Friday, December 31, 2010

To Whomever is Inclined to Help:

Please see if you can look into this sad and tragic matter facing this 82 years old loving couple.

Evelyn, former principal and Jay, former electrical engineer, close friends, were dating weekly for 17 years in Columbia, Md.

On June 19, 2009, Evelyn’s daughter and granddaughter did secretly without any disclosure, obtain guardianship of Evelyn, against her will and under false pretenses.

Upon learning this, Evelyn stated that her family “stabbed her in the back”. The guardians misled two doctors, who disagreed on Evelyn’s condition to do this. Nine months later Evelyn is still perfectly lucid with no lapses in comprehension. She is only forgetful.

To prevent disclosure of their sinister motives, the guardians prohibit Evelyn from attending any of her own hearings, even when she pleaded to. To shut me up, the guardians obtained a restraining order against me using all false charges. I was not permitted to testify or defend myself.

The guardian family uses 3 inactive law degrees to maliciously abuse the law with false and perjurous charges without basis. They then filed false criminal charges against me. For the first time on March 10, 2010, the judge allowed me to defend myself. I was found NOT GUILTY of all charges with permission to visit my lady friend. Twenty year old granddaughter guardian irrationally and illegally violates grandmother’s civil and constitutional rights by stopping these visits at the Morningside assisted living facility.

Respectfully, Jay Engleman

11520 E. Maple Ave
Beltsville, MD 20705
301-937-2896

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Perfect Crime: Weaponized Conservatorship



Submitted by Cris Andreae on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 12:30pm
program: Air Cascadia
program date: Wed, 12/29/2010

Investigative journalist, Janet Phelan has hit a deep nerve in the Judicial-Industrial brainstem: What she has uncovered is the Perfect Crime as well as the only legal, airtight bag in which to silence whistleblowers. Thanks to dubious accidental loopholes in the legal code, it is possible to strip an individual of the right to fight a well as the resources necessary to defend oneself. Through a system of corrupt conservators, judges and plaintiffs, virtually anyone can lose all forms of freedom and all fiduciary instruments. Essentially your money and your life. It’s a silent crime because its victims are relieved of the means by which they might shout it from the rooftops. And public prejudice confines it to the elderly and the wealthy. In America. And it’s so simple: Identify your target; locate a compliant judge (and they abound) and the Middleman, the Conservator and get trumping on the evidence. All you need is a random remark taken out of context, one martini too many, a bad day at the office, a bad joke….It doesn’t take much to make the average person appear crazy – not in a society that values “Normal” to the degree to which this one does. Once these wheels start rolling there is no stopping that train. And more often than not innocent bystanders wind up under that same train. ‘Loco’? ‘Motive’?

* Length: 16:07 minutes (14.76 MB)
* Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)

To listen, go to this link:http://kboo.fm/node/25768

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Attn:Fellow Victims of Cook County Probate Court Corruption

Fellow victims of Cook County Probate Court Corruption---please visit www.probatesharks.com and contact us!

Guardianship Protection Racket Sinks to New Lows

14_h00-family-celebrating-lydias-birthday

Check out a Media Advisory we posted regarding a Chicago case in which two women may be going to jail because they pursued a civil case against a guardian and other parties believed to be looting the estate of 93-year-old Lydia Tyler. Mrs. Tyler and her family are pictured above.

A ruling is scheduled for Wednesday. We’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

From Illinois (via Arizona)

Posted: 31 May 2009 01:53 PM PDT

MEDIA ADVISORY
May 30, 2009
Contact: Mary Beth Smith
602-434-2900

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

Family Battling Guardianship May Go to Jail

Nieces of 93-year-old Lydia Tyler say their aunt was targeted with an unwarranted guardianship as a tactic for looting assets from her multi-million dollar estate. A legal battle to have the guardianship revoked and to compel an accounting of her financial status may land two of the nieces, Mary Lynn Drabik and Mary Sue Richards, both of Phoenix, in jail.

The two women say Cook County Probate Judge Maureen E. Connors has allowed counsel for one of the delinquent fiduciaries to press false “direct criminal contempt” charges as a result of the women’s continued pursuit within the civil court system to protect their aunt’s interests from what they believe is a coordinated effort on the part of Tyler’s guardians and associated parties to deplete her estate.

Ruling was issued Friday, May 29, to bar Drabik and Richards from further involvement in resolving their aunt’s affairs. Judge Connors has scheduled ruling for 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 3, on the contempt charges. Drabik and Richards face a fine of up to $500 and/or three days in the Cook County jail.

Guardianships have become controversial as families across this country learn the increased commonality of these probate instruments being abused as targeted individuals experience a deprivation of their liberty and a looting of their assets.

Photo ops as well as interviews with the family will be available.

WHO:

The Family of Lydia Tyler

WHAT:

Cook County Probate Judge Maureen E. Connors’ Ruling on “direct criminal contempt” charges against Mary Lynn Drabik and Mary Sue Richards.

WHEN:

10 a.m. Wednesday, June 3, 2009

WHERE:

Richard J. Daley Center
Court Room 1814
50 West Washington Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601

Monday, December 27, 2010

Confiscating the Assets of the Dead

Check out our new Death Tax column!

Posted: by Estate Of Denial.Com

We’ve posted a new column Death Tax is government-sanctioned estate looting. Thanks to our friends at Ramparts360 for posting the piece. EoD also agrees with Merv at PrairiePundit who wrote us terming the Death Tax as “confiscation of the assets of the dead.”

As we said in the column, every American should be free to determine the final distribution of their assets. Nationalizing property violates everything on which this country was founded!

Tune in For: Janet on "American Awakening" this Monday

We will be discussing the latest in the Melodie Scott chronicles, wherein the State of California arranged a complicated legal maneuver wherein she could receive her long sought after license. What does it mean that the government contorted itself to give a conservator a license to break more laws, none of which anyone will prosecute her for? Tune in and find out…

Mike Herzog hosts "American Awakening," which airs on

Oraclebroadcasting.com
this Monday at 7 p.m. Central Time.

Sacramento Judge Grants Melodie Scott a License Under Questionable Circumstances


This reporter has reviewed a number of complaints which were filed with the PFB on Melodie Scott. The complaints include allegations of theft, perjury and murder for profit.

Janet C. Phelan Salem-News.com

Janet discussing the latest in the Melodie Scott chronicles; Tune in and find out, Mike Herzog hosts "American Awakening" which airs on Oraclebroadcasting.com at 7:00 p.m. Central this Monday.…

(SAN BERNADINO) - In a hearing in Sacramento Superior Court last Friday, controversial conservator Melodie Scott was granted a license to practice as a professional fiduciary. The hearing, which focused on the untimely filing of the Department of Consumer Affairs' decision to deny her the license, wrapped up in one day.

Judge Lloyd Connelly, who stated he had "never heard of the fiduciaries bureau," granted the license to Scott, who has been battling to achieve licensure since it was first denied to her in August of 2008.

Scott´s professional troubles began when the L.A. Times featured her in an expose back in 2005.

The series, entitled "Guardians for Profit—When a Family Matter Becomes a Business," revealed questionable practices by a number of Southland conservators. Public outcry resulted in the California Legislature passing the Omnibus Conservatorship Reform act of 2006, which established the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau (PFB) to oversee the previously unlicensed conservators and other fiduciaries. The PFB is currently housed in the Department of Consumer Affairs

Conservators are generally appointed by the court, when there are allegations that a person is becoming forgetful or otherwise lacking the capacity to take care of him or herself. There are two types of conservatorships in the State of California--a conservatorship of estate, through which the conservator handles all the financial affairs of the alleged incapacitated person and a conservatorship of person, wherein the conservator makes the personal decisions for the conservative. These may include where a person will live, whether they will be permitted to see family or friends, whether or not they will marry and may include decisions as to what type of medical care the conservative will receive.

