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August 08th, 2014

8/8/2014

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'The TPP will re-regulate the pharmaceutical and medical device industry patent protections, eroding the affordability of life saving medicines.  Generic drugs will become less available. EVERGREENING drug patents will extend patents ensuring a never ending upward cost spiral sacrificing affordability for the many to the profit making on medicines exorbitantly priced for the few.  Surgical Techniques, laboratory tests and medical treatments can be patented restricting availability to people in need'.

There has also been concern about the problem of patent ‘ever greening’ — that the TPP will impose low patent standards ‘likely to lead to a proliferation of secondary patents being granted … preventing fair competition for long periods’. This would be an undesirable outcome, creating excessive opportunities for the extension of monopoly protections.

In Maryland it was Johns Hopkins that wrote the policies of Trans Pacific Trade Pact in health care and the structures being implemented by neo-liberals and neo-cons in the Maryland Assembly with Governor O'Malley.  It is the Hopkins private non-profit Maryland Health Care for All that pushed Affordable Care Act to deregulate and consolidate the health industry preparing for TPP.  Below you see Hopkins' associate Beilenson building the structure that will capture most Marylanders not able to access health care and it is the model of third world clinic care.  Above you see the term 'evergreening' meaning privatization and profiteering in TPP trade policies that create the conditions of dismantling public health.  Below you see Johns Hopkins and their use of the term as the name of the so-called private non-profits that will manage the masses not able to access health care in Maryland.
   The very institutions guilty of making the US health system the worst in the world are now writing policy to take the US health system third world.


At Evergreen Health we put your health first.


Evergreen Health is a new health insurance company in Maryland created to give you a better health care experience.

We were founded by local doctors who imagined a health care system that puts a patient’s health first – not corporate profits. Evergreen Health offers quality, affordable health insurance plans  for individuals and families in Maryland.  We also offer group plans for employees of your business who work in Maryland.


______________________________________________

The reason Beilenson thinks Evergreen is well-positioned is that if Affordable Care Act is implemented more and more people will be forced into these non-profit plans.  Evergreen will be the health structure people are forced to as Medicare, Medicaid, and people's corporate plans disappear.  As with evergreening in TPP-----it will move the American people to a third world platform of health care.  Beilenson is Johns Hopkins and Johns Hopkins is third world health care.  Baltimore doesn't have citizens dying 30 years too early because of good policy!

OH WELL------IT'S ONLY THE POOR!  WELL, IN THIRD WORLD NATIONS DOCTORS, LAWYERS, AND INDIAN CHIEFS ARE POOR.


Why do we need a private non-profit co-op to bring prices down when Medicare and Medicaid does just that?
  As Beilenson knows------he is there to replace these Federal programs and will not have to meet any Federal guidelines of care-----they are staged to downgrade a public health structure in Medicare that has served wonderfully for decades.  All we need to keep Medicare is to stop the health industry fraud by institutions like Johns Hopkins.

OH, LET'S CREATE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS TO TAKE OVER PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS LIKE MEDICARE AND MEDICAID THAT ALREADY WORK TO KEEP PRICES DOWN----
  if 1/2 of entitlement spending wasn't lost to corporate fraud.


In the land of neo-liberalism/neo-cons,  ending all Federal agencies that come with public protections is a must in order to allow global corporations to do anything they want in the US and to American citizens.

Evergreen faces challenges in delivering health insurance

Small businesses may be the future of health insurance co-op in MarylandOctober 29, 2013|By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun

Four weeks since it began selling health insurance on the state's new marketplace for the uninsured, Evergreen Health Cooperative Inc. has signed up only five people.

That's a long way from the nonprofit health insurance provider's first-year goal of 15,000 people, so Evergreen is already shifting focus.

Technical problems making it difficult for people to register for the state exchange culminated last week for Evergreen when its plans disappeared from the exchange offerings. The plans were restored after a short time.

Statewide, more than 3,100 people have signed up for health coverage on the exchange, according to the latest numbers released by the Maryland Health Connection. There are about 800,000 uninsured Marylanders.

Evergreen isn't waiting for the exchange to start working properly. For now, the co-op has switched focus from individuals buying its insurance on the exchange to small businesses buying plans directly from Evergreen, said Dr. Peter Beilenson, the former city health commissioner who started it. (The state's small-business exchange has been delayed until Jan. 1.)

"We obviously were predicating most of our business on the exchange market, which is not bearing fruit right now," Beilenson said. "That was a problem for us in two ways: financially in terms of generating enough members and for our mission. We did this for the middle class who would qualify for subsidies."

But the co-op was new and nimble enough to switch "almost overnight to small businesses," he said. "We think it will provide us with enough members to get through until the exchange is running smoothly."

Evergreen's small group rates were approved Oct. 25, so no group has enrolled yet, but the prices are below average and attracting attention from businesses and brokers, Beilenson said. The co-op will depend on enrollment to survive — members' premiums will pay to run the co-op and cover startup costs. Any profits would be returned to the plans.

The co-op's small-group rates are at the lower end of the spectrum, with an average premium of about $368 per insured, according to data from the Maryland Insurance Administration.

The lower rates may reflect Evergreen's model. The co-op employs its own doctors, who work in one of four centers for a salary rather than fee-for-service. The idea is to focus on prevention while managing multiple chronic conditions and staving off costly emergency visits and hospital stays.

Evergreen also offers a traditional plan using a network of doctors.

It's cost that matters most to small businesses, and a competitive premium will serve Evergreen well, said Karen Davis, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of health policy and management. There is a "fair amount of evidence" that shows Evergreen's patient-centered model cuts costs, she said.

But insurance tends to be dominated by large insurance companies, so it remains unclear whether Evergreen and co-ops in other states can slice off enough business.

"The major challenge is size and scale," Davis said. "But the advantage Evergreen has is that its model of care is more effective. … I think they're in a better position than most of the co-ops."

Nationwide, 24 co-ops received federal funding as part of the Affordable Care Act. Evergreen got $65 million in federal loans, but all but about $13 million will go to a required reserve fund

Others wanted to start co-ops in Maryland, seeing the potential to compete with traditional insurance companies and bring down prices. One was MedChi, the state medical society, which planned to start a co-op largely on the Eastern Shore but was stymied when Congress cut startup funding.

"We're very supportive of the idea of co-ops and think they can work really well," said Gene Ransom, MedChi's CEO. "I don't think they have an easy task ahead. We are rooting for Evergreen because more competition is good for the marketplace."

Beilenson said Evergreen has made other adjustments to survive. It has hired some staff from the insurance industry to serve as a balance with those employees who know more about public health. It has raised $5 million in startup money from private foundations and another $1 million from other private sources for marketing, including a new TV ad (federal law prohibits explicit marketing with government money).

"I think we're well-positioned," Beilenson said. "We think we know what we're doing. And we think we have a really good product."
_____________________________________________



One of the elements in Affordable Care Act is the connection of generic drugs to Medicare.  Obama and neo-liberals in Congress told the American people that because massive health industry fraud of our Medicare Trust occurred over these few decades they would have to reduce our health benefits to cover the money stolen.  In the case of health care this means Medicare and Medicaid enrollees limited to what medications they can access.  Common drugs will no longer be available to 80% of Americans because of this ACA clause pushing people to generic drugs only.  IT SAVES MONEY AND LOWERS THE NATIONAL DEBT!  As the statement at the top shows this ACA policy corresponds to the TPP health policies making generic drugs less common and harder to get.  Neo-liberals and neo-cons are sending people to generics at the same time they are pushing TPP limiting access to generics.  It's the same policy as pushing NAFTA and global markets knowing it will cause massive unemployment and poverty at the same time ending Welfare as a safety net-----creating the deepest poverty in US history.  These are all Republican policies written for wealth and profit being installed by Clinton neo-liberals.  Republican voters who are shouting against lost US Constitutional rights and dismantling of Rule of Law------lost access to health care need to remember these are all Republican policies.  Don't vote Republican to fix this-----rebuild the Democratic Party at the national, state, and local level.


Below you see from what the Affordable Care Act is modeled......third world clinic care.  Baltimore has had this system in place for a few decades but the model is being expanded because of the huge number of citizens falling into poverty.  Only 1/2 of taxpayer money sent for social services are spent on the people meant to be served.....the rest has been funneled to Johns Hopkins and/or University of Maryland as profit.  This is why the poor in Baltimore have life spans equal to third world countries.  Neo-liberalism = third world poverty so 90% of Americans will be pushed into this system.   Below you see a neo-liberal solution to our exploding health care costs fueled by health industry fraud and profiteering------third world clinic care and using college students to replace the public sector health care and social services employees.  Health care outcomes in the US are at second and third world levels because of the dismantling of public health systems.  College students are not prepared to be the backbone of public/social services-----they need practical experience of working with public professionals.  Making volunteers and students the backbone of public health is a third world structure. 


The US is now on par with countries like Hungary and Slovenia because Reagan/Clinton neo-liberalism dismantles all first world structures the protect and serve the public and all taxpayer money is looted in corporate fraud and subsidy.  Simply rebuilding these oversight and accountability structures returns the US to first world status.


DEMAND EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL IN YOUR STATE TO KEEP OUR FEDERAL MEDICARE PROGRAM STRONG AND EVERYONE COVERED!  PUBLIC HEALTH IS WHAT KEEPS COSTS DOWN.  WE SIMPLY NEED TO REBUILD OVERSIGHT TO ELIMINATE 1/2 OF HEALTH SPENDING AS FRAUD.


Doctor and Patient What We Can Learn From Third-World Health Care

By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D. July 26, 2012 12:01 amJuly 26, 2012 11:16 pm  New York Times


The young doctor had just returned from a month working in a country in Africa, familiar to the rest of us only through pictures of its impoverished population and news reports of recurring natural disasters and political upheavals. “You must feel exhausted but great,” a senior colleague commented. “You went in there and you really helped those people.”

Doctor and PatientDr. Pauline Chen on medical care.

But my younger colleague felt neither exhausted nor relieved to be back home, she confided when the older doctor had left the room. She had cared for dozens of patients with abscesses and broken bones, tumors and arrow wounds, relying on nothing more than a single rickety X-ray machine, a handful of battered surgical instruments and the aid of one well-connected local nurse.

“We could get so much done with so little over there,” she said. “It’s like we’re not doing something right over here.”


Put another way, the American health care system has become the great international paradox, spending more but getting less.

With all the most advanced technology and equipment, spending far more on health care than any other nation — a whopping $2.6 trillion annually, or over 17 percent of our gross domestic product — the United States consistently underperforms on some of the most important health indicators. Our infant mortality rates, for example, are worse than those in countries like Hungary, Cuba and Slovenia. Our life expectancy rates are not much better; in global rankings, we sit within spitting distance of Cuba, Chile and Libya.

This quality conundrum dogs us, even as our best and brightest have tried to imagine a more cost-efficient system. Some have pursued the carrot-and-stick route, linking quality measures to reimbursement. Others have attempted to reduce quality to its most basic parts, creating checklists and to-do lists. And still others have rearranged networks of hospitals, clinics, physician practices and payments, conjuring up a breathtaking array of combinations, permutations and bundles of care in order to create more cost-efficient systems.

But, according to an essay published this summer in The Stanford Social Innovation Review, we might have saved ourselves the huge effort, the expenses and the disappointments of only marginally successful initiatives, if we had first looked to countries traditionally viewed as needing our aid and learned from their successes in facing challenges similar to our own.

In the essay, Rebecca D. Onie, a founder and the chief executive of Health Leads, a domestic health care organization; Dr. Paul Farmer, a founder of Partners in Health, a Boston-based medical nonprofit group; and Dr. Heidi Behforouz, medical and executive director of the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment project, a community-based health care initiative in the United States that is part of Partners in Health, argue eloquently for “reverse innovation.” They contend that for decades, several nongovernmental and nonprofit medical organizations have delivered high-quality care in some of the most challenging circumstances possible. Applying the solutions these medical organizations have already discovered could allow us to bypass or at least foreshorten what has become an interminable trial-and-error search for the answers to our country’s health care woes.

Their own organizations offer several models of success. For nearly three decades, Partners in Health, for example, has delivered consistently high-quality care to more than 2.5 million people in a dozen countries like Haiti, Rwanda and Peru, places with widespread poverty, scarce numbers of providers and no health care infrastructure. But they have managed to achieve, among other successes, the highest rate of cure of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world and better rates of adherence to treatment regimens and follow-up than in much of the United States.

The key to their success is an unabashed disregard for some of our most cherished assumptions about what constitutes good care. Instead of providing antibiotics, CT scans and high-tech interventions, Partners in Health considers basic necessities like food and housing as critical components of the group’s medical work. Instead of asking patients to travel miles to the only clinic and see only the doctor or nurse, they train cadres of community health workers who can monitor, administer and advise in the heart of local villages and in people’s homes.

Applied to organizations in the United States, this approach has proved startlingly effective, as the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment, or PACT, program has demonstrated. PACT targets some of the poorest and sickest patients with H.I.V. and other chronic illnesses in the greater Boston area. Just like Partners in Health, PACT relies extensively on community health workers who are trained in tasks like helping patients take their medications and make it to clinic appointments as well as reviewing their pantries and teaching them to prepare healthy meals. Applying these broad definitions of care, PACT has significantly decreased the number of emergency room visits and life-threatening opportunistic infections, cut hospitalization rates by 60 percent and yielded a 16 percent savings for Medicaid.

Health Leads has stretched these definitions even further, giving the terms “provider” and “care” a millennial twist. Each year, Health Leads trains a selected group of technology-savvy and tenacious college students to staff “resource desks” in primary care and prenatal clinics in cities like New York, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago. With these Health Leads volunteers in place, doctors can, for example, “prescribe” housing assistance for a family whose child’s severe asthma has been exacerbated by a cockroach infestation, healthy foods and nutrition resources for a man suffering from obesity, or transportation to a drugstore for an elderly woman who needs diabetes medications. At the resource desk, a Health Leads volunteer then “fills” these prescriptions by finding the best solutions for the problems at hand, whether that means tracking down the appropriate agency, navigating complicated online application processes or providing support as the patient makes the calls. In clinics where a single social worker may be responsible for as many as 25,000 patients, Health Leads volunteers have more than doubled the services provided.

The successes of PACT and Health Leads are no secret. But what does remain mysterious as our health care system threatens to implode is why more of us haven’t done the same and rushed to apply the lessons learned and proved elsewhere.

“We keep trying to reinvent the wheel,” Ms. Onie observed. “The humbling reality is that we are trying to recreate innovations that have been robustly developed in the developing world.”

In other words, we have yet to deploy what could prove to be the most powerful weapon in the fight to contain costs and improve the quality of health care: our own humility.

$200- 400 BILLION DOLLARS EVERY YEAR ARE LOST TO MEDICARE AND MEDICAID TO HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD.  THAT IS WHERE THE HUMILITY NEEDS TO BE FELT!


___________________________________________
People must understand the neo-liberal jargon---- when they say they work for the middle-class they see the middle-class in the US as people earning $250,000 as a family.  They see Medicare and making it last longer for those 10% of people.  Needless to say the working and current middle-class are the only ones having paid payroll taxes into this Medicare Trust so the very people that should be getting full benefit are the ones being pushed out with the ACA.  That 'donut hole' will do no one any good if you cannot access or afford the kinds of PHARMA you need.  I already have friends having bad health effects because of being forced to use a generic that does not work for a chronic condition. 

THIS IS SERIOUS FOLKS.  THE SAME PEOPLE TRYING TO KILL PUBLIC HEALTH WORLD-WIDE WITH TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT ARE WRITING THESE HEALTH POLICIES.

Remember, the answer is not to vote Republican because the Affordable Care Act is Republican policy.  The solution is getting rid of neo-liberals in the Democratic Party.
  Do you hear your labor and justice leaders shouting out against neo-liberals?

In Maryland, Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur all supported these policies----while Cindy Walsh did not.

THE KING AND QUEEN OF NEO-LIBERALISM, BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON TAKING THE US FROM FIRST WORLD STATUS TO THIRD WORLD STATUS.


Which tier will your family fall?  In the US almost 70% of Americans are at poverty line meaning they will fall into the lowest 2 tiers.
  Don't forget that TPP will keep generic drug availability at a minimum and when they do come available they will be very outdated.  That's what the masses get say the neo-liberals and neo-cons.   Someone has to replace the trillions of dollars in health industry fraud from our Medicare and Medicaid programs....

ACA 5-Tier Drug List

For Individual PPO and Small Group HMO, POS, and PPO plans (including Marketplace/QHP plans) with ACA-compliant coverage becoming effective on or after January 1, 2014

About tiers

Most covered prescription drugs will be categorized into one of five tiers. The cost of drugs varies widely, even though several different medications may be used to treat the same condition. What you pay for the prescription depends upon what tier the drug is listed in. Health First offers many benefit plans that can vary in coverage for each tier. Details about your specific benefit for each tier are included in the Health First Summary of Benefits.

•Tier 1 — Preferred Generic Drugs •

Tier 2 — Non-Preferred Generic Drugs •

Tier 3 — Preferred Brand Name Drugs and some generics

•Tier 4 — Non-Preferred Brand Name Drugs and some generics (limited to a 30-day supply)

•Tier 5 — Specialty Drugs (limited to a 30-day supply, must obtain from Health First Family Pharmacy)


Generic drugs are prescription drugs that are identified by their chemical name. When the patent has expired on a brand name drug, the FDA permits new manufacturers to create an equivalent of the brand name drug and make it available to the public. Generally, more than one manufacturer will create generic versions, although often the same pharmaceutical firm that produces the brand name drug also makes the generic version. This prompts competitive pricing of the generic version and usually results in a less expensive drug. The Drug List is subject to change In order to continue to offer a safe and cost effective selection of prescription drugs, Health First periodically makes changes to the Drug List. These changes may include removing medications, adding restrictions, and/or covering a drug at a higher tier. The following list represents some of the most common scenarios in which changes to drug coverage will occur: •Throughout the year, new medications are approved by the FDA. It is the policy of Health First that new drugs will be excluded for 6 months from the date of FDA approval, during which time the Health First Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee can review the drug for safety and efficacy. •The Drug List may change when a medication is withdrawn from the market due to safety reasons or if it becomes available over-the-counter (OTC). At the time that a medication on the Health First Drug List becomes available OTC, it may be excluded from coverage from that point forward. •When a brand-name prescription drug loses its patent and the equivalent generic form is added to the Drug List, the brand-name drug may be moved to the highest non-specialty drug tier, which is generally Tier 4 or removed from the formulary.

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June 09th, 2014

6/9/2014

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I TALK OFTEN ABOUT PROBLEMS IN THE CITY AND ANNAPOLIS BUT TODAY I WANTED TO ADDRESS MY FRIENDS IN RURAL MARYLAND!  PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW PARTY POLITICS TO KEEP US FROM LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS MY PLATFORM MAKES IN REBUILDING OUR GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES THAT ALLOW FOR EQUAL PROTECTION AND RULE OF LAW!

I LISTEN TO OUR CONSERVATIVE RURAL AREAS BLAST OBAMA FOR DISMANTLING DEMOCRACY----AND AGREE WITH THEM.  YET I NEVER HEAR THEM SHOUT THAT GEORGE BUSH AND THE NEO-CONSERVATIVES ARE DOING THE SAME THING.  THE CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA ADMINISTRATIONS ARE SIMPLY ONE MOVEMENT TO INSTALL GLOBAL CORPORATE CONTROL. 

JUST SAY NO!!!!

THE SAME ECONOMIC STRUCTURE CAPTURING BALTIMORE AND CENTRAL MARYLAND HAS TAKEN HOLD IN RURAL MARYLAND. 



WOW!!!  I was captured by the beauty that is Western Maryland and did not come back until late.  I do want to take this week to discuss the primary elections before coming back to policy issues.  The 2014/2016 elections will decide if the US will continue to move towards global corporate rule and third world status-----the end of our US Constitutional Rights and people's public justice with neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism-----our do we reverse this global corporate grab and return to a domestic economy, equal protection, Rule of Law.  Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland is the only candidate in this race taking us back to a sovereign Constitutional nation.  THAT'S WHY I'M RUNNING.

I had a great experience in Western Maryland at an event at a large baptist church.  It was an inclusive event that allowed all candidates attending a minute to introduce their campaign and talk a few minutes afterwards.  I wanted to speak of two issues with the church involvement beyond my experience with the black pastors in Maryland that have worked against my appearance in this primary.  Whether it is the Catholic Church or the Christian coalition making Right to Life/contraceptive/abortion issues central to election support-----please ask your religious leaders this question-----

AN AUTOCRATIC SOCIETY HAS LEADERS WHO DO NOT CARE ABOUT RELIGION OR JUSTICE AND THEY OVERWHELMINGLY USE POPULATION CONTROL AGAINST THE CITIZENS UNDER THEIR CONTROL.  SO, GROUPS ADVOCATING FOR THE FETUS AT CONCEPTION NEED TO BE SHOUTING AGAINST NEO-LIBERAL AND NEO-CONSERVATIVE POLITICIANS AND EDUCATING THEIR MEMBERSHIP AS TO WHERE GLOBAL CORPORATE RULE LEADS.

Whether Pro-Life or Pro-Choice-----global corporate rule will make sure populations be controlled through forced contraceptive/abortions, etc just as China and USSR under Stalin did.  THAT IS WHAT AUTOCRATIC SOCIETIES DO.  Yet, I do not hear one church group shouting against this neo-liberal/neo-conservative capture of America.  They are often working as private non-profits breaking down the public sector that will protect the American people's rights as citizens allowing Americans to have this Pro-Life/Pro-Choice debate.  Please think what happens as citizens lose their rights, their equal protection, and global corporations are allowed to act with impunity-----

I want to say as well to my friends in Western Maryland-----ask why this open forum for candidates came after the June 3 primary cutoff to change political parties.  Cindy Walsh for Governor was never invited to the early Western Maryland political events and The Western Maryland Chamber of Commerce backed Brown early because Brown is Clinton and Clinton is Bush-----the neo-con/neo-liberal tag team.  The concern I have for Western Maryland is that the backing of Brown/Clinton means fracking on steroids and exportation of natural gas.  I would warn citizens that it did not end well for people in PA and WVA who signed contracts for fracking drills and wells when these corporations failed to pay what they agreed.....they are simply ignoring agreements with citizens because that is what Trans Pacific Trade Pact TPP-----does.  It allows global corporations to operate in the US and ignore US laws that curb profits.  So, Brown is the choice because Western Maryland Chamber of Commerce leaders want to make a mess of this beautiful region.  There are other ways to bring business and jobs to the area----you do not have to settle for massive environmental destruction.


Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur will allow natural gas export.  The fracking study being done is simply locating drilling sites......you do not see a baseline study and pols shouting that they are going to use these baseline studies to sue for Marcellus Aquifer contamination to force fracking corporations to work carefully.....no, they are working with impunity.  All these candidates know that O'Malley was head of the task force on the Democratic Governor's Association for developing natural gas export terminals.  Mizeur says she is against it yet she is not shouting that all policies and pols are moving this forward......and TPP will not allow the American people to stop it.

IF YOUR POLS ARE NOT SHOUTING THIS----THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.  FRACKING WILL DEVASTATE WESTERN MARYLAND AS COAL MINING AND MOUNTAIN TOP-REMOVAL HAS WVA.


Citizens in Pennsylvania did not even get the royalties promised by signing their land rights away=====their land and water supply was completely destroyed.  Don't believe these pols that embraced fracking now pretending to fight against eminent domain----that was the plan all along.

SEE HOW THIS LOOKS LIKE CORPORATIONS OPERATING IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES!  YOU BETCHA!


Sadly, every candidate I've seen in these Pennsylvania elections are neo-liberals who will continue this-----

PLEASE RESEARCH THESE CANDIDATES AND STOP VOTING THE SAME GLOBAL CORPORATE POL INTO OFFICE.  A MILLIONAIRE BUSINESS PERSON IS NOT A DEMOCRAT FOR GOODNESS SAKE!


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Frustration Mounts Over Fracking Royalties A Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site is seen near Burlington, Pa.,
April 23, 2010. (Ralph Wilson/AP)

Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, has made Pennsylvania one of the most productive natural gas producers on the planet.

But how much gas is coming out of the shale and how much money is being made? The state doesn’t keep track of it.

Some residents who have leased their land for drilling are filing lawsuits, arguing they’re not being paid fairly.

Marie Cusick of WITF in Harrisburg, Penn., reports.




Top PA Papers Ignore Fracking Law That "Shreds" Private Property Rights


Blog ››› April 14, 2014 9:49 AM EDT ››› DENISE ROBBINS

A gas company is attempting to use a half-century old Pennsylvania law to frack underneath the land of property owners who refuse to allow the controversial practice on their land, yet a majority of Pennsylvanians may be unaware as two of the state's top three newspapers have failed to mention the contentious issue.

Hilcorp Energy, a Texas-based oil and gas company, is pushing legal action in Pennsylvania to be able to drill underneath the property of landowners that have refused to sign a lease if enough of their neighbors have already signed, a practice known as "forced pooling." The "unused and outdated" law, which is "pitting neighbor against neighbor" as reported by the Associated Press, would "shred private property rights" according to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the only of the three highest circulating papers in Pennsylvania to cover the story. The other two, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have completely overlooked the issue which has received national attention.

The "forced pooling" law would force landowners to allow the use of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to extract natural gas reserves underneath their property without their consent, creating concerns about the impact on property values and the threat of water pollution. A leaked document from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that natural gas extraction has caused methane to leak into domestic water wells, causing "significant damage" to the drinking water supply of the town.

Pennsylvania isn't the only state dealing with the "forced pooling" issue. Energy companies have been exploiting similar laws in many states including in Illinois and Ohio to the outrage of unsuspecting landowners. In Ohio, citizens are "furious" about the ruling that one citizen fears will "make him legally responsible for spills and other damage" according to the Associated Press. Some residents have "resigned to losing future income," while dozens of others are pushing forward lawsuits in an attempt to stop the forcible drilling. 

There is a similar sentiment in Pennsylvania even among those who support natural gas drilling and fracking. For example, Pennsylvania's Republican Governor Tom Corbett -- a strong proponent of natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania -- opposes the law, likening it to "private eminent domain." And Marcellus Drilling News, a pro-fracking news site, has expressed disapproval of Hilcorp's use of the law, calling it "the low road." 

Hilcorp first requested to use the 1961 Pennsylvania law in July, when property owner Bob Svetlak refused to give up the land he has lived on since 1949, and moved forward with a legal action in October. The case bounced around different ruling bodies in the state with a final hearing eventually scheduled for late March 2014  that was subsequently postponed until early May due to the controversy surrounding the issue.

