This post’s title and shortlink: Dear Readers (2017 Themes, Ongoing Concerns)

Or as it’s now going to be published after a detailed review, two months later after writing and being stored in draft, by myself  and an unofficial third-parpic sounding board for its overall coherence, tone, and sanity:  “Dear Readers (2017 Themes and Ongoing Concerns) [started 1/19, published in part 2/19, and the whole enchilada 3/21/17]  with that short-link ending “-5rq”).

The part already published on 2/19/2017 was  Retrospective @ 1/2017:  Beginning-of-Year Posts (“As I’ve Been Saying, Since 2009”) and an Update or Two (<=this post title with case-sensitive shortlink ending “-5wN”)

Sometimes after working hard on some material, it’s in my conscience, it’s also on the blog, and I may forget for a while which part was published and which was stored in draft.  Some of the recent discoveries are as disconcerting as any of the ones in prior years:  they involve at least one private university and its law school, and one public university (specifically in Ohio) and recent publications from the CRS (Congressional Research Service) admitting that the designated funds-tracker USASpending.gov is simply unreliable (as if this wasn’t obvious to people attempting to compare its information with federal agency information).

Many people are in turmoil and distress over the change of administrations this year. As a reminder, Administrations change every four to eight years, and technology races on; public/private partnerships people are NOT watching carefully for the most part, will be continuing anyhow.  While media (left, right, alt-right, international, and otherwise) churns the situation, and leaders watch, and I, too, am disturbed at the short-to-medium-term future for this country, I still live here and must make short-to-medium (about the most that can be made these days) plans for my own life and where to put my primary life energies. Including whether to continue pouring them into this blog.

After re-reading this post from top to bottom, I see one link which doesn’t lead to a published page (which I can handle soon enough if so), and some overlapping visuals.  Maybe some copyediting oversights (not that many).  But it’s still an excellent post.

I have done my best to lay out why people should take the personal actions I’m exhorting them to take, over time and to follow through.  Some anger at my personal situation will show through, but there is also documentation and teaching efforts not typically found outside this blog.  There is a bottom line here, and that bottom line should be identified, considered, and intelligent (not stupid or uninformed) decisions made by people about it.  I cannot hang with the “cognitive dissonance/dissociative” social media groups whose followers refuse to utilize some sort of screening and evaluation for the media they consume and want to discuss, endlessly, much of it leading in circles.

We CAN start to keep others in our immediate circle of associates honest (Start SOMEwhere! Why not there?), or if not, find some honest associates, with courage (not just stubbornness) to handle built-in unresolved dilemmas in the policy solutions being demanded.  Once immediate circle of associates are found to have integrity, be courageous, honest and at least informed, THEN take it to the political leaders.

It has three distinct sections:  I guess the first part I’d have to call

• 1.  “State of the Union | From This Perspective.“

But before I even get there is, and this section is important because it is:

• A Concrete Analogy for Fiscal Reality (When Foundations aren’t on Solid Rock, The Towers May Sink, or Lean, and regardless of the builders, Bottom Line, the Public WILL be paying.

This section is easily found by looking for the photos of skyscrapers followed by images obviously fine-print documents with an occasional logo:  These are from the financial statements of a joint powers authority right next to a significant high-rise in San Francisco which is sinking.  Fast!

Why others didn’t pay better attention or dig deeper to start in this example?  Probably, profits.  Either way, taking our own “core samples” of governmental financial statements reveals the foundations of the financing, and the accounting practices.  In the USA, we are the bottom line, and as such, should know, what’s being developed among us, and whether our “hired hands” are reporting and building appropriately.

This section simply developed as I sought a current analogy for concepts which are, literally, business, operations, financial, and governmental (tax-revenues-based) concepts.  Writing it took my own understanding up a notch, and I’m sure reading it (with attention) also will for others.

That other understanding I did migrate to a separate page (you’ll see the next lime-green reference  again at the very bottom of post).

[**This part may not be published yet, but I’ll look into it shortly.  LGH 3/20/2017]

The page had been published, I corrected the link (using WordPress-generated, not TinyUrl, one).

Don’t you want to understand about V2V meaning “Vehicle to Vehicle Communications” as facilitated by UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) and how your taxes are facilitating this through, in part the US Department of Transportation?

Or about how major on-line media communications — as the companies continue to buy and sell each other (for example, PRNewswire), and have gone so large as to name their parts by world regions?  While the profits from at least some of the Americans who sold off their part of this, are channeling the funds into transforming, say, our public school systems through private corporations they mutually control?

But before I even got into looking closer at USDOT.gov and its financial statements and the TIFIA (Infrastructure funds) and related projects, I first looked at some of the partners and players in what looks like a major:  reconstruction or re-alignment of a mid-SF highrise; a major expense no matter HOW you look at it for the public, as one of the parties being sued is the neighboring government entity (TJPA).  And that’s the “Concrete Analogy for Fiscal Reality” section BEFORE “State of the Union”…

Then there’s a entire “Retrospective” section in sky-blue-borders, a reminder of  previous points year by year, i.e., when, and an update.

About that next section  [It was published 2/19/2017, see top of this post].

For the 2014 posts, a follow up, appropriate because it’s typical of the field, and shows by how (by whom, in what fashion, and where (including a specific university)) the ongoing and habitual fiscal misdeeds of two specific and “outstanding in their field” (=”responsible fatherhood”) entities has just been glossed over, ignored, and their at times non-existence compensated for through forming partnerships (as Brother’s Keepers, apparently one doesn’t mention fiscal misdeeds, or long periods of “status-revoked” while the website (not that this one’s domain remained up) and friends talk among each other as though the not-real was in fact real.

NB:  Womens’ and violence-prevention groups also do this, and I have reported over time on both sides, which I feel is only fair. However, I did catch on to the HHS-funded fatherhood entities first because the funding streams seem to be so much larger and the behavior, so blatantly typical.

I also feel it’s important to bring up that centralizing subject-based funding (public & private both) at private OR public universities significantly complicates tracking the funding — and that means, holding our public institutions accountable for how public resources are allocated.

• 2.  Retrospective: Beginning-of-year Posts, Back to 2009.

[That part already published on 2/19/2017 was  Retrospective @ 1/2017:  Beginning-of-Year Posts (“As I’ve Been Saying, Since 2009”) and an Update or Two (<=this post title with case-sensitive shortlink ending “-5wN”)]

Then, after that extensive section with its quotes and updates, comes positioned last but written first, Section 3. 

There, I bring it back to my current research (naming names and posting references) and concerns on which I have upcoming posts illustrating the concepts.  This one is called:

• 3.  A “Letter to Readers,”or something two notches less formal.

About that section

The “Letter to Readers” was actually the first material of the year under this post and came out naturally while I was migrating (a cleaner copy of) the 2016 and 2014 Tables of Post Contents to a different format, and posting them as links + images on my “Table of Contents 2017” page.

This section also has images and links explaining why, regretfully, I find it necessary to take on some of the higher powers individually and collectively, for a problem that has shown top-down origins in the first place.  Here’s a short quote (from that section):

So, how’d YOU like to go up, in public, against that type of power bloc and call it what it is based on what you are seeing, without colleagues or one’s own “nonprofit” standing by to witness the same evidence — as those one might think should be most concerned appear to be still busy telling their stories and speaking about the symptoms in individual blogs, texts, tweets, (still, after all these years) and basically flying in the same formation year after year, and somehow calling it “exposure.”  

Well, I got in the habit of doing just this long ago, 

and don’t see a good reason to stop now.

It is simply where my research and remaining true to the facts requires admitting they exist, and that when laid out together they speak differently than the surface proclamations (paid-for) on primary institutions of common public life.  Some material regarding CFPIC and CWDA also near the bottom of this post, I see.  Among the basic problems there is that one entity cites an EIN# associated with the other one.  The organizations seem related (though not always portrayed that way), but two different organizations canNOT share a single EIN#:  not these two, for sure!

Any archaeologist, geologist who take core samples below the earth, and study them, would also have to deal with what is unearthed.  I take core samples of things that have affected my family and are certain to affect, I believe negatively, future generations, including my young-adult children, and any marriage or children they may decide to have, as well as their income-to-expense ratio if they decide to live primarily as wage-earners, and not learn, as I did through the family court system trashing it, the high risks of being dependent on wages and one primary income stream.

