The fact that it took a presidential election to raise to national discussions the issues behind the most secretive, sardonic policies of our time, is quite sad.
This is a very well written piece on the Adoption Safe Families Act, including its background which has been omitted from any main stream media coverage.
I will vote for Hillary Clinton over any Republican. Poverty is at the heart of almost every problem in child welfare, and while I don’t know that Hillary will make that problem better, the Republicans will make it much worse.
Since foster care has not become an issue in the campaign, I don’t know if Bernie Sanders’ views are any better than Hillary Clinton’s.
But Hillary still needs to account for the awful laws she supported during her husband’s presidency. Michelle Alexander did a great job in The Nation calling her out for two of them, the welfare law and the crime law. (I disagree with Alexander’s ultimate conclusion – she says she’s “inclined to believe” it would be better to form a third party. That strikes me as self-indulgent, in the sense Susan Faludi suggests in the course of doing the best job I’ve seen of making the case for Hillary.)
But there is a third law Hillary backed that was just as bad as the other two. And unlike the other two, no one can say “that was Bill, not Hil – don’t blame her for what he did.” This law was pushed by Hillary. And while she’s backed away from the crime bill, she still brags about this law. When she says “I worked with Tom DeLay, one of the most partisan of Republicans, to reform the adoption and foster care system,” this is the law she’s talking about.
The law is called the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). But that’s one of those Orwellian titles Congress loves. It’s not about adoption and it’s not about safe families. Passed in 1997, one year after the welfare law, it had exactly the same target. ASFA was about demonizing impoverished women, especially women of color, and taking away their children.
Here’s what ASFA did:
ASFA encouraged a take-the-child-and-run mentality on the frontlines of child welfare. Thousands more families, overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately families of color, were destroyed by wrongful removal of the children.
Instead of reducing the foster care population, ASFA increased it, trapping thousands more children in a system that, according to one major study, churns out walking wounded four times out of five.
ASFA effectively turned the child welfare system into the ultimate middle-class entitlement: Step right up and take a poor person’s child for your very own.
And when the army of childless yuppies didn’t show up to adopt in anywhere near the numbers predicted, ASFA created a generation of “legal orphans” with no ties to birth parents and no adoptive homes either — probably at least 100,000 more such “legal orphans” than had ASFA not become law.
ASFA encouraged the misuse and overuse of foster care in much the same way as the crime bill encouraged mass incarceration. And just as the crime bill hurt entire communities of color, so does ASFA. As Dorothy Roberts, professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, writes in her book Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, the removal of all these children “disrupt[s] the family and community networks that prepare children to participate in future political life.” And this needless removal of children reinforces the very stereotypes about Black families that are used to excuse such removals in the first place.
False premise #1: Any parent who loses a child to foster care is a sadist, a brute, or a hopeless addict who “puts drugs ahead of the children.”
Fact:Far more common are cases in which family poverty is confused with neglect; other cases fall between the extremes. So it’s no wonder that two massive studiesinvolving more than 15,000 typical cases found that children left in their own homes fared better even than comparably-maltreated children placed in foster care.
False premise #2: An earlier federal law, passed in 1980, requiring “reasonable efforts” to keep families together supposedly led to some children being left in dangerous homes and other children languishing in foster care.
Fact: The law did nothing to change the federal financial incentives that encourage foster care and discourage better alternatives. So the number of children taken from their parents kept right on increasing in almost every year after that law was passed. And though known cases of child abuse peaked in 1993, entries into foster care still kept going up. The reason children languished in foster care was the failure to make reasonable efforts to keep families together.
Meanwhile, in 1994, soon-to-be House Speaker Newt Gingrich made his notorious proposal to consign poor people’s children to orphanages. Republican polling guru Frank Luntz sent House Republicans a memo telling them they could get what they wanted – if they stopped using the O word.
So suddenly, the Republicans started framing the issue in terms of adoption. They told us millions of childless Americans were desperate to adopt foster children but a Vast Family Preservation Conspiracy supposedly was trapping the children in foster care.
The Republicans knew better; a lot of Democrats were suckered. ASFA passed nearly unanimously – Bernie Sanders voted for it, too.
Initially, this was just supposed to be a safe families bill, not really an adoption bill at all. The adoption component was a way of sanitizing the bill, to make it more appealing to a broader group of people. Adoption is a very popular concept in the country right now. [Emphasis added.]
ASFA blows huge holes in what little was left of the “reasonable efforts” requirement. It pays states bounties of thousands of dollars per child for adoptions over a baseline number. And since the states can keep the money even if the adoption fails, it encourages quick-and-dirty slipshod placements.
Most important, ASFA sent a message to the child welfare frontlines: Rush to take away more children. And it sent that message to a system permeated with class bias andracial bias. So even as child abuse continued to decline, the number of children in foster care on any given day kept increasing, peaking in 1999. It didn’t fall below the number when ASFA became law until 2003. The number of children taken away over the course of a year kept increasing until 2006. Now, after slow declines, both figures are increasing again.
Notwithstanding all the talk, and the bounties, adoptions increased marginally, while the number of “legal orphans” children who languish in foster care for years and then “age out” with no home at all, soared 40 percent.
As I said, a lot of Democrats were suckered. I remember in 1997 being lectured on how horrible any mother who lost children to the system must be, in terms worthy of the worst Republican stereotypes – but this lecture came from a staffer for Sen. Ted Kennedy.
