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July 10th, 2014

7/10/2014

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IT IS WOMEN AND CHILDREN THAT MAKE UP THE BULK OF FAMILIES FACING THE DISMANTLING OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS AND SERVICES.  IT IS NEO-LIBERAL POLITICIANS WORKING WITH NEO-CONS DOING IT!

I want to continue one more day on private non-profits and commissions and health care in Maryland.  Remember, large sectors of Marylanders are not accessing health care----having a longevity 30 years less than affluent communities shows this.  Having the worse VA system in the nation shows this. The clinic care system built to keep Marylanders out of hospitals offer almost no access to basic medical procedures.

IT IS A DISASTER AND IT IS BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVING NO MORALITY OR ETHICS ARE CREATING THESE POLICIES ONLY AIMED AT MAKING A FEW EVER MORE RICH.

The average citizen working for these organizations are not bad people----they just want jobs.  Each time you create a private non-profit or commission for health care you have eliminated the public sector employees that would do that job.  You eliminate the public's ability to see what is happening and the accountability tasked to our government to serve and protect. 

DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLITICIANS SHOUTING THIS?  IF NOT, THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT AND NOT YOU AND I!


Yesterday we saw the commissions filled with the health executives writing the law and regulating themselves.  Let's look at the front lines where the health care is delivered----or, in Maryland, not delivered.  This is where the fraud and corruption fills the system.  Again, it is not the average staff doing this---they are being told to do this.  I spoke at length about the dismantling of the VA to private non-profits and showed they were receiving the money and doing nothing.  Medicaid and Medicare is handled just the same.  Remember, in Maryland Medicaid and Medicare is handled the same as private insurance so none of the requirements of coverage or accountability have occurred for a few decades.  Billions of dollars are lost as fewer Medicare patients enter the hospital but Medicare bills per patient climb.....THAT IS FRAUD CAUSING THOSE BILLS TO CLIMB.


Below you see the private non-profit that took over yet another duty of public health and it has been at it for 15 years---the very years that gave Baltimore the 30 year longevity difference.  If you look today health access has never been worse so we know this organization is not doing its job!  Remember, the people affected are not only black and brown or unemployed and impoverished or working poor.  Middle-class families with expenses that take money that would go for health care are included in these stats. 

DO NOT ALLOW PREJUDICE OF CLASS OR RACE SKEW YOUR THOUGHTS ON HEALTH ACCESS----THIS AFFECTS EVERYONE.


Our Organization Enroll In Benefits

HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM)

is a nonprofit agency that plays a critical role in strengthening Maryland’s health care delivery system. Working with both government and private-sector support, HCAM helps residents enroll in public health care coverage, navigate the complex health care system and connect to educational and other resources.

HCAM was established in 1997 as Baltimore HealthCare Access to initially assist with the Medicaid transition to managed care. What began as a small organization with 40 employees, a $3 million budget and two core grants has grown steadily.

  • Funding has grown to $23 million and the agency has earned more than 30 major grants, including a $7.9 million grant from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) as part of the State’s efforts to implement health care reform in Maryland and help uninsured residents gain access to affordable health care.
  • The number of programs offered has grown from the original two to 19, allowing HCAM’s 200 employees to help connect over 125,000 clients each year to health insurance and care and to vital community resources through a variety of programs serving the uninsured, under-insured and vulnerable populations of the state.
As a 501(C)3 not-for-profit organization, HCAM is overseen by a committed board of directors and supported by public and private sector grants, as well as corporate and individual donations. This unique funding allows us to provide a variety of specialized services for the residents of Maryland in four areas of expertise:

  • Eligibility and enrollment
  • Navigation of the health care system
  • Care coordination
  • Education and advocacy
HCAM’s expertise in these areas led the agency to broaden its reach and help provide services to people throughout the state. To signify this expanded focus, the organization changed its name in 2011 from Baltimore HealthCare Access to HealthCare Access Maryland.

The agency’s ability to help people live healthier lives has been recognized by others in our field. The agency is the proud recipient of Maryland Nonprofits’ Seal of Excellence, a designation that recognizes HCAM’s reputation for delivering high-quality programs and services in a fiscally responsible way.

Although HCAM specializes in health care access, we continue to serve the needs of our clients beyond just helping them obtain an insurance card. We serve children, pregnant women, parents, childless adults and youth in foster care, as well as those with addiction issues, immigrants, individuals recently released from jail and the homeless.

HCAM’s work to implement health care reform in Maryland

Throughout its 15-year history, HCAM has become a critical player in strengthening Maryland’s health care delivery system, earning a spot as a public health leader in the state and working with policymakers, nonprofit organizations and elected officials on innovative approaches to improving the health of all Marylanders.

In the Spring of 2013, HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM) received a $7.9 million grant from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) as part of the State’s consumer assistance program to implement the Affordable Care Act and help uninsured residents learn about, apply for and enroll in health insurance. HCAM was selected as the State’s Central Region Connector, serving Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.

As the Central Region Connector, HCAM will organize services across the region and has partnered with 17 organizations to provide outreach, education and eligibility determinations and to facilitate enrollment of the nearly 217,000 uninsured residents in the region into Medicaid, the Maryland Children’s Health Program (MCHP) and subsidized and non-subsidized qualified health plans.


__________________________________________

Baltimore is ground zero for Medicaid and Medicare spending and as we know the money is not getting to the people.  Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland Medical Center are handling many of these groups so that is where you start your search.  Since Johns Hopkins has captured all public policy and creates all the private non-profits that are then funded to work in these low-income communities----that is who is charged with overseeing this distribution only THERE IS NO OVERSIGHT!  THERE IS THE PROBLEM.  If we had a public health department filled with employees whose job it is dispensing money and providing oversight and reporting to the citizens of Baltimore----this would not be happening.

If you have followed me these few years you know I do not like Sharfstein and Barbot.  They were appointed to dismantle all public health and build more of these private non-profits and

THEY HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY!  NO WONDER SHARFSTEIN COULDN'T ROLL OUT THE STATE HEALTH EXCHANGE----HE'S TOO BUSY MAKING SURE MARYLAND HAS NO PUBLIC HEALTH.  Slander you say----no, all you have to do is look at who is doing the work of public health and you see nothing but private non-profits.  The people supposedly served all complaining they cannot access care.
  The money is flowing but not where its supposed to------

DID YOU KNOW THAT JOHNS HOPKINS BUILT A GLOBAL CORPORATE EMPIRE THESE FEW DECADES THAT MEDICARE AND MEDICAID FRAUD WAS THE WORSE-----just saying there's likely a link!


This should anger everyone as this looted Medicare Trust is now being addressed by limiting more access to most people....you and I!



Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Healthy Baltimore 2015 Last month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issued the second annual County Health Rankings. As it did last year, Baltimore City ranked last in the state. 

One statistic in particular stuck out: 14,887. That’s the number of years of potential life lost before the age of 75.  Put simply, far too many Baltimore City residents are dying before their time.
Statistics like these give great urgency to the work we do to improve the health of our city, our neighborhoods and our residents.  It also makes clear that traditional medical or public health approaches aren’t working and it’s time to try something different.
That conversation starts today with the release of Healthy Baltimore 2015.
This comprehensive health policy agenda highlights 10 priority areas that account for the greatest morbidity and mortality in Baltimore.  These areas were chosen because there are evidence-based interventions proven to make a difference.  The plan looks at the relevance of where we live, work and play on health outcomes, as oftentimes they play as significant a role in making us sick as they do in keeping us healthy.
The city has set ambitious, yet reachable, improvement goals for the following priority areas:
1. Promote access to quality health care for all. 
2. Be tobacco free. 
3. Redesign Communities to Prevent Obesity.
4. Promote Heart Health.
5. Stop the spread of HIV and other STIs. 
6. Recognize and Treat Mental Health Disorders. 
7. Reduce Drug Use and Alcohol Abuse.
8. Encourage early detection of cancer.
9. Promote Healthy Children and Adolescents.   
10. Create Health Promoting Neighborhoods. 


For more information on the specific indicators we will use to measure progress in these areas, please view the full Healthy Baltimore 2015 report.
As you can see, there is much work to be done. Healthy Baltimore 2015 makes clear that we all play a role in improving the health of our city.
Over the course of the next several weeks to months, we will work with partners throughout the city to flesh out a 3-pronged approach to moving the needle for each of the leading indicators, including policy development; prevention, quality, and access; and community engagement.  Later this spring, senior leaders within the department will visit communities around the city to share this plan and the updated neighborhood health profiles.  We hope communities will put this information to use in designing new strategies and interventions for tackling the top priorities they identify for creating health promoting environments.
Let me be clear: the health department alone cannot successfully execute Healthy Baltimore 2015.  We welcome all motivated neighborhood leaders, individual citizens, aca­demic institutions, community-based organizations, business owners and the media to join us in this effort as partners in health. 
Partners can contribute to the success of Healthy Baltimore 2015 in many ways. These varying levels of engagement include, but are not limited to:
  • Communication – displaying or distributing health information materials within each of the ten priority areas.
  • Facilitation – actively participating in interventions such as incorporating wellness at work programs into the business day.
  • Integration – actively considering the potential health impacts of pending business or policy decisions.
To become a partner, please email me at health.commissioner@baltimorecity.gov. Together, we can reshape the landscape to make Baltimore City a place where all residents realize their full health potential.  Posted by Oxiris Barbot, M.D. at 8:37 AM

_________________________________________

Using Maryland for the divide between wealthier counties and poor counties we need to be clear-----while the poorest were excluded from accessing health in Maryland these last decades it is now coming higher up the economic scale....The Affordable Care Act is designed to make preventative care the only care 80% of Americans can afford and percentage is rising soon to 90%.  We will see with these forced re-negotiations of corporate and public sector health benefits that the middle-class will now be the ones forced out of care because they cannot afford co-pays and deductibles or once they pay the health insurance premiums they have no money for the health care itself.  THAT IS THE GOAL....

IT'S LIKE AUTO INSURANCE....YOU PAY AND PAY FOR COVERAGE AND IF YOU USE IT, THEY HIKE YOUR RATES OR CANCEL YOUR POLICY.

That is what is coming.  Below you see the other factor that will keep most people out of basic medical care----the need for a primary care doctor to access specialists and their care.  Activists have tried for decades to have medical school training be made free.  Get rid of the medical grads high tuition debt and you get lots of people in doctoring less motivated to earn $500,000 or more.  THIS ONE POLICY HAS CREATED THIS SHORTAGE AND AGAIN---IT IS DONE DELIBERATELY.  If corporations and the rich are paying no taxes and receive all revenue that is collected as corporate subsidy----where does all that free money for medical schools come from?  No, say corporations its better to simply exclude most people from health care access to maximize corporate profits.

FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL PAID FOR BY SIMPLY RECOVERING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD AND STOPPING IT IN THE FUTURE FLOODS THE MARKET WITH PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS.


But then say health corporations we cannot pretend to need to bring third world doctors to the US that are used to high levels of fraud and corruption and not bothering with the Hippocratic Oath and HIPAA regulations and who have no rights as citizens so as to be exploited by these growing US  global health systems!

What is being said here is nothing new----we have been shouting it for decades----they simply are pretending they are working on this solution as they dismantle all the avenues to address this.

Primary care access a key to health disparities among counties ■ An annual ranking of counties based on health status found that gaps between the healthiest and unhealthiest regions of states are wide — and getting wider.

By Jennifer Lubell — Posted April 1, 2013 AMED NEWS.com

Washington If you're a resident of Howard County, Md., chances are fairly high that you have insurance, enjoy good health and have relatively easy access to a primary care physician. Take a short car ride to Baltimore, however, and the situation for residents is much more grim.

In Howard County, ranked as Maryland's healthiest in the most recent County Health Rankings and Roadmaps survey, only 9% of residents are uninsured, and just 8% are considered in poor health. There's one primary care physician for every 577 patients. In Baltimore City, the unhealthiest county in the state, the uninsured rate is nearly twice as high, and there's only one primary care doctor for every 985 patients — a combination that means a significant access-to-care problem.

The comparison underscores a key finding in the 2013 survey: Gaps between the healthiest and unhealthiest counties in individual states are large and continue to grow. The survey highlighted the fact that residents in the healthiest counties are 1.4 times more likely to have access to a primary care physician than those in the least healthy counties. Unhealthy areas also had higher rates when it came to a host of other negative indicators of overall health, including child poverty, teen pregnancy and premature death.

This is the fourth year that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health have surveyed the health of every county in the U.S., ranking them on a state-by-state basis to gauge the factors determining the health of residents. All survey measures use figures or percentages that take population into account so that a county such as Howard, with a population of less than 300,000, can be compared with Baltimore City's population of more than 600,000.

The rankings are set up so that every state has a healthiest and unhealthiest county despite the overall health of the state. But health outcomes can vary widely within a state, said Patrick Remington, MD, MPH, professor and associate dean at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, during a teleconference to discuss the 2013 rankings. Louisiana and Mississippi are two states that often rank last in the nation on overall health. But when researchers dig into each state, they find as much variability among individual counties in Louisiana and Mississippi as they do in Vermont, a state that ranks relatively high nationally on patient health outcomes, he said.

Competition drives improvement Dr. Remington said promoting the results of county rankings has made a difference, “sparking action all over the country as people from all sectors join forces to create new possibilities in health — county by county.”

One of those areas is New Orleans, which has been trying to rebuild its infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, New Orleans health commissioner and senior health policy adviser to the city's mayor. Orleans Parish typically has ranked in the 60-62 range in a state that has 64 counties, Dr. DeSalvo said. “So we've been at the bottom of the pack in one of the more unhealthy states in the country. What we're excited about this year is we've jumped up to number 48, so that's a big leap.”

In addition to overhauling its education system and making improvements to parks and playgrounds, the city has spent seven years on an initiative to develop its primary care infrastructure.

“We had essentially no neighborhood-based primary care before Katrina. People were reliant upon hospital-based services, especially those who were uninsured and underinsured,” Dr. DeSalvo said.

Since then, the city has responded by working with 25 organizations, ranging from small clinics to large hospital systems, to build access to primary care and outpatient mental care, with a particular focus on patient-centered medical homes and health information technology. The initiative has received financial support from philanthropic sources as well as some federal demonstration program funding to expand access to primary care rapidly. “This is a true public-private partnership,” she said.

Dr. DeSalvo said the renewed focus on building strong primary and preventive care at the neighborhood level probably has reduced unnecessary hospitalizations and led to improvements in screening rates for such conditions as diabetes and breast cancer.

Improving patient-reported measures and clinical outcomes is one of the strategic goals recently adopted by the American Medical Association. The AMA is focusing on promoting quality and safety, reducing unwarranted variation in care, and fostering appropriate use of limited health care resources.

Other factors leading to poor health The fact that fewer physicians and dentists practice in certain communities obviously contributes to poorer health in those areas, said Bridget B. Catlin, PhD. She's a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and director of the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps survey. But, as she and other health care observers pointed out, lack of access is just one of many problems that go hand in hand with poor health among residents. In addition to measuring clinical care outcomes, the survey analyzes health behaviors, social and economic statistics, morbidity, and such physical environment elements as air and water quality.

“Other key factors that influence the health of a community are education, employment, income, and whether people smoke or have access to healthy foods and places to exercise. Some of these factors probably also influence physicians' decisions about where to practice,” Catlin said. “In particular, there is a widespread need for health care providers in rural areas.”

At least in Maryland, the health gap between the highest- and lowest-ranking counties largely comes down to socioeconomic conditions, said Brian Avin, MD, a neurologist and the president of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. Howard County, a suburb of Washington, is one of the most affluent areas of the nation, “so whatever social factors you want to create, Howard is going to be the highest and Baltimore City is going to be the lowest,” he said. There's much more poverty and unemployment in Baltimore, as well as more people on Medicaid or going without insurance, generating more uncompensated care cases. “Obesity, smoking, any individual feature you're going to look at is going to be worse when you're not getting basic care.”

Howard County also has been trying to get all of its population insured, whereas no such strategic initiative exists in Baltimore City, Dr. Avin said.
___________________________________________


Baltimore has a policy of replacing school athletic courts and community center athletic courts with 'greening' development moving all of this to private non-profits like YMCA located too far for most to reach.  I literally had to fight for an athletic court for an elementary school of 300 students----Johns Hopkins Homewood wanted to make it a park. Parks and playgrounds across the city have been neglected as the city dismantled its Parks department and handed the funding to a private non-profit.  So school grounds have grass up to your knees, broken glass all because the city does not collect revenue from corporations and the rich and any that is collected go to projects connected to the same.   Baltimore City schools often have no recess and most schools have no athletic teams.  The tiered funding leaving these low-income schools run as businesses make it impossible to address these disparities so NOTHING is being done to actually address health issues ------they simply say they are doing so.

Private wellness non-profits are going into poor neighborhoods telling people to eat better and scolding when people explain that living in poverty places survival over preparing a good meal or even having a living space that allows it.  So, we are seeing these national private non-profits coming in to talk the talk of better health to communities now being kept from accessing any health care but preventative care.


There are some good programs-----Food stamps being used at Farmers Markets is a good thing.  If you are creating an environment of deeper and wider poverty as neo-liberals and neo-cons are doing today----none of this will end in data having better results and THEY KNOW THIS.

EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL SIMPLY ALLOWS EVERYONE TO GET ALL THE CARE THEY NEED AND THAT IS THE BEST PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE AND YOU PAY FOR IT BY ENDING HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD AND PROFITEERING.


Below you see the vestige of a city no caring for families and with that goes health.  Day care is where children receive healthy exposure and access is critical to a family working and having low-incomes.  So, if you do not provide a system of day care-----and you are closing and defunding parks and playgrounds-----YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT WELLNESS.
None of this information is new and Johns Hopkins is behind the redirecting of money and the lack of oversight and accountability and is the one charged now with the most responsibility in these Maryland health care reforms....THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IS NEEDED FOR REAL CHANGE.


Below you see middle-class families saying OMG!!!!!  and it is all centered on the corporations/ rich taking all the revenue through fraud and corruption in the City of Baltimore and this expands across the State of Maryland.

Day care shortage frustrates parents in Baltimore.  Costs can top tuition at University of Maryland, College Park

The Children's Choice Learning Center, housed in the… (Karen Jackson, BALTIMORE…)July 14, 2013|By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

In five months, the downtown Baltimore day care attended by Celine Plachez's youngest son is slated to close, yet she's not looking for a backup. She can't stomach it.

She searched before he was born, calling about a dozen places, some of which said they wouldn't have an opening in the foreseeable future. Others were so expensive, they cost more than tuition at the University of Maryland, College Park. And a handful were just plain unacceptable in terms of quality.

So she's devoting her energy to finding a way to keep open the Children's Choice Learning Center, housed in the Social Security Administration building on North Greene Street.

"Call me crazy — I refuse to look. I want to fight," said Plachez, a scientist who lives in Federal Hill. "We can make it happen. It's not impossible, it's not unrealistic."

Plachez's response to the center's planned closure highlights a frustrating reality: At a time when the city is trying to attract and retain families — and more women work than ever before — there's a lack of high-quality, affordable, regulated child care in Baltimore.

The shortage is particularly pronounced for children younger than 2, like Plachez's son, who require a higher, 3-1 ratio of children to staff under state law, making their care cost-prohibitive for many facilities.

For some who live or work in the city, the situation has significant consequences.

Rachel Winer Sticklin of Canton is postponing having a second child until the first is out of day care because her family can't afford to pay for two at once.

Judy O'Brien of Otterbein started looking for a spot two years before her newborn needs it, knowing she faced long waiting lists at many places.

And Jana Gauvey of Federal Hill brings her kids to Baltimore County, where she works in marketing, for their care.

"There weren't that many options close to our home," Gauvey said.

Others, particularly those with low incomes, are putting their kids in informal, unregulated city settings — often in the homes of neighbors operating babysitting businesses — in the hope that the financial savings won't equate to inadequate care.

Not enough spaces

Roughly 13,300 Baltimore children younger than 2 have mothers who work, and many of them need some kind of child care, from relatives, hired sitters or centers, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of state data. Licensed facilities can accommodate at most 20 percent of them.

The surrounding counties face a similar issue, though only Anne Arundel County's case is as severe. In Howard County, for example, licensed facilities can handle up to 35 percent of the children under 2 who might need care; in Baltimore County up to 27 percent can be accommodated.

The quality of care is also thought to be less variable in the counties. A greater percentage of children enter kindergarten fully prepared in the counties than in Baltimore.

"In most cities, there is always a shortage of infant and toddler care, mainly because it's expensive to do it right," and Baltimore is no exception, said David W. Andrews, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. "The ratios of adults to children [here] just don't make it a very profitable scenario unless you're able to charge upward of 17, 18, 19 thousand per kid."

There are also a "number of consequences associated with" doing it wrong, Andrews said.

Studies increasingly show that the early years are crucial to a person's development. Ninety percent of brain growth happens before age 5, and the first three years of life are particularly important. Young children and infants are primed for learning, educators said, and their environment has a lasting impact.

Studies show that while parents have a strong influence on young children, day care effects can linger. Children in the highest-quality programs — where kids feel comfortable, stimulated and cared for by a stable staff — do the best years later in terms of social and academic development, and even health and economic prospects. Those who receive poor care are more likely to wind up in the criminal justice system, act out or drop out of school.

Yet early childhood education in the United States receives the least public investment of any schooling, leaving parents to bear much of the financial burden.

The average cost of full-time infant care at a Baltimore center, as opposed to a home-based site, is about $11,560, according to data from the Maryland Family Network, a private nonprofit that advocates for children and families.

That figure, which factors in the highest- and lowest-quality care options, is 40 percent higher than the average cost of tuition and fees at a state university — $8,220 in 2012. And it's roughly 30 percent of the median household income in the city before taxes.

"It's a real struggle for most parents," said Steve Rohde, the network's deputy director of child care resource and referral services.

____________________________________________
This article shows the mechanism that creates all this disparity and dysfunction.  A Baltimore global corporation headquartered in the Enterprise Zones that allow corporations to pay no taxes starve Baltimore's coffers for a few decades causing all of the crumbling of infrastructure and closing of facilities geared towards keeping citizens healthy.  All money is directed to boosting profits for this global corporation that adds almost nothing to the economy of Baltimore. 

IT IS A HUGE SUCKING MACHINE AND CORPORATE SUBSIDY IS ITS BEST ACHIEVEMENT.

So, here we have our Baltimore media giving this global corporation recognition for 'donating' a playground so it can write the costs of donation from any taxes that might be left to pay again starving government coffers.  Rather than consistently paying taxes so general funds can be distributed equitably across the city-----we have corporation simply selecting where they want their tax deduction to go.


THIS IS JOHNS HOPKINS DRIVING THESE POLICIES AND HOPKINS IS NEO-CONSERVATIVE WORKING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATE WEALTH WITH POLITICIANS RUNNING AS DEMOCRATS CREATING ALL THESE POLICIES.

The point is this-----the structures in place that have the public sector dismantled and complete control of policy given to corporations will never end with health policy that does what they say it will do.  They will simply create private non-profits that for the most part pretend to be doing something.  Remember, more and more people are falling into this abyss so we need the middle-class to WAKE UP and care about where these policies lead.

The taxes this corporation should have paid for a decade or so would have built dozens of playgrounds across the city.

If city employees were being paid to build this playground they could afford to live more healthily!

press release

June 10, 2014, 7:13 p.m. EDT

Baltimore-Based Global Education Company Builds New Playground for Local School

BALTIMORE, June 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Laureate Education, Inc., the world's largest higher education network, today built and donated a playground at The Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School in Baltimore. Nearly 300 of Laureate's most senior executives from around the world came to Baltimore to build the playground. Laureate, formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems, relocated its global headquarters to Baltimore in 1996, the first company to do so in more than twenty years. Laureate was the first company in the Harbor East neighborhood, a key part of Baltimore's federally designated empowerment zone. In the 18 years since moving to Baltimore, the company has grown from employing 300 people at the headquarters to more than 2,700.

More than 100 local volunteers joined Laureate executives and students to build the playground, in partnership with KaBOOM!. The playground will be accessible to nearby residents.

"It's a great honor to give back to the community that has given me -- and Laureate Education -- so much," said Douglas L. Becker, Laureate's founder, chief executive officer, and a Baltimore native. "We are committed to doing work that is here for good in every community in which we operate."

"The Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School really is the center of this community and this new playground will help foster that sense of community that we cherish," said the school's principal, Dr. Harold A. Barber.

"Congratulations to Baltimore's own Doug Becker and Laureate Education on their 15th anniversary," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "I'm so grateful that this Baltimore-based global company continues to invest in the local community in ways that benefit the people of this great city. The students of the historic Samuel-Coleridge Taylor Elementary School and members of the neighboring community will truly enjoy the new playground more than you will ever know. Thank you."
















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July 08th, 2014

7/8/2014

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


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

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


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

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

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



The Citizens Most Vocal in Local Government

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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



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

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

About The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG)

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

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

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

ABAG is …

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

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

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


_________________________________________

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



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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

___________________________________________


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

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

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

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


Baltimore Education Coalition

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



0 Comments

April 28th, 2014

4/28/2014

0 Comments

 
ALL CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND EXCEPT CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR WILL MOVE THESE KINDS OF POLICIES FORWARD.  HAVE YOU HEARD THEM SHOUT AGAINST ALL OF THIS?


Neo-cons and neo-liberals are working hard to privatize the US military.  Clinton started it and now Obama and Hillary have this on steroids.  Last count it appears that over 70% of US military is private military contractors.  The Defense Department was given the green light by neo-liberals in Congress and Obama to recruit troops overseas who are not citizens but will work as a US military contractor employee in nations around the world.

Remember, a public military is sworn to protect WE THE PEOPLE AND OUR NATION.  A private military contractor employee simply works for that global corporation and falls under no US Rule of Law.  This means that these troops will not look at US citizens as those to be protected but will act in defense of corporations and their profits.

THIS IS WHAT TOTALITARIANISM LOOKS LIKE FOLKS!


An extension of this is the fact that these private military employees are now coming back to the US to work as police and special forces in states across America.   People living in Baltimore know that BAltimore police have gotten brutal in their approach to people they encounter.  People are dying from simple infractions and are jailed as 'resisting arrest' when people pull away from what we know are illegal acts by police.  Cities across the US have as a goal of privatizing police and fire departments as an extension of these military contracting corporations.  We already see in Charles Village ---Baltimore----Bank of America guarded by a global security force.

THIS IS WHAT TOTALITARIANISM LOOKS LIKE FOLKS!!!


Remember, the US has a Constitution that provides Equal Protection under law and that provides a Bill of Rights that protects our civil rights and liberties.  When a rogue government comes in and suspends Rule of Law they are acting illegally.  The Supreme Court is impeachable for rulings that seek to take away the rights of US citizens.  So, all of these policies and rulings CAN BE REVERSED. 

STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES----RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES.



Below is my blog on the privatization of military and police:



Regarding VoteVets.org as a political PAC for 21st Century Patriots:

Raise your hand if you understand that dismantling the entire public structure of the Veterans Administration and handing it to corporate private non-profits to make veterans beg for charity rather than receive the promised support being a member of the US military awards!!!!!! EVERYONE.

WE NOW HAVE TV COMMERCIALS ASKING AMERICANS TO DONATE TO VETERANS NON-PROFITS BECAUSE THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION IS BEING DISMANTLED.
At the same time we are hearing vets tell us they are getting no help from this private non-profit structure and the public VA has been gutted of staff.

Below you see how far neo-liberals have gone into third world politics. Today, the Maryland people had to listen to what should be public media------but is corporate and captured media-----go so far as to pretend that the group below actually works for veterans. This is an example of a private non-profit pretending to be progressive that is a great big neo-liberal private military contractor group. When you hear the words 21st Century Patriots you know you are listening to the private military complex and no doubt there are veterans of private military corporations. The US military is over 70% mercenary thanks to Bush, Obama, and Hillary. So, do corporate veterans care about the US military public troops? WELL, IT LOOKS NOT!

What this PAC represents is the killing of public sector unions or in this case public sector military and its benefits. Blackwater retirees would be the 21st Century Patriots for example.

Knowing this------it would be understandable that VOTEVETS would be backing Anthony Brown because O'Malley/Brown has been 100% behind privatization of the Veterans Administration in Maryland. See how it sounds different when you know what a private non-profit group is about? Indeed, this PAC is backing the most privatizing of Wall Street candidates because it is heavily invested in this private military complex. The absurdity of Maryland campaign of Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur is that they are all neo-liberals who will work to privatize the VA as well. So, Gansler bashing Brown is like Bush bashing Cheney.

PLEASE KNOW WHAT THESE CAMPAIGN PACs REPRESENT----THEY WILL ALL PRETEND TO BE PROGRESSIVE!

If a PAC supports the most Wall Street global corporation in the race for Governor of Maryland------it is a private mercenary patriot group.


O'MALLEY/BROWN HAS PLACED PRIVATIZATION OF VETERANS ADMINISTRATION ON STEROIDS IN MARYLAND SO WHY WOULD A VET GROUP SUPPORT BROWN?  GANSLER WOULD BE JUST AS BAD.

VOTEVETS DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM GANSLER FOR SLUR AGAINST VETERANS

By VoteVets.org | Press Release
PUBLISHED: April 21, 2014

Annapolis, MD – The largest progressive group of veterans in America, with over 400,000 supporters, VoteVets.org PAC, is demanding an apology from Attorney General Doug Gansler for saying that those troops who served in Iraq didn’t have “real jobs.”

At a forum this morning, Gansler said, “You know I’m running against somebody [Iraq War Veteran, Lt. Gov Anthony Brown] who has never managed anybody, never run anything, you know his ads are about how he was a lawyer in Iraq, and that’s all fine and good but this is a real job.”

In response, Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org said, “Doug Gansler needs to stop smearing those of us who served in Iraq as not having had a ‘real job.’ It’s a horrible insult to all those men and women who put their lives on the line, and especially those who died, in service to this country. Additionally, Mr. Gansler, if he chooses to attack an Iraq War Veteran, ought to at least admit that the person he is attacking has been serving as Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor. This kind of slime ball politics is what turns people off to our democratic process, so Mr. Gansler is doing no favors for Maryland or our democratic electoral system by playing in the gutter like this.”

VoteVets.org PAC endorsed Brown’s campaign.

Founded in 2006, the mission of VoteVets.org Political Action Committee is to elect Veterans to public office, with a focus on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and hold public officials accountable for their words and actions that impact America's 21st century troops and veterans. Though VoteVets.org PAC is non-partisan, candidates it backs must support VoteVets.org's core mission and beliefs.