The civil rights issues inherent in proceedings wherein a person may lose all access to their funds and all rights to make personal decisions, based on unproven allegations have resulted in widespread concern among elder advocates. A number of grassroots groups, both national and regional, have recently sprung up, dedicated to addressing corrupt practices in conservatorships. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed that abusive practices in conservatorships are emerging, nationwide.

In 2008, the newly created PFB first started reviewing applications for licensing. As required by law, Melodie Scott applied for a license. The PFB denied her the license on the grounds that she made false statements on her application. Two later charges were added--1)that she continued to act as a fiduciary after her license was denied and that 2) she had received a drunk driving conviction.

Scott appealed the decision. The appeal was heard in Oakland Administrative Law Court and spanned several months. At one point, Deputy Attorney General John Cooper, who was representing the PFB in this matter, offered a deal to Scott wherein she would receive her desired license, apparently in return for paying the attorneys' fees. After Cooper denied to this reporter the fact that a deal was on the table (a matter which was confirmed by the DCA press office), the San Bernardino County Sentinel reported the prospective deal and also that Cooper was attempting to obscure this from the press. The offer made to Scott was subsequently revoked.

At the conclusion of the hearings last Spring, Administrative Law Judge Melissa Crowell issued a decision that Scott should be licensed.

A petition protesting this decision was then filed with Brian Stiger, the Executive Director of the Department of Consumer Affairs.

The petition, which was signed by about 75 California citizens, stated as follows:

“I, the undersigned, through personal experience and/or through knowledge of another’s experience, believe that there exists an influential group of persons and businesses who encompass a large part of the San Bernardino & Riverside County probate systems. This alliance preys upon the area’s elderly and disabled, particularly regarding conservatorships, guardianships & estates. Some, but by no means all, of the names which appear frequently in cases where an exorbitant amount of the client’s estate is consumed are:

“Melodie Jo Scott; conservator, probate administrator, owner - C.A.R.E. Inc.

Lawrence Dean; conservator, probate administrator,

Christina Erickson-Taube; conservator, probate administrator

Bryan Hartnell; conservator, attorney, of Hartnell, Lister, & Moore

David Horspool; attorney, of Horspool & Parker

C.A.R.E., Inc; Conservatorship And Resources for the Elderly, Inc. - Redlands, CA

Hartnell, Lister, & Moore; law firm – Redlands, CA

Horspool & Parker; law firm – Redlands, CA

E. Joan Nelms; attorney, judge pro tem

Sherri Kastilahn; attorney, judge pro tem

“A name search in the Superior Court websites for the above-named counties reveals more than 400 cases for the first two names alone. In these cases it would not be unusual to find: one of this group acting as Conservator/guardian; another as attorney for the Conservator/guardian, a third as attorney for the Conservatee, a fourth as Case Manager, and yet another sitting as Judge Pro Tem. Upon death of the Conservatee, one of the group is often then appointed Probate/estate Administrator, with another as Attorney for the Administrator. In this single-sided scenario, abuse is inevitable.

“In Ms. Scott’s case, the news stories (the Times series was one of several) and the large number of clients who have suffered financial ruin or worse, are undeniable indicators that protection of the public is indeed the issue. Ms Scott and her contemporaries, rather than assisting their clients and preserving clients estates from harm, are usually the greatest threat they face.”



The petition went on to request that Melodie Scott be denied a professional fiduciaries license.

Brian Stiger did go ahead and override Judge Crowell´s decision and issue a non adoption order. Strangely, he ordered his staff to refrain from filing this decision until it became untimely. This opened the door for Melodie Scott to go to court and appeal his decision on a technicality. It was on the basis of this technicality that Judge Lloyd Connelly granted Scott her license last Friday.

However, the PFB had already received a number of complaints concerning Melodie Scott at the time that the court was deliberating the matter of her license. According to Gary Duke, legal counsel for the DCA, the decision not to investigate the numerous complaints that had been filed on Scott and to solely focus on her lying on her application was an “economic” decision. “We thought we had enough on her in terms of the application issue to make sure she didn’t get licensed,” said Duke in an interview this past summer.

This reporter has reviewed a number of complaints which were filed with the PFB on Melodie Scott. The complaints include allegations of theft, perjury and murder for profit.

Betty Cory wrote the Professional Fiduciaries bureau that her son, D’Wayne, died as a direct result of the caregiver hired by Scott pounding on Dwayne´s chest and causing his lung to collapse. As previously reported in the Sentinel, Betty Cory had become concerned about the actions of Melodie Scott, who was the conservator of D’Wayne Cory’s multi-million dollar estate and was planning on asking the court to remove her. Among other economically questionable moves, Scott had obtained the court's approval for a bid to build a pool for Cory which was tens of thousands of dollars higher than the other bids. The pool contractor, Kirk Gillette, refused to answer questions concerning rumors that he had a romantic relationship with Scott nor would he answer questions as to why the work on the pool had stalled for weeks prior to Cory's sudden death.

Joseph Quattrochi, who has filed a federal lawsuit against Melodie Scott, complained to the PFB that Scott had perjured herself in the original petition for conservatorship over his father, Joseph Quattrochi, Sr. He also pointed to several issues where he alleged Scott had padded her bill. In addition, his complaint included documentation that the lawyer representing Scott in the conservatorship proceedings, E. Joan Nelms, was also sitting as judge pro tem in San Bernardino Court and was regularly hearing cases by lawyers in the same firm for which she worked.

Quattrochi has voiced concern that he never received a document tracking number or a response concerning the disposition of his complaint. This reporter has reviewed a number of emails sent by Quattrochi to Gil DeLuna, PFB chief, asking for an update on what happened to his complaint, which was filed over a year and a half ago. This reporter also contacted the DCA asking for an update on the Quattrochi complaint. No response was received. Rather, Russ Heimerich of the DCA wrote this reporter that her questions about a number of actions taken by the PFB were "none of her business," which seems to confirm the growing perception that the PFB is operating through a code of zero transparency and accountability.

Quattrochi’s report is the second concerning Melodie Scott that this reporter has reviewed which the PFB refuses to respond to or supply a tracking number.Both reports document actions by Scott which could be considered criminal, including the fact that Scott failed to report a bank account which belonged to a conservatee, which Scott subsequently used for her own purposes. Other issues included complaints that Scott withheld critical medicine from a conservatee, resulting in hospitalization and emergency surgery and that Scott used a client’s funds to pay her own attorney fees as she launched her quest to get her license. Queries directed to the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau questioning the legality of their “cherry picking” complaints were shunted off.

Gina Rilke never received a resolution to her complaint. Melodie Scott was not only removed as conservator for Rilke´s husband, Scott Viracola, but was also ordered to pay back $2,000 which Judge Ludvigson determined to have been misappropriated. Ludvigson further disallowed around $10,0000 which Scott had requested as payment. Rilke has alleged that Scott misappropriated thousands of dollars more.

In defiance of the PFB, Melodie Scott continued to advertise herself as a “professional fiduciary” after her license was denied, which is a misdemeanor in the State of California. After this was reported in the San Bernardino County Sentinel, she subsequently took down her website, where the violation had occurred. She was reported to be “biding her time until this all blows over.”

Response to the news of Scott´s licensing has run the gamut. When contacted for comment, Betty Cory began to weep. A Palm Desert attorney wrote:

“Oh gawd, honestly - as the kids say she is a Menace II Society. How these corrupt judges can continue allowing her to operate is truly beyond me.” A Fontana man reported that he was going to attempt to appeal the Sacramento court´s decision.

Gina Rilke remains troubled by the failure of the DCA to file the papers within the time frame required by law. “What has continued to bother me since my conversation with Duke (DCA Legal Counsel Gary Duke) is that he said his supervisor was the one who told Duke to hold off on filing the PFB´s decision. Duke said he wondered why the decision was being delayed, but those were his orders, so that´s how he handled it,” writes Rilke.

