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September 03rd, 2014

9/3/2014

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


State study confirms unfilled job boards


By Todd Wallack  | Globe Staff   July 30, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

■ Streamlining the background check for new board members;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


____________________________________________

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

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

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

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


MARCELLUS SHALE SAFE-DRILLING INITIATIVE ADVISORY COMMISSION


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

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


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

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

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

Authorization for the Commission extends through May 1, 2015.

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

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


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


Department of the Environment

21 August 2014

doe    DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Governor Martin J. O'Malley

Water Management      Jay G. Sakai
Robert M. Summers            Secretary

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

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



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

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

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


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

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





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




DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES


Governor Martin J. O'Malley

Joseph P. Gill    Secretary


Land Resources    Kristin Saunders Evans



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

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



Maryland Environmental Trust


Company Description:

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



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

Maryland’s New Public-Private Partnerships



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

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

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

Master of Ceremonies:
· Sandy Apgar, Apgar Company


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

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

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

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


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

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


   Kristin Saunders Evans

Secretary for Land Resources.


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

State parks in peril


November 09, 2007|

By Candus Thomson | Candus Thomson,Sun reporter



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


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


Indoor projects raise questions

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


August 08, 2008

|By Laura Smitherman | Laura Smitherman,Sun reporter

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

Call it Program Enclosed Space.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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






Logging GRSF 3

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


0 Comments

August 13th, 2014

8/13/2014

0 Comments

 
Do you hear your labor and justice leaders shouting out against this?  NO, they are backing the neo-liberals who are embracing Trans Pacific Trade Pact pretending it will create jobs.  Well, you will be working as a third world Chinese sweat shop employee with these neo-liberals.

Below I show the local effect of PERESTROIKA of American citizen's assets by global corporations.  I have spoken before about the goal of privatization of public water.  We see the effect in Detroit, a city gutted with fraud and corruption just as in Baltimore.  The American people have paid loads of taxes over a few decades that would have rebuilt state and city infrastructure if that revenue was not being looted by Baltimore Development Corporation and Hopkins to expand global interests.  Now, they want to raise public water bills over double the amount to pay again for rebuilding infrastructure and guess what----the same Johns Hopkins is there to pocket the profits from this public work as VEOLA ENVIRONMENT.  Remember, these Ivy League universities made their billions in endowment profits from the subprime mortgage fraud and AIG investment firm that was spun to become HighStar.  So, all of that profit was based on fraud.  They used that money made from fraud to by VEOLA ENVIRONMENT from the French global corporation.  These same Ivy League universities like Hopkins are now pushing Baltimore City Hall to privatize public transportation to French Veola and privatize public water and waste to HighStar VEOLA ENVIRONMENT.  So, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, et al of the Ivy League are using those endowment funds to privatize public water and waste all over the world.  At the same time they are buying all fertile land and fresh water sources around the world at the same time contaminating US and world aquifers with fracking.....as in Maryland with the Marcellus Aquifer.


I am writing today after coming from the center of fraud and corruption----Baltimore City Hall and the Board of Estimates meeting.  I attended today because they are handing contracts to private corporations for public water service that everyone knows is only steps towards water privatization.  There is Jack Young and Mr. Black for Rawlings-Blake and Comptroller Pratt ready to vote for privatization of Baltimore city public water and waste.  All working for the most neo-conservative institution in the world----Johns Hopkins while running as Democrats.

PRIVATIZING PUBLIC WATER----HOW NEO-CONSERVATIVE OF THEM!!!!!


Jack Young as head of the Board of Estimates has worked hard to make sure public interruptions do not occur during meetings by placing a police officer to escort citizens out if they try to speak.  You know, the public is not allowed to speak about public policy in public in Maryland and especially in Baltimore.  So, instead of speaking during the Board of Estimates meetings on camera for all to see, people like Cindy Walsh must speak to the room before the meeting starts.  Only today, when I explained to all in the room what the goal of this privatization is and how Johns Hopkins is involved-----Jack Young called the police to drag me out BEFORE THE MEETING EVEN STARTED.  He works so hard to make sure no one knows what is happening that he was prepared to throw me out for just speaking in the City Hall room.  I of course reminded him that the meeting had not started and he could not throw me out of the room -----he immediately called the meeting to order.

YOU KNOW WHO LEADS IN PRIVATIZATION OF ALL THAT IS PUBLIC?  O'MALLEY/ANTHONY BROWN.  YOU KNOW WHO BACKED BROWN DURING THE ELECTION FOR GOVERNOR?  LABOR UNION LEADERS.  KNOW WHO WAS THERE TO PROTEST PRIVATIZED WATER----LABOR UNIONS.  ASK FRED MASON OF MARYLAND AFL-CIO WHY HE BACKS NEO-LIBERALS DOING ALL THIS DAMAGE?

We need labor union leaders working for their membership's interests when they support candidates.  You cannot support the neo-liberals installing these policies and then pretend to fight against them.  Union members and labor and justice need to see how VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY BAD THESE PRIVATIZATION POLICIES ARE FOR EVERYONE!

IT TAKES A SOCIOPATH TO PLAN THESE KINDS OF CORPORATE POLICIES AND THE POLS HIRED TO PUSH THESE GOALS INTO PLACE ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.
ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.


Don't privatize Baltimore water
[Letter]June 23, 2014

The presence of the private water industry at this week's United States Conference of Mayors meeting threatens public health and democracy in Baltimore.

Time and time again, experiences in other cities that have privatized their water systems have demonstrated that privatization fails to provide secure and equitable water access to residents. The industry's strategy of placing profits over the human right to water is reprehensible and undermines the democratic system.

As a voter and someone who calls Baltimore my home, I strongly urge Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to take a stand at the USCM and keep the private water industry out of our city.

Jacob Fishman, Baltimore


_________________________________________


Did you know that it is Johns Hopkins who is a major shareholder in Veola Environment through HighStar Investment firm that is pushing the privatization of public water and waste?  Did you know that Veola Environment and HighStar have Ivy League endowments in the other cities pushing the privatization of public water----like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Berkeley.  Privatization of public assets to maximize profits for these endowments.

Did you know the goal is to privatize water, end public subsidy of water as water rates rise, use SMART METERS to ration water to what the every growing impoverished public can afford all to maximize profits for Johns Hopkins endowment? 

You must be listening or reading Maryland media -----they make sure you do not know----especially Marc Steiner.

VEOLA ENVIRONMENT is a global corporation bought from the French global corporation VEOLA of transportation fame.  The one known for slave conditions for their workforce all over the world.  VEOLA ENVIRONMENT is working all over the world to privatize the world's public water and waste and in nations having the pleasure of a few decades of their presence water rationing with SMART METERS has been in what followed.  Now, Wall Street and Ivy League endowments want to bring it to America since they are taking the US to third world levels.  That Trans Pacific Trade Pact may not be in place in the US but Maryland and neo-liberals in Congress are preparing for it.



I wonder if an interview with Hopkins staff will let people know what the goal is and who is behind it?


Water Privatization in Baltimore

08/12/14 Marc Steiner
August 11, 2014 –

Segment 3 We turn to the topic of the possibility of water privatization in Baltimore, with: Lauren DeRusha, National Campaign Organizer of Corporate Accountability International; and Dr. Lester Spence, Center for Emerging Media Scholar-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University.




The Dangerous Return of Water Privatization

Community waters systems have sustainably provided safe drinking water for generations but corporations are now using local fiscal crises to push for water privatization. By Maude Barlow and Wenonah Hauter, from Sojourners
January/February 2014
  Utne


It’s time for an integrated, holistic national water policy, including the establishment of a federal water trust fund. Instead we face the cannibalization of our public utilities by private corporations.

The United States has one of the best public water supply systems in the world. More than 250 million people count on local governments to provide safe drinking water. Over the last 40 years, federal, state, and municipal governments have worked together to improve and protect water resources. The Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act have kept the U.S. on target for preserving rivers, lakes, watersheds, wetlands, natural aquifers, and other sources of fresh water.

Great strides have been made in managing waste water and storm water. More than 90 percent of community water systems in 2012 met all federal health standards. Public water utilities have been a tremendously successful model for the U.S. and continue to keep drinking water safe, accessible, and affordable for all Americans.

It hasn’t always been this way.

During the 1800s, private companies controlled the water systems of several large U.S. cities—to dire effect. Because the companies were more interested in making a profit than providing good service, many poor residents lacked access to water. As a result, cholera outbreaks were common in poor neighborhoods; water pressure was sometimes too low to stop fires, which destroyed both homes and businesses.


By the turn of the 20th century, city governments, including Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, and New York City, had taken over drinking water provision from private companies. The goal of government was to improve service, reduce waterborne diseases, and increase water pressure to better fight fires. New York City, for example, assumed control of its drinking water services from the bank and holding company called the Manhattan Company, the predecessor of JPMorgan Chase, after an outbreak of cholera killed 3,500 people and a devastating fire caused extensive property damage.

These cities learned the hard way just how important public water provision is for human and environmental health. The shift to a public utility system, responsive to community needs, allowed local public control of water and sewer services. Public utilities helped local governments manage water resources, growth, and development, and ensured that safe and reliable services were available to all.

Now, just past the turn of the 21st century, our national water framework needs rethinking with climate change and sustainability in mind. It’s time for an integrated, holistic national water policy, including the establishment of a federal water trust fund. Instead we face the cannibalization of our public utilities by private corporations.

Despite our success over the last 100 years, public water utilities face daunting challenges in the days ahead:

1. Water systems nationwide are aging and wearing out. Last summer more than 150,000 residents in the greater Washington, D.C. region faced the specter of being without water for days because of a stuck valve on a major water main. Delayed maintenance on the valve due to funding cuts led to the crisis.

________________________________________________

Ivy League university endowments were heavily invested in the subprime mortgage loans knowing they were fraudulent and would bring down the economy.  They took the profit made from those fraudulent loans and started buying land overseas with the intent of cornering the next market----privatized public works like transportation and water and waste.  They starved governments with massive frauds and corruptions just to pretend we now have to hand all that is public over to the same institutions creating and profiting from the frauds.


I'm picking on Ivy League universities today but there are plenty of other bad guys profiting from these policies.  Look how rich Ben Cardin and Nancy Pelosi are getting from Insider Trading for example!  Those Clinton neo-liberals who voted for global corporations and markets have worked two decades to advance these policies.  IT'S THE REPUBLICANS THEY SAY-----

WELL, MARYLAND IS ONE BIG NEO-LIBERAL STATE SO IT'S BOTH NEO-CONS AND NEO-LIBERALS.




US universities in Africa 'land grab' Institutions including Harvard and Vanderbilt reportedly use hedge funds to buy land in deals that may force farmers out
  • John Vidal and Claire Provost
  • The Guardian, Wednesday 8 June 2011 15.18 EDT


US universities are reportedly using endowment funds to make deals that may force thousands from their land in Africa. Photograph: Boston Globe via Getty Images Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study.

Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from "land grabs" that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world.


The new report on land acquisitions in seven African countries suggests that Harvard, Vanderbilt and many other US colleges with large endowment funds have invested heavily in African land in the past few years. Much of the money is said to be channelled through London-based Emergent asset management, which runs one of Africa's largest land acquisition funds, run by former JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs currency dealers.

Researchers at the California-based Oakland Institute think that Emergent's clients in the US may have invested up to $500m in some of the most fertile land in the expectation of making 25% returns.

Emergent said the deals were handled responsibly. "Yes, university endowment funds and pension funds are long-term investors," a spokesman said. "We are investing in African agriculture and setting up businesses and employing people. We are doing it in a responsible way … The amounts are large. They can be hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not landgrabbing. We want to make the land more valuable. Being big makes an impact, economies of scale can be more productive."

Chinese and Middle Eastern firms have previously been identified as "grabbing" large tracts of land in developing countries to grow cheap food for home populations, but western funds are behind many of the biggest deals, says the Oakland institute, an advocacy research group.

The company that manages Harvard's investment funds declined to comment. "It is Harvard management company policy not to discuss investments or investment strategy and therefore I cannot confirm the report," said a spokesman. Vanderbilt also declined to comment.

Oakland said investors overstated the benefits of the deals for the communities involved. "Companies have been able to create complex layers of companies and subsidiaries to avert the gaze of weak regulatory authorities. Analysis of the contracts reveal that many of the deals will provide few jobs and will force many thousands of people off the land," said Anuradha Mittal, Oakland's director.

In Tanzania, the memorandum of understanding between the local government and US-based farm development corporation AgriSol Energy, which is working with Iowa University, stipulates that the two main locations – Katumba and Mishamo – for their project are refugee settlements holding as many as 162,000 people that will have to be closed before the $700m project can start.
The refugees have been farming this land for 40 years.

In Ethiopia, a process of "villagisation" by the government is moving tens of thousands of people from traditional lands into new centres while big land deals are being struck with international companies.

The largest land deal in South Sudan, where as much as 9% of the land is said by Norwegian analysts to have been bought in the last few years, was negotiated between a Texas-based firm, Nile Trading and Development and a local co-operative run by absent chiefs. The 49-year lease of 400,000 hectares of central Equatoria for around $25,000 (£15,000) allows the company to exploit all natural resources including oil and timber. The company, headed by former US Ambassador Howard Eugene Douglas, says it intends to apply for UN-backed carbon credits that could provide it with millions of pounds a year in revenues.

In Mozambique, where up to 7m hectares of land is potentially available for investors, western hedge funds are said in the report to be working with South Africans businesses to buy vast tracts of forest and farmland for investors in Europe and the US. The contracts show the government will waive taxes for up to 25 years, but few jobs will be created.

"No one should believe that these investors are there to feed starving Africans, create jobs or improve food security," said Obang Metho of Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia. "These agreements – many of which could be in place for 99 years – do not mean progress for local people and will not lead to food in their stomachs. These deals lead only to dollars in the pockets of corrupt leaders and foreign investors."

"The scale of the land deals being struck is shocking", said Mittal. "The conversion of African small farms and forests into a natural-asset-based, high-return investment strategy can drive up food prices and increase the risks of climate change.

Research by the World Bank and others suggests that nearly 60m hectares – an area the size of France – has been bought or leased by foreign companies in Africa in the past three years.

"Most of these deals are characterised by a lack of transparency, despite the profound implications posed by the consolidation of control over global food markets and agricultural resources by financial firms," says the report.


"We have seen cases of speculators taking over agricultural land while small farmers, viewed as squatters, are forcibly removed with no compensation," said Frederic Mousseau, policy director at Oakland, said: "This is creating insecurity in the global food system that could be a much bigger threat to global security than terrorism. More than one billion people around the world are living with hunger. The majority of the world's poor still depend on small farms for their livelihoods, and speculators are taking these away while promising progress that never happens."

______________________________________________



Why is Harper Selling Canada's Fresh Water Supply to French Companies?


Posted: 10/18/2013 12:35 pm EDT Updated: 01/23/2014 6:58 pm EST   Huffington Post


Prime Minister Harper has just signed the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and Canadians who care about our freshwater heritage should be deeply concerned for three reasons.

First, the massive increase in beef and pork exports that have been negotiated will put a terrible strain on our water supplies. Beef producers can now export close to 70,000 tonnes of beef to Europe and an undisclosed but higher amount of pork. Meat production is highly water intensive. It takes over 15 million litres of water to produce one tonne of beef, for example.

Already Alberta's dwindling water supplies are over-taxed by a beef industry that is rapidly expanding and expected to double its water footprint by 2025, according to an assessment done before this deal was signed. Intensive hog operations in Manitoba are killing Lake Winnipeg, their waste creating nutrient overload that covers over half the lake in blue green algae. To protect our precious watersheds, what we need is more sustainable and local food production, not massive new trade deals that will strain our water sources beyond their capacity.

Second, this deal will give French companies Suez and Veolia, the two biggest private water operations in the world, access to run our water services for profit. Under a recent edict, the Harper government has tied federal funding of municipal water infrastructure construction or upgrading to privatization of water services. Cash-strapped municipalities can only access federal funds if they adopt a public-private partnership model, and several cities have recently put their water or wastewater services contracts up for private bids. If Suez or Veolia are successful in bidding for these contracts (and under the new deal, local governments cannot favour local bidders) and a future city council decides it wants to move back to a public system, as municipalities are doing all over the world, these corporations will be able to sue for huge compensation. Private water operators charge far higher rates than public operators and cut corners when it comes to source protection. Privatization of water services violates the essential principle that Canada's water is a public trust.

The same "investor-state" clause contained in the Canada-EU deal poses the third threat to Canada's water. The rules essentially say that if a government introduces new environmental, health or safety rules that were not in place when the foreign corporation made its investment, it has the right to compensation, which a domestic corporation does not have. For instance, an American energy company is suing Canada for $250 million in damages using a similar NAFTA rule because Quebec decided to protect its water by placing a moratorium on fracking. Moreover, transnational corporations are now claiming ownership of the actual water they require in their operations. Another American company successfully sued Ottawa for $130 million for the "water rights"; it left behind when it abandoned its pulp and paper operations in Newfoundland, leaving workers without jobs or pensions. The new deal with Europe will give large European corporations similar rights, further eroding the ability of governments to protect our fragile watersheds and ecosystems.

The Harper government has gutted every regulation and law we had in place to protect our freshwater supplies. Now this deregulation is locked in as corporations from Europe as well as the U.S. can soon claim to have invested in an environment without water protection rules and sue any future government that tries to undo the damage.

On a planet running out of clean accessible water, this is a really stupid way to treat our water.




________________________________________________


The same investment firms pushing to privatize public water and waste are behind these fracking industry expansions.  Exporting natural gas places fracking in the US and around Maryland on steroids as profits rise and that means more and more fresh water sources will disappear.  NO WORRIES.  VEOLA ENVIRONMENT will sell you water from overseas and if you cannot afford the price----they will use SMART METERS to ration what you can pay.

THAT JOHNS HOPKINS----LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING THEIR WAY TO PROFITS AND THEN USING THEM FOR EVIL-----



Fracking Spreads Worldwide

By Nidaa Bakhsh and Brian Swint November 14, 2013


Bloomberg Financial

The hydraulic fracturing of shale in search of oil and gas has hardly started outside the U.S., but that’s changing. A record 400 shale wells may be drilled beyond U.S. borders in 2014, with most of the activity in China and Russia, according to energy consultants Wood Mackenzie. (In contrast, thousands of shale wells will be drilled in the U.S. next year.) The number of rigs used onshore in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region has increased 10 percent over the past year, data compiled by oil services company Baker Hughes (BHI) show. Most of those rigs are meant for shale. “It’s likely there will be a revolution,” says Maria van der Hoeven, executive director at the Paris-based International Energy Agency. “But not everywhere at the same time. And you just can’t copy the U.S. experience.”

Fracking in the U.K. will start next year, after the government lifted an 18-month moratorium imposed when a fracking company found it had accidentally caused earthquakes. Two utilities—Centrica (CNA:LN) of Britain and GDF Suez (GSZ:FP) of France—have bought stakes in British drilling licenses to help bankroll the drillers and win a cut of any profit.



The shale boom has moved the U.S. closer to energy independence, added jobs, helped revive manufacturing, and lowered gas bills. Yet the conditions that fostered the U.S.’s success don’t exist elsewhere. In some countries, landowners don’t own the oil and gas in the ground: The state retains all mineral rights. Or a country may levy much heavier taxes on oil and gas profits.

Story: U.S. Shale-Oil Boom May Not Last as Fracking Wells Lack Staying Power Once they start drilling and fracking, though, countries such as China, Argentina, and Russia could experience new oil and gas booms. China has the largest shale gas reserves, estimated to be the equivalent of 212 billion barrels of oil. In shale oil, Russia tops the list with about 75 billion barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. Australia, Poland, and Algeria all have big reserves.

Fracking activity outside the U.S. is likely to be good for the big oil players. Royal Dutch Shell (RDS/A) teamed up with China National Petroleum Corp. this year to explore in Sichuan, the province that accounts for 40 percent of China’s shale reserves. Hess (HES) is exploring with CNPC in the western Xinjiang region. YPF (YPF), the Argentine oil company, has joined with Chevron (CVX) to tap deposits in Argentina’s vast Vaca Muerta formation. Says Edward Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup (C): “Within three to five years, there should be exponential growth in drilling as there was in the U.S.”


_______________________________________________

As I stated with health care and the deliberate building of a perfect storm for antibiotic resistance and world health epidemics we see the same characters------Wall Street, Ivy League universities like Hopkins, and their neo-liberal and neo-con pols working to break our public health and environmental protections to profit from selling what will become a scarce resource.  Not to mention how large populations unable to obtain fresh water are easily managed when made desperate.