____________________________________________
Maryland is ground zero for surveillance industries.  This is no doubt why our election process is captured because you need to be selective as to who would support this road to totalitarianism.

Johns Hopkins built their own surveillance corporations all from taxpayer money funneled to them by Mikulski, Cardin, and Cummings.  SAIC is one such corporation headquartered in VA and MD now building surveillance systems in cities across America.  Believe me-----this is not about keeping people in poor communities safe or keeping the middle-class safe from crimes of poverty.....it will be used as a tool against citizens living in a first world taken to a second world and now moving to a third world society.  THEY KNOW WE THE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE ANGRY.




Combatting the Surveillance Industrial Complex

August 9, 2004

THE PRIVATIZATION OF SURVEILLANCE
The U.S. security establishment is rapidly increasing its ability to monitor average Americans by hiring or compelling private-sector corporations to provide billions of customer records. The explosive growth in surveillance by government and business is creating a "Surveillance-Industrial Complex" (PDF) that threatens all of our privacy.
 

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ABOUT THE REPORT
This report makes the case that, across a broad variety of areas, the same dynamic of the "privatization of surveillance" is underway. Different dimensions of this trend are examined in depth in four separate sections of the report:


"Recruiting Individuals."
Documents how individuals are being recruited to serve as "eyes and ears" for the authorities even after Congress rejected the infamous TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) program that would have recruited workers like cable repairmen to spy on their customers.

"Recruiting Companies." Examines how companies are pressured to voluntarily provide consumer information to the government; the many ways security agencies can force companies to turn over sensitive information under federal laws such as the Patriot Act; how the government is forcing companies to participate in watchlist programs and in systems for the automatic scrutiny of individuals' financial transactions.

"Mass Data Use, Public and Private." Focuses on the government's use of private data on a mass scale, either through data mining programs like the MATRIX state information-sharing program, or the purchase of information from private-sector data aggregators.

"Pro-Surveillance Lobbying." Looks at the flip side of the issue: how some companies are pushing the government to adopt surveillance technologies and programs based on private-sector data.


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Keep in mind that Egypt has a state structure with the military as the most powerful branch of government and that there are large numbers of 'generals' in Egypt that are billionaires everyone knows are simply extensions of Wall Street.  It is this military structure that is being built in the US now and we must stop it.

Do not sit and allow police brutality to occur in your city or community because it is the canary in the cage.  Baltimore has over 20 citizens killed unjustly with no accountability in just a few years.  This is unheard of in a democracy.  Placing City Hall and police and fire departments with separate benefit plans and wages from other public sector employees is a sign of creating a tiered class surrounding corporate governance.  You see with the dictators toppled this decade it is always this small group of administrative class that fights for the dictator.

These are the things we need to watch for and stop in their tracks.  It is happening in small increments so do not allow it to expand!


A Capitalist System Gone Awry

The Military Industrial Complex has solidified its ties and deeply inserted his long horns into the arteries of the American taxpayers.

By Rev. Richard Skaff

December 10, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -  Creating wars to feed the blood-thirsty and greedy beast of the military industry complex has been a common practice in an allegedly democratic nation. Taxpayers’ have flipped this bill for decades under the guise of self-preservation and protection. As always government has used fear to fashion people’s consent and obedience. Meanwhile, corruption is prevalent, our national debt is skyrocketing, and our parasitic superpower is broke. Parasitic it is, because you can’t become super-rich or super-powerful unless you suck the blood and the life out of someone else. In this case, it is the taxpayers (the proles).

Under the guise of the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) phenomenon, the Military Industrial Complex has solidified its ties and deeply inserted his long horns into the arteries of the American taxpayers. Citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington (CREW) has recently issued a scathing and disturbing report exposing this unethical and frightening phenomenon where high-ranking generals and admirals earn their stars, their stripes, and then, they earn their the big cash.

The CREW report found that 70 percent (or 76) of the 108 three-and-four star generals and Admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took jobs with defense contractors or consultants. In at least a few cases, the retirees have continued to advise the Department of Defense while on the payroll of defense contractors, suggesting the Pentagon may not always be receiving unbiased counsel.

The retired generals and admirals moving into the private sector in general do not appear to be breaking any rules. Nonetheless, their heavily traveled path through the military-industrial complex continues to raise important questions about the intersection of national security and the interests of private companies that stand to make billions of dollars. [1].

A 2010 Boston Globe investigation revealed that the number of retired three-and-four star Generals and admirals moving into lucrative defense industry jobs rose from less than 50 percent between 1994 and 1998 to a stratospheric 80 percent between 2004 and 2008, findings that brought new scrutiny to this unethical revolving door. [2], [1]

CREW’s research shows the number of high-level retirees taking those jobs has since ticked down, though the vast majority of retiring generals and admirals continue to sign on with defense contractors vying for their services.

Every year, the Pentagon awards hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts to the
defense industry. [3], [1] Retired generals, with their strong relationships, robust contact lists, and insider knowledge, are valuable assets in the competition for contracts and can easily make more than their base pay – currently $164,221 per year for a three-star general and $179,700 for a four-star general – by serving on a single corporate board. [4], [1]

A recent study found that when a defense company announced the hiring of a former defense department political appointee, on average, the company’s stock price increased. [5], [1] The relationship was statistically weak but positive, suggesting investors believe such hires bring benefits. [5], [1]

In 2011 alone, the Department of Defense committed to spending nearly $100 billion
with the five largest defense contractors – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman. [3], [1] At least nine of the top-level generals and admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took positions with those five companies. In addition, 12 generals who retired during that period have gone on to work for Burdeshaw Associates, a “renta-general” consulting firm specializing in helping companies obtain defense contracts. [2], [1]

Burdeshaw’s clients have included Northrop Grumman. [2], [1]

Further, CREW found some retired generals and admirals work for defense contractors
while they continue to advise the Pentagon. Per example, both Gen. James Cartwright, who retired from the U. S. Marine Corps on September 1, 2011 after serving as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Gary Roughead, who retired from the Navy in 20119 after serving as the chief of naval operations, were appointed to the Defense Policy Board on October 4, 2011. [6]. [1] The board’s charter mandates that it provide the secretary of defense “with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning major matters of defense policy.” [7], [1]

Gen. Cartwright, shortly after his retirement, was elected to the Raytheon Co. board of
directors. [8], [1]

Raytheon, a public company that reports director compensation, disclosed paying
each of its non-employee directors an $85,000 annual cash retainer in 2011, as well as a $1,500 meeting fee for each board or committee meeting attended in person or by teleconference.[9], [1]

In addition, directors received $120,000 worth of restricted stock grants in 2011. [9], [1] Gen. Cartwright is also on the board of advisors of TASC, Inc., [10], [1] a former subsidiary of Northrop Grumman that advises military agencies, [11], [1] and a member of the U.S. federal advisory board of Accenture Federal Services.[12], [1].

Less than four months after his retirement, Adm. Roughead joined Northrop Grumman’s
board, for which he is paid $115,000 per year. [13], [1] Northrop Grumman, a public company that reports director compensation, will also pay him an additional $10,000 per year for serving on the board’s audit committee, and he receives an annual grant of $130,000 in deferred stock.[13], [1] Adm. Roughead also sits on the strategic advisory council of The SI Organization, [14], [1] a systems engineering and integration company previously owned by Lockheed Martin. [15], [1].

In some cases the revolving door spun quickly, with senior military officers retiring and
almost immediately taking industry jobs related to their military work. The examples are numerous (see CREW report for more details about our generals). In addition, the revolving door doesn’t stop at the generals’ doors but expands its horns to the lobbyists.

CREW’s research shows defense companies also covet lobbyists with backgrounds in appropriations and strong connections on the Hill. CREW analyzed the employment history of in-house lobbyists registered on behalf of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics as of the first quarter of 2012 and found at least 68 percent had prior public sector experience. Nearly half of the 84 lobbyists had worked for Congress. In addition, 21 percent, or 18 lobbyists had worked for a federal agency. Of those lobbyists with experience on the Hill, roughly a third – 14 lobbyists – had worked for either the House or Senate Appropriations Committees, the powerful panels responsible for directing billions of dollars in government spending. There were also other connections to the appropriations committees: of the 16 lobbyists who worked directly for members of Congress, seven had worked for members of the appropriations committees. [1]

The five companies spend millions of dollars on federal lobbying every year, and receive
billions of dollars in federal contracts. Lobbying records show their collective spending on lobbying increased by nearly 40 percent between 2007 and 2011, skyrocketing from $44.6 million to $62.3 million. Over the same period, the total amount of dollars committed to them in federal contracts increased by roughly 13 percent, growing from $100.61 billion in fiscal year 2007 to $113.28 billion in fiscal year 2011.[48]

The five companies spent roughly $33 million lobbying during the first half of this year,
indicating a likely overall increase for 2012 as well. As defense contractors step up the fight against planned budget cuts, well-connected lobbyists and senior military personnel are likely to become even more valuable. [1]

Boeing

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 25

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 21

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $86.93 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $7.58 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle:

  • Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

  • Total dollars obligated to Boeing for Defense Department contracts in 2011: $20.49 billion. [1]

General Dynamics

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter of 2012: 10

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 2

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $53.08 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $4.79 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Rep.

  • Buck McKeon (R-CA), Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)

  • Total dollars obligated to General Dynamics for Defense Department contracts in 2011:

  • $17.98 billion. [1]

Lockheed Martin

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 26

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 18

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $74.23 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $ 8.03 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Rep.

  • Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL)

  • Total dollars obligated to Lockheed Martin for Defense Department contracts in 2011:

  • $35.76 billion. [1]

Northrop Grumman

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 10

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 7

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $83.85 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $6.19 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Rep.

  • Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD)

  • Total dollars obligated to Northrop Grumman for Defense Department contracts in 2011:

  • $11.88 billion. [1]

Raytheon

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 13

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 9

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $36.84 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $5.85 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Sen.

  • Scott Brown (R-MA), Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)

  • Total dollars obligated to Raytheon for Defense Department contracts in 2011: $13.57

  • Billion. [1]

Conclusion
Finally, The CREW report titled “Strategic maneuvers, the Revolving Door from the Pentagon to the Private Sector” is a stunning report of immense importance because it clearly exposes a capitalist system that has gone awry. The Defense Industry as well as other global corporations have co-opted and owned everyone in the Federal government under the guise of Public-Private Partnership. All of the watchdogs have been transformed into lap-dogs and sacrificed their integrity and country for few dollars and for ephemeral power. Meanwhile, the public continues its unconscious path by empowering the ten horned beast that has devoured everyone in its path.

The final solution would be to kill this beast by ceasing the cash nexus that perpetuates its strength, and to dethrone the harlot (our public leaders and elected officials) who is riding him and driving the American people and the nation into the abyss.


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Monday, May 25, 2009

Privatizing the Police: A Developing Model in the U.S.A.

By Jody Ray Bennett

Three months after 9/11, The New York Times ran a quiet story that highlighted a developing trend concerning a sudden increase in the number of police officers retiring from their jobs for careers with private security companies (PSCs). “The heightened hunger for private protection in the aftermath of history's worst terrorist attacks is fueling the potentially destabilizing exodus,” the story claimed.

The daily suspected that police officers were being lured by the lucrative salaries and benefits offered by the private sector, finding that within the New York Police Department, a “supervisor who plays matchmaker between retired officers and security firms [was] asked to provide hundreds of names to industry executives.”

Indeed, the article identified what at the time was thought of as a marginal development, but is now almost commonplace:

“In the Sept. 11 disaster that never seems to stop exacting its toll, one of the subtler but more serious losses is a consequence of the booming private security industry, which is draining the [NYPD] of some of its most desirable workers: the serious, smart and experienced senior officers the city needs most in a crisis.”

Fast forward nine years later and one finds a young industry built almost entirely on the backs of former military and police personnel who have provided everything from diplomatic, convoy, embassy, weapon storage and energy infrastructural security to gathering intelligence, conducting interrogations, patrolling borders on land, fighting pirates at sea and transporting goods and personnel by air. It would seem there is nothing these forces cannot do.

On private patrol

Policing some of the most dangerous US cities has quickly become the newest line of business for many of these companies, which have already replaced police officers in cities from Portland to Baltimore.

The phenomenon runs deeper than the normal shopping center or bank security guard. While in many cases private security personnel act more as city cleanup, organization or local ambassadors, some cities are pushing for armed private security personnel to patrol the streets, perform arrests and transport civilians. This is somewhat of a cause for concern, especially because of the more controversial issues surrounding the role of private military and security companies abroad in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cities are turning to the private sector for a variety of reasons. Some local and state governments are under pressure from budget deficits and are often convinced that privatized industries are more cost-effective than state agencies and bureaucracies. Other cities have an already overstretched force that cannot respond to increases in crime, so private contractors are seen as a quick fix and an easy force multiplier.
 
From Oakland to New Orleans

Oakland, California is the latest city looking to hire private companies to patrol some of its rougher neighborhoods in the wake of record municipal budget deficits. Last April, according to the Wall Street Journal, the city successfully voted to outsource part of its police patrol to International Services Inc, but later retracted after “two of its vice presidents were accused […] by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office of defrauding the state of California out of more thanUS$9 million in workers compensation.”

According to the daily Portland Mercury newspaper, Portland, Oregon’s downtown area is patrolled by armed personnel with arrest powers that are supplied by Portland Patrol, Inc, a company which, according to local media, has repeatedly evaded requests to appear before the city’s oversight committee.

Over 2,000 miles away, Chicago has turned to a company that currently operates in police-like automobiles marked “special patrol,” according to CBS News, and are expected to have their powers expanded as the city combats increased crime rates with an overstretched police force.

Down south in New Orleans, Louisiana, armed private guards patrol wealthy neighborhoods and private schools. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, “Some areas of New Orleans have used armed private patrols since 1997, when residents in an east New Orleans community petitioned Louisiana's legislature to create a tax on property owners to pay for a private force. About 20 residential tax districts have been established, employing an estimated 100 private guards. This month, seven more neighborhoods voted to create such districts.”

During the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was patrolled by approximately 150 heavily armed Blackwater personnel alongside several other big contractor companies like Dyncorp, Wackenhut and most interestingly, ISI, an Israeli company that flew in former Israeli Special Forces commandos.

Most notably of all of these companies is Capital Special Police, which not only supplies guards and corporate escorts, but also offers “real police officers [that] arrest for felonies and misdemeanors; issue citations for infractions; and enforce local ordinances.”

In January 2007, the Washington Post reported that the company was “one of dozens of private security companies given police powers by the state of North Carolina.”

“The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States,” the daily wrote.


A 2000 report from American University in Washington, DC, concluded that “The great contemporary challenge confronting public safety in the United States is not primarily about whether privatization and civilianization are good things. It is about how best to serve the public’s need for protection against crime generally and, in particular, how to shape and coordinate our resources and energies to secure the safety of those quarters of society that are least able to afford effective security, public or private.”

Beginning of the boom

To this end, American cities might soon find a large surplus of job-seeking private security personnel when and if President Barack Obama pulls troops and contractors out of Iraq. Indeed, several US cities have already created public-private police associations in an attempt to bridge cooperation between the two forces. Suffice to say, the private policing boom is only just beginning.

The phenomenon transcends the public-private goods debate and indicates a new shift in how security is allocated by the state. Where the monopoly of force once consisted of exclusively state-owned functions, these have now been outsourced, in part or whole, to private entities.

In a post-Cold War age that heralds neoliberalism as a part of an “End of History,” privatization of police and military force should not come as a terribly big surprise. On the other hand, the transfer of security to private power (or the penetration of private power into a state’s monopoly of force) should hold serious implications over how the provision of security is conceptualized, as well as for the forces that create state power.

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Jody Ray Bennett is a freelance writer and academic researcher.  His areas of analysis include the private military and security industries, the materialization of non-state forces, and the transformation of modern warfare.

This article was originally published at ISN Security Watch (05/18/09).  The International Relations and Security Network (ISN) is a free public service that provides a wide range of high-quality and comprehensive products and resources to encourage the exchange of information among international relations and security professionals worldwide.





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This is the best assessment of the state of affairs regarding the world banking cartel and the capture of world governments.  It also shows the intent of private military buildup in the Western nations and it is indeed what is happening as local governments 'reform' police departments.  You can see once public union leaders being selected to move this privatization forward and the pay structures have the heads of public agencies paid as corporate executives-----because that is what they are intended to be.

The time is now to stop and reverse this process.  IT IS NOT A DONE DEAL WE SIMPLY HAVE TO ENGAGE AS CITIZENS IN POLITICS AND TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT.  IF YOU ARE SILENT AND APATHETIC YOU WILL BE LIVING IN A THIRD WORLD IN A FEW DECADES.



The Road to World War III – The Global Banking Cartel Has One Card Left to Play
September 23rd, 2010 |

Editor’s Note: The following is Part I to David DeGraw’s new book, “The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III.” This is the second installment to a new seven-part series that we will be posting throughout the next few weeks. You can read the introduction to the book here. To be notified via email of new postings from this series, subscribe here.


Part One I: Economic Imperial Operations
II: Violence on the Horizon
III: The IMF Riot, Step 3.5
IV: Bang the Drums of War
V: The Chinese Scapegoat: Trade &
—-Currency Wars

VI: Moves Upon the Grand Chessboard
VII: Resource Wars
VIII: Private Military Complex
IX: History Repeats Itself




I: Economic Imperial Operations

When we analyze our current crisis, focusing on the past few years of economic activity blinds us to the history and context that are vital to understanding the root cause. What we have been experiencing is not the result of an unforeseen economic crash that appeared out of the blue with the collapse of the housing market. It was certainly not brought on by people who bought homes they couldn’t afford. To frame this crisis around a debate on economic theory misses the point entirely. To even blame it on greedy bankers, while essentially accurate, also misses the most vital point.

This crisis is the direct result of a strategic economic attack on the existence of a middle class and democracy worldwide. The stock market and economy have become weapons of mass oppression manipulated by an imperial banking cartel to impose order and exploit the masses. This crisis boldly represents the manifest evolution of the fascist spirit reasserting itself as the dominant ideology.

Any fairytale notions of the United States being a democratic republic built on the rule of law have been utterly dispelled. As a nation we have been bred and conditioned to be dangerously naïve to the darker forces which operate beyond the spotlight of the mainstream media. We have been blinded to what has been developing throughout the world.

The economic imperialism that has now blown-back to the United States and Europe has been evolving for decades and can be directly traced back to the end of World War II, to the birth of the CIA, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

For those of us who have been paying attention to economic imperial operations that have been carried out against countries throughout the world, this looks all too familiar. The IMF and global bankers have conquered the second and third world, and they have now moved on to countries within the first world. Western European and American working classes are in the cross-hairs now.

Economic and societal indicators, along with recent G-20 policy decisions, clearly demonstrate that they are carrying out and escalating systemic economic attacks throughout Europe and the US.

To put it in technical terms, the United States government has been taken over by a financial terrorism network. They have bought off leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties, and have established a dominant role in all three branches of government and throughout the mainstream media. They have complete control of the economy, stock market, US Treasury, Federal Reserve, World Bank, IMF and global banking system. Free market capitalism has collapsed; it’s now a rigged global market. This is an organized criminal operation, an imperial fascist movement that is determined to destroy our very way of life.

A war has already been launched against us.

In just the past three years we have lost an unprecedented amount of national wealth, trillions upon trillions of our tax dollars have been looted by Wall Street, endless wars, enormous subsidies for the most profitable global corporations and tax cuts for the richest one percent of the population. Never before, in the history of civilization, has a nation been so thoroughly and systematically fleeced.

This is all the result of a coordinated economic attack by a global banking cartel against 99 percent of the US population.

Until we can become politically intelligent enough to see this as the reality and root cause of our current crisis, we will not be able to overcome it, our living standards will continue to decline and we will all be sentenced to a slow death in a neo-feudal system built on debt slavery.

The average American is horribly naïve to just how depraved, corrupt and addicted to power this banking cartel is. Through their control and domination of the mass media, they have kept their crimes against humanity out of public consciousness. We have been shielded from the global devastation and death toll that they have already wrought. The result is an unsuspecting population of confused and passive people having their future ripped out from under them, right before their eyes, without any organized defense or resistance.

II: Violence on the Horizon

As the entrenched global banking cartel continues to control domestic political policy, the next phase of this crisis will inevitably feature an escalation into mass violence. As the Army War College stated, the Pentagon is preparing for “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” and “widespread civil violence” due to “purposeful domestic resistance.”

In clear signs of what is to come, rioting and violence as a result of economic turmoil has already been experienced in many countries throughout the world. However, civil unrest has not yet occurred within the United States. There are many theories as to why there has been so little resistance from the US population thus far, and several factors play into it. The most significant factor is that social safety net programs have been vital in preventing people from resorting to extreme measures. Currently, a stunning number of Americans, 52 million, are receiving life-sustaining assistance from government “anti-poverty” programs, such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and Medicare. This has already stretched a social safety net system that is designed to handle significantly less people to its limit. This safety net system has now been drained of all reserve resources over the past two years, and is obviously not sustainable under current economic and political conditions.

As social safety net programs have been drained of reserves, many US citizens have also been burning through their personal savings. Over the past few years the percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck has dramatically increased. In 2007, 43 percent of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck. In 2008, the percentage increased to 49 percent. In 2009, the number skyrocketed up to 61 percent. The most recent number for 2010 has exploded to a shocking 77 percent. This means in our nation of 310 million citizens, 239 million Americans are one setback away from economic ruin and millions more are in danger of having to rely on government assistance for survival.

So as this prolonged economic crisis continues, these safety nets, that are already overwhelmed, will have to support more and more people and will inevitably break down. As we have just begun to see, budget cuts to vital social programs on the state and federal levels will become increasingly severe right at the point when many more Americans will need them. As the 52 million Americans currently surviving in “anti-poverty” programs are gradually cutoff from life-sustaining government assistance – and as the 239 million people now living paycheck to paycheck, buried in debt, stressing out and working their asses off just to make ends meet realize that things are not going to be getting any better — and are only going to get worse — social unrest and outbursts of violence will eventually start to bubble up to the surface and the ruling elite will no longer be able to maintain power by simply deceiving the masses via mainstream media propaganda.

When an overwhelming majority of the population directly feels negative effects upon their own living standards, the propaganda system collapses. The illusion comes crashing down and people will finally start to get wise to the horrific scam that is being played on them. When they wake from their media-induced American dream state and realize that they are now living in a nightmare, as crazy as it may sound, people will actually stop voting against their own interests. The apathetic majority, that doesn’t vote, will become active in the interests of self-preservation as their survival instincts kick in.

The handwriting is on the wall and the ruling class has to realize that by the time 2012 rolls around, their puppet politicians will be voted out of office, or their heads will roll, quite literally.

Looking at this from a purely technocratic sociological viewpoint, avoiding mass riots and violence while this many desperate people lose life-sustaining programs appears to be an impossible task, and given our current economic and political environment this seems inevitable.

In an article titled “A Planet at the Brink: Will Economic Brushfires Prove Too Virulent to Contain?” Michael T. Klare explained:

“As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landlords, immigrants, and ethnic minorities. (The list could, in the future, prove long and unnerving.) If the present economic disaster turns into what President Obama has referred to as a ‘lost decade,’ the result could be a global landscape filled with economically-fueled upheavals.”

Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski expressed his fears:

“I was worrying about it because we’re going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there is public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America….

And you sort of say to yourself: what’s going to happen in this society when these people are without jobs, when their families hurt, when they lose their homes, and so forth?”

Outbreaks of civil unrest are something that the US government and Pentagon have been expecting, and preparing for. Former US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee stating that the greatest threat facing the US is not terrorism, it’s the current economic crisis:

“The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications. The crisis has been ongoing…. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism.”

Intelligence Committee Vice-Chair Christopher Bond said the economic crisis is now “the primary focus of the intelligence community.” As the Army War College has warned, the response to this coming phase of the economic crisis “might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.”

Journalist Chris Hedges summed up this report:

“The specter of social unrest was raised at the US Army War College in November in a monograph titled ‘Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development.’ …

The ‘widespread civil violence,’ the document said, ‘would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.’

‘An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,’ it went on….

In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of Defense. They are considering it. So should you.”

III: The IMF Riot, Step 3.5

The International Monetary Fund is predicting a “social explosion” due to this crisis. The IMF and World Bank have a long history of creating social upheaval. Leaked documents from within the World Bank refer to the next phase of the crisis as the “IMF riot.”

Journalist Greg Palast obtained classified planning documents, which shed light on the covert economic imperial operations, Structural Adjustment Programs, that the IMF, World Bank and US Treasury have used in the past as a playbook for destabilizing and conquering foreign nations. In the UK newspaper The Observer, Palast interviewed Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was a former World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, turned whistleblower. They revealed the four-step IMF plan. Though the strategy is slightly modified based on the nation being attacked, here in the United States we are currently about to enter a variation of step-three, which is currently being phased in throughout Europe. This step inevitably leads to a significant portion of the population losing the ability to obtain basic necessities essential for survival. Once this happens, riots inevitably occur, or as they put it: step 3.5 is executed.

Here is how Palast and Stiglitz summed it up:

“At this point, according to Stiglitz, the IMF drags the gasping nation to Step Three: market-based pricing – a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and… gas.

This leads, predictably, to Step-Three-and-a-Half: what Stiglitz calls ‘the IMF riot’.

The IMF riot is painfully predictable. When a nation is, ‘down and out, [the IMF] squeezes the last drop of blood out of them. They turn up the heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,’…

What Stiglitz did not know is that Newsnight obtained several documents from inside the World Bank. In one, last year’s Interim Country Assistance Strategy for Ecuador, the Bank several times suggests – with cold accuracy – that the plans could be expected to spark ‘social unrest’.”

To sum up, the interlocked IMF and World Bank set the conditions for ‘social unrest’ and then once it occurs they move to step-four, which is the ultimate in disaster capitalism – they profit off the misery and the civilian population is then buried in a neo-feudal system of severe debt and poverty.

So what is the IMF saying right now about our situation in Europe and the US? A recent Telegraph report reads:

“IMF fears ‘social explosion’ from world jobs crisis

America and Europe face the worst jobs crisis since the 1930s and risk ‘an explosion of social unrest’ unless they tread carefully, the International Monetary Fund has warned….

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist, said the percentage of workers laid off for long stints has been rising with each downturn for decades but the figures have surged this time. ‘Long-term unemployment is alarmingly high: in the US, half the unemployed have been out of work for over six months, something we have not seen since the Great Depression,” he said….

The IMF said there may be a link between rising inequality within Western economies and deflating demand. Historians say the last time that the wealth gap reached such skewed extremes was in 1928-1929…”

To show you how insidious the IMF is, they have recently launched a propaganda campaign to publicly decry deficit budget cuts and austerity measures. However, behind the scenes they have been forcing implementation of them and making their usual demands for cuts in vital social services and public spending, once those cuts are in place, the riots obviously follow.

A recent Washington Post report states:

“IMF issues broad call for US financial prudence
Cut Social Security. Ditch the deduction for interest on home mortgages. Tax gasoline.
The United States recently opened itself to the most intense scrutiny yet by the International Monetary Fund, and on Thursday was offered a bitter pill when the agency criticized some well-defended aspects of American culture — cheap fuel, subsidized housing, and a government retirement check…. “

Economist Dean Baker writes:

“The central bankers and their accomplices at the IMF are dictating policies to democratically elected governments. Their agenda seems to be the same everywhere, cut back retirement benefits, reduce public support for health care, weaken unions and make ordinary workers take pay cuts.”

In another report Baker adds:

“The IMF program calls for cutbacks in government support for healthcare, pensions, and a wide range of other public services. It also calls for weakening labor market regulations that provide workers with job security.

These recommendations are being given in a context where the world economy is suffering from a massive shortfall of demand. In other words, tens of millions of people are unemployed right now because there is not enough spending to keep them employed. The IMF’s program is almost certain to reduce spending further leading to even larger shortfalls in demand and more unemployment….

The IMF’s track record gives us reason not only to question the institution’s competence but also its motivations…. It is possible to see a similar pattern in the IMF’s latest set of policy recommendations to deal with the economic crisis.”

In an article entitled, “The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security,” Baker continues:

“Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction. This one is more than a bit outrageous for two reasons…

While the IMF has no problem warning about retired workers getting too much in Social Security benefits, it apparently could not find its voice when the issue was the junk securities from Goldman Sachs or Citigroup that helped to fuel the housing bubble.

The collapse of this bubble has not only sank the world economy, it also destroyed most of the savings of the near retirees for whom the IMF wants to cut Social Security. The vast majority of middle-income retirees have most of their wealth in their home equity. This home equity largely disappeared when the bubble burst.”

So the IMF and global banking cartel are setting the conditions for social unrest and pushing for policies that will provoke it, and the Pentagon is preparing for a military response. As scary and unbelievable as all this may sound, we are on a fast track to this scenario.

To Sum Up

The American and global economy have already been looted and destroyed beyond repair. Most serious economists will admit that governments have already exhausted their capital by bailing out the banks and taking on unprecedented amounts of debt. The bailouts and recent return to high profits were just the final phase of the looting and a further consolidation of wealth on an unprecedented scale. There are still tens of trillions of dollars in debt hidden off-the-books and hundreds of trillions of dollars in dark pools of derivative liability. As the downturn continues, there is nothing left to revive the economy, the reserves and safety nets have already been stretched to their limits.

We have a political and economic system that has been overrun by organized corruption and theft. Along with a mass media system that does not inform the populace and has effectively marginalized and isolated the majority of the population. Meanwhile, bubbling just under the surface is a very heavily armed population with a militia movement that has doubled in size over the past year, and their memberships continue to rapidly grow. Without the necessary general political intelligence or infrastructure to organize an effective mass non-violent movement, we are steamrolling toward spontaneous riots and outbursts of armed insurrection.

In other words, as this economic downturn continues, what is now a passive and confused population will eventually devolve into an explosion of violence. Without a coherent non-violent movement to provide a viable alternative, without an outlet for severe and legitimate grievances that provides any chance for urgently affecting necessary political change, people will resort to violence as a last desperate act of vengeance and frustration. As time passes, these forgotten and isolated people, tens of millions of them, are quickly running out of options, and they will act out just as exploited people throughout the world always have.

A man who sparked a revolution against the same banking cartel that has caused our crisis described the general attitude among a population that successfully rebelled through armed insurrection:

“The people are weary of being oppressed, persecuted, exploited to the maximum. They are weary of the wretched selling of their labor-power day after day — faced with the fear of joining the enormous mass of unemployed — so that the greatest profit can be wrung from each human body, profit later squandered in the orgies of the masters of capital….