Among these risks is that anyone or any group of people (or, institutions) capable of routinely, or at-will interfering this, can attempt to subject, or actually subject targeted individuals, OR targeted demographics (of the population) to extortion — consent to our practices, or face homelessness, or harm to your children, yourself, or even (for those who actually love them), your spouse — or elderly parents.  So, here is:

• A Concrete Analogy for Fiscal Reality (When Foundations aren’t on Solid Rock, The Towers May Sink, or Lean, and regardless of the builders, Bottom Line, the Public WILL be paying.

I am marking out this section in the color scheme of its title, just above…

For example:  In San Francisco, we have a certain problem which is making news.The tower in San Francisco, looking to profits, apparently didn’t drill all the way down to solid rock, but stopped short of it, even though the area is known to be seismically active.  How did that happen?

Real Estate Developers, Silenced Structural Engineers, and Next-Door Joint Powers Authority

Millennium Tower in San Francisco (Built by 2008, already sinking fast — but not uniformly, i.e., the “leaning” factor, 58 Stories High, Lawsuits in Place).  

Developers’ response: Who to Blame, how to appease the gentry (homeowners association — it includes high-priced condos, wealthy people live there), and paying experts to testify for or against….

Because it comes up in the blame-game context here, I also take a walk through statements of the next-door Joint Powers Authority, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority.  When things go this wrong this fast, with this serious possible consequences (a collapsing high-rise in downtown SF next to the Transbay Terminal! Think about it..), and this expensive remedies, in hindsight those defending themselves against the accusations hired a structural engineer, accused others, and took core sample drill-downs.

They apparently did not anticipate a foreign agency (here, the European Space Agency) who was already monitoring seismically active areas worldwide by satellite, noticing the “Leaning Tower of San Francisco.”

An opportunity for observers to take a fiscal walk-throughs, and remind ourselves WHY we should understand the normal context and existence of how governments work.

For example, they tend to, once in power, create more authorities, transfer jurisdiction, sometimes powers to their mutual creations, thus, complicating the following of public receipts through State, Regional and Local Authorities, Project-Specific Authorities (here, related to transportation), and what happens when they are sued for causing problems next-door.  And then, the created entity often pools its funds anyhow with the State or others.  The next-door project to the sinking tower, the towers show, involved TFIA funding from the US Department of Transportation.

• I left this example here because it also illuminates the bottom line for expensive fixes, and experiencing first-hand also the damages, is on the public when what’s being “developed,” for profit are:  our courts, our schools, our justice system, our social services systems, and ongoing public/private partnerships throughout the same.

FOR AN ANALOGY OF THE PROCESS AND NECESSITY OF BOTH TAKING CORE SAMPLES (Drilling down) AND THE SATELLITE (TOP-DOWN, “BIRDS-EYE” VIEWS) OF ANY ONGOING OR PROBLEM SITUATIONS.  ALSO FOR A LESSON IN THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING ONE’S EYE ON REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS AS A STANDING and POWERFUL FORCE IN ANY REGION’S ECONOMY, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND BECAUSE OF THIS, POLITICAL POWER BASE.

(I say this because of a separate example, recent posts are discovering, relating to the “Promise Zones” funding in Los Angeles & San Diego, California…NB:  Some of the major foundations influential in social policy today either acquired wealth in part through real estate, including real estate development (for example, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, per their own account) or are investing in it, and thus staking a controlling claim in neighborhoods.  Some like to call this “place-based philanthropy” but I believe (again, based on evidence so far), that a better phrase might apply.

So, when it comes to building major practice networks, or looking at ones already in place….

When buildings OR institutions begin to topple, sink, or develop cracks and accountability gaps gradually or suddenly you have to look at those foundations, and remember, NEXT TIME, to do this before building major infrastructure, or hiring others to do so.  Our taxes provide the ongoing revenues (or significant fraction for them) for things we are not fully aware of and cannot yet express in coherent terms, what they are or how they operate.  This must change!

For example: The 58-story Millennium Tower in San Francisco completed only about 2008 is already sinking too fast, and as a consequence leaning. It seems they didn’t drill down far enough before building upwards, now lawsuits and/or settlements and major displacements are on the horizon), or (depending one’s point of view — for plaintiffs or defendants), it’s the fault of a local, I believe the named entity would be a Joint Powers Authority.

San Francisco Files Lawsuit Against Sinking Millennium Tower, (Thomas Fuller in the NYT (under “U.S.”) Nov. 1, 2016):

SAN FRANCISCO — Five years ago, when Frank Jernigan, a retired Google software engineer, and his husband bought a 50th-floor apartment in downtown San Francisco for $4 million, they felt on top of the world. And judging by the commanding view of San Francisco Bay from the plate glass windows of their living room, they were.

“We were feeling pretty good about our investment here,” Mr. Jernigan said, looking out at the view from his home on Thursday afternoon.

But their 58-story luxury condominium building, the Millennium Tower, which has sunk 16 inches into the soft soils of reclaimed land and is tilting, is now derided as the leaning tower of San Francisco. A dispute over the building’s construction is fast shaping into a huge legal battle involving the developer, the city and owners, and one with stakes befitting Silicon Valley.

San Francisco’s city attorney, Dennis Herrera, announced on Thursday that he was filing a lawsuit against the developer of the building for failing to inform buyers that it was sinking “much faster than expected.” The developer, Mission Street Development, reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in sales from the more than 400 units in the building, which was completed in 2008 ….

He [spokesman for the developer] blamed the city’s construction of a neighboring railway station for the building’s sinking. By removing water from the ground, the city agency, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, had caused the building to “settle beyond the 12 inches it was predicted to settle,” he said.

[You have the link — read the rest for more players and possibilities, for example, how come it passed the city zoning?  What about the deleted phrases from a structural engineer’s report that the sinking would cause “significant stresses” on the building, the  engineer hired by the developer?]

San Francisco’s Millennium Tower Seen Leaning from Space (Nov. 28, 2016, CBS News)

SAN FRANCISCO — Engineers in San Francisco have tunneled underground to try and understand the sinking of the 58-story Millennium Tower. Now comes an analysis from space.

The image provided by the European Space Agency ESA on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016, shows the Millennium Tower in San Francisco on the base of modified Copernicus Sentinel satellite data. ESA SEOM INSARAP STUDY/ESA VIA AP

The European Space Agency has released detailed data from satellite imagery that shows the skyscraper in San Francisco’s financial district is continuing to sink at a steady rate — and perhaps faster than previously known.

The luxury high-rise that opened its doors in 2009 has been dubbed the Leaning Tower of San Francisco. It has sunk about 16 inches into landfill and is tilting several inches to the northwest.

A dispute over the building’s construction in the seismically active city has spurred numerous lawsuits involving the developer, the city and owners of its multimillion dollar apartments. ….The ESA decided to conduct regular observations of the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Hayward Fault, since it is prone to tectonic movement and earth-quakes, said Potin, who is based in Italy.

And, here comes the blame game, and dissuading tenants (who would by definition have to be rather wealthy tenants) that the building isn’t REALLY sinking that fast, or has at least slowed recently, and it’s not the developers’ fault, etc., but a local (in fact, probably a JPA — Joint Powers Authority) Transbay Joint Powers Authority is responsible for affecting the groundsoil by an adjacent project.  You have the link, just finish reading the article, which is co. 2016 Associated Press.

Here’s a link to that agency, its Mission, Vision, “Quality Control” and Jurisdiction:

http://www.transbaycenter.org/tjpa/about-the-tjpa:

(from near the bottom of the page)

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) has primary jurisdiction with respect to all matters concerning the financing, design, development, construction, and operation of the Transbay Program. The TJPA is a joint exercise of powers authority created by the City and County of San Francisco, the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, and Caltrans (ex officio). The TJPA is managed by TJPA staff and is overseen by a six-member Board of Directors.

Joint Powers Agreement | Bylaws | Rules of Order | Board Policies

I noticed there IS a “Financials” page here, and just took a look at the 2016 (YE Jun30) Financial statements for this particular entity (TJPA).  When looking at government entities, look for financial statements in approximately this format which define who is being reported on, and produce the columns showing balance sheets, and revenues / expenses (cash flow), and who’s audited what.

Look for “Management Discussion & Analysis Pages” — here’s this one’s latest opening statement.

Page 3, top half, from http://transbaycenter.org/ uploads/2016/ 12/FY2015-2016_TJPA_Financial_Statements.pdf

Notice the excess assets and “Deferred outflows” for the year end exceeded the liabilities and deferred-inflows by $1.78 billion:

Look for definition of the reporting entity (here, the TJPA), found on the same, first page of the MD&A above.  The reminder is, this represents the government entity with jurisdiction operating a business, intentioned for operation as a for-profit enterprise.

