have lost jobs turn to expressing their anger at their daughters and wives, and resort to violence.

CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL BACKLASH


To quell mass resistance against economic globalisation that has brought about increase in unemployment, decrement of public services, downfall in wages and deterioration of quality of life, the ruling elite has manipulated cultural conservatism to solidify its dominance over society.
Cultural conservatism in Korea is represented by Confucian patriarchy. The economic crisis of 1997 saw the rise of this ideology that came together with the capitalist form of 'male as breadwinner' model, and acted to cover up the oppression of women while highlighting the need for women to make more sacrifices for the sake of saving the crumbling economy. In the meanwhile, unemployment of men was highlighted as a serious social problem. Thus the role of women was limited to that of 'comforting' the suffering man in the family, while the sufferings of women both as wage workers and non-wage workers were ignored. The Korean mainstream media and the conservative ruling elite alike have neglected the seriousness of women suffering from sexual abuse on the basis that women should have perseverance, but has spotlighted those desperate women who left home after losing all hopes as destructors of family values. Women who had replaced their husbands as the breadwinners end up in the sex industry, after being rejected from any other type of work, but then are stigmatised as being morally corrupt. The severity of unemployment of male youths appear in the news everyday, whereas female students are not only ignored but are blocked altogether from the labour market. Many right-wing sociologists and economists actually suggested that marriage for women should be more emphasized by the government so as to block women from entering the labour market - and thus lowering the official unemployment rate. The media focuses evermore on the fantasies of marriage, and the 'marriage business' is now enjoying its 'Belle Epoque'.

A CRITIQUE OF KIM DAE-JUNG'S POLICIES ON WOMEN


Kim Dae-Jung's government has been portrayed as being democratic and pro-feminist in and outside of Korea. There were high hopes for this president with his long history of fighting for democracy, and from the beginning, many civil and women's organizations decided to give him 'critical' support. However, his promise of establishing a ministry specific on women's issues was replaced by the Special Committee On Women's Affairs with no legislative powers, much to the disappointment of women's groups. As his presidential term is coming to an end, he did launch the Ministry of Gender Equality during the first half of this year, with a prominent figure from a major women NGO seated as the Minister. However, the policies that the Ministry is adopting are those that will hardly benefit majority of women suffering at grassroot levels.

This was recently manifested in the revisions that were made to the maternity clauses in the Standard Labour Laws in June. The Ministry had announced that it will expand public childcare so as to decrease the burden on working women. With support from major women NGOs3, the Ministry proposed revisions to maternity-related clauses in the Standard Labour Laws, and the clauses were changed for the first time since 1953. There were basically two major improvements - maternity leave was increased from the present 60 days to 90 days, and prohibition on employment of women in hazardous workplaces was expanded. This may seem like a big step, but the fact of the matter is, these laws came in exchange for further flexibility of women's labour. In exchange for increase of maternal leave, the Ministry also agreed to abolish the clauses restricting overtime work and night work, paid familycare leave and menstruation leave.

In a situation where 70% (or perhaps even higher and ever increasing) of women workers are irregular workers, how many women workers will actually benefit from the revision? The majority of working class women are outside legal boundaries. The Ministry and women NGOs argue that they will fight for the application of the laws to irregular workers, but without questioning the neo-liberal characteristics behind the legislation, there is really no chance that this will actually take place. Many women activists had fought hard for these laws for the last decade and they are congratulating themselves in finally achieving their objective, but in the meantime, a vast majority of women workers have fallen into the ditches of irregular work and the demands of the majority have been neglected to benefit a few. Capitalists have learnt to 'sacrifice' a few laws for the sake of obtaining further flexibility. Despite the argument that these revisions will open new opportunities for women, without questioning the essence of Kim's government and its support for neo-liberalism, the revisions that were recently made will only expedite the flexible usage of women workers and thus further deteriorate the working conditions of irregular women workers. The Ministry and the NGOs do not realize that the laws, along with others that were made during the recent years4 , are all in compliance with neo-liberalism.

It has only been one year since the Ministry of Gender Equality took off, but those benefiting from it are middle-class, elite women, and only the minority of women workers who are lucky enough to be in a regular job. The presidential elections take place next year. Despite that the Ministry is conforming to neo-liberal policies and trying to confuse the workers about the essence of its policies, it does have some significance amidst the severely patriarchal political scene of Korea - which may well be undermined by any of the major right-wing political parties that take office - including the ruling New Millenium Democratic Party of Kim Dae-Jung, which still receive a lot of support from NGOs. This will merely lead to more lack of hope for state-led labour policies.

FIGHTING AND ORGANISING


Neo-liberalism was not something that hit Korea suddenly in 1997, but is a historical development of capitalism that has gradually taken form during the last few decades. It had been women workers who had felt the effects of globalisation first and thus were the first ones to resist. It was the women workers of Korea, who fought militantly during the 70s and early 80s for a democratic union and worker's rights. Women workers formed the foundation for the modern labour movement, although this fact often tends to be forgotten. During the late 80's, the Korean economy reconstructed itself into focusing on export-oriented heavy industries, whose workers were predominantly men, and women workers were left behind.

The onslaught of neo-liberal globalisation and the impoverishment that came with it was also felt first by women workers. Just after the economic crisis, the women worker's movement moved a big step forward when independent women's trade unions began to beformed5 . The unions came out of the need to address the specific issues of women workers that could not be properly dealt with in a general union -organising irregular workers, the unemployed, domestic workers and those women who worked in small companies where there are no unions. The percentage of women participating in unions still remain at a meagre 5%, due to the fact that general unions do not accommodate workers who are not regular workers. It was only in 1997, when the IMF enforced austerity measures and structural adjustment programs also affected male workers, that the people's movement in Korea fully realised the destructive nature of neo-liberalism. From then on, flexibility of labour has become the main target of struggle for the working class. Spotlight was finally thrown on the fact that neo-liberalism attack women workers foremost, but unfortunately the longtime demands and struggles of women workers are being put aside, as the struggles against 'irregular labour' is again being organised in a male-oriented fashion.