Since Hilcorp's first request in July, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review has published an editorial against the law, saying it "shreds private property rights" and is "patently unconstitutional." But the two other top Pennsylvania newspapers -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Philadelphia Inquirer -- have remained silent on the issue over the same period*:



While never addressing the "forced drilling" issue, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which publicly "supports a well-regulated gas drilling industry," has been calling for fracking underneath the state's public lands -- an issue that also has many citizens concerned -- praising a deal to drill underneath a county park and decrying a proposed moratorium on drilling underneath state parks. The Philadelphia Inquirer, on the other hand, has been publishing editorials calling for prudence and accountability when it comes to fracking, but like the Post-Gazette, has never addressed the "forced drilling" issue.

*Based on a Nexis search of hydraulic fracturing or frack! or Hilcorp from July 1, 2013, to April 13, 2014.

_____________________________________________


I love the Eastern Shore so much as my family has generations of living and working on the Chesapeake Bay as watermen and farmers and their families.  I have emphasized over and again to my friends on the Eastern Shore-----

DO NOT ALLOW GLOBAL CORPORATIONS COME IN IN THE GUISE OF JOBS.  WE CAN BUILD A DOMESTIC ECONOMY WITH SOLID MANUFACTURING/SMALL FARMING.

The neo-cons/neo-liberal plans for the shore will mirror what all third world countries have as an economy-----tourist resorts and gambling.  This places a great, big global corporation controlling all of your economy in your communities and then the jobs are poverty-----third world poverty.  Even the Maryland Assembly's Wind Farm project involves Texas and global corporations developing and operating this facility.....it will give a toe towards control of this region and none of this had to happen.  We only needed local businesses given the money and the Federal Corp of Engineers to build a thriving local economy over this one issue. 


Get rid of industrial farming and meat and rebuild the wonderful network of small and regional farms that allow all citizens to be business people working for people in their own communities!


I want to emphasize that the problem is not only unionizing----it is the politicians who allow these conditions to exist.  A democratic governor and Maryland Assembly would not allow Maryland citizens to toil as second going on to third world labor.  The rural areas are particularly abandoned when it comes to good, strong jobs.  Global corporate pols----whether democrat or republican are going to allow only jobs that are poverty and allow wages to be pushed as low as possible.  $10.10 by 2018 is a farce of a minimum wage increase that will not even happen if Trans Pacific Trade Pact is allowed to move forward.

Whether it is the minority and small business contractors being pushed out of business by government contract awards going to only national and global corporations----or these same job categories in rural areas----it is all happening because of the building of a global corporate economy.


Trans Pacific Trade Pact is all about outsourcing US jobs and bringing third world working conditions to the US.



Tuesday, Jul 3, 2012, 11:05 am

On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Labor Rights Elusive for Poultry Industry’s Chicken Catchers

BY Bruce Vail Email Print (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)  

A wave of outsourcing by giant poultry producing companies is sparking new union organizing efforts on Maryland’s famed Eastern Shore, and in the adjoining chicken producing areas of Delaware and Virginia.

A small group of workers in Pocomoke City, Md., is currently negotiating a first contract with one employer, after a quick and decisive union election earlier this year. In that election, some 50 chicken catchers won representation by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, the nation’s leading labor organization for employees in the meat processing industry.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, UFCW Local 27 filed for an election Jan. 30 to represent the workers at Nipcam Group, a Georgia-based pesticide company that has recently entered the labor contracting business. A March 1 election produced an overwhelming 3-to-1 margin of victory for the union, and the win was certified by the federal labor agency March 14, NLRB said.

Ellis Staten, an organizer for Local 27, told Working In These Times that the workers are angry and determined to stand up for their rights. By outsourcing the jobs to Nipcam, meat processing giant Tyson Foods has slashed their income and all but eliminated any benefits. What were once good-paying positions with Tyson are now near-poverty-level jobs with an unknown out-of-state labor contractor, Staten said.

And the workers at Nipcam are not alone in this sort of treatment, the union organizer added. Last year Perdue Farms, the largest producer of poultry on the DelMarVa peninsula, eliminated the jobs of about 100 chicken catchers at its processing plants in Milford, Del., and Accomac, Va. The jobs were transferred to a North Carolina labor contractor who offered pay rates at about half the level previously offered to the Perdue workers, Staten said.

The former Perdue chicken catchers are also interested in winning union representation, according to Staten. Organizing efforts among them are underway, he said, but there are no immediate plans for another union election.

The work of chicken catching itself is by all accounts a difficult and dirty one. Under the system employed in the DelMarVa peninsula and elsewhere, independent chicken farmers produce birds for specific processing companies—such as Tyson and Perdue —under exacting conditions. When the animals are ready for slaughter, crews of catchers from the processing company appear at the chicken houses with trucks and hundreds of empty cages. The catchers enter the houses and collect the birds by hand, stuffing the frightened creatures into the cages and loading the trucks. 

Pay for this work is done under a piece-work system. Catchers are paid a standard rate per thousand chickens caught. The catchers that worked directly for Perdue until last year were among the best paid. Rates as high as $5.80 per thousand have been reported, which allowed for an annual gross income of about $54,000. Such rates appear to be a thing of the past, however, with the rates offered by contractors now starting at around $2.30 per thousand. At these rates, Staten said, many Nipcam catchers can only expect to realize $16,000-$17,000 annually.

Julie DeYoung, a spokeswoman for Perdue Farms, did not dispute any of the essential facts laid out by Staten, but defended the company on the basis of economic necessity and evolving industry standards.

All chicken processors have been hard hit by recession and intense competition, she said, and must find ways to cut costs. Perdue has been contracting out select functions at its plants for a number of years, she said, including jobs in company cafeterias, in sanitation work and other areas, including bird catching. Prior to 2011, Perdue had contracted out chicken catching at its Milford, Del., plant and also at a Perry, Ga., plant, according to DeYoung.

Furthermore, Perdue is one of the last processors in the enormous DelMarVa poultry industry to contract out its catchers, she said. Virtually all of the chicken catching work in the region—estimated at more than 500 million birds a year—is now contracted out , and Perdue has followed the industry pattern because “the economics of the situation left us with no other choice,” according to an official company statement.

Christopher Brown, a Baltimore labor lawyer, does not see the problem as a question of temporary recession or passing industry trends, but of endemic labor abuses in the regional poultry industry. Brown, of the firm Brown Goldstein Levy, has brought fair labor practice suits on behalf of workers at Tyson, Mountaire Farms, and others in the area. He was recently successful in a long court proceeding that won compensation for about 250 production line workers at a Mountaire Farms chicken plant in Millsboro, Del. He has also represented chicken catchers in the past.

“DelMarVa is an isolated, rural area and it has all the problems that go along with that,” he said. Labor abuses are rife and any new efforts at effective union organizing should be welcomed, Brown said. 

__________________________________________
We heard from the Maryland minority contractors association that after all the hoopla about minority contractors and the National Harbor gambling deal that again.....none of what was said actually happened.  In Baltimore massive layoffs of black city and state employees with the dismantling of the public sector now having private non-profits handling all public business.  The problem with this for minority contractors and business people is that the goal will be for global and national private non-profits to take all of these non-profit jobs and the black leaders supporting this will again be thrown under the bus once the public sector is dismantled.

This is why we see black minority contractor leaders and black justice leaders supporting the dismantling of the very public sector that protects and serves the black communities------all people want are jobs. 

WHEN PUBLIC WORKERS ARE DISPLACED BY OUTSOURCING TO PRIVATE CONTRACTORS-----THEN, WHEN PRIVATE NON-PROFITS ALL BECOME NATIONAL NON-PROFITS CHAINS----black leaders are supporting the global corporate takeover that will have everyone at third world poverty.

This is a strategy of Johns Hopkins and the global corporate pols working for these policies.


STOP ALLOWING THE DISMANTLING OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR UNDER THE GUISE OF JOB CREATION WHEN THE GOAL IS HANDING THE ENTIRE ECONOMY AND CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT TO THESE GLOBAL CORPORATIONS.


PLEASE STOP ELECTING THESE CORPORATE POLS WHO KNOW THIS IS THE PROGRESSION AND GOAL----THEY ARE KILLING THE PEOPLE THEY ARE REPRESENTING AND THEY KNOW IT.


Monday, January 28, 2013 

Minority contractors: Nonprofits skew Maryland’s MBE program Legislation would help level playing field, lawmaker says

by Lindsey Robbins Staff writer 

Minority business executives hope changes in a state contracting program will open new opportunities for them.

House Bill 48 — one of three bills filed by Del. Barbara Robinson (D-Dist. 40) of Baltimore under review by the House Health and Government Operations Committee — would remove nonprofits from consideration for set-asides under the Minority Business Enterprise program. The committee read the bills this month and has scheduled a hearing at 1 p.m. Feb. 6.

Minority-owned business advocates have long challenged the state’s reporting of MBE participation, saying that including nonprofits that deal with developmentally and physically disabled people skews the results. The state’s Department of Transportation is responsible for certifying a business as an MBE.

Maryland procurement agencies overall contracted 23.8 percent, or more than $1.64 billion, of their work with minority-owned businesses in fiscal 2011, according to the Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs. Cabinet procurement agencies achieved 24.2 percent, and Statestat reporting procurement agencies achieved 26 percent.

This is the highest level ever during the program’s history; its goal is 25 percent. About $478 million of the 2011 amount, or 29.1 percent, went to certified nonprofits and community service providers.

“It overstates what the agencies have actually done,” said Wayne Frazier, president of the Maryland Washington Minority Contractors’ Association.

He said that while he does not want the government to hinder nonprofits, he would prefer to see them have their own separate set-asides and not be included as MBEs.

HB 48 would prohibit the state from counting nonprofit participation toward the state’s MBE goal and exclude them from being eligible for MBE contract set-asides. Nonprofits that receive contracts through MBE set-asides before July 1 would be allowed to finish their contracts. A similar bill to adjust the way nonprofits are counted was also submitted last legislative session, but it received an unfavorable report from the House committee.

“A nonprofit does not qualify for MBE certification just by the sheer definition of MBE,” Robinson said.

The state defines a minority business enterprise as a business that is organized to engage in commercial transactions, is at least 51 percent owned and is controlled by at least one socially and economically disadvantaged person who manages and handles the daily business operations.

Robinson said nonprofits can draw on numerous outside resources unavailable to commercial businesses. This disadvantage “cripples” MBEs competing with nonprofits for contracts, as nonprofits can get free space, property and staff donated to them, sometimes as a tax write-off.

Robinson has been a minority business owner for 30 years. She owns Star Associates, a human resources company in Baltimore.


“It’s very hard to get contracts, even with our MBE status. Here, we’re not just dealing with MBEs but with a lot of other factors. Not just anyone should have that status,” said Nancy Kelbaugh, owner of All Pro Placement Service in Cockeysville. Kelbaugh said she has often had to bid so low to get a contract that she almost lost money on it.

LaVerne Johnson Reynolds, owner of Security Education Environmental Design Services in Temple Hills, said she has fought hard for contracts, being both black and a woman, so she understands having a vested interest in profit.

“It’s not the same for nonprofits. They shouldn’t be in the same arena as MBEs,” she said. “They should have their own category.”

Tony Hill, managing partner of Edwards & Hill Office Furniture in Columbia, agreed with removing nonprofits from MBE certification, but he questioned whether the state would have to offset the change by lowering the 25 percent MBE participation goal.

“There’s not a lot of work in state business,” he said. “I don’t think there’s such thing as truly level playing field because the dynamics are varied, but we should try to make it closer.”

Robinson said nonprofits also have their own procurement preference areas that MBEs cannot use.

“Drive in your own lane,” she said.

Nonprofit advocates acknowledge that the current system skews the results and welcome revisions, said Henry Bogdan, managing director of public policy and public affairs for Maryland Nonprofits, the industry’s advocacy group in Maryland. But officials need to ensure these revisions do not come at the expense of nonprofits, he said.

His group has been working with state officials to come up with ways to improve the program to everyone’s benefit, he said.

“We don’t need this bill in order to change the way you count these things,” Bogdan said. “We’re hopeful that one way or another, something can be worked out.”

Zenita Wickham Hurley, special secretary to the Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs, weighed in on the bill.

“I believe removal of non-profit organizations from Maryland’s MBE Program would benefit the program overall, as long as this action is accompanied by legislation or policy that supports the continuation of State procurement opportunities for this specialized group of organizations who work so hard to serve the needs of our citizens with physical and mental disabilities,” she said in an email to The Gazette.

Prompt payment soughtRobinson also has introduced House Bill 24, to ensure state agencies authorize payment to a prime contractor within 30 days after completion of work involving MBE participation. It also would require the Board of Public Works to work with the governor’s office to establish a process to monitor the timeliness of payments.

Reynolds said she has waited up to 100 days to get paid while subcontracting for the state and has a client that waited more than two years for payment.

“They know we don’t have the resources to come after them and sue,” she said about the prime contractors.

Robinson’s third bill, HB 26, has drawn more mixed responses from the minority-owned business community. It would require the Board of Public Works to allow minority business owners to use years of experience they gained while with a previous company that contracted with the state to help qualify for prime contracts for their current company. Many prime contracts carry experience requirements that are difficult for minority-owned businesses to meet, Robinson said.

Jay McElroy, owner of McElroy Enterprises, a small-business vetting and training company in Upper Marlboro, disapproves of the bill, saying businesses that are using previous company experience do not have the right to win prime contracts because they have not earned it through the business they own.

Frazier also disapproved, saying businesses should first prove that they are responsible enough to handle a prime contract.

But Barbara J. Bauer, president of MedMarket Intelligence, a marketing consulting company in Germantown, said it should not be a problem, if businesses have a good record of subcontracting with their current business. Bauer is seeking MBE certification for her company.





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May 07th, 2014

5/7/2014

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ALL CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND INTEND TO CONTINUE THIS MOST PRIVATE AND PROFIT-DRIVEN OF STATE HEALTH SYSTEMS IN THE NATION  EXCEPT CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR.  WHERE DO NEO-LIBERALS IN MARYLAND GO WHEN YET ANOTHER PRIVATE CONTRACTOR IS GIVEN HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS TO FAIL?  GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS GO TO THE CONNECTICUT MODEL-----CONNECTICUT BEING WEALTH AND PROFIT AND HOME OF THE US INSURANCE INDUSTRY.

YOU WILL NOT HEAR A CORPORATE NEO-LIBERAL TALK ABOUT EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL OR GIVE YOU A HEADS UP THAT THESE PRIVATE SYSTEMS ARE GEARED TO ENDING MEDICARE AND MEDICAID.

Today I would like to look at what happens when oversight and accountability is taken from health care and when patients become a vehicle to profit rather than a consumer of public health.  We know that PHARMA now manufactures drugs with an eye on how to increase profit----so, we have drug shortages for drugs vital to people but not profitable for drug corporations to make.  Patent extensions are being built and we know Trans Pacific Trade Pact specifically makes it harder for generic drugs to hit the market at a time when the Affordable Care Act specifically states the American people will use generic over name brand.  We know that fraud and corruption is systemic in the health industry taking 1/2 of health spending. 

ALL THIS HAPPENS BECAUSE OF DEREGULATING AND PRIVATIZING PUBLIC HEALTH.


I watched FOX NEWS a few weeks ago and it had as a report that OLESTRA was actually good for you.  Remember, olestra is the food additive that made everyone sick and it was found to be harmful to health and foods having it were pulled from the market a decade ago.  Well, its back and now they are marketing that olestra is good for you, neutralizing all kinds of bad environmental stuff in foods.  The report was given by a man with no public health background----he appeared to simply be a corporate researcher.  THIS IS FOX NEWS MARKETING A FOOD KNOWN TO BE HARMFUL TO AN AUDIENCE LARGELY WORKING CLASS AND POOR.....


We are seeing more and more where the Federal agencies charged with public health are silent on all matters regarding the efficacy ------whether things are helpful or harmful-----and allow corporations to market as they want regardless of clinical trial.  The American people are now exposed to deliberate health harm.  THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PUBLIC HEALTH IS DISMANTLED.  Maryland has no oversight or accountability and Maryland Assembly has passed laws making it as hard as possible for Maryland citizens to seek justice in cases of medical misconduct.

That's what corporate neo-liberals do-----stop voting for them in primaries----run and vote for labor and justice.


Center for Science in the Public Interest

The Problems With Olestra
Olestra rapidly depletes blood levels of many valuable fat-soluble substances, including carotenoids. Olestra has an extraordinary avidity for certain fat-soluble substances, far exceeding what one would expect based on the fat substitute's proportion of the diet. Olestra's removal from the body of fat-soluble nutrients is linked directly to the additive's being a non-absorbable lipid-like substance.

In Procter & Gamble's two eight-week clinical studies, the lowest level tested -- 8 gm/day (equivalent to 16 olestra-containing potato chips) — caused dramatic depletion of fat-soluble vitamins within two weeks. Procter & Gamble also measured total serum carotenoids, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene. Olestra caused significant declines in all carotenoids monitored. Total serum carotenoids declined sharply by the fourteenth day of olestra consumption and was down by 50% to 60% by the end of the studies. A dosage of 32 gm/day of olestra reduced total serum carotenoids by 70% over the eight weeks.

In a recent four-week study conducted in Holland, 3 gm/day (equivalent to just 6 potato chips) of sucrose polyester (the general name for olestra-like chemicals) caused a 20% decline in beta-carotene levels and a 38% decrease in lycopene, another key carotenoid (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 62:591 (1995)).

Feeding olestra with one or more meals, as was done in the several clinical studies, results in the greatest depletion of carotenoids. While that might seem to be a worst-case scenario, many people would, indeed, consume olestra-containing foods with meals. In fact, Procter & Gamble's petition states that mealtimes constitute the great majority (79%) of the occasions during which consumers eat "savory snacks." Also, since the frequency of consumption of snacks would likely increase if olestra snacks were available, interaction between nourishing foods and olestra at meals would be likely to increase, resulting in lower serum levels of fat-soluble carotenoids and other phytochemicals. There would also be more opportunities for olestra to reduce the absorption of beta-carotene and fat-soluble vitamins that people ingest in dietary supplements and fortified foods.

Olestra's depletion of carotenoids is of great concern, because a growing body of evidence indicates that they may confer important health benefits. The physiological activities of fat-soluble plant nutrients are just now being elucidated. For instance, in a recent case-control study, lutein (along with zeaxanthin) was strongly associated with a lower risk of macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the elderly (J.A.M.A. 272: 1413 (1994)). That observation is buttressed by the fact that lutein and zeaxanthin form the yellow pigment in the macula (the central part of the retina). In three clinical studies, 3 gm/day of sucrose polyester or 8 gm/day of olestra reduced lutein levels by 20% to 40%.

Cancer experts are urging Americans to eat much greater quantities of vegetables and fruits, in part because of their carotenoids and other phytochemicals. Beta-carotene and other carotenoids have reduced cancer incidence in animals exposed to carcinogens. (J. Nutr. 119:123-6 (1989); Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 53(1 Suppl):238#-246S (1991))

In humans, numerous epidemiological studies have linked diets rich in carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables to lower risks of cancers of the lung, esophagus, pharynx, mouth, stomach, colon, rectum, and bladder. Several studies have found an association between low levels of serum beta-carotene [which could be a marker for other carotenoids) and high rates of stomach and lung cancer. (Am. J. Epidemiol. 135: 115 (1992)]

The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, released in 1988 by the Department of Health and Human Services, states:

[E]pidemiological studies provide suggestive evidence that consumption of foods containing carotenoids, including the beta-carotene precursor of vitamin A, protects against development of epithelial cell cancers such as those of the oral cavity, bladder, or lung. These studies have generally shown lower rates of cancer among individuals consuming the highest overall levels of vitamin A, carotenoids, or fruits and vegetables. The National Research Council stated in its landmark 1989 report, Diet and Health, "[T]here is strong evidence that a low intake of carotenoids, which are present in green and yellow vegetables, contributes to an increased risk of lung cancer." The director of the National Cancer Institute's "5 A Day" program pointed out the plausible biochemical mechanisms for the association between fruits and vegetables and lower cancer risks:

Fruits and vegetables are sources of vitamins and minerals (including vitamins A, C, E, and folate), carotenoids and other antioxidants, fiber, and various phytochemicals. . . . Each of these substances may play a role in reducing risk. More likely, it is a combination of these factors, and others not yet explored, which may confer protections. (J. Heimendinger, program director, The National 5 A Day for Better Health Program, Scientific and Program Design Rationale (Aug. 10, 1994) In January, 1996, just three weeks before the FDA approved olestra, the federal government (HHS, USDA) published the newest edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the nation's basic nutrition policies. That document urged people to consume carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables because of their likely role in preventing cancer and other chronic diseases.

While there is not yet conclusive proof that carotenoids reduce cancer risk, to approve a major new additive that would significantly reduce levels of carotenoids (and possibly other fat-soluble phytochemicals) defies logic. It is a remarkable case of governmental ineptitude to have one agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Cancer Institute, encouraging consumers to eat more carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables, while another agency, the FDA, approves a food additive that depletes the body of potentially beneficial substances in those foods.

Supplementing olestra with selected vitamins will not solve all of olestra's nutrient-depletion problems. Olestra is highly effective at reducing serum levels of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Simply supplementing olestra with those vitamins, as Procter & Gamble has proposed, would not completely solve that problem. Consider the 1.5 million patients taking the anticoagulant drug Coumadin (warfarin). Coumadin therapy often employs low doses of the anticoagulant, making the drug's efficacy particularly sensitive to fluctuations in vitamin K levels. Eating snack foods containing olestra and added vitamin K might cause substantial fluctuations in serum vitamin K levels, possibly impairing the efficacy of Coumadin. Furthermore, researchers are now identifying important functions for vitamin K other than those associated with blood clotting, such as bone formation in fetal development and childhood and retention of bone in older women.

No animal or clinical studies have demonstrated that vitamin K-supplemented olestra would be safe for Coumadin users and effective in maintaining physiological functions in addition to blood coagulation.

Doctors will have to warn their patients to avoid olestra (or, more safely, all snack foods of unknown composition).

Olestra causes gastrointestinal disturbances, which are sometimes severe, including diarrhea, fecal urgency, and more frequent and looser bowel movements. A variety of gastrointestinal symptoms occurred in subjects who consumed on a daily basis the amount of olestra that would be found in less than one ounce of potato chips (about 16 chips), as well as higher doses. For instance:

  • In Procter & Gamble's eight-week vitamin-restoration study, 8 gm/day of olestra caused a five-fold increase (1/17 versus 5/17) in diarrhea compared to the incidence in controls who ate natural fat.
  • In the eight-week vitamin-restoration and dose-response studies, 32 gm/day (the amount in about 3 ounces of chips) caused diarrhea in half the subjects (9/17 in one study, 13/24 in the other); control groups had much lower incidences (4/21 and 1/17, respectively).
  • In the dose-response study, 8 gm/day of olestra increased the total number of incidents of gastrointestinal symptoms — including diarrhea, loose stools, nausea, gas, and others — from 40 to 66 (65% increase). In the two clinical studies, 20 gm/day of olestra caused roughly a doubling of the number of incidents compared to controls.
  • At all doses of olestra in both eight-week studies, one or more people experienced symptoms that persisted on an intermittent basis for at least 40 days.
Gastrointestinal disturbances are not normally life-threatening, but they can be very inconvenient, unpleasant, uncomfortable, and worrisome. Imagine the plight of a school child who must repeatedly request permission to go to the toilet (and consider the teacher's plight, too). Think of the driver of a giant 18-wheeler barreling down the highway at 70 miles per hour when he gets hit with a bout of fecal urgency. Consider a teenager on a first date when he or she is constantly worrying about diarrhea and gas. Or a young woman who has to see a doctor because she worries that her nausea might be caused by a pregnancy, or an elderly person who fears that his diarrhea reflects a serious intestinal problem. Many people will eventually link the olestra snack foods to their gastrointestinal problems, but they may experience much discomfort before they make that link. And as long as olestra snack foods are marketed, new consumers will constantly be experiencing those problems.

Olestra sometimes causes underwear staining associated with "anal leakage." Olestra sometimes causes underwear staining. That phenomenon may be caused most commonly by greasy, hard-to-wipe-off fecal matter, but occasionally also from anal leakage (leakage of liquid olestra through the anal sphincter).

Procter & Gamble conducted a study that examined the effects of different formulations of olestra. The study used a dose of 34 gm/day, but, unfortunately, it lasted only five days, so it must be considered very preliminary. However, even that study showed that anal leakage occurred at a slightly higher rate in the test groups consuming the types of olestras than in the control group (which, inexplicably, included 2 cases of anal leakage). In addition, anal leakage was reported by one subject in the high-dose group (32 gm/day) of the eight-week dose-response study. Given the small size of the study groups (an average of 20 subjects/group) in the two eight-week studies, this single occurrence adds further evidence that Procter & Gamble has not yet resolved the anal leakage problem in heavy consumers of olestra.

Although underwear staining and anal leakage do not endanger consumers' physical health, those phenomena could cause psychological problems, including feelings of embarrassment and insecurity. Children and teenagers, especially, are likely to be disturbed about having dirty underwear, fearing embarrassment in front of friends and family. Snacking should be a pleasure undiluted with problems like dirty underwear.

Another condition associated with olestra consumption, "oil in toilet," occurred frequently in Procter & Gamble's two eight-week clinical studies. It could be disconcerting and might spur some people to see their doctor.

Data are lacking on the health effects of olestra on potentially vulnerable segments of the population. Key tests were unacceptably brief. Only poor studies have examined the effect of olestra on gastrointestinal disturbances in children, while no studies at all have focused on gastrointestinal problems and nutrient losses in healthy people over 44 years of age and people with poor nutritional status. For instance, the longest test on children, who would likely be major consumers of olestra-containing snacks, lasted only 7 days and exposed children to an average of only 7 gm/day of olestra, equivalent to two thirds of an ounce of potato chips. People who had poor diets and relatively low levels of carotenoids and who ate olestra regularly might be at special risk.

Furthermore, Procter & Gamble has not conducted human studies to assess the potential long-term health effects of olestra consumption. The results from brief (eight-week) clinical trials suggest possible serious long-term nutrient depletion and gastrointestinal effects for regular consumers of olestra. Eight-week-long studies are inadequate for a product that may be consumed by millions of people at high levels over a lifetime. Long-term tests on various population groups are essential to ascertaining the health effects of olestra. In addition, Procter & Gamble must conduct human studies to demonstrate the effect on serum carotenoid levels of occasional consumption of various amounts of olestra.

