All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Congress wants to shut down U.S. Postal Service, why else are they restricting USPS access to their hard earned money? 9 million jobs lost?

September 6, PBS Newshour’s Gwen Ifill interviewed U.S. postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, and Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.  They both pointed out that the U.S. Congress is holding back on money earned by the USPS, and that was a primary reason the Postal Service is in trouble.

FREDRIC ROLANDO: “I’m here to tell you that the Postal Service is not broke. The Postal Service just needs access to its own money. And Congress needs to get busy and give them that access.”

“The $20 billion-plus dollars that you read about in losses is nothing more than a congressional mandate that requires the Postal Service, required the Postal Service to take all of their cash and put it into a pre-funding account.”

“The Postal Service actually has somewhere between $50 billion and $125 billion in their other funds that is not taxpayer money. They haven’t used a dime of taxpayer money in over 30 years! And the Congress just needs to act responsibly and quickly to give them access to that — those funds.”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “Fred is exactly right around the issues that we have faced in the last few years.”

“In that same time, we have been required [by Congress] to prepay employee retirement funding.”

GWEN IFILL: “What does Congress have to do with that? When you say that Congress needs to make changes to get you access to this cash, what can Congress do?”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “There are two proposals on the table, the one Fred referred to, where we would get money back. The other proposal is the Postal Service taking over our own retirement system, operate it just like a private business. And we would no longer need that pre-funding.”

“…we have overpaid [forced by Congress] into our other retirement fund $6.9 billion. We want all that money back right now.”

FREDRIC ROLANDO: “What Congress needs to do is give the Postal Service access to, like I said, between $50 billion and $125 billion…”

“There’s $50 billion to $75 billion in surplus pension funds. There’s about $42 billion in the future retiree health benefit funds, again, all postal funds, no taxpayer money involved.”

“…this is just cash money that the Postal Service needs access to. We’re not looking to in any way diminish what needs to be done for future pensions or future retirees.  It’s just that you don’t have to do 75 years worth of pre-funding in a 10-year period. You could re-amortize what needs to be done.”

“…because any business wouldn’t put $20 billion of cash into future pre-funding, nor would they leave $50 billion to $75 billion of pension surplus in that account, when they’re going through the transition that the Postal Service is going through right now.”

“If Congress doesn’t act, the postal industry, about nine million jobs are in danger…”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “We will be out of cash next August. That’s the issue.”

 

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge (prices are controlled by Congress, not the USPS), and other products they sell.  The cuts being made to the USPS will have no affect on U.S. government debt.

Business/Economics, U.S.

United Police States of Corporate America: People with mental problems thrown in prison, unwritten crime of being mentally ill, big money maker for Corporate Prisons

“When I became a judge I had no idea that I was becoming a gatekeeper to the largest psychiatric facility in the state of Florida – the Miami-Dade Jail.”–Steve Leifman, Miami-Dade County judge

Not only does the United States have the most people in prison, in the whole world, but it also has the most people with mental problems in prison.

A National Public Radio report says that the University of South Florida looked at who was the most frequently jailed people in the Miami-Dade County prison system.  It turns out that people with mental problems are the most frequently jailed people: “Over a five-year period, these 97 individuals were arrested almost 2,200 times and spent 27,000 days in the Miami-Dade Jail. It cost the taxpayers $13 million.”-Steve Leifman, Miami-Dade County judge

Most states don’t use mental health facilities, no thanks to former President Ronald Reagan’s decision to cut funding in the 1980s, so most people who commit crimes because of their mental problems end up abused in prisons.

“It seems to me that we have criminalized being mentally ill.”-Greg Hamilton, Travis County Sheriff, Texas

Sheriff Hamilton says because there is little funding for hospitals to care for mental patients, the prison system becomes the default ‘treatment’ center.

The amount of time a person with mental problems stays in a Travis county jail is between 50 and 258 days.

According to a 2009 Corrections Today interview with Judge Leifman, 90% of U.S. hospital beds for mental health patients have been closed, and there’s been a 400% increase in the mentally ill offenders entering prison!

According to a May 2011 Daily Kos posting: “There are three times as many men and women with mental illness in U.S. prisons as in mental health hospitals.”

“The costs of keeping a mentally ill individual in a penitentiary are three to six time what it costs to treat them at an outpatient mental health center.”

“The U.S. prison system had become the largest mental health provider in the country – with nearly 50% of inmates reporting mental health problems.”