“The TJPA is reported as an enterprise fund. Enterprise funds are a type of proprietary fund that is used to report information in a manner similar to a private-sector business. An enterprise fund is used to account for functions that are intended to recover all or a significant portion of their costs through user fees and charges. Under the Joint Powers Agreement creating the TJPA, dated April 4, 2001, the new transit terminal and related facilities will be managed and operated upon their completion as an enterprise operation. [[Internal bold font, mine]].”

“The basic financial statements include the Statement of Net Position; Statement of Revenues, Expenses, and Changes in Fund Net Position; and Statement of Cash Flows. …. Notes to the Basic Financial Statements. The notes to the basic financial statements provide additional information that is essential to a full understanding of the data provided in the basic financial statements.

The point being, read the financial statements themselves (look for patterns) AND the MD&A up front, AND the Notes Afterward for key information about any entity and any Authority institute for a project such as this one.  I also notice that the page above is labeled (3rd line), “Required Supplementary Information-Unaudited.”  This is a disclaimer and brings up the question, where, if anywhere are AUDITED statements?

This is starting to remind me, on smaller scope, of the Port Authority of NY/NJ. Same general idea, just more recent, and for a MUCH smaller metropolitan area (though a larger state).  Next quote — look at the State granting Jurisdiction, and the Member Agencies granting their “Jointly Held Powers” for this project to this created TJPA entity.

Does it sound like the citizens, per se, look have any direct authority, or the authority and direct accountability to the citizens and residents (commuting workers, visitors, etc.), regardless of how it may impact them?  Does it sound like the TJPA is accountable directly to the public in any fashion, though the public will be using the completed (and is now using the Temporary, it looks like) facilities, that is, “enterprise”?

At the bottom of the same page is a short paragraph defining the TJPA’s relationship to the State of California and some of the member agencies, with “PCJPB “defined in the image to left under list of agencies:

The TJPA is legally separate and financially independent and is not a component unit of the State, City, AC Transit, or the PCJPB. Therefore, these financial statements represent solely the activities, transactions and status of the TJPA.

 

This shows sources of revenue for the project; it is also the very next page under “Note 1.” I grabbed a page number at the top for reference in case others want to look closer at this report (image with blue borders):

 

 

 

 

TIFIA funding is from the US Department of Transportation.  I went looking and found a map of projects (Notice that the current map is focused almost exclusively — the exception in the Midwest (#4 on map) is in Denver — East Coast, and just a very few West Coast project locations.  Apparently the completed in 2010 TFIA loan for SF doesn’t show on this map.

https://www.transportation.gov/tifia. See also other related sites for more info on this.

 

Now, referring to the ongoing “Sinking Towers” blame game, below-left (the image has B/W text only, no graphics) here’s a segment from TJPA’s “About” page (NOT the from the above financial report 2016) “Fiscal Responsibility” section followed by the Quality Control” parts:

SF Bay Area’s TJPA (Transbay Joint Powers Authority) “about” page, excerpt context here is the Sinking Millennium Tower adjacent to one of its major projects, for which the tower developers blame the Authority and over which lawsuits are pending.

I am using this for an illustration of a fiscal, financing and operational concept, although parts of this worry me about who or what should be sacrificed for profit, or the city’s business profile, in its well-known gentrification process.  You must not only dig down (bore holes to measure) AND get a birds-eye level (from up higher on, here I mean, the funding superstructure — that is, at least a look at the federal and major foundation “P3-partnering” on the projects).

 

This image reflecting I guess projects since the initiation of TIFIA, shows the same “Midwest — what’s THAT?” priority and is available to see at a 1/4/2017 “TIFIA BACKGROUND SLIDES” pdf (link) on the USDOT/TIFIA site. I see every single East Coast state except Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut, ALL Gulf of Mexico states except Mississippi and Alabama, [Click here to review map of USA with state names if needed] and, through fewer, the South and Southwest includes of course, California, also Washington (but not Oregon), and plenty in Texas, but none in Arizona or New Mexico (or, Alaska or Hawaii). Possibly these states simply did not apply, but it does show the major focus on major ports, and obviously, with them, international commerce. Denver, Chicago and Louisville, KY are included in this map.  The amounts (somewhat visible if you click on the link and enlarge) are in millions, and bottom-left rectangle shows project total investment in billions.

This is what I have done year after year when it comes to local court systems, and the major funding pouring into them, and being dispersed through referrals for business (of forced consumption of services, i.e., court-ordered), of the network of conflict-of-interest personnel between the grants streams, the court administrative structures (state level, county level, other levels) and the “Credentialing” (Technical Assistance and Training) levels.

I didn’t expect the upcoming State of the Union. section to be so emotionally difficult, dealing with Civil Rights and exhortation to prioritize accounting literacy over subject matter rhetoric.  But it certainly was.

I am still dealing in my sixties with the effects and ongoing damages from major life redirections forced on me, and my children, and anyone who stepped in to support during significant attacks on my work and personal life for a decade AND A HALF after I filed for separation from domestic violence.

Housing continues to be a major vulnerable area, and I have yet to finish extracting financial information due me from people who have taken control of assets, in an official position of trust, and abused that trust to the point I am without permanent rental housing having been FIRST deprived of stability in work life (over repeated attacks lasting a decade AFTER the abuse).

My experience of this country in my middle-middle (still having and raising children in my 40s and 50s) and later-middle ages is that an intense hatred of women still pervades the major systems, and that women are being used against each other by those in power, in what I can only characterize as versions of “fake advocacy” — the major anti-violence and feminist leadership appears to know quite well what side their bread is buttered on, and make sure not to challenge it.

As part of the theory and practice, ongoing compromises of civil rights of those women particularly mothers NOT in their non-profit-stabilized by government and private grants streams positions, is commonplace. It has been judged appropriate to include men — but not women who are reporting on the funding, the nonprofits, or the fathers’ rights groups — in positions of power and influence on these boards under the label of “engagement” and “collaboration.”

In so doing these organizations, apparently, cannot afford to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing BUT the truth” about the roles of private and government (federal agency on down) sponsorship of, literally, a return to patriarchy, in accommodation with major religions — while proclaiming they are protecting women’s rights in the developing world (some entities) and for immigrants.

In all of the above, the Democratic and Progressive Party holds nothing over the Republican and even the Trump Administration as far as protecting women.  They have accomplished some things, but at the same time demonstrated major hypocrisy by the “HMRF funding” sell-out.  But, try telling this to any female leadership over 40 years old, or mentored by someone over 40 years old in this country — and in the process, challenging their own power bases, and to a large degree, the legal profession itself, which women had to fight so hard even to get into.

Good luck — I already have, repeatedly. The typical response was a non-response, even if on the phone.  What, after all, could be said when the evidence of their awareness of that funding exists and is available on-line to anyone who might choose to look at it?

Without discrediting that fight, my facts still stand about this funding, and the refusal in high places, to tell those of us NOT in those places about it, when it was critical for us to know and make informed decisions BEFORE divorce and even before filing a domestic violence restraining order OR asking for help with enforcement of a child support order, whether or not it was badly needed. In this matter, they are without excuse.

Saying this about Democrats doesn’t put me in place as a conservative Republican either.  I am who I am — an investigative blogger on this material, a mother, a survivor of marital abuse with (his) attempts to “spiritualize” it, however incredulous, accompanied by force to continue it, followed post-filing of the TRO to separate from it, by the family court systems’ innate attempts to “psychologize” and/or “psychoanalyze” the same or quite similar forms of abuse and major violations of basic human and civil rights, and through “coordinated community services” setting women in social services (and DV groups) against women fighting for their lives and that includes their work lives and being forced to choose one OR the other:  You retain a work life, OR you see your children again.  Or, if you fight, neither.

This is overall, behavior characteristic of so-called “third world” and “developing” countries. And I’m ‘effing’ tired of it.  If anyone ought to be able to do something significant to curtail abuse of women, it should be women who have survived it, so far, in this country, including but not limited to those who have been privileged in this country to make it through college and into at least for some years, creditable, sustainable work lives.  We have to start getting honest about where should social acceptability of the social caste system continue to cost lives, and we have and ought to stand as women and mothers to fake advocacy and “fake friendly behavior.”

