ALB Micki

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

President Ryan Adams

  by Albert Michi

ENCINO, CA - With multiple wildfires continuing to spread in Southern California, many industry members on both the buy- and supply-sides are doing what they can to maintain operations and support each other. Ryan Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gelson’s Markets, recently released the below statement:

Ryan Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Gelson's Markets
Ryan Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Gelson's Markets

The wildfires affecting our region have brought devastating loss and disruption to our communities. With a heavy heart, we share that our Palisades store has been completely lost to the fires. This store was more than just a place to shop—it was a cornerstone of the community, and we grieve this loss alongside the team members, customers, and neighbors who called it their own.

Now that mandatory evacuation has been lifted in La Cañada, our La Cañada store is open to serve our community. We are deeply grateful to all the first responders who bravely fought against the Eaton fire, ensuring the safety of our community and our store. Additionally, we are extraordinarily thankful to report that our Calabasas store has reopened and is ready to serve our community.

With multiple wildfires continuing to spread in Southern California, many industry members are doing what they can to maintain operations and support each other
With multiple wildfires continuing to spread in Southern California, many industry members are doing what they can to maintain operations and support each other

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by these tragedies. We are committed to supporting our employees during this challenging time, ensuring they have access to resources and aid as they navigate their own hardships.

As a company deeply rooted in the communities we serve, we are committed to exploring every avenue to assist in recovery efforts. We will stand with our neighbors, supporting and working together to rebuild what has been lost.

Thank you for your understanding and patience as we navigate this difficult time. Your support means everything to us, and we are hopeful for the future as we work together to rebuild and recover. We will keep you updated as the situation evolves.


Our thoughts are with all of those who are facing these challenging times.

Shkreli Awards

The Lown Institute's "Shkreli Awards"—named after convicted "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli—are given annually to the 10 most flagrant healthcare industry profiteers.

 (Image: Lown Institute)


 The "winners" of the annual Shkreli Awards—named after notorious "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli and given to the 10 "worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare"—include a Texas medical school that sold body parts of deceased people without relatives' consent, an alleged multibillion-dollar catheter scam, an oncologist who subjected patients to unnecessary cancer treatments, and a "monster monopoly" insurer.

The Shkreli Awards, now in their eighth year, are given annually by the Lown Institute, a Massachusetts-based think tank "advocating bold ideas for a just and caring system for health." A panel of 20 expert judges—who include physicians, professors, activists, and others—determine the winners.

This year's awardees are:

10: The University of North Texas Health Science Center "dissected and distributed unclaimed bodies without properly seeking consent from the deceased or their families" and supplied the parts "to medical students as well as major for-profit ventures like Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson," reporting revealed.

9: Baby tongue-tie cutting procedures are "being touted as a cure for everything from breastfeeding difficulties to sleep apnea, scoliosis, and even constipation"—despite any conclusive evidence that the procedure is effective.

8: Zynex Medical is a company facing scrutiny for its billing practices related to nerve stimulation devices used for pain management.

7: Insurance giant Cigna is under fire for billing a family nearly $100,000 for an infant's medevac flight.

6: Seven suppliers allegedly ran a multibillion-dollar urinary catheter billing scam that affected hundreds of thousands of Medicare patients.

5: Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico allegedly refused cancer treatment "to patients or demanding upfront payments, even from those with insurance."

4: Dr. Thomas C. Weiner is a Montana oncologist who allegedly "subjected a patient to unnecessary cancer treatments for over a decade," provided "disturbingly high doses of barbiturates to facilitate death in seriously ill patients, when those patients may not have actually been close to death," and "prescribed high doses of opioids to patients that did not need them." Weiner denies any wrongdoing.

3: Pharma giant Amgen was accused of pushing 960-milligram doses of its highly toxic cancer drug Lumakras, when "a lower 240mg dose offers similar efficacy with reduced toxicity"—but costs $180,000 less per patient annually at the lower dose.

2: UnitedHealth allegedly exploited "its vast physician network to maximize profits, often at the expense of patients and clinicians," including by pressuring doctors "to reduce time with patients and to practice aggressive medical coding tactics that make patients seem as sick as possible" in order to earn higher reimbursements from the federal government."

🥁🥁🥁

1: Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre was accused of orchestrating "a dramatic healthcare debacle by prioritizing private equity profits over patient care" amid "debt and sale-leaseback schemes" and a bankruptcy that "left hospitals gutted, employees laid off, and communities underserved" as he reportedly walked away "with more than $250 million over the last four years as hospitals tanked."

