Posts Tagged ‘fatherhood’
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…]]]
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“Mother Says” — Words to the Wise for Women in Custody Challenges
[Intro paragraphs — some of underlines below are hyperlinks. Publ. 12/27/2012; Rev. 2-19-2013, split in half 06-06-2013, putting Michigan Material in a separate post.]
NOTE: OVERALL THIS BLOG IS FOR BOTH GENDERS, AND TO THE WIDER PUBLIC WHO MAY NOT EVEN BE STRUNG OUT HANDLING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OR SEXUAL ABUSE (OR SIMPLY FINANCIAL DESTRUCTION) CASES IN THE COURT.
Truth, however framed, is offensive, and my blog certainly will offend plenty. However, I am still more interested in systems, and perhaps the mentality of the people that designed them, tolerate them, staff them, and fund them. Society has to have some labels, and designations, to work as do systems. I think different personalities gravitate to certain portions of certain systems — but there are SOME systems which affect almost everyone. So like it or not, their damages have to be discussed; there is no other way to mitigate them.
Overall, it is an appeal for the public to wake up. To identify and find ways to quit financing institutions within America that undermine justice (as defined in terms of due process, representative government of ANY sort, and oppose over-centralization of power). Doing this requires identifying and letting go of significant myths on which the economy** — and from there, most social relationships (in fact, from which society) — is based.
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What These Words Really Mean: “National” “Responsible” “Fatherhood” “Clearinghouse” [Published Oct. 10, 2012, with some updates]
Post title (with date published added to the title only in 2019, a standard I now use in the blog):
What These Words Really Mean: “National” “Responsible” “Fatherhood” “Clearinghouse” [Published Oct. 10, 2012, with some updates], short-link ends “-1aN” and OmiGod, why was it 17.7K words long!
LGH|FCM Archives Oct 2012 (image of a very active posting month) ~~Screen Shot 2019June22
In hindsight (see nearby image, taken just now but with Archives set to October, 2012) of how many posts published that month) it was a busy season; I remember also as a personally intense season in my life, and got moreso in the ensuing few months. I also see that the post contains both long quotes (some about the father of American Psychology William James — and his interest in things “psychic,” including psychics) and has some tables of fatherhood grantees, as well as exploring what, in fact, does that four-word phrase represent. AFTER ALL, when the USA sees fit to post a website of resource materials labeled “Fatherhood.gov” (which that clearing house is), it bears looking at — closely! Still up and still funded today, last I looked, and more like it….//LGH June 22, 2019.
PS. I see below I also took on issues and specific entities like new age cults in prison ministries (sic), Santa Monica University + MSIA (Movement for Spiritual Inner Awareness) + Huffington Post (Arianna Huffington got involve in it), John-Roger (The Hulnicks seem to be channeling him…) and so forth. Cult Awareness Network reporting — there’s a lot in this post!
It’s a live issue, has come up in my current posting again, this time in connection with funders of an Early Childhood Development Center at Harvard.
[Posted October 10, 2012; Intro with hindsight added Summer, 2013; Expect two (or more) posts to review and re-state this post and these vital issues as of late October, 2014. See recent comments. ]:
Those words may sound good, but should be interpreted according to usage, and who’s sponsoring the phrase. Questions should be asked: Who and what is the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse [website: fatherhood.gov]? What has it and corporations using such terms (this language) been doing? how about these corporations’ founders, followers and associates?
Is the marriage/fatherhood movement as seen in its media and programming, financing and expansion itself an expression of a religious cult, or taken as a whole and considering how it’s supported from public funds, a new blend of several old religions packaged as for the public good, when in fact the good (profits) end up in private hands?
How cult-connected are some of the key founders. If leadership does have outside connections with known cults, what about the programs created under such leadership?
And, what’s more, if the answers are yes, what does that say about the federal grants involved? Where is the line between cult influence in grant-making agencies, and those agencies themselves?
[Light-blue background text above added October, 2014.]
There is a close connection with the behavior of cults, i.e., such things as Charlatanism, Intimidation, Coercion, Retaliation for Reporting, and other things which will come up. There are also direct connections with some providers to organizations which are skin-deep cult-connected, outrageously so.
The “Saybrook” background mentioned in this post is also shared, to my understanding, with the institution from which a prime AFCC leader (Board Member, publisher, etc.) Robin Deutsch, Ph.D. of the “Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.”
The hyper-professionalization of the field of psychology in the United States through through establishing independent professional schools of psychology to escalate pay grades and earn more respect by turning out more Psy.D’s and Ph.D’s, has a history entwined with the emergence of the fatherhood movement in the 1980s, at first as an antidote to the feminism of the 1980s. Bio at that site, at least several lines of it.
For early origins in the United States, see biography of William James, 1842-1910 and acknowledged as the father of American psychology and influential on Freud’s “psychodynamic theories.” (Psyography by Bekah Dillon).
James father’s restlessness and mysticism plus intense attempt to manage and control his sons’ (plural) education, with considerable wealth and mobility seems to be reflected in the field (my opinion) in the field still. He married a wife chosen by his father. William James was “often haunted by an assortment of ailments, accompanied by depression and suicidal thoughts.”
William James was born the eldest of five children to Henry James Sr. and Mary James in New York City on January 11, 1842. Henry James Sr. was an Irish immigrant who was studying theology, philosophy, and mysticism and was well connected with many literary and philosophical celebrities of the time (Pajares, 2002). He devoted himself to his children, especially their education and in 1843, Henry Jr. (Harry) was born in NYC.
The affluent and deeply religious family was headed by a man who often became troubled and sought refuge in different environments. Henry frequently found himself displeased with numerous aspects of life and in the summer of 1843, he moved the family to England (Pajares, 2002). Shortly thereafter, he decided to return to New York City (Pajares, 2002).
The wealth and affluence of the Jameses not only afforded Henry the pleasure of exposing the children to many parts of Western Europe, but also enrolling them in the best schools. In 1852, he enrolled the boys in the Institution Vergnes. Henry, dissatisfied with the school, moved the boys to the Pulling Jenks School. Inspired by the drawing teacher, Mr. Coe, young William developed a deep love for drawing at age eleven (Pajares, 2002). Eventually, Henry removed the boys from Pulling Jenks; it has been speculated that he withdrew the students for fear that Coe would reinforce young William’s talents and destroy Henry’s impact on his son.
Soon enough, Henry became antsy and shifted the family back to Europe. Despite young James’s dismay the family left in the summer of 1855. Until 1858, the children received lessons through private tutors in England and France (Pajares, 2002).
In June of 1858, the family relocated to Newport, Rhode Island and by September, Henry had changed his mind. The family then settled in Geneva. As well as studying with the tutors, the children attended schools in Switzerland and Germany. William James attended the Academy, the precursor to the University of Geneva (Pajares, 2002).
By age 18, James attended schools in five different countries, became familiar with numerous museums and galleries, frequently entertained the guests of his father, including Thoreau, Emerson, Greeley, and Hawthorne, and developed fluency in five different languages (Pajares, 2002). …..[wrote Principles of Psychology, teaching at Harvard] He encouraged various psychological methods, including comparative psychology and the use of various populations as research participants, such as animals, infants, or mentally disabled persons (Schultz and Schultz, 2004)
[I added bold and underline. quote added 10/2014].
Psychology branching out from physiology and philosophy, labs established in 1875 by Wilhelm Wundt (in Germany) and William James (at Harvard). Brief comparison of the two men.
In 1875, a room was set aside for Wundt for demonstrations in what we now call sensation and perception. This is the same year that William James would set up a similar lab at Harvard. We can celebrate that year as the founding of experimental psychology!
In 1879, Wundt assisted his first graduate student at true psychological research — another milestone. In 1881, he started the journal Philosophische Studien. In 1883, he began the first course to be titled experimental psychology. And in 1894, his efforts were rewarded with the official establishment of an “Institute for Experimental Psychology” at Leipzig — the first such in the world. . . .
Among his better known students were Oswald Külpe and Hugo Munsterberg (whom James invited to teach at Harvard), the Russian behaviorists Bekhterev and Pavlov, as well as American students such as Hall (“father” of developmental psychology in America), James McKeen Cattell, Lightner Witmer (founder of the first psychological clinic in the US, at U of Penn), and Wundt’s main interpreter to the English speaking world, E. B. Titchener. Titchener is particularly responsible for interpreting Wundt badly!
Later in his career, Wundt became interested in social or cultural psychology. Contrary to what many believe, Wundt did not think that the experimental study of sensations was the be all and end all of psychology! In fact, he felt that that was only the surface, and additionally that most of psychology was not as amenable to experimental methods.
Instead, he felt that we had to approach cultural psychology through the products it produced — mythology, for example, cultural practices and rituals, literature and art…. He wrote a ten volume Völkerpsychologie, published between 1900 and 1920, which included the idea of stages of cultural development, from the primitive, to the totemic, through the age of heroes and gods, to the age of modern man.
[From the same article, but more on William James, which sheds some light on where we are today]:
James had always shared his father’s interest in mysticism, even in psychic phenomena. This has dampened his reputation among hard-core scientists in the psychological community, but it only endeared him more to the public. In 1897, he published The Will to Believe, and in 1902, Varieties of Religious Experience.