Olestra's possible carcinogenicity needs to be better resolved. Olestra was fed to rats (two studies) and mice (two studies) for two years at levels up to 10% of the animals' diets. Liver foci, which may be precursors of cancer, occurred in both rat studies. In one mouse study there was a statistically significant increase in lung tumors in the two highest-dosage groups; those tumors were not seen in a second study.

The levels of olestra fed to the rats and mice are of the same order of magnitude likely to be consumed by people. Especially since there is little margin of safety between human and animal consumption in these studies, findings of liver lesions in both rat studies and lung tumors in one mouse study are of particular concern. The FDA should appoint a committee of independent cancer experts (who do not consult for industry) to review the animal data and determine whether the liver foci and lung tumors (a) are definitely not a problem, (b) provide clear evidence of risk, or (c) raise questions that must be resolved through further research.

Procter & Gamble's claim that olestra's gastrointestinal effects are similar to those caused by high-fiber diets is not true. Procter & Gamble has claimed that olestra has gastrointestinal effects that are comparable to those caused by eating larger amounts of dietary fiber. In fact, the gut microflora usually adjust quickly to increased fiber, but do not adjust to olestra. Increasing fiber consumption often results in flatulence and similar effects, but, as the National Research Council has pointed out in Diet and Health, those effects seem to be temporary. Olestra's adverse effects persisted throughout the two eight-week studies and can be eliminated only by ceasing consumption of olestra.

It is not possible to set an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for olestra use in snack foods. An ADI for food additives is normally set by dividing the highest "no-observed-effect level" (NOEL) by a safety factor. However, Procter & Gamble has not been able to demonstrate a NOEL for olestra. In eight-week clinical studies, important adverse effects, including depletion of fat-soluble carotenoids and vitamins and gastrointestinal disturbances, occurred at 8 gm/day, the lowest olestra consumption level tested. Arguendo, if 8 gm/day were considered the NOEL for olestra, dividing by a minimal safety factor of 10 would yield an ADI of 0.8 gm/day, far below the likely consumption levels for olestra if the pending petition were to be approved. If the 3 gm/day level of sucrose polyester at which other investigators found significant depletion of carotenoids were used as the NOEL, application of the 10-fold safety factor would result in a 0.3 gm/day ADI, even further below the likely daily intake of olestra from savory snacks.

The only NOEL justified to date for olestra is zero and that fact alone should have been sufficient to deny the petition. Of course, one could argue that diarrhea, fecal urgency, and flatulence are merely "unpleasant phenomena" and not "adverse effects," the average consumer would likely concur that those sometimes severe gastrointestinal effects are indeed "adverse effects." Some consumers would undoubtedly associate their adverse effects with consumption of olestra, but many others might not. Furthermore, it is highly inappropriate for the FDA to permit a laxative food additive to be used in foods that would be widely consumed by a large fraction of the population. Likewise, even though the benefits of carotenoids and other non-vitamin phytochemicals are just beginning to be understood, many independent researchers concerned about carotenoids have told the FDA that reduced levels of those dietary substances should be considered an adverse effect.

Any benefits of olestra do not outweigh the risks. Industry and the public have been excited about olestra because of the possibility that it would help people eat diets lower in fat and saturated fat — and prevent obesity and heart disease. The current petition asks for use of olestra only in potato chips and similar foods. A person who ate an ounce of potato chips only occasionally would receive little calorie-saving from olestra-containing chips. A frequent chip-eater would save more fat, but would also experience a substantial decline in carotenoids and other phytochemicals (along with an increased risk of macular degeneration and possibly cancer and heart disease) and might experience gastrointestinal problems. Poorly nourished people, Coumadin-users, and other subgroups might experience additional problems. On balance, olestra's meager benefits are outweighed by its risks. Of course, people who wanted safe fat-free or lowfat chips can simply choose from the growing variety of such products already on the market.

_________________________________________

Listening to corporate NPR/APM I heard a report that addressed the growing appearance of salmonella outbreaks because after all------OUR MEAT PROCESSING PLANTS ARE THIRD WORLD WITH NO OVERSIGHT AND REGULATION.  Since Obama came onboard-------oversight agencies are being dismantled faster than with Bush.  The corporate reporter simply said -----JUST COOK THE MEAT LONGER AND DON'T WASH IT!  That was our public health announcement.  This dismantling of oversight and deregulation of food industry is just another step towards Trans Pacific Trade Pact that allows foods from developing countries into America having the worst of health issues.  Neo-liberals are saying

------THE GOAL IS MAXIMIZING PROFITS FOR US GLOBAL AGRICULTURE AND MEAT IN OVERSEAS MARKETS----WHO CARES ABOUT THE HEALTH OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

These are pols you are electing as democrats folks~

As I showed earlier, Trans Pacific Trade Pact TPP has Obama and neo-liberals overseas demanding nations that partner in this allow antiobiotics and hormones in their nation's food supply even as we know it is a health crisis in America.  This is what dismantling public health looks like.  Normally, the Department of Health and Human Services at Federal and State level would be shouting against all of these policies as harmful to public health----but they are silent.  That is what dismantling public health does -----no public advocate.



New salmonella outbreak in chicken resists antibiotics
Elizabeth Weise , USA TODAY 7:35 p.m. EDT October 8, 2013

A salmonella outbreak linked to raw chicken from California involves several antibiotic-resistant strains of the disease and has put at least 42% of the victims in the hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

"That's a high percentage," said CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds. "You would expect about 20% hospitalizations with salmonella Heidelberg."

There have been no deaths linked to the outbreak.

Thirteen percent of those sickened have salmonella septicemia, a serious, life-threatening whole-body inflammation, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.

DeWaal was briefed by Christopher Braden, director of the division of food-borne illness at the CDC.

"This outbreak shows that it is a terrible time for government public health officials to be locked out of their offices and labs, and for government websites to go dark," she said.

As of Tuesday, 278 people in 18 states have been sickened in the salmonella Heidelberg outbreak. Interviews with some of the patients have linked it to chicken produced by Foster Farms at three California plants, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Monday.

The CDC has been hampered in tracing the outbreak because the government shutdown meant the agency had to shut down PulseNet, a national network of public health laboratories that looks for trends and matches reports to spot food-borne illness outbreaks. It's one of the agency's most important tools in detecting such problems.

"We were trying to do this without the automatic system, and it was nearly impossible," Reynolds said. Seven of the eight staffers who run the system were furloughed. "We were doing it by hand, and it just become untenable."

CDC director Thomas Frieden determined that not having PulseNet was resulting in "an imminent threat to health and safety," a finding that allowed the agency to bring back the seven staffers, Reynolds said Tuesday. "It's back up and running as of today."

There are seven strains of salmonella Heidelberg involved in the outbreak, and some are resistant to some commonly used antibodies. That makes it a very "complex" outbreak, Reynolds said.

"The salmonella strains are showing resistance to multiple antibiotics, and that means more people are going to the hospital and their infections will be harder for physicians to treat," DeWaal said.


The USDA's public health alert named three facilities operated by Foster Farms as the likely source of raw chicken contaminated with salmonella. Most of it was sold in California, Oregon and Washington, and most of the illnesses have been in California, the USDA said.

In an emailed statement, a Foster Farms spokeswoman said, "consumers should know that the frontline antibiotics used to treat salmonella are fully effective in treating the illness."

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter took strong exception to that. "They have no ground to stand on to make that statement," she said. Slaughter has been an outspoken advocate for ending the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals to promote growth, a practice which FDA and CDC agree can breed antibiotic resistant strains of disease.

Frontline antibiotics aren't all working in this outbreak, she said. "These Heidelberg strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics, including ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline and streptomycin."

The chicken has not been recalled because the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service "is unable to link the illnesses to a specific product and a specific production period," the news release says. Consumers can identify products that came from the three plants by looking for these packaging codes: P6137, P6137A and P7632.

In its own news release, Foster Farms said it is working with USDA inspectors and the CDC. The company's food safety chief, Robert O'Connor, said USDA inspections have not been affected by the federal government shutdown.

Common symptoms of salmonella food poisoning include diarrhea, cramps and fever that typically start eight to 72 hours after eating food with high levels of the bacteria. Some people get chills, nausea and vomiting, lasting up to seven days, the USDA says. For people with weak immune systems, including infants and the elderly, the infection can be deadly.

Foster Farms encouraged consumers to cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165 degrees to kill disease-carrying pathogens. The USDA recommends that consumers use a food thermometer as the only way to be sure the proper temperature is reached.

An outbreak of one of the same strains of salmonella was linked to Foster Farms chicken in 2012 in Oregon and Washington. That outbreak sickened 134 people in 13 states, the CDC reported this year.

In a statement on its website, Foster Farms said it has "instituted a number of additional food safety practices, processes and technology throughout company facilities that have already proven effective in controlling salmonella in its Pacific Northwest operations earlier this year."

Salmonella is known to contaminate poultry flocks in the USA.

"Salmonella is naturally occurring in poultry and can be fully eradicated if raw product is properly handled and fully cooked," O'Connor of Foster Farms said.

Several European countries have succeeded in eradicating it by stringent testing and eliminating any flock with an infected bird, but that is considered too costly to implement in the USA.

Contributing: Kim Painter


________________________________________


Remember, if neo-liberals are pushing hormones and antibiotics overseas----they have no intent in ridding the US of this public health disaster.  The joke in circles of the rich---an epidemic could take millions of people from an overpopulated planet.  The stage for epidemic has been set by Clinton and now Obama.  Democrats work for the people and republicans work for wealth and profit.  Neo-liberals are republicans.

Dismantling food safety in the US is necessary when the goal is to flood US markets with food from countries having no health standards.  That is what neo-liberalism has done from Reagan/Clinton and now Obama.  LET THE PEOPLE DIE----THIS IS ABOUT PROFITS!


Published on Thursday, August 22, 2013 by OtherWords

The Un-American Way: On the Anti-Democratic 'Trans-Pacific Partnership' Why the TPP deal threatens food safety and public health
by Wenonah Hauter

The United States is negotiating a NAFTA-style trade deal that should be alarming to American consumers. The main reason it’s not getting much attention is that the mainstream media is largely ignoring it.(GlobalTradeWatch/Flickr)

This pact deserves more news coverage. It threatens to undermine our own laws and increase the opportunity for corporate takeovers of public resources in the United States and abroad. The worst part? These negotiations are taking place behind closed doors.

This controversial agreement is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It’s comprised of the United States plus 11 other nations that border the Pacific Ocean. The TPP would boost liquefied natural gas exports and food imports. This increases the real dangers posed by reckless fracking for natural gas and the growth of imported food from several countries whose safety standards fall far short of our own.

The TPP could become the biggest corporate power grab in U.S. history. This deal would establish a regime under which corporations would acquire an equal status to countries, allowing them to take legal action against governments both at the national and local levels.

With this power, multinational corporations — especially energy companies — could overturn laws enacted to protect the public and the environment if they were to deem that those protections violated the profit-based terms of this trade agreement.

The United States currently has enough challenges plaguing our food system, with many of our would-be TPP partners shipping unsafe food even without these so-called free-trade agreements. Seafood imports alone have been particularly troubling. Much of the seafood we import is farm-raised using antibiotics and hormones that are illegal in our own country, and a mere 2 percent of those imports are actually inspected by the FDA.

The TPP would encourage increasing the amount of seafood we take in without requiring the trading partners to ban the use of illegal chemicals.

This could also hurt the American consumers through the expansion of the oil and gas industry, as it tries to increase its land use at home to frack more gas for export to our new TPP partners.

This pact could quickly undermine local, state, and even federal laws that protect public health and the environment. Many localities have recently passed laws to ban fracking. Unfortunately, a lot of the companies that are pursuing hydraulic fracturing in the U.S. are either foreign-owned or have foreign investors.

The TPP would potentially give companies the power to sue local governments, granting them their own permission to exploit natural resources and undermine local laws.

Treaties like the TPP undermine important efforts by grassroots movements and governments to protect people and the environment against the dangers of infecting our food system with increased use of antibiotics and hormones or the risks associated with fracking for natural gas.

Protests against this trade accord have already gotten started in other countries, including Japan and Malaysia, as concerns grow over its expected negative effects. The bottom line is that TPP will bring little, if any, benefit to small-scale growers and producers.


As negotiations near completion, it’s critical that we let our members of Congress know that we don’t support this kind of corporate power grab. President Barack Obama is asking Congress to grant “fast-track” authority, allowing him to negotiate the TPP and other trade deals without otherwise requisite congressional oversight. We must stop that from happening.

Undermining laws that U.S. citizens voted to put in place isn’t the American way.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License Wenonah Hauter is the executive director of the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. She has worked extensively on energy, food, water and environmental issues at the national, state and local level. Experienced in developing policy positions and legislative strategies, she is also a skilled and accomplished organizer, having lobbied and developed grassroots field strategy and action plans.

__________________________________________

The most disturbing issue with health care being profit-driven is there are no limits to what can be done.  Whether it is Wall Street creating bets on people's life insurance and when they die-----or whether it is the large US global health systems as we have in Baltimore with Johns Hopkins acting in HEALTH TOURISM where the goal is to attract the rich of the world to your institution------all of this making ethics and morality fly out the door as it does in finance.  Johns Hopkins Medical System has been sited once for involvement in illegal organ procurement and citizens of Baltimore for years have said that the poor suspect organ harvesting at Johns Hopkins.

RAISE YOUR HANDS IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE PROFIT-DRIVEN HEALTH TOURISM WILL BRING THESE MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE ACTIONS TO THE US------EVERYONE BELIEVES THIS!

We know this is already happening in the US and it is because public health systems are being dismantled at the Federal and state level.  Baltimore has NO PUBLIC HEALTH after O'Malley and now Rawlings-Blake allowed Sharfstein and Barbot privatize all of public health to private corporate non-profits.


CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR WILL REVERSE THIS PRIVATE HEALTH SYSTEM WITH EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL AND REBUILD PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCIES AND PROTECTIONS FOR THE PEOPLE!



Child Organ Harvesting And Trafficking-Linked Arrest Made In Mexico 

| by  OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Posted: 03/17/2014 10:22 pm EDT Updated: 03/18/2014 8:59 am EDT
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Huffington Post

Police in Mexico's western state of Michoacan detained an alleged member of the Knights Templar cartel who is suspected of kidnapping children to harvest their organs, an official said Monday.

Michoacan state Public Safety Secretary Carlos Castellanos Becerra alleged that Manuel Plancarte Gaspar was part of the cartel's organ-trafficking ring. The ring would kidnap children and take them to rented homes with medical equipment where their organs were removed, Castellanos Becerra charged.

"We have several statements in open investigations that point to a network of several suspects who would identify people with certain characteristics, especially children, and kidnap them," he said.

Castellanos Becerra said the cases go back several years, but he said he couldn't give any specific details or discuss evidence because the investigation is still open.

Plancarte Gaspar, 34, was detained last week along with another suspect in a stolen car. The men also had some crystal meth, Castellanos Becerra said. He said Plancarte Gaspar is the nephew of Enrique Plancarte Solis, a top Knights Templar leader.

Hours before the announcement, a leader of one of the local vigilante groups that sprang up last year in Michoacan to challenge the cartel's control told a radio station that people in the area knew the Knights Templar gang was involved in organ trafficking because several children had been rescued in his town while being transported in a refrigerated container inside a van.

"They were inside a refrigerated box, tightly wrapped in blankets," Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, leader of the civilian "self-defense" group in Tepalcatepec, said in a morning interview with MVS radio.

Mireles said the van carrying the children was headed to the port city of Lazaro Cardenas and ended up in Tepalcatepec after making a wrong turn.

"They were all children from the same Mexico City school," he said.

He said the children's parents had allowed them to go on an outing to the beach when they were likely kidnapped. He said the children were turned over to their parents who traveled to Tepalcatepec.

Mireles didn't say when the children were rescued and didn't answer his cellphone Monday.

Mexican authorities have said drug trafficking is no longer the top source of income for the Knights Templar, which was once a top producer of crystal meth. The officials say the cartel's main sources of income are illegal mining, illegal logging and extortion.



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May 02nd, 2014

5/2/2014

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MARYLAND ELECTIONS HAVE BECOME SO CAPTURED AND ELECTION LAWS IGNORED BECAUSE THE 1% ARE DETERMINED THESE POLICIES THAT END DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA WILL GO THROUGH. 

ANTHONY BROWN, DOUG GANSLER, AND HEATHER MIZEUR RECEIVE AIR TIME BECAUSE ALL OF THEM INTEND TO PUSH THESE REFORMS THROUGH.  CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR IS SILENCED BECAUSE SHE WILL STOP THEM.


I have had the pleasure of campaigning across Maryland in this election for Governor of Maryland and many people agree with my platform.  Whether republican or democrat the need to rebuild and strengthen democratic structures is foremost.  One of the cornerstones of democracy is public education and equal opportunity and access and this is under attack as is all public services and programs.  Race to the Top and Common Core are autocratic policies meant to dismantle public education along with Trans Pacific Trade Pact taking away our status of citizen.  Why educate 90% of the people with humanities and liberal arts -----preparing them to be citizens when TPP ends the US Constitutional rights of people as citizens the 1% says?



I'll take the next few days talking about education reform.  Common Core has become so toxic as a policy that states like Maryland trying to push these policies through no matter what are going to rename the policy to avoid citizen's anger.  All meetings and public forums are so guarded and controlled to limit the majority of citizens from having their concerns aired publicly one can see the autocratic nature of these policies simply in their implementation.

Why the concern for Common Core?  An autocratic society must control wealth, communications, information, and build structures for spying and surveillance to allow a small group of people to control hundreds of millions of people.  Common Core has as a goal to standardize what all students in America learn and that standardization happens with the people at the top....global corporations.  We keep hearing that Common Core is simply a method of teaching even as schools bring in one education business after another to implement these policies with suggested lists of what needs to be covered. Online lessons written by these same people are now being installed in schools across America. 

Standardization of STEM classes with Common Core is a misnomer.  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is already standardized because they are subjects based on factual information.  THEY ARE ALREADY STANDARDIZED.  So, what is next?  Our humanities and liberal arts.....history, social studies, civics, literature, music, and arts.
  Remember, America is a plurality and democracy is all about freedom of thought, speech, and action within Rule of Law.  Every region of the country has its own ideas about what frames all of these subjects and it is what makes for a rich cultural experience and allows democracy to work.  China on the other hand standardizes all information given in schools to students and is very autocratic with no democracy.


THIS EDUCATION REFORM IS TAKING US TO A CHINESE-STYLE AUTOCRACY.


Below is a great video explanation of Common Core concerns.  Note that corporations are trying to make this controversy seem conservative republican -----but all citizens are becoming aware and outraged over this usurping of our democratic education system.

Part 1 of 5 Stop the Common Core

NoTo CommonCore·15 videos
  Published on Nov 12, 2012

Copyrighted material. Not authorized to download and reproduce on DVDs. Order DVDs at stopcommoncore.com.




The video below is well known in Maryland but we need to remember what it represents.  I was right next to this gentleman at this meeting, indeed I am in the video trying to keep him from being hauled out of the event.  This public meeting allowed no questions from the audience----rather, it directed questions to be written and then the moderator chose what would be asked----and directed the 'panel' how to answer.  THIS IS WHAT AUTOCRATIC SOCIETIES LOOK LIKE FOLKS.

In Baltimore they go so far as creating Coalitions of education privatization organizations whose voice is the only one media will allow on camera.

See why it is so important to make the race for governor only about those candidates who will move these policies forward?


Now they’re arresting people who complain about the Common Core


September 23, 2013 2:32 AM    Daily Caller


.A YouTube video went viral over the weekend showing a parent who got violently arrested for expressing his frustrations about the implementation of the Common Core at a public forum Thursday night in the suburbs of Baltimore.

Somehow, Ellicott City parent Robert Small was then charged with assaulting a police officer in the second degree, reports The Baltimore Sun.

Small stood up out of order during a question-and-answer forum held by the Maryland State Department of Education. He interrupted Dallas Dance, the Baltimore County School Superintendent. Small explained — calmly, though not particularly fluidly — his belief that the Common Core lowers standards of education for children in the district.

“You are not preparing them for Harvard,” he said.

The irate parent, who has a sixth-grader and a second-grader and in Howard County, Md. schools, asserted that the new curriculum will only prepare students for community college.

This fall, for the first time, 45 states and the District of Columbia have begun implementing Common Core State Standards Initiative, which attempts to standardize various K-12 curricula around the country.

Criticism of the Common Core has risen sharply. Opposition has brought together conservatives who stand athwart a federal takeover of public education and leftists who deplore ever-more standardized testing.

The plan for the question-and-answer forum was for attendees write their questions down on pieces of paper. Then, Dance and the Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, Lillian Lowery, would answer them.

After Small spoke for perhaps a few minutes, a security guard confronted him. A police report alleges that Small tried to push the guard away when the guard initially confronted him.

The video does not appear to show Small pushing the guard.

“Let’s go. Let’s go,” the security guard said.

“Let him ask his question,” someone yelled.

To audible gasps, the guard then pulled the 46-year-old father aggressively in the direction of the aisle.

As the guarded escorted Small out of the forum, Small said “Don’t stand for this. You are sitting here like cattle.” Then he asked, “Is this America?”

According to The Sun, Small was then handcuffed and forced to sit on the curb outside until police showed up to take him to a local police station. He was finally released around 3 a.m.

The charge against Small, second-degree assault of a police officer, carries a maximum fine of $2,500 and a prison term of up to 10 years. Another charge, disturbing a school operation, carries a $2,500 fine and six months in prison.

“Look, I am being manhandled and shut down because I asked inconvenient questions,” Small told The Sun on Friday. “Why won’t they allow an open forum where there can be a debate? We are told to sit there and be lectured to about how great Common Core is.”

Small added that he himself attended a community college before transferring to the University of Maryland, College Park to finish his bachelor’s degree.


___________________________________________

The underlining word in these policy roll-outs is 'fear'.  In Baltimore where Johns Hopkins controls public policy and is the face of education privatization, schools have been front-loaded with staff dedicated to these privatizing policies. So teacher's unions and administrators feel out-numbered and fearful of losing their jobs if protesting what they do not like.  It was an act of courage for Baltimore County Teacher's Association to finally say 'this is not working'.   Add school choice to the mix and parents become afraid to complain because it may hurt their child's ability to attend a good school. 

Unlike other cities/states that have strong labor and justice activism Maryland is completely captured and silent.  That looks to be changing as anger grows.

As this article tells......these reforms are lowering the quality of education for 90% of school children and trying to build a system where only the wealthy have the education we have always given all citizens.

Rebecca Mead: Why Louis C.K.’s Complaints about Common Core Matter
By dianeravitch May 1, 2014

Thank goodness at least one prominent journalist in the mainstream media sends her child to public school!

At Rebecca Mead’s public school, two-thirds of the children opted out of the state tests aligned to Common Core.

So Mead understands the frustration of the comedian Louis C.K., whose tweets about the Common Core tests went viral.

Louis C.K. had more than 3 million Twitter followers so when he spoke out, his voice was unheard, unlike the voices of countless other parents.

The advocates of the Common Core insist that the problems that parents object to are not part of the Common Core but caused by faulty implementation.

(That is the same refrain we always hear about great ideas that fail: faulty implementation.)

Mead notes:

Plenty of parents and educators agree with him. After last month’s state tests for English language arts, teachers citywide protested, calling the problems tricky and developmentally inappropriate—as well as questioning the need for three long, consecutive days of testing, no matter the quality of the test materials. Elizabeth Phillips, the principal of P.S. 321, a highly regarded public school in Park Slope, called on members of the State Board of Regents to take the exams themselves: “Afterward, I would like to hear whether they still believed that these tests gave schools and parents valuable information about a child’s reading or writing ability,” she wrote.

This happens to be my most fervent wish: that all legislators and policymakers would take the tests they mandate and publish their scores.

Mead writes:

It seems likely that if more parents with the wealth and public profile of Louis C.K. showed their support for public education not by funding charter-school initiatives, as many of the city’s plutocrats have chosen to do, but by actually enrolling their children in public schools, there would long ago have been a louder outcry against the mind-numbing math sheets and assignments that sap the joy from learning. The majority of children in the school system sit in classrooms with far fewer resources than those enjoyed by C.K.’s children, or by mine. The concentration on testing is only another way in which students are short-changed. Educators have been arguing since last spring that the tests are flawed, and that the achievement gap in New York is widening rather than lessening: in 2013, there was a nineteen-per-cent gap between the scores of white and black third graders in the E.L.A. exams, and a fourteen-per-cent gap in math. “Students who already believe they are not as academically successful as their more affluent peers, will further internalize defeat,” Carol Burris, a principal from Rockville Centre, wrote in the Washington Post last summer, calling on policymakers to “re-examine their belief that college readiness is achieved by attaining a score on a test, and its corollary—that is possible to create college readiness score thresholds for eight year olds.” This week, teachers at International High School at Prospect Heights, which serves a population of recently arrived immigrants from non-English-speaking countries, announced that they would not administer an assessment required by the city. A pre-test in the fall “was a traumatic and demoralizing experience for students,” a statement issued by the teachers said. “Many students, after asking for help that teachers were not allowed to give, simply put their heads down for the duration. Some students even cried.” When a comedian points out the way in which the current priorities don’t add up, it earns even the attention of those who haven’t thought much about school since they graduated. But the brutal math of the New York City school system is no laughing matter.


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'  “Deliverology” is a means to systematically demoralize and humiliate people in lieu of not being able to convince them to pursue a course of action. It is based on the fundamentally flawed idea that an organization or institution can be improved by “incentivizing” people to meet “targets” or what Achieve, Inc., insists educators obsess over: “benchmarks”.[5] It is an autocratic, command-and-control management system that redefines public institutions (such as public schools) as factories, and displays an almost single-minded fixation on cost reduction.[6]. Deliverology is a means for transforming the goal of public institutions from meeting public needs to meeting arbitrary “production” “benchmarks” established by the autocrat under the hoax of saving taxpayer’s money'.


If you look to the article below this one you will get a more light-hearted version of this technical explanation. This article looks at the drivers of these reforms-----cheapening education for most and making it about vocational training K-career college....

ENDING DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION


Big Data, the Common Core, and the Global Governance of Education,

Part 1: Who is Sir Michael Barber? posted in K12, Theory on October 19, 2013 by Mark Garrison SHARE

The Common Core Standards Initiative Flow Chart In this series, I explore the connection between the Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSI), Big Data and the role these two pillars of current education policy play in governing education beyond the confines of sovereign nation states and their publics. I begin the series by exploring the role of Sir Michael Barber in imposing the Common Core assessment regime and how this relates to the global governance of education.[1]

I have three aims for the series:

  1. To focus attention on the agenda driving CCSI and “Career and College Ready” policies;
  2. To elaborate the CCSI agenda as an effort to restructure both the purpose and governance of education across once well-established political geographies, both inside the United States and across the globe. 
  3. To elaborate the thesis that the Core standards were developed in particular to institutionalize national, “life-long,” high-stakes testing, data tracking regimes. These regimes are a means for directing the development and surveillance of labor and the extraction of discrete skills from  human populations. These regimes institutionalize anti-public forms for governing the human populations from which this skill is to be extracted, whose publics have been rendered infamous by those now usurping power.