Rilke goes on to note that the Bureau “waited and filed the decision precisely within the window of time that would enable the Bureau to give the appearance of wanting to deny Ms. Scott a license, while simultaneously allowing her to prevail on a technicality.”

Rilke ponders, “is the Director (Brian Stiger) in Melodie’s pocket, too?”

Phone calls to Brian Stiger were not returned. Conservator Lisa Berg, who sits on the Board overseeing the PFB, refused to speak with this reporter. Russ Heimerich, who handles the press matters for the PFB, did not return calls. He did send a written response, refusing to supply the cost to the State for the Melodie Scott matter, stating that: "This would require the creation of a document, and the Public Records Act does not require agencies to create documents to satisfy Public Records Act requests."

Heimerich apparently forgot that he supplied this information three weeks back,prior to the costs accrued at the most recent hearing. At that point, the total cost to the taxpayer had come to $83,979.35.
----------------
Janet Phelan is a journalist whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Santa Monica Daily Press, The Long Beach Press Telegram, Oui Magazine and other regional and national publications. Her poetry has been published in Gambit, Libera, Applezaba Review, Nausea One and other magazines. She resides in Los Angeles.

Read more about conservatorships in general and Melodie Scott in particular at: janetphelan.com

Survival of Aging Network In Jeopardy

By Emily Bazar and April Dembosky, Special to The Sacramento Second of two parts

After a severe leg infection landed Bill Hollingworth in the hospital a few years ago, the Citrus Heights man was sent to a nursing home to recuperate for what he hoped would be a few weeks.

A few weeks turned into 13 months.

Hollingworth, who relies on a wheelchair to get around, figures he would have stayed there indefinitely if he didn't have access to In-Home Supportive Services, a publicly financed program that helps some low-

income elderly and disabled people receive care at home.

Now Hollingworth gets 236 hours of monthly paid care in his apartment from a worker who cleans, cooks, helps with bills, bathes him and assists with other life necessities. "I wouldn't be able to function without her," said Hollingworth, 63.

California was a pioneer in creating home- and community-based options to nursing homes more than 30 years ago with programs such as IHSS and Adult Day Health Care. In the past several years, however, state and local budget cuts and policy decisions have battered these and a range of other long-term care programs, resulting in reduced

services, slashed staff levels and in some cases, closed doors.

These cuts, and more likely to follow, could threaten a promising strategy for making affordable the health needs of the baby boomer population, which begins to hit 65 next month. Health policy experts agree that unless more of seniors' care can be shifted to less expensive care in their homes and community centers, and away from nursing homes and hospitals, the system may become unsustainable.

The outlook is bleak enough that some officials are exploring nongovernmental solutions, such as transferring some programs to nonprofits.

"It's not an overstatement to say the survival of the aging network is in jeopardy, pending what the state budget does, and then the cascading effect to county and city budgets after that," said Will Tift, planner for the Area 4 Agency on Aging, which serves Sacramento and six other counties.

Come February, all IHSS recipients will receive a 3.6 percent reduction in hours, a result of state budget cuts. Hollingworth will lose more than eight hours per month, which means that important but less critical tasks, such as range-of-motion exercises for his legs, won't get done.

"It seems like every time they're having a problem with the budget, who are the ones that suffer? The poor, the disabled and the elderly," he said.


State's home care legacy

In-Home Supportive Services is for low-income people who are older than 65, disabled or blind and need help with the activities of daily living such as grooming, dressing and cooking.

California's program, the largest in the country, has grown significantly. In the 2005-06 fiscal year, there were 352,026 average monthly recipients, compared with 428,962 in 2009-10, according to the state Department of Social Services.

Counties administer the program, and their social workers determine eligibility and hours for each recipient, with a maximum of 283.

Stanislaus County serves about 6,200 recipients and pays in-home workers $9.38 an hour.

This year, Stanislaus County reduced the IHSS budget to $44.4 million, down from $58.3 million last year. The county is responsible for $2 million in funding, the bulk of which comes from federal and state revenue.

Stanislaus County is seeking a pay cut from in-home care workers because money isn't available to fund the program through June 30. If enrollment trends continue, the program will need an additional $1.3 million from the county next year and $12.2 million from the federal and state governments.


Day centers slashed

Adult day health centers are another pillar of government's push to keep seniors out of institutions.

Centers such as Miller's Place on McHenry Avenue in Modesto are where frail older adults with physical or cognitive limitations can spend the day, in part to help give caregivers and families a break.

The Modesto center operated by the Doctors Medical Center Foundation gives clients a place to enjoy social activities, music, art, crafts and games, as well as physical and occupational therapy. There is a special program for Alzheimer's patients.

A Nov. 29 fire caused smoke damage to the building and the program closed for three weeks. But the center is serving clients again.

In part over budget concerns, the state enacted a moratorium in 2004 that prevents new Adult Day Health Centers from participating in the Medi-Cal program, with limited exceptions.

There were 365 centers when the moratorium went into effect, and now there are 312, according to the state Department of Aging. Enrollment also has declined.

Some centers closed because they're expensive to run and others were closed by the state for quality reasons, said Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Association for Adult Day Services. Providers haven't opened new ones because of high start-up costs and fears they won't be financially sustainable without Medi-Cal reimbursements, she said.

Budget cuts, such as the recent elimination of state funding for the Alzheimer's Day Care Resource Center program, also have strained Adult Day Health Care. The Alz-

heimer's program has provided specialized care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients through some ADHC centers.

"It makes no sense," said Thomas Truax, chief executive officer of the DMC Foundation in Modesto, speaking earlier this year. He noted that nursing home care costs the state about $250 per day, but care at an adult day health center costs $77 per day.

The foundation has recruited volunteers to Miller's Place at a time when state budget cuts could mean less money for the care of older adults. The organization opened a thrift store last year, hoping that proceeds from sales would help sustain the program.

Violeta Gonzalez, 80, started attending the Carmichael ADHC center three times a week after her husband died this year. For Gonzalez, who is mentally sharp and physically strong, the center allows her to get out of her house and socialize.

The center's bus picks her up at her door in the morning and drops her off in the afternoon. "It gives me something to do. I don't have to bother anybody to take me here or take me there," said Gonzalez.

The thought of a nursing home or assisted-living facility makes her shudder. "From here," she said of her home, "I'm going to the grave."


Assisted-living oversight

As publicly funded programs shrink, there's been a boom in private-pay assisted living facilities.

The residential care industry that caters to middle-class Californians who will pay out of pocket has steadily grown in the past decade, with 7,822 of them now in California, up more than 25 percent.

But these facilities increasingly are taking on customers with significant health needs, raising questions about whether more oversight is needed. Residential care sites are not medical facilities. The vast majority are small homes, with 15 beds or fewer, where residents can get help with daily tasks such as dressing, eating or managing medications. Costs can range from $2,000 to $6,000 a month or more.

However, as the aging population lives longer with more chronic conditions, the residents of assisted-living facilities have gotten sicker than originally intended. For example, more have dementia.

"These are not the assisted-living facilities of 15 years ago. Across the country you see facilities admitting and retaining people with higher health care needs," said Eric Carlson, directing attorney with the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Los Angeles.

Carlson said the state needs to demand higher standards for health care. He recommends that California follow the lead of some other states, which have adopted tiered licensing standards that take into account the changing nature of long-term care.

Just as more facilities open, budget cuts to the Department of Social Services and attorney general's office have reduced oversight.

"There are fewer investigators, fewer ombudsmen and fewer people in the licensing agencies," said Jody Feldman, deputy attorney general at the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse.

Patient-safety advocates say there are many potential weaknesses in state law: Facilities are inspected once every five years, facility operators need attend only a 40-hour certification program, and staff members need just 10 hours of training.

Even discerning family members don't always catch problems at assisted-living facilities.

When Kim Kuviora, 50, of Folsom couldn't take care of her dad at home anymore, she found an assisted-living facility in Orangevale.

