DarkStar Spouts Off

#FlintWaterCrisis: The Filters Were A Feel Good Excercise

This was good, but was it effective?

Due to the inaction of state and federal officials, thousands of people in Flint have been exposed to unsafe levels of lead in their water. Now a group of union plumber are taking matters into their own hands.

On Saturday, 300 plumbers from unions across the country descended on Flint to install new faucets and water filters for free.

Many Flint residents needed new faucets because their existing faucets were so old they could not accommodate water filters provided by the state.

The effort was coordinated by the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, known as the United Association. The fixtures were donated by the Plumbing Manufacturers International.

Now, read this:

"Just heard one of the toughest stories I've heard in my life. Nakeyja, a resident of Flint, showed me how the government issued filter does not work. She tested it in front me and it was at 184 ppb. It's suppose to be less than 15. Her 1-year-old daughter is having seizures and tested very high for lead poisoning. And her 3-year-old son is not speaking and is staring at one location for long periods of time. She is testing him this week, but he is not doing well. We have poisoned our own people. Our children. American children. And there is no cure for lead poisoning. Russell and I were brought to tears. And we are hearing this at every house we visit. Beyond belief."

Clearly, people are being given Band-Aids for gunshot wounds in Flint. Babies are having seizures and testing positive for lead poisoning.

The filters are not working. The filters are not working. The filters are not working.

Look up Love Canal.

 

Net Neutrality: Give Them Enough Rope

Republican politicians who support the anti-net neutrality ruling are either technology idiots or their votes have been paid for by the Internet backbone companies or both. This is what I see happening.

Verizon will go to Google and say, "YouTube traffic is 30% of our back bone and last mile traffic. We are requiring that you pay us extra or we will reduce the YouTube bandwidth over our back bone by 20%."

But check this out it won't stop there.

Verizon will go to their users and say, "Your home usage indicates you streams movies from NetFlix or Amazon that is 20% of your Internet traffic. This puts you in our high use category. As a high use customer, we will add a high use fee to your service. BTW, if you use our FIOS package, on demand services won't count against your network usage."

Then they'll go to Netflix and say a similar thing they said to YouTube. Then Netflix will send you a letter telling you they have raised your rates.

This ruling stinks.

Local Black Radio: I Lost Medical Coverage Because of Obamacare

On a local Black talk radio station, in the morning, there has been discussion concerning people losing coverage under the ACA/Obamacare.

The host, Larry Young, has said that if anyone has had their plan dropped, they should be grateful because the plan they will get after this, will be better than the plan they had because their old plan didn't meet minimum standards. His co-host, "Coach" Butch McAdams said that he received a letter stating his health plan is being dropped and that he had three options. Continue the plan until it terminates in 2014, go to a comparable plan, now, that meets minimum standards, or let it lapse. Coach said his plan is "very good" and will continue until it terminates and then make a decision, but the cost of the comparable plan increases about $125/month. That is a $1,500/year increase in payments.

People who called the show, supported Obamacare and did not support Obamacare. There were a few people who said their coverage has been canceled as a result of Obamacare, according to the letters they have received, and those callers didn't appear to be happy, even with Larry Young saying they will get better coverage.

In listening over a few days, I was disappointed that no one was asking what the minimum standards were. For example, maternity coverage, abortion coverage, and birth control medicine are required to be offered in the coverage. Does a single man need that coverage? How about a woman past her child bearing time?

Also what wasn't discussed was the fact that employers were being forced to offer medical plans that are against their religious beliefs. Of course, the Catholic church is against the abortion coverage mandate.

I may call in if they discuss it next week to bring up things they didn't discuss.

Maryland'ers Got It With No Vaseline

Marylanders, if you think $100k/$150k-per family for increased taxes doesn't affect you, wait until next year when they come back and lower what they consider "high earners." Also, the part of the teacher's pension that is going to be responsible to be paid by the counties and Baltimore City, means your county/city tax is guaranteed to increase in the coming years.

HBCUs and Entrepreneurial Studies

In the Twitter-verse, many of the Black conservative/Republicans that I am following, rip Blacks, in general, for being dependent, lacking entrepreneurial spirit, etc. My question is, will Black conservatives/Republicans magnify this article or will they ignore it so they can continue their Black conservative/Republican victim strategy?

Entrepreneurial studies taking root at historically black colleges

Howard University’s School of Business has long offered courses in starting, running and managing a company. Many of its students have taken advantage of the school’s certificate program in entrepreneurship, while others have tapped the resources available through the department’s small business development center.

