Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

This is from yesterday, Kids4Cash Thread and at the top I put out some (basic talk) about where this stuff started — about currency.

Commentary & exposing isn’t enough — there has to be MORE financial literacy and LESS name-calling in order to do something in association with more than one person on the sidelines.   Because there’s slavery now, and there’s more slavery up ahead.

• I know I write too long — but some of the ideas are right on time.

Yesterday — last few days — I put stuff up on the Children’s Defense Fund(Marian Wright Edelman, Peter Edelman (husband) and there’s a groupStand for Children, conceived and run by Jonah Edelman, their son and in the same tradition..  I’ve been talking about the Children’s Rights movement — and (correctly) naming it as a TOOL / MEANS to change society, and reminded us of the 1960s history, back to going off the gold standard, etc.

SO — THIS MORNING on PBS // Bill Moyers — he interviewed Peter Edelman, and his new book “So Rich, So Poor.”  (all over the net, do a search)

Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in America

AN UNCOMPROMISING LOOK AT THE INCREASING POVERTY IN AMERICA TODAYESPECIALLY AMONG YOUNG PEOPLEBY THE MAN WHO FAMOUSLY RESIGNED FROM THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION TO PROTEST THE TREATMENT OF THE NATION’S POOR

Peter Edelman is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. A top adviser to Senator Robert F. Kennedy from 1964 to 1968, he went on to fill various roles in President Bill Clintons administration, from whichhe famously resigned in protest after Clinton signed the 1996 welfare reform legislation.

ANYONE would be right to protest welfare reform and block grants to the states which they can misappropriate — but this is for the wrong reasons —  — — – and even on the TV this morning, the man was gently asked, how that’s not “redistribution”? ?? (i.e. socialism).

While admitting there’s this huge and widening gap, there’s not a talk about changing the basis of the economy — or of what produced the gap (i.e., how people get their income to start with) — but wanting more federalism, universal wage supplementation, etc.  And this book is going to help (in its sales) make sure that whatever agenda the most organized and connected (incl. to (a) $$ and (b) $$ media) want — they are going to get.

LIKE FATHER . . . 

http://billmoyers.com/guest/peter-edelman/

Edelman also served as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services [HHS] in the Clinton administration, until he famously resigned in protest after Clinton signed the 1996 welfare reform bill into law. Edelman was a passionate critic of the law, which he characterized as a war on the poor of the United States and the worst thing Bill Clinton had done during his presidency. His article about the issue in the Atlantic Monthly entitled The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done received the Harry Chapin Media Award.

Some of my blogs (see signature line) at “Family Court Franchise System” are called things like “From Tavistock to TANF” and talk about the corner Clinton was backed in (from 2000 perspective).   Edelman didn’t protest use of block grants to push marriage & fatherhood & religion, on the poor.

LIKE SON . . .

Peter & Marian Wright Edelman’s son (one of them) JONAH has continued in the footsteps –in “STAND FOR CHILDREN”  -forcing change, calling it for kids:

http://stand.org/national/staff/jonah-edelman

[spoiler]Jonah Edelman wants to make our public schools better. An advocate for public education in America, Jonah is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stand for Children, a growing and influential political voice for students. He is committed to mobilizing Americans around a common goal of changing the odds for our children.

As a second generation civil rights leader his mother, Marian Wright Edelman, was the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi bar and his father, Peter Edelman, was a close aide to Robert F. Kennedy Jonah helped organize Stand for Children’s historic founding rally in Washington, D.C.. The Stand for Children Day rally was attended by more than 300,000 people, and was the largest rally for children in American history. Jonah was recognized on Time.com as one of the nations top education activists for 2011.

I looked at some tax returns for this group — it was clearly set up with a national goal in mind, and there are definitely strong-arm tactics in place, some of which has hit the press, despite how “great” it looks on PR:

http://www.blueoregon.com/2011/07/jonah-edelman/

Why did this video cause such a stir from a variety of people across the educational spectrum? On the jump…

[/spoiler]Stand entered Illinois late last year, established a PAC, and quickly raised over $3 million from wealthy donors. Along with another advocacy organization, Advance Illinois, Stand proposed an aggressive piece of legislation called “Performance Counts.” The bill would have stripped away tenure (which is the right to due process, not a job for life); outlawed the use of seniority in layoff decisions; and effectively eliminated the unions’ right to strike. The bill had a few highly publicized hearings, but ultimately did not pass during the 2010 lame duck session. (para. order reversed from this link)

Edelman eventually offered an extended apology for what he said.

Here is a link to the full video.

Other commentary:

Jonah Edelman: I came. I saw. I spent three million bucks.

