More Predictions for 2011...

The excerpts taken below do not reflect the view of E.A. and or it's editor who would like to believe that Americans politicians are noble and caring individuals who are there for the peoples and are working hard to protect the hard working American public from injustices and ever vigilant to make sure the American people get the government and the justice they deserve but represent the view of a few fringe elements out there who refuse to drink the kool aid and obviously do not watch the evening news and are not aware of the green shoots and the economic recovery underway with a robust stock market leading the way. President Barack Obama recent remark to the report of increase jobs from the hiring of 411,00 census workers to say." "This report is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day." …

We are publishing this article in the interest of contrasting opinions..........

Editor

"I would love to wish all a Happy New Year, but unless one is a member in good-standing of the DC Hog Trough Diner 2011 is going to suck even worse than 2010. That may be hard for many to imagine, but the US has now engineered the Perfect Storm to assure that the USS Titanic is going to sink.

The bailouts and QE1 did nothing except accelerate the rate of transfer of wealth into the right pockets, and probably not your pockets. The proposed QE2, QE3, QE4, or as many 'quantitative easing' shams and scams as they want to do will continue to not work and accomplish nothing for the average American. The ship is going down and it is going to be more pain, no gain for what is a broke and broken US system.
Expect higher interest rates in 2011. The Bank of England has already stated up to 5%, and real inflation is much more than that. When food and energy prices are escalating but not factored into the real inflation rate, the numbers you are seeing are a sham, a lie.
If 'economic stimulus' did not happen at interest rates ranging from 0% to 1%, when they rise to 5% to 10% expect even less economic results in 2011. Sooner or later all parties end and it is then time to face the music. The music and what America will have to face in 2011 will be about the ugliest bitch of a year that has happened in the last 100 years.
Of course, the Fed will continue to manipulate the stock market so Americans think they are getting rich swimming with the sharks. When the value of the dollar is declining, the capital markets increasing as yet another bubble, the net effect is zero growth. In real terms, it might actually prove to be negative growth, more contraction and more bad employment news.

The rest of the world is asking the question so I will ask it too. What in Hell does it take to wake you stupid people up over in the 50 states of La-La Land?
Are you so wrapped up in dumbass you cannot grasp or understand anything that is fundamental to your wellbeing? Get this straight, Uncle Sam and Big Brother are not your friend.

Trust that hunger, poverty, lack of food will increase in 2011. These morons in DC do not care if you are starving, and evidently Americans cannot make the mental connection as to why they are hungry and starving.
The US will set an all time record in debt versus lack of production output in 2011. The US is not the world's largest economy and has not been in several years. The EU has taken that away even with a stronger currency and China just pushed Japan out as the second largest production output.

The only 'change' in the world is every place except America. The voters of America did not vote for change in November 2010. The same liars, thieves and traitors are still firmly in control of America, so there will be no change, only the appearance of change.

Printing money is not industrial output. That is simple to grasp but seems to be lost on most Americans. When US GDP is around 46% 'financial services' and a large amount of that is brazen fraud, America needs to rethink its business plan. First it killed the output, then the jobs and now well on its way to killing a nation. I doubt that America will rethink its business plan in 2011, so expect more of the same and maybe worse.

I wonder at times if Americans can grasp the sheer magnitude of fraud that was the rigged, artificial 'robust economy' Bush kept bragging about and was literally a house of cards housing market. There was only about $4 trillion stolen from foreign nations, banks, pension funds, insurance companies and private investors to create the illusion that everything was just hunky-dory in Nitwitville, America.

Americans seem to want their salvation delivered to the door like a pizza. It has never worked that way, 2011 will not change that fact.

The BP Deep Horizon blow out will continue to destroy an entire ecosystem. What was recently reported as 'BP oil covers 1,000's of miles of ocean floor' will change to read "BP oil covers 10's of thousands of miles of ocean floor". Many will continue to get sick, up to and including the point of either dying or their health being ruined for life.

Yeah, Americans like to talk about their freedoms and rights. Go ahead, all Americans have the right to eat as much oil contaminated seafood as they wish.
Be careful swimming in what used to be a beautiful gulf, the sharks are running out of food.

The American voice will continue to become less relevant in this coming year. It does not take a crystal ball to figure that one out. When a sound asleep nation is lead by liars, con-artists and idiots, there is no possible outcome but a stupid end solution.

Global Warming will continue to be revealed as a scam as much of the world braces itself for the worst winter in the past 100 to 200 years.

Americans will still obediently comply with any TSA abuse, thinking wrongly that America is being protected. Maybe when TSA starts shoving their fist up American asses, Americans will realize that the hardest nation on Earth to travel within is the United States for Americans and foreigners alike. There are no problems elsewhere and no TSA sort of shakedown, humiliation and abuse.