This is what Maryland Assembly and O'Malley/Brown and in Baltimore, Baltimore City Council and Maryland Rawlings-Blake are working toward.  They are neo-liberals and neo-cons who do not care about anything but maximizing corporate profits.


SIMPLY REVERSE ALL OF THIS BY VOTING THESE POLS OUT OF OFFICE AND REBUILD RULE OF LAW AND PUBLIC JUSTICE------AND REBUILD A DOMESTIC ECONOMY WITH SMALL AND REGIONAL BUSINESS WHILE KEEPING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS AT BAY IN MARYLAND.

Contaminated freshwater systems caused by ‘fracking’

Friday, April 4, 2014 13:52

Fracking fluids from oil and gas extraction is contaminating our freshwater systems. http://www.blissful-wisdom.com/contaminated-freshwater-systems-caused-by-fracking.html

A local resident recently wrote about the monetary significance of hydrocarbon extraction and exportation.  What many advocates of the oil-dependence industry seem to ignore completely is the short-sighted and toxic process with which ‘unconventional oil and gas sources’ are being extracted. This process is known as ‘induced hydraulic fracturing’, or ‘fracking’ (for short).

There is growing peer-reviewed scientific evidence of the harmful effects of shale gas development.  ‘Pro-fracking’ opinions focus on the big bucks and ignore the detrimental effects on our limited, freshwater systems.


There are a million well sites in North America which have used fracking.  A horizontal well in a shale formation can use between 7.5 million to 19 million litres of water.  That water used for extraction in gas shale ‘plays’ becomes toxic by the addition of: water‐based fracturing fluids mixed with friction‐reducing additives; biocides to prevent microorganism growth and to reduce biofouling of the fractures; oxygen scavengers and other stabilizers to prevent corrosion of metal pipes; and acids that are used to remove drilling mud.   80 % of this fracking fluid comes back to the surface and 20 % stays in the shale excavation ‘play’. This fracking fluid is highly toxic and contaminates local well-water, rivers, and underground water systems. 

This is the part which outweighs the financial benefits of present ‘fracking’ and non-conventional oil extraction methods. Our North American water reserves are limited.  Toxifying our limited water resources is insanity to say the least.  No amount of remuneration can justify contaminating underground water beds and surface-water courses for coming generations.

As of 2012, 2.5 million hydraulic fracturing jobs have been performed on oil and gas wells worldwide!

Do an internet search on the topic of ‘fracking’ and why it is so controversial. Be wary of industry-backed politicians who would smooth over the environmental collateral damage left from ‘fracking’ practices.

  Water well testing must take place both prior to and after seismic testing operations
If a well-owner does not test and show healthy conditions were present prior to nearby  ‘fracking’, then there is no possibility of claiming damages when contamination does eventually occur.

For the last hundred years, water rights belong to the owner of the land.  Tough luck for  those landowners and city-dwellers downstream, since liability favors industry not local taxpayers.  High cancer rates and damaging side-effects to human and animal life occur where tailing ponds and fracking fluid has escaped into underground and above-ground waterways. 

How can we not seriously demand alternatives to oil/gas addiction and its collateral damage?  There is money to be made and jobs to be had, but it requires focusing on developing those alternatives.  Industry is not going to encourage that shift.  Politicians serve industry and corporate interests, not the long-term health of the nation.  And once again…fresh, drinkable water is becoming threatened by ‘fracking’ practices.


0 Comments

May 22nd, 2014

5/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Maryland consumers are being ignored and taken to the cleaners because its energy utilities have been handed to national corporations and rate payers are used to subsidize the costs of doing business.  Our Public Service Commission once regulated in public interest and is now stacked with corporate interest officials with O'Malley and Erhlich.  Just as with health care we are losing control of the most critical public services as energy is a must and needs to be affordable.  As most people are now needing subsidy for heating, cooling, and cooking, these essential needs make people captured to simply getting basic necessities.  This does not allow for freedom or democracy when most people must beg for subsidized necessities.

SMART METERS
are not about sustainability ----they are about rationing energy as prices soar and public subsidies end.


The Public Service Commission of Maryland


was created in 1910 to regulate utilities. Also during this time, natural gas was becoming a popular substitute for manufactured gas. Warfield wanted to bring natural gas to Baltimore but did not succeed in doing so. Between 1906 and 1910, gross income increased by 31 percent, and in 1910 Warfield resigned and was succeeded by J.E. Aldred as chairman. Aldred embarked upon vigorous expansion. Much of the company's electricity was supplied by hydroelectric plants on the Susquehanna River, and Consolidated owned several gas generating plants. With production in place, the company could offer more competitive rates.



When BGE was sold to Constellation there was a billion dollars from the sale placed in public trust for the closing of Calvert Cliffs.  Financial analysts now show that the closing will be done for far less so there is a bolus of public money that can come back to consumers or pay for infrastructure.  What we see is an insulting $170 dollars and soaring rates to pay a second time for infrastructure.  Just as happened with the subprime mortgage fraud settlement that never made it to the victims of fraud and went to subsidize corporate developers.

Time and time again public wealth is lost through fraud and corruption or handed outright as subsidy to now billion dollar a year corporations fat with profit from the public's money.

STOP VOTING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS RUNNING AS DEMOCRATS!


Below you see Exelon is soaking its consumers across the country as it is here in Maryland.


BGE's customers to get $170 rebate -- ...www.topix.com/forum/com/ceg
BGE customers will get one-time rebates of $170 and other benefits totaling $2 billion in ... Constellation and BGE to ... Constellation Energy ...




ComEd customers face big price increases
May 07, 2014|By Julie Wernau | Tribune staff reporter

Just as the Chicago area is getting ready for air conditioning weather, residents can expect to be jolted by higher electric bills.

Starting June 1, Commonwealth Edison customers on average will see monthly bills jump 21 percent, to about $82 a month from about $69 a month.

City residents and others who have switched to competing suppliers won't escape the higher prices because the cost of all electric power is higher.




Demand had continued to grow, and in 1981 the Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Project started a four-year expansion project. In an effort to improve profitability, BGE trimmed its operating budget in 1982 and 1983 and sought diversification into other businesses. In 1983 however, the Maryland Public Service Commission turned down BGE's application to form a holding company, stating that Maryland law forbids such a structure for utilities. The holding company reorganization would have enabled BGE to diversify freely.

The Brandon Shores Unit Number 1--a coal-burning electricity-generating plant--opened in 1984, helping to eliminate the company's dependence on foreign oil. A second Brandon Shores unit started up in 1991. In 1983 about 60 percent of the company's operating revenue was in electric power sales, and around the same time gas sales began to slump.
In 1986 BGE formed Constellation Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary through which it planned to expand its nonutility interests, despite being denied the right to form a holding company.



Deregulation in the 1990s

In 1992 the company faced a dramatic shift in the way it did business when Congress passed the Federal Energy Policy Act. The act permitted competition in the wholesale power market and, by allowing retail competition, signaled the end of regulated, regional monopolies. Although its relatively small size and regional coverage would work against it in a competitive market, analysts felt BGE's customer mix could be a benefit. Because it had few industrial customers, BGE would not be so much at the mercy of large manufacturers who would set one supplier against another in a bidding war. However, BGE apparently felt the disadvantage of its size and responded to the act's passage by looking for a partner that would help cut costs through economies of scale.

In the mid-1990s, the electricity market was growing at a rate of only two percent a year. BGE focused on expanding its gas customer base and managed to increase that division's profits 25 percent in 1995. However, the company's real estate investments were performing poorly, which pulled down overall company earnings that year.

BGE forged an agreement to merge with Washington, D.C.-based Potomac Electric Power Co. (PEPCO) in 1995. The two companies anticipated making substantial staff cuts to reduce overlapping jobs; those cuts and savings from eliminating related redundancies were expected to save $1.3 billion over 10 years. Stockholders approved the deal in 1996, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave its okay in 1997. Maryland followed suit with conditional approval, but the process was held up by conditions placed on the merger by the District of Columbia. BGE and PEPCO had proposed splitting the expected savings from the merger evenly between customers and shareholders. D.C. regulators, however, wanted customers to get a larger share, and made that a condition of the merger. BGE and PEPCO would not agree to that condition, and the two companies called off the merger in December 1997. The companies had invested more than two years and $100 million in arranging the merger. Analysts considered both companies as likely candidates for other merger or takeover deals in the coming years.

In 1998 BGE began a major organizational restructuring that split the company into three discrete units: utility operations, power generation, and unregulated subsidiaries. "All the rules under which we operate are being rewritten," Christian H. Poindexter, BGE's chairman and CEO, said to Baltimore Sun correspondent Kevin McQuaid. "That's what's driving this." Part of the reorganization entailed the creation of Constellation Enterprises Inc., a holding company for the utility's unregulated subsidiaries. The company expected to continue to make management and organizational changes in 1998 as part of its preparation for competition, which Maryland had slated to begin in 2002.

Principal Subsidiaries: Constellation Enterprises Inc.; BGE Energy Projects & Services, Inc.; BGE Home Products and Services, Inc.; BGE Commercial Building Systems; Constellation Energy Source.



___________
This is a good look at the progression from public to privatized utility from the 1990s/early 2000s anticipating the problems we have today.  Remember, all this is the time of Reagan/Clinton and neo-liberalism....deregulating and consolidating for powerful corporate control of government. You see, all that happened was BGE staffing was slashed, pay declined, service and quality disappeared, and now we cannot even reach a real customer service representative as we 'wait on hold'.  Long power-outages come from no investment in infrastructure and maintenance so profit could soar.  Now, with the Maryland Public Service Commission stocked with pro-corporate officials from Erhlich and O'Malley----this commission looks at the public with contempt at public forums.

The citizens of Maryland are ready to return our vital public services to the hands of the public to operate in the public interest with money invested building public value and not profit.

Below you see the same questions being asked at the end of the 1990s as are now asked today, only it is getting worse.
Sadly, Progressive Maryland is now taken corporate as currently it advocates for the most Wall Street of pols in elections.  Anthony Brown will of course act just as O'Malley as corporate pol extraordinaire and this is whom Progressive Maryland today endorses.  So, it is not only our public commissions taken corporate but our democratic political action groups.  Do you hear your pol or political organization fighting these fights?  See why only Gansler, Brown, and Mizeur hit Maryland election news?


STOP ELECTING CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.  RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!

Energy Companies

Progressive Maryland  2000s

Energy companies – led by Pepco and Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE, owned by Constellation) – have for decades invested heavily in lobbying in Annapolis and campaign contributions to lawmakers. In just the past year, energy companies spent at least $477,679 on lobbying during the 2004 session (see attached list for Pepco, Mirant, and Constellation) plus untold thousands of dollars on campaign contributions (Common Cause estimates conservatively that they have donated $440,000 since 1999).

Those investments have yielded handsome dividends. Sometimes the dividends come in the form of anti-consumer, anti-environmental bills that pass, such as California-style electricity deregulation that became law in Maryland in 1999 and only now is being fully implemented, so far with negative results for environment and consumers.

And sometimes the dividends come in the form of what does not happen. The dog that failed to bark helped Sherlock Holmes solve the mystery of The Hounds of the Baskerville. A big and curiously silent hound is the Maryland state government when it comes to the abysmal performance of Pepco and BGE in the aftermath of last year’s Tropical Storm Isabel, when hundreds of thousands of customers went for days (and in some cases weeks) without electricity. That fiasco and the negligence of BGE and especially Pepco have been amply documented.

The two committees with jurisdiction over the electricity industry – the Senate Finance Committee and House Economic Matters Committee – held a joint hearing in October 2003, one month after the blackout. At those hearings, lawmakers decided to limit themselves to fact-finding so as not to pre-empt the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) from fixing the problem through regulation. But rather than fix the problem, PSC put the fix in. First, in April of 2004, PSC’s Ehrlich-appointed Chairman, Kenneth D. Schisler, fired the engineers and senior civil servants with the technical expertise to evaluate (and potentially criticize in detail) the utilities’ dysfunctionality. Then, in June, the PSC issued an “Order” that actually compliments the utilities for their improved performance since the 1999 blackouts following Tropical Storm Floyd (!) and merely suggests a few costless proposals. These bromides include “enhancing communications between utilities, local emergency management agencies, media and customers” and “consider[ing] taking additional steps with municipal governments to increase private landowner awareness of the risks attendant with off-rights of way tree and vegetation problems that pose risks to utility electrical facilities.” Lending new meaning to the term “captive agency”, the PSC then concludes its Order (“Suggestion” is more like it) with this amazingly counter-empirical claim: “No new 4 evidence or industry information has been adduced or presented that would suggest a need to alter the existing policies regarding overhead and underground wiring of the general electric distribution system.”

Will the hound of Maryland state government continue its peculiar silence vis-à-vis electric companies during the 2005 session of the General Assembly? Lawmakers were probably correct this past year to give PSC a chance to do its job. But considering PSC’s failure to do so, and considering Pepco’s subsequent 16 percent rate hike on customers this year, it is high time for the General Assembly to intervene. Lawmakers should hold public hearings and get answers to some obvious questions, such as: • Since deregulation in 1999, has the Pepco and BGE service-areas had more annual black- and brown-out days than before deregulation? • Since deregulation, have the Pepco and BGE service-areas had more annual black- and brown-out days than other parts of the country? • Why was the industry allowed to deregulate in such a way that the utilities could cut investment in infrastructure, such as power lines, poles, transformers, and vegetation-pruning capability? • Why, since deregulation, did the Public Service Commission allow Pepco’s CEO, John M. Derrick, Jr., to double his annual compensation up to $1.9 million per year in 2002? Worse, why did PSC allow BGE’s top executive, Mayo A. Shattuck III, to more than triple the CEO’s salary since deregulation, paying himself a whopping $6.9 million in 2003? Given BGE’s lousy performance during Isabel, how in the world could Shattuck justify a salary like that?•

Are PSC members allowed to work for the same companies they supposedly “regulate” after they leave public service? If so, does this help explain the failure of the PSC to chastise either Pepco or BGE after Isabel? And does it help explain PSC’s supine willingness to approve any hike in executive compensation, no matter how outrageous? • Why did power outages in the BGE and especially Pepco areas last longer than power outages in some other areas hit by Isabel, such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania? • Considering that Isabel’s overall impact was not much worse than Floyd’s had been in 1999, why did the BGE area suffer 790,450 customer outages over a period of nine days after Isabel compared to only 503,831 over the same time-period following Floyd? Worse, why did the Pepco area suffer 545,000 customer outages over a period of eleven days after Isabel compared to only 79,000 after Floyd? Granted, 2004’s wet summer made 5 trees easier to topple during Isabel, but was the ground so much softer as to explain this huge increase in power outages? Based on the answers to these and other questions, lawmakers can and must pass reform legislation – with a strong presumption that re-regulation is the only way to avert a California-like energy mess in Maryland. Will lawmakers take this kind of decisive action in the weeks and months ahead? Or will all that utility spending on lobbying and campaign contributions induce in lawmakers the kind of lethargy that killed reform following the Tropical Storm Floyd blackouts of 1999?

__________________

As you see below the consolidation of all industries with the Reagan/Clinton deregulation and global market push has been a disaster for citizens of all states.  This happened because the politicians elected as governor appointed officials to the State Public Service Commission who would vote in favor of the corporation and not the public.  We saw in the 1980s where this commission worked for public interest and today O'Malley actually wants to place Exelon executives on our PSC.

THIS IS WHY IT MATTERS WHO YOU ELECT AS GOVERNOR.  ALL CANDIDATES EXCEPT CINDY WALSH WILL CONTINUE TO FILL THE PSC WITH CORPORATE APPOINTMENTS.  I WILL START TO TAKE THIS UTILITY BACK TO PUBLIC SERVICE.


For those who think this is big government-----WAKE UP-----these are vital public services that are being priced out of most people's reach.  When the number of people needing subsidy for energy grows you have disenfranchised those citizens and those subsidies will end.


BGE Wins Competitive Bid For Privatization of the Fort Meade Gas and Electric Utility Distribution Systems.


Link to this page




Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) has been awarded a 50-year contract for privatization of the natural gas and electric distribution systems at the United States Army's Fort George G. Meade facility in Anne Arundel County, MD. The Army selected BGE as the successful bidder in a competitive procurement process, which began in 1999. Under the contract, the Government's aged gas and electric distribution systems will be replaced with new, modernized, BGE owned, operated and maintained systems that will provide safer and more reliable service for Fort Meade, its tenants, and the people who live and work there. BGE plans to begin the three-year construction project, which will add about 350 commercial services to BGE's infrastructure, once design and engineering work have been completed.

"BGE is proud to have won the contract for privatization of the gas and electric distribution systems at Fort Meade," said Frank O. Heintz, President and CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. "It is indeed an honor to be entrusted with this tremendous responsibility. The extension of BGE's surrounding gas and electric distribution systems onto Fort Meade is a natural and logical extension of our existing relationship, which began in 1917 with the establishment of Fort Meade. Fort Meade is one of our most important customers, and I am confident that BGE will meet all of the needs of this sensitive and crucial operation."

Note: BGE is a member of Constellation Energy Group . A Fortune 500 company based in Baltimore, Constellation Energy Group is the nation's leading competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and industrial customers. We market energy nationally and manage the associated risks. We own and operate a diversified fleet of generation plants throughout the United States. We also deliver electricity and natural gas through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), our regulated utility in Central Maryland. In 2002, the combined revenues of our integrated energy company totaled $4.7 billion.

CONTACT: Linda Foy (media), BGE, +1-410-234-7433, Linda.J.Foy@bge.com, or Jack Thayer (investor relations), +1-410-783-3647, Jonathan.Thayer@constellation.com, for BGE


________________________________________

There is not a SMART METER critique that shows energy costs going down for the consumer.  In fact, consumers are being hit with inflated bills and not able to attain recourse because these new too big corporations just ignore these consumers and with public justice dismantled-----Americans across the country are having their money taken with no recourse.  This is happening in the energy sector and with this consolidation comes the public's loss of control.

WE MUST BRING UTILITIES BACK TO PUBLIC STATUS AND WE MUST BRING BACK REGULATION.


These profits are ever climbing because the taxpayers and ratepayers are footing the bills for infrastructure and operations while service and quality declines and environmental issues grow.  Natural gas is fracking and having Exelon in our backyard increases pressure for fracking in Maryland.


Exelon to buy Constellation in $7.9 billion deal
Print By Associated Press business staff
on April 28, 2011 at 12:13 PM, updated April 28, 2011 at 12:15 PM



Associated Press fileExelon Corp.'s nuclear plant in Byron, Ill. NEW YORK  --

Exelon Corp. agreed to buy Constellation Energy Group Inc. for $7.9 billion Thursday, the latest in a string of acquisitions in the electric power industry.

Exelon CEO John Rowe, the longest-serving utility CEO in the country, has long been a proponent of consolidation. He has failed three times since 2003 to acquire a smaller rival. Now the market conditions appear to be on his side.

A combination of lower power prices and rising costs tied to tightening environmental standards has been the catalyst for several recent deals, including Duke Energy Corp.'s $13.7 billion buyout of Progress Energy Inc.

Constellation shareholders will receive 0.93 shares of Exelon for each Constellation share. That's worth $38.59 a share, a 12.5 percent premium over Constellation's closing price on Wednesday.

In Constellation, Exelon would acquire a company much like itself -- with one important difference. Along with a regulated utility and a wholesale power division, Constellation has among the largest retail power divisions in the country.

Analysts say Constellation's large retail arm and Exelon's large wholesale power division could work well together.

"Constellation's retail arm is a good fit, because it tends to do well when wholesale markets are bad," said David Grumhaus, a utility analyst at the Chicago hedge fund Copia Capital.

Wholesale electric providers own generating stations and sell their power to local utilities or retail power providers either through long-term contracts or through regional power pools.

Retail electric providers buy blocks of wholesale power and resell it to industrial, commercial and residential customers. Through most of the last decade, when power prices were rising steadily, retail providers struggled to sign up new customers because they couldn't offer rates lower than what customers were already getting from traditional utilities.

Lower demand for electricity in the wake of the recession and persistently low natural gas prices have lowered power prices and allowed retail providers to advertise low rates in order to attract customers. Also, new devices such as smart meters that track when power is used throughout the day have allowed retail providers to offer new rate plans based on when customers use power in order to lower overall bills.

"It's a deal that makes sense," Grumhaus said.


_________________________________________

The same benefits are offered again and again as to why merger after merger is good for the State of Maryland and as the article shows below-------none of the benefits happen.  The 600 jobs toted with this deal ended being a staff shakeup where local employees were fired and 600 new staff brought from out of the area.  This is a loss of jobs, not a gain.  The rate payers were immediately slapped with a whopping rate increase to pay the costs of infrastructure upgrades and operational costs, they were given $100 million tax credit for absolutely no reason to build a complex right on the water's edge in Baltimore------racketeering and unsustainable development in one swoop.  This deal kept the coal- fired power plants open and the billion dollars of taxpayer trust tied to paying for the closure of Calvert Cliffs is now in the hands of Exelon.

