The Criminalization of Poverty as Hungry Americans Flood Major American Cities

Hunger in the US is now the highest since the era of the Great Depression as real unemployment is much higher than the 5.6% rate reported in the mainstream media (closer to 40-50% if you include the marginally employed); as earnings are stagnant or declining for 90% of the work force; as inflation of food prices spiral out of control, not to mention a significantly compromised social safety net and the subtle, yet continuous effort to criminalize poverty.  

Unlike now, during the Depression tightly knit communities and family farms stretched across the nation to provide a safety net that served to catch some or many of those who suffered the worst consequences of the failed economy.   Unlike now, people knew the entire nation was struggling.  They knew that times were hard and were less likely to fault the individual. 

Today, society is fragmented and the establishment media is taking advantage of that by deceiving people into believing our economy is improving and anyone who is not making ends meet...well, it's their fault! They're not trying hard enough!   In fact, the criminalization of poverty is a growing trend in America.

“But many things have changed in the last 50 years, some of them so recently as to have gone largely unnoticed by pundits and policy makers. The poor, and especially poor people of color, have long been over-represented in the prison population. This used to be attributed to the fact that the poor are more likely to be tempted by criminal activities such as theft and drug dealing. Just in the last ten years, however, it has become apparent that being poor is in itself a crime in many cities and counties, and that it is a crime punished by further impoverishment. As Karen Dolan explains in this hard-hitting report, a simple traffic violation – such as a broken tail-light – can bring down a cascade of fees and fines, which mount quickly if not paid on time and can lead to incarceration.

The mid-00s were a turning point in the criminal justice system’s treatment of misdemeanors. Local governments increased the fees, fines and court costs they levied for minor transgressions, and at the same time, increased the number of possible misdemeanors to include truancy (for which parents can be punished), driving with an expired license (as is the case in Washington, DC), putting one’s feet up on a subway seat (in New York City), and a variety of other minor infractions. The latter two are grounds for immediate arrest, leading to the imposition of fines and court costs. If the defendant cannot pay, he or she may be jailed and, in the ugliest twist of all – later charged for the cost of room and board, then re-jailed for failing to pay that. If the defendant is put on probation, he or she must pay for the probation officer and anything else required for monitoring, like an ankle bracelet.

Ferguson, Missouri helped bring attention to the extent of “offender-funded” criminal justice services. The city was relying on fees, fines, and court costs for 20 percent of its budget, effectively turning it into an occupied territory, with a 95 percent white police force supporting itself by forcibly preying on a nearly 70 percent black population.

Who benefits from this “criminalization of poverty”? In the short-term, municipalities and counties may appear to benefit, as well as the private companies that increasingly provide probation services and operate detention facilities and prisons. In addition, the increasing barriers, such as drug testing and criminal record searches, to social benefits like public housing, SNAP, and TANF may also temporarily help relieve cash-strapped local governments. But the overall effect is to perpetuate poverty and even expand the poverty population, to no possible good effect. Poor and indigent people cannot afford to pay for the means to coerce and incarcerate them, and nothing is gained by repeatedly jailing them. The criminalization of poverty – and increasing impoverishment of people judged to be criminals — amounts to a system of organized sadism.

This is the real “cycle of poverty:” Poverty leads easily to criminal charges from unpaid debts, unrenewed licenses and the like. Criminal charges in turn lead to ever-mounting debt and, despite laws prohibiting debtors’ prisons, to incarceration. There is no mystery about where government needs to intervene — first, by stopping the persecution of people who are already struggling to get by, and second, by mitigating that struggle

So, big cities across the nation are struggling to keep up with the growing number of homeless, hungry Americans. Washington, D.C., our capital wins this contest as it increased its homeless population by more than 60% in 2015. 

“The past year has marked the year of homelessness in the US as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Seattle — America's most populated areas — hosted a huge jump in the number of people on the streets, according to the Hunger and Homelessness study. Washington, D.C. ranks first in the list of cities with homeless as figures say it has 28 percent more homeless and 60 percent more transient families. The demand for food for the hungry rose 27 percent over last year's.

The survey said that across twenty-two cities including Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, homelessness rose by 1.6 percent overall and handouts increased by 3 percent over the past year.

The recently released US Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Survey presents the results of a survey of 22 of the citie s whose mayors serve on The U.S. Conference of Mayors' Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness.

A number of important findings emerged from the survey:

• Emergency food assistance requests rose by an average of 2.8 percent during the survey period in more than half, 61 percent, of the cities involved in the survey.
• Twenty-three percent of requests for emergency food assistance in the cities surveyed went unmet.
• Food pantries and emergency kitchens had to cut back on the amount of food given out as groceries or meals in 47 percent of cities involved in the survey. Additionally, in far more than half of cities surveyed, 57 percent, families and individuals had to cut down on the number of visits to charitable food outlets they could make each month. The same percentage of cities were unable to meet food requests by homeless and hungry residents demand because they lacked sufficient resources.
• Lack of affordable housing, an issue that continues to worsen in many places around the country, was the primary reason given for homelessness among families with children. Poverty, unemployment and low-paying jobs were the reasons that followed.
• In 50 percent of cities surveyed, mayors indicated they expected homelessness to rise “moderately” next year. Similarly, 65 percent of cities say they expect emergency food requests to “moderately” increase over the coming 12 months.

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Is Africa Facing a Bigger Threat Than Colonialism?

The impact of the G8 New Alliance For Food Security and Nutrition (New Alliance) does everything but accomplish what its title suggests. If anything, its false, repressive, spurious existence is a threat to food sovereignty and agro-ecology in Africa and elsewhere.  In other words, predatory capitalism under the pretense of  reducing poverty.