Financial collapse of America? That is very likely, so make sure you have food, means to raise or buy food, and make sure the lifejacket is handy. There are very turbulent waters ahead.
If you have not considered moving to a real nation, you might want to consider that. America is toast!! "

By Karl Schwarz
12-31-10

Related=>>Fall of the Republic (Video)

Gerald Celente's Top Trends Of 2011

Top Trends of 2011 By Gerald Celente 12-28-10

KINGSTON, NY, 28 December 2010 - After the tumultuous years of the Great Recession, a battered people may wish that 2011 will bring a return to kinder, gentler times. But that is not what we are predicting:

1. Wake-Up Call The people of all nations, having become convinced of the inability of leaders and know-it-all "arbiters of everything" to fulfill their promises, will do more than just question authority, they will defy it. The seeds of revolution will be sown.

2. Crack-Up 2011 In 2011, with the bailout funds and arsenal of other schemes to prop up the economy depleted, teetering economies will collapse, currency wars will ensue, trade barriers will be erected, economic unions will splinter, and the onset of the "Greatest Depression" (a trend we forecasted before the massive bailouts existed) will be recognized by everyone.

3. Screw the People As times get even tougher and people get even poorer, the "authorities" will intensify their efforts to extract the funds needed to meet fiscal obligations. While there will be variations on the theme, the governments' song will be the same: cut what you give, raise what you take.

4. Crime Waves No job + no money + compounding debt = high stress, strained relations, short fuses. In 2011, with the fuse lit, it will be prime time for Crime Time. As Gerald Celente says, "When people lose everything and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it." And "lose it" they will.

5. Crackdown on Liberty As crime rates rise, so will the voices demanding a crackdown. A national crusade to "Get Tough on Crime" will be waged against the citizenry. And just as in the "War on Terror," where "suspected terrorists" are killed before proven guilty or jailed without trial, in the "War on Crime" everyone is a suspect until proven innocent.

6. Alternative Energy In laboratories and workshops unnoticed by mainstream analysts, scientific visionaries and entrepreneurs are forging a new physics incorporating principles once thought impossible, working to create devices that liberate more energy than they consume. What are they, and how long will it be before they can be brought to market?

7. Journalism 2.0 2011 will mark the year that new methods of news and information distribution will render the 20th century model obsolete. With its unparalleled reach across borders and language barriers, "Journalism 2.0" has the potential to influence and educate citizens in a way that governments and corporate media moguls would never permit.

8. Cyberwars In 2010, every major government acknowledged that Cyberwar was a clear and present danger and, in fact, had already begun. The demonstrable effects of Cyberwar and its companion, Cybercrime, are already significant ­ and will come of age in 2011. Equally disruptive will be the harsh measures taken by global governments to control free access to the web, identify its users, and literally shut down computers that it considers a threat to national security.

9. Youth of the World Unite University degrees in hand yet out of work, in debt and with no prospects on the horizon, feeling betrayed and angry, young adults and 20-somethings are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. Not mature enough to control their impulses, the confrontations they engage in will escalate disproportionately.

10. End of The World! The closer we get to 2012, the louder the calls will be that "The End is near!" Among Armageddonites the actual end of the world, and annihilation of the Earth in 2012, is a matter of certainty. Even the rational and informed may sometimes feel the world is in a perilous state. Both streams of thought are leading many to reevaluate their chances for personal survival, be it in heaven or on earth.

11. The Mystery Trend ... will be revealed upon publication of theTrends Journal in mid-January.

With http://enews.trendsresearch.com an unexcelled track record to prove it, no one can provide a more accurate look into the future than Gerald Celente, Trends Journal Publisher.

To scoop your competition and give your audience something of real significance to think about ­ and talk about in the New Year, schedule an interview with Gerald Celente by contacting:

Zeke West, Media Relations
zwest@trendsresearch.com
845 331.3500 Ext. 1

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!

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

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

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

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.

REPORT TO ASSEMBLYMAN DAVE JONES : PROFESSIONAL FIDUCIARIES BUREAU

HISTORY

The California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau was established by an Act of the California Legislature in 2006, following public outcry over the revelations in a Los Angeles Times investigative series. Entitled "Guardians for Profit--When a Family Matter Becomes a Business," the Times series detailed corrupt and abusive practices by California conservators for the elderly and disabled. The population impacted by conservatorships constitute some of the most vulnerable and at risk citizens of the State of California.

As a source for the Times’ articles, I was in regular contact with the lead reporter for the series, Robin Fields and was personally aware that the Times did not publish details of some of the worst abuses. Nor did the series attempt to scrutinize the systemic accommodations which allowed the abuse to flourish. Some of these details were imparted to me by Fields in telephone conversations in late 2002. In a phone conversation which took place in September of 2003, Fields also disclosed to me that the articles, which were originally slated for publication in Fall of 2003, were being "sat on" by the editors of the Times. The series kicked off in November of 2005.

Governor Schwarzenegger line- item vetoed the funding for the PFB two years running and the Bureau finally opened its doors in 2008.