"All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation," Lown Institute president Dr. Vikas Saini said during the award ceremony, according toThe Guardian.

"Doing these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new," he added. "We're hoping that these stories illuminate what changes are needed."

The latest Shkreli Awards came just weeks after the brazen assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth subsidiary UnitedHealthcare. Although alleged gunman Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty, his reported manifesto—which rails against insurance industry greed—resonated with people across the country and sparked discussions about the for-profit healthcare system.

R-One - Secrets ft. Micky


According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported losing $367 million to job and business opportunity scams in 2022, up 76 percent year over year.  The typical victim lost $2,000, in pursuit of a job.

The report highlighted several scam scenarios. “Victim reached out and said that he had fallen victim to a job scam. The victim said that he was attempting to apply for a job online. He said he spoke to people he didn’t feel comfortable with, so he decided to look them up and found out that they used other people’s images. The victim said he gave them his SSN, Driver’s License picture, and address.”

In another example, a victim explained, “I had a potential employer get me in for a virtual interview, and I gave them my name, address and a photo of my I.D. Once the interview was over, I did some digging, and it looks like the company is a scam.”

LinkedIn, where many scammers set up shop, is working to foil the internet thieves.  According to its recent community report, the company blocked more than 63 million fake accounts during the second half of 2023. The site also removed more than 108 million pieces of spam and scam content over the same period, per the report.

The job site is “committed to ensuring the platform remains authentic, secure, and easy to use for members,” said Oscar Rodriguez, LinkedIn’s vice president of trust product management, in a statement.

Join UAW

 

Factory workers and UAW union members rallied outside Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant during a strike on October 14, 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky.

 (Photo: Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Seeking 'Better Future,' Kentucky EV Battery Workers File for Election to Join UAW

According to the UAW, the Kentucky workers' NLRB petition marks "the first major filing in the South in 2025 and continues the movement of Southern autoworkers organizing with the UAW."

Andrew McLean, a logistics worker in formation at BOSK, said Wednesday that "with a union, we'll be on a level playing field with management."

"That's so important when you're getting a new plant off the ground," McLean added. "The union allows us to give honest feedback without fear of retaliation."

In a video posted to YouTube on Wednesday, one worker said she will be voting yes on unionization because she wants "a better future for not only myself, but future generations and everyone that works here with me."


The Washington Post noted that, "if successful, the effort could lead to the first unionized Ford-backed EV battery venture, at a time when EV sales in the United States are picking up."

BOSK has made clear that it will fight the organizing drive. A spokesperson for the joint venture said in a statement to the Post that the union election petition is "premature" and claimed that it "puts at risk the freedom and opportunities of our current and soon-to-be-hired Kentucky team members."

The UAW said Wednesday that BOSK "has responded to the campaign by hiring anti-union consultants who are trying to block the workers from organizing."

Angela Conto, a production operator in formation at BOSK, said that "instead of listening to our safety concerns, management has been ordering people to work without proper protective equipment."

"Now they're trying to stop us from forming our union to win a strong voice for safety," said Conto. "But the strong supermajority of workers who've signed union cards shows we're going to fix what's wrong at BOSK and make it the leading manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries in America."


New Era

 


"CEOs and billionaires want nothing more than to see workers divided, but we're standing here today with greater solidarity than ever," said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler.

The 2-million-member-strong Service Employees International Union announced Wednesday that it is joining the AFL-CIO, bolstering the ranks of the largest labor federation in the United States as unions prepare to fight the incoming Trump administration.

"CEOs and billionaires want nothing more than to see workers divided, but we're standing here today with greater solidarity than ever to reach the 60 million Americans who say they'd join a union tomorrow if the laws allowed and to unrig our labor laws to guarantee every worker in America the basic right to organize on the job," AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement.

With SEIU included, the unions that make up the AFL-CIO represent roughly 15 million workers across the nation.

April Verrett, SEIU's international president, said union members "are ready to unleash a new era of worker power, as millions of service and care workers unite with workers at the AFL-CIO to build our unions in every industry and every ZIP code."

"Working people have been organizing our workplaces and communities to build a stronger economy and democracy," Verrett added. "We are ready to stand up to union-busters at corporations and in government and rewrite the outdated, sexist, racist labor laws that hold us all back."