But James was never completely comfortable with being a psychologist, and preferred to think of himself as a philosopher. He is, in fact, considered America’s greatest philosopher, in addition to being the “father” of American psychology!
He was profoundly influenced by an earlier American philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce, who founded the philosophy of Pragmatism. Pragmatism says that ideas can never be completely proven true or false. Rather, we should be looking to how useful an idea is — how practical, how productive. James called it the “cash value” of an idea! James popularized Pragmatism in books like Pragmatism in 1907 and The Meaning of Truth in 1909. In 1909, he also wrote A Pluralistic Universe, which was part Pragmatism and part an expression of his own beliefs in something not unlike Spinoza’s pantheism.
He had retired from teaching in 1907 because his heart was not was it used to be, not since a mild attack in 1898 when climbing in upstate New York. He did meet Freud when he came to visit Boston in 1909, and was very much impressed. The next year, he went to Europe for his health and to visit his brother Henry, but soon returned to his home in New Hampshire. Two days later, on August 26, 1910, he died in his wife Alice’s arms.
Several of his works were published posthumously, including Some Problems in Philosophy in 1911 and the magnificent Essays in Radical Empiricism in 1912. James’ most famous students included John Dewey, the philosopher often considered the father of modern American education, and Edward Thorndike, whose work with cats opened the door to the Behaviorists.
[I added bold and underline. quote added 10/2014]
Radical Pragmatist by Linda Simon (biography of William James) emphasizes his unstable childhood with a controlling, affluent but discontent country-hopping father, and his fascination with spiritualism. He envied the literary success of his brother, the author Henry James. He used mescal, hashish and opium on himself to better understand altered mental states. He hoped to communicate with the dead from beyond the grave:
March 15, 1998
Radical Pragmatist
A new biography portrays William James as a man who subjected his own experiences to his philosophy.Read the First Chapter
By DAVID S. REYNOLDS
William James, America’s most famous philosopher, brother of the novelist Henry James, has never seemed so vulnerably human as in Linda Simon’s biography ”Genuine Reality.” Drawing innovatively from the vast correspondence of the James family, Simon portrays a troubled, gritty man whose philosophical vision grew directly from private travail.
Many of James’s psychological problems, as Simon shows, stemmed from his vexed relationship with his aloof yet controlling father, Henry James Sr., a writer and lecturer who failed to gain the prominence enjoyed by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson among American thinkers. When he was 33 years old, he suffered the first of several mental breakdowns that sent him searching for relief to such optimistic theories as Fourierism, Transcendentalism and, ultimately, Swedenborgianism. Financially secure through family money, he and his wife divided their time between Manhattan and Newport, R.I., exposing their five children to American high culture. But dissatisfaction with the United States impelled them repeatedly to take the family for long stays in Europe. For two of their children, William and Henry, this peripatetic life style bred cosmopolitanism and expansive creativity. For the others — Alice, Robertson and Wilkinson — it fostered rootlessness and confusion. For all of them, it set the stage for periods of emotional instability in adulthood.
. . .
His father’s nervous shuttling between the United States and Europe was duplicated in his own equally frenetic country-hopping. His father’s embrace of supposed cure-alls was repeated in his anxious groping for spiritual and physical rescue among the offbeat fads of the day.
One of the delights of ”Genuine Reality” {{the book}} is its dogged pursuit of James while he rummaged among would-be panaceas. Surprisingly, in light of his reputation as an empirically scientific philosopher, James was deeply fascinated by spiritualism. Although he disdained the transparent theatrics of run-of-the-mill mediums, he harbored a faith that the dead could contact the living. When his friend Frederic Myers was about to die, James asked him to send messages from beyond the grave. To his disappointment, no messages ever came.
If Myers failed him, the psychic Leonora Piper did not. James and his wife first sought out Piper for spiritual consolation shortly after the death of their second child, Herman. Stunned by her apparently otherworldly powers, James made her a special object of study, consulting her regularly and reporting on her to the Society for Psychic Research, an organization for paranormal studies. Even when Piper, tired of being analyzed, publicly denied having spiritual gifts, James did not lose faith in her, as did many of his colleagues.
Spiritualism was merely one of many current phenomena that fascinated him. When bothered by heart trouble, he took doses of a new compound extracted from the lymph glands and testicles of goats. When struck by back pain, he applied a galvanic battery to his spine. To combat depression and insomnia, he consulted mind-cure therapists and faith healers. To gain insight into abnormal mental states, he tried mind-expanding drugs like hashish, mescal and opium.
Simon recounts such wide-ranging experimentation on James’s part without ever giving the impression that he was loony or irresponsible.
David S. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of English at Baruch College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. His books include ”Walt Whitman’s America” and ”Beneath the American Renaissance.”
This William James was the grandson of a “captain of industry” who’d come from Ireland to the US in 1789, as described (from first chapter of the Linda Simon book, link from the book review above).
IN THE LATE 1800s, the trip from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Syracuse, New York, was long, convoluted, and uncomfortable. But it was a trip that William James {{the father of American Psychology discussed above}} undertook regularly in his role as overseer of the James family property. He traveled to Syracuse at least once a year, often more; and whenever he went, he had money on his mind. For himself and his siblings, a few stores on Salina Street, owned by the family since the eighteenth century, meant mortgages and repairs, bankers and agents, and most of all, rent. The Syracuse property supplemented James’s income, subsidized his travels, had helped pay for the publication of his first book, and always served as a reminder of his origins.
He was descended from one of America’s richest men, a captain of industry so wealthy that, rumor had it, only John Jacob Astor exceeded his fortune. Then as now, wealth meant power, and the first William James, grandfather of our philosopher, was a powerful man: restless, decisive, fiercely willful. He believed, with unwavering certainty, that money and power reflected a man’s ultimate achievement. . . .
Yet James’s private and public writings are peppered with metaphors drawn from the world of business, and he strived, with no apology, to shape his publications for the marketplace. His philosophical works, focused as they are on questions of free will and human potential; his personal struggles with power and authority; and his anxiety about his self-worth suggest his affinity, by more than blood, with his grand and looming patriarch. The first William James, of course, did not consider philosophy a suitable occupation for any of his descendants. Family legend has it that he was known as “the Patroon.”
WILLIAM WAS EIGHTEEN when he emigrated from Ireland to America in 1789, twenty-two when he arrived in Albany, where he would make his fortune, take three wives, and sire thirteen children. His career as a businessman began when, with a partner, he opened a small store that sold tobacco and cigars. The shop soon expanded to include dry goods and groceries, but James was not satisfied with being a modest merchant. Shrewd, sharp, ambitious, he built a tobacco factory, leased and operated the saltworks of Syracuse, and, among many civic roles, served as first vice president of the Albany Savings Bank, director of the New York State Bank of Albany, and trustee of Union College. He was a significant force in the decision to build the Erie Canal, which established Albany as a major center of trade.
© 1998 Linda Simon All rights reserved. ISBN: 0-15-193098-8
The establishment of independent (freestanding, as opposed to departments within universities) Schools of Professional Psychology leading to advanced degrees may have begun in 1969 with Nicholas J. Cummings‘ establishment of the California School of Professional Psychology (now absorbed into Alliant International University), He certainly takes claim for it here, and in a 2008 interview with psychotherapy.net, and with this claim to have educated half the psychologists in California.
Catch the lingo:
Robin M. Deutsch, Ph.D.is a psychologist and the Director of the Center of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP). She is the former director of Forensic Services of the Children and the Law Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital where she remains a consultant. She is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Deutsch is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from which she also received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology.** As a therapist, consultant, custody evaluator, mediator, and parenting coordinator, her work has focused on the application of child development research to children’s adjustment to divorce and parenting issues, the evaluation of families involved in family change and management of high conflict divorce. Dr. Deutsch frequently speaks to interdisciplinary groups on complex issues in child custody disputes. She has provided training for Parenting Coordination throughout the country, Canada and Sweden, including the first Massachusetts training. Dr. Deutsch has published articles on the effects of high conflict divorce, the evaluation of domestic violence, Parenting Coordination,
**(Madison is also where AFCC claims its headquarters, currently, although it is not registered to do business as itself in the state, last I looked (2013) “high-conflict” and pushing parent coordination are AFCC “tells.” the former is to minimize the latter (notice “evaluation of DV” — usually to minimize or dismiss it) and as to parenting coordination, parents have begun to sue over it, and the Supreme Court of PA (as I’m recalling it) recently, and suddenly, eliminated the field by simply changing the administrative rules. See right side-bar)).
it is just a few clicks from the President of MSPP (Nicholas Corvino, Psy.D.) through his bio, hearing that he was “past-President” of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, clicking on that, and looking at its Leadership, to seeing that the FOCUS (newsletter?) editor is hailing from Saybrook (Eric Willmarth, Ph.D.). This is a certain set of cultural values (including Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis itself, which has religious overtones and in some religions is contraindicated, i.e., don’t do it..Practitioners often go into counseling or behavioral health and have a sense of “calling” about how to heal others..)….
So, this article is going to look at both incorporation and (as it’s also where I discovered some of the connections) the tendency for people susceptible to joining cults themselves to go into fields where they can access more vulnerable, traumatized, in-pain, or troubled individuals to help them, as they were themselves indoctrinated to do. This goes both ways (short-hand, “new age” and “Evangelical and/or Conservative Christian Fundie” and to me says — when zealous people looking to recruit others into a changed worldview are flooding into a field, we should reconsider whether that’s a good idea, or a bad idea.