“According to the most recent survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 81% of mentally ill inmates currently in state prison, 76% of mentally ill inmates in federal prison, and 79% of mentally ill inmates in local jails have prior convictions.”

“Mentally ill prisoners are more likely than others to end up housed in especially harsh conditions, such as isolation, that can push them over the edge into acute psychosis.”

“…there are powerful economic drivers to keep locking more and more of them up. In fact incarceration and detention has turned into a multibillion dollar growth industry.”

“…the [privately run Corporate] prison industrial complex is primarily motivated by economics, such that a formidable amount of prison industry capital is devoted to creating prisoners…”

In other words the exploding growth of Corporate run prisons demands more prisoners, so that the Corporate run prisons can make the money to pay back investors.  Mentally ill people are easy targets.

 

 

 

U.S.

Humans are going Insane: CDC says 2.2 million U.S. citizens planned to kill themselves in 2010!

“Southeastern states generally have the highest prevalence of depression, serious psychological distress, and mean number of mentally unhealthy days.”-CDC, Mental Illness Surveillance Among Adults in the United States.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of their mental health study.  Ileana Arias, principal deputy director of the CDC, concludes that there are “…unacceptably high levels of mental illness in the United States.”

Here are some more interesting facts from the study:

About 11 million U.S. citizens experienced serious mental health illness in 2010!

About 84 million of the U.S. population reported having suicidal thoughts; 2.2 million made plans to kill themselves in 2010, and about one million actually attempted suicide last year!

“In 2004, an estimated 25% of adults in the United States reported having a mental illness in the previous year. The economic cost of mental illness in the United States is substantial, approximately $300 billion in 2002.”

“The prevalence of current depression varies substantially by state (from 4.3% in North Dakota to 13.7% in Mississippi and West Virginia), as does the prevalence of serious psychological distress (from 1.9% in Utah to 9.4% in Tennessee).”


 

 

International

Humans are going Insane: One in Four Australians have Mental Disorder, christians say it’s the wrath of god

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says one in four Australians, age 16 to 24 have mental problems.

Since 2000 there’s been a 66% increase in mental issues for teens age 12 to 14.  And a 90% increase for teen girls specifically!

The Australian Christian Lobby blames divorces.  I think the Australian Christian Lobby needs their head examined.

The Australian Response Ability web site does list family problems as a factor, but it’s only one of many “risks”.   Understand that a “risk” is not necessarily a cause:

Family “risk” factors include:

  • having a single parent;
  • having a teenage mother;
  • large family size;
  • marital discord or family violence;
  • poor supervision and parenting;
  • being abused or neglected;
  • criminal or financial problems in the family;
  • parental mental illness or substance abuse;
  • harsh or inconsistent discipline and lack of affection; or
  • death of an important family member.

“Risk” factors for school-aged children include:

  • bullying and rejection from peers;
  • lack of connection with the school;
  • poor behaviour management at school;
  • a peer group showing problem behaviours;
  • difficult transitions between grades and schools;
  • problems with schooling and academic failure.

“Risk” factors in the community setting include:

  • social and economic disadvantage;
  • discrimination and racism;
  • isolation;
  • neighbourhood violence and crime;
  • high population density, poor housing conditions;
  • lack of support services and lack of recreational facilities.

Here’s some more disturbing mental health facts from Response Ability, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing:

One in five Australians will experience mental problems at some point in their life.

Every year 20,000 more Australians suffer mental problems.

Almost one in 100 Australians will experience schizophrenia during their lifetime.

U.S.

United Police States of America: Woman forced to undergo forced body cavity search, then cops send her the bill! Blame the War on Drugs

“The human cost of the failed drug war has been enormous – egregious racial disparities, shattered families, poverty, public health crises, prohibition-related violence and the erosion of civil liberties.”-Barbara Lee, U.S. Representative for California’s 9th congressional district

The Metro Narcotics Agency of Las Cruces, New Mexico, forced a woman to undergo a costly medical body cavity search.  A police informant claimed the woman was smuggling drugs inside her body.  The medical search showed no drugs, the woman was forced to pay for the $1,122 search anyway.

The woman was never arrested, but simply ‘detained’, as is now standard practice by the United Police States of America.  There is no limit to how long a person can be ‘detained’.

