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CINDY WALSH FOR MAYOR OF BALTIMORE----SOCIAL DEMOCRAT
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July 08th, 2014

7/8/2014

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CORPORATIONS ARE USING PRIVATE NON-PROFITS TO CONTROL PUBLIC POLICY.  THEY CAPTURE AN ISSUE AND PROMOTE POLICY THAT WORKS TO THE ADVANTAGE OF CORPORATIONS.  IN MARYLAND THE PUBLIC SECTOR HAS BEEN DISMANTLED AND IS REPLACED BY THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS.  IT IS WHY THERE IS NO PUBLIC VOICE OR CONTROL OF POLICY IN MARYLAND.  A DEMOCRAT WOULD NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN....NE0-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ARE DOING THIS!


I have spoken about Maryland's capture of politics centered in the movement away from a strong public sector which has been replaced by private non-profits controlled by corporations that simply place someone as head of the organization that makes sure public policy goes the way the corporations want.  In Maryland we have AGAB serving that goal.  Johns Hopkins creates and controls most non-profits in Baltimore and in doing so captures all public policy.  What we see less of in Maryland and Baltimore are real citizens coming out and organizing and controlling their own non-profits.  My non-profit, Citizens Oversight Maryland speaks freely because there is no corporate connection.  If you see a non-profit that is silent on all of the issues I address here-----they are being controlled by a corporation.  We have great groups doing good work in Baltimore but very few of them will shout against the power structures -----Johns Hopkins and Baltimore Development or identify the fact that all of Baltimore's politicians work for these institutions and not the citizens of Baltimore.  I told you about the anti-fracking environmental group that ran when I asked them to educate about Trans Pacific Trade Pact and the fact that it allows all environmental laws to be ignored.  Now, if an environmental non-profit is not talking about this----it is headed by a corporation.  This is why TPP is not even mentioned in Maryland.....corporations control all of our private non-profits.

PLEASE WAKE UP AND ENGAGE IN POLITICS FOLKS!  THE MIDDLE CLASS CANNOT WATCH AS THE POOR ARE BRUTALIZED BECAUSE WE KNOW THE GOAL OF NEO-LIBERALISM IS TO GET RID OF ALL MIDDLE-CLASS.  YOU OR YOUR CHILDREN/GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE THE POOR.  YOU CANNOT BE SILENT FOR FEAR OF YOUR JOB BECAUSE LOSING DEMOCRACY AND YOUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS IS MORE IMPORTANT.


Maryland and especially Baltimore is now running just a global corporations do overseas----Non-governmental organizations NGOs control our state and local governments as a 'quasi-governmental agency' and corporations 'donate' rather than pay taxes to private non-profits that then do what that 'donor' wants.  No doubt national non-profits have always been this way but now they are controlling all policy at state and local levels as well.  This is the capture we are feeling in Maryland.  The neo-liberals and neo-cons work to establish these private non-profits and then make sure that these groups are the ones heard in policy discussion.  This is why many community associations in Baltimore are silent to politicians pushing neo-conservative/neo-liberal policies that are killing the residents living in these communities.  They instead are the ones backing these same pols dismantling our democratic structures.  The heads of these organizations sound to be supporting the community when in fact they are working to push corporate policy.

As you see below you must have politicians in office that want the public engaged in public policy.  They build the structures to make sure to stimulate participation.  In Maryland all policy is written behind closed doors and the public is pulled from public meetings if they try to speak on the most important issues.  Go to Baltimore City Hall and you look at pols that are simply sitting there----they are no more connected to the people speaking than a man on the moon.  They are simply meeting a charter requirement to have hearings.

IT IS THE DISMANTLING OF ALL OF THE PUBLIC STRUCTURES OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT THAT HAS PRODUCED THE LACK OF PARTICIPATION AND IT HAS BEEN REPLACED BY THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS.



The Citizens Most Vocal in Local Government

View detailed demographic data from a national survey about the most and least likely people to speak up. by Mike Maciag | July 2014 Flickr/Kelby Carr


In his first few months in office, Park City, Utah, Mayor Jack Thomas has heard from quite a few constituents. His office phone rings off the hook. Going out for lunch takes about twice as long as before, too, as he constantly fields concerns from residents who walk up. “If you want a quiet moment,” he jokes, “you’ve got to leave town.”

The small resort community is home to some of the nation’s more vocal residents. In a recent survey, 28 percent of city residents reported contacting elected officials to express their opinions and 37 percent said they had attended a local public meeting over a 12-month period.

Nationwide, though, citizen participation in local government remains abysmally low. The National Research Center (NRC), a firm that conducts citizen surveys for more than 200 communities, compiled data for Governing shedding light on the types of residents who are most active. Overall, only 19 percent of Americans recently surveyed contacted their local elected officials over a 12-month period, while about a quarter reported attending a public meeting.

In many city halls, extremists on either side of an issue dominate public hearings. Those who do show up at the sparsely attended meetings are often the same cast of characters week after week. But some public officials have found ways to reach a much wider segment of residents.

Park City’s Mayor Thomas said he’ll go door-to-door along the town’s main corridor to gauge resident sentiment about everything from new development projects to air quality and garbage pickup. “If you want to have a government that’s rooted in the community, you better start that way,” Thomas said. “It’s all about trust.”

NRC survey data identifies types of residents who are the most active or, in some cases, the least vocal. Individuals living in a community for more than 10 years, for example, are about three times more likely to attend public meetings and contact elected officials than new residents. Among racial groups, Asians tend to have the lowest participation rates. Low-income residents also aren’t as active as those earning six-figure incomes.

In general, residents often aren’t compelled to weigh in on an issue unless it negatively affects them, said Cheryl Hilvert of the International City/County Management Association. It’s for this reason that much of the citizen engagement in communities is confined to typical hot-button issues, such as planning and zoning meetings.

Many residents don’t think they have time to participate. Others, particularly newer residents with lower participation rates, may not know where or how to get involved, Hilvert said.

Survey data further suggests that younger residents aren’t inclined to speak up. Those under the age of 35 attend meetings and contact elected officials at far lower rates than those over 35. Hilvert suspects their busy lifestyles may have something to do with it, especially if they have children.

Connecting with these groups of residents requires stepping outside of city hall and meeting residents on their own turf. Park City officials say they’ve held meetings in school lunch rooms, performing arts centers and with local homeowners’ associations.

“To truly engage the community,” Hilvert said, “managers have to think broader about it than in the past.”

Some localities employ unconventional approaches to raise the level of citizen engagement. When the city of Rancho Cordova, Calif., debated permitting more residents to raise chickens on their properties last year, it launched an online Open Town Hall. More than 500 residents visited the interactive forum to make or review public statements. “It is noisy and smelly enough with pigeons, turkeys, feral cats, and untended dogs without adding chickens to the mix,” wrote one resident. The city drafted an ordinance reflecting citizen input, then emailed it to forum subscribers.

Outreach efforts through local media or civic organizations help further community involvement. Some residents also form Facebook groups or online petitions to promote their causes.

The city of Chanhassen, Minn., relied heavily on social media to connect with citizens when it confronted an issue that’s about as contentious as any local government can face: a proposal to build a new Walmart. The city posted regular updates on its Facebook page and uploaded all documents online. Laurie Hokkanen, the city’s assistant city manager, said residents continued hearing rumors even after the city rejected the company’s rezoning proposal. As a result, staff kept lines of communication open.

“A vote by the city council does not end the issue for residents who are invested in it,” Hokkanen said. “It’s important to tell people you appreciate their input.”

Citizen Survey Data Across much of the country, citizens rarely voice their opinion to local governments. The National Research Center provided survey results from local jurisdictions throughout the country participating in the National Citizen Survey, collected between 2012 and earlier this year.

Two questions on the survey assessed how vocal citizens were in government. Survey respondents were asked if they had done the following in the last 12 months:

1) "Contacted [locality name] elected officials (in-person, phone, email or web) to express your opinion?"

  • Yes: 19 percent
  • No: 81 percent
2) "Attended a local public meeting?"

  • Two times a week or more: 1 percent
  • Two to four times a month: 1 percent
  • Once a month or less: 22 percent
  • Not at all: 76 percent
___________________________________________
We all know the quasi nature of Baltimore Development and the University of Maryland Medical Center but let's look at AGAB and how corporations 'donate' for tax write-offs and then simply write the public policy tied to that non-profit.

If you could look at what this organization does------and the details are very private-----you will see that corporations and the rich simply choose a category to contribute and then are allowed to write what that 'donation' will create.  So, greening as a category can channel money to paying for corporate parks that simply subsidize the costs of a corporation's headquarters.  Why pay to landscape your property when you can get a tax write-off as 'donation' to greening and have the city contribute a chunk for example.   A corporation wanting to 'donate' to eduction would direct that money to a national education non-profit controlled by corporations to go into schools and tell parents, teachers, and students just what 'wellness' will look like in the schools.  In Baltimore parents asking for recess for their children may not be discussed in these 'wellness' groups in many schools.

This entire system allows corporations not paying taxes in Baltimore and Maryland to instead 'donate' money and then control the public policy in whatever area they choose.  This is how the citizens of Maryland have lost their voices in their own communities.  When I first moved to Baltimore I had the nerve as a citizen to try to organize for an athletic field on a vacant lot in my community and the response-----JOHNS HOPKINS HOMEWOOD DEVELOPMENT WILL DECIDE WHAT WILL GO THERE----ARE YOU CRAZY?  As a resident of a community you must go to that development corporation for community grants to do anything and that allows that development corporation to decide what they want-----


AND ALL OF THIS IS THE CORPORATION THAT IS JOHNS HOPKINS AND BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT.



This is what happens when the public sector is dismantled-----all money is funneled through private non-profits that have no transparency and whose membership becomes ever more exclusive.

GET RID OF THE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ALLOWING THIS DISMANTLING OF OUR PUBLIC SECTOR----REMEMBER, IF YOU THINK GOVERNMENT HAS TOO MUCH CONTROL----CORPORATE CONTROL IS MUCH WORSE AS REGARDS DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS.

About The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG)

ABAG's mission is to maximize the impact of philanthropic giving on community life through a growing network of diverse, informed and effective grantmakers.

The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers is the region’s premier resource on philanthropy, dedicated to informing grantmakers and improving our community. ABAG was founded in 1983 to provide a forum in which colleagues could address common problems, approaches and interests.

Our members include more than 145 private and community foundations, donor advised funds, and corporations with strategic grantmaking programs - representing the vast majority of institutional giving in our area.

ABAG is …

  • The Resource on Grantmaking
ABAG provides critical information and services to the philanthropic and nonprofit communities.

  • The Network for Givers
ABAG convenes grantmakers and others to address issues and create lasting solutions.

  • The Voice for Philanthropy
ABAG represents the philanthropic sector to key audiences, including the media, legislators, and national organizations, raising public awareness and understanding about the role and impact of philanthropy on our society.


_________________________________________

Maryand Health Care for All and Baltimore Education Coalition are two examples of many.  Maryland Health Care for All is a Johns Hopkins non-profit created to make sure the Affordable Care Act was the health reform that moved forward in Maryland and not REAL health care for all like Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.  People see that the ACA is not about access----it is about building structures that will deregulate and consolidate the health industry killing oversight and accountability and denying most people most access to care.  Maryland has already disconnected from Medicare by receiving exemptions from the Federal government.  All of this makes Maryland have one of the worst health environments in the nation.  The poor have a life span  30 years less than affluent, people are fearful when going to the hospital because of poor quality and staff work in some of the most difficult conditions.  Now, the state health reform is creating a tiered health system that has most people only able to connect to clinic care.  We see this breakdown in health care in Maryland best if we look at the dismantled Veteran's Administration with Baltimore having the worst in the nation.  All of the doctors in this system were moved out and into private health systems that now cater to the world's rich------HEALTH TOURISM.  THIS IS JOHNS HOPKINS SPECIALTY NOW.



Below you see two Hopkins grads placed in charge of controlling the health care policy.  Bill and Hillary tried to do to health care what Obama has done with ACA at the same time they created the conditions for global banks---so this group in 1999 had the goal of moving health policy in that direction.  This is why Maryland sought the exemption from Medicare----to create the private health systems that are tied to the Maryland state health exchange.  Medicare and Medicaid fraud is rampant in Maryland because the oversight and accountability of the public sector was long ago dismantled.

The leaders advocating for the Affordable Care Act knew the goal was maximizing corporate profits and building global health corporations and not REAL health care for all.  The groups joining this coalition often did not.  They assumed they were actually working for health care for all.  This is an example of corporate capture of a policy.  Maryland spent this time from 1999 dismantling the public programs Medicare and Medicaid---and the Veteran's Administration and creating a tiered level of coverage that denied basic access by allowing health institutions to create the most profitable definition of care. 

While neo-liberals claimed to be building the most cost-effective health delivery system------patient outcomes in Maryland worsened and longevity declined.  So much for health care for all.  Johns Hopkins was able to build a global corporate empire with all that Medicare and Medicaid----not to mention Federal, state, and local grants and public funding. 

A GLOBAL HEALTH EMPIRE BUILT ON PUBLIC MONEY----THAT IS A SUCCESSFUL PRIVATE NON-PROFIT.

The people attached to Maryland Health Care for All really seeking this goal now need to join Expanded and Improved Medicare for All in Maryland to actually get health care for all.
  We need to replace the most private and profit-driven health system in the nation that is Maryland health exchange with this public structure that keeps Medicare strong.


The Founder of the Initiative is Peter Beilenson, MD, MPH, and the President is Vincent DeMarco, MA, JD.

The Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative Education Fund (“MCHI”) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization that was created in 1999 with a mission to educate all Marylanders about sound ways to achieve quality, affordable health care for all. In order to create a comprehensive, economically sound health care for all plan, MCHI organized the state’s largest coalition and solicited input from coalition members and thousands of Maryland citizens in town hall meetings.  National experts at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Maryland Law School then worked to incorporate this community input into MCHI’s Health Care for All! Plan.  In 2002, MCHI released its first plan and conducted a statewide campaign to educate people about how the plan would guarantee health care security for all Marylanders.  A revised version of the plan was released in 2008 by the same set of experts that created the original following another round of public stakeholder meetings. The updated plan includes similar components as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) and is being used to guide analysis and planning for state and local implementation of the federal health reform law.

Over 1,200 faith, labor, business, health, and community organizations have joined the Health Care for All! Coalition to support enactment of MCHI’s plan.  This is the largest coalition ever created in Maryland and certainly one of the largest health care consumer coalitions in the country.

The Coalition successfully advocated for a number of laws that will increase access to care and prescription drugs.  In addition, MCHI continues to work with key state leaders to educate members of our broad coalition about how they can access health care programs now in existence.  In the years ahead, MCHI will continue to educate and activate its powerful coalition to increase health care access in Maryland.

___________________________________________


Baltimore Education Coalition is the Michelle Rhee of privatization groups again created by Johns Hopkins this time with the goal of capturing education policy and making sure reforms go the way of corporate control-----just as did Maryland Health Care for All.  In both cases the leaders knew the goal but the people joining often think they are really working towards the goal of health care for all or quality public education.  It is not until all of the bad policy the BEC unrolls that many people in these coalitions find they did not get what they bargained for.  Good people wanting to work for good public policy captured by joining private non-profits that exist to make sure that does not happen.

This is why activism in Baltimore and Maryland is so low----people trying to organize have to fight these corporate non-profits ! 

Please stop allowing corporate non-profits to control all public policy in Maryland.  Know what the policies these groups are advocating and know that they actually have a goal that works for the people and not only for maximizing corporate profit.

This is a prime example of why getting rid of neo-liberals and neo-cons is so important.  It is not only how they vote in City Hall or the Maryland Assembly.  It is the environment they allow to exist in public community organizations ------where is the public discussion-----is it open and inclusive?  Neither Maryland Health Care for All nor Baltimore Education Coalition would allow Cindy Walsh to come in to educate and/or speak against these policies.
  If they do not allow open dialog----they are hiding something and that is that what they are doing is not in the public interest!


Baltimore Education Coalition

We are public schools – traditional and charter. We are after-school programs and neighborhood associations. We are education policy organizations, religious institutions, broad-based organizations, and schools. We are policy analysts, teachers, students, parents, community members, grandparents, and Baltimoreans working together to organize, mobilize, and energize the City of Baltimore to achieve our mission that all Baltimore students receive an excellent education. We focus on the issues that impact our students and families the most. Together, we have stopped over $100 million dollars in proposed funding cuts to city schools. In the face of potential harmful cuts to School Based Health Centers the BEC responded and advocated to successfully keep this important resource in the budget. We have also worked together to address the deplorable facility conditions in Baltimore City including winning the bottle tax in Baltimore City to support the successful campaign to pass state legislation to provide an unprecedented financing plan providing up to $1 billion to rebuild or renovate schools in Baltimore City. This effort was successful due to the dedication and perseverance of the more than 3,000 parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community leaders who came to Annapolis and City Hall to make their voices heard for Baltimore City’s 85,000 students and their communities.



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April 16th, 2014

4/16/2014

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Today I would like to look at not only the new approach the American people must take to elections in America but to look at how the global corporations have prepared to squelch any avenue the American people have to organize.....and that is the SYSTEM OF PRIVATE NON-PROFITS......

MARYLAND AND BALTIMORE IS GROUND ZERO FOR CAPTURE BY CORPORATE NON-PROFIT.



AS WE ORGANIZE WE WILL BE CIRCUMVENTING ALL OF THE CORPORATE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS AND IN BALTIMORE THIS MEANS THOSE CREATED BY JOHNS HOPKINS TO CONTROL ALL PUBLIC POLICY AND ORGANIZING.


If you look at the establishment of Maryland's system of private non-profits it coincides with the Reagan/Clinton agenda of moving to neo-liberalism and global corporate empire.  This of course meant that the rich would not be citizens or taxpayers but patrons just as Medici's time.  So, these two decades have seen corporate and wealth taxation erode in Maryland as these private non-profits grew in number.  Today, corporations not only do not pay taxes in Maryland, they are given our tax revenue as corporate welfare to augment profits even further. 

MARYLAND IS ONE GREAT, BIG THIRD WORLD COLONY RUN BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGO'S).


In Baltimore the head honcho of private non-profits is Baltimore Development Corporation run by Johns Hopkins and the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG) is the mechanism for Baltimore Development Corporation to control all public policy and public organization.

THIS IS THE SAME AMERICAN NGO SYSTEM YOU HEAR ABOUT IN DEVELOPING WORLDS AND NOW HERE IN AMERICA WE SEE WHY THESE NATIONS HATE AMERICA.  THESE NGOs ARE ALL ABOUT BUILDING STRUCTURES TO CONTROL A REGION AND FUNNEL ALL MONEY INTO THEIR POCKETS.

So, two decades after starting to build this patronage structure preparing for the great economic collapse of 2008 as the excuse of government debt handing all control of funding to these private non-profits------in Baltimore and Maryland they are in full swing and control everything.

So, why is this important to elections?  As I have said, removing the public sector and replacing with private non-profits removes the ability to meet and discuss policy and promote agendas.  With these non-profits headed by directors working for corporations, these non-profits will not allow any policy or discussion other than what the corporation funding the non-profit wants.  I've spoken at length about how Johns Hopkins does this in Baltimore.  What is equally important is that these private non-profits control communications and mailing lists as well.  So, all communications for a group of thousands of people wanting to support a certain issue is made confidential.  In the end, this private non-profit then will promote the issue of the corporation no matter what the group as a whole felt was the mission.  SEE HOW THIS CAPTURES THE ENTIRE PUBLIC SPACE?  I have given examples with Maryland Health Care for All capturing the universal care issue by promoting Affordable Care Act knowing the ACA would kill Medicare and Medicaid.  Then there is the Baltimore Education Coalition BEC that is the Michelle Rhee/Bill Gates education privatization group that is the only voice of education in Baltimore and they are an extension of Johns Hopkins.


THE POINT IS THIS:  CITIZENS OF MARYLAND AND BALTIMORE MUST STOP ALLOWING THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS CONTROL YOUR COMMUNITIES.  YOU MUST BECOME ACTIVISTS AND ADVOCATES AND MAKE TIME TO BUILD YOUR OWN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS.


An organization that makes its email lists private or that restricts its membership to invitation only-------as the ABAG does, is not working for the people.


About The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG)

ABAG's mission is to maximize the impact of philanthropic giving on community life through a growing network of diverse, informed and effective grantmakers.

The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers is the region’s premier resource on philanthropy, dedicated to informing grantmakers and improving our community. ABAG was founded in 1983 to provide a forum in which colleagues could address common problems, approaches and interests.

Our members include more than 145 private and community foundations, donor advised funds, and corporations with strategic grantmaking programs - representing the vast majority of institutional giving in our area.

ABAG is …

  • The Resource on Grantmaking
ABAG provides critical information and services to the philanthropic and nonprofit communities.

  • The Network for Givers
ABAG convenes grantmakers and others to address issues and create lasting solutions.

  • The Voice for Philanthropy
ABAG represents the philanthropic sector to key audiences, including the media, legislators, and national organizations, raising public awareness and understanding about the role and impact of philanthropy on our society.

Knowledge. Connections. Leadership.

ABAG's Core Values Are:

  • Generosity: We believe generosity is one of the most important values. It is essential to communal welfare and something everyone should practice in some form.
  • Inclusive and Respectful: We value the perspectives and contributions of all people, and incorporate the viewpoints of diverse communities in our work.
  • Diversity: We are committed to supporting a funding community that encompasses differences in the attributes of both individuals (such as race, ethnicity, age, socio-economic status, gender, physical ability, sexual orientation, and religion) and organizations (foundations and giving programs of differing sizes, missions, geographic locations, and approaches to grantmaking).
  • Welcoming: We create an open, compassionate and trusting environment that facilitates learning, dialogue and healthy debate to inform and strengthen philanthropy.
  • Forward-Thinking: We seek strategic opportunities to meet new and existing needs in new ways.
  • Forthright Stewards: We conduct our business with honesty and integrity and utilize best practices in the stewardship of our resources and accountability for our results.




History The Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations

("Maryland Nonprofits") was established in 1992 as a result of a comprehensive statewide organizing effort in the nonprofit and philanthropic community involving hundreds of nonprofit executives and volunteer leaders.  Today, we are one of the largest and most successful nonprofit associations in the United States with more than 1,400 nonprofit organization members, 300 associate members, and 23 staff to serve them from two locations (Baltimore and Silver Spring). 

Maryland Nonprofits is statewide and sector-wide. Our members hail from every county of Maryland and from all sub-sectors of the nonprofit community, including human services, health, educational, cultural, environmental, religious, and other charitable organizations and foundations. The size of these organizations is also diverse, ranging from all volunteer organizations to major institutions. The association truly represents the diversity of Maryland's nonprofit community.


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Neo-liberalism with Reagan/Clinton started this privatization of all that is public.  This was sold to republican voters as small government but as we see today it is the Tea Party and its true conservatism that now sees how this drive to the bottom in small government has created a systemically criminal and corrupt corporate and government structure.  Tea Party want free markets and they are assaulted by naked capitalism full of cronyism and corporate welfare.  Labor and justice of course are completely demolished by neo-liberalism.

