Category Archives: Economics

What If the United States Became Less Federal and More Regional in Government? . by Alice B. Clagett

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Written and published on 6 December 2019

Dear Ones,

I have some thoughts on the state of the nation. Intuitively, I sense economic stressors that may gradually lead to our Federal government taking a lesser role in the governance of the United States, compared to regional alliances of states. I see the Federal government continuing to provide military defense, social security payments, and leadership in foreign affairs. I also see states taking more initiative in economics for their regions.

As to trade, I see future reliance on established railroad routes and water routes such as the Mississippi river. I anticipate that, should there be a gradual lessening of Federal power, then there might be more trade within an economic region, and less trade globally and nationally.

As to finance, I see potential reliance on barter, with care no to place our financial assets in overseas locations. Local-employment based credit unions may come into favor as regional savings repositories.

There may be more reliance on those economic sectors that hold strong during recessions … such as locally grown food, locally obtainable building materials, and water supplies not piped in over long distances.

As to economic stressors, I suggest the economic impact of the HIV pandemic, stress of regional aridity due to long-distance water transport costs,

A socially disruptive stressor is handheld psychosis, which may lead to chaotic events such as mass murders and actions by public utilities and military regarding perceived dangers that do not truly exist. This might precipitate social unrest in regions of the United States pinpointed by the Jade Helm exercises.

In United States cities, the high cost of housing and the increasing phenomenon of homelessness may lead to social unrest and attempted land grabs through anarchist behavior; this is something for which, I feel, every large city mayor and every state government ought to have on hand emergency action plans. For states in arid regions, emergency anti-anarchist plans ought, I feel, to highlight security of water transport systems. Electrical grids, I feel, might also be an anarchist target.

We people in large United States cities can be of big help in creating peaceful environments for our children by offering our law enforcement departments volunteer help through neighborhood watch programs.

It seems unlikely to me that anything would happen in a moment; rather I feel that the United States might very slowly tend towards a model of government more akin to the state by state model of our early years as a nation. We may find, in future, that traveling from one state to the next is a refreshingly new experience. Not everyone may be watching the same thing on television every night anymore; there may be less airline flights from here to there; and so the natural flavor and local color of each region of the United States may become more striking to the casual tourist.

In addition, it may be that some regions of the United States may be more perilous for tourist travel, as was the case for travelers in the early years of our nation.

I realize the prospect of change can be unsettling. It is good to keep in mind that changes such as those spoken of above … if, indeed, change there be … would in all likelihood take place by slow stages, over the course of the next century or two. Thus I feel certain there would be plenty of time to make our plans and find our footing in the new.

Below are some maps I have adapted to show possible United States economic regions and trade regions of centuries to come. I would be interested on your comments regarding this intriguing topic of the eventual possibility that the United States government might become less centralized, and more imbued with local flavor and with the strong spirit of our local communities.