The establishments of these unions are very significant in the history of the Korean labour movement and also in the women's movement. Just as the strategies of capitalists change, the organisation of the working class also much change to resist effectively. The essence of neo-liberalism and its gender-bias cannot be resisted through the traditional method of organization concentrating on male, regular workers from big enterprises.

However, these newly formed women's unions still have further developments to make and many obstacles to overcome, in their struggles against national and international capital. The unions must question the role of neo-liberal globalisation and its strategy of incorporating flexibility measures into the labour market, for a full understanding of the situation of women workers and organizing of more radical struggles that go into the fundamental core. And at the same time, the worker's movement of Korea must go through structural changes to accommodate the ever increasing irregular workers, and must also make more effort into overcoming the patriarchal values that are still prevalent inside people's movement. Many women activists and unionists have started to address the issues of gender discrimination and sexual violence inside the people's movement, which up until now had been covered up. Over the years, many fervent and militant women activists have had to leave the movement because of discrimination and violence. It was always considered women's fault, or victimized women were forced to 'forgive' for the 'greater cause'. Many women activists, workers and unionists are uniting themselves and are calling upon the movement to tackle the problem of hierarchy, discrimination and violence.

TOWARDS ORGANIZING GLOBAL RESISTANCE OF WOMEN


As we have seen, neo-liberal globalisation affects all areas of society, to attain flexibility of the labour market solely for the interests of transnational capital. In the case of Korea, this process of enforcing structural adjustment and flexibility has devastated the lives of the people, especially women. Capitalist industrialisation has brought about the rise of the women's proletariat and neo-liberal globalisation has further feminised the proletariat while at the same time impoverishing the proletariat into the verge of slavery.

This is not a matter of women merely being affected 'more' - we must look at the mechanisms of neo-liberalism that operate in a gender-biased way. Indeed, neo-liberal globalisation itself feed upon gender discrimination and effectively use traditional patriarchal values to exploit women further. Patriarchal ideologies act to crush any attempts of women to politicize and form resistance.

However, the essence of neo-liberalism is slowly being manifested and women have begun to fight back. Feminisation of labour and feminisation of poverty signify increased exploitation of women, but precisely because of that, provide the possibility for organization and resistance, nationally and internationally. Women must now go forth as subjects in uniting the people in our fight against neo-liberal globalisation. Instead of being incorporated into a ready-made movement of men or middle-class elite women, instead of taking the problems of discrimination for granted, women workers, farmers, indigenous peoples, migrants and other grassroot peoples of the Third World must form a broad solidarity. We must analyse globalisation from women's perspective, plan strategies that conform with the particular needs of women, propose alternatives that include women as equal subjects, keep to the principle of internationalism, and unite with other oppressed groups in the mass resistance in the fight against neo-liberalism - and go beyond in creating a world based on equality.

* Joo-Yeon Jeong & Seung-Min Choi are with the Policy & Information Center for International Solidarity (PICIS), Korea. This paper was presented at the International South Group Network (ISGN) Asian Workshop on Women and Globalisation, 22-24 November, Manila.

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August 16th, 2014

8/16/2014

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I want to spend one more day shouting to the middle-class to WAKE UP!!!!!!  STOP LOOKING AT THE TV NEWS AND THINKING THIS MILITARIZED POLICING AND SPYING IS ONLY HURTING THE WORKING CLASS AND POOR.

The small government of neo-liberals and neo-cons gutted oversight and accountability and public justice.  We want to be clear----when equal protection disappears everyone is hurt but women and people of color the most.  The middle-class is seeing its life savings and investments shredded by fraud and corruption linked to this outsourcing of the public sector.  The unemployment in the US is at around 36% and is called a permanent fixture because that 36% is the middle-management that gave oversight and accountability to corporations and government.  All of this plays hard on people of color and the working class in the form of poverty issues, but it opens as well to the fact that 80% and soon 90% of American people will fall into this category.  Republican voters must see that small government effects all people's rights as citizens-----not just the poor and/or people of color.  It will come to your family!

WE MUST FIGHT AGAINST THIS ILLEGAL ATTACK ON OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AS CITIZENS, EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER RULE OF LAW, AND OUR BILL OF RIGHTS.

Baltimore City State's Attorney does not even have a white collar criminal unit and no funds to build one.  Rawlings-Blake and City Hall are overseeing a systemic fleecing of government coffers and have no interest in public oversight and accountability.  Baltimore City is one of a few governments not having routine audits -----it all happens because Johns Hopkins controls public policy and revenue in the city and does not want oversight and accountability.  They want only to control the symptoms of the poverty this creates.


Baltimore City Will Hire 2 New Prosecutors To Reduce Violence

July 11, 2013 7:01 PM

Mike Hellgren WJZ general assignment reporter

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A new plan of action. The recent spike in city violence sparks local and federal lawmakers to enact a new plan of action.

The mayor, police commissioner and U.S. attorney appoint two special prosecutors to target violent offenders.

Mike Hellgren has more on the new partnership.

These two new experienced prosecutors are veterans of the system. They have not yet been selected; background checks are underway now. They will have the full resources of the federal government.




