Posts Tagged ‘Access-Visitation’
Re: CFCC and other Public Institution/Private Profit Partnering…The Public has already been Weighed in the Balance and Found (Dumbed-Down)
I have several posts in the pipeline after a year-plus pause in publishing on this blog. They are lined up and will start coming fast and furious, shortly… Meanwhile, in the process of streamlining the pipeline and revisiting some of the more recent ones, I still find valuable information buried halfway down a 10,000-word post that I’d like positioned closer to the top.
I do keep my “ear to the ground” (actually to the on-line airwaves, and some telephonic) in ongoing developments within the family courts and beyond, and have a sense of what mainstream media is UNlikely to ever report, and too few private bloggers (it would seem) are reporting, in part because it takes more sustained attention to understand. In the light of current events, I decided to still take material from a two-year-old post to speak and teach about what I’m seeing in ever-accelerating, and unobstructed (because it seems largely unnoticed!) action.
[First post was not most recent version. This one, similar, has a few more paragraphs in the Intro, bring it to just over 4,000 words. Feb. 22, 2pm PST/LGH]
So, this post is just over 4,000 words and lifted (verbatim, below this introduction, I’ll indicate the dividing line between intro and re-post) from about half of my 2/25/2014 post “The Stacked Deck, the Coups d’Etat, and the Fork in the Road,” which combined exhortation with some complex passages and quotes on consolidation of political clout, into business roundtables, about the history of CalPERS (as a major investment platform, as most institutional investment pools are), and more.
Not everyone wants to talk about all that! But we all can and should be able to talk about how public institutions — such as the California Judicial Council, with its Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), its websites, and its linked referrals from that website — are becoming turnstiles to the private-industry (often, nonprofit) outsourcing of government functions, and how this process only encourages the development and expansion of the PRIVATE sector setting up shop in PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, by coordinated agreement that the public, half or more of the time, had little awareness of, and next to no participation in, into force-fed (court-ordered and court-website-advertised) consumption of services.
It is hard not to consent to things about which one is not fully conscious. That’s no secret to those who, starting (I’m learning and becoming increasingly convinced deducing from other evidence) at a minimum 100 years ago, at least by 1913, met privately in specific places and institutions, to plan in advance. Look at the major turning points and changes within US history, and on what did events and by what authorities, Presidential or Congressional, did they seem to hinge? I will be blogging on this in 2016 also…
So long as the public doesn’t figure out the basic power schematics (i.e., blueprints), we will continue being stripped down, outsourced, and at points determined no longer-exploitable, etc.
SPEAKING OF “BLUEPRINTS”: One clue, I should say, is the habit of using the term “Blueprint” or “Models” in talking about externally-planned system changes to government operations. Whatever happened to the concept of grassroots anything? What, exactly, is the relationship of those funding the debt to having any say in what blueprints are applied to their lives, remotely assembled and coordinated?
That’s INCREMENTAL, DELIBERATE, PRIVATIZATION/STANDARDIZATION of government (across jurisdictional lines):
This thinking (devising blueprints, models to apply nationally, etc.) obviously resembles more the corporate world than what we might like to think still exists of individuals having a voice in the institutions affecting their lives, as expressed primarily through state-legistlatures, i.e., the states where those same individuals pay, “through the nose,” DMV fees to drive, State (and other) taxes, Fees to get married, get divorced, file anything in court (unless waived), and in which they have to declare residency, and depending on which state, varying prices for gas, real estate, or potentially even (see “Flint, Michigan” recently) safe drinking water, let alone schools.
In fact, one of my draft posts “in the pipeline” (from early January, 2016), in stunned awareness, I had to introduce almost as a joke: “A Judge, a Lawyer and a Psychotherapist walk into a bar…”.. (for that particular blueprint, those professions were actually involved — but on closer scrutiny, the judge [as I recall] acknowledged the inspiration from a judicial membership association ((and HHS grantee, and key player in (Years 2000-2008) “The Greenbook Initiative”)) based at University of Nevada-Reno. This, so far, is the title:
“Miami Child Well-Being Court(tm) Model, with its roots in “NCJFCJ” (also tm), part of the HHS-dedicated DV Cartel”
(My use of the word “DV cartel” is deliberate, based on extensive lookups of nonprofit organizations and how they are networked together, and the behavior of these nonprofits over time. The word “cartel” has a commonly understood and negative meaning and a dictionary definition, and I am using it in this sense.
People who do not read tax returns, or read ENOUGH on who is conferencing with whom about which policies (over time) may not have a basis for using this term “cartel,” but I certainly do. I am a “DV” (domestic violence) survivor and am NOT using this term in the sense that, for example, some fathers’ (or mens’) rights groups might use it simply to discredit the existence of violence towards women, or the dangers of unchecked domestic violence to society at large. OK? And the NCJFCJ is indeed involved in said DV cartel as a policymaker, and proud of it, too.
[Link describing the “MCWB Court(™)” Model, found at “cap.law.harvard.edu” uploaded there looks like on 7-22-2015, but referring to a 2011 publication]<=check out the description, and fine print on who-all was involved. Hint: “RTI” is one BIG entity)(cf. “Research Triangle International” in NC). Details included:
- Work with the Children’s Bureau T & TA Network to carve out a national learning collaborative to support effective diffusion of the Miami model and related best practices in court, child welfare, and child mental health. The collaborative will foster shared knowledge and strategies related to funding challenges, organizational barriers and solutions, and discipline‐specific leadership.
Carve out ? Effective diffusion? Sounds like a chemical experiment….The proud leadership has already determined it should be nationally diffused, overcoming funding and organizational barriers. “Parent protests” isn’t apparently on the list because the average parent may not know, in advance, what’s coming, in such situations.
MEANWHILE, the PUBLIC has already PRE-FUNDED the PRIVATE MODELS. HOW?
The same USA public, some of which is being forced into consumption of all kinds of services (ESPECIALLY in anything related to families, children, and mental health/relationships/Behavioral modification programming), already through, for example, the long-standing Social Security Act(administered through the US HHS) and other Acts of Congress (such as the VAWA act administered through the USDOJ/OVW) has already pre-funded the establishment, “capacity-building” and maintenance of these services — encouraging a superstructure of professions, and then profession associations to keep it organized nationwide (actually, more often internationally). The pre-funding comes simply because the public is, by and large, tagged for producing the tax revenues to keep the juices flowing through the federal agencies.
Now, consider that while these are all evolving over time, that HHS only came into being in 1980, the HHS/ACF (Administration on Children and Families) only in 1991, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) only in 1994, and a RADICAL restructuring of the 1934 Social Security Act in 1996, labeled (that version), “PRWORA”. All that timing, coincidence? You think?
Now consider who is going to be taking advantage of this “macro market awareness”, and who is going to be taken advantage OF, in any equation where the one, smaller (fewer members) “sector” IS aware of the pre-funding grants streams, and the other (the public at large, generally speaking) IS NOT. Where one realizes that the public is going to be in more significant distress through their position on the tax spectrum, and the tax-exempt organizations (which typify who business is directed to) can expand operations and public relations simply because they are operating on a different basis when it comes to funding government itself, across the system (all levels)?
Hmm….
The older (February 25, 2014) post, further down, simply says what I want to be talking about:
The Stacked Deck = the Racket/eering= about the FEDERAL BUDGET = about TAXES.
Because taxes produce revenues. They are taken from some, exempted from others, enabling them to consolidate power and preserve family (private) wealth with which to influence government, and they are simply evaded by yet others — often characterized on websites as a nonprofit or charitable organization …
and, in referencing California Judicial Council’s “CFCC” site below (main reason I copied this post to a new one), it also summarized a subset of this situation:
So, when I say, again:
For yet others, their assets (or, if they had none, children) are being stripped out simply through the family courts, conciliation courts and/or “Unified Family Courts,” with presiding judges strapped into the “AFCC*/CRC**/NACC/*** “CFCC” etc. system.
Each of those is an element in a system designed to steer and access federal money (grants, or contracts) into programs. People involved have overlapping (vertical and horizontal) relationships among the whole. In the above link: Access/Visitation: FEDERAL FUNDING (GRANTS CFDA 93.597) Social Security Law, etc.
And, just a reference (but I left most of it in the original post) to the VAST scale of wealth represented by institutional investment platforms. I live in California and took CalPERS for an example, but quoting Walter Burien on this, as he summarizes the situation in plain terms, which I have yet to see anyone rebut based on the facts. I have seen (and posted on) attempts to rebut based on “ad-hominem” (personality) attacks, which is perhaps an indication of a weak argument, if indeed there is an argument against the facts he presents which can be rebutted (sp?) by showing they are either (1) false or (2) irrelevant or (3) both.