However, I have to question why the timing of “corporation status revoked” with the timing of receiving more HHS funds to promote fatherhood, which comes up repeatedly, below.
(UPDATE from 2013) I found this individual cited as a lead presenter in “Disconnected Dads, Strategies for Promoting Responsible Fatherhood” courtesy “Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars” (FIS) and a few other funders and panelists on the (long) publication… This 70pg document is highlights from a Washington D.C. conference hosted by then-Vice President Al Gore, and on page 1 cites the Charles Ballard organization.
Buckle your seatbelts, this is one of those rollercoaster posts, somewhere between thrilling, comical, and “we are not amused.” [End, 2013 intro…]
Remember the nonprofit from my last post, the one in Washington D.C. which got a bunch of grants (over $2 million) only has one public displayed tax return (that I can see), never got a DUNS# for its HHS grants, and eventually got its nonprofit revoked or failure to file? — this one?
TAGGS.hhs.gov on this group (I searched by its EIN# — which is below).
| Recipient Name | City | State | ZIP Code | County | DUNS Number | Sum of Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INST FOR RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD & FAM. REVITALIZATION | WASHINGTON | DC | 20019 | DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA | $ 2,549,350 |
One of whose Principal Investigators ended up on THIS one, which I’ve profiled before (herein):
“Women in Fatherhood Inc” which is ….
an organized voice of women with diverse perspectives and experiences. We are a national 501c3 comprised of women with direct or indirect professional involvement in the responsible fatherhood field. The mission of Women In Fatherhood is to contribute to and advocate for family and community well-being through the support of positive father involvement and healthy family relationships.
and on THAT board of directors, is:
>Frances Ballard:
“Frances Ballard is the Executive Director for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC). In her role she is responsible for the strategic direction and leadership for activities regarding the NRFC, including the coordination of the media campaign, clearinghouse and Web site, Training and Technical Assistance (T & TA) to responsible fatherhood demonstration sites, and building relationships and partnerships for NRFC. {{*1}} She has over 20 years experience working with fathers, families and healthcare. Her previous positions include 12 years serving as the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for The Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and Family Revitalization (see below); Consultant to The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections Program; Director of Corporate Development and Clinical Manager-Ambulatory Care, Grace Hospital; and Nurse Consultant/Program Developer, The Institute For Responsible Fatherhood and Family Development.** She holds a Masters of Science Degree in Nursing Administration, a B.A. in Social Work, an A.S. in Nursing, and numerous executive management certifications. She is married to Dr. Charles A. Ballard, “pioneer” of the Fatherhood Movement and the mother of their three children, Jonathan, Lydia and Christopher.”
**”The Institute For Responsible Fatherhood and Family Development” is an organization which got over $2 million of grants over several years, but then intentionally? let its corporate registration go unfiled and eventually was revoked by the IRS; Dr. & Mrs. Ballard were both “Principal Investigators” on HHS (grants) to this group, while the single tax return I found shows them on the board of Directors. This irresponsible behavior, as to filing, was then further rewarded by promotion — to the WIFI group, and from there to the HHS outfit mentioned above. This is apparently what HHS is doing in the marriage/fatherhood field.
My problem, you see, is that I actually read this stuff, look at it, say “HUH? What’s THAT?” and go find out.
I might have a much more peaceful life — and a lot less to think about — without going down that Rabbit Hole, but today I did. I do this because ignorance of what the US Government & certain large family foundations (i.e., private money – such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation) is supporting, and what it’s attacking, in short, what it’s DOING, is not bliss — not in the long term.
And I hate to say this, but it led to the something we have to discuss sooner or later, which is:
CULTS, and their CHARACTERISTICS
specifically, how did the USA, Inc. (and specifically here, HHS) — become one? Because — honest! — all I did is look things up. I look at organizations, and the people running them, and I read what they say. And before the end of this post, sorry to bring this up, but it leads right to:
[Broken link to image; blank space removed]
And I’m not talking, in general, vague principles of comparison. I’m talking personnel and graduate degrees. I already talked ultra-conservative Christian Pepperdine University CDRC centralized push through Mediation as the Norm in California (at public expense) and connect with Marriage/Fatherhood funding (right on the website).
I’m talking “Spiritual Psychology” Marriage and Family Therapists and the (then, very young) man who decided to expose one of these ex-Eckankar, ex-Scientology (or maybe not, depending on who you believe) and ended up dealing with not just a smear campaigns, but death threads, having his house ransacked, and now the guy doesn’t even keep a phone. But inbetween he was in Geraldo, you name it, and the question I have is — why are we paying, and tax-exempting — this stuff? Because, when you get right down to it — whether it’s Neopagan New Age (hypnosis, belly-dancing and Mind-Body Ph.D.s (distance learning, on-line) followed by Ph.D.’s in psychology, etc.– or Right-wing Reich (do away with no-fault divorce, exterminate the gays and especially hang the feminists)
It’s going to (I say) end up just about the same place: It’s going to end up in bed with you — or your kids (regardless of your age, gender, or marital status), demanding absolute loyalty, embezzling, and trying to sound very wise and spiritual.
And if it sounds much more dignified and organized (as the National Clearinghouse for Responsible Fatherhood does – most of the websites I’ve seen, for that matter, look Grrrr–eat) — it may be organized, but it’s going to boil down to about the same thing as any run of the mill cult. Only some are larger.
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How to get No-Holds-Barred HHS Grants Info from TAGGS, and a Few Things to Do With It…
Notes from 2014 Year-end on this October 5, 2012 post:
1. This post has charts and tables in it, run before I had the technical know-how to limit the right-hand-margin.
2. I acknowledge the post is unconscionably long — 17,000 words, including this intro.
3. That said, The TAGGS database does not copy well to wordpress, and is not public-user-friendly. It does not lend to us running flexible reports or sorts, as database ought to, although it’s funded apparently with public dollars. Much later, I learned (this is “as I recall” in a 600++ post blog) the software provider was later taken over by an international (Canada?) based firm, but previous to this had been sued by states or state agencies for failures regarding their performance problems. I have worked with databases before, and know that this level of dysfunction in critical issues would not fly, in small, medium, or very large corporations. It’s so bad, I even started a blog in October 2013 intending to simply print out ALL recipients (unsorted). HHS Giveaways, Government Shutdowns.
HOWEVER, it was my work on grants using this database, and then checking out grantees, which developed my understanding of at least the marriage/fatherhood funding, and what a major problem we have in the country when the average citizens DO NOT understand government fiscal accounting, as we are not intended to. I believe that if we did, there would be a major rebellion over taxation in no way limited to political fringe or other labels, such as “Tea Party.” I encourage people to get involved and get a sense of just who IS getting HHS grants. Run some reports, scan the contents, notice oddities; notice who gets the big ones, or how many 1-time grantees, for example, may get a $50,000 “compassion capital” grant, then (checked at the state registration level) the group gets administratively dissolved, i.e., “take the money and run.” Continuing this practice rewards bad behavior, and allows grants fraud and theft of public money.
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Technical Assistance and Training = Silencing Mothers’ Voices, Taking their Money…
“SOCIAL CHANGE TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:
This website has changed, and no longer openly lists certain projects that are underneath it (an older version may be on my blog)… Which I seem to recall included groups like PRAXIS International: “integrating theory & practice,” which like DAIP, had close ties to Ellen Pence (who actually was Praxis “founding director.” Their home page still holds a eulogy, as Ellen Pence died recently:
Praxis believes in social change through advocacy & training “since 1996”.
- “Since 1996, we have worked with advocacy organizations, intervention agencies, and inter-agency collaborations to create a clear and cooperative agenda for social change in their communities.“
Like others, they endorsed the “SUPERVISED VISITATION & EXCHANGE” (USDOJ Safe-Havens grant series support):
Since 1996, we have worked with advocacy organizations, intervention agencies, and inter-agency collaborations to create a clear and cooperative agenda for social change in their communities.
Interesting year — startup year coincided with welfare reform… Like OH SO MANY helpful nonprofit groups getting significant HHS and/or DOJ grants (although I DNR what Praxis got) — they are really “into” technical assistance and training” and quite willing to help grantees — from a safe distance from ongoing, shall we say, volatile, situations at the street level. Maybe the founders had this experience initially but after all, people age out, and it’s safer to teach than to confront in a group setting — or dispense studies on-line.
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HHS — Contracts Awarded 8/30/2012 = $156 million. Just for today, August 30, 2012, that is.
Our relationship to “government” needs to be looked at. Particularly, why so many people put up with it and haven’t figured out something better than putting lawyers and judges in charge of the place, as facilitated by a Congress which has plenty of people who used to be lawyers in it, no doubt.
A glance at this post should clarify that, by and large, we don’t know what the US Government (I mean, “federal”) is doing — although who’s helping fund it? Wake the hell up and start looking up some CAFR‘s – -it’s the worlds largest contractor, and there are these other issues about Jurisdiction which keep cropping up also. You cannot SUE this government, really (11th Amendment) unless it consents to. while we had this Constitution, it appears to me that under Bankruptcy (which the US has never been out of, to date, to my awareness) it no longer applies. If it did, and one engaged in commerce with the USA (which it’s almost impossible not to), you just became a contractor (u.S. Citizen = no unalienable rights) and shareholder in that thing in Washington, D.C.
