Posts Tagged ‘Why Understanding Tax-Exempt Sector is not Optional in pursuit of Justice + representative government’
‘High-Conflict’ Court-Ordered Parenting Classes and Certified High-Conflict Divorce Coaching USA is Now on Steroids. Yet USA FamilyCourtReform Collaborators Using This Jargon still expect to be taken seriously (and are, for example, by at least one UK/Europe-focused journal.) [Begun Feb. 16, 2022, Published March 1.]
‘High-Conflict’ Court-Ordered Parenting Classes and Certified High-Conflict Divorce Coaching USA is Now on Steroids. Yet USA FamilyCourtReform* Collaborators Using This Jargon still expect to be taken seriously (and are, for example, by at least one UK/Europe-focused journal). [Begun Feb. 16, 2022, , Published March 1.]” (short-link ends “-dEA” and remember that’s case-sensitive after the “wp.me/” of all shortlinks for this blog (if posts, “p,” if Pages (rarer), “P”). http://wp.me/ps-BXH-“).
(After many arduous revisions; some text was removed, other added//LGH 3-28-2022).
~~Post-Publication Disclaimer on Post Length (and paragraph order),
ANY post may be further edited (as in, condensed, or expanded, or both) after publishing. Blogger’s privilege!
The “Late-March Revisions” summary (formerly at the top here) is now on a new post. Link coming within a few hours here…
~ || ~
I’m not exactly reporting good news here.. For a preview of some of the personalities, you might want to look at my August, 2019 response to a different situation involving the same hot topic: “parental alienation” usage, globally, and what people arguing its pro/con have in common with each other…That topic, “parental alienation” pro/con distracts from far more important issues; succumbing to the constant drone of this and similar (court-connected) generated jargon lulls into ignorance of, failure to investigate and report on what’s been happening under our noses: systems labeled beneficial for the public (and families, and children) facilitate fraud and theft of assets, and the public funds this.Through weariness, ignorance, fatigue (or is it, just don’t care?) we’re letting people who ought not to be representing us in other countries, to do exactly that and (collectively, in conferences and journals (etc.) with each other, determine what laws we will be subject to, and that we must accept at face value their assessment of problems WE face daily.
My posts so far this year focus on putting the word “national” as descriptive when applied to anything with or, more typically any part of an entity — United States legal domicile in its place and (not that I’ve EVER let up on that theme) maintaining a basic “entity awareness” and keeping talk about that in the forefront as it’s relevant to where our public funds are going, public funds too often (my studies show) gone “missing in action.” Over-application of the word “National” to a business entity’s legal name — or to a program or initiative of something run by a business (or government) entity is commonplace:
Two recent additions, with no less national (and some international) aspirations more specific to my recent posts and blog focus are, this time neither one of them (yet/so far as either website shows) separately filed business entities, a quality (non-entity) which makes it harder for outsiders to fact-check or follow financing, and easier for those running the named non-entities (but with enough of a name to have a web presence and some social media accounts) to, should they choose (and it seems they have) exaggerate how grassroots, how many “members” and in short, why they should be followed (or even respected) more than anyone else…
National Family Violence Law Center (at George Washington University, sometime after September 2019, with perhaps a 2020 add-on, however its “Dear Friends” launch announcement (just found now as I didn’t have the website url memorized and searched for it) is undated (no month, day or year)
(Saved as a pdf insert in case the announcement (at myemailcontact.com, not at the university) disappears: ‘Joan Meier and GW Law Announce New National Family Violence Law Center (MyEmail.ConstantContact.com, 100% undated but must be 2020ff)’~~2022.Mar.29 Tues
and the National Safe Parents Coalition, website apparently up just February 2022, which has a Twitter account and has already blocked me… Both discussed in more detail below on this post.
We should not be allowing private nonprofits with mutual self-interests not necessarily the public interest to run the courts, the judiciary, and certainly not our legislatures (USA: U.S. Congress or states). State constitutions should not be basically defanged and made puppets to the federal and enslaved (through dependency on federal grants and contracts) to its policy making.