(My Dec. 2012 EconomicBrain [“Cold,Hard.Fact$”] post combines several articles — I think pretty well — but see “Are You Ready for Real Change,” Jan./2012 therein, and towards the bottom):
Government has built their internal empires by and through selective presentation and utilizing taxpayer revenue systematically separated from the general purpose operating budgets to build power-bases of standing wealth outside of the “general purpose” operating funds. /// A large local government can be crying “Budget Shortfall’ under their selectively presented general purpose operating budget but upon review of the financial wealth power based funds held and “other” income, the same local government upon total and comprehensive review can be clearly in the black by millions if not billions of dollars.
There is nothing complicated here. If an individual or a government has established significant fund balances developed over decades, those funds balances are power-bases by investment that makes or breaks many individual fortunes by where those funds are invested.
If an individual or a local government thinks they can tag someone else to pay for shortfalls in other areas without tapping into their power-bases of funds under domestic and international investment management they will do so.
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The Stacked Deck, the Coups d’Etat, and the Fork in the Road.
2016 Post Cleanup Update: Posted Feb. 25, 2014, on review I see this has an entire section on CFCC and the California Judicial Council’s website describing Access Visitation Grants (and a lot more), as well as CalPERS (history), Council on Institutional Investments, and of course, the use of Business ROUNDTABLES to sequester the real decision-making in the “power elite.”
I’m quoting other sources which, unfortunately, make nearly no mention of taxation vs. tax-exemption (one of my key themes, being highly aware of the power of tax-exempt organizations to cloud money movement from the public, utilizing multiple front organizations, chameleon organizations, and “take the money and run” organizations. That’s in additino to the entire assets-acquiring-stockpiling religious-exempt sector who don’t even have to show their tax returns to the rest of us. //end 2016 update commentary:
I am so used to summarizing situations for strangers, on the phone, for people who have decided to network, and pick up this ball (and run with it — in various states), I often end up summarizing the material — in a sidebar widget. One reason I do this — I’m tired of summarizing the material one by one, and on the phone. If it’s not clear from the blog, then — well, too bad!
NOT the best idea.
However, this post supplements one of my sidebar [widget] long, narrow, narratives — one that reads Contributions Welcome — which they are. I’m incorporated as a nonprofit, so they’re not deductible, nor are there many of them. Intentionally so, given what I’ve seen of nonprofit funding — and also for more flexibility; I’m not a joiner, seek to avoid group-think; I just want this material written up to discover who else may be interested in strategizing for change.
And what we need to change is the system of taxes creating for-profit and not-for profit corporations to start with, which makes it impossible to track where ALL government funds (collectively) are going. That alone (let alone other factors) means we can’t humanly know what we have invested in through our contributions to government for those who work. It also stacks the deck away from those who pay taxes (except upper-bracket incomes, or those with other income streams) and towards the the wealthy and influential.
So, after considering how to incorporate, I decided against a 501(c)3. Smaller amounts will help pay for basics for me, the blogger — and as possible for some platform upgrades (I have two in mind, neither too pricey) and after material is in good enough shape, some PRWire press releases, etc. I’m not trying to turn this into a livelihood — just preserve the record, and to silence some of the groups which have censored this information and, in so doing, discouraged individuals from getting their comments in on time to, say House Appropriations Committee on welfare-reform issues (for starters).
Essentially, once I start talking, I am going to be talking about the context and citing examples, evidence, and lay down a challenge.
Look, across society in the USA, things are sliding downhill fast, and knocking people out of the competition along the way.
Did anyone see this competition, recently?
(link to article below). It has been compared to a demolition derby. However –notice these people have snowboards, jackets, boots, and helmets. They know when they push off, they might get taken out in a moment, maybe even injured — but they will get up and race again another day. they may not know the whole course, but they know there’s a finish line. They have sponsors, team-mates and a training regime.
Not so for our nation as a whole. We have public schools, we have education THROUGHOUT this system and we have been induced to pour billions into the “training” functions of almost every major federal agency, while the same continue to misplace trillions (this post, below), especially the Dept. of Defense and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). My category in this subject matter is moreso HHS and to a degree, DOJ.
But we are deliberately NOT being brought into the planning sector — which has been compartmentalized by profession, then centralized through affiliations and institutionalized into leadership from certain universities, which then maintain loyalty to their own (while collaborating on how to run the world). The leverage has been moved away from individuals.
DOWNHILL SLALOM SNOWBOARD CROSS, SPEEDING, JUICED UP ON LIES, “STARVATION SLOPE” — and we funded this ourselves, and facilitated it, too.
While some sectors are prospering, they are doing it at the expense of others and because of positioning in the market, or previous positioning in the market. The market is affected by the caste system enabled by the tax system, which sets up nonprofits for some and wage deductions (for taxes) for others; and wage deductions AND child support garnishments for others.
For yet others, their assets (or, if they had none, children) are being stripped out simply through the family courts, conciliation courts and/or “Unified Family Courts,” with presiding judges strapped into the “AFCC*/CRC**/NACC/*** “CFCC” etc. system.
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Genzyme, BioEnvision, ImPath, Sanofi – New Strains of Fish in the Ocean of Commerce
However, in looking at this policy one continues to run into some of the larger industries (corporations) running and directing the policy of our non-representative governments (US, state, county, regional, etc.).
See the list @ What Brings All These Companies Together in One Electronic Place and for One Cause?” (July 7 LGH post)… That question is still on the table; most of my comments these days are “spam.” However, there are other networks (like phone, email, etc.); the word is out.
This post is a bit of a wild ride, which is better than the straight path to poverty and drudgery, and narrating who paved the road… I think it shows there IS an alternate way to live, and one of the better ways to get there is to ignore the advice, and perhaps follow the career paths of people who are arrogant enough to believe they should be planning for the planet, and coaching people what kind of jobs to work, inbetween inventing and merchandising new technologies, raising capital for startups and then selling them and with the profit, starting up some more things, most of this related very, very (very very) closely to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, who are most likely to sponsor professorships, fellowships, centers of excellence at the university level, and all kinds of projects which might improve THEIR profits.*
(Don’t miss the part where a leading geneticist George Church (see Human Genome Project) is interviewed by a German magazine about the theoretical and technical possibility bring the Neanderthals back to life through DNA (and of a surrogate human mother). And where he figures, well, there’d need to be a cohort of them… This mindset probably wouldn’t be welcome in any welfare-to-work programs as a legitimate work-activity — creative thinking and inventing “disruptive technologies” which some of these below are called. In fact, in my experience, the extended gauntlet of the family courts is about THE best way to squelch any creative thinking — if one parent exhibits it, the other can simply get them labeled as an oddball or eccentric thinker, and next moment it’s — where are my kids? Thus while it’s not quite LEGAL to actually OUTLAW creative thinking or resourcefulness in single parents (or their exes), a lot of it can be screened out in the family law arena, preserving the status quo of “divorce” as a crime, and non-collaborative (with the ex) behaviors as a thought-crime close to it. ]]
[*And sorry about all those long opening sentences. I can’t reconstruct DNA, so apparently like stringing those ideas together in a sentence; and yes, that is a form of play…)
Particularly if one wasn’t born into the privilege and/or hasn’t hit the ground running from an early age…to end up at Harvard, Yale, etc. it might be good to look at the flip side of the social science research and demonstration fields one is constantly exposed to while going through the courts, custody, etc. matters….
How each of these corporations got started and what they are doing is downright inspiring and enlightening. It’s a history lesson — on the actual mutual-benefit factor, as opposed to the alleged public benefit factor, which sometimes turns out to be just myth. It takes money to keep the myths spinning, too — so like I continue to say, “follow the money” and “educate yourself.”
This Top section is just to brush some biotech language in front of our faces, maybe as an industry alert that, finding minimum-wage jobs for those on welfare may not be the best idea for them, at least if “income self-sufficiency” is the long-term goal… in THIS global corporate climate?
From “FierceBioTech.com (“The BioTech Industry’s Daily Monitor”) we see a Harvard Biological Chemist dive into the thrill-seeking team science environment of searching for things to help the Pharmaceutical companies come up with new drugs. Look at the startup funding, and the companions (not to mention the company names):
Prolific Harvard chemist Greg Verdine takes helm at Warp Drive
July 2, 2013 | By Ryan McBrideProfessor Gregory Verdine has founded plenty of biotech companies, but Warp Drive Bio has become the first one he has ever helmed as CEO. After co-founding Warp Drive, which launched last year to discover natural product drugs, Verdine has taken over the chief executive role from Third Rock Ventures partner Alexis Borisy.
Based on Verdine’s original scientific idea, Warp Drive took off last year with a $125 million financing deal to mine bacterial genomes for drug compounds. Sanofi signed on as a funder and collaborator from the start, helping Third Rock and Greylock Partners to finance the drug-discovery effort. Borisy, who Verdine credits for the business plan behind Warp Drive, has become the startup’s executive chairman.
That whole article is fascinating; towards the end it mentions GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, and Novartis as companies willing to come “back to earth” in searching for great bacteria to test new drugs on. That’s where Warp Drive and a Harvard chemistry professor seem to come in.