"By standing together, SEIU and the AFL-CIO are sending a powerful message to President-elect Trump and his allies who are trying to pit working people against one another."

While neither the SEIU nor the AFL-CIO mentioned President-elect Donald Trump by name in their statements announcing the move, Shuler acknowledged during an MSNBC appearance late Wednesday that organized labor is "going to be on defense, probably right away," as the Republican leader takes office and moves to stack his cabinet with lobbyists and others with deep corporate ties.

"We know that we've got to play a good defense game, but we also, as April and I have been talking about, we've got to be on offense," the AFL-CIO's president added. "Coming together is how we're more powerful and we rebalance the scales of this economy."

Trump's second term is expected to bring an assault on workers' rights much like his first four years in the White House, which saw rollbacks of safety rules, wage protections, and collective bargaining powers.

Among other steps, Trump is expected to fire worker champion Jennifer Abruzzo, general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, and nominate a pro-corporate replacement after he takes office later this month. Abruzzo has led the charge to ban anti-union captive audience meetings, and the incoming Trump administration is expected to try to reverse progress on that front and elsewhere.

Unions are also bracing for Trump's mass deportation plan. Bloombergreported Wednesday that the AFL-CIO "has been working to equip its affiliates around the country to help defend immigrant workers against potential workplace raids and mass deportation efforts once Donald Trump becomes president this month."

"The union federation is also readying rapid response plans to defend federal government employees against the Department of Government Efficiency," Bloomberg added, referring to the advisory commission set to be led by anti-union billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said Wednesday that "by standing together, SEIU and the AFL-CIO are sending a powerful message to President-elect Trump and his allies who are trying to pit working people against one another: The labor movement will not be fractured or silenced."

"Unions are a crucial part of a robust and fair economy—and SEIU's affiliation with the AFL-CIO strengthens the collective power of millions of workers, enabling them to fight more effectively for better wages, benefits, and working conditions," said Shierholz. "It also amplifies labor's voice in advocating for progressive economic reforms that benefit all working families."

Monday, January 13, 2025

We Count


 

God's Anger

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We all have had some kind of religious experience. Either we went to church, synagogue or the mosque and we heard the preacher talk about God’s Judgment.

Sometimes the reverend would say it in a way that would make it so frightening—and the Judgment of Allah is a frightening thing. The pastor would get us to act better by terrifying us.

here is something about fear that makes people do things in order to escape what they are afraid of. When you pick up the Bible and the Holy Qur’an, you read about the Judgment in a way that is so terrifying that today many pastors don’t want to talk about it. 

We want to talk about the Grace of God, the Mercy of God, the Forgiveness of God. But very few want to talk about the Wrath of God.

Each of us as human beings created in the image of God can, on occasion, become angry. When you are angry you are capable of doing that which under normal emotional circumstances you would not do. Anger has degrees to it.

I can be angry and have my anger under control. You may see a fire in my eyes, you may hear something in my words, but, I’m keeping myself under control.

But, there is another kind of anger when we allow it to get to that point where we are unable to control the reaction that comes from our anger. We reach a point then of insanity. We have lost the balance. Then what comes from our mouths, what comes from our hands, can be very destructive.

The Bible says a wise man will be slow to anger. If you visit the prisons, we see many, many inmates, male and female, who are there, not because they are bad, but, a circumstance came up in their lives that ignited the passion of anger.

They lost control, and in that moment of loss of control they reached for something to inflict pain on the object of their anger. When it was over and the anger subsided, someone lay wounded, someone lay dying, and a human being was sent to prison for many years because we lacked control of the emotion called anger.

In the Book of Genesis in the Bible, God gave Adam instructions and Adam disobeyed. Allah (God) became displeased and He was angry with Adam. God’s anger was controlled. He was going to punish Adam, not kill Adam.

When we, in our homes, make a judgment against our children and we wish to inflict pain on them to teach them a lesson, sometimes we are so stressed out that we literally do terrific harm to both the body and the mind of our children because we couldn’t control our anger.

Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel. The Bible talks about Abel and Cain making an offering to Allah (God) and Allah (God) accepted the offering of Abel but rejected the offering of Cain.

Some words of the Bible say that “the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.” Most of us, when we think we’ve been disrespected, it kindles anger.