WOMEN IN PARTICULAR should be cautious about citizenship. A woman in our area called police for help “domestic dispute” which ended up in a vigorous chase, the other day, the guy fled. They didn’t know an toddler was in the car. He was killed in a hail of gunfire, after which it was reported that this was actually a woman’s BROTHER, not the perp, and he had been I think helping her get his niece (her child) away from the aggressor. Now, he’s dead. Did I mention, he’s also Hispanic? (Wikipedia informal list of people, mostly men, some during domestic disputes, killed by officers. It’s a very very long list…)
Or you could go to a divorce, and have a judge over the domestic violence court (long-term presiding) and the judge tell your young self, a mother (about 23 yrs old, this one), to “go work it out” and no restraining order. Finally they were in judge’s chambers, and the judge informed the father (a Marine) he would have to pay child support. The young man (age 29) stepped outside the door, walked back in again, and cold-cocked the mother of his kids, knocking her unconscious immediately on the floor, some black eyes, a broken jaw. He was finally tasered into submission, and THEN the judge believed that the guy was dangerous. That apparently didn’t stop him from assigning shared parenting, though (along with jail and $1million bail). THAT is our country (and it was in 2011 Florida: (see comments for links to the story, another blog “AmericanAmnesia”
MOVIN’ ON . . . .
I mentioned FEDMINE.com to an acquaintance the other day, and have on the blog before. Its access is more timely (and probably far more accurate) than what is given the average person who looks things up on some free site which isn’t even proofread, but is designed for public consumption, like, say, “http://TAGGS.hhs.gov”
It think this figure is worth posting, without too much commentary. Per FEDMINE.com, the top agency obtaining contracts today was — hardly surprising — HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES.
WITHOUT HUMANS THERE WOULD BE NO MONEY TO FUND THESE STUDIES SO WHAT, PRECISELY, ABOUT HUMANS IS SO FASCINATING THAT THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY, ON A GIVEN DAY, WOULD BE DEDICATED TO A BUREAUCRACY STUDYING THEM?
ALSO, SEE HIGHLIGHTS FOR SOME ONES SIGNIFICANT (at least that I’m aware of) in this Family Law Field.
If you see I have linked the company name (other links probably not valid) there may be a brief description if you hover the cursor.
| COMPANY NAME | POSTED TODAY 08/30/2012 |
YTD FOR AGENCY | ||
| 049508120 – WESTAT INCORPORATED | $ 230,376 | $ 9,710,743 | ||
| 019121586 – DELOITTE CONSULTING L.L.P. | $ 1,593,527 | $ 32,298,506 | ||
| 072654999 – VANTAGE HUMAN RESOURCE SERVICES INCORPORATED | $ 511,792 | $ 511,792 | ||
| 091500090 – JOHN SNOW, INCORPORATED (out of all of them, this one actually seems involved in HEALTH. Founded 1978, internationally 106 offices, see “In Memoriam” link) | $ 626,838 | $ 5,654,941 | ||
| 021873740 – HUMAN TECHNOLOGY, INC | $ 511,792 | $ 547,006 | ||
| 009399247 – UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF MARYLAND | $ 85,082 | $ 122,852 | ||
| 623214020 – CONCEPT SYSTEMS INCORPORATED (3796) | $ -4,941 | $ -8,221 | ||
| 947300372 – CLIFTON GUNDERSON LLP | $ -102,382 | $ -102,382 | ||
| 152149191 – MC DONALD WALTER R AND ASSOCIATES INCORPORATED | $ 0 | $ 2,789,442 | ||
825229318 – MCKINSEY&COMPANY, INC. WASHINGTON D.C.
|
$ 631,181 | $ 9,499,045 | ||
| 154308522 – MATHEMATICA POLICY RESEARCH INC | $ 364,999 | $ 14,398,928 | ||
| 088656512 – IMPAQ INTERNATIONAL LLC(founded 2001 by a couple with govt background, Social Science Research, in MD. He’s economist,she’s History/Educ, he used to work for “Abt”) | $ 415,623 | $ 5,197,316 | ||
| 146014373 – ARSERVICES, LTD | $ 650,102 | $ 650,102 | ||
| 183818145 – CAPITAL CONSULTING CORP | $ 64,557 | $ 961,723 | ||
| 197325277 – LEWIN GROUP, INC., THE**(link is to someone from this group presenting at a 2007 AFCC conference. Since 1970, they are Health and Human Services consultant; you can look it up). | $ 630,811 | $ 4,396,810 | ||
| 127687093 – CHILD TRENDS INC | $ 1,011,927 | $ 1,686,523 | ||
| 072648579 – ICF INCORPORATED, L.L.C. {{see below}} | $ 500,000 | $ 13,942,449 | ||
| 622811847 – STRATEGIC HEALTH SOLUTIONS, L.L.C. [woman-owned, Omaha, services Medicare & Medicaid] | $ 3,198,739 | $ 8,861,059 | ||
| 127149784 – HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS, LLC | $ 1,281,472 | $ 3,970,432 | ||
| 929125818 – C2C SOLUTIONS INC | $ 6,323,200 | $ 18,091,004 | ||
| 611835203 – TEYA TECHNOLOGIES, LLC | $ 178,013 | $ 894,928 | ||
| 781844808 – SEAMON CORPORATION | $ 197,200 | $ 885,831 | ||
| 143208069 – FRONTLINE HEALTHCARE WORKERS SAFETY FOUNDATION, LTD | $ 81,697 | $ 245,090 | ||
| 803935261 – PROFESSIONAL TESTING, INC. | $ 363,302 | $ 361,395 | ||
| 136201493 – CONSUMMATE COMPUTER CONSULTANTS SYSTEMS LLC | $ -56,190 | $ 0 | ||
| 929219772 – CONTRACT SUPPORT SOLUTIONS INC. | $ -32,171 | $ 164,690 | ||
| 175291061 – THE KEVRIC COMPANY INC | $ 100,871 | $ 2,428,892 |
(I will kind of color-code by background color. Obviously I am scanning here; the main point is — how little most of us realize, how large is the US Federal Government. See recent posts on CAFR and USA, Inc. & Bankruptcies, etc. If you are not a “scanner” this post will probably drive you crazy…)
Not starting with the largest one in “the Lewin Group,” but it does run close to the subject matter of this blog — the marriage/fatherhood movement through federal funding:
THE LEWIN GROUP
(FROM USASPENDING.GOV — THEY GOT (FROM ABOUT 2000 forward I think on this database):
Ranked by $$, the largest shows up as about $4+million (in 2005), “Marijuana Cultivation Study.” They seem to have plenty in the $2 and $3 million ranges as well. Fairfax, VA -close to the source, right).
$172,544,874
Lewin Group, Insurer-Owned Consulting Firm, Often Cited in Health Reform Debate
By David S. HilzenrathWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The political battle over health-care reform is waged largely with numbers, and few number-crunchers have shaped the debate as much as the Lewin Group, a consulting firm whose research has been widely cited by opponents of a public insurance option.To Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House Republican whip, it is “the nonpartisan Lewin Group.” To Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, it is an “independent research firm.” To Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the second-ranking Republican on the pivotal Finance Committee, it is “well known as one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country.”Generally left unsaid amid all the citations is that the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest insurers.
An Evaluability Assessment of Responsible Fatherhood Programs
August 1997
DHHS, Office of the Assistant Secretaryf or Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
Analysis of site visits to five newly formed responsible fatherhood programs find a series of steps can be taken to improve their viability and evaluability. Program managers can develop core definitions of what constitutes a responsible fatherhood program; conduct process evaluations to define program objectives, activities and best practices; building basic MIS capacity; and stabilizing and enhancing funding.
(This one combines what looks like an HHS? grant to the Lewin group (97FM0122) with an HHS Contract to . . . . combined with a Ford Foundation Grant headed up by Ronald Mincy, wich name is significant (look it up). Lewin were simply the enablers and to make it look (or be) more scientific and respectable. This being only 1997, it shows just how much intention and planning to completely continue expanding “FATHERHOOD” as a field (regardless of results) was made — and this of course depended on major foundations like FORD working with WELFARE money. FYI, Ford Foundation are not the good guys here in the US …)
This gives me a very squirrely feeling (esp. knowing that by 1998 somehow Congress passed a “fatherhood resolution.”)
But on ca. page 110 of this report (link is the title) you see a list of “Experts Consulted” (Two are from Child Trends, the others are also significant). Johns Hopkins involved also. The whole thing makes me a little ill, given the impact of this trend on my life, personally, and my (DAUGHTERS’, not son’s) futures! ! ! I made it pink just for “spite,” given the subject matter is the opposite gender…
***II. Purpose of this Report
The increased interest in programs that promote responsible fatherhood and the limited information currently available on the services provided and effectiveness of these programs has generated interest in the systematic evaluation of responsible fatherhood programs. For this reason, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ford Foundation funded The Lewin Group and Johns Hopkins University to conduct an evaluability assessment of responsible fatherhood programs.