Where people can no longer keep each other honest within their close associations, they are in fact, dealing with controlling relationships and practically speaking, a cult.  Bystanders may not understand that what some call support groups or friendships based on them, may in effect be simply controlling, information-censoring, and at times ex-communicating cults until they are “hooked.”  Once hooked (on the emotional support and validation and “hope”), ones powers of perception may not persist, and it –apparently — becomes harder to wriggle free, but the most important thing once hooked is to get free where you CAN actually see and process information which may be hard to face, hard to acknowledge and which conflicts with the current paradigms to the point that both cannot co-exist.

In particular, the habit of lying should be called out, as well as speaking in terms so vague they are not subject to proof or disproof, framing questions and studies/evaluations so as to produce predictable answers, and the refusal to talk about nonprofits AS nonprofits and, as they are in fact, often the “critters” of stockpiled tax-exempt wealth representing the existing power structures of previous generations’ stockpiled corporate wealth.    

Some huge foundations are also holding and often moving assets overseas, and demonstrating a “vote of no confidence” in this country anyhow.  They do not themselves demand consistent compliance with state laws among their own grantees, which is as basic as it can seem to get.

Some, as I demonstrated last season, invested (strangely) heavily in Bernie Madoff funds.  Others are into hedge funds and foreign investments.  Some, not all, present their grantees when grants are in the millions or over one-hundred-million-dollars in a single year, in illegible format, as I demonstrated last season. Some, the primary expenses and highest-paid personnel are not even based in the USA, although the organization itself is.  And I have already referenced a highly-paid officer of a prominent foundation based on UPS wealth as receiving a salary that was first $500K, then nearly $600K, and within a few short years later, over  $1,000,000, and this is not an isolated instance.

If you do NOT find and look at the organization’s tax returns where such exist — you don’t know “SQUAT” about it, even if the rhetoric and an entire website with its links can be quoted by memory, or if you are personally acquainted through some conference with executive membership.

In 2017, it will be tempting to continue NOT having this important conversation in favor of many others thrust in our faces daily (and which have their own importance also) catalyzed by the change of US Presidency from Obama to Trump, and from Democrats to Republicans in many key positions.  There is still race, there is still violence, there is still homelessness and poverty.  There is an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act (itself barely in place).

There will ALWAYS be an excuse NOT to talk about how the nonprofit sector as a sector, leverages power WITH GOVERNMENT but as though transforming and reforming it into something more fair, just, or equitable.

I have NOT stopped looking at this sector (among other things, such as the federal role also) and these networks since 2009, and from what I can see and have seen, there is NOTHING “equitable” or “fair” about the entire scenario.  And I say that from if not the perspective of the European Space Agency’s satellites on the San Francisco “Millennium Towers,” I still have said it what versions I could access of the birds-eye, standing apart, looking from the top-down (wealth-to-poverty, D.C. to local, federal-to-local government) and from many different angles.  And, over time.

We have to talk about the nonprofit sector and the collective investment platforms, and what’s being done with those assets.  We ought to have enough people actually reading those CAFRs for learning (not just as paid to do so) that there can be ongoing discussions about them, and I also mean discussions across the political fences.  No one said it would be easy.  But it’s the right thing to do.  I have started this discussion with this blog.  I talk about it frequently, locally.  So could anyone else who takes the time to look, and thus has the perspective to talk with authority on these matters.  ALL experts tend to be paid experts — that’s why they’re acknowledged as experts.

You cannot and should not even try to “assign your conscience” as a citizen or taxpayer, as a parent or resident of this country, to circles of experts beholden to others only.  You should start comprehending enough basics to start conversations about them — and not just material spoonfed from others. Don’t be a “drive-by” thinker, but take (make!) the time, somehow, to ensure you are also exercising your own will and mind when it comes to your relationship and participation in this country!

“State of the Union | From this Perspective”

For the first time since I began the blog the US Presidential Administration is changing from Obama (2009) to Trump (2017).   It is January, the beginning of another calendar year; we are within one week of a Presidential inauguration. The recent Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Day is still a recent memory, and many have extraordinary concerns about the near-future of this country.

I am still concerned over widespread ignorance of critical national events which occurred, one of them, between the two-term Clinton Administration in the 1990s, including the parts of it based on the nation’s 1960s response to a Civil Rights movement, not to mention the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I am still concerned about the lack of concern expressed, overall, about the lack of accountability for usage of tax receipts based on examination of federal agencies “grants distributed” databases.

• For one, several agencies do not appear to even have such databases accessible to the public, among them the USDOE and USDOJ.  US HHS database is there but not reliable, and most of its pages designed for public advertising of its many programs don’t readily link to it — not even its announcements of grants recipients in the form of a simple phrase: “For more information on HHS grants, see here!” The lacks in these three are so shocking, I have not yet even got to the USDOL, or others.  HAVE YOU?
• If public ongoing and consistent, individual follow-up stops AFTER the legislation is passed, what’s the point of having voting rights in the first place?  How can we, collectively, keep even the Congress on notice that what they continue to authorize but not keep continuing authorization dependent on strong internal grantee, sub-grantee, contractor, subcontractor controls, checks-and-balances matters to us? The burden is on the public, apparently, to deduce what significant information is being withheld, and demand it where it’s reasonably due, and to do this consistently.

Civil Rights is most definitely on my mind as an individual, as a woman, as a mother, as a person who stood up to marital abuse, including but not at all limited to, repeated physical violence (assault and battery), targeted destruction of personal property and abuse|neglect of household pets in front of our children, economic control and coercion (etc.), and left it, falsely believing that,

• living on the right side of the law (having kept clear from criminal behavior all my life, with no criminal record or drug habits in my past or present), being mentally and physically competent for life and being at that time well-engaged in (and rapidly re-building post-DV) a profession to sustain the household I was head of having separated from domestic violence, again, filing the legal paperwork to preserve life and limb (though civil, not criminal),

(falsely believing that) an infrastructure within the same county’s court system who had just acknowledged domestic violence as dangerous enough to support legal action/intervention in the form of exercised power to ORDER the abuser out of the home and to stay away from the other protected persons …[fn]  would continue supporting my legal right in this country, being also a natural-born citizen, “despite” being a woman and “despite” having been previously compromised due to a decade of marital abuse, to simply and safely: work.

[fn]…for commentary that belongs here and after the word “work:” click here to read” (3pp, normal page size)! It will look like this on page 1:

All this really can be summarized, it is a great distillation, in part of the “unalienable rights” referenced in the Declaration of Independence as  “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  And demonstrated in the movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness” borrowing that phrase (with the misspelling representing a situation relating to his son’s childcare) starring Will Smith and based on a life story of man who went from homeless to successful trader, also expressed this well.  

Overcoming hardships and obstacles and reaping the rewards and satisfaction of having done so, including increasing one’s own capacity to earn income with which to support one’s offspring, as this movie well portrayed– in addition to the stresses on the marriage of the original couple on a mother having to work double shifts when the father’s income didn’t suffice — was part of his life, of his liberty, and of his pursuit of happiness.

The order of those phrases:  FIRST, life, ALSO liberty and ALSO, which implies exercising choice, “pursuit of happiness” even if that happiness only means the ability to freely sustain the basics of life.

Let us not forget to go for the accounting records and practices when concerned about these unalienable rights, and let us remember that a system which can only protect rights for some by revoking them for others, when the others were not violent, law-breakers, unethical, thieves, or otherwise hazards to their neighbors or their communities, is itself a hypocritical and unethical system which will not change of its own accord, and the larger and more intricate it is, the more assets it commands (which means the more people it can hire), the less inclined it will be to change direction, and engage in true participatory or representative government.

There are already built-in “systems-change” processes in place and partnerships in place, involving the private sector, and the major tax-exempt foundation sector in partnership with government or government-supported entities at seemingly all levels.  The history of recent posts illustrates that I have been, and will continue to be, reporting on the same.

People should be alert to this as a sector, and not just those entities on your favorite, or despised political party’s pet projects.  Bad behavior and concealing assets and what I can only describe as lousy reporting (from how to follow an IRS forms instruction, to mis-categorizing major expenses, burying the scope of related or disregarded entities, or hiding projects under major summaries of the whole entity’s projects (until they are ready to be “spun off” and acknowledged by their fiscal or organizational “parents”) and broken trails of accountability  are commonplace. On BOTH political sides, and even regarding at times the same subject matter.

IN order to maintain some sort of social and civil “Order” in such situations, just as in abusive marriages, as many of us well know, or family systems, the “other” has to be dehumanized, spoken of in the impersonal third person generic, all attributes of their character as human beings stripped off, while those of the in-vogue favored sector are humanized, given anecdotal presence in the mainstream press (and corresponding government websites at times), and empathy is encouraged.