I shared with everyone that Maryland's Attorney General Doug Gansler ran with an agenda item being dismantling the prosecutor's office assign to provide oversight and justice from government malfeasance and corruption.  This office was created as a result of the Agnew years.  Well, fraud and corruption never left and the attorneys running for these state's attorney and Attorney's General offices simply ignore and defund agencies tasked with public justice.  There is so much business fraud in Maryland against citizens that people have to work hard to find an honest contractor and then watch them like a hawk-----just because these public justice agencies are dismantled.  These are the same agencies that protect people's civil rights as with police brutality and unconstitutional policing.  So, THIS AFFECTS EVERYONE FOLKS!

THINK WHICH GROUPS IN MARYLAND BACK NEO-LIBERALS LIKE ANTHONY BROWN AND DOUG GANSLER ----AND REPUBLICAN HOGAN WILL DO THE SAME-----LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS IN MARYLAND BACK THE VERY POLS DOING THIS DAMAGE.  MARYLAND HAS NO LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS THAT ARE NOT CAPTURED BY THIS PROCESS.


People need to see that the white collar crime that empties the Baltimore City coffers----and this happens all across Maryland----is directly related to the crime and violence in low-income communities.  If billions are stolen by Baltimore Development Corporation and Johns Hopkins through fraud and corruption then cuts to social services and community programs occur.  If Johns Hopkins writes policy that floods the city labor market with immigrants who are then fleeced of their wages ----or workers brought from out of state to work in Baltimore
-----high unemployment drives crime and violence.  The middle-class in Baltimore are being hit with car/home break ins/robberies because people are not able to be employed.  RAIDING CITY COFFERS WITH FRAUD AND CORRUPTION AND THEN BRINGING LABOR TO BALTIMORE WHO ARE THEN FLEECED OF WAGES-----all involving suspended Rule of Law and public justice.  THIS WILL AFFECT EVERYONE.

IT IS NOT ONLY THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF POLICING--IT IS THE SUSPENSION OF RULE OF LAW FOR ALL WHITE COLLAR CRIME.


This report simply shows the pattern that exists throughout Baltimore City government.  If you look at the report on SAIC from yesterday and the corruption in that Hopkins corporation the problems are the same.  If you go further and look at the structure for Wall Street financial instruments filling our financial industry with fraud-----it is all the same model.  Creating multiple layers of service and responsibility and then claim it is all too complicated to audit.  Baltimore does not have a revenue problem----the revenue is being stolen and diverted to the same people.

IInside City Hall: What a federal audit tells us about city spending Baltimore ranks at the bottom of cities audited by HUD's Inspector General. Where, exactly, did the $9.5 million in homeless funds go?

Mark Reutter December 5, 2012 at 7:11 am


Homeless men and women sit near the city’s Harry and Jeanette Weinberg homeless shelter at 620 Fallsway.

Calling for audits has become a popular pastime at City Hall.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake wants one to look at Comptroller Joan Pratt’s Municipal Telephone Exchange office, while Pratt is calling for numbers crunchers to sift through the contracts of the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology.

Councilman Carl Stokes has called for audits of all city agencies, something the mayor and majority of the City Council don’t want to do. But the mayor and Council did agree over the summer to audit selective agencies beginning in year 2014.

Given all the fuss, wouldn’t it seem that when an audit does appear, elected officials would rush to find out what it says about how the city spends money?

Such a report arrived last month. The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released an audit of Baltimore’s use of $9.5 million for homeless programs awarded under President Obama’s 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

A Crash Nobody Heard

City Hall seems to be pretending that this audit does not exist, like the proverbial tree that fell in the woods with a crash nobody heard.

There’s been no comment about the report by top officials, not least by Mayor Rawlings-Blake, whose Office of Human Services and Homeless Services Program stand accused of ineptitude and mismanagement by HUD’s auditors.

The report says that the city did not properly monitor the homeless funds, paid sub-providers based on a preset formula rather than on actual expenditures, lost track of money in several instances, and paid city staffers according to estimates, not on the actual time they spent on grant activities.

Calling 100% of Baltimore’s homeless expenditures “unsupported” by required documentation, HUD’s Inspector General is recommending that the city either provide proof that its homeless payments were legit or return the dough – all $9,472,118 – to the federal government.

The Inspector General faulted Baltimore’s homeless program.

“Baltimore Was Delinquent”

While Rawlings-Blake and her staff haven’t publicly responded to the audit, the Homeless Services’ rebuttal to HUD was published in the report.

It’s revealing. The city admits that it violated federal regulations because it did not have the staff to ensure compliance and because it found the program’s regulations too complicated.

“The City of Baltimore was delinquent in monitoring the program’s sub-providers as required because we lacked resources to conduct an appropriate level of monitoring, both fiscally and programmatically,” Kate Briddell, director of Homeless Services, wrote.


She acknowledged a number of management infractions. Among them: “the fiscal director improperly directed the fiscal staff to draft funds . . . to reimburse itself,” the Board of Estimates approved a homeless contract “in error,” the language of another contract “was not amended in title or terms to accommodate” the federal program, and funds “that appear to be drawn” improperly from one account were in fact used without documentation for a related program.

After making these admissions, Briddell went on to deny that they had any real consequences. “[W]hile some of the paperwork was not completed or kept in a standard we would like, no waste, fraud or abuse was conducted during the course of administering this project,” she wrote.

Briddell’s statement was flatly contradicted by her own acknowledgment that the Prisoner’s Aid Association of Maryland did not properly handle $270,550 in homeless funds – HUD claims the group was double billing the government for clients they had placed in emergency housing.

Perhaps that’s why HUD’s reply to Briddell begins so bluntly: “We disagree with the city’s statements.”