But the thing that has been wounded is your self-concept, which is your ego, and because you may not have the characteristic of humility you see disrespect as a great insult. If the disrespect is fueled by another passion called envy, then it leads us to anger. The Bible says, “And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.”

Whenever you are angry, there is a change in your countenance. “And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?” That’s a good question.

God knew why Cain was angry, but, he wanted Cain to examine the motive for his anger. Is it my bruised ego that makes me angry? Did somebody really wrong me? Why am I angry?

And why is my countenance fallen? Then God said to Cain, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”

When you are angry, right at the door of your anger is sin. Now your passion is about to cause you to break the law. Allah (God) talked to Cain and asked him to analyze why he felt anger.

There is nothing that hits the ego as hard as being rejected in comparison to something and somebody that appears to be accepted. In every family there are children growing up, some feeling accepted, some feeling rejected. And the more rejected you feel, the uglier your countenance becomes.

Anger has to be controlled, lest in our anger we harm what we love. Jesus got angry. It seems to me that he seemed greatly disturbed over the moneychangers in the temple.

They were defiling the house of God because they loved money more than the principles that the house is founded upon. So, Jesus went to driving them out of the temple with anger; but his anger was controlled. He let them know he was angry, why he was angry and he took an appropriate action—controlled anger, controlled disapproval, controlled chastisement. 

The result was they understood there was another side to Jesus. Though loving, though kind, though merciful, though sweet, there was another side. No matter how good any of us think we are, we are all capable of doing horrendous things when circumstances make us angry and we lose control in that moment of passion.

When you live in society or world like this that is founded on racism, sexism and an unbridled materialism, we who have been servitude slaves, never finding justice, have anger in us. We have anger, not because we think we have been disrespected. We know we have been disrespected.

And if God ever asked us, like he asked Cain, why is your countenance fallen and why are you angry? We could say, God, it is because of 400 years of injustice, 400 years of watching our women raped and disrespected, our children slaughtered, why shouldn’t we be angry?

And one day the anger will not be able to be controlled. God is going to let the anger loose like a mighty hurricane or tornado or earthquake or volcanic eruption. Then America will know that the price of injustice is the destruction of the country.

Whenever Allah (God) is angry, His anger is justified. And when He lets loose His anger, the destructive fury of His power destroys everything that it touches. The Bible says, “Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble:

And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” When Allah (God) comes to pluck up the wicked, He is not cutting off a branch. He’s killing it at the root.

Pastors today speak of the goodness of Jesus Christ, the mercy of Jesus Christ, the love of Jesus Christ, but, they are a little slow in preaching the Wrath of God through Jesus Christ. When Moses met God in a burning bush, the bush was burning but it was not consumed.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said the anger of God was so great, yet, controlled. The bush never burned, but, the fire was there. God withheld His wrath and sent His servant to Pharaoh to give Him a chance because God must not be untrue to His own nature.

He must show mercy and must be willing to forgive even the worst enemy. He must give you a chance to receive of His grace. So He controls His anger and He sends you a Warner. Then He sits back and watches how you treat the warning.

We are in the time of Judgment. When Allah (God) renders His judgment, He wants us to agree with Him. So He’s patient. He will send His Judgment down and then wait on you to come around because at first you may think God is wrong.

When Allah (God) told Abraham that He was going to destroy all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah except Lot and his family, Abraham asked Allah (God), would He destroy the righteous along with the wicked?

God didn’t say yes or no. He told Abraham to see if he could find 50 righteous. God said if Abraham found 50, He would save the city. He gave him a job. Prove My Judgment wrong. But, Abraham couldn’t find 50.

He couldn’t find 40. He couldn’t find 30. He couldn’t find 20. He couldn’t find 10. God still tried him. He told Abraham to go back and find one. And when Abraham came back and couldn’t find one, it said that fire and brimstone fell on Sodom and Gomorrah that same day.

Why? Because God does not want us to disagree with His judgment. When He sends His Judgment He gives you a period of grace that will allow the wicked to repent and the righteous to understand.

I live in America. It’s the greatest country on earth, but, it’s the most wicked. America boasts, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” She has bombed out cities of other nations and brought other nations to total ruin, not losing a plane or a pilot.

She is the only remaining superpower and God made her that for His purpose. Will you submit America or must you be taken and destroyed?