Other times — as the ongoing and monotonous PR phraseology:  “Fathers, Children and Families” or “Fathers and their children” (it takes two for that tango which produces human life, at least so far as common practice — the pronoun “their” is possessive), or the generical “Children and Families” with no mother, no father.  The missing noun in describing families in this rhetoric is often “mother” in any positive sense.  It is at times replaced by “women” or “female.”  The attempt to replace families under ownership and control of men (fathers) where men (fathers) are not already in control of them– or have the state take them– is ongoing, pervasive, and unjustified as a federal policy.  It is archaic, it is endemic, and it is at conflict with the concept of any sort of individual rights, including allowing women to vote, to work, to attend college (what a fight THAT was for entrance into the Ivy Leagues, which in general are still helping run the country, and who regularly turn out US Presidents, Governors, and business millionaires, etc.).

So, yeah, I continue being concerned and alarmed at what is NOT being reported by those who claim interest in injustice and violation of rights in certain specific court sectors, or certain specific geographies.  What about the networks themselves?  What about checking out one’s friends and supporters before jumping on board philosophically or offering one’s horror stories (which seem to be always in abundance) for their particular agenda?

And, some “in hindsight, further follow-up” of NLFGonline.com — putting together when did it incorporate, and for how long it did NOT file in order to get IRS-revoked by May 2010, at which same date, a PRNewswire featuring a certain psychologist (Jeff Gardere) working with fathers, listing the other organizations involved in this “coalition,” who would be partnering with it (possibly because, fiscally, it could not stand alone at the time, at least legally?), and confirming that the website which now looks like this (i.e., no redirect to a functional website — in English, or English and Spanish, or something which would work for mainstream USA):

[May also have been quoted on the separately-posted “Retrospective” post (2/20/2017, this blog).  Right now, I am getting this post out two months afterwards. //LGH.  This section required comparing the article to the corporate/nonprofit filings information, and did crystallize several groups involved in the mutual referral (to each other in public) and publicity. Here’s the link and several related images, added March 2017 as originally intended earlier]

VH1 Teams Up With The National Fatherhood Leaders Group For Watch Parties Surrounding May 31 Premiere Of New Original Series ‘Dad Camp‘

Partnership Inspired by President Obama’s National Conversation on Responsible Fatherhood  (Page 2/conclusion of the same)

PR Newswire PR Newswire Follow May 19, 2010 11:00 AM EDT, in “The Street”

WASHINGTON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ — The National Fatherhood Leaders Group (NFLG), a consortium of the leading fatherhood organizations in the U.S., is teaming up with VH1 on the premiere of the television network’s upcoming original series “Dad Camp,” which focuses on encouraging responsible fatherhood, featuring licensed psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere.

The partners’ goal is to generate awareness and discussion around the importance of fathers in children’s lives.  The cornerstone of the collaboration is the promotion of national “Watch Parties” for the series premiere on Monday, May 31 at 10:30 PM ET/PT on VH1.  Participating fatherhood groups are now mobilizing their constituents and asking them to create and promote local viewing events tied to the premiere to spark discussion around the country about responsible fatherhood and the challenges that young men face today.

The National Fatherhood Leaders Group members include:

• Center for Urban Families
  Celebrate Dads
  National Center for Fathering
  National Center on Fathers and Families
  National Fatherhood Initiative
  National Partnership for Community Leadership
  Center for Research on Fathers, Children and Family Well-Being
  Brookings Institute**
  National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute
  Fathers Incorporated

In the series “Dad Camp,” licensed psychologist and no-nonsense therapist Dr. Jeff Gardere works with six fathers-to-be, along with their pregnant girlfriends, to help prepare the young men for fatherhood — a responsibility that they’re just not ready for yet.  …

This is an undated webinar by NFLG (powerpoint slides on some presentation).  A few images showing the presenters or membership.  Notice NFLG also has a nice logo at the time (screenprints below taken months ago (Dec. 2016, Jan. 2017) and being inserted into this post quickly (March.2017) without detailed explanations.  Some explanations may be on the images themselves.

Undated NFLG webinar (with slides). Click to read full-size.

(from Webinar see link in image caption above showing participant thumbnails)

** See annotated version of this webpage and some other screenprints I made around this time as to NFLG.   Images below.

NFLG_Webinar_022813lvrNhY-1OkIGVb

**NFLG 2010 PRNewsWire|The Street NFLG 2010 promo (Pt3–NFLG Members list (+ re Dad Camp by JeffGardere) (viewed 2017-01-24 at 1.36PM

NFLG Form 990EZ FYr2014 shows RonMincy Interim Vice Chair:Sec’y and JeffMJohnbson, Interim Chair + 2 more (2016-12-08 at 7.50PM

NFLG on its FY2014 Form 990EZ describing accomplishmts & Costs (incl Grants $29,027) but $32,000 was Bea Haskins’ pay that year (2016-12-08@7.51PM

Same Tax Return showing (a) little money changing hands, but also (b) what they do, including claim to be maintaining a website. I’ve seen the earlier website, but as referenced in “The Street” article, no longer there and no redirect. There is talk of an “International” conference, and clear indicators this is intended to be a field with associated grants; part of what NFLG does, of course, is help member organizations (sic) become aware of “them grants.”

Fine-print annotations on this view of NRFC (fatherhood.gov) explains that NFLG (referenced there) as of that date only ONE tax return found so far, it’s been IRS revoked and re-instated, and other important info. Click related link to see full-sized as pdf.

Oct 23, 2013 annotated, at NRFC (fatherhood|gov)showing FRPN|org, sponsor NFLG, citing to Haskins, Edin (Harvard) and other involvement, URL is www|fatherhood|gov:about-us:events:fatherh

I was curious whether “Beatrice Haskins” ($126K (FTE; $32K for 10h/week, NFLG IRS Form 90EZ for 2014] was wife of the famous Ron Haskins (Center for Children & Families, Brookings, “Mr. Welfare Man.”

June 2016 then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan appointed Ron Haskins, Ph.D., to chair a 15-member Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, legislated into existence in the Executive Branch for just 18 months. (see two images from Brookings of this announcement, below) He’s been a staunch advocate of marriage, fatherhood promotion; writes for “The Future of Children” (see Princeton/Brookings publication).

Ron Haskins’ bios frequently mention (when not preaching marriage as the way out of poverty or testifying before Congress) that he is “married with four children” and he “lives with his wife in Rockville, MD.” I noticed his wife’s given name seems to be “wife” and no first name, maiden name or identity outside “wife and mother” when Ron is profiled as to his personal family stats.  His children don’t seem to have names either…

I think probably Beatrice Haskins (on the NFLG payroll) is not “the wife,” but it’s odd how Ron Haskins, so enthusiastic about women’s place in life and society, can’t seem to remember his wife’s name when describing his own work history in public places.

(In Year 2000, announcing his move from civil service (House Ways and Means HR Subcommittee staff) of 14 years to Brookings…):

“…Haskins has spent 14 years on the staff of the House Subcommittee on Human Resources (part of the Committee on Ways and Means) — initially as Welfare Counsel to the Republican Staff, and then as Staff Director since the Republicans won control of the House in 1994. …  He is the author of numerous books, monographs, and articles on welfare reform and related topics.

Haskins lives with his wife and son in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington D.C.”

16 years later, from a govt.NZ website, he is still ever so important, has four grown children and grandchildren and his wife (no names, not even hers).  Enclosing also to show the other avenues of influence held:

He is also a Senior Editor of The Future of Children.  In 2002 he was the Senior Advisor to the President for Welfare Policy at the White House.  Prior to joining Brookings and Casey, he spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, serving as the subcommittee’s staff director between 1995 and 2000. In 1997, Haskins was selected by the National Journal as one of the 100 most influential people in the federal government. Currently the President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Haskins has a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The father of four grown children and two grandchildren, he resides in Pasadena, MD with his wife.

Bio submitted to Politico “The Arena” (undated) has 4 paragraphs on R. Haskins, this time, no reference to his own family or marriage. (“All Arena bios and photos are submitted by contributors”)

From Evidence-based Policymaking Collaborative /authors: (last para):

“He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History, a Master’s in Education, and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, from UNC, Chapel Hill. Haskins, who was a noncommissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps from 1963 to 1966, lives with his wife in Rockville, Maryland and is the father of four grown children.”

Well, somewhere along that well-paid way, three more children were born, adopted, or step-parented into the household.  It doesn’t even say he “married high school sweetheart” or has been married to one woman all these years.  Literally, most bios found (I looked through several pages of Google results) avoid giving the woman a name….