Introduction

As resistance to high stakes testing grows following the predicted CCSI imposed mass failure, there is a need to analyze the purposes Core aligned tests serve. If I were asked to quickly convey what the CCSI and “college and career ready” agenda is really about, I’d say: Big Data for regulating labor and populations for the narrow benefit of the super rich. If pressed to say even less, I’d say it is about imposing a high-tech form of slavery.

I am well aware that many will bulk at this analysis as extreme and paranoid. But what is really interesting is how even the mildest critiques of the CCSI are met with demonstrations of religious-like, unshakable support for and confidence in the initiative. For a reform credited with promoting critical thinking to evidence so little of that trait in its own promotion and defense is quite striking. Ironically, this patten has caused me to analyze more carefully the significance of not only the CCSI itself, but the manner in which it is being implemented and defended in the wake of criticism.

There is in the present moment a strange genuflection to the Core, even and possibly especially among some who criticize high stakes tests. Who has not heard during a faculty meeting or public presentation the view that there are “some good things in the Common Core standards.” It seems almost mandatory that someone express such a sentiment during meetings of educators and parents. And in these circumstances even critics of the CCSI find themselves offering the conditioned nod in agreement with that sentiment, as if to do otherwise would violate some deep, unspoken norm and admit to being “unreasonable.”

It seems to be lost on many that this is not a proper way to evaluate something. One does not evaluate something by examining its parts in isolation from one other, highlighting only the elements they like. Nor does one offer serious counter critique by indicating they like what they read on page 54; as if the Core’s ostensible support for an emphasis on mathematical understanding and not just the ability to calculate were enough to render judgment about the entire initiative and dismiss the serious concerns with what those who control the CCSI are up to.

One should instead work to understand the parts and their interrelationships, and the relationship of this whole with its social context. This method enables one to render an overall evaluation. It keeps one from getting lost in the forest by directing one to not fixate only on his or her favorite tree.

To make the point more explicitly, the irrationality of “there are some good things” method of argument can be seen in the following example:

  • It is good that trains run on time. Or, it is good that students explain how and why they arrived at a conclusion.
  • Under Mussolini, the trains ran on time.[2] Under the Gates-Duncan regime, students are asked to explain their answers.[3]
  • Fascism should be supported. The dictate of the super rich and the feds over democratically elected forms of governance should be accepted.
I am not saying that everyone who defends the Core or even high stakes testing is a fascist. I am saying that there is a serious problem with the degree to which the above “logic” prevails and serves to block serious discussion of the political significance of the Core regime and the agenda it serves.

The method of the above “logic” is to cull out and separate one feature of a whole so as to hide and/or justify the essence of that whole. This is disinformation.

All this means that it is vital that we continue to examine not only the tools of the current reforms — standards, tests and data — but that we must also work to discern the aim for which these tools were developed.

One last introductory note is required: to dismiss opposition to the Core as a nutty right-wing hissy fit is a sad attempt by “special interests” to derail a growing grassroots movement of parents and educators who are acting on the basis of their own investigation and conviction that they have a right to have a say over the content and form of schooling their children are mandated to attend. These forces have already identified a key problem with the Core and the “college and career ready” agenda: it is undemocratic and those leading it are acting with impunity. This truth is now self-evident to many, especially given the recent experience New Yorkers have had with their state education officials.

Who is Sir Michael Barber? What has a Knighted British citizen to do with directing national-level education efforts in the United States, let alone the Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSI)?[4] While the roles Bill Gates and Achieve, Inc. have played in designing and imposing the CCSI are relatively well documented, the role of Barber, a Pearson executive, is not. And while Person is the Dark Star to many educators and parents, little has been written about the role it and McKinsey & Company play in the global governance of education. Study of Barber helps us understand the links between all these entities and sheds more light on the real purpose of the CCSI and the “college and career ready” agenda of which it is a part.

Originally a history teacher, Barber became active in the National Union of Teachers in England. He went on to serve as Chief Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education on School Standards during Tony Blair’s first term as British Prime Minister. Tony Blair and his counterpart Bill Clinton lead what has been dubbed the “Third Way” movement. While presented as “left of center,” experience suggests otherwise, with “privatization with a strong state” (or “market fascism”) being its key strategic aim. Barber went on to serve as the Chief Adviser on Delivery, reporting directly to Blair. “As head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU), he was responsible for working with government agencies to ensure successful implementation of the Prime Minister’s priority programs,” including those in health, education, and policing. Destruction of the public sector as “we knew it” was the main objective.

Barber became a Partner at McKinsey & Company, working there from 2005 until 2011 (David Coleman also worked at McKinsey during this time). He served as head of McKinsey’s global education practice. “He co-authored two major McKinsey education reports: How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better (2010) and How the world’s best-performing schools come out on top (2007).” Barbers reports are worth reading, actually, as they provide a broader understanding of what “reformers” are up to.

Barber is now Pearson’s chief education strategist. One area of focus is privatization, what is dubbed “affordable learning.” Pearson renders it this way: “Finding business models for affordable schools and other educational solutions in developing areas of the world, to help meet United Nations goals of universal primary education and to raise achievement.”

The main method to achieve these goals is called “deliverology”.

What is Deliverology? Deliverology. Haven’t heard of it? Well, even if you haven’t, you have experienced this marvel of modern science, especially if you work in education or healthcare. And as you’ve probably guessed, its “invention” is credited to Sir Michael Barber.

“Deliverology” is a means to systematically demoralize and humiliate people in lieu of not being able to convince them to pursue a course of action.
It is based on the fundamentally flawed idea that an organization or institution can be improved by “incentivizing” people to meet “targets” or what Achieve, Inc., insists educators obsess over: “benchmarks”.[5] It is an autocratic, command-and-control management system that redefines public institutions (such as public schools) as factories, and displays an almost single-minded fixation on cost reduction.[6]. Deliverology is a means for transforming the goal of public institutions from meeting public needs to meeting arbitrary “production” “benchmarks” established by the autocrat under the hoax of saving taxpayer’s money.

Since the “Texas Miracle” was exposed as a myth, we have seen so-called target culture decrease the quality of education in the U.S. As another example, see this video of John Seddon’s address to the California Faculty Association. The California State University system has employed “deliverology” since 2010. The link in that context to the dramatic increases in tuition and cuts in service to the adoption of deliverology is unmistakable.

As it is premised on the factory model, deliverology redefines people as products to be consumed. The head of the Business Roundtable (BRT) said as much during a New York Times interview of leading architects of anti-public education. BRT President John Engler said: “All the products of K-12 system are either going to go to the university or they are going to the work force. The military is not here, but they’re not very different.”

Deliverology as a method is especially suited for organizing what Barber calls “irreversible transformation”. “Target culture” is really the imposition of behavior management regimes. In the U.S. we call these behavior management regimes “accountability.”

Barber and Vicky Phillips (of the Gates Foundation) explain their theory of change that guides deliverology in the following way:

There is a popular misconception about the process of change. It is often assumed that the key to successful change is “to win hearts and minds.” If this is the starting point then the first steps in the process of change are likely to be consultation and public relations campaigns…The popular conception is wrong. Winning hearts and minds is not the best first step in any process of urgent change. Beliefs do not necessarily change behavior. More usually it is the other way around — behaviors shape beliefs. Only when people have experienced a change do they revise their beliefs accordingly…Sometimes it is necessary to mandate the change, implement it well, consciously challenge the prevailing culture and then have the courage to sustain it until beliefs shift…The driving force at this critical juncture is leadership.[7].

Thus, deliverology appears to be a means for imposing behavior modification techniques that are ultimately aimed at yielding a change in beliefs; irreversible change here seems to be at least in part about people learning to accept product status, that is, as having no rights. Indeed, broad cultural and political shifts are required if that is how social life is to be organized.

In case the point might get lost, it is this: if people do not grasp the larger agenda, they will find themselves agitating for tests that more reliably render the “value of educational products”  – and my guess is reformers will be happy to comply with such demands. This in turn may be mistakenly rendered by some as a victory.

But there is no way to “accurately measure” the “value” of humans-as-products because humans are not products! Humans reject being rendered as things. This is the philosophical basis of the popular slogan that children are more than test scores. It is for this reason, again, that the agenda behind the tests must be carefully discerned. Popularizing the technical shortcomings of the tests absent an analysis of the political context in which they operate will not yield to positive change.

Deliverology is Guiding Common Core Implementation What few realize is that Barber is driving the implementation of the Common Core, and especially the assessment component, through the U.S. Delivery Institute. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Delivery Institute applies “deliverology” to implement the Core. A review of the “Common Core Implementation Workbook” suggests Barber (Pearson) is directing the way in which New York and other states are handling not only implementation, but “pushback.”[8]

This simple fact challenges the idea that the only problem with the CCSI is how it is being implemented. Barber’s (and thus Pearson’s) role, along with McKinsey and Coleman, show that implementation has been carefully crafted and is consistent with the goals of the CCSI and “career and college ready” agenda.



_____________________________________________   

There is nothing wrong with adding rigor and accountability to our education system.....everyone agrees the education reforms of the 1980-1990s deliberately removed all rigor and accountability giving us children not knowing math or how to read.  Remember, it was the same group of people giving us these reforms in Reagan/Clinton era that took textbooks out of the classroom because they 'stifled' creativity and allowed calculators be used by children just learning math because they said all people will need to do now is push a button for a solution-----these are the policies that created our achievement problems today.  IT WAS A DELIBERATE MOVE TO DISMANTLE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL EDUCATION SYSTEM AND ACHIEVEMENT IN THE WORLD.  We simply need to go back to the models we had before Reagan/Clinton.

Having people's angst hit mainstream comedy means citizens are now seeing they are not alone as mainstream media has blocked all dissent of these education policies and only speak of the continued roll-out.

Americans need to note which media outlets are falling into line with this media blockade of dissent.  Public media leads the way because it was captured by corporate interests.  Your taxpayer money is now being used to support 'public' programming that does nothing but support Bill Gates and the Walton Foundation behind all this privatization.

MAKE SURE YOUR PUBLIC MEDIA IS WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC INTEREST!
  WE MUST HAVE AN AVENUE FOR OUR VOICE!


If you’ve lost Louis C.K. and Chuck Norris, have you lost America?

Both the acerbic comedian and the action star-turned-activist have come down hard on the Common Core academic standards, which were once widely hailed as a bipartisan success story but are now drawing fire from liberals and conservatives alike.

The debate over the standards has roiled political campaigns and dominated education policy debates for more than a year. Now it’s rocketing into pop culture — and opponents hope that will prove a tipping point.

The latest flash point came this week when Louis C.K. tweeted to his 3.3 million followers: “My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core!” He followed that with several pictures of third-grade math problems he deemed incomprehensible or just plain dumb. Within a day, his original protest had been re-tweeted more than 7,000 times. He kept going Thursday evening, tweeting: “Kids teachers parents are vocally suffering. Doesnt that matter? listen to them. Adapt and slow down CCSS. Cool it with the testing.”


The tweets point to a serious liability for the Common Core. Proponents desperately want to focus attention on the goal of raising academic standards and preparing American students to compete in a global economy. But parents want to talk about their children sobbing over nonsensical homework and vomiting from test-day jitters — and those are the stories that resonate, especially on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert picked up on all that social media angst and amplified it with a segment a few weeks ago that ridiculed befuddling math questions. Judy Blume, Maya Angelou and Matt Damon have also weighed in with critiques on standardized testing.

The populist attack on Common Core isn’t always fair: Some of the most widely mocked examples of so-called Common Core math were featured in textbooks and used in classrooms long before the standards were introduced. The blame for some of the confusing assignments rests on individual teachers, not the standards, which lay out what children should learn in each grade but don’t presume to dictate lesson plans or homework. And high-stakes testing was introduced long before the Common Core — and is stressful for some kids regardless of what the exams cover.



Opposition activist Jim Stergios says he would prefer to focus on more sober-minded critiques of the “mediocre quality, dubious legality and outsized costs” of the Common Core. But he can’t say he’s displeased that complaints about the standards have become a pop culture meme.

“You know that discomfort and even outright opposition has reached a critical mass when the core becomes a frequent punch line in the repertoire of late-night comedians,” said Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank.

And supporters acknowledge, with considerable frustration, that the campaign is taking a toll.

“What harms the cause for improving education in this country is the attempt by the opposition and the media, who should know better, to perpetuate these misunderstandings, until eventually people think they are truths, ”said Cheryl Oldham, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.


Take, for instance, the Common Core exams.

They were introduced with great fanfare as the next generation of standardized tests. They require students to write more, to analyze complex texts and, in some cases, to perform hands-on experiments in the classroom. Backers hoped parents would embrace them as far more challenging and meaningful than the traditional fill-in-the-bubble multiple choice.

But because of all those new components, the exams are longer than many states’ former assessments. They’re taken on computers, which this spring have proved vulnerable to crashes, server outages and even cyberterrorism.

Common Core exams are graded on a far tougher curve, leading to huge failure rates in states that adopted them last year. And to top it all off, the recent tests given to students in New York featured questions studded with brand names like Nike and iPod, raising concerns about commercialization.



Any parents who saw benefits in the new exams were swiftly drowned out by the chorus of protests on social media.

By the tens of thousands, parents have refused to let their children take the tests. They have taken to social media to explain why. And their fury has seeped into pop culture.

Colbert aired a series of clips of parents explaining how the tests had rattled and stressed their children. His wry conclusion: “Common Core testing is preparing students for what they’ll face as adults — pointless stress and confusion.”





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If you really think these education reforms are about quality and achievement......look at the steady decline in Federal and state funding and the handover of school funding to corporate donation.  As we see below in Baltimore they are now pulling away once this private structure is in place!


THESE SCHOOLS WILL BE DEFUNDED ONCE PRIVATIZATION GETS HOLD AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS DISAPPEAR. 


School funding falls short for city gifted programs International Baccalaureate and Ingenuity Project could face substantial reductions


By Erica L. Green, The Baltimore Sun 7:22 a.m. EDT, April 30, 2014

Darius Johnson says he's just an ordinary student, presented with an educational opportunity in his freshman year of high school that led him to extraordinary choices: Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Duke, Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, Stanford and Washington universities, the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College.

The senior at Polytechnic Institute is among the gifted students who have worked their way through the Ingenuity Project, one of two programs that have given Baltimore students a competitive edge in college admissions but now face funding cuts in the city's tightest schools budget in decades.

After years of declining funding, and now a new round of cuts the school board is proposing for next year's budget, schools that host Ingenuity and the International Baccalaureate are looking for alternative sources of money or holding out hope that district leaders will see the value of offerings proven to bring out the best in the brightest students.

Johnson, a first-generation college student raised by a single mother, plans to head to Harvard next year on a Gates-Millennium scholarship, which is to cover his education through a doctorate.

Johnson applied to Ingenuity as a freshman — not because he was "naturally gifted," he said, but because he needed focus. By sophomore year, he was researching a new therapy for HIV patients at Johns Hopkins.

"The work is hard," he said. "But as much as we give in hard work, they give back in opportunity. I hope kids who come after me get the same opportunities."

Ingenuity, a program that engages students at Poly and Roland Park Elementary/Middle and other high-performing schools in a rigorous science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum and research, is one of the budget items that school officials are asking the school board to fund with emergency reserves. The board has rejected that request.

Board members are scheduled to vote on a budget next month.

The Ingenuity program, which serves 534 students in four schools, is also facing a major fundraising hurdle, due in part to dwindling funding from the school system in the last five years.

Next year, it would have to raise more than $600,000, and would require Roland Park to pay a per-pupil fee next year for the first time.

Other schools have paid the $100-per-pupil fee. Roland Park has made financial contributions in other ways: paying for full-time Ingenuity staff, helping maintain the program's computer lab, and funding trips.

Principal Nicholas D'Ambrosio said the school would need to raise money to help cover the roughly $18,000 check the school would have to cut to pay the per-pupil charge next year.

The International Baccalaureate program, available at City College, Mount Washington and Thomas Jefferson Elementary/Middle, offers an internationally recognized curriculum known for its rigor and global focus. It's slated for budget cuts next year in two of the schools.

Mount Washington's IB program is set to receive $100,000 next year, down $31,000 from last year. And the budget at City College, which runs two programs, will decrease by $34,000 to $200,000.

Thomas Jefferson is set for a funding increase, because years of underfunding put the school at risk for losing its IB designation.

The school system says that its scaled-back support for Ingenuity and IB is part of a long-term plan.

"In order to ensure there is a diverse portfolio of school options for students to choose from, City Schools is committed to supporting schools in initiating programs, such as IB and Ingenuity," the district said in a statement.

"However, the intent is that over a period of time these programs will become self-sustainable" through individual school budgets and community partnerships.

The Ingenuity program was started in 1993 by the Abell Foundation, which has continued to financially back the program every year since. Ingenuity officials said the goal was for the program to eventually be fully funded by the school system.

But data show that in the last five years, contributions from the school system have dropped, from $420,000 in 2010 to a proposed $368,000 next year. Next year, the Abell Foundation plans to cut its funding to Ingenuity by $100,000 in order to spread money to other philanthropic causes.

"It's been a tremendously successful program, and we think it's something that the school system should really be doing," said Robert C. Embry Jr., president of the Abell Foundation

Dolores Costello, executive director of Ingenuity, said the program posts good results — 95 percent of graduates go on to four-year colleges, and 90 percent graduate in four years — but it still falls short in areas she said are pertinent to its growth.

Costello said the program could be strengthened by offering professional development for teachers and giving students more opportunity to conduct research in high school. It also needs to expand its services to underrepresented students, such as Hispanic students, who make up just 2 percent of its enrollment.

"We're always working to improve, but funding is limiting all of this," she said.

More importantly, Costello said, the city should invest in its advanced students, as it does in its struggling students.

"This program was designed for students like Darius," she said. "There's an idea that they'll all get along anyway, but the question is, would they be doing as well?"

At City, Principal Cindy Harcum said, students who show that they challenge themselves in the International Baccalaureate program certainly have an edge over their peers. When the 46-year-old program, which operates in 147 countries, shows up on a transcript, she said, it gets a second look.

In recent years, Harcum said, district officials have asked the school to ensure that it is living up to its mission of preparing students for college, and the IB program is a major avenue to do so.

"The return on investment is amazing," Harcum said. "This is a ticket that helps kids get into the selective admission schools, and the money to go to them. Especially for those kids who are first-generation college students, who only hear about going to college around the corner, suddenly, the world has opened up to them completely."

Next year, about 60 percent of the senior class at City is slated to take two or more IB courses.

Unlike Advanced Placement, in which students earn credit by taking an exam, IB credits require labs, investigations, oral arguments, and written papers. Harcum said City's IB program has posted results comparable to those of private schools.

Fifty-six percent of City's IB diploma candidates last year earned a diploma from the program — which requires a slate of advanced courses and exams — compared with 58 percent at St. Paul's School for Boys.

City offers the program to all of its students. Harcum said the school needs an additional $54,000 to cover registration fees, exam fees and training for IB teachers to sustain and grow the program.

"What I would hate to do is sell this to everybody, and then not have enough dollars to back it up," she said.

The financial struggles afflicting programs for gifted students also come amid an increased demand by parents for the district to add the programs to their schools and to enhance those already in place.

Kimberly Moffitt, head of the parent-teacher organization at Thomas Jefferson Elementary/Middle, confronted the school board over the school receiving less funding in recent years than other IB schools — even though it runs the only elementary/middle school program in the state.

"We embraced IB as a community and committed to letting our babies know that there's a lot more that happens in this world outside of what happens in Baltimore City," she said.

Moffitt said the school risked being found noncompliant because it didn't have enough money for required staff, such as an art teacher. After paying required expenses to maintain its designation, the school would have $5,000 to $10,000 to run programs for its 515 students.

"IB is extensive to learn and expensive to maintain, and the district seemed to be running on a shoestring budget to make this happen," she said. "We do it OK, but we could do well."

The school is expected to receive $87,500 in additional funding this year, for a total budget of $200,000, which school officials said aims to ensure an "equitable distribution of funds."

That's welcome news for Jamar Taylor, an eighth-grader at Thomas Jefferson, who chose to attend the school when he moved back from China, where wealthy students attended IB schools.

Taylor said the global perspective at Thomas Jefferson made it easier to transition back to an American school.

"Everyone was a lot more open-minded about my experience," he said. "At another school, they may have made fun of me for living in China, but here they were interested in hearing about the pros and the cons."

He plans to attend Baltimore School for the Arts in the fall. What attracted him to the premier high school was that it was a place he could stand out for thinking differently.

Cutting-edge programs such as IB are what more parents across Baltimore are seeking to keep them invested in the city school system, said Brendan O'Brien, the parent of a first-grader and a third-grader at Federal Hill Preparatory School.

The school's parent-teacher organization campaigned to begin the IB application process this year. O'Brien said the district did not issue a letter of support for the school, which delayed its application. School officials said they never received a proposal.

"It's a wonderful program," he said. "It gets kids thinking outside their own neighborhood. And to have a name-brand program in our neighborhood, it does a lot for all aspects of our life. We want to be able to stand out."












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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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March 20th, 2014

3/20/2014

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IF YOU ARE NOT READING INTO THESE POLICIES THE VISION OF SANITARIUMS FROM THE DAYS OF CHARLES DICKENS------YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HEALTH CARE REFORM WRITTEN BY HEDGE FUNDS...THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT.

THIS IS A LONG BLOG.....PLEASE GLANCE THROUGH ALL ARTICLES!

Regarding corporate commentators Fraser Smith and Basu on private non-profits and health care reform in Maryland:

FRASER SMITH AND BASU HIT IT ON THE HEAD.....JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CREATED THE PRIVATE NON-PROFIT MARYLAND HEALTHCARE FOR ALL TO CAPTURE THE POLICY ISSUE OF UNIVERSAL CARE AND MADE SURE IT WENT WITH AFFORDABLE CARE ACT-----PRIVATIZATION FOR PROFIT AT THE EXPENSE OF ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE-------AND SO THE POLICY WOULD NOT GO TOWARDS EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL, THE REAL UNIVERSAL CARE POLICY.

So, a corporation created its own private non-profit to push it own policy agenda using taxpayer money and private donations to make sure policy went towards maximizing profit for Johns Hopkins. That is indeed what this proliferation of corporate private non-profits is about.

SO, WHAT ABOUT THIS LADY FRASER MADE TO SOUND THANKFUL TO HAVE THIRD WORLD HEALTH CARE WITH TODAY'S MEDICAID AFTER LOSING A FIRST WORLD QUALITY HEALTH PLAN?

We hear time and again that this Affordable Care Health Reform is a Republican idea pulled together first by Reagan and implemented by Romney in Massachusetts. It is indeed a Republican plan. Affordable Care does not mean affordable for people, it means affordable for corporations and profit-maximizing.....Third Way corporate neo-liberals in Mass passed this plan just as they are now in Maryland. What we are seeing is the requirement to have health insurance partnered with health access that is window-dressing. When Massachusetts says it has almost universal coverage it isn't telling you that the coverage that many people have is just the preventative public health level we are seeing hitting Maryland. Who are those falling into this Medicaid level care? The article below written in 2010 looks at immigrant and low-income care but makes clear that the window is opening as to who will receive this level of care.


Massachusetts health care plan “dangerously restricts access” to primary care

Published August 9th, 2010 iHealthBulletin News!

The first health care plan from a for-profit insurance company approved to offer government-subsidized coverage under Massachusetts’ health care reform has dangerously restricted access to primary care, according to data reported on August 5, 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers say the findings raise troubling concerns about the Obama administration’s new health law, which is modeled after the Massachusetts plan.

Three Harvard-affiliated physicians report that out of a list of 326 doctors identified as members of the provider network of CeltiCare, a for-profit insurer contracted by the state of Massachusetts to take over coverage of about 30,000 legal immigrants (and, more recently, low-income citizens), only 217 were non-duplicate adult primary care providers. Of these 217 doctors, 25 percent could not be reached by telephone.

Of those primary care doctors who were reachable by telephone, only 37 percent, or 60 providers, said they were accepting new CeltiCare patients. In those cases, the average wait time for an appointment was 33 days, even though the patient was described as having a chronic illness like diabetes or hypertension.


Moreover, although many of the patients who had been forced into the CeltiCare plan don’t speak English, only 38 of the doctors who were accepting new patients had any form of translation services.

The plan’s failure to provide adequate access to doctors for its members raises grave concerns not only about Massachusetts’ reform, but also about the recently enacted national reform, the researchers say. The national plan closely mirrors Massachusetts’ reform, but relies far more heavily on for-profit insurers.

The report points out that even when patients have insurance, profit-driven plans may discourage them from getting the care they need by “rationing by inconvenience.”

The data appears in a letter titled “Immigrants’ experience with publicly funded private health insurance” in the August 5, 2010 print edition of the journal. It was written by two resident physicians at the Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance and a Harvard Medical School faculty adviser, and is based on the work of a group of interns, residents and medical students from several Boston-area hospitals and medical schools.

These doctors-in-training carried out the research after they became worried when some of their sickest patients – patients with cancer, diabetes and other severe health problems – were forced from their existing insurance plan into the CeltiCare plan. They then were told that they could no longer be treated at many of their previous health clinics, forcing them to find new doctors.

The researchers identified doctors available to the CeltiCare patients using the plan’s “Find a Provider” website. They called each of the doctors’ offices within a 5-mile radius of their hospital, identifying themselves as relatives of a chronically ill, older adult who needed an appointment soon. If an appointment was offered, the researcher asked about the availability of translators.

“Trying to get an appointment was even more daunting than these numbers suggest,” said Dr. Cassie Frank, a co-author of the article. “Many clinics forced me to call several times to get an appointment. One said they only open up appointments on Monday morning, and that to have a chance of getting any appointment slot I’d have to show up an hour before the clinic opened to be first in line.”


Dr. Malgorzata Dawiskiba, another co-author, said: “The state suddenly shifted thousands of sick patients to a cut-rate plan. But instead of getting a bargain, the patients were left stranded – insured, but unable to find a doctor who could care for them. These were people whom we knew. We and our supervisors had been their doctors, sometimes for many years, and overnight they were told ‘you can’t come here anymore.’”