Oxfam found that "both the New Alliance and related policy reforms actually risk marginalizing small-scale agriculture, undermining land tenure security, and endangering the right to food of the most vulnerable people."

Simply put, New Alliance's agenda is the corporate takeover of Africa's food. African governments are reforming laws to benefit multinational corporations like Monsanto in return for western aid and investment. Farmers would be restricted from saving and swapping seeds, and many who buy them would end up in debt. Meanwhile, traditional seed varieties could be lost forever. The law actually says "farmers that use seed varieties claimed under new intellectual property rights by individuals and companies anywhere in the world risk hefty fines or even imprisonment."



According to Lauren McCauley,

“Under the specious claim of delivering "aid to Africa," western governments are backing an initiative—described by some as another form of "colonialism"—that is effectively enabling the corporate takeover of African nations by some of the world’s biggest food and agriculture companies."

Why do we allow the parasitic wealthy and powerful--those who live off the blood, sweat and tears of others, who talk openly about the horrors of third world overpopulation--free reign to decide what's in the best interest of third world people? They have clearly stated that we must reduce that population.  It's insane! Or, perhaps, most of us agree with these predators...as long as it's not us. 

“What small scale farmers need is investment in infrastructure that links them more locally and regionally...Where control and ownership over the means of farming, buying and selling food and the culture of food is held by farmers (and people)—not outside elites." -- Dan Iles, food sovereignty campaigner with Global Justice Now

Links:

Mycotoxins: The Cost of Achieving Food Security and Food Quality

Mycotoxin contamination of foods in Africa: Antinutritional factors

G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Not Supportive of Small-Scale Food Producers

Corporate influence through the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa

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Poverty is a Criminal Offense Even Punishable by Death.

Out of Reach 2012

Even though corporate profits have soared to record levels in recent years and the 1% continue to line their already lined pockets, most Americans are still struggling; there has been no economic recovery for the 99%. However, the "recovered" wealthy politically connected class has thoroughly convinced the waning middle-class to hate the poor, an ongoing effort since 1980. They tell the middle class, "Look how much it costs you to provide food stamps, welfare benefits, etc., to the poor," covering up the fact that they are the ones plundering all of the wealth, and effectively keeping the 99% at each others throats, therefore blind to the truth.

The mainstream media ensures that most of us stay blinded to that truth by continuously droning on and on about this "economic recovery" when, in actuality, median household income is actually 4.4 % lower than it was when the last recession officially "ended".  Economic recovery? How can that be when over  100 million American citizens are on welfare?  But despite the growing inequality between rich and poor, too many Americans still support the policies that deny basic humanitarian aid to our nation's poor, a population that's growing by leaps and bounds.

So it is, in the richest nation in the world, millions of people are out of work--or underemployed--homeless, and hungry, as it becomes increasingly commonplace to criminalize homelessness, not to mention, the act of helping the homeless. Those who dare to go out into the community to bring food and supplies are finding themselves arrested at an alarming rate. Yet, how does one get a job once you no longer have a home address, phone number, bus fare? If you become too ill to work?

Meanwhile, people experiencing homelessness are dying all over the nation. All too often, these lonely people are as invisible in death as they were in life.  At the very least, 700 homeless people freeze to death in the US every year.  In the Bay Area alone, since November 28, 2013,  seven homeless people died from exposure to the cold

Did you ever hear of Hart Island? No?  Well, you're not alone.  Hart Island is "a thin, half-mile long blip of land at the yawning mouth of Long Island Sound, just across the water from City Island in the Bronx" and is the largest publicly-funded mass grave site in the U.S. which has been closed to the general public for the last 35 years. Almost one million unclaimed/unknown dead, mostly homeless, are buried there. Loved ones are prevented from freely visiting these almost impossible-to-find grave sites. In Arpil of this year, an online searchable database of burial records was set up, however, access is limited to a small gazebo near the dock, rather than any of the actual burial sites.

“Its most important role has been to serve as what’s known as a potter’s field, a common gravesite for the city’s unknown dead. Some 900,000 New Yorkers (or adopted New Yorkers) are buried here; hauntingly, the majority are interred by prisoners from Riker’s Island who earn 50 cents an hour digging gravesites and stacking simple wooden boxes in groups of 150 adults and 1,000 infants. These inmates—most of them very young, serving out short sentences—are responsible for building the only memorials on Hart Island: Handmade crosses made of twigs and small offerings of fruit and candy left behind when a grave is finished."

Moreover, 41 states have debtors' prisons. Even though the U.S. officially made debtors' prisons illegal in the 1830s, you can still be jailed for showing "contempt of court" during a creditor lawsuit.  In Ohio they're throwing people into jail for as little as $300! That's right, in Huron County, "more than one in every five of all bookings...involved a failure to pay fines." 

Most of the homeless in America are just regular people (over 40% working) trying to survive, a situation that anyone of us can find ourselves in, yet, so many remain callous, as if it cannot happen to them.  If society is judged by the way it treats the least of its citizens, well...

Links:

Cities' homeless crackdown: Could it be compassion fatigue?

Bloomberg Strikes Again: NYC Bans Food Donations to the Homeless.

Prohibitions on Sharing Food with People Experiencing Homelessness

Poor Give More Generously Than the Rich

Charity and the poor: The rich and their 'bah humbug' attitudes

Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity The wealthiest Americans donate 1.3 percent of their income; the poorest, 3.2 percent. What's up with that?

Why Do the Rich Give Less than the Poor?

Food Not Bombs

Interfaith Hospitality Network

A mother loses her job, a father is kept from working by an injury, a family is forced from their home by fire or natural disaster. Healthcare costs soar, public transportation is underfunded, affordable housing is almost impossible to find. These are the reasons why families now make up 40 percent of the homeless population, and why one out of every four homeless people is a child.