At the Bottom of Cities Audited


To check whether other cities shared Baltimore’s managerial shortcomings, The Brew reviewed a dozen HUD audits of city and county governments that also received funds under the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program.

Compared to Baltimore’s 100% “unsupported” expenditures, HUD’s Inspector General found that less than 1% of the funds spent by New York City, Houston and San Francisco to be “unsupported” or “ineligible.” The exact percentages were: New York (0.6%), Houston  (0.48%) and San Francisco (0.7%).

The Los Angeles Housing Department was also audited. HUD found $29,004 of the $29.4 million awarded was not properly documented, or less than 0.001%.

Even the worst offenders – Buffalo with 6.6% unsupported documentation and Newark with 8.5% unsupported, according to HUD – look like like fiscal angels compared to Charm City.

HUD certified in its audit of Baltimore that it followed generally accepted government auditing standards.

Coming Back for More

The lack of sufficient internal controls has been a longstanding criticism of Baltimore government.

City departments, including the Mayor’s various offices handling criminal justice, CitiStat operations, information technology, health and human services, are budgeted a certain amount of funds for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

But the practice of letting departments come back for more funds during the year, through supplemental appropriations approved by the Board of Estimates, undercuts fiscal discipline, critics say.

This coupled with the lack of oversight by the City Council – the Budget and Appropriations Committee chaired by Councilman Helen Holton has yet to reconvene a hearing concerning agency spending last year – and the necessary checks and balances are absent.

Farming Out Responsibility

A larger issue brought out by the HUD audit was the lack of programmatic oversight by the city.
The Mayor’s Office of Human Services did not even hand out the homeless grants. The task was farmed out to its fiscal agent, the United Way of Maryland.

That process split up management functions, which effectively meant that nobody was minding the store and determining whether the sub-providers were actually fulfilling the needs of the homeless as well as meeting the requirements of HUD.

Until effective accountability is instilled at the top, the future audits promised for city agencies are likely to suffer the same fate as the HUD homeless audit – official silence from those in charge, leading to more public cynicism about the workings of local government.

_____________________________________________



Below you see the supposed Democratic candidate for Maryland Attorney General.  If you look at the issues you will never see or hear the words----massive corporate fraud and government corruption as any justice candidate's platform.  You see selected justice issues that are always aimed at low level criminals such as scammers targeting senior citizens.  The subprime mortgage fraud targeted seniors and the parking ticket settlement was a disgrace yet Frosh never mentioned the injustice---he instead looked at individual solutions to foreclosures.  The fact that Maryland was the source of the fraud----MERS operated out of Frosh's Montgomery County as well as Virginia's Washington beltway----Maryland was the hardest hit by subprime mortgage fraud-----and it is the state with the highest number of foreclosures happening even now.  All of this shows there is no public justice at work in this particular case.  I choose Frosh and his statement on protecting seniors as a way to show how these issues mean nothing.  Sure, there are scammers targeting seniors but that exists because there is absolutely no public justice agency in place preventing these predations.  Maryland TV programming is filled with businesses that scam people.  Our local and state agencies of Licensing and Regulation DLLR is a skeleton crew and this is what allows for contractors to act criminal at will.  Frosh never mentions this and will not do anything to change this.

If you listen to Republican candidate for Governor Hogan he will use the fraud and corruption issue but as with Frosh-----he means he will look at low-level scams like Food Stamp and Pension fraud and never mentions the systemic culture of corporate fraud and government corruption.  So, don't vote for a Republican just because neo-liberals have made the Democratic Party so corrupt.....

GET RID OF THE NEO-LIBERALS!  THEY ARE ONLY PROTECTING WEALTH AND PROFIT AND WILL NOT HOLD POWER ACCOUNTABLE.


Neo-liberals always talk about gun violence and control but they are the ones implementing the policies that kill labor and justice....creating the conditions for this increase in crime and violence.  So, if a candidate simply shouts a mantra of gun control and gun violence without shouting that the Maryland Assembly and Baltimore City Hall passes policy that creates the conditions for crime and violence----he/she will do nothing about solving these problems.
  Now, FROSH is definitely better than Jon Cardin but the point is Maryland never has a candidate for public justice that will provide public justice.

Google  '
Frosh and government corruption and corporate fraud' and you will get nothing.

THE GOVERNOR HAS THE ABILITY TO CREATE SPECIAL TASK FORCES AND PRESSURE MARYLAND AGENCIES TO ENFORCE LAW-----


neo-liberals like Brown will protect the fraud and corruption----Cindy Walsh for Governor will fight and reverse it!



PETER FROSH FOR MARYLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL



Issues Protecting Kids Online


Information technology has made our world more connected and productive than ever before. Unfortunately, the anonymity and freedom of the Internet have also created greater opportunities for crime, exploitation, and abuse. As a father of two daughters, I know firsthand the threats the Internet brings into the lives of young people today. Through that expe...

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Protecting Seniors Our seniors deserve the respect and care that they have earned throughout their lifetime. Maryland's senior population will only continue to rise in the coming years. As a result, the number of crimes against seniors will also increase. Far too often, scam artists perceive senior citizens as vulnerable and relatively wealthy due to their ability to access...

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Making Maryland Safer Protecting people - it’s what I have done in the courtroom and in the legislature. My number one priority as Attorney General will be keeping Maryland families safe. I have been a leader in keeping Maryland families safe by: Leading the fight for the Firearm Safety Act, landmark gun safety legislation that will prevent gun violence and save thousan...

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Protecting Maryland's Environment We know that the beauty of our state isn’t just something we enjoy, but it is also one of the things that make our economy strong. Responsible and sustainable utilization of our natural resources should be a guiding principle for Maryland businesses and individuals. Everywhere I go, Marylanders tell me they want clean water to drink and clean air to...