These are all political deals as you see the donations to these campaigns and the connection of Exelon to Obama goes directly to O'Malley's top position on the Democratic Governor's Association
. 

THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND HAVE A LOSE LOSE ON THIS MERGER.


Now we see Exelon as the main lobbyist for exporting natural gas which will make natural gas prices soar and rates as well.  We are being tied to the most invasive and corrupt system of energy control----the SMART METER ----that has as its only goal the rationing of energy as costs soar and public subsidy disappears.

It is good to note that as this article states the movement to natural gas in producing energy in Maryland will not take coal-fire out of the equation as Exelon simply sold the coal-fired plants to eliminate its footprint----they are still in operation.  Natural gas is far more damaging to global warming than electricity-operation of plants and will be used as an excuse to frack in Maryland.  Indeed, Exelon spends heavily to lobby for exporting natural gas and for the export facility here in Maryland.  Lastly, the mention of Exelon being required to pay for low-income subsidy was found to be a joke as the money sent was found to be fungible taxpayer subsidy to Exelon.  Even the jobs did not happen!


YOU MUST ENGAGE IN POLITICS TO BE THE CHANGE!!

Break up the Exelon bohemoth!

Posted on January 12, 2013 by interestingblogger


I recently read in The Daily Record an article which brought some ideas to my mind. The article noted that “Baltimore’s design review panel Thursday gave a preliminary thumbs up to a design for a sleek, glass, brick and metal tower to house the city’s new Exelon Corp. headquarters at Harbor Point.” As I mentioned in another post, the Inner Harbor benefited big business, not the workers. What about Exelon?

I’ll give you some background. A while ago last year I wrote opposing the Constellation-Exelon merger in my previous blog, Sunshine Politics that “the merger would be a victory for the monied interests because $7.9 billion dollars went into the pocket of Exelon Corp. for their purchase of Constellation Energy Corp…[and] 120 of those megawatts [of new generation Exelon is required to developed within the state, which is 280-300 megawatts] will come from a natural gas-powered plants. I [also noted]…the merger…causes the last Fortune 500 company to leave Baltimore…[which won't] help lower the city’s 20%+ unemployment. [Using the Baltimore Brew I learned that]…the site selected by Exelon…has been the subject of controversy among Baltimore real estate factions…[which could]…adversely affect electric utilities across the Baltimore region and across the state…[I later added rhat] Exelon paid for [numerous] fines for…past negligence…[including a fine] in 2005, the corporation paid $602,000 for exceeding the sulfur dioxide level in Pennsylvania.” I even predicted the merger would be approved, and I bemoaned the fact that there was not strong public opposition, saying that due to this fact, elected officials fell in line with the deal like Maryland’s  Governor Martin O’Malley who “appreciated the PSC’s decision, saying that it will add 6,000 new jobs in Maryland,” who had previously opposed the deal. Using OpenSecrets, I found that “Exelon has been the top contributor to 162 Congressmembers in the House and Senate from 2000 to the present, including Bob Ehlrich is 2000, Ben Cardin in 2012 and Steny H. Hoyer in 2012. Even Constellation Energy gave $10,000 to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who I’ve previously described as the anti-occupy mayor. The conditions of this merger set by the Public Services Commission (PSC) seemed notable including a hundred dollar rate credit to all BGE customers within 90 days, an investment of over 113 million dollars over three years by Exelon to “provide energy efficiency and low-income energy assistance to BGE customers” and the development of 285-300 “megawatts of new generation within the state,” 120 of which will come from a  natural gas power plant, 125 from “renewable resources” and 30 from solar power. Next, the PSC required the amount of staff at BGE and the two power plants to be the same for the next two years (no firing), but didn’t mention firing from Constellation or Exelon which will not be prohibited. Most importantly, Exelon is required to divest itself of BGE “if Exelon files for bankruptcy or allows its credit rating to drop six levels below investment grade,” which doesn’t seem to take into account the bad record of credit agencies like Moody’s and Standard and Poors which are partly responsible for the current financial crisis (the movie Inside Job explains this well).

You may wonder why this merger was a bad idea. Consider the occupiers, who criticized it before they were evicted, who said it is a bad “deal for Baltimore (and the surrounding areas) because it does not protect jobs and has no guarantees for rate relief.” They even organized a march against the merger at one point! The Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun revealed some about the merger that should make one opposed to it, which noted that once Exelon and Constellation are combined, the new company will be “the largest non-utlity energy provider in the United States.” In 2005, a similar merger approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with a company in New Jersey would have created such a behemoth, but after massive public action, it was stopped. Even without public action to stop the merger, a consumer advocacy group in Maryland, the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, and its counterpart in Pennsylvania were opposed, saying that “the combined company would hold too much power in the…Mid-Atlantic electricity grid, potentially pushing wholesale electricity prices higher.” As I noted when I wrote this originally, the merger itself could possibly eliminate 630 jobs in Constellation Energy and Exelon, most of which would in Baltimore, along with the fact that Exelon has a horrible safety record.

What could we as citizens do about this injustice? I did write in the past that the common folk of the state should participate in “militant non-violence opposing this merger and must push for re-regulation of the energy markets by the PSC,” but I feel more is needed.  I still support militant non-violence, yet I think that one can look to the Maryland Declaration of Rights for inspiration. Article 6 points out 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,” that “the People may…reform the old, or establish a new Government; [and that] the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.” The bolded section I believe is the most important. The common folk of Maryland should use the ideas of Article 41 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, and declare that the monopoly of the Exelon-Constellation merged company is “odious, contrary to the spirit of a free government and the principles of commerce, and ought not to be suffered.” The people must tell their government that the energy markets must be re-regulated and that the Exelon-Constellation merger must be broken up by the state, otherwise Marylanders will suffer.


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May 21st, 2014

5/21/2014

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I DON'T WANT TO BE TOO CONSPIRACY THEORY----BUT MANY OF THE 'CATEGORIES' ARCHIVED TIED TO THIS SITE ARE NOW EMPTY WHERE THEY WERE ONCE FULL.

Please check the archived postings as I start replacing those posts missing.


BELOW IS WHAT POLS FROM ERHLICH TO O'MALLEY HAVE BEEN DOING AND IT IS WHY ELECTIONS ARE CAPTURED AND FRAUD AND CORRUPTION RAMPANT.


Today I want to revisit the idea of who is pushing all of the public private partnerships in Maryland and why.  I spoke generally about communications yesterday and today I want to talk public utilities.  Waste and water are one of the last public utilities left and the plan in Maryland is to privatize them.  Can you imagine a global corporate investment firm owning control of our water and waste?

MEET HIGHSTAR INVESTMENT FIRM AND VEOLA ENVIRONMENTAL CORPORATION AND THE COMMON DENOMINATOR----JOHNS HOPKINS AS MAJOR SHAREHOLDER.


High Star used to be connected to AIG but was spun off as AIG headed to bankruptcy from massive corporate fraud.  All those hundreds of billions of dollars AIG earned on credit-default swaps (CDS) insuring against losses when the subprime mortgage industry collapsed -----ALL INVOLVING FRAUD-----was funneled into separate investment firms so these gains would not be lost in bankruptcy.  This is a Bains Capital-style gutting of a healthy corporation of assets and then sending it to bankruptcy scheme.  Well, guess who was heavily invested in HighStar AIG while all the fraud was happening?  IVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR ENDOWMENT FUNDS.  These endowment fund values soared because of all of the fraud connected to AIG and that is why we heard that Ivy League Trusts were in the billions of dollars as is true of JOHNS HOPKINS.  So, if Rule of Law had brought all of the fraud back as it should------Ivy League Trusts would be broke.  Instead they are super-sized as all that money stayed with them and became the next stage of investment.

Christopher Hoiles Lee


is Founder and Managing Partner of AIG Highstar Capital, a fourth generation fund manager, was formed in 1998 to make value added, operationally focused private equity investments in infrastructure and has invested over $5 billion for its limited partners and co-investors.

Lee graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1974 with a BA in history. He attended the London School of Economics during 1975. Prior to founding Highstar,. his career in finance began in 1977, including periods with Chase Manhattan and Lehman Brothers, and as CFO of a NYSE listed company based in Mexico City, Grupo Tribasa. He has a particular expertise in public private partnerships, and appears in the media on infrastructure related issues.[1]

Recently he co-authored an Op Ed for Politico with Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley on Ports America's recent 50-year PPP in the Port of Baltimore.

He serves as a member of both the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins. and the Dean's Advisory Board for the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins. He is also a Vice Chair of the South Street Seaport Museum in New York.


________________________________________________

All of this is important because HighStar has been connected with buying infrastructure corporations like waste and water and recently bought VEOLA ENVIRONMENTAL now here in Baltimore ready to privatize Baltimore's water and waste.  Waste is already privatized for the most part with HighStar's waste corporations.   When we had an incinerator protest in Baltimore because it would burn hazardous waste----LIKE HOSPITAL WASTE----this was a HighStar project taking over more of public waste business.  Keep in mind that the public pays taxes to receive free waste pickup but that changed when rates for waste went higher and this connection with HighStar and its waste corporations are the culprit.  Maximizing profit by subsidizing corporate operations.

As Baltimore and Maryland works to privatize all of our waste collection it now moves to our public water works and that means VEOLA ENVIRONMENTAL will take this public utility in the guise of public private partnership.  Can you imagine a Wall Street investment firm controlling our water works policy and reaping all of the investment money from the Federal government for infrastructure building?  THE FRAUD WILL BE TREMENDOUS WHEN WALL STREET IS INVOLVED IN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT.  That is where this is going.  So, an investment firm made rich on subprime mortgage fraud of which Baltimore was hit hardest.....is now setting the stage to make it rich on our water infrastructure.  Keep in mind that all this infrastructure was originally built with public money and remained a public utility during the Great Works Era.  What neo-liberals and neo-cons have planned is to have the public pay for what will become privately owned.


Below you see when these deals happened-----2006-2007, just before the economic collapse in 2008.

AIG Highstar Capital Announces the Acquisition of Utilities, Inc. from Nuon.





NEW YORK -- Hydro Star, LLC, a subsidiary of AIG Highstar Capital II, L.P. and certain of its affiliates (Highstar II), has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the stock of Utilities, Inc. from a subsidiary of n.v. Nuon (Nuon). Hydro Star and Nuon entered into a stock purchase agreement dated May 14, 2005.


Utilities, Inc. is a water and wastewater utility holding company based in Northbrook, Illinois. It has almost 300,000 customers located in 17 states, with a principal focus in the high growth areas of the Sunbelt.

Highstar II is a group of private equity funds that invest in infrastructure related assets and businesses. Highstar II is sponsored by AIG Global Investment Group (AIGGIG). AIGGIG member companies are subsidiaries of American International Group, Inc. (AIG).

Nuon is a large energy company based in the Netherlands, active in the generation, marketing, sale and distribution of electricity, gas, and heat, as well as related products and services. The divestment is in line with Nuon's strategy to concentrate its energy business in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

AIGGIG Chairman and CEO Win J. Neuger stated, "We have long considered water infrastructure as an attractive investment opportunity and an excellent complement to Highstar II's existing energy infrastructure portfolio. Utilities, Inc. is a leader in this industry and we are pleased that Highstar II has the opportunity to acquire this business from Nuon.".

The transaction for the purchase of Utilities, Inc. is expected to close in early 2006 and is subject to customary conditions, including the receipt of Hart Scott Rodino approval and other regulatory approvals.

AIG Global Investment Group comprises a group of international companies which provide investment advice and market asset management products and services to clients around the world. AIGGIG member companies are subsidiaries of American International Group, Inc. (AIG).

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is the world's leading international insurance and financial services organization, with operations in approximately 130 countries and jurisdictions. AIG member companies serve commercial, institutional and individual customers through the most extensive worldwide property-casualty and life insurance networks of any insurer. In the United States, AIG companies are the largest underwriters of commercial and industrial insurance and AIG American General is a top-ranked life insurer. AIG's global businesses also include financial services, retirement services and asset management. AIG's financial services businesses include aircraft leasing, financial products, trading and market making. AIG's growing global consumer finance business is led in the United States by American General Finance. AIG also has one of the largest U.S. retirement services businesses through AIG SunAmerica and AIG VALIC, and is a leader in asset management for the individual and institutional markets, with specialized investment management capabilities in equities, fixed income, alternative investments and real estate. AIG's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the stock exchanges in London, Paris, Switzerland and Tokyo.



_____________________________________________

Here you see the amount of fraud included in those credit default swaps insuring what everyone knew was subprime mortgage loans infused with fraud and known to be toxic waste.

Why is this important?  This entire scheme is planned to move all real estate------the subprime mortgage fraud and economic collapse that is sending more and more people into foreclosure----but it sets the stage for pretending governments are so stressed as to require that they be privatized.

REMEMBER, SIMPLY REINSTATING RULE OF LAW BRINGS BACK TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD TO OUR GOVERNMENT COFFERS AND INDIVIDUAL'S POCKETS. 


There is no need for any public sector cuts or privatization.


AIG REPORTS $2.7 BILLION NET LOSS

ATTRIBUTABLE TO AIG FOR THE
SECOND QUARTER OF 2010 DRIVEN BY RESTRUCTURING-RELATED
CHARGES; CONTINUING INSURANCE OPERATING INCOME REMAINS STABLE
NEW YORK, NY, August 6, 2010 – American International Group, Inc. (AIG) today
reported a net loss attributable to AIG of $2.7 billion for the second quarter of 2010, or $(3.96)
per diluted common share, compared to net income of $1.8 billion, or $2.30 per diluted
common share, in the second quarter of 2009. The second quarter 2010 loss was primarily due
to a $3.3 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge included in discontinued operations.
Second quarter 2010 adjusted net income was $1.3 billion (compared to $1.1 billion in
the second quarter of 2009), including operating income of $2.2 billion from continuing
insurance operations, Mortgage Guaranty operating income of $226 million, $604 million in
income from the Asia life insurance operating segment (principally American International
Assurance Company, Ltd. (AIA)), and fair value gains on Maiden Lane III of $358 million,
partially offset by interest and amortization on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
(FRBNY) Credit Facility and third party debt, invested asset impairment charges and other net
restructuring and legal settlement charges, and a decrease in the net deferred tax asset.


_____________________________________________

The plan is to have VEOLA ENVIRONMENT take many city water utilities and in fact, here in Baltimore they are already writing all of the plans for the city's infrastructure upgrade coming probably next year.  They are waiting for the Trans Pacific Trade Pact to pass Congress so global corporations can come to the US for all the Federal funds designated for these infrastructure projects and HighStar/VEOLA will be right there.

I have talked quite a bit about the dangers of SMART METER technology and water and waste will be captured by this along with our natural gas and electricity and as I show------HighStar is the one behind all these corporate connections and Johns Hopkins is the majority shareholder that will earn billions of dollars and control of most of our public utilities.  THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A CORPORATE STATE.  The public in Maryland knows they have no say in all of these policies now completed behind closed doors.


Highstar Capital Agrees to Buy Veolia Unit for $1.9 Billion


By Jeffrey McCracken and Sonja Elmquist Jul 19, 2012 3:07 AM ET   Bloomberg Financials



Aug 1Sep 1Oct 1Nov 1Dec 1Jan 1Feb 1Mar 1Apr 1May 1Jun 1Jul 17.5010.0012.5015.0017.50* Price chart for VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT. Click flags for important stories. VIE:FP9.3507/19/12 Highstar Capital, a U.S. infrastructure fund, agreed to buy Veolia Environnement SA (VIE)’s U.S. waste-management business for about $1.9 billion.

The transaction will cut Veolia’s net debt by $1.8 billion, the Paris-based world’s biggest water company said today in a statement. After the deal it will have completed 60 percent of its 5 billion euro ($6.1 billion) divestment plan, it said.


Highstar, the infrastructure-focused private equity firm once affiliated with American International Group Inc. (AIG), beat bids from buyout firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and Brazilian conglomerate Estre Ambiental SA, said people familiar with the matter prior to the announcement.

Veolia is shedding the unit as it tries to cut debt by 20 percent to 12 billion euros by the end of next year. Chief Executive Officer Antoine Frerot said last month he wants to focus on “promising” countries and will pursue asset sales in the U.S. and U.K.

“The transformation of Veolia is progressing as planned,” Frerot said in the statement.

Veolia shares rose as much as 4 percent to 9.58 euros in Paris. The shares traded at 9.50 euros at 9:04 a.m. local time.

Cost Cuts Veolia plans to cut operating costs by 120 million euros in 2013 and narrow its geographic reach. On June 28, Veolia sold its U.K. regulated-water business to Infracapital Partners for 1.2 billion pounds ($1.9 billion).

The deal “will create a strong company with compelling growth prospects,” Highstar Capital Founder and Managing Partner Christopher Lee said in a separate statement. Highstar’s U.S. waste business will operate in 20 states with annual revenue of about $1.4 billion, it said.

Veolia ES Solid Waste Inc. has more than 300 locations that provide hazardous and non-hazardous waste management and industrial cleaning services, the company said on its website.

Highstar already operates U.S. waste management businesses Advanced Disposal Services Inc. and Interstate Waste Services Inc, according to the New York-based company’s website.



________________________________________

Coincidence that Ivy Leagues are heavily invested in real estate and infrastructure even as it is riddled with fraud and all knew an economic crash was coming-----REALLY?   Maybe they went all out because the people making sure no losses for the rich occurred with the fraud and collapse were appointed by Bush and Obama and happen to be from Harvard, Yale, and other Ivy League universities which are also Wall Street human resources.

So, this entire movement of wealth and property was a scheme from the late 1980s when Reagan and then Clinton came on board and cities created their MASTER PLANS FOR REDEVELOPMENT.  They infused it with fraud and corruption and brutality as they took all the gains of workers over the decades of New Deal and the soaring middle-class.  IT WAS PLANNED AND DELIBERATE AS IS THE FAILURE TO EXACT JUSTICE TO BRING BACK THE FRAUD. 

We do not want these people controlling our utilities or our government. 

STOP ALLOWING A NEOLIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES----RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES.  IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN YOU HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM IN THE NEO-CONS------


PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS ARE SIMPLY A STEP TOWARDS HANDING EVERYTHING PUBLIC TO PRIVATE HANDS.

Ultra-wealthy look to Ivy League endowment funds for investment lessons

 Michael Nairne | October 16, 2012 | Last Updated: Oct 17 9:54 AM ET  Financial Post


Reuters/Brian SnyderA students sits on the steps of Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in this file photo. For the 20 years ended June 30, 2011, the Harvard and Yale Endowments earned annual average returns of 12.9% and 14.2% respectively. These numbers soundly trounce the 8.3% return of a portfolio comprised of 40% bond and 60% stocks, the asset mix of a traditional pension plan.

Today’s paltry interest rates on top of a decade of mediocre stock returns have prompted many wealthy families to search for more rewarding portfolio solutions. Some are turning to the trail blazing example of leading U.S. college endowment funds such as Yale’s and Harvard’s, which have been leaders in the quest for higher returning portfolios.



The returns of such endowments have been enviable. For the 20 years ended June 30, 2011, the Yale and Harvard Endowments earned annual average returns of 14.2% and 12.9% respectively. These numbers soundly trounce the 8.3% return of a portfolio comprised of 40% bond and 60% stocks, the asset mix of a traditional pension plan. It isn’t only Yale and Harvard that excelled — the average large U.S. college endowment returned 10.7% annually. To put this into a Canadian context, equity-oriented, global balanced mutual funds here over the same period earned an unremarkable 5.6% per annum.

Why did endowments shoot ahead of other investors? Because they were pioneers in moving beyond the traditional staples of publicly traded bonds and stocks by shifting into alternative assets. By investing in real estate, commodities, timberland, energy, infrastructure, private equity and hedge funds, they were able to create a unique blend of diversification and growth. In fact, alternative assets now constitute the majority of endowment assets — a full 51% in 2011, whereas alternatives accounted for a meager 3% in 1992. These days, alternatives are “alternatives” in name only.

You only have to glance at the asset mix of college endowments to see how different it is from that of the typical investor. Fixed-income assets play a minor role, constituting only 10% of the average endowment portfolio. As noted in Yale’s 2010 Endowment Report, it “is not particularly attracted to fixed-income assets, as they have the lowest historical and expected returns of the six asset classes that make up the Endowment.”

Instead of bonds, many endowments have turned to hedge funds for diversification and a measure of downside protection. In fact, in 2011, 19% of endowment assets were invested in hedge funds.