[spoiler]

Here’s a 2010 tax return, see pp. 1&2 what it’s doing with $$

(mobilizing to push legislation for a certain agenda).  Some are getting annoyed!

“Following his success in doing a bamboozle on the IEA and the Illinois General Assembly in getting Senate Bill 7 passed, Jonah Edelmans Oregon-based Stand for Children is using its deep $3 million pockets to back Rahm Emanuels plan for turnaround . . .”

[spoiler]

(STAND FOR CHILDREN, ILLINOIS) collected more than $3 million from local deep pockets including Sam Zell, formerly of the Tribune Co., and the Pritzker and Crown families.http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/notebook/2011/04/12/stand-children-illinois-raises-3-million (Penny Pritzker was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.) . . . Stand for Children, in his view, is trying to push a top-down, corporate agenda that ultimately harms neighborhood schools and teachers. . . .Stand for Children comes into states with a pre-determined agenda and centrally-written legislative proposals,

[/spoiler]

These are tactics he evidently learned from his parents, and it’s not his food, housing, education (a done deal) or kids’ futures at stake. . . . At what point is something still WRONG even if the desired (allegedly desired) GOALS sound so good on paper, no one could fail to bite the bait unless they had zero acquaintance with the group(s) doing the talking? . .. How can one oppose something that’s taking a “STAND for CHILDREN” and wants better “EDUCATION” ???

_ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ __  _ _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _ _ _

More federalization — but simply better run — is hardly an answer.   But how can groups do this?  come and buy their way from the top DOWN into state after state, and screw the poor, while making deals (or breaking deals) with corporate vendors and governmental service providers?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

One reason is 1996 Welfare Reform (which set up a system impossible to completely monitored, making it profitable for crooks).  Another reason is CURRENCY (1913, 1933, 1971, and more).  

Another is tying WORK/EDUCATION/HOUSING into one big net so most people don’t get to break that connection — they can’t afford private schools (like politicians (Romney, much?) can.)  If there’s no way out of the work/education/housing neighborhood (out of that board game, see top) — AND given that wages are not gender-equal, then — in that scene — it takes two parents (no matter the quality) to make ends meet, and a (global) Village to raise a child.

But — there IS a way out (if the door isn’t slammed shut by family courts) and there has to be more than one way allowed to solve basic human problems.  The poor — not just the rich — need access to the freedom to choose more than one way out. Possibly one that neither the White House nor the Children’s Defense Fund and friends has thought of….  Resist, Regroup, Retrain.

_ _ _ _ _The ability to think symbolically and get those symbols in sync with reality now, and desired reality future — IS a form of power.  Because these packages are then sold to the public, to gov’t, to corporations and through media THEY OWN, omitting major elements of coverage. Bread & Circuses…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _We can’t possibly accurately monitor government as it now stands (even with internet access for everyone ) and continue to feed, clothe and house ourselves, get water, self-defense, handle criminal behavior, etc. etc. if 125% of our free time is spent at work, supplementing what public schools do Not teach our kids, working against gangsterism and drug use in their lives too, or their classmates — and so forth.  Can’t fight this. . .

_ _ _ If we don’t understand the language of groups that are selling the future, and for what — and including WHY the USA is the world’s largest per capita jailor!  Or, if we don’t understand where the profits GO when a bargain is made.  And it’s not just dollars.

We’re trying to act like we still have state-wide governments and some representation at the city, county & state levels and not states-as-federal-colonies. The 50 states & territories are themselves dependent upon the Federal (Reserve) to function, and the Federal Reserve (IRS, the whole 9 yards).

RIGHT NOW — but not indefinitely — the centralized powers actually need the cooperation of the peasant population, particulary in not being enough onto their agenda to make a contrary one — that will succeed.  They apparently NEED our cooperation for import or export activities (manufacture & consume goods) – but there may come a time when most of us are NOT needed in the economy.

THEN WHAT?

[/spoiler]

CAPOEIRA:

2 minute video:

Where I live, capoiera is still practiced, popular, but if it’s not in Lackawanna, here’s what it is:

(WIKIPEDIA): In the 16th century Portugal had one of the biggest colonial empires of the world, but it lacked people to actually colonize it. In the Brazilian colony the Portuguese, like many European colonists, opted to use slavery to supply this shortage of workers. Colonists tried to enslave Brazilian natives in the beginning, but this quickly proved too difficult for many reasons, including the familiarity natives had with the land. The solution was importing slaves from Africa.[1]

…Even though slaves outnumbered the Portuguese colonists, the lack of weapons, the colonial law, the disagreement between slaves coming from different African cultures and their complete lack of knowledge about the land and its surroundings would usually discourage the idea of a rebellion.