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Protecting Maryland Consumers As a young man, I was taught the importance of justice and fairness, and to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. I have carried those values with me throughout my career in public service: championing laws to protect children from ingesting harmful chemicals in baby bottles and formula; expanding the Attorney General’s power t...

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The only oversight in Maryland comes from the Federal government and as we all know Eric Holder and Obama have made it their top priority to get rid of that with the help of Congress.  You see below that all of the agencies tasked with oversight and transparency are the ones cut in the attack of small government.  THAT IS ALL THESE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS CARE ABOUT---HIDING THE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION TRAIL.

This is third world.  It is what Trans Pacific Trade Pact does----eliminates a sovereign nation's ability to limit corporate profit in any way.  I had a young black Republican in Maryland tell me WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH PROFIT?  Well, you are being sold a bill of goods if you do not understand the power of Rule of Law and Equal Protection and Bill of Rights in everyone's life.



Continued cuts to legislative branch budget hurt transparency, accountability, and capacity

.
by Matthew Rumsey
  • policy
July 9, 2013, 4:16 p.m.


This morning, the House Appropriations Committee's Legislative Branch Subcommittee marked up its FY 2014 funding bill, agreeing to a plan that would cut funding for Congress and legislative support agencies well below FY 2013 levels, and even beneath sequestration levels for most offices.

Committee leadership claimed that cuts were necessary to "lead by example" and help get the government's "fiscal house in order,"
but, in reality, the cuts will likely limit accountability, access to information, and the ability of Congress and the legislative support agencies to do their jobs efficiently and effectively
. The shrinking budgets could also make it more difficult for Congress to implement a number of important transparency initiatives.

Specifically, the plan would continue several years of cuts to House operations and the Government Accountability Office that have diminished the capacity of both bodies.

The GAO exists to help Congress fulfill one of its most important functions,
overseeing and improving the accountability and efficiency of the federal government, and pays for itself many times over through the cost savings that it identifies every year. Unfortunately, Since major budget cuts began three years ago the GAO has lost more than 14% of its staff and seen its ranks fall to the lowest staffing level since 1935. The GAO cannot continue to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and help to save taxpayers billions of dollars every year if its budget keeps shrinking.

Meanwhile, the House has cut individual office budgets by more than 17% over the past few years, reducing Representatives' ability to understand and enact complex policy, communicate openly and efficiently with constituents, perform oversight, and do the job of governing that they were elected to do. Unfortunately, Congressional staffs have been shrinking since the late 1970's. These cuts will most likely accelerate that trend and further diminish Congress' policy expertise and ability to conduct oversight.

Finally, limited budgets could make it harder for Congress to move forward with important transparency reforms, including opening Congressional Research Service reports and reports from the Executive branch to Congress to the public.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up their Legislative Branch funding bill on Thursday. Hopefully they will push for funding necessary to ensure that Congress and its support agencies can do their jobs effectively.


_____________________________________________

The same forces dismantling public justice for citizens in poor communities is that dismantling oversight and accountability in government and corporations.  The idea is that chaos and unaccountability allows the few in the autocracy to control everyone else----and that is what people in third world nations
live with every day.  When my friends dread having to find a contractor to do simple work because everyone is fleecing consumers---the middle-class are losing  rights as the people in poor communities enduring 'stop and frisk', home invasions, zero tolerance, and now youth curfews......loss of citizenship.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO WAKE UP TO THE CULTURE OF CRIMINALITY WE HAVE IN GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATIONS.


Below you see the political culture of neo-liberals and neo-cons.....O'Malley is the mirror of Cuomo and both are raging Wall Street neo-liberals----Clinton's farm team.  If you have leadership in government openly committing fraud as you do today---you have no
Rule of Law being enforced anywhere.


I went to the Baltimore Comptroller's office for FOIA request on a statement made by Mayor Rawlings-Blake during a Board of Estimates meeting.  The mayor's lawyer Nilson was there and stated out loud that the FOIA would be used against the people included in a lawsuit to which the BOA employee stated.....well, we can lose that information.  This is so pervasive that a lawyer feels no problem with suggesting that information disappear.
  You can just see how this behavior is mirrored in the Baltimore City Police Department.

UNCONSTITUTIONAL CONDUCT!  PROVE IT!


Wednesday, Jul 23, 2014 09:30 AM EST  Salon


Report: Andrew Cuomo under federal investigation for allegedly thwarting ethics inquiries

The governor of New York and possible future presidential candidate may have tried to shield his donors Elias Isquith

According to a new bombshell report in the New York Times, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, widely expected to coast to reelection this fall and long rumored to have presidential ambitions, is under federal investigation for allegedly trying to thwart his own anti-corruption commission after it began looking at his political allies.......


Why Is the Cuomo Administration Automatically Deleting State Employees' Emails?

Wednesday, 13 August 2014 10:23 By Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica | Report

Governor Andrew Cuomo (Photo: Diana Robinson / Flickr)New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration — which the governor pledged would be the most transparent in state history -- has quietly adopted policies that allow it to purge the emails of tens of thousands of state employees, cutting off a key avenue for understanding and investigating state government.

Last year, the state started deleting any emails more than 90 days old that users hadn't specifically saved — a much more aggressive stance than many other states. The policy shift was first reported by the Albany Times Union.

A previously unpublished memo outlining the policy raises new questions about the state's stated rationale for its deletions policy. What's more, the rules on which emails must be retained are bewilderingly complex – they fill 118 pages – leading to further concern that emails may not be saved at all.

"If you're aggressively destroying your email, it looks like you're trying to hide something," said Benjamin Wright, a Dallas lawyer who has advised companies and government agencies on records retention.