The feeling of revolt will grow stronger every day among the peoples subjected to various degrees of exploitation, and they will take up arms to gain by force the rights which reason alone has not won them.”

Whatever your preconceptions of the man who said this may be, the voice of Che Guevara can now be clearly understood and related to by the overwhelming majority of people throughout the United States.

Already, despite intensive propaganda, a stunning 80 percent of the US population believes that the government has failed them. The health care and financial reform bills have proven that our politicians are much more concerned about the short-sighted necessity to please the Economic Elite and raise campaign funds, than they are to understand the consequences of millions of Americans being forced into situations where their very survival is threatened. In a system where most elected officials are millionaires, this lack of perspective and understanding is ultimately what will lead to violence. Whether it is by arrogance or ignorance, perhaps both, it appears that our ruling class has suicidal tendencies. Unless they quickly recognize the growing threat posed by the dispossessed masses, our puppet politicians will themselves be in harm’s way.

To show you how incredibly out of touch our current elected officials are, and to give you a clear indication of the prevailing attitude on Capitol Hill, a recent report from the Washington Post summed up their response to the recent news that a record number of Americans are now living in poverty:

“The reluctance of political leaders on both sides of the aisle to directly confront the fact that growing numbers of Americans are slipping into poverty reflects a stubborn reality about the poor: They are not much of a political constituency.

‘We talk to many people on Capitol Hill who do believe poverty is important and is a blight on our nation, but we are also up against a general recognition that poor people don’t vote in great numbers. And they certainly aren’t going to be making campaign contributions. That definitely puts them behind many other people and interests when decisions are being made around here.’”

And that sums up our current crisis, doesn’t it? The “poor people don’t vote” and they don’t make “campaign contributions.”

As the Rage Against the Machine song goes, “The riot be the rhyme of the unheard.”

IV: Bang the Drums of War

How will this imperial fascist banking cartel respond to revolt? How will they maintain their power over an increasingly radicalized and hostile US population?

In an attempt to stave off organized rebellion, they are already escalating their propaganda efforts in attempts to divide and distract the population. The tactics of their divide and conquer strategy are already on full display. Their mainstream media outlets have drastically increased coverage and focused attention on the rhetoric of division – using divisive issues like immigration, racism, religious bigotry, the “lazy unemployed,” “entitlement welfare” and gay marriage to divide and distract the population and prevent the masses from organizing against their true oppressors.

This propaganda effort is only a temporary measure and will not suffice over the long-term. As the economy continues to collapse, the banking elite risk being overthrown as a result of their own greed. So they will then turn to physical, military-based violence to suppress populations that can no longer be controlled through propaganda and economic coercion.

To paraphrase policy analyst Anatol Lieven, the classic strategy of an endangered oligarchy is to divert discontent among the population into nationalistic militarism. It is time, once again, to bang the drums of war and “whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor.” The source of the following quote is unknown, but the evident wisdom of it is something that we have already experienced firsthand in the recent past:

“Beware the leader who bangs the drum of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.”

An increased external threat will lead to an increased internal crackdown, which creates the pretext and conditions for a police state. As we have already seen in the first phase of the crackdown on civil liberties since the “War on Terror” began, when rioting and outbursts of armed insurrection begin within the US, external threats, real or imagined, will again be presented to justify extreme measures to suppress American citizens, and to further repress and divert internal dissent. Without an external enemy to rally the population against, the population will rally against the pre-existing internal powers.

To put a slight twist on what Guy DeBord insightfully said back in 1988: the banking cartel “constructs its own inconceivable foe, terrorism. Its wish is to be judged by its enemies rather than by its results. The story of terrorism is written by the state and it is therefore highly instructive. But they must always know enough to convince them that, compared with terrorism, everything else must be acceptable, or in any case more rational and democratic.”

V:The Chinese Scapegoat: Trade & Currency Wars

As millions of Americans and the majority of the global population look for vengeance on those responsible for severely declining living standards, the global banking cartel are not going to blame themselves, so they will deflect blame to China, a most convenient target.

As a result of the crisis, national currencies are reeling, and the dollar, although currently one of the strongest paper currencies, is losing power as the crisis escalates. The IMF is working to replace the dollar as the world reserve currency and have begun discussing the possibility of making their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) the new world reserve currency. A plummeting dollar will obviously put the American population in a severely desperate situation and the US-based banking cartel needs an excuse to divert political backlash. In China, the nation poised to replace the US as the preeminent global superpower, they have the perfect scapegoat.

US-based global corporations have been shifting their business to China and off-shoring millions of jobs to the region due to their extremely low worker wages. So the American population is already pre-disposed to blaming China, as opposed to the companies who are exploiting the cheap labor. US politicians have been conveniently shifting blame for unemployment from themselves to China. Meanwhile, China also owns a significant portion of US national debt. US Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has recently declared that the national debt is the number one security threat. As Mullen stated, “Tax payers will be paying around $600 billion in interest on the national debt by 2012.” A significant portion of this interest will be going to China.

As national governments attempt to survive in an increasingly hostile global economy, trade and currency wars will flare up and escalate. China is in perhaps the strongest position to win these conflicts. China and Japan have just engaged in a fierce currency battle. This currency battle is not to be underestimated. We are talking about the world’s second and third largest economies, after the United States. China has just overtaken Japan for the number two position. The militant rhetoric between these two nations is escalating. US politicians were quick to jump on the situation with calls to classify China as a “currency manipulator” and impose trade tariffs and penalties against them.

International economic reporter Barry Grey recently summed up the situation in an article entitled, “Economic crisis threatens to unleash global currency wars:”

“The eruption of currency exchange conflicts is bound up with mounting signs that the global economic crisis is systemic, rather than merely conjunctural, and growing fears that a genuine recovery is not in the offing. The European sovereign debt crisis and the weakening of US economic growth have led governments around the world to seek to secure a greater share of export markets. Under conditions of slowing growth and stagnant markets, this inevitably heightens trade conflicts between competing capitalist nations.

In particular, the US and the European Union, spearheaded by the export power Germany, have aggressively pursued a cheap currency policy in order to gain a trade advantage against their rivals. Of the major economic powers, Japan has suffered the greatest damage from these policies, as investors and speculators have shifted from dollar- and euro-denominated investments to the yen, driving up the currency’s exchange rate.

This has embittered relations between Japan and both the US and the EU. Japan has also denounced China for artificially keeping its currency low while bidding up the yen by increasing its purchases of Japanese government securities.”

The global banking cartel’s leading puppets on Capitol Hill, Senators Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer and Richard Shelby were all quick to attack China. Barry Grey continued:

“In opening the Senate Banking Committee hearing, Chairman Christopher Dodd declared China a currency manipulator and said its ‘economic and trade policies’ present ‘roadblocks to our recovery.’ He went on to accuse China of stealing intellectual property, violating international trade agreements and dumping goods. He also denounced China for acquiring national resources in developing countries and building up its military.

In his opening statement, the ranking Republican on the committee, Richard Shelby of Alabama, declared, ‘There is no question that China manipulates its currency in order to subsidize Chinese exports. The only question is: Why is the administration protecting China by refusing to designate it as a currency manipulator?’

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said, ‘China’s currency manipulation is like a boot on the throat of our recovery and this administration refuses to try to get China to remove that boot.’”

On top of all this, China has now overtaken the US as the world’s top energy consumer. Michael T. Klare reports on China’s new position of power:

“The main point: by becoming the world’s leading energy consumer, China will also become an ever more dominant international actor and so set the pace in shaping our global future.

Because energy is tied to so many aspects of the global economy, and because doubts are growing about the future availability of oil and other vital fuels, the decisions China makes regarding its energy portfolio will have far-reaching consequences. As the leading player in the global energy market, China will significantly determine not only the prices we will be paying for critical fuels but also the type of energy systems we will come to rely on. More importantly, China’s decisions on energy preferences will largely determine whether China and the United States can avoid becoming embroiled in a global struggle over imported oil and whether the world will escape catastrophic climate change.”

China’s rise in power, mixed with the decline of western economies and the need for an external scapegoat sets up a global collision and inevitable confrontation between vying superpowers. Currency and trade wars will likely be a prelude to military confrontation.

VI: Moves Upon the Grand Chessboard

Based on early maneuvering it is evident that the masters of war have already drawn up sides. You may have missed it, but the US, Israel and the NATO Alliance have already put Iran, Lebanon, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Russia and China on notice. And the “withdrawals” from Iraq and the Af-Pak region are over-hyped. The occupation of these countries continues with no end in sight. In fact, they aren’t withdrawing as much as they are repositioning and shifting their forces, preparing for an escalation. In many ways the wars in Iraq and Af-Pak have only been the initial phase of a global attack, positioning forces and building massive military bases in pivotal geo-strategic locations. The operations in this region have essentially been a warm-up for much wider-ranging attacks against much stronger countries. While most of the US population is playing checkers, seeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as one-off battles, the global banking cartel is playing chess, using these wars as only initial geo-strategic moves in a grand strategy toward total world domination.

The intensity of military maneuvering presently occurring is alarming. Read through these recent news reports pulled from the AmpedStatus database, all from just the past few weeks, and let me know if you think I’m being extreme in foreseeing World War III:

- See more at: http://ampedstatus.com/the-road-to-world-war-iii-the-global-banking-cartel-has-one-card-left-to-play/#sthash.U9ibA1cf.dpuf

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March 27th, 2014

3/27/2014

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REMEMBER, THE GOAL OF NEO-LIBERALISM IS TAKING THE US FROM A FIRST WORLD SOCIAL DEMOCRACY TO A THIRD WORLD AUTOCRATIC PLUTOCRACY.  THAT MEANS INSTEAD OF MODERN DAY AMERICA THEY LOOK TO MEDIEVAL EUROPE----THE DARK AGES ----FOR THEIR SOCIAL MODEL.  THE MASSES IMPOVERISHED, HEAVILY TAXED WAITING FOR THE GENTRY TO SPONSOR PUBLIC PROJECTS WHILE THE CHURCH HANDLES THE POOR---AND NOT SO WELL!

Today's blog looks at billionaires as benevolent philanthropist.

This is indeed where neo-liberals are going.  The next phase after -'we have all the money and will do as we please' - is building the image of billionaire as benevolent philanthropist----you know----THE MEDICIs.  You could feel sorry for the delusions of grandeur from a moneyed-class equal to mafia-cartels, but this is life and death and fighting for democracy in America.  We are seeing in US media a build-up of image of billionaires for social good.  As they starve public coffers by fraud and tax evasion they are being allowed to 'donate' for the common good and corporate tax deductions.

Meanwhile, you and I have moved back to the vision of the US as first world social democracy. HMMMMM...did I see 900,000 registered democrats in Maryland?  Do you really think they want to go with neo-liberalism and Medicis?

I DON'T THINK SO!!!  SEE WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO KEEP CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND OUT OF ELECTION COVERAGE AND OFF THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL!

What I am seeing and hoping to build with my candidacy is a structure around crony democratic politics in Maryland and the US.  We do not need party machines and media money for campaigns.  We need labor unions and justice organizations, churches and university political groups to network for the candidate working for labor and justice.  Simple community networking and education about the need to ignore the onslaught of media campaign advertising by neo-liberal candidates with corporate war chests.


ALL OF MARYLAND CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR ARE NEO-LIBERALS EXCEPT CINDY WALSH.  SHAKE THE BUGS FROM THE RUG------GET RID OF CORPORATE CONTROL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Regarding Basu's singing of praises for US billionaires and funding of basic research:

NEO-LIBERALS MAKING BILLIONAIRES LOOK WARM AND FUZZY AS THEY PUSH AMERICAN CITIZENS TO CHARITY!  

Who doesn't like a billionaire made rich from the massive corporate frauds of last decade exploding shareholder wealth from looting the US Treasury and American people.  A billionaire that parks hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue off-shore to avoid paying taxes and who is guilty of more hundreds of billions of dollars in tax fraud and tax evasion.  A billionaire that backs basic research that will earn his corporation trillions of dollars in profit at the expense of public health and interest.  God bless those billionaires say Basu and corporate public media.  Who needs those trillions of dollars stolen from the public that funded basic research in public universities and gave the development benefits to the public rather than private patenting to soak the public as consumer.  WHAT AMERICAN PATRIOTS THESE BILLIONAIRES ARE!  Sound like the North Korean Great Leader propaganda?  YOU BETCHA!

Let's look at the tax policies at the Federal, state, and local level that that allow this fleecing of the US Treasury beyond an IRS that has been gutted of employees to keep from doing investigations of hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate tax fraud that when recovered will make state and local universities flush with cash in education Trusts and grants and public research funding.

YOU SEE, IT IS THE MONEY THAT MADE THESE BILLIONAIRES RICH THAT IS NOW MISSING FROM THE ECONOMY BRINGING DEBT AND DISMANTLING OF PUBLIC SECTOR SERVICES AND PROGRAMS.  UNIVERSITY TUITION TOO HIGH----BLAME THAT BILLIONAIRE.

Do you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when a corporate CEO from the likes Starbucks receives all kinds of media coverage for 'donating' to veterans charities because he is upset with the conditions for veterans at VA hospitals around the country?  Let's see how Starbucks evades paying corporate taxes and bring that back to fund all the public VA hospitals.



Starbucks wakes up and smells the stench of tax avoidance controversy


Cafe chain executive to face questions from MPs, while protesters plan to turn branches into creches and refuges

    Simon Neville and Shiv Malik    
    The Guardian, Sunday 11 November 2012    

Starbucks
Police protect a Starbucks branch during an anti-cuts march last month after the company's low tax bill was revealed. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

On an average day its outlets are a hive of social activity, hosting everything from business meetings to reading groups looking for that all-important appointment with a morning caffeine rush, approvingly overlooked by a branded community bulletin board. But Starbucks should be careful what it wishes for.

The direct action group UK Uncut plans to turn dozens of the coffee empire's UK branches into creches, refuges and homeless shelters to highlight the chain's tax avoidance tactics.

The announcement of the action comes on the day a Starbucks executive faces questions from the House of Commons public accounts committee over why the company paid no corporation tax in the UK during the past three years, despite senior US management trumpeting the company's profitable operations in Britain.

MPs will also question management representatives from Google and Amazon, both of which have faced criticism for basing their European operations in countries that have lower tax rates such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

In his appearance before the committee, Starbucks' chief financial officer, Troy Alstead, will attempt to repair the company's reputation, which, according to research by YouGov, continues to suffer because of the controversy.

In a similar session last week, MPs accused HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) officials of having cosy relationships with big businesses. Speaking about the arrangements with Starbucks, the Conservative MP Richard Bacon said: "It smells – and it doesn't smell of coffee. It smells bad."

UK Uncut has said it will start targeting Starbucks on the Saturday following the autumn statement by the chancellor, George Osborne, on 8 December. The campaign group is attempting to draw a link between government cuts, in particular those that affect women, and tax avoidance by multinational businesses.

Sarah Greene, a UK Uncut activist, said funding for refuges and rape crisis centres faced cuts unless companies paid their fair share of tax. HMRC estimates around £32bn was lost to tax avoidance last year.

Greene said the government could easily bring in billions that could fund vital services by clamping down on tax avoidance, but was instead "making cuts that are forcing women to choose between motherhood and work, and trapping them in abusive relationships".

The group, which rose to prominence after staging a sit-in at Vodafone stores, Sir Philip Green's Topshop and Fortnum & Mason, turned its attentions to Starbucks last month after an investigation by Reuters discovered the company had paid only £8.6m in corporation tax since launching in the UK 14 years ago, despite cumulative sales of £3bn.

Longstanding Uncut campaigner Anna Walker said the group wanted to "galvanise the anger" that women were feeling: "We've chosen to really highlight the impact of the cuts on women this time. So there is going to be a real focus on transforming Starbucks into those services that are being cut by the government … [such as] refuges and creches," she said.

Walker said the campaign group had been in touch with women's groups across the country in the lead-up to the direct action event and believed that, along with a pre-established network of activists, dozens of the company's coffee shops were likely to be targeted.

"Starbucks is a really great target because it is on every high street across the country and that's what UK Uncut finds really important: people can take action in their local areas," she said. "We're really hoping that women who are impacted by the cuts, who are seeing their Sure Start centres where their kids go being reduced in services, and people who use refuges, [will] be involved."

Several international organisations have faced criticism over their UK accounts, with Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google and Ikea all paying little or no corporation tax despite large British operations.

However, according to pollsters at YouGov's BrandIndex, Starbucks has suffered the deepest damage to its image.

The organisation, which records the strength of companies' brand identities, revealed Starbucks' cachet plummeted following the tax revelations and continues to languish at near-record lows.

Its "buzz" score, which measures the number of negative and positive comments customers have heard, hit -16.7. That is only slightly higher than the lowest levels it hit during the most heated point of the controversy last month, at -28.6. A year ago its rating was at +3.1.

By comparison, Google and Amazon – both due at the select committee – have seen their ratings seemingly unaffected.

UK BrandIndex director Sarah Murphy said: "A brand's buzz score typically recovers quite quickly following a spate of bad press, but we aren't seeing that with Starbucks, which is quite unusual. Its scores started to level out around the end of last month, but whatever modest recovery Starbucks has made could well be in jeopardy if this story flares up again in the media."

The coffee store chain insists it pays the correct level of taxes. The group chief executive, Howard Schultz, has said in a statement: "Starbucks has always paid taxes in the UK despite recent suggestions to the contrary.

"Over the last three years alone, our company has paid more than £160m in various taxes, including national insurance contributions, VAT and business rates."

However, MPs will no doubt point out that VAT is paid by the customers at point of sale and collected by Starbucks.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the public accounts committee, told parliament last month that Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google and Starbucks had avoided nearly £900m of tax. The prime minister, David Cameron responded to the claim by saying: "I'm not happy with the current situation. I think [HMRC] needs to look at it very carefully. We do need to make sure we are encouraging these businesses to invest in our country as they are but they should be paying fair taxes as well."

A spokeswoman for Starbucks said on Sunday: "While the subject of tax law can be extremely complex, Starbucks respects and complies with tax laws and accounting rules" in each of the 61 countries where we do business, including the UK – a market that we remain committed to for the long term. We've posted the facts about our tax practices in the UK on our website .

"Starbucks' economic impact in the UK spans far beyond our stores and partners (employees). We spend hundreds of millions of pounds with local suppliers on milk, cakes and sandwiches, and on store design and renovations. When you take into account the indirect employment created by Starbucks' investments in the UK, the company's extended economic impact to the UK economy exceeds £80m annually.

"We hope that UK Uncut will respect the wellbeing of our partners and customers, and recognise the value that we add to the economy, creating jobs and apprenticeships, as well as paying our fair share of taxes in the UK."

________________________________________

How does a US global corporation go from being called a tax cheat and immoral in overseas press.....which is far more free and fair than a US state-run corporate media......to being the good guys in America donating all that money for tax write-offs instead of paying US taxes that would flood government coffers with revenue?

 NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS CONTROL US MEDIA AND HAVE MADE IT US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ALL THE TIME.  THE US MEDIA IS NOW EQUAL TO ROMANIA AS FREE PRESS.  ERGO, BASU'S LOVEFEST.


We all know that as all US commerce becomes consolidated and owned by the same few people at the top we will not be able to police US global corporations overseas and while they stagnate our US economy for growing profits overseas, all that wealth generated overseas does nothing for US yet we have the global headquarters ruling over all government and public policies and taxpayers subsidizing corporate wealth.  The article above on the state of US corporations doing business in the UK paying no taxes is mirrored in America.  The difference, the American people are electing the very neo-liberals turning their heads to this massive fraud and allowing media to ignore all of this.

EUROPE IS SEEING MORE ACCOUNTABILITY BECAUSE ITS CITIZENS HIT THE STREETS AND VOTE BAD POLS OUT OF OFFICE.




Starbucks, Google, Amazon accused of 'immoral' tax avoidance ...


www.csmonitor.com/.../1203/Starbucks...immoral-tax-avoidance   

Starbucks, Google, and Amazon were among the major multinational corporations accused by lawyers of exploiting British tax laws to move UK-made profits ...

__________________________________________

Sending money stolen through tax fraud and shareholder wealth created by massive corporate fraud of US Treasury to charity just to write the donation off future taxes-----WHAT A GUY-----HOWARD SCHULTZ!  Mind you, I have a history of Starbucks and its beginning in Seattle even having a Starbuck's green Jeep in my enthusiasm for fair trade coffee.  THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE.

Do you know the entire GI Bill would be flush with money if Starbucks paid its corporate taxes and shouted to end massive corporate fraud?


THE LEVEL OF DISGRACE IN PUSHING AMERICAN VETERANS TO HAWKING FOR CHARITY IS UNMEASURABLE.


Starbucks CEO To Donate $30 Million To Support PTSD Research For Veterans


The Huffington Post  | by  Melissa McGlensey

Posted: 03/21/2014 6:18 pm EDT Updated: 03/21/2014 6:59 pm EDT

Starbucks Starbucks Coffee Howard Schultz Charity Military Veterans Veterans Video Impact News

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is making a large donation to help U.S. veterans.

Schultz spoke to CBS Evening News on Wednesday and announced his plan to allocate most of the $30 million donation toward researching solutions to brain trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD affects between 11 and 20 percent of military members who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Schultz told CBS that veterans often don't get the treatment or understanding they need and deserve.

"The truth of the matter is, and I say this with respect, more often than not, the government does a very -- a much better job of sending people to war than they do bringing them home, " he stated. "They're coming home to an American public that really doesn't understand and never embraced, what these people have done."

Schultz has shown support for troops in the past. Last year, Starbucks announced its initiative to hire 10,000 veterans and spouses of active military in five years.

The unemployment rate among post-9/11 veterans dropped to 9.0 percent last year, down from 9.9 percent the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This number is about 1.6 percentage points above the civilian population.

____________________________________________

Bill Gates was given the 'good billionaire' logo by neo-liberals trying to push the Buffett 'billionaires need to pay what their secretary pays in taxes' at a time when the US needs billionaires to pay what they paid before the Reagan/Clinton era-----60-70% tax rate -----to bring back the massive frauds and swing the pendulum back to flush government coffers and a first world society.  This is not targeted tax policy-----

IT IS SIMPLY RULE OF LAW AND JUSTICE BRINGING TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD BACK TO US TREASURY AND PUBLIC TRUSTS.

As Basu pretends that Bill Gates created the Gates Global Health Initiative for the good of mankind the first thing that comes to mind is that African and Asian PHARMA developed and patented by the Gates foundation has Bill Gates, Obama, and Clinton lobbying hardest this past decade to dismantle all of public health and protections of generic manufacturing and subsidy of PHARMA around the world with the Trans Pacific Trade Pact.  It is Bill Gates building a PHARMA corporation that seeks to maximize profits by gutting all public health protections for medicine around the world.  WHAT A GUY-----BILL GATES THAT GOOD BILLIONAIRE!

While in Washington State I attended Microsoft shareholder meetings that had stockholders angry that Bill was moving all Microsoft money to a trust that was then spending billions of dollars in Pharma and health care products in Africa and Asia.  Warren Buffett moved his billions to this new economy as well.  WHILE BEING TOUTED AS PHILANTHROPISTS THEY WERE SIMPLY GUARDING MONEY FROM TAXATION UNDER THE GUISE OF PRIVATE NON-PROFITS WHILE THEY BUILT WHAT THEY KNEW WAS THE NEXT ECONOMIC ENGINE-----HEALTH AND EDUCATION.  This was at the end of Reagan and the beginning of Clinton when the transition to privatization of public health and education to create the next Wall Street markets were made.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU THINK A BILLIONAIRE USING PRIVATE NON-PROFITS AND THE GUISE OF PUBLIC HEALTH TO SHIELD MONEY FROM TAXATION ALL TO CREATE AND PATENT PHARMA TARGETING A DEVELOPING WORLD THEY WANT TO MAKE A MARKET IS A GOOD GUY------NO ONE!!!!

Bill Gates is the face of Race to the Top and education privatization for the same reason-----creating private education businesses centered online and developed by Microsoft and other tech institutions.  The Industrial Philanthropists built the public structures of public universities, libraries, and K-12 and Bill Gates Foundation seeks to tear them down for profit.  WHAT A GUY-----BILL GATES!


Keep in mind that all these excuses of republicans defunding the IRS or Wall Street regulatory agencies made by neo-liberals are a farce.  Look to neo-liberal Maryland where fraud and corruption is king to see a dismantled and unfunded oversight.

RECOVERING CORPORATE FRAUD PAYS FOR ITSELF, NO REPUBLICANS OR TAXPAYER MONEY NEEDED.  THAT FIRST BILLION IN RECOVERY PAYS FOR THE NEXT TRILLION DOLLARS IN RECOVERY!




Microsoft, HP skirted taxes via offshore units: U.S. Senate panel

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:12pm EDT


A variety of logos hover above the Microsoft booth on the opening day of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 10, 2012. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

A variety of logos hover above the Microsoft booth on the opening day of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 10, 2012.




(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co pushed back against claims by a U.S. Senate panel on Thursday that they used offshore units and loopholes to shield billions of dollars in profits from U.S. taxes.

Calling tax avoidance rampant in the technology sector, the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said tech companies used intellectual property, royalties and license fees in overseas tax havens to skirt taxes.

The panel subpoenaed internal documents from the companies and interviewed Microsoft and HP officials to compile its report, which uses the companies as case studies.

"The tax practices and gimmicks range from egregious to dubious validity," Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the panel, said at a news conference.

Officials at HP and Microsoft strongly denied any wrongdoing, noted tax officials had not objected to the structures and said there were valid reasons for tax planning.

Senator Tom Coburn, the top Republican on the panel, signed onto the new report but blamed Congress.

"Tax avoidance is not illegal. Congress has created this situation," Coburn said, criticizing the complex tax code and the 35 percent corporate tax rate, among of the world's highest, though few companies pay that statutory rate.

The subcommittee said that from 2009 to 2011, Microsoft shifted $21 billion offshore, almost half its U.S. retail sales revenue, saving up to $4.5 billion in taxes on goods sold in the United States.

This was accomplished, the report said, by aggressive transfer pricing, where companies value intra-company movement of assets. Corporate units must use a fair market price to value transfers, but critics say they are manipulated to minimize tax.

The report also said the software giant shifts royalty revenue to units in low-tax nations, such as Singapore and Ireland, avoiding billions of dollars of U.S. tax.

Levin said one Microsoft Singapore unit was legally headquartered in Bermuda and had no employees. Levin asked Microsoft's tax vice president, William Sample, if the reason was to cut its tax bill. "Yes, that is correct," Sample said.

Sample also said several offshore units employ hundreds of workers, which Levin noted was a tiny fraction of its workforce.

IRS CITES CHALLENGE

Internal Revenue Service officials are not allowed to comment on specific taxpayers, but Chief Counsel William Wilkins said enforcing transfer pricing law "has been the IRS's most significant international enforcement challenge."

U.S. companies have at least $1.5 trillion in profits sitting offshore. Most say they are keeping them there to avoid U.S. tax. Of the top 10 companies with the biggest offshore cash balances, five are in the technology sector.

"The high-tech industry is probably the No. 1 user of these offshore entities to transfer intellectual property," Levin said.

The panel said Hewlett-Packard funded U.S. operations with a stream of intra-company loans, using an exception in the law for short-term loans, to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.

Levin said more than 90 percent of HP's cash was sitting offshore, as opposed to about 65 percent of revenue coming from countries outside the United States.

An HP spokesman said in a statement that the hearing was a politically motivated attack.

"We are disappointed to see what appears to be a politically motivated attack on one of America's largest employers," HP spokesman Michael Thacker said before the hearing.

Lester Ezrati, an HP tax vice president, said HP used cash faster in the United States for valid reasons including that certain payments like pensions must be made with U.S. cash.

"HP has an overall strategy to minimize expenses and that is what generates where the cash is located," and "one of those expenses is taxes," Ezrati said.

REPATRIATED PROFITS TAXABLE

Under tax law, foreign profits are subject to U.S. tax when they are "repatriated," or brought into the United States, usually in the form of a dividend.

One internal document released by the panel suggested that HP routinely brought money into the U.S. without paying U.S. tax. An HP presentation noted that "without planning, repatriation of foreign earnings could lead to tax payments."


Loans by the foreign units to a related U.S. entity are considered a dividend for tax purposes but there is an exception for loans that are repaid within 30 days, according to the committee's tax experts.

HP set up a complicated series of short-term loans starting in 2008 to these businesses that were continuous without gaps, to get around that provision, the panel found.

Big companies have lobbied for a tax holiday to let them bring offshore profits into the United States at a reduced tax rate, arguing that the profits are trapped offshore. That effort has fallen flat amid reports suggesting such a program would cost the government significant revenue and not produce U.S. jobs.

The report on transfer pricing "mocks the notion that profits of U.S. multinationals are 'locked-up' or 'trapped' offshore," Levin said.

The subcommittee also criticized accounting giant Ernst & Young for blessing HP's practices.

Ernst & Young partner Beth Carr said that the firm stands firmly behind its auditing for HP.

_________________________________________

Below you see from 2002-2005 Bill Gates was positioning himself for the coming Affordable Care Act health legislation and privatization and making of global health corporations.  Keep in mind that mental health pharma was just given a boost in rewriting the Psychiatric definition of what constitutes depression. increasing government subsidy of more depression PHARMA as Gates moves to Prozac.  Medicare and Medicaid will now pay for depression medicine for what we all know is common sadness.

Bill Gates was simply moving his wealth to what he knew would be the new markets created by privatization of public health and education-----AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AND RACE TO THE TOP.

ALWAYS WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC'S INTERESTS THOSE GOOD BILLIONAIRES!  NEO-LIBERALS----WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT AND THIRD WORLD QUALITY OF LIFE.  HOW DO THEY RUN AS DEMOCRATS?

Below you see a blogger that obviously attended the same Microsoft shareholder meetings I did.

created 04/07/2005 - 07:35, updated 31/08/2006 - 14:01 by cybe


Bill Gates is [alledgedly] giving 95% of his wealth for africa .....
.


I wonder if he is diversifying his investments and has bought shares in the pharmaceutical industry so he is just transferring his money into a new business venture whilst "looking" as though he is giving it away.

The Real Way to Health is a completely different one:- "Healing in His Wings"

Three articles below:

Bill Gates sells MSFT, takes Prozac
Bill Gates and Big Pharma
Bush's bogus AIDS offer, and why Bill Gates is making it worse.
The Gates And Buffet Foundation Shell Game

 


Bill Gates sells MSFT, takes Prozac

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2002/09/09/bill_gates_sells_msft_takes/

Published Monday 9th September 2002 19:48 GMT

Bill Gates has sold almost half a billion dollar's worth of Microsoft stock this year, and begun to invest heavily in big pharma. In the second half of this year he bought 2.5 million shares in Eli Lilly, manufacturer of Prozac, and also made major investments in Merck and Pfizer, notes /Information Week/.