Related, earlier this year (like, January), we learn about the Financial Power of Syndication:
UPDATED: Fueled by Sanofi, Warp Drive Bio takes off with $125M deal
January 12, 2013 by Ryan McBride
Biotech startup Warp Drive Bio has scored $125 million in financing from a syndicate that features the French drug giant Sanofi ($SNY) along with founding backer Third Rock Ventures and the VC firm Greylock Partners. More than just an investor in Warp Drive, Sanofi has an option to acquire the startup if the new company can hit certain goals in developing drugs found in microbial genomes.
With a brand new approach for discovering drugs from nature, Warp Drive aims to search the genomes of microbes for molecules that have the potential to target disease pathways that the have eluded all other attempts to do so. It’s the brainchild of Greg Verdine, a chemical biologist at Harvard and venture partner at Third Rock. His fellow founders include Harvard genomics pro George Church** and James Wells, who studies protein-to-protein interactions at the University of California, San Francisco. (“UCSF”)
“This is the type of early-stage, blue sky, innovative, transformative company that a lot of people are saying just isn’t getting created anymore,” Alexis Borisy, a Third Rock partner and interim CEO of the startup, told FierceBiotech. “But here we are. We have created it.”
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In the Beginning, in Hindsight (more on early AFCC newsletters, SVN/CRC, and could we have prevented this?)
Just grabbed this section off a recent post “Why Supervised Visitation Sucks” after posting it. I’m a woman and I get to redecorate at will.
I’m trying to consider whether anyone could’ve then (and could, now) headed off at the pass the multi-state shape-shifting nonprofits involving public officials (such as AFCC, SVN and CRC, mentioned herein).
There’s no question they are networked, and fast moving; like a maurading invasive species. Such is the nature of how danged easy it is to incorporate anywhere, anything (A few bucks and a statement on a piece of paper), and how we, the public, still don’t know how to track down how our own public officials are being funded.
It seems to me quite intentional that the purpose was to bypass representative legislation through forming multi-state and international nonprofits up front, attracting funding, and holding conferencs where the sun don’t shine (actually meaning, out of state for the target jurisdictions; they have been known to prefer sunny climates for conference locations. Like, Hawaii, or Bermuda, or in Southern California…).
I wanted to reference the AFCC talking about starting up this field (or at least the SVN), and decided to add an inset on the infamous Viola Stroud… I wonder in retrospect, how things might have gone if more of the public knew how vital it is to follow the money, and watch the conference circuits of groups like AFCC and CRC, not to mention SVN, and then connect this to the federal funding. Instead of go with the social scientist crowd, and (while making a fine living off grants to evaluate these programs) quipping, well, it’s OK…. so long as they are well-trained and recognize a batterer or abuser when they see one? Let us see how we can fix that….
AFCC Startup Literature, and Viola Stroud/CRC (inset)
AFCC Newsletter Fall 1992 (Vol. 11 No. 4) leads off with announcement of the formation (previous May) of the Supervised Visitation Network in New York, and presenter Tim Ballew (see also below) explains how it was funded and run. This is in Indianapolis.. So now, I have three states (so far) in which SVN was incorporated: New York, Tennessee and Florida… Above all keep in mind it is a NONPROFIT CORPORATION (to the extent that SVN has been operating legally, which as it turns out, is hardly all the time) whose board members tend to run NONPROFITS that take FEDERAL GRANT SUBSIDIES for this field, which was heavily promoted for application to divorce, not just kids in placement (dependency, that is). Why stop a “great” idea when it’s started??
Perhaps records don’t go back to 1992, however only a 2005 incorporated NEW YORK CHAPTER of the SVN actually shows up as a nonprofit. Search HERE, check status type ALL and search option “Contains” to view. A search of “Charities.NYS.gov” on “Supervised Visitation” pulls up only the “Little Angels” one (infamous for having involved a woman later convicted of robbing the estates of elders; with this corporation involved, aka Viola Stroud. Who was involved in the famous (to some of us) Genia Shockome case as a supervised visitation provider….).
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National Top Domestic Violence/Child Custody Experts continue trying to Dumb Down Moms
This has been a long time coming.
I barely tapped the tip of the iceberg in January 2011 in asking “What Rhetoric Are You: Mother, Father, or Mediator?” after a recent Battered Mothers’ Custody Conference in which to my awareness, no one explained how the Health and Human Services (HHS) has been diverting welfare funds to marriage promotion, that things called “fatherhood practitioners” exist, or that Access/Visitation funding exists.
This post also barely taps the tip of the iceberg in how much lies BELOW THE SURFACE in the Coalition of Conferencing Nonprofit Professional (Leadership) among what I am summarizing as the “Crisis in the Courts” Crowd. Or, I may sarcastically refer to as the “Our Broken Family Courts Initiative.” Instead, this initiative is (my opinion, here) USING the emotional distress of mothers (which is genuine) and people who have been indeed assaulted and battered — by a partner, and/or thereafter the courts in association with the same battering partner, and/or ditched by their religious groups (where applicable) — to follow a certain blueprint which highlights the leadership organizations – not, impartially — the actual cause, effect, and potential solutions to the issues they raise.
Women — mothers — are highly motivated, intelligent, and have tremendous energy, commitment, and leadership potential. The movement encouraging them to wear loss and victimhood like a badge and tell their stories — has diverted a tremendous energy from the real story behind this — which is Who Altered the Courts, How, and Why? Instead, they are to rally, report, trust, and follow according to the blueprint laid down for them by simply another set of experts. Proper skepticism and critical thinking — outside the platform being fed — is always in order in situations of this magnitude.
[[Comments welcome; the matter I’m raising here IS a matter for debate! Make up a name if you want… but let’s talk about this! See form…]]]
Read the rest of this entry »
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Exposing and Prosecuting Judicial Corruption through Common Law Discovery (1997 Interview)
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Summarizing Faith-Based, Marriage-Promoting, Change-Agents and Slush Funds…
CROOKS.
Your Money, Their Tax Exemption,
Your Kids Gone (or Abused) courtesy
Your Government. Your President(s) Promoting it, Too,
Clinton, Bush, Obama, ….???
Name me one that didn’t promote faith, marriage and fatherhood.
Or have a background involving some real estate deals pre-Presidency.
I’ve been looking (too long, probably) at what these organizations do, how they behave, and what the pattern is. Unilaterally, it’s sickening (i.e., it’s corrupt). I believe that collectively this is the “air we breathe” and that it gets back to the money system — a dual class cartel being created and expanded, where those closest to the “Court” may save or prosper their own asses — but it will be at the expense of ethics, truth, and others. This will lead to more bloodshed, as some are going to resist by non-economic means.
All of this may sound complex (particularly as I don’t present it visually in the best manner — I’d be better in a Q&A, or live; and don’t have graphics skills). But as to concepts, it isn’t. If you can think conceptually (and surviving depends on more of it these days) — you can understand these concepts. The thing is, most people’s lives don’t require analyzing so much of their government from top to bottom, while not being IN it or ON it. Those of us who got so marginalized and don’t like fake answers (hard truths are OK, “Placebo” truths are not) — have been doing so.
THINGS FLOW: Electricity, water, air (lava, sometimes), sap, blood, lymph (with help), sewage, OK, MILK, semen, right?– and money.
AND – information / IDEAS — in the form of words, sounds, images, smells — almost anything that involves one of the five senses. This is your: face to face, and technology over the decades: Paper (Gutenberg), Radio, Telegraph, and now, The Internet — Social Media — the web. . . . . Etc.
(Some — many — also assert that spirit exists, and as such, it’s been compared to: wind, fire, and water. (“Earth, Wind and Fire?”)
THINGS FLOW — and they flow GEOGRAPHICALLy and CHRONOLOGICALLY. MONEY FLOWS.
In a sense, property ownership ALSO “flows” — from one owner to another.
THINGS FLOW — and when they do, there are conduits, surfaces, or carriers (irrigation systems, etc.) through which they flow. Or seep. Or, are transmitted.
Extended illustration that WHAT flows, matters. Maybe some things shouldn’t be:
As they flow, and over time, they sometimes are themselves transformed (water) or transform (give life — or death) to — other things. Right now in Pennsylvania, there’s the issue of SHALE (“fracking”) which forcibly injects a mixture of liquids (carrying pollutants) to get the desired oil out, I guess. (see link) Here’s a description which proves that, if you flush something out that wasn’t meant to be flushed — there is a resulting flow of crap, which has to be hauled away. I seems that presently the Governor of PA (Corbett) is appealing municipalities protests of an unconstitutional (and so ruled, by the Supreme Court of PA) restriction on local municipalities to protest zoning that would — enable this fracking, I think. What did the GOV do? Well, the apparatus was already set — there were states’ attorneys, and a (centralized development agency), the OECD, over which he appointed a crony (“walker”) (or, at least donor to his campaign, and with a financial interests in defeating this Ruled-Unconstitutional act. Power at work…).