CURRENT CONCERNS

Recent revelations as to the functioning of the PFB point to considerable irregularities and support allegations that the PFB is violating not only the law which brought the Bureau into exitence, but is violating other laws as well, including sunshine and transparency laws.

According to its own statistics, published in its annual report, the PFB has done no
investigations and no referrals to law enforcement. When this reporter requested information relating to law enforcement referrals, I was told by DCA Legal Counsel Gary Duke that this was nondiscloseable information (Exhibit 1)

In fact, this information is clearly available in the annual report, which is online.

On September 1, 2010 this reporter requested the following information (email in its entirety below):

I would like to request the following stats:

1) the number of applications for license received by the PFB

2) the number of applications for license denied by the PFB

3) the number of complaints referred to law enforcement by the PFB/DCA

As this request only asks for stats, it is my understanding that the privacy concerns in the PRA are therefore honored and that you should have no problem --legally--fulfilling this request.

No response or acknowledgement to this PRA request has been received as of today, October 7, 2010. Per the CPRA, the Bureau has ten days to acknowledge the request and is in legal default.. A follow up email was also sent to Russ Heimerich, Press Officer for the DCA (Exhibit 2).

On August 16, 2010, this reporter memorialized in writing a previous verbal request, made to Legal Counsel Gary Duke, asking for the cost to the State of California on the Melodie Scott matter (Exhibit 3). Although Russ Heimerich assured me that my request would be responded to, the request has not been fulfilled as of October 7, 2010.

On July 24, 2010, this reporter had queried of Legal Counsel Gary Duke if either the PFB or DCA could possibly contact law enforcement concerning Melodie Scott's continuing to advertise herself as a Professional Fiduciary on her public website, in the face of being denied a licence (Exhibit 4a). Duke had previously informed me that this is a misdemeanor. This request was specifically made due to the repeated failure of law enforcement to act on reports alleging criminal activity by Melodie Scott. As a matter of fact, Gina Rilke, a resident of Riverside, California, had contacted the Redlands Police Department attempting to file this report on August 16, 2010,

Officer Eric Strobaugh informed Rilke that no charges would be filed against Scott based on her allegations and that the report needed to be tendered by the PFB. He did supply her an incident number, 100037514.

Gary Duke has declined to state whether or not the agencies have contacted law enforcement in this matter. A follow up call to the RPD in mid-August confirmed that no report had been entered by the DCA or PFB concerning this issue.

Gil Deluna, the head of the PFB, did respond to a PRA query on August 5, 2010 in which this reporter requested statistics (see Exhibit 5). When another PRA was filed requesting a further breakdown of the stats he provided, detailing the disposition of reports, DeLuna failed to respond.

The issue of disposition or resolution of reports is most troubling. On June 16, 2010, PFB analyst Angela Bigelow informed complainant Janis Schock that the PFB would have to get a court determination of wrongdoing before the PFB would investigate (Exhibit 6). This is a gross misstatement of the Professional Fiduciaries Act. Legal Counsel Gary Duke agreed that Bigelow wrote "erroneously" in her email to Schock. When this reporter questioned Duke as to whether Bigelow had closed other complaints "erroneously," he refused this information, stating that Bigelow's behavior was a personnel matter and thus not discloseable. The previously mentioned email to DeLuna (in Exhibit 5) was issued as an attempt to ferret out what is happening to complaints tendered to the PFB.

And that brings us to the question of how these complaints are being resolved, a question which remains unanswered. A number of complainants have contacted this reporter and stated that their complaints seem to have vanished into the bowels of the PFB, without any evidence or notice of resolution. No complainant has contacted this reporter stating that he or she has received a notice of resolution.

This reporter submitted her own complaint on September 26 2010 and I have not received an acknowledgement letter. At the time of submitting the report, I withdrew my previous report, which was over a year old and had not been acted upon.

Following the failure of the PFB to respond to my PRA request of September 1 and follow up emails (see Exhibit 1), I requested a blogger, Ray Fernandez of Elderabusehelp.org, to cut and paste my request and submit it to the Bureau (Exhibit 7). Fernandez received a reply within twenty four hours When I emailed Duke to ask him why he failed to respond to the PRA when it was first submitted by me, he again failed to respond (Exhibit 8).

It should be noted that the PFB's response to Fernandez contains the link to the annual report, which contains many of the stats I had requested and was previously told were nondiscloseable.

I have made it clear to the DCA that I believe that the Bureau is accommodating abuse and patently illegal practice by conservators and fiduciaries and that the Bureau's adherence to its mandate to provide oversight is nearly non- existent. This perception is increasingly buttressed by the following factors: The Bureau's own statistics; The Bureau's brazen disregard for sunshine laws; by the disturbing and quite illegal disposition of Janis Schock's complaint; as well as by the Bureau's failure to process other complaints.