The 9 million shares Gates relinquished represent only a tiny proportion of Chairman Bill's MSFT holdings, or about 1.36 per cent.

Eli Lily's patent on Prozac expired a year ago, but the company has sought to widen its appeal, combining its with other drugs and marketing it as a kind of MSG of anti-depressants.

"Companies are getting a lot more creative in ways to sustain the product lifespan of drugs," a J.P. Morgan told The Street.

In sickness and in wealth, big pharma remains the most profitable industry in America. No doubt Gates took comfort in the Bush administration's indulgent attitude towards the inflated prices charged by the pharmaceutical industry. Although nine out of ten drugs fail clinical tests, the industry - which argues that high prices are needed to justify R&D - spends two and half times as much on marketing than on research, according to Families USA .

(I'll defer to our very own Thomas C Greene, who covered the industry in detail).

A crack about anxiety-inducing computer software would simply be too cheap, so we won't dream of making it here.


_______________________________________________
We must be very careful to follow where these last few years of US global corporation has led under Obama and neo-liberals in Congress.  Remember, between the FED policy and trillions in fake job stimulus money that was just used to expand US global corporations overseas, the US has allowed global corporations to create a global network of empire that looks just like this one below.  IT IS HORRENDOUS.

So, as Basu tells us on corporate 'public' media WYPR that billionaires are doing good in their bequests to basic research, the entire world knows what kind of empire Bill Gates is building!



'Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the destructiveness of capitalism'.

A Link Between Monsanto, Blackwater & Bill Gates?

By majestic on January 3, 2011 in News

There’s an unlikely story circulating on various underground news sites claiming that the controversial biotech company Monsanto has acquired infamous mercenary outfit Blackwater (now trading as Xe Services). The report apparently first appeared in La Jornada, one of Mexico City’s leading daily newspapers, described by Noam Chomsky as “the one independent newspaper in the whole hemisphere.” Pravda has translated the original Spanish text written by Silvia Ribeiro into English. From my reading of the Jeremy Scahill article that seems to form the basis of the report, the most you can deduce is that Monsanto hired the creeps at Blackwater to do dirty work for them, but the rumor keeps circulating, so could there be a grain of truth somewhere in this story?:

A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation (Blackwater’s Black Ops, 9/15/2010) revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (now called Xe Services) clandestine intelligence services was sold to the multinational Monsanto. Blackwater was renamed in 2009 after becoming famous in the world with numerous reports of abuses in Iraq, including massacres of civilians. It remains the largest private contractor of the U.S. Department of State “security services,” that practices state terrorism by giving the government the opportunity to deny it.

Many military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related companies created to divert attention from their bad reputation and make more profit selling their nefarious services-ranging from information and intelligence to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary training – for other governments, banks and multinational corporations. According to Scahill, business with multinationals, like Monsanto, Chevron, and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center. These officers and directors share Blackwater.

One of them, Cofer Black, known for his brutality as one of the directors of the CIA, was the one who made contact with Monsanto in 2008 as director of Total Intelligence, entering into the contract with the company to spy on and infiltrate organizations of animal rights activists, anti-GM and other dirty activities of the biotech giant.

Contacted by Scahill, the Monsanto executive Kevin Wilson declined to comment, but later confirmed to The Nation that they had hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and 2009, according to Monsanto only to keep track of “public disclosure” of its opponents. He also said that Total Intelligence was a “totally separate entity from Blackwater.”

However, Scahill has copies of emails from Cofer Black after the meeting with Wilson for Monsanto, where he explains to other former CIA agents, using their Blackwater e-mails, that the discussion with Wilson was that Total Intelligence had become “Monsanto’s intelligence arm,” spying on activists and other actions, including “our people to legally integrate these groups.” Total Intelligence Monsanto paid $ 127,000 in 2008 and $ 105,000 in 2009.

No wonder that a company engaged in the “science of death” as Monsanto, which has been dedicated from the outset to produce toxic poisons spilling from Agent Orange to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), pesticides, hormones and genetically modified seeds, is associated with another company of thugs.

Almost simultaneously with the publication of this article in The Nation, the Via Campesina reported the purchase of 500,000 shares of Monsanto, for more than $23 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which with this action completed the outing of the mask of “philanthropy.” Another association that is not surprising.


It is a marriage between the two most brutal monopolies in the history of industrialism: Bill Gates controls more than 90 percent of the market share of proprietary computing and Monsanto about 90 percent of the global transgenic seed market and most global commercial seed. There does not exist in any other industrial sector monopolies so vast, whose very existence is a negation of the vaunted principle of “market competition” of capitalism. Both Gates and Monsanto are very aggressive in defending their ill-gotten monopolies.

Although Bill Gates might try to say that the Foundation is not linked to his business, all it proves is the opposite: most of their donations end up favoring the commercial investments of the tycoon, not really “donating” anything, but instead of paying taxes to the state coffers, he invests his profits in where it is favorable to him economically, including propaganda from their supposed good intentions. On the contrary, their “donations” finance projects as destructive as geoengineering or replacement of natural community medicines for high-tech patented medicines in the poorest areas of the world. What a coincidence, former Secretary of Health Julio Frenk and Ernesto Zedillo are advisers of the Foundation.

Like Monsanto, Gates is also engaged in trying to destroy rural farming worldwide, mainly through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa” (AGRA). It works as a Trojan horse to deprive poor African farmers of their traditional seeds, replacing them with the seeds of their companies first, finally by genetically modified (GM). To this end, the Foundation hired Robert Horsch in 2006, the director of Monsanto. Now Gates, airing major profits, went straight to the source.

Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the destructiveness of capitalism.


* The author is a researcher at ETC Group



__________________________________________

I watched a TV commercial that had UnderArmour CEO standing on an African mountaintop stating that he wants to use his billions to help the poor worldwide.  This is the same CEO who demands his UnderArmour headquarters in Baltimore be given tax-free status starving Baltimore City government coffers of money that would go to underserved communities and public schools.  

IF THAT ISN'T OBSCENE ENOUGH-----UNDERARMOUR USES THE FACT THAT THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN DISMANTLED AND NEO-LIBERALS ARE PUSHING VET CHARITY TO SUPPORT VETS.


So, rather than paying taxes that would support a strong, public supported VA, he is making profits off of his athletic brand and 'donating' money to vet charities for corporate tax write-offs.  WHAT A GUY-------BILLIONAIRE PROFITS OFF OF VETS FORCED TO SEEK CHARITY IN LIEU OF VETERAN'S BENEFITS!

Below you see yet another corporation that is ground zero for making the American people impoverished and yet finding time to 'donate' to help the poor.

THIS IS NEO-LIBERALISM WHERE WEALTH AND PROFIT CREATE AN AUTOCRATIC SYSTEM MODELED ON MEDIEVAL EUROPE-----THEY CALLED IT THE DARK AGES.



UNDERARMOUR---GlassDoor

 “Employee survey results were poor”
Director (Former Employee)
Baltimore, MD

I worked at Under Armour full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Successful brand w/ currently valuable stock

Cons – Don't just go by these anonymous reviews. In a recent survey of all employees, findings were that an overwhelming majority feel "disengaged", "overworked" , "underpaid", and "under appreciated". What was the founder's response when he pulled Directors into a room? Instead of saying "here's what we're going to do", he said "it's your problem. You fix it." Needless to say there's extremely high turnover. Those that do stay wish they were somewhere else.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to employee issues and do something about. Currently you're doing neither.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

__________________________________________

TAX CREDITS FOR HIRING VETS IS LIKE ENTERPRISE ZONE TAX CREDITS FOR HIRING THE UNDERSERVED ------AS IN BALTIMORE'S INNER HARBOR THESE CONTRACTS ARE ALL IGNORED AND THE JOBS ARE FILLED WITH FRAUD AND WORKPLACE ABUSE.

All across the country veterans are being hired into the worst of jobs and working conditions as corporations get tax credits for simply hiring.  Those fighting to keep public military positions are being harassed and denied civil liberties and workplace safety.  Remember, the Bush Administration made military service contracts NULL and VOID requiring national guard and military to serve extended service tours knowing these troops would be battle weary and did while dismantling Va facilities.  AS Obama does the same, O'Malley travels overseas to recruit Veterans to substandard online degrees and career colleges.




UNDERARMOUR
Shop the Wounded Warrior project


Between August 2012 and December 2014, Under Armour® will make a donation of over $1 Million to Wounded Warrior Project™ benefitting injured service members and their families.

__________________________________________

The neo-liberals spent all last decade shouting against the abuses of the US troops by neo-conservatives and now neo-conservatives are blaming neo-liberals for the outrageous move to dismantle all that is public veterans administration.

TAG TEAM OF GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS----STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES---RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!


Below you see the same labor and justice conditions that existed under Bush are now super-sized under Obama and neo-liberals in Congress.  Do you hear your incumbent shouting out against the deliberate attack of public sector workers in order to get them to quit and be replaced by private contractors and to protect yet more people breaking the US laws from prosecution?


General News 3/1/2014 at 17:57:53
    
Veterans Speak Out Against a Debilitating Federal Workplace Harming the Health of America's Returning Military

By Ward Jordan

opednews.com


(WASHINGTON, DC)   --  In a recently released statement veterans, members of The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C), called for the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration to stop the political power play and to mandate that federal supervisory and management officials face discipline for willfully breaking civil rights and whistleblower-protection laws.

"The unrestrained retaliatory actions the VA supervisors take against subordinate employees cripples the agency's healthcare system and stifles many employees from exposing unfair customs, unsafe conditions and unlawful practices," said Oliver Mitchell, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a former employee with the Veterans Affairs' Greater West Los Angeles Medical Center Imaging Service, Radiology Section. While serving as a Patient Services Assistant, Mitchell received "excellent" performance ratings.   "Things changed rapidly after I refused an order to purge patient documents," Mitchell explained.   "The harassment started and VA officials detailed me repeatedly after I filed a whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC)."

According to Mitchell, both the VA's Office of Inspector General and the OSC failed to properly pursue the matter even after hearing Mitchell's submitted audio tape of employees discussing how to destroy veteran patients' records.   "Although I declined to purge patient records, VA officials hired another employee to delete valid MRI requests from the system as a means of reducing the backlog," said Mitchell, now homeless after being constructively removed from the U.S. Veterans Affairs pursuant to terms put in a settlement agreement.

"The constructive discharge is a popular tactic used in discharging complaining parties," said Janel Smith, a disabled Air Force veteran and the Vice President of the Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C).

Ralph Saunders, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a former employee with the VA's New Orleans Medical Center, agreed that reprisal against employees who file complaints is a daunting problem.   According to Saunders, VA personnel once destroyed his medical documents and subjected him to endless reprisal after he filed an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint against a manager who had denied him requested time off from work to accommodate his wife's heart-surgery operation. Saunders prevailed in his discrimination complaint (Saunders v Shinseki, Case Number 200L-0629-2004-100828).

Unequivocally, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found managers (Cassandra Holiday, Jeanette Butler, and Linda Cosey) guilty of "abusing the rules" and "retaliating against Saunders for his protected EEO activity."   The EEOC also found "evidence that officials retaliated against other employees who filed EEO complaints."   Saunders, who had worked sixteen years with the VA before officials targeted him for removal from federal service, is presently challenging the VA on a settlement-breach issue.


"Retaliation by rogue VA managers is destroying the lives of men and women who served honorably on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces," said Isaac Decatur, a U.S. Navy veteran, who after eighteen years with the department was fired from Veterans Affairs' Durham, North Carolina, office after filing an EEO complaint (Decatur v Shinseki, 0120073404).

"I wrote to President Obama about the VA's failure to take discipline against the supervisors who engaged in the blacklisting of employees and who the EEOC found guilty of discrimination," said Decatur. "My letter to the President spurred a reply letter from the EEOC in which the federal agency, charged with enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, openly asserted: While EEOC orders agencies to consider; we have no authority to issue discipline."

"Some of these VA managers need to face conspiracy criminal charges for destroying veterans' records and engaging in various illegal activities," said Chauncey L. Robinson, who served in the Persian Gulf War.
Robinson reported that he has been waiting twenty-one years for the VA to process his claim for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a heart condition. "VA officials destroyed my records," said Robinson, who joined other veterans in a class-action lawsuit that asserts the VA has been systematically violating veterans' due process for decades (Gary Kendall v Eric A. Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Case No. CV07-103-S-EJL).

"The ill-treatment of VA's workforce harms the well-being of VA's employees as well as the veterans deserving of timely health care and benefits," said Al Hunt, III, a Gulf War veteran and a former VA supervisor with the New Orleans Medical Center.
Hunt explained that he was forced to resign from the VA due to discriminatory practices and harassment. "I refused to be complicit in a managerial scheme to write-up and fire black veterans who bravely served our country solely because they had exposed civil rights abuses in the VA workplace," Hunt said.

"Internal federal workplace dysfunction will continue to adversely impact public programs and services until supervisors and managers are held accountable for violating civil rights and whistleblower-protection laws."  said Tanya Ward Jordan, the President and Founder of the volunteer support and advocacy group, C4C.


-------------------------------------------------------
About The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C)
The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C) is a Washington, DC-based volunteer organization comprised of present and former federal employees who have been injured or ill-treated due to workplace race discrimination and /or reprisal.  C4C recently produced a YouTube video to expose how an internal broken workplace system harms the public. The video is entitled -- Veterans Affairs Dishonoring America's Veterans and Civil Servants.


__________________________________________________



Below is possibly more than you want to know about Bill Gates as US corporate lobby to end public health and capture health patents and curb generics but it is one of the best overviews.  Keep in mind this was written in 2011 and we now know TPP is worse than this article shows.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett placed hundreds of billions of dollars into trusts under the guise of private non-profits and health care that are now these very patents and intellectual rights protections sought for the PHARMA and health industry.  So, rather than paying taxes and allowing the public do the research to produce these PHARMA results as it always has, these billionaires privatized the research and seeks patents and protections on what would be a trillion-dollar PHARMA industry in developing worlds.

AS BILL GATES SAID AT THE 1990s SHAREHOLDER MEETING QUESTIONING HIS MOVING OF ALL THAT MONEY INTO TRUSTS RATHER THAN REINVESTING IT IN TECH INNOVATION-----'WE ARE MOVING TO AFRICA AS THE NEXT MARKET AND WE HAVE TO MAKE IT LIVABLE FOR US EMPLOYEES BEING SENT THERE TO WORK.  Meanwhile, all of the African citizens that were helped by these research and development activities are now seeing funding disappear and are not feeling to advantages of all that patented research.
 



Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief
- September 2011


How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Threatens Access to Medicines


The eighth round of closed-door negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will be held in
Chicago from September 6-15, 2011. Negotiations during this round are expected to be substantial, as the
current nine negotiating countries, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United
States and Vietnam, plan to present the outlines of an agreement at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) Leaders’ meeting in Honolulu, November 8-13 2011.1
According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), “U.S. involvement in the TPP is predicated on the
expansion of the agreement to include more economies across the Asia-Pacific region,”2 and should “set the
standard for 21st-century trade agreements going forward.”3 It is therefore expected that the norms that emerge
from these negotiations will serve as a baseline for future trade agreements, potentially impacting a much wider
group of countries, including developing countries where MSF has medical operations and beyond. For
example, Japan and South Korea are reportedly currently considering joining the TPP.
TPP negotiating parties are under no obligation to subject their negotiating positions to public scrutiny; only the
final agreed-upon text will be made publicly available. However, a leaked draft of the U.S. position, now
available to the public,4 indicates that the U.S. is demanding aggressive intellectual property provisions that go
beyond what international trade law requires. Furthermore, the U.S. position represents a major retreat from
previous U.S. commitments to global health, including the 2007 bipartisan New Trade Policy, in which
Congress and the Bush administration agreed to abide by important public health safeguards in future trade
agreements.


1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES
Vital Importance of Affordable Medicines
Affordable, quality generic medicines are a critical component of treatment programs. About 80% of the HIV
medicines that MSF uses are generics, and MSF routinely relies on generic drugs to treat TB, malaria, and a
wide range of infectious diseases. In fact, all the major donors and leading international treatment providers,
including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), UNITAID and UNICEF, rely on quality affordable generic drugs for the programs they
support. PEPFAR, which purchases 80-90 percent of its ARVs drugs from generic suppliers, has reported
significant savings through the purchase of generic medicines.5
The first generation of HIV drugs have come down in price by 99 percent over the last decade, from
U.S.$10,000 per person per year in 2000 to roughly $60 today, thanks to generic production in India, Brazil and
Thailand, where these drugs were not patented. This dramatic price drop has been instrumental in helping scale
up HIV/AIDS treatment for more than six million people in developing countries. About 80 percent of donorfunded
anti-AIDS drugs and 92 percent of drugs to treat children with AIDS across the developing world comes
from generic manufacturers.


1 http://www.ustr.gov/tpp
2 http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2010/june/ustr-ron-kirk-comments-trans-pacific-partnership-talk
3 http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2009/november/ustr-news-kirk-comments-trans-pacific-partnership
4 Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
5 http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/304/3/313.short



Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

Public Health Safeguards Threatened
Since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the conclusion of the Agreement on Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in 1995, the most comprehensive multilateral
agreement on intellectual property to date, developing countries have struggled to strike a balance between
protecting public health and making their patent laws TRIPS compliant. Patents and other intellectual property
(IP) regulations pose significant barriers to access to life-saving medicines, and flexibilities in patent systems are
recognized as important public policy tools in the fight to protect public health interests. Even developed
countries like the U.S. have utilized TRIPS-compliant legal flexibilities to protect public health and other
national interests.
The WTO 2001 Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health was signed to reaffirm that the TRIPS
Agreement does not and should not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health, and that it
can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members' right to protect public
health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.

 These commitments were reaffirmed and
strengthened in the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public
Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.
However, over the last decade, many developing countries have come under pressure in trade negotiations not to
use TRIPS flexibilities and to implement even tougher rules than those set out in TRIPS – these are known as
“TRIPS plus.” The U.S. and the European Union routinely use bilateral and regional trade agreements to limit
or circumvent developing countries’ abilities to implement the Doha Declaration and safeguard public health.
The U.S. and the E.U. both have large pharmaceutical industries lobbying for stricter patent regulations, and
these interests not only tip the balance away from public health protections and threaten access to medicines, but
also work to counter the efforts of global health programs.


In fact, studies have shown that U.S. bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) have already
undermined access to medicines in developing countries. For example, Oxfam found in a 2007 study6 that
during the five-year period since Jordan implemented TRIPS plus measures included in the U.S.-Jordan FTA,
medicines prices rose 20 percent, without any corresponding benefit in terms of domestic innovation or access
to new products. In addition, the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH) found in a 2009
study7 that once Guatemala enacted data exclusivity, on the basis of the Dominican Republic-Central America-
United States (CAFTA-DR) FTA, prices for some medicines rose significantly – even though just a handful of
medicines were under patent protection.
Recognizing the damaging effects that trade agreements have had on public health, the Bush administration and
the U.S. Congress signed a bipartisan agreement on May 10th, 2007, known as the 2007 New Trade Policy to
scale-back the harshest IP protections in order to strike a better balance between protection of IP and public
health needs. The agreement specifies that the USTR should modify its intellectual property demands in trade
agreement negotiations so that important public health safeguards are included. Yet in several meetings with
U.S. civil society, the USTR has stated on the record that they are considering options in the TPP that would
shift U.S. policy away from the 2007 New Trade Policy.
MSF is concerned that the U.S. demands for the TPP negotiations threaten to roll back vitally important public
health safeguards in developing countries, creating a fundamental contradiction between U.S. trade policy and
U.S. commitments and priorities on global health.
Medical Innovation Threatened
MSF is also concerned about the effects that intellectual property norms have on innovation for essential
medical technologies. The USTR presents its efforts to demand stronger regimes for intellectual property
protection in developing countries as a tool to protect innovation. MSF recognizes the importance of innovation

6 http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/bp102_jordan_us_fta
7 http://www.cpath.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/cpathhaonline8-25-09.pdf
8 http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/enewsletter/5-11-07/07%2005%2010%20New%20Trade%20Policy%20Outline.pdf


Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

and the need to finance research and development. We are a humanitarian medical organization that needs and
welcomes biomedical innovation to better treat our patients. However, the reality is that intellectual property
protection in the medical field keeps prices high and limits access to treatment, and furthermore does not
stimulate innovation for many of the diseases affecting people in developing countries, where patients have
limited purchasing power. By seeking greater and higher intellectual property norms in developing countries,
the U.S. government is perpetuating a failed business model that links innovation costs to high prices, and does
not address the innovation needs of developing countries.


2. THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES

The TPP negotiations are being conducted in secret, so MSF other interested stakeholders don’t have access to
the U.S. or other countries’ demands. However, according to a leaked draft of the U.S. position, now available
to the public at http://keionline.org/node/1091, as well as correspondence and discussions between Congress and
the USTR, the U.S. is expected to demand the following TRIPS plus measures to be included in the

Intellectual Property Chapter of the TPP:


a) Broadening the scope of patentability: the U.S. wants to make it easier to patent new forms of old
medicines that offer no added therapeutic efficacy for patients
The TRIPS agreement includes important flexibilities for governments to decide what type of “innovation”
deserves to be protected by patents in a given country. Essential terms such as ‘novelty,’ ‘inventive step,’ and
‘industrial applicability’ are left undefined as standards to be best determined by individual governments within
the context of existing national legislation and circumstances.
However, the U.S. is seeking to erode this flexibility by requesting that TPP partners introduce new rules that
would severely limit the ability of each country to define what is ‘patentable.’

For example, the U.S. proposal for the TPP requests the patenting of a “new form, use, or method of using” an
existing product - even if there is no increase in efficacy. This technique, known as “evergreening,” allows
pharmaceutical companies to obtain or extend monopoly protection for old drugs simply by making minor
modifications to existing formulas. Evergreening significantly delays the arrival of more affordable generic
medicines onto the market.
Novartis has been battling the Indian government on its implementation of this flexibility since 2006, when its
patent for the cancer drug imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) was rejected on the grounds it was based on a drug
compound that already existed. Having lost its case in 2007 and the patent appeal in 2009, Novartis is now
attempting to ensure the words ‘therapeutic efficacy’ are interpreted in a way that allows even small changes to
an old medicine – such as imatinib mesylate – to be patentable10.
Additionally, the US seeks to require that parties make patents available on plants and animals, as well as
diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals despite the fact that Article
27 of the TRIPS Agreement explicitly allows for the exclusion of these inventions from patent protection11.
Aside from the serious ethical concerns for surgeons performing procedures on patients, this text is not even
compatible with the U.S. policy not to enforce patents against medical professionals.

b) Restrictions on pre-grant patent oppositions: the U.S. wants to make it harder to challenge unjustified
patents
The TRIPS agreement allows countries and third parties (including generic companies and civil society organizations such as patient groups) to file an opposition to the granting of a patent - either before it has been


 Article 8.1, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
http://www.msfaccess.org/about-us/media-room/press-releases/drug-company-novartis-tries-weaken-indian-patent-law-protects
 Article 8.2, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
 http://keionline.org/node/1216


Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

granted (pre-grant opposition) or after (post-grant opposition). Patent opposition procedures have been
successfully used in several countries to prevent patents being granted undeservedly.
For example, in June 2008 the Indian patent office rejected a patent for the hemihydrate (syrup) form of
Nevirapine (NVP), a widely-used antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, based on pre-grant oppositions by civil society
groups. The price of NVP has decreased dramatically over the past years as a result of generic competition.
Similarly, the Indian patent office rejected the patent application for Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF), an
important HIV drug highly recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and Darunavir (DRV), a
third-line ARV, based on pre-grant oppositions.
Patent oppositions are an essential public health safeguard that can accelerate the entry of generic competition,
improve the patent system through public participation, and help reduce over-patenting.
However, the U.S. government is now seeking to clamp down on this flexibility and prevent pre-grant oppositions in TPP partner countries,13 making it more costly and cumbersome to oppose a patent. In addition, patent offices will not have the benefit of the expertise of opponents/competitors to the applicant who may be
able to identify inaccuracies in the application before a patent is approved.


c) Imposing new forms of IP enforcement: the U.S. wants to allow customs officials to seize shipments of drugs on mere suspicion of IP infringement and to increase damages for IP infringement
The TRIPS agreement allows for governments to have a great amount of flexibility when designing the mechanisms that the country will allow for the enforcement of IP rights. However, the U.S., through the TPP and other tools (e.g. ACTA14), is demanding that countries enforce IP rights with new forms of enforcement beyond what TRIPS requires.
For example, the U.S. is requesting that TPP countries grant customs officials the ex officio right to detain
shipments of medicines at the border, even in transit, if the goods are suspected of being counterfeits or if they
are considered “confusingly similar” to trademarked goods.
Under TRIPS, “counterfeit” products are defined as those resulting from criminal – and not civil – trademark
infringement, which occurs knowingly and on a commercial scale. The U.S.’s proposed TPP IP chapter allows border officials to rely on a different, more lenient standard - “confusingly similar” – in order to seize consignments. This standard conflates pure commercial trademark disputes, which do not represent a threat to
public health or patent rights, with criminal offenses, such as production of counterfeit, falsified or substandard
medicines.

In fact, customs and border officials are often not fully trained or equipped to make accurate assessments with
regard to intellectual property infringement and may be overzealous in the protection of brand name companies.
For example, during 2008 and 2009, at least 19 shipments of generic medicines from India to other countries
were impounded while in transit in Europe on grounds that the shipments were suspected of infringing patent
rights. In one instance, German customs authorities wrongfully seized a drug shipment of “Amoxicillin” on the
suspicion that it infringed the brand name “Amoxil” – the cargo was detained for four weeks while further
investigation took place, eventually revealing that there was no trademark infringement. In another instance,
the Dutch customs authorities seized a shipment of the AIDS drug abacavir sulfate while it was en route (via
Europe) from India to a Clinton Foundation project in Nigeria.

 Article 8.7, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) would impose limits on price-reducing generic competition and jeopardize the free flow of legitimate medicines across borders.


 Article 14.4, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
16 http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2011/2011Special301MSF_Final.pdf
17 http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2011/2011Special301MSF_Final.pdf
18 http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c2672.extract
19 http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/IPR/pdf/ipr13.pdf
20 http://www.safemedicines.org/nigeriabound-hivaids-drugs-seized-in-netherlands.html


Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

In addition, under the U.S.’s proposed TPP regulations, shipments that are legitimate in the country of origin
and the country of ultimate destination would still be subject to detention in the transit country. Unwarranted
interception of legitimate in-transit pharmaceutical supplies can undermine legitimate trade in generic
medicines.

Furthermore, the U.S. is requesting TPP countries to mandate that judicial authorities consider valuing damages
based on “the suggested retail price or other legitimate measure of value submitted by the right holder” in cases
of infringement of intellectual property rights,” a mechanism that strongly favors the rights holder and
increases damage amounts. Each country should have the flexibility to individually determine the appropriate
measure for damages for IP infringement.

d) Expanding data exclusivity: the U.S. is seeking to expand a backdoor way to grant monopoly status
Data exclusivity is a TRIPS plus provision that restricts access to essential clinical trial data pertaining to the
safety and efficacy of drugs. Data exclusivity measures prevent generic manufacturers from using existing
clinical research to gain regulatory approval of their medicines, forcing them to perform duplicate clinical trials
or wait for the “data monopoly” period to end.
In the absence of data exclusivity measures, when a generic manufacturer applies to register and sell a version of
a previously-registered medicine, they only have to provide data showing that their product is equivalent to the
original. The drug regulatory authority relies on the clinical trial data provided by the original manufacturer to
evaluate the safety and efficacy of the generic drug.
The introduction of data exclusivity provisions essentially creates a new system for granting monopolies by
blocking registration of generic medicines until the data exclusivity period ends, even if the patent monopoly
has already ended or been overcome, for example with the use of a compulsory license. Under these terms,
generic competition is stifled not only for old medicines no longer under patent protection, but also for new
medicines that don’t warrant patent protection.
Data exclusivity prevents the registration of generic versions of a medicine for many years (the U.S. is asking
for up to 12 years of data exclusivity for some classes of drugs), unless the generic manufacturer repeats the
necessary clinical trials. This is not only extremely costly, but also arguably unethical, as it forces duplication
of clinical trials for patients and animals in order to prove something that is already known.
In addition, while there are clear methods and procedures by which patents can be challenged and overcome –
such as patent oppositions and compulsory licenses – rules governing data exclusivity for pharmaceutical test
data do not always provide the same public health safeguards.
Although it is not yet clear what the U.S. demands for data exclusivity will be for the TPP, the U.S. has
traditionally pressed for a minimum term of five years, similar to U.S. law for certain products. However,
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has been aggressively lobbying for the TPP
to require 12 years of data exclusivity for a subset of pharmaceutical drugs, called biologic (also called
biosimilar or biopharmaceutical) drugs.

In August 2011, several members of the House of Representatives,
led by Rep. Henry Waxman, urged president Obama to refrain from negotiating any provisions on exclusivity
for biologics in the TPP, noting that a 12-year exclusivity period would impede the ability of Congress to
achieve the administration's proposal that the exclusivity period for biologics be reduced to seven years, as
reflected in the FY2012 budget proposal, without running afoul of U.S. trade obligations. It is also unclear if
the U.S will allow the public health safeguards for data exclusivity specified in the 2007 New Trade Policy.


 Article 12.3 (b), Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
 http://www.who.int/medicines/services/expertcommittees/pharmprep/QAS04_093Rev4_final.pdf
 http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/05/phrma-wants-12-years-data-protection-in-tpp-talks
 http://www.waxman.house.gov/UploadedFiles/TPP_Biologics_Letter_08-04-11.pdf
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011


e) Requesting patent term extensions: the U.S. is seeking to keep generic competitors out of the market,
for longer
The TRIPS Agreement requires patents to last 20 years. Although it is not yet clear what the U.S. demands for
patent term extensions in the TPP will be, the U.S. is expected to seek to extend the monopoly patent period in
order to compensate for administrative delays in the regulatory process, even though the 2007 New Trade Policy
made patent extensions optional for countries negotiating trade agreements with the U.S. Such extensions delay
the entry of generic medicines, punishing patients for bureaucratic delays.

f) Requesting patent linkage: the U.S. is seeking to turn drug regulatory authorities into ‘patent police’
Patent linkage provisions prevent drug regulatory authorities from approving new drugs if they could potentially
infringe existing patents. Such provisions effectively require drug regulatory authorities, which are responsible
for evaluating the safety, quality, and efficacy of medicines, to take on the responsibility of policing patents, an
area normally under the purview of separate patent authorities. Linking drug registration and patent status can
delay generic entry into the market and is an aggressive TRIPS plus measure.
The 2007 New Trade Policy made patent linkage optional for countries negotiating trade agreements with the
U.S. Most countries in Europe do not impose linkage between patent status and drug registration. If a linkage
obligation is included in the TPP, it will impose on developing countries more restrictive conditions for the
registration of generic medicines than are found in Europe3. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BACKTRACKING ON U.S. COMMITMENTS TO ACCESS TO
MEDICINES

The TPP is the first trade agreement negotiated under the Obama administration. Leaked U.S. positions and
correspondence and discussions between Congress and the USTR indicate that the U.S. is prepared to walk
away from its previous public health commitments, including the 2007 New Trade Policy.


