Marti Oakley PPJ Gazette copyright © 2019
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Ever wonder why the government, that spends billions if not trillions each year on wasteful agencies and programs, then allows those agencies to become so dysfunctional, so costly they become a detriment to the public? This is an intentional plan in action with a very much desired end result. Privatization. This means, that some special, well connected “stakeholder” who will make massive amounts of money bilking the public is ready and set to go. The word stakeholder is a word used to describe those who have a vested monetary interest in profiting by any means necessary and they have bribed, bought, groomed, and pampered any elected official willing to sell you out. And bear in mind that no private interest would be remotely interested in taking over any of these services or agencies if the potential for unlimited and unregulated profits was not part of the deal.
The reason that the federal government and its agencies contract out work to private corporations; work they should be quite able to perform in and of themselves (considering this is the reason they were put in office in the first place) and the vast amount of money squandered each year, is to limit the information the public can gain access to under FOIA or other inquiries. What that private corporation will hide behind is “proprietary rights” and “trade secrets”. Unconstitutionally ceding their business, power and authority to a private corporation provides protection from prying eyes and mountains of unconstitutional and unlawful activity can be safely kept out of the public eye through privatization.
So called “deregulation” , sold to the public as necessary if the economy is to survive, is simply a means by which corporations are allowed to operate without those precious regulations, codes, laws, or other bothersome rules the rest of us are bound by. Supposedly, regulations make business too difficult for them to operate. And you saw the benefits of deregulation in 2008 when Wall Street oversaw the disappearance of millions and billions of dollars of other people’s money…money which was never recovered. The corporate world claimed that those regulations were an interference with “free trade”, and “capitalism”.
60% of all corporations PAY NO TAXES. But somehow they do receive multi-million dollar tax refunds each and every year. How does “free trade and capitalism” sound to you now? Free breaks for them and the capital flows into their accounts. All the while you, the over regulated and taxed individual fights to keep enough of your income to survive on. [2]
STAKEHOLDERS
When you see the word stakeholder used in any context, search to see who those stakeholder’s are and what connections they have to your representative or senator. Find out how active those stakeholders are in your state and what their main interest is. What area of the economy either locally or nationally, are they trying to overtake? Then look for federal and/or state funding sources. And look especially close to which of your elected officials are promoting them. Then track down the money trail. Who is “donating” to their re-election campaign in vast amounts of money. www.opensecrets.org is great for tracking the “pay to play” system that runs quietly in the back ground and out of sight of the public.
Ask yourself this question: If the federal government cannot control or efficiently oversee any of the federal agencies, why would handing that agency over to a private, secretive and uncontrollable private corporation remedy that situation? And why, after doing so, would the public still be forced to fund that same agency that congress no longer has control of?
Hey! I have an idea! How about congress doing its job? If they are going to fund an agency…how about they also oversee that agency with something more than a useless, pointless oversight committee that lacks any regulatory power and meets once annually so they can collect that extra paycheck for sitting on that committee?
While the labels of “socialism, communism” or other labels meant to terrify the public into accepting the corporate takeover of America are bandied about, the word that should terrify…what you should be paying attention to is ….fascism.
As it is, every agency and office on the federal level is listed on Dunn & Bradstreet as a corporation and generates its own credit rating and number. This even includes the Supreme Court of the United States. [1]
We have been overtaken by fascists and things are about to get a lot worse. Socialism is the least of your worries, but it does make for a boogy man to scare you with. There isn’t a rat’s chance in a deacon box that you will ever see socialism in this country. We’ve already been overtaken by fascism and the worst is yet to come.
What Privatization means to you!
From the perspective of government; main goal of privatization is to secure the hiding of damaging information, wasteful spending, fraud, abuse of all kinds and cannot be controlled because it is a privately owned business. And deregulation will increase the ability of these private corporations to operate as corruptly as they please with no regulations in place to control them.