But there was one Democrat who knew or should have known at the time that the premises behind ASFA were false. And she certainly should have realized by now that the law has backfired. That is the Democrat who did more than any other to push ASFA through Congress:
In order to properly celebrate Black History Month, someone has to pick up and carry the torch to end the residuals of the peculiar institution because no one wants to talk about, except for Lala.
Michigan Child Protective Services stole her, used her as a lab rat, then stole her children and sold them.
It used to be called slavery, but now it is called Foster Care and Adoption and Lala wants her children back.
As a survivor of CAPTA, as well as the ASFA....I suffered literal torture for the past 31 out of all 33 years of my life.
In 1990 CPS stole me as a 5 yr old Child from my mother bc i was considered a "child prodigy" after they did 2 years worth of "evaluations" (including psyche) on me (evals that i have copies of til this day) and locked me away in long term kids mental institutions where i was forced to take psychotropic drugs, was physically, mentally, emotionally, verbally and sexually abused. I also was locked away in literal prison style solitary confinement. This was a 6x6 room, brick wall, hard tile floor, a metal door with a huge deadbolt on the outside, a slit in the door to slide food through & a plexiglass window for workers to look through....no sink, no toilet, no bed, no nothing....just locked in this room for hrs, days & sometimes even weeks. My longest stay in this room dubbed "the quiet room" was 3 weeks....proven later to be ultimately for something i didnt even do!!! I also was forced to receive shock treatments at the age of 19 bc i had a legal guardian at the time who consented to them, i couldnt refuse them & i died via cardiac arrest from the psychotropic drug risperdol at the age of 12 that i was forced to take bc i was a minor i couldnt refuse it...or any of the other psychotropic drugs...bc if i did...i either got locked in the quiet room, or they put me in 6 point restraints and injected me with ativan, haldol, thorazine or a cocktail of two of them to knock me out....so if i refused the pills...i got forced injections anyways.
We had this lock box to fill out recipient rights complaints to report abuse....well we wrote them....but very rarely received help bc recipient rights works out of the DHS offices and DHS was burying the abuse complaints so they could further use us as paychecks & guinea pigs for psychotropics. This eventually was proven to be exactly what happened to me amd countless of other children across the country in 1997 when MICHIGAN drafted the ASFA & then president bill clinton passed it..so yes...i am literally one of the child survivors that caused the ASFA to be made by at the time michigan 4th district congressional representative dave camp and it was commissioned by the ways and means committee when submitted to the house. Bill clinton passed it and thus adding the ASFA as a extension off of CAPTA.
Shortly after the ASFA was passed. Dave Camp was made chairman of the ways and means committee (the very committee who comissioned the ASFA) & thus he was able to literally baby sit and protect this "evil act" all the way until last year when he retired, coincidentally he retired after i publicly posted this information about the ASFA 😅 The ASFA was created to put children in more homely settings (foster homes) instead of locking them away in places worse than prison (mental facilities) so they would not have to suffer everything we had already suffered...the ASFA did make more fosterhomes...but thats ALL IT DID!! other than that....most of the same abuse that happened to me is now happening to children in fosterhomes & mental facilities...all the ASFA did really was expand the battle field from just mental facilities to adding fosterhomes fosterhomes....the madness truly never quit....not even for me.....CPS has terrorized me for my entire life to the point i am currently in the middle of a federal lawsuit right now to get my children back CPS stole from me with intentionally created fraud court papers. Beverly Tran has a pdf copy of my filed claim if anyone would like to read it.
All the while i grew up in these facilities from the age of 5 in 1990 til the age of 21 in 2007 my adopted parents who adopted me at 7 yrs old and hardly ever took me home were collecting money monthly from the federal govt for adopting me & at the same time the state was collecting my disability checks to "pay for my stay" & other things for the facilities...disability the federal govt awarded me as a result of surviving their own abuse upon me!!!
In 2003 The state allowed my adopted mom to get legal guardianship of me at 18 and she collected even more federal money monthly off my back a til i was 27 when i finally won my own guardianship from her, macomb county & the state of michigan on december 20, 2012.....6 weeks later.... CPS began attacking me....which is why i am in the middle of a federal lawsuit now....CPS stole my kids from me with a intentionally created fraud petition on November, 26, 2013 that til this very day (January, 26,2019) HAS NOT been signed by a judge & HAS NOT been filed with the court!!! Yet my parental rights were taken on November, 13, 2015 & my children were adopted out August 2016 despite the fact there was never a CPS case opened on me in the first place because the petition was never signed or filed!!! So for the past 31 out of all 33 yrs of my life, i have literally been a child cash cow whos back was being double dipped off of by my adopted parents and the state & now a mother whos had my children stolen from me with fraud court papers to make more money off their backs as well ...and CAPTA made this 100% possible to do to me & countless of other children & parents!!! #Kids4Cash
CAPTA was specifically created to steal children for profit and use them as paychecks & psychotropic guinea pigs til they age out, appoint them guardians, make more money off them, steal their kids when they have them & drug them up & Make even more money off them too and rinse and repeat. Which is why multi-generations of families across the country like my own have been stolen by CPS!!! CAPTA is the Birth mother of this #Kids4Cash Madness!!
Architecture of the Adoption Safe Families Act &
legal doctrine of "In the best interests of the child"
Kathlee Arthur gives updates on the "Right To Lie" case. 9th Circuit 15-55563
Question basically presented is:
"Do social workers have the constitutional right to lie and plant evidence to remove children?"