When God sends down His Judgment, He makes a decision. He says, “Behold, I make all things new.” Not some things—all things. Then He says, “There will be a new heaven and a new earth and the former things shall pass away.” 

This is a no good world because it is ruled by the enemy of God. So, when God starts judging a world in which America is the chief, she is the head of a world, that means nations have to pass away.

Kingdoms have to pass away. Systems have to pass away. And people who operate systems, who uphold the kingdoms, and are in the nations that fight against the Kingdom of God, all have to go.

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Mental

 

Depression in children
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)

“Here in Israel, we are seeing more anxiety and stress since Oct. 7 among adolescents and teens than ever before,” says Yael Avraham, a social worker and manager in the trauma field at ELEM.


Israelis are a resilient people. Despite Oct. 7, sirens, terror attacks, harrowing red alerts with missiles flying overhead, and COVID isolation, which all took tolls on our well-being, somehow we are still going about our lives, fighting, and serving our country. We are even the fifth-“happiest” country of the 143 countries ranked in the World Happiness Report, a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

But for some people, happiness is a transient state that comes and goes; and for those in a never-ending battle with depression, the clouds seldom, if ever, dissipate. In writing this article, I found that our “happy” country has parents, doctors, and healthcare providers who refuse to go on record about the state of mental health in Israel.

As I write this, parents in Karnei Shomron are reeling from a teen suicide, one of several within several years, and are asking what they can do to assist their youth through the labyrinth of hormones, situational pain, and mental anguish that make youth want to give up and end their lives.


The mayor of Karnei Shomron, Yonatan Kuznitz, declined to comment, saying the feelings are too intense and raw.One Israeli doctor I interviewed refused to be quoted on the record, calling the mental health system “outrageous.”According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is estimated that worldwide, 4.4% of 10- to 14 year olds, and 5.5% of 15 to 19 year olds experience an anxiety disorder. Depression is estimated to occur among 1.4% of adolescents aged 10-14 and 3.5% of 15 to 19 year olds, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death in older adolescents and young adults (15-29).

“Here in Israel, we are seeing more anxiety and stress since Oct. 7 among adolescents and teens than ever before,” says Yael Avraham, a social worker and manager in the trauma field at ELEM, Israel’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to treating troubled and at-risk youth. “Our kids are more afraid. More parents are reaching out for therapy. Our clinic has become a full-time job.”

 MENTAL ILLNESS requires constant self-care and positive choices. (credit: YOSSI ZAMIR/FLASH90)Enlrage image
MENTAL ILLNESS requires constant self-care and positive choices. (credit: YOSSI ZAMIR/FLASH90)

If you add bullying and social media pressure that comes with a click of their cellphones, fragile, sensitive youth, particularly those with mental illness, face a greater risk of suicide, she says.It’s a story that many do not want to talk about, but one that must be told.

Many myths about mental illness must be addressed. These include the following:


Mental illness manifests only in adults.

This is not true. There is evidence that mental illness can surface even in very young children and throughout their teenage years. Many young people who have bipolar disorder (manic depression) are initially diagnosed with ADHD, according to psychiatrists I spoke to. The problem is, that when a child is medicated with stimulants like Ritalin, in some cases the drug can have dangerous effects and can even cause psychosis.

Mental illness is not like physical illness.

This is false. What many do not realize is that mental illness is a physical illness – the result of unbalanced brain chemistry, which can become exacerbated as hormones shift in a growing child or teen.

Mental illness is a direct result of bad parenting.

False. While behavioral symptoms can be triggered by events or family issues, the most predictive factor for mental illness is often a family history of mental illness. Is it triggered by nature or nurture? Most doctors believe that mental illness is a genetic hand-me-down, like diabetes, hypertension, or any other family trait that is transmitted from one generation to the next. While external conditions can trigger the illness, the genetic predisposition must be there. In Israel, where Jews marry mostly Jews, genetic conditions are likely to be expressed more consistently.

RABBI SHALOM HAMMER, a former educator, lecturer at the IDF, and hesder yeshiva teacher, established the organization Gila’s Way (www.gilasway.com) after his daughter Gila died by suicide several years ago. He began speaking about suicide prevention just three days after getting up from his daughter’s shiva, and helping others became his life’s mission. He was brought to Karnei Shomron the night after the fifth anniversary of Gila’s death to speak to the parents and grandparents of the town, who were naturally concerned.