"It was just like an Embassy Suites. It was so beautiful," she said. "And they sold me that, hook, line and sinker."

But there were problems with the health care Kuviora's dad received, so bad that she moved him out and filed a lawsuit against the facility. They settled, so Kuviora can't discuss the details.

"All I can say is, with every single facility I ever dealt with, it seems like all facilities can't seem to get medications handled correctly or dispensed correctly," she said.

Kuviora said she and her husband talk all the time about how to prepare for their potential long-term care needs, especially because they don't have children to care for them.

"We are savers, big savers," she said. "But I don't think even at this point that we saved enough to be able to afford what long-term care is going to cost by the time we need it. I don't think we'll be close."

Source=>>here

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas!

I'd say "Happy Holidays" but last time I looked, there were no other holidays at the end of December. The fact that a majority Christian country must downplay the celebration of Christ's birth is yet another example of the Illuminati's subtle satanic control over mankind.

Almost everything we seek is a poor substitute for what we really crave, possession of our own soul. We never experience ourselves as spirit because we are taught to seek an illusory material or carnal substitute. Christ represented the Truth within. For Christmas, I am re-posting a popular article from 2007 about finding it.

by Henry Makow Ph.D.

[Memo to Myself]

This isn't about storing silver coins or canned food or getting an AK-47.

It's about saving your soul, not your skin. It's about the tendency to obsess on the New World Odor, get depressed and become unbearable.

The situation is depressing. A satanic cult controls the credit of the world and rules through myriad proxies. It is determined to destroy civilization and institute an Orwellian police state.

You spend your hours addictively watching for new developments. Your face is pressed up against the shop window of the world.

You are "externalized." You can't go into the kitchen without switching on the radio.

You try to squeeze your sustenance from the world. But much of what you imbibe is poisonous: depravity, corruption, duplicity and tragedy. (Is that the point of the mass media? To demoralize and brutalize?)

Mankind is in the grip of a diabolical force that constantly strives to legitimize itself through deception. You can't overcome this demon. But you still control your personal life. Ultimately, the battle is for the soul of humanity. Why not begin by defending your own?

This means erecting a wall between the soul, and the world, and establishing a balance between the sacred and the profane. You need to shut out the world (the profane) for set periods of time and focus on what inspires you. That means turning off the TV, Internet and media in general.

Just as you nourish your body with food, you feed your soul with thoughts, sights and sounds. Your soul reaches out for beauty, grace, harmony, truth and goodness. You become what you think about.

What lifts your spirit? It might be a long walk, nature, hobby, sport, or music. It might be time with your family or friends. It might be the Bible, religious writing or meditation.

"Do what you love," Henry David Thoreau said. "Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still."

You agree with the mystics who say happiness is within. It involves the possession of your soul, and not wanting anything else. By looking outside your self, you displace your soul and become addicted to the thing you want. This is the source of unhappiness.

The occult elite controls us with sex and money- the North-South of the mind. The courtship stage is a period when sexual feelings are strong so two people will bond and start a family. Sex/romance were not meant to become a lifelong preoccupation and panacea.

The same is true of money. The stock market is a giant casino addicting millions. The central banking cult has unlimited funds. To make us feel good, (while it trashes civil rights and wages senseless war) it makes the market go up. To fleece us, it crashes the market. Don't be their puppet.

The diabolical powers have been here for a long time. You have discovered their existence only because they signaled their endgame on Sept. 11.

Don't let them stunt or degrade you by obsessing on their iniquity. Restore balance by attuning yourself to the things you love. Be an outpost of happiness.

------------

Part Two: Making Your Own Heaven

The world often seems like a stuffy public toilet without ventilation. This is because Protagoras' dictum "man is the measure of all things" is the official religion.

Modern culture mostly consists of reflections of our degenerate selves, a "wilderness of mirrors" as T.S. Eliot said. We inhale our own fumes. The religion of man is "humanism "or "illuminism" which deifies man.

Plato tried to correct Protagoras. "God and not man is the measure of all things."

We didn't listen to Plato.

God is now banished from public life. When was the last time a Divine Standard was applied to anything? When is humanity's highest self ever celebrated? That would be like a breath of fresh air.

REMOVING THE NEW WORLD ODOR

This is about spiritual survival in a world gone insane.

We have a tendency to feel helpless, unable to affect faraway events. In fact, we are on the front lines. The New World Odor wants our mind and soul. We fight back by dedicating ourselves to God instead.

First we have to short-circuit their two main control systems: sex and money. We can direct our sex drive by confining it to a monogamous relationship. We can escape the money compulsion by living within our means, and disciplining ourselves so money is a minor concern.

Henry David Thoreau said, "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone."

The truly rich man is the one who does not think about money. By this standard many billionaires are paupers. In fact, the more money a person has, the harder it is to think of anything else.

REORIENTATION

Why should we obey God? God is really the principle of our own development and the path to our happiness and fulfillment. We serve ourselves when we serve God.

God is synonymous with spiritual ideals: love, truth, justice, beauty.

Think life has no meaning? Life has intrinsic meaning when we fulfill God's purpose. We need to ask, "What does God want of me? What was I born to do?"

God speaks to us through our spirit and conscience. We don't hear Him because our minds are like mirrors facing the world. We need to turn the mirror around so it faces the soul inside and shows its back to the world.

Instead of blotting up the world, which makes us weary and sick, we focus on things that reflect our desire for purity, hope, beauty and goodness.

Instead of letting the world determine what we think (and therefore feel) we create our own world based on how we want to feel. That's what faith is all about, making spiritual reality paramount.

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor," Thoreau wrote in "Walden."

"It is something to carve a statue...but it is far more glorious to carve ...the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour."

By making our thoughts conform to our soul, instead of the world, we create our own heaven. All great religions teach us to control our thoughts. Our minds are altars and our thoughts are offerings to God.

"Muddied water, let stand, becomes clear," said Lao Tzu.

In the Hindu tradition, mind discipline is called "Raja Yoga." By learning to meditate, we learn to have constructive thoughts. The key is to treat your thoughts as though they were a stranger's, and edit them. If you master this skill of detachment, you will never be depressed, never go mad for the simple reason that
you will not be identified with a negative mental complex.

Christians might maintain their vigilance by asking, " What would Christ do? What would Christ think?" Christianity, in a nutshell, is the imitation of Christ.

Prayer is another form of meditation. Whatever our opinion of Timothy Leary, he had the right idea in High Priest: "Prayer is the compass, the gyroscope, the centering device to give you direction, courage and trust..."

A CONCENTRATION CAMP IN THE MIND

How long has it been since you felt happy? Yes, it rankles that pathetic scoundrels control the world. But man is not the measure of all things. No matter what happens on earth, God is the only Reality. The earth is like a postage stamp. Look beyond man and focus on spiritual reality: beauty, goodness, justice and love.

We place ourselves in concentration camps before they're even built. The Illuminati is not likely to shatter the illusion of freedom. There is no better way to control people. But even if they did, we must be capable of joy even then. God is Joy and God is far greater than man.

The key is to ignore the crowd, which is manipulated by the Illuminati. It's good to be aware but we do not dance to tunes tapped out by degenerates. We do not gaze at mirrors made by midgets.

The words of poet Henry More (1614-1687) are also relevant.

"When the inordinate desire after knowledge of things was allayed in me, and I aspired after nothing but purity and simplicity of mind, there shone in me daily a greater assurance than ever I could have expected, even of those things which before I had the greatest desire to know."

Retiring from the world periodically ensures that we don't forfeit the only sphere where we still have power. It enables us to make a wholesome contribution to society.

As Paul Elmer More (1864-1937) said, "A day that makes me happy makes me wise."

Let's master the art of happiness.
-----
For more, watch Eckhart Tolle on You Tube

Drink This to Help Undo a Heavy Meal

By RealAge


When you overdo it and down a day's calories in one sitting, your body's inflammatory processes go into overdrive. But here's a way you might counter it: Drink orange juice.

