Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Govt $$ hard @ work..’
Genzyme, BioEnvision, ImPath, Sanofi – New Strains of Fish in the Ocean of Commerce
However, in looking at this policy one continues to run into some of the larger industries (corporations) running and directing the policy of our non-representative governments (US, state, county, regional, etc.).
See the list @ What Brings All These Companies Together in One Electronic Place and for One Cause?” (July 7 LGH post)… That question is still on the table; most of my comments these days are “spam.” However, there are other networks (like phone, email, etc.); the word is out.
This post is a bit of a wild ride, which is better than the straight path to poverty and drudgery, and narrating who paved the road… I think it shows there IS an alternate way to live, and one of the better ways to get there is to ignore the advice, and perhaps follow the career paths of people who are arrogant enough to believe they should be planning for the planet, and coaching people what kind of jobs to work, inbetween inventing and merchandising new technologies, raising capital for startups and then selling them and with the profit, starting up some more things, most of this related very, very (very very) closely to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, who are most likely to sponsor professorships, fellowships, centers of excellence at the university level, and all kinds of projects which might improve THEIR profits.*
(Don’t miss the part where a leading geneticist George Church (see Human Genome Project) is interviewed by a German magazine about the theoretical and technical possibility bring the Neanderthals back to life through DNA (and of a surrogate human mother). And where he figures, well, there’d need to be a cohort of them… This mindset probably wouldn’t be welcome in any welfare-to-work programs as a legitimate work-activity — creative thinking and inventing “disruptive technologies” which some of these below are called. In fact, in my experience, the extended gauntlet of the family courts is about THE best way to squelch any creative thinking — if one parent exhibits it, the other can simply get them labeled as an oddball or eccentric thinker, and next moment it’s — where are my kids? Thus while it’s not quite LEGAL to actually OUTLAW creative thinking or resourcefulness in single parents (or their exes), a lot of it can be screened out in the family law arena, preserving the status quo of “divorce” as a crime, and non-collaborative (with the ex) behaviors as a thought-crime close to it. ]]
[*And sorry about all those long opening sentences. I can’t reconstruct DNA, so apparently like stringing those ideas together in a sentence; and yes, that is a form of play…)
Particularly if one wasn’t born into the privilege and/or hasn’t hit the ground running from an early age…to end up at Harvard, Yale, etc. it might be good to look at the flip side of the social science research and demonstration fields one is constantly exposed to while going through the courts, custody, etc. matters….
How each of these corporations got started and what they are doing is downright inspiring and enlightening. It’s a history lesson — on the actual mutual-benefit factor, as opposed to the alleged public benefit factor, which sometimes turns out to be just myth. It takes money to keep the myths spinning, too — so like I continue to say, “follow the money” and “educate yourself.”
This Top section is just to brush some biotech language in front of our faces, maybe as an industry alert that, finding minimum-wage jobs for those on welfare may not be the best idea for them, at least if “income self-sufficiency” is the long-term goal… in THIS global corporate climate?
From “FierceBioTech.com (“The BioTech Industry’s Daily Monitor”) we see a Harvard Biological Chemist dive into the thrill-seeking team science environment of searching for things to help the Pharmaceutical companies come up with new drugs. Look at the startup funding, and the companions (not to mention the company names):
Prolific Harvard chemist Greg Verdine takes helm at Warp Drive
July 2, 2013 | By Ryan McBrideProfessor Gregory Verdine has founded plenty of biotech companies, but Warp Drive Bio has become the first one he has ever helmed as CEO. After co-founding Warp Drive, which launched last year to discover natural product drugs, Verdine has taken over the chief executive role from Third Rock Ventures partner Alexis Borisy.
Based on Verdine’s original scientific idea, Warp Drive took off last year with a $125 million financing deal to mine bacterial genomes for drug compounds. Sanofi signed on as a funder and collaborator from the start, helping Third Rock and Greylock Partners to finance the drug-discovery effort. Borisy, who Verdine credits for the business plan behind Warp Drive, has become the startup’s executive chairman.
That whole article is fascinating; towards the end it mentions GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, and Novartis as companies willing to come “back to earth” in searching for great bacteria to test new drugs on. That’s where Warp Drive and a Harvard chemistry professor seem to come in.