Image: HIV Pandemic Economic Stressor 1,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: To the right of the white line, One Eastern Economic Region including the Southern states and the Eastern Seaboard … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: HIV Pandemic Economic Stressor 1,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: To the right of the white line, One Eastern Economic Region including the Southern states and the Eastern Seaboard … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg  … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: HIV Pandemic Economic Stressor 2,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: To the right of the white line, the earlier Eastern Economic Region divided by the yellow line into two smaller regions: an Eastern Seaboard Region and a Southern Region, … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: HIV Pandemic Economic Stressor 2,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: To the right of the white line, the earlier Eastern Economic Region divided by the yellow line into two smaller regions: an Eastern Seaboard Region and a Southern Region,  … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg  … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Western Economic and Cultural Stressors,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Along the Pacific Coast, two regions delineated by white lines. To the north is the Northwest Economic Region, including the parts of Washington state and Oregon with good rainfall. To the South is the California Central Valley Economic Region (also with good rainfall) … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Western Economic and Cultural Stressors,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Along the Pacific Coast, two regions delineated by white lines. To the north is the Northwest Economic Region, including the parts of Washington state and Oregon with good rainfall. To the South is the California Central Valley Economic Region (also with good rainfall)  … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg  … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Jade Helm Stressors,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Circled in yellow are two possible regions that might secede from the Union, but with which reciprocal trade agreements might be negotiated. Topmost is a Utah-Colorado Trade Region (which might be divided into two separate areas based on dominant religion). Lower and to the right is a Texas Trade Region comprising what is now eastern, central, and northern Texas. Then there are two southern regions delineated in white These are regions that might lean favorably towards alliance with Mexico, but with which we might anticipate establishing reciprocal trade agreements. To the left is a Mexican Trade Corridor comprising California from Los Angeles and to the south; the lower halves of Arizona and New Mexico, and the southwestern part of Texas. To the right is the state of Florida, which might lean favorably toward the Caribbean countries, but with which we might anticipate establishing reciprocal trade agreements … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Jade Helm Stressors,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Circled in yellow are two possible regions that might secede from the Union, but with which reciprocal trade agreements might be negotiated. Topmost is a Utah-Colorado Trade Region (which might be divided into two separate areas based on dominant religion). Lower and to the right is a Texas Trade Region comprising what is now eastern, central, and northern Texas. Then there are two southern regions delineated in white These are regions that might lean favorably towards alliance with Mexico, but with which we might anticipate establishing reciprocal trade agreements. To the left is a Mexican Trade Corridor comprising California from Los Angeles and to the south; the lower halves of Arizona and New Mexico, and the southwestern part of Texas. To the right is the state of Florida, which might lean favorably toward the Caribbean countries, but with which we might anticipate establishing reciprocal trade agreements … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg  … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Southwestern Arid Region,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Circled in white is the large Southwestern Arid Region, which might move to more local forms of small town government … as well as continuing with Native American Reservation governments … should the nation become less centralized. These include the Great Basin, the Great Rocky Mountains, and the western portion of the Great Plains … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Southwestern Arid Region,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Circled in white is the large Southwestern Arid Region, which might move to more local forms of small town government … as well as continuing with Native American Reservation governments … should the nation become less centralized. These include the Great Basin, the Great Rocky Mountains, and the western portion of the Great Plains … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg  … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Central Breadbasket Region,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Circled in green is a Central Breadbasket Region, with plentiful rainfall and good river transportation. This includes the eastern portion of the Great Plains, as well as the area south of the Great Lakes, west of the Appalachians, and north of the Southernmost states … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Central Breadbasket Region,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: Circled in green is a Central Breadbasket Region, with plentiful rainfall and good river transportation. This includes the eastern portion of the Great Plains, as well as the area south of the Great Lakes, west of the Appalachians, and north of the Southernmost states … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg  … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Future Capital Cities of the United States,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: The current capital of the United States is Washington DC (numbered ‘0’ on the map). Because of the AIDs crisis in Washington DC, and because our nation’s capital was once Lancaster PA, I suggest eventual relocation of the Capital back to Lancaster (numbered ‘1’ on the map). Farther out in time, it may be that Saint Louis, MO (labeled ‘2’) would prove a good location for our nation’s capital … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: Future Capital Cities of the United States,” adapted by Alice B. Clagett, 6 December 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 … DESCRIPTION: The current capital of the United States is Washington DC (numbered ‘0’ on the map). Because of the AIDs crisis in Washington DC, and because our nation’s capital was once Lancaster PA, I suggest eventual relocation of the Capital back to Lancaster (numbered ‘1’ on the map). Farther out in time, it may be that Saint Louis, MO (labeled ‘2’) would prove a good location for our nation’s capital … CREDIT: The topographic map is “USA topo en.jpg [USA Topographical Map], from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_topo_en.jpg  … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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United States, government, economics, travels in the United States, history, geography, politics, social unrest, Jade Helm, community health, HIV pandemic, AIDS pandemic, homelessness,

Notes on Forestalling Social Unrest in California . by Alice B. Clagett *

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Written on 12 April 2018; published on 6 December 2019

  • THOUGHTS ON PROVIDING STAGE ONE WORK FOR THE CALIFORNIA HOMELESS AT LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE, IN EXCHANGE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES
    • Prison Work Programs for Less Than a Dollar an Hour
      • Prison Release Work Camps.
    • A Stage One Consideration in Employing California’s Homeless at Less Than the Minimum Wage
  • THOUGHTS ON SLOWING THE SPREAD OF HIV AND AIDS IN PRISONS
    • On Isolating HIV-Positive Prison Populations in Cell Blocks, Together with HIV-Positive Prison Guards
    • Conjugal Visits
  • HUMAN TRAFFICKING OF IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES, COMPARED TO THAT IN CHINA
    • How China Deals with an Influx of Minimally Employable People from North Korea
    • How the United States Deals with an Influx of Minimally Employable People from Mexico
  • CONCLUSION

Dear Ones,

I wrote up these notes in April 2018, with a hope that I would soon finish them off. More than a year later, I have to figure I may never get round to that. I apologize to my reader that they are presented here in outline state …

THOUGHTS ON PROVIDING STAGE ONE WORK FOR THE CALIFORNIA HOMELESS AT LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE, IN EXCHANGE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES

I have a thought that Stage One work might be provided the California homeless at less than minimum wage, in exchange for social services such as State One housing, necessary medical treatment, food, and temporary housing.