The fact that the PFB does not "like" the viewpoint held by this reporter--a viewpoint which is appearing more and more to be supported by fact--does not give the PFB the latitude to ignore the Public Records Act. In fact, the continued denial of bonafide requests for information only supports the perception that something is very wrong indeed at the PFB.

CONCLUSION

The evidence is growing that the PFB is operating under a veil of secrecy and is doing so with contempt for the laws of the State of California. The PFB has violated its own process for handling incoming complaints and has demonstrated contempt for inquiries into its functioning. Of added concern is that a lawyer for the DCA, Gary Duke, has misstated the PRA and thereby inhibited release of information that is clearly available to the public in the annual report.

A thorough and public inquiry into these matters is therefore requested. The vulnerable citizens of the State of California are not being protected by such shoddy practices as detailed herein. The oversight promised by the PFA has not come to fruition; indeed, it appears that all that has been accomplished is that another layer of bureaucracy is now in place and California’s vulerable elders and disabled remain at risk to predatory and unscrupulous conservators.

Submitted this 7th day of October, 2010

Janet C. Phelan

258 A Street 1-15

Ashland, Oregon 97520

(541) 603-0514

Taking Other Peoples Money Is Theft

-----------------
We are not in the habit of making political statements, neither is it our intention do do so, but this trailer is very apropo with all that's going on today!

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’

"Don't Steal My Social Security."

My father's middle name was Franklin. He was named after Franklin Roosevelt. And today, we celebrate the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's greatest accomplishment - Social Security.

We call it Social Security. In other countries, the call it a public pension. But Roosevelt chose the term Social Security because the word "security" went right to the heart of what he was trying to accomplish for Middle Class America. It was one of Roosevelt's famous Four Freedoms: "Freedom From Want."

Without Social Security, seniors would be forced to work into their seventies, eighties and nineties. When they would become too sick or frail to work, they would have to beg. And then they would die.

That's the way it was in America when my father was growing up. Before Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security. No wonder my grandparents named him Franklin.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Social Security. Without it, many of our seniors would be so poor that they'd have to eat cat food just to survive.

That's why many are calling the Deficit Commission, run by extremist right-winger Alan Simpson, the "Catfood Commission." It's the culmination of decades of plotting by right-wingers to destroy Social Security.

As you read this email, the Catfood Commission is plotting behind closed doors to find a way to force Social Security cuts on the American people. In a few months, when they come out with their cruel "recommendations," you're going to hear all over the media that we have to destroy Social Security in order to save it.

Where have I heard that before?

We've got to stop them. If enough of us speak out against Social Security cuts now, then people like me, fighting to protect Social Security, can show the media where We, The People stand on this.

That's why I've started a petition telling Congress and the President, "Don't Steal My Social Security." It tells every Federal official with a say on this that if they vote to cut Social Security, then they're going to have to find another line of work. You know that extension in unemployment benefits that we just passed? That will be for them.

Sign the petition now, and pass it along to your friends.

Together, we can send a message that if you try to steal my Social Security, then your security is gone, forever.

Truth,

Alan Grayson

House Comitte Judiciary Hearings On Elder Financial Abuse

Latifa Ring's May 25, 2010 Congressional testimony. You can view this testimony online at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/224955. It begins 24:10 minutes into the video and runs for 8 minutes (until the 32:22 minute mark). Acquaintances would recommend you listen to the questions that follow her presentation, her comment beginning at 41:10, Mark Glasser's comments beginning at 42:35 (immediately following Latifa's comments), Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert's beginning at 44:50 (immediately following Mark's comments), Texas Congressman Ted Poe's comments beginning at 51:41 (immediately following Louie's comments), etc.

A transcript of Latifa's testimony can be downloaded from http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_100525.html.

HALT's issue brief (Appendix C of Latifa's testimony) can be downloaded as http://www.halt.org/reform_projects/freedom_of_legal_information/pdf/Issue_Brief_guardianships.pdf from http://www.halt.org/lic/dir.php?cid=10. This and other HALT materials on guardianships can be found on its website by entering "guardianship" in the search box on HALT's website.

Diane Armstrong is an active Elder Abuse advocate . You can find information about Diane and her book on the abuse of involuntary guardianships by Googling "Diane Armstrong" >> guardianship or visiting Diane's webpage at http://www.retirementnightmare.com/. A transcript of Diane's 2003 testimony (and others) before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging can be downloaded as http://aging.senate.gov/events/hr93da.pdf

from http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=271872& (This link works for me when I use IE7, but appears broken when I use Firefox. If you need me to, I can send you a copy of this transcript as an e-mail attachement.)

A sickening plethora of similar material exists. See, for example, all the material collected by the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse which is linked to http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/. Scroll down along the right edge of this webpage to near its bottom to find materials specific to your state.