Fatherhood programs and emphasis on male parenting are relatively recent phenomena in the social service sector. Many of the programs currently in place are either very new or, if established, have been experimenting with new interventions or changing the program focus over time to meet the interests and objectives of funders. It is generally the case that fatherhood programs have not adequately documented their performance. This may be because of limited resources, a lack of experience with methods of measuring performance, or simply because the focus of program staff has been on serving fathers rather than proving that methods are effective. While program staff may believe that their activities are helping fathers and resulting in positive impacts on society, others, particularly funders, may be skeptical of evidence of program effectiveness that is limited to anecdotes.
Evaluations of responsible fatherhood programs can serve two important functions:
• provide information to outside agencies and organizations regarding the objectives and the effectiveness of their interventions, which may be used to attract and justify fundingfrom these outside sources; and• provide information to program staff that may be used to modify program design to more efficiently and effectively serve the fathers who use their services.
{{Interesting how “ATTRACT AND JUSTIFY FUNDING” COMES FIRST… AND IT DOESN’T EVEN SAY, HELP THE PROGRAMS REACH THEIR STATED SERVCE, BUT “PROVIDE INFORMATION TO PROGRAM STAFF.”}}
Systematic evaluation of fatherhood program outcomes is crucial to both program design and funding. Conducting rigorous evaluations using standard scientific methods . . .[[will provide continued income for the Lewin Group, the Fatherhood practitioners and organizations, and many other people, not including the children that these program are supposed to help by encouraging and enabling their Daddies to “man up” and support their offspring]]
Some of these groups hang together at times.
the Lewin Group at a 2007 AFCC conference:42. Healthy Marriage Projects: The Influence of Marriage on Child Support Enforcement
The Administration for Children and Families’ top goal in the last few years has been to encourage marriage for unwed low income families through marriage education, community outreach and demonstrations. This panel will discuss the status of Community Healthy Marriage Projects being financed by the Office of Child Support Enforcement, “Building Strong Families” marriage demonstrations being financed by the Administration of Children and Families and the importance of former marriage status or unmarried status on subsequent child support enforcement out- comes.
- Barbara Devaney, Ph.D., Mathematica, Washington, D.C.
- Michael Fishman, Ph.D., Lewin Group, Falls Church, VA
- Hillard Pouncy, Ph.D., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
- Moderator: David Arnaudo, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Washington, D.C. (a.k.a. HHS/OCSE)
(this presentation for sale — only $15.00)
One reason they may be interested to conference at AFCC — AFCC has judges. Some Family Law judges get to mandate parenting education, etc. Dr. Fishman is now with MEF, and his bio shows a close connection to welfare matters, and HHS. I’m sure the personal connections didn’t hurt either. He has a masters in “organizational psychology” which is probably the way to go if you want a government career these days, and an MPA from USC.. Hardly suprising, the new company is also into (among other things) and is in Alexandria, VA.
Marriage and relationship education
State Policies to Promote Marriage
This report inventories state policies directly focused on promoting or supporting marriage. Using secondary data sources, the authors compiled information across states documenting the presence of marriage-related activities in a variety of areas such as campaigns and commissions; divorce laws and procedures; marriage and relationship preparation and education; tax and transfer policies; marriage support and promotion programs.
- State Policies to Promote Marriage, Karen N. Gardiner, Michael E. Fishman, Plamen Nikolov, Asaph Glosser, and Stephanie Laud. With the assistance of Theodora Ooms, September, 2002
I googled “The Lewin Group, AFCC, Fatherhood” but apparently I’m one of the few people catching on to it, per Google anyhow. One association with the Abstinence Group, “WAIT” (Joneen Krauth — plenty on that on this blog too, I actually looked up their corporate records history in Colorado. What a group — associated with NARME, etc. What a racket, too!): This showed up under “pipl.” The site AAHMI is African American Healthy Marriage Initiative which is, by any other name, HHS… Basically… DNR if this was at Hampton Univ. or where.
The Lewin Group is pleased to share these materials developed for the …Joneen Krauth RN, BSN — NEW. Executive Director of The Abstinence and …[ Speakers List – www.aahmi.net ]
“Reference in this web site to any specific commercial product, process, service, manufacturer, organization, or company does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation by the U.S. Government, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). ACF is not responsible for the contents of any “off-site” web page referenced from this server or from private, third-party, pop-up, or browser-integrated software or applications.”
NOTE: A long while ago, I remember this particular AAHMI and some closely associated nonprofits I was looking up, was one key to understanding just how much the HHS is reaching out with money to set up “mouthpiece” nonprofits or groups (including with key speakers) around the country. I figure HHS at this point is about as criminally-run a US Dept. as HUD is alleged to be, by someone who knows well enough as she used to be near its top.(C.A. Fitts, late 1980/1990s).
[[2016 updated material from LewinGroup.com]]
Viewed at “lewin.com” 4/11/2016 during blog update
(Their “About Us” page, main content):
The Lewin Group is a premier national health care and human services consulting firm. We understand the industry and provide our clients with high-quality products and insightful support.
Why Choose The Lewin Group?
Proven History
We have nearly 50 years’ experience finding answers and solving problems for leading organizations in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.
Objective Viewpoint
The Lewin Group is committed to independence and integrity in our work. We combine professional expertise with extensive knowledge and a rigorous approach to analyzing and solving problems to deliver value to each of our clients and to the larger community as well.
Real-World Experience
Our strategic and analytical services help clients:
- Improve policy and expand knowledge of health care and human services systems
- Enact, run, and evaluate programs to enhance delivery and financing of health care and human services
- Deal with shifts in health care practice, technology, and regulation
- Optimize performance, quality, coverage, and health outcomes
- Create strategies for institutions, communities, governments, and people to make health care and human services systems more effective
Who We Are
The Lewin Group employs more than 140 consultants drawn from industry, government, academia, and the health professions. Many are national authorities whose strategies for health and human services system improvements come from their personal experience with imperatives for change. The Lewin Group is an Optum company, a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. We’re editorially independent, but through partnerships with Optum, we can tap into a vast body of data and resources. Optum is an analytics, technology, and consulting services firm that enables better decisions throughout the health system.
The Lewin Group provides its clients with the very best expert and impartial health care and human services policy research and consulting services.
OTHER 2016 observations on The Lewin Group: Street address: 3130 Fairview Park Drive #500, Falls Church, VA — is right near “Acentia, a Maximus Company” which is same street address #800. Maximus, we may remember, contractor to manage child support, Medicaid, other health-care related record-keeping, collections & distributions in a number of states (and at least one other country).
(3130 Fairview Dr #800, Falls Church, VA. Viewed 4/11/2016 during blog update)
Acentia, a MAXIMUS Company, is a premier employer who provides software, information technology, and management solutions that produce successful programs of national significance, while consistently demonstrating a partnership of trust and value to our federal customers and the American taxpayer.
[Holistic Data Analytics….]
“Centers of Excellence” (options: Analytics / Cloud / Mobility)
“Acentia offers a holistic approach to Big Data and Analytics. Traditional analytics can tell you what happened and why, but leading organizations are using predictive analytics to understand what could happen and prescriptive analytics to choose the next best action.”…..
ICF INTERNATIONAL, LLC
(SEE LINK in chart above; Wikipedia gives the history. Started in 1969 by a former Tuskeegee Airman as inner city venture capital, but it changed direction, bought and sold various companies and now is like, LARGE).
| Recipient Name | City | State | ZIP Code | County | DUNS Number | Sum of Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I C F, INC | FAIRFAX | VA | 22031-6050 | FAIRFAX | 072648579 | $ 2,477,256 |
| Award Title | Sum of Actions | |||
| 2011 | ACF | I C F, INC | NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER FOR STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE HEALTHY MARRIAGE | $ 1,500,000 |
(NRCSPHM — what did you think it sood for? 🙂 )
(PJ Media — Dr. Phyllis Chesler writes or wrote on there — was kind enough to print my comments here; the 2nd comment mentions ICF).
I profiled this company before, particularly when TAGGS.hhs.gov decided to bastardize its name on the database. It’s in Fairfax VA with background in Defense, Energy and in 1988 it acquired a division of Kaiser (engineering) and got REALLY large. It’s currently #64 of Forbes top 100 companies, is traded on the NYSE, and etc. HHS hired to to do even more (stuff) to promote marriage, whch is the acronym. ON this blog somewhere, no doubt:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/press/2011/Grantawards2011.html
| ICF Incorporated, LLC (NRCSPHM) | Fairfax |
VA
|
$1,500,000
|
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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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Children’s Institute, Project Fatherhood(tm), and Fatherhood Nonprofits that make you go “Huh?”
(with respect to the late Dr. Hershel K. Swinger, I cannot respect using TANF and other funds to proselytize, and then cheating the California out of transparency and accountability).
(And I SURE as heck don’t respect anyone using the US Government to try to evangelize ANYone!)
This is a SHAMELESS transmigration from a long (project) I’ve been posting over at Scranton Political Times Kids for Cash thread. ALthough it’s actually in response to Joe Pilchesky having posted a SAVING DAMON case (from Southern Cal / San Diego area, and with full panoply of Protective Mothers Rhetoric and groups) on there. Totally out of character for him, but I then decided to look closer at the situation and open my big mouth.