The bipartisan May 10th, 2007 New Trade Policy,25 signed by the Bush administration and U.S. Congress,
specified that the USTR should modify its intellectual property demands in trade agreement negotiations so that
important public health safeguards are included. The 2007 New Trade Policy aims to scale-back the harshest IP
protections for developing countries in order to strike a better balance between protection of IP and public health
needs. Although it did not go far enough, it was a step in the right direction. In particular:26
 Patent linkage provisions were made voluntary (whereas they had been mandatory in previous US trade
agreements).
 Patent term extension provisions were made voluntary (whereas they had been mandatory in previous
US trade agreements).
 Data exclusivity was limited to five years for new chemical entities; concurrent periods of exclusivity
were mandated, and public health exceptions were allowed to ensure governments could still implement
public health safeguards such as compulsory licenses.
When the 2007 New Trade Policy was announced, the House Ways and Means Committee called it “a
fundamental shift in U.S. trade policy.”27 However, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has been aggressively
lobbying against the 2007 New Trade Policy being applied to the TPP negotiation countries.

USTR has stated
that they are considering options in the TPP that would shift U.S. policy away from the 2007 New Trade Policy
and toward greater protection of intellectual property rights for brand-name pharmaceutical companies in the
25 http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/enewsletter/5-11-07/07%2005%2010%20New%20Trade%20Policy%20Outline.pdf
26

 For an analysis of the May 10 agreement, see: Fabiana Jorge. New U.S. trade policy: A turning point?. Journal of Generic Medicines
(2007) 5, 5–8. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jgm.4950093. Available at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jgm/journal/v5/n1/abs/4950093a.html
27 http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/enewsletter/5-11-07/07%2005%2010%20New%20Trade%20Policy%20Outline.pdf

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011


Several Members of US Congress have also warned against this possibility and written to the
Obama administration to demand that it uphold the 2007 New Trade Policy28.
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March 03rd, 2014

3/3/2014

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CORPORATE FRAUD RECOVERY AND TPP ARE THE TWO TOP ISSUES IN THIS ELECTION RACE. IF YOUR POL IS NOT MAKING THAT FRONT AND CENTER....THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT-----LOOK BELOW AT BERNIE SANDERS SHOUTING FRAUD NEEDS TO BE RECOVERED!!!!


Regarding the continued error in the phrase 'wealth inequity':

Again Basu tries to inform listeners of regional economic prosperity while failing to speak of the economic balance that will come when massive corporate fraud of tens of trillions of dollars comes back to government coffers and individual's pockets.  Until that rebalancing occurs, we cannot know one region's economic health over another.  Now, it so happens that the areas listed by Basu are indeed the areas front and center in these massive frauds along with the national corporate headquarters around Washington DC.  

WE ARE TELLING PEOPLE REPORTING THAT THERE IS GREAT WEALTH INEQUITY THAT YOU DO NOT CLAIM A BANK ROBBER RICHER THAN THE BANK FROM WHICH HE STOLE THE MONEY.

If you listen to pundits or politically align media like neo-liberal MSNBC you will hear this mantra....WE HAVE TO REVERSE WEALTH INEQUITY and not once do they say IT'S RULE OF LAW THAT WILL DO IT! They are pretending we are back in the 1960s and simply need progressive policies as if the massive public wealth fraud never happened.  Robert Reich is a neo-liberal economist who was part of the Clinton Administration as Labor Secretary when all the policy creating this third world status of our country to gain hold.  Nafta and breaking Glass Steagall assured this massive wealth inequity and unaccountable global corporate rule would occur.  Neo-liberals like Clinton, Reich, and Obama work to see that wealth consolidation indeed occurs in any way possible...ergo, suspension of Rule of Law.

IF A POLITICIAN OR PUNDIT IS SHOUTING THERE IS WEALTH INEQUITY WITHOUT SHOUTING FOR JUSTICE FROM MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD-----WHICH WILL ITSELF REVERSE THIS WEALTH INEQUITY----THEY ARE WORKING FOR THOSE COMMITTING THE FRAUD.

We know of course that New York City is ground zero for the frauds and therefor little of the wealth they claim is actually theirs......it is our home equity, retirement, pensions, health care, and public assets.  WE OWN MUCH OF NYC WEALTH.  San Francisco has legitimate wealth with the TECH industry although they are evading taxes.  This area is ground zero for subprime mortgage, defense, and for-profit education industry frauds.  So, when all of that wealth is taken from San Francisco's economy....they will be ranked differently in wealth inequity.  Washington is of course ground zero for all of the Federal contract fraud in the trillions of dollars and with it are the headquarters of all of the global corporations fat with fraud.  When those fraudulent gains come back to the citizens and government coffers, that area will be ranked differently.  So, you can see that Basu's willingness to spout stats that have no basis in reality makes US media on par with the Romanian media in free press.  FREE PRESS HOLDS POWER ACCOUNTABLE....IT DOES NOT PROPAGATE PROPAGANDA.  If the people at the top think the American people are going to let the stealing of tens of trillions of dollars go------they are indeed out of touch!





Should the federal government being doing more to investigate fraud in the financial industry?  Bloomberg Poll

Yes - 93% (4385 votes)

No - 7% (322 votes)

Total Votes: 4,707 Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding





The assets of the big banks mostly belong to the public as bringing back fraud and recovering damages would make these global banks into the regional banks we need them to be.  There is not a bank executive known to play the most obvious roll in these massive frauds that is not back working in finance earning tons of money again.  THIS IS SUSPENSION OF RULE OF LAW AND WHEN A GOVERNMENT SUSPENDS RULE OF LAW, IT SUSPENDS STATUTES OF LIMITATION.

Below you see only an example of the costs of damages to the American people.....there are tens of trillions in actual corporate frauds yet to be recovered.  Imagine allowing rogue financial firms like Moody's and Standards and Poor (S & P)......tell government pension managers that pensions have to be cut because 1/2 their value was lost in financial fraud that has yet to be recovered.

 THIS IS THIRD WORLD AND SHOWS WE HAVE A KLEPTOCRACY IN PLACE AND WE NEED TO SHAKE THESE BUGS FROM THE RUG.  NEO-CONS AND NEO-LIBERALS ARE THE BUGS MOVING ALL WEALTH TO THESE GLOBAL CORPORATE COFFERS.


Now, we know as well that all that time writing the Financial Reform Bill and yet not implemented and enforced has the economy ready to collapse yet again.  We know as well that neo-liberals took over from the neo-cons the oversight of corporate writing of TPP.  TPP negates all of what the Financial Reform Bill does.  Do you really think your pol did not know that ending US sovereignty with all the US Constitutional protections of WE THE PEOPLE AND BILL OF RIGHTS would of course make the Financial Reform Bill null and void?  OF COURSE THEY KNEW AS THEY SPENT THE TIME SUSPENDING FRAUDULENT ACCOUNTABILITY.  We will act as though we are doing something as we ignore that no justice in massive fraud occurs.





Five years ago today, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.


Instantly and inevitably, the house of cards otherwise known as Wall Street collapsed.

But after getting bailed out by the American taxpayers, Wall Street is doing just fine.

The people of Main Street? Not so much.

Here are some numbers to think about this Sunday morning.

    Amount the crash cost the U.S. economy: $22 trillion

    How much everyone would get if that $22 trillion were divided equally among the U.S. populace: $69,478.88

    Assets of the four biggest banks in America — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wachovia/Wells Fargo — when they were “too big to fail” in 2008: $6.4 trillion

    Assets of those four banks today: $7.8 trillion

    Of the 63 former Lehman Brothers employees identified by a bankruptcy examiner as being aware of an accounting scheme Lehman used to mask its true finances, number who are employed in senior financial services positions today: 47

    Number of the 25 banks responsible for the bulk of risky subprime loans leading up to the crash that are back in the mortgage business: 25

    Chances that an American voter thinks that regulating financial products and services is “important” or “very important”: 9 in 10

____________________________________________



BERNIE SANDERS IS THE ONLY NATIONAL POL THAT SHOUTS OUT RECOVERING CORPORATE FRAUD IS A MUST.  WHETHER DEFENSE INDUSTRY FRAUD TO PROTECT VETERANS....WALL STREET FRAUD RECOVERY....OR THE FEDERAL RESERVE....GROUND ZERO FOR GREAT FRAUD-----

IF A POL IS NOT SHOUTING THIS---THEY ARE AIDING AND ABETTING.

See why saying there is wealth inequity in America before justice reverses much of this fraud is propaganda?




    
The Fed Audit

Thursday, July 21, 2011

The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. "As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world," said Sanders. "This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else."

Among the investigation's key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. "No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said.

The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse.  In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans.

For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed's board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed.  Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed's emergency lending programs.

In another disturbing finding, the GAO said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given bailout funds.  One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it might have created the appearance of a conflict of interest.

To Sanders, the conclusion is simple. "No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed's board of directors or be employed by the Fed," he said.

The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced most of its emergency lending programs to private contractors, many of which also were recipients of extremely low-interest and then-secret loans.

The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their emergency lending programs to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.  The same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Altogether some two-thirds of the contracts that the Fed awarded to manage its emergency lending programs were no-bid contracts. Morgan Stanley was given the largest no-bid contract worth $108.4 million to help manage the Fed bailout of AIG.

A more detailed GAO investigation into potential conflicts of interest at the Fed is due on Oct. 18, but Sanders said one thing already is abundantly clear. "The Federal Reserve must be reformed to serve the needs of working families, not just CEOs on Wall Street."

To read the GAO report, click here.


_________________________________


Below is a good analysis of the problem in Europe which of course is the same as that in the US.  This analysis has a second value because it shows that the same model of throwing Europe into sovereign debt crisis is now being used by US neo-liberals for the next Bain's Capital gutting of wealth assets from the public sector.  Remember, it was Iceland that from the start simply allowed the banks to default from the fraud and their economy is well on its way to being healthy while the US and Europe are still held hostage by TROIKA and WALL STREET/FED.  American academics have the same analyses showing direct cause and effect....proof of conspiracy to defraud.  We have all the data needed to show all of this CDS policy was a planned conspiracy that can be easily tried in court and won.

WE NEED LABOR UNION LAWYERS TO START ACTING AS US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IN TAKING ALL OF THIS TO COURT AND DECRYING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS SUSPENSION OF RULE OF LAW!


Anyone as nerdish as I am will like this research and analysis of how the same financial scheme brought to us with the subprime mortgage loan fraud with trillions of dollars of fraudulent loans insured with Credit Default Swaps by mainly one large insurance agency.....AIG all the time knowing these loans were toxic and all would collapse.  So, the Dodd Frank financial reform was to address this and of course nothing has been done and these same people are now thinking the subprime mortgage loan fraud was such a success as tens of trillions of dollars in fraud was left with the looters now think......let's do it again.

This time rather than the goal of capturing all of the nation's real estate holdings and consolidating land ownership to a few at the top.....this fraud has as its goal blowing up the public sector by super-sizing municipal debt and imploding the economy to make a crash that would create huge sovereign debt default.  You can do that only if you again use the Credit Default Swap insurance so that as everyone else loses all their wealth, you have this insurance that protects the very people imploding the economy.  None of this is legal as banks deliberately hid sovereign debt and municipal debt with financial instruments so more debt could be taken on.....ergo, the implosion we have in Europe in 2008.

This is important because the same thing is now happening in the US these few years of Obama's term as US state governors and mayors.....like O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake are doing to you and me what was done in the PIIGS nations in Europe.  Loading up municipal debt while insuring it all with Credit Default Swaps.  You know this is a plan as municipal bonds and public debt have never been allowed to use these CDS and now they are.  So, as governors and mayors load our government coffers with tons of debt tied to Wall Street financial instruments, the investment firms are protecting themselves from loss when the economic crash comes while the public sector.......MECU and the State of Maryland/City of Baltimore will default on their terms and lose most of the investment.

AGAIN, THIS IS ALL PUBLIC MALFEASANCE....IT IS ILLEGAL AND ALL TERMS CAN BE VACATED BECAUSE INVESTMENT FIRMS KNOW THIS IS ALL FRAUDULENT.

This article below is great and it is very long so I could not copy it here.......go to the webpage to see it in its entirety to see how these 1% are working to steal all that is public!


Analysis of European Sovereign Credit Default Swap during theSovereign Debt Crisis in Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
 byBerkay OrenA dissertation submitted in partial of theMSc Finance and InvestmentAtThe University of BrightonFaculty of Management and Information SciencesBrighton Business School(May 2013)


  Abstract

This thesis has represented the determinants of sovereign CDS spreads during currentsovereign debt crisis in periphery countries namely Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The period of analysis is between 4 March 2008 and 3 May 2012. After the demise of LehmanBrothers, the sovereign CDS market has attached significant attention and the credit marketshave been issue to an unprecedented re-pricing of credit risk. Moreover, Lehman Brothersdevastated investor confidence and decrease in the availability of credit. Massive assistanceof the banks was heightened public sector deficit. Thus it has led to high level sovereign debt.This means that the risk of default of sovereign became real in periphery countries. Thisthesis has been classified three phases. Firstly an analysis of credit default swaps and their use in the financial World. Secondly development of the European periphery economy on amacro level in Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Finally the statistical approach of ordinaryleast square is to be analysed. Main purpose of this thesis will identify sovereign creditdefault swaps associated with the current sovereign debt crisis.


___________________________________________

We want to remember that the reason Clinton and Bush targeted the low-income mortgage market for the subprime mortgage frauds was first, they wanted to consolidate real estate ownership and second they used the Federal assistance for these loans over and over again....this is where a large part of the fraud fleecing government coffers came.  They did it on purpose because they knew they would have someone in office that would suspend Rule of Law....if not Obama, Hillary, or Romney.  Sending low-income people to higher education and placing them in homes.....under programs filled with fraud was only cover for this massive fraud.  WE KNOW IF THE INTENT IS TO DO GOOD, YOU DO NOT ALLOW MASSIVE FRAUD OF THE PROGRAM TO OCCUR.  The same is happening today in the GREEN industry as a good program is riddled with fraud allowing 1/2 of the green spending to be defrauded.  

IF NO OVERSIGHT IS GIVEN AND NO JUSTICE IN PLACE....THE INTENT WAS INDEED TO DEFRAUD.

Below is a look at just the subprime mortgage fraud....we know that financial fraud was widespread and across corporate industries as well.  So, the few hundreds of billions of dollars collected in 'settlements' does nothing for tens of trillions of dollars in fraud.  THIS IS WHY ALL PUBLIC PROGRAMS, SERVICES, AND ASSETS ARE BEING HANDED TO PRIVATE ENTITIES UNDER THE GUISE OF STARVED GOVERNMENT BUDGETS.



Wall Street Bank Fraud Massive

Details
    Written by Dan McGookey

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The New York Times reported this week that Wall Street is now predicting that its Banks will be anteing up over $50 Billion in settlement payouts with the government and others as a result of their massive fraud perpetrated through the securitized lending system during the first eight years of this Century. Even this astounding number doesn't begin to tell the story of how widespread that fraud was, or the toll it took on this Country's economy, however.

Consider the fact that tens of trillions of dollars of wealth changed hands from Main Street to Wall Street in less than a decade through the vehicle known as securitized lending. That is the process whereby a mortgage loan is magically transformed into a stock certificate or security simply by bundling it with thousands of others and then selling "mortgage-backed certificates" (or stock) in that pool of loans. The problem was that the Wall Street Bankers were able to sell the stock in the loan pool at 10-20 times the face value of the loans. And the reason we say that tens of trillions of dollars shifted from Main Street to Wall Street by virtue of the corrupt securitized lending system is because it was city and state governments, retirement funds, insurance companies and the like who were the suckers buying up the absurdly over-priced stock. In other words, the money was stolen out of the wallets and purses of all Americans.

Even through the estimated amount of the penalties is tantamount to a slap on the wrist for the Banks, it at least serves to highlight the significance of Wall Street's corruption. And the news reports of that corruption will no doubt keep coming with increasing frequency as the depth of the fraud continues to be exposed. All we can hope for is that as that happens, our own Government's complicity in the scandal will be exposed as well.

Reverse Bank Robbery

The Wall Street Banksters obviously never read or simply didn't take heed of the following preaching of Socrates:

"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud."

Avoiding the Foreclosure Trap

As a homeowner struggling for mortgage relief with your bank, don't forget to be mindful of the following time-honored sage advice; "Forewarned is forearmed". Realize that the fraud involved with your mortgage didn't end after your loan's origination. Because foreclosure is a profitable business, there is a very good chance the fraud is continuing, along with your victimization.


Kate Eyster and Lauren McGookey contributed to this article.

Copyright 2014 Daniel L. McGookey


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Let's look at one other corporate fraud...this one tax fraud that is wide-spread and easy to find.  The IRS could  pay down much of the national debt itself by recovering corporate tax fraud yet we are told by neo-liberals those bad republicans are defunding the IRS.....indeed, it is being starved.  Yet, the financial settlements in the hundreds of billions requires that a percentage of all settlements go to rebuilding and strengthening fraud detection and prosecution......IT IS SELF-FUNDING.  So, all we need are state pols that shout loudly that none of this is happening----IT IS THE VOICE OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS THAT WOULD FORCE THESE CROOKS TO DO THE RIGHT THING.  IT IS THEIR SILENCE THAT IS DUPLICITOUS.  

IN MARYLAND, IT WAS ALL OF THE CURRENT POLS IN OFFICE THAT ALLOWED THIS MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD TO HAPPEN AND INDEED MUCH WEALTH INEQUITY IN MARYLAND IS A RESULT OF THIS FRAUD AND LACK OF JUSTICE!

Joe Biden's Delaware and Harry REid's Nevada are the two states with the most international business geared to off-shoring and hiding wealth.

THIS BILL WAS PASSED IN 2006 JUST AS THE DISMANTLING OF OVERSIGHT AND DEFUNDING WAS AT ITS HEIGHT.  REMEMEBER, THE RECOVERY OF FRAUD BY THE IRS SUPPORTS ALL THE OVERSIGHT AND ACTION NEEDED. THE IRS HAS PLENTY OF MONEY TO DO THE JOB WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL FUNDING.

Trillions in fraud here....tens of trillions there.....makes for tons of lost revenue to the economy from corporate fraud at Federal, state, and local level.  When people like Basu or Robert Reich speak of wealth inequity as needing legislation and not Rule of Law...THEY ARE WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.





Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud and Transfer Price Schemes Are Two Forms of IRS Tax Fraud That Can Be the Basis Of An IRS Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit



 by Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Lawyer and Transfer Payment Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawyer Jason Coomer

Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud and Transfer Payment Tax Fraud are two forms of corporate tax fraud that are committed by large multinational corporations.  The IRS is offering rewards and protections for IRS whistleblowers and IRS informants that work through Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers, Multinational Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers, and Transfer Payment Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers to identify tax fraud schemes that cost the United States millions of dollars.

Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, Multinational Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, and Transfer Payment Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, Jason S. Coomer, works with corporate tax fraud whistleblowers, illegal offshore account tax fraud whistleblowers, transfer payment tax fraud whistleblowers, and other corporate tax fraud whistleblowers to expose corporate tax fraud and other forms of tax fraud.  If you are the original source with special knowledge of tax fraud and are interested in learning more about a tax whistleblower lawsuit, please feel free to contact Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer and Transfer Payment Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer Jason Coomer via e-mail message.

Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Lawsuit, Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, IRS Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, Transfer Price Scheme Tax Fraud Lawsuit, IRS Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, & IRS Whistleblower Payment for Detection of Fraud Lawsuit Information

In 2006, the Tax Relief and Health Care Act that was signed into law included a whistleblower reward amendment that created mandatory reward language to the IRS to create a mandatory economic incentive to encourage tax fraud whistleblowers to step forward to help the government detect large scale fraudulent schemes.  By offering large potential rewards for reporting multimillion tax fraud schemes, the IRS has received hundreds of tax fraud tips from tax fraud informants regarding taxpayer fraud and massive violations of the tax code costing taxpayers Billions of dollars.  Many of the tips already received include fraud schemes of hundreds of millions and tens of millions of dollars.  It is estimated that this programs will result in hundreds of billions of dollars or even Trillions of dollars in tax fraud being detected.

The economic incentives in the Tax Whistleblower Reward Programs are designed to encourage insider tax fraud informants and tax fraud whistleblowers with knowledge and evidence of large tax violations and tax fraud schemes to step forward and report the massive tax fraud.  The IRS is hoping that there will be several tax fraud whistleblowers and tax fraud informants that will help them detect and collect on an estimated $3 Trillion in illegal offshore accounts as well as several other tax-avoidance schemes that have been perpetrated by billionaires and millionaires as well as large corporations.

The IRS Whistleblower Reward Amendment requires the Internal Revenue Service to pay rewards to whistleblowers who exposed large scale tax fraud and taxpayer fraud including major tax underpayments, violations of the Internal Revenue Code, or other fraudulent schemes to unlawfully not pay taxes.  The IRS Whistleblower Reward Program is aimed at large multimillion dollar fraud schemes and tax violations in that the total amount of fraud or underpayment of taxes in dispute would have to exceed $2 millions.

The IRS will pay the tax fraud whistleblower or tax fraud informant if the information presented substantially contributes to the collection of money by the IRS.  As such, the tax fraud whistleblower should have inside knowledge of and documentation of the tax fraud to be successful.     

Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Lawyer, Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, IRS Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Transfer Price Scheme Tax Fraud Lawyer, and IRS Whistleblower Reward Lawyer

Transfer pricing schemes involve the overpricing of imports and/or the underpricing of exports between related companies in different countries for the purpose of transferring profits or revenue out of the United States in order to evade taxes. The profits and revenue end up in a country that has a lower corporate tax rate than the US.  These fraudulent pricing schemes can be used both for stock manipulation and corporate tax fraud.  For more information on Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Actions, please go to the following: Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, IRS Tax Fraud Whistleblower Award Lawsuit, and Corporate Tax Fraud Lawsuit Information web page.

Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Lawsuit, Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, IRS Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, Transfer Price Scheme Tax Fraud Lawsuit, IRS Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, & IRS Whistleblower Payment for Detection of Fraud Lawsuit Information

To qualify for a whistleblower award under section 7623 (b), the information must:

    Relate to a tax noncompliance matter in which tax, penalties, interest, additions to tax and additional amounts in dispute exceed $2,000,000.00

    Relate to a taxpayer, and in the case of an individual taxpayer, one whose gross income exceeds $200,000.00 for at least one of the tax years in question

If the information meets the above criteria and substantially contributes to a decision by the IRS to take administrative or judicial action that results in the collection of tax, penalties, interest, additions in tax and additional amounts, then the IRS will pay an award of at least fifteen percent, but not more than thirty percent of what the IRS collects.  26 U.S.C. at 7623(b)(1).

The IRS has authority to reduce the award to ten percent if the claim is based upon specific allegations disclosed in certain public information (e.g. government audits) and determines that the whistleblower's information was not the original source of information.  Further, the IRS also has the authority to reduce the award or not give an award if the whistleblower planned and initiated the actions that led to the tax underpayment.

The IRS Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Recovery Program, and IRS Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Rewards

The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, signed into law on December 20, 2006 amended the Internal Revenue Code to provide rewards for turning in tax cheats including corporations and people that are committing tax fraud.  According to the IRS, the primary purpose behind the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 "was to provide incentives for people with knowledge of significant tax non-compliance to provide that information to the IRS."  The new program generally requires the IRS to pay rewards to whistleblowers if the information presented substantially contributes to the collection of money by the IRS.  The law created the IRS Whistleblower Office to receive, evaluate, and determine whether to pay the whistleblower an award.

The IRS has funded a robust IRS Whistleblower Program.  The new program focuses on large tax fraud and tax underpayment claims.  To qualify for the rewards, $2 million of taxes, penalties, and interest must be involved.  Individual taxpayers must have $200,000.00 of taxable income in any year.   The reward is from fifteen to thirty percent of the tax collected, depending upon the extent to which the whistleblower contributed to the additional collection.  If the IRS determines that the whistleblower's information was not the original source of information, but still contributes to the additional collection, the IRS can still award up to ten percent of the amount collected.

It is interesting to note that Congress passed the original tax whistleblower rewards law in March 1867 for people who reported tax crimes.  The law was enacted prior to a federal income tax, but was not effective because payment of the tax whistleblower reward was voluntary and no rewards were paid out until the rewards became mandatory through the 2006 amendment.

SEC Violation Whistleblower Lawyer, Financial Fraud Whistleblower Bounty Lawyer, SEC Whistleblower Incentive Program Lawyer, SEC Violation Lawyer, and Securities Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer

As a Financial Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer and Securities Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, Jason S. Coomer commonly works with other powerful financial fraud and securities fraud whistleblower lawyers to handle large Securities Fraud Whistleblower Lawsuits, Securities Fraud Bounty Actions, Commodity Fraud Bounty Claims, and other Financial Fraud Lawsuits.  He also works on Medicare Fraud Whistleblower Lawsuits , Defense Contractor Fraud Whistleblower Lawsuits, Stimulus Fraud Whistleblower Lawsuits, Government Contractor Fraud Whistleblower Lawsuits, and other government fraud whistleblower lawsuits.

Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Lawsuit, Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, IRS Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit, Transfer Price Scheme Tax Fraud Lawsuit, & IRS Whistleblower Reward Lawsuit Information
by Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Paid Informant Lawyer and Transfer Payment Tax Fraud Paid Informant Lawyer Jason Coomer

Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, Multinational Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, and Transfer Payment Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, Jason S. Coomer, works with corporate tax fraud whistleblowers, IRS tax fraud whistleblowers, and other tax fraud whistleblowers that are stepping up and blowing the whistle on IRS tax fraud, corporate tax fraud, IRS code violations, and other forms of tax fraud.  If you are the original source with special knowledge of tax fraud and are interested in learning more about a tax whistleblower lawsuit, please feel free to contact Illegal Offshore Account Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer and Transfer Payment Corporate Tax Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer Jason Coomer via e-mail message.



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Much of the wealth Basu speaks is tied to the Washington and San Franscisco, NYC is from this massive corporate fraud.  it is not real wealth.  Keep in mind that the defense industry budget is one of the largest.  NSA can see all, yet they could not build accountability into these computer systems.  Luckily, WIKILEAKS had a download of defense industry contracting and is now being reviewed by investigative journalists and international justice organizations.


JUST RECOVERING CORPORATE FRAUD WOULD PAY DOWN GOVERNMENT DEBT AT ALL LEVELS AND MAKE ALL PUBLIC TRUSTS AND PENSIONS FLUSH WITH MONEY! DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLS SHOUTING THIS?


 Grand Theft Pentagon, Massive Waste and Fraud

Politics / US Military Nov 21, 2013 - 12:39 PM GMT

By: Stephen_Lendman

Politics

Longstanding Pentagon operations reflect a black hole of unaccountability. Reuters published a two-part report. In July, it discussed the Defense Department’s “payroll quagmire.”

It’s bureaucracy is stifling. It’s “unyielding,” said Reuters. Active duty and retired military personnel are routinely cheated. Pay errors are widespread.

Correcting “or just explaining them can test even the most persistent soldiers.” Weeks or months pass without resolution.

Some personnel are cheated on pay. Others are penalized for overpayments. Their earnings are “drastically cut” unfairly. Precise figures are impossible to calculate.

At issue is “the Defense Department’s jury-rigged network of mostly incompatible computer systems for payroll and accounting, many of them decades old, long obsolete, and unable to communicate with each other,” said Reuters.

“The Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) still uses a half-century-old computer language that is largely unable to communicate with the equally outmoded personnel management systems employed by each of the military services.”

A December 2012 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed unaccountable accounting. No way exists to assure correct amounts are paid. Errors can’t be tracked.

________________________________

As neo-liberals now pretend that wealth inequity exists and not simply a failure of justice to occur in moving money back to government coffers and individual's pockets, WE THE PEOPLE MUST SHOUT LOUDLY THE TRUTH---THAT JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED!!!



Bill Black: How Elite Economic Hucksters Drive America’s Biggest Fraud Epidemics



Posted on June 6, 2013 by Yves Smith

This article is part of an ongoing AlterNet series, "The Age of Fraud."

What do you get when you throw together economic fraudsters, plutocrats and opportunistic criminals? A financial crisis, that’s what. If you look back over the massive frauds that have swept the country in recent decades, from the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s to the 2007-'08 financial crash, this deadly combination always appears.

A dangerous cycle begins when prominent economists pander to plutocrats and bought politicians, who reward them with top posts, where they promote the perverse economic policies that cause fraud epidemics. Crises develop, and millions of people are ripped off. Those who fight for truth are ignored or ruined. The criminals get wealthier, bolder and more politically powerful, and go on to hatch even more devastating cons.

The three most recent financial crises in U.S. history were driven by a special type of fraud called “control fraud” — cases where the officers who control what look like legitimate entities use them as “weapons” to commit crimes. Each time, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, played a catastrophic role. First, his policies created the fraud-friendly (criminogenic) environment that produces epidemics of control fraud, then he failed to identify those epidemics and incipient crises, and finally, he failed to counter them.

At the heart of Greenspan’s failure lies an ethical void in the brand of economics that has dominated American universities and policy circles for the last several decades, a brand known as “free market fundamentalism” or the “neoclassical school.” (I call it “theoclassical economics” for its quasi-religious belief system.) Mainstream economists who follow this school assert a deeply flawed and controversial concept known as the “efficient market hypothesis,” which holds that financial markets magically regulate themselves (they automatically “self-correct”) and are thus immune to fraud. When an economist starts believing in that kind of fallacy, he is bound to become blind to reality. Let’s take a look at what blinded Greenspan:

    Greenspan knew that markets were “efficient” because the efficient market hypothesis is the foundational pillar underlying modern finance theory.
    Markets can’t be efficient if there is control fraud, so there must not be any.
    Wait, there are control frauds! Tens of thousands of them.
    Then control fraud must not really be harmful, or markets would not be efficient.
    Control fraud, therefore, must not be immoral. As crime boss Emilio Barzini put it in The Godfather, “It’s just business.”