Witnesses testified about enforcement of the Senior Financial Empowerment Act of 2009. They addressed issues pertaining to mail, telemarketing and Internet fraud targeting seniors.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/293692-2

I hope you find this material helpful.

Tom Fields

Letter From the Editor - Does Anyone Care?

Dear Readers:

I try not to stray to far on this blog from the topic at hand, however I recently wrote about a topic that's dear to all of us and that topic being freedom of expression.

I recently wrote a letter to my most loyal supporters that seems to have hit a nerve and I will reproduce it here for you and print some of your responses without the name to protect the identities which is something that has to be done in todays climate of fear and repression.

You in the US are no longer free to express your opinion, as an example military blogger: Blackfive writes "milblogs are facing an increasingly hostile environment " hostile environment as in 'Cuban Blogger' and Iranian Blogger' Hello! I am I the only one to see the connection here?

Blackfives continues " with milbloggers receiving reprimands, verbal and written, not only for their activities but those of spouses and supporters."

Well you might say "no reason for alarm" reprimands are not as bad as beatings , again Hello! anyone paying attention to what is happening in the US ? Does anyone care?

The catalyst has been the treatment of millblogger C.J. Grisham of A Soldier's Perspective (http://www.soldiersperspective.us/).

C.J. is having to raise funds to cover legal expenses to protect both his good name and his career.

Blogger C.J. Ultimately, was forced to sell his blog to help raise funds for his defense in this matter.

Well you might say,"Ray what does this have to do with me 'We are not military bloggers, the campaign is only directed to silence Military Bloggers'

Well again "Hello America!" Does anyone really give a damn that the Constitution and freedom of speech is rapidly becoming a moot point?

The fact that I had to leave my adopted country in order to exercise my right to free speech after having to spend thousands in attorneys fees in order to defend my right to keep my blog and ultimately had to leave to escape persecution, along with Journalist Janet Phelan and countless others is not important, but when an important segment as is military bloggers are forced to sell their blogs to a third parties that will accommodate the party line, 'Should this not be a cause for concern?

If a segment of the blogsphere is being silenced, starting with ElderAbuse and Elder Financial Abuse issues, and now military bloggers, discreetly as it might appear, how long do you think it will be before they come after you?

If you think not then continue to crow about how free you are, and continue to concentrate on how other people don't have the right to free speech while you lose yours and the carpet is being pulled put from under you and go in your merry way........

Yours Truly.

The Editor

ElderAbuseHelp.Org

Letters To Editor - No One Cares!

Happy holidays, Ray:

The answer to your question if this: NO ONE CARES

The US has created a hostile environment for us to live in and answers to its GODS-
Business, profit, the rich, corporate greed...finally, however, some people realize it and give up
like me. I battled this for 10 years, went broke doing it, caused myself health ramifications and more

FOR WHAT?

Democracy has never been by and for the people...at least not in the last 50 years...
there are TOO MANY SECRETS, too many corporate alliances (i.e. witness healthcare debate and
the power of the insurance lobby---do you think for a MINUTE this only happens in healthcare
insurance?)

This is what happens to our seniors...they are consumed by probate judges, elder care lawyers, social and protective services. They dehumanize us and our beloved seniors for GREED.

That's the mantra of America...profits before people...and it's always been that way or at least
since the USA knew Pearl Harbor was about to happen and did nothing in hopes of fueling the rich
and powerful corporations.

Viet Nam was the same way....lots of conspiracies say that was true in Kennedy's death (RFK & JFK) and with the WTC...there's plenty of video on the net. Take a look at it.

Ray, you did right by leaving the country. America is not what we were sold...that we were the "bastion" of freedom and yet our numbers suffer because corporate freedom to put profits before people is American domestic policy.

When the will of the people is circumvented by the will of corporate America...you got it exactly right:
NO ONE CARES...everyone is now caught up in trying to survive the joblessness, inflation, the lies,
the media that shoves starlets, weight problems, Tiger's extramartial affairs, etc down our throats rather than the truth.

There is not one person that is safe in this country...this is a police state, a lawyer state, a judge state, a corporate state and you all better accept it or leave this country. Our country is an illusion...things started out idealistic but big business and other countries now own us and there
is no where to hide.

Stay out of the system if you can...trust no one, mind your own business, go into business for yourself
and rebuild the American dream in your community. That's the only way not to be a consumable here in the America we thought was for the people, by the people....we do not matter....nothing does
except how much money you represent to anyone of the bottom feeding entities including the US government and those mentioned above...

it's every man and woman for themselves...use caution with EVERYTHING.

God bless you, Ray....you did the right thing leaving this country...in a place where mental midgets say, "this is America, love it or leave it" leaving it is just plain old good common sense.

-An ex-patriot

S.C. Supreme Court Orders Creation of Elder Task Force

Staff Report
Published Oct. 9, 2009

The S.C. Supreme Court has issued an order mandating the creation of a task force to study elder issues in the state’s courts.