“You can have mental illness without suicidal ideations, and you can have suicidal ideations without having mental illness, but often they are intertwined,” he says.

“Life took a 180-degree turn for me,” he explains. “I had to somehow make sense of Gila’s death in order to help others understand the complexities and possibly save lives.”



Friday, January 10, 2025

Record



The collective backlog for Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and IAI has risen by over 25%, compared with a 23% surge for all of 2023.


The Arrow 3 air defense system, used for the first time on November 9, 2023, to intercept a missile fired at Eilat by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
(photo credit: MINISTRY OF DEFENSE)


Israel's defense industry, comprising of Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI),  is set to reach a historic record in sales of weapons, according to a Thursday Wall Street Journal report.

The collective backlog for the three companies has risen by over 25%, according to the report, compared with a 23% surge for all of 2023.

Defense systems such as the Iron Dome and the Arrow missile, which have been proved on the battlefield in over a year of war have given rise to such sales among foreign actors, according to the report. 


 This was reiterated by a statement made to the publication by Slovakia's Defense Ministry who signed a €560 million deal to purchase the Barak MX Integrated Air Defense System, developed by IAI. 



Ice Cube - Check Yo Self (Remix) (Official Music Video)

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Sucking

 

Blacks throughout their struggle for freedom

One of the most significant problems confronting Black people and working people in the United States is income disparity. And it is only getting worse.

A recent study documented a steady siphoning of worker income during every period for the last 40 years with obscene amounts of money flowing to those at the top.

Wages for the bottom 90 percent of earners are being gobbled up by the top 10 percent of earners—with the top One Percent and top One-tenth of One Percent of earners reaping huge financial bonanzas, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which analyzed federal government data.

Since 1979, wages for the bottom 90 percent of American earners saw modest growth of 26 percent. The 10 percent saw wages grow between 51.8 percent to 75.1 percent.

Racism and the age-old problem of economic injustice have persisted in the United States. Photo: Youtube.com

The top One Percent of earners are now paid 160.3 percent more than four decades ago, while the top One-tenth of One Percent have seen a ginormous 345.2 percent increase in wages. That gives today’s rich White men six times and 13 times the wage growth for the working class.

Guess who is at the bottom of the bottom 90 percent? According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Black workers made the smallest earnings gains among racial and ethnic groups since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008.

The widening wage gap has been relentless, including from 2009 to 2019. These years included economic recovery after the Great Recession: Wages for the bottom 90 percent rose 8.7 percent. Wages for the top One Percent of earners and top One-tenth of One Percent soared 20.4 percent and 30.3 percent, respectively.

In the current climate of booming stock markets and national pestilence, little attention is being paid to wage disparity and wage growth in general, much less to the plight of the Black working class who are falling further behind in their efforts to gain a living wage and economic parity.

As Black civil rights and mainstream leaders pressed President-elect Biden for substantive cabinet positions, they also called for advancing racial equality and addressing an alarming Black-White wealth gap.

Wage inequality has grown to obscene levels over the past 40 years and double digit Black unemployment has remained constant. Photo: Youtube.com

Rep. Don Beyer, the chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee in a published report on the economic state of Black America in 2020, wrote, “Black Americans experience far worse economic conditions than Whites or the population as a whole.”

Historically, the unemployment rate for Black Americans has been twice the rate for Whites. That is the case today—6 percent unemployment for Black workers versus 3.1 percent for Whites, even in a strong economy the unemployment rate is 50 percent higher for Black Americans.

During the majority of the past 50 years, Blacks have experienced unemployment rates that, if experienced by the entire population, would be seen as recessionary.

Black workers have been disproportionally hurt by the overall decline in union membership and unions’ decreasing power. Typical Black households earn a fraction of White families’ earnings—just 59 cents for every dollar.

The gap between Black and White annual household incomes is about $29,000 per year. Black Americans are over twice as likely to live in poverty as Whites. Black children are three times as likely to live in poverty as White children. The median wealth of Black families ($17,000)—is less than one-tenth that of White families ($171,000).

Between 2013 and 2016, median net worth rose for all groups. Net worth for Whites still outpaced Black, Hispanic and ‘Others’ significantly in 2016. Graph: Federal Reserve.gov

The wealth gap between Black and White households increases with education. Much less than half (42 percent) of Black families own their homes, compared to almost three-quarters (73 percent) of White families. Home ownership is one way Americans have generally accumulated wealth.