Here in Maryland we have Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur all shouting to further push public private partnerships as all of the public sector must fall to this neo-liberal drive to hand all to the few at the top.  University of Maryland Medical Center for example has a long-established quasi-governmental designation and acts as a corporation, not a state university and hospital and of course we have Baltimore Development Corporation controlling all development with absolute authority with City Hall in its pocket.  Lastly, we see the public private status of corporations like the Hilton and Hyatt that subsidize all the operational costs of those corporations to the public and makes City Hall in the business of profiting off of impoverishing its own citizens.
  Right now the City of Baltimore has structures that prey of the residents of the city in order to gather revenue in lieu of collecting taxes from corporations and the wealthy.

THIS IS COLONIALISM PEOPLE!!!!!!!

WHEN WE ALLOW OUR GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS TO CREATE STRUCTURES THAT THRIVE FROM PROFITING OFF OF THE PUBLIC-----WE DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY.



The Quasi Government: Hybrid Organizations with Both Government and Private Sector Legal Characteristics

This report provides an overview of federally related entities that possess legal characteristics of both the governmental and private sectors. These hybrid organizations (e.g., Fannie Mae, National Park Foundation, In-Q-Tel), collectively referred to in this report as the “quasi government,” have grown in number, size, and importance in recent decades.A brief review of executive branch organizational history is followed by a description of entities with ties to the executive branch, although they are not “agencies” of the United States as defined in Title 5 of the U.S.Code. Several categories of quasi governmental entities are defined and discussed: (1) quasi official agencies,(2) government-sponsored enterprises (GSE), (3) federally funded research and development corporations,(4) agency-related nonprofit organizations, (5) venture capital funds, (6) congressionally chartered nonprofit organizations, and (7) instrumentalities of indeterminate character.The quasi government, not surprisingly, is a controversial subject. To supporters of this trend toward greater reliance upon hybrid organizations, the proper objective of governmental management is to maximize performance and results, however defined. In their view, the private and governmental sectors are alike in their essentials, and thus subject to the same economically derived behavioral norms.They tend to welcome this trend toward greater use of quasi governmental entities.Critics of the quasi government, on the other hand, tend to view hybrid organizations as contributing to a weakened capacity of government to perform its fundamental constitutional duties, and to an erosion in political accountability, a crucial element in democratic governance. They tend to consider the governmental and private sectors as being legally distinct, with relatively little overlap in behavioral norms.Congress is increasingly engaged with the quasi government. The issues run the gamut from enacting legislation to encourage the creation of nonprofit organizations to promote individual national parks, to proposals to strengthen regulation of government- sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae, to oversight hearings respecting national security issues at Los Alamos Laboratory. There is nothing modest about the size,scope, and impact of the quasi government.Time will tell whether the emergence of the quasi government is to be viewed as a symptom of decline in our democratic government, or a harbinger of a new, creative management era where the purportedly artificial barriers between the governmental and private sectors are breached as a matter of principle.This report will be updated at the beginning of each Congress


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In Baltimore we have a system of community organizations created by O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake headed by directors that will move forward all policy put forward by Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins.  You might think a community organization for a community would be good, but if you look closely what happens is that these organizations are filled with VISTAS brought from all over the country taking leading roles in these communities they know nothing about and often in which they have no intention of staying.  Our schools are filled with the same set of private non-profit entities from Teach for America to the private Parent Teacher Organization.

Now, you may think that underserved communities need help getting on their feet but in Baltimore the entire city has its community voice supplanted by this occupation by PRIVATE NON-PROFIT.  Johns Hopkins has been allowed to consume so much of the taxpayer's revenue it is a global corporation built in a matter of the few decades from Reagan/Clinton and now.  It owns the City of Baltimore and runs it with these private non-profits.

In each case, every time a citizen in Baltimore wants to get involved in their community the only way to get government funding for a program goes through these private non-profits who, of course, will not fund a group working against this occupation.


FOLKS, YOU ARE ALLOWING EVERY AVENUE FOR PUBLIC ORGANIZING AND SPACE FOR PUBLIC POLICY-MAKING BE TAKEN.



Community centres
generally perform many (though rarely all) the following functions in its community (Note this list is intended to define which meaning of the phrase community centre is covered by this article rather than being facts about what some other sources associate with that phrases, though adding source confirming that other sources use the phrase in a similar way would be nice).

  • As the place for all-community celebrations at various occasions and traditions.
  • As the place for public meetings of the citizens on various issues.
  • As the place where politicians or other official leaders come to meet the citizens and ask for their opinions, support or votes ("election campaigning" in democracies, other kinds of requests in non-democracies).
  • As a place where community members meet each other socially.
  • As a place housing local clubs and volunteer activities.
  • As a place that community members (and sometimes others), can rent cheaply when a private family function or party is too big for their own home. For instance the non-church parts of weddings, funerals etc.
  • As a place that passes on and retells local history.

Below we see a community organization that is working to provide for low-income employment and services that was required by the Enterprise Zone give-away to Johns Hopkins in its East Baltimore Development.  Hopkins received a billion in taxpayer money and did not meet any of its obligations to help the residents surrounding the area.  I know this organization does some good although I do not support some of its advocacy.  This point here is that a gathering of local citizens are having to vie for city funds at a time when billions are being given to national private non-profits who the mayor is saying offer better value.  Only, when you actually look at what these private non-profits accomplish-----they almost always fail in their 'mission'.

The problem in Baltimore is that organizations like BUILD placate Johns Hopkins which is of course the source of all the mayor's policies.  So, rather than expose Hopkins as the source of the problem, BUILD takes the stance against the mayor.  Now, don't get me wrong....I'm glad at least they are shouting against the mayor, but it is the entire system that is corrupt.  Remember, we do not want all the money to go to private non-profits----we want a strong public sector.  If BUILD would advocate for public employees to do the work of Baltimore City Parks rather than allow a private prison contractor to work prisoners for next to nothing.....you would hire thousands to do city-wide public service jobs.

WHY IS BUILD NOT SHOUTING TO HIRE PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES TO DO THE JOB OF PUBLIC WORKS, ENDING THE OUTSOURCING OF STRONG, MIDDLE-CLASS JOBS IN THE CITY?

At election time, organizations like BUILD will support the pols we all know are working for Johns Hopkins.


Mayor says she won't fund job-training program, sparking debateRawlings-Blake declines to provide $594,000 for plan to employ 50 East Baltimore residents

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is shown in this… (Kim Hairston / Baltimore…)April 08, 2014|By Luke Broadwater, The Baltimore Sun

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has declined to fund a proposed East Baltimore job-training program backed by an influential community group, sparking a war of words over whether City Hall is doing enough to help the unemployed.

The interfaith coalition Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development says its leaders have a proposal to provide 50 members of the Oliver neighborhood with jobs and want $594,000 in funding over three years from the Rawlings-Blake administration. The program would target ex-offenders and others chronically unemployed.

The mayor rejected the proposal, telling the organization in a letter Monday that the city "is not in a position to provide funding for the program at this time."

About 200 people packed Memorial Baptist Church in Oliver Tuesday evening to protest the decision, at times booing a photograph of Rawlings-Blake.

"We raised $1.2 million ourselves," said Melvin Wilson, leader of the BUILD Citywide Jobs Team, who said the group's request to the mayor would only amount to $200,000 per year. "She said no."

On Tuesday, Rawlings-Blake called BUILD a "trusted partner" but said she can't simply cut checks to every well-meaning organization that asks for money and can only provide small reimbursements to job-training organizations approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

She encouraged BUILD to apply for grants from charitable organizations.

"They have a proposal that just doesn't work," Rawlings-Blake said. "I have continuously supported efforts to connect previously incarcerated people with jobs. I don't take this lightly. I understand there are barriers to employment."

BUILD proposed that the 50 workers — deemed some of the hardest to employ — would be trained on construction job sites in East Baltimore while making $10.69 an hour. After a one-year training program, the workers would begin apprenticeships with the International Painters Union.

Community leaders noted that the city government has a $2.5 billion operating budget and has funded millions of dollars for development subsidies.

"We are angry with this mayor. We are tired of what this mayor is not doing," said the Rev. Marshall Prentice, pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Oliver. "If she doesn't like our plan, then what's her plan? We've got to get Baltimore working, and we want a meeting about it."

Rawlings-Blake called a news conference Tuesday to highlight some of her administration's efforts to employ local residents. She's signed an executive order called "Employ Baltimore" to assist companies in applications for city work if they have hired city residents.

She said BUILD is welcome to work with the Mayor's Office of Employment Development to reach a resolution of the dispute.

"I don't think it would be the most effective and efficient use of more than $500,000," she said of the BUILD plan. "I get frustrated because their response is, 'We're angry and we're not going to take it anymore.' Anger doesn't make progress. Sitting down at the table and doing the hard work, that's how you make progress."




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Cities all across America are now filling with private corporate non-profits wanting to help the unfortunate now that these hedge funds sucked all of the wealth of the country through massive corporate fraud and left 70% of families in America is poverty.  Baltimore is ground zero for these national private non-profits that are being allowed to become our public sector.....from mental health to wellness, from prison labor to youth employment......all of these involve those gracious hedge funds wanting to do good in our communities.  The only thing we need to do in return------is let them write all the policy, operate with impunity, control all property and institutions, and fleece WE THE PEOPLE at every turn.  Then, they will go to Associated Grantmakers of Baltimore to 'donate' to a program to help those they keep impoverished as with all third world societies.

Baltimore has such a level of corruption that corporate tax breaks and designation of corporations as non-profits allow corporations to not only operate with no cost, but now has a system where in lieu of taxes corporations 'donate' to these private non-profits for more tax write-offs and then direct that non-profit in a way that sends more money to their corporations.  So, donate to a youth employment program in Baltimore and you get matching funds from the city and a youth to work for free. 


THAT IS WHAT THIS NETWORK OF PRIVATE NON-PROFITS DOES.....IT ALLOWS CORPORATIONS THE ABILITY TO CIRCUMVENT ALL REVENUE EXPENDITURES AND ACTUALLY GIVES THEM A CHANNEL TO BRING EVEN MORE MONEY THEIR WAY.


Global Corporate PatronSponsorship

Global Corporate Patrons support global operations and the infrastructure that enables Hedge Funds Care to award grants in 11 cities throughout the United States, Canada, the Cayman Islands, and the United Kingdom.Becoming a Global Corporate Patron is an excellent way to increase your firm’s visibility in the hedge fund community while simultaneously demonstrating a strong commitment to corporate responsibility and our mission to prevent and treat child abuse in our communities. Marketing BenefitsYear-round logo recognition on HFC website with link to sponsor’s websiteAnnual e-mail to HFC database of +18,000 financial professionals recognizing corporate sponsors Inclusion in Sponsor recognition PowerPoint at most events or applicable signageRecognition in Annual Report 4 Full Page Journal Ads in event program journal of sponsor’s choice (Events include New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Toronto, Cayman Islands, Atlanta, and Denver.)Rights to host 1 Cocktails & Commentary event annually with Hedge Funds Care $7,500Annual Contribution To become a Corporate Patron, please contact Sarah Blaker, Development Director atSBlaker@HedgeFundsCare.orgor 212-991-9600 ext. 342


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Baltimore is losing every public space in the city.  Here we have a private corporation overseeing our public markets and it outsources what used to be public sector jobs that employed many in the city.  Now, the people working are impoverished and the communities around these markets have no control over development.


Those familiar with the Baltimore Washington International Airport owned by the Maryland State Authority know about AIRMALL -----the private contractors handed control of what used to be public sector employment and now the worst of impoverishment for citizens of Maryland.  As a state agency the people should be protected and have a strong voice over how this airport operates and it has none.

The same conditions occur below.  Again, the community has no voice because a public space has been handed to private non-profit oversight.


Baltimore Public Markets Corporation
( BPMC) was established in 1995 as a non-profit
organization, to operate the public markets in a manner beneficial to the City of Baltimore
and it's citizens. We are proud to be part of Baltimore's many hard working agencies,
associations and organizations that are largely responsible for making Baltimore the
extraordinary city it is today.

In March 2005, BPMC and Lexington Market Inc. entered into a co-teaming agreement. Mr.
Casper Genco was appointed as the Executive Director of Lexington Market Inc. and BPMC.
The teaming agreement is not a merger and the two entities are separate and distinct.

BPMC operates five of the city's old fashioned markets. Come and experience the
personality of unique boutiques, eateries and fresh food, produce and bakery shops, all in
the heart of Baltimore's neighborhoods.

Our office handles all matters pertaining to the operation of the markets. This includes
issues such as leasing, vendor concerns, etc. For further information,
contact us.

Our Goal
At Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, we pride ourselves in knowing that Baltimore has
the oldest continually operating public market system in the nation. It is our goal and desire
to maintain the markets as a part of the City's heritage. We strive to provide you with
buildings that are safe and clean. We will continue the tradition of providing the patrons of
our markets with food and service that is of high quality and standards that you deserve. So
come on by, for a little personal service and be pampered at our markets in Baltimore City's
most historic neighborhoods.

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July 31st, 2013

7/31/2013

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Remember, all of this is being done by neo-liberals......O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake are appointing the people, and your incumbent in the Maryland Assembly and Congress are passing the laws ending all War on Poverty and New Deal programs!



REgarding health care reform in Maryland:

Maryland went with a private health system in this health reform because neo-liberals and republicans work for wealth and corporate profits and not people and all Maryland's democrats are neo-liberals. Johns Hopkins drives this policy because as we are seeing.,...it has been working to go towards profits for decades and now we see the patenting of research and the 'partnership' with biomedical corporations as the vehicle to do that. After trillions of dollars funneled to Hopkins by Mikulski, they have used taxpayer money to expand their own physical presence all over the city and the world. Now, it time to party as health care and education are the next markets for global corporations! Hopkins is capturing the issue as it does all issues by creating the private non-profits that look as though they fight for public option or health care for all and instead make sure that does not happen. We saw that with Maryland Health Care for All headed by Beilenson and Hopkins' people and we will see the same with Beilenson and the Maryland Health Co-ops that are supposed to be the source of curbing public insurance cost. WE ALL KNOW THAT THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IS ONLY ABOUT MAKING HEALTH INSTITUTIONS INTO GLOBAL MARKETS SO THERE WILL BE NO AFFORDABLE CARE FOR PEOPLE....IT SIMPLY MEANS CUTTING ACCESS AND QUALITY SO AS TO INCREASE PROFITS FOR HEALTH BUSINESSES!

As we saw yesterday with the Detroit bankruptcy debacle, Obama is quick to send the public sector worker's health pensions into these health systems and these unions were as quick in stating that their plans are quality health coverage and the systems will be simply Medicaid....WHICH IS TRUE. So we see that Obama and neo-liberals are creating these private health systems to further privatize and make into market all health insurance. First public pensions and health.....then Entitlement Trusts of Medicare and Medicaid....that is toward where this leads. REpublicans have been trying to do this for decades....neo-liberals are doing it! Clinton got rid of Welfare, unions, and the middle class with his consolidation of banks and free market/free trade.....Obama is getting rid of public education, public health coverage, and and all civil liberties.

What we already hear is that these health insurance markets will be handled just as all 'betting' is handled with all kinds of financial instruments and derivative leveraging ......all kinds of market speculation that goes with driving consumer costs to the highest price 'the market can bear'. We will see entitlement and health fraud skyrocket as government coffers are drained just as with FHA taxpayer funded mortgage loans were.

Here in Maryland and Baltimore they are busy setting up preventative clinic care for most people modeled from third world clinic care where people come in regularly for checkups but have no access to hospitals and procedures with cost. Lab tests and Xrays are cheap....let's give lots of those. I will be talking more of the privatizing of Baltimore Public Health to private non-profits and contractors that will take away further the public's ability to know what is happening with care and funding. WHAT? OPEN MEETINGS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC....WELL, WE ARE TALKING BUSINESS IN THERE THAT IS PROPRIETARY YOU KNOW......COMING TO YOUR PUBLIC HEALTH CARE AGENCY! Remember, most people will fall into these Medicaid-level health plans as people lose public and private health plans and costs become too high. I attend Health Reform meetings at state and local level......Joshua M. Sharfstein, M.D./Dr. Oxiris Barbot where I shouted loudly about massive health fraud that government watchdogs and doctors place at 1/2 of entitlement spending.....THEY SEE NO FRAUD! I shout to them the fact that the Hippocratic Oath has doctors doing no harm yet denying access to care that exists because massive health fraud by doctors and health institutions have emptied public coffers.....public health care vs market-based health care flies in the face of all of this.....BOTH SHARFSTEIN FROM HARVARD AND BARBOT FROM YALE ARE WORKING FOR WALL STREET INSTALLING THE STRUCTURES NEEDED FOR GLOBAL HEALTH MARKETS.

The citizens of Maryland overwhelmingly do not want this so why is it happening? This is a neo-liberal/republican policy that ends public health in US and hands it to corporate interests. The Governor of Maryland.....O'Malley and the Mayor of Baltimore....Rawlings-Blake are the ones who appoint these privatizers to these positions. That is why the elections for Gov and Mayor are so important to reverse all these policies and head for the Universal Health Care most people want.

IF YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOT RUNNING CANDIDATES AGAINST NEO-LIBERALS.....THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR YOU AND ME!

Today at the Baltimore Board of Estimates we see on the agenda just what our Baltimore and State Health Commissioners have been busy doing. 


Below you see that as has been happening in all public services......Baltimore is now making Public Health private by making all of the care handled by private contractors and/or private non-profits.  In each case.....the ability for public oversight is curbed just as we see in all public private partnerships.  As we see as well with all of Maryland's contract bidding and private contracting.....the fraud and corruption will skyrocket.  If you think that people will get the level of health care needed to move back to first world care under these arrangements ...... I have swampland in Florida to sell.  Remember, Baltimore Health Commissioner Barbot has already handed senior care to hedge fund Carlyle Group and we are seeing Health Enterprise Zones moving to build health care in the affluent communities being gentrified by existing Enterprise Zones as health care for the poor and working class are moved to the county border to get them out of the city!  Right now we have Baltimore City people going to Drummond Center on York in Baltimore County for social services.....we are seeing the far reaches of Eastern Ave as the sight for health care......and we are seeing homeless shelters in Baltimore County having to handle much of the services for the homeless from Baltimore. 

YOU NOTICE THAT THIS POLICY IS CONTROLLED BY MONTGOMERY COUNTY....

Health Department – Agreements
The Board is requested to approve and authorize execution of the agreements.



CASE MONITOR AGREEMENTS
The Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) is designated as the single State agency to administer all aspects of the Maryland Medical Assistance Program. The Health Department has an agreement with the DHMH to participate in the program as the case monitoring agency and to contract with Case Monitors who will supervise personal care services to eligible recipients. Since 1994, the Health Department has also been authorized to manage the Montgomery County Personal Care Program and is reimbursed by the DHMH per case for every client in Montgomery County. The maximum number of assigned cases per individual case monitor at anytime is 75, unless a waiver is granted.
The Case Monitors will exercise independent professional judgment and carry professional liability insurance. Each case monitor will be an independent contractor and not an employee of the City. The period of the case monitoring agreement is July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014.
The Case Monitors will continue to be responsible for establishing a plan of personal care for each eligible recipient assigned to them in Montgomery County or Baltimore City, unless otherwise indicated. The Case Monitors will make home visits at least once every 90 days, maintain clinical records, consult with each client’s personal physician and other providers in order to develop a care plan, and perform other related duties.


Case Monitor Name Rate of Pay Amount
1. ELAINE POMPEI, R.N. $55.00/case $76,560.00
for 116 cases/
month
AGENDA
BOARD OF ESTIMATES 07/31/2013
12
Health Department – cont’d
Case Monitor Name Rate of Pay Amount
2. DYNAMIC MEDICAL $55.00/case $174,900.00
SUPPORT SERVICES, for 265 cases/
INC. month
3. THE AGAPE HEALTH $55.00/case $ 66,000.00
GROUP, INC. for 100 cases/
month
4. WELLTRUST COMPANY, $55.00/case $ 99,000.00
INC. for 150 cases/
month
5. KARIB SERVICES, INC. $55.00/case $145,200.00
for 220 cases/
month
Account: 4000-426214-3110-306801-603018
MWBOO GRANTED A WAIVER.
The Case Monitors will render personal care case monitoring services in Montgomery County.
AGENDA
BOARD OF ESTIMATES 07/31/2013
13
Health Department – cont’d
Case Monitor Name Rate of Pay Amount
6. LOUISE REED, R.N. $45.00/case $ 40,500.00
for 75 cases/
month
7. WELLTRUST COMPANY, $45.00/case $ 99,900.00
INC. for 185 cases/
Month
MWBOO GRANTED A WAIVER.
8. TRULIFE HEALTH $45.00/case $121,500.00
SERVICES, LLC for 225 cases/
month
MWBOO GRANTED A WAIVER.
Account: 4000-426214-3110-306800-603018


The Case Monitors will render personal care case monitoring services in Baltimore City.
APPROVED FOR FUNDS BY FINANCE
AUDITS REVIEWED AND HAD NO OBJECTIONS.
(The agreements have been approved by the Law Department as to form and legal sufficiency.)
AGENDA
BOARD OF ESTIMATES 07/31/2013
14
Health Department – Agreements
ACTION REQUESTED OF B/E:




For those that are active in community organizations you know that AmeriCorp and SeniorCorp VISTAS are flooding urban communities.  In Baltimore, AmeriCorps are usually students from all over the country signing in to get rid of some student debt.  In both cases....the people working with these volunteer agencies are getting very little money and are taking the jobs of public sector employees that have good wages and benefits.  THIS IS YET ANOTHER METHOD OF BREAKING APART THE POWER OF UNIONS AND THE AMERICAN WORKERS AND IMPOVERISHING THEM AS THEY DO IT.  These kinds of positions are just one step above the other source of workers replacing public sector jobs.....prison labor getting $2 an hour.

Remember, all of this is being done by neo-liberals......O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake are appointing the people, and your incumbent in the Maryland Assembly and Congress are passing the laws ending all War on Poverty and New Deal programs!



The Board is requested to approve and authorize execution of an agreement with the following organizations to serve as Volunteer Stations for the Retired and Senior Volunteers Program (RSVP). The period of the agreement is July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014, unless otherwise noted.
1. THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS/THE GREATER $0.00
CHESAPEAKE AND POTOMAC BLOOD SERVICE REGION
2. FOREST PARK SENIOR CENTER, INC. $0.00
A grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) funds the RSVP. The grant pays 100% of the cost for the RSVP to volunteer and assist special needs clients who want to remain in their homes. While the Senior Volunteers are on duty, the grant provides for their life insurance, transportation and other benefits.
MBE/WBE PARTICIPATION:
N/A

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is a U.S. federal government agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America, and other national service initiatives

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Another move by the Board of Estimates has the Head Start program .......a Federally funded program now being open to private donations.  Now, in Maryland and Baltimore the reasons the government has no money is corporate fraud and corporate tax breaks.  Rather than get these corporation to pay taxes.....Rawlings-Blake is allowing the Maryland Non-profit shadow government to 'donate' to an education program.  When these donations are made....the donors control the policy of the program, where the program will be administered, and gets a tax write-off for doing it.  In other words.....yet another public program is falling into the hands of rich/corporate donors because the government is starved from corporate fraud and evaded corporate taxes!  When the Mayor's office starts circumventing Ethics Laws that are there to stop influence peddling and corruption......YOU KNOW THERE WILL BE INFLUENCE PEDDLING AND CORRUPTION.

TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM GOVERNMENT COFFERS BY CORPORATE FRAUD OVER THESE FEW DECADES.  WE SIMPLY NEED TO REBUILD WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL AGENCIES AND RECOVER THIS FRAUD AND WE CAN BALANCE EVERY GOVERNMENT BUDGET AT ALL LEVELS.
NO REPUBLICANS NEEDED......ALL OF THIS CAN BE FUNDED BY RECOVERED FRAUD.   IF YOUR DEMOCRATIC POLITICIAN IS NOT SHOUTING FOR THIS....THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS.

WE NEVER HAD TO HAVE SEQUESTRATION!

When the government solicits gifts......the gifts have strings.  What is pay to play?

Mayor’s Office of Human Services – Charitable Solicitation



ACTION REQUESTED OF B/E:


The Board is requested to endorse a governmental/charitable solicitation application to be submitted to the Board of Ethics of Baltimore City for donations to Baltimore City Head Start to close the nearly $900,000.00 funding gap due to the Congressional Sequestration action.

The period of the solicitation is August 12, 2013 through December 31, 2013.
AMOUNT OF MONEY AND SOURCE:
No general funds are involved in this transaction.
BACKGROUND/EXPLANATION:


The Mayor’s Office of Human Services will solicit a broad range of potential donors and will not specifically target controlled donors, as required by Baltimore City Ethics Regulation 96.26B.
Baltimore City Head Start is a federally funded pre-school and family development program providing quality, comprehensive early intervention services to low-income children and families since 1965. Baltimore City Head Start provides educational, health, nutritional, social/emotional, and other services to enrolled children and actively engages parents in their children’s learning and development by supporting parents’ pursuit of their own goals toward self sufficiency.
Baltimore City Head Start, in partnership with 11 agencies, serves over 3,400 Head Start children 3-5 years of age, 170 Early Head Start children 0-3 years of age, and 6 pregnant women throughout Baltimore City in ten Head Start programs and one Early Head Start program for a total of 57 locations around the City.



Baltimore City Code Article 8, Section 6-26, prohibits solicitation or facilitating the solicitation of a gift. An exception was enacted in 2005 to permit certain solicitations that are for the benefit of an official governmental program or activity, or a City-endorsed charitable function or activity. Ethics Regulation 96.26B sets out the standards for approval, which includes the requirement that the program, function, or activity to be benefited and the proposed solicitation campaign must be endorsed by the Board of Estimates or its designee.

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We all know how Enterprise Zones work.....tons of money going for affluent and corporate development using the poor for profit....so too with Health Enterprise Zones....Steering contracts, such as for electronic medical records, as well as new money for the HEZ program into these medically underserved areas is probably needed. But the experience in urban economic development -- from the Model Cities program of the 1960s to today's generous corporate infrastructure and other city-offered benefits -- suggests some caution. When local or state governments are distributing funds, the type of development often ends up benefiting well-connected interests rather than addressing the needs of local residents in the most effective ways. Indeed, enterprise zones, with their emphasis on deregulation and tax reductions rather than direct funding, were in many ways the mirror image of the heavily funded Model Cities projects, which often resulted in expensive buildings but little impact on local poverty.

We have a hospital group in Maryland called MedStar that is a private non-profit that is expanding all over the state. In other words....it is making so much money to allow it to expand that it is a corporation not paying taxes. We are seeing all of this health business development doing this and it mirrors all of the tax breaks and grants going to EBDI and Harbor East.....corporations and the rich winning big with taxpayer money.


Maryland's Health Enterprise Zones Need The Right Incentives And Rules

By Stuart Butler

Feb 23, 2012

As an architect of the urban "enterprise zone" idea more than 30 years ago, a recent proposal in Maryland to set up Health Enterprise Zones (HEZ) understandably caught my eye. The original enterprise zone was designed to spur economic activity in depressed neighborhoods through reduced local taxes and regulation, together with federal and state tax incentives to encourage investment. The aim was to grow innovation and reduce obstacles to both local and outside entrepreneurs. Several states have created these zones, and a federal version was enacted under President Bill Clinton.

Butler

The Maryland HEZ proposal is similar in its approach. The bill -- which was unveiled by state Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and based on recommendations from an expert panel -- works to expand health services in the state's underserved areas. If enacted, available properties would become inexpensive, and medical providers would receive property and income tax breaks to set up shop in these zones. Plus, the health zones could receive additional, targeted funding. And, dovetailing with the health enterprise zones, the state would create a Maryland Health Innovation Prize.

I'm struck by the similarities in the strategies these two forms of enterprise zones enlist, which is why Maryland's HEZ is an important initiative. By definition, depressed or underserved areas lack adequate resources for their population. And medical providers -- who are often burdened with high student loans and their own needs -- are reluctant to practice there. But the right tax incentives, along with easier access to inexpensive medical facilities and lower start-up costs, can make the venture more worthwhile for providers. The early enterprise zones focused on the zoning, building codes and the removal of tax liens on available property for the same reason: to encourage new ventures and business investments.

Steering contracts, such as for electronic medical records, as well as new money for the HEZ program into these medically underserved areas is probably needed. But the experience in urban economic development -- from the Model Cities program of the 1960s to today's generous corporate infrastructure and other city-offered benefits -- suggests some caution. When local or state governments are distributing funds, the type of development often ends up benefiting well-connected interests rather than addressing the needs of local residents in the most effective ways. Indeed, enterprise zones, with their emphasis on deregulation and tax reductions rather than direct funding, were in many ways the mirror image of the heavily funded Model Cities projects, which often resulted in expensive buildings but little impact on local poverty.

To avoid this pitfall, the health enterprise zones should keep a strong focus on how to reduce expensive barriers to the availability and creative use of private health resources. To be successful, Maryland's program should include steps to pare back regulations. For instance, it would make sense to suspend the Certificate of Need requirements in a health enterprise zone, or at least simplify them. These certificates are required before medical facilities can be built or acquired in states like Maryland, and obtaining these certificates can be a long and costly process.

Similarly, there must be a focus on zoning and other land-use rules, such as regulations affecting public housing. Often, incorporating health services in depressed and underserved areas requires the ability to transform vacant public housing units into walk-in clinics. Land-use red tape typically slows down the process.

An effective health enterprise zone also would need to modify state rules for government health programs like Medicaid, so that health providers are rewarded for innovative services. For example, Denver Health in Colorado operates a highly effective nurse-run, 24-hour call center for families that can address their needs quickly and send prescriptions to close-by pharmacies. This has reduced emergency room costs and handled residents' health concerns quickly in areas that do not have any nearby medical facilities. But Medicaid's payment rules usually do not reward such initiatives.

Maryland's health enterprise zone program should consider establishing a zoning board of medical and local neighborhood leaders who can continuously identify regulations and program rules that get in the way of providing services quickly and creatively in poor and underserved neighborhoods. The state also should agree, in advance, to streamline the process by which such regulations could be changed or eliminated. My experience from urban enterprise zones suggests that there will be no shortage of recommendations.

Stuart Butler is the director of the Center for Policy Innovation at The Heritage Foundation, and the author of “Enterprise Zones:  Greenlining the Inner Cities” (Universe Books).



0 Comments

July 30th, 2013

7/30/2013

0 Comments

 
We had an incident on the news yesterday that gave an excellent example of what decades of failed policy does to a city and how a first world country becomes third world.  We all know blacks in Baltimore are being starved of abilities to earn money and are therefor having to commit crime to survive.  This is deliberate policy meant to get the poor and working class out of the city.  Johns Hopkins drives all these issues of job creation and hiring....wages and Rule of Law all of which create the huge inequity and injustice in Baltimore.  The news shows several black youth chasing down a white restaurant worker in Fells Point.  The same kind of incident happened a few days before in Little Italy.  The kids got a wallet in one and were trying to get a cell phone in the other.  The kids getting the wallet only got credit cards.  Do you know what one youth did with the stolen credit card?  Tried to pay a Johns Hopkins Hospital medical bill.....of course he gave himself away trying to do the right thing.

We then get to watch Councilman Kraft decry the crime and demand protection for his constituents.  He is the council person for Harbor East the very root of why these kids are having to steal.  Harbor East development has so much fraud and corruption by the rich to get richer as to make Sicily, Italy look like Disneyland and they are upset with the poor stealing to survive.  I told this to Daniel Webster of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who also decries the crime and violence in Baltimore......GO AFTER THE BAD GUYS AT THE TOP INCOME AND YOU WILL LOWER CRIME AND VIOLENCE AT THE BOTTOM INCOME I TOLD HIM.....Webster says to me......WE DON'T WANT TO HEAR EXCUSES!  Remember, when the people who advance in society are the ones who lie, cheat, and steal......you do not get smart people, you get people who can only advance with compromised integrity!  This is what the US has today....we allowed the elite schools gain control of government at all levels and now we have to shake the bugs out of the rug!

The second piece of this is the youth trying to pay the hospital bill at Johns Hopkins.  I have said before and will say again and again.....Hopkins has received a trillion dollars in public money earmarked for helping the Baltimore community and has used it to expand its own facilities in Baltimore and globally at what most people would say is no value.  Hopkins hospital is now a corporation as it patents and partners with corporate interests yet pays no taxes......which would be a huge bill given the real estate Hopkins owns.  HOPKINS NEEDS TO BE A PUBLIC HOSPITAL GIVING FREE HEALTH CARE TO ALL IN THE CITY OF BALTIMORE!  WHY IS THAT YOUNG MAN STEALING TO PAY A HEALTH BILL?

We heard as well on the news that Obama is suggesting that Detroit's public sector health plans be thrown in the health insurance system via the Affordable Care Act.  As one public sector employee said to this......THAT WILL TAKE US FROM HAVING QUALITY HEALTH CARE TO MEDICAID LEVEL CARE.....and that employee is right.  So we see Obama setting the stage as to what all neo-liberals have in mind with health care reform.....all public sector health care.....all Federal Entitlements will be thrown into these health systems and the coverage will indeed look like Medicaid......Third World health clinics.  Remember that the private health benefits shed by corporations through bankruptcy....they are in a Federal agency being managed and those people are saying they are receiving Medicaid-level care.  This is all planned and deliberate.  When Clinton ended Welfare and sent jobs overseas.....his intent was to end all War on Poverty and New Deal programs.....he started it and now Obama is trying to move that forward by ending Entitlements and public sector benefits!



City's Finance Board Violated Open Meeting Laws


Updated: Monday, July 29 2013, 10:34 PM EDT

The State Compliance Board ruled on Monday that the Baltimore City Finance Board violated open meeting laws in May after they kicked the media out of a public meeting. The ruling was in response to a complaint filed by Fox45 and The Baltimore Sun after the board kicked the media out of the meeting so they could take a secret vote on a controversial tax break for a big developer. The tax break, called a TIF, is worth more than $100 million dollars and is designated for a developer who plans to build out Baltimore's Harbor Point. Steve Kraus, clerk the of the finance board - the same man who kicked Fox45 out, says he does not regret the action. Kraus argued some of the discussion was exempt from the transparency rules, but based on the ruling, state legal experts disagree. So what exactly did the board discuss in the closed meeting? "It was the Harbor Point TIF as we discussed. I mean we've been through this before. You guys were there. We talked about the Harbor Point TIF," said Kraus. The Baltimore Finance Board did vote to approve the tax break, but it must pass City Council before it's a done deal.

STATE OPEN MEETINGS LAW COMPLIANCE BOARD
  • Open Meetings Law
    (Code State Government Article, secs. 10-501 through 10-512)
Appointed by Governor with Senate advice & consent to 3-year terms:
Elizabeth Logan Nilson, Esq., Chair (chosen by Governor), 2012
Courtney J. McKeldin, 1999; Julio A. Morales, Esq., 2010. Ann MacNeille, Counsel

c/o Office of Attorney General
200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 576-6327; fax: (410) 576-7036
e-mail: opengov@oag.state.md.us
web: www.oag.state.md.us/opengov/openmeetings/board.htm

200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, Maryland, January 2001. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.


Annual Report to Governor & General Assembly due Oct. 1. The State Open Meetings Law Compliance Board was authorized in 1991 (Chapter 655, Acts of 1991).

The Board receives, reviews, and resolves complaints alleging a violation of Maryland's Open Meetings Law and issues a written opinion on whether or not a violation has occurred. The Board also evaluates how well public bodies comply with the Open Meetings Law and recommends improvements in the law to the General Assembly. With the Office of the Attorney General and interested organizations or persons, the Board additionally develops and conducts educational programs on the requirements of the Open Meetings Law for the staffs and attorneys of public bodies, the Maryland Association of Counties, and the Maryland Municipal League (Code State Government Article, secs. 10-501 through 10-512).


___________________________________________

REMEMBER, THE NEXT ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER AND IT WILL BE THE BOND MARKET THIS TIME.....ALL PUBLIC FINANCING WILL BE PUSHED TO DEFAULT AS THIS TIME WILL BE WORSE THAN 2007 AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL NOT BAIL OUT THE STATES.  WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CITY IS HEAVILY TIED TO CREDIT BONDS AND CONTRACTED CORPORATE TAX CREDITS DURING HARD TIMES.....

THEY HAND ALL THAT IS PUBLIC OVER TO PRIVATE HANDS AND SHED ALL PUBLIC SECTOR RESPONSIBILITIES!


Just about all of Baltimore's current development involves city and state financing.  The public owns hotels and sports stadiums and have been paying them off for decades and will be paying for decades more.  Notice how much the sports corporation paid for the buildings.....they earn billions of dollars in profits.....we are still paying for it!  I wouldn't be surprised if they are not involved in TIFs and tax breaks as well.

The most recent state bond and government finance project.....MICA, University of Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins infrastructure building.....MICA is Johns Hopkins as is all of East Baltimore Development!



Mar 8, 2013, 6:00am EST Updated: Mar 8, 2013, 10:17am EST

Baltimore’s stadiums funded from a mix of public, private sources
  Jack Lambert | Staff M&T Bank Stadium

  Baltimore Business Journal Email  | Twitter


Public money for stadiums and arenas does not appear out of thin air. Most are financed through bond payments, which can take years to pay off. Look at, for example, the homes of the Baltimore Orioles and Ravens. Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992; M&T Bank Stadium in 1998. Both required public money and both are being paid off to this day, whenever you buy a Ravens ticket, a hot dog at an Orioles game or play the Mega Millions.

Public financing for sports stadiums is a long journey. Here’s a breakdown of the financing structure for Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium:

M&T Bank Stadium — $230 million
• $220 million in state revenue bonds
• $24 million in private funding
• $113.8 from Md. State Lottery and other Stadium Authority revenue
• $6.5M annual debt service on bonds
• $60,775,000 principal balance as of June 30, 2012

Oriole Park at Camden Yards — $215 million
• $92 million in state revenue bonds and $14 million in lottery receipts for construction
• 60 million in state revenue bonds and $40 million in lottery receipts for land purchase.
• $9 million from the Baltimore Orioles
• $6.5 million annual debt service on bonds
• $115.8 million* in principal balance as of June 30, 2012 (also includes new bonds issued for stadium improvements)
* Also includes new bond issues for stadium improvements
.

What happens to those bonds when the economic crash of the bond market happens next year and when Bernanke is forced to raise interest rates?  We know that he will probably raise rates a few percentage points and even the slightest rise causes bond interest to grow in leaps!  Wasn't KOpps behind tying the state to LIBOR rates and is she behind sending the state pensions to the stock market from the bond market in 2006 just as the market was crashing, causing pensions to lose 1/2 the value?

What O'Malley is doing is creating a Ponzi scheme of debt that will come tumbling down with this next bust.  Remember the LIBOR fraud .....the bank transaction fraud.....all of these fraud caught the state and city in these financial instruments that stole billions of dollars over these few decades.  They look good at first, but we all know these financial instruments are not designed to save the public money...they are designed to make money for the banks.  You know all that infrastructure building O'Malley will do with that bond money?  REMEMBER THE HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROJECT THE 1% WANT BUILT BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND BOSTON?  Just wait for the announcement!


THIS IS WHY THE STATE AND CITY CANNOT FOUND COMMUNITIES.....


Mar 7, 2013, 12:42pm EST

Maryland raises $665.1M through bond sale
The money the state raised from a bond sale will be used for infrastructure and building project.

  Gary HaberStaff Reporter- Baltimore Business Journal Email  | Twitter Maryland raised $665.1 million in a sale of state bonds.

The state sold two sets of tax-exempt bonds Wednesday. Citigroup Capital Markets was the winning bidder for the right to purchase $500 million in tax-exempt Series A bonds. The state is paying Citigroup an interest rate of 2.333 percent on the bonds.

Maryland also sold $165.1 million in Series B refunding bonds to JP Morgan Securities at an interest rate of 1.087 percent. The refunding of existing bonds will save the state about $8 million in interest.

The money the state raised from the bond sale will be used for infrastructure and building projects including new schools and hospitals.

The low interest rates Maryland is paying on the bonds shows that investors prize the state’s fiscal solvency and its top AAA bond rating. Had the state had to offer a higher interest rate, it would have meant a higher cost for taxpayers. The three major ratings agencies — Moody’s Investors Services, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings — each reaffirmed Maryland’s AAA rating in advance of the bond sale.

“Despite the uncertainty at the federal level and the greater impact that sequestration and federal budgetary constraints can have on Maryland, the market recognized the top quality of Maryland’s Triple AAA-rated debt,” state Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp said in a statement.

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As this article shows, as in Detroit, Baltimore has the same issues with public pensions and you are seeing the same solutions....and we have all democrats and are in the wealthiest state in the country.  This dismantling of public sector unions is planned by neo-liberals working with republicans to end unionization.  It is interesting that Orr seems intent on investigating fraud committed by the union and workers but he has not mentioned the tens of trillions of dollars stolen in corporate fraud.....much from cities like Detroit.  That is how you know he is a corporate pol as is Rawlings-Blake and O'Malley.

Pensions lost 1/2 there value from malfeasance between Comptrollers and the banks in 2006.....WHY NOT INVESTIGATE THAT!
More important you see the first mention of moving public sector pensions and health benefits into the private markets.  That is what the Affordable Care Act and the state health systems do....grow privatization of health care even as people are demanding UNIVERSAL CARE.  Medical bankruptcy is now the leading consumer debt!  In the article with this blog, the young men stealing in Fells Point would not have health care burdens he had to steal to meet!



Kevyn Orr orders corruption probe of pensions, benefits; unions vow fight against cuts 8:54 PM, June 20, 2013  



Detroit retiree expresses frustration with Orr's plans: Former Detroit Water and Sewerage Department employee Catherine Phillips, 55, talks about how she doesn't agree with Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's proposals for changes to retiree pensions. Robert Allen/Gannett

By Joe Guillen, Matt Helms and Alisa Priddle

Detroit Free Press Staff Writers


Henry Gaffney, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26, which represents more than 600 city bus drivers, said unions were ready to fight potential cuts to pensions in court. / Eric Seals/DFP Purchase Image Zoom Kevyn Orr must reach agreements with all of Detroit's creditors, including the city's two pension funds, to avoid filing for bankruptcy. / Detroit Free Press ADVERTISEMENT The high-stakes battle between Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr and city workers and retirees ramped up Thursday, as Orr called for a corruption and fraud investigation of the pension funds and all employee benefits, on the same day his consultants delivered more sobering news to about 200 union and pension officials that retiree benefits are in serious jeopardy.

The growing animosity between Orr and Detroit’s workers and retirees only increases the likelihood Detroit will file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Orr will have no other legal option if retirees do not agree to the cuts he is seeking as part of a massive restructuring plan he announced last week to resolve the insolvent city’s debts and liabilities of up to $20 billion.

Union officials who met with Orr’s team on Thursday to discuss pension cuts already are prepared for a legal fight.

“We’ll fight you in court,” said Henry Gaffney, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26, which represents more than 600 city bus drivers.

“We’ll probably stand a better chance, because one thing about a bankruptcy judge, he’s not going to feed into all this nonsense stuff,” he said. “If you’re going to come, you’re going to have to come correct in bankruptcy court.”

Irregularities found As negotiations to avoid bankruptcy will be ongoing for weeks, Orr’s investigation of the pension funds will look into whether they lost tens of millions of dollars through questionable and possibly corrupt investment deals.

The pension funds, which also are under federal investigation, are the main focus of Orr’s review. But all Detroit employee benefits programs, including health care for workers and dependents, will be examined, Orr spokesman Bill Nowling said.

Orr has found several irregularities in his ongoing analysis of the pension funds’ health, Nowling said during an impromptu news media briefing Thursday at city hall.

Nowling said a preliminary look at the funds shows the city’s General Retirement System could be underfunded by 30% to 40%, and the Police and Fire Retirement System by more than 20%. If those figures hold, Orr has the power under the state’s emergency manager’s law to remove pension trustees.

Troubles at the pension systems have become familiar news, with federal investigations resulting in prison terms in recent years. The Free Press reported in 2011 that risky investments had cost the funds $470 million since 2008.

The investigation also comes just weeks after the Free Press reported that four members of the city’s pension boards flew to Hawaii for an all-expenses-paid trip — costing the pension funds $22,000 — to attend an educational conference at a Hilton resort on Waikiki. Orr reacted angrily to the news, saying it was a tone-deaf move even if trustees went there to learn about pension fund management.

Nowling said Thursday that the Hawaii trip is an example of mismanagement.

“We think that spending $20,000 to fly a quarter way around the globe to attend something that they could get online is not a good use of public funds — especially pension funds,” he said. “And we want to ask the question, ‘What other bad decisions have been made?’ ”

The city’s auditor general and inspector general will conduct the investigation and report back to Orr in 60 days. Evidence of criminal wrongdoing will be passed on to proper state and federal authorities, Nowling said.

Matt Gnatek, chairman of the Police and Fire Retirement System, questioned the need for Orr’s investigation but pledged to cooperate fully.

“If anybody’s been investigated more than us, I don’t know who that is,” Gnatek said. “We’ve been thoroughly investigated by several different federal entities. We’re an open book.”

In a joint statement, the two retirement systems questioned Orr’s authority under the state’s emergency manager law to order the investigation.

“We are disappointed that the EM has not held any substantive meetings with the pension funds before making the decision to launch an investigation,” the statement said. “We intend to cooperate fully.”

Benefits changes The announcement of the investigation came as Orr’s restructuring team met with employee, retiree and labor groups Thursday to present proposals including moving workers to health care exchanges, freezing employee pensions for current workers and moving new workers and some who are not vested in pensions — workers who’ve been on the job less than 10 years — into 401(k)-style retirement plans instead.