The task force will examine issues related to elder abuse, adult guardianships and conservatorship. It will then make recommendations to the Supreme Court to aid in its responses.

The task force is charged with the following:

• Collecting data to aid in determining needs, promoting beneficial outcomes and fostering overall system accountability.
• Fostering training and education for judges, court personnel, attorneys, court-appointed guardians, guardians ad litem, conservators, mediators, law enforcement and others on matters affecting the elderly, such as dementia, financial exploitation, physical abuse and neglect.
• Recommending changes in court structure, laws, regulations or rules in order to protect the legal rights of the elderly, promote process fairness and facilitate the economic use of available resources.
• Reporting the status of its work to the Supreme Court and other interested parties by July 1.

S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal will appoint the task force’s leader. Members will be appointed as follows:

• Judiciary: One probate court judge, current or retired; one family court judge, current or retired; and the state court administrator.
• Lawyers: Two practicing lawyers experienced in litigation or transactional issues affecting the elderly, at least one of whom is experienced in working with the indigent elderly.
• Public officials: Two officials from an agency charged with the protection of the elderly.
• Geriatric care: One health care professional or master’s level social worker with expertise in geriatric care.
• Law enforcement: One law enforcement professional with expertise in crimes against the elderly.
• Consumer: One citizen volunteer.
• Legislature: One legislator designated by the chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Aging.
• Other members: The task force leader may establish interdisciplinary committees to research and gather information, develop or review proposals, monitor implementation of initiatives and otherwise aid in execution of the goals of the task force

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

Is this political posturing with some window dressing or could this be the start of something more meaningful ? We don't know yet but intend to keep up the pressure until other states take the lead and concrete steps are taken to protect us in our older years, but which in some cases are starting to look more like a Orwellian nightmare.

Why Obamacare Could Result In The Early Deaths of Millions of Baby Boomers

Imagine lying in some government-run hospital, hospice or nursing home many years from now. Imagine languishing unattended for days in soiled sheets, suffering from hunger and thirst, covered with bed sores, your flesh aboil with untreated infections. Imagine living in fear of resentful, underpaid health aides who take out their anger on you and abuse you. And imagine spending your final moments on earth in the company of a government health care worker with a syringe, who injects you with a lethal cocktail.

Do you find this hard to imagine? You should. In any civilized country, such things should not happen – ever. But President Obama’s health care proposals have the very real potential to turn this nightmare into a reality for many Americans, according to an in-depth investigation reported in the August edition of Whistleblower magazine, titled "MEDICAL MURDER: Why Obamacare could result in the early deaths of millions of baby boomers."

Especially vulnerable are the 80 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. "If you belong to that group, take note," says Richard Poe, author of the August cover story. "Your generation has been targeted for a program of age-based medical rationing such as our country has never before experienced."

Adds Whistleblower Editor David Kupelian, "If this dire end-of-life scenario sounds too awful to be possible, that is only because the reality of Obamacare has not been sufficiently reported. For this is not a fantasy – it is what is already occurring in other 'civilized' nations, including Canada and Britain, that have adopted the same government-run system."

For instance, the cover story, "Medical Murder," documents how British seniors, under a government-run system, "are routinely denied treatment for cancer, heart disease and other deadly illnesses," many dying "in filthy, overcrowded hospitals or nursing homes, rife with pestilence, including the deadly, antibiotic-resistant superbugs." Numerous horror stories of needed medical care intentionally denied reveal the stark reality of government-run health care worldwide.

To a small degree, Obamacare's ominous implications are starting to leak out. Here's how columnist Charlotte Allen explained it recently in the Los Angeles Times:

In looking for a way to fund healthcare, Obama has set his eye on the oldest and sickest. You see, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, about 30 percent of Medicare spending – nearly $100 billion annually – goes to care for patients during their last year of life. What if there were no 'last year of life,' the president seems to be asking. ... [W]hy not save billions of dollars by killing off our own unproductive oldsters and terminal patients, or – since we aren't likely to do that outright in this, the 21st century – why not simply ensure that they die faster by denying them costly medical care? The savings could then subsidize care for the younger and healthier.

And for those who have been paying close attention, Obama himself has ever-so-gently hinted at his true intentions. At a town hall event in June televised by ABC News, Obama cited the case of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died on the eve of his election, suggesting one way to cut medical costs would be to stop expensive procedures on people about to die.

Families, Obama said, need better information so they don't approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."

"Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller," the president offered.

Read it all here=>>

Obamacare a Potential Boom for Estate Looters, Probate Abusers

Photo Courtesy AP:

While the public voices serious concerns about proposed socialized health care plans, a group likely to quietly be applauding this move are grave robbers, property poachers, walker stalkers and other opportunists seeking to loot estates via probate instruments like wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney. Disgruntled family members, wannabe heirs or unscrupulous members of the legal industry will likely find treatment of the elderly under this new health care approach helpful with Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions in which probate venues or instruments are used to divert assets from intended heirs or beneficiaries.