(Better understood in the larger context) I feel sorry for mothers who are (like I was) led around by the nose to become activist before they activate common sense lookups of who they’re dealing with — both as advocates and as adversaries in the court system. For example — get this — Cindy Dumas had somehow a declaration (on her behalf) on “William Eddy” complaint form, but signed by Erik Fox, Ph.D. (who runs sexual abuser treatment programs all over, and actually recommended “abuse inoculation” treatment for Damon, Mom & Dad. I gather that hasn’t happened yet. [The Rest of This Comment on nonreporting [to California] $40million-budgetChildren’s Institute in Los Angeles, incl. its “Project Fatherhood(sm)”]: I’m trying to find out exactly what it is!
Things that make you go “Huh?” In that chart below (TAGGS list of “fatherhood” grantees — at least a few of them) notice the one “Children’s Institute, Inc.” of Los Angeles? Grant (for 2010) two different grants — $1,000,000 + $500,000 ??? That’s a hefty amount, right? I looked at this one before, and the pattern is just TO O o o o…. common: One has to usually check at least 3 to 4 sources AFTER seeing the HHS grant:
1. State Incorporation record (SOS),
2. State Charitable Record (if they’re a nonprofit or taking donations),
3. Sample check some IRS forms (I use “Foundationfinder” or “Nccsdataweb.urban.org”) — and actually look at a tax form (it gets easier with practice) . . . . and then
4. what does their website say as well?
Here we go: 1. California Corporation (Sec of State) registration — there are TWO with the exact same street address (which doesn’t match address on HHS grantee, either).
| C3365104 | 03/30/2011 | ACTIVE | CHILDREN’S INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES | MARY EMMONS |
| C0085636 | 12/13/1917 | ACTIVE | CHILDREN’S INSTITUTE, INC. | MARK ENGEL |
| Progr Office | Award Number | Award Title | Bud-get Year | Action Issue Date | CFDA # | CFDA Name | Award Action Type | Principal Investigator | Sum of Actions |
| CB | 90CB0159 | ABANDONED INFANT ASSISTANCE | 2 | 05/03/2010 | 93551 | Abandoned Infants | EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS | MR LUKAS JAEGGI | $ 0 |
| CB | 90CB0159 | ABANDONED INFANT ASSISTANCE | 3 | 09/13/2010 | 93551 | Abandoned Infants | NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION | MR LUKAS JAEGGI | $ 475,000 |
| CMHS | SM058241 | CENTRAL LOS ANGELES CHILD TRAUMA COLLABORATIVE | 02 | 10/21/2009 | 93243 | Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services: Projects of Regional and National Significance | ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR – ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS) | LESLIE A ROSS | $ 0 |
| CMHS | SM058241 | CENTRAL LOS ANGELES CHILD TRAUMA COLLABORATIVE | 04 | 06/25/2010 | 93243 | Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services: Projects of Regional and National Significance | NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION | LESLIE A ROSS | $ 400,000 |
| HSB | 09CH9080 | EARLY HEAD START | 3 | 06/04/2010 | 93600 | Head Start | ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR – ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS) | KATY KELLEY | $ 2,261 |
| HSB | 09CH9080 | EARLY HEAD START | 4 | 07/26/2010 | 93600 | Head Start | NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION | KATY KELLEY | $ 1,590,930 |
| HSB | 09SA9080 | EARLY HEAD START ARRA EXPANSION | 1 | 11/18/2009 | 93709 | ARRA – Early Head Start | NEW | KATY KELLEY | $ 1,098,417 |
| HSB | 09SA9080 | EARLY HEAD START ARRA EXPANSION | 2 | 08/31/2010 | 93709 | ARRA – Early Head Start | NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION | KATY KELLEY | $ 1,403,640 |
| HSB | 09YC0463 | EARLY HEAD START | 4 | 03/26/2010 | 93600 | Head Start | OTHER REVISION | MANUEL CASTELLANOS, JR. | $- 9,269 |
| OFA | 90FR0076 | PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD | 5 | 09/24/2010 | 93086 | Healthy marriage Promotion and Responsible Fatherhood Grants | NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION | HERSHEL SWINGER | $ 500,000 |
| OFA | 90FR0088 | PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD, COMMUNITY ACCESS PROGRAM | 5 | 09/27/2010 | 93086 | Healthy marriage Promotion and Responsible Fatherhood Grants | NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION | HERSHEL SWINGER | $ 1,000,000 |
(per IRS form) 2009 salaries of key officers (5 highest) were plenty high: Mary Emmons (see corp. registration) — $310K; Nena Revoyr, $136K, Jeff Catania, $161K, Hershel Swinger, $167K, Kendis Heffley, $131K. (plus retirement & other income from this or related orgs.)). These are the US Trademarks still “LIVE” with the word “Fatherhood” in them. I didn’t find the one mentioned in the Children’s Institute descriptions, “Project Fatherhood” But it’s interesting one of them is from a PA corporation. You can see the details, including first use, whose idea it was and see that someone showed real forethought. Keeping in mind that welfare reform and the loosening up of federal aid to states for diversions into fatherhood & marriage promotion, both was anticipated — and happened in 1996.
| Serial Number | Reg. Number | Word Mark | Check Status | Live/Dead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 77602995 | 3738768 | FATHERHOOD IS SACRED | TARR | LIVE |
| 2 | 77013538 | 3474511 | NATIONAL FATHERHOOD INITIATIVE | TARR | LIVE |
| 3 | 75442962 | 2339732 | IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD | TARR | LIVE |
Quite a few, eh? PROJECT FATHERHOOD // Dr. HERSHEL K. SWINGER was started in 1996:
July 8, 2011
Strengthening relationships between fathers and their at-risk children
Children’s Institute Hosts 4th Annual Fatherhood Solution Conference
(very nice youtube tribute to him at the link…)
“Due to the recent passing of Dr. Hershel K. Swinger, CII Senior Vice President and Founder of Project Fatherhood, the morning plenary was a special tribute to his life’s work and accomplishments. Project Fatherhood is a nationally-recognized program for disadvantaged fathers to become more engaged and effective parents.
“Speakers included Dr. Ken Canfield, president and founder of the<> National Center for Fathering; <> Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis, Director of Pepperdine University’s Culture and Trauma Research Lab, an expert on partner and child abuse and societal trauma due to racism, sexism and poverty; and <> Charles Lee-Johnson, MSW, CEO of the National Family Life and Education Center,…”
In reverse order:
- Charles-Lee Johnson’s Nonprofit, that his father incorporated in 1993:
| Entity Number | Date Filed | Status | Entity Name | Agent for Service of Process |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1724782 | 05/07/1993 | ACTIVE | THE NATIONAL FAMILY LIFE & EDUCATION CENTER | JOYCE REECE-KITCHEN |
EIN# 95-4423621 ; their charity is marked “CURRENT” however they haven’t filed an IRS with the state since 2007, or an RRF (state report) since 2008. Received a Deliquency warning 6/5/2008:
“WARNING OF IMPENDING TAX ASSESSMENT FOR WHICH YOU MAY BE PERSONALLY LIABLE ..The Attorney General has not received your organization’s annual report(s) as follows:…IRS Form 990, 990-PF, or 990-EZ report(s) for the year(s) ending: 06/30/03, 06/30/04, 06/30/06, and 06/30/07“
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[spoiler]
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IRS inconsistent between two sites (State AG vs 990finder). One year, the top 3 officers are receivng $65,73 & 95K; (is Joyce Johnson his wife?) another year, nothing, or something. The 2006 tax return at 990finder was stamped received in 2011; etc. etc. Very inconsistent. The “2009” filing below is an empty form, basically… They have no direct HHS grants but some of the RRF forms show they did receive two or three sources of gov’t support, inl. DCFS (note: they are dealing with foster care youth sometimes). Assets — two chevy vans; — ??
| National Family Life and Education Center | CA | 2009 | $0 | 990R | 1 | 95-4423621 |
| National Family Life and Education Center | CA | 2010 | $113,732 | 990 | 19 | 95-4423621 |
| National Family Life and Education Center | CA | 2009 | $58,470 | 990 | 31 | 95-4423621 |
| National Family Life and Education Center | CA | 2008 | $48,791 | 990 | 25 | 95-4423621 |
| National Family Life and Education Center | CA | 2007 | $136,014 | 990 | 24 | 95-4423621 |
| National Family Life and Education Center | CA | 2006 | $265,681 | 990 | 22 | 95-4423621 |
[/spoiler]
- the “Dr.” in “Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis” is licensed clinical psychologist: Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Pepperdine (in Malibu, CA — this university puts out a lot of people who work in the courts also):
http://www.drthema.com/biography/
Dr. Bryant-Davis received her doctorate from Duke University in Clinical Psychology with a focus on the cultural context of trauma recovery, as well as the intersection of gender and racial identity. She completed her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical Center’s Victims of Violence Program. From 2001-2004, she served as Senior Staff Psychologist and Coordinator of the Princeton University SHARE Program. Dr. Bryant-Davis is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University where she teaches on the topics of indivdiual and family development as well as intimate partner violence. She is a contributing author in the books The Psychology of Racism, The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women, and Featuring Females: Feminist Analyses of the Media.