Dr. Ruth Hertzman-Miller, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and study co-author, commented: “The problems faced by CeltiCare’s patients may soon become much more widespread. Our legislative leaders want to require every insurer in Massachusetts to offer a plan with a restricted list of doctors and a lower price tag. But that kind of restricted coverage may be little more than a worthless piece of paper” (Courtesy of Eurekalert).


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What we are seeing in Maryland already is an inability of low-income people or inadequately insured people to get the normal treatment for common diseases. When you have to co-pay a $100,000 treatment, how does that affect your future access? YOU WON'T HAVE ANY. Baby boomers are told they will not be affected, but at age 55 I know that when I start having major health issues in a decade or so, all of this reform will not protect my Medicare coverage.

OTHER COUNTRIES DO UNIVERSAL CARE WITH SATISFACTORY SERVICE......DO YOU HEAR THE ENGLISH, CANADIAN, OR FRENCH SHOUTING OUT AGAINST THEIR HEALTH SYSTEMS? DO YOU HEAR OF THE POOR CLIMBING INTO THE BACKS OF VANS FOR HEALTH CARE WHILE THE RICH HAVE HEALTH BOUTIQUES IN THESE COUNTRIES?

VOTE YOUR NEO-LIBERAL INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!


Making all of health care about profit moves drugs to market-based operations.  So, if a drug is not used much it will be made expensive or will not be manufactured.  We already are seeing shortfalls in availability of common drugs because of market-based health policy.  IT WILL GET WORSE IF LEFT TO CONTINUE.

No Health Insurance Dims Cancer Fate Cancer Outcomes Worse for People With No Health Insurance or Inadequate Health Insurance

By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Dec. 20, 2007 -- Cancer patients without adequate health insurance tend to face grimmer odds than those with good health insurance, says the American Cancer Society.

The American Cancer Society today released a new report on health insurance and cancer.

The report shows that people with no health insurance or inadequate health insurance face four main challenges when it comes to cancer:

They're less likely to get screened for cancer.
They're less likely to get counseled about cancer prevention.
They're more likely to get diagnosed late, when their cancer is harder to treat.
They're more likely to die from cancer than people with adequate health insurance.


Take breast cancer, for instance. The report shows that women with private health insurance are more likely to get mammograms, get diagnosed earlier, and have better survival rates than uninsured women.

The same is true for colorectal cancer. The report shows that among adults aged 50-65, about half of those with private health insurance had gotten screened for colorectal cancer in the past decade, compared with almost 40% of those with Medicaid insurance and about 19% of uninsured people.

Noting that some new cancer treatments cost more than $100,000 per year, the American Cancer Society's report asks, "To what extent will availability and type of insurance coverage, as well as individual financial resources, determine who has access to the most effective therapies?"

Health insurance isn't the only gap in cancer care. Racial and ethnic disparities also affect cancer outcomes.

The American Cancer Society based its report on information from the CDC and from the National Cancer Data Base.

The findings appear in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

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CHECK OUT THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THESE HEALTH HOMES THEY PLAN FOR MEDICAID/MEDICARE PEOPLE. THEY ARE SIMPLY COMPOUNDS OF CARE WE ALREADY KNOW WILL BE RUN BY HUGE HEDGE FUND-SIZED CORPORATIONS THAT HAVE NO INTENTION BUILDING A CARING/QUALITY ENVIRONMENT.

What is the difference between the retirement communities and state nursing homes we have today and what ACA is calling community-centered health homes? First, retirement communities and state nursing homes were run by private non-profits like religious communities and the government having the public's interest at heart. What ACA if creating is a national system of corporate businesses often owned by hedge funds and run with only thoughts of profit and raiding entitlement Trusts with fraud. We already had the kinds of facilities ACA is creating only they were not structured for profit.

THINK HOW A HEDGE FUND WILL OPERATE A COMMUNITY HEALTH HOME.

Community homes for seniors and the poor with chronic health conditions.....sound a little like the sanitariums of hundreds of years ago? YOU BETCHA!!!!! Think who will age or fall into poverty in this downward spiral of neo-liberalism------ALMOST EVERYONE. HOW MEDIEVAL OF NEO-LIBERALS!!!




MEDICAL HOMES-----for the poor that means isolated health care focusing on containing communicable diseases and mental health issues. It is third world speak for containing disease vectors as cheaply as possible. As I mention above, the old practice of SANITARIUMS is the model. It will become a Dickens' nightmare as public health is dismantled and no public oversight allows a level of neglect we do not want to allow.

You notice that ACA sends billions of dollars to fund the building of these structures and this is happening as more and more people lose private health insurance or public health plans are getting ready to be thrown into these state health systems relegating most people to the status of Medicaid.

SEE WHY NEO-LIBERALS ARE PUSHING EXPANDED MEDICAID RATHER THAN FIGHTING TO RECOVER TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS LOST FROM ENTITLEMENT TRUSTS FROM CORPORATE FRAUD.

We simply need to rebuild white collar criminal agencies and stop the massive fleecing of Medicare and Medicaid, recover funds lost to fraud, and we will be flush with money to fund a first world quality of health care for all.



HMMMMMMM.....MEDICAL ENTERPRISE ZONES SEEM TO BE THE FEDERAL MONEY BUILDING THIS SYSTEM

Community-Centered Health Homes

Community-Centered Health Homes Bridging the gap between health services and community prevention ...practices, including the patient-centered medical home,

aswww.ravenswoodfhc.org/images/pdf/community-centered...

Transforming Community Health Centers into Patient-Centered Medical Homes: The Role of Payment Reform

September 28, 2011

Authors: Leighton Ku, Ph.D., M.P.H., Peter Shin, Ph.D., M.P.H., Emily Jones, M.P.P., Brian Bruen, M.S.
Contact: Leighton Ku, Ph.D., M.P.H., Director, Center for Health Policy Research in the Department of Health Policy, George Washington University leighton.ku@gwumc.edu
Editor: Deborah Lorber

"FQHCs have long sought to provide quality team-based, comprehensive primary care and typically viewed themselves as serving as medical homes, even before there were formal definitions for medical homes."

Overview This report examines how changes in the way federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) are financed could support the transformation of these critical safety-net providers into high performing patient-centered medical homes. Through surveys and interviews, the authors explore the current landscape of health center involvement in medical home initiatives, adoption of medical home standards, and receipt of payment incentives. Based on their findings, the authors make preliminary recommendations to encourage health centers to serve as patient- and community-centered medical homes. These include: establishing recommended standards for patient- and community-centered medical homes that apply to FQHCs; structuring payment incentives to promote medical homes; including FQHCs in state Medicaid medical or health home projects; adapting payment approaches, including adding monthly case management fees; and encouraging the Health Resources and Services Administration to use quality-of-care measures in making funding decisions.

Executive Summary

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Affordable Care Act) significantly altered the landscape of American health care policy. In addition to expanding coverage to millions of uninsured and increasing funding to expand community health centers, the Affordable Care Act initiates efforts to change how health care is paid for and delivered in the United States. For example, the law encourages state Medicaid programs to develop medical homes, also known as "health homes," for Medicaid patients with chronic diseases. More broadly, the law calls on federal and state governments to consider other methods to transform health care delivery, including strategies such as creating accountable care organizations and bundling episodes of care. The large increases in the number of people with health insurance, including Medicaid patients, after the implementation of health reform will require the nation and the states to consider strategies to strengthen primary care services as part of a high performance health system.

This report examines how changes in the way federally qualified health centers are financed could support the transformation of these critical safety-net providers into high performing patient-centered medical homes. Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), also known as community health centers or clinics, are nonprofit facilities that provide comprehensive primary medical care—and often dental, vision, and behavioral health services—to low-income patients in medically underserved areas, regardless of a person's ability to pay.

In late 2009, we conducted a survey of state primary care associations, which represent community health centers in their states. We followed up this survey with interviews of selected health center, state agency, and managed care staff about medical home and quality initiatives in their states. In the majority of states, health centers receive payments to serve as primary care providers or medical homes, generally under Medicaid, and more recently have begun to serve as patient-centered medical homes. There was great diversity in the nature of medical home programs, medical home criteria, and stages of development. In some cases, private physicians are eligible for medical home payments, but health centers are not.

FQHCs have long sought to provide quality team-based, comprehensive primary care and typically viewed themselves as serving as medical homes, even before there were formal definitions for medical homes. Nonetheless, many FQHCs have demonstrated interest in attaining formal recognition as a medical home.

Preliminary data from a George Washington University survey of FQHCs, conducted from 2010 to 2011, indicate that about 6 percent of centers have attained National Committee for Quality Assurance–Patient Centered Medical Home (NCQA–PCMH) recognition, another 12 percent have a pending application, and 40 percent expect to seek recognition in the next 18 months. Some (12%) have received or applied for recognition from a state medical home program and 11 percent are considering another national recognition program. One reason some centers do not consider applying is there is no financial reward for attaining recognition, as some states do not have medical home incentive programs for FQHCs.

We present several financing recommendations to increase the incentives for FQHCs to transform themselves into high-performing medical homes:

Establish recommended standards for patient- and community-centered medical homes that apply to FQHCs. A variety of national and state recognition programs exist for medical or health homes, but they generally focus only on patient-centered medical care. Health centers also seek to provide community-centered services, such as offering access to patients regardless of ability to pay; providing nonmedical services like behavioral, dental, or enabling services (like case management, health education, and translation); and conducting community needs assessments and other prevention-oriented projects. It may be relevant to establish standards that emphasize these broader community-oriented service components.
States should include FQHCs in Medicaid health home projects. Under the Affordable Care Act, state Medicaid programs may establish health home projects for those with chronic health conditions. In the past, some state medical home programs excluded FQHCs because they are paid differently than physician practices. Since FQHCs provide primary care to a substantial and growing number of Medicaid patients, they should be included in all state Medicaid health home projects.
Clarify that states may pay FQHCs more than the levels prescribed by the prospective payment system. Although federal Medicaid policy that governs health center payments does not prevent states from paying FQHCs more than the prospective payment system (PPS) level, which is based on historical Medicaid costs and then updated, some states appear to interpret the statute as constituting a cap on FQHC payment levels.
If states adopt medical or health home incentives, providing monthly case management fees per Medicaid patient is a reasonable approach. States considering this option could add a monthly medical home case management fee, in addition to regular FQHC reimbursements, as an appropriate way to create a payment incentive for medical home status. This is already used in many states and is the method planned for the Medicare FQHC Advanced Primary Care Practice demonstration project.
Clarify how states may increase FQHC payment levels under Medicaid. Under current federal rules, states may change PPS payments to individual health centers when the centers demonstrate a change in the scope of Medicaid services. However, there is no specific provision for changing the PPS
payments when a health center increases the quality or intensity of services it provides.
Maintain the all-inclusive per-visit payment rates in Medicaid. Under federal law, Medicaid payments to FQHCs are paid on a flat, all-inclusive, per-visit (or per encounter) basis. To change the system would require substantially changing all FQHC payment rates, which would take years to develop. Given current state budget problems, in which state Medicaid programs have often trimmed provider payment rates, opening all FQHC payment rates to recalculation could place them at substantial risk of unanticipated reductions.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should ensure that Medicare policies are consistent with medical home goals. CMS has announced two Medicare advanced primary care medical home demonstration projects, one for FQHCs and one that permits multipayer projects in several states. CMS should continue to develop these projects. CMS is also actively developing policies in related areas, such as those related to Medicare accountable care organizations, and should ensure that the objectives of those policies are ultimately supportive of medical home policies as well.
The Health Resources and Services Administration has long encouraged quality of care for FQHCs and supports Section 330 grantees as NCQA–PCMHs, but could consider additional efforts. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) seeks to build on the already strong quality of care delivered by health centers by focusing on quality improvements and ways that payment reforms could affect health centers. HRSA provides grants to subsidize the cost of NCQA–PCHM applications for FQHCs that receive federal Section 330 grants. In allocating funds to grantees, HRSA has not traditionally used quality of care in funding decisions. HRSA is improving information collected about the quality of care at Section 330 grantees under its Uniform Data System. In the future, HRSA could develop incentives to improve the quality of care at health centers or performance as medical homes. It could develop further efforts to help integrate health center coordination in medical home, health home, and advanced primary care projects, working with Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program—and eventually the health insurance exchanges.

As the concept of a medical home and other paradigms to strengthen the health care infrastructure are implemented, FQHCs will serve as laboratories for innovation to test new care models. Adequate and appropriately structured financial incentives are critical to the success of any model of health care delivery, and the medical home is no exception. In addition to changes to the reimbursement system that would better align incentives, other supports for providers such as training and technical assistance are necessary to bolster and support the infrastructure.
________________________________________________


This is what happens when health care becomes about maximizing profits. Staff are not always to blame. People are being sent to do jobs for which they are not prepared. Standardization of care misses lots of individual symptoms and history. Having hedge funds operating medical care can only be a spiraling disaster for health care. SHOUT FOR EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL.

This article is a good look at what has happened as health care moves from hospital to nursing facilities, but it doesn't address the gorilla in the room------home health care skilled and non-skilled. If you know nursing homes and community care facilities are rife with bad care you know this booming national health chains of home health care businesses are really, really bad. THEY ARE. This is what all of these private for-profit career job training schools are releasing on the public and it is not pretty. The students graduating are not at fault most times....they are being steered into programs that do not prepare them for the jobs they will do and these health businesses for which they are hired are not monitored or operating legally in many cases.

THIS IS WHAT ACA DOES IN TANDEM WITH PRIVATIZATION OF EDUCATION....IT DEVELOPS A SYSTEM WHERE EDUCATION FEEDS BUSINESSES AND IT IS ALL PROFIT-DRIVEN.

So, Americans are being told they will be serviced at home at the same time academics are seeing the lowest quality of training for students entering these fields. I want to qualify that home health care businesses have been around for decades and many offer strong, quality care and staffing. What we are seeing from ACA is a flooding of the market with national chains simply there to make a buck anyway they can. This article below has a Hopkins professional reporting these shortfalls as Baltimore is ground zero in the worst health care in these kinds of facilities and Hopkins is public health in Baltimore. It's like interviewing the fox about how best to stop foxes from raiding the hen house.

DO YOU SEE HEDGE FUNDS AND GLOBAL CORPORATIONS RISING TO THE CALL TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF CARE?


'About 40 percent of people over age 65 will spend time in a nursing home at some point, Mollot said. Hopefully, he said, the inspector general’s report will help the public see that care needs to improve'.

He said,

“They are dangerous, dangerous places”.



Keep in mind with this article below that in Maryland, where Medicare is being dismantled by privatization with no Federal oversight, has the goal to end all Federal oversight of Medicare. 1/2 of Medicare spending is lost to fraud and you see Federal spending by Medicare is sent to building these skilled nursing businesses. When the Federal Medicare program is privatized to these state systems, there will be no public oversight as described in this article.

One Third of Skilled Nursing Patients Harmed in Treatment

March 16th, 2014

Special Report from ProPublica

by Marshall Allen, ProPublica

One-in-three patients in skilled nursing facilities suffered a medication error, infection or some other type of harm related to their treatment, according to a government report released recently that underscores the widespread nature of the country’s patient harm problem.

Follow up:

Doctors who reviewed the patients’ records determined that 59 percent of the errors and injuries were preventable. More than half of those harmed had to be readmitted to the hospital at an estimated cost of $208 million for the month studied — about 2 percent of Medicare’s total inpatient spending.

Patient safety experts told ProPublica they were alarmed because the frequency of people harmed under skilled nursing care exceeds that of hospitals, where medical errors receive the most attention.

Dr. Marty Makary, a physician at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore who researches health care quality, said -

“(The report) tells us what many of us have suspected ­­– there are vast areas of health care where the field of patient safety has not matured”.

The study by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) focused on skilled nursing care – treatment in nursing homes for up to 35 days after a patient was discharged from an acute care hospital. Doctors working with the inspector general’s office reviewed medical records of 653 randomly selected Medicare patients from more than 600 facilities.

The doctors found that 22 percent of patients suffered events that caused lasting harm, and another 11 percent were temporarily harmed. In 1.5 percent of cases the patient died because of poor care, the report said. Though many who died had multiple illnesses, they had been expected to survive.

The injuries and deaths were caused by substandard treatment, inadequate monitoring, delays or the failure to provide needed care, the study found. The deaths involved problems such as preventable blood clots, fluid imbalances, excessive bleeding from blood-thinning medications and kidney failure.

One patient suffered an undiagnosed lung collapse because caregivers failed to recognize symptoms. The patient later had a reaction to medication and a blood clot and had to be transferred to a hospital.

Projected nationally, the study estimated that 21,777 patients were harmed and 1,538 died due to substandard skilled nursing care during August 2011, the month for which records were sampled.

Medicare patients “deserve better,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. Nelson said he would push for better inspections of the facilities. He said,


“This report paints a troubling picture of the care that’s being provided in some of our nation’s nursing homes”.

The report said it is possible to reduce the number of patients being harmed. It calls on the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to promote patient safety efforts in nursing homes as they have done in hospitals.

The authors also suggest that CMS instruct the state agencies that inspect nursing homes to review what they are doing to identify and reduce adverse events.

In its response to the report, CMS agreed with the findings and noted that the Affordable Care Act requires nursing homes to develop Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement programs. The agency’s quality improvement work includes a website for nursing homes that was launched in 2013.

A “skilled nursing” facility provides specialized care and rehabilitation services to patients following a hospital stay of three days or more. There are more than 15,000 skilled nursing facilities nationwide, and about 90 percent of them are also certified as nursing homes, which provide longer-term care.

As hospitals have moved to shorten patient stays, skilled nursing care has grown dramatically. Medicare spending on skilled nursing facilities more than doubled to $26 billion between 2000 and 2010. About one-in-five Medicare patients who were hospitalized in 2011 spent time in a skilled nursing facility.

John Sheridan, a member of the American College of Health Care Administrators, which represents nursing home executives, called the report valuable but noted that it sampled only a small number of patients. He questioned whether the findings apply broadly to skilled nursing facilities.

Sheridan also strongly disagreed with the report’s observation that there’s less known about patient safety in skilled nursing facilities compared to hospitals. He said Medicare has robust inspections of nursing homes it certifies – they take place annually or when there are complaints and are usually conducted by state contractors. Medicare also keeps detailed data on the violations, he said. (ProPublica’s Nursing Home Inspect makes it easy to search and view Medicare inspection reports.)

Sheridan agreed that skilled nursing facilities could improve, but said the caregivers face a daunting task and work diligently despite low reimbursements Medicare pays to the facilities.

Sheridan said of the providers that -

“They don’t go to work every day to cause an adverse event. They do it to care for the residents there. They do it with sacrifice and love.”

Dr. Jonathan Evans, president of the American Medical Directors Association, a group focused on nursing home care, said while he doesn’t dispute the estimates in the inspector general’s report, they are typical of problems that exist throughout the health care sector.

Evans said that patients receiving skilled nursing care are leaving hospitals sooner and that many are not medically stable and have more intensive needs. Nursing homes, originally designed for long-term patients who did not need intensive care, and have been slow to adapt, Evans added.

He said,

“You have a system of long-term care that’s trying to retrofit to be a system for post-acute care. The resources to care for them and commitment from those sending them from one facility to another haven’t kept pace.”


Evans called the study significant and said he hopes it raises awareness and sparks improvements.

Makary, the Johns Hopkins’ doctor, said the patient safety movement has been more focused on problems at hospitals than in nursing homes.

A 2010 report by the HHS inspector general estimated that 180,000 patients a year die from bad hospital care, and other estimates have been higher. The patient safety research community has focused on reducing bloodstream infections and surgical errors at hospitals but has done less to address issues specific to nursing homes, Makary said.

Developing metrics to track improvement would be more effective than annual inspections, which don’t do a good job of capturing a facility’s everyday performance, Makary said.

Patient advocates said the study verifies what they’ve heard from skilled nursing patients and their families. Richard Mollot, executive director of New York’s Long Term Care Community Coalition, said he was “flabbergasted” by medication errors, bedsores and falls that were identified in the report.

They are prominent problems that nursing homes should be “well versed” to address, he said.

Mollot said the report should have more forcefully called for better enforcement of the existing standards in nursing homes.

States inspect nursing homes on behalf of Medicare every year and when there are complaints, he said, but some inspectors are tougher than others. Medicare’s current standards of care are good, he said, and “if they were enforced we wouldn’t have these widespread problems.”

About 40 percent of people over age 65 will spend time in a nursing home at some point, Mollot said. Hopefully, he said, the inspector general’s report will help the public see that care needs to improve.

He said,

“They are dangerous, dangerous places”.

_____________________________________________

This article show too where things will go in the US if neo-liberals remain in charge. Spain has been taken by the worst of TROIKA politicians and the public sector is being gutted and a strong public health care system and quality wages and staffing dismantled. Remember, Trans Pacific Trade Pact (TPP) and its Atlantic Trade deal pushes the dismantling of public health all over the world so US private health systems will maximize profits. Here is a former first world country moving to third world in one fell swoop. This is the goal of TPP---to take formerly first world nations to the level of developing countries under the guise of needing to be competitive globally.

THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU----ALL MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS!


Outrage as nurses are appointed at less than €4 per hour

by TPN/ Lusa, in News · 05-07-2012

Portugal’s national nurses register publicly announced on Monday that it considered it “scandalous” for nursing professionals to be placed on contracts earning less than four euros per hour and appealed for those who could “not to accept” the proposals.
Outrage as nurses are appointed at less than €4 per hour


This is a scandal for Portugal, for a first world country, that is offering highly qualified professionals at a price per hour that is incompatible with their profession and their dignity," said Germano Couto from the national nurses register Ordem dos Enfermeiros, adding that he had received "a series of denunciations" from "tens of nurses who have contracts at €3.96 per hour."


Mr. Couto spoke in reaction to news published in Diário de Noticias that nurses hired by temping agencies for the health centres of Lisbon and the Tagus Valley region who started work on Monday will receive less than four euros per hour.

He guaranteed that the news piece "is real" and "there are facts and evidence", although he added that he hoped it "isn’t more than a series of intentions" and so "may be reverted by the Lisbon and Tagus Valley regional health authority and the Ministry of Health."

Mr. Couto added that the government may be "paying more to these companies" for them to "obtain their profit" but highlighted that it is necessary to check whether these companies are fulfilling the contract conditions, as the €3.96 per hour the nurses will earn equates to €300 in their pockets at the end of the month, which doesn’t even qualify as minimum wage.

Currently, the average wage deemed acceptable for nurses in Portugal is around €1,020 per month, which is around seven euros per hour and that value "should be the yardstick the government should use."

Following the news of the reduced wages for new nursing contracts in the Lisbon area, the national nurses register has "appealed to nurses not to accept these contracts if they are able," adding that they do however understand if some go ahead "so as not to lose their status."

Mr. Couto considers that many health professionals prefer to move abroad rather than end up unemployed or lose their status, criticising that Portugal is "training nurses for export" at a time when there is need in the country.

In response to the news, the Lisbon and the Tagus Valley health authority (ARSLVT) announced that the nursing contracts were put to tender at prices per hour varying between €4.77 and €5.19 and declined any responsibility of wages being paid below four euros per hour.

The price per hour "results from the public tender whereby the companies involved presented their proposals," ARSLVT said in a statement.

The health authority said it had launched a public tender for the acquisition of nurses with a base value of €8.50 per hour, which corresponds to the average price on the market for this type of service.

"The values presented by firms that responded to the public tender were substantially lower than the base value, and all those 50 percent below it were excluded from the public tender because of the legal reason that they were abnormally low values," said the statement.


ARSLVT added that "the majority of firms presented values much reduced compared to that proposed by ARSLVT, with a price being fixed between €4.77 and €5.19" in the end.

"Negotiation of salaries and conditions is the exclusive responsibility of the firms that responded to the public tender and their staff," the regional health authority concluded.
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March 10th, 2014

3/10/2014

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We are seeing much research and organizing against Race to the Top and the intent to privatize all of K-college to Wall Street.  If you listen to corporate NPR/WYPR you hear that their sponsors are in fact these corporate education businesses having the goal of being handed our public schools.  As I said, Wall Street is using cities to build the charter structures that will then be expanded across the states and the absurd categorization of charters as 'public' will disappear to the private category in which they now fall.

Unlike what Maryland media and neo-liberals present, teacher's unions across the country as well as university academics are fighting Race to the Top and are succeeding in stopping this Wall Street funded policy.  It will be reversed as will the corporatization of our universities.

IN MARYLAND, BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR ALL SUPPORT RACE TO THE TOP AND THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP THAT IS EDUCATION PRIVATIZATION.  THEY WILL CONTINUE O'MALLEY'S KILLING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION BECAUSE THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS.

CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR WILL REVERSE THESE POLICIES BY APPOINTING PEOPLE WHO VALUE STRONG PUBLIC SCHOOLS!



Parent 'Manhandled', Arrested While Speaking Out Against Common Core At Meeting

www.youtube.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBSodYYlYu0

Good for YOU...Cindy Walsh!!!


Please watch this video of a public forum on education by Maryland Department of Education.  The Maryland media passed this protest off as a fringe group of republican voters, but if you look there I am-------as progressive democratic voter can be shouting that the public must have voices in these public policies and not be threatened with jailing for demanding this right.  I told you people in the audience actually said to me that the procedure now was to stand up and shout your views as you walk to the door so security does not throw you out.  THIS IS CRAZY STUFF FOLKS!




Thanks to the AFT for getting in the stop privatization protest.  Please shout out in Maryland as Baltimore is building a template for the
state!
 
Whether it is Parents Across America or PURE in Chicago, these parent groups are helping teachers and academics fight this dismantling of what makes the US a democratic nation.  Why do we not see these groups in Maryland and Baltimore?  The leadership is silent and fearful.  If they had a governor that supported them and not Wall Street-----they would be just as active.

CORPORATE POLS IN MARYLAND USE THE MARYLAND STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION AS AN EXAMPLE OF TEACHERS SUPPORTING RACE TO THE TOP.  YET, BELOW YOU SEE THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS----THE LARGEST UNION HAS NOW SAID ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.


Check out
Cashing in on Kids

and help us spread the word by sharing with your social networks.

American Federation of Teachers


For-profit charter schools that operate in the dark without basic public transparency and without strong public control too often put their bottom line ahead of the public interest
and high-quality public education.


  Is the rapid expansion of charter schools about helping kids learn or about enabling for-profit operators to rake in millions in tax dollars?   Find out.

So, last week, in partnership
with In the Public Interest, the AFT launched the
website Cashing in on
Kids—a one-stop shop for the facts about for-profit
education in
America.