In response to this crisis, the Interfaith Hospitality Network brings the faith community together to help families regain their housing, their independence, and their dignity. IHN is a partnership of congregations within a community helping families who are facing homelessness. It offers an opportunity for volunteers of all faiths to reduce homelessness and transform lives.

Interfaith Hospitality Networks are currently operating in 41 states and the District of Columbia, in large cities, suburbs, and rural counties. They mobilize community resources: houses of worship for lodging, congregations for volunteers, social service agencies for assessment and referrals, and existing facilities for day programs. This strategy enables networks to help homeless families achieve lasting independence at a third of the cost of traditional shelters.

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75.4% of All U.S. Wealth is Owned by by the Top 10%!

I've always believed that we, the American, live in the best of all possible worlds and much to my surprise, after all I've learned, and after all I've complained about,  I still do, although to a much lesser degree, of course.  I realized this when I came across the headline," America Is the Most Inhumane Developed Country on the Planet..."  My immediate reaction, at the gut level, was shock.. that is, until I had time to think about the extraordinary incarceration rate, the millions and millions of people without health insurance, the millions and millions of people without  enough food to eat, without safe shelter, without  the means to pay off exorbitant student loan debt, without full employment, or in an increasing number of cases, without employment at all....

However, if I didn't know just how inhumane our nation has become, the fourth edition of the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook (2013) cinched it for me.  The report ranked the US as the most unequal of all advanced economies. The Gini coefficient-, the standard measure of a nation's wealth-inequality (a Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality) in the U.S. is 85.1.  That's right,  we're thee number one most unequal of the 20 developed nations in the world! 75.4% of all U.S. wealth is owned by by the top 10%!   Followed by:

Denmark, with 72.2% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Switzerland, with 71.5% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Sweden, with 71.1% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Israel, with 68.9% of its wealth owned by the top 10%
Norway, with 65.9% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Germany, with 61.7% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Singapore, with 61.1% of its wealth owned by the top 10%
Ireland, with 58.4% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
New Zealand, with 57.6% of its wealth owned by the top 10%
Canada, with 57.4% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Netherlands, with 54.6% of its wealth owned by the top 10%
Spain, with 54% of its wealth owned by the top 10%
U.K., with 53.3% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Italy, with 49.8% of its wealth owned by the top 10%
Japan, with 49.1% of its wealth owned by the top 10%,
Finland, with 44.9% of its wealth owned by the top 10%

Hell, we even beat Chile (72.5%), India (73.8%), Indonesia (75.0%), and South Africa (74.8%)!

At the other end of the wealth spectrum, the bottom 90% of the U.S. population own only 24.6% of all the privately held wealth in our nation, whereas in most of the other developed nations, the bottom 90% own, on average, approximately 40% of the wealth.

Moreover, not surprisingly, this so-called "economic recovery" has only benefited the richest Americans, as the richest 1% of Americans have received 95% of the income-gains since the 2008 financial crash, raising their incomes by 31.4%.

Once again, this should come as no surprise in a world where the richest 300 people on earth have more money than the poorest 3 billion.

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Are Millions About to Go Over the Hunger Cliff?

While the price of food is substantially increasing, the food-stamp program is now set to downsize as there's a big automatic cut scheduled for tomorrow that will trim $5 billion from federal food-stamp spending, disproportionately affecting children, seniors, and people with disabilities. That's not counting the 900.000 veterans and their families who will receive cuts to their benefits as well.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), this cut will average less than $1.40 per person per meal and jeopardize the strength of the current economic recovery. Moreover, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP) "each $1 billion dollar reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eliminates 13,718 jobs," resulting in more than 68,000 job losses in the coming year.

Keep in mind that programs such as SNAP have what economists call a "multiplier effect"—in other words, "a dollar given to an entitlement recipient has amplified economic benefits. In this case, those consist primarily of the grocers who benefit when food stamp users shop in their stores. The estimated multiplier effect for food stamps is as high as 2 to 1."

Billions more in cuts are scheduled to occur in the following two years, despite the fact that food insecurity in America has not even begun to return to pre-recession levels.

But who cares? The stock market's soaring to new heights despite the income disparity that continues to widen at unprecedented levels.

“If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food,” -- Margaret Purvis, , president and CEO of the Food bank for New York City,

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The Bought and Paid For Black Misleadership Class and the Neutraization of Black Politics

Glen Ford, creator of Black Agenda Report, who so often writes about the "Obama delusional state", where Black politics has been essentially neutralized, presented “The Black Misleadership Class Versus the Movement and its Legacy," to friends of Black Agenda Report gathered at New York City’s historic Riverside Church to celebrate the publication’s 7th anniversary on Friday, October 18.

The "Black Mis-Leadership Class", according to Glen Ford, "sees its own personal financial and social interests as being synonymous with the progress of black people as a whole. This class does not seek transformation of society, it seeks only their own elevation within the existing structures. The rest of Black Amereica,, as far as they're concerned, is supposed to applaud their individual success no matter what is actually happening to the masses of black people at the bottom. It is the politics of putting black faces in high places and to hell with those of us stuck at the bottom, or those of us who are below the bottom in the U.S. prison gulag."

Ford used the examples of rising political star, Cory Booker and already established political star President Barack Obama, who, in reality, are both front men for capital, front men for "the man" and front men for the empire, to illustrate the inherent danger of the black establishment to the American black population. What danger? The disastrous consequences that will result if these self-serving politicians succeed--and it appears as if they most certainly are-- at eliminating the mass movement of African Americans who traditionally acted as a "countervailing force to the power of capital," becoming even more influential internally in Black America, leaving "little hope of effective progressive resistance to the rule of Wall Street, its servants in government, and for peace."

