Government Money and Intentional Poverty

Government Money and Intentional Poverty

What if you discovered that your husband, who is a garbage collector, had $12 Million in a hidden bank account that you couldn’t get your hands on and all you had to live on was his paycheck from Caddo Parish? You ask him about it and he says the paycheck is the family’s operating budget and the other money is for a rainy day. He explains that you have to stay on budget.

            You have three kids. All of you stay with your mama and your husband is talking crazy. What do you do?

            What do you do if you discover that Caddo Parish thinks like you husband? The operating budget shows that there is only about $21 Million to make ends meet, but there are accounts with say $213 Million or perhaps even a great deal more, which are protected by laws and policies so you can’t touch it.

            What if you discovered that the City of Shreveport and the State of Louisiana do this and that there are other areas within the state with orchards of money trees marked “private – no admittance”?

            “But that’s government money,” you say. “That’s my money.”

            “We’re saving this for a rainy day,” they say. “We have to keep a budget for the public good.”

            A government’s operating budget is out front, in your face. The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report hides money in plain sight – lots of big words, categories and subcategories.

            Feel like an NBA star who never learned to read? It’s happening all over the country.

            Rarely does a politician like Caddo Parish Commissioner Stephanie Lynch refuse to go along with the program. Like little David, standing before Goliath, she is trying to stop the Caddo Commission from gifting – not loaning -- $7.5 Million of your government money to Elio Motors, the company with the 3-wheeled car. The company offered no startup money and no guarantee of the promised 1500 jobs.          

The parish’s lawyer, Dannye Malone, argued that Lynch could not prove that she personally would be harmed irreparably if the money were given away. See. She filed her petition as a citizen, not a commissioner, meaning she used her own money. As David had no army, Lynch had no lawyer. Malone had two or three people passing him prompting notes.

            Ms. Lynch admitted that she had not been harmed, but from where I stand, she was. Her trust in the parish government had been destroyed, causing the lawsuit.

            The fight isn’t over, by the way. Look forward to a town hall meeting.

            Okay. “Are you all right?” as the preacher says. “You still with me?” Pray. Pray in gratitude for the Lynches of the world. Be grateful that you understand that your vote was not intended to give someone a key to the jailhouse of poverty so that they could hold you hostage. Be grateful that you understand that all of that money is yours. Be grateful that you understand that immoral laws can be changed. Slavery was legal. Segregation was legal. We have precedents. Everything is coming to light. No more hiding behind laws that protect officials while they systematically maintain a population enslaved by poverty.

            If you could go a step further, then pray for the hardened hearts of government officials.

            Cool heads, intelligence, and prayer are what is needed. Think anger is more powerful than prayer? Within and without, the United States is the most fortified country on the planet, but none of it can penetrate the power of collective prayer. Ask your grandmama.

            See you at the meeting.

12 Things to Consider When Thinking about Those in Power

12 Things to Consider When Thinking about Those in Power

1.       Bankers and corporations fund politicians through PACs (Political Action Committees). See 60 Minutes interview with Jack Abramoff: The Lobbyist’s Playbook,November 6, 2011.

2.       Politicians vote into law the policies of bankers and corporations. Bankers and corporations have been gambling away both public and private monies entrusted to them, namely bonds. See “U.S. Cities Get Fleeced in Libor Scandal”

3.       Because the derivatives scandal of Libor can no longer be hidden, cities, states, and countries are now claiming to be bankrupt.

4.       The solution of politicians is to sell off public land and services to the bankers and corporations who probably gambled the bonds away in the first place. These corporations will probably receive incredible tax breaks through loopholes placed by the banker/corporate-funded politicians who made the laws in the first place. Privatized services are less accountable to government regulations so the threat of cutting services is really a promise that has already been made on your behalf. See Sen. Bernie Sanders “The American People Are Angry”

5.      A better solution may be taking a look at the second set of government books that citizens are not supposed to know about. Cities like Detroit are unable to file for bankruptcy because the second set of books pops up in audits showing a huge surplus. Here is how it works. The first set of books is what the government shows the public in news stories, its operating budget. The second set of books disclose total assets in an annual report called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). You can look it up state-by-state or city-by-city or parish/county-by-parish/county or school board-by-school board, etc. The more you look, the more money you find. Supposedly, it is money put away for a rainy day, but it is a nesting ground for corruption and expense accounts. See Government Corruption Hidden In Plain Sight, Documents Known As Comprehensive Annual FinancialReports (CAFRs) .