Add privatization to the purging of any information held by government agencies that is seven (7) years or older..and not only is our history being wiped out, but so is any evidence that could be used in discovery should you decide or need to sue one of these agencies.
Let’s use the Veterans Administration as an example.
Considered one of the most grossly mismanaged, wasteful and bloated agencies in the federal government, care for our Veterans is abysmal at best. Billions of dollars are squandered by this agency on buying artwork, redecorating offices, and other nonsense, while our Veterans are put on wait lists for care. Our VA hospitals are death traps in many cases and the intentional drugging of veterans who suffer from ptsd, the drugs causing sudden death during the night, is well documented.
Having allowed this agency to become so dysfunctional, so costly to the public was no accident. This was allowed, encouraged even, to open the door to “privatization”.
Once privatized, the Veterans Administration will be openly operated by a privately owned corporation. That corporation will enter into a contract with the federal government as a “government services provider”. But…as a privately owned corporation it will not be subject to FOIA requests and will not be required to report publicly anything accept a limited accounting of expenses or costs, or to provide any information revealing anything about how it is operating.
This is a corporate takeover of government functions; “fascism”. As as an example, the FDA is cited in this piece from: FDA VIOLATION OF THE RULE OF LAW [1]
http://www.emord.com/Read-FDA-Violation-of-the-Rule-of-Law.html
By Jonathan W. Emord
“From 1787 until 1937, the constitutional law of this country prohibited administrators from possessing combined legislative, executive, and judicial powers, but for the last 69 years, the Separation of Powers doctrine has been largely abandoned in favor of oligarchic rule by the independent regulatory commissions. That rule has produced rights violations, massive transfers of wealth from private to public hands, government protectionism for industry leaders over new market entrants, vast corruption, and explosive growth in the size and scope of the federal government. The independent regulatory commissions, and the FDA in particular, are destroying free enterprise and individual liberty in America.”
And please pay no attention to the fact that under the “Non-Delegation Doctrine”, no congressional action or executive order is legitimate that violates this doctrine. https://definitions.uslegal.com/n/nondelegation-doctrine/
U.S. Const. art. I, § 1, vests all legislative powers in the Congress of the United States. The text permits no delegation of those powers, and so when Congress confers decision making authority upon agencies Congress must lay down by legislative act an intelligible principle to which the person or body authorized to act is directed to conform. The degree of agency discretion that is acceptable varies according to the scope of the power congressionally conferred. [Whitman v. Am. Trucking Ass’Ns, 531 U.S. 457 (U.S. 2001)]
This decision alone highlights the common double speak used to conceal the unconstitutional delegation of powers. On the one hand it admits that congress has no authority to delegate any of its powers, and on the other says that when they do they must use discretion.
But what congress actually does is something quite different. They cede all power for rule-making, codes, and regulating statutes to the body they have ceded their authority to. And then tell us they cannot control what that unconstitutionally empowered “body” can do.
The words “free trade” and Capitalism will be repeated endlessly until the public accepts the idea that what these corporations do, their main function, is to siphon as much money as possible out of the public at large while providing limited services. Never mind the damage they do. Never mind the lives destroyed. Never mind that this same Veterans Administration will see its expenses explode as services dwindle, as limits and caps are put on services offered.
And congress will then remind you that although they can advise and request that the private corporation change its ways.. they cannot order them to do anything because they are a privately owned corporation.
We see this same program played out in virtually every federal agency. Billions upon billions of dollars in funding at taxpayers expense, and for some reason these agencies operate at such a level of dysfunctional incompetence that it staggers the mind. And what does congress do? They throw more money at them, and then begin talking about privatization. How much better it would be for everyone if we privatized the agency; how everyone would benefit greatly from privatization. They just don’t tell you that the “everyone” they are talking about that will benefit greatly all belong to the private corporation that was gifted with this cash cow.
And while this private corporation has only one fiduciary duty…to make a profit for its shareholders…congress will continue to flood the agency with billions in funding that for some reason will still be necessary even though the agency is now virtually, uncontrollable and operating for no other reason than to profit.