It is the avid pursuit of growth that drives endowments’ stellar returns. They currently allocate 65% of their capital to equities and real assets. Patiently hunting for higher long-term returns, they are major investors in private equity, either through funds or directly acquiring companies. They also look far afield for opportunities, and invest more in international equities than domestically. And their real asset investments go far beyond real estate to include infrastructure, commodities, timberland, farmland and energy.

Wealthy families are realizing that clipping coupons from a traditional portfolio of bonds and stocks won’t cut the mustard in an era of miniscule interest rates and so-so stock valuations. Many have woken up to the fact they share the same challenges as college endowment funds — funding hefty and growing bills year in and year out while still wanting to build their wealth over the long-term.

It is, therefore, no surprise that a recent survey of ultra-wealthy families by the Institute for Private Investors found that 55% are increasing their investments in private companies. Close to half of the respondents are adding more real estate, commodities and global equities to their portfolios.

We’ve found that many of the wealthy families with whom we work are lengthening their investment horizons. With their children now in early adulthood, a truly multi-generational plan is warranted. In turn, a longer time horizon lends itself to a growth-oriented investment strategy that includes a significant global equity weighting as well as illiquid assets such a mortgage funds, direct real estate investment and private equity.

Of course, the pursuit of higher returns even in such a diversified fashion brings its share of risk. Major endowments suffered a 20.5% loss in the year ended June 30, 2009, while more aggressive funds such as Yale and Harvard, which plummeted 24.6% and 27.3% respectively, experienced even larger declines.

Many wealthy families figure that if that is the price of admission to “first in class” long-term returns, it is a cost they are prepared to pay.


0 Comments

April 04th, 2014

4/4/2014

0 Comments

 
A ENTIRE ECONOMY IS BEING BUILT WITHOUT ANY INPUT FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND IT ALL INVOLVES GLOBAL CORPORATIONS, SPYING AND SURVEILLANCE, AND SOAKING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH DEBT AND INCREASING ANGER AT THE US.

CAN YOU IMAGINE ALLOWING THE US TO DEVELOP AN EXPORT MARKET FOR DRONES AND SPYING SO THAT AUTOCRATIC SOCIETIES AROUND THE WORLD COULD SUPPRESS THEIR CITIZENS INTO OBLIVION?


THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU!  100% TOTALITARIAN AND ALL MARYLAND'S POLS ARE NEO-LIBERAL!





Regarding the political fight called Maryland's 'TILTING AT WINDMILLS:

The latest of political discourse is exactly the source for political satire seen on Saturday Night Live.  It is absurd to the max and shows how our political system at both the Federal and State level is distorted beyond belief.  Here are two neo-liberals both working for two sets of corporations neither of which has anything to do with public interest.  Reforming Maryland contract bidding is a start.  We will need Bernie Sanders hitting the Federal Military funding to end the mess Hoyer has built for his constituents.  

CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND WILL FIX BOTH!

The wind farm project should have been public.  We need our utilities taken public as a way to protect the citizens of Maryland from the current abuses of a criminal Wall Street market.  This wind farm project should never have been given to a Texas corporation because Texas is a Right to Work state that abuses its labor and all these out-of-state contractors bring their own employees or work Maryland labor as they would in Texas.  

MARYLAND CONTRACTS NEED TO GO TO MARYLAND SMALL BUSINESS FIRST.  Cost Benefit Analysis------from a public interest and not corporate profit.

Raise your hand if you like the idea of drone warfare that has the entire world angry at the US for razing villages and killing innocent civilians-----NO ONE.  Raise your hand if you want this technology mainstreamed into our domestic economy so that hummingbird drones fly into your open windows to videotape your every move----NO ONE.  Stealth technology means nations of the world will be coming to the US to do the same.  WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND.  So, MR. STENY HOYER who voted to break Glass Steagall and NAFTA to create these global corporations and corporate rule now needs these technologies to protect US corporations overseas.  I know, let's return to rebuilding our US domestic economy by downsizing US global corporations and basing our economy on small and regional businesses that will not spread tyranny around the world.  We have dolphin radar for goodness sake developed by mother nature.

BUILDING TOTALITARIAN MILITARY AND POLICING IS NOT A GOOD ECONOMIC ENGINE FOR MARYLAND!


Steny Hoyer is a Third Way neo-liberal as is O'Malley so neither support environmental issues.  Neo-liberals support corporate interests first and that means labor and justice, including environmental justice will always lose.  So, these windfarms deals were never about the environment and always about pay-to-play money to Obama campaign donors....and soon O'Malley campaign donors.  Maryland has the worst of environmental policies and never enforce laws that do get passed so we fully expect these wind farms to send money to the private corporation to build and then be useless to alternative energy resources.  Making alternative energy PUBLIC UTILITIES would show commitment to green energy.

Let's look at the issue.  A Texas-based developer gets this Maryland state job.  Texas has the worst Right to Work laws and these deals always allow the contractors to bring their own employees so there goes the strong employment/work for Maryland small business for the most part.  Oh, that's right, Maryland businesses will be subcontractors to subcontractors.  Then, let's look at the business Steny Hoyer is protecting-----stealth radar for drones.  Indeed, Maryland is ground zero for all of the spying and drone warfare that no one in the US wants.  HELLO!!!!!!!

So, we are watching our neo-liberal politicians argue over whether a Texas corporation gets to profit from what should be a public project and whether it will bother an unwanted spying/surveillance drone warfare operation.  The answer is NONE OF THE ABOVE.

Southern Maryland is being made ground zero for this NSA/international-law breaking drone warfare.  This is the problem.  I'm sure that Southern Maryland would appreciate the opportunity to have completely different economic drivers.

The solution seems to be as is true of all neo-liberal policy coming from Maryland Assembly and O'Malley------NONE OF THE ABOVE.  Kill the military research making the US a rogue nation that breaks international law and kill the deal with Texas corporations that take our business and bring workers that are subjected to the worst of labor laws.



Hoyer, O'Malley administration spar over Eastern Shore wind project Impact on Southern Maryland naval air base debated



By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun 8:35 p.m. EDT, April 1, 2014

In a duel of sorts between two of Maryland's top Democrats, U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer went to Annapolis Tuesday to press for legislation opposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley that Southern Maryland officials insist is needed to protect their region's prized naval air base from an Eastern Shore wind energy project.

Hoyer, who represents Southern Maryland in Congress, said he was making his first appearance before a legislative committee since leaving the General Assembly for Washington in the 1970s. He said he did so because he fears giant wind turbines proposed in Somerset County could jeopardize the future of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, which supporters say is an economic engine not only for the region but for the entire state.

"I want wind energy in this state and in this country," Hoyer said. "But not at the expense of undermining the viability and effectiveness" of the St. Mary's County base, where a unique radar system is used to test the stealth capability of aircraft.

Hoyer and other Southern Maryland officials warned the Senate Finance Committee that the turbines could interfere with the radar and lead to the testing being transferred — along with the thousands of jobs associated with it — to an air base in California or elsewhere.

But the Texas-based developer of the $200 million Somerset wind project says it has reached an agreement in principle with the Navy to turn off the 25 turbines whenever radar tests are to be run. And some current and retired military officials have said that would work.


A state Senate committee is considering a bill passed by the House, which would for 15 months effectively block commercial wind development within 56 miles of the air base — a zone stretching across the Chesapeake Bay to encompass the proposed Great Bay wind project on the western edge of Somerset. The developer, Pioneer Green, has warned that the delay would kill the project.

Supporters of the bill contend that the wind project needs to be delayed pending completion of a $2 million study looking at ways to remedy a turbine's impact on the radar system.

O'Malley didn't appear in person to oppose the bill, but Abigail Hopper, his energy adviser and director of the Maryland Energy Administration, told lawmakers the governor considered the legislation both unnecessary and potentially harmful to the state's efforts to woo more renewable energy projects.

"The governor has no desire to harm Pax River," Hopper said, using the base's nickname, but argued it's not "an either-or-choice." She pointed out there are both federal and state laws guaranteeing that the Navy can impose conditions on or even block approval of any wind project it believes would impair or degrade operations of one of its facilities.

Moreover, she said, such a broad moratorium could make it harder for the state to achieve a goal set at O'Malley's urging of getting 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2022.

"You will create a reputation across the country that Maryland is not open for clean energy development," she said.

Adam Cohen, vice president and founder of Pioneer Green, said the company has already invested nearly $4 million in leasing land and planning for its 25 turbines. And he said the company has worked out a deal with Navy officials to turn off its turbines whenever the base needs to run radar tests, so there would be no interference.

That deal has not been signed by all the necessary officials, however. Hoyer said he had asked the Navy to hold off pending completion of the study.

The congressman suggested the wind project is being foisted on Pax River by an Obama administration committed to promoting renewable energy. He suggested turning off the turbines was no remedy because it might tip off the nation's adversaries when the Navy was conducting classified radar tests.

Moreover, Hoyer and other base supporters said unspecified "customers" of Patuxent River — military aircraft programs, foreign governments and private contractors conducting testing there — object to the agreement and could take their business elsewhere. Letting the wind project go forward now under that arrangement could weaken Maryland's ability to retain all the operations and jobs at Pax River the next time the Pentagon orders a realignment of bases nationwide, they warned.

Cohen countered that wind turbines generally operate only about 30 percent of the time anyway, so it would be hard to divine when testing was being done. And Pam Kasemeyer, the company's lobbyist, said Patuxent already signals publicly — by a balloon launch — when it is about to conduct radar tests.

The developer also pointed to a statement from a former director of the Pentagon agency that referees such disputes over energy projects near military bases, who called the concerns of Patuxent River supporters "misplaced." Turning off the turbines would remove any interference, said David Belote, a retired Air Force colonel. He also said there was little prospect of the Navy or its customers abandoning Patuxent River because the costs of moving the sophisticated radar system elsewhere would be "astronomical."

The Department of Defense has issued varying statements about the deal. When first asked about it last month by The Baltimore Sun, a Pentagon spokesman said Pioneer Green's agreement to turn off its turbines "will provide the periodic curtailment of operations required by the Navy."

More recently, a different spokesman, Navy Lt. Greg D. Raelson, said that the agreement "still requires revisions and has not been approved by the Navy." He declined to elaborate.

The only Navy representative to speak at the hearing told lawmakers that for security reasons he could not discuss what issues the base may still have with turning off the turbines.

Outside the hearing room, though, Gary Kessler, executive director of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, said the Navy's primary concern with the agreement is not technical but legal. Officials want to ensure that it is legally enforceable. Unless some technical fix is found, he said, base officials do worry how they could manage if more such projects are proposed on the lower Shore.

The developer's lobbyist and O'Malley's energy adviser both suggested a compromise — impose the moratorium, but allow any project with a signed agreement with the Navy to proceed.

Some members of the Finance Committee, particularly those with military background or with a military base in their district, indicated they side with the Southern Marylanders. But Sen. Allan Kittleman, a Howard County Republican, said he was torn.

"We talk about having these renewable energy goals," he said. If much of the state is off-limits to protect Patuxent River, he said, "I'm at a loss how we're going to get to these goals. This is really tough."
__________________________________________


As someone who supports public utilities I would support public alternative energy as would any democrat.  Neo-liberals who are not democrats but corporate pols want all public sector operations privatized because then corporate profit soars.  This is what O'Malley and Hoyer are fighting over.  Not what is in the public interest, but which corporation has its profits threatened.

WE WANT MARYLAND UTILITIES PUBLIC AND REGULATED SO RATES STAY LOW, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ARE WELL-PAID AND HAVE A CAREER, AND PUBLIC MONEY IS SPENT ON PUBLIC ASSETS.


I had a 'green' energy employee come to my door this week trying to get me to switch from BGE to this 'green' corporation that wants these BGE green surcharges tied to alternative energy in Maryland.  COMMERCE ENERGY selling itself as a 'green energy' corporation wanting to receive the green energy surcharge on my BGE bill.  This is all connected to wind farms.  So, with a simple click of the computer Commerce Energy was going to get the green energy surcharge attached to the BGE bill.  Commerce Energy now has 'local' businesses all over the country.


NOTICE THIS CORPORATION WAS CREATED IN 2008 JUST TO RECEIVE YOUR GREEN ENERGY SURCHARGE.

Commerce Energy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    

Commerce Energy Group, Inc., based in Costa Mesa, California, USA, was the parent company of a wholly owned independent electricity and natural gas marketing company, Commerce Energy Inc.. The company was purchased by Universal Energy Group on December 11, 2008.[1]

On July 31, 2008, Commerce had 155,000 customers. Revenue for the fiscal year 2008, ending July 31, 2008, was $460 million. The company had 200 employees on July 31, 2008.



Meanwhile, Maryland has doubled-down on making Maryland citizens pay Wall Street speculators for profits and completely deregulated its energy sector to maximize those profits.  None of this has anything to do with the democratic party.  It is neo-liberal.

States still having their public utilities are having to fight for them as these national energy corporations buy politicians right and left.

CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND WILL FIGHT FOR PUBLIC UTILITIES AND REGULATION.




Energy in New Hampshire

A blog about New Hampshire energy matters

 by Mike Mooiman, an engineer and business program professor at Franklin Pierce University.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013


What’s It All About, Alfie?* - A Primer on Public Utilities


I have followed with great interest the various reports, meetings and debates regarding the restructuring of the electricity market in New Hampshire and the impact it has had on the State's largest electrical utility, Public Services of New Hampshire (PSNH). In the past, we allowed public utilities, like PSNH, to have unopposed access to supply services to consumers in designated areas. For much of the last century this monopolistic model worked as it permitted the build-out of the infrastructure, such as roads, power lines, railways, airports, communications networks, etc., that we now have across the country and that are so important to our economic success.

However, times have changed, economic thought has evolved, and there has been deregulation of many of these utilities. We now require that utilities give up their monopolistic hold on their markets and that they compete with other suppliers for customers. For example, consider what has happened with telephone service and the airlines and more recently with electricity supply in some states. This has had profound implications for the utilities, their investors and for us as consumers. In my next series of posts, I plan to take a look at utilities in general, at what has been happening to electrical utilities during this wave of deregulation and at the issue of stranded costs.

I think it is important to understand what a public utility is and what its obligations are because, in the electricity deregulation debate here in NH, I am sometimes astonished at the vitriolic comments aimed at public utilities such as PSNH and the condemnation of their actions. Now I am no advocate for the public utility industry, but it is essential that we discuss these matters on the basis of facts and data rather than on emotion and gut feel. It is my sense that the debate surrounding public utilities and deregulation could benefit from a reiteration of some key facts about utilities. I appreciate that many of the readers of this blog are probably familiar with these matters, but for new students in the energy world, a primer on utilities is, I think, useful material to cover.
 
So let's turn our attention to improving our understanding of a utility. A useful definition of a utility is provided by Rick Geddes, Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He states that "Utilities typically create a good or service at one location, and then distribute it over a 'network' where it is delivered to numerous customers for end use."

The delivery of electricity, natural gas and land-line telephone service are obvious examples. The supply of these services are delivered by organizations that need to run their infrastructure, such as power lines or supply piping, through a community to get to their customers. Sewer service is another example of a utility. In this case, the service is removing water-borne waste from our homes through a network of piping to be treated at another location. Other utilities we tend to forget about are the transportation networks provided by trucking, rail and air travel.

The key to a utility is the distribution network that has to run between and through communities. As a result, the utilities need the ability to utilize parts of the public space of a community to put equipment in place to establish the network. These service networks can only be established and made to function if the community allows the utility access and rights-of-way to put up support structures to carry wires or to dig up roads and sidewalks to lay piping. However, establishing these networks is a very disruptive and expensive endeavor, so this led to the concept of a natural monopoly: we agree to provide the utility with the sole right to supply the service in a specified area - a franchise as it were - on condition that it is done cost effectively, safely and that the service is reliable.

By allowing the monopoly, we in the community benefit from having the service network built and operated and the utility benefits from an assured revenue and profit stream as they have no competition in the provision of the service. We as a community also gain by virtue of only having one company digging up our roads or stringing power lines, i.e, we avoid congestion of power lines, utility poles, and pipelines in our public spaces. In permitting monopolistic access to our community in exchange for cost-effective, safe and reliable service, we, in essence, establish a financial and regulatory agreement or compact with the service provider.
 
In the figure below I have attempted to capture the main aspects of the financial and regulatory compact. The fundamental nature of the agreement is that we get affordable, safe and reliable service and the utility gets an assured rate of return for an extended period of time. At the same time, we do not permit these utilities unchecked access to our communities. We insist on the regulation of these utilities; we want them to be transparent about their financial performance so that they make reasonable, but not excessive, returns on their investments; we want to be involved in establishing rates for service; we want them to make long-term investments in infrastructure; and not discriminate against customers. The utilities, on the other hand, without challenges from competitors, are assured of a large customer base, a profitable business, steady returns to investors and, as a result, they have the ability to borrow money at low rates to fund the infrastructure projects. They are also given the power of eminent domain to obtain the land to install their networks.



Administration of this regulatory compact, with all its different configurations and nuances, is largely done by the various state-based Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) which sit between the communities and the utilities. There is some federal based regulation of utilities. Specifically, it is the task of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to regulate the interstate transmission of electricity, oil and gas as well as the operation and location of hydropower projects. The NRC, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is in charge of nuclear power plants.
 
As noted, most of the regulation of utilities is done on a state by state basis. Here in NH, we have the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission which is run by three appointed Commissioners. They have the challenging and interesting task of regulating a range of utilities to ensure folks in New Hampshire get reliable, safe and reasonably priced services. In New Hampshire the law is quite clear on what a public utility is. Specifically RSA 362:2 states that:
"The term "public utility" shall include every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court, except municipal corporations and county corporations operating within their corporate limits, owning, operating or managing any plant or equipment or any part of the same for the conveyance of telephone or telegraph messages or for the manufacture or furnishing of light, heat, sewage disposal, power or water for the public, or in the generation, transmission or sale of electricity ultimately sold to the public, or owning or operating any pipeline, including pumping stations, storage depots and other facilities, for the transportation, distribution or sale of gas, crude petroleum, refined petroleum products, or combinations of petroleum products, rural electric cooperatives organized pursuant to RSA 301 or RSA 301-A and any other business, except as hereinafter exempted, over which on September 1, 1951, the public utilities commission exercised jurisdiction."

So in New Hampshire, public utilities are electricity and natural gas suppliers, landline telephone companies, as well as drinking water supply and sewage treatment enterprises. They do not include your cable company or your cell phone service supplier.


There are different ownership structures for public utilities. There are utilities that are owned by the community - municipal drinking water supply and sewage services are typical examples and there are even a few communities in NH that have municipal electricity companies – there are cooperatives that are owned by their members, and then there are large investor-owned utilities, such as natural gas, electricity providers and landline telephone services that we all know (and like to complain about).

In supplying a service to a community, a public utility has to take into account three key aspects of the utility business. The first is the generation of service that it is supplying. This is usually some central location like a power plant for an electrical utility or the treatment works for the handling and discharge of domestic sewage. Secondly, these services often need to be supplied over long distances, so there is the transmission part of a utility. For example, consider the railway lines between cities or those large power lines that run across the state delivering electricity to towns. Finally, there is the distribution network where the service is dispersed throughout the community to reach individual residences and businesses. Examples of distribution networks include the telephone lines that run down our roads or the electrical wires and transformers that are spread throughout our communities.
 

The basic structure of the utility industry - the generation, transmission and distribution aspects - is shown in the figure below. Some utilities are focused on just one or two aspects of this network, e.g., I live in a community with a municipal electrical company and their focus is just on the distribution network, whereas some utilities deal with all three. PSNH is a public utility that deals with all three aspects of the utility business which is the cause for some of the challenges they currently face.

 

With this basic knowledge of a public utility and the regulatory compact involved, I will, in my next post, take a closer look at electrical utilities and the some aspects of deregulation of electricity supply in New Hampshire.

Until next time, remember to turn off the lights when you leave the room but, before you do, take a moment to think about the network that was involved in getting electricity to that light bulb.


____________________________________________

Meanwhile this is what O'Malley and Hoyer are working towards.  Skyrocketing private wind energy global corporations.  The Texas corporation?  It is a venture capitalist----One51 is a global corporation that intends to take over control of these facilities for the long-term.

So, in Somerset County, Maryland this opertation is given a name of Great Bay------the development firm is Pioneer Green Energy and the investment corporation set to take control is One51, a global energy corporation.  What part of this sounds good for Maryland citizens?



Do you think Eastern Shore residents know that a global corporation controls what is being marketed as a 'local' business is taking hold?  Do Maryland citizens know yet another global corporation controls the economy in Maryland?  A utility at that!