Seriously.
In family courts, hearsay is considered part of the evidentary standards in child welfare cases to "prevent future harms", or, as the legal doctrine states, "in the best interests of the child" because it is better to err on the side of the child.
My focus is going to be on the opinions that shall be rendered soon as I know there will be found substantial errors in judgment.
When the public record is intentionally and fraudulently manipulated through cost reimbursement of federal grants, is this not an egregious enough of an act to make our legislators take pause, and realize there is no parallel jurisprudence in child welfare dependency matters?
Simply put, there are no civil rights in child welfare and the people have no legal resources to litigate.
Lying into the public record, whereby maximizing revenue for the individuals who have generated and published fraudulent reports to be documented by the courts are some of the initial elements of racketeering.
How many of these child welfare organizations will have their employees lie into the public record to close out a child welfare case?
Take a guess. Zero. There is no financial incentive to cease a removal, let alone return a child to the family, but there is a boat load of dollars waiting to be shipped once there are termination of parental rights due to the billing opportunities of services.
Whether or not those services are legitimate is an entirely different subject.
So now, not only has the public record been corrupted through perjury and false claims, but, these judicial determinations now become a malifide scienter, or rather fake advice to the legislators who rely upon direction of the courts and statistics in their discourse to rulemaking.
As these child welfare agencies are contracted through the States, the States are the principals, meaning, the States have allowed, through really corrupt advice of the public record, these so-called arms of the State, to breach the public trust, grounds for stripping immunities for criminal action.
To date, there have been a whole bunch of lies entered into the public record in child welfare, which means there are jacked up laws and policies formatted on the books and in the curricula of our institutions of learning.
Here is one as an example: The Adoption Safe Families Act (ASFA).
In a nutshell, from the time a child is snatched from the home based on the codified statutes of poverty being "abuse and neglect" a parent, typically the mother, has 12 months to bring her situation 200 % above the federal poverty level to care for her children, disabled or not.
ASFA expedited the application of the child welfare legal standard of "guilty until proven innocent, put in a central registry database before there is even a hearing, without entry of plea and charged without legal representation or notice by anonymous, mandatory reporting, while being denied the right to face one's accuser, based upon whatever a child welfare worker (many times without degree or legal training) has generated in court recommendations report for concurrent permanency planning to fast tract adoption, of which is not allowed to be challenged by any party".
There are tiered, 90-day dispositional cycles where the longer a child's case lingers in the courts, there is a direct correlation in the increase of funding of the court process and case management as cost reimbursement levels increase, creating an artificial bottle necking of the courts to hear, and properly adjudicate these cases.
Financial incentives were placed upon the expanded usage of Targeted Case Management, Medicaid billing, by "targeting populations" in poverty, as Title IV-A guidelines were used as criteria for removals of children from"The Poors", more intuitively recognized as women, those who hail from historically economic disparaged populations, and those who are of the darker persuasion through ASFA's precursor, Personal Responsibility Work Opportunities Reauthorization Act (PRWORA) which shifted funding from the social safety net to exponentially fund "lying" to the court for the sole purposes of creating jobs and privatization of human services.
As the trends continue to privatize, these child welfare organizations are no longer contractual arms of the States, meaning, there are no audits, as these entitities are non-profits, many of them Christian institutions, protected from being considered as breaching the public trust, meaning, they can lie and there is nothing that can be done about it as they are excluded and exempted from public scrutiny.
Then, along with Targeted Case Management Medicaid expansion in child welfare, there were also Title IV-B and IV-E financial incentives to expedite termination of parental rights.
In short, ASFA needs to be repealed and recognized in the annals of history as a racketeering scheme based upon the residuals of the peculiar institution as it is nothing but glorified human trafficking, devoid of any regulation nor oversight; hence the "Right To Lie" case pending before the court.
The Justices in this case must not ignore that "lying" in a court of law is not just perjury, but is a false claim when it deals with defrauding the United States government.
Every elected official, even if your campaigns are funded from child welfare, and members of the legal community need to really stop and look at this case, particularly if the nation is going to elevate discussions of deonotological ethics in governance.
In the spirit of fuchsia, I have provided a quick synopsis of the hearing: TRANSLATION: THE FEDERAL COURT SYSTEM IS CRUSTY, DUSTY, AND RUSTY.
The Judicial Conference is more focused on maintaining its current status quo operations rather than the administration of justice.
Southern boarder states do not have enough federal judges to process immigration cases or even do the 9th Circuit appeals.
Federal courts are having issues with people filing too many lawsuits.
Corporations are hustling federal courts because they can afford to prolong litigation, in what I call frivolous and
Judges, who are far removed from reality and technology, are delegating to magistrates, who are far removed from reality and technology, who in turn, delegate to clerks, who are far removed from reality and technology, who cite legal precedents, which are far removed from reality and technology.
I know this as a fact. I have watched them use my work for legal research because I am the only one who created databases, specifically for them in mind. My introductory brief on reality and technology in the federal courts is on file with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
Feel free to FOIA and let me know what they give you.
Hank Johnson, a former federal judge, demonstrates in his line of questioning how federal judges have absolutely no clue about federal child welfare laws of CAPTA or ASFA. Children removed from parents at the border are automatically placed under the federal auspices of privatized foster care, under the court granted guardianship of corporations, where concurrent planning, adoption planning, is fast tracked under ASFA, and the child is sold adopted under that state's jurisdiction to maximize revenues.