“Has the fake-progressive, fake-liberal and in fact deeply conservative FTBP not been granted far too much of a pass on the power-friendly and authoritarian content of his character by those who have been bamboozled into thinking there was something inherently and magically progressive, egalitarian, and democratic about the initially and outwardly startling fact of a black family entering the White House in the land of chattel slavery? As some of us on the Left said from the beginning of Obama’s celebrity, the real story behind the Obama phenomenon has been the ruling class playing the race card in a different way than in King’s time, flipping it, so to speak – a winning strategy for the Democrats at the national level in the post-Civil Rights era, when changing demographics and the more superficial victories of the Civil Rights Movement have made victory possible for nonwhite candidates in national elections. -- Paul Street

Martin Luther King, Jr. is, undoubtedly, rolling in his grave, ironically,  at the election of the first "Black" President, who has managed to crush MLK's dream of:

“...forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws – racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of out society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that radical reconstruction society of society itself is the real issue to be faced.”

Going "Beyond Obama" requires successfully passing through and politically defeating that ancient black American political current that holds that achieving the maximum number of black faces in high places is thee root to black progress, to black upward mobility, to black nirvana."



Links:

Black is Back Coalition

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48% of American Public School Children are Poor

As income inequality continues to rise and more people fall into poverty, or near poverty, innocent children bear the brunt.  According to a new study by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF), "A New Majority: Low Income Students in the South and the Nation", "low income children are a majority of students in the public schools of 17 states across the nation - and 13 of those states are in the South. Without fundamental improvements in how the South and the nation educate low income students, the trends that this report documents will ricochet across all aspects of American society for generations to come."

Unfortunately, problems faced by children coming from households where poverty is a daily fact of life are only exacerbated by conditions in schools that are severely lacking funds, as in the Philadelphia school district, where they suffer from a $304 million deficit--where thousands of staff and teacher positions have already been eliminated in recent years--which threatens to devastate Philadelphia, putting its school children in harm's way.

“In 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett cut $1 billion in state school aid. The cut fell hardest on Philadelphia and other districts with high enrollments of poor children, English language learners, and students with disabilities...

The state aid cut has devastated Philadelphia. Tens of neighborhood schools closed. Class sizes of 30 or more. No art, music and physical education. Librarians and support staff gone. A handful of high school guidance counselors left with astronomical case loads. Children are now in harm's way from the loss of school nurses, social workers and security personnel.

The Governor's aid cut has transformed Philadelphia into an education wasteland, consigning students to schools without the most basic resources."

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Mother Teresa: Saint or Saint of the Media?

To be frank, I never was a fan of Christopher Hitchens, therefore, I never took his criticisms of Mother Teresa (born Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu) seriously, and I'm still not sure if his criticisms are valid. But I want to make sure I'm not allowing my dislike for Hitchens as an excuse to dismiss his accusations completely. After all, to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, Mother Teresa is a modern day icon of altruism, and selflessness in a world where all the focus is on the self, so her sacred personage represents an all-important light in what seems like a never-ending "Dark Night". Nevertheless, there is no justification for failing to get to the truth of the matter.

Through exposure of her private writings, it has come to the attention of many that Mother Theresa, like many Saints before her, did not feel the presence of God, that she experienced Christ "neither in her heart or in the Eucharist," yet despite this, she never stopped serving Christ. While the media played her doubts up as a failure, or hypocrisy on her part, many people of faith would call her continued devotion in the midst of "agonizing doubts" and torment, a sign of the highest level of faith that there is. To be sure, millions of people around the world can relate to her struggle.

However, one question remains. What kind of treatment did the sick and the dying receive in Mother Teresa's facilities considering the vast sums of money collected through her foundation, which included large sums from the Nobel Peace committee as well as numerous institutions and organizations, both religious and secular, not to mention, wealthy individuals?

Serge Larivee and Genevieve Chenard of the University of Montreal and Carole Senechal of the University of Ottawa reviewed more than 280 documents, representing 96% of the published work on Mother Teresa and the Order of the Missionaries of Charity that she founded. The investigators reported that physicians who visited her facilities “observed a significant lack of hygiene, even unfit conditions, as well as a shortage of actual care, inadequate food, and no painkillers.”

Be that as it may, there is nothing like personal first-hand observation. One man, a witness of Mother Teresa and the sisters in her order posted the following comment which may shed some more light on to this issue.

“I have personally witnessed and testify to the selfless and unmatched love Missionaries of Charity have displayed working with mentally disabled orphan children in Armenia. In 1988 Armenia's northern part was rocked by a strong earthquake leaving more than 20,000 dead. Within weeks Mother Teresa traveled to Armenia establishing a care center near the city of Spitak, which for many years operated in mobile homes. In 2003 I visited there after an American friend (Ph.D in Music) visited them and recommended me to visit as well. I was struck by the unparallelled love and care these young sisters were giving to more than 40 mentally disabled orphan kids. I would go against my consciousness to say anything less than great about these sister. To this day I remember the true, selfless love and enthusiasm they were putting in their care for these children. I knew I was not that strong, as probably the author of this book, to do the same.

These sisters, who came from different parts of the world, explained that they do this without seeking any reward in this world. Their eyes were toward the Kingdom of Heaven and toward the true love of Jesus, two concepts so foreign to the overwhelming majority of people, including those who are called to serve Him.