ProPublica obtained the memo through a public records request.

In the June 18, 2013, memo, Karen Geduldig, the general counsel of the state's Office of Information Technology Services, described New York's decision to automatically delete emails as a way to cut down on the state's "enormous amount of email data."

But the state implemented the policy as part of a move to Microsoft's Office 365 email system, which offers 50 gigabytes of space per email user — enough to store hundreds of thousands or even millions of emails for each state worker. The state's version of Office 365 also offers unlimited email archiving.

The Office of Information and Technology Services declined to comment on the record. An official in the office said even though the state can store large quantities of email, it can still be difficult to manage.

"Just because you have a big house doesn't mean you have to shove stuff in it," the official said.

Geduldig's memo also pointed out that some federal government agencies and corporations automatically purge employees' email. "Such a system will aid the State in improving its email management," Geduldig wrote.

But many states take a different tack.

Florida, for instance, requires state employees to keep routine administrative correspondence for at least three years, and emails dealing with policy development for at least five years. Connecticut requires employees to keep routine emails for at least two years. Washington State requires workers to keep emails dealing with public business for two years, and emails to and from top officials for four years. Those states also do not automatically delete email.

"It shouldn't be an automatic process," said Russell Wood, the records manager for the Washington State Archives. "There should be some point of review in there."

Emails that qualify as "records" are supposed to be preserved under New York's policy. But determining which emails qualify and which don't — a task left up to individual state employees — can be mind-numbingly complicated.

The state's rules include 215 different categories of records — including two separate categories dealing with office supplies.

"We don't think it's plausible at all that agency personnel are going to meticulously follow" those rules, said John Kaehny, the executive director of the good-government group Reinvent Albany. If the rules for preservation aren't followed, emails will be purged by default.

The length of time emails are required to be kept varies by category. Any emails related to "human rights training," for instance, must be kept for six years. Emails concerning "agency fiscal management" must be kept for three years. Emails about "the development of internal administrative policies and procedures" must be kept for a year, but emails "used to support administrative analysis, planning and development of procedures" can be deleted as soon as they're "obsolete," according to the rules.

The governor's office has its own rules detailing which emails must be saved, with 55 categories, from emails of weekly reports to emails "related to Native-American affairs." Anything that doesn't fall into one of the categories "should be deleted" once they've been opened, the governor's office advises.

There is no internal or external watchdog to make sure the rules are being followed, Kaehny said.

The state also doesn't have a standardized system for preserving emails that do have to be saved, according to the Office of Information Technology Services official. State workers can save their emails by printing them out, pasting them into Microsoft Word documents or placing them in a special folder in the email program itself.

"Everyone does it differently, and some people are still learning how to do it," the official said.

Emails related to potential litigation and freedom of information requests are not supposed to be deleted under New York State's policy. But Karl Olson, a San Francisco lawyer who has represented news outlets including the Los Angeles Times in freedom of information lawsuits, said that deleting emails after such a short period of time might mean they're gone by the time reporters need to request them.

"It may take a while for evidence of misconduct to bubble to the surface," Olson said.

Emily Grannis, a fellow with the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said New York's automatic deletion policy "strikes me as inconsistent with the goals of [freedom of information] laws, and to have such a short timeframe is particularly troubling."

Government agencies often adopt deletion policies to help protect themselves from potential lawsuits and freedom of information requests, said Mark Diamond, the chief executive of Contoural, a records management consulting firm. Getting rid of emails after 90 days, though, risks deleting correspondence that employees might need down the road. "I don't think it's a well thought-out strategy," he said.

Cuomo's aides have also developed a reputation for using their personal email accounts to conduct state business — a move that can make it more difficult to seek the emails under the state's freedom of information law. The Cuomo administration has denied that it does so, but a ProPublica reporter and others have, in fact, received such emails from officials.

New York isn't the only state that destroys unsaved email after 90 days.

California's governor's office, for instance, has automatically deleted employees' sent and received email after 90 days for more than a decade. But the office also requires employees to save far more than in New York, including official correspondence, memos, scheduling requests and other documents.







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August 14th, 2014

8/14/2014

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WE CAN REVERSE ALL OF THESE POLICIES EASY PEASY BY SIMPLY VOTING FOR POLS THAT SHOUT OUT AGAINST GLOBAL CORPORATIONS DRIVING MARYLAND'S ECONOMY AND FOR REBUILDING RULE OF LAW


I have been speaking with and handing my research to Baltimore police officers for a few months now making sure they understand that Johns Hopkins has told City Hall and the Chief of Police Batts to move towards privatization of Baltimore police and fire departments.  Since the economic collapse Baltimore has seen an explosion of fraud and corruption that is taking a billion dollars a year from city coffers and we cannot afford to support public sector employees as middle-class when all the money is being sent to corporate fraud and subsidy.  The public union-busting by neo-liberals and neo-cons in Baltimore and Maryland-----those neo-liberals O'Malley/Brown and the Maryland Assembly with the neo-cons Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore City Hall are now getting rid of our public police and fire.  Remember, Clinton, Bush, Obama have almost finished privatizing the US military.....the manufactured sequestration cuts for the military were all about getting rid of public military and their benefits so now these global corporate pols are doing the same at the state and local level.  When you are bringing a formerly first world nation to third world status you must have all security working for corporations and not loyal to the public as public sector employees say Johns Hopkins.