As delusional and immoral as this “logic” chain is, many elite economists believe it. This warped perspective has spawned policies so perverse that they turn the world of finance into the optimal environment for criminals. The upshot is that most of our elite financial leaders and professionals have thrown integrity out the window, and we end up with recurrent, intensifying financial crises, de facto immunity for our most elite criminals, and the rise of crony capitalism. Let’s do a little time travel to see exactly how this plays out.

How to Stoke a Savings and Loan Fiasco

The Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California was at the center of the famous crisis that rocked the financial world in the 1980s. A once prudently run company morphed into a casino when S&L associations became deregulated and started doing risky business with depositors’ money. Businessman, GOP darling, and anti-pornography crusader Charles Keating, ironically nicknamed “Mr. Clean,” took over Lincoln in 1984 and got the casino rolling. (It was a special kind of casino where the games were rigged – and not in favor of newlywed brides who were the subject of sexual extortion in Casablanca.) In a classic case of control fraud, Keating devoted himself to turning the company into a weapon of mass financial destruction and a source of wealth for his family. Keating’s “weapon of choice” for his frauds was accounting.

Keating went on a spree buying land, taking equity positions in real estate projects, and purchasing junk bonds. In 1985, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), where I was the staffer leading the regulation efforts, grew alarmed at the new activities of savings associations like Lincoln. So we made a rule: S&Ls could not put more than 10 percent of company assets in "direct investments” – an activity that led to very large losses.

Alan Greenspan, chairman of an economic consulting firm at the time, urged us to permit Lincoln Savings to go full steam ahead. His memo supporting Lincoln’s application to make hundreds of millions of dollars in direct investments praised the company’s management (Keating) and claimed that Lincoln Savings “posed no foreseeable risk of loss.”

The FHLBB rejected Lincoln’s request to exceed the rule’s threshold because direct investments were a superb vehicle for accounting fraud – they made it easy to hide losses and to create fictional income. Nevertheless, Lincoln continued to violate the rule and created fictional (backdated) board consents with hundreds of forged signatures to make it appear that the investments were “grandfathered” under the rule. The hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful direct investments were used for fraudulent purposes by Lincoln Savings’ controlling officers and caused enormous losses – many of them to elderly citizens who were conned into buying the junk bonds of Lincoln Savings’ holding company. The massive losses on Lincoln’s illegal direct investments were a major reason those bonds were worthless.

Hoping to use his political clout to continue the fraud, Keating hired Greenspan to lobby the senators who eventually became the known as the “Keating Five.” I remember well when these senators intervened at Keating’s request to try to prevent me and my colleagues from taking an enforcement action (or conservatorship) that would have saved over a billion dollars. (I took the notes of that meeting, which led to the Senate ethics investigation of the Keating Five.) The cronyism was so thick in Washington that William Weld, then a top Department of Justice official and later the Republican governor of Massachusetts, actually tried to gin up a criminal investigation of the regulators rather than Keating at the request of Lincoln’s lawyers who had just left the DOJ! Eventually, Keating and many of the senior managers of Lincoln Savings were convicted of felonies and Lincoln Savings became the most expensive failure of the S&L debacle.

When you look back on this expensive fiasco, you see that the work of respected professional economists was frequently called upon to support the fraudulent activities. One of the ways Greenspan tried to advance Keating’s effort to have the courts strike down the direct investment rule was to use a study conducted by a less famous economist, George Benston, who showed that S&Ls that violated the direct investment rule earned higher profits than those who didn’t. So he recommended the rule be dropped. Small problem: In less than two years all 33 of the companies Benston studied had failed. Most were accounting control frauds in which executives cooked the books to show fictional profits.

Keating had a talent for obtaining endorsements from prominent economists. He got Daniel Fischel to conduct a study that purported to show that Lincoln Savings was the best S&L in America. Fischel invoked the efficient market hypothesis to opine that our examiners provided no useful information because the markets had already perfectly taken into account any information to which we had access.  In reality, of course, this was nonsense, and Lincoln Savings was the worst S&L in the country.

Economists who pander to plutocrats have a great advantage over scholars in other fields: There is no reputational penalty among your peers for being dead wrong. Benston got an endowed chair at Emory, Fischel was made dean of the Univerisity of Chicago’s Law School, and Greenspan was made Chairman of the Fed. Those who got control fraud right and fought the elite scams and their powerful political patrons – people like Edwin Gray, head of the FHLBB, and Joe Selby, head of supervision in Texas – saw their careers ended.

Consider what that perverse pattern indicates about how badly ethics have fallen in the both economics and government.

How to Create a Regulatory Black Hole

Alan Greenspan was Ayn Rand’s protégé, but he moved radically to the wacky side of Rand on the issue of financial fraud. And that, friends, is pretty wacky. Greenspan pushed the idea that preventing fraud was not a legitimate basis for regulation, and said so in a famous encounter with Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Brooksley Born. “I don’t think there is any need for a law against fraud,” Born recalls Greenspan telling her. Greenspan actually believed the market would sort itself out if any fraud occurred. Born knew she had a powerful foe on any regulation.

She was right. Greenspan, with the rabid support of the Rubin wing of the Clinton administration, along with Republican Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Phil Gramm, crushed Born’s effort to regulate credit default swaps (CDS). The plutocrats and their political allies deliberately created what’s known as a regulatory black hole – a place where elite criminals could commit their crimes under the cover of perpetual night.

Greenspan chose another Fed economist, Patrick Parkinson, to testify on behalf of the bill to create the regulatory black hole for these dangerous financial instruments. Parkinson offered the old line that efficient markets easily excluded fraud — otherwise, they wouldn’t be efficient markets! (Parkinson would later tell the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2011 that the “whole concept” of a related financial instrument known as an “ABS CDO” had been an “abomination”). Greenspan’s successor richly rewarded Parkinson for being stunningly wrong in his belief: Ben Bernanke appointed Parkinson — who had no experience as a supervisor or examiner — as the Fed’s head of supervision.

Lynn Turner, former chief accountant of the SEC, told me of Greenspan’s infamous question to his group of senior officials who met at the Fed in late 1998 or early 1999 (roughly the same time as Greenspan’s conversation with Born): "Why does it matter if the banks are allowed to fudge their numbers a little bit?" What’s wrong with a “little bit” of fraud?

Conservatives often support the “broken windows” theory of criminal activity, which asserts that you stop serious blue-collar crime by cracking down on minor offenses. Yet mysteriously, they never apply the concept to white-collar financial crimes by elites. The little-bit-of fraud-is-ok concept got made into law in the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which created the regulatory black hole for credit default swaps. That black hole was compounded by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under the leadership of Wendy Gramm, spouse of Senator Phil Gramm.

Enron’s fraudulent leaders were delighted to exploit that black hole, because they were engaged in a massive control fraud. They appointed Wendy Gramm to their board of directors and proceeded to use derivatives to manipulate prices and aid their cartel in driving electricity prices far higher on the Pacific Coast. In a bizarre irony, the massive increase in prices led to the defeat of California Governor Gray Davis (the leading opponent of the cartel) and his replacement by Governor Schwarzenegger – a man who was part of the group that met secretly with Enron’s leadership to try to defeat Davis’s efforts to get the federal regulators to kill the cartel.

How damaging was Greenspan’s dogmatic and delusional defense of elite financial frauds in the case of Enron? If you look closely, you can see that Enron brought together all the critical elements of a financial crisis: big-time accounting control fraud, derivatives, cartels, and the use of off-balance sheet scams to inflate income and hide real losses and leverage. On top of all that, many of the world’s largest banks aided Enron and its extremely creative CFO Andrew Fastow to create frauds. The Fed could have responded by adopting and enforcing mandates to end the criminal practices that were driving the epidemic, but it didn’t. Instead, Greenspan and other Fed economists championed Enron’s leadership and cited the company as proof that regulation was unnecessary to prevent control fraud. They were so extreme that they attacked their own senior supervisors for daring to criticize the banks’ role in aiding and abetting Enron’s activities.

Later, when risky derivatives activities and control frauds at large financial institutions were pushing us toward the catastrophic crash of 2007-2008, the Fed took no meaningful action based on the lessons learned from Enron. Greenspan and the senior leadership of the Fed had learned absolutely nothing, which shows how disabling economic dogma is to regulators – making them worse than simply useless. They become harmful, again attacking their supervisors for criticizing the banks’ fraudulent “liar’s” loans. When Bernanke placed Patrick Parkinson (an economist blind to fraud by elite banksters) in a supervisory role at the Fed, he sealed the fate of millions of Americans whose financial well-being would be sucked right into that regulatory black hole – and removed the ability of the accursed supervisors to criticize the largest banks.

How to Protect Predatory Lenders

Finally, we come to the mortgage meltdown of 2008, when the entire housing industry went into freefall. Central to this crisis is the story of the liar's loan — mortgage-industry slang for a mortgage that a lender gives without checking tax returns, employment history, or anything else that might reliably indicate that the borrower can make the payments.

The Fed, and only the Fed, had authority under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA) to ban liar’s loans by all lenders. At a series of hearings mandated by Congress, dozens of witnesses representing home mortgage borrowers and state and local criminal investigators urged the Fed to do this. The testimony included a study that found a 90 percent incidence of fraud in liar’s loans.

What did Greenspan and Bernanke do? Exactly nothing. They consistently refused to act.

Greenspan went so far as to refuse pleas to send Fed examiners into bank holding company affiliates to find the facts and collect data on liar’s loans. Simultaneously, the Fed’s economists dismissed the warnings from progressives about fraudulent liar’s loans as “merely anecdotal.” In 2005, the desperate Fed regulators, blocked by Greenspan from sending in the examiners to get data from the banks, resorted to simply sending a letter to the largest banks requesting information. The Fed supervisor who received the banks’ response to that letter termed the data “very alarming.”

If you suspect that the banks would typically respond to such requests by understating their problem assets significantly, then you have the right instincts to be a financial regulator.

By 2003, loan quality was so bad that it could only be explained as the inevitable product of endemic accounting control fraud and it continued to collapse through 2007 until the bubble burst. By 2006, over two million fraudulent liar’s loans were originated annually. We know that it was overwhelmingly lenders and their agents who put the lies in liar’s loans. Liar’s loans make the perfect “natural experiment” because no governmental entity ever required a lender or a purchaser (and that includes Fannie and Freddie) to make or purchase a liar’s loan. Banks made, and purchased, trillions of dollars in liar’s loans because doing so lined the pockets of their controlling officers.

The Fed’s leadership, dominated by economists devoted to false theory, was enraged when the Fed’s supervisors presented evidence of endemic control fraud by the most elite lenders, particularly in the making of fraudulent liar’s loans. How dare the supervisors criticize our most reputable bank CEOs by showing that they were making hundreds of thousands through scams?

Bernanke finally acted under Congressional pressure on July 14, 2008 to ban liar’s loans. He cited evidence of endemic fraud available since early 2006 – evidence which would have been available way back in 2001 had Greenspan moved to require examiners to study liar’s loans. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, Bernanke delayed the ban for 18 months — one would not wish to inconvenience a fraudulent lender, after all.

We did not have to suffer this crisis. Economists who were not blinded by neoclassical theory, like George Akerlof (who won the Nobel Prize in 2001) and Christina Romer (adviser to President Obama from 2008-2010), had warned their colleagues about accounting control fraud and liar’s loans, as did criminologists and regulators like me. But Greenspan (and Timothy Geithner) refused to see the obvious truth.

Alan Greenspan had no excuse for assuming fraud out of existence, and his exceptionally immoral position on fraud and regulation proved catastrophic to America and much of the world. We cannot afford the price, measured in many trillions of dollars, over 10 million jobs, and endless suffering, of unethical economists.
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February 26th, 2014

2/26/2014

0 Comments

 
FOLKS......PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS ACTING AS OUR NATIONAL MILITARY AND RECRUITING FOREIGN NATIONALS TO PROTECT US GLOBAL CORPORATE INTERESTS OVERSEAS!!!!!!!  REALLY?????  THESE EMPLOYEES HAVE ALLIANCE TO CORPORATIONS AND NOT THE PUBLIC!  TPP ON STEROIDS.

NEO-LIBERALS HAVE WORKED TO PRIVATIZE THE MILITARY HARDER THAN BUSH/CHENEY.   SO, WHEN YOU LISTEN TO ONE FEEL OUR PAIN AND NOT SHOUTING OUT AGAINST ALL OF THIS POLICY....IT IS PROGRESSIVE PROPAGANDA. 
THEY ARE NOT DEMOCRATS!




Regarding the WYPR's voice out to Van Hollen on military cuts:


HELLO!!!!!!!!  THE PROBLEM IS PRIVATIZATION OF US MILITARY!


'The Clinton administration's "Reinventing Government" initiative promised to downsize it by shifting functions to contractors as a way cut costs and improve efficiency. Later under George Bush, private companies got to compete for 450,000 government jobs, and in 2001, the Pentagon's contracted workforce exceeded civilian DOD employees for the first time'.

*************************************


First, I listened to Van Hollen remorse about the treatment of Vets and outraged at this austerity that would have vets with 1% COLA raises each year and no access to health care as premiums, co-pays, and deductibles would keep vets from accessing most care.  Haven't heard Van Hollen say anything about recovering trillions of dollars in defense industry fraud or the dismantling of all that is public with the Veteran's Administration.  Haven't heard a thing from Van Hollen over the suggestion that after freezing wages of teachers and other public sector workers that they too were to get 1% increases, and lastly, Van Hollen said nothing about Social Security monthly payments being gutted of hundreds of dollars because the FED manipulates the inflation numbers to make what is 3-4% inflation look as if it is near zero.  So, Van Hollen is surrounded by people getting only 1% pay raises and yet....it is this one that hurts.

All of this is happening of course in the State of Maryland....Van Hollen's neo-liberal state.  It is neo-liberals who are allowing massive fraud to go without recovery making the public and a manufactured 'austerity' pay down the debt of tens of trillions stolen from the American people.

There is a greater concern in this conversation that Van Hollen is not telling you....the cuts to the defense industry is not only about gutting veterans benefits just as neo-liberals in Maryland are gutting all public sector wealth....it is about the fact that hundreds of thousands more public military staff are being let go.  Remember, I wrote a while ago that today's US military is over 70% private military contractors all of which operate with impunity overseas without government oversight.  The further downsizing of public military troops does not tell Americans the over side of the coin.  Congress passed laws that allow foreign citizens to serve as US military in the nation's where US global corporations have investments so as to protect them overseas.  So, Americans are having fewer and fewer public military troops accountable to them as corporate military contractors protecting corporate interests are taking most of the US military budget and is subsidized by global corporations.  WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THAT?  WELL, YOUR MILITARY NO LONGER WORKS FOR WE THE PEOPLE....IT WORKS FOR CORPORATIONS.  

HOW TPP IS THAT????

Of course Van Hollen knows all of this as he comes on media and feels the pain of vets being thrown under the bus by Obama and neo-liberals after Bush and neo-cons forced them to fight in military tour after tour after tour.....all the time knowing they were going to take all of what was due to these vets.  MARYLAND IS DOING THIS NOW SO THIS IS NOT A REPUBLICAN ISSUE....IT IS NEO-LIBERAL/NEO-CON.  Wouldn't you think the goal of making the US military completely privatized and working for US global corporations would be shouted by democratic pols?  NOT IF THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS RUNNING AS DEMOCRATS!

Below is a great overview of the goal of transferring our public military over to private military contractors.  You can see how, with no oversight these military contractors are stealing trillions of dollars in fraud and now have more alliance to the global corporation for which it fights than to a sovereign nation called the US.  HOW TPP IS THAT??????  This is a long article so please continue down to the last few articles.





Outsourcing War: The Rise of Private Military Contractors

Contributed by Stephen Lendman on Tue, 2010/01/19 - 6:37pm


In sections:

 
Outsourcing War: The Rise of Private Military Contractors (PMCs) - by Stephen Lendman

In The Prince, Machiavelli (May 1469 - June 1527) wrote:

"The mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous, and if anyone supports his state by the arms of mercenaries, he will never stand firm or sure, as they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, faithless, bold amongst friends, cowardly amongst enemies, they have no fear of God, and keep no faith with men."

In an August 11, 2009 Global Research article titled, "The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War," Peter Dale Scott called Private Military Contractors (PMCs) businesses "authorized to commit violence in the name of their employers....predatory bandits (transformed into) uncontrollable subordinates....representing....public power in....remote places."

True enough. Those performing security functions are paramilitaries, hired guns, unprincipled, in it for the money, and might easily switch sides if offered more. Though technically accountable under international and domestic laws where they're assigned, they, in fact, are unregulated, unchecked, free from criminal or civil accountability, and are licensed to kill and get away with it. Political and institutional expediency affords them immunity and impunity to pretty much do as they please and be handsomely paid for it.

So wherever they're deployed, they're menacing and feared with good reason even though many of their member firms belong to associations like the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) and the British Association of Private and Security Companies (BAPSC). Their conduct codes are mere voluntary guidelines that at worst subject violators to expulsion.

When IPOA wanted Blackwater USA investigated (later Blackwater Worldwide, now Xe - pronounced Zee) for slaughtering 28 Iraqis in Al-Nisour Square in central Baghdad and wounding dozens more on September 16, 2007, the company left the association and set up its own, the Global Peace and Security Operations Institute (GPSOI), with no conduct code besides saying:

"Blackwater desires a safer world though practical application of ideas that create solution making a genuine difference to those in need (by) solving the seemingly impossible problems that threaten global peace and stability."

Blackwater, now Xe, makes them far worse as unchecked hired guns. Wherever deployed, they operate as they wish, take full advantage, and stay unaccountable for their worst crimes, the types that would subject ordinary people to the severest punishments.

In his book "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," Jeremy Scahill described a:

"shadowy mercenary company (employing) some of the most feared professional killers in the world (accustomed) to operating without worry or legal consequences....largely off the congressional radar. (It has) remarkable power and protection within the US war apparatus" to practice violence with impunity, including cold-blooded murder of non-combatant civilians.

Employing Mercenaries - A Longstanding Practice

Called various names, including mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, dogs of war, and Condottieri for wealthy city states in Renaissance Italy, employing them goes back centuries. In 13th century BC Egypt, Rameses II used thousands of them in battle. Ancient Greeks and Romans also used them. So didn't Alexander the Great, feudal lords in the Middle Ages, popes since 1506, Napoleon, and George Washington against the British in America's war of independence even though by the early 18th century western states enacted laws prohibiting their citizens from bearing arms for other nations. Although the practice continued sporadically, until more recently, private armies fell out of favor.

Defining a Mercenary

Article 47 in the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions provides the most widely, though not universally, accepted definition, based on six criteria, all of which must be met.

"A mercenary is any person who:

(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;

(b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities:

(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of the Party;

(d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;

(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and

(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces."

This Article's Focus and Some Background

This article covers the modern era of their resurgence, specifically America's use of private military contractors (PMCs) during the post-Cold War period. However, the roots of today's practice began in 1941 in the UK under Captain David Stirling's Special Air Service (SAS), hired to fight the Nazis in small hard-hitting groups. In 1967, he then founded the 20th century's first private military company, WatchGuard International.

Others followed, especially during the 1980s Reagan-Thatcher era when privatizing government services began in earnest. As vice-president, GHW Bush applied it to intelligence, and then defense secretary Dick Cheney hired Brown and Root Services (now KBR, Inc., a former Halliburton subsidiary) to devise how to integrate private companies effectively into warfare.

The Current Proliferation of PMCs

According to PW Singer, author of "Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry:"

Included are companies offering "the functions of warfare....spanning a wide range of activities. They perform everything from tactical combat to consulting (to) mundane logistics....The result is that (the industry) now offers every function that was once limited to state militaries."

Warfare, in part, has been privatized so that "any actor in the global system can access these skills and functions simply by writing a check."

In the 1991 Gulf War, the Pentagon employed one PMC operative per 50 troops. For the 1999 Yugoslavia conflict, it was one for every 10, and by the 2003 Iraq War, PMCs comprised the second largest force after the US military.

They've also been used in numerous civil wars globally in nations like Angola, Sierra Leone, the Balkans throughout the 1990s, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere. From 1990 - 2000, they participated in 80 conflicts, compared to 15 from 1950 - 1989.

Singer cites three reasons why, combined into "one dynamic:"

1. Supply and demand

Since the Cold War ended in 1991, the US military downsized to about two-thirds its former size, a process Dick Cheney, as defense secretary, called BRAC - Base Realignment and Closure, followed by privatizing military functions. But given America's permanent war agenda, the Pentagon needed help, especially because of the proliferation of small arms, over 550 million globally or about one for every 12 human beings, and their increased use in local conflicts.

2. Changes in the conduct of war

Earlier distinctions between soldiers and civilians are breaking down, the result of low-intensity conflicts against drug cartels, warlords and persons or groups aggressor nations call "terrorists," the same ones they call "freedom fighters" when on their side for imperial purposes.

High-intensity warfare also changed, so sailors aboard guided missile ships, for example, serve along side weapons and technology company personal, needed for their specialized expertise.

In addition, the combination of powerful weapons and sophisticated information technology let the Pentagon topple Saddam with one-fourth the number of forces for the Gulf War. This strategy can be just as effective in other conventional warfare theaters, depending on how formidable the adversary, but it doesn't work in guerrilla wars - the dilemma America faces in Afghanistan, earlier in Iraq and still now as violence there is increasing.

3. The "privatization revolution"

Singer calls it a "change in mentality, a change in political thinking, (a) new ideology that" whatever governments can do, business can do better so let it. The transformation is pervasive in public services, including more spent on private police than actual ones in America. And the phenomenon is global. In China, for example, the private security industry is one of its fastest growing.

By privatizing the military, America pierced the last frontier to let private mercenaries serve in place of conventional forces. Singer defines three types of companies:

1. "Military provider firms"

Whatever their functions, they're used tactically as combatants with weapons performing services formerly done exclusively by conventional or special forces.

2. Military consulting companies

They train and advise, much the way management consulting firms operate for business. They also provide personal security and bodyguard services.

3. Military support firms

They perform non-lethal services. They're "supply-chain management firms....tak(ing) care of the back-end, (including) logistics and technology assistance...." They also supply intelligence and analysis, ordnance disposal, weapons maintenance and other non-combat functions.

Overall, the industry is huge and growing, grossing over $100 billion annually worldwide, operating in over 50 countries. By far, the Pentagon is their biggest client, and in the decade leading up to the Iraq War, it contracted with over 3,000 PMCs, and now many more spending increasingly larger amounts.

A single company, Halliburton and its divisions grossed between $13 - $16 billion from the Iraq War, an amount 2.5 times America's cost for the entire Gulf War. The company profits handsomely because of America's commitment to privatized militarization. More about it below.

Since 2003, Iraq alone represents the "single largest commitment of US military forces in a generation (and) by far the largest marketplace for the private military industry ever."

In 2005, 80 PMCs operated there with over 20,000 personnel. Today, in Iraq and Afghanistan combined, it's grown exponentially, according to US Department of Defense figures - nearly 250,000 as of Q 3, 2009, mostly in Iraq but rising in Afghanistan to support more troops.

Not included are PMCs working for the State Department, 16 US intelligence agencies, Homeland Security, other branches and foreign governments, commercial businesses, and individuals, so the true total is much higher. In addition, as Iraq troops are drawn down, PMCs will replace them, and in Afghanistan, they already exceed America's military force.

According to a September 21, 2009 Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report, as of June 2009, PMCs in Afghanistan numbered 73,968, and a later year end 2009 US Central Command figure is over 104,000 and rising. The expense is enormous and growing with CRS reporting that supporting each soldier costs $1 million annually, in large part because of rampant waste, fraud and abuse, unmonitored and unchecked.

With America heading for 100,000 troops on the ground and more likely coming, $100 billion will be spent annually supporting them, then more billions as new forces arrive, and the Iraq amount is even greater - much, or perhaps most, from supplemental funding for both theaters on top of America's largest ever military budget at a time the country has no enemies except for ones it makes by invading and occupying other countries and waging global proxy wars.

Regulating PMCs

Efforts to do so have been fruitless despite the General Assembly trying in 1989 through the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. It took over a decade to get the required 22 signatories, but neither
America or other major PMC users were included.

An earlier effort also failed when in 1987 a special UN rapporteur was established to examine "the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination." It was largely ignored, and a 2005 effort won't likely fare better under a working group for the same purpose. Nor will industry associations functioning more for show than a commitment to end bad practices that will always go on as long as rogue firms like Xe and others like it are employed.

Singer noted how PMCs have been involved in some of the most controversial aspects of war - from over-billing to ritual slaughter of unarmed civilians. Yet none of them have ever been prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned, an issue Singer cites in listing five "dilemmas:"

1. Contractual ones - hiring PMCs for their skills, to save money, or do jobs nations prefer to avoid. Yet unaccountability injects a "worrisome layer of uncertainty" into military operations, opening the door to unchecked abuses.

2. PMCs constitute an unregulated global business operating for profit, not peace and security when skilled killers are hired - former Green Berets, Delta Force soldiers, Navy Seals, and foreign ones like the British SAS.

3. Conducting public policy as serious as war through private means is worrisome, including covert operations to avoid official oversight and legislative constraints.

4. Moving private companies into the military sphere creates disturbing gray areas. PMCs can't be court martialed, and international law doesn't cover them. Further, operating in war zones makes them even less accountable as who can prove their actions weren't in self-defense, even against unarmed civilians.

5. Increasing PMC use also "raises some deep questions about the military itself." How do you retain the most talented combat troops when they can sell their skills for far greater pay? Also consider the uniqueness of the military.

"It is the only profession that has its own court system, its own laws; the only profession that has its own grocery stores and separate bases;" its own pensions and other benefits for those staying around long enough to qualify. So what happens when it's transformed into a business with profit the prime motive? Simple - more wars, greater profits. The same idea as privatizing prisons - more prisoners, fatter bottom line.

Another consideration is also worrisome. Given America's imperial ambitions, global dominance, permanent war agenda, and virtual disregard for the law, public distrust is growing for politicians who never earned it in the first place.

Given the Pentagon's transformation since 1991, the number of services it privatized, and America's permanent war agenda, what will conditions be in another decade or a few years? How much more prominent will PMCs be? How much more insecurity will result? How soon will it be before hordes of them are deployed throughout America as enforcers in civilian communities outside of conflict zones, with as much unaccountability here as abroad? What will the nation be like if it happens?

Halliburton/KRB

In his book, "Halliburton's Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War," Pratap Chatterjee describes a company tainted by bribes, kickbacks, inefficiency, corruption and fraud, exploitation of workers as near-slaves, and other serious offenses, yet operates with impunity and sticks taxpayers with many billions of dollars in charges.

Before spun off in 2007, KBR won the bulk of Iraq contracts as part of Halliburton, many of them no-bid. Earlier from 2002 to March 2003, it was involved with the Pentagon in planning the war and its role once it ended - the one co-founder George Brown claimed Lyndon Johnson described in the 1960s as a "joint venture (in which) I'm going to take care of politics and you're going to take care of the business side of it." Fast forward, and nothing's changed.

In a February 19, 2009 article, titled "Inheriting Halliburton's Army," Chatterjee writes how their employees are in "every nook and cranny of US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan," yet stateside operations yield additional billions in revenue. He describes their "shoddy electrical work, unchlorinated shower water, overcharges for trucks sitting idle in the desert, deaths of KRB (its former subsidiary) employees and affiliated soldiers in Iraq, alleged million-dollar bribes accepted by KBR managers, and billions of dollars in missing receipts, among the slew of other complaints" that got wide publicity since the beginning of the Iraq war.

He explains that since it got a 2001 contract to supply US forces in combat theaters, KBR grossed over $25 billion. It then got new contracts under Obama, leading Chatterjee to ask: "How did the US military become this dependent on one giant company?"

Tracing its history since the 1960s, he noted its connection to Lyndon Johnson, its profiteering from the Vietnam War, again under Ronald Reagan, then more under GHW Bush and Dick Cheney, his defense secretary who accelerated the Pentagon's privatization agenda, then headed the company as CEO. Bill Clinton continued it, hiring KBR in 1994 to build bases in Bosnia, later Kosovo, and run their daily operations.

Then under Bush/Cheney, outsourcing accelerated further, so today there's one KBR worker for every three US soldiers in Iraq. They build base infrastructure and maintain them by handling all their duties - feeding soldiers, doing their laundry, performing maintenance, and virtually all other non-combat functions.

Despite its abusive practices, KBR is such an integral part of the Pentagon that Chatterjee asks "could Obama dismiss (its) army, even if he wanted to?" Not at all so expect KRB's $150 billion 10-year LOGCAP contract (the Army's Logistics Augmentation Program - beginning September 20, 2008) to continue, and KBR's army to remain on the march reaping billions from the public treasury as the nation's largest PMC war profiteer.

PMCs Under Obama

In February 2007, Senator Obama introduced the Transparency and Accountability in Military Security Contracting Act as an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, requiring federal agencies to report to Congress on the numbers of security contractors employed, killed, wounded, and disciplinary actions taken against them. Referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee, it never passed.

Then in February 2009 as president, Obama introduced reforms to reduce PMC spending and shift outsourced work back to government. He also promised to improve the quality of acquisition workers - government employees involved in supervising and auditing billions of dollars spent monthly on contracts. Even so, PMCs are fully integrated into national security and other government functions, as evidenced by the massive numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan alone.

Earlier, PMCs were at times used in lieu of US forces. As mentioned above, they helped General Washington win America's war of independence. Later the war of 1812, and in WW II the Flying Tigers fought the Japanese for China's Chiang Kai-Shek. In the 1960s and early 1970s, they were prominent nation builders in South Vietnam. From 1947 through 1976, the CIA's Southern Air Transport performed paramilitary services, including delivering weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s.

In 1985, the Army's LOGCAP was a precursor for more extensive civilian contractor use in wartime and for other purposes. It's involved in pre-planned logistics and engineering or construction contracts, including vehicle maintenance, warehousing, base building abroad, and a range of non-combat functions on them.

The Clinton administration's "Reinventing Government" initiative promised to downsize it by shifting functions to contractors as a way cut costs and improve efficiency. Later under George Bush, private companies got to compete for 450,000 government jobs, and in 2001, the Pentagon's contracted workforce exceeded civilian DOD employees for the first time.