Similar cases have been happening around the U.S.  A Cleveland, Ohio woman served 16 months in prison before being released in 2008, when defense attorneys discovered that the police informant lied about the woman’s ‘crime’.

The informant was trying to protect his own complicity in a shooting he was involved in.  Not only did the Ohio woman end up in prison, but so did 25 other people who may or may not be guilty.

The problem is that informants, especially drug informants, are usually known criminals, and due to budget cuts, police agencies are relying on unreliable informants more and more.  The result is that more and more innocent people are going to prison.

 

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Libyan Rebels detaining, torturing Russian & East European oil workers

At the end of August U.S. supported rebels detained 19 Ukrainian cooks and oil workers, on unsupported claims that they are mercenaries for Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi.

“How can we be snipers? They are old. She is a woman. We are not snipers. As you know, life in the Ukraine is bad. We came here to earn money for our family. They [rebels] took everything from us. Money, passports, computers, everything.”-Maksim Shadrov, cook

The rebels even admitted they found no weapons on the Ukrainians.  The Associated Press is reporting the most of Gaddafi’s mercenaries have fled the country.

Around August 30, Russian journalists found five Serbs, who’d been taken prisoner by Libyan rebels.

The five Serbs say they are construction workers who came to Libya on August 12, to repair roads for a Serbian-Libyan firm, Zazura.  When the fighting reached Tripoli, U.S. supported rebels stopped them, saw their passports and accused them of “aiding Gaddafi”.

The Serbs have now been confirmed as construction workers, and the Serbian Embassy is in touch with them.

Several Russian oil engineers have also been held, and beaten, by U.S. supported rebels: “For some reason they think that Slavic people are snipers. We have nothing to do with that. We came here to earn money peacefully.”-Vladimir Dolgov, engineer

Russian media says Russia is working to get its citizens out of rebel detention, but there are several dozen Russian and Ukrainian citizens still under rebel control.

 

International

Race & Class War: Israel discriminates against Black Jews, return of Israeli Black Panthers

“Not only have we not progressed, but the country has become an enemy of its people, everywhere citizens are harassed. There are more police, and now it’s not only the lower class who are suffering, but the middle class as well.”-Charlie-Sahlom Biton, former Israeli Member of Parliament and co-founder of Israeli Black Panthers movement

Recently Israeli citizens protested their own government, in record numbers, because of the growing divide between the haves and have nots.  Those affected the worst are Black Jews!

“Forty years have passed since we rose up to protest against the lack of justice. Since then, year after year, I’ve been waiting for the next generation to rise up.”-Charlie-Sahlom Biton

Charlie-Sahlom Biton, a former Israeli MP, says the situation in Israel has only gotten worse.  Black Jews, and Lower Class Jews have always been treated bad by the Israeli government, but now Biton says Middle Class Jews are being targeted as well.

Biton is helping to lead the resurgence of the Israeli Black Panthers, a group originally formed in the early 1970s.

The latest Israeli injustice against Black Jews, is the closing down of the Ner Etzion public school for Ethiopian immigrants.  To make matters worse, many of the private and public schools in the Petah Tikva area are refusing to take in the children of the Black Jews.

The area 6.5 miles east of Tel Aviv is nick named the Ethiopian ghetto.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Iran captures Al Qaeda members trying to lauch attack inside Iran, links to the United States, Obama lies

“These individuals intended to move large caches of arms, ammunition and explosives into the country.”-Hossein Chenarian, Police Chief Kerman Province, Iran

In the past two weeks, local Iranian police captured five al Qaeda members sneaking into southeastern Iran. This is a regular occurrence, and many of the al Qaeda members captured in Iran have stated that they’re getting help from the United States.

The latest capture included documents that revealed al Qaeda’s plans to sabotage Iranian industries.

The Obama administration has accused Iran of helping al Qaeda, which is ludicrous for several reasons, the number one reason is that al Qaeda is constantly trying to launch attacks against Iran!  The second reason is that al Qaeda declared war on Shia Muslims (along with other liberal Muslims like Sufis). Iran is majority Shia Muslim, while al Qaeda is Wahhabi Muslim.

Al Qaeda also hates Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians, Libyans, any place where the majority of Muslims are not Wahhabi.  Also notice that those countries are countries that the U.S. has invaded, attacked or is sanctioning.  The biggest Wahhabi country is Saudi Arabia, one of the big allies of the United States.  More proof of the U.S./al Qaeda connection?