While we are working to reclaim the promise of public education, these for-profit charters are cashing in on kids. Help us call them out.

The site profiles five for-profit charter school operators:

K12 Inc., Imagine Schools, White Hat Management, Academica and Charter
Schools USA.


It identifies several issues that need to be addressed in charter school policy, including public control, equity, transparency and accountability, and it analyzes the impact of profit-taking and privatization in charter schools, where student results are mixed and mismanagement is widespread.

Curious to see how Jeb Bush’s friends are cashing in on kids? Check it out.

We built this site because we want parents, educators and policymakers to be better
informed about the impact of profit, money and private interests in education,
particularly charter schools.

Check out Cashing in on Kids, and help us
spread the word by sharing with your social networks.

In unity,

Randi
Weingarten
AFT President

P.S. Don’t forget to “like” Cashing
in on Kids on Facebook and to follow it on Twitter.

____________________________________________

Chicago is home of these Race to the Top privatizers from Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to Obama's Education Secretary of privatizing all that is public education Arne Duncan. So, these brave teacher's unions, parents, and justice groups are fighting for all public education and schools across America......we thank them for their activism!

Baltimore is the Maryland center for building this same platform for privatizing and if left to continue will be expanded across Maryland.  Don't think it will remain in the urban centers!     



Monday, Mar 3, 2014, 7:19 pm

CPS Threatens Teachers Over Standardized Test Boycott

BY Yana Kunichoff Email Print Sarah Chambers, a teacher at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy, will not be administering the Illinois Standard Achievement Test this year—nor will any of her colleagues at Saucedo. (Chicago Teachers Union)  

Beginning Monday, teachers in schools all across Chicago are expected to sit their third- through eighth-graders down for two weeks of standardized testing. On students’ desks will be the Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT), a state-level assessment that, thanks to the nationwide move to Common Core, won’t have any bearings on school ratings, grade advancement or instructor evaluations this year.

But teachers at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Drummond Thomas Montessori School, which joined the educator-led boycott of the ISAT last week, have declined to participate. Teachers from both schools say they are willing to risk disciplinary action so their students can get two weeks of teaching, not testing.

In response to their decision, Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in a letter this week that teachers who "advocate against the ISAT on work time"—referring, the Chicago Teachers Union believes, to an instructor boycott—risk disciplinary action. Although teachers say they have not encouraged any students to opt out of the test outright, Byrd-Bennett also wrote, "The State Certification Board may take action to revoke the certification of any employee who encourages a student to boycott the ISAT."

And some administrators have taken part in the pushback, too. In a letter distributed to teachers last week, the principal of Saucedo, Isamar Vargas Colón, wrote, “Failure to conduct yourself in a manner befitting your profession will subject you to serious disciplinary consequences up to and including termination of your employment and possible action by ISBE [Illinois State Board of Education] with respect to your educator’s license.”

In an email to Saucedo teachers sent over the weekend, Colón said she would ask each individual teacher Monday morning whether they would or would not be administering the test. Colón did not respond to requests for comment.

A teacher at Saucedo, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, says the warnings are particularly concerning for the handful of untenured educators at the school.

Overall, it is unclear to what degree CPS will discipline teachers. But the union contract negotiated following the Chicago teachers’ strike in fall 2012 includes a progressive discipline clause, which, among other requirements, forbids an employer from going to the harshest disciplinary action without probation and mandates warnings from employers.

The CTU has said it doesn’t consider the district’s reaction to be an “idle threat,” and is working with lawyers on the best ways to support boycotting teachers. Jesse Sharkey, vice president of the union, called the proposed disciplinary actions “really absurd and harmful.”

Nationwide, there are few precedents for the testing boycott, and none incurred any discipline against participating teachers.

Around the same time last year, teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle—alma mater of Jimi Hendricks and Macklemore—voted unanimously not to administer the standardized Measures of Academic Progress test. Like in Chicago, Garfield teachers had the support of the many parents who had also chosen to opt out their children.

Though teachers at Garfield were initially threatened with a ten-day suspension, the Seattle Public Schools superintendent eventually backed down when several other schools joined the boycott.

In 2002, a group of teachers in Chicago at Curie Metropolitan High School boycotted the Chicago Academic Standards Exam (CASE), despite the risk of losing their jobs, because, they argued, the test took away valuable instruction time.

The test had been an issue of contention for years, and even led to the firing of one teacher who published the test in its entirety in Substance News, a teacher-run education newspaper. Eventually, district administrators, including now-Education Secretary Arne Duncan, agreed to drop the CASE and develop a new test.

Even at schools where the test is still being administered, many students and parents decided to join the boycott. More Than a Score, a national anti-high-stakes-testing group of parents and community groups, says that more than 1,000 students across the city have opted out of the ISAT tests this year. A spokeswoman for CPS confirmed that students who opted out of the test wouldn’t have to take it, but was not able to give a definitive number of opt-outs. 

Teachers, for their part, say the opt-out process was rife with disinformation and confusing signals for students, parents and instructors. In a voicemail message directed to parents and obtained by In These Times, Saucedo principal Colón said, “ISAT testing doesn’t take away two weeks of instruction …  [it] will prepare out students to take next year’s Common Core-aligned questions … also helps our school tailor better instructions.”

These claims have been refuted by Saucedo teachers in their arguments against administering the ISAT: They say the test takes more than two weeks, because teachers must help students prepare for it, and that it does not assist in educational planning in any way.


Zerlina Smith, a Saucedo parent, says she believes the teachers have the students’ best interests at heart; she hopes the ISAT boycott will go down in history as a successful one. “We send our kids to school to learn,” she says. “We put our kids in the hands of these educators, and we have to trust their decisions.”
___________________________________________
NEO-LIBERALS AND REPUBLICANS MAKE A GAME OF FLIPPING BLAME TO EACH OTHER AS BOTH PUSH THE SAME POLICIES OF HANDING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC TO WALL STREET.  DO YOU HEAR ON YOUR MEDIA OUTLET THAT PROTESTS ARE GROWING LARGER AND PROTESTORS ARE NOT THE RIGHT WING REPUBLICANS......NOT THE FAR LEFT DEMOCRATS......IT IS EVERYONE.

PLEASE REMEMBER, RACE TO THE TOP IS A REPUBLICAN POLICY WRITTEN BY CONSERVATIVE THINK TANKS AND CORPORATIONS.  SO, HATING RACE TO THE TOP UNDER NEO-LIBERALS IN CONGRESS AND OBAMA IS NOT HATING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BECAUSE THESE POLS ARE NOT DEMOCRATS....THEY ARE GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS.  DO NOT VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN BECAUSE YOU HATE RACE TO THE TOP. 

GEORGE BUSH AND DICK CHENEY WROTE MOST OF COMMON CORE AS A CAPTURE OF DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION.  CHENEY FAMOUSLY SAID HE THOUGHT HISTORY WOULD TREAT HIS ADMINISTRATION KINDLY-----WELL, THAT IS BECAUSE CHENEY AND BUSH WROTE THAT COMMON CORE HISTORY LESSON!


Below you see the groups organizing against this kind of education involve all socioeconomic groups and political leaning.  As this article tells------THIS EDUCATION POLICY SHOULD DECIDE WHO YOU ELECT AS GOVERNOR AND IT IS GOVERNORS PUSHING THESE REFORMS FOR WALL STREET. 

You will hear none of this on Maryland media because Maryland media is captured by Wall Street as are all of the democratic party by neo-liberals.
          
Education Spring ‘Year Of Action’ Revs Up


When President Barak Obama, in his State of the Union address, called for a “year of action,” he probably didn’t have this in mind.

An extensive and diverse coalition of forces opposed to the education policies pushed by his administration, and many state governors, is organizing on an unprecedented scale to spur a variety of protest actions, including street rallies, sit-ins, walk-outs, strikes, boycotts, and disruptive legislative actions and lawsuits.

It’s clear, last year’s emerging Education Spring that revealed a nationwide movement of diverse factions opposed to unpopular education policies has now developed substantial new organizational capacity and a more powerful voice.

The “new populism,” as my colleague Robert Borosage reveals, that is defining the economic debate in 2014 is also firing a new populist movement to reject failed education policy mandates and call for new reforms of our public education system.


“Movements grow,” Borosage reminds us, “only when harsh reality is combined with dedicated organizers and teachers.” Well, the “dedicated organizers and teachers” for a populist education movement have arrived.

Meet The Organizers And Teachers

This week, hundreds of activists are gathering in Austin, Texas for the first annual meeting of the Network for Public Education, a group with a stated opposition to the status quo education policies pushed by federal and state governments, including “high-stakes testing, privatization of public education, mass school closures,” and “for-profit management of schools.”

Headlining the meeting are prominent critics of the nation’s current education policies, including education historian Diane Ravitch, Texas superintendent John Kuhn, and Chicago Teachers’ Union President Karen Lewis. A contingency is expected from a group calling themselves the Bad Ass Teachers Association that has the expressed “aim to reduce excess testing, increase teacher autonomy, and include teacher-family voices in legislative processes.”

This gathering comes on the heels of recent news stories about Testing Resistance and Reform Spring, “a new coalition of national groups,” explains a report in Education Week, that “hopes to bring together a growing number of grassroots boycotts, protests, and petitions aimed at reducing and revamping student testing.”

Valerie Strauss on her blog at The Washington Post explains, “The emergence of the alliance represents a maturing of the grassroots testing resistance that has been building for several years locally in states, including Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois.” This opposition, notes Strauss, contends that the Obama administration has gone beyond the excesses of high-stakes standardized testing mandated by No Child Left Behind legislation under the administration of President George W. Bush.

Among the first actions promoted by TRRS is an event in Denver Colorado, March 28-30, convened by United Opt Out, an organization “dedicated to the elimination of high stakes testing in public education” by advocating for boycotting standardized tests that are used to make “high-stakes” decisions about students, teachers, and schools.

Other events are being planned across the country.

Not to be left out of this new education populism are the students. Student activist Hannah Nguyen writes, “Students all over the United States, from Portland to Chicago to Providence, are tired of feeling powerless when it comes to decisions that affect their education … They’ve begun to organize together, forming student unions and fighting back against threats to their education, such as budget cuts, high stakes testing, and school closings. From mass walkouts and sit-ins to creative street theatre and flash mobs, these students are demanding that their voices be heard.”

Nguyen is widely known from a video that went viral over the Internet showing her taking on former Washington, DC chancellor Michelle Rhee and saying, “I used to stand by reformers, I will admit it, I did. But after seeing the facts, and the data and everything, and my own lived experience, I cannot –  I’m sorry – stand by what you preach if it has to do with high-stakes accountability, this ‘school choice’ … [and] charter schools, and how they push out certain students.”

Nguyen is now involved with the grassroots Students United for Public Education, “a national network of students who are committed to fighting for educational equity in America and to work collectively to organize action that works towards this vision.”


SUPE has worked with other student activists to organize the event EmpowerED: Los Angeles Student Power 2014 on March 29. The meeting claims to be “the first education conference led by students, for students,” drawing student organizers from Chicago, Newark, Portland, Providence, and Baltimore to “work with the student organizers in workshops to build organizing skills, discuss their ideas for education, and collaborate on developing a student power movement in their community.”

This spreading network of activist, organizers, and advocates is accompanied by teacher union activism that pushes the needs of students to the fore.

New Form Of Union Activism Emerges

Along with the grassroots direct action ramping up, a new form of union activism is connecting teachers’ labor grievances to their students’ learning conditions.

Earlier this month, when teachers in Portland, Oregon threatened to strike they made students learning conditions – particularly class sizes – a focal point of their grievances. District administration conceded to “hire 150 teachers to reduce class sizes and teacher workloads,” fewer than the 170 new positions teachers requested, but vastly exceeded the 88 new teacher hires proposed by the district.

When teachers made class size a main rationale for the threatened strike, they drew widespread approval from students and parents in Portland.


Also this month, in St. Paul, Minnesota, when negotiations faltered and the union considered authorizing a strike, the teachers made clear their actions were not over salary and working conditions, but over the students’ learning conditions. Those conditions included, according to a local report, limits on class sizes, less instructional time devoted to testing, increased student-support personnel, and expanded slots in the district’s pre-k program. It’s clear from the report that students and parents vocalized strong support for the teachers’ demands.

When a deal was reached and terms were announced this week, teachers got most of what they wanted: limited class sizes, less time spent on testing, and more consideration of increased student support staff and expanded Pre-k.

Too often in recent times, teacher unions have been portrayed as motivated by the narrow self-interest of their members. But the strategies exemplified by teachers in Portland and St. Paul turned that perception on its head.

Voices Louder, Stakes Higher

A year ago, the nation was roiled by the widespread, unified backlash to top-down education mandates driven by corporate interests, private foundations, and promoters of a market-based philosophy for education. The protests had huge impacts on elections for mayor in New York City and school board in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

This year, the voices of dissent are louder and the stakes are far higher. More states are pausing education mandates and challenging the status quo of high-stakes testing. “Testing season begins soon in U.S. public schools … But this year is filled with tumult,” reports Lindsey Layton for The Washington Post.

State elections this year will determine the fate of three-dozen governors and more than 6,000 legislators. Education, always a more important issue in these local races, could make or break some political contests. No candidate can afford to ignore the new education populism.


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This article shows how a candidate runs as a progressive and then simply serves as a neo-liberal.  Those who follow politics knew de Blasio was a Clinton neo-liberal embracing a few progressive bones to be electable.  Indeed he was elected by a landslide showing what the citizens want.  But, as with Obama, what we elect and what we get are now two different things as it is now OK to lie about platforms.  IT IS GOOD THAT THE OUTPOURING OF VOTERS WAS PROGRESSIVE.  WE SIMPLY NEED TO MAKE SURE OUR CANDIDATES ARE TOO!  You need to look beyond the standard 'progressive issue of the day' that neo-liberals put out to appease the masses......like minimum wage increases.

Baltimore education reform is controlled by Bloomberg and Wall Street through Johns Hopkins and all of this current public schools building fund leverage has to do with exactly the same issues Diane speaks to in the article.  The intent is to hand all of the remodeled schools over to charters having the public paying for the infrastructure for what will become private charter schools run by national chains.  Same thing happening with the MTA privatization of public transportation.

Leveraging school reconstruction of one billion dollars at a time government budgets are strained from the massive corporate frauds of last decade still waiting for justice-----at a time when Wall Street is imploding the economy again-----is simply a plan to have these Wall Street contracts in place so at the time of collapse government default will hand all these schools over to the private investors protected against the crash by CDS....credit default swaps.  HANDING OVER THE SCHOOL BUILDINGS AS THEY ARE FILLING THE SCHOOLS WITH CORPORATE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS CONTROLLING ALL POLICY IN THE SCHOOL BUILDINGS while parents are told this is what they want.

Remember, what is happening in NYC is happening in Baltimore.  You see Cuomo as with O'Malley behind pushing these policies and by no coincidence----they are both running for President in 2016.  NEO-LIBERALS GETTING THE PRESS!

DID YOU KNOW THAT BERNIE SANDERS IS AGAINST THIS PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND IN FACT VERMONT HAS LITTLE OF THIS POLICY BEING IMPLEMENTED!


THAT IS CORPORATE TOTALITARIANISM AS NOAM CHOMSKY SAYS!


Look for you education news at websites of groups fighting this reform!

Diane Ravitch's Blog: The Big Lie about Mayor Bill de Blasio and Charters



Diane Ravitch March 6, 2014
  • Diane Ravitch's Blog
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The New York City tabloids–whose owners are zealous about charter schools–have whipped up a frenzy against Mayor Bill de Blasio because he did not approve every single charter application rushed through the Bloomberg board at its last meeting in October 2013. That board, which never said no to Mayor Bloomberg, approved an unprecedented 49 charter applications, some of which are co-locations.

A co-location means that a charter, which is operated by a private board of directors, gets public space in a public school. The public school has to surrender “empty” rooms that were previously used for art, music, resource rooms for special education, and any other space that is not considered a classroom. The regular public schools–attended by 94% of all public school children, must be overcrowded to make room for the charters. Because the charters are heavily subsidized by private funding, they typically renovate the space (not good enough for them), and their students have the latest and best of everything. In New York City, the term “academic apartheid” is becoming a reality, in the very same building. In some co-located spaces, the children in the charters have separate entrances, to keep the others out of their space.

De Blasio had to decide what to do with so many co-locations. The city already has 183 charters.

He approved 39 of the 49. He turned down 9, and one is under review.

Let me say that again. He approved 39 of 49. That is hardly anti-charter. In fact, many public school parents are outraged that their schools will now be forced to give up space to a charter that operates under different ownership (private).

Of the 9 that were denied, three were destined for Eva Moskowitz’s charter chain called Success Academy.

But of the 39 that were approved, Eva won three.

Instead of celebrating the addition of three new charter schools to her growing chain (the largest in the city), Eva has gone on the warpath, claiming that de Blasio is anti-charter and wants to hurt the poor black and brown children she serves.

The media do not know that her schools do not serve the same demographic as the children in the public schools. She enrolls fewer children with special needs and fewer English language learners. Her schools have a high suspension and attrition rate.

Her logic seems to be that since she gets high test scores (note the above sentence as one does tend to get high scores by keeping out low-scoring students), she deserves to get whatever space she wants, rent-free.

By that logic, the city should give extra privileges to students with high scores, and should take away space and privileges and programs from those with low scores.

This makes no sense.

Public schools must serve all children, not just those who can get high scores on standardized tests. Public schools must serve children who don’t speak any English. They must serve children who have severe disabilities. They must serve those who have emotional and social problems. They must serve those who have all kinds of problems and who are unwilling or unable to walk in a straight line.

It is sad that Governor Andrew Cuomo threw his political weight on Eva Moskowitz’s side. As governor of the state, he is responsible for all children, not just the precious few in charter schools.

Everyone understands that the hedge fund managers and equity investors are supporting Eva’s fight against de Blasio. He has already annoyed them by saying he wants them to pay a slightly higher tax rate to fund universal pre-kindergarten. The charter school fight gives them a chance to strike back at him, while pretending “it’s all about the kids.” They would like nothing better than to take down New York City’s first progressive mayor in at least 20 years (some one say even longer).

De Blasio has not declared war on charters. He has made a judgment. Many public school parents are angry that he approved 39 out of 49 charter co-locations. Eva and the tabloids think she should have whatever she wants.

The question before the Mayor is whether he will continue to fund a dual school system–one sector able to choose the students it wants–and the other sector serving all. He is trying to have it both ways, and it doesn’t work. He gave the charter lobby almost everything it wanted, and they still came after him as if he had given them nothing at all.

This blog post, which first appeared on the Diane Ravitch's Blog (http://dianeravitch.net) website, has been shared by permission from the author.
Readers wishing to comment on the content are encouraged to do so via the link to the original post.
Find the original post here:


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For those wanting to know the goal of all of this privatization policy look to conservative and neo-liberal think tanks like Fordham Institute and Brookings Institution where all this policy is written.  You see the goal is online K-12 which falls with the policy of ending teachers in the classroom and having education techs who just facilitate the classroom connection to these online lessons.  Common Core works with this standardization and control of all information content as these few online instructors come to all schools across America.

None of this has to do with quality teachers......what is good for achievement......what is good for developing strong community and business leaders.  It is about building the cheapest model to educate children for specific vocations with tracking determined
by pre-K testing of children.  Businesses will profit off of selling education data.  IT IS ALL ABOUT PROFIT AND CORPORATE EXPANSION OF EDUCATION GLOBALLY.


FOR THOSE REPUBLICANS IN MARYLAND PRETENDING AS THOUGH THEY FEEL THEIR CONSERVATIVE VOTER'S PAIN......ALL OF THESE POLICIES ARE WRITTEN BY WALL STREET IN CONSERVATIVE THINK TANKS.  BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS THE SOURCE OF COMMON CORE AND RACE TO THE TOP. 

So, to stop this we need to shake the neo-liberal bugs from the democratic party rug by running and voting for labor and justice!!!!!


NOTICE YOU WILL NOT HEAR CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR TALKING ON MARYLAND MEDIA ABOUT MY PLATFORM ISSUES.  YOU WILL ONLY HEAR BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZE


Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning



John E. Chubb Fordham Institute February 14, 2012

Michael K. Barbour March 22, 2012 Press Release → Media Citations →

This fifth and final paper in the Fordham Institute’s series examining digital learning policy is Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning. The purpose of this report is to outline the steps required to move the governance of K-12 online learning from the local district level to the less restrictive state level and to create a free market for corporate innovation in K-12 online learning. Unfortunately, the report is based on an unsupported premise that K-12 online learning will lead to increased student achievement. The body of research to date suggests that there is no learning advantage for virtual schools. Further, no evidence is presented that supports the wisdom or efficacy of centralizing governance at the state level or that moving to a market model is a superior, productive or economical practice. The recommendation that virtual schools should be funded at the same per-pupil amount as traditional public schools raises the question of profiteering, given Fordham’s claim that virtual schools operate more economically (a claim for which there is limited evidence). This report appears to be ideologically motivated and designed to open up the $600 billion market of K-12 education to for-profit corporations.




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February 20th, 2014

2/20/2014

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I am going to stay with education a day or so more as I listen to corporate WYPR tell us that this education reform...Race to the Top WILL CONTINUE even as most citizens in Maryland do not want it.  Again, we had to listen to Maryland State Education Association say that its union supports these policies and yet, every county I know of is shouting they do not want this kind of reform.  MSEA is like NEA......they are made up of appointed education officials who then hire like minded people.  They are bureaucrats for the Maryland State Department of Education.  So, if you have a neo-liberal President like Obama who appoints a raging corporate education-privatizer like Arne Duncan as US Education Secretary, Duncan then fills his department heads with education privatizers and all of them are Federal union employees.  The same happens at the state level.  Neo-liberal O'Malley, Maryland's governor, appoints all of the heads of Maryland State Education and he appoints education-privatizers too.  Those department heads hire people who want to implement privatization policy.  These people are state union employees and indeed, there may be 17,000 of them.  They are bureaucrats.......

Meanwhile, rank and file teachers all across the state are saying that this education union does not speak for them....and it doesn't.  It works for O'Malley and Bill Gates/Wall Street.  So, from Montgomery County to republican counties to Baltimore City and County......teachers and parents are shouting and it is growing as fear of retaliation is overcome by the shear ignorance of these Race to the Top policies.  WHEN WYPR SAYS THAT THESE POLICES WILL BE IMPLEMENTED, WHAT THEY ARE SAYING IS THAT WITH THE CURRENT CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR.....ALL OF THEM WILL CONTINUE THESE REFORMS BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL NEO-LIBERALS------BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR.  It is the Executive office of governor and mayor/county executive that decides if these reforms continue----NOT WYPR OR THE 1%.

The answer is running and voting for labor and justice to boot neo-liberals out of the democratic party-----they are not democrats.  Then, that labor and justice governor will appoint leaders to state education that are democratic education policy-makers and the MSEA will then shout out for strong public schools and not privatized schools that kill teachers.
I will email the MSEA to take a look at my website to know what is happening in education since many of them are probably simply business people.

I showed a good piece on corporatization of education so let's look some more at research that says none of this is worth the money, time, and effort and again, what the end-goal looks like.

There are two world leaders today in educating their citizens....Finland and South Korea.  WE THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA WANT THE FINLAND MODEL AND neo-liberals/Brookings Institution want the South Korean model.


IN FACT......NEO-LIBERALS CREATED THIS SOUTH KOREAN MODEL AFTER THE WAR EVEN AS THEY DISMANTLED THE #1 RANKED PUBLIC EDUCATION MODEL IN THE US TAKING AMERICA FROM THE RIGOR AND RESOURCES THAT MADE IT #1.  THEY DID THAT BECAUSE THE US MODEL IN THE MID-1950s WAS THE SAME AS THE FINLAND MODEL TODAY.  FINLAND IS #1 TODAY BECAUSE IT USES THE MODEL AMERICA USED TO HAVE.

Confusing yeah?  Not really.  Finland's model is a social democratic model full of public revenue supported public schools and lots of resources for these schools and well-paid and well-protected teachers as employees.....just as the US had before Reagan/Clinton dismantled it.


FINLAND'S MODEL CAME FROM THE US EDUCATION SYSTEM WHEN WE HAD A SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.  REAGAN AND CLINTON KILLED THIS BECAUSE THEY WANTED PRIVATIZED SCHOOLS WITH NO PUBLIC FUNDING SINCE CORPORATIONS AND THE RICH DO NOT PAY TAXES AND WHAT IS LEFT IS SENT FOR CORPORATE SUBSIDY.

So, the US has this model for success in public education that existed before neo-liberals got hold of our government.


Today I wanted to look at South Korea to show where neo-liberals are wanting to take the US......and tomorrow I will show Finland and how its school system mirrors what America had when it was a social democracy!  Note below the article that shows Korean citizens want to move towards the Finland model and Korean teachers are shouting against the same policies of Race to the Top as US teachers are!

KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS KOREAN MODEL WAS POLICY FROM THE SAME NEO-LIBERAL THINK TANKS FORCING THESE POLICIES ON AMERICA RIGHT NOW!

S. Korean teacher earns $4M a year, but isn't proud of success

Posted: Wed 8:38 PM, Feb 19, 2014 Local 8 NOW TV

SEOUL -- He commutes in a chauffeured Mercedes, makes more than $4 million a year -- and he's an English teacher.

Forty-four-year-old Kim Ki-Hoon is a private tutor who is thriving in South Korea's test-score-obsessed, academic-crazed culture. Kim teaches in a "hagwon," or "cram school," part of the $17 billion after-school learning industry.

CBS News was with Kim at the school on a Saturday afternoon; he says studying on weekends is typical.

Kim appears on TV shows featuring "star teachers." His students say his teaching is more engaging -- and practical -- than most. And to show his human -- almost geeky -- side, he'll bust out the guitar.

"I was inspired about his lectures," says 22-year-old Seung Jun-Yang. Seung says a typical school day starts at 7 a.m. and kept him studying past 1 a.m.

Students cheer on classmates before big exams, in this country where more than 70 percent of kids go to college. Competition is so fierce that parents can be seen praying for their kids' success.

But when asked what the long hours of schooling mean for students, Seung says, "Personally, I think, depression time."

Kim agreed.

"I'm not actually proud of my success," he says. "The other side of the coin is the inefficiency of Korean education."

While an international educational poll ranks Korean students at the top for academics, they're at the bottom for happiness. Kim is trying to change that.

"This is my favorite place to be, and I am happiest when I'm teaching," he says.

If we had to guess, going to the bank isn’t too bad, either.


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If you listen to Obama he is using the same hype that Koreans use to support their education.  COMPETITION---BEST OF THE BEST---LIMITED SPACES IN TOP SCHOOLS.

Sadly, Obama is one big corporate hawker.


Obama Praises Korean Education System?

by Robert Koehler on March 12, 2009 in Korean Society

As you all already know, US President Barack Obama praised the Korean education system yesterday:

“Our children _ listen to this _ our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea every year,” Obama told a gathering at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here. “That’s no way to prepare them for a 21st-century economy.”

As the KT points out, this comes as a shock to many in Korea, land of the “goose father,” international school controversies, constant bitching about private tutoring and never-ending talk of public education reform.


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While neo-liberals in the US try to force this Race to the Top privatization model they used in South Korea on Americans......Koreans are saying they do not like or want it as it takes all the quality of life and choice from life.....not very democratic!

Please keep in mind.....it is a neo-liberal policy that America must compete in global markets to be #1 and all of this is to make the rich richer.  It has nothing to do with what is good for the country or you and I.

OECD education report: Korea’s school system a pressure cooker for children South Korea's education system is so controversial hundreds of thousands of pupils seek education overseas South Korea's education system is highly focused on examination results

 Photo: Alamy By Andrew Salmon, Seoul

1:36PM GMT 03 Dec 2013


It has been praised by President Barack Obama and delivered top-five results for South Korea in global literacy and numeracy tests, but among Koreans themselves, the education system is so controversial that hundreds of thousands become educational emigrants.

he regimented by-the-book teaching system leaves nothing to chance.

“I have a friend in the US who is a swimming instructor and she guides her students to learn the best personalized swimming techniques for themselves, but this takes a long time to develop,” said Kim Won-sook, headmistress of central Seoul’s Jangwon Middle School. “In Korea, educators teach everything: The methods, the techniques - even how to practice.”

Teaching is egalitarian, but by favoring the average student, she added, does not cater well to slow or advanced learners.

“Korean education cannot produce geniuses,” added Sue Kim, an educational reporter at Korea’s leading daily, The Chosun Ilbo. “We don’t have any Nobel laureates, but we can produce a lot of Samsung mid-level managers.”


The system is highly focused on examination results.

The modern equivalent of the old state-run Confucian exams is the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test, or KSAT, which streams students for universities. In a society burdened with nepotism, cronyism and corruption, it is one of the few areas of Korean society that is scrupulously fair.

But intense focus on exam scores creates an irony: knowledge is often eschewed in favor of test preparation. “I have a nephew who is very literate but his mother says, “I don’t want him to read, as he won’t pass his tests,’” said Emanuel Pastreich, a Harvard professor of Asian Studies teaching at Seoul’s Kyunghee University. “In Korea you have to know the right answer to every question, but in the US or Europe, the process of getting to the answer is much more important,” added education journalist Kim.

Likewise, Koreans often consider skill less important than qualification. A Japanese chef working in Seoul noted that after graduating from a cooking institute in Italy, he decided to gain real experience working in Italian kitchens. Meanwhile, his Korean counterparts at the institute, having gained their certificates, flew home and opened restaurants.

Egalitarian school teaching, combined with pressure to ace exams and enter prestige universities, has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry of cram schools that offer children a chance to get ahead; Kim the reporter noted that when her daughter entered elementary school, every single new student could already read.

“Parents prepare their children before school, so what is happening is that everyone in the classroom is equally prepared,” she said. “They are equally far advanced of the curriculum - and that is happening at every level.”   THIS IS THE TIGER MOM APPROACH THAT IS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY.....

Hakwon are as notable in Korean towns as pubs are in British, but British children might quail at the hours their Korean counterparts spend in them: Teens commonly leave school and attend hakwon until midnight.

“Kids sleep in school and stay up for the hakwons,” said Pastreich.

Scholastic pressures are so great that suicide is the number-one killer of South Koreans under 40 (compared to traffic accidents in other developed nations), while educational cost burdens are so colossal, they are cited as a factor in the declining national birth rate.

As a result, many Koreans are opting out and studying abroad. In 2012, 154,100 Koreans were enrolled in foreign universities and 85,000 were doing overseas language courses, according to ICEF Monitor, an educational data provider. And in November, Seoul’s Kyungyang Shinmun newspaper estimated that 5 percent of Korean families live apart, with the husband working in Korea, while the wife accompanies children studying overseas:


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Obama and neo-liberals follow Brookings Institution/neo-liberal policy and as such......choose a South Korean/Chinese model for education. Both are very autocratic and have intense competition with children frazzled with constant testing, study, and winners and losers. China has the model of tracking children into vocational schools according to how the state makes the assessment. THIS IS THE MODEL BEING USED BY NEO-LIBERALS IN STATES ACROSS THE COUNTRY....PHILLY AND BALTIMORE FIRST AND FOREMOST.

Below you see South Korean teachers shouting out 'enough is enough' as they reject the very model being forced on Americans right now.


DID YOU KNOW THE SAME NEO-LIBERAL INSTITUTIONS BEHIND RACE TO THE TOP INSTALLED THIS EDUCATION SYSTEM IN SOUTH KOREA AFTER THE WAR?

South Korea: Education union challenges standardised testing
(20 June 2012)The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) has challenged the South Korean Government to eliminate Korean Standardised Testing. The KTU, an EI affiliate, argues that the measurement of a teacher’s worth should not rely on standardised testing.

Members of KTU and education civic organizations protest in front of the building of the Ministry of Education in Seoul on 12 June The KTU held a press conference to raise this demand together with education related civic organizations in front of the Ministry of Education in Seoul on 12 June.

Schools in South Korea’s 16 provincial education offices have their budgets allocated according to the Standardised Testing Results (so-called Ilje-gosa), which are made available to the public.

Schools with the highest scores receive more money than those with lower scores. This, explained KTU President Jang Seok-woong, “puts a strong pressure on the schools to get a high grade on the testing by fair means or foul”.

Teaching to the test

“Implementing standardised testing since 2008, the Government has driven teachers and students into cutthroat competition and spread the philosophy of teaching only to the test, narrowing the school curriculum,” he added.

When the tests were initially imposed on public schools in 2008, the Ministry of Education dismissed 14 KTU teachers who exercised their right to opt out of the test, after conferring with students and parents regarding whether or not they wanted to participate in the standardised exam.

The Lee Myung-bak administration has undertaken a brutal attack against unionised teachers over the last five-year period. This has included the dismissal of 16 KTU executive members, the suspension of 67 union staff members, suppression of teachers' freedom of speech, and restriction of teachers' trade union rights and freedoms.

Educators at heart of debate

EI supports South Korean educators, parents and students in their struggle against test-driven education and the misuse of standardised testing to gauge teaching standards. EI firmly believes that educators and education unions should lead the debate about defining quality and excellence in teaching.


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Neo-liberals in the US are trying to install the same education model as they did in South Korea after the Korean War. As you can see below.....the citizens of Korea do not want it. As neo-liberals installed this model in Korea.....they dismantled the US model now shown with the Finland education system. This model was ranked #1 when America used it and it is now #1 with Finland and uses social democracy.....while Korea's is autocratic and cruel....neo-liberalism.



Neoliberal Ideology And The Restructuring Of Education In South Korea: The Continued Struggle For Democratic Social Reform, Workers’ Rights And Cham

Elizabeth Goggin, SIT Graduate InstituteFollow


Publication Date 2009

Degree Name MA in Social Justice in Intercultural Relations

First Advisor Janaki Natarajan

Abstract The history of South Korean education has been turbulent and contentious among its citizenry in the six decades since the country’s inception. Following Japanese colonial rule the political and governmental affairs of the country remained largely in the hands of the Japanese sympathizers making up South Korea’s ruling class at the time, which included the formation and administration of the education system. The United States, having had an integral role in the creation and development of the South Korean state, also influenced the trends and design models used to enact education reform, especially since military rule ended in 1993. This political transition in South Korea signaled the arrival of neoliberal economic policies and the evolution of the school reform movement from the previously promoted standard of equal education for students to a system valuing competition above all else. This paper examines the particular role of neoliberal political ideology in schools and how it has impacted education for students and professional freedom for teachers. In doing so, it attempts to answer the question: How have the legacy of a colonial education system and more recent neoliberal reforms in South Korea affected teachers and students? Through a series of interviews with members of the Korean Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union (KTU) and students in a private girls high school in Seoul, it deals with themes of hierarchy in schools, heightened competition, the loss of labor rights, political rifts and the increasing disparity in educational opportunity. It is argued that neoliberal reform policies, heightened under the Lee Myung-bak administration, have been detrimental to the formation of an independent and egalitarian South Korean education system and have damaged the teachers’ movement for democratic control of schools.

Disciplines Curriculum and Social Inquiry | International and Comparative Education

Recommended Citation Goggin, Elizabeth, "Neoliberal Ideology And The Restructuring Of Education In South Korea: The Continued Struggle For Democratic Social Reform, Workers’ Rights And Cham" (2009). Capstone Collection. Paper 1316.
http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/1316



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As you see this reform is being forced on all Western nations by neo-liberals who have temporary control of our government.  As this article shows, the goal is to make education about job training and less about educating for a democracy.....building citizens.  Remember, the only reason jobs are scarce and the economy is stagnant is that Wall Street made it that way with massive fraud and corruption and wants to keep it that way because a desperate labor force can be exploited.  Global markets allow these corporations to consolidate all business into one ownership and then to seek profits overseas even as they keep the domestic economy stagnant.  THIS WAS THE GOAL OF REAGAN, CLINTON, BUSH, AND NOW OBAMA AS NEO-LIBERALS/NEO-CONS.

So, students should not have to feel pressured by competition to get into schools.....to obtain and compete for jobs.....all of which this education reform pretends is necessary.

STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES.  RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE AND TAKE BACK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM THESE CORPORATE POLS.  WE SIMPLY NEED TO REVERSE TH


Neoliberalism and the commercialization of higher education

By Holly Brentnall

SUNDAY JULY 28, 2013  The International

  With neoliberalization university students are becoming increasingly career driven rather than critically engaging with their education. Cuts in spending and the replacement of academic staff by technology are not the only pressures faced by British academia. Increasingly, education is fashioning students into a productive labor force rather than teaching them more traditional academic ideals.

Last year’s plans to raise tuition fees in Britain to a maximum of £9000, $13,731 at today’s exchange rate, were coterminous with cuts of £2 billion in funding for education. Universities’ lack of funding caused them to compensate for lost income by hiking up tuition fees. This is perceived as disastrous for Britain’s progression up the global league tables, which, conducted by the Times educational supplement, rank universities by teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. With increasing competition from universities around the world, the UK’s University and College Union warns that Britain is at risk of being left behind.

The neoliberal turn to privatization and the commercialization of education is an area of concern for British universities. Since the 1980s, neoliberalism has been expressing itself in university syllabi. Abandoning previous values of critical-thinking and challenging basic assumptions, the focus leans towards teaching vaguely defined “skills” such as “teamwork,” “communication” and “leadership.”

Such effects are evident in the recently “enhanced” course guides at the London School of Economics (LSE). The LSE is a private university that specializes in the social sciences and ranks third in the university league tables for the UK. The university’s new course guides include ‘skills’-sets that lecturers have to tick off as they incorporate them into their lessons. Such an approach propounds an entrepreneurial attitude over the goals previously associated with the social sciences. As sociologist Stephen Ball claims, in such institutions students as commodities transforms education into a “big business” rather than education for education’s sake.

What is neoliberalism?

In the 1970s, responding to a period of stagflation (inflation with rising unemployment), former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan were the first to advocate the creeds of neoliberalism. This involved political-economic practices of privatization and deregulation besides the promotion of free markets and free trade. Neoliberalism rapidly spread across all G7 countries (the seven wealthiest countries on earth, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan) before being imposed via violent military coups onto many countries in the ‘developing’ world, including Iraq, Poland and most of South America.

According to geographer and anthropologist, David Harvey, proponents of neoliberalism hold positions of incredible power in university think-tanks as well as in financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The main intent of neoliberalism is to generate wealth by opening up countries to free trade, trade between countries that is not regulated by the government, allowing for deviance from ethical practices. However, studies such as those by economists Duménil and Lévy indicate that the primary effect of neoliberal strategies across the world has been for wealth to become increasingly concentrated within the richest strata of society. According to these studies, neoliberalism does not even improve economic growth, with global growth falling by almost 3% last year. In contrast, countries such as India and South Korea, spared from certain aspects of neoliberalism, saw rapid growth thanks to investment in industry.

Other implications of neoliberalism include the reduced power of organized labor, increased productivity paralleled by declining wages in order to extract more value, and most poignantly, as analysts such as David Harvey have found, the pumping of wealth from the poorest to the richest members of society via transfer pricing and cheap migrant labour.

Neoliberalism and higher education

Many academics are against the reforms in education taking place, whilst others argue that it is a necessity in a time of economic crisis. Doctor Jason Hickel, lecturer in Economic Anthropology at the LSE explains, “This seems like a relatively innocuous change, but to me it’s a sign that the way we think about higher education is changing for the worse.” Some might reject this, claiming that teaching career-orientated skills are crucial in order to bolster students against the current economic climate. “Of course, students need to get jobs upon graduating. I am sensitive to that.

The proponents of the New Enhanced Course Guides argue that students will be able to use the language from the skills section to fill out their CVs and to convince employers to hire them.” Nevertheless, as Hickel argues, “The kinds of skills that the New Enhanced Course Guides [at the LSE] include, reflect the language of the corporate world and the ethic of entrepreneurial self-management. Even if they didn’t, they would still send students the wrong message, namely, that education is designed to equip individuals with marketable skills, and that the ultimate end goal is productivity.”

Furthermore, the way people are taught will have transformative effects on the world as a whole, as generations of students progress into the jobs market and foreign students return to their countries of origin, carrying with them the neoliberal articles of faith. After coming home with neoliberal values, many American-educated students led military coups in which the pursuit of commercial ideals implicated the death of hundreds of thousands. This was the case for Chile in 1973, where the insurgent government was led by US-educated graduates. More recently, in 2009, a coup in Honduras was led by graduates taught at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a US training ground based in Georgia, which has been linked to to torture cases, dictatorships and military coups. Countries that experienced such coups, according to data gathered by the CIA, are among the most economically unequal in the world. With an intake of students from 145 different countries, spanning from South America to the South East Asia, the global impact of education at universities such as the LSE will be equally significant.

Besides the circulation of powerful neoliberal ideologies throughout academia, tuition hikes also become subject to marketization, the treatment of education as a business and students as a future labour force. Evidencing this, one year into its term in office, the British Conservative Party held meetings to discuss how universities could help contribute to growth in the economy.

In this process of marketization, austerity measures have led to increased tuition fees, which students find increasingly difficult to pay and applications to universities are declining. In 2011, there was a decrease of 20,000 applications. This implicates the bursting of the tuition bubble which has led to a further neoliberal assault on education through managerial-imposed readjustments of academic faculties as well as closures of poorly achieving departments. This in turn has led to declining moral and increased strategic competition between academic staff.

Education has also become increasingly quantified via standardized testing, as universities and departments are ranked by performance in a way that brushes over divergences in opinion, steering the control of curriculum and organization of departments. With layoffs as well as cessations of entire disciplines in certain universities, underachievement is blamed upon the teachers rather than the effects of reduced funding.

For example, the closure of Exeter University’s chemistry department in 2006, determined principally by financial motives, was met by vociferous resentment on the part of the chemists as well as students, academic unions and the Royal Society of Chemistry. The department was shut down due to its low position in the university ranking, the high cost of running its laboratories and in order to attract further grants. Students and teachers alike responded with letters and emails of complaint. Nevertheless, the university’s director, Steven Smith, persisted in this profit-making tactic.

What are the viable alternatives?

Neoliberal techniques involve the commercialization of education, focusing principally on preparing students for the world of work. As Hickel argues, “Those of us who teach in the liberal arts and social sciences generally reject this approach. We encourage our students to value learning for its own sake, and we try to sow in them a passion for asking difficult questions about the world and equip them to think critically about taken-for-granted assumptions.”

From the start of the 21st century, academics and institutions have started calling for a revival of the cosmopolitan ethic (‘an injury to one is an injury to all’), which provides tangible alternatives to neoliberalism. Others advocate Democratic Learning, which, in drawing on the views of the educator, John Dewey, provides a framework for teachers, involving methods influenced by the students themselves and, takes a humanist approach to teaching, concerned with human welfare. So doing, lecturers will supply students with the tools necessary to become fully active democratic citizens. As Hickel claims, “We need to be empowering students to resist this kind of commodification of everything rather than encouraging it, especially given that all indicators seem to suggest that it’s leading our society down a dead-end road. For us, higher education is more about learning how to challenge the status quo rather than simply learning how to climb the ladder.”

On the other hand, some take a less optimistic view of British education. As Tarak Barkawi, lecturer in Politics at the New School for Social Research explains, “For many years now in the UK, faculty have been forced to put things on their syllabi (like learning aims and outcomes) so that battle was lost some time ago.” Barkawi also introduces yet another side of the debate: “For what it is worth, the neoliberal modernizers are bad, but so too are those who cite traditional academic values to protect cosy jobs, or to not do their jobs, or to carry on doing what they always have done. So you have to be a little careful at taking everything at face value.”

As broached by Barkawi, the commercialization of British education is not a black and white issue but a more nuanced matter of much contention. There are those who advocate a profit-orientated education, others such as Hickel who plead for a return to critical engagement and a humanist outlook, and finally, those such as Barkawi who have a more tentative view. However, as the league tables demonstrate, for British universities not to lag behind the rest of the world there must be a reassessment of the purpose of education.

Holly Brentnall is a freelancer for The International.

0 Comments

February 12th, 2014

2/12/2014

0 Comments

 
Regarding Ruppersberger and Fort Meade policy:

Here we go down the rabbit hole with Alice in Wonderland as MR NSA HIMSELF.....MR. PRIVATIZE ALL MILITARY AND END PUBLIC MILITARY FACILITIES TO THE DETRIMENT OF ALL MILITARY PERSONNEL......cries foul over legislation designed to protect American civil liberties and end DEATH TO AMERICA chanting as the NSA and Wall Street enrage the world with its illegal activities that undermine sovereignty including the US.  Nothing makes the US more prone to attack from enemies than the actions of Wall Street and their NSA!

Here we are with republicans being the protector of US Constitutional rights and public justice. Meanwhile, it is MD neo-liberals making the Ft Meade NSA central. Remember, it was George Bush and neo-liberals who started this and are the face of the hedge funds running it. So, this is a neo-con/neo-liberal problem.

DO NOT ALLOW REPUBLICANS SHOUT THAT DEMOCRATS ARE THE PROBLEM.....NEO-LIBERALS ARE NOT DEMOCRATS!



BREAKING: Maryland Legislators Move To Kill NSA Headquarters
benswann.com
ANNAPOLIS, Md., February 10, 2014-- It's lights our for the National Security Agency (NSA). State lawmakers in Maryland have filed...


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As Dutch Ruppersberger knows the US lost trillions of dollars over just a few decades to defense industry fraud, billions each year.  Much of it is used to bribe, used to promote fraudulent development abroad, to buy alliances that later fall apart and amount to nothing.  Profiteering in the defense industry is rampant and it is public malfeasance and duplicity when politicians charged with serving the public allow all of this to happen without public justice.  What Ruppersberger supports is an NSA run by Wall Street and not a system designed to oversee Wall Street and stop the fleecing of American taxpayers with defense industry fraud.

Dutch doesn't want to stop there.....he wants to privatize all that is public support of Veterans at bases like Fort Meade and reduce the Veteran's Administration to private corporate non-profits with no oversight and known not to be doing the business of aiding Vets.  

NOTICE ALL THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS CREATED TO BEG FOR MONEY FOR VETERANS?  THAT IS WHAT RUPPERSBERGER HAS WORKED TO DO FOR VETERANS BY PRIVATIZING ALL PUBLIC SERVICES FOR VETS!  WHAT A GUY!!!!!!!

But wait, Dutch is fighting against cuts to veterans benefits you say!!!  Recovering defense industry fraud would pay off much of the national debt and remove this fake deficit and debt!  DO YOU HEAR DUTCH SHOUTING FOR THIS??????  No, Dutch is busy passing laws that allow the US military to expand its mercenary military to non-citizens overseas because we have to protect US global corporate interests while these corporations are fleecing Americans and ignoring all Rule of Law.  HOW DOES RUPPERSBERGER KEEP GETTING RE-ELECTED YOU SAY!  

RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES TO SHAKE THE NEO-LIBERAL BUGS FROM THE RUG!!!!!

 Do you know that Manning downloaded and gave to Wikileaks defense industry data on just these defense industry expenditures just so international investigative journalists could do the research that shows where all this defense industry fraud is and where it is going?  See why Manning was tried as aiding the enemy------WHO ARE OBVIOUSLY YOU AND I!




Encyclopedia of White-Collar & Corporate Crime


Lawrence M. Salinger, Ph.D.

Pub. date: 2005 | Online Pub. Date: September 15, 2007 | DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412914260 | Print ISBN: 9780761930044 | Online ISBN: 9781412914260 | Publisher:SAGE Publications, Inc.

Defense Industry Fraud

John Walsh Ph.D.

THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY comprises the development, production and sale of weapons and weapons-support systems. In some cases, components or substances that are not themselves weapons may be classified as being part of the defense industry if it is believed that they may be used in the creation of weapons. The defense industry is characterized by oligopolistic conditions, in which a small number of large firms compete for a small number of orders from governments. Success in the industry relies upon, to a considerable extent, economies of scale from research and development departments, large-scale production facilities and good network contacts with relevant government officials, both domestically and internationally. Many overseas sales are characterized by corruption and bribery and Transparency International has listed defense, along with the public works and construction industry, as being the sectors in which bribery is most rife. The very high value of products also provides an incentive ...

________________________________________________
There's Bernie Sanders shouting loudly to use defense industry fraud to pay down the national debt.  The trillions recovered from a few decades of fraud would end all cuts to public services and programs tied to the military.  

As Bernie says......IT IS THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC MILITARY WORK THAT MAKES GOVERNMENT COFFERS FEEDING TROUGHS FOR CORPORATE FRAUD!  You won't hear Dutch shouting this!




Lawmakers push Defense fraud, waste report to influence supercommittee cuts

By John T. Bennett - 10/23/11 06:53 PM EDT  The Hill Blog

Liberal lawmakers will soon send the congressional deficit panel the details of a Pentagon report that shows defense firms over the last decade ripped off the military to the tune of $1.1 trillion, Democratic sources told The Hill.

Pro-military lawmakers from both parties have warned the supercommittee to avoid Pentagon spending cuts beyond the $350 billion ordered by the August debt deal.

But several Senate Democrats want the panel to keep in mind that dollars sent to the Pentagon are often lost to fraud and waste, even as some conservatives raise the possibility of retroactively exempting the Pentagon from the $600 billion cut that will be triggered if the supercommittee fails.


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last week highlighted what he called a “shocking” internal Pentagon report that concluded defense companies defrauded the military by $1.1 trillion.

“The ugly truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money,” Sanders said in a statement. “With the country running a nearly $15 trillion national debt, my goal is to provide as much transparency as possible about what is happening with taxpayer money.”

More than $250 million “went to 54 contractors convicted of hard-core criminal fraud in the same period,” Sanders said, summarizing tables included with the DoD report. “Of that total, $33 million was paid to companies after they were convicted of crimes.”

The Pentagon revealed defense behemoth Lockheed Martin paid $10.5 million in 2008 to settle fraud charges related to the Titan IV rocket program. Northrop Grumman paid $62 million three years prior to settle allegations it was involved in a fraud scheme.

And the list of contractors linked to waste goes on, the DoD tables show, ranging from the other largest defense firms to smaller companies.

Yet most continued to receive massive contracts.

And that does not sit well with Sanders and several other liberal lawmakers, Democratic sources say.

Sanders “believes numbers like these are very relevant for the supercommittee when some are talking about cutting social programs,” an aide to the Vermont liberal told The Hill on Friday.

“The supercommittee also should see the extent to which these companies committed fraud on behalf of the government,” the Sanders aide said. “We will get this to the supercommittee, at least at the staff level.”

Another Democratic aide said his boss intends to highlight the DoD fraud report as the special panel ramps up its search for $1.5 trillion in federal cuts. It must finish its work by Nov. 23 or automatic triggers will be enacted, including $600 billion in cuts to security spending.

“As debate goes forward, I’m sure you’ll see a number of Democrats on the left use that report and others like it. There’s a movement on the right to go back and exempt defense spending from the trigger if the supercommittee fails,” the Democratic aide said Friday. “That’s going to be unacceptable to [liberals who are] likely to use reports like this as proof that there is room to cut Defense spending without harming security.”

The Aerospace Industries Association, a leading defense industrial lobbying organization, declined to comment on the report.

But one prominent defense analyst and industry consultant blasted the Pentagon’s findings.

“Sen. Sanders is correct in stating the report is shocking — it's shockingly wrong. The report confuses isolated cases of wrongdoing with the dominant culture in the defense industry, which is the most heavily regulated and audited industry in the nation,” said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.

“Critics of Defense spending like Sen. Sanders routinely make sweeping allegations of malfeasance in military contracting while ignoring far worse behavior in major entitlement programs like Medicaid,” he said.

What’s more, the yearly waste within the military largely comes from “decisions by legislators and policymakers that disburse funds to unnecessary projects” and mandate “superfluous tests, reports and contracting procedures,” Thompson told The Hill. “That's where the real waste occurs in military contracting, but Sen. Sanders would prefer to focus on the handful of cases of malfeasance that more closely match his ideological leanings.”

But one government watchdog group called the findings “mind-boggling.”

“The amount of money given to these companies is staggering, but what is really mind-boggling is the willingness of the DoD to provide additional taxpayer dollars to the same bad actors again and again,” Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said in a Friday statement.

“Despite the report’s findings, the DoD’s over-reliance on contractors may hinder reform,” Amey said. “Taxpayers are unlikely to see any changes until DoD holds contractors more accountable, especially those defrauding the government.”

______________________________________
George Bush sent trillions in profit to all of Cheney's Halliburton and hedge funds became Blackwater USA as our public troops were ghettoized with the super-sized wages these private military contractors paid private employees with the same US taxpayer money.  The intent was to move the best public troops over to private contractors as the public military structures were dismantled.  On came Obama and Hillary who as neo-liberals placed this process on steroids with the movement of troops and war to Afghanistan.  Now, government watchdogs say that over 70% of US military is private contractors and the fraud and corruption is rampant.  US private military behave so illegally that nations do not want them in their countries.  Human rights abuse is systemic.

What we are seeing in the build-up of the US police state is the coming home of these private military contractors and employees to become city and state police.  We in Baltimore know what this police state will look like.  Police here act with impunity here just as they do overseas.  SEE WHY PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE SHOUTING 'DEATH TO AMERICA"?