Child trafficking, once crossing the border, morphs into what I like to call, the Trafficking of Tiny Humans, which means these kids are thrown into foster care to be bought and sold using federal and state taxpayer dollars called adoption.
Many of these child traffickers, called "coyotes", who do not get caught, dupe parents, spirit children away, and take them across the border to be sold as slave labor, whether it is for sex or free labor, or both.
What would you do if you had your child Legally Kidnapped? Perhaps, that is why some people will continue to "illegally cross the border" over and over again.
Poverty is the crime of child abuse and neglect, which automatically makes illegally crossing the border with a child a crime, not a misdemeanor, justifying federal prosecution and placement of the child in foster care.
Mr. Samuel J. Kahn of Kent Holdings and Affiliates did not submit written testimony. Hmmmm....
Issa does not get Article III Judgeships and "zero-tolerance". Some of these "illegal border crossers" cannot just up and go back home if you snatch their kids. Issa never did like me. I smashed him on child welfare about 10 years ago. Still looking for that interview. Smooches!
Mayor Karen Weaver and Secretary Hillary Clinton
in Flint, Michigan
The times when I stumble across child abuse related propaganda which is so perversely distorted that it literally brings me to tears in disgust are quite rare.
This is one of those moments.
For U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass to shamelessly come out and support a political candidate by controlling the narrative of the national foster care system as a success is an utter embarrassment to my intelligence and my mission.
Yes, this is a wonderful story and I am proud of this gentleman, but now is the time to show courage by standing up and admitting that the Adoption and Safe Families Act has codified poverty as the crime of abuse and neglect.
As Secretary Hillary Clinton wishes to tout her work with child welfare, I believe it is only fitting to let her know that my entire blog is dedicated to inspire anyone in leadership to admit the reality of the secrecy behind the iron curtain of foster care.
Everyday, children in foster care are raped, drugged and tortured, yet, due to privacy constraints, very few even know that the majority of these children were removed due to poverty.
The federal funding flood gates were opened as direct funding to assist families in need was shut down under the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
The Children's Defense Fund is nothing more than the propaganda machine to criminalize poverty and sugar coat the entire child welfare industry as it is too big to fail.
I will even go so far to allege that this non-profit has, contributed and/or coordinated, in some for or fashion, to her Super PAC.
ASFA, for which the States have failed to meet one single benchmark, allows for children to be Legally Kidnapped.
Until I hear Madame Clinton speak upon the targeting of populations, the horrors of foster care, the ills of poverty and the culture of rampant fraud in child welfare, for which ASFA has promulgated, I will make it my hobby to call her out, and any other individual who fails to address the reality of hell for any child who survives foster care and those who did not.
I did not just write a book on this, I am an original source. Hillary Clinton is not.
Welcome, Secretary Clinton to Genesee County, Flint, Michigan, second to Detroit in child poverty rates, where children would be typically removed from the homes in these lead related issues as a situation of environmental neglect..
This time, there are too many.
I am glad you find the urgency to protect vulnerable children of Flint, but I ask you, "Where were you all these years?"
As the Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, I have time and again seen the power of positive mentorship. With encouragement and opportunity, many of the roughly 424,000 children in America's foster system go on to lead successful lives. That said, I was still deeply moved by this Hillary Clinton inspired video featuring Jelani Freeman, a foster youth turned government lawyer.
If you haven't watched the video yet, you absolutely should! Jelani describes a moment from his 2003 internship in Hillary's Senate office when he came across his boss talking with Sen. Ted Kennedy. As Jelani tells it, Hillary was "bragging about" him as an incredible young man who had rocketed from foster care to Capitol Hill.
That encounter meant the world to Jelani. "I grew up... just wanting someone to be proud of me," he says. "It was moments like that when Hillary would brag about me and build me up that I really, really treasure."
It's not often we get these glimpses into a presidential candidate's personal side. I'm thrilled that Jelani shared his story, as part of the "Let's Talk Hillary" project, and I'm hopeful that Hillary's example can inspire others in this country to offer support. After all, role models like her make all the difference.
In Hillary's case, Jelani is a single but important example of a long career helping young people. As a lawyer with the Children's Defense Fund, Hillary advocated for juvenile justice reform. She later worked as First Lady to push the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, which boosted foster adoptions by 64 percent by 2005. And as Secretary of State she created a special advisor on international children's issues while bolstering foster care worldwide.
Hillary's current platform is equally ambitious. She calls for universal preschool, so that children with fewer resources can make strides alongside their wealthier peers. Meanwhile, her New College Compact promises lower tuition rates, which means people like Jelani can continue to succeed from foster care onto college.
Too Small to Fail, family planning, criminal justice--the list goes on. My point is this: when it comes to helping children, Hillary has far more experience and far more detailed proposals than her opponents, Democrat and Republican alike. That fact, alone, earns her my vote.
Congress can only do so much, even on issues where both parties agree. The power to protect foster children will largely rest with a bully pulpit and executive actions--with the next leader in the White House. Four (or eight) more years are too many to wait around on this issue.
Jelani's story follows a pattern. If you had successful former foster children how they came to succeed, I'd be willing to bet a person like Hillary played a role. And with Hillary's nuanced proposals, many more foster kids can be business leaders or civil rights activists--maybe, one day, the President of the United States.