But in recent years, faculty and administrators realized that business students were no longer the only ones who need to know how to run a business, nor were they the only ones actively seeking that type of training.

“Our students have always been interested in entrepreneurship, but I feel like it really exploded over the last five years, and now it’s all over campus,” said Barron Harvey, dean of the School of Business at Howard, one of more than 120 historically black colleges and universities in the United States. “In particular, I think we are seeing more collaboration between different schools and departments on campus, where students in various fields of study want to learn how to be an entrepreneur. And it’s not just at Howard, I think that’s happening at schools like ours all across the country.”

The business school now partners with Howard’s schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and divinity to offer dual degree programs for students who may eventually want to launch their own enterprises. Meanwhile, at the undergraduate level, the university has introduced an entrepreneurship minor available to students of any major, and in the past few years, the nursing program and the communications department have added formal entrepreneurship programs catering to their own students.

There it is. In your face. WHAT!?!?!

Baltimore Dem Mayor Supports Talking Homes Over Wrong Water Bills

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-water-bill-hearing-20120320,0,2989228.story

Rhonda Wimbish says she has been battling Baltimore officials over a $300 water bill — more than six times her normal rate — for more than a year.

Now Wimbish, a single mother of a disabled child, says her West Baltimore home is scheduled to go to tax sale over the bill, which she maintains is inaccurate.

"What do I do? Do I pay my inflated water bill or do I feed my child?" Wimbish said to a City Council committee Wednesday evening. "I've gone through your process. I've done everything I could to fight this bill."

Wimbish was one of scores of angry residents who packed a hearing on water bill errors.



Mayor Rawlings-Blake, a Black woman, supports the city selling homes as a tax lien sale when the water bills issued by the city are wrong.

There MUST be lawsuits over this!

It's Wonderful Living In The State Of Maryland

It really is wonderful living in the state of Maryland. The government is run very well here.
What?
Huh?

Maryland Ranked Low Among States For Risk Of Corruption

Maryland came out 40th among the fifty states in an investigation into integrity in state government.

That's according to the nonprofit group, Center for Public Integrity, that gave Maryland a D- because of difficulty in getting information.

The state got an overall grade of D minus...with an F in public access to information.

Randy Barrett of the organization that spearheaded the study said one barrier in particular seems to keep the state among those with the least: transparency.

Barrett said, while there are laws on the books that guarantee the public access to government records, they often are not used or enforced.

The state also received F's in executive accountability, state pension fund management, and legislative accountability.

OH, forget what I just wrote. I guess that what happens when you live in a one party state.

The U. S. Financial Mess Stated Simply

From an article I saw somewhere, and now I can't seem to locate it:

That professionalism is evident in the GAO analysis of the net present value of the Social Security and Medicare promises Washington has made to Americans. “Net present value” means the total that would have to be set aside today to pay the costs of these programs in the future. The government puts these numbers in appendices, rather than in headlines. But the costs are real.

In fiscal 2011, the cost of the promises grew from $30.9 trillion to $33.8 trillion. To put that in context, consider that the total value of companies traded on U.S. stock markets is $13.1 trillion, based on the Wilshire 5000 index, and the value of the equity in U.S. taxpayers’ homes, according to Freddie Mac, is $6.2 trillion. Said another way, there is not enough wealth in America to meet those promises.

I think that does it.

 

Don't Fall For the BoA Okie Doke

Don't fall for the Bank of America okie doke.

Yes, they backtracked on the $5 debit card fee, but I bet they raised their fees on checking and/or savings accounts.

If Obama Introduced 9-9-9

If President Obama introduced 9-9-9, would Republicans scream about Obama introducing a new tax because 9-9-9 adds a federal sales tax without ending the payroll tax?

You CAN'T introduce a federal sales tax and keep the income tax, because all you are doing is introducing another way for the federal government to get money to spend on whatever they want to spend it on!

The Washington Post Targets The Middle Class

The Washington Post is going after income tax deductions that are available to families. This is a nasty hit piece, that I will go more into tomorrow. But I have things to do, tonight.

Broad tax breaks granted to millions of families at all income levels dwarf the corporate giveaways. Over the past two years, largely because of these popular benefits in the federal income tax code, the government has reached a rare milestone in tax collection — it has given away nearly as much as it takes in.