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[1]Not only is the United States a corporation, but the “Judicial Branch of US Govt” is also a Delaware Corporation (Delaware SoS file number: 3383789), listed in Dun & Bradstreet: “The following is the DUNS number for JUDICIAL BRANCH OF US GOV: DUNS number: 956858625
The “Judicial Branch of US Govt” (corporation) includes: “U.S. GOV’T LAW COURT ADMIN SUPREME & U.S. DISTRICT, APPELLATE, VETERANS PROBATE, BANKRUPTCY, STATE(S) COURTS, INC.”
So our courts from the Supreme Court down to state courts are corporate “policy” (as in police) courts.
The Non-Delegation Doctrine
U.S. Const. art. I, § 1, vests all legislative powers in the Congress of the United States. The text permits no delegation of those powers, and so when Congress confers decision making authority upon agencies Congress must lay down by legislative act an intelligible principle to which the person or body authorized to act is directed to conform. The degree of agency discretion that is acceptable varies according to the scope of the power congressionally conferred. [Whitman v. Am. Trucking Ass’Ns, 531 U.S. 457 (U.S. 2001)]
[2] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/companies-paying-zero-taxes-trump-law-155944124.html
“Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes at the 21 percent statutory corporate tax rate,” ITEP noted, “these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion.”
Under TCJA, Trump’s new tax law cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. And some big businesses that did end up paying tax in 2018 paid far less than that.
Jun 20, 2019 @ 12:31:12
MINNESOTA
SUPPRESSED EPA CONCERNS ABOUT MEGA-MINE SURFACE
Billion $ Minnesota Nickel /Copper Mine Will Cause Big Pollution Headaches
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its own staff’s year-old objections to major pollution consequences from a controversial mining project, in response to a lawsuit brought by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The case illustrates how EPA now avoids required oversight of state-issued pollution permits.
At issue is PolyMet Mining’s planned $1 billion NorthMet mine copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota. The mine and processing plant would occupy 19,000 acres in the St. Louis River basin, creating a permanent pollution source in the river flowing into Lake Superior. The project would also destroy more than 900 acres of wetlands.
The PEER suit sought to uncover EPA’s stifled objections to the state permit. The EPA Great Lakes Regional Office had developed seven pages detailing problems with proposed permits. Notes on materials released to PEER indicate that “information underlined…was conveyed verbally to MPCA [the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency] on April 5, 2018…word for word…” (Emphasis in original). Among the concerns EPA staff raised were –
the project is “expected to release significant amounts of mercury into downstream navigable waters…[leaving] mercury from this … project wholly unregulated”;
no permit limits for pollutants such as pH, fecal coliform, Total Suspended Solids, and Biochemical Oxygen Demand;
the permit as written “may preclude enforcement” under the Clean Water Act.”
EPA had forbidden its staff from filing formal comments on the proposed state PolyMet permits. Instead, it allowed staff to read excerpts from its undelivered comments to state officials. PEER filed suit after EPA refused to voluntarily disclose the full agency comments in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
“The concerns raised by EPA staff are not nitpicky but are very basic objections about serious contamination consequences and likely violations of state water quality standards,” stated PEER Counsel Kevin Bell, who filed the FOIA lawsuit. “Rather than litigate the matter, EPA has made what it calls ‘a discretionary release’ so that we can all see what was written but undelivered.”
Despite the seriousness of the objections EPA raised, the issues were not addressed by the state, nor are the issues yet fully part of the ongoing litigation challenging the state permits.
“Under the current administration, EPA is a pollution watchdog not only on a leash but under a muzzle, as well,” added PEER Science Policy Director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with EPA, pointing out that EPA’s withdrawal from regulatory oversight is national in scope, not limited to Minnesota. “As this PolyMet case demonstrates, Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s policy of ‘deference to the states’ functions as an abdication of EPA’s core mission.”
https://www.peer.org/news/press-releases/suppressed-epa-concerns-about-mega-mine-surface.html
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Jun 19, 2019 @ 13:57:23
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jun 19, 2019 @ 13:07:47
checked spam box too…its not there
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Jun 19, 2019 @ 13:07:03
same thing for me…I tried to post too….zip! gone!!