I note we have precedents in paying less than the minimum wage, here in America: Commission sales work, work on small farms, and newspaper delivery, for instance …

Link: “When Must Employers Pay the Minimum Wage?, updated by Sachi Barreiro, Attorney, at NOLO … https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/employers-pay-minimum-wage-law-29600.html ..

Prison Work Programs for Less Than a Dollar an Hour

Then there is the special instance of prison labor, where inmates have the voluntary option to work, for less than $1 an hour …

Link: “How Much Do Incarcerated People Earn in Each State?” by Wendy Sawyer, 10 April 2017, in Prison Policy Initiative … https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/04/10/wages/ ..

Thus we have a precedent, in the exceptional circumstance of incarceration, for offering work at a great deal less than the minimum wage. Could we build upon this precedent by offering work training to our felons or released felons or homeless, at far less than minimum wage?

If the precedent might be stretched in this way, then we might have the setting for an economic bounce-back, here in California, as greater numbers of the currently unemployed are able to find employment.

Prison Release Work Camps. I am thinking that something like this might be good if, for lack of funds, we have to release the prison population. For those who are ‘unregenerate’ … to use an old-time term … work camps might be set up or ‘rough and tumble’ work might be provided as an alternative to imprisonment, at greatly less than the minimum wage. This topic I discussed in a little more detail here …

Link: “Ought the United States, like North Korea, Have Forced Labor?” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 21 May 2019 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-cQw ..

A Stage One Consideration in Employing California’s Homeless at Less Than the Minimum Wage

Here is a Stage One consideration: Let’s try to figure out some way to get around the minimum wage, for people who are unhomed, and who are receiving extra social services, in the event the United States government is not able to participate, here in California, in ameliorating the situation, and easing the social unrest.

For instance, could we offer something more akin to prison labor … voluntary labor, and a very small wage, in exchange for housing and food and medical care? Could we offer that, in camps especially set up for that?

What would be the long-term situation with regard to those that California cannot now find work for at minimum wage, and who must find work? If employment at less than minimum wage in exchange for social services were to be offered as a temporary, short-term Phase One, then what would be Phases Two and Three?

THOUGHTS ON SLOWING THE SPREAD OF HIV AND AIDS IN PRISONS

On Isolating HIV-Positive Prison Populations in Cell Blocks, Together with HIV-Positive Prison Guards

In United States prisons, HIV tests might be used to separate the HIV-positive prison populations … and the HIV-positive prison guards … physically, from those prisoners and guards who are HIV-negative. These tests need to be performed every 6 months, as I understand it, and also one month after possible exposure to the virus. HIV tests might be made routine in prison medical facilities, not only for the safety of prisoners and guards, but also for the sake of the infectible law-abiding populations upon whom prisoners might prey, either as prostitutes or as sexual predators, after their release.

Conjugal Visits

I think that, to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS amongst United States prison populations, we ought to consider allowing conjugal or significant other visits in our federal prisons, and in those state prisons that currently do not do so.

Conjugal visits might lead to less intercourse amongst inmates, and less intercourse between inmates and prison guards, so that HIV might spread more slowly amongst the prison population. I feel that conjugal visits might also lead to less violence amongst prisoners.

Such a policy also might help prisoners who have been in long-time-paired relationships to preserve those relationships while imprisoned. It might help families stay together through the financial hardship of imprisonment of a parent, and that might positively affect community life.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING OF IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES, COMPARED TO THAT IN CHINA

I have been perusing the “CIA World Factbook” online …

Link: “World Factbook,” by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) … https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ ..

… and have found it full of information pertinent to forestalling social unrest in California. For instance, from my reading, it seems to me that the human trafficking of immigrants to China from North Korea in our lifetime is, in some ways, analogous to the human trafficking of immigrants to the United States from Mexico.