Related, earlier this year (like, January), we learn about the Financial Power of Syndication:
UPDATED: Fueled by Sanofi, Warp Drive Bio takes off with $125M deal
January 12, 2013 by Ryan McBride
Biotech startup Warp Drive Bio has scored $125 million in financing from a syndicate that features the French drug giant Sanofi ($SNY) along with founding backer Third Rock Ventures and the VC firm Greylock Partners. More than just an investor in Warp Drive, Sanofi has an option to acquire the startup if the new company can hit certain goals in developing drugs found in microbial genomes.
With a brand new approach for discovering drugs from nature, Warp Drive aims to search the genomes of microbes for molecules that have the potential to target disease pathways that the have eluded all other attempts to do so. It’s the brainchild of Greg Verdine, a chemical biologist at Harvard and venture partner at Third Rock. His fellow founders include Harvard genomics pro George Church** and James Wells, who studies protein-to-protein interactions at the University of California, San Francisco. (“UCSF”)
“This is the type of early-stage, blue sky, innovative, transformative company that a lot of people are saying just isn’t getting created anymore,” Alexis Borisy, a Third Rock partner and interim CEO of the startup, told FierceBiotech. “But here we are. We have created it.”
AFCC — A Users’ Manual (Intro).. and (for now), some of “Arizona”
Speaking of Engaging in Lookups:
Just a reminder — I’m not an attorney, and if you need one, go get one. However, at this point in time I don’t personally advise going to get any family law attorney before ascertaining membership or non-membership in this organization, and finding out whether the local Presiding Judge is also a member. Also, are you in a family court (are there actually some left?) or one that has been declared “Conciliation” and comes under a different section of the state code, by jurisdiction. Like they did in California….
That membership information would also be good to get on opposing attorneys, judges, GALs, and others not just currently in any case (heck, people can drop in and out of a case on a dime these days) — but also in the courthouses. In other words, most courts operate as fiefdoms, so who’s (singular, but more likely plural, a group of people) lord of the current one?
Above and beyond that, given how frequent radical jurisdiction switches (between states, I’m talking) can be, I believe it’s wise to get a systemic view of these family courts. As the AFCC is personally taking credit for their primary substance, one great way to do so is to take a good look at two things.
~ ~ How AFCC characterizes itself in its own publications, the public face.
~ ~ The “back office” viewpoint– which is the incorporation records (including withdrawals, suspensions, name changes, state changes, etc., the tax returns, and when-and-where public officials are (as from the beginning) running private associations out of the local courthouse.
~ ~ [added 12/2013. I forgot to mention, who’s paying the piper, apart from the obvious: Us, the public, through salaries and other means. See corporation newsletters and the mother ship’s site, for some clues; not all of them. ]
When ensconced in a position of power and control, which is where the organization’s leadership gravitates strategically to, and FYI it’s not just the courthouse (it’s also the law school and other places close to HHS funding) — and, when there, what they do. I mean, this is not rocket science, it just takes a little sustained attention to pick up on the basic patterns — including language patterns.
Power is multiplied when it’s unified, and when it’s system-wide. So, what’s the system?
Please notice below at which “URL” the May, 2013 “50th Anniversary Conference” has been advertised: It’s at a website that ends “*.gov,” at the “national responsible fatherhood clearinghouse.” It is funded through the repeated extensions of what was originally “TANF” (1996) welfare, but is variously the Deficit Reduction Act (2005), or the Claims Resolution Act (2010), and this is through the OFA (Office of Family Assistance).
Active link. Notice the domain name ends *.gov:
http://www.fatherhood.gov/about-us/events/afcc-50th-anniversary-conference
The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts’ 50th Anniversary Conference, “Riding the Wave of the Future: Global Voices, Expanding Choices” will be held in Los Angeles, CA. Since 1963, AFCC members have spearheaded major reforms in the family law community, including no-fault divorce, joint custody, mediation, collaborative law, unified family courts, parenting coordination, differentiated case management, parent education and myriad hybrid dispute resolution processes. Even with these advances, professionals face growing changes and challenges. What does the future hold? How will the AFCC community influence the constantly
evolving family law system? Join us in Los Angeles, the birthplace of AFCC, as we begin to chart the course for the next 50 years.
Moreover, among its own, AFCC also celebrated and narrated its accomplishments 50th anniversary (1963-2013) and was planning the next 50 years. This was designed for professional consumption, not really the public. It was published in California Conciliation Quarterly and on-line access to the same, starting January 2013. In other words, building momentum for the cause. “Modestly” (and inaccurately) described as:
REFLECTIONS ON LEADERSHIP: FIFTY YEARS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FAMILY AND CONCILIATION COURTS
.