In a recent study, people who had eaten a supersized fast-food breakfast experienced a much milder inflammatory response in their bodies when they drank OJ with the meal.

High-Calorie Catastrophe
Whatever you do, don't pair that overindulgence with a soda. When researchers compared the effects that three different beverages had on the way bodies process big, fatty, inflammation-triggering foods, sugar water was the worst of the bunch. It seemed to exacerbate the inflammatory response. Plain water faired somewhere in between orange juice and sugar water, but it has the added benefit of being calorie-free. (Find out why orange juice is good for your joints, too.)

The Flavonoid Fix
What makes orange juice so good at clamping down on the inflammation and oxidation that big, fatty meals cause? The heroes are likely two important flavonoids found in oranges -- naringenin and hesperidin. These powerful antioxidants help tamp down body processes that can damage blood vessels and lay the groundwork for big health problems, like atherosclerosis and heart disease. (Pulp or no pulp? Here's a great health reason to buy your juice with lots of bits.)

Need more reasons to drink your orange juice? Check out this small sampling of things it can do for your body:

Senate Investigation Finds Millions Allegedly Squandered or Stolen by Court Appointed Guardians


By Sharyl Attkisson .

An elderly Arizona woman who had a $1.3 million estate is now on Medicaid care at taxpayer expense after a guardian agency ran up the bills for her care and then dropped her when the money was gone. Sharyl Attkisson reports.

(CBS) You're supporting Marie Log with your tax dollars - even tough she had plenty of money on her own.

Then a court appointed guardians to look out for her best interests. But her relatives say the guardians had only one interest - enriching themselves.

CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.

As children of the Depression, Marie and Cliff Long lived frugally and invested wisely. Cliff died in 2003. Madelon and Jenette are Marie's sisters.

Jeanette said her sister had about $1.3 million saved up - enough to last the rest of Marie's life - or so the couple thought.

With Marie in declining health, there were no children. Her daughter died of cancer at age 16, and her son died in Vietnam.

To make decisions on her finances and care, the court appointed a guardian - an agency called "The Sun Valley Group."

First, as Guardian, Sun Valley's owners Peter and Heather Frenette hired themselves to provide Marie's personal care. That way they collected not only guardian fees, but up to $15,000 a month in companion care fees, too.

Read the GAO report on Guardianships

When a Sun Valley worker started a fire in Marie's kitchen, Marie was charged for four employees to "confer" about it. The rate? Up to $105 dollars per hour for each worker.

When another Sun Valley worker locked herself out of Marie's house: $85 dollars an hour for each employee who conferred about that.

Sun Valley found a dozen ways to charge Marie to get her own weekly petty cash. They charged to prepare the cash, to confer about it, to review the status, to draft a letter to the courier, to call the courier, to pay the courier - you get the idea.

To send Long and their worker to a Phoenix Suns basketball game, Sun Valley charged over $1,000 dollars for "research," phone calls, and a limo.

Sun Valley even charged Long $228 to "determine (the) effect (of the game) on (her) mood."

When her sisters complained, Sun Valley hired lawyers, and charged Marie for that, too. Attorneys got $409,000 of Marie's money in just four years.

And Sun Valley walked away with $430,000.

Jeanette says her sister's financial status today is "Zero. Everything's been taken from her."

CBS News wanted to talk to Sun Valley CEO Peter Frenette, so we visited his Phoenix office. He wasn't available.

In writing, Frenette said he can't discuss Marie because of litigation. He did say guardians often "parachute into family battlefields; this surrounding conflict can create extraordinary fees to be incurred."

The court official who appointed Sun Valley in 2005 and an Appeals Judge defended Sun Valley's performance. They said the limo, the grease fire, all the expenses were "reasonable, necessary and for Marie's benefit." The court even blamed Marie's sisters for complaining about it and running up costs.

"We wanted my sister to have good health care," Jeanette said. If that's what run up the cost, then I'm guilty. I'm guilty."

"Then so am I," her sister Madelon added.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) chairman of the Committee on Aging, says it's a national problem. His Investigators found millions of dollars allegedly squandered or stolen by court-appointed guardians. They say Long's case shows why new laws are needed to protect the vulnerable from their own guardians.

"Unfortunately, nobody told Marie that in Arizona, as the widow of a veteran, she could've gotten a guardian for just $75 a month," Kohl said.

Long is too frail to talk to CBS News now, but she spoke to a newspaper reporter from the Arizona Republic last year.

The reporter asked her, "do you wonder about your money?"

"Yes," Long replied. "But from what I hear there isn't any."

Today, Marie is 89 and now lives on Medicaid at taxpayer expense. Sun Valley withdrew as her guardian twelve days after her money ran out.

Video

An elderly Arizona woman who had a $1.3 million estate is now on Medicaid care at taxpayer expense after a guardian agency ran up the bills for her care and then dropped her when the money was gone. Sharyl Attkisson reports.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Granny Snatching Promising to Be One Of The Most Lucrative Activities for 2011

Story By Ron Winter title by E.A.

Granny Snatching. What is it? It’s an ugly phrase and an uglier practice and it is increasingly affecting more and more American families.

Granny Snatching occurs when younger family members take custody of an elder relative under false pretenses, convince a judge to declare the elder person incompetent, allowing them to then force their aged relative into a nursing home or similar institution, and strip them of their assets. In the coming decades trillions of dollars will be at stake as America’s population ages, and we must prepare now to defend ourselves and our finances in the future.

We hear about these incidents when they involve rich or famous people with lots of money at stake, but not the day-to-day incidents involving regular folks with modest incomes or nest eggs. Yet according to advocates for the elderly, incidents of Granny Snatching are growing exponentially across the US and in Canada. With the first Baby Boomers turning 65 in March 2011, Granny Snatching is expected to quickly become one of the prime forms of elder abuse.

This is my first weekly column on Granny Snatching and related issues involving the elderly, including legal, nutritional, and financial and how these issues affect us all. My regular column will run Wednesdays.

Until exactly two years ago, I had no knowledge of these issues, but today marks the 2nd anniversary of my then 91-year-old mother’s move to my home in Connecticut. This created a nearly vertical learning curve on Granny Snatching and other matters affecting the elderly. I will do my best to pass on through these columns all that I have learned since Mom’s move to Connecticut.

Within 20 years nearly 80 million Americans will be aged 65 or over and they will have disposable incomes conservatively estimated to be in excess of $1 trillion annually. As a result elder Americans will have unprecedented opportunities, and unprecedented challenges, including keeping their freedom and their assets.

Until a couple of years ago I had no idea that Granny Snatching existed. But on December 14, 2008 I received a call from my older brother informing me that our mother had been hospitalized in Albany, New York suffering from disorientation and confusion. He said my mother, who had lived alone in the apartment she had shared with my father until he died 10 years earlier, should be placed in a nursing home. A family meeting would be held in a couple of weeks, he said, to determine her fate.

But my wife and I immediately agreed that my mother could move in with us to avoid the isolation and cost of nursing home care. We decided to go to the family meeting and make that offer, but three days later I received a phone message, from my brother-in-law this time, alerting me that my sister was at that moment finalizing the procedures to commit my mother to a nursing home that very day. If I wanted any input on the situation I must call before 3:30 p.m. – giving me roughly three hours to change the course of my mother’s future.

I called back and made the offer, which after some discussion was accepted. Five days later my mother was transported to my home in Connecticut by my sister and her family, along with a carload of her belongings. We had dismantled my home office and turned it back into a bedroom for my mother’s use and the transition seemed smooth. Mom had been told – at my insistence – exactly what was going on, and she agreed that living with us was a far better alternative than life in a nursing home.

A week later my brother arrived with another carload of my mother’s belongings minus one major item – her checkbook. Mom had discovered on Christmas Day that my sister, who had Power of Attorney, had kept Mom’s checkbook, and had no intention of giving it back. They argued several times during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day with no resolution.