______________________________________________________
We do not hate immigrants....we support them. 

What O'Malley did in encouraging Hispanics to the city was set them up to be the next exploited group.....this is not good will, it is the neo-liberal principle of maximizing profits by impoverishing labor.  They are now seeing themselves with wage theft, workplace abuse, and threats of deportation for voicing abuse......

THIS POLICY BY O'MALLEY IS DRIVEN BY JOHNS HOPKINS WHO SAYS ....AS BALTIMORE'S MAIN EMPLOYER, WE WANT LABOR COSTS TO REMAIN LOW!


This is only one reason black youth are stealing and forming gangs......the policies of policing and zero tolerance are criminalizing people for simple crimes.


THIS IS WHAT IS CAUSING ALL THE CRIME AND VIOLENCE AND IT WILL CONTINUE TO GET WORSE IF WE DO NOT VOTE THESE NEO-LIBERALS OUT OF OFFICE!



“New Americans” and Baltimore Unemployment
  • Martin O'Malley
  • October 20, 2010
  • By: Antonio Campbell



Elections newsletter Last week, when I appeared on the Marc Steiner show after the first Ehrlich – O’Malley debate, I commented on the use of the term “New Americans” by O’Malley. I know that illegal immigration in Baltimore has helped to increase unemployment rates among African-Americans. In 2007, according to the American Community Survey data from the US Census Bureau, black unemployment in Baltimore (ages 16-64) was 6.2% which was 2.4 % higher than the 3.8% average of the overall population.

In three years of the O’Malley Administration, with his sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants and his “New Americans” worldview, black unemployment rates according to ACS data has raised to 16.6% compared to 8.2 of the overall population.

A more startling statistics is the unemployment numbers for young African-Americans in Baltimore. People who are 16 to 19 years of age, who are beginning in the job market, can not find a job. The latest ACS data paints a bleak picture for any young black person in Baltimore seeking employment with O’Malley staying another four years in the Governor’s mansion
. Today, in Baltimore, 52% of 16-19 year old African American males can not find a job. For 16-19 year old females, the unemployment rate is a staggering 38.5% with the overall number being 44.6%. Clearly, if you are young and black in Baltimore City, Martin O’Malley is not on your side.

My hope is that someone with the Ehrlich campaign and/or the media will begin talking about these facts. We should not shy away from the truth because staying quiet is the safe thing to do. People want leadership, not politicians or personalities, who would rather look good than shake up the status quo. This is an issue that will make voters look critically at their Democratic office holders.

13 days left and the clock is ticking…






0 Comments

June 26th, 2013

6/26/2013

0 Comments

 

Twenty years ago before Clinton and small government took over the democratic party we used to have a public sector that was filled with inspectors and investigative units charged with oversight routine that made it impossible for business to break or ignore law.  Now we are at the height of neo-liberalism that says anything that causes business cost or limits profit needs to be eliminated and so these inconvenient systems of oversight were defunded and staff fired.


Let's take a look at the status of Rule of Law locally and then look abroad.  We know here in Baltimore poverty, crime, and violence is caused by corporate crime and government corruption and plays out through public policy.  So when City Hall shouts out that they are committed to addressing crime and they only talk tough on enforcement, they are simply giving you and I a line. 
Here are the problems again: 

Unemployment is at 50% for the black community with those working mostly earning poverty wages.  People are forced to commit crime in order to survive.

City Hall from O'Malley to Rawlings-Blake recruited nationally to bring Hispanics to the city and state to exploit as labor and circumvent all labor laws of wage, workplace protections, and payroll/insurance payments.  We love immigrants but we want equal protection for immigrants so the hiring playing field is level and we have revenue coming to government coffers.

City Hall has allowed national development/investment companies control all public policy from what taxes they won't pay, ignoring contract agreements centered on wages and hiring, and allowing out of state workers from Right to Work states fill all private contracting jobs.  City Hall has made private non-profits in Baltimore the growth industry because they are the shadow government writing policy and routing revenue but they replace public sector jobs with volunteers and student VISTAS taking away ever more jobs from locals.

IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY A CITY COULD WORK TO MAKE ALL OF ITS LABOR DISCONNECTED FROM THE CITY ITSELF?  THIS IS WHAT A THIRD WORLD ECONOMY LOOKS LIKE AND IT IS TOWARDS WHAT THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS AND THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTE/JOHNS HOPKINS IS WORKING!

All labor in Baltimore is becoming transient at the lower/middle class sector.  How do corporations keep workers from organizing and building seniority and higher wages?  MAKING THEM TRANSIENT.  WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A SOCIETY IS FILLED WITH TRANSIENT AND IMPOVERISHED PEOPLE?  IT BECOMES THIRD WORLD AS REGARDS QUALITY OF LIFE, CRIME, CORRUPTION.....

      IT BECOMES       BALTIMORE!

Baltimore and New York City is ground zero for where Wall Street wants to take the nation in what is called the New Economy.  The Immigration Reform bill will extend this by bringing green card workers to the higher end jobs and exploiting and being exploited. It will be coming to your neck of the woods if not already there.  IT IS NOT A DONE DEAL....ALL OF THIS CAN BE REVERSED FAR FASTER THAN IT TOOK TO INSTATE.  Let's look at how they are trying their hardest to keep this on track.  Remember, media must be captured because you do not want any of this getting to the public!  WYPR IS JOHNS HOPKINS AND YOU CAPTURE THE 'PUBLIC' MEDIA THAT WOULD BE THE PEOPLE'S VOICE FOR EXAMPLE!


Locally we can see these New Economy types at play with the City State's Attorney race.


Duties of State's Attorney


The principal duties of the State's Attorneys are usually mandated by law and include
representing the State in all criminal trials for crimes which occurred in the State's Attorneys geographical jurisdiction. The geographical jurisdiction of a State's Attorney may be delineated by the boundaries of a county, judicial circuit, or judicial district.

Their duties generally include charging crimes through informations and/or grand jury indictments. After levying criminal charges, the State's Attorney will then prosecute those charged with a crime. This includes conducting discovery, plea bargaining, and trial.


In some jurisdictions, the State's Attorney may act as chief counsel for city police, county police, state police and all state law enforcement agencies within the State's Attorney's jurisdiction.

Assistant or Deputy State's Attorneys


Assistant State's Attorney (ASA) (or, Deputy State's Attorneys) is the title applied to all attorneys working in a State's Attorney's office, with the exception of the State's Attorney. An ASA is hired or appointed to the position by the elected State's Attorney and derives the power to act on behalf of the State in criminal prosecutions through the State's Attorney. The duties of an ASA include those of the State's Attorney—representing the State (prosecution) in criminal proceedings. The caseload of an ASA is generally regarded as being high in volume, with an ASA having anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred active cases at any given time.


Mosby is endorsed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake — which Conaway says is evidence he's a "front man" for the mayor's political machine. Mosby says that's not true.


Marilyn Mosby Makes Baltimore State’s Attorney Bid Official


Posted by Adam Bednar (Editor), June 24, 2013 at 02:50 pm

Marilyn Mosby makes her campaign for Baltimore City State's Attorney official. Marilyn Mosby accused Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein of being ineffective, and said his office’s failure to keep violent criminals off the street were the motivation behind her candidacy.

Mosby, a former prosecutor, will challenge Bernstein in the Democratic primary. She’s the wife of Councilman Nick Mosby, who represents Woodberry, Medfield and parts of Hampden. 

"I’m horrified by the crimes that still plague this city, the robberies, the rapes, the burglaries, the murders. This weekend alone… eight people killed, 18 shot in 11 separate incidents," Mosby said. "I’m horrified, and I’m even more horrified by the repeat violent offenders who keep getting off."

Bernstein narrowly defeated former Baltimore State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy by 1,167 votes in the 2010 primary.

The Democratic primary is scheduled for June 24, 2014. 



District 7: Nick Mosby
410-396-4810
410-347-0537 (fax)
Room 513, City Hall
Nick.Mosby@baltimorecity.gov

Committees: Vice Chair, Labor * Education * Executive Appointments * Housing and Community Development * Public Safety.


2500 Block McCulloh Street Neighborhood Club
Alba Neighborhood Association
Alliance of Rosemont Community Organizations, Inc.-(ARCO)
Ashburton and Presbury Better Neigborhood Association
Ashburton Community Association
Ash-Co-East/Coppin Heights Neighborhood Association, Inc.
Brick Hill Community Group
Charles Village Civic Association-(CVCA)
Charles Village Community Benefits District
Charles-North Community Association
Citizens Concerned For The Hanlon Community
Citizens For Community Improvement-(CCI)
Clergy United to Transform Sandtown-(CUTS)
Cloverdale-Druid Hill-Francis-Retreat Neighborhood Association
Communities Organized To Improve Life-(COIL)
Community Survival Center/The Community School
Concerned Citizens of Grayson Street
Concerned Citizens of Woodberry Association
Coppin Heights Neighborhood Housing Services-(NHS)
Druid Heights Community Development Corporation, Inc.
Easterwood Neighborhood Improvement Association
Ellamont Christian Community Neighborhood Association
Fairmount Neighborhood Association, Inc.
Falls North Homeowners Association Inc.
Friends of Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park
Friends of Wyman Park Dell
Fulton Community Association, Inc.
Fulton Heights Community Organization
Greater Remington Improvement Association
Hampden Community Council
Hampden Community Services, Inc.
Hampden Village Main Street
Hampden Village Merchants Association
Heathbrook Community Organization, Inc.
Hilton/North Merchants Association
Hoes' Heights Improvement Association, Inc.
Laurens House
Liberty Square Neighborhood Association
Matthew A. Henson Community Association
Medfield Community Association
Mondawmin Merchants Association, Inc.
Mondawmin Neighborhood Improvement Association, Inc.
Nehemiah Homeowners' Association of Sandtown-Winchester
New Auchentoroly Terrace Association
Old Goucher Business Alliance
Old Goucher Community Association, Inc.
Old Mill Town Association
Panway Neighborhood Improvement Association
Parkview Improvement Association, Inc.
Parkway Community Association
Penn-North Nehemiah Homeowners' Association
Penn-North Revitalization Corporation
Pennsylvania Avenue Merchants Association
Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Collaborative
People's Homesteading Group, Inc.
Remington Neighborhood Alliance
Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, Inc.
Robert W. Coleman Community Organization
Rosemont/Dukeland Tenant Council
Sandtown Habitat Homeowners' Association
Sandtown-Winchester Community Building In Partnership
Sandtown-Winchester Improvement Association
Sanford-Cumberland Task Force Association
Save Lake Drive Association
Stone Hill Residents' Association
Upton Planning Committee, Inc.
Walbrook Community Association
Walbrook Neighborhood Community Council
Walker Mews Residents Association
Western Human Services Center
Westwood Avenue Neighborhood Association
Windsor Residential Improvement Association
Winston-Govans Neighborhood Improvement Association
Woodbrook Avenue Neighborhood Association
Woodyear Neighborhood Association
Wyman Park Community Association



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Below you see that there is no politics in the city and that the entire system is captured and crony.  It is ridiculous to watch if you have lived in cities where democracy actually exists.
The Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee is simply a farm team development of this cronyism full of crime and corruption.  You will notice this is the Hopkins East development.


A sorry spectacle in the 45th DistrictProcess to replace Delegate Harrison was rife with conflicts of interest, procedural glitches

February 25, 2013|By Brenda Pridgen

On Feb. 15, the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee-45th District convened at the Oliver Community Center to select a candidate to assume the seat once held by Del. Hattie Harrison, a longtime political stalwart in East Baltimore who died last month. Ten candidates interviewed for the position, three of whom were also members of the committee conducting the interviews, before Nina Harper, director of the Oliver Community Association, was chosen for the position.

At no time did the chair or committee members appear to think it was inappropriate for them to participate as final arbiters of the decision as to who should succeed Delegate Harrison. On several occasions, committee Chairman Scherod Barnes was questioned about the obvious conflicts of interests to which he responded that he had no qualms about the process. Those with the temerity to question the process were told the Maryland Constitution allows such a vote and that the candidates were all known to the district and have done good work — followed by another two minutes of complete obfuscation.

Yet several issues remain unaddressed. It is unclear why the committee would not utilize its two at-large members to replace those seeking the position; although this would not have changed the outcome of the vote, it would have given the appearance that the proceedings were above board. It is also unclear why committee members who were also candidates — and who had just finished telling those in attendance what strong leaders they were, and why they deserved to be sent to Annapolis to represent the 45th District — would not recuse themselves from the vote.

It appears that ethics is an overlooked area when seeking a legislative replacement. Here was a unique opportunity for the three candidates/committee members to rise to the occasion and show leadership and honor — and they failed the test miserably, opting for typical East Baltimore politics instead. A huge disappointment.

Finally, why did one committee member consistently submit an ineligible ballot by selecting two persons when the instructions specifically asked panel members to vote for only one? Is the work of the central committee so unimportant that abrogation of duty is thought to be comical? Unfortunately, this was not the most bizarre act of the evening.

Then there were the candidate questions. It is unclear why the interview questions were so pedestrian in nature. They included: Who are the city and state legislators in the 45th District? What do you believe is the role of a state legislator? Tell us about a situation when you had to deal with a very upset person; what was your approach and how did you deal with it? Why do you believe you are the best qualified person for the position?

Yes, it is important for the potential candidate to know basic civics; however, the 45th District needs a person who can think critically and offer policy and position statements on the myriad of challenges facing the district, such as state budget, education, jobs, housing, health care, the environment, gun crime and other public safety issues, taxes and fees, gambling, etc. None of these questions was asked of the candidates.

It is unclear what skill sets the committee was seeking in this temporary appointment, which has the capacity to extend into a four-year term. Are the difficulties of the 45th so unremarkable that we have no need to set a high bar in terms of requiring candidates to be deep thinkers with some degree of mental dexterity?

If the politics, ethics, leadership and questions asked on the 15th are any indication of the 45th's capacity, then the trajectory of this district will continue to be in serious trouble economically, politically and otherwise.

Brenda Pridgen, a resident and voter in the 45th Legislative District, is a health care analyst. Her email is concentric1@verizon.net.


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This is an example of how bad oversight and law enforcement in Baltimore has become. We went for decades unable to call police because they would not come for anything other than violent crimes.  See how the crime stats go down?  The same with these pedestrian law and order enforcements that hold business accountable to community concerns.  We have police ticketing the homeless for loitering but we cannot get a public agency fully staffed to perform oversight that is preventative and not reactive.....and in this case they don't even react!  In Third World countries businesses operating illegally simply pay protection money to these inspectors and oversight agencies .......AND THAT IS WHAT BALTIMORE EMULATES!

Twenty years ago before Clinton and small government took over the democratic party we used to have a public sector that was filled with inspectors and investigative units charged with oversight routine that made it impossible for business to break or ignore law.  Now we are at the height of neo-liberalism that says anything that causes business cost or profit needs to be eliminated and so these inconvenient systems of oversight were defunded and staff fired.


311 complaints ignored, communities fight bars themselves Audit finds liquor inspectors not up to scratch, something community leaders had suspected



By Ian Duncan and Alison Matas, The Baltimore Sun 7:05 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2013

Black scuff marks line the staircase at 922 N. Charles St., left there by frustrated tenants kicking the wall in a vain attempt to make their neighbor, the Museum Restaurant and Lounge, quiet down. Most nights, tenants say, the sound of DJs hyping up the crowd rattles china cabinets and nerves alike.

"It's thump, thump, thump from the music," said Will Penn, 48, who lives in one of the apartments next door. Penn, like many other Baltimoreans who live near bars, said he has filed complaints using the city's 311 system but has seen nothing change.

"Next day I'd get an email saying, 'Your issue has been resolved,' " he said. Exasperated, he plans to move in with his girlfriend at the end of May.

Walter Webb, who runs the Museum, denied that it had a noise problem and said he has been targeted unfairly because he is one of the few black business owners in the neighborhood.

But complaints about the authorities' response highlight larger problems at the Baltimore Board of Liquor License Commissioners. State auditors reported last week that half the complaints made to the board via the 311 system were closed with no evidence of any investigation — something the agency's executive secretary acknowledged is "lazy and wrong."

The scathing report confirmed what many community leaders say they have long suspected: that the state agency is either unable or unwilling to respond to concerns. The audit also said liquor inspectors failed to carry out routine reviews, and closed some complaints before starting an investigation because they did not want city statistics on open issues to reflect poorly on them.

"Usually [I would] not speak out against an organization that's there to help us, but the liquor board inspectors don't help us," said Kevin Bernhard, president of the Highlandtown Community Association. "I've never seen one in my seven years in Baltimore City."

Close to 1,400 Baltimore businesses hold liquor licenses — including stores, bars and restaurants. Each must comply with a long list of regulations covering who can buy alcohol and when, along with restrictions on noise levels and crowd control.

The liquor board is a state agency and not directly controlled by city authorities, but it gives revenues from fees and fines to the city, and the city's budget funds its operations.

The board employs a squadron of 10 inspectors to check on problems; several inspectors have been laid off since the audit because of budget cuts. Webb said they have been out to the Museum numerous times in recent months and deemed the complaints unfounded.

"They're not playing with me," he said. "I think they're doing their job."

He acknowledged some problems with an older music system at the Museum but said it was replaced more than two months ago.

"We're willing to work with anyone to correct any problems," he said.

But in general, the audit found that in the inspectors' work is often not documented and that routine inspections are carried out only spottily. Two inspectors made just 41 visits in an entire year reviewed by auditors, who calculated that each inspector should be able to handle 872 inspections a year.

Samuel T. Daniels Jr., the executive secretary of the licensing agency, acknowledged many of the problems and said he was happy to talk about them because he has been "inspired to retire" sometime this year.

"It's lazy and wrong," he said of inspectors not properly investigating 311 complaints. He said the problems could be remedied by replacing a few of the inspectors.

The average salary for an inspector is $43,875, according to city data.

If the inspectors find that establishments are violating liquor laws, the board can levy fines and even take away licenses. But community leaders say they must do the work of inspectors themselves. A group of 10 neighbors can protest the transfer of a license or its annual renewal.

Mount Vernon residents have followed that path with the Museum, campaigning to have its license revoked when it comes up for renewal this year and filing pages of signed petitions with the liquor board. A hearing is set for April 18.

The Baltimore Sun was unable to review the Museum's liquor board file, which is supposed to include records of complaints and inspections, because it had been removed to City Hall in advance of the hearing.


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Remember, these guys are saying if we are going to have a majority of 'minorities' and immigrants we need to impoverish them to a point they are subservient and take away all contact to Rule of Law....like other third world countries. That is what has happened these few decades.


Two Hours After The Supreme Court Gutted The Voting Rights Act, Texas AG Suppresses Minority Voters

By Aviva Shen on Jun 25, 2013 at 3:30 pm




Let’s be Brazil
June 25, 2013by Marty Kaplan   Moyers and Company

I have outrage envy.

For nearly two weeks, more than a million citizens across Brazil have taken to the streets to protest political corruption, economic injustice, poor health care, inadequate schools, lousy mass transit, a crumbling infrastructure and — yes, in the land of Pelé — billions blown on sports.

“Brazil, wake up, any good teacher is worth more than Neymar!”  That’s what the crowds have been shouting. Neymar da Silva Santos, Jr. is the 21-year-old Brazilian star who’s getting nearly $90 million to play for Futbol Club Barcelona. “When your son is ill, take him to the stadium,” read one protester’s sign, razzing the $13.3 billion Brazil is spending to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the $18 billion it will cost the country to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Even this soccer-mad nation is saying there’s something out of whack with public priorities, and it’s time to set things right.

The massive demonstrations have stunned Brazilians themselves, for their size, their spontaneity and their civic fury. “If you’re not outraged,” an American bumper sticker goes, “you’re not paying attention.” Brazilians are paying attention to their problems, and they’re mad as hell. So why aren’t we?

The Brazilian protests were sparked by a bus fare increase in São Paulo. It’s grimly comical to see American news media explain why a 9-cent hike is such a big deal by resorting to the usual trope for covering social unrest in the developing world, like when the price of wheat goes up a few pennies. To help us understand why this matters so much, our press relates the cost of bread or buses to the minimum wage in distant lands and points out the dependency of their diets on staples and of their jobs on public transportation. Even though millions of Americans below the poverty line can’t make a living wage, and millions more are barely hanging on by their fingernails, the infotainment narrative of life in America is so divorced from the pervasive reality of struggling to survive that journalists assume we’d be bewildered that bus fares could start such a fire.

There are, of course, plenty of dissimilarities between the U.S. and Brazil, a developing nation ruled by military dictatorship until 1985, but there are also plenty of all-too-close analogies between what’s pissing off Brazilians and what ought to piss off Americans.

Income inequality. Brazil is in the world’s bottom 10 percent on income inequality, ranking 121st out of 133 countries. But the U.S. ranks 80th, just below Sri Lanka, Mauritania and Nicaragua.

Wealth distribution. There are only six countries in the world whose wealth distribution – accumulated holdings, not annual funds earned — is more unequal than Brazil. But the U.S. is one of those six.

Education. The annual rate of growth in student achievement in math, reading and science in Brazil is four percent of a standard deviation. But U.S. educational achievement is growing at less than half that rate: 1.6 percent, just below Iran.

Corruption. Brazil ranks 121 in public trust in the ethical standards of politicians, out of 144 countries. But the U.S. comes in only at 54, just above Gabon.

Infrastructure. The quality of Brazil’s infrastructure puts it at a dismal 107, out of 144 countries. But the U.S. ranks 25th – below most other advanced industrial countries and even behind some developing nations, like Oman and Barbados.

Health care. Brazil’s health care system ranks 125th out of 190 countries. But the U.S., jingoistic rhetoric notwithstanding, is only 38th. Among our peer nations – wealthy democracies – we’re dead last, and it’s only gotten worse over the past several decades.

So why aren’t Americans at the barricades?

Our spirits have been sickened by the toxins baked into our political system, which legalizes graft and is held hostage by special interests and a gerrymandered minority. As a result, we are legislatively incapable of dealing with big problems like joblessness, climate change, gun safety, infrastructure, hunger or – based on recent House Republican chaos – immigration. The public investments we’re not making – in schools, teachers, roads, bridges, clean energy – are killing us. Our tax code is the least progressive in the industrial world. The most massive transfer of wealth in history, plus a cult of fiscal austerity, is destroying our middle class. Tuition is increasingly unaffordable, and retirement is increasingly unavailable. The banks that stole trillions of dollars of Americans’ worth have not only gone unpunished; they’re still at it.

For a moment, it looked like the Occupy movement might change some of that. It’s striking how closely the complaints within Brazil about their protesters are already tracking the criticism of Occupy made in the U.S.:  The only thing keeping them going is the police’s overreaction. They have too many demands. Their demands are incoherent. Their demands lack focus. They’re leaderless. They’re young and naïve. They’re drunk. They’re violent. They’re vandals, delinquents, drunks, druggies, terrorists.