How China Deals with an Influx of Minimally Employable People from North Korea

Apparently, there are masses of people in North Korea, whom the government forces into forced labor in China …

“… North Korea does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of [human] trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government continued to participate in human trafficking through its use of domestic forced labor camps and the provision of forced labor to foreign governments through bilateral contracts; officials did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking through prosecution, protection, or prevention measures; no known investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of trafficking offenders or officials complicit in trafficking-related offenses were conducted; the government also made no efforts to identify or protect trafficking victims and did not permit NGOs to assist victims (2015) …” –from Link: “CIA World Factbook, North Korea,” in the section: Transnational Issues … Subheading: Trafficking in persons … https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html … public domain

Korean people also may flee to China of their own free will so as to escape starvation …

“… risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousands of North Koreans cross into China to escape famine, economic privation, and political oppression … –from Link: “CIA World Factbook, North Korea,” in the section: Transnational Issues … subheading: Disputes – International … https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html … public domain

Those types of labor available to trafficked peoples sometimes may be beneath the level of misery that is acceptable here in the United States …

Link: “Trafficking in Persons Report June 2017,” by United States of America Department of State … https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=801874 … This is a pdf download.

It might be prostitution. It might be illegal activities such as theft. It might be begging. They might be held by gangs that are ‘beneath the law’ and forced to be members of those gangs. This, to me, is unacceptable.

How the United States Deals with an Influx of Minimally Employable People from Mexico

The situation with immigrants from North Korean to China is analogous, in some regards, to the situation with immigrants from Mexico to the United States. Immigrants from Mexico are not forced by the United States government into inhumane kinds of labor, but they may find themselves in those kinds of situations … living In dug-out caves in the Earth, for instance. And doing seasonal, migrant labor. Or young women or children may find themselves forced into lives of prostitution by pimps.

One thing we might look at, going forward, is how job training might be offered new immigrants, here in the United States, so as to broaden the scope of job opportunities for which they are eligible. This type of job training is doubly beneficial: It helps raise the living standard of immigrants; and it helps lessen the spiritual burden of human trafficking in the United States and uplift our nation through good works in our community.

The philanthropy we offer those caught in the throes of human trafficking is a kindness we offer our children as well, for they will look forward to a better educated community through whose informed choices may be sculpted a brighter tomorrow for all America.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I feel that Los Angeles in particular, due to such stressors as homelessness and released felons, faces the spectre of social unrest at present. What to do? I feel we must look at what other countries do when faced with these stressors. We must not turn away from innovative solutions simply because we feel they are beneath us, as Americans.

I feel it is because we feel this: that the lesser good we are able to provide the homeless and released felons is beneath us, and unworthy of them, that we have found ourselves for ten years to be in stalemate as a city.

We are unable to provide the level of benefits and care that has been, with hopeful optimism, voted into California law. Massive problems lie before us, and have done so for 10 years now. California is a Sanctuary State for those fleeing from downright extermination in the crueler states of our great Union.

Though we are that to many, we have not the funds to help those seeking sanctuary in the manner afforded the homeless, the helpless, those seeking shelter, food, and work in days of old.

Here in Los Angeles we must make bold to provide what we may to those who have nothing at all. Though it be against the laws of our nation, and against those of our State, we must do what we can. We must offer what we may. We must open our hearts, still our doubts, and come up with sensible, novel solutions to the new problems that lie before us.

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

Video: “Everyone In–Supportive Housing Across L.A.,” by Everyone In LA, 8 March 2018 …  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=22&v=QnZWabk8mO0 ..

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California economy, social unrest, law enforcement, human rights, forced labor, homeless, jobless, homelessness, joblessness, felons, prisons, rehabilitation, HIV, AIDS, prostitution, illegal occupations, work camps, drinking water, housing, favelas, alternative housing, Mexican-United States relations, immigrant workers, illegal immigrants, addiction, SSI, economics, social issues, human trafficking, Chinese forced labor, North Korean forced labor, prison labor, community service, home detention, work release,  work furlough, HIV pandemic, AIDS, my favorites, restorative justice, imprisonment, United States, Mexico, North Korea, China, safety, countries of Earth, Los Angeles, California,

Community Health: Zero Population Growth in the United States by 2079? . by Alice B. Clagett

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Written and published on 4 December 2019

  • ZERO POPULATION GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES BY 2079?
  • ON THE NEED TO RESEARCH ECONOMIC IMPACT OF POPULATION GROWTH DOWNTREND
    • Financial Sector
    • Health Care Sector

Dear Ones,

In light of the global HIV pandemic, I researched a United States population growth rate chart, to find out if perhaps the spread of HIV in the United States (as well as other factors) might be having an effect on population growth.