Renewable Energy: Pioneer Green Energy
NTR


In 2010, One51 invested in Pioneer Green Energy LLC, a next generation wind developer focused on developing assets in a number of US states. One51 has board representation and an option to take a controlling interest in the business.

Pioneer Green aims to assemble a large pipeline of competitive build-ready wind and solar projects targeted to the mid-term market in the United States. The company sees its niche in the innovative approach it takes solving transmission and other special issues blocking otherwise good renewable energy projects.
Wind Map

Headed by Andrew Bowman, Pioneer Green boasts an experienced founding team who, in their respective careers to date, have helped develop almost 3 GW of operational projects across America. These projects are now owned by some of the largest renewable energy companies in the industry.

Pioneer Green has a broad geographic reach, however the team remain extremely discerning when considering potential projects. Once a development is selected, Pioneer Green’s hands-on detail orientated approach to project management fosters a collaborative relationship with property owners and other stakeholders, enabling previous obstacles to be surmounted to mutual benefit.



Wind Energy Companies
A Snapshot of the Global Wind Industry



By Nick Hodge    August 26, 2008

Editor's Note:  The article below provides an excellent snapshot of the global wind industry from a bird's-eye view.  For a more detailed and updated look at the sector, check out Jeff Siegel's piece on top wind energy companies.

 

I've discussed wind energy in these pages many times before, but the conversation seems to have always turned to a discussion of wind turbine stocks.

Today, I want to take a step back, look at the industry as a whole, and focus more broadly on wind energy companies.

The Wind Energy Industry

First, let's get a quick rundown of the growth of the domestic and international wind markets out of the way.

Here's the chart for wind power capacity growth by year:

wind power capacity growth by country

As you can see, global installed capacity for wind energy has grown 482% over the last seven years, from 14,604 MW in 2000 to 84,934 MW in 2007.

Broken down further, the international wind industry has a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR or year-over-year) of 28.6%, which is impressive, to say the least.

But the past performance of the wind energy stocks is going to do little to help the future performance of your portfolio, apart from establishing an historic trend and highlighting what you've been missing.

So here's the global wind energy installed capacity forecast, going out to 2012:

wind energy installed capacity forecast
This data reveals that the industry will grow 215% between 2007 and 2012, from 84,934 MW to 267,837 MW. That's a CAGR of 25.8%

Now this is information that can give your portfolio a boost. In an industry that's doubling in size every four years or less, there are surely more than a few companies worthy of investment operating within it.

The only thing left to do is to actively seek out the best ones.

To start the search, it's probably worth taking a look at the countries currently boasting the highest year-over-year growth in the wind industry. So here they are, along with their respective annual growth rates, as provided by GlobalData:

    Turkey, 95.4%

    Mexico, 84.7%

    Brazil, 61%

    China, 54%

    Poland, 50.9%

Of course, those are the fastest growing markets. According to GlobalData, the largest markets by megawatt capacity are:

    China, 51,200 MW

    U.S, 45,454 MW

    Spain, 36,715 MW

    Germany, 35,829 MW

    India, 25,935 MW

The only thing left to do is single out the largest operators in those areas, invest, and reap the profits.

Wind Energy Companies

Let's begin with China since that's the only country to appear in both the largest market and fastest grower categories. Per GlobalData, here are the largest wind companies operating in China that each installed more than 100 MW in 2007:

    Goldwind Science and Technology (SZ: 002202)

    Sinovel Windtec Co.

    Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica (MCE: GAM)

    Vestas Wind Systems (CPH: VWS)

    Dongfang Electric Corporation (HKSE: 1072)

    GE Energy (NYSE: GE)

    Suzlon Energy Limited (NSE: SUZLON)

Most of those companies trade on foreign exchanges. If you dabble in those markets, my money is on Vestas and Gamesa, with Suzlon in third. But the companies that trade in China could see significant growth as the industry continues to mature.

Vestas, for example, is getting $1,628 per kW for their turbines. The average price is $1,008 per kW.

In the U.S., which is the market most of you are probably interested in, the dynamic shifts dramatically.

Here are the largest companies operating in our domestic wind market:

    GE Energy (NYSE: GE)

    Vestas Wind Systems (CPH: VWS)

    Siemens AG (NYSE: SI)

    Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica (MCE: GAM)

    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (TYO: 7011)

    Suzlon Energy Limited (NSE: SUZLON)

    Clipper Windpower (LSE: CWP)

    Nordex (FRANKFURT: NDX1)

Of course, my first two picks of Vestas and Gamesa still stand, and now you can see it's because of their intense presence across multiple markets. My sleeper pick here is Nordex.

The other side of the coin is to look at the largest wind farms being erected to identify the companies involved. Here are the companies that come up when discussing the largest planned wind farms in the U.S., and around the world:

    Clipper Windpower (LSE: CWP)

    British Petroleum (NYSE: BP)

    Naikun Wind (TSX.V: NKW)

    Vattenfall AB

    SUEZ (PARIS: SZE)

    RWE Group (XETRA: RWE)

Naikun probably offers the lowest share price in relation to potential for that group.

A Windy Future

So that's a snapshot of the global wind industry. I think some clear winners are definitely emerging.

But there is much more to come. And some tiny companies will certainly make their mark before all is said and done.

This is because the big boys alone can't satiate the surging demand for wind energy and related products and services.

For example, through 2020 in Europe, wind is expected to account for 34% of new generating capacity. It'll account for 46% from 2020-2030.

And the goal of attaining 12-14% of Europe's power from wind by 2020 is well within reach.

Here in the U.S., an Energy Department study found that wind energy could generate 20% of U.S. electricity by 2030, as compared to today's one percent.

So there's still a lot of work and investment to come.

The companies discussed so far will certainly play a vital role in wind's growth. But a handful of companies are providing specialty parts and service that are also crucial to the industry, like transmission cables, installation services, gearboxes, and, increasingly, turbines.

As I said, this is snapshot of the industry—a very dynamic industry that's constantly changing.

While it's possible to base investment decisions on stationary data like this, it's probably wise to have constant updates and recommendations to really stay on top of things, especially since they change everyday.

With that in mind, the Alternative Energy Speculator has designed a way for you to cash in on the booming wind energy market.


I've compiled a full report that analyzes the wind industry, telling you exactly how much it's going to grow, and releasing the names of three companies you must own if you want to reap lucrative wind profits.

You can't afford to miss this opportunity or the chance to get in today on the wind energy giants of tomorrow.

Read the report today!

 

Call it like you see it,

nick hodge

Nick


___________________________________________

Below you see how this was sold in Maryland and it is always the minority contractors and labor unions who are told they will benefit.  A Texas corporation awarded the development contract forces local contractors to bid so low for awards that they almost always earn no profit and rarely use union labor.

Imagine a Texas development corporation bringing its labor to Maryland and then a global corporation One51 bringing its staff from all over the world. 

Who gets hired?





Friday, March 30, 2012

Maryland’s offshore wind farm could blow contracts ashore
Businesses prepare for work on proposed turbine project

Lindsey Robbins, Staff Writer


An offshore wind farm will mean opportunities for a range of small and minority-owned businesses in Maryland, executives learned Wednesday.

“There are many different industries involved in this project, industries that are already here in Maryland,” Ross Tyler, director of the Business Coalition for Maryland Offshore Wind told businesspeople attending a forum in Annapolis.

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) is calling for a 310-megawatt installation off the coast of Ocean City, at a cost of almost $1 billion. State estimates predict the project’s economic impact during the next five years could reach $2 billion, with $8.7 million in additional state tax revenues. O’Malley has introduced legislation that would add fees to electric users’ bills to help attract developers to build the wind farm.


The House Economic Matters Committee approved the bill Monday, after reducing the average residential ratepayers’ additional monthly fee to $1.50 from $2 and exempting from the surcharge the first 750 million kilowatt hours of annual electricity use by an industrial concern.

Other amendments under discussion include creating a $10 million Offshore Wind Business Development Fund to support a local supply chain for small and minority-owned businesses and a potential wind business incubator.

Prince George’s County Del. Michael L. Vaughn (D-Dist. 24) of Bowie said the fund is an important piece of the legislation to ensure small and minority-owned businesses receive equal opportunity to benefit from this project.

“I appreciated being able to give this my yes vote,” he said.

Ross illustrated the opportunities for businesses along every step of the wind farm’s life cycle, including its development, preparation of the turbine, preparation of the balance of the plant, installation, commissioning and operation.

He pointed out that local companies already are engaging in services and technologies that could bank off this project. AC Wind, a Salisbury manufacturer of wind energy composites, is prepared to make turbine blades, some of which can extend 300 feet in length. Areva of France, whose North American headquarters is in Bethesda, has the resources to make the wind tower’s nacelle, which is the size of a small house and stores all the electrical systems. Eaton, which makes electronic converters for offshore turbines and has an aerospace facility in Beltsville, also could work on the project.

At least 30 businesses support Ross’ coalition, ranging from those with ready skills to those trying to figure out where they could fit in, he said.

“There are thousands of components that go into this. It has an enormous tertiary supply chain,” Ross said. “This could operate for at least 25 years.”

‘Boots-on-the-ground jobs’

“These projects are going to create boots-on-the-ground jobs,” said R. Daniel Wallace, director of renewable energy systems for BithEnergy in Baltimore.

He cautioned that businesses prepare early and begin collaborating so they do not lose to outside competition, especially from the foreign market.

“When these jobs come to Maryland, you need to be able to identify where you can play,” he said.

Joe Gaskins, executive director of the nonprofit Economic Development & Training Institute incubator in Suitland, emphasized the need for proper training for businesses to get involved.

“You have to understand things like how wind works on water,” he said.

Gaskins said he hopes to be part of the proposed wind industry incubator, which would support up to 100 small and minority-owned businesses starting in 2013.

He said 200 small and minority-owned businesses already have the potential to compete for these contracts.

Richard Cerkovnik of Anne Arundel Community College discussed the community college resources, especially those in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, available for businesses to build capacity before these contracts go to bid.


Cerkovik’s college received a $19.7 million grant from the federal government last fall to lead the National STEM Consortium, which develops portable, certificate-level programs in these fields to meet occupational demands.

“If an industry needs something in terms of training, we can quickly ramp up our programs to meet it,” Cerkovnik said.

After the forum, Terry Goolsby of Sowinergy and Clozynergy in Upper Marlboro, said the nation needs better public policy in renewables if it hopes to keep up with other regions, such as Europe.

“This is a piecemeal reaction to a stimulus, rather than a holistic approach,” she said, referring to how the Ocean City farm is intended to connect to the Atlantic Wind Connection, which will help add 7,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbine capacity to the regional grid.

She said she supports the legislation because it gives Maryland businesses a chance at the opportunities, which otherwise would go to others.

The House committee’s approval is a good sign, Goolsby said.

“This is a proven industry and proven technology in other parts of the world, especially Europe. There’s absolutely no reason the U.S. can’t be participating and embracing this industry,” Ross said.

_____________________________

You don't hear Steny Hoyer and O'Malley shouting about the fact that there has been no public comment or input as to concerns.  Maryland State Police now use drone radar that is part of tracking license plates and vehicular movement of all Maryland citizens.  What's to worry?  Well, totalitarianism doesn't end well for American citizens.

People are not afraid of technology development, they demand to be the ones making these decisions.  When the Maryland Assembly and governor/mayor tell us over and over public business is classified simply because of outsourcing to private business---

WE HAVE ELIMINATED WE THE PEOPLE FROM ALL PUBLIC POLICY!

As Mary Pat Clarke shouted to me in Baltimore City Hall----SHE'LL WRITE ABOUT IT!  That's all we are to expect as peasants.




 Drones Flying Under the Radar
Thursday, 05 April 2012 09:33 By Tom Barry, Truthout | News Analysis

    

An undated handout photo of a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper, a drone aircraft aimed with laser-guided munitions and Hellfire missiles.An undated handout photo of a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper, a drone aircraft aimed with laser-guided munitions and Hellfire missiles. (Photo: Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt / US Air Force via The New York Times)

Drones are the future, especially in foreign wars, surveillance and law enforcement.

In all sizes, armed and unarmed, drones are proliferating at home and abroad. Some are loaded with missiles, others simply with Tasers, but all carry surveillance payloads.

These "eyes in the skies," also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPA), may soon be inescapable. For the most part, however, drones fly outside the radar of public scrutiny, Congressional oversight or international control.

In the seven years that the CIA and US military have deployed killer drones, the US Congress has never once debated the new commitment to drone operations. Although the CIA and the US military now routinely direct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations that enter foreign airspace, these interventions haven't been subject to serious Congressional review.


Drone operations often proceed without any authorization or knowledge of the intervened nations.

On the domestic front, local police and Homeland Security agents are also enthusiastically deploying drones for law enforcement and border security missions. At all levels, government in the United States is sidelining mounting civil rights, privacy and air safety concerns. The US Congress functions more as a booster for the drone industry than as a regulator.

In the United States, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the ACLU have brought a legal challenge to the "targeted killings" carried out by the CIA and the military's Joint Special Operations Command. "The executive branch is claiming the authority to target and kill any individual anywhere in the world - including American citizens - without any judicial process or oversight and without any transparency or accountability," Leili Kashani, CCR's advocacy program manager, told Truthout. "It is subverting the Constitution and international law in assuming the role of judge, jury and executioner."

Lately, other civil liberties groups, local and national, are also raising concerns about the lack of transparency, accountability and oversight over domestic drone deployment. Such groups include the Center for Technology and Democracy, the Electronic Policy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Drone proliferation has sparked the creation of new organizations, such as the International Center for Robotic Arms Controls, which are demanding global governance over international drone missions.

A stream of recent media reports about drone proliferation at home has sparked rising public interest and concern in the United States. The lack of attention by Congress to the drone-related privacy issues has precipitated a surge of citizen activism and nongovernmental organization advocacy - accompanied by a wave of alarmed blog postings and commentary.
 
The rising concerns in America about the implications of drone deployment parallels a more advanced public debate in Great Britain about the onset of the "surveillance society" and about the legal and human consequences of drone interventions in foreign nations.

One example of this new attention in the United States is the upcoming Drone Summit, which will bring a variety of civil libertarians, human rights activists, robotics technology experts and peace activists to Washington, DC, on April 28-29.  The Drone Summit is jointly sponsored by the peace group CodePink and the legal advocacy organizations Reprieve (UK) and Center for Constitutional Rights. Described as the "first international drone summit," the event will feature military experts and first-hand testimonies by victims of drone strikes in Pakistan.

Medea Benjamin, author of the forthcoming book "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control," says that "our nation is leading the way toward a new form of warfare where pilots sitting on the ground thousands of miles away command drone strikes, where targets are- in military jargon- 'neutralized,' and where unintended victims are dismissed as 'collateral damage.'"

Yet, drones aren't only about war fighting and extrajudicial killings overseas. Drones are also being deployed domestically by border security and law enforcement agencies. Predator drones deployed by Customs and Border Protection search for immigrants and drugs on the northern and southern borders, while metropolitan police and county sheriffs are acquiring smaller drones to assist their SWAT operations.

Under industry pressure, the Federal Aviation Administration was mandated by new Congressional legislation to adopt procedures to open US domestic airspace to private and governmental drones by 2015 and to allow police to start flying lightweight, line-of-sight drones by this summer. The new law was a major success for the new House Unmanned System Caucus and for the Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International, a drone industry group that works closely with the House drone caucus.

The drone freedom law also served as a wake-up call for a US public, which has been largely oblivious to advance of drones as a surveillance and law-enforcement instrument. Benjamin, who founded CodePink, warns, "As drones become an increasingly preferred form of warfare and as their presence expands at home, it is time to educate ourselves, the US public and our policymakers about drone proliferation." For Benjamin, activism needs to complement education if drone proliferation is to be subjected to the necessary accountability, transparency and oversight. "As remotely controlled warfare and spying race forward," she says, "it is also time to organize to end current abuses and to prevent the potentially widespread misuse both overseas and here at home."

Internationally, the simultaneously contentious and mutually self-serving relationship between the United States and Pakistan has lately been stuck at an impasse over routine US drone surveillance over that nation and killer drone strikes in Pakistani tribal areas. The Pakistani Parliament and public protests say the drone interventions must stop, while the Obama administration says that the UAV deployments must and will continue.

It wasn't until January of this year that the president even acknowledged the secret targeted killing missions of drones by the CIA when he insisted in the midst of rising concern of noncombatant (collateral damage) deaths that the overseas killer drones were on a "very tight leash."

"Under the Obama administration, drone strikes have escalated and expanded in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia," said Kashani. "In Pakistan alone, the Obama administration has launched six times as many drone strikes as the Bush administration, in fewer years in office, killing hundreds of innocent people and devastating families."
"Ultimately, efforts to end the expansion of US drone strikes and covert wars are not only a legal matter," Kashani said, "but a political and ethical one on which the viability of a livable future and meaningful democracy is based."

Although information is restricted and controlled, it does appear that noncombatant deaths by killer drone strikes are declining - although continuing. But security questions remain about the level of threats represented by combatants who are being targeted and constitutional questions persist about the legality of these extrajudicial killings.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be winding down after nearly a decade. But the US military and the Obama administration are committed to the increased use of UAVs in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and war fighting.

In January, President Obama announced a shift in US military strategy, including the shedding of "outdated Cold War systems" in favor of the high-tech instruments and conflicts of the future - including the aptly denominated "shadow wars." This evolution in military strategy, including the increased reliance on drones and special operations (and presumably a continuing pattern of extrajudicial killings by drone strikes around the globe) may, as its supporters contend, be exactly the course the US military needs to ensure national and global security.
Whether strategically right or not, this is a shift that clearly calls out for the processes of moral, ethical and legal scrutiny at all levels of government - local, national and international.

The crash of the CIA's highly sophisticated - and extremely expensive (even its price tag is secret) - US stealth Sentinel drone in Iran last December proved another wake-up call about the risks of drone interventions. The US military, intelligence agencies and counterterrorist units may be the top dogs in the drone world now - but things change, blowback happens and drones have no national loyalty. Many close observers of drone proliferation point to near complete lack of governance structures, international conventions and adequate export controls to regulate drones.
 
Meanwhile, Iran is busy incorporating US drone technology into its own now-extensive drone program, and China has surged into the international drone market.

Understandably, this competition concerns the US drone industry - led by the major US military contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics, among others.

Currently the industry - with support of the Congressional caucus - is pressuring the administration to continue relaxing the export controls on US-made drone technology to ensure that the industry keeps its market share of the fastest growing military and aviation sector. As speakers at the annual Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in February reminded industry representatives and the attending Congressional representatives, drone competition is sparking new markets for drone detection technology, defenses against enemy drones and electronic warfare instruments designed to break drone communications with their remote piloting.

"It is vital that the debate on drones is brought to American public since US drone policy is becoming vital part of US foreign policy in conflict zones," says Shahzad Akbar, attorney with Reprieve in London and with the Pakistani Foundation for Fundamental Fights. Akbar, who is listed as a summit speaker, says that a debate about drones needs to include all stakeholders, including the US public and that's a central objective of the planned drone summit in Washington, DC.

"Central to the debate are questions about the rights of individuals, whether as objects of surveillance or targets of killing machines," says Akbar. Essentially, we are asking to what degree "we [are] ready to allow government to "usurp the rights of individuals and under exactly what circumstances?" With respect to the objectives of the drone Summit, Akbar said that the summit's organizers are working to ensure that in the United States and in other drone-deploying countries they will subject their use to the "due-process rule of law" and to "proper judicial and democratic oversight."
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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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February 03rd, 2014

2/3/2014

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TPP is the worst of economic situations as Americans would lose their sovereignty and rights, but the build up in consolidations since Obama took office.....you thought all that money the FED was given for free was for corporate stabilization and not just to further consolidate all US industries.  Trillions have been spent by the few at the top to gain control across industries.
The American people have been reduced to shouting to stop taking all of our wealth and retirements even as neo-liberals are indeed doing just that!

IS YOUR POLITICIAN, MEDIA OUTLET, OR LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS SHOUTING OUT AGAINST THIS?  WELL, THAT MEANS THEY ARE WORKING FOR NEO-LIBERALS AND NOT YOU AND ME!  THIS IS NEO-LIBERALS DOING MORE DAMAGE THAN REPUBLICANS!

I have referenced how corporations are now the welfare queens with so much corporate welfare as to make our taxpayer money an income for shareholders.  I want to look at development since the crash to show that all those tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud we have not gotten back are now being used for merger and acquisition in ever greater consolidation that gives us this situation of only a few global corporations owning all.  Maryland is ground zero for this so as I point out how Maryland citizens are affected negatively by these policies and how the neo-liberals you elect over and over are working to do great harm to you and me and our communities.....know that the same thing is happening in your neck of the woods!