That is, however, what we have. The list of of entities or “resource centers” named “national” and funded public (and/or private) is long. The two I mentioned above are neither the largest, but they are in the same tradition of attempts by the few to mastermind (the rest of us) according to the vision of the few. This does not speak well for representative government and with it, human rights (let alone civil or legal rights)… no matter how much people talking ONLY “human rights” in the global context say it does. [paragraphs added during update].
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In About 2,500 Words,** Why I Still Bother… [Published June 29, 2019/#1 of 2]
In About 2,500 Words,** Why I Still Bother… [Published June 29, 2019/#1 of 2] (short-link ends “-ac4”).
**Post title originally: “In About 1,000 Words…” I had to adjust the title several times but quit, cold-turkey, before 3,000 words.
Then I <>added two image galleries with captions and connecting text and three or four more individual images ….<>expanded one of the early “**” references while copyediting for grammar, then footnoted it… <> added to the very bottom a bio blurb from one of the added image captions for a Mark Rodgers, of The Clapham Group (Charlottesville, Virginia), on the Alliance for Early Success‘s (“AES” in Kansas but legal domicile Nebraska) Board of Directors, which information is fascinating, I’m currently writing on because its a classic example of why we all need better language and to establish the habit of identifying, digging up the financials, and comparing them to the public relations material, even when it shows up at Harvard University (https://developingchild.harvard.edu), or backed by people (with heirs) listed in Forbes if not THE richest in a state, others in the same class.
Please see after this, Footnote “Clarification“ at the bottom of this post, (Three Footnotes to About 2,500 Words on Why I Still Bother (to Blog). (#2 of 2,June 29, 2019) (short-link ends “-ad3″| published the same day).
Here, it does and there are already major discrepancies surfacing. It’s also interesting in its own right.
I have to bite my tongue even now to not add to that information, knowing as much as I’ve just discovered within the past week (but had made mental notes of as far back as September 2016)…
It did only take about 2,500 words to state my case. The rest is “for example” and some examples, details behind the declaration.
Details matter. They reveal who’s involved in which roles in any mass social transformation targeting public institutions (i.e., source of ongoing revenues). Discernible practices discourage fair and open debate before any side has enough backing on questionable methods, or even purposes.
Privately networked, cross-jurisdictional collaborations and layered tax-exempt entities obscure full awareness of how few are at the top. Like any pyramid (marketing) scheme: highly networked, compartmentalized by cause at the lower levels.
… Still under 6,000 words (or so) …
Why I still bother to blog: Not just for fun!
I write to communicate what I see in fields whose established leadership do see, but have chosen not to say — including in fields developed essentially within the last two decades or so.
I write for those who like me, should’ve had better validation over two decades ago of things which just didn’t smell right in and around the family courts, on-line complaints and media exposes of the family courts. Those things that weren’t and still aren’t right, if you, like me, have smelled but (unlike me) haven’t yet found the source, know that the “what’s not right” can be seen and identified in objective terms — but not the cause-based rhetoric we are all being fed, constantly. So there’s a matter of functional vocabulary leading to expression in forms of what is seen — and from there, what to do about it, and only from there, how.
It starts with understanding there’s an existing taxonomy, the scaffolding of any operational support for ANY cause, to be considered. IS IT PUBLIC or IS IT PRIVATE — IS IT AN ENTITY or IS IT A PROGRAM POSING AS AN ENTITY shows WHERE IT TIES INTO THE ECONOMY. For collaborations and coordinated programming or any cause, the whole still has parts, and these parts still should be identified.
I also write to show how suppression of functional vocabulary is commonplace, cannot be accidental, it’s nearly universal, and the intent is subjugation of an entire population (and engaging them in keeping others down). In this language and vocabulary are a technology… key tools… leverage. The antidote is self-education. It takes some time and practice, but it’s achievable. One challenge will be time when people’s time is spent fighting to survive economically.
Basic literacy on how we are governed must be in economic terms, and must deal with concepts on submission to taxation in exchange for accountability for use of those tax receipts. Not just trust in leadership, and not just rebellion without understanding how to govern ourselves. (The intended level of dissonance with reality seems to parallel with a historic intent for South Africa: “Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water”). That’s not the ideal society or a “just and sustainable world” when applied globally.