Also that he maintains and association with an entity [NFLG] which doesn’t seem to maintain its proper tax-exempt and corporate identity, which doesn’t seem to bother the individuals involved a bit, despite their bookkeeper being paid enough to feed a family in SOME parts of the US (though I doubt WDC) for part-time work only,

Showing “Bea Haskins Consulting” (two-page flyer) in Hanover, PA

Joseph T. Jones, Jr., President & CEO Center for Urban Families
Baltimore, MD

I have worked with Bea Haskins for over 17 years. She quickly grasps a situation, dives in and invests herself in the project. She then provides high-quality results. Recently, she has coordinated the collection of critical information dispensed at technical assistance and training seminars for the federally funded Responsible Fatherhood grantees and managed and disseminated that information in formats useful to our entire team. Bea s attention to detail and organizational skills are legendary, as is her ability to manage complex tasks and projects.

The “Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission” images:

Brookings 2016Jun13 announcmt~Speakr of House (PRyan-RWisc) named SrFellow Haskins Co-Chair of Commiss’n Evidnce-BasedPolicyMaking just legislated into existence for 18months (Screen Sho

Click here (or related filename nearby) for my sarcastic commentary, or see link to original and the bill passed last summer (2016) to set this up.

NFLG and the 2013 White House Honors (possibly prompted an actual filing of a Form 990 the next year…)

NFLGONLINE’org[WhiteHouse features 4 board members (Jones Johnson Mincy Braswell->NICHD) + (Casey Warren Tello->WHouse Honors) Screen Shot 2017Mar21 at 2.16-PM

One pdf is just the annotations (showing that there at least WAS a website “NFLGonline.org” at this time, though not now) and the level of honoring and recognition to this non-filing membership organization, under Obama White House as previously also promoted under Bush 2001-2008)

Obama & NFLG [NatlFthrhdLeadrsGrp) 2013 website White House

What “NFLGonline-org” looks like now:

I checked the Wayback Machine “InternetArchive” and found only 37 captures (by the time I was done looking, 39) Dec. 2008-now, with the next-to-latest version reading “under construction” (Jan. 2016) and since then, looking like this:

A later functional (see top right sliding bar courtesy the Wayback Machine for date) screenshot from NFLGonline.org. Notice the paragraph on Child Support: “NFLG and Child Support The National Fatherhood Leader’s Group works cooperatively with The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). OCSE has produced a series of fact sheets to learn why and how OCSE parters with other programs, works with both parents to deliver vital child support services to children. The fact sheets can help parents and families, as well as child support professionals throughout the country, learn about innovative projects, evidence-based strategies and family-centered initiatives in OCSE and state and local child support agencies. Facts sheets include a wide range of topics including Veterans in the Child Support Caseload, Partner with the Child Support Program to Raise Awareness about Responsibilities of Parenthood, Engagement of Fathers from Birth, Preventing the Need for Child Support, Improving Outcomes Through Employment Programs, and much more. Please view fact sheets at OCSE website.” (link doesn’t lead to any fact sheets, just the home page at this time).

A “Letter to Readers,”

or something two notches less formal.

“Dear Readers:

Qualifier:  Those I am writing TO, not those I am writing ABOUT:

RE:  Table of Contents with Introductions & Explanations | After-publication Revisions and Clarifications, and abstracts mid-table (see 2017 TOC post for the paginated version with Endnotes, simplifying it some).

While I appreciate the need for Tables of Contents only, part of the nature of this topic and this blog is that I am constantly in teaching mode on the significance of the inherent (that is logical and structural) design of the family court system, especially with so much outside, private money pouring into public institutions affecting next generations.

Still in Denial leads to Ongoing Erosion of Ground on which to Stand for Anything — let alone individual rights as a citizen.

It may take longer to get there, but the destination, and I’m talking, nationally, not just individually, is still without a nonviolent foundation to stand up to a power structure.  And violence will be met with violence with this difference:  Who has the most power to inflict harm in the era of globalism and access to desperate workers?

We need to face the erosion of civil and legal representation in the United States and get more honest about the means by which this was done, as a screening process for how it might just get undone. And I am telling us that legally speaking, with “rights” being moved outside individual to the public/private partnerships in nearly ALL public institutions, with historic wealth carrying the day in influence, as well as either multiplying and advertising this influence as “the good guys” and government as “the bad guys” (except where cooperating) — or, should they choose, and they indeed often DO choose — concealing the networks and influence through multiple layers of nonprofits.

Or, use of religious-exempt or otherwise exempt (i.e., don’t have to file tax returns with the IRS) means of organizing, in association with related 501©3s or ©4s that do, and that’s an Internal Revenue Code reference categorizing forms of commercial/business organization within the US.

Other ways the government entities can and do conceal their collective assets, networking, and how legitimate it is or is not to cut services or increase prices on the public, include providing sub-standard databases, or for some agencies NO data bases, to show grants distributed.  Or, and I saw this recently with HHS website TAGGS, providing a facelift (update) with increased functions — but eliminating certain search categories in some of those functions.  For example, you can no longer key in an EIN# as a search category on “Basic” (and, one never could key it in as a filter, or display it in results, under “Advanced Search” and still cannot.

Unlike many professionals professional associations, advocacy-groups and individual people and entities who knew but did NOT speak out on the intended influence of the PRWORA funds on the courts already-designed as problem-solving courts to start with, and to call upon the mental, behavioral health, psychological, and psychiatric professions as counselors, in association with lawyers, to “tweak” the meaning of the law and establish an initially seemingly parallel but quickly showing up divergent and conflicting set of practices, rules, court-appointed entities, courts, dockets, and eventually laws.

Many individual parents brought some of this up, but it did not “resonate” with the existing power structures, leaving little personal validation of information on the innate character of the courts as influenced by federal HHS funds since the 1980s and 1990s in particular, among the various self-appointed, or trawling-for-trauma nonprofit leadership with poster-child cases lending an air of validity.

I am a witness of seeing mothers especially 2009-2010-2011 (when I first began blogging this, I was reporting it individually and on group emails, and comments on others’ blogs shortly after discovering it) who had to acknowledge the existence of these grants, but continued supporting, following, and re-blogging pre-written posts from groups who neither featured them, had clearly opted not to bring it up consistently, and from what I can tell of the conference agenda, never gave it much space, although the information is legitimate and significant.  In 2011 I made a significant personal decision in “breaking ranks” with a group of mothers whose answer to “we know, but what can we do — so let’s follow this crowd…” response to the public/conference silence on 1996 welfare reform with its HMRF funding as well as the role played by just a few “trade associations” (my term– the emphasis among the association is not “trade” but “we are the professionals.”)

This denial, dismissal if one’s respected people, or those with an obvious public platform aren’t responding to the information, is somewhat like ignoring evidence one’s house is on fire, and it’s spreading. Kind of like the nature of abuse and domestic violence itself — sometimes (at the individual, or family levels, indicators are often there in smaller form before the rapid OR slow-burn escalation into lethal or near-lethal situations.  So long as it’s not lethal or near-lethal, then it’s not “real”?

What about when the scenario is constant erosion as the norm?

Again, calling this system “flaws” implies that the system designers (those who set it up originally and maintain and “correct course” periodically in response to public outcry, that is, sometimes to appease the at-large public from declaring the whole thing what it is — structurally set up to privatize government, undermine the rule of law (where criminal acts mean criminal acts, and where people who have refrained from committing them are not to be punished for reporting the same), and to as far as the public comprehension of “how government works,” undermine legal representation at the state –usually organized by counties — level — where the jurisdiction lies.

It is about breakdown of individual rights based on citizenship in favor of rights based on group membership (demographics as determined by social scientists and/or economists), operational under state laws governing, in this case, the state family court systems.

An entire country (particularly with Alaska and Hawaii not even being “contiguous”) is challenging to standardize and set up a hierarchy for, particularly to keep the tributes coming in.  I believe the Roman empire had a similar problem…   However, where our Constitution outlined states — not “regions,” the Executive Branch in particular has opted for Regional administration, which has been copied by (or perhaps copied FROM) the private corporate sector associations representing civil servants and functions, and I am referring primarily to those operating as nonprofits named after some aspect of government — or representing it, but re-named according to a more user-friendly vocabulary — often with the words “Children” or “Family” in association with some other noun referring to either the container entity, the hierarchy, or the function:  “Children’s Bureau,” or “Department of Children, Youth and Families” or in the case of (for my state) an administrative part of the court system, “Center for Children and Families in the Courts” and of course, “Child Protection.”  Repeat with the words “Human” or “Social,” and sooner or later we are referring to basically most life functions, most types of individuals in the broadest categories — and there is both a governmental UNIT, and, often, a private, nonstock trade association to go with it.  As I discovered in the case of CalSWEC and the County Welfare Directors’ Association (“CWDA”) and what looked like a separate entity from the latter — but wasn’t — CFPIC (originally “CFPI” with the “of California” added later).