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Jun 19, 2019 @ 12:49:32
Marti, I just tried to post the article again and it disappeared again.
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Jun 19, 2019 @ 12:48:43
Marti, it’s strange. The first time I pulled up the link there was no problem. When I pulled it up again my anti-virus flashed a “link blocked due to malicious malware” message. That could be the reason that it disappeared here.
I get those mining newsletters in my email because I have commented in the Elko Daily Free Press on Wild Horse & Burros issues.
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Jun 19, 2019 @ 09:59:15
Louie….what disappeared? Seems a lot of that is happening recently. I will look to see if its being held for moderation. IF it is…I will post it.
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Jun 18, 2019 @ 18:10:53
I tried to post the entire article here and that, too, just disappeared.
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Jun 18, 2019 @ 17:54:46
Dan, you might, perhaps, be a bit more cordial in your request?
A simple “please post the links” would have been suffice.
FIRST… I didn’t realize that the links didn’t post until I submitted them.
THEN when I tried to post the link to the top story it disappeared.
I tried more than once…no dice.
The articles are from the Elko Daily Free Press.
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Jun 18, 2019 @ 15:44:19
Louie C – how can I put this gently? Your post contains ten (10) ‘read me’s
Not a live link in the bunch – a total waste of bandwidth and my time. I’ve found your past contributions interesting and informative.
Up your game.
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Jun 18, 2019 @ 15:05:51
NEVADA/MOLY PROJECT WIND WATER RIGHTS
Latest Mining News
Moly project wins water rights
The Mt. Hope molybdenum mine project near Eureka has taken another step forward. Read more
Industry specialist outlines mineral projects
ELKO — These are busy days in Nevada’s mining industry, with exploration of minerals other than gold and silver growing and new projects un… Read more
Hecla closing Elko County gold mine
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Hecla Mining Co. announced this week that it will significantly reduce its planned development investment in Nevada … Read more
AMS of the Southwest offers hydraulic and fluid power solutions
“Really what we’re trying to do here is bring the best quality product to the end user at the lowest possible cost,” AMS of the Southwest G… Read more
Women’s Mining Coalition goes to Washington
The week of April 29, the Women’s Mining Coalition (WMC) hosted the 27th annual Fly-In to Washington, D.C. to give women involved in the mi… Read more
Hybrid vigor: training and development
for Center for Behavioral Safety LLC Read more
“This is huge” – Joint venture creates world’s largest gold producing complex
TIM BURMEISTER Read more
From the editor: My introduction to mining
I became the new editor of the Mining Quarterly in February, and was plunged right into the thick of things reporting on the back and forth… Read more
Mining Gear: Photo contest winners
Lots of great “mining gear” photos were submitted for this quarter’s contest. Most depict machine gears – and a few show mining clothing. Read more
Phoenix: Big mill and latest tech keep long-lived mine productive
As the new editor of the Mining Quarterly, in early May I took my first mine tour, traveling to Newmont Goldcorp’s Phoenix mine about 12 mi… Read more
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Jun 18, 2019 @ 12:20:00
We need to shut the government down as is and re-establish a representative Republic. What we have is this monster called “democracy”….democracy is nothing more, and is defined as MOB RULE. The mob referenced here is in DC.
when you tell me you love our “democracy” my first instinct is to go up side your head. I dont want democracy. I want that representative republic we were supposed to have. Our democratically positioned elected officials dont work for us. They are an alien entity that bleeds us dry while they trash our constitution and take away our rights.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 19:31:44
Now that we have (hopefully) slapped the religiosity out of the discussion, let’s get back to the business at hand.