The dark money laundering rules are in place, where I have provided the Treasury Guidance, below.
The U.S. Child Welfare System is about to get really, really mean because it is about to be exposed for the trafficking of tiny humans residual of the peculiar institution.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing war crimes.
Enjoy.
Marcia Lowry, representing the corporate parents of
"The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).
Marcia Lowry, the crusading child welfare attorney, works out of an office on Hardscrabble Road. She didn’t name this leafy suburban New York lane, but it suits her reputation: The slew of big-ticket settlements she’s secured against large foster care systems made her one of the nation’s most respected, winning and – in some quarters – loathed attorneys for vulnerable youth.
Now, thanks to significant new funding from an anonymous Tulsa-based foundation, her small legal aid firm A Better Childhood is hardscrabble no more. Lowry would not disclose the funder, or the amount, but said it will allow her to more than double the organization’s staff and open an office in New York City.
“You still see news stories constantly about problems at child welfare agencies, and there is still a need to more clearly define constitutional rights for children. And that’s what we are going to try to do,” Lowry said. “We plan to bring new cases to try to more fully develop those constitutional principles.”
Lowry rose to prominence in the early 1970s as the lead plaintiff’s attorney in an infamous legal fight over the rights of foster children. Then with the ACLU, she represented a group of New York youth led by Shirley Wilder, a 13-year-old Protestant African-American who had to shuttle between abusive institutions because higher-quality Catholic and Jewish agencies refused to serve her.
The critically acclaimed 2001 book The Lost Children of Wilder cemented the case’s stature even while painting a dispiriting picture of meager system improvements it produced. By then, Lowry had left the ACLU to found the organization Children’s Rights, continuing to pioneer a strategy of high-profile, class-action suits against state and city child welfare systems. It’s hard to say whether those suits — in Milwaukee, Atlanta, New Jersey, Oklahoma, District of Columbia and New York City, among others — earned her more detractors or supporters.
An acclaimed 1999 book chronicled Lowry’s first major case in the early 1970s, when religious and racial discrimination was still “the woof and weave of the city’s foster care system,” as the author once put it.
“If you are the one who points out the emperor is not wearing clothes, you aren’t invited to be the emperor’s wardrobe consultant. Marcia doesn’t shy away from saying the emperor’s naked,” said Dr. Richard Gelles, a sociologist and the former Dean of the School Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as an expert witness for several of her cases.
While the Wilder suit pushed constitutional boundaries, Lowry’s recent cases have made narrower points about systems’ failures to meet guidelines in federal legislation like the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) — which Gelles helped write — or under state laws. The resulting settlements, say Lowry’s (and ASFA’s) many staunch critics, put far too much emphasis on fixing foster care and finding permanent homes for foster youth, instead of expanding support for struggling biological parents in low-income minority communities that see a disproportionate number of children placed in foster care.
“I am sad to hear the news of [A Better Childhood’s] expansion. Through litigation Lowry has enabled the destruction of American families,” said Martin Guggenheim, a co-director of New York University School of Law’s Family Defense Clinic, and a former litigation partner with Lowry at the ACLU. “She is oblivious to the reality that most children in foster care shouldn’t be in there in the first place. She ends up braising a state like New York for receiving an ‘F’ grade in permanency — for not destroying families in order to place them with a new family permanently — with the speed she believes children deserve.”
Dilly, dilly!
Lowry acknowledges her thinking has shifted over decades of suing agencies, but rejects that her work subverts a recent movement to expand prevention programs for at-risk parents.
“Prevention is really important, but people forget there is no legal right to prevention services except under some state laws. You need a legal hook, and children in foster care have a legal hook. That’s a fact of life,” she says. “I don’t think anybody knows how to bring a lawsuit simply on behalf of poor people in society. You can work on the particular issues, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Preach. No one cares about "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth). I know how to bring up a lawsuit on behalf of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) because I have done it a few times.
She plans to file for class action certification in her organization’s case on behalf of 19 foster youth against New York City and State in the fall. The Administration for Children’s Services, the city’s child welfare agency and one of the defendants in the suit, declined to comment.
Judiciary has been pushing the quashing of class action lawsuits but, oddly enough, not one person has raised the issues of "children's rights" as opposed to "Children's Rights", the organization. See, children have no rights. Anything resembling the right of a child, like inheritance, is automatically assigned to the state, who then turns around and grants the right of guardianship to a corporation because the state of being a child, is now being considered to be a condition of disability, which means that they need a guardian, or rather, a corporate parent, who gets child support from the state in the form of grants, Medicaid Targeted Case Management cost reimbursements, Title IV-B and IV-E. The list is endless when you consider the fact that all these federal billables can and will be used to leverage as financial instruments, under intellectual property. So, that means if you run a class action for children in foster care, adoption and juvenile justice, you would have to sue your corporate donors, that you do not have to disclose from which foreign nations they hail.
The debate over using class action litigation to reform child welfare systems has simmered in recent years. The influential Center for the Study of Social Policy released a comprehensive review in 2012, concluding that only certain kinds of suits produce durable change. Jerry Milner, the Trump-appointed head of the federal Children’s Bureau, weighed in on the issue this week on the American Bar Association’s website, describing his experience implementing a class-action settlement in Alabama (Lowry was not involved in that case):
The nature of the litigation and resulting consent decree which was atypical of most state child welfare settlements, brought many positive changes for children and families. This was largely because the plaintiffs sought something more than a mechanical consent decree that might have led to counting widgets rather than achieving real changes.