ZERO POPULATION GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES BY 2079?

Here is the chart I found …

Link: “Population Growth for the United States (1960-2018)” … https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPPOPGROWUSA ..

As I saw a general downtrend in population growth, I took a look at a table on the topic …

Link: “Population of the United States (2019 and historical)” … https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/ ..

Here is a very rough extrapolation based on the tabular data …

In 1960, the yearly change in United States population was 1.69 %
In 1990, the yearly change in United States population was 0.95 %
In 2019, the yearly change in United States population was 0.60 %

In the ~60 years from 1960 to 2019, the decrease in the increase in the United States population was 1.69 % minus 0.60 % = 1.09 %

If this trend continues for the next 60 years, then there may be zero population growth in the United States population by 2079.

ON THE NEED TO RESEARCH ECONOMIC IMPACT OF POPULATION GROWTH DOWNTREND

In case this scenario should prove true, I feel it would be good to do workups on economic gear-downs for the various economic sectors, to do with man-hours available and necessary production.

Financial Sector

In the arena of finance, we might consider the impact of zero population growth on the stock market, on the value of a dollar, and on interest rates for the time span between now and the year 2109.

Health Care Sector

Should it be that the HIV pandemic is one of the driving factors in an ongoing decrease in population growth (as HIV couples are unlikely to have viable offspring), then the health care sector might want to consider the impact of HIV on medical care costs, on our ability to maintain necessary supplies of medications despite an aging and health-challenged population, and on the sustainability of the Obamacare program.

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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HIV pandemic, AIDS pandemic, United States population, economics, finance, stock market, banks, manpower, zero population growth, Community health,

Fool’s Gold . a rhymed poem by Alice B. Clagett

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Written on 27 November 2019

Dear Ones,

Here is a short satire on counterfeit money ..

FOOL’S GOLD
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
27 November 2019

Would you like some counterfeit?
We have tons and tons of it.

If you say yes, and Fort Knox knocks,
They will have what you have not …
The stuff that dreams are made of.

Who can guess with what duress
The Feds will put you to the test?
Confess! … unless  you’d like a drubbing.

So I say: At the end of the day
It’s better to have what you make,
Than fake … albeit merely pennies.

Then, should the Feds express distress
You can show what you were paid …
And so allay budding dismay
On the part of every party.

I do presume to sing this tune
Of happiness without much stress
By being quite the opposite
Of those who profess to be lawless.

Heartache creeps in
When the heart takes a spin
To the land of the heartachy hard case …

Perhaps not the gallows
Yet prison will swallow
The years of our youth
Amongst the uncouth
Who did not know real bread
From playdough

. . . . .

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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poetry, poems by Alice, law, law enforcement, finance, economics, counterfeit money, Los Angeles, Wild West, 2u3d,

Amateur Sleuth: The Case of the Phantom Broker . by Alice B. Clagett

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Written on 6 November 2019

  • URBAN LEGEND: THE PHANTOM STOCK BROKER
  • PHANTOM BROKERS: DAY TRADING WITH CLIENT STOCK ACCOUNTS LIQUIDATED ‘ON THE BACK END’?!
  • CRIME FAMILY URBAN LEGEND: CONFIDENCE GAMESTERS IN KEY ROLES NATIONWIDE
  • ONESIE-TWOSIE GAMBIT: SHEARING THE WARRING ‘SHEEP’
  • THE ‘ONSIE-TWOSIE’ AND THE ‘SHELL’ STOCK BROKERAGE ACCOUNT GAMBIT
  • POOF! THE MONEY DISAPPEARS!
  • THE WRAP

Dear Ones,

On the astral airs, I heard about the most ‘out there’ confidence game featuring the world of high finance, crime families, and subversion of the fiduciary responsibilities of those big-time players, the stock brokerages that are household names worldwide.

URBAN LEGEND: THE PHANTOM STOCK BROKER

Here is the urban legend: There are ‘phantom stock brokers’ who may steal the identities of legitimate stock brokers, by assuming their same name and taking over their accounts. When I heard the astral story, I asked myself: How might this be done?