As Serge Larivée and his colleagues point out, even if Mother Teresa did not live up to the image portrayed in the media, there have been and continue to be positive effects that can be attributed to the image of Mother Teresa:

“If the extraordinary image of Mother Teresa conveyed in the collective imagination has encouraged humanitarian initiatives that are genuinely engaged with those crushed by poverty, we can only rejoice. It is likely that she has inspired many humanitarian workers whose actions have truly relieved the suffering of the destitute and addressed the causes of poverty and isolation without being extolled by the media. Nevertheless, the media coverage of Mother Theresa could have been a little more rigorous."

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Every 28 Hours a Black Person is Killed by Law Enforcement.

FBI statistics are becoming increasingly race neutral in their reportage, and for a good reason, they don't want you and I to know the truth: that, despite our Black president, racism did not disappear, it's alive and well, albeit, much more intelligent, a new invisible racism, if you will.

The disproportionate number or percentage of African Americans that are mass incarcerated (prisons are criminogenic--breeders of crime), murdered as a result of the "war on drugs",  extra-judicially executed (killing by police/security guards--non self-defense--that happens without trial or any due process), not to mention the  doubled rate of unemployment and lack of opportunity is clearly a systematic attack on the Black community. This does not bode well for future generations.

There is no centralized database that documents killings by police, extrajudicial or otherwise, so Kali Akuno of the Malcolom X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and his colleagues, combed through all the mainstream media and police reports from 2012, cross referencing the names, race, factors and circumstances surrounding their deaths, and then following up on leads, concluding in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement report: A Curriculum for Operation Ghetto Storm: Report on the 2012 Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards and Vigilantes that every 28 hours, a Black person--primarily Black males between the ages of 18 and 30--is executed by law enforcement. At the very least, without due process, 313 Black people were killed in 2012, most of whom were unarmed. Please note that this does not include the number of Latinos.

“The United States government is intent on creating more and more laws and practices that target Black, oppressed, and impoverished communities. The aim is social control to maintain the status quo, and they will go to whatever extent necessary, including extrajudicial killings and acts of genocide, to achieve this aim." -- Kali Akuno, organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement..

The government structuring of underground economies, in particular, the drug/sex trade, and its international circuit of capital underlies and perpetuates the ongoing attack on Black America, which relies on police brutality, police brutality that is rooted in the American system itself, a system based on violence, inequality, racism, white privilege, and profit-seeking exploitation.

From Your World News:

“What does this do? This message -- this is a very skillful message used by racists to make the whites who aren’t racists think that the rate of crime in the Black community is so high. This keeps the Black community in the image of a criminal. It makes it appear that anyone is the Black community is a criminal. And as soon as this impression is given, then it makes it possible, or paves the way to set up a police-type state in the Black community, getting the full approval of the white public when the police come in, use all kind of brutal measures to suppress Black people, crush their skulls, sic dogs on them, and things of that type. And the whites go along with it. Because they think that everybody over there’s a criminal anyway. This is what --the press does this. -- Malcolm X”

“They accuse us of what they themselves are guilty of. This is what the criminal always does. They’ll bomb you, then accuse you of bombing yourself. They’ll crush your skull then accuse you of attacking him. This what the racists have always done -- the criminal, the one who has criminal processes developed to a science. Their practice is a criminal action. And then use the press to make you victim -- look like the victim is the criminal, and the criminal is the victim.” -- Malcolm X

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Criminalizing Poverty: Debtor's Prison For the 99%.

Today, it was reported that the unemployment rate declined even as those not in the labor force grew by over 660,000 to 90 million.  However, the real unemployment rate is 23%. if you include, "estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994," and "short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment."

No jobs, stagnant wages, soaring food prices, soaring food stamps, millions of underwater home owners and millions of homes in shadow inventory, etc., but, despite all this "the economic recovery is on track" according to the mainstream news. The simple truth is the dream of a new home, a new car, secure retirement and nice vacations is just that, a dream. The new more attainable dream is a frugal lifestyle demanding sacrifice and hardships, simply to ensure survival, that is, without ending up in debtor's prison,.

No, this isn't 1830. It's 2013, and thousands of Americans are sent to jail because they can't afford to pay their bills.  That's right, courts and judges in states across the U.S. are incarcerating people for not being able to pay debts such as traffic tickets, medical bills and court fees.

At the same time that the economy worsens, and poverty increases, the financial and legal penalties for being poor in America are only getting worse. Apparently, people are supposed to earn money despite the fact that jobs were shipped overseas decades ago to ensure corporate profits by the same sadistic class of people who plundered the wealth of the people. Well, they need a scapegoat, and who better than those who cannot protect themselves: the poor. Meanwhile, the plundering class is squirreling away trillions in offshore accounts.

Federal imprisonment for unpaid debt has been illegal in the U.S. since 1833. But it is legal in one-third of the states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Washington. However, it doesn't really seem to matter if it's legal or not; Ohio's not listed, yet, "several courts in Ohio are illegally jailing people because they are too poor to pay their debts and often deny defendants a hearing to determine if they're financially capable of paying what they owe, according to an investigation released Thursday by the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union."

Links:

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

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$46 Trillion Mostly Held by the Top One-Tenth of One Percent of Americans

“The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight.”– Michael Lind

In total, US millionaire households have at least $45.9 trillion in wealth, the majority of this wealth is held within the upper 0.1% of the 1% population according to the report by David DeGraw, Analysis of Financial Terror. Meanwhile an astounding 62 million Americans have a zero net worth, and 68.3 million Americans struggle to put food on their table. That's right, the very same people, the top one-tenth of one percenters, 300,000 out of 300 million people, essentially responsible for the devastating economic damage to the US,whilst benefiting greatly, have almost $46 trillion in wealth. Remember, $1 trillion is equal to $1000 billion! Imagine, what $46 trillion can do for you.