If you read my “BASSC” post this year, I discovered that CFPIC is citing CWDA’s EIN# as exactly the same, which is impossible IF it is a different entity.  Either way, both CWDA and CFPI are not government entities as entities — but the membership of CWDA (see next image) ARE the directors of the state’s human service agencies.   Literally, this is public civil servants privately organized to, among many functions, influence public legislation without being registered as a 501©4 or PAC.  The conflict of interest with public right to transparency of finances is thus built-in, regardless of function.

see http://CFPIC.org

My first three posts of 2017 talk about this.

The basic DNA (public/private partnerships first frame the question, then pose the solutions, then execute and evaluate pilot solutions, claim they’re effective, and seek to expand, ongoing) is shared with other systems, and it’s obviously intentional as writings about it “en route to execution” can often be found (in hindsight) and indicators of intention to hide the names, identities and extent of financial clout behind the actual players, before announcing it in coordinated fashion as if an “obvious” but clever solution to scarce resources, poverty, crime (you name it), homelessness, hunger, or almost any social problem.

Entity Number	Registration Date	Status	Entity Name	Jurisdiction	Agent for Service of Process
C2560950	10/14/2003	ACTIVE	CHILD AND FAMILY POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA	CALIFORNIA	STUART OPPENHEIM

Next, the Business Filing for the CWDA, then the Charitable Filings for both CFPIC and CWDA.

Narrow search results: (in a real search, the Entity Name would be an active to some more detail — not much, but some…)  BusinessSearch.SOS.ca.gov for the first table:

Entity Number	Registration Date	Status	Entity Name	Jurisdiction	Agent for Service of Process
C0497126	09/17/1965	ACTIVE	COUNTY WELFARE DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA	CALIFORNIA	FRANK J MECCA

Organization Name	Registr Type	Registr Status	Registr Number	Applicant Number	FEIN	City	State
COUNTY WELFARE DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA	Charity Registration	Exempt – Active	EX509238	1181022	SACRAMENTO	CA
1

The Charitable Filing database for the CFPIC now shows (on basic search results page) the EIN# also, but for CWDA will display a blank, because it’s “Exempt.”

I’ll make SOS table header rows tan, charitable filings, sky-blue to distinguish them, and as an echo of what colors they used to be (Secretary of State Business Search site in California now displays mostly B/W).  The Charitable Database in mid- to late-Dec.(I believe was the timing) added two fields, Applicant Number and FEIN.  Too bad they didn’t include “Cal. Entity#” to correlate to the SOS website (it’s information already in the database and displayed in the Details page — why not show it here, too?)

Organization Name	Registr Type	Registr Status	Registr Number	Applicant Number	FEIN	City	State
CHILD AND FAMILY POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA	Charity Registration	Current	127522	1011256	830371079	SACRAMENTO	CA
1

CFPIC:

The street address here (1331 Gardn Highway, Sacramento, CA 95833) may be property owned by Sierra Health Foundation.  It is called “Sierra Foundation’s Nonprofit Innovation Center“and represents a trend of property owners catering to nonprofit tenants, which further increases these entities’ discrepancies with “the real world” many of their clients will be living in, where rent discounts simply for being allegedly beneficial to the public (as nonprofits are assumed to be), does not apply to individuals, or individual families.  This appears to be a common pattern:

See the list of Tenants there, viewed 2017:

The Tenants

Sierra Health Foundation is proud to support Nonprofit Innovation Center tenants and believes this group truly represents the spirit and dedication of the project.

Agape Villages mobilizes community resources to provide quality homes, innovative solutions and the highest of professional services to disadvantaged children and their families to meet their needs, maximize their potential and lead toward a better and brighter future.

American Association of University Women was founded in 1881 and has a national membership of 80,000. AAUW seeks to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research.

California Immunization Coalition is a statewide nonprofit, public-private partnership dedicated to achieving and maintaining full immunization protection for all Californians to promote health and prevent serious illness.

Californians for Quality Early Learning is a statewide organization serving the needs of childcare center owners and directors to support and advocate for a thriving and diverse early learning system for children and families.

California Urban Partnership provides management assistance and technologies to improve collaboration for stronger programs, businesses and policy solutions – with the goal of building economic security in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

Center for Connected Health Policy is a planning and strategy organization working to remove policy barriers that prevent the integration of telehealth technologies into California’s health care system.

Child and Family Policy Institute of California was incorporated under the auspices of the County Welfare Directors Association to advance the development of sound public policy and promote program excellence in county human services agencies.

Coalition for Compassionate Care of California is a statewide partnership of organizations, state agencies and individuals that promotes high-quality, compassionate end-of-life care for Californians.

Community Health Charities of California is the largest health charity umbrella group in the United States, raising money for more than 40 member health charities in the local chapter.

Family Resource Centers Network of California is comprised of 47 Early Start Family Resource Centers, which provide support, information and referrals to families of children with disabilities and special healthcare needs and those at risk.

International Pemphigus and Pemphigoid Foundation is a global organization providing patient and clinician support, education, awareness and advocacy for research addressing mechanisms, treatment and cure for people diagnosed with, or affected by, these rare skin diseases.

ONTRACK Program Resources provides high quality, cost-effective training, consulting and technical assistance to improve workforce skills, services, programs and systems that better serve increasingly diverse communities.

Pacific Crest Trail Association has a mission to protect, preserve and promote the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail as an internationally significant resource.

Reading Partners provides one-on-one reading instruction to elementary school students reading below grade level to help them succeed in school and in life.

Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessnessworks to end and prevent homelessness in the Sacramento region through policy analysis, community education, civic engagement, collective organizing and advocacy.

Sacramento Steps Forward has a goal to rally the community toward a shared and collective effort to end homelessness.

Sierra Nevada Journeys delivers innovative outdoor, science-based education programs for youth to develop critical thinking skills and to inspire natural resource stewardship.

To find out how you can become a part of the Nonprofit Innovation Center, e-mail Sierra Health Foundation Facilities Manager Colleen Cascio.

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Yes, it’s true.

Because of “the nature of the beast” and my awareness of how few people seem to be blogging it (Facebook and Twitter are not appropriate venues and I do not believe attract the right kind of readers, who will put forth a sustained attention and be willing to postpone social media gratification until the logic of the system of networking reveals itself to them, while looking at the individual pieces and interconnections), I am inclined to “over-explain.”

I also am particularly inclined to connect to supporting evidence for “CYA” purposes  when I find myself (and I “find myself” in certain places because I am particularly inclined to to following the facts about the funding and finances of certain organizations in talking “FAMILY or CHILDREN AND FAMILY” “FAMILY COURT” =”JUSTICE” and “VIOLENCE PREVENTION”) in opposition to the programming itself of billion-dollar, famous privately controlled foundations, White House-endorsed policy funding streams (well-known, or not-so-well-known).

For example, recently [fn1], I also had to go after the tax returns of major community foundations (see 2016 posts on Connecticut), such as that whose home turf is around Yale University. However, I’d seen similar strange behavior for some in Minnesota earlier. Many things you just will not see unless you open those tax returns, and then follow through with some of the featured grantee, or grants programming.

I research far more than ever gets published.  It doesn’t take too long to see recurring patterns.  For example, ….

Now, as of at least late December and early January, including even the last three days of a hard look at “Promise Neighborhoods” with the theory of “place-based philanthropy,” I am seeing we cannot avoid also looking into the university connections. [fn2]  This seems obvious overall; it’s not the first I’ve raised issues about centers or institutes based in major universities (some public, some private) in the blog, however tracking down any entity and poring through university financial statements (where available; or if not, most universities have some associated foundations supporting them).  It’s just a lot of work to go hunting for specifics in any university statement of financials.  But, doing so is a good practice.  There’s nothing like “hands-on” to help with comprehension.

I wrote this up, with annotated images, and an extensive cover letter, and have delivered it to specific people who know what I blog on I simply am not the only person with the information.  I am not the only person who has found conflict between the propaganda about how to help “low-income” populations, or any other vulnerable populations, and what is actually happening, locally, regarding the exact same leadership and the exact same programming.  I am considering whether and if so, how, to post this write-up, or its essence, ASAP.