A Better Childhood plans to file suits against four to six jurisdictions nationwide in the next five years, according to Dawn Post, who will start as the organization’s deputy director next week.
“I’ve seen the need for systemic change that impacts more children than I can through taking individual clients, so having the chance to learn and work with someone like Marcia is an amazing opportunity,” Post said. She was most recently a borough co-director for another New York City legal aid firm, the Children’s Law Center, and a frequent advocate on permanency issues, especially around adoption.
Systematic change: "Stop stealin' children!!!"
Lowry will hire three more attorneys and support staff in the coming months, says a job posting on the Harvard Law School website. “The work will be limited only by our own imaginations and legal skills,” reads the ad.
Harvard Law School has a long and illustrious legacy of churning out "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) in the fields of trafficking tiny humans.
According to recent tax filings, A Better Childhood’s revenue for 2016 was just over $640,000, with at least $200,000 going to Lowry as compensation. Local governments the organization has successfully sued have paid for most of the legal work, according to Lowry. Only a single donor is listed on the nonprofit’s tax return, and it is listed as: “Restricted.”
“You can ask but I won’t answer,” said Lowry when asked about her organization’s new funding source. The new benefactor makes most of its donations anonymously, she added, noting that the funder approached her about pitching them.
“Marcia Lowry’s career is evidence of the power of a single visionary to bring about transformational change for some of our nation’s most at-risk children who have been neglected and abused,” reads a statement from the funder, which Lowry passed along to TheChronicle. “We are honored and humbled to be partnering with her and are confident that thousands of our country’s abused and neglected children will have better lives and futures as a result.”
Lowry created A Better Childhood soon after leaving the organization Children’s Rights in 2014, and said her departure was due to a desire to litigate more and manage less. Children’s Rights did not return calls and e-mails for comment.
The chairman of A Better Childhood’s board, a Tulsa-based oil and gas attorney Fred Dorwart, had previously served on Children’s Rights’ board, joining after the organization filed a class-action suit against the State of Oklahoma. He confirmed that A Better Childhood’s new anonymous donor was a private foundation in Tulsa, though not the multibillion-dollar George Kaiser Family Foundation, which he also sits on the board of.
Writing to The Chronicle on behalf of A Better Childhood’s board, Dorwart said:
“We are excited that an anonymous donor has recognized the important work Marcia and A Better Childhood are doing in foster care reform litigation. With this funding, A Better Childhood is now able to expand its efforts and replicate its successes in those additional areas where our less fortunate children so badly need representation.”
This is a legal defense move. You make it seems you are doing the right thing, hoping you can still further the interests of your privatized funders of Social Impact Bonds, but will position yourself when it all comes crashing down on how you are just a propaganda child welfare fraud machine, probably working with Burnsen Marsteller, unless the Clinton Foundation can no longer afford it and is just launching its own intelligence operations through the behemoth of "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) over there at Perkins Coie Sucks. But hey, what do I know?
Today, Hillary Clinton will attend a fundraiser at the home of Tulsa businessman and Democrat fundraiser George Kaiser.
Kaiser's private equity firm was the largest shareholder in green energy company Solyndra, whose 2011 bankruptcy cost taxpayers over $500 million and left nearly 2,000 people out of work.
The Department of Energy's Inspector General earlier this year found the company misrepresented key facts about the loan guarantee, as company officials acted at best "reckless" and "irresponsible," orchestrating an "effort to knowingly and intentionally deceive and mislead the department."
On December 11, 2015, Hillary Clinton Will Attend A "Conversation With Hillary" At The Home Of Cookie And George Kaiser In Tulsa, Oklahoma. ("Conversation With Hillary," Hillary For America, Accessed 12/6/15)
George Kaiser Was The Chief Financial Backer Of Solyndra, Which Received A $535 Million Energy Loan Guarantee From Obama's Department Of Energy. "The Obama administration rushed a $535 million energy loan guarantee through to Solyndra Inc. and in doing so skipped steps, potentially putting taxpayers at risk, according to iWatch News and ABC News.In March 2009, the Department of Energy announced the loan guarantee before it received final outside legal reviews. Not only did the rushed process make taxpayers susceptible, but it also gives the perception that the program was influenced by political interests, said Franklin Rusco, an analyst with the Government Accountability Office.Solyndra's main financial backers include George Kaiser, an Oklahoma oil billionaire who raised at least $50,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign." ("DOE: Loan Guarantees Rushed To Companies With White House Ties," Greenwire, 5/25/11)
Kaiser Also Runs Argonaut Private Equity Firm, Which Was The Largest Shareholder Of Solyndra. "Among the key backers of the $198 million raised: Oklahoma oilman Kaiser's Argonaut Private Equity, as well as Madrone Capital Partners, a private investment firm affiliated with S. Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.Kaiser's Argonaut Private Equity and its affiliates were the largest shareholder of Solyndra as it pushed for the IPO. Kaiser's firm remains a 'significant financial backer of Solyndra,' Solyndra spokesman David Miller confirmed." (Ronnie Greene and Matthew Mosk, "Skipping Safeguards, Officials Rushed Benefit To A Politically-Connected Energy Company," The Center For Public Integrity , 5/24/11)
CLINTON SPOKE IN SUPPORT OF SOLYNDRA IN 2011 AS SECRETARY OF STATE