In 2002, under Army Secretary Thomas White, the military planned to increase its long-term reliance on contracted workers, a plan known as the "Third Wave" after two earlier ones. Its purposes were to free up military manpower for the global war on terror, get non-core products and services from private sources so Army leaders could focus on their core competencies, and support Bush's Management Agenda.

In April 2003, the initiative stalled when White resigned, among other reasons for a lack of basic information required to effectively manage a growing PMC force, then estimated to be between 124,000 - 605,000 workers. Today, more precise figures are known and for what functions, but a lack of transparency and oversight makes it impossible for the public, Congress, the administration, or others in government to assess them with regard to cost, effectiveness, their services, whether government or business should perform them, and their effect on the nation for good or ill, with strong evidence of the latter.

The 2008 Montreux Document is an agreement obligating signatories with regard to their PMCs in war zones. Seventeen nations ratified it, including America, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and China, pledging to promote responsible PMC conduct in armed conflicts. Divided in two sections, its first one covers international laws binding on private contractors, explains states can't circumvent their obligations by using them, requires they take appropriate measures to prevent violations, address them responsibly when they do, and take effective steps to prevent future occurrences.

The second section lists 70 practices for helping countries fulfill their legal obligations, including not using PMCs for activities requiring force, implementing effective control, using surveillance and sanctions in case of breaches, and regulating and licensing contracted companies, that in turn, must train their personnel to observe the rules of law.

Given the obvious conflicts of interest, self-regulation won't work. Unchecked, combatant PMCs are accountable only to themselves, operating secretly outside the law - for the Pentagon as an imperial tool.

Given Obama's permanent war agenda and how entrenched PMCs have become, expect little constructive change, save for tinkering around the edges and regular rhetorical promises, followed by new fronts in the war on terror and even greater numbers civilians and soldiers for them.

Then add hundreds more billions diverted from vital homeland needs to enrich thousands of war profiteers, addicted to sure-fire blood money, and expecting plenty more ahead. They'll get it unless enough public outrage demands an end to this madness before it's too late to matter.

Some Final Comments

On January 13 (on antiwar.com), Jeremy Scahill reported that Representative Jan Schakowsky (D. IL and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence member):

"is preparing to introduce legislation (Stop Outsourcing Security Act - SOS) aimed at ending the US government's relationship with Blackwater and other armed contracting companies."

Originally introduced in 2007 but not passed, Schakowsky says:

"The legislation would prohibit the use of private contractors for military, security, law enforcement, intelligence, and armed rescue functions unless the President tells Congress why the military is unable to perform those functions. It would also increase transparency over any remaining security contracts by increasing reporting requirements and giving Congress access to details about large contracts."

Meanwhile on January 12, 2010, a coalition of groups opposed to Blackwater called on Congress to investigate why criminal charges against the company were dismissed on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. They also want to "pull the funding on war profiteers like Blackwater (and) stop them for good."

It's a tall order given how entrenched they are and expanding. In Haiti, for example, reports say Blackwater is there providing security, an indication perhaps of more contingents to follow, from them and other armed contractors, "authorized to commit violence in the name of their employers."

Stephen Lendman is Research Associate at the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.


____________________________________________


As we see both Clinton and now Obama are working as hard as they can to hand almost all of the US military off to private military contractors.  The 'austerity' cuts neo-liberals and neo-cons are using to pay for the massive corporate fraud of trillions of dollars are a continuation of that privatization.  More and more cuts of public troops and what would have been their benefits as more and more private contractor troops are hired overseas.  Your military tax dollars are going to a defense industry budget to pay for the US hiring of African citizens to protect US global corporate interests in Africa.  This isn't just the fight against terrorists....this is the protection of oil fields, banking systems, industrial factories.  This army works for corporations and not me and you.  

I THINK MOST AMERICANS FIND THIS OUTRAGEOUS AND UNACCEPTABLE YET YOU DO NOT HEAR ONE PEEP FROM NEO-LIBERALS!  They simply have to pretend to feel our pain as they work to see this all implemented!  

This article from 2005 does not include Obama as the one above does....but it does show that Clinton era is when this process grew.  It is important to know that as Secretary of State, Hillary moved Bill's military privatization forward with Obama.



DON'T YOU THINK VAN HOLLEN AND MARYLAND POLS WOULD BE SHOUTING OUT ABOUT THIS AS THE PROBLEM!

What do private military contractors do?
Frontline PBS 2005

Doug Brooks, the president of the International Peace Operations Association, an association of private contractors, describes three categories of companies: logistical support firms, private security firms, and private military companies. The private military companies provide combat forces for hire. These types of companies, such as the now-dissolved South African company Executive Outcomes, are rare and none of them are currently operating in Iraq.

+ When did the relationship between private contractors and the military take off?

"You're talking about an industry that really didn't exist until the start of the 1990s," says Peter Singer, the author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. "And since then, it's grown in size, in monetary terms to about $100 billion worth of revenue a year. In geographic terms, it operates in over 50 different countries. It's operated on every single continent but Antarctica."

Singer says three trends coalesced during this time that drove the industry's growth: the end of the Cold War, which led to military downsizing not only in the U.S., but around the world; a global increase in smaller conflicts; and the ideological shift towards privatizing government functions in general. The Pentagon's use of private contractors has increased dramatically between the two Gulf wars: During the first Gulf War in 1991, there were 50 military personnel for every one contractor; in the 2003 conflict the ratio was 10 to 1.

+ How many private security firms are working in Iraq?

No one knows the exact number of private security contractors that rushed into Iraq following the war. In April 2004, in response to a request from Congress, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) compiled a list of 60 different firms employing a total of 20,000 personnel (including U.S. citizens, Iraqis and third-country nationals).

Before handing over power to the newly elected Iraqi government in January 2005, the CPA established "Memorandum 17," a notice that called for all private security companies operating in Iraq to register by June 1 and established an oversight committee led by Iraq's Ministry of the Interior.

According to Lawrence Peter, a former CPA official and the director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, as of June 21, 2005, 37 security contractors have registered with the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. One is awaiting approval, and at least 18 additional security companies are in the process of registering.

+ Who is employed by the private contracting firms in Iraq?

Here is a breakdown of the numbers:

    50,000 support/logistics contractors
    These are civilians hired by KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary which holds the military's logistical support contract. They work as weathermen, cooks, carpenters, mechanics, etc. Most are from Third World countries and the majority are Filipinos.

    20,000 non-Iraqi security contractors
    Of these, 5-6,000 are British, American, South African, Russian or European; another 12,000 are from Third World countries, such as Fiji, Colombia, Sri Lanka, and India.

    15,000 Iraqi security contractors
    Most of these were hired mainly by the British security firm Erinys to guard Iraq's oil infrastructure.

    40-70,000 reconstruction contractors
    Hired to rebuild Iraq. Some are Iraqis, but they're mostly from the U.S. and dozens of other countries and employed by companies such as General Electric, Bechtel, Parsons, KBR, Fluor and Perini.

+ How much do private contractors get paid?

Money is a prime motivator for those working in Iraq. Guards for private security firms can typically make between $400 and $600 per day. Guards employed by Blackwater, a high-profile American company that guarded Ambassador Paul Bremer, the former head of the CPA, are paid up to $1000 per day.

+ How many contractors have been killed in Iraq?

The exact number is not known; not all companies report casualty numbers. In June 2005, when the film originally aired, Erinys said it had lost three employees on its contract with the Army Corps of Engineers, and an additional 16 employees who were killed guarding Iraqi oil infrastructure. KBR, which employs over 50,000 in the region, told FRONTLINE that 65 of its employees, including 16 truckers, have been killed since the beginning of the war.

Update: In November 2005, Knight Ridder obtained insurance-claim statistics from the Department of Labor and reported 428 civilian contractor deaths and 3,963 other casualties. However, the story quoted two companies -- Halliburton and L-3 Communications -- as saying their casualty figures were higher than those reported by the Labor Department for their companies.

+ Given the continuing violence and dangers facing contractors, are the companies having problems hiring?

So far, no. The private companies can increase salaries to correspond with need, and as yet, there haven't been recruitment problems.

+ What are some advantages and disadvantages of hiring private contractors?

The number one reason cited for using private contractors in Iraq is the same reason driving arguments for privatizing other government functions: Outsourcing saves taxpayer money because private firms in a competitive market can do the job more efficiently and at a lower cost. Critics question how money is saved if firms must pay employees higher wages to attract them to work in Iraq, but defenders point out that a) firms can hire and fire based on a surge capacity; b) that employees from non-Western countries can be paid lower wages; and c) that companies don't have to pay all the long-term benefits that are required of the military.

Critics also argue that financial efficiencies are lost when companies subcontract with other companies, as is typical of the private contractors operating in Iraq.

No definitive studies on the cost-effectiveness of military outsourcing have been done yet.

+ Read more on the debate over cost-effectiveness.

One of the major disadvantages of using private contractors in Iraq is that they operate outside of the military chain of command, with two consequences. First, if a situation becomes too dangerous, individuals can halt operations or break their contracts and leave. For example, after an incident on April 9, 2004, in which a 19-truck KBR convoy was ambushed -- six drivers were killed, one was taken hostage, and one is still missing -- FRONTLINE was told that scores of KBR truckers refused to drive until security improved and hundreds of contractors left the country. For weeks, the military was left with dwindling stores of ammunition, fuel and water.

+ Read this July 2005 GAO report on the continuing challenges in getting capable private security contractors, coordinating their working relationship with the U.S. military and tracking the costs of these forces. (pdf file)

Another consequence of contractors being outside the military command structure is the lack of coordination on the battlefield. As Steven Schooner, an expert in government contracting, explains, "[Contractors and the military] don't communicate in the same networks. They don't get the same intelligence information. And so, when things begin to develop quickly, there's an awful lot of people around with weapons who have important tactical responsibilities who don't have the same information and aren't getting the same messages from the tactical leadership." This problem was evident on March 31, 2004, when four contractors working for the private security firm Blackwater were ambushed and killed while escorting a convoy in Fallujah. Marine Col. John Toolan, who at the time was in command of the region including Fallujah, told FRONTLINE that not only did he not know the Blackwater contractors were in the area, but that their deaths forced him to set aside his initial strategy for quelling the insurgency in the area when he was forced to invade the city and find the killers.

In order to remedy the coordination problem, the CPA contracted with another private security firm, the British company Aegis, to coordinate and track all the security teams operating in Iraq through a Reconstruction Operations Center (ROC). But participation is voluntary and because they want to maintain their competitive advantage in the marketplace, some companies are loathe to share information with another company. A July 2005 report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the ROC had improved coordination between the military and the security contractors, but it also suggested two problems remain. First, there were still incidents when security personnel approached military convoys or checkpoints, and second, upon deployment to Iraq, many military personnel were not aware of security personnel operating within the country.

+ Is the use of private contractors leading to a "brain drain" from the U.S. military?

This is an argument of some critics, who say private security firms are poaching highly trained Special Forces soldiers with salaries that are two to four times what they can earn in the military. According to a report from the British-American Security Information Council, "Reportedly, exhausted American and British Special Forces personnel are resigning in record numbers and taking highly-paid jobs as private security guards in Iraq and Afghanistan." The Pentagon has responded by offering cash bonuses of up to $150,000 for Special Forces to reenlist.

Brooks of the IPOA acknowledges that the industry's growth has created a new market for Special Forces soldiers. However, he argues that the temporary nature of the security industry is unlikely to draw those who didn't already want to leave the military. "How long is Baghdad going to last? How long is there going to be demand for these services? It's not a career-ending decision," he says. "You have to think if you're about ready to leave Special Forces it makes sense. If you're in it for a career, then there's no point in leaving just to do one or two years of personal security work.

+ What is the legal status of private contractors in Iraq? Are they accountable under U.S. or Iraqi law?

One of the real problems in regulating all private contractors is their somewhat ambiguous legal status. As Singer wrote in a March 2005 article in Foreign Affairs, "Although private military firms and their employees are now integral parts of many military operations, they tend to fall through the cracks of current legal codes, which sharply distinguish civilians from soldiers. Contractors are not quite civilians, given that they often carry and use weapons, interrogate prisoners, load bombs and fulfill other critical military roles. Yet they are not quite soldiers, either."

In June 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority handed down Memorandum 17, which grants foreign contractors immunity from Iraqi law while working within the boundaries of their contracted tasks. The memo placed private contractors under the legal authority of the workers' home countries. In June 2004, one day before the CPA transferred sovereignty in Iraq to the interim Iraqi government, Paul Bremer signed a revised version of Memorandum 17, which stipulates that the rule remain in effect until multinational forces are withdrawn from Iraq or until it is amended by Iraqi lawmakers.

U.S. government contracts worth $50 million or more with private companies must be reported to Congress, and the companies must comply with the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which regulates the import and export of arms material and services. But, for example, of the 60 known private security companies operating in Iraq, only eight worked directly for the CPA; the rest are subcontracted to provide protection for the primary contractors or even other subcontractors. When companies are not contracted directly to the government, they are accountable only to the contractor whom employs them.

Companies that contract with the Pentagon are required to follow a set of rules known as the Defense Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). DFARS governs all aspects of contract enforcement, from accounting procedures to use of government property, and contains a section on "Contractor Standards of Conduct" covering proper behavior and a hotline for reporting improper conduct. DFARS was amended on June 6, 2005, to hold contractors working to provide support to U.S. forces deployed overseas accountable under U.S. and international laws as well as those of the host country. It also permits contractors to carry weapons at the discretion of the military commander.

American private contractors are also subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), which allows for the prosecution of civilians employed by or accompanying the military while overseas and was signed by President Bill Clinton in October 2000. MEJA has been criticized for loopholes, which came to attention after reports surfaced of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Although private contractors stand accused in a series of lawsuits filed in U.S. courts by former detainees, the companies might not be liable under MEJA because the law deals only with contractors employed by the Department of Defense. As of June 2005, the only person to be prosecuted under MEJA was Latasha Lorraine Arnt, who in February 2005 was sentenced to eight years in prison for killing her husband, a military policeman stationed at a U.S. Air Force Base in Turkey.

+ Have any contractors been prosecuted for misbehavior in Iraq?

No, according to Peter Singer. However, there have been civil lawsuits filed against some of the PMCs; for example, the families of the four Blackwater guards killed in Fallujah are suing for wrongful death.

+ What about allegations against Halliburton/KBR?

KBR has inspired a cottage industry of critics charging undue political influence -- as its parent company Halliburton was formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney -- and financial fraud. The company has been the subject of numerous audits: One by the U.S. Government Accountability Office of dining hall costs for one four-month period alleges KBR charged $88 million for meals it never served. And Pentagon audits allege that KBR overcharged $212 million for fuel and billed the government $1.8 billion in other unsupported costs. The Pentagon terminated the fuel contract. As for meals, KBR says workers prepared food that just wasn't consumed. And the unsupported $1.8 billion, they say, is a paperwork issue that's being resolved.

But for all the controversy, there are many in Wall Street and in Washington who believe KBR is making only a slim profit, and that they've simply been overwhelmed by the military's needs and failed to adequately track costs.


________________________________________________

You can see why neo-liberals paint Kirsten Gillibrand as the next Hillary.....SHE IS AS NEO-LIBERAL AS IT GETS.  THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PARTY/NEO-LIBERALS MEDIA LOVES GILLIBRAND!  

Remember, it is Harry Reid as Senate leader who appoints the heads of these committees.  You do not have a raging privatization without these people.



United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel
From Wikipedia,


    Kirsten Gillibrand, New York, Chairwoman
    Kay Hagan, North Carolina
    Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
    Mazie Hirono, Hawaii
    Tim Kaine, Virginia
    Angus King, Maine[1]

    

    Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, Ranking Member
    Saxby Chambliss, Georgia
    Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire
    Roy Blunt, Missouri
    Mike Lee, Utah

Ex officio

    Carl Levin, Michigan
********************************************

SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE.

Majority     

    Carl Levin, Michigan, Chairman
    Jack Reed, Rhode Island
    Bill Nelson, Florida
    Claire McCaskill, Missouri
    Mark Udall, Colorado
    Kay Hagan, North Carolina
    Joe Manchin, West Virginia
    Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire
    Kirsten Gillibrand, New York
    Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
    Joe Donnelly, Indiana
    Mazie Hirono, Hawaii
    Tim Kaine, Virginia
    Angus King, Maine[2]

***************************
If you know Pelosi  and Hoyer are neo-liberals and the DCCC is controlled by neo-liberals .....you know Van Hollen is right there.  Now, if you were on the House Budget Committee and Deficit REduction Committee the first thing you would do as a democrat...

SHOUT LOUDLY AND STRONGLY THAT ALL OF THE NATIONAL DEBT WAS CREATED BY MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD AND RECOVERY OF THAT FRAUD WILL PAY THE ENTIRE NATIONAL DEBT.

Just because a pol is a nice guy or gal....doesn't mean they are working for you and me.
  These pols can use their platforms to protect the American people from TPP


Chris Van Hollen
From Wikipedia

Christopher "Chris" Van Hollen, Jr. (born January 10, 1959) is the U.S. Representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes most of Montgomery County, an affluent suburban county adjacent to Washington, D.C., as well as portions of Carroll and Frederick counties. He is an alumnus of the Kodaikanal International School, a very prestigious school in southern India.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a new leadership post, Assistant to the Speaker, in 2006 so that Van Hollen could be present at all leadership meetings. After the Democrats regained control of the House in the 2006 elections, Van Hollen became the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fifth-ranking position among House Democrats. In this post, Van Hollen was responsible for leading efforts to get more Democrats elected to Congress.

After the Democratic losses in 2010, Van Hollen did not run for re-election to chair of the DCCC. Van Hollen instead chose to run for the top Democratic spot on the House Budget Committee, which was being vacated by outgoing chairman John Spratt who had been defeated for re-election. Van Hollen was elected as the ranking member on the Budget Committee on November 17, 2010. Pelosi appointed him to the 12-member bipartisan Committee on Deficit Reduction with a mandate for finding major budget reductions by late 2011.
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February 12th, 2014

2/12/2014

0 Comments

 
Regarding Ruppersberger and Fort Meade policy:

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

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

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



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


____________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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




Encyclopedia of White-Collar & Corporate Crime


Lawrence M. Salinger, Ph.D.

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

Defense Industry Fraud

John Walsh Ph.D.

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

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

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




Lawmakers push Defense fraud, waste report to influence supercommittee cuts

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Yet most continued to receive massive contracts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Christian Science Monitor
Opinion

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

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

By Molly Dunigan / March 19, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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


VA / Privatization = Loss for Vets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards

Dale R. Suiter

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

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

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

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



Veterans Charities Ratings


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

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

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

The charities that received failing grades are in red type.

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

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


Veterans Charities Ratings

Air Force Aid Society (A+)

American Ex-Prisoners of War Service Foundation (F)

American Veterans Coalition (F)

American Veterans Relief Foundation (F)

AMVETS National Service Foundation (F)

Armed Services YMCA of the USA (A-)

Army Emergency Relief (A+)

Blinded Veterans Association (D)

Coalition to Support America's Heroes (F)

Disabled American Veterans (D)

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

Fisher House Foundation (A+)

Freedom Alliance (F)

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

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (A+)

Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation (F)

National Military Family Association (A)

National Veterans Services Fund (F)

National Vietnam Veterans Committee (D)

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (A+)

NCOA National Defense Foundation (F)

Paralyzed Veterans of America (F)

Soldiers' Angels (D)

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

USO (United Service Organization) (C+)

Veterans of Foreign Wars and Foundation (C-)

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

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (D)

VietNow National Headquarters (F)

World War II Veterans Committee (D)


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

Do you have questions about specific veterans charities?

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

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

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November 21st, 2013

11/21/2013

0 Comments

 
PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES OF ALL KINDS ARE BEING REPLACED BY PRIVATE NON-PROFITS IN MARYLAND AND ESPECIALLY BALTIMORE.  DO TEACHERS, FIRE AND POLICE, AND STATE AND CITY EMPLOYEES NOT KNOW THEY ARE NEXT!!!!

STOP SUPPORTING PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS!

It's almost like Maryland is trying to get long-time teachers to quit in frustration and stop students from wanting to major in teaching!  YOU BETCHA!!!!  THAT IS HOW YOU KILL A TOP DEMOCRATIC PROFESSION!  What the heck......we can get someone working with Humanim to sit in a classroom and start and stop online lessons.


This is indeed union-busting as Race to the Top is all about.  Remember, Race to the Top wants to make businesses of individual schools-----national charter chains are poised to take over-----and you know how Wall Street hates union labor and any labor earning over poverty!   This is why reformers press forward with the reforms when everyone can see they harm, not help students and teachers.

We need to be clear, this is taking all education from K-college to union apprenticeships to public disability development.  Once privatized, as Baltimore City is well on the way, the structure built for this will expand statewide and soon after nationwide and global.  THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS ARE BUSINESSES IN THE MAKING.  THEY JUST WANT TO USE TAXPAYER MONEY TO EXPAND THE BUSINESS JUST AS JOHNS HOPKINS USED TAXPAYER MONEY TO GO FROM A SMALL PRIVATE UNIVERSITY TO A GLOBAL CORPORATION.

Each time we allow yet another sector of the public be taken we lose all voice as citizen.  That is why the public is taken by security from public meetings for trying to comment.  THESE NEO-LIBERALS DO NOT RECOGNIZE CITIZENSHIP.  THEY ONLY WORK TO USE THE PUBLIC TO MAXIMIZE CORPORATE PROFIT.  ALL DEMOCRATIC LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND WE NEED TO GET RID OF THEM!

Simply run and vote for labor and justice.  We can turn this around NOW but we cannot wait too long as they replace all democratic institutions. 

ALL OF THE CURRENT CANDIDATES FOR MARYLAND GOVERNOR AND STATE/CITY ATTORNEY GENERAL ARE NEO-LIBERALS----how does that make free and fair elections?  It doesn't.


WE NEED LABOR UNIONS TO RUN LABOR LAWYERS FOR STATE/CITY ATTORNEYS OFFICE TO ENFORCE LABOR AND JUSTICE LAWS.  WE NEED ALL UNION MEMBERS RUNNING FOR ALL OFFICES AGAINST NEO-LIBERALS IN PRIMARIES.  If your labor and justice organization is not doing this they are not working for you and me!


Union Says Common Core Overworks Teachers
By Gwendolyn Glenn

  Credit Gwendolyn Glenn / WYPR Abby Beytin, President of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County

Listen 0:48 Union Says Common Core Overworks Teachers

The Baltimore County teachers’ union has filed a grievance against the school board, alleging that the new Common Core curriculum makes teachers work too many hours.

Union officials said they support the new, more rigorous Common Core standards, but many teachers have not received formal training in those standards and don’t have time to prepare lessons. Abby Beytin, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, said teachers are getting the new curriculum from the district a week or two before they have to teach it, and that violates their contract.

The Common Core is a set of national standards that Maryland, the District of Columbia and 45 other states adopted. It outlines what students should learn in math and English/language arts.  Local districts developed their own curriculum in line with the Common Core standards.

Beytin asked her teachers to keep logs for a two-week period to document the hours they worked. She said many are putting in 30 to 40 extra hours each week. “My teachers are drowning under the work load,” Beytin said. “We need some of this work load taken off the plate and we need the curriculum in a timely manner so the teachers can really do their best work.”

Beytin, whose union represents the county’s 8,700 teachers, said her members are spending time during their lunch and planning periods as well as after hours through the week and weekends trying to figure out the new curriculum.

Some county teachers received Common Core training over the past three summers in classes organized by the state and county. At a Common Core conference earlier this month in Washington, Maryland Superintendent Dr. Lillian Lowery said her goal is to have 50 percent of teachers in the state formally trained in the new curriculum by the 2016-2017 school year.

Beytin said she has discussed her concerns with the county’s school board and officials in county school district offices. “We are happy to work with the school system in a collaborative manner to come up with solutions,” she said. “But we felt we needed to move this faster so the importance of it was understood. My teachers are really upset about not having the curriculum in a timely manner so they are comfortable with what they are teaching students.”

Beytin wants more aides hired to take over some of the teachers’ clerical duties, such as copying documents, helping to collect data the district requires, taking attendance or collecting money for student projects. She said this way the teachers could focus more on the new curriculum.

Baltimore County Superintendent Dr. Dallas Dance said in an email Wednesday that he could not comment on the grievance because he just received a copy. But he added he would “be looking at the remedy, which every grievance must have, to determine what are federal, state versus local concerns.”

He noted that all parties, including the union, signed on to the curriculum change.

But Beytin accused officials of rushing the implementation of the Common Core. “The state and feds are in a rush and insist that things have to be done now without building in professional training and development,” she said. Beytin said she is optimistic that union and school officials can reach an agreement. If not, they would bring in a mediator to help resolve the issues.


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This article shows why labor and justice should not be voting and supporting neo-liberals. How did Corey Booker win in New Jersey when we know he is a raging Wall Street shill? Why is the same thing happening in Maryland with Anthony Brown? All neo-liberals are pushing the handing of schools over to corporations for profit and to use as job training K-college. WHY WOULD LABOR AND JUSTICE SUPPORT THAT? RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE.

SADLY, IT IS PEOPLE OF COLOR BACKING THESE POLS THAT ARE ENDING BROWN VS BOARD OF EDUCATION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/ACCESS EDUCATION. WORSE-----IT IS ENDING DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION FOR MOST AMERICANS.

Lean In or Stand Up?
Thursday, 14 November 2013 09:30 By Jenny Brown, Labor Notes | Op-Ed

Sheryl Sandberg’s hyper-publicized book Lean In is the Facebook COO’s “sort of a feminist manifesto” and it’s full of engaging, self-critical stories as she tries to trim back her workaholic ways to enjoy her family life. These appear alongside enraging anecdotes about the sexism she and women co-workers endure in the male-dominated tech world, and advice on how to deal with it.

But one anecdote jumped out at me. Sandberg tells the story of a dear friend with 14-month-old twins who cut her paid hours by two-thirds and ended up doing all the household work. Sandberg wants her friend to say yes to an exciting new job offer, advising that it will make the husband step up to his responsibilities.

The job she’s suggesting turns out to be administering a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to the Newark schools.

Things worked out great for Sandberg’s friend—she took the job and her husband learned to buy groceries. Things didn’t work out so well for the Newark schools.

The $100 million from Zuckerberg had a goal: to institute merit pay in the teachers’ contract. “Highly effective” teachers would get a bonus of between $5,000 and $12,500. Teachers deemed unsatisfactory by supervisors could be disciplined or even fired. (The contract also created two tiers: teachers with masters’ degrees could opt out of the merit pay scheme, and most did.)

Teachers unions have rightly resisted this kind of subjective basis for raises because it rewards brown-nosing and shreds solidarity.

Nonetheless, after the contract passed with 60 percent of the vote, AFT national President Randi Weingarten celebrated the new contract with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

At the same time, Newark Mayor Corey Booker was privately pushing to close schools and replace them with charters, with Zuckerberg’s foundation picking targets. Newark parents rose up in arms when they found out.

Emails released due to a parent lawsuit revealed that Sandberg was heavily involved, corresponding with Booker’s office, which was trying to make it look like the community was engaged, without actually engaging the community.

The emails revealed a desire to spread merit pay to teachers nationally, although Sandberg sounded queasy about emphasizing this. “I wonder if we should basically make this focused on Newark with just a touch of ‘and this will be a national model,’” she wrote.

Teach Harder!

From Sandberg’s boss’s-eye view of the world, pay-for-performance leads to excellence. Teachers just need incentives to teach harder. In the real world, merit pay schemes increase pressure but don’t actually improve teaching. “It’s not as if teachers are sitting on their best lessons waiting for a bonus,” said public education defender Diane Ravitch in a recent talk.

“Now that components [of the contract] are being implemented,” Newark teacher Brandon Rippey told Labor Notes, “it’s turning teachers’ lives upside down.” He said some supervisors are using the evaluation tool vindictively.

They’re also using it narrowly. Only 5 percent of Newark’s teachers got merit pay in the last cycle, a total of $1.4 million out of the $50 million that was promised over three years. Where’s the rest of the money going? To pay Sandberg’s friend to administer it, for one.

But that’s not the end of the story—Newark teachers angry about the contract formed a caucus and promised a vigorous fight against the billionaires’ agenda. They won 18 of 29 e-board seats and almost took the presidency. Instead of leaning in, they stood up, together.

Which happens to be a pretty good strategy for dealing with sexism, too, Ms. Sandberg.


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REgarding HUMANIM as a private non-profit replacing public disability programs:

EVEN IF YOU ARE A SMALL GOVERNMENT PERSON, LOSING OUR ENTIRE PUBLIC SECTOR MEANS LOSING PUBLIC POLICY INPUT AND CONTROL IN ALL PLANNING ASPECTS IN COMMUNITIES.  THIS CORPORATION WILL NOT ALLOW PUBLIC ACCESS TO DATA WITHOUT WHAT IS BECOMING AN IMPOSSIBLE PUBLIC JUSTICE REQUEST.  IT IS VERY, VERY, VERY BAD  and brought to you by the same people that give us Baltimore Development Corporation.



You see education for disabled and hiring and oversight of disabled is being privatized.  Special needs students are being mainstreamed into schools with little staff able to adequately address their needs so quality of education for special needs will fall in all but affluent schools.  Meanwhile, private non-profits will be ready to use these students when its time for them to work.  What we are seeing is a move towards warehousing of special needs and assignment to simple tasks rather than having a career choice.

Below you see yet another piece of propaganda as Obama and neo-liberals respond to demands with lots of money sent to lots of private non-profits all supposedly ready to get the disabled to work.  As the next article shows.....as of today, nothing is happening.



Report faults federal hiring of disabled
Mar. 29, 2010 - 04:48PM   | 
By STEPHEN LOSEY 

Andrew Pike, an Army veteran who was shot and paralyzed in the Iraq war, watches his new service dog Yazmin pull a door open. The government needs to make sure managers are really committed to hiring people with disabilities, better monitor agency progress, better train and educate hiring and program managers, and offer improved physical and technical accommodations, a recent survey says.

Andrew Pike, an Army veteran who was shot and paralyzed in the Iraq war, watches his new service dog Yazmin pull a door open. The government needs to make sure managers are really committed to hiring people with disabilities, better monitor agency progress, better train and educate hiring and program managers, and offer improved physical and technical accommodations, a recent survey says.
The federal government is not doing enough to attract, retain and accommodate employees with disabilities, according to a survey released today.
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US making little progress on jobs for disabled Americans

Published March 24, 2013
Associated Press

    In this photo taken Friday, March 1, 2013, Jennifer Lortie works on an iPad in her Willimantic, Conn. office. Of the 29 million workingage Americans with a disability Lortie, who has limited arm and leg use due to cerebral palsy, is one of the 5.1 million, who are actually employed. The National Council on Disability's Jeff Rosen says long-standing prejudicial attitudes need to be addressed to boost jobs. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
 

WASHINGTON –  Whether it means opening school track meets to a deaf child or developing a new lunch menu with safe alternatives for students with food allergies, recent Obama administration decisions could significantly affect Americans with disabilities. But there's been little progress in one of the most stubborn challenges: employing the disabled.