Meanwhile, we had made another important discovery – that virtually all of my mother’s maladies were caused by poor nutrition and sleep deprivation. Mom’s discharge form from the hospital said she suffered from Hypokalemia – potassium deficiency, and dehydration. Both can cause confusion, disorientation, memory loss and other symptoms that can be confused for dementia or Alzheimer’s. She also suffered from hypothyroidism – an underactive thyroid often caused by a lack of iodine in the diet.

We cut her intake of caffeine, which can cause dehydration, substituting herbal tea or decaffeinated coffer for her afternoon and evening drinks, created a daily menu that included a balance of nutrients, and gave her a daily multi-vitamin/mineral tablet.

Within a week Mom’s entire demeanor dramatically changed for the better. But the impasse with my sister continued and on New Year’s Day 2009 my mother rescinded the Power of Attorney status she had awarded to my sister and then things went from bad to worse. Within three weeks my sister filed a lawsuit in Supreme Court in New York, claiming my mother suffered from and had been treated for Alzheimer’s and dementia. She said Mom was incapable of even the most rudimentary of daily functions, much less handling her own finances. She claimed Mom shouldn’t come to court to defend herself because Mom’s mind was so terribly deteriorated that she wouldn’t be able to understand the proceedings. There wasn’t a truthful allegation in the entire lawsuit.

Mom ended up enduring a grueling day in court, and won her freedom, proving that my siblings and their children who also ganged up on her were wrong. But that didn’t end the abuse. My siblings and their children immediately began making false claims to the State of Connection Department of Social Services that Mom was being abused and in physical danger by living in my home.

Each complaint, coming sometimes on a monthly basis, resulted in new investigations, in which we were cleared of all charges each time, along with new stresses and issues for my family. Mom is still with us, has fought off each of these challenges successfully, and her case is now triggering a review of Connecticut’s elder law. She will turn 94 in January, and hopefully before next summer her persistence will have created a much better legal environment for Connecticut’s elderly.

I’ll keep you posted.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Bullets In The Back: How Boomers & Retirees Will Become Bailout, Stimulus & Currency War Casualties

By Daniel R. Amerman, CFA

Currency wars have their victims, much like military wars. What differs is who the victims are and what the casualty rate is. In a military war, the casualties are usually under age 25. Even in a deadly campaign, most soldiers are not victims because they are in support capacities.

The age of the casualties in a currency war is upside down compared to military war, because the worst of the damage is inflicted on those above age 50. Moreover, it is not just a few, but almost everyone who is on the front lines, and thus almost all become a casualty.

The latest financial headlines may seem arcane, with a vocabulary that is difficult to grasp, but the bottom line is unavoidable – the United States government and the Federal Reserve, in a belated defense of the fundamentals of the US economy, have effectively declared their intention to destroy the life savings of older Americans and devastate their future standard of living. It is the necessary "collateral damage" and all.

That may seem to be a wild assertion, but unfortunately, this financial devastation is the obvious implication of the Federal government's choice of strategy in attacking the overvalued US dollar, as this article will illustrate. We will connect three basic dots - and show where and how the bullets will be hitting.

The major events may be beyond our individual control, but the degree of devastation and the implications for our personal lifestyles is very much under our personal control. It is economic ignorance that will be inflicting more casualties in this war than any other factor, and thus our best personal defense is education.

Read the rest here=>>Financial Analysis

Website: http://danielamerman.com/

Related: 25 Signs That The Coming Financial Collapse Is Now Closer Then Ever

The Lunatics Who Made a Religion Out of Greed and Wrecked the Economy

Monday, November 29, 2010

Survival Of The Fittest

"I feel that crime has taken us from “normal” business of Caveat Emptor [buyer beware] to survival of the fittest. If I were king, I would focus on political and corporate criminals, which are running amok. The few we catch make no dent or mar the surface of the storm below. The storm is not brewing, or "in the making,” it is a horrible churning cauldron of bad people who have learned how to work the system, and they play it like a fiddle." Trader Ed

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Study Finds That Elder Abuse Is More Prevalent Than Previously Thought

As published in ElderLawAnswers.Com

A new study has found alarming rates of undetected elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. Although limited to New York State, the study suggests that elder abuse is far more prevalent than was previously known. For example, the study found that for all types of elder abuse, there are 23.5 unreported cases to every one reported to any agency.

Researchers conducted random telephone surveys of 4,000 New York residents 60 years and older, and compared the occurrence of elder abuse uncovered by the surveys to the numbers of cases reported to adult protective services, law enforcement and other officials or providers. In the case of financial exploitation, the study found 43.9 self-reported cases to every one reported to an agency. The ratio of neglect cases was even higher, with 57.2 cases going unreported for every one that comes to the attention of any services system. A previous study reported by ElderLawAnswers found that for each case of abuse reported, there are at least four that go unreported.

The National Adult Protective Services Association, which is publicizing the study's results, said that the actual prevalence of elder abuse in the total older population may be even higher because the study did not include older persons unable to participate in a telephone survey.

Interestingly, while emotional abuse is the most common form of elder abuse reported to agencies, followed by physical abuse, the self-reported study found financial exploitation to be the most prevalent form of elder mistreatment.

The Association, which represents Adult Protective Services professionals, said that the findings "underscore the urgent need for Congress to appropriate funding for the Elder Justice Act, the first and only comprehensive federal law addressing elder abuse. The Act authorizes up to $100 million in funding per year for state and local Adult Protective Services (APS) Programs, which could provide an estimated 1,700 protective services investigators throughout the country. As the number of seniors, and in particular the number of cases of financial exploitation, rises exponentially, APS Programs throughout the country are being slashed because of faltering state budgets, severely compromising their ability to investigate elder abuse and to take measures to protect frail, often extremely vulnerable older victims."

The Association notes that older persons, as well as younger adults with disabilities, who are victimized by violence, neglect and exploitation are the only category of crime victims who receive no dedicated help from the federal government. The Elder Justice Act was enacted as part of the health reform legislation, but Congress has not funded it.

The New York State Elder Abuse Prevalence Study is the second-largest study ever conducted on the prevalence of elder abuse and the first statewide study to compare self-reported data to reported case data over the same time period. The study's contents are not yet available, pending release by New York State Office of Children and Family Services. The study's authors presented their results at a recent conference on aging.

State of California and Failure to Protect? Funding Shortage Inhibiting PFB’s Effectiveness

Janet Phelan
November 19, 2010
San Bernardino County Sentinel

When Janis Schock learned that her complaint of conservator wrongdoing, submitted to the California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, had been closed without an investigation taking place, she was dumbfounded. The communication from Angela Bigelow, analyst and sole full-time employee of the Professional Fiduciary Bureau (PFB), stated that the court must first make a determination of wrongdoing before the PFB could take action. Janis Schock wasn’t so sure this was true.

As it turns out, Schock was correct.

The Professional Fiduciaries Bureau is a relatively new addition to consumer oversight agencies and is lodged in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The PFB was established by an act of law in 2006, following public outcry engendered by a 2005 Los Angeles Times series which revealed questionable practices by California conservators, who were at that time unlicensed. The bureau, as written into law, is mandated to license professional fiduciaries, to investigate complaints and, where appropriate, to refer complaints to law enforcement. The bureau is also empowered to revoke a license based on complaints and to take action on unlicensed activity. The Professional Fiduciaries Act defines a professional fiduciary in this manner:

“Professional fiduciary”means a person who acts as a conservator of the person, the estate, or person and estate, or guardian of the estate, or person and estate, for two or more individuals at the same time who are not related to the professional fiduciary or to each other.

Conservators are generally appointed through court proceedings when there are allegations that a person is lacking capacity; in other words, becoming forgetful or otherwise unable to handle his or her affairs. These allegations need meet no standard of proof, which provides an opening for abuse of process. The Government Accountability Office recently released a report citing multiple instances where a conservator had abused his powers to the detriment of the conservatee. Several grassroots groups have sprung up to address the issue of abusive conservatorships, which are reported to be taking place countrywide.