DO YOU HEAR MARYLAND POLS TALKING ABOUT THIS?????  THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFITS!



Christian Science Monitor
Opinion

A lesson from Iraq war: How to outsource war to private contractors

During the Iraq war, private defense contractors providing security and support outnumbered troops on the ground at points. Contractors can enhance US military capacity but also entail risks. US experience with private security contractors holds several key lessons.

By Molly Dunigan / March 19, 2013

A helicopter owned by Blackwater USA, a private security contractor, flies over central Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 7, 2007. Op-ed contributor Molly Dunigan says 'the United States must protect its interests and ensure that the contractors it employs are carefully vetted and well trained. It should also continue to work toward a commonly accepted means of holding contractors accountable for their behavior.'

Ten years after it began, the Iraq war might best be remembered as America’s most privatized military engagement to date, with contractors hired by the Pentagon actually outnumbering troops on the ground at various points.

This might come as a surprise to many, since the sheer number of contractors used in Iraq was often overshadowed by events. By 2008, the US Department of Defense employed 155,826 private contractors in Iraq – and 152,275 troops. This degree of privatization is unprecedented in modern warfare.

One of the most important lessons of the Iraq war is that this military privatization is likely to continue in future conflicts. This could be a good thing, as contractors can enhance US military capacity. But any large-scale use of private military contractors also entails risks. Recent US experience with private security contractors, in particular, holds several critical lessons for the future.

OPINION: After US withdrawal from Iraq, a tallying of the balance sheet

Of course, private contractors are not new to war zones. They supported all the major US conflicts of the late 20th century, including in Vietnam, the Balkans, and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. But in these cases, they mainly provided logistical and base support.

Now, the US military has developed a growing dependence on private contractors – and for a wide range of functions traditionally handled by military personnel. The Army spent roughly $815 million ($163 million per year, or about $200 million per year in 2012 dollars) to employ contractors under its Logistics Civil Augmentation Program between 1992 and 1997. But between 2001 and 2010, that expenditure grew to nearly $5 billion per year. Of course, this latter cost coincides with US involvement in Afghanistan as well as Iraq.

A more pertinent question – and what truly sets the Iraq war apart – concerns the role of these private civilian contractors. Throughout the war, the majority (61 percent) of contracted jobs continued to be base-support functions. The next-largest group (18 percent) of Department of Defense contractors were security contractors. They provided security services, such as guarding installations, protecting convoys, or acting as bodyguards.

Moreover, this outsourcing trend continued in Afghanistan, where there were 94,413 contractors in 2010, compared with 91,600 US troops.

Military outsourcing in this vein developed as a result of an increased supply of private military services combined with increased demand. The boom in supply was borne out of larger privatization trends in both the US and Britain in the 1980s and 1990s, which spread over into the military arena. The increased demand was due to the strains that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan placed on the US military.

___________________________________
As I wrote before....Maryland was sighted as having the worse VA services with a failing grade for the Baltimore VA center because all of it has been privatized to private non-profits taking the taxpayer money under the guise of running programs that VETs will tell you are not happening.  Indeed, talk was to get rid of the VA building itself.  THAT'S DUTCH FOR YOU.....WORKING FOR DEFENSE INDUSTRY AND CORPORATE PROFITS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE CITIZENS WHO VOTE FOR HIM!!!

SHAKE THE NEO-LIBERAL BUGS FROM THE RUG BY RUNNING AND VOTING FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!



    
Friday, January 28th, 2011 | Posted by Dale R. Suiter


VA / Privatization = Loss for Vets

Don't give up on these guys!
New folks in the House of Representatives say they are looking to “cut spending” and reduce the size of government. There is a movement to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

There is mention to of privatizing some government health care services. What’s all this mean for Vets?

If you love what Halliburton did for the trrops, yuo’ll love what privatization will do for veterans.

October 15, 2010 (rushlimbaugh.com) then candidate Sharron Angle was critical of Senator Reid. Senator Reid reportedly said: “She (Ms. Angle) wants to privatize the Veterans Administration.” Mr. Linbaugh continues: “What’s wrong with privatizing the VA…? Somebody tell me where its working. Somebody tell me where anything the federal government is running is working… Privatize the Veterans Administration.!”

Including the military:
1. 10th mountain Division – great outfit
2. 1 Bn 119th FA MIARNG – excellent – well trained cannoneers
3. United States Marine Corp (especially 3/9 and 1/3)*
4. United States Air Force
5. United States Army
6. United States Coast Guard
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
8. Departments of Motor Vehicles in 50 states and all the territories
9. Local, state and federal judicial systems – that due process item we kinda like and wanna keep
10. Open meeting acts around the country

Privatization come with a heavy price tag. Many traditional military mainenance and support roles have been privatized. Many line grunts report few hot meals “… at the front …” (O.K. no hot food up front is as old as warfare). Military units are challgenged to repair and maintain vehicles, equipment, aircraft and weapons systems. (In one case – an Army 88M’s Dad – sent his son a needed tool kit so he and his truck partner could repair the trucks they were assigned to. Also as old as the history of warfare. Key point is the troops could not get the support they needed in theater.)

FACT SHEET
GAO Issues Report on Hlliburton Troops Support Contract In Iraq (Minority Staff Committe On Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives Juy 21, 2004)

This GAO report documented serious shortfalls with the government contract with Halliburton. Problems included:
* Planning for troops delayed until “Afther the Fall of Baghadad.”
* Planning for Support Services “Ineffective”
* Halliburton’s uncontrolled costs (Halliburton costs grew from $5.8 billion to $8.6 billion between September 2003 and January 2004.)

The report “higlights a pattern of contractor management problems. Including:
* Inadequate cost control
* Difficulties meeting schedules – Halliburton did not provide some services required, including “water production”
* Inadequate control over purchases
* Inadequate control over subcontractors

The report notes too inadequate control and oversight of Halliburton as follows: “… essentially military officials do not understand their role … regarding their roles and responsibilities.”

Dana Hedgpath, Washington Post (3011098) wrote: “KBR Faulted on Water Provided to Soldiers”. The article includes: “U.S. Soldiers at a military base in Iraq … provided with … untested water for … two years by KBR … and may have suffered health problems … KBR inappropriately distributed chlorinated wastewater to 5,000 U.S. troops at Camp Q-West … north of Baghdad… KBR disagreed with the report.”

Many Vets depend on the VA. Privatizing it will turn Vets worlds upside down. One thing our government can not do well is track massive contracts with private industry and contractors. There many examples of troops running into wall after wall after wall trying to get day to day military tasks completed – and being frustrated with civilians who do not respond to the military. The so called reduction of the military dating from the 1990′s is a myth. The funds and tasks have been redirected into private industry – at a loss to the military and increased danger to our troops. Privatization of the VA would be another disaster.

Regards

Dale R. Suiter

* Corp as in Marine Corp – the Corp is pronounced – core – folks. Often mispronounced by those who have not had the honor of Marine Corp service.

Note: Author does not support or approve of the Affordable Care Act. It is (my opinion) of something the government can not do well. Read the act and determine for yourself the many implications for the VA.
________________________________________

This is what neo-liberals have reduced all public services to....charity.  Rather than have Medicare and Medicaid or VET health programs.....we will see if corporations and other will donate to charities for even more tax write-offs rather than simply pay taxes!

DUTCH------I DO NOT HEAR YOU SHOUTING AGAINST ALL OF THIS....BUT YOU LOVE YOUR NSA COMPLEX DON'T YOU?????



Veterans Charities Ratings


The American Institute of Philanthropy recently released a report rating various veterans charities on how well they support the causes they were created to support.

We were surprised at some of the ratings in this report; not at others. Before you donate your hard-earned dollars to any charitable organization, check it out to see how much of its revenues actually go to support its charitable purpose, and how much goes to administrative expenses, salaries, and fundraising. You may be surprised!

Letter grades were based largely on the charities' fundraising costs and the percentage of money raised that was spent on its charitable activities.

The charities that received failing grades are in red type.

The charities that received grades of A or better are in bold blue type.

Here are the December 2007 veterans charities ratings, by the AIP:


Veterans Charities Ratings

Air Force Aid Society (A+)

American Ex-Prisoners of War Service Foundation (F)

American Veterans Coalition (F)

American Veterans Relief Foundation (F)

AMVETS National Service Foundation (F)

Armed Services YMCA of the USA (A-)

Army Emergency Relief (A+)

Blinded Veterans Association (D)

Coalition to Support America's Heroes (F)

Disabled American Veterans (D)

Disabled Veterans Association (F)
Notice the similarity of the name to Disabled American Veterans

Fisher House Foundation (A+)

Freedom Alliance (F)

Help Hospitalized Veterans/Coalition to Salute America's Heroes (F)

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (A+)

Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation (F)

National Military Family Association (A)

National Veterans Services Fund (F)

National Vietnam Veterans Committee (D)

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (A+)

NCOA National Defense Foundation (F)

Paralyzed Veterans of America (F)

Soldiers' Angels (D)

United Spinal Association's Wounded Warrior Project (D)*
     * See update on Wounded Warrior Project

USO (United Service Organization) (C+)

Veterans of Foreign Wars and Foundation (C-)

Veterans of the Vietnam War & the Veterans Coalition (D)

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (D)

VietNow National Headquarters (F)

World War II Veterans Committee (D)


Read the complete AIP veterans charity watchdog report and veterans charities ratings.

Do you have questions about specific veterans charities?

First, check the list of veterans charities reviewed by Military-Money-Matters.com. If the charity you're interested in is not listed there, then check the references listed below the stars & stripes bar to look up information.

If you can't find the answer to your question in any of those sources, ask your questions about specific veterans charities. For ease of answering your questions, please make a separate submission for each different charity you wish to inquire about, and make the title of your submission the name of the charity. Thanks.

0 Comments

February 05th, 2014

2/5/2014

0 Comments

 
I wanted to take today to look at what many people will consider dry and boring.....yet it is what makes you and I citizens.....civics 101 is knowing your Constitution and what your elected officials are legally bound to do in your name.  What I have shown is that none of this is happening at the Federal, state, or local level. 

YOU CANNOT BE A CITIZEN IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE CONSTITUTION AND DO NOT HOLD YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS RESPONSIBLE.  STOP BEING A COUCH POTATO.....WAKE UP.....AND GET ENGAGED!!!!!


Regarding Maryland acting as if TPP is already in force:

Now that everyone knows that neo-liberals have as a goal to end national sovereignty and create a system of City States in the US with global corporations running these fiefdoms......Johns Hopkins obviously being the Medici of our region, its good to know all of this can and will be reversed as all of it was built with a suspension of Rule of Law, Equal Protection under Law, and elections of politicians knowing acting against the public's interest....politicians are public servants required to work in the public's interest our they are committing public malfeasance.


Today I would like to give a brief civics lesson on State Constitutions to show how the state of Maryland politics today has absolutely no legal and Constitutional standing as public officials are openly allowing massive fraud and corruption permeate the business and government systems in the state and where all public policy is now written by corporate interests in the guise of quasi-governmental organizations I am sure are not legal in and of themselves.  The public has been locked out of public debate, writing public policy, and even have private corporate-run non-profits running our communities.  NONE OF THIS IS LEGAL------IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL -------AND THE PUBLIC ASSETS AND WEALTH BEING LOST THROUGH THE NEGLECT OF RULE OF LAW CAN AND WILL COME BACK.

What this means is that Johns Hopkins does not get to run the Baltimore region.  It does not get to write law, to have politicians hand all that is public into the hands of Johns Hopkins, or to openly allow massive fraud and corruption keep we the people and our government coffers empty.  ALL OF THIS IS ILLEGAL AND CAN BE REVERSED.

So, Johns Hopkins as VEOLA ENVIRONMENT taking control of water and waste......Johns Hopkins as Port of Baltimore taking all control of Inner Harbor commerce.....Johns Hopkins as public health taking control of all health care administration with no public transparency or input ................ Johns Hopkins taking control of all public education and schools with corporatization policy that sends profit directly to Hopkins-related education businesses........and Johns Hopkins as solicitor and installer in chief of national private corporate non-profits taking control of all aspects of public policy with directors in place to support all policy moved by the Hopkins-run Baltimore Development Corporation.


FOLKS......IT LOOKS AS IF IT IS DAUNTING TO TAKE CONTROL BACK FROM WHAT WE CAN A GREAT BLOOD-SUCKING SQUID WITH TENTACLES AROUND EVERYTHING.....BUT IT IS EASY PEASY.

All we have to do is break up the political machines in Baltimore and Maryland that keep these henchmen and women in office allowing all of this consolidation and control to be taken.  ALL OF MARYLAND'S POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS...THEY ARE NOT DEMOCRATS AND WE SIMPLY NEED TO RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL ELECTIONS.....STOP ALLOWING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY MACHINE IN THE STATE TO CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES WHILE IT IS CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS!

THESE POLITICIANS ARE SWORN TO SERVE THE PUBLIC!


You do not need to be a rocket scientist to know that handing all that is public to consolidated private hands at great loss to the public and a suspension of Rule of Law with no public justice is NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST AND ALL CONTRACTS SIGNED UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE NULL AND VOID.  So, handing the Port of Baltimore and all its tens of billions in profit once coming to the state and now going to HighStar's leading shareholder Johns Hopkins.....NOT LEGAL.
NO CONTRACT DOING THAT IS LEGAL.

Handing all of the region's water and waste to VEOLA ENVIRONMENT with HighStar's leading shareholder Johns Hopkins ........NOT LEGAL.  NO CONTRACT DOING THAT IS LEGAL.

Billions of dollars lost to the State of Maryland and City of Baltimore from massive and systemic fraud and corruption for years and years.....NO STATUTES OF LIMITATION BECAUSE GOVERNMENT SUSPENDED RULE OF LAW AND EQUAL PROTECTION.


Now, if you look at Maryland's


WIKILEAKS
Malfeasance in office, or official misconduct, is the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties. Malfeasance in office is often grounds for a for cause removal of an elected official by statute or recall election.

The Maryland Constitution's Requirement to take the Oath of Office

and The Actual Oath of Office Public Servants in Maryland are Required to Take

Article 1, Elective Franchise

SEC. 9. Every person elected, or appointed, to any office of profit or trust, under this Constitution, or under the Laws, made pursuant thereto, shall, before he enters upon the duties of such office, take and subscribe the following oath, or affirmation: 

I, _______________, do swear, (or affirm, as the case may be), that I will support the Constitution of the United States; and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the State of Maryland, and support the Constitution and Laws thereof; and that I will, to the best of my skill and judgment, diligently and faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, execute the office of ________________, according to the Constitution and Laws of this State, (and, if a Governor, Senator, Member of the House of Delegates, or Judge,) that I will not directly or indirectly, receive the profits or any part of the profits of any other office during the term of my acting as ___________ (originally Article I, sec. 6, renumbered by Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978).




Statutory Law Listing Which Public Servants Must Take This Oath

§ 16-102. State Government

(a)  The oath prescribed by Article I, § 9 of the Maryland Constitution shall be taken and subscribed before the Governor by:

(1)  the Adjutant General;
(2)  the Attorney General;
(3)  the Comptroller;
(4)  the judges of the Court of Appeals and their clerks;
(5)  the judges of the Court of Special Appeals and their clerks;
(6)  the Secretary of State;
(7)  the State Reporter; and
(8)  the Treasurer.

(b)  On or as soon as practicable after the third Monday of January next after the election for Comptroller, the successful candidate for that office shall qualify by taking the oath prescribed by Article I, § 9 of the Maryland Constitution.

(c)  The Secretary of State shall maintain a book that records the oaths taken and subscribed under this section.

And, yes, the Governor must take the same oath:


§ 16-101. State Government

(a)   The Governor and Lieutenant Governor shall take and subscribe the oath prescribed by Article I, § 9 of the Maryland Constitution:

And Many Other Public Servants Must Take This Oath, as well

§ 16-105. State Government

Except for an officer specified in §§ 16-101 through 16-104 of this title, an officer elected or appointed to any office of trust or profit under the Maryland Constitution or a law of this State, including a mayor or other chief magistrate of a municipal corporation, shall take and subscribe the oath required by Article I, § 9 of the Maryland Constitution before a clerk of the circuit court or before a sworn deputy of the clerk.

Appointed Officials Must Take Constitutional Oath

§ 4-908. Governor - Executive and Administrative Departments

Each person appointed under this subtitle, within thirty days after his certificate of appointment has been issued and before entering upon the duties of his office, shall take and subscribe the constitutional oath of office before the clerk of the court in the county or Baltimore City, where the commission may be received. The clerk of the court shall transmit to the Secretary of State a certificate indicating that the person commissioned has taken the constitutional oath of office.



§ 3-202. State Personnel and Pensions


(b)  Before taking office, each appointed member shall take the oath required by Article I, § 9 of the Maryland Constitution.


Treasurer Must Take Another Oath in Addition to This Oath

§ 5-101.1.  State Government

In addition to the oath specified in Article I, § 9 of the Maryland Constitution, the Treasurer shall take an oath to discharge the duties of the Office of Treasurer faithfully, diligently, and honestly.




_____________________________________________



CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND


DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. We, the People of the State of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty, and taking into our serious consideration the best means of establishing a good Constitution in this State for the sure foundation and more permanent security thereof, declare:

Article 1. That all Government of right originates from the People, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole; and they have, at all times, the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their Form of Government in such manner as they may deem expedient.

Art. 2. The Constitution of the United States, and the Laws made, or which shall be made, in pursuance thereof, and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, are, and shall be the Supreme Law of the State; and the Judges of this State, and all the People of this State, are, and shall be bound thereby; anything in the Constitution or Law of this State to the contrary notwithstanding.


Art. 4. That the People of this State have the sole and exclusive right of regulating the internal government and police thereof, as a free, sovereign and independent State

Art. 6. That all persons invested with the Legislative or Executive powers of Government are the Trustees of the Public, and, as such, accountable for their conduct: Wherefore, whenever the ends of Government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the People may, and of right ought, to reform the old, or establish a new Government; the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

Art. 7. That the right of the People to participate in the Legislature is the best security of liberty and the foundation of all free Government; for this purpose, elections ought to be free and frequent; and every citizen having the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution, ought to have the right of suffrage (amended by Chapter 357, Acts of 1971, ratified Nov. 7, 1972). Art. 8. That the Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers of Government ought to be forever separate and distinct from each other; and no person exercising the functions of one of said Departments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other.

Art. 9. That no power of suspending Laws or the execution of Laws, unless by, or derived from the Legislature, ought to be exercised, or allowed. Art. 10. That freedom of speech and debate, or proceedings in the Legislature, ought not to be impeached in any Court of Judicature.

Art. 18. That no Law to attaint particular persons of treason or felony, ought to be made in any case, or at any time, hereafter. Art. 19. That every man, for any injury done to him in his person or property, ought to have remedy by the course of the Law of the Land, and ought to have justice and right, freely without sale, fully without any denial, and speedily without delay, according to the Law of the Land.


_____________________________________________

Keep in mind that it is the Governor and the Mayor of Baltimore charged with assembling a legal team to serve the interests of the public.  It is the same who would shout loudly and strongly if a State or City Attorney could not see fraud.  Could you imagine massive fraud and corruption going without justice if O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake used their bully-pulpit to out the AIDING AND ABETTING of crime?  Of course not.  So, these are the two executive offices that are failing to serve and as such are guilty of malfeasance.  If the entire system is corrupt what does a citizenry do?  First, make sure these executive positions are working for you and me.

The next problem for citizens at both the national and state/local level is the suspension of public justice.  Now, Congress and the Maryland Assembly can cut funding to public justice but as we all know RECOVERING CORPORATE FRAUD PAYS FOR ITSELF....NO FUNDING NEEDED.  So, while O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly pretends to fund public justice in the form of paying private lawyers to do PRO-BONO WORK.....which is where all the state's funding goes for public justice......the National Lawyers Guild....with state and local offices are supposed to be protecting WE THE PEOPLE against all of what I speak.



The Maryland Bar Association is so corrupt that if you look at all the fraud that happens in the state....it is the lawyers in the state getting much of the wealth.  Subprime mortgage loan fraud with MERS at the center?  Mostly involving Maryland Bar lawyers.

Now, every single Maryland Bar lawyer is not crooked of course, but to practice law in Maryland you must be a member of the Maryland Bar and as we know.......THERE IS NO PUBLIC JUSTICE COMING FROM EITHER THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD OR THE MARYLAND BAR.
  Also remember, that the judge appointed by O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly nominating committee are choosing from this Maryland Bar population for the positions.  When you have a corporate state enforcing law selectively as if corporations run the state.....then the lawyers and judges will run their offices as such. 

YET, NONE OF THIS IS LEGAL.  LAWYERS CANNOT SIMPLY SUSPEND US CONSTITUTIONAL LAW TO PRETEND A COUP AGAINST THE US CONSTITUTION WITH PACIFIC TRADE DEALS IS ALLOWED AND THEN FOLLOW THOSE TRADE DEAL LAWS....WHICH IS WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MARYLAND BEFORE THE TPP IS EVEN PASSED.


Judges who knowingly facilitate unconstitutional law with rulings that pretend to be subjective when they are completely re-writing law are doing so illegally.  DOES ANYONE BELIEVE THAT THE MERS OPERATION IN MARYLAND'S WASHINGTON SUBURBS WAS A LEGAL METHOD OF TRANSFERRING HOUSE TITLE?  ABSOLUTELY NOBODY BELIEVES THAT and this needs to be appealed to higher court.  This is an example of courts ruling in ways that have nothing to do with existing law just to protect corruption in the state.

WE THE PEOPLE MUST GET ALL THESE SYSTEMS BACK TO WORK AND IT IS NOT HARD.  WE SIMPLY NEED TO SHAKE THE BUGS FROM THE RUG BY RUNNING AND VOTING FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES AND STOP ALLOWING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS CHOOSE OUR CANDIDATES!


I want to end by saying that lawyers within the National Lawyers Guild are not bad people for not taking this on.  It is a huge problem that needs the whole of the communities to provide the support for these lawyers wanting to do good.  I  am a skeptic about the capture of these kinds of private organizations by people with no intent of serving the mission....so no doubt a little of both is happening!

National Lawyers Guild

From Wikipedia

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association (ABA) in protest of that organization's exclusionary membership practices and conservative political orientation. They were the first US bar association to allow the admission of minorities to their ranks.

The group declares itself to be "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . . . to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."[1]



National Lawyers Guild

409 Washington Ave, Baltimore, Maryland
(410)494-8119
University of Maryland School of Law
This page developed and maintained by National Lawyers Guild, University of Maryland Law Student Chapter


________________________________________

I speak to people I know are lawyers about running for State/City Attorney to put public justice back on the map in Maryland and I hear time and again.....the problem with corruption and the suspension of public justice is that the Maryland Assembly is full of lawyers.  Indeed, it is.  Lawyers have always been the butt of jokes about trustworthiness and ambulance chasers.  Their job is to serve a client by making the law work in ways that benefit that client.  In Maryland, the Maryland Assembly is working for global corporations and corporate profit so whether is is written law, legal oversight, enforcement.....they will work against you and I to maximize profit for corporate shareholders.  Keep in mind, US corporations have spent these Obama years getting all kinds of free money from the FED and Congress and are buying back their corporate shares as fast as they can.  That means shareholders are increasingly Corporate Board members all part of that cabal of the richest.  So, when I say a neo-liberal is working for shareholders......that increasingly means only a very few people.  We know our pensions are simply used as fodder so when that is the case....you really are not a shareholder.

NOTE THAT ALL THE CANDIDATES FOR STATE AND CITY ATTORNEY ARE ALL PART OF THIS CRONY POLITICAL SYSTEM....WE NEED REAL PUBLIC JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN THIS COMING PRIMARY.....FEBRUARY 25TH IS THE DATE FOR FILING!


Lawyers in the Maryland General Assembly

SENATE OF MARYLAND (12). Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. (D), Calvert & Prince George’s Counties; Senator Brian E. Frosh (D), Montgomery County; Senator Norman R. Stone, Jr. (D), Baltimore County; Senator Allan H. Kittleman (R), Carroll & Howard Counties; Senator Robert J. Garagiola (D), Montgomery County; Senator Lisa A. Gladden (D), Baltimore City; Senator Robert A. Zirkin (D), Baltimore County; Senator Jamie Raskin (D), Montgomery County; Senator Joseph Getty (R), Baltimore & Carroll Counties; Senator Victor Ramirez (D), Prince George’s County; Senator Roger Manno (D), Montgomery County; Senator Bill Ferguson (D), Baltimore City.

HOUSE OF DELEGATES (32). Delegate Kevin Kelly (D), Allegany County; Delegate Jon S. Cardin (D), Baltimore County; Delegate Elizabeth Bobo (D), Howard County; Delegate Frank S. Turner (D), Howard County; Delegate Kathleen M. Dumais (D), Montgomery County; Delegate Brian J. Feldman (D), Montgomery County; Delegate Susan C. Lee (D), Montgomery County; Delegate Luiz R. S. Simmons (D), Montgomery County; Delegate Joseph F. Vallario, Jr. (D), Calvert & Prince George’s Counties; Delegate Mary-Dulany James (D), Cecil & Harford Counties; Delegate Susan K. McComas (R), Harford County; Delegate Michael D. Smigiel, Sr. (R), Upper Eastern Shore; Delegate Jill P. Carter (D), Baltimore City; Delegate Samuel I. (Sandy) Rosenberg (D), Baltimore City; Delegate Curtis S. (Curt) Anderson (D), Baltimore City; Delegate Keith E. Haynes (D), Baltimore City; Delegate Doyle L. Niemann (D), Prince George’s County; Delegate Dana Stein (D), Baltimore County; Delegate Jeff Waldstreicher (D), Montgomery County; Delegate Ben Barnes (D), Anne Arundel & Prince George’s Counties; Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk (D), Anne Arundel & Prince George’s Counties; Delegate Aisha N. Braveboy (D), Prince George’s County; Delegate Stephen W. Lafferty (D), Baltimore County; Delegate Kirill Reznik (D), Montgomery County; Delegate C. William (Bill) Frick (D), Montgomery County; Delegate H. Wayne Norman, Jr. (R), Harford County; Delegate Sam Arora (D), Montgomery County; Delegate Geraldine Valentino-Smith (D), Prince George’s County; Delegate C.T. Wilson (D), Charles County; Delegate Cathy Vitale (R), Anne Arundel County; Delegate Keiffer J. Mitchell, Jr. (D), Baltimore City; Delegate Luke Clippinger (D), Baltimore City.

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

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