Baltimore Chief of Police Batts was brought to Baltimore to do just that.  The Hopkins-owed SAIC surveillance and security systems Batts installed in Oakland, California are now being installed in Baltimore.  Batts is paid a salary that looks like the corporate executive he is.  The Baltimore Police have been battered with wage and benefit cuts and changes in shifts and hours that have Baltimore police one of the worst work environments and pay in the state and that doesn't even include the crime and violence and chronic intra-departmental problems.  If one didn't know better it almost seems like they are trying to get Baltimore police officers with tenure and pensions to leave the city!  Talking with officers that is indeed what is happening.  Police officers with ten years invested in pensions are leaving because of the hostile environment brought by Hopkins and their pols at City Hall.  The more stress on the police the more stress on the job.  Baltimore City is a tinderbox as citizens are tired of crime and violence and the police ignoring civil rights and liberties in the communities.  All of this is caused by the public policy written at Johns Hopkins and played out in City Hall.  Deliberately high unemployment and a stagnant economy is impoverishing people and the police department is headed by a chief known for abuse inside and outside of the department.  Remember, injustice necessitates chaos and that is what neo-liberals and neo-cons are allowing to happen under the guise of budget cuts and small government.

The Baltimore Police Department has sent representatives to Europe to contract with an International Security Corporation to send private security workers to Baltimore to replace existing public forces.  The fire department will go next.  The citizens already have trouble with police acting outside of the Constitution and when International security forces come----they will be working under Trans Pacific Trade Pact-----which replaces the US Constitution say the neo-liberals and neo-cons. 

ONLY THE TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT IS ILLEGAL AND A COUP AGAINST THE US CONSTITUTION SO ANY ATTEMPTS TO INSTALL TPP CAN BE REVERSED AS ILLEGAL.



What does life under International Security forces look like?  Well-----third world.


State Police, or Police State? --Nathan

Eleven facts about police militarization:
1. It harms, and sometimes kills, innocent people.
2. Children are impacted.
3. The use of SWAT teams is often unnecessary.
4. The “war on terror” is fueling militarization.
5. It’s a boon to contractor profits.
6. Border militarization and police militarization go hand in hand.
7. Police are cracking down on dissent.
8. Asset forfeitures are funding police militarization.
9. Dubious informants are used for raids.
10. There’s been little debate or oversight.
11. Communities of color bear the brunt.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/08/13/not-just-ferguson-11-eye-opening-facts-about-americas-militarized-police-forces/


_____________________________________________

A police representative going to Europe to talk International Security contracting for the Baltimore City Police force would no doubt find an organization like the one below.  This is a US global corporation that does much of its work overseas but we see these operations moving into Western nations under the guise of 'terrorism'.  The threat of 'terrorism' falls squarely with dissent and protest---crime and violence by American citizens.  As 70% of Americans fall into poverty from the massive corporate frauds and the deliberate global corporate stagnation of our domestic economy-----and with that 70% growing to 80% and more----this third world society will see people WAKING UP and this is the structure O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly and Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore City Hall are building.  It is of course coming to your neck of the woods as well!

As important as a militarized government structure is we need to think as well how much taxpayer money is being spent on all of this Stalin-like security buildup.  The article below states that so much taxpayer money was funneled
to SAIC to create this Hopkins corporation that much of what all taxpayers paid in taxes for years went into building this surveillance structure unrolling in cities like Oakland, Calif, NYC, and Baltimore, Maryland.


You can see the job categories to see this organization will take over all public security duties as a global corporation.  Our Bank of America in Charles Village Baltimore already has contracted International Security outside their bank branch.

ISIO - INTERNATIONAL SECURITY INDUSTRY ORGANIZATION
Security Case S
tudies and
Applications


Belong to the most formidable International NETWORK for Security Professionals

ISIO Demographics

Reach
increases world-wide. Security Directors, Managers, General Managers, Trainers, Staff in all sectors, namely, Military and Defence, Buildings, Mall and Security, Law Enforcement, Prisons, Investigators, Assessors, Consultants and Advisors for Ports and Cargo, Hotel and Casino Security landside and on ships. Location (289071)United States, (89152)United Kingdom, (38194)India (34709)Canada, (31546)South Africa


The Focused Security Professional, is able to identify companies that have experience in providing security solutions for [Their] region of interest.

* Bank Security

* Border Security

* Building Security

* Business and Commercial Security

* Cargo Security

* City Security

* Control Station Security

* Event Security

* Homeland Security

* Hospital Security

* Hotel, Casino & Landmark Security

* Military and Defense Security

* Industrial Security

* Law Enforcement Security

* Oil and Refinery Security

* Port Security

* Prison Security

* Rail/Tunnel and Subway Security

* Retail and Store Security

* School Security


PROVIDING INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES. ISIO Global is a boutique, international solutions provider headquartered in the U.S. with operations in North and South America, Africa and Asia. The ISIO Global team of Principals and associates is comprised of a unique and diverse set of professionals with backgrounds in government security, intelligence, logistics, political strategy, energy, finance, international trade, risk management, and the military.

ISIO Global provides comprehensive custom-tailored solutions to meet our clients’ needs. Our client list includes countries, presidents and other high ranking officials from both the private sector and the military, high net worth individuals, and Fortune 100 companies. Through our vast international experience and contacts, ISIO Global is uniquely positioned to quickly and efficiently design and implement comprehensive solutions for the most pressing problems and exciting opportunities around the globe.

______________________________________________
You can see how neo-con SAIC and Hopkins is with this connection to Bush/Cheney and Halliburton----the biggest fraudsters in the world.  The reason I speak now about what most people who study this knows is that this is what will be brought to Baltimore -----and has been in the works for a while-----and it is completely ineffective, corrupt, and will work with no transparency or with any regard to Rule of Law.  If you think Baltimore Police Department is lacking transparency or attention to Constitutional policing wait until this ISIO/SAIC consortium comes our way.

THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL AND NEO-CON FOR YOU----THIRD WORLD SOCIETY
. 

STOP VOTING FOR THEM.  REMEMBER, IN MARYLAND WE HAVE LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS BACKING THESE NEO-LIBERALS EVERY ELECTION.  VOTE FOR BROWN OR GANSLER SAY BALTIMORE MINISTERS AND MARYLAND LABOR UNION LEADERS----WELL, THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE PUSHING ON THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND.



This is an attempt to make a blog in which I comment on scientific issues.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Who or what is SAIC? Vanity Fair has a quite interesting article about SAIC, a company I had never heard about before.

Washington's $8 Billion Shadow
Mega-contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel supply the government with brawn. But the biggest, most powerful of the "body shops"—SAIC, which employs 44,000 people and took in $8 billion last year—sells brainpower, including a lot of the "expertise" behind the Iraq war.
The article goes on to describe SAIC, and their less than stellar record. The article also touches on why such companies exist.
It is a simple fact of life these days that, owing to a deliberate decision to downsize government, Washington can operate only by paying private companies to perform a wide range of functions. To get some idea of the scale: contractors absorb the taxes paid by everyone in America with incomes under $100,000. In other words, more than 90 percent of all taxpayers might as well remit everything they owe directly to SAIC or some other contractor rather than to the IRS.
This is hardly a new trend. In his 1980 book, Fat City, Donald Lambro describes much the same going on. It goes without saying that this is not a cost effective way of running things, and that it creates problems with oversight and conflict of interest, as the article also explains.
In Washington these companies go by the generic name "body shops"—they supply flesh-and-blood human beings to do the specialized work that government agencies no longer can. Often they do this work outside the public eye, and with little official oversight—even if it involves the most sensitive matters of national security.

[....]

SAIC's relative anonymity has allowed large numbers of its executives to circulate freely between the company and the dozen or so government agencies it cares about. William B. Black Jr., who retired from the N.S.A. in 1997 after a 38-year career to become a vice president at SAIC, returned to the N.S.A. in 2000. Two years later the agency awarded the Trailblazer contract to SAIC.
I highly recommend the article - go read it, and see what the US taxpayers' money is really used on.


__________________________________________

SAIC is Johns Hopkins and represents billions of taxpayer dollars sent to Hopkins in development funding and as you see below-----it operates world-wide just as Baltimore Board of Estimates operates here in Baltimore.  The corruption in cost overruns and bid-rigging is breath-taking and you see the same ethics permeates all of what these Ivy League Universities are involved. 

SAIC is the spying network behind the NSA that Snowden exposed to the world and it is in the consortium of security and surveillance groups that operate as ISIO above.  ISIO would be an example of what the police privatization in Baltimore would look like.  For decades SAIC and ISIO have operated in developing worlds but they are now moving into Western countries to control dissent of Americans et al to being taken third world.


Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin have worked hard to send Federal funds to build these kinds of systems through Hopkins.  HOW TOTALITARIAN OF THEM!


The article states that despite the known corruption in SAIC that Bloomberg of NYC handed a multi-million contract to the same and the reporter wonders why give business to a known criminal element-----WELL, HOPKINS IS BLOOMBERG.

'SO INEFFECTIVE'-----DOESN'T THAT SOUND LIKE GOVERNMENT IN MARYLAND AND BALTIMORE???


Just How Corrupt is SAIC?

Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 7:23PM
David Callahan The latest revelation in the CityTime corruption case offers yet more evidence that the Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, may have an unethical organizational culture. SAIC is one of the largest and most well-connected government contracting firms in the country, with 45,000 employees worldwide. It's incompetence in handling the CityTime contract, with hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns, appears to be part of a pattern -- with other clients, like the FBI, reporting similar experiences.

But now comes evidence of something darker. According to a files unearthed by New York City Controller John Liu, SAIC tried to exert improper influence over the top city official monitoring its work. Juan Gonzalez, the New York Daily News reporter who has been on top of this story all along describes the new revelations about SAIC:

On Jan. 28, 2002, Richard Valcich, then the director of the Office of Payroll Administration, wrote a one-page note to William Russell, a senior vice president for Virginia-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).

"I appreciated meeting with you to discuss SAIC issues that are pending with the Office of Payroll Administration," Valcich wrote. He then apologized to Russell "if I seemed rude and abruptly shortened your discussion on a future post city-employment position with SAIC."

"[I]t is inappropriate to discuss any post employment with a company that I do business," Valcich warned him.

Valcich went on to say that he was "flattered you would consider me for such a position with SAIC but there are restrictions due to the city's conflicts of interest rules."

Such restrictions include a lifetime ban against working on the same "matter" that a city employee handled while in government. 

Wow. Of course, those familiar with how big contractors and lobbyists corrupt government officials will not find any of this surprising. There is a long history of companies using offers of lucrative jobs to exert improper influence. These deals are simple and often hard to scrutinize: Do our bidding now, companies say, and we'll give you a job paying a million dollars a year (or whatever) down the road. A big focus of ethics reform in recent decades has been to crack down on "revolving door" enticements.

SAIC's tactic in this episode raises questions about its corrupt dealing around other contracts. Stay tuned for more on that topic. 

Gonzalez's latest article on the subject of SAIC includes a kicker near the end: 

Amazingly, despite years of red flags on the CityTime project, the Bloomberg administration confirmed yesterday it recently awarded a new $40 million contract to SAIC.

So what is it about Michael Bloomberg and SAIC?
Why is a mayor so famously focused on efficiency so forgiving to a contractor that is so ineffective? That is a question that deserves closer attention. 

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

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