And unlike those in the lower half of the top 1%, the top 0.1%--not to mention, the 99.9%--can often borrow as much as they want at very nearly 0% interest, keep profits and production offshore, store personal assets in tax havens, ride out down markets and economies, and greatly influence legislation in the US. They have access to the best of the best in accounting firms, attorneys, consultants, private wealth managers, and access to a network of other wealthy and powerful friends, lucrative business opportunities, and on and on and on...

However, thanks to the absence of reporting and/or the reporting of outright lies on this issue by the mainstream media--despite growing financial hardship--most of us are left to believe the rest of the nation is coming out of this financial crisis and getting back on their feet. Add to that, statistics based on rather primitive and outdated poverty/unemployment measures. Although, all one has to do is drive around and see  the empty storefronts that line the streets of the wealthiest nation in the world.

The following excerpts come from  Michiganjf and Jon who commented on the show The End Of Middle Class Neighborhoods? on On Point with Tom Ashbrook. 

"Well, 30 years of Reaganomics and the Republican Revolution has allowed the super-wealthy to "trickle down" on the heads of the middle class and the poor in America... allow the wealthiest 1% to squeeze every penny they can out of the middle-class (those who actually spread money throughout the economy and kept it thriving for so long), and of course it eventually leads to the demise of once healthy middle-class neighborhoods!

Just check out On Points recent show on "Dirty Politics and Big Money" for an idea of the ways in which "The Club for the Rich" rigs the game for their own private and exclusive benefit, bestowing temporary Visas into the Land of the Wealthy unto politicians who "play ball" by the Club Rules.

The wealth, savings, and homes of the middle-class are fodder for the super-wealthy to milk at will:

• The market goes down, the wealthy make a bundle while the rest of America gets wiped out
• The market goes up, the wealthy make 99% of the profit
• The middle class saves money, the wealthy use institutionalized gambling to leverage those savings at absurd risk for their own gain, hedging their leverage for their own gain if the poor suckers' savings get wiped out
• Got a good job? Wait a while... the wealthy will see that your employer is liquidated for a nice tax write-off; or maybe they'll restructure and send your job off to China to improve the value of their executive preferred stock options
• Need cheap gas or food to make ends meet? Well, a nicely cornered commodity and some specualtive maneuvering will see to it that oil gets a $30 jump to makes someone billions almost overnight; or perhaps wheat, or corn, or pork
• You'd like to see that decaying bridge fixed so you don't end up having to add an hour to your commute? Well, Government's broke because the wealthy needed another tax cut... or perhaps a few million tossed by industry lobbyists saw to it that those infrastructure dollars were spent on corporate subsidies instead.
• Start a brilliant business and now want to take it public? Well, you'll get in on the IPO, of course... but the rest of the IPO stock needs to be reserved for the bank's "more deserving clients..." we don't want just anybody in on this money-maker, do we?

... But Hey, let's protect those tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% who milk the rest... even if not compromising means giving up the 4 trillion in deficit reduction the Dems and the Prez offered up in exchange,
[...]
Then you wouldn't be an industry lobbyist looking for corporate subsidies at the expense of infrastructure development! Good, successful programs start to suffer at the hands of the Mismanagement Kings who would rather see taxpayer dollars go to corporate welfare, tax breaks for those who don't need them, and the military-industrial complex... after all, why spend the money on Government programs that work well for 99% of Americans."

and from Jon:

"I'm an Electrical Engineer with a Masters Degree in Biomedical Engineering. I'm 57 and was layed off two years ago when the business I was associated with went under. At my age (ageism is accepted in our sociaty) I've given up after 100+ resumes. Luckly my wife is a tenured academinc, otherwise our situation would have been quite serious. Yes we are still middle class, however if the situation was a little different we would have been catapolted into the growing ranks of the distressed. I'm now doing furniture and cabinet work that grew out of what was a hobby. I've gone from being saleried to hourly and although I own my own buisness, my revenue is joined to the hip of the failing economy. Our income was cut by more than half and I feel like the very fabric of what made this country great is being torn apart.

Not only have our values been turned upside down, exalting greed and technology to the level of god, we no longer create value. Manufacturing and even services are increasingly chase cheap labor all over the world. At the same time institutionalized gambling--the stock/bond/derivative markets--has taken over, creating nothing, or counterfeit "value". The jobs have been shipped overseas, or "in-sourced", leaving us with a feudal system of lords and serfs. A perpetual underclass and permanent overclass.

This did not happen overnight. Rising home equity and easy credit masked the ever-increasing deficit in wages and purchasing power. But now that they've crashed the housing sector and tightened credit, the veil is beginning to rise, revealing the ugly reality. Moreover, the predator class is cashing in and increasing our burden tenfold, ensuring that the next generation faces a third world society, a reality they are not prepared for, given they've been dumbed down and distracted by glitzy celebrities and super shiny technology.

Links:

Full Report: The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America

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A Class That Rules and a Class That is Ruled.

Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Well, we failed that test thanks to the insidious forces that turn progress into retrogression, that culminates in a society divided into a class that rules and a class that is ruled...into a society of the very rich and the very poor.

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Goldman Sachs Earns Millions Off the Backs of the Starving.

As usual, Goldman Sachs did quite well for themselves last year as their revenue increased by 30%, their stock price by 40%. But it is the estimated $400 million they made in 2012 from speculating on food including wheat, maize and soy, that is the most disturbing.  Why? Because betting on food prices jacks of food prices, contributing  further to a growing global food crisis.

Read more about it here.

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Walmart is Largest Recipient of Public Aid in Country

Retail giant Walmart posted profits of $15.4 billion in 2011, while paying their employees an average salary of $22,100 a year. The current poverty level for a family of four is $23,050.

So how do Walmart employees survive?