Dr. Bryant-Davis served for three years as an American Psychological Association representative to the United Nations where she advocated for mental health and human rights globally
MINISTRY:
Apparently also preaches at her brother’s Mega-Church also:
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis is a licensed preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She preached her initial sermon at Empowerment Temple AME Church where the pastor is Rev. Jamal Harrison-Bryant.:
[spoiler]
“He is the leader of a new breed of ministers who embrace the idea of capitalizing on the ever-increasing marketplace of Internet and technological innovations to spread the gospel. With more than 7,500 members attending weekly services at Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Maryland, and approximately 35,000 followers on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, he believes that “God is not just in the church; He is also in technology.” His mission is to “empower people spiritually, develop them educationally, expose them culturally, activate them politically, and strengthen them economically.”
FAMILY: Bryant has four daughters Topaz, Grace, and twins Angel and Adore. They reside in Baltimore. He is also the brother of Thema Simone Bryant Davis.
Mega church pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant and his wife Gizelle are headed to divorce court. After 5 and a half years of marriage Gizelle Bryant filed for a divorce in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County on January 9. The clergyman [i.e. Jamal] also filed divorce papers in Baltimore City Court on the same day, the Baltimore Sun reports. . . . (then article launches into some more flattery….)
. . . Scandalous rumors of alleged affairs with several women have been rampant since the couple’s engagement. His supposed womanizing went overboard when he impregnated a church member said to be 17 at the time of the time of copulation. [“the time of copulation”? ]When accusations of this affair surfaced in the Summer of 2007, church leaders asked him to step down while they initiated an investigation and awaited paternity test results. Months after the investigation, Jamal Bryant remains the pastor of Empowerment Temple. Court records acquired from the Circuit Court of Maryland do indicate the pastor is the father of a least one other child who was born before he got married. The couple has a set of 1-year-old twins and a 3-year-old.
As Wikipedia shows, guess he had some of the “evangelizing” [Missionary Position?] (of other women while married) issues common to some in his field. Baltimore Sun article, 2/16/08 by Samathi Reddy:
Bryant and his wife, a former model, are known for their flashy lifestyle, which includes a Bentley and a multimillion-dollar Canton waterfront property. Their lifestyle has attracted criticism from those who say the church is more about his business enterprises and building wealth than religion. Her original divorce complaint stated that he earned more than $350,000 a year.
He is seeking a “limited divorce,” while his wife has requested an “absolute divorce,” according to papers filed in Baltimore Circuit Court. A limited divorce is a voluntary legal separation required in Maryland for a year before most absolute divorces. Absolute divorces, however, are allowed immediately under certain circumstances, such as adultery and cruelty. In Gizelle Bryant’s filing last month, she accuses her husband of adultery, cruel treatment and “excessively vicious conduct” that caused “reasonable apprehension of bodily suffering so as to render cohabitation unsafe.” [/spoiler]
One of MANY reasons I’m not too impressed with the concept of soliciting faith-based organizations to teach responsible fatherhood! However, Dr. Thema Harrison-Bryant is not her brother . . . . More background on their parents’ involvement in civil rights, time in Africa, social justice concern, leadership over many churches
“His efforts ( Back to Hershel K. Swinger of The Children’s Institute) 
resulted in a major expansion of Project Fatherhood – through funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – to 50 organizations located in various parts of Los Angeles County.”(Very nice obituary in the LA times notes what he did):
The clinical psychologist who taught at Cal State L.A. created Project Fatherhood, which has provided therapy, support and training for more than 7,000 low-income urban fathers since 1996.
June 12, 2011|By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times
Swinger, a clinical psychologist, was a senior vice president of Children’s Institute who taught counselor education and directed a state-funded child abuse prevention center at Cal State L.A. for many years.
He was the founder and senior director of Project Fatherhood, a program that has provided therapy, support and training for more than 7,000 low-income urban fathers since its inception 15 years ago. Under Swinger’s leadership, it received a $7.5-million federal grant in 2006 to replicate the program in 50 agencies in Los Angeles County. It was recognized as a model program by the Obama administration last year.
Familiar with studies showing that children with absent fathers are far more likely to be poor, abuse drugs, drop out of school and enter the criminal justice system, Swinger believed that focusing on the fathers was a crucial part of the solution.
No mention of “present mothers” or of the fact that since 1996, one of the most dangerous places to be as a mother is attempting to leave violence with children and having a father contest custody — in other words, the climate towards women because of these programs, has become literally hostile. If indeed those facts ARE so, who is to say or not say that the real cause was “father-absence” or not something else? Is that a universal truth, like gravity — or a social construction? It helps expand a grants program if you are on the advisory council to another foundation: Federal funding allowed Project Fatherhood SM to expand in 2006 across Los Angeles County. Now, through a community grants program*, small faith-based and community organizations have been empowered to replicate the Project Fatherhood SM model in their own neighborhoods. …*The Project Fatherhood SM Community Grants Program is part of the Responsible Fatherhood Initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance.
ORGANIZATION NAME |
STATE |
YEAR |
TOTAL ASSETS |
FORM |
PAGES |
EIN |
| National Center for Fathering | KS | 2010 | $414,597 | 990 | 28 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering | KS | 2009 | $668,266 | 990 | 30 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering | KS | 2008 | $541,246 | 990 | 29 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering | KS | 2007 | $1,280,008 | 990 | 30 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering Inc. | KS | 2006 | $573,780 | 990 | 45 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering Inc. | KS | 2005 | $1,471,113 | 990 | 29 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering Inc. | KS | 2004 | $719,773 | 990 | 23 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering Inc. | KS | 2003 | $355,475 | 990 | 23 | 48-1083848 |
| National Center for Fathering Inc. | KS | 2002 | $241,183 | 990 | 22 | 48-1083848 |
Purpose of this group (KS location):
LIVE SEMINARS ON STRENGTHENING FATHERS. EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS PROVIDED FOR FATHERS. PROVIDE LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR FATHERS. RESEARCH FOR ABOVE SERVICES. SEE ATTACHED SCHEDULE OF PROGRAMS.
One employee listed got $62K — that turns out to be severance pay:
“KEN CANFIELD, THE FOUNDER, RECEIVED PAYMENTS FOR SERVICES PROVIDED DURING 2007.
JIM MOORE RECEIVED PAYMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS SEVERANCE AGREEMENT. ($62K)”
The National Center for Fathering seeks to improve the well-being of children by promoting responsible fatherhood and equipping men to be more engaged in the lives of children. Programmingissummarizedinfourareas: Research,Training,ProgramsandResources.
Training (notice how many are trademarked. (from 2007 tax return: of its budget, $914K that year was “government grants.” So this is what our gov’t is sponsoring:
. TheNationalCenterforFatheringconductslivetrainingseminarstoequipmen for their role as fathers using its research-based curricula. Specific curricula developed by the National Center include : The 7 Secrets of Effective FathersTM,[+ Book, $12.99] Connecting With Your KidsTM Quenching the Father ThirstTM,Dads ofDestinyTM and R.E.A.D. to KidsTM The Center ‘s father training courses all include a version of its Personal Fathering Profile TM, a self-scored assessment that allows dads to compare their fathering practices with a national database. The Center also conducts train-the-trainer workshops to equip locally-based father trainers who work independently in their communities through faith-based,social service and other organizations to equip men.
I guess if all those fathers need train-train-trainers, maybe they ain’t nuttin’ but a hound-dog, and never will be, according to HHS!Either that, or there’s another reason for all this obsession.
Carey Casey honored as a “Champion of Change” – Watch Video
As Father’s Day approaches there are so many reasons to be encouraged here at the Center … One big reason is an opportunity I had to visit the White House. I was one of ten people honored as “Champions of Change” in the field of fatherhood. This is an effort by the White House Office of Public Engagement and Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to promote positive fatherhood, and it’s my privilege to be there and talk about Championship Fathering … “from the White House to the outhouse,” as I always say. I am also humbled. I know that I … [Read More…]
(ET . . .CET. . . eRA). . . . here’s USPTO.gov — wonder how many of those “tm” items really are “tm” ed! Colorado State marketing a booklet ‘Connecting with your Kids” http://www.courts.state.co.us/userfiles/file/Self_Help/CO_Parenting_Time_Book2004.pdf
Connecting With Your Kids
Copyright © Colorado Foundation for Families and Children
But it thanks Ken Sanders of (the) “Center on Fathering” and a “Colorado Fatherhood Connection”
Notice that in the MIDDLE of “fathers.com” top row of hyperlinks (to other pages) is “STORE” The store page kinda reminds me of the “cooperative parenting institute” store page (Termini & Boyan):
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Championship Fathering Wristband 2 Models / Great for Father’s Day Give-Aways! |
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Some are even on discount!