6.      Neither the US, Louisiana, nor Shreveport are broke, yet they sell off public property and services to private corporations. Consider:

a.       Who owns the post office?

b.      Who owns the La DMV?

c.       Who owns prisons?

d.      Who owns medical systems?

e.       Why are these companies given monopolies, forcing citizens to pay for their services?

f.        Is selling public properties and services legal?

g.       Who owns the government?

h.       Which systems can we really trust?

7.      What I am describing is an international trend affecting every level of government. Telling the public that governments are broke, showing budgets without showing total assets, scaring the public into giving up public rights, services, and properties while cutting remaining services. All of these things and more are called austerity measures. The second set of books remains safely hidden while citizens are told to suffer for the good of the government. Laws are put into place to make sure that that is what happens.

8.      Another solution to the problem is to use the law and social media to expose politicians, budgets, and government regulators who have betrayed our public trust. Their names are a matter of public records. We’re talking about national legislators, governors, state legislators, city council members, mayors, commissioners, judges, district attorneys, everyone who uses PAC money to get elected or who votes PAC-sponsored legislation into law in hopes of getting PAC money.

9.      Here is more to think about. The Bill of Rights -- the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution -- were designed to protect the citizens from the government. It was never the government’s job to protect us. The government was designed to help keep us in balance so that we could live together in peace and harmony. Throughout the centuries, bankers, corporations, and politicians have been very good at creating catastrophes that generate so much fear that citizens slowly, but steadily, have handed to them public trust in exchange for their protection until now most citizens believe that governments are supposed to protect them. The derivatives scandal, however, is so large that they can no longer suck money anywhere else, but from citizens in Western countries. The usual course of action would have been to start a war. That is why Syria is so important. Supposedly, a war would not only generate funding, but restore the public’s trust in government protection.

10.  Governments are only entities set into motion whose systems we citizens are responsible for maintaining by asking questions, calling for audits, closing loopholes, demanding that regulators do their jobs, especially with transparency, and, here’s the big one, seeing each other as neighbors. If we weren’t so scared of each other, we never would have recognized a need for protection from those who do not have our benefit at heart.

11.  Divide and conquer – rich/poor, black/white, right/wrong – these are the tactics of those in power. It explains how they got into power and stay in power, feeding us a steady diet of confusion and chaos. It’s easy to implement scenarios of fear when you’re already confused. However, if it is clear to you that you love yourself, your family, your community, your neighbors around the globe and all creatures on the earth, then you know that you can work together with everyone to mend what is broken and solve what needs solving and that fear need not play a part in it.

If we rely on just a few people who declare themselves our superheroes and who alone have the solutions to our problems then they can hold us hostage by betraying our trust and that is exactly what has happened.

12.  No one person or small group of a privileged few can restore us to freedom. We must all work together as equals. Who is right and who is wrong are trivial to what is at stake and what is at stake is the freedom of the human race.

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10 Reasons Why We Should Not Fear the “Stand Your Ground” Law

“Stand Your Ground” Law

   “Fear Not”        

10 Reasons Why We Should Not Fear the “Stand Your Ground” Law

1.       We have the power to change the law.

2.       This law encourages cowardice. It is a skirt behind which the weak hide.

3.       Most people perceive themselves as brave and are willing to face what they fear. This law steals away that opportunity.

4.       This law is based upon fear and fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.

5.       Prayer changes everything.

6.       An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

7.       Laws should bind together not separate otherwise they are immoral. This is an immoral law.

8.       “The arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” MLK, Jr.

9.       The law is based upon irrational emotion, not a wholly considered logic; therefore, it creates far more problems than it solves. Violence is not a practical solution to a fear-based problem.

10.   Was an impartial poll taken to see if the law is the will of the majority of the population?

Colorofchange.org has a petition that you can sign on line.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

UNIA-ACL Mission Statement (Preamble to Constitution)

The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities’ League is a social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, institutional, constructive and expansive society, and is founded by persons desiring to the utmost to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world. And the members pledge themselves to all in their power to conserve the rights of their noble race and to respect the rights of all mankind, believing always in the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God. The motto of the organization is “One God! One Aim! One Destiny!” Therefore, let justice be done to all mankind, realizing that if the strong oppresses the weak confusion and discontent will ever mark the path of man, but with love, faith and charity towards all the reign of peace and plenty will be heralded into the world and the generations of men shall be called Blessed.