(CATCH MY DRIFT?)

…In this environment capoeira began to develop. More than a fighting style, it was created as a hope of survival, a tool with which an escaped slave, completely unequipped, could survive in the hostile, unknown land and face the hunt of the capitães-do-mato, colonial agents armed and mounted in charge of finding escapees. . . . (an UNUSUALLY good article, of survival in changing conditions, including after slavery was banished, then the freed slaves were without home, living, and regarded as lazy. But the capoeira skills were handy in raids, or in hiring henchmen, etc. — and it got banned…..)

People need a powerful form of FINANCIALLY unarmed self-defense — and are going to need it more each passing year.  Take a lesson from some survivors of mini-tyrants (like an abusive partner, or what happens when someone seeks “help” from outside intervention — only to later discover (at your kids’ expense) what THEIR agenda was.  

FYI, I went to an organization similar to “North Penn Legal Services” (and it turns out, one of their grantees) in order to break out of a violent marriage).  They give the client ONLY enough information to “close the case” (like cattle, new ones are always needed to justify grants I guess) and NOT enough to get all the way to freedom.  Thereis no free lunch, but moreover those who weren’t even LOOKING for a “free lunch” may be forced to eat one, or two and then mortgage their family later. … 

The middle class usually gets to be (or stay) middle class by minding their own business (jobs / professions etc.) and not thinking like the wealthy, the elite — falsely assuming that the wealthy think like them, that there is some kind of social contract in place — we do OUR jobs well, now you do YOUR job well. This is projected, and the same class doesn’t (really) listen to the POOR (why should they — after all, they pay taxes and subsidize welfare, right?  The lazy bums!!) — about how some / many of those poor GOT poor….

– – – -Part of what the elite do is sell the middle class on best ways to protect themselves from the supposedly dirty rabble of illiterate, “low-income” people. . . .the elite form foundations to teach others a certain message and I find it crazy how pre-occupied they are with children, families, adoptions, foster care, etc etc.  . . . . .

Here’s Jonah Edelman’s bio — silver spoon turned help-the-poor?  even if it means socialism and bullying at the state level?  “I came, I saw, I raised $3 million?“

Jonah was born and raised in Washington, DC, graduated from Yale University in 1992, and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, where in three years (1992-1995) he earned masters and doctor of philosophy degrees in politics. In 1996, Jonah moved from direct service to activism, helping to organize Stand for Children Day. Since Stand for Children’s historic founding rally in Washington, DC in 1996, Jonah has helped Stand for Children become a pathbreaking child-advocacy organization. In 1998, after closely studying the work of a range of organizations, he conceptualized Stand for Children’s grassroots advocacy approach and then moved to Oregon to field-test it himself

WDC, Yale, & Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship?  Then back home to take over the US on the crest of a Children’s Rights Movement?

February 2012 “From Transvaal to TANF (welfare) via Rhodes (and a Rhodes Scholar). (my blog) (covers the Clinton years and how he got TANF passed) plus:   “Rhodes Scholars in the US (Sir John Templeton“.   SIR JOHN was also Yale & Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and there’s a reason he got a British knighthood, being an American citizen….law degree from Oxford in 1936, then..

Templeton started his Wall Street career in 1938 and went on to create some of the world’s largest and most successful international investment funds. He took the strategy of “buy low, sell high” to an extreme, picking nations, industries, and companies hitting rock-bottom, what he called “points of maximum pessimism.” When war began in Europe in 1939, he borrowed money to buy 100 shares each in 104 companies selling at one dollar per share or less, including 34 companies that were in bankruptcy. Only four turned out to be worthless, and he turned large profits on the others.

He understood buying, selling, borrowing, thinking independently, etc. . .and clearly understood leveraging & going against the crowd…. (this post also talks more about FDR prohibition on US Citizens hoarding gold, etc.) and mid-1900s concern about the role of tax-exempt foundations on the US (political) landscape….all stuff I didn’t learn in school, but could’ve (instead of daydreaming because because most of the schoolday was irrelevant — and FYI that didn’t mean poor grades, either).

DEVELOP & SPREAD A KIND OF

FINANCIAL CAPOEIRA,** OR

GO WITH THE 29% TAX INCREASE, OR

FUND YOUR MAYOR’S LAWSUIT IN TRYING TO FORCE ONE.

(maybe there’s a Pennsylvania Dutch version, pardon me…)

(PS.  **I don’t have one. i just know one is needed).

will post, then “spoil” to save vertical space….