Monthly Specials For July
There now — that’s WAY better than actually helping custodial mothers and the children in their house DIRECTLy through, say, child support enforcement — or TANF (food stamps / cash aid) — or else, who knows what might happen? Mom might pick up a pair of extra underwear for her kids, and start feeling more, er independent than is appropriate for faith-based, er, churches… **Re: the woman’s version of abstinence education (for those who don’t know this already) is I guess the counterpart to “every man’s battle” which is aimed at men, and the most obvious of the 10 commandments (in sex realm), thou shalt not commit adultery & I guess thou shalt not covet . . .. http://everymansbattlevideo.com/ 
While I could care less about the original book, here’s what another Christian commentary says about it, which seems apt: “Psychoheresies”: http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/emb112.html [PAL Vol11N2 Apr-May ’03] “EMB is loaded with unsubstantiated information…There is no reference to research to support what Arterburn says. When important and critical statements like that are made, the reader is entitled to some proof beyond Arterburn’s personal experiences…” “Faulting Fred’s father is repeated and amplified throughout the book. It is sinful to give such details because it violates the commandment to honor one’s father. Such details also give the impression that it wasn’t really Fred’s fault that he sinned in this way. One gets the distinct impression that Fred is painting a picture of personal victimhood.“ “the authors do not just refer to these sinful activities by name; they spell out these sinful activities and explicitly express details of “ogling,” sexual dreaming, “sexualized acts,” and “rampant masturbation,” etc. Such explicit details feed the flesh and work to build camaraderie among those men involved in lust. …“ Author Stephen Arterburn is the founder of the chain of New Life Clinics (p. 3). The clinics are advertised on a number of pages in the book with a full-page ad on page 230. An underlying idea here is that, if the reader just can’t make it on his own with this self-help book, he can find help at one of these clinics. As far as insurance coverage is concerned, New Life Clinics function like other secular psychological and psychiatric clinics that dispense psychotherapy and drugs.
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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.”
Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History 
Federal Designer Families: How Californians got their “CFCC,” CRS Year 2000 Report on Access Visitation
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This post is about 10,000 words. Enjoy!
I have about six posts in the pipeline, all of them timely to some recent indicators (developments) in the “protective mothers” field. All of them, as usual continuing to emphasize a functional vocabulary in discussing the family courts, and pointing out a few significant historical developments affecting them that those IN them rarely point out to clients, which I find strange.
By contrast, the developments in the “responsible fatherhood” field seem to be moving ahead with the usual momentum, and under-reported among “the commoners,” i.e., the general public and most family-court reform groups, who, apparently, don’t consider worthy of notice that this network even exists, or is a priority to understand.
However, it does. In fact, if you check some of the post-PRWORA-propped up nonprofits, centers, institutes, programming and the “same old, same old” hotshots, there is apparently nothing more important to talk about than what they have done, are doing, and how much HHS is going to pay them this time (sometimes that refers to a five-year, multi-million-dollar grant) to further strengthen and extend their communications, technical support, outreach/ recruiting and funding pipelines already set up in the “Fatherhood” network. (Recent example) Using federal funding to a university. One of team members historically associated with AFCC, another thing family court advocacy groups are averse to talking about.
There are also certain chronic weaknesses and vulnerabilities within this “HMRF” field (but also present, to a degree, in the domestic violence prevention field also), which would be excellent leverage to address some of the problems protective mothers are having in the courts, and I have yet to hear any legitimate (if indeed any) explanation why no significant protective mothers organization, or their featured professionals, has seen fit to raise the topic seriously with a view to DOING something about it, for at least the past dozen years, even when after a certain point, the leadership surely became aware that “outside” information on the responsible fatherhood field, HHS grants and AFCC was somehow “leaking” into the field of vision of some of the “fix the courts” promoters. One whitepaper did come out over a year after I, literally, did several posts (on two blogs) naming names of the “Let’s JUST not talk about it!” groups and proving which personnel at least knew the whole time.
Nearly two days of technical (keystroke processing speed almost at a standstill) problems with my computer slowed getting them published. Meanwhile, working out that situation, and concerned about output at this time, I decided to re-publish a 12/5/2009 FamilyCourtMatters post which is STILL more relevant than the average conversation I see on the family court reform in 2016, original title “While You Were Sleeping,… How Congress got into the Family Law Business.”
I have not yet extended the “Table of Contents” back to 2009, so “While You Were Sleeping” was probably missed by most people who may read or follow this blog. It is not the kind of information one tends to stumble across in general search terms on the family courts or its handling of situations and allegations of criminal behavior such as domestic violence or child abuse. Last month, I felt this post was important enough to clean up (formatting) and link to it, now I am actually re-posting.
It references by name key elements in networks I am blogging consistently on — public/private partnerships, and HOW does the federal government got its hand in into the state-level cookie jar without quite getting caught at it, and vice versa, while the courts themselves contribute to an ever-expanding and increasingly dependent on social services population.
**Mostly, these posts-in-the-pipeline again review some basic vocabulary with which we can talk about things which both the protective mothers’ perspective, and definitely in the fathers’ rights perspective have for years resisted discussing on-line in anything approaching a coherent manner, using accurate and relevant terms to describe the infrastructure and how it networks to promote either their own perspective, or the perspective for which they want “systemic changes” or “a paradigm” change for [divorce law, family courts, child support] because it’s: unfair to fathers, unfair to mothers, dangerous to children, or gender-biased against men (or women), is destroying the American family, human rights,civil rights, etc.
We who are concerned, afflicted by, or discussing the problems in the family courts, should ALL know and talk what top-level state institutions (such as the California Judicial Council), federal deliberations courtesy of CRS (Congressional Research Service) (“Should the Federal Government get involved in Family Matters which are under State law jurisdiction?”) (unsaid: “HOW can we get our fingers into family and divorce courts without getting caught on it, or held responsible for any negative effects after we have?”) ….. (And “WHO will help us do this?” some of which this post shows who actually did) are actually involved, or, for example, just how one state ends up copying the court (privatization and outsourcing) practices in another.
For example, I had years of personal encounters through the courts before I became aware of the information in just this excerpt from that 2009 post below. The publication talking about it came out in the context of a state-level, state-wide evaluation of the ruling body of the courts published around May, 2012. Take a look at this excerpt, which will be repeated below, without the olive-green background:
THE REPORT on the AOC, with its section on the CFCC Division IS RECOMMENDED READING for understanding many things which may relate to complaints about the family courts nationwide. Information on the AOC’s/CFCC begins on page 81:
A Statewide Office on Families was merged with a Center on Children and the Courts. Consolidation, Year 2000
…
Notice input from the National Center for State Courts [NCSC] in 1997, a “needs assessment” and that it was first aimed at JUVENILE DEPENDENCY — not the entire family law system. Notice the title in 1997 didn’t yet include the words “Family.” Anyone that is running (sponsoring, calling for) a “needs assessment” may very well already have an intended “solution/fix” in mind. These are rarely 100% neutral. [[The National Center for State Courts is a 501©3], technically speaking, in the private sector, despite its name. It files a Form 990]]
Collaborative Divorce has been an ongoing theme promoted by AFCC members. This can be seen in some of the nonprofits formed, by looking at who formed them. Not the topic of this post….
Did you know that in apparently about Year 1983 (but not continuing, I think), the NCSC also served as the “Secretariat” for the organization AFCC? I believe it’s on my sidebar in one of the AFCC newsletters of that year.
If you’ve gotten this far in this dense post –and are even reading my blog — do I need to spell this out further?…
SUMMARY: The Courts in the State of California have increasingly centralized control and operations over time, other parts of the report also show. The timing of some of the special divisions seems to correlate to increased federal funding for programming that these divisions seem to control — from the administrative sector…. Good to keep in mind…
But notice, they first set up two separate elements — a division within the AOC, and a Statewide Office. Then, they combined them. Then within the State-level office are links to the private, tax-exempt sector encouraging business with it. Any entity (which is to say anyone running an entity) which wants excellent, authoritative, advertising then is helped by connection to a state-level promoter within (here, as an example) the CFCC section of the Administrative Office of the Courts. “Coincidentally,” it appears that key members of the CFCC (such as Charlene Depner, and I believe, Shelly LaBotte as to the Access Visitation grants management) are also long-time, loyal members of AFCC. AFCC as an organization has certain interests that not all Californians, or Americans, may necessarily agree with, and in its own website claims responsibility for many so-called positive innovations in the family court field.
They are also pretty good at setting the stage for creating new professions at the expense of the courts (the public) and parents (also, the public), one of the earlier ones pushed was mediation, one of the later, “parent coordination.”
Another reason I would question any advocacy group who, knowing about this organization, didn’t talk — and keep talking — about it.
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Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up
May 26, 2016 at 9:43 am
Posted in 1996 TANF PRWORA (cat. added 11/2011)
Tagged with "CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT AND VISITATION: SHOULD THERE BE A FEDERAL CONNECTION?" (CRS Rpt 97-590 updated 6-20-2000), "Outflanking the Nation-State: David Mitrany and the Origins of Functionalism", AFCC, AFCC CFCC AOC Judicial Council, Carmen Solomon-Fears, CRS Rept 97-590, CRS-Congressional Research Service, Due process, Elements of the Network, fatherhood, Global Pound Conference of the IMI, HHS-TAGGS grants database, History of Access and Visitation Legislation, House Ways and Means-Human Resources Subcommittee (Jurisdiction - Titles I ~IV ~VI ~X ~XIV ~XVI ~XX and related provisions of titles VII & XI of the Social Security Act per 112th Congress rules), IMI - International Mediation Institute (Dutch/UN Consultative NGO), men's rights, murder-suicides, obfuscation, social commentary, Statewide Office of Family Court Services (in Calif in 2000 merged into a "CFCC"), Studying Humans, U.S. Govt $$ hard @ work.