I write so women (mothers, in particular) might have a choice not just between forms of exploitation or abusing others (& becoming an abuser because it seems safer) or having been driven out of one field, need to make “family court reform” the new one — but walking in without a perspective on the usual guides to “family court reform.”
If what I’m saying is: untrue — challenge it; true, but irrelevant — show me how*; If it’s true and relevant — deal with it, which will require making hard choices.
I know that challenging, or proving irrelevance, or dealing with this material would be itself challenging — because you’d have to consider enough of the material to debate it, and then figure out ways to dismiss it.
It seems to me that too many “thought-leaders” have not accepted that the easy route — dismissal, silence, censoring the discussion, encouraging dependency of followers; let them run interference — won’t work forever.
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The Availability and Reliability of On-Line Databases (Private or Public) is a Major Obstacle to Accountability | Footnotes to “Censorship by Omission” Page [Publ. June 3, 2018].
Post title: The Availability and Reliability of On-Line Databases (Private or Public) is a Major Obstacle to Accountability | Footnotes to “Censorship by Omission” Page [Publ. June 3, 2018]. It has a case-sensitive shortlink ending “-8ZF” and, for a change, is short.
https://wellcome.ac.uk (“We want to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas thrive.”) ArabFund.org is a regional financial institution and “embodiment of joint Arab action” (agreement established 1968).
…Achieving Arab integration and consolidating cooperation among the Member countries is the main objective of the Arab Fund. Priority is therefore given to financing joint Arab projects of particular importance and specifically to those projects that increase the interdependence of Arab countries. Hence the emphasis on contributing to projects involving the interconnection of electrical power, transportation and communications. The Arab Fund also pays close attention to social development and reducing poverty by financing projects covering health care, education, drinking water, rural development, and social welfare.
The Arab Fund, being an Arab institution, is focused on Arab issues and concerns. In this regard it pays special attention to the least developed Arab countries such as providing support to the Palestinian people in the occupied territories through financing a program of projects in different sectors. It provides grants to support educational institutions, universities and professional and social associations. The Arab Fund has also supported a number of Arab countries in countering the effects of natural disasters and wars…
Click to enlarge or visit website. For example, “History of Wellcome” with key terms relating to drug development in the USA, and various suffixes (Ltd, Foundation, Trust, plc) associated with it over time. Also visit their Board of Governors
Click to enlarge, or visit website. See also nearby quote (FamilyCourtMatters, published June 6, 2018)
This post goes with a certain Page which matches the top post on this blog dealing with the topic of historic censorship of major issues affecting family courts — censorship specifically by organizations, professionals, and self-described initiatives or movements to fix or reform them.
Next image just shows where on the originating page it came from. As you can see I switched the parts of the title (placing “Footnotes to…” after “The Availability and Reliability of…”).
[This image is simply to locate where on originating Page my “The Availability of.. | Footnotes” post fits in..]
IT SEEMS (“FYI”) Most (self-appointed) family court reform leaders, whether individual professionals, or leaders of organizations featuring individual professionals active within the family courts, are not, in fact, members of the classes they advocate for. Because that’s obvious, this leadership needs to maintain a “stable” of mothers, fathers, and/or aged-out kids to tell moving personal narratives, around which each organization’s particular agenda and sound-bytes for system change can be promoted.
The emotionally moving, tragic or disturbing anecdotal, individual-case stories (true or not) are the “hook.” Those telling on them already have been hooked and in effect function as bait — worms wriggling to catch larger fish (systems change for faster-flowing funding streams).
The “protective-parent” “arguing against parental alienation” tactics (a subset of the larger whole) family-court-reform leaders (especially as associated with nonprofits, conferences, or some, even law school clinics) tend to be publicists, practicing (expert witness or other) psychologists, or lawyers, or even ex-judges sometimes involved professionally in the field. Individual mothers, especially, with custody-fiasco stories should resist being exploited by anyone for press coverage status and hoping that enough of it will produce effective improvements.