Here at home, those charges, and the advent of cold weather, proved fatal. So oligarchs rock, plutocrats roll and Occupy rolled over. Today, with both political parties hooked on special interest money, with demagogues given veto power and media power, hope feels naïve.  You’d have to have just fallen off the turnip truck to look at our corrupt and dysfunctional government and believe that we are the change we’ve been waiting for.

That learned helplessness is what democracy’s vampires drink. Wouldn’t it be sweet if Brazil’s protest movement turned out to be the garlic we’ve been waiting for?

0 Comments

June 25th, 2013

6/25/2013

0 Comments

 
Below I look at the state of the nation from a local level but the feeling is just the same all across the country and whether you are poor, working class, or middle class.......THERE IS OUTRAGE OVER LOSS OF PERSONAL WEALTH, RETIREMENTS, SAVINGS, AND ABILITY TO EARN MONEY and it is all tied to global corporations, free market and free trade policies that allow corporate rule with no oversight and accountability.  Please stand up for the injustice that happens locally as AN INJUSTICE FOR ONE IS AN INJUSTICE FOR ALL!!



Regarding the escalating violence in the city:

This is how you know that US press is captured.....it is now a propaganda machine for US corporate interests.  As we listen to our leaders call Snowden a criminal guilty of espionage we are watching the world look at America as a Banana Republic.....we are being made to look like fools as the US identifies everyone around it a behaving criminally when it is the US government and US corporations behaving criminally.  Americans and the entire world know this to be true!  It is only the leadership in America who are complicit with all of the crime that are seeing their schemes unraveling that decry all as treachery.  The American people are charging the BOOZ corporation and the US government with espionage as we all know they were operating outside the parameters of any law that could be passed broadening the definition of surveillance and that is what the whistle blower Snowden is trying to make public.  If you have a government aiding and abetting crime you cannot go to that government for resolution, and so you take it to the international community.

So what does espionage and the War on the Poor and working class have to do with press coverage?  I stated before that I attended the Johns Hopkins symposium on gun control and talked with Daniel Webster as to the flaw in Hopkins' approach to gun control.  I made the obvious statement that it was the 'bad guys' at the top of the income ladder that were the problem and that draining the economy and government coffers of tens of trillions of dollars has deepened poverty and escalated crime and violence.....ergo.....the increased buying, trading, and using of guns.  IT IS THE BAD GUYS AT THE TOP OF THE INCOME LADDER DANIEL!  Daniel didn't see any problems at the top of the ladder and simply said 'we don't want to hear excuses'!  So, the problem and solution is now an excuse to be discarded.  What is really behind the gun control issue is the fear that the guns are going to be turned on the leaders committing the crimes.  We have had gun violence in Baltimore for decades with as high as 300 people a year being killed as poverty grew.  Weapons manufacturers were allowed to reap huge profits as long as the poor and working class were killing themselves.  Now, as wealth inequity and Rule of Law has disappeared we know that the violence will spread and plans for rebellion will grow......AND THAT IS TOWARDS WHAT THIS GUN CONTROL IS DIRECTED.  No doubt we want gun control......getting military weapons off the streets and away from the public is a good thing.  You simply do not want to do that in the middle of a government coup when American citizens are being preyed upon by corporations and their pols!  

As I watch the go to guy Webster lament that the criminalizing rules of the gun control law were not passed and that the existing laws will probably be overturned in the Supreme Court......I AM TELLING DANIEL WEBSTER THAT THE PROBLEM IS THE 'BAD GUYS AT THE TOP OF THE INCOME LADDER'!

National Press Club to Host "NEWSMAKER" Media Briefing on Reducing Gun Violence in America with Daniel Webster, Director of Center for Gun Policy and Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health


The Baltimore City Council is very pleased that Chief Batts will bring in the FBI and State Police to stop this violence of people simply outraged over the direction of development and plans for the city.  Never once does anyone in the police department or City Hall mention the public policy and the suspended Rule of Law that creates this mess.

CITY HALL AND THE MARYLAND ASSEMBLY TIED TO THE SUSPENSION OF RULE OF LAW IS THE PROBLEM......


Despair, resolve in Baltimore after 20 shot over the weekend Eight killed in bloody outburst; councilman calls hearing

1/7 By Justin Fenton, Justin George and Luke Broadwater, The Baltimore Sun 9:15 p.m. EDT, June 24, 2013

Surrounded by farmland at an Iowa facility for troubled youths, Gervontae Burgess' circumstances could hardly have been more different from those in his violent Baltimore neighborhood. Brad Knight, Burgess' football coach, remembers a bright young man with a broad smile and a desire to help others.

"Gervontae was one of those kids who soaked everything in. He wanted to be a great teammate and wanted to learn," said Knight, who coached Burgess at the Clarinda Academy. "My worry was always that when they went home, we were going to throw them right back to the wolves."

Burgess did come back, and he soon found himself locked up multiple times. Last weekend, the 20-year-old was one of eight people fatally shot across Baltimore. He died Saturday in a Pennsylvania Avenue shooting that also killed a 49-year-old woman.

Police scrambled Monday to stop the violence after a weekend in which 20 people were shot — the city's worst outbreak in years. Monday evening was marked with yet another shooting, this time with two men injured by gunfire in the Shipley Hill neighborhood. That shooting was reported about 8:20 p.m. near the intersection of Hollins Street and South Catherine Street in Southwest Baltimore.

As City Council members decried the bloodshed, Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts visited the site of an East Baltimore quintuple shooting that took the life of Donyae Jones, an 18-year-old woman.

In his first public appearance since the shootings, Batts took a brief stroll through a block of Kenwood Avenue and embraced Joanna Harvell, who said she was Jones' mother-in-law.

"I'm scared to come out the door. I'm in fear for my grandkids to come out here," Harvell said. Her son, Anthony Harvell, said he was married to Jones and his life would never be the same. "She was the only girl I ever loved. I feel like I'm dead, too."

Gregory Stewart, 51, who lives one block south, said he appreciated the police visit to his neighborhood but wondered whether the violence would spur any lasting change.

"In two, three weeks when they drop back, it'll be the same situation," he said.

After the weekend, a total of 110 people had been slain in Baltimore this year, and homicides were up 10 percent compared with the same time last year. In Washington, by comparison, there have been 38 homicides in 2013.

"For us, this is a concern," Batts told reporters on Kenwood Avenue. "This is a spike. We will respond to the spike and be assertive about it."

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is attending a conference in Las Vegas, said in a statement that the "this weekend's senseless violence will not diminish our resolve to target repeat violent offenders, gangs and illegal guns."

Flanked by police commanders from across the city, Batts said he was working with federal and state partners to crack down, including an increased role for the city sheriff's office. He said he met with City Council members last week and that they are "very supportive, very happy with the job we're doing."

But downtown, City Council members were questioning police Monday. Councilman Brandon Scott, who represents Northeast Baltimore, called for a hearing to look into the weekend's shootings, saying he wanted to make sure the Police Department was prepared for an upward trend in summer violence.

He said he was holding the department to the standard of 2011, when Baltimore saw a 30-year low in homicides.

"If we're not at 2011 numbers, then we're failing," Scott said. "As of right now, we're failing. Why aren't we having the success we had in the past?"

City Councilman Carl Stokes said he took exception to statements by police officials who said they were generally satisfied with this year's crime statistics. He said he spoke to many residents who were also upset by those statements.

"I really have no words," Stokes said. "I am as stunned as my community."

Councilwoman Helen Holton, who represents Southwest Baltimore, said residents are fed up with the violence and the inability of city government to quell it.

"We have low morale. People don't believe in the vision of this city," she said. "The citizens aren't buying into the plans for the future. There's a sense of people throwing their hands up the in air in total frustration."


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IF YOU THINK IT IS ONLY A WAR ON THE POOR.....DON'T FORGET SENIORS.....YOU HAVE HAD ALL YOUR WEALTH STOLEN AS WELL!!!!  THEY ARE AFTER ALL ASSETS AND IT WILL NOT BE PRETTY WHAT THESE SOCIOPATHS PLAN FOR SENIORS.

40 years ago when the public policy of the day thought that consolidating the poor into high rise apartments surrounded by public services was the most efficient way to handle this social safety net program?  What you got was decades of underfunding, massive fraud and government corruption moving all funds going to these projects into the hands of connected people and a slow deterioration of the buildings, quality of life, and society surrounding these 'housing projects'.  Now they are going to do the same thing with the elderly that are coming with the baby boomers.  They have taken all the boomer's wealth through corporate fraud and handed the care of seniors to hedge funds like Carlyle and have Affordable Care Act that consolidates the health system into global corporations all leading to what will be a tremendous 'ghetto' for the seniors.

If you do not believe that politicians working for corporate interests will not defund and neglect the buildings, the people, and the quality of life for seniors then I have swampland in Florida for you!  WE KNOW THAT IS THE GOAL!  It is the same when they consolidate here in Baltimore into complexes that no one wants to be tracked into.  Seniors do not want to be isolated in senior communities....they intend on living freely in the greater communities collecting all of their wealth stolen from them through massive corporate fraud!


NOTHING MORE CONVENIENT AS MEDICARE AND MEDICAID ARE CUT AND MOST WILL NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD CARE THEN TO NESTLE THEM IN SECLUSION

GET RID OF THIRD WAY CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS AND RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES!

Massive Annapolis proposal spurs neighborhood battle
180-acre project would include senior care, shopping and townhousesJanet Richardson is working to develop a section of her Crystal Spring Farm into senior living and a mixed use development. The plan is controversial in Annapolis, with opponents saying the project will destroy some of the last forestland on Forest Drive. (Photo by Algerina Perna / Baltimore Sun / June 5, 2013)

By Pamela Wood, The Baltimore Sun 8:10 p.m. EDT, June 24, 2013

To its developers, Crystal Spring Annapolis represents a new wave of retirement living: Senior apartments and nursing home rooms nestled in the woods. A cluster of specialty shops a short walk or golf cart ride away. An inn and village green attracting people of all ages.

To the proposed project's detractors, Crystal Spring represents another attempt to burden congested roads with an oversized development in one of the state capital's last remaining forested areas.

Battle lines have been drawn over the project, which at 180 acres and 540 units is one of the largest Annapolis has seen in years. It's also one of the most contentious, leading to a fight featuring protests, petitions and even dueling Twitter accounts.


The developers have made a public relations push, and opponents have been pushing back just as insistently — all before the project is even under official consideration by city officials.

"This will be the largest development the city has ever seen and probably will ever see," said Ray Sullivan, who lives in the Hillsmere neighborhood just outside city limits and has been fighting the proposal as part of the Annapolis Neck Peninsula Federation. "I don't know how else there would ever be a development this big. There's no land."

Opponents of Crystal Spring Annapolis will hold a meeting Wednesday to marshal their forces and educate the public about their views.

The same night, the developers will hold the latest in a series of information sessions for potential residents of the senior community.

The landowner and a Connecticut-based development company say the opposition is limited to a couple dozen vocal critics. They say there's a large but quiet contingent of people who support Crystal Spring Annapolis for the jobs it would bring and for the alternative option for senior living. 
OH, REALLY????

"Nobody's hearing about the people who are for the project, because they don't want to fight the battles in the media," said Janet Richardson-Pearson, owner of the property.

Marshall Breines, the Connecticut developer who has a contract to buy the land and build on the site, said the city's permitting process will allow him to present the project in clearer detail and "overcome [the opposition] with facts."

Environmentalists and neighbors say they're eager for that review process, too.

"Because they haven't put in an application, it becomes kind of murky," Sullivan said. "They've been out there taking ads and they're giving the impression that it's approved and it hasn't been."

Crystal Spring Annapolis would be located on Richardson-Pearson's 180-acre Crystal Spring Farm, along the southern edge of Annapolis on busy Forest Drive, not far from Annapolis Middle School.

The project would include a "continuing care retirement community" run by National Lutheran Communities & Services. It calls for 362 apartments and single-story cottages for seniors, plus 52 beds for nursing care and assisted living, tucked away from Forest Drive on the rear of the property.

On the front half of the property, separated from the retirement community by woods and a stream, would be a shopping area anchored by a Harris Teeter grocery store. Also planned are an 80-room inn and spa, a 300-seat cultural arts center, 126 townhouses for people of all ages, a 2-acre village green and a new location for the Annapolis Wellness House, which offers services for people with cancer.

Richardson-Pearson has agreed to make water-quality improvements that she says will offset the project's impact on the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Crystal Spring has the endorsement of the South River Federation.

Richardson-Pearson says the project will marry her interests: establishing a desirable place for people to retire, helping people with cancer and providing services that people in Annapolis can use.

Richardson-Pearson said buildings will be designed to evoke a village-like feel. "I'm not the typical property owner trying to squeeze every dollar out of every square inch," she said.

Richardson-Pearson is hoping Crystal Spring will attract people such as Douglas Hole. He and his wife, Donna, live in a neighborhood a few miles away and like the idea of moving to a retirement community without having to find a new church or new doctors.

"I think for us, as we grow older, this might be a very, very good approach for us," said Hole, 71, a retired Air Force colonel. Donna Hole, 68, used to be the chief of historic preservation for the city of Annapolis. "The whole thing is right here. We're not inclined to pack up and go to Florida."



0 Comments

June 19th, 2013

6/19/2013

0 Comments

 
DO NOT THINK IT ALRIGHT FOR ONE GROUP TO BE OPPRESSED BECAUSE INJUSTICE FOR ONE WILL BECOME INJUSTICE FOR ALL!

I want to stay with the TPP and world protest today as we look more closely at massive protest and the mainstream media working to minimize this massive movement.  I told you about how for just a small gathering at the Capitol against NSA the police told media cameras to shut down.  I listened to NPR/APM give an account of this Brazil protest and they painted a picture of thousands out to protest high transportation costs one day but the next things were more quiet as people were overall satisfied with Brazil's economic success.

That of course is not true.  We see here just as we see in the next article that has London building skyscrapers trying to look like Shanghai that the 1% are again using development as a means to move taxpayer money into projects that will be owned by the 1% and it is all directed at making major cities into fiefdoms that they are trying to make too expensive for most people to afford.  THE OLD CASTLE WITH THE GENTRY INSIDE AND THE MASSES SURROUNDING SCRAPING AN EXISTENCE AND HANDING MOST OF THEIR EARNINGS AS TAX TO THE GENTRY. 


THAT IS TOWARDS WHERE THEY ARE GOING FOLKS!!!!!!  YOU NEED TO SHOUT LOUDLY AND STRONGLY AND BECOME ENGAGED IN BUILDING YOUR COMMUNITY NETWORK OF POLITICAL ACTIONS!!!!

The Brazilian government is doing just what the Greek and southern European governments did in spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer money on huge development projects. Development projects are investment firms so the bank lends money to a taxpayer funded project and then owns the management of the project.....think M and T Bank stadium. Billions go directly to the developer in construction costs and billions go to the developer in management costs. The taxpayers foot the bill for operations, infrastructure, AND ALL LOSSES.

THIS IS WHAT PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS ARE ALL ABOUT!!!!

Brazil World Cup Website Hacked, Replaced with Protest Footage

Create! Brazil
By Natasha Lennard, www.salon.com
June 18th, 2013
37Protestors march in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday(Credit: AP)

The cyberattack symbolized growing rage against a status quo crystallized in World Cup, Olympics spending Evidencing (as if it were really necessary) that the ongoing mass protests and riots in Brazil are about much more than the latest public transport fare hike, hackers have attacked the Brazil 2014 World Cup website with protest footage. While the World Cup and the Olympics are lauded as emblems of sporting prowess and global unity, they are understood to be working vectors and reproducers of neoliberal hegemony, with concomitant city-restructuring, government spending and displacement of the poor in favor of massive stadiums and tourist facilities.

The FIFA website was (and, stunningly, remains) replaced with footage of protesters marching then meeting a vicious police response:

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.


Below you see what these protests are really about yet 'public' media make no comment on corporate/government crime and corruption.


More protests expected as Brazilians decry corruption NBC Evening News

  Tension in Brazil finally erupted when an estimated 250,000 took to the streets in more than a dozen cities, complaining about rampant corruption, crime, low wages and a lack of social services.


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Look locally to see the same in your states and communities.....all development is being controlled by investment firms and developers who were enriched from the massive corporate fraud and are now using that money to build fiefdoms that most will be priced out of....that is to what these people are protesting whether it is Turkey, London, Japan, or Brazil. WHY NOT IN AMERICA WHERE IT IS HAPPENING AS WELL? If you can't afford to live in the city they say move to the mid-west!



As Patterson Park residents fight to keep their park intact rather than become a health facility.....you see money being plowed into a community using funds that are meant to provide justice to underserved communities and families victim of mortgage fraud.  The development of the city is not a bad thing.  Everyone has wanted to see the city revitalized.  What is bad, and what equates to the article above with Brazilians sick and tired of crime and corruption in government and development and the use of funds that should be building communities slated for underserved/working class being instead used to build affluent communities that are costing too much for those very underserved/working class.  THESE FUNDS THAT SHOULD BE HELPING LOW-INCOME HAVE A HEALTHY COMMUNITY ARE INSTEAD SIMPLY BEING USED TO GENTRIFY PEOPLE OUT OF CITY CENTER.

That is what Brazilians and Greeks and Londoners are all shouting about as cities around the world are being turned into fiefdoms increasingly using economic status as a requirement for residency.  THERE IS NO LOW-INCOME HOUSING IN CITY CENTER AND DEVELOPMENT IS BEING PAID FOR THROUGH GRANTS FOR AND TAX REVENUE PAID BY THE WORKING CLASS.

Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS) is a great justice organization in Baltimore that speaks to all of this.  Below you see a schedule of events that shout out....WHAT ARE ALL THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS DOING TELLING BLACK CHILDREN AND COMMUNITIES WHAT THEY NEED?

AMEN!!!!  You don't have to be black to feel that way.


What they are outing is the SHADOW GOVERNMENT OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AS PRIVATE NON-PROFITS.  I spoke at length about this but want to remind people that Baltimore is ONE BIG SHADOW GOVERNMENT THAT HAS THE RICH FUNNELING MONEY AROUND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND WRITING ALL PUBLIC POLICY.  That is towards what the Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle and myself work to change and that is what people around the world are protesting.  They are all sick and tired of having money stolen from them and government coffers and then spent to develop in ways they have no say and know they will not be able to live.   So, you have money moving to development but it has no connection with the current community and the organization overseeing management, HUMANIM, has a black CEO but all the policy of that organization is written by rich white corporate heads working for their own development projects.  Will the residents there now saying a garden is nice be there long?  Watch as rents and taxes move them out of this nicely coiffed community asset.  Would they have wanted more children's playgrounds and small businesses to employ people?  YES.

LBS is hosting a fundraiser for the inaugural season of the Morgan State University Debate team.

We'll be debating the non-profit industrial complex against folks who are currently involved in the non-profit industry.

The dialogue promises to be engaging, interactive and controversial!

Debate participants TBA later next week.

Admission is $10 (donations are strongly encouraged)

Please come through and support!

Side note: With your help, in Fall 2013, Morgan State will have the ONLY policy debate team at an HBCU in the United States.


Now, Virgie Williams is a member of Baltimore's black elite social circle and is actively working against the interests of this community of low-income people.  Virgie knows what this development means as does the HUMANIM CEO.....they are working to gentrify the very neighborhood the church represents.  Look at City Hall from where all these policies written by rich, white developers are rubber stamped!  These black leaders are being used and they do so for their personal gain.  Meanwhile, the entire justice community in the city is silenced by this capture.  I hear all the time from the underserved that their leaders are working against them and not for them....this is the 'black ministers' that control the vote in the city and who time and again support the very politicians that are killing working class and poor communities.  THIS IS FOR WHAT PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE TAKING TO THE STREETS.

THIS IS NOT ONLY AN ATTACK ON RACE OR CREED.....IT IS AN ATTACK ON CLASS AND THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALL BEING PUSHED INTO AN EVER LOWER CLASS WITH NO VOICE.  We all know that all development in Baltimore City Center is moving all of working and even middle class families out.

A patch of green brightens Broadway East New park replacing rundown homes, easing city's storm pollution

View from the Humanim building on Gay Street of The New Broadway East Community Park taking shape in East Baltimore on 18 vacant lots. (Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun / June 5, 2013)

By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun 5:34 p.m. EDT, June 14, 2013

A new urban park is bringing a patch of green to a once-blighted corner of Broadway East, a project organizers hope can be a model for improving the quality of life and reducing pollution in other distressed Baltimore neighborhoods.

Trees are to be planted today at the corner of Gay and Federal streets, on a third of an acre where until a few years ago 18 mostly dilapidated rowhouses had stood. Community and nonprofit leaders, elected officials and others who live, worship and work in the area are expected to be on hand to help with landscaping the New Broadway East Community Park.

"We're excited about it," said Virgie Williams, who is co-chair of the "Green Space" ministry for Southern Baptist Church, across Gay Street from the project. "The park should be a great asset for the community." 

The park's development has been a joint venture coordinated by Parks & People Foundation, the nonprofit that works to promote greening of neighborhoods and outdoor recreation. Its partners included the city, the New Broadway East community association and Humanim, the social-services nonprofit whose renovation of the 19th-century American Brewery building on Gay Street has been a catalyst for efforts to revitalize the neighborhood — and for this park.

Oddly enough, for a group with "parks" in its name, this is the first one Parks & People has developed, according to Guy Hager, senior director of the foundation's "great parks, clean streams and green communities" program. The project sprang out of a retreat the foundation had at Humanim's brewery headquarters a few years ago, he said. The city had bought up the homes on the land beside the brewery, so foundation and Humanim representatives met with community leaders to find out what they'd like to see done with the open space.

"People didn't want just another tomato garden," said Cindy Plavier-Truitt, Humanim's chief development officer. With a large, well-established community garden nearby on North Duncan Street, they wanted this to be a green place where they could sit and talk and hold community events.

The city put about $800,000 into demolishing the rowhouses, repaving the sidewalks and other improvements, and Parks & People obtained a $200,000 grant from the state for the park itself.


Even the ground beneath the homes has been rehabilitated, with a fresh layer of topsoil brought in to help sustain the two dozen trees and other vegetation to be planted there.

Among the infrastructure upgrades is a buried electrical cable, to be used if the partners can realize their long-range vision of making it a "tech park," wired and equipped with flat screens where residents could come to get information and learn about events going on in the neighborhood. The feasibility of that has yet to be determined, but in the meantime, benches made from recycled paper have been donated for use in the park by Boise Inc., a Utah-based paper and packaging company. The Alliance for Community Trees, based in College Park, also is pitching in.

One of the park's novel features is its use of rain-absorbing "porous" pavement and pavers for the walking paths, plaza and parking spots. Hager said they're being used in the park to demonstrate their potential for reducing stormwater pollution that fouls the city's streams and harbor. Rainfall should soak into the ground through these porous surfaces, rather than running off into the street, washing trash, pet waste, fertilizer and other debris down storm drains that lead to the harbor.