After all, to my knowledge online security is pretty good for the major stock brokerages. Could it be that their ranks, like those of other industries, have been infiltrated by unethical sorts, members of nationwide confidence gangs, for instance? Might these people be posing as stock brokers … or maybe office staff or custodial personnel … who, by reason of their employment at the brokerages, and through access to computers there, can position themselves to perpetrate ‘broker identity theft’? One is not to know the up and the down of it, in the case of mere rumor.

They might begin using a reputable broker’s name, or a variant of it, instead of their own. What with internet phone services, they might have a phone number with an area code for a brokerage located thousands of miles away, and no one might be the wiser. Or so the story goes.

PHANTOM BROKERS: DAY TRADING WITH CLIENT STOCK ACCOUNTS LIQUIDATED ‘ON THE BACK END’?!

The urban legend goes on like this: Having gained access to client accounts, members of crime families might, on the back end, liquidate the accounts of clients they have ‘stolen’ from reputable brokers in a firm, use the accounts for day trading, pocket the profit. Then on the front end of the client account … the part that the client might view online … they might cover for possible losses in day trading by purchasing for the client stocks or bonds they expect to take a tumble. In that way … so the rumor goes … they might fatten their pockets at the expense of clients they have ‘stolen’ from a reputable broker.

CRIME FAMILY URBAN LEGEND: CONFIDENCE GAMESTERS IN KEY ROLES NATIONWIDE

Here is a wild variant of the ‘phantom stock broker’ urban legend: The phantom broker is in touch with a group of confidence artists that operates across the United States. (For all I know, there may be more than a handful of such con artist networks.) Indeed, the ‘phantom’ may even be a member of such a network, which has its own lawyers (naturally) and has operators in post offices here and there across the nation, and has operants who serve a dual function as ‘ladies or gentlemen of the night’ so as to gain the favor of carefully targeted law enforcement officers. It is also rife with cyber criminals adept at identity theft.

ONESIE-TWOSIE GAMBIT: SHEARING THE WARRING ‘SHEEP’

The con artist network seeks out families who have some money and are not getting along. That way it can ‘scatter the sheep’ and their ‘wolves’ can sneak in an pick the ‘sheep’ of a warring family off, one by one. Apparently, that is the way con artist groups operate; it is called ‘the cull’. Then they will try wooing the sheep, one by one, and shearing them.

A favorite way of shearing the sheep … at least according to the astral airs … is to arrange an illegal gambit with a disgruntled family member … a gambit that purports to shake down another family member with which the disgruntled person is angry. But the ‘onesie-twosie’ game plan of the con artist is a little bit more complex: He or she plans to perpetrate the gambit … either by ‘sidelining’ the targeted ‘sheep’ … That is the ‘onesie’. And the ‘twosie’ is, to get the disgruntled family member arrested for the deed, and leave him or her ‘holding the bag’.

THE ‘ONSIE-TWOSIE’ AND THE ‘SHELL’ STOCK BROKERAGE ACCOUNT GAMBIT

Now on to the complicated stock market gambit, which features the ‘onesie-twosie’. The ‘phantom stock broker’ finds a number of zeroed out client accounts. This is like a ‘shell account’ in the ‘shell corporation’ schemes of old. The confidence network of which the phantom is a member learns that one of these belongs to a ‘sheep’ that is ‘ripe for the plucking’ … as the network knows there is dissension in the ‘sheep’s’ family.

The lawyer in the network reaches out to a disgruntled family member, proposing a shake down. An agreement is reached. A cybercrime specialist in the crime family steals the identity of the ripe ‘sheep’, including brokerage and bank account information, and passes it on to the ‘phantom stock broker’.

The ‘phantom’ funnels money from the ‘sheep’s’ financial accounts, through the zeroed out ‘shell’ brokerage account. Then a token amount of the swiped dough is moved to the disgruntled family member’s financial account. The rest is funneled to the crime family, under a name different from that of the ‘phantom broker’ … maybe to real estate, through a cash transaction, using corporate shell-within-a-shell accounts … or maybe, infamously, offshore.

POOF! THE MONEY DISAPPEARS!

So the stolen money is gone, and the path of its departure is hard to trace, because … according to the urban legend … the ‘phantom stock broker’ can remove notice of the progress of the money through the zeroed out account, on the backend, with the ‘sheep’ never being the wiser (in the same way that the day trading scheme described above is purportedly accomplished ‘on the back end’).