(This title is also a link to the publication, see its first page by Peter Salem).
Here, they take credit for developing fields of practice. In that part, it’s honest. I’ve been talking about this as well (i.e., parenting coordination) and highlighting it’s time to stop letting this group create professional niches for themselves at our (the public’s) expense and on the taxpayer dollar. Also, the organization networks with other nonprofit organizations (big ones — ABA, APA — and other well-connected nationwide ones (National Center on State Courts, etc.) which underneath themselves also have other nonprofits of public officials. While obviously there needs to be planning and coordination when MAJOR technological innovations (such as the development of the internet!) are in place, it still remains a nationwide nonprofit suggested in 1978 by a US Supreme Court Judge. As of 1983 AFCC newsletter, marketing all kinds of trainings, the statement was made that AFCC (whoever that was in that year) had decided to have this NCSC be their “secretariat.” Typewritten blurb mentions:
AFCC Publications: All publications are payable in US Currency payable to AFCC c/o National Center for the State Courts, 300 Newport Avenue, Williamsburg, VA 23185– unless another address & payee is shown
(???)
Truly that is an informative publication; for example how individuals from Los Angeles and Connecticut helped get a NJ Governor to sign legislation to form a unified family court for juvenile and other matters. The conference schedule (for 1984) is also very informative — but only if one notices names, plades, and subject matter. For example, the heading of the newspaper has a different version of the group’s name than the logo on the banner. (Look carefully, you’ll see it’s a single-word difference). For example that at this point in time, what they’re primarily pushing is mediation as a profession (one thing at a time!); however the “unified family court” theme is lurking in the background, c/o Toronto’s “Unified Family Court.”
In case you’re thinking this is starting to resemble an Amway MLM marketing scheme, only with civil servants, I’d have to say, you’re probably right. (cf. the DeVos family). From a “Boycott Amway (for other reasons)” site:
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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HHS Grants Database (TAGGS.HHS.gov) isn’t “Close enough for Jazz.” [Publ. Sept. 30, 2012; Formatted Aug. 2, 2022]
Post updated (for clarity and to add title link and a few borders, not much more) 8/2/2022…
[About 9,500 words. Like most of my posts, that includes many quotations… Because I’m also discussing a federal database, it also includes blocks of text (tables) which show definitions of various fields or pieces of data in it.
What I have to say, the “tell” in “Show and Tell,” isn’t the largest part of this post. Look at what’s shown, much of it become self-evident, (I believe!)
I’m showing (and telling) how HHS, the US agency in place to help Humans be Healthy, isn’t Helping us Track its Grants well enough. [“TAGGS.HHS.gov” ]
Data elements that the users should be able to sort on aren’t even menu choices... and of the fields they CAN sort on, those aren’t always even entered filled in.
I pick on a few examples, including an abstinence/healthy marriage grantee, of course]
Post Title:
HHS Grants Database (TAGGS.HHS.gov) isn’t “Close enough for Jazz.” [Publ. Sept. 30, 2012; Formatted Aug. 2, 2022] (short-link ends “-19Y”)
HHS Data Quality in the TAGGS Database
Accessible Data for the Public
Appropriation Fiscal Year | Fiscal Year of the appropriation used to fund this action. Note: An appropriation is a statute made available by Congress that provides the authority to incur financial obligations and to make payments associated with DHHS grant programs. |
Appropriation Number | Treasury account code identifying the appropriation used to fund this action. Note: An appropriation is a statute made available by Congress that provides the authority to incur financial obligations and to make payments associated with DHHS grant programs. |
Appropriation Title | Full title of an appropriation. Note: An appropriation is a statute made available by Congress that provides the authority to incur financial obligations and to make payments associated with DHHS grant programs. |
Authorization | Legal authority cited in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) upon which an HHS program is based (acts, amendments to acts, Public Law numbers, titles, sections, Statute Codes, citations to the US Code, Executive Orders, Presidential Reorganization Plans, and Memoranda from an agency head). |
The matters in blue remind us that spending isn’t supposed to happen without authorization and appropriation. Yet look at the “Advanced Search” page and see if you can find those fields.