Replacing standard asphalt or concrete with porous pavement or pavers is one of the ways the city, with so much ground hard-scaped, can reduce its stormwater pollution. But Hager said the city has been hesitant to embrace these materials because they feared they couldn't afford to maintain them. Porous pavement needs to be vacuumed periodically to keep the openings in its surface from becoming clogged with dirt. However, Humanim has agreed to maintain the park and its porous pavement.

Community members hope similar things can be done with other vacant lots in the area. Williams said having a green space where residents can gather ought to help deter crime in the neighborhood by demonstrating to potential trouble-makers that it's a tight-knit area where people care about their community and each other. The vegetation and the birds and wildlife they attract also will be welcomed, she said, by elderly residents of the church's senior housing center across the street.

"I see improvement, not only for the neighborhood, but for the city as well," said Eddie Harley, 78, a former resident of the demolished homes, who now lives across Federal Street from the park.

tim.wheeler@baltsun.com


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BELOW YOU SEE LONDONERS ARE BEING MOVED OUT AS THE CITY IS MADE INTO A MANHATTAN-STYLE LUXURY LIVING.

You missed the two most important issues in this discussion......first, globalization is dead and Rule of Law is about to claw back tens of trillions of dollars in fraud from the financial industry in both US and UK/Europe.  All of this development is being fueled by and paid for by all of these fraudulent gains.  So, because our justice agencies have suspended Rule of Law and not brought back the fraud as of yet, we are seeing all this movement of fraud into this development that will simply sit idle once banks are downsized and capped.  Then, we will have massive commercial buildings littering our urban landscape much like Spain's great development of housing and commercial real estate that is just sitting, again all paid for by massive subprime mortgage fraud and sovereign debt fraud.  THESE PEOPLE ARE BUILDING WITH MONEY THAT ISN'T THEIRS AND THE COST OF REMOVING IT WILL BE A BURDEN ON THE PUBLIC! The people are shouting loudly across the world that they will not be displaced by thugs spending stolen money!


Second, this threat to historical architecture shows such hubris.  You listen to Cameron call for banking reforms in a country with so much fraud that if he were to do anything this construction frenzy would stop.  You cannot have a finance economy when the entire world thinks the industry is criminal....this is bizarre.  In the US Timothy Geithner.....AKA 'Let the fraud continue' as he and Greenspan told 50 states attorney general in 2005....spoke at a Johns Hopkins commencement and stated that people are going to call you bad, but just ignore it.
 They called these kinds of people barbarians and Visigoths back in the day.....SHAKE THE BUGS OUT OF THE RUG!



Change Is On The Horizon For London's Famous Skyline

by Christopher Werth

June 18, 2013 5:38 PM NPR



London's 122 Leadenhall Street (nicknamed the "Cheese-Grater") is shown under construction on March 5. Once complete it will be London's second-tallest building. The recent construction of numerous skyscrapers has sparked concern that views of historic landmark buildings, such as St Paul's Cathedral, are being obscured.

Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images Cities are defined by their skylines — while Paris is composed mostly of low-rise apartment buildings, New York is a city of tall office towers. But London is a city in transition. On Tuesday, Boris Johnson, the mayor of the British capital, attends a "topping out" ceremony for one of London's latest skyscrapers in a city where tall buildings cause a lot of controversy.

Until recently, London has been a low-rise city.
 Even now, a 12-story building is considered rather tall.
 But a spate of new skyscrapers is raising questions about the kind of city London should be.

The newest entrant is a building Londoners have dubbed the "Cheese-Grater." It's an unfinished, 52-story steel frame that looks, well, like a cheese grater. One entire facade of the building tapers down to the street at such a sharp angle, it just calls out for a block of English cheddar. Once complete, it will be London's second-tallest building.

Nigel Webb of British Land, the developer, says the building is designed so its smaller top doesn't obstruct the view of St. Paul's Cathedral, built by Christopher Wren in the 17th century. The church is many blocks away, but views of the building from around the city are protected by law.

"Had we designed the building so that it was like a traditional tower going straight up, it would have actually clashed with the dome of St. Paul's," says Webb.

This gets at why skyscrapers can be so difficult to build in London: The city boasts centuries of architectural history, and some observers are very worried about its changing skyline.

“ The landscape of London is completely transformed — has somehow burst into a kind of small Shanghai.

- Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO's new assistant director-general for culture

"You know nowadays, the landscape of London is completely transformed — has somehow burst into a kind of small Shanghai," says Francesco Bandarin of UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural organization for conserving world heritage. "But these changes have limits."

Bandarin says London's new skyscrapers threaten another important, London landmark, the Tower of London, which sits right in the shadow of the city's new buildings. Built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, the tower oozes British history: A couple of Henry VIII's wives lost their heads here; it's home to the Crown Jewels. 
 


UNESCO designates the Tower of London an official World Heritage Site, and Bandarin says it has warned the British government about the new development around it.

"We see now that it's very difficult to perceive the tower as it was in its very long millenary history because of the existence of these high-rise buildings," says Bandarin.

The British government is in talks with UNESCO to preserve what's left of the area. But Paul Finch, a critic at Architects' Journal, is concerned by what he says is the implication that instead of just preserving views of the Tower of London, UNESCO is urging the city to protect what visitors see from it. 


"The idea that we're going to start protecting views from these historic monuments and places is a form of madness," says Finch. "There is a danger of ending up with great swaths of a city, which cannot accommodate taller buildings."


Heated battles have already erupted. John Penrose, a former government minister for heritage in the U.K., is in favor of development. But he says The Shard — the tall, glass, spike-shaped building that now dominates the London skyline — was nearly scrapped because of conservationists' concerns over the Tower of London. And he has his own concerns.

"In the worst case," says Penrose, "UNESCO could withdraw the designation of being a World Heritage Site." 


That's something the organization has done only once in Europe, when Dresden built a bridge UNESCO said degraded the views around the German city.
 


In London's defense, Edward Lister, the city's deputy mayor for planning, says all of the new high-rises are essential for London to maintain its status as a global financial center.

“ You cannot allow development to be stalled in a city like this. London's grown by 600,000 people in just the last five years. And we will be over 9 million people before New York. That's the pressure that the city's under.

- Edward Lister, London's deputy mayor for planning

"UNESCO is taking a very, very black-and white-position, and I'm afraid life's not like that," says Lister. "You cannot allow development to be stalled in a city like this. London's grown by 600,000 people in just the last five years. And we will be over 9 million people before New York. That's the pressure that the city's under." 


Nevertheless, London has come up with new guidelines as a result of the furor over the city's building boom. Known as "The London Plan," it protects more views across the city. But some tourists at the Tower of London look up at the surrounding walls of glass and kind of like it. 


"I think it shows how beautiful time was back in the 11th century, and just how beautiful the new creations are now in the 21st century," says Vanessa Lawson, visiting London from the nearby town of Hastings. "You know we kind of have to accept changes and go with them really."

And even more change is on the way. London has just approved proposals for tall buildings within view of another World Heritage Site, the Houses of Parliament, and UNESCO is concerned.

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March 14th, 2013

3/14/2013

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IF 'SUSTAINABILITY' ONLY APPLIES TO YOU AND ME.....IS IT REALLY ABOUT SAVING THE EARTH OR IS IT ABOUT MAXIMIZING WEALTH AT THE TOP?




I will end my talk on Zeitgeist Movement as DAVOS by saying this.....if you read their bio they have created a mystique that rivals the ancient Greeks that this organization sprang from the ashes of the financial collapse from massive corporate fraud simultaneously around the world and has no one leader.....A CREATION MYTH FOLKS!  EVERY GREAT EMPIRE MUST HAVE A CREATION MYTH.  People who get rich by lying, cheating, and stealing are sociopaths not benevolent rulers so we know their goal is not what is best for the planet...it is what maximizes their wealth.


The new go-to word is 'Sustainability'....we have to save the planet.....and we do.  That is the tenet of Zeitgeist and it looks good on paper and indeed from Third Way corporate Obama to elite 1% Johns Hopkins there is a push towards 'sustainability'.  Living simply so people can simply live is the mantra of the 1960s.  Let's look at public policy to see who is walking the walk and who is just talking the talk.  Looking here in Baltimore, are policies that promote development having billion dollar corporations as anchors in a downtown with massive office complexes built right on the water's edge of a harbor we want to clean 'sustainable development'?  OF COURSE NOT, IT IS THE WORST OF DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES, BUT IT LOOKS PRETTY AND GIVES VIEWS TO THE RICH!!!  Does having a Brussels-style complex of wall-to-wall cement and buildings with global aspirations that is EAST BALTIMORE development having Hopkins running every business sector in the state meet the definition of 'living simply so that others may simply live'?  Does a health care reform that fails to address the driver of cost......fraud and waste.......and builds an industry surrounding 'preventive medicine', the very source of much of the fraud and waste, a 'sustainability' approach to health care?  Hopkins is driving this private system approach that builds all kinds of clinics, mobile transport units that serve as clinics, and a wellness plan that has patients coming in every three months to have their blood drawn and analyzed.......is that policy about 'sustainability' or profit.  What is the number one category of physical waste polluting the environment today?  MEDICAL WASTE.  Did you know that these national medical chains that are the  new private industry are all owed by the 1% and health care and education has been identified as the go-to industries for future profits ergo, this kind of health care reform?

THERE IS NOTHING SUSTAINABLE THAT THE 1% ARE DOING IN THE QUEST FOR PROFITS SO WHY ARE THEY SO CONCERNED WITH ORDINARY PEOPLE LIVING SUSTAINABLY?   THAT'S RIGHT.....IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY WE WILL NOT HAVE, NOT THE PLANET.

Who leads the push against all business regulation as regards environmental law and social justice law that seek to make business systems pay for polluting and forcing them into sustainable development and allows people the money to style their lives around environmental and health quality issues?  THAT'S RIGHT....THE 1% HAVE ELIMINATED ALL PUBLIC POLICIES THAT WERE BUILT JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING THE EARTH AND EMBRACING SOCIAL STEWARDSHIP.  They do it for profit as it kills the earth.

I KNOW........HOW DIABOLICAL CAN SOCIOPATHS BE?


VOTE YOUR INCUMBENTS OUT OF OFFICE!!!!



Now, this is the Brookings Institute definition for 'sustainability'.  I can just hear an executive telling a deputy to write this definition in Wikipedia.  It doesn't say anything about avoiding making the American midwest into a monoculture of wheat, corn, and soy just so these global agribusinesses can glean massive profits selling it to the government and shipping it to the third world rather than simply developing local farming in those locations.  This is one of the most destructive of policies as regards sustainability and yet, magically the Farm Bill subsidizes this same behavior with even greater profit for global agribusiness.  DID YOU HEAR THE ELITE INSTITUTIONS FIGHTING THIS POLICY?  THESE INSTITUTIONS ARE TOO BUSY BUYING ALL FERTILE LAND AND FRESH WATER SOURCES AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE MONEY STOLEN FROM YOU AND ME THROUGH CORPORATE FRAUD!!!

To end for today, I'd like to point to the current practice of scooping the world's professional class and bringing them to the US as immigrant workers.  The sustainable thing to do is leave these future leaders in their countries to work towards development rather than expanding elite institutions into these countries after taking the leadership to America.  The entire idea of Best of the Best.....a Brookings Institute/Johns Hopkins public policy......IS THE OPPOSITE OF SUSTAINABILITY!!!!!!!!!

RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN NEXT ELECTIONS!!!



Sustainability
From Wikipedia,

Achieving sustainability will enable the earth to continue supporting human life as we know it. Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

Healthy ecosystems and environments provide vital goods and services to humans and other organisms. There are two major ways of reducing negative human impact and enhancing ecosystem services and the first of these is environmental management. This approach is based largely on information gained from earth science, environmental science and conservation biology. The second approach is management of human consumption of resources, which is based largely on information gained from economics.

Sustainability interfaces with economics through the social and ecological consequences of economic activity. Sustainability economics involves ecological economics where social, cultural, health-related and monetary/financial aspects are integrated. Moving towards sustainability is also a social challenge that entails international and national law, urban planning and transport, local and individual lifestyles and ethical consumerism. Ways of living more sustainably can take many forms from reorganising living conditions (e.g., ecovillages, eco-municipalities and sustainable cities), reappraising economic sectors (permaculture, green building, sustainable agriculture), or work practices (sustainable architecture), using science to develop new technologies (green technologies, renewable energy and sustainable Fission and Fusion power), to adjustments in individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources.


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The Sun does do some investigative journalism that gives the power base a slap of reality every now and then,  but it is a propagator of the BEST of the BEST world-class city design driven by Third Way global corporations.  Listen to this parody below...it is great.  We are being sold the idea that innovation and attracting rich businesses are the only way to grow this industrial city filled with blue collar working families.  Now, another way to go which would be the 'sustainable' approach is take all those billions of dollars being used to build a mirror of Manhattan and build small community businesses.....YOU KNOW, THE REAL ENTERPRISE ZONE CONCEPT!!!!!  I thriving downtown of small businesses and business owners that are the very blue-collar working class now unemployed is the sustainable approach......it isn't the maximizing profits approach that drives Baltimore's development.  IT IS HYPE FOLKS.....THIS ENTIRE IDEA OF SUSTAINABILITY THAT LEAVES GREAT WEALTH DOING ALL THAT IS UNSUSTAINABLE WHILE SELLING SUSTAINABILITY TO YOU AND ME!!!

SINCE WHEN DID MASSIVE PUBLIC DEBT INCURRED WHILE GIVING MASSIVE PUBLIC MONEY TO MASSIVELY WEALTHY DEVELOPERS BECOME SUSTAINABLE?????



Put on the red ink

Baltimore Sun  Our view:

The mayor's attempt at a 10-year fiscal plan is generating suspicion, but such an exercise is necessary if Baltimore is to thriveFebruary 19, 2013Anger at actions by Baltimore's mayors has taken various forms over the years, but rarely has it manifested itself in a music video. But on Feb. 11, the day Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was to give her State of the City address and outline some of her ideas for coping with the dire fiscal forecast consultants predicted for the city over the next decade, the Baltimore City Paper posted on its website a full-length parody of the Police classic "Roxanne," entitled "Stephanie (you don't have to put on the red ink)".

The effort is clever and impressively carried out, and it reflects an undercurrent of suspicion among city activists. Some doubt the reality of the 10-year fiscal forecast and question the mayor's motives in following it up with ideas like changes to municipal pensions and a trash collection fee. The song asks how the consultants could have come up with such gloomy predictions for a city that has not regularly audited its own departments and reiterates common complaints that Baltimore gives away too much in tax breaks for well-heeled developers. Others have asked why the city would spend more than half a million dollars on consultants in an effort to figure out how to save money, particularly given that Baltimore already employs an entire department of finance.

In general, the sense seems to be that Ms. Rawlings-Blake dropped this report out of nowhere, and she must be up to something.

But what, exactly? What does a Democratic mayor in a Democratic city and state have to gain by highlighting the need to reduce spending — particularly the cost of benefits for unionized employees? What does any politician have to gain by highlighting the fiscal problems of the government she leads and then proposing a variety of unpopular ways to address them? And just what did people think was going to happen when, 18 months ago, Ms. Rawlings-Blake announced that she intended to develop a 10-year plan to deal with the city's chronic budget shortfalls?

The mayor could have continued patching the budget together every year with chewing gum and baling wire, but she has chosen to seek a more sustainable path — and one that could allow the city to invest in the kinds of things that will help it grow. In that context, the cost of bringing in outside experts from Public Financial Management Inc. is insignificant (though, for the record, already-implemented PFM recommendations for changes to city health benefits are saving Baltimore $20 million a year).

The way Ms. Rawlings-Blake has rolled out the consultants' report and her recommendations may be responsible for some of the unease. First she released a report detailing the scope of the problem, then she provided a few details of her plans to address it in her State of the City address, and tomorrow she intends to release the consultants' full report, plus her own action plan. To some, that feels like we're getting set up.

In truth, though, the release of the report is and should be just the beginning of a conversation with city residents and other stakeholders about how best to proceed. The consultants came up with more than 100 recommendations for ways to improve the city's finances and its competitiveness, and the mayor intends to pursue them over the course of the next two years or more. This is a long-term effort that should be judged not by how it is being introduced but by how well the administration listens to the ideas and concerns of the community and other elected officials as it translates Ms. Rawlings-Blake's ideas into legislation in the months and years ahead.

But the mayor should certainly not be blamed for wanting to do something more than manage the slow decline of a great American city. We could go on hoping that gradual improvements to the crime rate or schools, or knocking an occasional penny from the property tax rate, will spark a sudden turnaround in Baltimore's fortunes — or we could embrace the reality that the time has come to try a new strategy. The city schools have taken the latter course with their ambitious reconstruction plan, and now the mayor is following suit. Some of the ideas she will present tomorrow will probably be good, some may turn out to be bad, and others will likely emerge from the conversation that will follow. But if we want Baltimore to thrive, it is an effort worth making.

_______________________________________________

Modus Operandus of Baltimore Development is that Johns Hopkins as leader of development gives these billion dollar corporations whatever they want complete with Enterprise Zone designation and ring-fence all tax revenue in exchange for 'charitable donations' that give Hopkins grants for LaCrosse Museums, facilities infrastructure, and affiliated 'public' schools and their athletic fields.  NONE OF THIS IS SUSTAINABLE.  Here you see a green light for a plan that should have had a downtown full of empty and blighted office buildings in the downtown corridor being axed for waterfront development that takes more and more of the waterfront and privatizes it with worthless office buildings.  Exelon as a merger deal had to be in the city so we didn't need to make these concessions to keep their business.  Is it 'sustainable' to allow a corporation to bring an entire management staffing from another region while firing 600 existing management staff already living locally?  NONE OF THIS IS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY!!!!!!


Exelon lays out plans for new Baltimore headquartersPreliminary design calls for 22-story skyscraper at Harbor Point
A rendering of Exelon's Baltimore headquarters is pictured. (Handout photo )February 08, 2012|By Hanah Cho, The Baltimore Sun

Exelon Corp.'s new headquarters in Baltimore is designed to be a glassy, 22-story skyscraper, similar in style to the Legg Mason tower, which would be a neighbor on the Harbor East waterfront, according to preliminary designs revealed Wednesday.

The building would be part of the $250 million first phase of the 27-acre Harbor Point development, which would also include a central plaza, a headquarters for U.S. Lacrosse, a six-acre waterfront park and an apartment tower, said Michael Beatty, president of Harbor East Development Corp.

Plans for the new building were released a week after Exelon picked Harbor Point over sites in the city's traditional downtown district. The choice disappointed some local business leaders, who had hoped the Chicago-based energy giant would settle on a location in the area around Pratt and Light streets.

Exelon is seeking to acquire Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group in a $7.9 billion deal that still requires regulatory approvals. The Maryland Public Service Commission is expected to make a decision by Feb. 17.

The old McCormick and Co. site at Light and Conway streets and Baltimore City Community College's Bard Building at Lombard Street and Market Place were among the top spots considered by Exelon officials.

Speaking during a presentation on the 24th floor of the Legg Mason tower, which overlooks Harbor Point, Exelon's senior vice president of corporate affairs said the site was the best choice for the combined companies' power-selling and renewable energy businesses.

"We wanted to create a presence and make a statement that we are … here for the long term," Calvin Butler Jr. said.

Butler also said that Harbor Point provided an opportunity to expand, and that Exelon appreciated the developer's record of constructing high-rises on schedule. Exelon hopes to move into the building in 2014.

Exelon is expected to spend around $120 million for a long-term lease that could range from 15 to 20 years.

Beatty, who repeatedly said that Harbor Point was a part of downtown, brushed aside criticism of Exelon's decision to build at the site instead of in the city's traditional business district.

"We're all part of the same city," said Beatty, whose company built the Legg Mason tower and the surrounding Harbor East neighborhood.

Laurie Schwartz, executive director of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, said the city was big enough for various types of development.

"I think that downtown is very resilient and [that] some people suggesting that downtown lost its vibrancy is a bit of an overreaction over the move of one tenant," she said.

______________________________________________

So, if none of the development I've spoken of today has anything to do with sustainability, what is the purpose of the Baltimore Mayor's plan for SUSTAINABILITY?

I will speak tomorrow about what these policy actually do for the citizens of Baltimore vs the 1% driving these policies.


I want to point to one issue that drives me crazy.....growing food in the city.  Those of us who are urban gardeners know this:  the city's soil if so polluted from being an industrial city with millions of lead-based gasoline cars spewing toxic chemicals all around the city that the approach being taken on the cheap.....simply tilling empty lots and planting, or even raised beds made with soil brought from yet another contaminated location is BIZARRE.  It is an example of moving a policy forward towards a goal that has nothing to do with public interest and everything to do with society of the 1%.  I listened to a 'greening' presentation by a city greening organization that focused on the fact that all of the soil would need to be carted in from some far away place to assure uncontaminated soil.  HOW IS THAT SUSTAINABLE?  HOW CAN THIS FOOD GROWN IN BAD SOIL BE OK FOR PEOPLE CONSUMING IT?  WELL, IT IS THE POOR THAT WILL GET IT SO DON'T WORRY.  THEY NEED TO START  CREATING THEIR OWN FOOD SOURCE AFTER ALL.

I stopped by this block-sized urban garden in Washington DC, right in the thick of urban blight and asked that question....soil, car fumes, et al.......the executive of the non-profit pushing this gave me a glare that said 'HOW DARE YOU QUESTION WHAT YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO HAVE!'!!!  Listen, I can afford to go the WholeFoods as can she!!!



2010 Baltimore City
2010 Annual
Sustainability Report
2010 ANNUAL REPORT
STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE
MAYOR


Featured Article 2010 Annual Report

Baltimore City’s 2010 Annual Sustainability Report was released on April 16, 2011 as part of Baltimore Green Week’s EcoFest. The annual report outlines the progress made to date toward achieving the goals of the Sustainability Plan and highlights the great work underway to benefit the economic, social, and environmental health of Baltimore.

In the two years since the City Council adopted the Baltimore Sustainability Plan, a multitude of partners in a variety of forms and functions – community organizations, businesses, families, and schools – have continued to work to implement the goals of the Plan and make Baltimore a more sustainable place to live and work.

The Annual Report provides an opportunity to check in, renew our commitment, and celebrate our successes together as a community.  The structure of the Annual Report is based on that of the Sustainability Plan and provides both quantitative and qualitative measures of Baltimore’s efforts to forward Plan goals. For each of the seven theme chapters of the Plan - cleanliness, pollution prevention, resource conservation, greening, transportation, education & awareness, and green economy – the report features a success story from the past year.

The Report addresses each of the 29 goals by highlighting key facts, related 2010 efforts, and a few action items which individuals can take to help be part of the solution. Many of the partners in these efforts are listed along with their web addresses for more information at the end of the report. While these pages begin to tell the story of the great work underway, we recognize the sample endeavors included here do not represent an exhaustive list.

There are doubtless many additional organizations accomplishing valuable work throughout Baltimore. We encourage all entities in Baltimore to share how they help to achieve the city’s sustainability goals here at our website via the “Share your Success Stories” button on the homepage. We will use the projects and initiatives shared here to produce next year’s Annual Report

Thank you to the countless individuals and organizations that took action this past year to improve the quality of life and sustainability here in Baltimore!