All that remains is to tip off the law that the disgruntled family member has stolen the cash from the ripe ‘sheep’ … who through a separate ploy has been kidnapped, jailed on false charges, or worse yet, maybe murdered.

THE WRAP

This ‘phantom stock broker’ story is quite an amazing urban legend, Is it not? It is so ‘out ther’ I feel it could not be true. If it were true, then disclosure would likely make the headlines in every United States newspaper. But, as with the Goldman Sachs and Bank of America debacles of recent years, no doubt the best minds of the finance world would come up with a work-around and a solution.

Gosh, what an urban legend! Its imaginative scope brings to mind the high finance plots of the Reuben Frost Mysteries authored by lawyer James H. Duffy under the pen name ‘Haughton Murphy’ … http://mysteriouspress.com/authors/haughton-murphy/default.asp ..

See also … Link: “Likely Upcoming Legal Reforms as a Result of ‘Disclosure’,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 4 October 2016 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-6d8 ..

In love, light and joy,
Alice B. Clagett
I Am of the Stars

This reminds me of the now-out-of-print book “1001 Ways to Avoid Being Mugged, Murdered, Robbed Raped and Ripped Off” that I co-authored many years ago with my friend Vivo Bennett. Back then, my pen name was ‘Cricket Clagett’. As I recall, and for what it is worth: On the jacket of the hardcover book, with a neat turn of the pen, we billed ourselves as ‘specialists in criminology’.

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amateur sleuth, finance, economics, corporations, stock brokers, stock brokerages, law, law enforcement, disclosure, urban legends, identity theft, confidence games, patsy, stories, stories by Alice, killing cults, crime families, money, security, Bank of America debacle, Goldman Sachs debacle, finance,

Doppelganger Dupe: A Halloween Tale . by Alice B. Clagett

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Written and published on 8 October 2019

Dear Ones,

Here is a truly odd astral story, and somehow fitting for the approaching Halloween season: Crime families, as the astral story goes, are hiring actors and actresses and training them to mimic their marks so as to walk into the roles of marks that have been ‘snuffed out’.

In the realm of the very weird, these ‘movie doubles’ or ‘mimics’ are purportedly taking over the jobs of corporate heads ‘offed’ by drone warfare and people important to the government of countries.

Along those lines I heard an astral story a few years back that a president of a country was invited to a secluded resort at the beginning of his term in office. In the evening he was offered a liqueur with a lethal drug in it. His lifeless body, roped onto an oak schoolteacher’s chair, was secluded in an underground storm drain that lay beneath a busy city street. The next day his look-alike stepped into his presidential role, and no one was the wiser.

Astral stories like this no doubt are pure stuff and nonsense. But somehow that story struck a nerve in me. Had I had the guts back then, I might have gone spelunking in the underground storm drains of the Greater Los Angeles area, just to make sure nothing like that had happened in our beautiful city. Lord know, I opined, what we might find in the storm drains of Los Angeles.  However, then as today, I lacked the guts for that kind of spooky adventure.

On the good side, I am pretty sure that the highest levels of corporate and government security are right up there in terms of knowing whether their important people are true blue or imposters. No doubt their security techniques are first rate.

Were the astral rumors of ‘doppelganger dupes’ to have any basis in fact, the greatest trouble might be had by those of us who are not up to speed on mimicry, as may be the case with potential marks for confidence games and elder scams.

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

For more on this topic, search my blog for the term: mimicry

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Except where otherwise noted, “Awakening with Planet Earth” by Alice B. Clagett … https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

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law enforcement, crime, confidence games, crime families, drug war, drone warfare, corporations, government, doppelganger, Los Angeles, mimicry, elder scams, murder,

Notice That Blog Has Been Transcribed . by Alice B. Clagett

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Published on 26 July 2019

Dear Ones,

My fellow Americans: I have transcribed the blog linked to below, which I feel to be concise and relevant to the issues that lie before us as a nation today …

Link: “Soothing Social Unrest: Historic Land Grants as a Wealth Distribution Model,” by Alice B. Clagett, filmed and published on 27 May 2016 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-5jN ..

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Except where otherwise noted, “Awakening with Planet Earth” by Alice B. Clagett … https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

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notices, land ownership, wealth redistribution, history, Bureau of Land Management, social unrest, economics, immigration problem, plutocracy, democracy, Los Angeles, sustainable living, government, urban living, cities of Earth,