Clinton Praised Solyndra An Example Of American Entrepreneurship And Innovation In A 2011 Speech In Hong Kong. CLINTON: "And today they are helping power companies like Solyndra, a green energy startup in California that began producing solar panels in 2007 and now installs them in more than 20 countries worldwide." (Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton, Remarks By Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton: Principles Prosperity In The Asia Pacific , Hong Kong, 7/25/11)
Clinton Is Also Linked To Kaiser Through Their Family Foundations
George B. Kaiser Has Donated Between $100,001 And $250,000 To The Clinton Foundation. (Clinton Foundation Donors, Accessed 12/6/15)
In March 2014, Kaiser Appeared With Hillary Clinton At A Clinton Foundation Event To Kickoff A "Too Small To Fail" Initiative, Where The George Kaiser Family Foundation Was A Partner. "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in Tulsa with local billionaire philanthropist George Kaiser on Monday to announce the kickoff of the "Talking is Teaching" campaign, a partnership with the Too Small to Fail Initiative aimed at helping parents and caregivers of children ages birth to 5 prepare for success. The partnership is a communitywide effort by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, CAP Tulsa, Tulsa Educare and Too Small to Fail - a joint initiative of Next Generation and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation - to empower parents and caregivers to boost the brain development and vocabularies of young children by increasing the number of words they hear spoken to them each day." (Mike Averill, "Hillary Clinton Coming To Tulsa To Help Announce New Education Campaign," Tulsa World, 3/22/14)
At The Appearance, Clinton Thanked Kaiser And His Foundation For The Commitment To Early Childhood Education, Saying, Of Kaiser, "He Knows It Is Never Too Early To Invest In The Next Generation." "Clinton and billionaire philanthropist George Kaiser spent time with a group of children at the Educare No. 2 site, reading and singing along to 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'Clinton later thanked Kaiser and the George Kaiser Family Foundation for their commitment to early childhood education and for creating a model for the rest of the country. 'He knows it is never too early to invest in the next generation,' Clinton said. 'You can't ever give up on any child, and the earlier you start the less likely it will be that you are even facing that difficult situation.'" (Mike Averill, "Hillary Clinton Touts New Child-Development Initiative During Tulsa Visit," Tulsa World, 3/25/14)
SOLYNDRA'S BANKRUPTCY COST TAXPAYERS OVER $500 MILLION DOLLARS AND PUT NEARLY 2,000 PEOPLE OUT OF WORK
Solyndra Received A Major Loan From The Obama Administration But Went Bankrupt In 2011, Leading To An Investigation By The Department Of Energy's Inspector General. Solyndra collapsed two years after it received its first U.S. loan in 2009. Its September 2011 bankruptcy led to an investigation by congressional Republicans and withering criticism of the loan guarantee program, which had been funded by the 2009 economic stimulus program. It's failure became an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. The Justice Department also investigated the handling of the Solyndra loan, but the inspector general was notified early this year that no criminal charges would be filed, according to the report. (Jim Snyder, "Solyndra May Have Lied To Get Loan Guarantee, Watchdog Says," Bloomberg Politics, 9/26/15)
1,861 Workers Were Laid Off By Solyndra As It Went Bankrupt. "Since September 1, 2010 (impact date), an estimate 1,861 workers have been separated from the firm. This total includes an estimated 649 temporary workers as well as leased workers from West Valley, Aerotek, Oxford Global, GES and Lighthouse Management. Most of these separations occurred at the time of the shut-down of the Fremont, CA facility on August 31, 2011. An additional 85 workers are threatened with separation as the company's operations wind down." (Employment And Training Administration, "Investigative Report TA-W-80,410; Solyndra LLC," Department Of Labor, 9/12/11)
The Government Recovered Only $24 Million Of The $527 Million Loaned To Solyndra. "Last week, Solyndra's final liquidation plan estimated that the government will recover just $24 million of the $527 million that taxpayers lent to the company." (Joe Stephens and Carol D. Leoning, "White House Analyst Warned Saving Solyndra Could Cost More Than Letting It Fail," The Washington Post, 8/1/12)
A Recent Inspector General (IG) Report Found That Solyndra "Misrepresented Facts And Omitted Key Information" In Swindling Taxpayers Out Of $500 Million
The Energy Department IG Has Found That Solyndra "Misrepresented Facts And Omitted Key Information In Their Efforts To Get A $535 Million Loan Guarantee From The Federal Government." "A four-year investigation has concluded that officials of the solar company Solyndra misrepresented facts and omitted key information in their efforts to get a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government." (Kevin Freking, "Report: Solyndra Misrepresented Fact To Get Loan Guarantee," The Associated Press, 8/26/15)
The Report Showed That The Department Of Energy's Due Diligence Was "Less Than Fully Effective," And That They Felt "Tremendous Pressure" To Approve The Loan Applications. "The report by the Energy Department's inspector general was released Wednesday. It's designed to provide federal officials with lessons learned as it proceeds to grant billions of dollars in additional loan guarantees. The inspector general found fault with the Department of Energy, describing its due diligence work as 'less than fully effective.' The report also said department employees felt tremendous pressure to process loan guarantee applications." (Kevin Freking, "Report: Solyndra Misrepresented Fact To Get Loan Guarantee," The Associated Press, 8/26/15)