Now, what to do with it? This is about FLOW and just an illustration. A large one, of course:
Flowback and Brine Treatment in Pennsylvania |
| Someone may try to convince you that using 6-million gallons of water for fracing one gas well doesn’t amount to a massive amount of water. Even if they are successful in making that argument, the next topic becomes flowback or brine. What do you do with the crap that comes back out of the ground?
Somewhere between 20% and 40% of the water used for hydro-fracing a gas well returns to the surface as flowback, and later as produced water. In addition to the frac fluids added by the gas drilling companies, this water picks up other contaminants from deep in the Earth (~ 7,000 feet deep) with one of the most notable ingredients being salt. |
Let’s talk about what’s in it: (from same site — just browse…)
These fluids contain sodium and calcium salts, barium, oil, strontium, iron, numerous heavy metals, soap, radiation and other components. This fluid combination becomes brine wastewater, and tanker trucks hauling it are labeled with RESIDUAL WASTE placard. Treated brine is also sold for deicing and other applications that utilize calcium chloride, often being applied to roadways.
((FRom A DIFFERENT SOURCE, same forum though, posted Mon July 9, 2012 11:09pm Link provided there was broken..):
“These first four categories represent effects that would likely be expressed upon immediate exposure, such as eye and skin irritation, nausea and/or vomiting, asthma, coughing, sore throat, flu-like symptoms, tingling, dizziness, headaches,weakness, fainting, numbness in extremities, and convulsions…”…”Health categories that reflect chronic and long-term organ and system damage comprise the middle portion of Figure 2.
These include the nervous system (52%), immune system (40%), kidney (40%), and the cardiovascular system and blood (46%). More than 25% of the chemicals can cause cancer and mutations. Notably, 37% of the chemicals can affect the endocrine system that encompasses multiple organ systems including those critical for normal reproduction and development. The category of other is more common, and includes effects on weight, teeth, and bone and the ability of a chemical to cause death. More than 40% of the chemicals have been found to have ecological effects, indicating that they can harm aquatic
Brine wastewater is difficult and expensive to treat, one of the same reasons we aren’t using much ocean water for agriculture and residential applications. The saltiness of this wastewater creates high levels of TDS (total dissoved solids). Incomplete processing of this brine wastewater, especially when dumped into rivers used for drinking water, creates a high TDS situation that causes drinking water treatment plants problems, likeTrihalomethanes. High TDS water reacts with chlorine when it is processed creating these TTHM’s.
Trihalomethanes (THM) are a group of four chemicals that are formed (along with other disinfection byproducts) when chlorine or other disinfectants used to control microbial contaminants in drinking water react with naturally occurring organic and inorganic matter in water. The trihalomethanes are chloroform, bromodi/chloromethane, dibromo/chloromethane, and bromoform (I inserted the “/”s)
That’s sweet, disinfecting with chlorine and other agents creates Chloroform, something used to kill butterflies and sometimes aid in a kidnapping.
BACK TO TOPIC ABOUT THE FLOW OF IDEAS —
AND WITH THEM, MONEY. SUCH AS IT IS….
ANOTHER THING THAT SEEMS TO “FLOW” (WITH CERTAIN “CARRIER” ITEMS) IS — POWER. AND THAT’S WHAT WE NEED TO BE MOST CONCERNED ABOUT, BECAUSE THAT POWER INCLUDES THE POWER TO INCARCERATE, THE THUMBS-UP OR THUMBS-DOWN POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH OVER PEOPLE, OR GROUPS OF PEOPLE.
SOME PEOPLE are just REAL INTENT in consolidating power, and have developed many ways to do so.
In my quest to see why I couldn’t even break a lousy individual (batterer husband) — or my own family off me, I came to understand more and more of these matters affecting the courts, and to understand (I believe) the courts for what they are — gateways to the flow of power DOWNWARDS and not for the right reasons. I’ve seen enough, and while knowledge is power, it is the delivery system which really counts (which those holding power certainly know) — as well as the MAINTENANCE OF MYTH:
When it comes to MAINTENANCE OF MYtH — there’s nothing like religion + internet. When it comes to hiding assets, there’s nothing like nonprofits and the internet — and pre-existing institutions. When it comes to DISTRACTION — there’s nothing like trapping people’s time in a SINGLE system (with captive, so to speak) audiences — rather than understanding how systems interact with each other.
As we speak, I have been accumulating layers (weaving, as it were) of understanding of various threads. ALL of those threads lead to distribution of money and bring up the question of the IRS. This brings up the question of whose bright idea it, and the Federal Reserve, and so many other coordinated things that they absolutely do comprise a FABRIC with a certain MODEL that is being (has been) stretched over the U.S. over time.
The CORE of this model is — I’m sure of it now — ECONOMIC
It is the centralization of wealth (as opposed to “money”)
with frightening systems of control, destruction, incarceration, potential forced psychiatric drugging, or simply peddling of narcotics (in addition to the drugging of kids in foster care — or schools — to control them, as well as the elderly, as well as the mentally unstable, as well as the . . . (get it?) )
we have become also accustomed (too many of us) to believe that DOLLARS are MONEY —
when Dollars are NOT real money– Dollars are Debt-Notes.
They might as well be play-dough.
And too many legislators have a dual allegiance — one of which is in the Vatican.
The others which say they aren’t Catholic have forgotten that George W. Bush has been called a better Catholic the John F. Kennedy. JFK actually had a fight with his conscience where faith fought his oath as President of the United States to uphold and defend the Constitution.
I don’t think the former Presidential contestant, Rick Santorum (nor, Michelle Bachmann)
would have had such troubling thoughts as a conscience of the law of the land might give.
They do seem to center geographically on Washington, D.C. (and historically so), with of course hot spots in various states where certain (nonprofit trade associations) have coalesced. Like, Denver, or Chicago — or some in California (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco). In the middle of the country, Minnesota (out of all places) has been a hotspot of “DV” activity. Wisconsin seems to have been a test state almost, for welfare reform (Tommy Thompson, etc.) and is the home state of this “AFCC” I keep talking about. . . . . . Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma are — well, what they are (very “fatherhood” friendly). Don’t ask me why NY comes to mind in this area — but it doesn’t.
LET’s CHANGE GEARS:
This blog has been “FAMILY COURT” focused (for its duration). However, as I kept pulling strands like this — ON MARRIAGE AND FAITH-BASED GRANTEES, SET UP BY HHS COMPASSION GRANTS, MARKETING MATERIALS FROM “SMARTMARRIAGE.COM” CONFERENCEES, DIVERTING FUNDS FROM WELFARE (NEEDY, OFTEN SINGLE-MOTHER HOUSEHOLDS) TO END UP IN PROGRAM HANDS, AS THE “LOW-INCOME” POPULATION STAY THAT WAY — BUT AT LEAST HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF BECOMING PART OF A SOCIAL SCIENCE ENGINEERING TEST RUN, IN ASSOCIATION WITH COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION INSTITUTES ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY “CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE” LAND, INCLUDING IN GEORGIA, DENVER, AND ELSEWHERE: **
. . . . I kept running smack into the problem that, the problem is the dual class system set up by Nonprofit status, to start with. Nonprofits form boards, have salaries paid, either do (which = prosperity) sell out to HHS policy (which is itself blended with corporate wealth, see GWBush, already) — or go the private foundation route (i.e., PRIVATE wealth) — and from that platform, go about attempting to restructure the entire PUBLIC institution infrastructure, for its own good (as defined by the privately-founded wealth) etc. Roughly speaking, this might be called — and was exemplified by, the Robert Rectors (Heritage Foundation — i.e., just let us BE the United States Government, after all, we already know how to run things) versus the Peter Edelmans (Georgetown Law, and with the proven track record in Civil Rights, and in association with Children’s Defense Fund, see (his wife), Marian Wright Edelman, who are — let us FIX the United States Government — and by the way, we are taking private wealth.
What about people whose goal is NOT world change (“OUR version, for everyone — not THEIR version, for everyone), but, supporting ourselves and our families, staying active in our communities, and having time left to sleep — plus food to eat? Suppose we are happy within normal spheres of endeavor — we may want to travel some around the globe, but are not invested in owning and running it?
If I had to go to dinner with one of the two, I’d pick the Edelmans any day, but I do not endorse either of their policies; both are “change agents” and believe that their collective personal vision should be inflicted on future generations, whereas, I’m a single mother (or was), and have daughters — and just don’t happen to agree. Why? Because there’s such a thing as too much “SYSTEM.” Whoever runs a system for the nation, controls the nation — and a lot of its funding. And the public school system is similar to the family law system. They’re both here, feed on each other, and put IDEAS (not just people) in boxes, demand payment from someone else for doing this, but when it comes to FENCES (regulations on the administrators of the system), then the parents and nonparents supporting these systems — are FENCED out. See “metal detectors” and “lockdown.” I cannot think of a more overt collective attack on this country than those two systems, combined, have done to its children — and with the children, the parents who actually DO care about them, but must fight the government for access to their own kids, or a relationship with them.
In short, I don’t believe in nationwide SYSTEMS, period, except where absolutely essential. I say that having (sort of) survived an abusive “nuclear family” system and am still reeling from the extended family (plus friends) GANG simply because my children were wonderful (and irresistible), and, can you spell, “the love of money”? I believe this is what middle-aged people (both genders) do when their own (professionally OK, or even successful) lives are simply boring, unrewarding, or meaningless.
(SO, that long link above link is to a topic on Scranton PT which has a recent dredging of the marriage- and faith-based shell corps (and resulting headlines about their various frauds) AND shows how a major community change initiative by Saul Alinsky (Industrial Areas Foundation — now based out of Grace Episcopal in Chicago) (a) worked and (b) morphed from “using” the access to people that churches represented, to strengthening churches AS institutions and centers for receiving (federal) grants to change communities. It seems the HHS was fine with that — and somehow money is getting lost in the process.
CHURCHES COMMUNITY CHANGE AGENTS WITH CONTROL-CENTRAL:
A few of the posts (on that topic & forum) also uncovered in the process a COPYCAT of the Industrial Areas Foundation adapted to Christianity — or at least the veneer of churchianity — apparently some woman was overly impressed by some man who (it turned out) had himself been through PICO training. What “PICO” is appears to be a recruiting process — an organization trawls locally for leadership material and then recruits them into separate membership which becomes a “change agent” and then that local leaders goes forth and conquers. . . . . . . . I guess this is an alternative to normal judicial & legislative processes, perhaps…. (A SAMPLE COMMENT)
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PICO conducts six-day national leadership development seminars four times a year, teaching the theory and practice of congregation-based organizing. Each year an additional seminar is presented in Spanish. Local affiliates also provide members and leaders with training on building and sustaining strong organizations, identifying potential leaders through one-on-one relational meetings, researching community issues, developing budgets, and working with public officials.[11]
PICO leader attracted to ideas of Saul Alinksy, i.e. incl. Alinsky’s tactics were often unorthodox. In Rules for Radicals Alinsky wrote, “[t]he job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a ‘dangerous enemy.'” According to Alinsky, “the hysterical instant reaction of the establishment [will] not only validate [the organizer’s] credentials of competency but also ensure automatic popular invitation.”[8]
PICO is basically community organizing to solve the world’s (i.e., it mentions urban, suburban and rural) projects — with connections to Central America and Rwanda…
In PICO’s congregation-community model, congregations of all denominations and faiths serve as the institutional base for community organizations. Rather than bring people together simply based on common issues like housing or education, the faith-based or broad-based organizing model makes values and relationships the glue that holds organizations together.
PICO builds community organizations based on religious congregations, schools and community centers, which are often the only stable civic gathering places in many neighborhoods
REGARDING the North County Sponsoring Committee (aka Faith Works) — it’s basically a PICO affiliate.
FROM 2002 return, its nonprofit purpose is to provide leadership training:
To strengthen North San Diego County families and communities by assisting religious congregations and other community groups in the development of leadership that is educated and organized for effective participation in civic life
No officers paid yet, and no employees. Largest expense under “other” includes PICO consulting fee: $14,675, plus training fees and training mileage:
This is fascinating — but mostly in its context, which I realize you are not, just now.
…
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CA’s New Improved Child Support Services: Core Mission went “MIA,” as did 800,000 of its Records
. . . .courtesy a contractor’s subcontractor, both of them reputable companies . . . . .
The solution for invasion or violation of rights in THIS country was to have been, from the start, stated clearly in the U.S. Constitution — written down for all to see, and then it was up to us to practice THAT model. Not every service model that is cooked up somewhere, and flown in as fast-food to state level by individuals IN the state with memberships in nationwide, PRIVATE, “nonprofit” associations which exist for the profit and proliferation of their membership — whether or not they actually deliver the product.
First of all, it’s from Child to Family to Social Restructuring. The word “Child” is handy for almost any program to be promoted. Once it’s sold (Aw, how wonderful — you love children and want to advocate for them? Sure, where do I sign?):
Take for example, “Child Support Enforcement.”
That entire concept is now “old school” apparently, just the core mission in amid a bunch of evolving (self-) definitions.
In fact, it’s starting to look (in hindsight) more and more like the concept of enforcing child support to actually reduce (versus expand) welfare . . . . . was just an excuse to get too many cooks in the kitchen, add “access/visitation” concepts, keep records of New Hires for all business owners (if possible), garnish wages, incarcerate men or women who can’t pay up (however, men can sometimes “buy” their way out by participating in programs oriented towards men, i.e., Kentucky’s “Turning It Around.”)
By the state’s going plastic (via SDU – Statewide Distribution Units), someone, somewhere has a record of where any parent subscribing to electronic child support cards gets to have recorded what they buy, where, and when — when such people may not have done anything to warrant such intrusions. The act of a single parent needing child support does not a criminal make! Nor does the act of at times or for a time needing welfare. However, the poor exist for a reason, and the powers that be might as well make a little business profit off the proposition, right?
This is from California’s Child Support Services home — a nice diagram to explain what “child support enforcement” actually means. Keep in mind that the concept of child support enforcement is socially a pretty new one (just a few decades old). Notice the core mission is rather equipped by the add-ons….
CORE Mission: Locate Parents; Establish Paternity; Establish Orders; Collect Support
Regarding Child Support Services –they are now “family centered.”
Ready
2 B A
Parent?
Parenting
Violence
Awareness
Health Care
If you click on any of the circles above, it will lead you to some private/public/nonprofit admixture of PR campaign, technical assistance and training, and etc. — all of which generally involves (1) more public funds at some level and (2) tax exemption for whoever “thunk it up.”
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How Much Mileage Can DV Advocates get out of the press on San Francisco’s Ross Mirkarimi/Eliana Lopez case?
This has been headline news for how long? It definitely brings up mixed feelings on my part — knowing how many women are receiving far more severe battery, false imprisonment, endangering children and intimidating witnesses throughout the Bay Area, and have been for years — many years. While each time there is some press, someone from one of the organizations gets quoted.
March 31, 2012, last Saturday, Section “C,”* an article laid out at top of the page, full width, and by Columnist C.W. Nevius), reads:
(*Bay Area section of the SF Chronicle)
“Wife’s anger misdirected in Mirkarimi case.”
Eliana Lopez is furious at the way her domestic violence dispute with her husband, suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, has been handled.
Too bad. Because the process worked perfectly.
Was it messy and painful? Absolutely. But it is also important and worthwhile.
This week, Myrna Melgar, a survivor of domestic violence,** wrote a passionate account – with Lopez’s blessing – of her friend’s devastation and anger in how the case was handled. While the opinion piece in the Bay Guardian had some fascinating details, it missed the main point.
Neither Lopez nor Mirkarimi seems able to get beyond the anger toward neighbor Ivory Madison, who called attention to the alleged abuse and then provided the damning video of Lopez crying and pointing to a bruise.
Melgar wrote that the process empowers people “to make decisions on this woman’s behalf, against her consistent and fervently expressed wishes.”
That’s right. It does. And that’s what it should do.
“This is why domestic violence advocates have been seen as evildoers,” said Kathy Black, executive director of La Casa de las Madres. “They say we are breaking up families. The helper becomes the one who is blamed.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/30/BANI1NSJ36.DTL#ixzz1quHv5VFi
**not sure this is the same “Myrna Melgar, just included the LinkedIn profile which shows her professional/civic leadership in the area. It probably is)
This is the Bay Guardian article, and it seems well written enough. I’m glad someone filled in a few of these details, including a factor that until 5 Mr. Mirkarimi was raised in a bi-cultural family (Russian Jewish mother/ Iranian Muslim father), and then was separated from his father. There seems to be a sense of father-absence here:
(The bulk of my post is addressing topics raised in this article, particularly a certain reference to a Canadian sociologist for insight into this Californian incident).
03.27.12 – 3:01 pm |(255)By Myrna Melgar
Myrna Melgar is a Latina survivor of childhood domestic violence, a feminist, and the mother of three girls. She is a former legislative aide to Sup. Eric Mar.
Eliana Lopez is my friend. I have asked for her permission to put into words, in English, some observations, thoughts and insights reached during our many conversations these past few weeks about her experience with San Francisco’s response to the allegation of domestic violence by her husband, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi . . . (Please read the article).
. . .According to Eliana, the context of what happened between them on December 31 actually started much earlier. Ross grew up as the only son of a single teenage mother of Russian Jewish descent and an absent Iranian immigrant father. Pressured by the opposition of her family to her relationship with an Iranian Muslim, Ross’s mother divorced his father by the time he was five. Ross was raised on a small, nearly all-white island in New England, with no connection to his father. When he had the opportunity, Ross traveled to Chicago, where his father had remarried and built a new family with two sons. Ross’s father turned him away. In Eliana’s analysis, Ross’s greatest fear is that his painful story with his father will be replayed again with Theo.
Eliana Lopez came to San Francisco from Venezuela with hope in her head and love in her heart. She decided to leave behind her beautiful city of Caracas, a successful career as an actress, and her family and friends, following the dream of creating a family and a life with a man she had fallen in love with but barely knew, Ross Mirkarimi.
Whirlwind romance, charmer? Another article (reporting on this one) adds:
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Heather Knight Thursday, March 29, 2012 |
Melgar’s piece describes how Lopez came to San Francisco after she and then-Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi became pregnant on one of his visits to her native Venezuela
(He got his girlfriend knocked up in the course of leisure? or business? Not mentioned — were they married at the time?
(Michael Macor/The Chronicle)
Eliana Lopez, wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, speaks to the news media about the three misdemeanor charges against her husband, on Friday Jan. 13, 2012, in San Francisco, Ca
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/28/BAS31NRKL3.DTL#ixzz1qv1dHpDm
Bay Guardian Op-Ed, cont’d.:
Well-educated, progressive, charismatic, and artistic, she made friends easily. She and Ross seemed like a great match. Both were committed environmentalists, articulate and successful. They had a son, Theo. {{see above…}} As they settled into domestic life, however, problems began to surface. The notoriously workaholic politician did not find his family role an easy fit. A bachelor into his late forties, Ross had trouble with the quiet demands of playing a puzzle on the floor with his toddler or having an agenda-less breakfast with his wife. Ross would not make time for Eliana’s request for marriage counseling, blaming the demands of job and campaign.
Now, about prosecuting the low-level domestic violence against the wife’s wishes:
How did it come to be that a system that was intended to empower women has evolved into a system that disempowers them so completely?
I don’t know Ms. Melgar’s life story (or whether she’s currently married — sounds like not). However, there are TWO ways the District Attorney’s Office can disempower women — if this is correct, prosecuting against the woman’s wishes when it’s supposedly a “minor” event. Or (and this was my situation and MANY other women’s) NOT prosecuting them despite severe domestic violence, when prosecuting them might save a life, or save ongoing destruction of life. See
And in this politically charged event — MADE TO ORDER for anyone who didn’t want Mirkarimi’s Progressive Politics disrupting the city (notice — nothing to do with domestic violence in that phrase) — because the events had some validity.
INTERJECTION — information from Purpleberets.org — and the topic is well-covered at the Sonoma County (Northern CA, not too far from SF) “Women’s Justice Center.” This is talking about much, MUCH more severe cases where DA refused to prosecute. (And if you know my blog, the case underlying it — and which eventually led to my blogging habit — was when district attorneys in TWO Counties refused to stop a child-stealing in action, or to prosecute it — ever. The general practice over a number of years (by law enforcement, specifically — I’m talking police in a number of cities, county sheriffs in more than one, and the district attorney’s office. As it turns out later, the person in charge of the “Alameda County Family Justice Center” (a hybrid creation by DA’s office and others modeled on San Diego’s one which came out of the City Attorneys’ Office — I’ve blogged this plenty elsewhere), Ms. Nadia Lockyer, then went on to win the position of County Supervisor (with help of a $1 million campaign funding and very, very, very well connected spouse 30 years her senior) — had a substance abuse problem, started an affair with someone (closer to her age) she met in rehab — himself getting off ‘meth’ — and had an incident requiring 911 assistance in a Newark (California) motel early a.m. This is the Bay Area leadership . . . . . it’s typically about politics and careers — and NOT about preventing violence against women and services to them. In the larger scope.
So, re: the immense power of the District Attorney’s Office: Written, I believe, around the year 2000:
California Passes Tough New Domestic Violence Laws — by Maria DeSantis, director Women’s Justice Center
In effect since January 1, 2000, a patchwork of new California domestic violence laws is already providing added help for domestic violence victims. The laws, however, still leave untouched some of the biggest obstacles victims face.
. . . .
District Attorney Power Still Unfettered
A critical area for victims of rape, domestic violence, and child abuse that has been left ignored by legislators this year and in years past is the district attorney’s absolute power to refuse to file charges no matter how solid the evidence. Even if a district attorney refuses to file charges on a whole crime category, there is no legal remedy for victims. This unrestricted prosecutorial discretion is particularly dangerous for women in Sonoma County where D.A. Mike Mullins’ rate of conviction on domestic violence is one of the lowest in the state, and where he systematically under-charges cases of violence against women and children.
For example, at this writing, we at Women’s Justice Center have a case of three days of spousal rape, sodomy and beatings which the district attorney has filed only as misdemeanor domestic violence. The detective in the case states there is ample evidence to file multiple felonies.
In another case of a woman beaten to the point of a fractured skull, the D. A. refused to file at all for five months until one day the perpetrator went out and committed another assault with a deadly weapon on another victim. In yet another case of spousal rape, the district attorney and Cloverdale Police have been fighting for six months over who should pay for translating key evidence. Sadly, those are just a few of many examples.
Not only are all women put in direct and great danger by the absence of any legislative check on the district attorney’s denial of justice to women, but the D.A.’s refusal to file proper charges on these cases also suffocates and discourages police efforts. We need to work with our legislators to give them the fortitude to put restrictions on district attorney discretion now.
(For Spanish translation of this and other violence against women information, see the WJC website:www.justicewomen.com )
Women’s Justice Center
if you include credit and don’t edit.
Back to Myrna Melgar’s article, minimizing the incident:
Unquestionably, there are women in deeply abusive relationships who need assistance getting out, who may not be able to initiate an escape on their own. Eliana’s relationship with Ross did not even come close to that standard.
It seems Myrna is oblivious to the fact that, through the family court, if Eliana did decide (later) to go to Venezuela without her husband’s assent, he could — in a moment, and don’t think such a person is unaware of this — charge her (or find someone to charge her) with parental kidnapping, put an arrest warrant out for her, and in the meantime get practically ANY family law judge in San Francisco — unless they had a personal grudge or other political reason to not do this — to switch sole custody to him, demand some sort or extradition, and/or have her thrown in jail if she came back to work things out. And don’t think that this isn’t a possibility. Maybe they would’ve worked it out — or maybe not. But one thing’s for sure — I read a LOT of material put out by domestic violence groups, and have networked with hundreds, literally, of mothers over the years, and most of them were completely ambushed by the concept that appealing to domestic violence laws to protect themselves and kids, even if they were IN a battered womens’ shelter — was no shield at all for later transfer of their children to their abusers. This is literally a third line of advocacy, now — “protective parents.” So, while it did not NOW rise to that abusive level, it certainly could’ve later.
Yet in the eyes of Ivory Madison, Phil Bronstein, District Attorney George Gascon, and even the Director of La Casa de las Madres, once her husband had grabbed her arm, Eliana was simply no longer competent and her wishes were irrelevant.
In other words, an action done by a man, over which a woman has no control whatsoever, renders the woman incompetent and irrelevant, and empowers a long list of people — most of whom are male — to make decisions on this woman’s behalf, against her consistent and fervently expressed wishes. No one in the entire chain of people who made decisions on Eliana’s behalf offered her any help — besides prosecuting her husband
So here is the challenge to domestic violence advocates and progressive folks who care about women: A more progressive approach to Eliana and Ross’s particular situation, and to domestic violence in general, would be to work on emphasizing early, non-law enforcement intervention and the prevention of violence against women in addition to the necessary work of extricating women from dangerous situations
Professor Laureen Snider at Queens University in Ontario has argued that criminalization is a flawed strategy for dealing with violence against women.
Laureen Snider
Department of Sociology, Queen’s University, Canada
Laureen Snider, a Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University, has published numerous studies on corporate crime, regulation and governance including Bad Business: Corporate Crime in Canada (Nelson: 1993) and Corporate Crime: Contemporary Debates (University of Toronto Press, 1995, co-edited with Dr. Frank Pearce). Her present research centres on the asymmetries of surveillance, comparing the monitoring of employees versus that of employers (“theft of time”); and the surveillance capabilities of traditional police forces against traditional criminality (“crime in the streets”, versus those of regulatory agencies against corporate criminality (“crime in the suites”). Recent publications include: “But They’re Not Real Criminals”: Downsizing Corporate Crime” (in B. Schissel & C. Brooks, eds., Critical Criminology in Canada . Halifax: Fernwood, 2008: 263-86); “Economic Crimes”, (in J. Minkes and L. Minkes, eds.,Corporate and White-Collar Crime. London: Sage, 2008: 39-60), “Safety Through Punishment?”, (in M. Beare, ed., Honouring Social Justice, Honouring Dianne Martin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008) and “Accommodating Power: The “Common Sense” of Regulators”, Social and Legal Studies 18(2), 2008 (forthcoming).
Faculty website: http://www.queensu.ca/sociology/?q=people/faculty/full-time/sniderl
Professor Nicholas Bala is introduced as the recipient of the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award by Bill Howe, a board member of the Association of Family and Conciliatory Courts, at its 45th Annual Conference in Vancouver on May 29, 2008.
BALA RECOGNIZED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAMILY AND DIVORCE LAW
On May 29, 2008, Bala received the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award from the Association of Family and Conciliatory Courts (AFCC) in recognition of his outstanding work in family and divorce law. “I am deeply honoured by this recognition,” Bala said, “particularly in light of noteworthy contributions from previous winners.”
Bala became the first Canadian to win the award from the AFCC, an international organization of professionals involved in the family court system striving to empower families and promote healthier futures for children. Most of the award’s previous recipients were leading American researchers in the mental health field, including such scholars as Sanford Braver, Joan Kelly and Janet Johnston, whose work focused primarily on the effects of divorce on parents and children. . . .
In contradiction to the concept of “no-fault” divorce law…
As one of Canada’s leading family and children’s law scholars, Bala has a distinguished reputation for his innovative and traditional research methods and his diverse range of publications. Scholars in Canada and abroad frequently cite Bala, and Canadian lawyers and judges frequently quote his research. In its recent decision in R. v. D.B., the Supreme Court of Canada cited Bala’s work for the 25th time.
In addition to Bala’s traditional legal scholarship, much of his research draws from a variety of disciplines: he collaborates with psychologists, criminologists and social workers to address the problems children and families encounter within the justice system.
“I have not only been involved in consuming the research of social scientists about the justice system; I’ve helped to produce it,” Bala says. “My collaboration with mental health professionals and social scientists has allowed me to appreciate both the value—and the limitations—of their work for the justice system.”
Besides his interdisciplinary work with the Child Witness Project, Bala has been taking a closer look at how domestic violence is handled in the family-law arena. He has been working with three mental-health professionals {{Want to bet $100 they’re all AFCC members? I could use a little extra cash to upgrade some of the blog….!}}} to produce a series of papers on this issue, and the group recently created a model to address the effects of family violence on the determination of child custody and access. **
**Jargon translation: wife-beating is no reason to restrict a child who witnessed this having access to their biological father. Let us do supervised visitation, etc. — hence (in the US) HHS “Access/Visitation” funding, with help from the (also international) Children’s Rights Council, which developed the term “access” to replace the term “visitation.” This model will be ADMINSTRATIVELY or PRACTICALLY begun (or has been already) and then other highly placed individuals (state by state in the US) will suggest — hey, why not make it a law? (Example: PA: Commission on Justice Initiatives: Changing the Culture of Custody).
The team’s article about their family-violence-assessment model, which was published in the most recent issue of the international journal Family Court Review, {{Co-produced with AFCC & Hofstra Univ. School of Law in NY}} is already being cited in a number of countries.
The Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award (Stanley Cohen being a principal in the development of AFCC) is Bala’s second major award in three years for his valuable research contributions. He won the Queen’s Prize for Excellence in Research in 2006 during an annual university-wide competition. For more information about this award, see “Nicholas Bala Wins Top University Research Prize” on page 2 of the 2007 issue of Queen’s Law Reports at http://law.queensu.ca/alumni/publications/lawReports2007.pdf
My major research interests lie in the intersection between knowledge, punishment and law. I have applied this in several substantive areas, in studies examining the poisoned water disaster in Walkerton, Ontario, the reception of knowledge claims on corporate crime, and the constitution of the punishable woman.
Experience
- Professor of Sociology, Queen’s University – present
Education
- Toronto University, B.A., M.A., Ph.D
- Give experts a greater voice in shaping scientific, cultural and intellectual agendas by providing a trusted platform that values and promotes new thinking and evidence-based research.
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Snider argues that feminists and progressives have misidentified social control with police/governmental control. In other words, we are substituting one oppressor for another — and glossing over the fact that in the judicial system, poor people of color fare worse than white middle-class people. We have punted on (forward) the hard work education, and of shaping and reshaping men’s definitions of masculinity and violence, of the social acceptance of the subjugation of women, of violence against children. We have chosen to define success in the fight against domestic violence by women saved from horrible situations and incarceration rates for their abusers — rather than doing the difficult work of community and individual change necessary to prevent violence from happening in the first place
Ellen Pence
Ellen Pence (1948 – January 6, 2012) was a scholar and a social activist. She co-founded the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project[1], an inter-agency collaboration model used in all 50 states in the U.S. and over 17 countries.[2] A leader in both the battered women’s movement and the emerging field of institutional ethnography, she was the recipient of numerous awards including the Society for the Study of Social Problems Dorothy E. Smith Scholar Activist Award (2008) for significant contributions in a career of activist research. . .
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Pence graduated from St. Scholastica in Duluth with a B.A. She was active in institutional change work for battered womensince 1975, and helped found the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project in 1980.
She is credited with creating the Duluth Model of intervention in domestic violence cases, Coordinated Community Response (CCR), which uses an interagency collaborative approach involving police, probation, courts and human services in response to domestic abuse. The primary goal of CCR is to protect victims from ongoing abuse.[citation needed]
She earned her Ph.D in Sociology from the University of Toronto in 1996. She used institutional ethnography as a method of organizing community groups to analyze problems created by institutional intervention in families. She founded Praxis International in 1998 and was the chief author and architect of the Praxis Institutional Audit, a method of identifying, analyzing and correcting institutional failures to protect people drawn into legal and human service systems because of violence and poverty.[citation needed] Ellen pence died [RECENTLY] at the age of 63 , from breast cancer .
PRAXIS means “practices.” Who is practiced upon? (Sorry, this wasn’t brought before our voters — except it went through the US Reps House Appropriations Committee, I guess. . . ..
Not before endorsing and propagating a system of educational institutions — taking public funding — based on social theory, and which have attracted a host of inappropriate misappropriations of public employees times, and which set up a built-in HIERARCHY — the exact OPPOSITE of what women, particularly mothers, leaving abuse need. This hierarchy is a lose/lose situation for any person imagining he/she has enforceable, legal rights in the USA — as an INDIVIDUAL. It sets up the hierarchy of the TEACHERS (for hire // mercenaries) versus the “TAUGHT.”
The social science THEORY that one can educate or train men out of violence is just taht — a theory. It is also contrary to the american (USA) form of government, which is to expect people to keep an identifiable law, and maintain a fair process of assigning punishments for those who choose not to. This means all people can be informed of WHAT their laws are — and leaves no room for speculations on the social impact of father-absence, single-parenthood, or even violence against women — and then millions of $$ which the public (and private interests) fund to tinker with the demonstration projects each time they get it wrong.
Back to the C.W.Nevius article (top of post), which continues:
Witnesses save lives
“Most cases are not this public,” said Beverly Upton, executive director of San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium. “But if anyone made this more difficult, it was Ross Mirkarimi. There was a lot of activity trying to silence the witness, and that doesn’t usually happen. What we know is that witnesses coming forward saves lives.”
Mirkarimi was initially charged with three misdemeanors related to domestic violence and eventually reached an agreement to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment. Mayor Ed Lee also filed charges to permanently remove him from office.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/30/BANI1NSJ36.DTL#ixzz1quqyOPjT
FYI, I do not live in San Francisco (some may wonder), but have lived in the area for over two decades, and worked frequently in the city and in surrounding counties — both during and after my “domestic violence” marriage. I notice that whenver there’s a high-profile event, here is this SF DVConsortium and Beverly Upton being consulted for help. I never got any help from them, nor did I get ANY help from the Family Violence Prevention Fund, although, they do throw a great conference, and how validating to know that domestic violence is a health risk (like, I didn’t know that?). It did NOTHING to address the ongoing violence enabled by the family law system to any and all mothers who, after doing the right thing, but having for some reasons, very persistent Exes — are thereafter psychologically, economically, legally and in other ways tortured (if not extorted) — in the custody realm.
This group apparently could care less, so long as they get their funds and keep up the reputation for protecting women from violence – without addressing the land mines ahead of them. SEE MY BLOG! no one gave me a federal fund to publicize this, and apparently the more other groups immunize themselves from DV rhetoric, the better it is for BOTH pro and con grantseekers. So, here — for a quick update — this “Consortium” consorts in getting public grants to continue their agenda. I gather this is a progressive agenda because it’s under the umbrella of the (very large) TIDES Foundation, which also sponsored the nonprofit “Stop Family Violence” — which appears (best I can tell) to consist of a website, and one or two professionals who got to fly around to conferences nationwide (Irene Weiser, i forget who the other person was) and now is perhaps inactive, although the website is still up there.
aka SFDVC and/or DVC) founded in 1982, is a network of seventeen domestic violence service agencies that come together with the goal of providing high quality, coordinated and comprehensive services to San Francisco’s victims of domestic abuse. {{ABUSE? or VIOLENCE? Make up your mind!!}}
The services of the individual agencies include emergency shelter, transitional housing, crisis lines, counseling, prevention programs, education and legal assistance. Services are available in the many different languages of San Francisco’s diverse populations. One of the main activities of the SFDVC is networking. SFDVC agencies share information, learn about issues that impact their work and coordinate their services and activities with a particular focus on public funding, specifically coordinating grant proposals and conducting advocacy/lobbying of government departments as to the importance of funding domestic violence services.
The SFDVC is a nonprofit organization and a project of the Tides Center. The SFDVC is led by its co-chairs and committees. The SFDVC recognizes that San Francisco is a diverse city and domestic violence is a problem in all communities regardless of ethnicity, race, class, physical ability, religion, age, immigration and economic status, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Obviously this is important work — HOWEVER — notice the collective grants-obtaining clout they have? That must be HOW there has been such coordinated and collective silence on the fathers’ rights grants and movement I report, and so have other UNsponsored INDIVIDUALS. Do they teach women about to file a kickout order about the upcoming Access/Visitation grants (in place, $10 million a year since 1996), how the Federal Incentives to the Child SUpport Enforcement system include running demonstration grants on how to increase noncustodial (father) time with the children, and how if they go on welfare, they are quite likely to be ex-parte consolidated into a divorce action, and thrown to the family court wolves, whose funding is MUCH larger?
NO — not last I heard.
Do they say anything about the organization AFCC, which practically runs the local Family Courts, let alone the Family Court Facilitators’ offices where people NOT as well-off financially (probably) than Ms. Lopez will end up seeking remedies? AFCC publishes most of the brochures available there — and (I checked in recent years) the coverage of domestic violence issues is highly diminished. So, what does that say about women’s right to know and make an INFormeD decision about whether to confront their batterer (sometimes with a civil protective order — not even mentioned in these dialogues), or call the police and hope a criminal one is instated?
LASTLY (and that’s enough for today!), I wanted to also show the Mayor Ed Lee catering to the FUTURES WITHOUT VIOLENCE organization, which currently owns prime real estate (or owns the organization that owns the real estate) in the SF Praesidio. Futures without Violence, indeed. The antidote to tyranny in our country (whether by domestic individuals within their family walls, or outside them by public officials) is a balance of powers between (1) the government and (2) the people, and fair enforcement of crimes against the state which jeopardize the safety of the public — which domestic violence DOES, and there’s plenty of evidence in the form of innocent bystanders shot, businesses disrupted, as well as responding police officers. We live in one of the more violent countries in the world, in many levels, and despite decades of advocacy by DV groups, their inherent demand for public funds to “coordinate services” and educate — the world, essentially — they are not open to criticism from the street level about this agenda.
TOO BAD – it’s here, it’s coming and I’m not going to stop, if I can help, this outrage. I have one-third of my adult life thrown down this rabbit hole ,and the concept of betrayal is absolutely high. MSM is owned, and is never going to tell the whole story. More bloggers are needed — bloggers that cite their sources where possible, and make sure that this situation is no longer covered up, or specially framed when it comes time to renew the funding for the VAWA act and the counterintuitive simultaneous funding of the next round of fatherhood/marriage etc. grants. No wonder this keeps going on, perhaps — our society is so stressed and compartmentalized, and has been already pre-trained to have their income taxes garnished, so garnishing wages for child support is a short step away. No privacy, no safety, and no justice. Just more debt!
My parting shot, I think: The Mayor that wants Mirkarimi out references Futures without Violence. Label this: “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours!”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/30/BASJ1NSMGF.DTL#ixzz1qux42sTZ
Without mentioning Ross Mirkarimi by name, Mayor Ed Lee on Friday delivered an indirect rebuke of the man he suspended from the sheriff’s job after he pleaded guilty to a domestic-violence-related charge of false imprisonment of his wife.
The mayor made his remarks during a brief keynote address at a national conference on domestic violence under way in San Francisco sponsored by the Futures Without Violence organization.
Seizing on sentence
Mirkarimi was elected sheriff in November after serving seven years on the Board of Supervisors. He was sworn in to his new job on Jan. 8 and was arrested less than two weeks later for allegedly bruising his wife’s arm during a New Year’s Eve argument in front of their 2-year-old son. The district attorney charged him with misdemeanor domestic violence battery, dissuading a witness and child endangerment.
The new sheriff pleaded not guilty to those three counts, but on March 12, under a plea-bargain agreement, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment. He was sentenced to three years’ probation, weekly domestic violence intervention classes, and one day in jail with time served for when he showed up at the Hall of Justice for booking; he did not serve time behind bars.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/30/BASJ1NSMGF.DTL#ixzz1qv2FUQhL
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(STATE CHARITABLE RETURN FOR 2009) FORM RRF-I INFORMATION REGARDING GOVERNMENT FUNDING STATEMENT 14 ART B, LINE 6
- U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAM 810 7TH STREET NW, 5TH FLOO~ WASHINGTON, DC 20531 NEELAM PATEL, 202-353-4338 — AMOUNT $2.9 million
- U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 370 L’ENFANTE PROMENADE, 6Tl FLOOR
- WASHINGTON, DC 20447 — AMOUNT $1.5 million
- U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH DHUMAN SERVICES INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE 801 THOMPSON AVENUE ROCKVILLE, MD 20852 — AMOUNT $86K
- NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENIL! AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES P.O. BOX 8970 RENO, NV 89507 — AMOUNT $91K
- OTHER GOVERNMENT GRANTS (whose?) AMOUNT $30K
- TOTAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING $ 4,649,368
Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History 
“Comment Submitted To:” (Supervised Visitation, Interlocking Nonprofits, in Minnesota)
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I submitted today to:
Carver County (MN) Corruption // AFCC chart page
COMMENTARY ON THE COMMENT:
Conceptual Thinking (understanding systems) is Essential to Freedom.
Networking for mutual self-support groups is wonderful, but failure by support groups to scout why one needed them to start with, is suicidal, in the long run. Support groups simply go form their silos of information and shun information which doesn’t fit with the status quo.
This is a great way to overspecialize and become an extinct species. We HAVE to be able to speak a language that incorporates understanding of the systems that structure our lives. We aren’t. There are crackups, domestic violence, gang violence, and various kinds of “roadkill,” to which people have conveniently (for those who DO understand systems, and own them) self-separated into their groups by label: Protective Mothers, Battered Mothers, Fathers’ Rights, Family Values vs. Pro Choice, etc.
Have you ever seen skilled sheepdogs in action? Consider what they do — they face off with the sheep; one dog can control a sizeable clump. Now — who does the sheepdog answer to and who feeds and trains him?
Now, who pays the man (or woman, I suppose) who trains, feeds, and runs the sheepdogs?
The real question is, who owns the ranch. And that’s what family court reform groups (male or female) simply forget to specialize in, and train each other to respond to signals from, that is, to respond as the owner of the ranch might — not as the sheep might.
I don’t know if you can get a visual on this — but picture sheepdog trials, and a batch is let out at time, and the canine “middle mangement” of this operation called a ranch, who do a lot of the running around, but appear to be innately designed for this — they LOVE running the sheep — are running one clumped together focused on the sheepdog (not the farm owners) and facing it, either face-off and freeze, or running. Eventually they ARE going to be run into the pen, where after a long (Or short) and domesticated life, during which they will be sheared and produce more lambs — eventually they will be possibly eaten. Such a life!
Divide, shepherd, shear, and eventually eat. Control reproduction. Sort for desired qualities.
That’s for sheep, but it’s been applied on people. And the sheepdogs bark and posture. The sheep don’t even have a language to talk back with that means anything other than what sounds they are making on the way back into the fold (pen).
As human beings, if we want freedom, we need to speak more than one language, and understand which language one is hearing at a given point of time. We also had better get a lid on understanding systems, AND becoming a better judge of character.
I read tax returns and look up corporations not because it’s profitable, or inherently more interesting than other things I could do with an immediate (though very transient, in my situation) profit. I read tax returns and look up corporations (and ask others to) because it tells me about who is doing what in the commercial landscape. I think the basics are clear, and a lot of the continued lookups I may (and am) still doing, are part for personal insight — but moreso for demonstrating to others.
This kind of data (even as poorly sourced as the free databases are, and as unwieldy as they are to produce any kind of report from) — givesi us a headsup on which way the economy has been going, is going and on WHY certain groups and talk like they do. It is one way of standing a little aprt from the clump of sheep to consider the patterns of frantic running around.
As a domestic violence survivor, I have also believed that the middle of pack of sheep frozen in certain language patterns and dashing around the internet to bond with their own kind, producing more of the same kind of (outdated though still valid in parts) information is producing inbreeding –and doesn’t increase the defensive or safety position one iota.
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Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up
June 18, 2013 at 2:08 pm
Posted in 1996 TANF PRWORA (cat. added 11/2011)
Tagged with Access-Visitation, AFCC, Analogies for Systems, CarverCountyCorruption, coalitions of multi-state nonprofits taking federal grants, HHS-TAGGS grants database, social commentary, Supervised Visitation, SVN, U.S. Govt $$ hard @ work..