The concern today is the energy sector consolidation.  We know that the same people owning the oil companies are the ones doing the natural gas fracking and as a result, when Obama and neo-liberals talk about funding an national infrastructure project, it will be these same corporations and investment firms getting all the money as natural gas lines, wind mills, processing plants will all be the infrastructure funded.

O'Malley has handed the most public assets over to corporate interests than any other -------BGE going to Exelon.....HighStar and Veola getting incinerator and waste management that will produce a small amount of energy, and now the wind farm project I wanted to emphasize today.  I've spoken about the wind mills as a loser for jobs and taxpayers/ratepayers, but I wanted to look at how deeply Maryland is tied over and over to Wall Street investment vehicles and the few shareholder corporations tied to all this privatization of public assets.

REMEMBER, THIS IS HAPPENING BECAUSE MARYLAND HAS THE SAME NEO-LIBERALS ELECTED EACH TIME OVER DECADES WHO WORK FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT AT OUR EXPENSE.  YOUR POL IS NOT CUTE AND FUZZY HANDING OUT A PROGRESSIVE BONE NOW AND THEN.  THEY ARE GREAT BIG GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS BENT ON HANDING ALL PUBLIC ASSETS AND REVENUE TO CORPORATE PROFIT ESPECIALLY FOR MARYLAND'S 1%.


Regarding wind farms and McCord's ode to Ocean City views:

As an environmentalist recently from Seattle, I have always pushed wind and solar. The idea was to move away from fossil fuel and carbon emission. The problem with any progressive issue in the age of neo-liberal control of the democratic party is that none of it is done for the environment....it becomes public subsidy of another corporate industry. When O'Malley and the corporate Maryland Assembly did their usual sell of jobs and environment to push public subsidy of a wind farm that will do absolutely nothing for global warming....it became a pay-to-play. There will be no jobs created from a Federal program outsourced to private contractors with a wind turbine factory from Germany. As with all these subcontracted projects....the workers are brought from out of state or the work is done in a Right to Work state where workers are impoverished....not a real job.

As this article shows, the amount of energy created by a Maryland wind farm is so small that the public subsidy for building and operating these farms will far exceed the value of energy produced. It is like subsidizing mid-west farms for crop loss during prolonged drought from global warming. IT SIMPLY SETS A PATH OF TAXPAYER SUBSIDY TO AN INDUSTRY NO DOUBT OWNED BY THE GLOBAL CORPORATE GROUP. These turbines not only kill birds and wildlife but as the article below shows, the need to keep them running burns more electricity than running a gas-fired plant. It is the money made by building these turbines and the ongoing public subsidy that drives this industry.

If we were indeed moving away from fossil fuel this would be a good move. As I have said time and again, neo-liberals want to make the US a third world source of raw energy by exporting the worst carbon-emitters......oil, natural gas, coal, and raw timber. Maryland wants to do all of the above. So, the goal is not environmental, it is profits. The citizens of Maryland should be offended that O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly tied them with yet another corporate subsidy and in the very least, making this a public utility.

MARYLAND NOW HAS A TAX TO PAY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS OF A NATIONAL ELECTRICITY AND GAS CORPORATION EXELON EARNING BILLION IN PROFIT EACH YEAR.......WE ARE GOING TO PAY HUGE INCREASES IN WATER AND SEWAGE TO BUILD A NEW SYSTEM FOR WHAT NEO-LIBERALS INTEND TO HAND OFF TO VEOLA ENVIRONMENT-JOHNS HOPKINS.....AND NOW THIS WIND FARM TAX SUBSIDY TO OPERATE THIS ENERGY SOURCE. NONE OF THESE ARE PUBLIC UTILITIES BRINGING PUBLIC VALUE AS WAS ONCE THE CASE.


The solution is voting neo-liberals out of office by running labor and justice. ......WAKE UP AND GET RUNNING!

January 30
MAINE COMPASS: Industrial wind power a catastrophe on every level
Mike Bond

As a lifelong Democrat, environmental activist and renewable energy advocate, I commend Gov. Paul Le Page’s recent criticisms of the huge taxpayer-funded industrial wind power scam, which will ruin Maine unless it is stopped.
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Though initially a proponent of industrial wind, I’ve learned it’s a catastrophe on every level — environmental, fiscal, social and economic. And now with Maine’s southern neighbors halting industrial wind in their states, they’re paying to build thousands of turbines in Maine, to devastate every magnificent Maine ridge, pinnacle and mountain with howling machines more than 50 stories high, some so tall they’ll be the third-tallest structures in New England.

Industrial wind projects have been clearly proven to slaughter millions of birds and bats, destroy scenic beauty, lower property values and tourism, sicken people and drive them from their homes, increase erosion and raise electric rates. But they make billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies for the investment banks that develop them.

Yet the biggest trouble with industrial wind is it doesn’t lower greenhouse gas emissions or fossil fuel use. Not one molecule. The reason is that winds (particularly in Maine) are erratic, and as a result, industrial wind “farms” have to be backed up constantly by “fixed” generation, e.g, fossil fuel plants. This problem, called spinning reserve, basically invalidates any claim that wind projects lower fossil fuel use or carbon dioxide generation.

Online one can find numerous scientific, utility and environmental studies showing that, despite nearly three decades of huge federal subsidies, industrial wind projects don’t lower greenhouse gas emissions or fossil fuel use, and in some cases even increase them. In Germany and Britain, for instance, development of wind projects has led to an escalation in coal use.

This is without even considering the extensive greenhouse gases produced by constructing these huge towers, shipping them across the ocean, trucking them to wherever the wind industry has overridden the local folks and imposed a wind farm and building them.

Consider a typical Maine wind farm advertised as 100 megawatts, about 35 turbine towers. Because Maine winds are poor, turbines run at a low rate, sometimes as little as 4 days a month. Even industrial wind developers admit the capacity of wind projects in Maine is only 25 percent of their advertised amount. Thus a 100MW project creates only 25MW.

Even when the turbines are turning, however, the power can’t always be used, such as at night, so utilities curtail or dump it. In Maine, this reduces our wind projects used power to barely 17MW. And because most wind electricity will be transmitted out of Maine to Connecticut or Massachusetts, the transmission loss could exceed 5 percent, lowering this to 16.6MW.

One also has to deduct the fuel to run the spinning reserve, which means the real power provided to electricity consumers by a 100MW industrial wind project is barely 8 percent of advertised capacity — 8MW, not 100MW.

This 8MW is disastrously low for a project that could cost taxpayers $300 million. By comparison an 8MW gas-fired power plant could be built for less than $15 million and would create far less carbon dioxide. Or, for the same $300 million, we could equip 20,000 Maine homes and businesses with rooftop solar, and significantly reduce Maine’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Ever noticed the turbines turning when there’s no wind? To keep them from seizing up, they have to be turned by buying electricity. This is why three of the largest electricity consumers in Maine are wind projects. They each use more power than Maine’s largest pulp mill.

I may not agree with LePage about everything, but he has clearly enunciated an absolute truth for Maine. If we care about the beauty of our precious state, the superb individuality of our Maine people, and the enormous economic engine that this beauty and cohesion represents, then we must all, Democrats, Republicans and independents stand for what is right for Maine, and reject what is wrong.

We hear a lot of pro-wind commercials on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, and a lot of pro-wind talk from groups such as Maine Audubon, the Sierra Club of the Maine and the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Guess why? Many such organizations get major funding from industrial wind developers.

Years ago, I learned a lot about life as newspaper boy, delivering it sometimes in a blizzard at 30 below, but I made sure my customers got their papers. That’s a spirit Maine inculcates: fairness and reliability. Industrial wind projects have neither.

Mike Bond of Winthrop is an environmental activist, renewable energy advocate and author of a wind industry exposé, “Saving Paradise.”

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It's not that wind energy was never a good idea or could be implemented on small scale to good return. It's that it is profit-driven and the money made is not re-invested to wean from public subsidy.....it increases public subsidy to maintain profit.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS WIND FARM SCAM WILL DO IN MARYLAND. WHATEVER COMPANY IS SELECTED TO RUN THIS BUSINESS....THEY WILL SEE PROFITS GROW AS PUBLIC SUBSIDY GROWS. If a state and country is not serious about global warming with policy that exports the worst of emitters of carbon....this is all a corporate profit-driven hoax.


January 13, 2014 • Germany
German wind farm operator Prokon warns of imminent insolvency

Credit: UPI | Jan. 13, 2014 | www.upi.com ~~

The controversial German wind farm operator Prokon has warned 75,000 retail investors of imminent insolvency, perhaps by the end of the month.

Prokon, based in Itzehoe, Germany, warned in a letter to investors published on the Internet that if they don’t waive repayment of the money, it will be bankrupt by the end of January, making it one of the largest bankruptcies ever in the German “grey capital” market, Suddeutsche Zeitung reported.

Consumer advocates have long warned against the company, which spends heavily on online advertising and direct mail solicitations promising incentives of 8 percent returns on its over-the-counter shares, the German newspaper said.

In the letter, the wind farm operator’s board appealed to its investors for further financial help.

“If our investors do not succeed, together with you, to stabilize the liquidity situation very quickly, by the end of January, we will probably be forced by law to initiate an insolvency plan for threatened bankruptcy,” it said.

The shares are essentially unsecured loans, without the participation rights of regular shareholders – thus the investors are threatened with a loss of their capital.

Over the years Prokon says it has collected nearly $2 billion through such advertising. It has built wind farms and sold the electricity into the German grid, and also invests in biodiesel and biomass.

For several years its has faced criticism from investors, consumer advocates, the media and prosecutors. They suspected the company could not keep its promise high returns and that investors’ money would possibly be lost in the wind farm projects.

Critics have asked where the profits that have been paid out to investors have been coming from – now those fears could be borne out.

In the letter, the company used dramatic language in an appeal to investors asking them to accept delays in paying out the millions of dollars owed to them under a profit participation plan, the newspaper said.

“An insolvency plan can only be prevented if we receive the agreement of at least 95 percent of the profit participation capital that you will not (demand) your capital at least until Oct. 31, 2014, and a payment within 12 months, which may be paid out in installments,” it said.

At the end of the letter, company president Carsten Rodbertus escalated the request into an open call for help.

“Don’t let there be an insolvency plan!” he wrote, urging investors to not let “locusts” and negative media reports destroy “a flagship” green energy company.

The Higher Regional Court of Schleswig-Holstein in September upheld an unfair advertising complaint against Prokon made to the government consumers affairs office in Hamburg, Deutsche Welle reported.

It found a company prospectus contained misleading statements about the supposed safety of the advertised participation rights after claiming the investments were “as safe as a savings account.”

In December Prokon called on its investors to forgo their returns for the second half of 2013 to ease what it called a temporary liquidity crunch.

Officials of the company could not be reached for comment on Saturday, the German broadcaster said.
Source: UPI | Jan. 13, 2014 | www.upi.com



Turbine Trouble: Ill Wind Blows for German Offshore Industry

By Michael Fröhlingsdorf
August 2, 2013

Only recently, the offshore wind industry was seen as an opportunity to regenerate Germany's coast. But amid changing political attitudes and spiraling costs, several companies are struggling to survive. Is the wind boom over before it even really began?

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Below is an example of what this Maryland wind farm will look like with all the Wall Street financial instruments and investment firms owning and running it. One way these wind farms have proved useful is when a corporation like Google builds its own wind farms to augment the super amount of power it burns running its main frames. So, having corporations buying and building these systems is the first step. But no, we need the public paying for all the costs and getting soaked with a bad deal as these articles show! You see these investment firms are getting Federal subsidies to build these things.....they get greening tax breaks for being environmental.....and they get the Maryland taxpayers and ratepayers subsidizing the operations.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU KNOW BLACKSTONE GROUP IS INVESTED IN ALL KINDS OF FOSSIL FUEL PROJECTS THAT NEGATE ANY CARBON-SAVING THIS PROJECT WILL BRING------EVERYONE.

STOP VOTING FOR CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS WHO DO NOTHING BUT WORK FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT!


Blackstone blows $3.5B into German wind farms


by Jonathan Braude | Published August 5, 2011 at 10:18 AM

New York private equity house Blackstone Group LP brushed up its green credentials on Friday, Aug. 5, with the announcement of a gusty €2.5 billion ($3.5 billion) investment in two offshore wind farm projects, one 50 kilometers and the other 100 km off the German North Sea coast.

The deal taps into a government-backed commercial lending program set up through state-owned development bank KfW Bankengruppe as part of a consortium of German and international banks. The banks will provide €822 million for the first €1.2 billion project, known as Meerwind, or Seawind. The equity has been committed by Blackstone funds and initial permit holder Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH.

Blackstone vehicle WindMW GmbH said the completed funding would come from Commerzbank AG, KfW IPEX-Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Dexia SA, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Banco Santander SA and Siemens Bank GmbH together with EKF, the export credit agency of Denmark, and KfW Bankengruppe. About half the financing will reportedly come from KfW.

The 80-turbine, 288-megawatt Meerwind project is scheduled for completion in 2013 and is expected to produce enough electricity to power 400,000 households, although, even in the North Sea, wind output can fluctuate dramatically. It is expected to help Germany eliminate approximately 1 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year.

The Meerwind operation includes the installation of turbines supplied by Siemens AG and the connection to the national power network by grid operator Tennet TSO GmbH.

Sited northwest of the island of Helgoland, Meerwind will be followed by a second 64-turbine project, requiring a further investment of €1.3 billion and situated much further out at sea. The second project, known as Nördlicher Grund, will be completed in 2016.

Blackstone's and the banks' funding for Meerwind follows the German government's decision to phase out nuclear energy in the country by 2022 in the panic following the Japanese tsunami earlier this year. Although widely criticized as a hasty decision that will do more to promote investment in fossil-fuel generation than renewable energy, the government has also committed itself to a program of rapid adoption of new technologies.

The German government looks for renewable energies' share of power generation to rise from the current 17% of power consumption to at least 35% in 2020. On its website, the Environment Ministry also says, "The German government will strive to ensure this share is 50% by 2030, a figure that should rise to 60% by 2040, then 80% by 2050," though critics argue that is neither a firm commitment nor a sufficiently ambitious target.

WindMW was established in 2008 as a Blackstone portfolio company to develop German offshore wind farms. Meerwind first obtained the permit to build its wind park in 2007.

WindMW was advised by Green Giraffe Energy Bankers, KfW IPEX-Bank and Dexia with legal advice from Gleiss Lutz. The lenders were advised by Watson, Farley & Williams LLP.

Blackstone's announcement comes as its New York rival Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP reportedly agreed to invest a further $75 million in Indian fossil-fuel power company Avantha Power & Infrastructure Ltd. to take its share in the company from 9% to 20%. It invested the initial $50 million in October.

_________________________________________________

As we see here.....Blackstone is getting all kinds of tax breaks for this wind farm while it is invested in natural gas and coal-fire stations. The key here is that it is cornering the energy market and these wind turbines will be using tons of electricity to keep the turbines running when no wind will. It is a money-making deal with you and I paying the tab.


NEO-LIBERALS ARE WORKING TO CONSOLIDATE THE ENERGY MARKET SO THAT YOU AND I WILL BE CAPTURED FOR ANY KIND OF ENERGY NEEDED FOR EVERYDAY LIFE.....REMEMBER, THIS ALL USED TO BE PUBLIC.

FERC approves Blackstone's acquisition of Dynegy
EBR Staff Writer Published 02 November 2010


The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a joint application of Dynegy and an affiliate of The Blackstone Group relating to the acquisition of Dynegy by an affiliate of Blackstone. Dynegy Inc. is an electric utility company based in Houston, Texas, in the United States. It owns and operates a number of power stations in the U.S., all of which are natural gas-fired or coal-fired.


______________________________________________

As we see with Blackstone Group capturing a monopoly on all energy sources, Maryland's policies are being directed by HighStar and Johns Hopkins as a major shareholder. Below you see why Maryland is tapped to be a natural gas exporter ----a raging global warming policy tied to these windmills------

O'Malley and Maryland Assembly has tied all of Maryland public utilities to mega-corporations and this windmill project will not be any different. Good idea to have one global investment firms controlling all the regional energy? OF COURSE NOT. WE ARE GOING PUBLIC WITH OUR UTILITIES IN THE FUTURE!


Highstar Capital to invest in Caiman Energy

EBR Staff Writer Published 28 July 2011

Private equity firm Highstar Capital IV has entered into an agreement to invest up to approximately $270m in US-based midstream energy firm Caiman Energy through a preferred equity investment.

This investment will provide Caiman with additional growth capital for the ongoing expansion of its midstream infrastructure network in the Marcellus shale.

Highstar Capital founder and managing partner Christopher Lee said that Caiman will continue to play a key and growing role in helping Marcellus producers get their gas and liquids to market.

Caiman provides midstream services including natural gas and condensate gathering, compression, dehydration, measurement, treating and conditioning, processing, liquids transportation and fractionation.

Highstar Capital currently manages over $5bn of investments on behalf of its managed funds and co-investment vehicles in a diversified portfolio of energy, transportation and environmental/waste management assets and businesses.

About Highstar

Highstar is a group of investment professionals specializing in value added equity investments in infrastructure assets and businesses. Since 2000, the Highstar has led or co-led infrastructure investments totaling in excess of US $10 billion in enterprise value, including investments in power generation, water and waste water, natural gas transmission and storage, waste management, waste-to-energy, transportation logistics and port concessions and operations. Currently, Highstar is managing a portfolio of assets valued in excess of US $3 billion.

____________________________________________

This is a look with whom is all this energy and infrastructure going and as we know Blackstone is BUSH and AIG/HighStar is the Harvard/Hopkins cabal. Blackstone/AIG are partnered in many deals and as we know, AIG spun off HighStar to gut AIG of assets as it was ready to collapse from the AIG subprime mortgage loan fraud and CDS insuring of what all knew to be toxic mortgage loans. So, much of that profit from the massive mortgage fraud including all the homes lost to the American people from fraud was spun off as HighStar and Harvard, Hopkins and other Ivy Leagues have billions in their endowments from it.

THIS IS WHAT DRIVES MARYLAND POLICY IN ENERGY AND UTILITY PRIVATIZATION AS O'MALLEY SENDS ALL PROJECTS AND I DO NOT DOUBT THESE WIND FARMS WILL BE WITH THIS WALL STREET GROUPS AS WELL.

The citizens of Maryland had a system of public utilities that worked fine and employed workers getting a strong wage and benefits with corporations paying taxes and supporting community. It was William Donald Schaffer that started handing over Maryland public agencies with O'Malley supersizing it and all this is driven by Hopkins' profit.


Blackstone IPO: Mega-Payday for Bush Cabal (continued)

by ELITEWATCH.911REVIEW.ORG

Blackstone IPO: Mega-Payday for Bush Cabal

NIST, asked by INN World Report in February 2004 in New York, answered, they would look into these circumstances.



"In 1985 Blackstone opened its first small office with a staff of four, including the two founders Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman and a balance sheet of $400,000.

"Strictly friendly private equity investing in corporate partnerships has been a signature form of investing for The Blackstone Group since 1987 and accounts for 69% of the firm's private equity investments in terms of equity capital invested. The firm, investing side-by-side with 32 corporations and their management teams, has invested over $3.5 billion in such partnerships with a total transaction value of more than $40 billion. Such partnerships have included AT&T (Bresnan transaction), AOL Time Warner (Six Flags transaction), Union Carbide, Union Pacific (CNW transaction), USX, Vivendi, IBM, BP Amoco, Arthur Andersen and many others.�

Blackstone Group & 7 World Trade Center

"New York, NY October 17, 2000: Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, the global real estate investment and management arm of The Blackstone Group, L.P., announced today that it has purchased, from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, the participating mortgage secured by 7 World Trade Center, a commercial office complex controlled by real estate developer Larry Silverstein" (source)

"But before the building can rise further than the substation, major financing issues have to be resolved by Larry Silverstein, who controls the long-term lease on 7 World Trade Center as well as the World Trade Center complex.

The good news for Mr. Silverstein is that the company that insured 7 World Trade, Industrial Risk Insurers, has indicated that it will make a full payment under its $861 million policy. But it's not clear whether Mr. Silverstein can use those proceeds to start building without first reaching an agreement with the mortgage holder on 7 World Trade Center, Blackstone Real Estate Advisors. (source)

Blackstone - Kissinger McLarty Associates - American International Group

Kissinger McLarty Associates has a "strategic alliance" with the Blackstone Group. The Blackstone Group describes their relationship thus:

"Blackstone's alliance with Kissinger McLarty Associates is designed to help provide financial advisory services to corporations seeking high-level strategic advice. The relationship was announced in 2000 and recently completed its first strategic advisory assignment on behalf of a NYSE-listed company." (source)

In fact the alliance also incorporates Maurice Greenberg�s American International Group, as per this press release on February 21st 2000:

"American International Group, Inc. (AIG), The Blackstone Group L. P. and Kissinger Associates Inc. announced the establishment of a new venture to provide financial advisory services to corporations seeking high-level independent strategic advice. The venture will operate globally and will take advantage of the existing relationships between the partners:

- AIG has an ownership interest in Blackstone and is an investor in several of Blackstone's private equity funds;

- AIG and Blackstone have a joint venture, specializing in restructuring and M&A advisory services in selected Asian countries;

- Henry Kissinger chairs both AIG's International Advisory Board and the advisory boards of several AIG-sponsored Infrastructure Funds.