The burden falls on American taxpayers to provide food stamps and Medicaid -- at the cost of $2.66 billion annually -- to make up the difference, reports PoliticsUSA.com.

Walmart also tries to profit by encouraging employees to spend their food stamps in Walmart.

Republicans are fighting to keep corporate welfare intact but, at the same time, they want to slash food stamps and Medicaid to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year.

Representative-elect Alan Grayson (D-FL) appeared on Current TV's 'The Young Turks' on Monday and claimed that Walmart is “the largest recipient of public aid in the country."

Grayson said: “The taxpayer pays for the earned income credit. The taxpayer pays for Medicaid. The taxpayer pays for unemployment insurance when they cut hours down. And the taxpayer pays for other forms of public assistance like food stamps. I think the taxpayer is getting fed up of paying these things when, in fact, Walmart could give every employee its got, even the CEO, a 30 percent raise and still be profitable.”

“In state after state after state, Walmart employees represent the largest group of Medicaid recipients, the largest group of food stamp recipients, and taxpayers shouldn’t have to bear that burden. It should be Walmart. So, we’re going to take that burden and put it where it belongs: on Walmart.”

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2012: Foodstamps Thanksgiving in America.

More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from The Sunlight Foundation. That's right. This Thanksgiving, 42.2 million Americans will be on food stamps, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), average participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp program, has increased 70% since 2007. And economists have warned that usage of food stamps won't go down until unemployment improves.

 One person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of a cup of coffee.

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U.S. Ruling Class and the Expendable Class

Whether it's Paul Ryan showing up uninvited to clean already clean pots and pans at a homeless shelter, or the military and/or SWAT teams hunting the homeless for target practice, or the extensive toxic experimenting on the homeless, African Americans, and the lower-income, inner-city folks , revealed recently, or the overwhelming percentages of people from the lower socioeconomic strata behind bars for non-violent offenses, or the overwhelming number of minority poor awaiting execution,  it's clear how America's "naturally selected" cultural, political and socioeconomic ruling class regard  the lower class: expendable, disposable, nonessential, replaceable, unimportant, and only useful insofar as they function as lab rats to further their own interests...to quench their insatiable appetite for profit, power and privilege.

Just recently, it was reported that potentially deadly human experimentation is taking place this very day – sanctioned by the U.S. government! That's right. Illegal human experimentation by the EPA for the purposes of determining the effect of poisons is taking place right now. And let's not forget that 40-49% of homeless men are veterans. That's the thanks they get for fighting the wars that  line the already lined pockets of the rich and powerful.  That is, those who survive bloody combat.

The aforementioned examples are only a drop in the bucket.   Dig deep enough and one could fill an encyclopedia with cases illustrating the attempt by the "naturally selected" to dehumanize the portion of the population who were not born into, or have not "achieved" worldly success.  In other words, those "unfortunates", who were not naturally selected to become gods upon the earth. Because that is exactly how the ruling class see  themselves--as gods, or emerging gods. 

"The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.” -- Albert Einstein

Of course, none of this is new. Not at all. However, there is no doubt that as the wealth becomes more concentrated in the hands of the few, and technology continues to replace human beings in the workplace, and elites have no allegiance to anything but chasing the highest returns and cheapest labor around the globe, an ever-increasing number of us join the ranks of the easily sacrificed.

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Continuous Cycle of Child Poverty: US 2nd Highest Rate In the Developed World

After hearing the US is #2, to be sure, Mitt Romney exclaimed, "Why aren't we #1, dammit?!?"  while, under his breath,  President Obama mutters, "I got Osama."  Anyway.......... 

Child Poverty Rates in Developed World

The most recent U.S. Census Bureau  poverty data shows millions of families struggling fiercely to keep their heads above water.  According to the census, fourteen states saw statistically significant increases in their child poverty rates, 26 states saw small increases, and nine states and the District of Columbia saw small declines in child poverty rates last year. The bottom line is that 16.1 million children are living in poverty in our wealthy nation with more than 7 million living in extreme poverty.

Moreover, if you use the definition of poverty used by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which states a child is living in poverty if he or she is growing up in a household where disposable income, when adjusted for family size and compensation, is less than 50% of the median disposable income, 30 million children are living in relative poverty.

So, given America's immense wealth, the U.S. has/has had unusually high rates of child poverty and income inequality, even prior to the 2008 financial meltdown. In fact, the U.S. has one of the highest child poverty rates in the developed world.  Only Romania surpasses the U.S.

One of the problems is that the U.S. does little to assist low-income working families who, despite each adult working 40 hours per week or more, do not earn enough to make ends meet. 

Yet despite the toxic toll a high child poverty rate takes on a nation as wealthy as the U.S., our political leaders rarely if ever mention it.  It's only very recently that  President Obama broke his silence on child poverty while Mitt Romney ignores the issue completely.  After all, children do not vote and they do not pay taxes. 

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International Studies Show Upward Mobility in US a Myth.

It's one of those entrenched American myths, that even people from humble beginnings, if they work hard, and keep their nose to the grindstone, can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and achieve the American Dream. It's the "land of opportunity", right?  Wrong. The reality is much different, so what leads people to embrace an idea that is contradicted by evidence and often times by their own experiences?

Sorry, "bootstrap" success is only possible when the playing field is level. While there is an infinitesimally small uber-successful "class" who reap untold benefits, the rest of us continue to spiral down the ladder. But despite evidence of declining mobility and structural inequalities, this idea of the American Dream is so anchored within our culture that most Americans continue to believe that perspiration is more important to mobility than the state of the economy or socioeconomic circumstances as a child.