The government hasn't "given away", anything. It's not the government's money in the first place! It's as if these people think that money which is earned, belongs to the government and the government actually "let's us keep" what's left after they get their pound of flesh!

The number of tax breaks has nearly doubled since the last major tax overhaul 25 years ago, with lawmakers adding new benefits for children, college tuition, retirement savings and investment. At the same time, some long-standing breaks have exploded in value, such as the deduction for mortgage interest and the tax-free treatment of health-insurance premiums paid by employers.

All told, federal taxpayers last year received $1.08 trillion in credits, deductions and other perks while paying $1.09 trillion in income taxes, according to government estimates.

...

“The big money is in the middle-class subsidies,” said Syracuse University economist Leonard Burman, former director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “You’re not going to balance the budget by eliminating ethanol credits. You have to go after things that really matter to a lot of people.”

What I will say is , I don't understand why liberals in the media want to get rid of the home income tax deduction. It's as if they don't like people having a chance for home ownership.

The Government Shouldn't Decide "Winners" in Business

The government should decide which business is going to be "the winner" in any capitalistic system. So, from my standpoint:

1. The Small Business Administration should, at a minimum, stop giving small business loans, because they are choosing which "small businesses" they deem to have a plan for success vs failure.
2. All farm subsidies should be stopped. If a farmer can't survive without the government deciding farm businesses are "winners," then let them sell out to a bigger farmer, form a co-op, or sell the land to a developer who will do something else with the farm land.
3. Politicians should stop, immediately, placing loop holes into the tax structure to favor a single business or a class of business. If that's not picking winners, what is?
4. Privatize the patent and copyright protection system. Since the government is involved, it's picking winners and losers in both areas.

The few items above are what comes to mind right now. Is this a liberal idea? Is it a conservative idea? Is it a libertarian idea? Or is it Constitutionally based?

Roland Martin Speaks With Shelia Johnson Newman About Jobs

On the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Roland Martin interviewed Shelia Johnson Newman to discuss what President Obama should say concerning boosting the economy. Here are the take aways, as I heard it:

1. Don't promote another stimulus package.
2. Lower taxes.
3. Taxing the wealthy cannot be the only solution.
4. Her business accountants are telling her they can't plan because of they are unsure of regulations that may come from the Obama administration.

This is Shelia Johnson Newman, the ex-wife of Bob Johnson, founder of BET. This is Shelia Johnson Newman, supporter of President Obama.

 

No Real Cuts

Unless I misunderstand the compromise funding deal, I don't see any REAL funding cuts. But I am distracted.

 

Black Gentrification

Say what?!?!?!

Black people gentrifying a neighborhood?

A group of young black professionals in Anacostia has gathered over spinach-strawberry salad and white wine, when the conversation turns, as if often does, to what they call the “G-word”: gentrification.

“I used to think it was about race — when white people moved into a black neighborhood,” said lawyer Charles Wilson, 35, who lost to Marion S. Barry Jr. in the 2008 Ward 8 D.C. Council race. “Then, I looked up the word. It’s when a middle-class person moves into a poor neighborhood. And I realized: I am a gentrifier. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t like that word. It makes so many people uncomfortable.”

“Actually, I thought it was if you see a white guy in Anacostia, listening to an iPod, jogging or walking a dog!” joked Sariane Leigh, 33, who writes a blog called Anacostia Yogi, putting her hand on her hip and waving a sweet-potato fry for emphasis.

The friends fold into laughter. They agree not to use the G-word, at least for one night.

That doesn't happen! Does it?

Speaker of the House John Boehner Shows Why A Balanced Budget Amendment Is A Farce

Speaker of the House, John Boehner, shows, unintentionally, why a balanced budget amendment is a farce. Boehner created a plan to cut spending so the deficit ceiling can be raised. Unfortunately for him, the CBO showed his plan DIDN'T do what Boehner hoped it would do. It would only save $850 billion over 10 years.

Whoops.

Make no mistake, $85 billion a year is a lot of money, but, here's the thing. It doesn't even SAVE over the automatic budget increases. More later, but look up "baseline budgeting" and that's a good start on WHY
$85 billion a year is really NOT a cut.

Whoops x 2.

Democratic Mayor Bing To Poor Detroit: Tough Noogies!

OK, who believes that Democrats are the protectors of the poor?

DETROIT - Detroit's mayor unveiled a plan Wednesday that could determine what the city looks like as it fights for vitality, announcing that neighborhoods will receive different kinds of services depending on the conditions of homes, how many people live there and
the level of blight.

Mayor Dave Bing released details from his Detroit Works Project, calling them part of a "short-term intervention strategy" to serve residents at a time when the city has limited financial resources and a $155 million budget deficit.

"Our focus is going to be on the people in the neighborhoods," Bing said. "We can effect real change and improve neighborhoods."

Do I need to break this down?

Mayor Bing is going to support the areas of the city that need the support the least, and not support the areas of the city that need the support the most. So, look at this example. If area A is decent and
has a recreation center, the center will get support. But if area B is not decent, and has a recreation center, that center will not get support. Schools in more affluent areas will get more support, while
schools in other areas, will get less support.

Despite what he said about fire and police services, do YOU believe the police will serve the worst areas the same? Especially since they don't do it, now?

 

The U.S. Should Have Let Chrysler Fail and Saved $1.3 Billion

According to this, the U.S. lost $1.3 billion in the Chyrsler bailout.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. taxpayers likely lost $1.3 billion in the government bailout of Chrysler, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.

The government recently sold its remaining 6% stake in the company to Italian automaker Fiat, wrapping up the 2009 auto bailouts that were part of TARP.

Let me repeat, the U.S. TAXPAYERS GAVE AWAY $1.3 billion to a failing company!

For those of you who say the U.S. should get out of the wars we are in because other things can be done with the money, what about this?

401(K) In the Crosshairs of the Higher Tax Promoters

How does it make sense to want to tax 401(K)s when pension plans are on the way out?

To determine the loss to the government, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Treasury look at taxes lost each year because of new 401(k) contributions, as well as the interest earned on existing contributions, and then subtract taxes paid on distributions from 401(k)s. The difference ranks 401(k) retirement plans as the third most expensive provision on the administration’s list of tax expenditures, projected to deprive the Treasury of an estimated $67 billion in 2012.

Because 401(k)s have only been around for a few decades, however, the value of the contributions and interest earnings still far exceeds the value of distributions to retirees, Graff said. That means traditional methods dramatically overstate the amount of revenue that ultimately will be lost.

The study says that a more accurate measure of retirement savings incentives would estimate the value of the tax breaks over the lifetime of the accounts. By that measure, the study shows, the loss to the government would be as much as 77 percent lower than official estimates.

This is a direct attack against 401(K)s. A company can have a pension plan, go out of business, and the pension plan disappears. A company can have a 401(K) plan, go out of business, and the employees still have their retirement money.

"The loss to the government" as in the government DESERVES to get MORE of your payroll check?

Goldman Sachs Con Men

This is the ending of a long read on the con Goldman Sachs pulled.

Lloyd Blankfein went to Washington and testified under oath that Goldman Sachs didn't make a massive short bet and didn't bet against its clients. The Levin report proves that Goldman spent the whole summer of 2007 riding a "big short" and took a multibillion-dollar bet against its clients, a bet that incidentally made them enormous profits. Are we all missing something? Is there some different and higher standard of triple- and quadruple-lying that applies to bank CEOs but not to baseball players?

This issue is bigger than what Goldman executives did or did not say under oath. The Levin report catalogs dozens of instances of business practices that are objectively shocking, no matter how any high-priced lawyer chooses to interpret them: gambling billions on the misfortune of your own clients, gouging customers on prices millions of dollars at a time, keeping customers trapped in bad investments even as they begged the bank to sell, plus myriad deceptions of the "failure to disclose" variety, in which customers were pitched investment deals without ever being told they were designed to help Goldman "clean" its bad inventory. For years, the soundness of America's financial system has been based on the proposition that it's a crime to lie in a prospectus or a sales brochure. But the Levin report reveals a bank gone way beyond such pathetic little boundaries; the collective picture resembles a financial version of The Jungle, a portrait of corporate sociopathy that makes you never want to go near a sausage again.

Upton Sinclair's narrative shocked the nation into a painful realization about the pervasive filth and corruption behind America's veneer of smart, robust efficiency. But Carl Levin's very similar tale probably will not. The fact that this evidence comes from a U.S. senator's office, and not the FBI or the SEC, is itself an element in the worsening tale of lawlessness and despotism that sparked a global economic meltdown. "Why should Carl Levin be the one who needs to do this?" asks Spitzer. "Where's the SEC? Where are any of the regulatory bodies?"