The AIG-Blackstone-Kissinger Associates venture recently completed its first advisory assignment on behalf of a New York Stock Exchange listed U.S. company." (source) (note: "M&A" means �Mergers and Acquisitions�)

Indeed: "In 1998, American International Group ("AIG") acquired a 7% non-voting interest in The Blackstone Group for $150 million and committed to invest $1.2 billion in future Blackstone-sponsored funds." (source) And Maurice Greenberg sits on Blackstone�s Domestic Advisory Board.

(& an anecdotal story about Blacktone�s Peter G Peterson & Enron)

"When Enron executives started dumping stock, and the warning signs that Enron was in deep trouble were everyone except on the evening news, Winokur and Rubin called Peter Fisher, the current undersecretary of the Treasury to determine the practicality of artificially supporting Enron's credit rating in order to enable Enron to borrow enough money to stave off bankruptcy. Fisher, a former New York Fed governor, called his former boss, Peter G. Peterson, the New York Fed chairman - and the current chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. Peterson was also a top Enron financial advisor through his own company, Blackstone Group. Peterson was also against the idea of artificially supporting a phony credit rating for Enron." (source)
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January 29th, 2014

1/29/2014

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FOLKS, IF YOU DO NOT HERE YOUR INCUMBENT POL SHOUTING LOUDLY AND STRONGLY AGAINST ALL THESE POLICIES AND TPP-------THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEED TO GO!  RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!

I want to take today through Friday to talk about why Obama and Congress are now ready to focus on domestic issues and why his mantra of helping the middle-class and poor is ridiculous......all the items on the Congressional agenda are tied to TPP and they intend to pass TPP in the near future.

The good news for US citizens is that TPP is illegal and a COUP against the US Constitution and American people and we can simply declare it NULL AND VOID when we reinstate Rule of Law. 

I'm starting with the environmental issues in Obama's speech and TPP because we have a corporate 'public' media outlet....WYPR with commentators who pretend to lament issues that they really support.


You may have seen the Huffington Post article on TPP and the environment but continue down to see how Maryland is one big TPP sesspool thanks to your neo-liberal!

ALL THE CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH THE TPP AGENDA!


In Maryland, labor and justice simply backs the worst of TPP neo-liberals even as they intend to make labor and justice just like Chinese workers and citizens.  WHY ARE THEY NOT RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN ALL PRIMARIES!!!!!??????


Regarding Obama's domestic agenda that all involves passing TPP:

Basu's shout out for attention to global warming is a HOOT isn't it!  The US is the number one exporting now of all the raw materials that hasten global warming and Basu supports every one as this makes the rich richer in the US while it kills our environment.  TPP makes sure that all those silly US environmental laws won't get in the way of corporate profit and that is why we have XL Pipeline preparing to export the worst methane and carbon emitter TAR SAND OIL.  Basu is for building this pipeline....it creates jobs you know as he is in building a natural gas export right here in Maryland.  Fracking is a great methane/carbon emitter.  The US exports coal and raw timber all of which are great carbon emitters so all this talk of global warming by neo-liberals is only to sell windmill funding to make another source of profit for Wall Street investment firms.  YOU CANNOT BE A NET EXPORTER OF ALL THE MATERIALS CREATING CARBON AND METHANE EMISSIONS AND SAY YOU ARE AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING FOR GOODNESS SAKE.   All of Maryland pols are backing the natural gas terminal that will place fracking on steroids.

 NEO-LIBERALS WILL VOTE ON A TPP BILL THAT KILLS ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT AND THAT IS WHY WE HAVE SUCH A HIGH LEVEL OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION TODAY....OBAMA AND CONGRESSIONAL NEO-LIBERALS ARE ALLOWING FREE TRADE OF ALL OF US NATURAL RESOURCES.


You wouldn't know that Obama's entire agenda surrounds the legislation needed to pass the TPP and we all know that has nothing to do with making a strong middle-class and helping the poor.  Remember, there is no wealth inequality because tens of trillions of dollar in corporate fraud still needs to come back.

The reason we had a do-nothing Congress is that these few years your neo-liberal has been working on behalf of their state's global corporations in writing TPP and now that Obama's Trade Rep signed the TPP agreement Congress is ready to go full court passing all the domestic bills that are written just for TPP.

ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS!!!!!

Let's look at each one to remember how they are attached to TPP and how they kill American workers and families.  THESE ARE EVIL DUDES YOU ARE ELECTING AND RE-ELECTING FOLKS!

So why are corporate NPR/APM and WYPR not connecting these TPP/environment dots?  More important, why are Maryland's environmental groups and 'progressive' action groups not sounding the alarm?  Maryland Progressives give Maryland Assembly strong marks on environment without ever shouting that TPP will knock the socks off of anything local.  Building windmills off of Maryland coast while exporting natural gas.....REALLY?


Let's look closer at what this environmental catastrophe means to labor and justice.  First, look at the Incinerator project everyone is fighting here in the Baltimore area.  Why would you build something like this with all kinds of 'green language' when we all know it is bad news for health and climate?  THE INCINERATOR IS PART OF A GLOBAL CORPORATION THAT RUNS THESE AROUND THE WORLD -------VEOLA ENVIRONOMENT OWNED BY JOHNS HOPKINS.

Remember, VEOLA is a global corporation and is TPP is passed we will not have all those air quality standards met as all this hampers corporate profit!!!!!




 WikiLeaks Exposes What Obama's Secret Trade Deal Would Do To The Environment


Posted: 01/15/2014 12:22 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/25/2014 4:01 pm EST


WASHINGTON -- WikiLeaks published a leaked draft of the environment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Wednesday, and environmental groups are lining up to take a swing.

The leaked documents come from a meeting of the trade deal's chief negotiators held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Nov. 19 to 24, 2013. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes 12 countries –- the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei –- and would govern a number of international environmental and trade issues.

The draft indicates the pact will include a number of promises on the environment, but will lack strong enforcement tools. "When compared against other TPP chapters, the Environment Chapter is noteworthy for its absence of mandated clauses or meaningful enforcement measures," wrote WikiLeaks in its release. The chapter is intended to deal with issues like overfishing, trade of wood products, wildlife crime, and illegal logging. But most of the measures in the chapter are voluntary, rather than binding, and do not include penalties or criminal sanctions for violations. Compliance is largely left to the respective countries.

Enviros offered similar criticism. "The lack of fully-enforceable environmental safeguards means negotiators are allowing a unique opportunity to protect wildlife and support legal sustainable trade of renewable resources to slip through their fingers,” said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, in a statement.

The leaked document from November is only a draft, but if the trade pact's final environmental chapter looks like it, it would make the Obama administration's environmental trade record "worse than George W. Bush’s," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “This draft chapter falls flat on every single one of our issues -- oceans, fish, wildlife, and forest protections -- and in fact, rolls back on the progress made in past free trade pacts.”

According to a report from the chairs of the TPP Environmental Working Group drafting the chapter, also released by WikiLeaks, there remains significant disagreement among the parties on many of the pact's provisions. The chairs wrote that Vietnam, Peru and Malaysia object to a provision calling for countries to "rationalize and phase out" fossil fuel subsidies "that encourage wasteful consumption." They also noted that the United States and Australia object to the climate change portion of the pact as it is written.

Negotiation of the pact has been underway since 2010, but all discussions take place entirely outside of public view. The Obama administration has already received backlash for leaked portions of the pact that indicate it would grant greater rights to corporations to challenge national laws in private courts.

Efforts to fast-track the trade deal met resistance from Democrats in Congress this week.


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VEOLA ENVIRONMENT IS OWNED BY HIGHSTAR WITH JOHNS HOPKINS AS ITS MAJOR SHAREHOLDER AND THIS IS WHY O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE ARE PUSHING THESE PLANTS IN MARYLAND.  

It has nothing to do with greening or environmentalism.....it simply moves all public waste and recycling to this Hopkins' owned business VEOLA.  As this happens, communities around it will see all kinds of health effects and the air quality already bad in Maryland will get worse------THAT'S A DOUBLE WIN FOR JOHNS HOPKINS AS ASTHMA IS THE NUMBER ONE HEALTH PROFIT FOR MARYLAND HOSPITALS!!!!

Just imagine how likely having a global health corporation like Hopkins owning and running the disposal of medical waste.....their major expense.  Remember, in China there are no environmental laws and that is why all kinds of hazardous dumping and leeching has made China an industrial dump.


This policy is not only disgusting......but O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake and your Maryland Assembly and Baltimore City Hall neo-liberals are tying the funding of public schools to this Johns Hopkins business that kills the environment.  If you look at who supports these incinerators--------Baltimore museums and many Maryland public school districts.  The public sector tied to yet another corporation.




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Keep in mind Maryland's Governor O'Malley led the way for exporting natural gas while leading the Governor's Association because, of course, O'Malley is a raging Wall Street pol.  Mike Miller has said this will happen as as all Maryland neo-liberals keep voting him as leader.....they will vote for it as well.

The infrastructure funding bill by Congress and by Maryland Assembly would fund the construction of this project.  That is why they want this BOLIS OF MONEY as Clinton investment banker turned pol Dulaney moves forward.


ISN'T IT AMAZING THAT YOU NEVER HEAR ANY OF THIS FROM MARYLAND MEDIA OR WYPR AND MARYLAND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS ARE MOSTLY SILENT TO SOMETHING THAT WILL HAVE DEVASTATING ENVIRONMENTAL AFFECTS ON THE STATE???

I want to add that it is Frosh that heads the judiciary committee that vets judicial appointments and if you liked Maryland's court decision that MERS was not criminal.....you can expect that Frosh placed  pro-global corporates judges in Maryland courts.  See why we do not want Frosh as Maryland Attorney General?  Wonder why Maryland labor groups are backing him?


Court Considers Natural Gas Exports From MD Terminal  

Mon, 01/13/2014 - 11:02am
MAX EHRENFREUND, The Washington Post  

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The future of a massive, controversial construction project on the Chesapeake Bay for exporting natural gas could depend on one poorly written sentence.

Attorneys for the Sierra Club were in court last week fighting the $3.8 billion proposal by Dominion Resources to renovate its terminal in Calvert County so the facility could send domestic gas overseas. The case — which turns on several words in a contract first signed in 1972 and rewritten over the years — is pending in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

Labor and business leaders argue that construction would bring a huge influx of capital to a state still recovering from the financial crisis. But environmentalists say that the project would worsen global warming, and residents are concerned about the effects on traffic and property values in the sleepy coastal community of Lusby about 60 miles southeast of the District.

"We are all following it really closely," Kelly Canavan, president of a local community organization, said of the dispute between the Sierra Club and Dominion.

Canavan's group, the Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities Council, opposes Dominion's plans. She said the court case "is one of the strongest possibilities for actually stopping the project."

The case also demonstrates how radically the global energy economy can change in just a few years.

Dominion's Cove Point terminal, which began operating in 1978, was built to receive imported natural gas. But recently, few tankers have come through as the new drilling techniques commonly known as "fracking" have produced an unexpected glut of domestic shale gas.

Dominion now proposes to use Cove Point for export instead of import. But natural gas must be cooled into a liquid before it is loaded onto a tanker. Dominion will have to build cooling facilities at Cove Point — a project that would require three years and thousands of workers.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club — which aims to decrease the country's reliance on naturalgas — worry that allowing the exports would encourage domestic drilling, damage the ecology of the bay and ultimately hasten climate change.

Whether the project proceeds could depend on how the court interprets the contract, which curtails how the site can be used. The facility's original owner, Columbia Gas, initially signed the agreement with the Sierra Club and another environmental group. Relations between business and the environmental movement were friendlier then than they are today, and Columbia wanted to avoid a legal dispute.

Sierra argues that the most recent version of that agreement, which Dominion signed in 2005, a few years after acquiring the property, precludes the company from exporting natural gas from Cove Point by sea.

The agreement provides that Dominion can use the site for "receipt by tanker and the receipt or delivery bypipeline" of natural gas in its various forms.

According to the environmental group's lawyers, that phrase means that Cove Point can receive shipments of natural gas by sea or overland via pipeline, and that it can deliver gas to domestic customers, also viapipeline. Delivering gas to outgoing vessels is not permitted, they argue.

A lower court ruled against the Sierra Club last year. Circuit Judge James Salmon agreed with Dominion that the facility could make a "delivery by pipeline" to the pier where deep-water tankers dock.

The offshore pier, just over a mile from the coast, is indeed connected to land by an insulated pipeline along the bottom of the bay.

The Sierra Club appealed the decision.

The parties to the contract in 2005 did not anticipate that Dominion would ever need to export natural gas. During arguments Wednesday, appeals court judges questioned attorneys for both sides on economic and technological aspects of shipping gas at that time, trying to reconstruct a world that already seems far in the past.

Dominion has signed contracts with importers in India and Japan, who agreed to buy capacity at Cove Point for 20 years. The company asked the court to rule quickly on the case, citing the volatility of the global market for fossil fuels.

For those who live near the facility, the debate about Cove Point is much more than a disagreement over the meaning of "receipt or delivery."

Carolyn Hart, president of the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce, said her group's members are eager for the jobs and people they expect construction to bring to the area. "I can tell you, we're waiting," she said. Hart lives a quarter of a mile from the terminal, and she and her husband own a nearby wine shop.

Dominion said they are among many people who think the project will benefit the community. "The support for this kind of a project is extremely broad and very deep," said Chet Wade, a spokesman for Dominion.

Others worry about the risk of an industrial accident.

"We feel like Dominion is transferring environmental and health risks to their neighbors, and we're not getting compensated," said Sue Allison, who can see Cove Point's storage tanks from her kitchen window and made the trip to the courthouse in Annapolis to demonstrate her opposition to the project.

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Do you know that selling the coal fire- power plants with the deal with Exelon is an environmental greenhouse disaster and your Maryland Assembly pol voted for this merger deal that could have required these power plants be shut down?  O'Malley handed them to Exelon who simply handed them to a connected figure and Maryland still has coal-fired power plants all by a governor who Maryland press labels a friend of the environment!!!!

I NEVER HEAR BASU TELLING US ALL THIS AS HE LAMENTS GREENHOUSE GAS LEVELS AND GLOBAL WARMING.....HE WILL SHOUT OUT TO BUILD WINDMILLS, BECAUSE THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH ALL THIS OTHER BAD ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN MARYLAND!

Know where the windmills will be built?  I know, Maryland pols said this was a job creator.....yet, very few Maryland workers  will be involved.  IT'S ABOUT CHANNELLING FEDERAL AND STATE FUNDING TO CAMPAIGN DONORS YOU KNOW!

Look below to see yet another foreign global corporation coming into the US to build manufacturing.  Remember, TPP gives global corporations a pass on all US labor and justice laws if it cuts into profits.......TPP will allow Siemens to bring workers from around the world to work in Kansas and if Kansas citizens want a job.....they will work for the same third world wages these immigrants get...... THIS IS WHAT GREEN TECHNOLOGY BUSINESSES BRING TO THE US.....AND YOUR FEDERAL AND STATE TAX MONEY WILL SUBSIDIZE THE BUILDING OF THESE PLANTS BECAUSE.....AFTER ALL.....THEY CREATE JOBS!

See why WYPR does not connect the dots......see why public media was taken corporate?



Siemens will Build Wind Turbine Production Facility in the U.S.
05.05.2009 · Posted in Wind Energy

 
Additional capital investment in green technologies – 400 new jobs to be created

Erlangen, Germany, May 05, 2009

Siemens intends to build a new production facility for wind turbines in the state of Kansas. Initially, 400 new jobs are expected to be created in the new wind turbine production facility in Hutchinson, Kansas. When production begins at this facility, Siemens will be able to even more effectively meet the strong demand for wind turbine equipment in North and South America in the future.

75px Siemens AG logo.svg Siemens will Build Wind Turbine Production Facility in the U.S.“The United States already is and will continue to be one of the world’s fastest growing wind energy markets. We are thus intensifying our commitment to this green technology to further expand our leading global position in this field,” stated Peter Löscher, CEO of Siemens AG. “We are already the leading green infrastructure giant. And by making these investments, we will become even greener.” With revenues totaling EUR19 billion in fiscal year 2008, Siemens now has the world’s largest portfolio of environmental technologies.

Construction of the 300,000-square-foot nacelle production facility is scheduled to begin in August 2009. A nacelle is mounted on top of the tower and supports the rotor. It houses a wind turbine’s major components for electric power generation, including the gearbox, the drive train and the control electronics.

The nacelles to be produced in Kansas will weigh 90 tons and the first nacelle is expected to be shipped in December 2010. All nacelles produced in Hutchinson will be used in the company’s reliable 2.3-MW wind turbine product family. Initially, the factory’s planned annual output is approximately 650 nacelles – or 1,500 megawatts (MW).

“Just two years ago we opened a rotor blade manufacturing facility in Fort Madison, Iowa. By expanding our investment in Kansas, we are strengthening our presence in the U.S. and, at the same time, we are increasing the proximity to our U.S. customers. This new location will enable us to serve them more rapidly and cost-effectively,” said René Umlauft, CEO of Siemens Energy’s Renewable Energy Division.

Hutchinson is near the geographic center of the continental United States and offers a viable workforce and excellent transportation logistics. The factory will include direct loading onto rail, which will provide easy access to project locations throughout the Unites States and Canada. Shipments can also be made utilizing the barge facilities at the port of Catoosa, located 250 miles from the plant. Kansas also has excellent wind conditions. In terms of wind energy potential, this centrally located state ranks third in the U.S.

Since entering the wind industry in 2004, Siemens has greatly expanded its worldwide manufacturing network. In addition to opening and consequently expanding the wind turbine blade manufacturing facilities in Fort Madison, Iowa, USA, and Engesvang, Denmark, the Danish facilities in Brande and Aalborg have been expanded and a new R&D center in Boulder, USA, was established. Siemens’ global wind power business has grown from approximately 800 employees in 2004 to more than 5,500 today, which equals an increase of approximately 650 percent.

Wind power is an important feature of Siemens’ environmental portfolio. In 2008, revenue from the products and solutions of Siemens’ environmental portfolio was nearly EUR19 billion, which is equivalent to around a quarter of Siemens’ total revenue.
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January 24th, 2014

1/24/2014

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CONTINUING TALK ONE MORE DAY ON TOTALITARIAN POLICY LET'S REVIEW YESTERDAY'S POINTS......CAPTURED ELECTIONS TAKING THE DEMOCRACY OUT OF DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS.......BUILD-UP OF MILITARISTIC POLICING WITH SUSPENDED RULE OF LAW ALLOWING NO PUBLIC JUSTICE AND HOLDING NO ONE ACCOUNTABLE FOR CRIMES BY CORPORATIONS AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION.  YOUR MONEY BECOMES THEIR MONEY.  I'VE SPOKEN ENOUGH FOR NOW ON TPP AND THE RE-WRITING OF THE US CONSTITUTION AND SHOWED HOW IT WILL ALLOW ENSLAVEMENT TO OPERATE RIGHT HERE IN MARYLAND FOR EXAMPLE. 

No matter how many times they say all this loss of privacy and freedom is Constitutional-----IT IS NOT!

LET'S REVIEW THE SURVEILLANCE AND SECURITY SYSTEM THAT IS HOMELAND SECURITY:

Remember, the reason the US suddenly has all these people wanting death to America is that US policy went with global corporations with Reagan and Clinton and since then the IMF has attempted to capture developing world governments and economies just as they are doing now in the US.  All we have to do is run and vote for labor and justice and reinstate Rule of Law to downsize these global corporations----EASY PEASY.


ARE YOU MAD AT CORPORATIONS AND WALL STREET?  UNDERSTAND WHY OTHERS WOULD WANT TO FLY A PLANE INTO WALL STREET?


Baltimore is home of Johns Hopkins which is NSA and drone extraordinaire so the first to build militarized policing would be Baltimore and NYC.  Bloomberg is tied to Hopkins so all policy is shared.  Baltimore has a population of around 650,000 people most of which are poor and working class and Hopkins through a development corporation has been forcing huge numbers of poor and working class out of city center just as with NYC with many more wanted to go.  This brings social unrest and with it all kinds of security build-up.  We just had another spy plane fly over testing for radiation (dirty bombs).  The other problem will be the really bad policy of making Baltimore a world-class Port for international shipping.  It will kill our bay and Port but that does not matter.  With international shipping comes cargo containers that may have dirty bombs.