You must take into consideration that our poverty rates are much higher than the poverty threshold or federal poverty measures acknowledge. The line above which a family can be reasonably expected to be able to pay their bills is far lower than it should be because  it doesn't include food or fuel in its calculus, and is  based on 3 times a thrifty basket of food, priced in 1978. The real poverty threshold is at least 3 to 4 times that rate. 2/3 of the poor remain hidden giving the illusion that the U.S. is still the "land of opportunity".

So it should come as no surprise that international studies show that exceptional upward mobility in the US is, indeed, a myth. 

Mobility Regimes and Parental Wealth: The United States, Germany, and Sweden in Comparison

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America's Wealth Fell Nearly 40% in Three Years!

A strong middle class has been what sets America apart from the rest of the world.  If you believe in the reality of the "American Dream", then you must believe in a strong middle-class, as this is what makes the "American Dream" possible.

However, for many, if they were not living the American Dream, came awfully close. That is, until the 2008 financial crisis, which crushed the middle class, in particular, waking an ever increasing many to an evolving nightmare.

According to the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finance : " Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2007 to 2010: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances.", US median household net worth plunged 40% from 2007-2010, "wiping almost two decades of asset accumulation off the books". Specifically, from $77,300 in 2007 to $126,400 in 2010. Moreover, real  income fell as well, from $49,600 in 2007 to $45,800 in 2010, which amounts to a 7.7% decline.

Families in the top 10% of income actually saw their net worth increase over the period, rising from a median of $1.17 million in 2007 to $1.19 million in 2010.

Meanwhile, middle-class families who ranked in the 40th to 60th percentile of income earners reported that their median income fell from $92,300 to $65,900 over the same time period.”

Of course, it was, and continues to be the housing sector that contributed to the bulk of the huge loss. Wages and income in real terms have been stagnating for decades, while the purchasing power of the dollar continues to deteriorate, which also played a part in the recent massive transfer of wealth.  Prior to this time, the many were living far beyond their means.  Because prior to 2008,   your pet snake could, at the very least, obtain a credit card, and more than likely, a mortgage to boot..

The NINJA Loan - No Income No Job No Assets - has lead to the NINJA generation, who not only are drowning in student loan debt, but can't get a decent job, and it only follows that their chances of accumulating assets is slim to none..

From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, health and home aides, who earn approximately $20,000 per year, are the fastest growing occupations in the nation. Need I say more.

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Carnival Cruise: Sweatshops at Sea

From Corpwatch:

Carnival Cruise staff on UK ships are paid $1.20 (75p) an hour in basic wages, according to new documents seen by the Guardian newspaper. Moreover, P&O Cruises withhold passengers' tips unless crew hit performance targets which work out to roughly 15% of wages, unless they get at least a 92% favorable rating from customers.

These wages are below the minimum level recommended by the Joint Maritime Commission of the International Labour Organization which was set at US $555 a month for salaries paid out after January 1, 2012.

“Unfortunately, because the shipping industry is largely unregulated, (workers) wages will normally depend on the kind of contract (they) have signed,” notes the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) web page for seafarers.

The $1.20 an hour wages are for staff on P&O Cruises sailing out of Southampton in the UK. The tour operator began life as Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company which operated the world's first passenger ships starting in 1822 with trips to Iberian Peninsula, and tours in 1844. The UK company merged with Carnival Corporation of Florida in 2003 to create the world’s largest cruise ship operator with annual revenues of $15.8 billion in 2011 and profits of $2.2 billion.

Today most of the workers aboard P&O are from India and the Philippines. Tours in July advertised on the site for the Carnival Legend range between $2,798 and $6,458 per passenger for a 12 day trip around northern Europe. A quick calculation suggests that P&O workers would need to work for almost 500 days to pay for a cruise themselves, assuming that they did not spend a single penny of their wages.

David Dingle, CEO of Carnival UK, told the Guardian that staff were "much happier" and many of them earned over £1,000 a month ($1,600). Some passengers were skeptical. One - Rob Bygrave of Sherborne, Dorset - told the newspaper that "grown men were in tears" after hearing about the new pay scheme.

"It's high time the disgraceful practice of allowing the shipping industry to pay poverty wages to workers who don't live in the UK was stopped,” Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress told the Guardian. “Exploitative rates of pay for those working on British ships have no place in a modern society."

An estimated 1.2 million people work at sea. For them working on board a ship has never been an idyllic operation. Over 200 years after the men of the HMS Bounty rebelled against their captain for mistreatment (commemorated in a number of books and films like Mutiny on the Bounty) activists say that the ship workers are still exploited routinely.

“It’s a sweatshop at sea,” says Paul Chapman, former port chaplain, founder of the Center for Seafarers' Rights, and author of “Trouble on Board: The Plight of International Seafarers.” “A ship owner can go any place in the world, pick up anybody he wants, on almost any terms. If the owner wants to maximize profit at the expense of people, it’s a piece of cake.”

“Cruise ships maintain a degree of glamour and opulence. Advertising projects images of fun and carefree times. Those of us living in port cities see impressively clean, bright and huge ships glide into our harbours, offloading passengers anxious to spend money at stores, restaurants, and with tour operators,” writes Professor Ross A. Klein of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada who runs http://www.cruisejunkie.com/.

In an article titled “High Seas, Low Pay, Klein adds:

“The reality for many cruise-ship workers, however, is certainly not carefree, nor fun. While the working conditions for officers, cruise staff, and those working in the shops and casinos are adequate, if not good, the experience of those working in the dining room, cleaning rooms, in the galley, and below deck is quite different. These workers are often paid substandard wages, have marginal accommodations, survive on inadequate food, and live under a system that is rife with abuse and uncertainty.”

The ITF has been fighting to get European countries to adopt the Maritime Labour Convention that would require ships to maintain minimum labor standards on board ships. The UK is yet to ratify the convention.

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