For several years, I have had a simple three-item agenda:
· Campaign Finance Reform
· Voting Integrity
· People half our age (I just turned 81) need to take an interest and become active in “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.
In other words, overturn Citizens United; provide a reliable and well-guarded paper trail for the eventuality of recounts in all elections at all government levels; and encourage the ‘youngsters’ who are stepping into the fray.
Oh, and be sure to pray.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 17:51:42
i had to think on this a bit. then with some minimal research realized you are right on the mark. Privatization is money laundering, hiding unconstitutional and damaging acts by the gov. andd they can hide it all behind trade secrets and proprietary rights just like you said. What other excuse could the fed have for allowing these federal agencies to operate as such low levels. they have no control over them now. they are already at least partly privatized. with full privatization that pig we call government will just get fatter.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 15:51:10
Miss M….did you ever actually start your political atheist party? and no she doesn’t mean she doesn’t believe in God…she just doens’t believe in political party’s that depend on keeping the public divided and fighting each other rather than those we should be focusing on. I want to join in if you did. I can bring half my church with me if you are up for it. They feel the same way…no faith in the political system or the two party’s that control it…which are in reality one big party. That is political atheism. Has nothing to do with religion or God so dont get your undies in a wad.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 15:40:40
Thank you ABL…couldn;t have said it better. politics and religion…the two things that will destroy the world. Neither have anything to do with faith in God.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 15:34:56
mirnad….have you lost your freaking mind? This is NOT about religion, it is NOT about prayer in school…neither of those things will correct the rot in our government. They didn;t fix any other situation before this…what makes you think God will show up now? OR that brainwashing kids into thinking that mysticism and magic will heal the world? I have faith in God…but I dont expect Him to fix what we should be fixing ourselves. And if HE didn;t show up to stop the Inquisitions, the holodomor, the holocaust, the genocide of Palestine, the genocide in Rowanda, the 26,000 kids dying each and every day from starvation, and the thousands of other instances of human insanity…what makes you think He will take time out to fix our country and why would you think with your obviously compromised brain that putting prayer in school would resolve any of the issues in this world. People pray every day all over the world…and not once has God shown up to answer their prayers and stop the carnage. oh I forgot…he answers prayers in his time not yours. and by the way…I have been/was a card carrying Republican for more than 30 years. God was no where to be found except when the cameras were rolling. So get off that crap and clear your head and think about things rationally for a change.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 15:24:44
If people would just put their faith in God and put prayer back in school we could change all this. Put this in God’s hands. He will take care of it. thats the difference between left and right. On the right we believe in our Lord and Savior. On the left…they dont. and we get punished for that.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 15:21:52
We need to get rid of congress altogether as it exists. Revamp it, reign it in, and start over. We have elected people to office that couldn’t tell you anything about anything and they dont want to know anything either. Get rid of those who nested up in our government …limit the time they can be in there. Get rid of corporate funding for candidates and political partys. And gt the hell out of any political party you think you are part of or belong to. Then, sever all these corporate contracts, clean up these agencies and make them function as intended. IF you cant do these few things…we dont need you in there anyway.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 14:51:26
we are discussing this article right now. How do we make people understand that the right v left crap is only for public consumption? Only a means of keeping us fighting between ourselves while the real criminals use their positions in government to take us apart. All the staged arguments and fights on MSM are to keep you convinced that anyone or all of them give a damn about us. They don’t. Selling off government responsibilities to private cronies while investing in those same corporations as you do it….seems to me would be grounds for charges of treason. Just my thoughts.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 14:44:55
wonderful expose’. Unfortunately those that still buy into false left/right idiom will never understand what you have exposed here. We have a congress that is costing us a fortune to support, that is absolutely useless to us and which has ceased to perform any of the duties they are charged with.
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Jun 17, 2019 @ 14:39:11
The hidden agenda///anything to finish the deconstructing of the US. privatization is exactly the deal. Once under total corporate control we will have lost all of our rights and we are nearly there now.
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