This isn't just a matter of a few seedy guys stealing a few bucks. This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it. But the prominence of this bank and the high-profile nature of its confrontation with a powerful Senate committee makes this a political story as well. If the Justice Department fails to give the American people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are.

Business and Taxes

Amazon Packing After South Carolina Vote: http://tinyurl.com/3usx2cv

Amazon all but told South Carolina goodbye Wednesday after the online
retailer lost a legislative showdown on a sales tax collection
exemption it wants to open a distribution center that would bring
1,249 jobs to the Midlands.

Company officials immediately halted plans to equip and staff the one
million-square-foot building under construction at I-77 and 12th
Street near Cayce.

“As a result of today’s unfortunate House vote, we’ve canceled $52
million in procurement contracts and removed all South Carolina
fulfillment center job postings from our (Web) site,” said Paul
Misener, Amazon vice president for global public policy.

The decision came shortly after state representatives rejected the tax
break 71-47.

Education Is Big Business

I read the following this morning. Unfortunately, I'm not surprised.

When the leaders at the Baltimore International Academy read a property listing for St. Anthony's of Padua — a vacant Catholic school building that is nearly three times the academy's current size and five miles from its location — the $2.5 million price tag was an afterthought.

The advertisement posted by the Archdiocese of Baltimore boasted "big, bright and uplifting" classrooms that could alleviate the public charter school's cramped learning spaces. The building's "auditorium that converts easily into a cafeteria" could give kindergarteners who lunch at their desks a place to eat.

But the description for preferred applicants was not as promising: "This school building cannot be leased or sold to public charter schools," the listing said.

St. Anthony's is one of 13 vacant Catholic school buildings listed for sale or lease that the archdiocese decided should not be acquired by charter schools because they are considered a threat to its troubled Catholic school program.

The Catholic Church is a business as is their school system. Charters are having an effect on Catholic schools, and that's a shame. Sending one child to a Catholic school from pre-K to 8th grade is not that bad. But the price just about doubles for high school. Free vs. cost? Free is going to win many times.

NFL Lockout and Economics

The NFL owners have locked out the NFL players, so right now, it looks like there will be no NFL football for awhile.

If this lasts an extended period of time, this will be an object lesson on having "a lot" of money, some would say being rich, and being wealthy. Let's see how many football players with multi-million dollar per year contracts will face financial problems and even bankruptcy as compared to the NFL owners.

 

Black Business Growth Snippets

From the Census on Black Growth, a few snippets.

While the results are not yet in on how well they are doing, the creation of Black-owned businesses surged upward on the eve of the economic recession. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2002 to 2007, the number of these firms increased by 60.5 percent to 1.9 million, tripling the national growth rate of 18 percent.

According to the Census Bureau’s “Survey of Business Owners: Black-Owned Businesses: 2007,” the receipts produced by Black businesses also increased 55.1 percent to $137.5 billion. The survey, conducted by the Census every five years, provides in-depth information about Black firms’ sales, receipts, paid employees and payroll.

“Black-owned businesses continued to be one of the fastest growing segments of our economy, showing rapid growth in both the number of businesses and total sales during this time period,” Census Bureau Deputy Director Thomas Mesenbourg said in a statement.

...

According to the report, New York holds the top spot for African-American firms, with nearly 204,032 Black-owned businesses. The state also accounted for 10.6 percent of all Black-owned businesses in the nation.

...

Black businesses accounted for 34.6 percent of all businesses in Baltimore City in 2007, while in Washington D.C., they accounted for 28.2 percent of all businesses that same year.

The report also found that nearly four in 10 Black-owned businesses in the U.S. in 2007 were in the healthcare and social assistance; repair and maintenance and laundry services fields.

The last paragraph I quoted and emphasised was for my use later on.

The Nuclear Bomb Is Armed and Time Is Almost Up

The pension system is in trouble, in general, but it's the public pension system that is going to cause the most widespread damage.

US public pensions face a shortfall of $2,500 billion that will force state and local governments to sell assets and make deep cuts to services, according to the former chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund.

The severe US economic recession has cast a spotlight on years of fiscal mismanagement, including chronic underfunding of retirement promises.

“States face cost pressure, most prominently from retirement benefits and Medicaid [the health programme for the poor],” Orin Kramer told the Financial Times.

“One consequence is that asset sales and privatisation will pick up. The very unfortunate consequence is that various safety nets for the most vulnerable citizens will be cut back.”

I don't think there is much that can be done unless the terms of the pensions are drastically changed for future AND current pensioners.