To download a copy of the report visit: 2010 Annual Report






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December 05th, 2012

12/5/2012

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Hello everyone!  I was going to move on from privatization of education but I ran into yet another good example at today's Board of Estimates meeting.  I then want to speak a day or two about the debt ceiling budget deal much toted in the media now.  I pointed to the tiered funding being put in place in Baltimore and Maryland using the Johns Hopkins' connected 'public' schools as an example.  They of course aren't public, they are private and they are using a great amount of city and education funds that should go to city public schools.  If you read about this school it will tell you the the millions it took to build this new deluxe school was not taken from the education budget.  As is always true of anything Johns Hopkins says, this is not true.  If money comes from the city or state it eats away at the ability of these government budgets to fund education.  State and Baltimore City funds are indeed used to build and run this 'public' school.

NOW MIND YOU, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY HAS A $2 BILLION PLUS ENDOWMENT AND HAS RECEIVED TRILLIONS OF TAXPAYER MONEY OVER DECADES.  IT IS STARTING TO PATENT RESEARCH AND IS EXPANDING ITS REACH GLOBALLY...... AND IS FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES A PRIVATE CORPORATION.  YET, THE CITY IS SQUEEZING FUNDS TO PAY BACK A REPAYMENT FOR A FINANCIAL BOND.  IT IS ABSURD!!!!!!  Johns Hopkins University is using the city general funds as an ATM and your incumbent is the banker handing the money to them.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!

Baltimore finds funds for EBDI TIF  Account is emptied to spare nonprofit from extra tax bill Posted: 6:00 pm Sun, September 18, 2011
By Melody Simmons and Joan Jacobson
Daily Record Business Writer

Baltimore finance officials have drained nearly half a million dollars from a special account to help cover the $1.4 million repayment due this month on $78 million in tax increment financing bonds issued for the struggling East Baltimore Development Inc. project. The transfer means the city will not have to levy a special tax at this ...

TODAY THE BOARD OF ESTIMATES APPROVED $3 MILLION IN FUNDS TO PAY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES IN THIS SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION AREA.  NOW, BACK IN THE DAY WHEN BUSINESS WAS CONDUCTED WITH INTEGRITY, THE DEVELOPER WOULD HAVE PAID THOSE COSTS AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN INTO THE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AGREEMENTS.  WHO IS THE DEVELOPER IN THIS CASE?  EBDI.  MAKE NO MISTAKE, THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC PROJECT.  IF YOU GO TO EAST BALTIMORE YOU WILL SEE A SPRAWLING HOPKINS CAMPUS THAT WILL NOT ALLOW YOU IN AS MOST OF IT IS PRIVATE.

AS GENTRIFICATION HAPPENS, THIS COMMUNITY SCHOOL WILL NOT BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.  IT WILL BECOME THE GILMAN/ROLAND PARK DAY PRIVATE SCHOOL OF DOWNTOWN.  IS THAT A PROBLEM.....NO.  IS THE FACT THAT THE PUBLIC IS PAYING FOR IT AND IT IS USING FUNDS FOR UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES TO DO IT?   YES.

WHO ATTEND UNDERSERVED SCHOOLS......THEY ARE BLACK, THEY ARE WHITE, ASIAN, AND HISPANIC.   There is plenty of wealth in Baltimore to pay for this and to use these funds on these affluent projects as the poor/working class neighborhoods and schools languish is WRONG.

THE VERY LAST ARTICLE IS A LONG RANT ABOUT PRIVATIZATION THAT I THINK ADDRESSES ALL THE ISSUES AS WELL AS AN OPEN LETTER WOULD.  IT IS DESIGNED TO BE SENT TO YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS.  I HOPE YOU TAKE TIME TO PRINT AND SEND IT OFF!
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Everyone is listening to the budget reduction debates and it would appear that Obama is doing the right thing in holding out for the end of Bush Tax Cuts for the rich.  He will take us over the 'cliff' to do it.  We do need to end the Bush Tax Cuts to start moving towards reversal of wealth inequity so that in and of itself is good.  I am also hearing the wink,wink, nod, nod that goes with it and that is why I am not happy.  After all, we reelected all incumbents who were ready to sign off on the 'grand bargain' of the debt ceiling debate and make no mistake......they will continue to protect wealth and corporations next year when the grand tax reform occurs.  So this fight for the middle class by making the rich pay may all be a ploy......LET'S HOPE OBAMA WILL DO THE RIGHT THING.  HE MAY BE MAD ENOUGH AT ALL THE BANKERS AND CORPORATE EXECS FOR FUNDING MIT ROMNEY TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! 

What may well be the purpose of going over the cliff may be the across the board 10% cuts to all programs that will really kill the middle/lower class.

Maryland's Steny Hoyer has been shouting loudly and strongly that entitlements must be reformed.  Remember, he is from a state that has billions in health fraud each year and they need that entitlement money to keep the fraud running.  WITH THIRD WAY LEADERSHIP IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE, WE WILL KNOW DOUBT SEE LARGE CUTS IN SOCIAL PROGRAMS AND LARGE CUTS IN CORPORATE TAXES.  MOST OF THE RICH HAVE THEIR WEALTH IN CORPORATE STOCKS NOW A DAYS, SO ENDING THE BUSH TAX CUTS WILL NOT IMPACT THEM VERY MUCH IF CORPORATE TAXES CONTINUE TO DISAPPEAR.

Remember the Bank Transaction Tax to make the banks pay for fraud and tanking the economy?  Do you hear your incumbent shouting for that?  Remember that corporations are rolling in profits made at the public's expense and it is they that need to pay this national debt down.....Is your incumbent saying that?

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!

IN EUROPE THE ENTIRE FRAUD AND DEBT IS BEING EXTRACTED FROM PUBLIC ASSETS AND PEOPLE'S WEALTH AND PENSIONS.  IT IS INCREDIBLE HOW THEY ARE BEING CRIPPLED BY THESE AUSTERITY PROGRAMS THAT HAVE THE BANKS AND RICH KEEPING THE FRAUDULENT GAINS.  THIS IS NOW GOING TO UNFOLD IN AMERICA AS THOSE THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS VOTE FOR DEBT SOLUTIONS THAT PROTECT THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS BY MAKING YOU AND I  PAY WITH OUR QUALITY OF LIFE.  Wait until next year when they do the traditional lowering of all tax rates and ending loopholes and subsidy routine.  They do this every few decades as they pretend to make the rich pay.  Each time these loopholes come back after only a few years and the social programs and funding is gone.

The good that can come from going over the cliff is the large defense cuts.  These Third Way are hawkish and will bring these funds back, but maybe we will see reduction.

We simply need to run fiscal progressive candidates and vote Third Way incumbents out of office!


Economy

Corporations Calling To ‘Fix The Debt’ Want $134 Billion In Tax Breaks By Rebecca Leber on Nov 13, 2012 at 12:40 pm

Ahead of negotiations over the so-called “fiscal cliff” and what promises to be another fight over raising the debt ceiling, 63 CEOs representing the largest U.S. corporations, including several Wall Street firms, launched a campaign to supposedly “fix the debt.” However, this campaign calls for additional corporate tax cuts by switching the U.S. to what’s known as a “territorial” corporate tax system, along the lines of that proposed by Mitt Romney.

According to a report by Institute for Policy Studies, the corporations involved could gain up to $134 billion in windfalls if Congress approves such a system, which exempts foreign earnings from the U.S. corporate income tax:

– The 63 companies that are publicly held could gain up to $134 billion in windfalls. The biggest potential winner is General Electric, which would earn $35.7 billion on its overseas earnings of $102 billion.

A territorial tax system actually rewards businesses that offshore jobs and investments. Corporate tax rates are already at a 40-year low of just 12.1 percent. Revenue from corporate taxes has plunged, despite a 60-year high in corporate profits.  THIS IS OUR STRUCTURAL BUDGET DEFICIT.

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THIS IS A REALLY GOOD LOOK AT WHAT THE THIRD WAY PARTY PLATFORM LOOKS TO BE ABLE TO ACCEPT.  BOWLES IS THE CLINTON STAFFER THAT NEGOTIATED THE END OF GLASS-STEAGALL.  THESE PEOPLE KILLED AMERICAN DEMOCRACY AND WE NEED TO MOVE THEM TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WHERE THEY BELONG.

THE BIG ISSUE FOR NEXT YEAR FOR CORPORATE TAXES IS THIS 'TERRITORIAL TAX' DESIGNATION.  THEY WANT BECAUSE IT WILL REMOVE ALL TAXATION ON GLOBAL INCOME WHICH IS WHERE ALL THEIR BUSINESS IS NOW.

What "Grand Bargainers" Simpson and Bowles Really Stand For

Thursday, 29 November 2012 13:20 By Bernie Sanders, Campaign for America's Future | Op-Ed

Erskine Bowles. (Photo: New America Foundation / Flickr)

There has been a lot of discussion about Congress enacting a “grand bargain” during the lame duck session of Congress.  Many members of Congress have talked about using the plan put forward by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles as an outline for a “balanced” approach to deficit reduction.

Let me take this opportunity to tell you a little about Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles and what their plan would do.

As many of you know, Alan Simpson is a former conservative Republican Senator from Wyoming who has wanted to cut Social Security benefits for decades.

Here are just a few of the rude, inaccurate, and derogatory statements that Alan Simpson has made about Social Security:

  • On August 24, 2010, Alan Simpson wrote in an e-mail to the head of the Older Women’s League: “And yes, I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits!  Call when you get honest work!”
  • On Friday, May 6, 2011, Alan Simpson told the Investment Company Institute, that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme”, “not a retirement program.”  Simpson went on to say that Social Security “was never intended as a retirement program. It was set up in ‘37 and ‘38 to take care of people who were in distress — ditch diggers, wage earners — it was to give them 43 percent of the replacement rate of their wages. The [life expectancy] was 63. That’s why they set retirement age at 65.”
  • On June 19, 2010, Alan Simpson said: “Social Security was never a retirement. It was set up to take care of poor guys in the depression who lost their butts who were getting butchered.”
Erskine Bowles has been a board member of Morgan Stanley since 2005 and made a fortune as a Wall Street investment banker as many of you know.

However, you may not know that Erskine Bowles made the following statement in 2011 at the University of North Carolina: “Paul Ryan is honest, he is straightforward, he is sincere. And the budget that he came forward with is just like Paul Ryan. It is a sensible, straightforward, honest, serious budget and it cut the budget deficit just like we did, by $4 trillion.”

You may also be unaware that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson endorsed Congressman Charles Bass (R-NH) against progressive Democrat Ann McClane Kuster.

In their endorsement of Rep. Bass, Bowles and Simpson wrote: “Charlie supported a plan that demonstrated it is possible to raise revenues for deficit reduction through pro-growth tax reforms that reduce tax rates for individuals and businesses.  Likewise, it is possible to reform entitlement programs … He is a brave leader who deserves the thanks of everyone who really cares about our nation’s future.”

Rep. Bass voted for the Paul Ryan budget that every Democrat in the Senate has voted against.  In contrast, Kuster, who went on to defeat Rep. Bass, has said: “Let me be clear: I will never cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. My Tea Party opponent will.”

Even more distressing, in my opinion, is the belief that the Simpson-Bowles plan is a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction that we should be using as a model.

Here are the major elements of the Simpson-Bowles plan that I believe the Democratic Caucus should strongly oppose:

1.     Cutting Social Security benefits for current retirees.  The Simpson-Bowles plan would reduce Social Security benefits for current retirees by using a “chained-CPI” to determine cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs).  According to the Social Security Administration, enacting a chained CPI would cut Social Security benefits by $112 billion over 10 years meaning that the average Social Security recipient who retires at age 65 would get $560 less a year at age 75 and would get $1,000 less a year at age 85 than under current law.

Two-thirds of senior citizens rely on Social Security for more than half of their income, and the average Social Security benefit today is about $1,200 a month.  At a time when seniors haven’t received a Social Security COLA in two out of the last three years as the price of prescription drugs and healthcare have gone up, the Simpson-Bowles plan would make it harder for today’s average senior citizen to make ends meet.

2.     Cutting veterans’ benefits.   Not only would enacting a chained-CPI be harmful to senior citizens, it would also make substantial cuts to the VA benefits of more than 3 million veterans.  The largest cuts in benefits would impact young, permanently disabled veterans who were seriously wounded in combat.  According to the Social Security Administration, permanently disabled veterans who started receiving VA disability benefits at age 30 would see their benefits cut by more than $1,300 a year at age 45; $1,800 a year at age 55; and $2,260 a year at age 65.  That would be simply unacceptable.

3.     Raising the retirement age to 69 years.  Increasing the retirement age to 69 would reduce lifetime Social Security benefits for workers by about 13 percent.  This would be particularly harmful to construction workers, nurses, factory workers and other labor intensive jobs.  According to the Center for Economic Policy and Research, 45 percent of workers who are 58 years of age and older work in physically demanding jobs or jobs with difficult working conditions.  Moreover, older Americans have a higher rate of long-term unemployment than any other age group.

4.     Cutting Social Security benefits for middle class workers.  According to the Social Security Administration, all of the Social Security policy changes in Bowles-Simpson would cut average annual Social Security benefits for middle-income workers (with average annual lifetime earnings of between $43,000 and $69,000) by up to 35 percent.

5.     Reducing tax rates for the wealthy and large corporations.  The Simpson-Bowles plan would significantly reduce income tax rates for the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations to between 23 and 29 percent — even lower than the top rate of 35% under the Bush tax cuts.    Simpson and Bowles claim that some $1.2 trillion in revenue would be increased under their proposal by eliminating or reducing tax expenditures, such as the mortgage interest deduction, and the tax exclusion on employer health insurance and pension plans.  However, a March 22, 2012 Congressional Research Service report has suggested that federal income tax rates could be reduced by no more than two percentage points under a realistic scenario of reducing tax expenditures in order to be deficit neutral, and could not reduce the deficit.

The President and almost all Democrats have supported repealing the Bush tax breaks for the top two percent.  That means that the top individual income tax rate would be increased from 35 percent to 39.6 percent – the same level under President Clinton when over 22 million new jobs were created.  We should eliminate corporate tax loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthy — and use this revenue to reduce the deficit and create jobs, not to lower tax rates.

Other harmful provisions in the Simpson-Bowles plan include:

  • Increasing the regressive gas tax by 15 cents starting next year;
  • Increasing premiums for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program;
  • Increasing interest rates on student loans;
  • Increasing co-payments for middle class veterans receiving health care through the VA;
  • Cutting 450,000 jobs in the federal workforce and private companies under contract with the federal government;
  • Eliminating or limiting the exclusion of taxation on employer provided health insurance and pensions;
  • Encouraging companies to ship jobs to China and other low wage countries by adopting a “territorial” tax system allowing corporations to evade U.S. income taxes by establishing subsidiaries overseas;
  • Increasing taxes on low-income workers making between $10,000 to $20,000 a year by 14.5% in 2021 by moving to a chained-CPI; and
  • Reducing the number of Americans eligible for Medicaid, SSI, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, WIC, Head Start, LIHEAP, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Refundable Child Credit, and the Savers’ credit by shifting to a chained-CPI.
Those are the major elements of the Simpson-Bowles plan.  If enacted, they will cause major economic pain to virtually every American, while lowering tax rates for millionaires, billionaires and large corporations even more than President Bush.

For all of these reasons, I hope you will join me in opposing the Simpson-Bowles approach to deficit reduction.


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AS I SAID THIS IS A LONG MANIFESTO BUT I DOES A GOOD JOB ARTICULATING ALL OF THE POLICY THAT IS KILLING AMERICAN  SOCIETY.  REMEMBER.....

DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT.....YOU MUST MOBILIZE......ARE YOU EMAILING, SHOUTING ON THE PHONE, WRITING NEWSLETTERS, AND CREATING COMMUNITY BLOGS AND RUNNING FOR OFFICE?



When considering the topic of governmental privatization, one must conclude the old adage that it's actually socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the poor. The sole beneficiaries of governmental privatization has been and will continue to be large corporations and the wealthy class in America. Historically, governmental privatization has always led directly to rampant government corruption, less service and lower quality products at a higher cost to taxpayers. Privatization may very well become America's next great man-made nightmare by ultimately establishing monopolies, influencing public officials, and seeking to obtain tax breaks and hidden subsidies that are commonly used to enrich private individuals, corporations and investors at the public's expense. It will also have the undesired effect of undermining states by removing their revenue base, thereby transforming this government revenue into profits for domestic and foreign private-sector enterprises. Privatization experienced it's first great failure in the United States in 1823 in New York City and has consistently failed since.

1849 - Mayor Caleb Woodhull stated: “The system of cleaning the streets by contract has signally failed of fulfilling public expectations, and I assume that it is no longer entitled to public favor. At first it seemed to promise important advantages, both as to economy and efficiency, but in its operation it has proved entirely inadequate to accomplish either of these desired results. . . . I would therefore recommend an abandonment, as soon as practicable, of the contract system, and the entrusting of the entire business to the Superintendent of Streets, under the supervision of the proper department.”

1892 - The Chicago Board of Health declared: “There are few, if any redeeming qualities attached [to the contract system]. No matter what guards are placed around it, the system remains vicious.”

1895 - ”Mayor Pingree of Detroit expressed the view: “Most of our troubles can be traced to the temptations which are offered to city officials when franchises are sought by wealthy corporations, or contracts are to be let for public works.”

1999 - Author Moshe Adler summarized: “By the end of the 19th century . . . The realization that every possible improvement to contracting out had been tried led city after city to declare its failure. . . Practically all American cities discarded contracting out at that time and switched to governmental production.”

Now, imagine for a moment the colossal damage that could be wrecked upon the United States In the 21st century in a fully privatized country, with our propensity towards lack of accountability, our seeming inability to adequately punish white collar crime, our high speed computers, off-shore tax havens and the armies of corporate accountants and tax lawyers all waiting in the wings for just such a dream opportunity. An existing example of the potential damage that may be caused would be the decades old strategy of privatization of the emerging nations in the southern hemisphere by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. This strategy has been used like a large club over the heads of many of these third-world nations seeking to acquire loans, with devastating results of rampant poverty (Except for the public officials involved), public unrest and disenfranchisement of their nation's natural resources. Does the United States also wish to be part of this decades long failed experiment in privatization?

Governmental privatization is misguided because it is based on false theories about how people behave and about biophysical reality. The real world is much more complicated and corrupt than economists believe it to be. A good example of economist's simple mindedness is the remark by the 2005 Nobel economist, Thomas Shelling, who stated that climate change is not much of a threat to society. His reasoning for this assertion was that climate change will impact mainly agriculture and forestry, which represent only three percent of gross domestic product. In this case, one could reason that a world without forests, plants or more especially, without food to eat, would be a world that would not require a gross domestic product, or anything else for that matter.

In the real world, governmental privatization operates less like textbook competition and more like a textbook monopoly or oligopoly. It will ultimately lead to a less capable and responsive government at a much higher cost. This misguided concept has now become favored in the U.S. (again) for it's ideological purity, rather than it's practical content and realism. The empirical record indicates several counter intuitive outcomes from privatization. For example, the cost to the tax payer will tend to go up, not down. More political influence occurs, not less. The 'to big to fail' concept will ultimately take hold and large corporations will begin to function less like businesses and more like the protection rackets of the early twentieth century. Clear examples of this may be found with Wall Street and the Military Industrial Complex who offer nothing tangible, just threats of layoffs, potential for recession, warnings about our safety or the potential destruction of our economy if they are not given their way. Addition of other industry 'complexes' would simply expand and exacerbate this problem. Higher taxes on large corporations and lower taxes on small businesses (within productive and beneficial industries) would tend to discourage this type of phenomenon. This would give disincentive to large corporations from getting larger and incentive for smaller businesses to remain small, efficient and effective.

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) estimates that hidden and indirect costs of privatization can add up to 25% more on the typical contract price. Additionally, according to a 2007 survey by the International City/County Management Association, 52% of governments that brought privatized services back in-house reported the primary reason was insufficient cost savings and over 60% sited reduced quality of service as the motivating factor to discontinue privatization. Additional costs were also required to dedicate sufficient personnel and time to monitoring contracts. If not, the local governments would run a high risk of poor contractor performance and the potential of wasting large sums of taxpayer money.

A modern example of rampant political influence, corruption and the gross overcharging of American taxpayers would be the Halliburton corporation. Halliburton’s first Iraq-war related contract was a no-bid, open-ended, 7-year contract awarded before the war even began. Halliburton’s revenue from Pentagon contracts jumped from $483 million in 2002 to over $6 billion in 2006. We should also remember the Enron corporation that hid debt from its books in order to artificially inflate its value to shareholders and Enron's illegal trading in electricity which led to the California energy crisis in 2001 and the subsequent continual rolling blackouts and higher electricity costs that followed. If you remember these brief examples of privatization, you should also realize that these examples are just a few of the potential pitfalls that may be expected with governmental privatization.

Here's the basic problem; When considering privatization, it should be remembered that corporations have one objective, which is to increase profits over time by any and all means available to them (this is required by law and the shareholders). The very notion that we may replace a supposed government bureaucratic entity with an equally bureaucratic, private-sector, for-profit business model and thereby receive better products and services at a lower cost to taxpayers is quite frankly, breathtakingly naive and incorrect. The history of governmental contracting tells a very different story. The actual paramount objective of governmental privatization is to generate ever increasing profit for the private sector, where profit is achieved primarily by shifting the product or service cost to labor through layoffs, steep wage cuts and a significant reduction or total elimination of employee benefits. This scheme tends to impoverish the middle-class and working poor, while greatly increasing the profits and income of the large corporations and the wealthy class.

As wages have continued to erode over the past 30 years, wealthy individuals, large corporations and investors have searched for a new and reliable income stream to offset the lost buying power of the middle-class. This has been accomplished by capital investment in foreign manufacturing facilities to capitalize on cheap labor and relaxed regulations in underdeveloped or emerging nations. Another strategy has been to encourage and promote over-extension of credit (borrowing), to compensate for diminished wages. This has allowed an upward flow of revenue to the wealthiest Americans of roughly $1.5 trillion annually, while borrowing by the middle-class to supplement lower wages has accounted for roughly $1.0 trillion in annual debt. This unrestrained borrowing over time has accelerated income inequality and has continued to become more pronounced years after year, since the early 1980's. These unrealistic economic models have now combined to become very destructive to our nation's economic health and is virtually destroying the middle-class in America.

A third scheme to be exploited has now become governmental privatization. The development of multiple 'cooperative complexes', of similar industries, based on the Military Industrial Complex model of strength through consolidation of industry sectors and cooperative unity. This has the potentiality of creating numerous monopolies, all vying for larger tax cuts, greater tax subsidies, less regulatory constraint and higher profits from local, state and federal tax dollars. This will also tend to accelerate takeovers of smaller and weaker companies by large corporations in the pursuit of total dominance of individual industry sectors and thereby straining the anti-trust laws to the breaking point. With human nature being what it is, it's terrifying to contemplate a government that is based solely on quarterly or annual profit margins. The government would be forced to concede it's capabilities and strengths to that of the private sector, or more accurately, to that of a new class of Robber Baron. The government would no longer have the power or ability to ensure the health, happiness and safety of it's citizens and elimination of government expertise and capabilities would have the effect of potentially jeopardizing national security by decreasing the governments ability to react quickly, efficiently and effectively to threats and national emergencies once governmental privatization is fully implemented.