The Bureau did not open its doors for business until the Summer of 2008. Governor Schwarzenneger, who had signed the bill establishing the PFB in 2006, subsequently line- item vetoed the funding for the infant agency two years running. In an interview with this reporter in 2008 for an article published in The American´s Bulletin, Assemblyman Dave Jones, who was a primary author of the bill, voiced his surprise that the Governor acted to gut these bills without any such recommendation from his own party. “What is particularly troubling is that this is a cut that was not on the Senate Republican cut list. The Governor went out of his way to make that cut.”

After two years in operation, the bureau appears to have fallen short of its mandate and is providing less than comprehensive oversight of the fiduciaries it is mandated to watchdog.

Janis Schock had complained that a San Bernardino conservator, Ron Olund, had breached his fiduciary duties to Maxine Douglas, who is Schock’s mother, allowing numerous bills to go unpaid and utilities to be shut off. She reported that Douglas’s home nearly went into foreclosure as Olund neglected to pay the home association fees for several months. She also alleged that Olund had deliberately isolated her mother from family and friends.

The Douglas conservatorship is being heard in San Bernardino Probate Judge Michael Welch’s court. A recent Sentinel article raised concerns that Welch may have perjured himself in another conservatorship proceeding. Other questions have arisen as to Welch’s property dealings and Welch has refused to respond to queries as to whether he or other, undisclosed parties are paying back his multiple home loans.

The closing of Schock’s complaint by PFB analyst Bigelow was brought to the attention of the Department of Consumer Affairs. Consumer Affairs legal counsel Gary Duke expressed dismay at what Bigelow had done and quickly concluded that she had signed off on the complaint “in error.” The Schock complaint was subsequently reopened.

The complaint was then assigned to an investigator within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Janis Schock reports that investigator Jane Valdez subsequently told her that no action would be taken. According to Schock, Valdez did not deny the allegations contained within Schock’s documented complaint. Schock was told that her complaint would go to file, to be reviewed should other complaints come in on Olund which “show a trend of misconduct.”

Schock questions the thinking behind this. “If someone drives drunk and runs someone down, do they not get prosecuted until they do it a second or third time?” she asks.

The Sentinel has reviewed actions taken by the bureau as well as interviewed a number of complaints. A picture has emerged of an agency which is under-funded, under-staffed, and has consequently failed to perform the duties it is chartered to attend to. In the face of inquiries from the press and public, it has repeatedly attempted to obscure its activities and the outcome or premature closure of its investigations.

The PFB, which currently has one full time employee and one half time bureau chief, maintains a board of seven members. At the present time, two professional fiduciaries — Lisa Berg and Daniel Stubbs — sit on the board, as well as supervising probate investigator Sharon O’Neill and two public members. Two seats remain vacant, including a seat reserved for a representative from a nonprofit organization advocating on behalf of the elderly. A recent board meeting found the members focused on concerns about raising more revenue for the bureau, which has taken out two loans totaling over a million dollars in order to stay solvent. The bureau reported that $357,000 for the current year covered only two staff positions and that a mere $50,000 was allotted for enforcement. The minutes reflect concerns that “one big case would break the budget.”

In its first annual report, the PFB reports making no investigations and no referrals to law enforcement. Adding veils of obscurity to its functioning, the PFB refused to supply this information when the Sentinel inquired as to these statistics. Rather, legal counsel Gary Duke stated that this information was not discloseable, citing government code 6254 (f). When the Sentinel persisted, the PFB stopped responding to Public Records Act requests. The Public Records Act mandates a response within twenty days.

In fact, the information which Gary Duke refused to disclose is readily available to the public in the DCA’s annual report,which is on line.

Promises by the DCA to produce documents have also gone unfulfilled. Last summer, the Sentinel had requested input from the DCA as to the cost to the state of the bureau’s efforts with regard to Redlands-based conservator Melodie Scott, who has been the subject of numerous complaints from family members of individuals under her care. Scott’s professional fiduciary license was the first and only such to be denied by the head of the Department of Consumer Affairs after contested hearings last year in Oakland Administrative court. In a response in August of this year, DCA Press Officer Russ Heimerich promised to research the financial impact to the state and to respond with the requested details. At the time of going to press, he has not done so.

Joseph Quattrochi, Jr., met with a similar lack of accountability in his dealings with the Professional Fiducary Board. His complaint to the PFB alleged criminal misconduct by Melodie Scott and was submitted over a year ago. He states he has received no response whatsoever from the bureau. The Sentinel has reviewed a number of emails sent by Quattrochi to Gil DeLuna, head of the PFB, spanning several months, in which he repeatedly requested a response to his complaint and also expressed bewilderment as to why Melodie Scott was not in jail. Quattrochi, whose father had been under a conservatorship with Melodie Scott, has lodged a lawsuit in federal court against the former conservator.

Gina Rilke, whose husband was also under a conservatorship with Melodie Scott, has expressed frustration that her report to the Professional Fiduciary Board also went unanswered. When the Department of Consumer Affairs, via Gary Duke, declined to state whether or not the agency had contacted law enforcement when Melodie Scott persisted in advertising herself as a professional fiduciary after her license had been denied, Gina Rilke went to the Redlands Police to make the report. In a Catch-22 like maneuver, she was then informed by the responding officer, Eric Strobaugh, that only the DCA could make such a report.

The Professional Fiduciaries Act details that such advertising by an unlicensed party constitutes a misdemeanor.

Rilke reports that in a recent conversation with Duke he told her that her complaint to the bureau is moot at this time, given that Melodie Scott is unlicensed. Misstating the powers of the Professional Fiduciary Bureau, which include contacting law enforcement, Rilke writes that Duke told her that “denying/taking away a license is really all the power the Bureau has to discipline any violations.” Says Rilke: “I told him that I had tried for three hours to have a police report filed, but the officer insisted that it was the bureau’s responsibility to follow up on [such] violations—Mr. Duke said that he had heard from others that officers at the Redlands police department had told them the same thing. Duke said it really is the law enforcement agency’s responsibility to deal with it, but they don’t because they have other things that are more pressing from their point of view.”

Rilke also has alleged Scott stole more than sixty thousand dollars during her tenure as conservator of Rilke’s husband, who is disabled.

Gary Duke has informed the Sentinel that the Bureau made an “economic” decision and chose not to investigate the criminal allegations contained in the numerous reports the bureau received on Scott. “We thought we had enough on her in terms of lying on her application,” he stated in a recent interview. By declining to investigate criminal allegations, the bureau lessened the likelihood that she would be prosecuted in criminal court.

Scott’s license denial is under appeal and is scheduled to be heard in Sacramento Superior court in December. Sources close to Scott state that she remains confident that the judge will grant her a license.

Lauren Collins also reported Conservator Stevan Chandler to the Professional Fiduciary Bureau last June and received no response. In the intervening months, Chandler has informed the family that they have less than six months before they lose their home, due to a reverse mortgage placed on the home to pay for the conservatorship. Jeanette Spence, who has multiple sclerosis, has never had a capacity determination and the family has insisted that the conservatorship is completely unnecessary. While physically disabled due to her illness, Spence was alert and lucid during an interview with the Sentinel last year and clearly stated she wanted the conservatorship ended. “Chandler just wants my money,” she said.

Carolyn Perkins, whose parents were under a conservatorship with professional fiduciary Linda Banta has told the Sentinel that she was discouraged from filing a complaint by former Professional Fiduciary Bureau employee Janice Nance. Perkins alleges Nance told her it wouldn’t make any difference. Says Perkins, “Janice very definitively told me not to send a complaint to her but to complain to the judge. I was devastated at the time because I had carefully read the code of ethics and realized conservator Linda Banta had purposefully, deliberately and egregiously violated them, particularly with regard to emotional well-being and family connections.”