The explanations of government-run health care being put forth defy logic and reasonable thinking. A plan that purports to allow people to keep their current health care providers while it covers more people at a reduced cost and involves no rationing or delaying/withholding of care makes no sense without a serious increase to our country’s debt, to productive Americans’ tax bills and probably both.

People are rightfully questioning details of the proposed versions of legislation as revealed to date. The White House and Congressional leaders claim public outrage is contrived. Diversion tactics aside, as the public learns more about potential “reform,” legitimate questions are surfacing over its cost implications, effectiveness in truly covering “all” Americans and the elder-hostile nature of its language. Despite assurances against rationing or withholding care – especially for seniors, the terminally ill or those with life-threatening injuries – language in at least one of the versions appears to say otherwise.

Read it all here=>>Examiner

Please log on and encourage the writer to write more articles like this...

Obamacare seen as death sentence for the elderly

by Paul Perry

As I write this, it appears that our Congress is speeding down a highway to hell, as per usual. It is, of course, paved with good intentions. Congress is about to add even more money to the so-called cash for clunkers program.

OK, there is some benefit. The citizenry gets to take some of their tax money back in return for trading in a used car to purchase a new one. Cars will be sold. Smoke-ring-blowing jalopies will be taken off the road, thus saving the planet, supposedly. In the auto business, commissions will be generated and money will be made, temporarily. Remember, all we are doing is recycling money that you will be taxed to replace. In the long run you will pay for it.

I am all for money being made, and unlike many, I have no particular dislike of car dealers. I do have an intense dislike of debt and higher taxes. Congress is burning up the financial highway to provide another 2 billion (that used to be a lot of money) in order to sell more environmentally friendly cars. I guess the only way this would be more satisfactory for most elected officials is if these new cars cut out the middle man and burned cash instead of gasoline, but then Congress and the administration would have nothing to do. Well, I guess they could figure out ways to hasten the demise of our elder citizens.

I think the new proposed health care program will do just that. In fact, I think it is going to be a windfall for funeral homes. You see, we have a lot of aging baby boomers in our society right now. They are the children born to the U.S. generation that prevailed in World War 2 –– if they hadn’t, those of us who are now alive would be speaking German or maybe Japanese. The veterans were a hardy lot; in truth the whole generation was pretty tough. Many nearly starved as a business cycle downturn worsened into a depression made worse by government mismanagement in the 1930’s. The whole country sacrificed mightily during WW 2, and many lost their lives in combat in the 1940s.

After they won the war, the survivors returned home to various and sundry government benefits earned during their service in the conflict. Opportunities for higher education were expanded. Home ownership was made easier through government programs. There were surplus calories. Family formation increased, thus the baby boomers came into being. Evidently the government doesn’t like baby boomers.

Additionally, this bill contains enough taxes that small businesses and many, if not most, middle-class folks will pay more in new taxes than they will save in insurance premiums.

Baby boomers are starting to retire in droves –– that is, if they have any money left. Demographically they are the largest generation in America. Their medical care will be expensive. Some of us have had to help our elders make what are called end-of-life decisions. In other words, just how much effort do you want there to be –– especially at an advanced age –– if you have a terminal medical condition. This should be a personal and private discussion and only with those who have earned your trust.

A few years ago, a relative who was very close to me wanted very little care in the event that he reached a terminal condition. It was his choice. I didn’t have any influence. I followed instructions. He was 85, after all, and old enough to make his own decisions without my badgering and certainly without federal government input. He had all of that he ever wanted in the war. He visited with an attorney and had all the appropriate paperwork taken care of. It was his doing; there were no federal mandates.

The current so-called health care bill in the House of Representatives, on the other hand, is a health care rationing bill. The section on cancer hospitals sets that tone pretty well. Rationing and limiting care is the agenda. On page 425, the bill states that the government will mandate so-
called advance-care planning, including instructing and consulting in regard to living wills and durable powers of attorney.

Will old folks be encouraged to pull the plug? Over time, I am betting they will. This is not a private discussion initiated by the elderly and their loved ones and their attorney. This is inserting impersonal government involvement into determining when you will die. Potentially, this is a federally mandated discussion which will reoccur every several years past a certain age. That could get just a little depressing, perhaps by design.

On page 427, the federal government requires a program for orders for the end of life. On page 429, the government will specify which doctors can write an end-of-life order, and on page 430, the government will specify your level of treatment. The way the bill reads now, almost all decisions will be reviewed by the federal government. These are just a few of my concerns. In summary, I think I know what George Washington would have thought of the bill.

If you don’t believe that any good provisions in this monstrosity will be totally corrupted by some faceless, nameless and godless federal bureaucrat in a cubicle somewhere, I have a diamond mine you need to buy. Please buy it, because I want to be able to afford to get me and mine the heck out of here, in style, if this bill passes. Where will this federal program end? I suspect mandatory euthanasia, eventually. By the way, Congress, active and retired, will be exempt from this entire program.

Shouldn’t we just call this the Funeral Home Stimulus Act? It would be more honest. If we don’t stand up, we will lose our Republic. As our lawmakers consider mandating “end-of-life” issues, I even fear judgment, divine judgment against our nation. Call your senators and your congressman. Demand that all efforts are employed to stop this predation.

Source=>>

New State Budgets Send Message That Seniors Are Not Valued

By Sarah Rohrs/Times-Herald staff writer

With several key senior programs facing drastic cuts, those who work with this population say the new state budget gives a new spin to the term "elder abuse."

Programs that provide food for seniors, and also help keep them in their own homes are slated to be gutted by Oct. 1, according to the Solano-Napa Area Agency on Aging.

In signing the 2009-10 budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated nearly $10 million for senior programs statewide, thereby crippling services for millions of seniors, said the state Association of Area Agency on Aging.

"I would call it a crisis," said Leanne Martinsen, Solano-Napa Area Agency on Aging executive director. "We thought (a few) programs would get cut, but not eliminated altogether."

The new state budget sends a message that seniors are not valued and also gives a new definition to the term "elder abuse," said Clay Kempf, state area agency president, in a written announcement.

The Solano-Napa group was bracing for big budget reductions, but is unprepared to deal with loss of all funding for the three programs, about $381,000 annually, Martinsen said.

The agency will get some state funding for the three programs this fiscal year, but was informed funding would be eliminated Oct. 1, Martinsen said.

"These are very significant cuts" and come at a time when the agency is seeing a greater demand for services, Martinsen said.

The Linkages case management program which allows 119 seniors and functionally impaired adults locally to stay at home rather go into institutions, is one program that will lose funding, Martinsen said.

Also targeted are Alzheimer's Day Care Resource Centers (ADCRC), which provide day care for those with Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia who can't be served by other programs.

Last year these centers provided 9,390 days of care for 148 adults in Solano and Napa counties, according to the agency. The programs are operated by Hospice and Adult Day Services of Napa Valley, and North Bay in Vacaville.

The senior brown bag programs that last year delivered nearly 330,000 pounds of food to 984 low-income seniors are also being cut, the agency announced.

Efforts are under way to have local food banks pick up those services so that seniors continue to get food regularly, Martinsen said. Other funding sources for the other two programs are not available, she said.

Martinsen said the agency is planning several fundraisers to help make up for the shortfall. The group uses volunteers and accepts donations. For more details, call (707) 644-6612, or go to www.aaans.org.

Contact staff writer Sarah Rohrs at srohrs@thnewsnet.com or (707) 553-6832.

Baby Boomers Your Financial & Economic Winter is Coming, The Fourth Turning

By: James_Quinn

Thus might the next Fourth Turning end in apocalypse – or glory. The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed. Or America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition. The rhythms of history do not reveal the outcome of the coming Crisis; all they suggest is the timing and dimension. - Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

A must read=>>Here

Bloomberg Administration’s policy to turn a blind eye on vulnerable populations

New York City, NY by By Patrick Hedlund

Closing the city’s only 24-hour homeless shelter dedicated to serving seniors amounts to nothing less than elder abuse, a group of advocates charged at a rally on the steps of City Hall on Wed., June 24.

The event was organized by the recently formed Senior Outrage Coalition, which has been protesting the plan to close Peter’s Place in Chelsea ever since the Department of Homeless Services announced it would be shuttering the shelter on June 30 as part of a plan to reduce the total number of “drop-in” centers citywide.

Peter’s Place has operated out of the basement of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church on W. 23rd St. for the last 16 years, providing hot meals, showers and clean clothes to more than 100 seniors per day. While the shelter does not offer beds to visitors, its does provide round-the-clock service catered specifically to elderly individuals, many suffering from mental and physical disabilities.

“It is an absolute disgrace that here in the city of New York, with a budget of almost $59 billion, that we cannot find the money to keep this place open,” said Queens Councilmember Tony Avella, a candidate for mayor and the only elected official to attend the rally. “How we take care of those people in need in our city is a reflection on our society. And we need to send a message to Mike Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn that the money should be found to keep this place open.”

“The closing of Peter’s Place is the result of Bloomberg administration’s policy to turn a blind eye on vulnerable populations such as the homeless elderly, leaving them without proper services and care,” said SOC’s Muriel Beach, who is also NYC Chapter president of the Senior Action Council. “We accuse the city of New York of elder abuse in its neglect of homeless seniors.”

“Let’s call elder abuse exactly what it is and where it is in this city,” said Jim Fouratt, a candidate for Quinn’s Council seat. “Elder abuse starts in the mayor’s office, and elder abuse starts in the speaker of the City Council’s office.”

Abridged=>>