There’s one link to “Advanced Search” (explore on your own time), and several shortcuts to other menu items, and some pre-planned reports. Yet I found in a general search, there are plenty of grants missing codes — DUNS code, some missing a CFDA Code (plenty missing a principal investigator; do not yet know if these are specifically block grants only). Of the principal investigators there really ought to be a first name, last name designation [as a separate field] and no title entered unless there’s a designated field “Title.” that’s BASIC data design, omitted here..
Therefore Principal Investigator’s given names who happen to be M.D. or Ph.D. and could be called “Doctor” properly, would show up alphabetized under “D” not their names. In addition, that could be entered before or after a given name.
http://taggs.hhs.gov/AdvancedSearch.cfm
Any feedback on how someone may get to this data via the public access site?
I see many fields described which do not show up on “Advanced Search” options — please let me know. For example, nothing should be paid out which Congress, Executive Order, or some other authority has no
“Comment Submitted To:” (Supervised Visitation, Interlocking Nonprofits, in Minnesota)
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I submitted today to:
Carver County (MN) Corruption // AFCC chart page
COMMENTARY ON THE COMMENT:
Conceptual Thinking (understanding systems) is Essential to Freedom.
Networking for mutual self-support groups is wonderful, but failure by support groups to scout why one needed them to start with, is suicidal, in the long run. Support groups simply go form their silos of information and shun information which doesn’t fit with the status quo.
This is a great way to overspecialize and become an extinct species. We HAVE to be able to speak a language that incorporates understanding of the systems that structure our lives. We aren’t. There are crackups, domestic violence, gang violence, and various kinds of “roadkill,” to which people have conveniently (for those who DO understand systems, and own them) self-separated into their groups by label: Protective Mothers, Battered Mothers, Fathers’ Rights, Family Values vs. Pro Choice, etc.
Have you ever seen skilled sheepdogs in action? Consider what they do — they face off with the sheep; one dog can control a sizeable clump. Now — who does the sheepdog answer to and who feeds and trains him?
Now, who pays the man (or woman, I suppose) who trains, feeds, and runs the sheepdogs?
The real question is, who owns the ranch. And that’s what family court reform groups (male or female) simply forget to specialize in, and train each other to respond to signals from, that is, to respond as the owner of the ranch might — not as the sheep might.
I don’t know if you can get a visual on this — but picture sheepdog trials, and a batch is let out at time, and the canine “middle mangement” of this operation called a ranch, who do a lot of the running around, but appear to be innately designed for this — they LOVE running the sheep — are running one clumped together focused on the sheepdog (not the farm owners) and facing it, either face-off and freeze, or running. Eventually they ARE going to be run into the pen, where after a long (Or short) and domesticated life, during which they will be sheared and produce more lambs — eventually they will be possibly eaten. Such a life!
Divide, shepherd, shear, and eventually eat. Control reproduction. Sort for desired qualities.
That’s for sheep, but it’s been applied on people. And the sheepdogs bark and posture. The sheep don’t even have a language to talk back with that means anything other than what sounds they are making on the way back into the fold (pen).
As human beings, if we want freedom, we need to speak more than one language, and understand which language one is hearing at a given point of time. We also had better get a lid on understanding systems, AND becoming a better judge of character.
I read tax returns and look up corporations not because it’s profitable, or inherently more interesting than other things I could do with an immediate (though very transient, in my situation) profit. I read tax returns and look up corporations (and ask others to) because it tells me about who is doing what in the commercial landscape. I think the basics are clear, and a lot of the continued lookups I may (and am) still doing, are part for personal insight — but moreso for demonstrating to others.
This kind of data (even as poorly sourced as the free databases are, and as unwieldy as they are to produce any kind of report from) — givesi us a headsup on which way the economy has been going, is going and on WHY certain groups and talk like they do. It is one way of standing a little aprt from the clump of sheep to consider the patterns of frantic running around.
As a domestic violence survivor, I have also believed that the middle of pack of sheep frozen in certain language patterns and dashing around the internet to bond with their own kind, producing more of the same kind of (outdated though still valid in parts) information is producing inbreeding –and doesn’t increase the defensive or safety position one iota.
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Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up
June 18, 2013 at 2:08 pm
Posted in 1996 TANF PRWORA (cat. added 11/2011)
Tagged with Access-Visitation, AFCC, Analogies for Systems, CarverCountyCorruption, coalitions of multi-state nonprofits taking federal grants, HHS-TAGGS grants database, social commentary, Supervised Visitation, SVN, U.S. Govt $$ hard @ work..