Solyndra Officials Acted At Best "Reckless" And "Irresponsible," Orchestrating An "Effort To Knowingly and Intentionally Deceive And Mislead The Department.""In the end, however, the inspector general said the actions of the Solyndra officials 'were at the heart of this matter.' 'In our view, the investigative record suggests that the actions of certain Solyndra officials were, at best, reckless and irresponsible or, at worst, an orchestrated effort to knowingly and intentionally deceive and mislead the department,' the IG's report said." (Kevin Freking, "Report: Solyndra Misrepresented Fact To Get Loan Guarantee," The Associated Press, 8/26/15)
The IG Report Stated That The Solyndra's Failure Will "Cost Taxpayers More Than $500 Million." "The company's collapse soon after getting federal backing provided ammunition to lawmakers and other critics who portrayed it as wasteful government spending. The company's failure likely will cost taxpayers more than $500 million." (Kevin Freking, "Report: Solyndra Misrepresented Fact To Get Loan Guarantee," The Associated Press, 8/26/15)
Emails Released After Solyndra's Bankruptcy "Directly Contradict" Kaiser's Denial Of Talking About Solyndra With The White House
In Response To Criticism, The George Kaiser Family Foundation Denied Participating In Any Discussions With The U.S. Government Regarding Securing A Loan For Solyndra. "A top donor to President Obama did not use political influence or talk to administration officials about a massive government loan to a solar company backed by his investment funds, according to a statement issued by his family foundation.The foundation of Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser said it took a hit like other investors in Solyndra, which this week closed its plant and laid off 1,100 workers. The California-based solar-panel manufacturer won a $535 million government-backed loan to spur innovation in clean energy, but taxpayers may have to repay it.In a statement on Thursday, the George Kaiser Family Foundation said Kaiser, a major fundraising bundler for Obama, is not personally invested in Solyndra and 'did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. Government regarding the loan.'The statement came as House Republicans vowed to more fully investigate the extent of White House involvement in the federal backing for Solyndra. They said they have found evidence that the White House tracked the company's application, and that officials weighing its proposal knew of the White House's interest." (Carol Leonnig and Joe Stephens, "Top Obama Donor George Kaiser Says He Didn't Play Politics To Win Government Loan," The Washington Post, 9/2/11)
But In A February 2010 Email, Kaiser Expressed Concerns Over How His Role Raising Money For Obama Would Look As Long As Solyndra Is "Still The Only Recipient" Of The Loan Guarantee Program. "In a Feb. 7, 2010, email exchange, Kaiser fretted to Levit about how his role raising money for Obama would look to the outside world as the focus stayed on Solyndra. 'S'pose an investigative reporter will ever make an association between an early Obama supporter and majority shareholder (through 'his' charity) in the entity that received one half billion (or two total billion) dollar LOAN guarantee(s)?' he wrote. 'Solyndra is still the only recipient through that program.'Levit replied: 'I've wondered about it, given the WH lists, etc. The truth is that the name of the company has never crossed your lips with the administration (not so with Congress) and we've certainly never lobbied for the company.'" (Darren Samuelsohn, "New Solyndra Emails Fuel Controversy," Politico, 11/9/11)
Compounded with the secrecy, lack of regulation, stripping of civil rights, non-existence due process and the inherent contemporaneous conflicts of interests embedded deeply in CAPTA and ASFA in dealing with the States Attorney General, the Medicaid Fraud Control Units, the exclusive civil penalties of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the sequestering of federal authority of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the fact that authorization of billing is a judicial determination that has only been challenged by me, nothing is going to ever be done.
But, alas, I have omitted the best parts of why Michigan, which was the first state to create its model of human trafficking.
It re-animated the Michigan Children's Institute, a former, and actual, brick and mortar building in less than 18 months of CAPTA to "capture" lost revenue from the oil embargo moments of the mid-1970s,
Then, Michigan went on to breathe life back into its brick and mortar of MCI to
give birth to a theoretical, institutional model of child trafficking, and it was all billable to Medicaid, with everyone who participated receiving a beautifully woven cloak of immunity.
Yes, this immunity means anyone in the child welfare system has the "Right To Lie" even though it subsequently ruled that it did not, but, heck, who is going to enforce the ruling when I just pointed out the deficiencies in the rules of construction with both CAPTA and ASFA, in all three branches.
Besides, this lawsuit which is still before Judge Edmonds, has never, not one, nope, ever mentioned Michigan Children's Institute or Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare, but I have and you can either read it in the preserved court record or click the links, below.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon:
As you know, improving our child welfare system
to better protect children and to meet the benchmarks was a
top priority for my predecessor, Maura Corrigan. I'm here
today to reiterate what an important priority this is for
me, and also is a top priority for my boss.
What our Children's Services Agency does is a
critically important part of the MDHHS mission; to provide
opportunities, services, and programs, to promote a healthy,
safe and stable environment for residents to be self
sufficient.
The State Journal's reports documented allegations from current and former state workers in Ingham, Barry, Marquette, Monroe, Muskegon, St. Clair and Wayne counties. Workers said supervisors are under intense pressure to get out from under the terms of a decade-old federal lawsuit filed by a New York advocacy group over a string of child deaths.
The Michigan Department of Health & Human Services gave its first substantive answers to the allegations on June 8, during a previously scheduled hearing on the federal lawsuit.