The family courts and family law (and/or “fixing” or reforming it) IS a field which MUST be better understood than it has been portrayed in “the press.” (Whether on-line or print media). There are economic considerations. There are court-connected-corporation considerations too, which the average court-reform leadership on a nonprofit board is generally not too eager to encourage investigation into… Such investigations (even simple “drill-downs” like I’ve been doing year after year) tend to uncover sponsors, backers, and alliances which sometimes reveal conflicts of interest and shed an entirely different light on the agenda (ultimate purposes). Investigations also may reveal how very small (size of nonprofit) some of the most vocal promoters are, that is, assuming the tax returns are telling the truth.
Individual parents involved in the courts who remain unaware of these issue because no one raised them, and their on-line or other searches haven’t caused a “stumbling across them” yet, cannot be said to have engaged in censorship. Then again, individuals’ “take-it-on-faith” and “accept-our-interpretation” without considering alternatives (the religious mindset, in a sense) is just unwise. Following leaders without basic background-checks of AT LEAST (where a nonprofit is involved) the leaders’ nonprofit’s self-descriptions as given to the IRS and any required Secretary of State (etc.) filings is minimum responsible behavior, even if one is oppressed and distressed by the present ongoing crises or emergencies a typical family law case may involve.
It’s also appropriate to look (I do this!) at friends-of-friends nonprofits speaking the same language.
The originating Page for this Post is:
My purpose here is just to raise certain issues and a few — certainly not comprehensive — examples of them.
When you see the above page title and sentence again, that’s where this post started. Before then, I talk about the relevance of this topic, with some examples.
From common on-line discussions among concerned parents and in conversing with people concerned about justice and the family courts, or domestic violence, child abuse involving themselves and their children, over the years I’ve sensed, with just a few exceptions, little consciousness or awareness of the nonprofit sector AS a sector, or its mutual collaborations and governmental collaborations to direct our lives. Names of individual entities will show up discussed along with their “causes” but few bring up objective discussions about the tax-exempt sector by definition affecting government.
This lack of sunlight facilitates private, unregulated and unmonitored development of alliances throughout the system or the presentation of “warring factions” when in fact the major divide seems to be less political persuasion, than functional niche on the public/private partnerships food chain.
I.e., in a quest for justice, if substantial cash flow is simply uncategorized and unseen, you can “forget it!” Justice, that is. That’s why I include more reminders here that as a whole, the “tax-exempt” sector is a historic and significantly powerful business sector, not just a few organizations with their respective causes.
I ran a printout of FY2015 Forms 990 and sorted them by assets (most billions to about 8.5 billion “Total Assets”). Top results (Image #1 of 4 taken) included: Harvard ($73B, billion dollars), Stanford and Yale and Princeton (in that order) and two “Bill and Melinda Gates” entities which, if combined, would’ve been the top of the list. However, Harvard Management Private Equity Corp. (or so labeled) at $14B also shows up… Second image: MIT, Columbia, and so forth (Two thumbnail images shown here; larger ones and the other two, below, with captions).
Notice which types of entities are the largest shown (of those search results displayed). They fall into certain categories which tend to either include institutional endowments of universities, health corporations (benefit, i.e., pension, administrators), insurance companies (people pay up front), credit unions, and probably one donor-advised foundation (I think). I was surprised that at $12 billion assets, even Ford Foundation wasn’t the largest. This tells us by TYPE of 990 or 990PF, 990-O filer, and generally speaking, where some of the largest (nonprofit only that is) assets are held — excluding of course ALL government entities, which by definition are not even on this database. Government entities are “on” there in the background — supporting scholarships to the universities, distributions for healthcare, federal grants to medical research institutions (etc.) as a sponsor (source of revenue TO nonprofits) and (did you know this?) also as ongoing direct recipients from nonprofits also. But because it’s a directory of charitable trusts (private-sector) naturally no names of government entities will show up as themselves. If you want to see one place they’re both shown together, look for “Bentley 500” (top assets infrastructure owners of the world. But, that’s only “hard assets.” I’ve posted it on this blog several times..)
The Forms 990 show this — direct grants to various government agencies to promote, pilot, or evaluate chosen projects. “How the heck” would these ever be consistently tracked?
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Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History 