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HUMANIM is just that kind of private non-profit that is taking the place of a public agency tasked with care and programming for the disabled that was once well-funded and provided strong life-long developmental and placement programs for disabled.  Now, the group homes, the workshops, the social workers as public support are gone.  In their place is what WYPR gave as an example with Humanim.

Now, we know that Baltimore Development Corporation has privatized all public policy with development in the city; we know that VEOLA is privatizing all transportation and soon VEOLA WATER AND WASTE will take all public services; we know that Parks and People are basically the Baltimore City Parks Department; and Johns Hopkins is public health; so, Humanim is simply the social services branch of all of the privatizing of public services.  AND GUESS WHAT?  THE SAME PEOPLE ARE ON THE BOARDS OF ALL THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS  CONTROLLING ALL PUBLIC POLICY IN BALTIMORE!!!!  HOPKINS AND BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT FIGURE PROMINENTLY.

So, I pointed out last week that the Oliver Community Association-----which has the same people from the boards above on its roster as Oliver, next to Hopkins will be THE COMMUNITY FOR THE AFFLUENT! had all kinds of volunteers cleaning the neighborhood----from vets to students doing the work of public sector employees.  Humanim is an extension of this.  Below you see a staff of 750 people and a $24 million budget and this 'non-profit' has expanded all over Maryland. 

IT IS A PRIVATE CORPORATION THAT NOW RUNS ALL OF BALTIMORE'S AND OTHER'S PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES.

Let's take the example WYPR gave in using Humanim in 'greening'.  You have an historic building being torn down and recycled to build new buildings.  Now, when this was a public function, city workers getting a salary and  benefits would be sent to gut the building of hardware and materials of value and the city would then sell these salvage items or use it on public building projects.  So, public employees were paid a good salary to do work that gave government revenue from salvage.

Now, Humanim uses people with disabilities and low-income workers that are 'training' to do the demolition with the salvage going to Humanim and we can imagine then sold/given to city developers, many of whom are on the board of Humanim.  So, developers have gotten free labor to demolish property and then received the salvage to use on their own projects------all subsidized by taxpayer money and free labor from 'training' programs. 

TAXPAYERS AND GOVERNMENT COFFERS GET NOTHING BUT CONTINUED CORPORATE WELFARE AND WORKERS GET TO WORK FOR NEXT TO NOTHING.

Trade unions have all kinds of on-the-job training for construction jobs that pay workers who then pass through a top-notch trades program.  One would imagine that would be a good venue for extending disability training for example.  Here, a Baltimore corporation that is probably getting a corporate tax break for existing is 'donating' to Humanim for another corporate tax break and getting what will be free labor and product for cheap.

Because Humanim is a private non-profit, public transparency is harder to get.  Because this corporation that is doing work across all kinds of private sector industries is designated 'non-profit' it pays no taxes.  The 750 staff across all of Maryland represents a microcosm of public sector employees whose jobs are replaced by what are heavily volunteer activities developed by these 750 people state-wide.  So, high-unemployment in Baltimore because public sector jobs have disappeared bring the high crime and violence, and as offenders, these unemployed will no doubt be sent to 'volunteer' with the corporation Humanim.



Statewide Contract for Maryland Behavioral Support Services Partnership To Launch

Baltimore, MD - September 18, 2013

Humanim, The Arc of Southern Maryland, The Arc of Washington County and Somerset Community Services

 have been awarded the Statewide Behavioral Support Services contract to provide comprehensive Behavioral Support Services to Maryland residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The providers have formed the Maryland Behavioral Support Services Partnership, which will become effective October 1, 2013.

“Humanim is thrilled to be a member of the Statewide Partnership for Behavioral Support Services,” said Cindy Plavier Truitt, Director of the Partnership and Chief Operating Officer of Humanim representing the Baltimore Metropolitan Region. “Along with the other partners, we believe this new approach will create enhanced support for families and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We look forward to partnering with the Developmental Disabilities Administration on this new initiative.”

This historic Maryland Behavioral Support Services Partnership will create a uniform network of services that will increase the efficacy and efficiency of services that will improve the overall statewide quality of services.



Humanim - Director of Family and Youth Services



humanimLocation: Baltimore, MD

Humanim is seeking a dynamic, experienced Director of Family and Youth Services to lead and build the workforce development services for transitioning youth and financial stability services for families (youth and adults).  The director will actively support Humanim’s mantra of providing “uncompromising human services” as it connects with individuals of all ages throughout Maryland.

Headquartered in Baltimore, MD, Humanim’s mission is to identify those in greatest need and provide uncompromising human services. Our vision is that all people in our community have access to the human services that they need.  Governed by a 14-member board of directors, Humanim is a 501(c)(3) with annual operating revenues of approximately $24 million and a staff of over 750 individuals.  For additional information please visit www.Humanim.com.



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November 13th, 2013

11/13/2013

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'The social media meme for Veterans Day------22 veterans commit suicide every day because they cannot get help'

BELOW YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING ACROSS THE US-----VETERAN'S ADMINISTRATION IS BEING DISMANTLED AND MADE INTO PRIVATE NON-PROFITS JUST AS WITH ALL PUBLIC HEALTH.  ALL FEDERAL AND STATE FUNDING FOR VETERANS ARE DIVERTED FROM THE VA MEDICAL CENTERS TO THESE UNACCOUNTABLE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS. 

THE VA REPRESENTS ONE OF THE LARGEST OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND THEY ARE PRIVATIZING IT----do you really think neo-liberals plan to keep ENTITLEMENTS?

In Maryland we have no oversight and 1/2 of social service funding is stolen through fraud so when you build a system that takes public to private as is happening with the VA------all this fraud and corruption becomes harder to follow-----THINK COMPLEX FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT BY WALL STREET.

You see an endless list of charities and non-profits helping veterans.  These people are not necessarily bad-----but they should recognize the value of a centralized care system and understand that statistics are showing veterans are not getting the health care these institutions claim is happening.  I refer to the Medieval Ages often because what is happening is a rise of Catholic Charities for example as where people go to get help with the wealthy patrons----sending charity as they feel free.  They did not pay taxes to support public systems----they did just as is happening in Maryland now.

People cannot be citizens if they are tied to charity for public service.  Paying taxes just to get charity when you need help is Medieval.

STOP ALLOWING NEO-LIBERALS TO CONTROL THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY-----LABOR AND JUSTICE IS 80% OF THE DEMOCRATIC BASE----RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE TO TURN THIS AROUND!



Too many veterans charities fail to support ex-army staff ...


Baltimore VA office worst in nation for processing disability claimsOffice that handles claims for Maryland is slowest and makes most mistakes
Robert Fearing, who served in the Air Force for 20 years, with… (Barbara Haddock Taylor,…)January 26, 2013|By Yvonne Wenger, The Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is the slowest in the country in processing disability claims for servicemen and servicewomen — averaging about a year — and makes more mistakes than any other office.

The failures locally are a symptom of a national breakdown: Across the country, more than 900,000 veterans wait an average of nine months for the agency to determine whether they qualify for disability benefits, according to the VA.

Even as the VA says it is working to fix problems in Baltimore and nationwide, Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, calls the situation "shameful."

"You have to think about that young veteran in Baltimore who has just come back from his third or fourth tour," he said. "They are stuck in limbo, and our veterans deserve better than that."

Officials with the VA acknowledge as much. A spokeswoman for the agency called the delays "unacceptable" and said the VA is focused on clearing its backlog and getting veterans the benefits that they have earned and deserve.

Yet meanwhile, the delays continue.

Robert Fearing, a combat veteran of the Iraq war and a Bronze Star recipient, has been hospitalized three times for paranoia and anxiety caused by post-traumatic stress disorder since he filed his disability claim with the Baltimore office 21/2 years ago. He's still waiting for his benefits.

"I have gone through war fighting the enemy and now I need to fight my own government for the benefits I deserve," said Fearing, who was an Aberdeen resident when he filed his claim but now lives in Stafford, Va. "It is absolutely frustrating and despicable."

Fearing said the base where he was stationed, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, was attacked by mortar rounds more than 150 times in the six months he served there from 2004 to 2005.

The trauma left him with paranoia, a belief that he's being investigated and followed, a feeling "you can't shake out of your head," said Fearing, 44, who is married and has two daughters at home. Fearing, who retired from the Air Force in 2007 after serving for 20 years, earned a master's degree while he was in the military to further his career in counterintelligence. But he said the work now triggers debilitating anxiety and he is seeking an early retirement from his government job.

"The real issue with it is, I want someone to acknowledge the fact that I've got it. I've had to acknowledge it and I have to live with it. What more do they need? Me to be hospitalized again?" he said.

The backlog, lag time and error rates at the VA have been the focus of congressional hearings, a cause for outrage by military advocacy groups and the subject of repeated media investigations. Yet the situation has grown significantly worse.

The VA has acknowledged that the problems at the Baltimore office, which serves all of Maryland, are severe enough to warrant additional training and quality checks.


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Leaked Memo: Afghan ‘Burn Pit’ Could Wreck Troops’ Hearts, Lungs
  • By Spencer Ackerman
  • 05.22.12
  • 5:00 AM

For years, U.S. government agencies have told the public, veterans and Congress that they couldn’t draw any connections between the so-called “burn pits” disposing of trash at the military’s biggest bases and veterans’ respiratory or cardiopulmonary problems. But a 2011 Army memo obtained by Danger Room flat-out stated that the burn pit at one of Afghanistan’s largest bases poses “long-term adverse health conditions” to troops breathing the air there.

The unclassified memo (.jpg), dated April 15, 2011, stated that high concentrations of dust and burned waste present at Bagram Airfield for most of the war are likely to impact veterans’ health for the rest of their lives. “The long term health risk” from breathing in Bagram’s particulate-rich air include “reduced lung function or exacerbated chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, atherosclerosis, or other cardiopulmonary diseases.” Service members may not necessarily “acquire adverse long term pulmonary or heart conditions,” but “the risk for such is increased.”

The cause of the health hazards are given the anodyne names Particulate Matter 10 and Particulate Matter 2.5, a reference to the size in micrometers of the particles’ diameter. Service personnel deployed to Bagram know them by more colloquial names: dust, trash and even feces — all of which are incinerated in “a burn pit” on the base, the memo says, as has been standard practice in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade.

Accordingly, the health risks were not limited to troops serving at Bagram in 2011, the memo states. The health hazards are an assessment of “air samples taken over approximately the last eight years” at the base.

The memo’s findings contradict years of U.S. military assurances that the burn pits are no big deal. An Army memo from 2008 about the burn pit at Iraq’s giant Balad air base, titled, “Just The Facts,” found “no significant short- or long-term health risks and no elevated cancer risks are likely among personnel” (.pdf). A 2004 fact sheet from the Pentagon’s deployment health library — and still available on its website — informed troops that the high particulate matter in the air at Bagram “should not cause any long-term health effects.” More recently, in October 2010, a Pentagon epidemiological study found “for nearly all health outcomes measured, the incidence for those health outcomes studied among personnel assigned to locations with documented burn pits and who had returned from deployment, was either lower than, or about the same as, those who had never deployed” (.pdf).

Over the years, thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have experienced respiratory and cardiopulmonary problems that they associate with their service. Some have sued military contractors for exposing them to unsafe conditions. For months, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) has urged the military to create a database of vets suffering neurological or respiratory afflictions, a move that’s winding through the legislative process. But the military has argued it doesn’t have sufficient evidence to associate environmental conditions on the battlefield with long-term health risks — and it argued that months after this memo is dated.

“As recently as April, in correspondence with the Defense Department and in discussions with my staff, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs both continued to maintain that research has not shown any long-term health consequences due to burn pits,” Akin tells Danger Room. “They also maintained that remaining burn pits in Afghanistan were away from military populations to reduce exposure. It is disturbing to discover that at least at Bagram the military concluded that burn pits posed a serious health risk.”

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) has collected “hundreds” of anecdotes from vets complaining of health problems connected to serving near burn pits. “It’s good to see someone in the military is acknowledging there are going to be long-term problems with burn pits, but it’s disturbing that this memo is more than a year old and it doesn’t seem like the military has done anything about it,” says Tom Tarantino, IAVA’s deputy policy director, who deployed to Iraq in 2005 as an Army captain. “I lived next to a burn pit for six months at Abu Ghraib. You can’t tell me that was OK. That was pretty nasty. While I was there everyone was hacking up weird shit.”



Any visitor to the sprawling Bagram airfield knows the burn pit — if not by sight, then by smell. It’s an acrid, smoldering barbecue of trash, from busted furniture to human waste, usually manned by Afghan employees who cover their noses and mouths with medical breathing masks. Plumes of aerosolized refuse emerge from what troops refer to as “The Shit Pit,” mingle with Parwan Province’s already dust-heavy air, and sweep over the base. In February, that was where soldiers at the nearby Parwan detention facility accidentally incinerated the Koran.

At the time of the memo’s issuance, it noted that the affected population on the base contemporaneously was “40,000 Service Members and contractors.” Hundreds of thousands have cycled through the giant base since the U.S. seized it in 2001. Bagram is a major transit and logistics hub for the Afghanistan war, and one of the first bases the U.S. took and continuously operated during the war. Millions more have served in Iraq and Afghanistan near similar burn pits.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, studies conducted on the effects of breathing in Particulate Matter 10 and 2.5 have determined “a significant association between exposure to fine particles and premature mortality.” The Army memo reports that Bagram’s air had twice the amount of Particulate Matter 10 than the federal National Ambient Air Quality Standard, and more than three times the amount of Particulate Matter 2.5 as the standard.

Burn pits remain in use across Afghanistan. And although a study by the Institute of Medicine and sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs found last October that there is insufficient data to correlate those pits with health risks, troops’ cardiovascular problems are clearly on the rise: There were 91,013 cases reported in 2010, up sharply from 65,520 in 2001. A 2010 study found half of a small sample of soldiers who struggled to run two miles had undiagnosed bronchiolitis. Hundreds of troops have sued the pits’ contractor operators after experiencing chest pains, asthma and migraines. For years, the U.S. government has pled ignorance about the causes of those veterans’ ailments. And unless the military formally acknowledges that the burn pits pose a long-term health risk, it will be difficult for veterans to receive long-term health care for associated respiratory and cardiopulminary ailments from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“The acknowledgement that air-sampling data is now indicating that burn pits may pose a risk of chronic illness to our servicemen and women validates the need for the national burn pit registry that I have proposed,” Akin says. Tarantino backs him up: “We don’t want another Agent Orange scenario, where it takes 40 years for the military to admit the stuff was bad and then has to spend all this effort tracking down affected servicemembers.”

The U.S. Army and the NATO military command in charge of the Afghanistan war did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Even casual visitors to Bagram know that the air is a menace. Within days of my most recent reporting trip there, in August 2010, I developed a disgusting, productive cough that kept me from sleeping comfortably. Airmen and soldiers joked with me about catching “Bagram Lung.”

But for at least a year, the U.S. military has known that “Bagram Lung” won’t stay at Bagram. There’s a significant chance that it will plague a generation of Afghanistan veterans for the rest of their lives.


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Do you know that Maryland/Baltimore requested that a lead paint poison lawsuit won by Baltimore residents be paid for with HUD funding for section 8 housing and low-income housing vouchers?  These funds would of course be where you go to push for safety in housing for lead paint for example.  It is also where money for homeless vets goes. 

WHEN I SPEAK WITH THE HOMELESS MEN ON THE STREETS IN BALTIMORE MANY TELL ME THEY ARE VETERANS AND HAVE BEEN DENIED ACCESS TO HOUSING FROM BALTIMORE HUD.

There is a concerted effort to divert funds from HUD away from low-income housing and it is all illegal.  When neo-liberals like Cardin and Mikulski pretend to be sending money or help-----they are not telling the truth. 

THERE ARE TOO MANY VETERANS ON THE STREETS IN BALTIMORE BEING HARASSED BY POLICE AND DENIED SUPPORT.


RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU KNOW THAT MUCH OF THIS MONEY IS LOST TO FRAUD AND CORRUPTION?  EVERYONE!!!
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Housing Grants for Veterans in Maryland

By Serena Cassidy

Housing Grants for Veterans in Maryland thumbnail   
Maryland housing grants help veterans find or adapt housing.

Federal and private organizations provide housing grant funding to military veterans who live in Maryland. The grants cover closing costs, adaptations or modification to housing for veterans with a disability, housing vouchers for homeless veterans and funding to support organizations that provide services for veterans.

    U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

        The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development`s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program provides grant funding to Maryland's public housing authority in the form of housing vouchers. The funding supports the transition of up to 50 homeless Maryland veterans to permanent housing units. To receive funding, veterans must have a referral to a Maryland public housing authority that has HUD VASH vouchers available. The vouchers cover up to 70 percent of a veteran's rent.
    U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

        The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides grant funding via home modification programs designed to support veterans. The Specially Adapted Housing grant provides up to $50,000 in funding to veterans who have disabilities related to service to modify or adapt an existing home to increase wheelchair accessibility and enable their independence. The Special Home Adaptation grant supports veterans in modifying or adapting their home for increased mobility. The maximum grant amount is $10,000. The Home Improvements and Structural Adaptations grant provides assistance to veteran`s with disabilities, service-related or otherwise, for home improvements. Eligible improvements include modifications that allow a veteran to continue to receive treatment in his home, and adaptations to bathrooms to make them accessible. To apply, a veteran must have a medical statement from his physician stating that adaptations or modifications are necessary to remain in the home.


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Do you know that the Baltimore VA is the worse run in the nation because funding cuts make it unable to operate as it should?  Do you know that substance abuse treatment is part of the VA?  So, why do we have cuts in funding for the VA but we have funding for private non-profits for VA?  Do you know that there is a lack of  public transparency with non-profits, so why would we do this?

THIS IS THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH -----WE DO NOT WANT THIS!!



Nonprofit to Open $2.3M Facility for Homeless Veterans
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Related

  A nonprofit is building a center to treat homeless veterans with drug or alcohol addictions in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of West Baltimore.

The center at 1611 Baker St. will cost the Baltimore Station $2.3 million to build and acquire the property, executive director Michael Seipp says.

The west Baltimore site currently houses a former Catholic Rectory and two rowhomes. The 16,800-square-foot Baker Street Station will be the nonprofit's second treatment center.

Funding for the center comes from four sources: the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Abell Foundation, and the France-Merrick Foundation.

The Baltimore Station is also hosting a fundraiser April 14 in Federal Hill's Cross Street Market to raise money for the new center.

Many military troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are being asked to serve multiple tours of duty, which puts them at a higher risk of getting post-traumatic stress disorder, Seipp says. And many of these men turn to alcohol or drugs, which, in turn, can lead to homelessness.

Veterans represent about one-quarter of all homeless people, twice that of the civilian population, according to the center's statistics.
The Baltimore Station employs 28 and has a $2 million annual operating budget.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Michael Seipp, Baltimore Station


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Do you really think every time Obama or neo-liberals in Congress and the Maryland Assembly say they are sending funding to help veterans that it actually gets to the veteran????  Not with these private non-profits all working with no oversight and no history of performance.  We need professionals working in this field and not only good will and charity!!

THE ONLY TIME YOU HEAR THESE NEO-LIBERALS TALK ABOUT CARING FOR THE VETS IS WHEN MEDIA BREAKS ON HOW BAD IT IS FOR VETS!!!!!


Suicides Highlight Failures in Veterans’ Support System

Are local vets getting the help they need? by Aaron Glantz — March 24, 2012, 10:55 a.m.0


Francis Guilfoyle, a 55-year-old homeless veteran, drove his 1985 Toyota Camry to the Department of Veterans Affairs campus in Menlo Park early in the morning of Dec. 3, took a stepladder and a rope out of the car, threw the rope over a tree limb and hanged himself.

It was an hour before his body was cut down, according to the county coroner’s report.

“When I saw him, my heart just sank,” said Dennis Robinson, 51, a formerly homeless Army veteran who discovered Guilfoyle’s body. “This is supposed to be a safe place where a vet can get help. Something failed him.”

Guilfoyle’s death is one of a series of recent suicides by veterans who live in the jurisdiction of the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. The Palo Alto V.A. is one of the agency’s elite campuses, home to the Congressionally chartered National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The poor record of the Department of Veterans Affairs in decreasing the high suicide rate of veterans has already emerged as a major issue for policy makers and the judiciary.

On Wednesday, the V.A. Inspector General in Washington released the results of a nine-month investigation into the May 2010 death of another veteran, William Hamilton. The report said social workers at the department in Palo Alto made “no attempt” to ensure that Hamilton, a mentally ill 26-year-old who served in Iraq, was hospitalized at a department facility in the days before he killed himself by stepping in front of a train in Modesto.

The Bay Area was also shocked by the March 14 death of Abel Gutierrez, a 27-year-old Iraq war veteran, who the police said killed his mother and his 11-year-old sister before shooting himself. Two weeks earlier the Gilroy Police Department intervened to ask the V.A. to help Gutierrez.

An examination of each case reveals faulty communication inside the V.A. system, which missed opportunities to help the veterans.

“I know people at the V.A. care a lot and work hard, but it’s a pattern that’s disturbing,” said Representative Jerry McNerney, a Democrat from Pleasanton who serves on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “It doesn’t look good.”

Last May, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit accused the department of “unchecked incompetence” and ordered it to overhaul the way it provides mental health care and disability benefits.

Noting that an average of 18 veterans commit suicide every day, Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, “No more veterans should be compelled to agonize and perish while the government fails to perform its obligations.” The department appealed, and Judge Reinhardt’s opinion has been temporarily vacated, pending a ruling from a an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit.

Gordon Erspamer, a San Francisco lawyer representing the two groups that brought the suit, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, said it was “incredible that this sorry record of ineptitude and lack of procedures for emergency cases continues even under the watchful eye of the Ninth Circuit.”

Two weeks before Gutierrez’s death, his family called the Gilroy Police Department and asked for officers to come to their home “to get him some help,” according to Sgt. Chad Gallacinao, a spokesman for the police department. Sergeant Gallacinao said a police officer who was also a military veteran was dispatched to the house and took notes.

Two days later, Sergeant Gallacinao said, the officer returned to the Gutierrez home with a representative of the Community Veterans Project, a nonprofit organization that trains law enforcement officials in interaction with psychologically wounded veterans.

“They made contact with the V.A. specifically to obtain services for Gutierrez,” Sergeant Gallacinao said.

Dave Bayard, a V.A. spokesman in Los Angeles, confirmed that a call had been placed to the Vet Center in Santa Cruz, but said the request was mild. “It wasn’t like ‘This guy is really in need of mental health,’” Bayard said.

The V.A. said Gutierrez had briefly received care at a department facility in Washington State, where he was a National Guardsman, but never visited a department campus in California.

In an e-mail, Kerri Childress, spokeswoman for the V.A. Palo Alto Health Care System, said that despite the intervention of the Gilroy Police Department in Gutierrez’s case, “We had no way of knowing he was even in the area.”

Shad Meshad, a Vietnam War veteran and former combat medic who heads the National Veterans Foundation, was unpersuaded. “It’s about time that they don’t make excuses,” Meshad said. “Why would you say it’s not serious when the police called?”

Meshad said the responses of Bayard and Childress were typical of the “finger-pointing” exhibited by the department when tragedy strikes.

Before Hamilton killed himself, he said he saw demon women and regularly talked to a man he had killed in Iraq. He had been admitted to the Palo Alto V.A.’s psychiatric ward before on nine separate occasions. Three days before he died, Hamilton’s father brought him to a community hospital in Calaveras County, which, according to hospital records obtained by The Bay Citizen, tried to transfer him to three V.A. hospitals, including the one in Palo Alto. But at 4:39 p.m., a department social worker wrote that day in his notes, the Palo Alto facilities “would not accept a transfer of a veteran for admittance this late in the day.”

Later that night, Hamilton was admitted to David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force base in Fairfield. That Sunday, the medical center discharged Hamilton. Within hours, he was dead.

V.A. officials have said they have no record of Hamilton being denied care and that their records do not show any telephone calls between the Calaveras County hospital and the Palo Alto V.A. But the inspector general’s report revealed that the Palo Alto hospital had no method of tracking incoming calls and that “no outgoing calls were recorded” from any Veterans Affairs Medical Center extension.

During the investigation into Hamilton’s death, the inspector general learned of yet another incident, in May 2011, when the doctor on duty refused to accept a veteran for treatment. According to the report, the psychiatrist said, “We don’t accept patients for transfer at night.”

In an e-mailed response to questions, Dr. Stephen Ezeji-Okoye, deputy chief of staff of the Palo Alto V.A., said that since Hamilton’s death his network had “revised our tracking mechanism so we are better able to analyze the disposition of any cases referred to the V.A. Palo Alto Health Care System.” Dr. Ezeji-Okoye said the Palo Alto V.A. had always accepted psychiatric patients 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Childress, the agency spokeswoman, said the Palo Alto V.A. was committed to improving the quality and availability of mental health care. The hospital is building a new 80-bed inpatient mental health center, she said, which is scheduled to open in June. It will have “patient access to enclosed, landscaped gardens” and “ample use of natural light to all internal patients,” she said, with a color scheme “specifically selected to support the healing process.”

This article also appears in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.



__________________________________________
Most of the private non-profits below are Baltimore's reason the VA is defunded-----they all have INC after the names and many are national private non-profits receiving billions of Federal and State funding all over America with no results given.

WHY WOULDN'T ALL THESE SERVICES SIMPLY COME FROM A CENTRAL VA ADMINISTRATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND?

I heard a Maryland pol say that selling the VA building was next-----getting rid of public assets!


Neo-liberals really hate public wealth!!

AID OUR VETERANS INC - Baltimore, MD

Welcome to Homeless Persons Representation  

Boot Camp for Homeless Veterans--- Baltimore's Veterans Center (MCVET)

MD Homeless Military Veterans Salem Veteran Unemployment

Maryland - National Coalition for Homeless Veterans  

 Project PLASE Support Our Homeless Vets

Nonprofit to Open $2.3M Facility for Homeless Veterans 

Maryland Center For Veterans Education And Training - Day ...

Veterans Programs - Maryland WorkFORCE Promise

USDOL / VETS Programs for Maryland Veterans 

National Coalition for Homeless Veterans  Program gives homeless veterans shelter, food, health care, job


__________________________________________


"These grants are reducing the number of homeless veterans in Maryland, and one day we will see this travesty end," said HUD Regional Administrator Jane C.W. Vincent. "These vouchers put us one step closer to reaching that goal."

'The grants announced today are part of $75 million appropriated for Fiscal Year 2012 to support the housing needs of approximately 10,500 homeless veterans.  VA Medical Centers (VAMC) provide supportive services and case management to eligible homeless veterans. This is the first of two rounds of the 2012 HUD-VASH funding.  HUD expects to announce the remaining funding by the end of this summer'.


Maryland Receives Resources to House Homeless Veterans, People Living with AIDS

Posted on April 16, 2012 by mdhousing Washington –

Homeless shelters in six different jurisdictions will receive more than $1.6 million to supply permanent housing for more than 180 veterans across Maryland, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced. Learn more.

The resources come through HUD’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program as the nation works to significantly reduce the number of veterans living on the streets.

HUD also awarded $1.4 million in grants to provide permanent housing for extremely low-income Marylanders living with HIV/AIDS through the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program. Read the release.

Governor O’Malley has pledged to make homelessness a rare and brief occurrence by 2015. In January 2011, there were an estimated 7,747 individuals in Maryland – a two percent decline, according to HUD’s most recent point-in-time survey. That count included more than 1,033 homeless families and 592 veterans, HUD reported.


______________________________-
Below you see the kinds of opportunities citizens of Baltimore have------students, veterans, volunteers do the work of public sector employees.  As with students volunteering, there is little sign that all this volunteering gets people jobs. 

Oliver is slated for affluent development and as such it is typical of the Enterprise Zone -----lots of fraud and corruption in who gets what real estate.  The bottom line is that this community next to Hopkins was starved of funding and resources.....it is blighted because people were not employed to keep these communities up.  At the same time billions of dollars went to East Baltimore and Hopkins over a few decades.....residents here could not get a job or if they worked at Hopkins, they were not paid enough to support themselves.  THE MONEY WAS THERE TO EMPLOY PUBLIC EMPLOYEES TO KEEP THESE COMMUNITIES FUNCTIONING----BUT THE GOAL WAS TO GENTRIFY TO AFFLUENT SO HIGH-UNEMPLOYMENT AND BLIGHT DOES THAT.

Now, as you see the same groups needing jobs are doing the work of public sector employees as volunteers and VISTAs.


If you look at the Board of the Oliver Community Assoc you will see all O'Malley/Rawlings-Blake connected friends who no doubt benefit from this association.  They are as well the Baltimore Democratic Party people-----THE SOURCE OF CRONY IN BALTIMORE!!!

So, what I see for veterans in Baltimore is a lot of money flowing to private non-profits and lots of veterans telling me they are not getting helped.  The statistics from national research show this is true----

Oliver, Baltimore

From Wikipedia

Oliver is a neighborhood in the Eastern district of Baltimore, Maryland. Its boundaries are the south side of North Avenue, the east side of Ensor Street, the west side of Broadway, and the north side of Biddle Street. This neighborhood, adjacent to Johns Hopkins Medical Campus and minutes from the Inner Harbor, lies east of the historic Greenmount Cemetery.


More than 1400 volunteers have been mobilized in Oliver from various student, veteran, and nonprofit groups. More than 54 tons of garbage has been removed from streets and alleyways. Two large murals have been painted. More than 50 trees and shrubs have been planted. Forests of weeds have been knocked back. One resident has been enrolled in a job retraining program and dozens have been given day labor opportunities. Boys were given the opportunity to participate in service learning and to attend special events. Weekly community walk-arounds have been conducted making more than 100 reports to the city.


Paving the way
for a better future.

About Maryland Center for Veterans Education & Training

Although relatively new as an agency, MCVET has already received a great deal of attention from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. On May 7, 1997, HUD declared that MCVET was the "National Model" for seamless services to homeless veterans.

Incorporated on February 25, 1993, the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Corporation designed to provide homeless veterans and other veterans in need with comprehensive services that will enable them to rejoin their communities as productive citizens.



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

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