To gain a greater understanding of the potential impact and insidious nature of privatization, let's look at the United States Postal Service (USPS). This is perhaps the most blatant attempt to forcibly privatize a nationally valued and beloved institution we have ever before witnessed in America. The problem originates with a 2006 Congressional mandate by Republican leadership that requires the USPS to 'prepay' into a fund that covers health care costs for future retired employees for the next 75 years and accomplish this herculean task in a mere 10 years. This begs the question; Why is Congress forcing the USPS to fund health care for people who haven't even been born yet? This ridiculous political maneuver may force USPS completely out of business, if the meddling and the injection of one poison pill after another by Congress does not stop. The result of dissolving the USPS will allow privatized firms to replace hundreds of thousands of Unionized postal workers with non-Unionized labor in the private sector, thereby continuing the downward pressure on wages to benefit private sector companies and continue the 30 year war on the middle-class with continued pressure to to lower wages and benefits of the average worker.

The average consumer should expect an immediate and substantial hike in their delivery costs If the private sector manages to seize total control from USPS. What could possibly be the logic and rationale to force the USPS out of business? Could it be the price of this service? No, USPS is far less expensive with overnight packages being roughly 40 plus percent cheaper and a standard letter being roughly 90% cheaper than private delivery companies. Could it be the tremendous cost to the federal government? No, USPS is structured like a business, in that revenues from the sale of postal products generally cover costs, and it receives virtually no federal appropriations. Could mismanagement be the cause? No, the USPS is very efficient and effective and provides service to all Americans, without exception and it accomplishes this even with the constant meddling by the U.S. Congress. One of the primary complaints listed by the opponents of USPS is that it's a monopoly. In this case, ask yourself; What are the private sector delivery services attempting to create? The answer is simple, a (cooperative) monopoly. The difference is, the private sector monopoly would be far more expensive, less effective and would not serve all Americans. Americans should also realize the United States Postal Service (with Congressional oversight) is addressed in the constitution, UPS, FEDEX and DHL are not.

The next potential Military Industrial Complex like industry will be the privatization of our nations jails and prison facilities. Prison privatization is now pushing forward with potentially devastating repercussions and has been on the rise for 25 years now. Prison populations have increased by 500% over the past thirty years. Most of this exponential growth has been directly associated with the utterly failed 'war on drugs', however, laws in support of increased profits for prison privatization will most likely become more numerous, less fair and prison sentences may become much longer to ensure increased profits, both for the owners of prisons and their potential use of prison labor for private sector firms at slave level wages.

Prison privatization is a particularly terrifying situation because this not only threatens the potential for corruption of government and the judiciary, but also threatens the personal liberty of the average American, all in the name of corporate profits. It's a terrifying thought to tie something as invaluable as personal liberty to that of a bottom-line profit for a large corporation. Owners of private prisons insist they will not engage in lobbying activities of the government or the judiciary and that this is prohibited by law. This may be true at this time because private prisons now represent a small share of control, compared to that of our government, however, one must imagine that as their share of control increases, so does the potential for corruption and political influence increase. If this does happen, who will stop them and is it really worth betting our fellow citizen's freedom on?

Governmental privatization in general is a threat to the security, stability and economic strength of the United States. Government should do Government's work. In cases where governmental privatization is appropriate or allowed, contracting should be tightly controlled and meticulously researched prior to engaging in any form of government contracting. The government may also wish to consider the following list of cautions, if governmental privatization is to be used in the future.

1). Government MUST NOT privatize institutions that threaten the safety, health or personal freedom of the average American. In addition, the privatization contract must demonstrate the savings to taxpayers and how service quality and cost reduction has been improved under the contract for the end consumer. Privatized companies should be required to release this report annually.

2). Government MUST make no-bid contracts illegal under all circumstances and there should be a solid plan in each contract to revert back to governmental production if necessary.

3). Government MUST not sell, lease or make available to private-sector businesses any publicly owned land, forests, national parks or publicly held resources owned by the government (The People). Current and future government leases permitted by law should be thoroughly reviewed to ensure maximum benefit to both the U.S. Government and the private-sector with the least impact on quality of life for present and future Americans.

4). Government should Increase punishments for white-collar crimes and strictly enforce them.

5). Government should enhance anti-trust laws and strictly enforce them. Lack of enforcement by the government has been the primary cause of failure of privatization in the past.

6). Government should charge an annual monitoring fee based on anticipated cost to the government. This fee should be added to all contract bids automatically and should allow for adjustments to monitoring costs, if necessary. Taxpayers should not be monetarily responsible for the cost of this necessary function.

7). Government should retain a minimum of 20% government control of all privatized industries by which to accurately judge cost, performance and quality standards against a known competitive base.

8). Government should establish a minimal living-wage and benefits package that all contracting companies must provide to employees who are engaged in government contracts.

9). Government should run it's affairs more like a profit-centered enterprise. This would entail insistence on high standards of performance from all contractors engaged in government work and consistently enforce these standards without compromise.

10). Government should monitor the weaknesses and inadequacies of privatized contracts and develop additional laws or regulations as necessary.

11). Government must ensure that all costs of maintenance, production and all potentially hidden costs that may redound, if not considered, to the federal government and should be added to the initial agreement/contract, down to who will pay for snow-removal if necessary.


12). Any and all government subsidies used for privatization should be meticulously reviewed for fairness and the potential benefit and return on investment for the average American.

America is now at a crossroad. Do we again place value and trust in our government or will we place trust in the private business sector to intelligently and fairly run our nation's most important functions? The general rhetoric since former President Ronald Reagan suggests that government cannot be trusted and the private business sector may be relied upon to solve all of our nations problems. This assertion is perhaps as absurd as the concept of governmental privatization itself, which seeks to place business in the position of total power and economic strength. The historical record indicates that private industry is ill equipped to efficiently and effectively perform vital functions of government without engaging in political corruption, crony capitalism and the degradation of the standard of living for working Americans. The actual intent of privatization in the long run is to shrink the size of government in a very unhealthy way and then, in the now infamous words of conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist, “I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

In closing, the government has been the only consistent driving force in our nation from the beginning and should be defended for it's tremendous accomplishments and overall value to the average American. The U.S. Government has kept this country prosperous and safe for 224 years now. It has fought and won numerous wars when our country was threatened by outside forces. It has been instrumental or responsible for the development of many of the patents issued that have dramatically improved the lives of not just Americans, but people all over the world. It has kept Americans safe through the implementation of Police, Fire and emergency personnel. It developed the internet that businesses tremendously profits from. It built, first the railroads and telegraph and then our modern system of roads, super highways, bridges, telecommunications and all the other infrastructure that makes modern life more comfortable, profitable and stable.

The U.S. Government has brought about an environment of equality for all of it's citizens and the opportunity to grow and prosper in a country that places the citizen's rights above that of the government. It has placed a man on the moon, fostered educational and research grants and publicly funded Universities, which have conquered diseases, extended life and increased prosperity through modern medical, technical and scientific advancements that have allowed private industry to thrive and handsomely profit from a collective will of our people that we should affectionately call our government.

As one of our nation's Founders, the second president of the United States, John Adams eloquently stated:
"Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it."

To:
The President of the United States
The U.S. Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives
President of the United States (President Obama)
Please Stop Privatization to Eliminate Crony Capitalism and Higher Taxes.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
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December 04th, 2012

12/4/2012

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REAL DEMOCRATS DO NOT PRIVATIZE PUBLIC EDUCATION, CREATE TIERED EDUCATION FUNDING, AND IMPOVERISH OUR TEACHERS---THESE POLS ARE NOT DEMOCRATS


I thank all of you from around the country for joining my website and blog.  Please note that Maryand's Governor O'Malley will probably be a Presidential candidate in 2016 and if you like these corporatization and globalization issues.......vote for him.  If not, please spread the word in your neck of the woods NOT TO VOTE FOR O"MALLEY!

I want to end discussion on education for now by looking at the spectrum these corporate Third Way democrats are creating in public education.  It truly has nothing to do with being public and everything to do with wealth and corporations.  Below you'll see an article about the latest thing being pushed in Third Way/Republican corporate states regarding what is best for poor schools and students....like they need something other than what every other school has.  We are seeing the boot camp approach that has students in school for extended hours and elimination of recess and often PE in order to focus exclusively on STEM.  I laughed at the interviewee that said the current standard of 7am to 2pm.....basically 6-7 hours in classroom is from an agrarian age.  These people are a hoot.  We all know that our ability to focus on tasks at hand deteriorate beyond a certain amount of time and that is what drives the suggested hours in the classroom.  All the data says that extending hours does nothing and in fact may harm achievement.  Also, if this is the 'no-brainer' the interviewee says......why are they not doing it for all schools rather than only underserved schools.

The important piece that was brushed over as dismissive was the fact that teachers are getting lower wages to work these extra hours.  These Third Way pols are working to reduce benefits and wages to the point that teachers will be barely technicians.....which is the point as they want classrooms to be online.  These extra hours each day in the classroom will come with no extra help and it will necessarily effect quality.  Again, you have private donors paying for this and setting the terms rather than having these people paying taxes into the general fund to support public education.
WE WANT CORPORATIONS AND THE RICH PAYING TAXES INTO THE GENERAL FUNDS....NOT 'GIFTING' THEIR OWN PERSONAL POLICY!!!!!!!
Having after-school programs for students is a fine format that brings in community groups and frees the teachers of direct responsibility.  Why would you change that.  I already hear underserved parents decry the schedules their children are exposed.

Meanwhile, the next article shows a private school system forming under the guise of 'public' education.  Here you have all kinds of private donations funding enrichment programs over and above the normal school hours.  In other words, these private schools are getting the kinds of education programming that these underserved schools need and all of the money is circumventing the general fund that would allow equal distribution of money.  PLUS THEY ARE PUBLICLY FINANCED.   ALL WHILE A MANTRA OF NEEDING TO DO BETTER FOR UNDERSERVED CHILDREN'S EDUCATION.

VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!!!!!

I speak all the time about the disjointed approach to public works in Maryland and Baltimore that creates a patchwork of systems with no oversight and lots of failed quality and waste.  That is what these corporate incumbents are doing with our public education and it will not end well for the lower/middle class as public education funds go overwhelmingly for affluent schools that used to be private.

Day To Get Longer At Some Low-Performing Schools by Tovia Smith  NPR

Listen to the Story All Things Considered

December 3, 2012

Around 20,000 kids will be spending more time in school next year. A public-private partnership was announced on Monday to fund longer school days at some low-performing schools in five states.



MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

Kids in five states can look forward to a longer school day next year. A public-private partnership is offering up some extra money to cover the cost. It will cover additional instruction for about 20,000 students in Colorado, Connecticut, New York, Tennessee and Massachusetts. Here is NPR's Tovia Smith.

TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: More and better is how the idea was described by advocates today. Funding from the Ford Foundation, along with state and federal monies will pay for 300 extra hours a year of instruction in poor and low-performing school districts.

SECRETARY ARNE DUNCAN: And I think this is the kernels of a national movement.

SMITH: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been a big booster of more time in school, not just because it allows for more learning and individual intervention, but also, he says, it offer students more social support and supervision in the very risky after-school hours.

DUNCAN: When I led the Chicago Public Schools, we had one child killed due to gun violence every two weeks. And none of those kids were killed during the school day, and almost none of them were killed at 12 at night or 3 in the morning. It was at 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock. And those hours are times of huge anxiety, huge stress.  That's for what after-school programs exist.

SMITH: About 1,000 schools around the nation have already extended school hours either later in the day or into the summer. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy says it's a no-brainer to finally change a school calendar that was devised centuries ago to accommodate an agrarian economy.  Connecticut is home of the 1% and is wealth and corporate

GOVERNOR DANNEL MALLOY: I joked earlier, if we do all of this, who's going to bring the crops in? The reality is that we would not have designed the school day or school year if we had started our national history at a different time. So this is our time to change.

SMITH: Many schools who've already extended their school hours report improvements in both attendance and test scores. Meg Mayo Brown is superintendent in Fall River, Massachusetts, where she says even the most troubled school benefited.

MEG MAYO BROWN, SUPERINTENDENT, FALL RIVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS: When it was first designated as chronically underperforming, parents could not get out of that school fast enough. There was a mass exodus. Today, in 2012, it is my most over-selected, highest-performing middle school in Fall River with a waiting list of students to get in.

SMITH: But critics say more hours can't take all the credit. The research, they say, is mixed.

FRANK MCLAUGHLIN, PRESIDENT, LAWRENCE TEACHERS UNION: From the teacher's perspective, it's really - it's not the silver bullet.

SMITH: Frank McLaughlin is president of the teachers union in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where troubled schools are now in state receiverships. He says complex problems and deep poverty in communities like his can't be solved by something as simple as a longer school day. It can help, McLaughlin says, but teachers need to be better paid for the extra hours.

UNION: Sometimes it's quite a bit less than the contractual hourly rate. In fact, in one of the schools it's less the minimum wage. It's almost that they take advantage of young teachers.

SMITH: Longer hours have been a sticking point in teacher contracts elsewhere. But Duncan says the bickering shouldn't derail what he calls a common sense plan.

DUNCAN: As a country, we have not taken this step for a long time due to sort of adult intransience, and you get into real basic fights about cleaning up and toilet paper and other things like that. And those are the real issues that unfortunately historically has stopped this from happening.

SMITH: Funding, however, will likely remain an obstacle. While today's new partnership allows some schools to expand hours, elsewhere, other schools who've tried it are now returning to their old shorter schedules because of the expense. Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

_________________________________________________
THESE ISSUESBELOW ARE COMMON AMONG MOST EDUCATORS AND YET, THESE CORPORATE EDUCATION REFORMERS ARE USING NONE OF THE ACCEPTED RESEARCH AND DATA ON LEARNING AND GOING WITH THE 'POUND IT INTO THEIR HEADS' APPROACH.  IT IS THE SAME AS SHOCK AND AWE THAT DRIVES THESE NITWITS!!!


American Thinker
March 13, 2007  By Bob Myer

A Longer School Day?
In some places in the US, as well as in the UK, schools are either considering or experimenting with extending school hours.  In Massachusetts, the extended school day is suggested as a possible remedy for schools who fail to meet No Child Left Behind benchmarks.  In the UK, extended school hours may remedy a lack of quality childcare, thus allowing parents to work longer hours without worrying where their children are.

But one has to look to the other side of the scale to see what is potentially being replaced by longer school hours.  What purpose is being served by extending school hours to eight or ten hours a day?  What roles are shifted between teachers and parents, between homes and schools?
There is a potential to use extended school days as a holding pen for kids in which teachers become baby sitters instead of educators.  Creating meaningful, expanded and extended learning opportunities takes a lot of time, effort and care.  Without the time and energy to prepare these lessons for students, teachers will likely take the route of least effort.  The result might well be an extended recess period at the end of the day with little learning, lots of free time...and lots of opportunity for mischief.  Free time in a place of learning is a recipe for disaster.
However, legislatively mandating how extended days are utilized would create just as many problems.  By attempting to use extended days to improve test scores, governments may very well practice test students out of learning all together.  Students already spend an inordinate amount of time practicing, taking and reviewing federally, state, and locally mandated standardized tests.  Any person who asks his or her local high school just how many class periods this takes will probably be shocked.  Imagine tossing an extra two or three hours of test preparation a day on top of that.  Learning how to test is mind-numbingly boring for students and teachers.  It tends to stifle creativity and focuses on number-based outcomes - usually measured in school and district passing percentage.
Perhaps to create a structure of useful learning activities for an extended school day it would be better to look at what is being replaced and what roles are shifted from the home to the school during an extended day.  One could argue that open time to talk about the day's events around the dinner table (or the television or the computer, as the case may be) is missing.  For that matter, a school day which ends at, say, 6pm may need a dinner around a table!  Would teachers be required to play the role of mediator and thought-provoker around the extended school "dinner table"?  Would it be reasonable to expect teachers to help students get a grasp of the world around them beyond what already takes place in the current school day?
Would parents, consequently, want to vet their teacher's views and methods more in an extended school environment, given that teachers may very well spend more time with their kids than they do?  How would this be accomplished in the current public school system?
And, finally, who's to say that teachers would be willing to spend up to ten hours a day at school, caring for a surrogate family of students?  Despite some mythical belief that teachers actually live underneath the stairwells of their schools, teachers actually do have families, friends and activities outside of the school hallways.  How would they maintain their own life-work balance?
What the extended school day suggests is that there is not a "one size fits all" answer to publicly funded primary and secondary education.  This, in turn, creates an issue which is, to say the least, very problematic.  Parents who opt into, or depending on state legislation are forced into, this system would demand school choice, and rightly so.  If a parent is going to put an ever increasing amount of trust and responsibility into an educational facility, it is only right that they would be able to choose that facility.  This might be accomplished through open enrollment within a school district, school vouchers or through an interconnected system of charter schools.  In an open market where educational dollars traveled with students, the ability to choose schools would allow parents to find options which fit their family's lives, beliefs and schedules.  The challenge would then be for schools to evolve into what their communities needed them to be.
And that's the trick here.  The system must become more open, more responsive to the local community.  While schools can be mandated to extend their days and teachers can be paid more money, until there is either a general consensus on curricular particulars throughout public education or open choice of and competition between schools, more hours will not equate to better educated children. on "A Longer School Day?"


______________________________________________________
ALL OF BALTIMORE'S WEALTH IS GOING TO BUILD THESE EXCLUSIVE ASSETS THAT THEY THINK WILL BE FUNDED BY YOU AND I AS PUBLIC SCHOOLS EVEN AS THEY ESCAPE PAYING TAXES.  THE FOUNDATIONS LISTED AS PRIVATE DONORS HAVE ALL RENOUNCED POVERTY FUNDING FOR THE MOST PART AND ARE COMMITTED TO AFFLUENT DEVELOPMENT.  SO, IN BALTIMORE, WE NOT ONLY HAVE A DISTORTED MOVEMENT OF GENERAL FUNDS AND TAX REVENUE, BUT THE FOUNDATIONS THAT USED TO WORK FOR THE POOR ARE NOW FUNDING PRIVATE, AFFLUENT PROJECTS LIKE THE ONE BELOW.  AS A RESULT, THE MAJORITY OF BALTIMORE'S SCHOOLS ARE STARVED FOR FUNDING.  WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THAT?  JUST CLOSE A BUNCH OF SCHOOLS.

JUST MAKE YOUR TEACHERS BE ALL OF THE AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS THAT NOW CANNOT BE AFFORDED BY EXTENDING SCHOOL HOURS.

  WE SIMPLY NEED TO

VOTE OUR INCUMBENTS OUT OF OFFICE TO GET RID OF THIS PATRONAGE SCHEME.

Contract schools are public schools open to all BPS students. These schools are operated by private entities under contract with BPS to provide an additional education option for students.

Overview Curriculum

Each contract school has a curriculum, schedule, calendar, and admissions procedure that may differ from other public schools. Contract schools may be operated by community organizations, universities, foundations, and teachers. All contract schools are held accountable for high student achievement by the Board of Education.


Private SupportThe EBCS, only one of two public city schools built without any school capital funds, will engage in private fund raising. There are a number of partners involved in this extraordinary project, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Weinberg Foundation, among others. TIF funds will also support the construction of the school’s gymnasium, auditorium and library, which will be shared with the community.

Johns Hopkins is making a contribution of $3 million for capital expenses and plans to provide an annual $750,000 operating subsidy for eight years. In addition, Johns Hopkins will continue to seek additional private funding support for the ECBS. For example, the SOE recently received a $1.5 million start up gift from the Windsong Trust to support the EBCS with funds going towards needed equipment, curriculum design and implementation, initial teacher recruitment, and professional development.



THIS SCHOOL WAS SUPPOSED TO ALLOW ALL OF THE 600 DISPLACED UNDERSERVED FAMILIES TO BRING THEIR CHILDREN BACK TO THE COMMUNITY FROM WHICH THEY WERE UPROOTED.  RATHER, WE HEAR THAT FEW ARE ACTUALLY INVOLVED IN THE SCHOOL AND ALL OF THE MULTI-INCOME HOUSING THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO LEAD TO A EGALITARIAN APPROACH NEVER CAME.  IT WAS ALL FARCE AS WITH THE ENTIRE EBDI PROJECT HAS BEEN REGARDING INCLUSIVENESS.  THEY MERELY SAID WHAT THEY NEEDED TO IN ORDER TO QUALIFY FOR FUNDS.  THIS IS ILLEGAL AND WE WANT THE MONEY BACK!!!

WE NEED TO GET BACK THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS THAT WENT INTO THIS PROJECT BECAUSE  WE CAN APPLY THOSE FUNDS TO UPGRADE MANY OF THE CITY'S NEEDIEST PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Ben Carson to lead board of East Baltimore schoolWorld-class surgeon appointed chair of Hopkins' contract school

December 03, 2012|Erica L. Green  Baltimore Sun

World-renowned surgeon Benjamin Carson has been named president of the board overseeing the East Baltimore Community School Inc.--the educational institution spurred by the revitalization of the city's Middle East community, including a new elementary/middle school that will anchor the community.

The appointment of Carson, director of the pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, was announced by Hopkins on Monday.  He started his new post effective Dec. 1, and took over for David Nichols, former vice dean for education at Hopkins' School of Medicine.

The East Baltimore Community School is a contract school operated by Hopkins and Morgan State University (we wrote a story about the partnership, which can be found here), and was renamed the Elmer A Henderson School: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School this year.

“We are honored to have Dr. Carson lead our efforts to provide a quality education to the students of East Baltimore,” said David Andrews, dean of the School of Education, in a statement. 

Andrews, who took his post as dean of Hopkins' School of Education in 2010, has been overseeing the school's restructuring and day-to-day operations. He told The Sun last year that he plans to make the Henderson-Hopkins school one of the best in the city and the nation. 

“An inspiration to all who know him, Dr. Carson will help us reach our goal of making this one of the top schools of learning in Baltimore and serve as a model nationwide," he said in a statement.

The school--an anchor of a 20-year, $1.8 billion mixed-use revitalization project on 88 acres in East Baltimore--is scheduled to expand in population and occupy a sprawling $42 million, 90,000-square-foot, 7-acre campus next fall.

“I am excited to be a part of an endeavor like Henderson-Hopkins that can provide not only an example, but also a how-to manual for inner city schools, universities and corporate entities that want to work together to strengthen the fabric of our society,” Carson said in a release sent by Hopkins.

“The education of our children is not only the responsibility of teachers, but rather, of everyone who is impacted by stellar education or the lack thereof. That, of course, is all of us.”

erica.green@baltsun.com

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

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