For (a different, not ‘Anti-Poverty/ L.A. Promise-Zone-related) example, I found my investigations, which were natural outcomes of the existing themes, face-to-face with the University of California Berkeley School of Social Work in the form of ‘CalSWEC’ which I knew to be a critical element in the handling of domestic violence as it intersects with the family courts (i.e., as I blogged 2016 — not only then, but extensively then — in regards the Greenbook Initiative).

So, how’d YOU like to go up, in public, against that type of power bloc and call it what it is based on what you are seeing, without colleagues or one’s own “nonprofit” standing by to witness the same evidence — as those one might think should be most concerned, appear to be still busy telling their stories and speaking about the symptoms in individual blogs, Tweets, (still, after all these years) and basically flying in the same formations year after year, and somehow calling it “exposure.”  

Well, I got in the habit of doing just this long ago,

and don’t see a good reason to stop now.

How would you like to see, then attempt to silence your conscience and go back into “la-la-land?” (denial) and try re-investing personal energies in a system known to be corrupt from the top down, and highly compromised by those taking money from it all the way down to the local levels?

Just exactly how do people think government works, anyhow?  Like one’s former elementary school classrooms?

 [fn1]… because of where those foundations money went, and how it was presented to the public (Donor-Advised Funds used as cloaks of influence and disclaiming responsibility for usage of the grants, multi-million-dollars of grants simply NOT SHOWN on the tax return, donations to entities known to have been status-revoked by the IRS AND at the State level, and more)

[fn2]..  The write-up being in memo form (which split up many of the associated images) was 40pp, and a cover email, also substantial. It was so disturbing at one point I had to get up and walk away from the computer.  I saw a single corporate empire, with associated (multiple) family-controlled charities literally buying up the development land in a specific area in San Diego, and setting up:  Town Council, Police Station, Commercial Real estate, Mixed-use Residential Real Estate, donating $9M land for another Y.

https://socialinnovationpreview.usc.edu/files/2013/01/SolPrice_Spr12_REPRINT_sprds.pdf (logo from Spring 2012 “Trojans” (schooll mag?) article posted at Sol Price Center for Social Innovation at University of Southern California (a private research university). In 2011, a $50M endowmt from Price entity to USC had been announced. In 2011 tax return, $31M was contributed to the (now ½ billion) Price Family Charitable Fund FROm the Price Family Charitable Trust (which I couldn’t locate any returns for, it may be private only).  In 2012, yr of this article, the 2012 returns for the “Fund” (a certain EIN#) showed $269M of contributions TO the entity, but no Sched B was attached to show where from.

 

 

Said Y (“County of San Diego”) immediately in that year (2013) set up another “related entity” (first I see in its history and it’s stating date of formation 1882), passed 100% of the interest in the donated (from this buying-influence all over set of family-controlled philanthropies) land to its new entity in exchange for a 35 year lease and exclusive use.  There are only 3 officers on the related entity, paid by the original “Y.”  I looked at the tax returns of the original Y to find, not only is it QUITE “flush” (no doubt the $52 MILLION gov’t grants that year alone helped…), but that its new President Baron Hedlin-Doherty (since 2010) was apparently paid so high that the Schedule O describing it described his MONTHLY pay ($37K) rather than annual.

Separately, articles complaining about this excessive salary also report that a policy of “the YMCA” (seems like, overall – -not just specific branches?) decided to cut out discounted youth memberships of $80 – $100, insisting instead on only FAMILY memberships of $1,000/year.  WHY THE “Y” IN ITS NAME if “YOUNG PEOPLE” don’t count without a Family Membership?  The rest of San Diego County ended Youth Membership Programs July, 2014, apparently, and Encinitas was the hold out “Y.”

Two Encinitas Board Members Forced Out over Youth Membership Dispute

KPBS.org (Public Broadcasting), May 21, 2015, by Armita Sharma

Two board members of the Ecke YMCA in Encinitas, including the daughter of branch founder Paul Ecke, have been ousted after they objected to a decision to eliminate discounted youth memberships at all of San Diego County’s YMCAs.

Lizbeth Ecke, who also is the granddaughter of the Y’s namesake, Magdalena Ecke, says she and fellow board member, Bob Ayers, were asked to “temporarily resign” from the Encinitas YMCA’s board of management earlier this year. Like Lizbeth, Ayers has deep family ties to the North County Y.

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There was an active comments list (2 yrs ago) — here’s one of them:

Same set of charities/ philanthropies/helping-the-poor people corporations with a real heavy emphasis on real estate development, donated one year $15M (why?) out of $16M grants to the “San Diego Foundation” and buying so much local influence that several local cities were paying interest on loans to this entity.  

The neighborhood was characterized as primarily refugees and immigrants.  

Also, intersecting with the “promise neighborhoods” movement in Los Angeles (Obama Initiative), and why I originally discovered and looked into that ½ billion-dollar charity (in one entity — $145M in another, and there’s a third source named, but I haven’t found any entity — it might just be the private family trust) which, it says, endowed the [private] University of Southern California, or “USC”  (got its “School of Social Policy” actually renamed as well as having the donor’s name prefixed ), set up a center (named after the donor) within the school just renamed after the donor, and conditioned receipt of that endowment on following the purposes of the donor philanthropies, which entailed — you may have guessed it:

• public/private (government + nonprofit) cooperation to relieve poverty
• real estate development as critical to urban renewal and alleviating poverty.

All of which I discovered simply looking for some of the leadership of the lead entity in a Los Angeles (not “San Diego”) Promise Neighborhood, who had been featured at the above-(re)named center in the above (re) named SoCal University, in an area already heavily influenced, it would seem by the (not named above, yet) said Philanthropies.

All of this behavior reminds me of the historic “Port Sunlight” associated with former Lever Brothers, later merged to become “Unilever” and set up by Lord Leverhulme, the Ivory Soap guy — who cut a deal with the King of Belgium to facilitate slave labor camps in the Congo a century ago, raw material shipped back to England, planned villages for his workers (whose social lives were also controlled — or forfeit the nice, clean housing) in the manufacturing plants.  Did these workers know at the time that people were dying in the Congo for commercial products?  …… (see Table of Contents, I do have some posts)…

That, friends, is a closer and I’ll be a lot more accurate of the essence of representation of “place-based philanthropy” than the words “place-based philanthropy.”

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I explored the US DOT Financial Statements a bit more and have more to say.  As with this Extra Narrative diversion (off-siting of the information) above…

For example (click to read; the Page* is just a quick preview of what’s below): Extra Narrative, Goes with 2017 “Dear Readers” post (@Jan. 17, 2017) CalSWEC, CFPIC, CWDA (Following where the Facts Lead, No Matter How Daunting the Destination, or How affluent, how well-entrenched, and how well-networked the public institutions or private entities living there).  *Pages don’t seem to generate WordPress-specific “shortlinks” so I created a tinyurl one,  http://tinyurl.com/GoWhereTheFactsLead.  <==Both links in this paragraph are identical and short. It’s a short read.

…I’m going to put this on a separate Page, accessible so far, from this one. I’m not in “update the sidebar” mode these days, so this may be the only link. But, it’s important information, though most (not all) of it, new to me. Includes sections on “Smart Cities” and V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle) planned communications from a recent USDOT Financial Statement, and from a single, unexplained reference in there at the “Message from the Secretary” (of the DOT) portion, I looked up that term, discovered a major conference organizer and set of conferences, SXSW, representing also a company organizing these in Austin and, for a few years, a portion of it in Las Vegas. I then connect it to some family wealth used (along the Open Societies model) to promote the Education Transformation processes I’ve been reporting on recently. Some of this is background on what happened to that family’s company CMP Media after it was sold in 1999, as well as some familiar brands such as PRNewswire (bought, then sold again), InformationWeek, through association of its (UBM Media’s) current leadership, Bain Capital, Rolls Royce, and more.

For example (click to read; This page: (Title and a [shorter] link, only 48-characters, to match==>): More Extra Narratives from “Dear Readers (2017 Themes)” Post — CAFRs (like, see USDOT’s 2016 one), Federal Agency Database Functionality Issues, Smart Cities|V2V|USA, Who?What? is SXSW (and, for comparison, London-based global B2B Events Organizer/Conglomerate UBM)

[or without the window-dressing: http://tinyurl.com/LetsReadThoseCAFRs-like-UDOTs].  [Link is no longer a TinyUrl but a WP-generated one, and now works…  3/21/2017 LGH]