For those living in Baltimore and Maryland we know there is a common denominator in drones, NSA surveillance, and Smart Meters of which I speak below.....JOHNS HOPKINS AND BROOKINGS INSTITUTION.  Hopkins owns VEOLA ENVIRONMENTAL that will be overseeing Smart Meters for waste and energy and profiting from recycling and tiered energy pricing.....not to mention all of that personal data heading to the super computer on the Hopkins campus.


Why is a Gigantic War-Blimp About to Fly Above the Skies of Suburban Baltimore?

Posted on January 23, 2014

One of the most disturbing and relentless trends over the past several years has been the redirection of war technology and equipment from the battlefield abroad toward domestic use in the USA. This has resulted in a militarization of police across the nation and has encouraged small towns to use Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants to purchase ridiculous items such as tanks.

Sadly, it appears this trend is only accelerating. With billions of dollars already spent, and failed wars abroad, the military-industrial complex needs to continue to generate cash flow. May as well just use it against the American people.

We find out from the Washington Post that:

They will look like two giant white blimps floating high above I-95 in Maryland, perhaps en route to a football game somewhere along the bustling Eastern Seaboard. But their mission will have nothing to do with sports and everything to do with war.

The aerostats — that is the term for lighter-than-air craft that are tethered to the ground — are to be set aloft on Army-owned land about 45 miles northeast of Washington, near Aberdeen Proving Ground, for a three-year test slated to start in October. From a vantage of 10,000 feet, they will cast a vast radar net from Raleigh, N.C., to Boston and out to Lake Erie, with the goal of detecting cruise missiles or enemy aircraft so they could be intercepted before reaching the capital.

Interesting, I didn’t realize we were at war. When was the last time cruise missiles were shot into the United States?

Aerostats deployed by the military at U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan typically carried powerful surveillance cameras as well, to track the movements of suspected insurgents and even U.S. soldiers.

Defense contractor Raytheon last year touted an exercise in which it outfitted the aerostats planned for deployment in suburban Baltimore with one of the company’s most powerful high-altitude surveillance systems, capable of spotting individual people and vehicles from a distance of many miles.


The Army said it has “no current plans” to mount such cameras or infrared sensors on the aerostats or to share information with federal, state or local law enforcement, but it declined to rule out either possibility. The radar system that is planned for the aerostats will be capable of monitoring the movement of trains, boats and cars, the Army said.

“No Current plans.” What a bunch of assholes. You know they can’t wait to attach an ARGUS surveillance system to these puppies.

“That’s the kind of massive persistent surveillance we’ve always been concerned about with drones,” said Jay Stanley, a privacy expert for the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s part of this trend we’ve seen since 9/11, which is the turning inward of all of these surveillance technologies.”

The Army played down such concerns in written responses to questions posed by The Washington Post, saying its goal is to test the ability of the aerostats to bolster the region’s missile-defense capability, especially against low-flying cruise missiles that can be hard for ground-based systems to detect in time to intercept them.

The Army determined it did not need to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment, required for some government programs, because it was not going to collect any personally identifiable information, officials said in their written responses to The Post.

Did the FISA court rubber stamp this assessment?

Technologies developed for battlefields — weapons, vehicles, communications systems — long have flowed homeward as overseas conflicts have ended. The battles that followed the Sept. 11 attacks have produced major advances in surveillance equipment whose manufacturers increasingly are looking to expand their use within the United States.

Aerostats — basically big balloons on strings — grew popular in Iraq and Afghanistan and also are used by Israel to monitor the Gaza Strip and by the United States to eye movement along southern border areas. Even a rifle shot through an aerostat will not bring it down, because the pressure of the helium inside nearly matches the pressure of the air outside, preventing rapid deflation.

So equipment used to control people in war zones are coming to America and there’s nothing to be concerned about?

The Defense Department spent nearly $7 billion on 15 different lighter-than-air systems between 2007 and 2012, with several suffering from technical problems, delays and unexpectedly high costs, the Government Accountability Office found in an October 2012 report.


“They are bringing this to the East Coast, close to Washington, to get the Pentagon guys and Congress to say, ‘Whoa, we could really use this,’ ” said Daniel Goure of the Lexington Institute, a military think tank with ties to the defense industry. “This is re-purposing. You’ve already spent the money.”

Have fun Baltimore.

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U of M College Park is no longer a public university----it is now a lean, mean corporate machine with all the course work it takes to keep US global corporations safe around the world.  All this is important for job creation you know!

Hitler took over a nation's industry and used it for his war of expansion, taking the public's wealth to do it.  He had the largest Secret Police and surveillance service making everyone fearful that someone else was a spy.  If you cannot see that happening with these NSA scandals and the expanded roll of policing and drone/surveillance technology in Maryland-----WAKE UP!!!!!

MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD OF TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND PUBLIC MONEY USED FOR EXPANSIONS OF GLOBAL CORPORATIONS AND BUILDING SECURITY/SURVEILLANCE APPARATUS!!!!  REALLY?????


University Of Md. Among Schools Developing Drone Concepts For Civilian Use

January 2, 2014 5:08 PM

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (WJZ) — Maryland airspace may not be involved, but the state’s brain power definitely is.

Alex DeMetrick reports the FAA will include research at the University of Maryland into the job of integrating drone aircraft into civilian airspace.

At the University of Maryland, they’re trying to do more than pilot drones by hand. Researchers are trying to figure out how insects navigate through the air without big brains or GPS.

Figure that out, and:

“We can leverage that to navigate and also possibly for sense and avoid technology in the national airspace,” said Dr. Darryll Pines, Dean, University of Maryland School of Engineering.

Right now, that airspace takes humans to fly in. But the FAA has selected Virginia and five other states to develop and test drone technology in unrestricted airspace–research the University of Maryland will also join in.

MEANWHILE-------


There is absolutely no way this technology will not be abused as they pretend they can simply allow these drones to fill the airways.  Do we really need drones to do the work of our Department of Natural Resources employees?  This is yet another step of taking the public out of all loops in knowing what is happening in the state and being accountable to the public. 

YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY ONCE YOU WALK OUT THE DOOR THEY TELL US-----OH REALLY????????  THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU.

Please check out this group and get involved!!!!


No Drones Maryland

Tuesday, April 2, 2013


April Days of Action Against Drones in MARYLAND Advanced Physics Laboratory, home of drones research at JHU. Maryland has been an important site of protest activity against drones, particularly protests against drones research at Johns Hopkins University.

Numerous Maryland events are planned as part of the nationwide April Days of Action Against Drones.

UPCOMING MARYLAND EVENTS

TOWSON - Friday, April 5, through Sunday, April 7, 2013 - The Politics of Drone Warfare and the University - Topics in this important 3-day conference will include:
  • "Distancing Acts: Imperial War from Counterinsurgency to Drones"
  • "The Politics of Drone Warfare and the University"
  • "Teaching the War on Terror"
Speakers will include:
  • Rashid Khalidi - Columbia University
  • Nick Turse - TomDispatch.com
  • Phyllis Bennis - Institute for Policy Studies
  • Ray McGovern - Ex-CIA White House briefer
  • Irene Gendizer - Boston University
  • Judith Le Blanc - Peace Action
  • David Swanson - War is a Crime.org
  • Jerry Lembcke - College of the Holy Cross
  • Vinay Lal - UCLA
  • Paul Joseph - Tufts University
  • Carolyn Eisenberg - Hofstra University
  • John Prados - National Security Archive
Friday Keynote Session: Friday evening, April 5, St. John's Methodist Church, 2640 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD. Keynote speakers: Col. Ann Wright, former Army officer and State Department diplomat; Alfred McCoy, University of Wisconsin.

All Saturday, April 6 and Sunday April 7 sessions will be held at the College of Liberal Arts Building, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, MD 21252

For additional details see: Historians Against the War

BALTIMORE - Friday, April 12, through Sunday, April 14, 2013 - Exhibit: Drone Warfare Exhibit and Luminous Light Intervention . . . Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - Exhibit: Workshop on the Legal, Political, and Ethical Implications of Militarized Drones . . . Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - Exhibit: "DRONECOMING" - Mobile drone warfare exhibition at Johns Hopkins University homecoming events.

(Add additional Illinois events to the master list of national April Days of Action actions.)


What about YOU? Become part of the No Drones movement!
Read about ALL the ways YOU can be involved  in the April Days of Action Against Drones!


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Do you think a government willing to allow massive fracking and exporting raw energy and global agriculture that drain and contaminate all of our fresh water is really concerned with energy conservation?  What a LOL thought!

This would have once been thought a conspiracy theory but we now see this article as mainstream as people across the country now believe that these Smart Meters are only meant to ration and restrict the public as needed.  I've spoken of the intent to end subsidy and tie product to what can be afforded.  As this article indicates, it goes further than that.  Wall Street and corporations will be allowed access to your energy consumption data for bill collection purposes----are you at home when not at work?  Will I hire someone who can only afford to keep energy running part of the day or will that make someone easily exploited?

This is not hyperbole.....it is in fact what a totalitarian society would do.  Control of every aspect of your life.

THIS IS WHY SNOWDEN OUTED THE NSA-------AS HE SAID -----YOU WILL NOT HAVE AN AVENUE OF PRIVACY AT ALL IF THIS IS LEFT UNCHECKED!


I included an article from the UK because it needs to be seen as a global effort.  There is no shortage of natural gas or electricity.....so the reasons are a ploy.



Smart meters could be 'spy in the home'

Smart meters could become a 'spy in the home' by allowing social workers and health authorities to monitor households, adding to concern at Britain's surveillance society. Smart meters will eliminate the need to take readings from traditional electricity and gas meters.

10:30AM BST 11 Oct 2009 UK Telegraph



The devices, which the government plans to install in every home by 2020, will also tell energy firms what sort of appliances are being used, allowing companies to target customers who do not reduce their energy consumption.

Privacy campaigners have expressed horror at the proposals, which come as two million homes have 'spy' devices fitted to their rubbish bins by councils who record how much residents are recycling.

The government wants every home in Britain to have smart meters, which give users information on how to save energy and send real-time data direct to utility companies, eliminating the need for customers to stay at home for meter readings or to receive estimated bills.

The devices also pave the way for a national 'smart grid', backed by David Cameron's Conservatives, which would use the data to manage national demand more efficiently and advise households when it is cheapest to switch on appliances.

In its impact assessment, however, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) says there "is theoretically scope... for using the smart metering communications infrastructure to enable a variety of other services, such as monitoring of vulnerable householders by health authorities or social services departments."

Related Articles
  • Households face higher bills for using home appliances at peak periods

It adds: "Information from smart meters could also make it possible for a supplier to determine when electricity or gas was being used in a property and, to a degree, the types of technology that were being used within the property. This could be used to target energy efficiency advice and offers of measures, social programmes etc to householders."

Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: "This is Orwellian. We're already under surveillance for what we put outside the home in bins and now we could be watched for what we're doing inside as well.

"Most of us are happy to reduce our energy consumption or reduce waste but these measures always seem to come at the expense of our privacy. If I want advice on energy efficiency I will ask for it."

Guy Herbert, general secretary of NO2ID, said: "Information from smart meters might be useful to energy providers and perhaps even their customers, but there's no reason for any public authority to have access to it – unless they've a warrant to do so.

"This document is a prime example of government efforts to shoehorn data sharing and feature creep into every new policy. For example, it suggests that NHS or social services could use the system to monitor 'vulnerable

householders', or that companies could use the system to spam customers with adverts for their services – having paid the government for the privilege, no doubt."

The DECC document adds households could even have their power to some appliances turned off remotely to help the national grid if there is too much demand. It says: "In terms of potentially intrusive non-physical behaviour unrelated to data, smart metering potentially offers scope for remote intervention such as dynamic demand management, which is designed to assist management of the network and thus security of supply. This could involve direct supplier or distribution company interface with equipment, such as refrigerators, within a property, overriding the control of the householder."

It also says potential extra uses for smart meters would need to be checked to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act.

The Information Commissioner's Office said it had already discussed the issue of smart meters with some suppliers, including Eon, Scottish Power and British Gas. A spokesman said the ICO would "continue to maintain a close dialogue to ensure that their introduction does not compromise customers' privacy".

He added: "Important issues include what information is stored on the meters themselves, in particular whether information identifying the householder will be held. In any event energy companies will clearly need to hold records linking meters with householders and all the information must be held in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act."

A spokeswoman for the DECC said: "The accurate, informative data that smart meters provide will be of great value to consumers. Rules and safeguards governing access to, and the use of, the data from smart meters will be reviewed as part of the Government's work in preparing for the start of the mass smart meter roll-out."

Consumer Focus, the watchdog, has also expressed concern about the privacy implications of the meters, saying consumers are "at risk of unfair, excessive, inequitable and inefficient charging" because energy companies could use the new data to introduce more complex tariffs to maximise profits at peak times.

The government has yet to decide who will pay for replacing Britain's 47 million meters, which could cost up to £8bn over the next 20 years. Its preferred option is for the cost to be met by energy firms, who stand to gain the most from meters as they remove the need to employ meter readers or calculate estimated bills.

More than two million households in Britain have microchips in their council bin. Sensors and weighing equipment fitted to the back of each rubbish lorry allow the council to collect data as each bin is raised. Information collected from outside each household is downloaded to a database that allows officials to monitor how much waste each household is producing for waste and for recycling. Officials then use the data to target errant streets and households in a bid to increase recycling rates from 43 per cent to 60 per cent.


I want to be clear, when we are made to use our energy a particular way.....forced to recycle because to is now a corporate profit factor......charged more to use energy at prime time......and having all our data sold to corporations for their marketing/research needs we have lost all of our freedoms.

Keep in mind that when there is a water shortage or an electrical shortage the government simply has local news tell people not to water lawns or wash cars or not to use air conditioners at peak hours AND THAT WORKS JUST FINE!  So, this is NOT about conservation.....it is about control and surveillance.

The complaint about detecting marijuana growers is mute......the problem is far greater than that.

Smart Meters: Surveillance Devices

Smart Meters Are Surveillance Devices That Monitor The Behavior In Your Home Every Single Minute Of Every Single Day  

Today's Date:  Friday, January 24th, 2014 Decrypted Matrix

Have you heard about the new “smart meters” that are being installed in homes all across America?  Under the guise of “reducing greenhouse gas emissions” and “reducing energy bills”, utility companies all over the United States are forcing tens of millions of American families to accept sophisticated surveillance devices in their homes.  Currently, approximately 9 percent of all electric meters in the U.S. have been converted over to smart meters.  It is being projected that by 2012, the number of smart meters in use will rise to 52 million, and the federal government is spending a lot of money to help get these installed everywhere.  Eventually the goal is to have these smart meters in all of our homes and if that ever happened there would essentially be no more privacy.  Once installed, a smart meter monitors your home every single minute of every single day and it transmits very sophisticated data about your personal behavior back to the utility company.



So can’t we just tell the utility companies that we don’t want these stupid things?

Unfortunately, in many areas of the country you can’t.  For example, one outraged resident of California contacted the utility company and was told that if he did not consent to taking a smart meter he would receive no service.

So unless you want to live “off the grid”, what are you going to do?  Can any of us really survive without electricity these days?

The sad truth is that these things are being forced upon us.

It is happening in Europe too.  The European Parliament has set a goal of having smart meters in the homes of 80 percent of all electricity consumers by the year 2020.

Sadly, as these smart meters have gone in there have been reports all over the country of electricity bills increasing dramatically.  There have been mountains of complaints about these things and yet their use keeps spreading.

But of course the biggest issue with smart meters is how they will strip us of our privacy.

The concern is that the incredibly detailed data that these surveillance devices collect will be given or sold to a vast array of third parties.

For example, smart meters are already being used by police to bust marijuana growers.

It is also feared that insurance companies, credit agencies, lawyers, marketing firms and even criminals will be able to get their hands on this data as well.

A recent article posted on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation summarized some of the concerns….

“Without strong protections, this information can and will be repurposed by interested parties. It’s not hard to imagine a divorce lawyer subpoenaing this information, an insurance company interpreting the data in a way that allows it to penalize customers, or criminals intercepting the information to plan a burglary. Marketing companies will also desperately want to access this data”

For law enforcement officials, these surveillance devices are a dream come true. According to the Columbus Dispatch, police in central Ohio have been filing at least 60 subpoenas every single month for the energy-use records of those that they suspect are growing pot in their homes.

Well, it turns out that sometimes police are raiding homes that are using a lot of energy and they don’t find any marijuana at all.  Instead, sometimes these raids reveal others kinds of activities….

Sometimes, high electricity use doesn’t lead investigators to drugs. A federal investigation in the Powell area turned into a surprise for detectives.

“We thought it was a major grow operation … but this guy had some kind of business involving computers,” Marotta said. “I don’t know how many computer servers we found in his home.”

So do you want police raiding your home if you start using a little bit too much electricity?

Jerry Day, an electronics and media expert from Burbank California, recently detailed many of the ways that smart meters act as surveillance devices when they are installed in our homes….

1. They individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy.

2. They monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security.

3. They transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.

4. Data about occupant’s daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data.

5. Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants.

6. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.

7. “Smart Meters” are, by definition, surveillance devices which violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored.

8. It is possible for example, with analysis of certain “Smart Meter” data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.

Jerry Day has also produced a terrific YouTube video in which he explains many of these points more fully.  If you live in an area where these insidious smart meters are going in, then please share this video with as many people living near you as you can….

The time to object to these smart meters is before they go in.  Once they are in all of our homes it is going to be too late.

This is all part of the radical green agenda that is being forced down the throats of people all over the world.

Everything that we do has to be watched, monitored and tightly controlled for the “good of the environment”.

To the control freaks running things, that also means that the liberties and freedoms that we cherish so much must be greatly restricted.

If you don’t know about “Agenda 21“, you should learn about it.  The UN has a plan for the future of this planet, and once you find out about this plan you probably are not going to like it very much.  The entire globe is rapidly becoming one big prison grid as the elite implement their vision of the future.

If you want to get a really good idea of what they are planning, just watch this video.

If the control freaks get their way, there will eventually be no more privacy for any of us.

Unless we speak out now, the surveillance devices are just going to become more and more sophisticated.  At some point, none of us is even going to be able to sneeze without someone knowing about it.

So what do all of you think about these smart meters?  Does anyone out there have a smart meter horror story?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….
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Those of us in Baltimore already know the debacle that is speed cameras and we know as well that it took constant media shaming and huge public outrage to stop what all knew were faulty tickets actually stealing money from citizens.  Between Smart Meters that are already showing skewed pricing for utilities and these ticketing schemes all of which record our movement by car.......the WAR BLIMP will follow us by train or bus!

Who are these people preparing all kinds of escape from whom our Homeland Security pretend to protect WE THE PEOPLE?  Probably the world's citizens coming to recover their tens of trillions of dollars stolen with massive corporate fraud!


Cordon multi-target photo-radar system leaves no car untagged

(video) BY Amar Toor October 31st, 2011 at 8:37AM ET

engadget


Go easy on the gas, Speed Racer, because Cordon is on its way. Developed by Simicon, this new speed sensor promises to take highway surveillance to new heights of precision. Unlike most photo radar systems, which track only one violator at a time, Simicon's device can simultaneously identify and follow up to 32 vehicles across four lanes. Whenever a car enters its range, the Cordon will automatically generate two images: one from wide-angle view and one closeup shot of the vehicle's license plate. It's also capable of instantly measuring a car's speed and mapping its position, and can easily be synced with other databases via WiFi, 3G or WiMAX. Plus, this device is compact and durable enough to be mounted upon a tripod or atop a road sign, making it even harder for drivers to spot. Fortunately, though, you still have time to change your dragster ways, as distributor Peak Gain Systems won't be bringing the Cordon to North America until the first quarter of 2012. Cruise past the break to see some footage of a field trial that's currently underway -- cars tagged with a green dot are traveling below the speed limit, those with a yellow marking are chugging along within an acceptable range above the limit, while vehicles with a red tab are just asking for trouble.

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January 21st, 2014

1/21/2014

0 Comments

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

TOTALITARIANISM LOOKS JUST LIKE THIS!!!!!


Regarding news outlets the American people no longer listen to:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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


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



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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


A School-Community Communication Model:

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


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


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


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


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


Living in the Third World of Communications

March 8, 2007 digg  TMCNet Bloggers

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

GO OLD SCHOOL WITH YOUR COMMUNICATION NETWORKS!!!!



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



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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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






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

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