Echoing widespread concerns which resulted in the California Legislature passing the act which called the bureau into being, Perkins said, “Of course, I didn’t bother to write the judge because the judge has been complicit all along.”

Monday, November 15, 2010

Happy 94th Birthday ! Clara G. Fernandez


Clara G. Fernandez who is the inspiration behind this blog celebrates her 94th birthday after losing all her civil rights, and immigrating for the 2nd time in able to escape oppressive government who seemed to condone the confiscation of everything she stood for after a generation of toil, sacrifice and hard work....


I really thank the G-d above for having allowed this amazing woman so many years who has taught me never to give up and for having given an example that will live forever in the many lives that she has touched.


Clara left the United States shortly after receiving this letter of consfiscation, she was under house arrest having lost all civil rights, rights to travel, rights to enjoy her retirement when the American Dream turned into a hellish nightmare and was forceful separated from her husband for purely financial reasons. Her husband retired Dr. A.J. Fernandez M.D. did not survive the stress of the situation and died shortly after being separated from his wife Clara of 58 years.


Letter of Consfiscation
click to enlarge

Clara was being forceful given a cocktail of strong psychiatric medications that made her subject to many debilitating falls and were designed to keep her in a distressed , zombie like estate which she would have NOT survived for long had she not gone into exile to a third country where she is totally off drugs,thriving and in a loving family environment, as it should be.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARA !

Attn: California Members

Investigative reporter Janet Phelan is working on an article concerning the reports that gone into the California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau concerning guardian abuse. Would the California members who sent in such complaints please contact her via email? at tinker.belle2000@yahoo.com

She needs to know if your complaints were responded to and if so, what did the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau say.

We would appreciate hearing from you soon!

Thanks,

Janet Phelan & Editor, E.A.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2009 Needs to Pass

Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2009 Needs Senate Vote & Obama’s Signature to Pass

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) was recently defeated in Pennsylvania’s senatorial race. His Elder Abuse Victim’s Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Here’s the information:

“House of Representatives HR 448: Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2009: To protect seniors in the United States from elder abuse by establishing specialized elder abuse prosecution and research programs and activities to aid victims of elder abuse, to provide training to prosecutors and other law enforcement related to elder abuse prevention and protection, to establish programs that provide for emergency crisis response teams to combat elder abuse, and for other purposes.

"Feb 11, 2009: This bill passed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The vote was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill, needing a two-thirds majority. This usually occurs for non-controversial legislation. The totals were 397 Ayes, 25 Nays, 10 Present/Not Voting”

[see link: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-448]

The above is one of many already passed Congressional bills awaiting passage by the U.S. Senate. Once HR 448 is passed it can be signed into law; its Democratic legislation introduced by Democrat Sestak and passed by a Democratic House of Representatives and it's now awaiting a Democratic Senate majority to vote on it. Then it goes to the Democratic president to sign it into law.

IMPORTANT: We STILL have the same Democratic leadership and the majority until January 1, 2011 that we had prior to the recent election.

They are said to be the lame duck Senate but, to we elder advocates, they are an important group of politicians. They are our duly elected and functioning government and they work for we tax payers & elder advocates....for now. If they want our votes in 2012, they can start to work on obtaining our votes right now by passing HR448.

Most of you will agree with the following: we want our elderly protected.

We have to start somewhere, folks, so let’s be realistic. There is no panacea, no magic bullet to protect senior citizens or any other disenfranchised group. Social change happens slowly. Laws will be built out of horrible and imperfect situations like those we have encountered; it will be trial and error, unfortunately, and this evolvement may span decades.

In fact, in 2002, the American Medical Association said it would be 30-40 more years before awareness about elder abuse reached what it was then for child abuse. That’s pretty scary, isn’t it? If everyone in America knew what we know about elder abuse, neglect and exploitation, they would take this more seriously. However, we were the unwillingly “chosen”…we KNOW and because WE KNOW the responsibility falls on us to act.

We need social change and yet "we" don’t want health care or Wall Street, etc. reform with many saying government will be "too big." Let those of us who have had our family members slaughtered by greed keep this in mind when Republicans say they want less government. Could they mean they want less oversight?

Those of us who have seen what leaving the foxes guarding the chicken coup can bring about ought to have some big issues with less oversight. And, perhaps, it may be fairly easy to surmise a possible reason why the Republican Party poured money into the Pennsylvania election to make sure Joe Sestak was defeated.

Let’s get real about this political stuff for just a moment. It took eight years to run the country into a sewer. We elected a man from Chicago, not Oz or the Emerald City, as president. But, we really did expect him to be a magician not a politician, didn't we?

We are a nation that seeks immediate gratification and not the daunting task of commitment to social change and self-examination. Because social changes were addressed the “dogs of war” have been set upon Obama and he has been called a “socialist.”

The truth is our government has two huge socialist programs that have been and remain successful for over 60 years. They are Medicare and Social Security. Do you want to change them or remove them because they are socialist? Do you know that every country in the world has socialistic programs that were brought about for a more humane society?

Are social workers socialists? They're certainly highly respected professionals and they’re in the trenches with us...thank God for the ones that were with me in Walterboro, South Carolina when my father met with an untimely end. Paradise Costs would have never been written if it weren't for them. I remember one named Linda who said to me: "Irene, don't you see why this is happening to your family? You're a writer; the pen is mightier than the sword. Write about this." She encouraged me to reframe what was happening to my family under some ugly and dire circumstances.

Most social workers urge us to change, too. They want us to understand that if we keep doing the same thing, the same thing is going to happen. We can sit here at this blog and discuss our personal tragedies, try to re-invent "the wheel," we can think magically about the future, we can bicker, we can attempt to infuse our fractured and dysfunctional society with fantasy about our imperfect union or pie-in-the-sky thoughts about capitalism with morals or we can do something and comfort ourselves by knowing we tried everything we could to make a difference.

Think please? We have 3 Democratic legislative bodies (House, Senate and President) and some already written legislation, let’s pour the pressure on the lame ducks to “grow a pair” and do the job we elected them to do.

Yes, elder advocates will argue that this is wrong and that is wrong with the above legislation just as they did with the Elder Justice Act…but, listen, it’s a start and we have to start somewhere and why not now?

It’s really, really simple and it's in this moment.

You’re part of the problem or you're part of the solution.

Pick a side right now.

People who want to be part of a possible solution click on this link http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
and look up your senators’ phone numbers (you have 2 U.S. Senators)
and call his or her office every day until December 31, 2010 if need be
and tell him/her to vote “yes” on HR 448. Please ask your friends to do
likewise?

Here’s the White House’s number: 202-456-1111;
call the President's staff everyday...see above.

I will be calling my senators (both Democrats), tomorrow and everyday from now until December 31, 2010 to say, “Please pass HR 448 or I'll never vote Democrat again and I can promise you I will tell everyone of the 78 million baby-boomers I can possibly reach that you and your colleagues turned your backs on us.”

And while I have your attention can I please tell each of you something else that's critically important?

Please don’t view yourselves as victims. Empower yourself and see yourself as a pioneer, a champion of the elderly and an advocate taking a proactive stance.

Every one of you is an awesome spirit having the human experience that's been tainted for some reason by this horrendous social ill called elder abuse. Reframe it?

You are more powerful than you know. God, in His wisdom, has chosen each of us to make a difference and lead the way by sharing our expanding consciousness about elder care issues. Do it!

And as the famous poem says, "...whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy."

For those who still need a little more inspiration, please see this link & have your speakers on:
http://www.youtube.com/user/operaphila

Peace,
Irene

Irene A. Masiello
Author: Paradise Costs-A Victim’s Daughter
Fights Back against Elder Abuse
Afterword: Rabbi Bennett Blum, M.D.
www.ParadiseCosts.com
http://www.bennettblummd.com/

©Copyright November 2010-Irene A. Masiello-All rights reserved


"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world;
indeed it is the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead