Category Archives: U.S.

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).”


 

 

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, 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?

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Postal Service problems having domino effect on Corporate America

Some people don’t think much of the USPS (United States Postal Service), many people, including main stream journalists, don’t know that the USPS does not get any taxpayer money!  How about the fact that dozens of U.S. and European corporations rely on the USPS for business?

I’m not talking about shipping their products.  Corporations actually have major contracts to provide the USPS with products or services.  Now they’re feeling the pinch of the collapsing USPS budget.

Here’s a list of major companies being directly affected by the problems at the USPS: Fed Ex, Siemens, Northrop Grumman, Pat Salmon & Sons and Campbell-Ewald, to name a few.

Fed Ex is the biggest contractor with the USPS, in 2010 they were paid $1.4 billion for their service to the USPS (that’s only 3.5% of Fed Ex’s total revenue): “FedEx values its alliance relationship with USPS, both as a supplier and a customer.”-Maury Donahue, FedEx spokeswoman

Northrop Grumman made $495 million off their USPS contract.

The German company Siemens made $135 million in 2010: “We’re affected by their budget and their spending, It causes us to react and adjust.”-Daryl Dulaney, CEO of the Siemens Industry division New York

Siemens was involved with mail processing equipment, until this recent announcement by the USPS: “…will not be buying mail processing equipment, period.”-Sue Brennan, USPS spokeswoman

Privately held Pat Salmon & Sons trucking made $143 million in 2010.

Shipping contractors, like Fed Ex and Pat Salmon, have been hit hardest by the USPS budget crisis.  According to David Hendel, with postal contracting specialist Husch Blackwell LLP, the USPS is asking truckers to essentially work for half pay: “If the contractor will not agree to this, the Postal Service is threatening to terminate their contract.”

The only company that seems to be making more money off the USPS budget crisis, is advertiser Campbell-Ewald. The USPS has poured money into an advertising campaign trying to promote their service.

Basically the U.S. Postal Service wants to end Saturday mail delivery, cut 220,000 jobs by 2015 and close at least 3,700 post offices.  As you can see the cuts will affect far more than just Postal employees and customers.

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, International, U.S.

Closer to a one world government: Super Sovereign Credit Agency to be created

“We hope that the agency will gain a leading position in the global rating market within the next five years. We’re fully aware that a globally recognized organization can never be propped up by one agency, so we will bring in more countries.”-Guan Jianzhong, CEO of Dagong Global Credit Ratings

China’s Dagong Global Credit Ratings will play a key role in the new global super-sovereign credit rating agency.

It will be established by Europe, the United States and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).  Its headquarters will probably be based in Europe.  Details will be finalized in Frankfurt later this year.

Initial plans include representatives from National Information & Credit Evaluation in South Korea, the Scope Group from Germany, and RusRating from Russia.

There are currently 152 rating agencies worldwide, but recent actions by the “big three” credit raters (downgrading governments, like the United States) has led many governments to decide to create one single credit rating agency.

Ahmed Sule, a strategist for Diadem Capital in United Kingdom, said any new credit rating agency would have to prove itself: “The agency would have to be independent and autonomous; this could be a challenge but the agency would have to work toward this independence if it is to be accepted by the international capital market.”

In July, a French magazine, Capital, revealed that a single European credit rating agency was in the works.

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Kurdish rebels in Iran admit they are being armed by the United States

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Iranian channel, BBC Persian, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi admitted they are conducting military action against Iran with the help of the United States.

Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi is the boss of the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) terrorist group.

He said the PJAK had built tunnels into Iran from Iraq.  They also received new weapons and equipment, including 120mm mortars, from the U.S. consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.

Currently Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is in battle with the PJAK.  This follows attempts by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to mediate between the Iranian Kurdish rebels (PJAK) and Iranian government.  The mediation failed after PJAK forces killed two Kurds: “But the PJAK terrorist group paid no heed to the KRG’s appeals and mediation (and) martyred two local Kurdish forces… and this proved to the KRG that the terrorists had ignored its requests.”-Hamid Ahmadi, IRGC Colonel