The share of Blacks who are college graduates has more than doubled since 1990, from 11 percent to 25 percent—but still lags far behind Whites. Persistent segregation leads to disparities in the quality of secondary education and worse economic outcomes.

The incarceration rate for Black Americans is falling but is still nearly six times the rate for White Americans. Incarceration, obviously, hurts earnings and economic progress.

Wonder why you’re still broke? For Black Americans the economic game has long been rigged, starting with Emancipation. Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his Atlantic article “The Case for Reparations,” coined the phrase “the quiet plunder.” He debunked the myth that wage disparity was caused by slavery and Jim Crow bred Black poverty.

In the 20th century, millions of Black families moved out of the South chasing higher wages in urban industry. But after a few decades, the factories closed, inner cities decayed, and a “complex tangle of pathology” emerged in single-parent households and soaring incarceration rates, he wrote.

“The reality is in the grand narrative of freedom and civil rights, the disadvantages that persist are much more nefarious, invisible precisely because people in power continuously innovated new forms of discrimination,” according to Calvin Schermerhorn, a history professor at Arizona State University’s School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. He is the author of “Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery.”

Black people have played an insidious game of social and economic whack-a-mole: As soon as they fight to remove one barrier, a new one springs up, said Prof. Schermerhorn.

“The enduring barriers to Black economic equality are structural rather than individual,” Professor Schermerhorn explained. “Instead of alleviating them, the party in power is rolling back civil rights protections, reviving the War on Drugs, and expanding private prisons. Black aspirants to the American dream continue to face lending and real estate discrimination and ‘predatory inclusion’ in higher education. Escalators into the middle class have slowed and stalled, and the rung of the economic ladder one starts on is most likely where one will end up,” Mr. Schermerhorn wrote.

As evidenced by the Economic Policy Report, the adage that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is real with Black people being the really poor.

There is an urgent need to repair Black worker power while increasing wage growth, said Naomi Zewde, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy at the City University of New York, during a detailed interview with The Final Call.

Black people are using education as a means to bridge this economic gap, she said. She noted the percentage of Black people getting a higher education has increased, not just going to college but also graduate school. “Forty-seven percent of Black college graduates enroll in a graduate degree program within 10 years, while only 36 percent of White people who graduated from college are involved in a graduate program within 10 years,” she pointed out.

Asst. Professor Zewde argued the time was right to keep pressing for changes, but radical redress is needed. “I think that a lot of what we’re doing is the right thing, calling attention to these issues,” she said. In terms of redress, she offered up a few ideas. “I think that advocacy of progressive policy is going to be important, like free college, canceling student loan debt, small business opportunities and grants through the Paycheck Protection Program. There was some initiative to get those dollars distributed, not just by the big banks, but also by community-based financial institutions. Capital must be provided to the Black business.”

She also advocated for “Baby Bonds.” The federal government would put a certain amount of money per year in an account for each newborn that the child can’t touch until age 18. “Baby Bonds could dramatically reduce racial wealth inequality for young adults,” she said.

Above all, she advocated for Marshall Plan type racial redress, which would place hard cash in the Black community, and address housing, education, business and economic empowerment.

The Silent


 

(Arraw.Medium.com) – Last year, over seven million people were victims of the silent crime of identity theft. The information explosion, easy credit and the inability of consumers to control who has access to their sensitive financial information has created an open season for identity thieves. Today, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America.

“In the African American community, we don’t complain, we don’t get a handle on it when it occurs and it ends up ruining people’s credit,” laments Soloman Harge, executive director of Consumer Protection Association in Cleveland, Ohio. “There are some basic steps that people can take to protect their personal information and reduce the risk of some thief stealing their identity.”

Identity theft is the use of a person’s identity to perform fraudulent financial transactions without the victim’s permission or knowledge. Identity thieves have been known to fraudulently obtain credit cards, steal money from existing accounts, open new accounts, apply for loans, rent apartments, obtain jobs and even file for bankruptcy without the victim knowing about it for months or even years.

The typical identity theft begins with the imposter obtaining the victim’s identifying financial information, such as social security number, birth date, credit card or account numbers. The thief obtains this information through a variety of methods, some low tech–such as rummaging through trash, stealing mail, eavesdropping on phone conversations and stealing information from the home or workplace. Some of the more sophisticated methods involve stealing records through the Internet, buying inside information from store or credit card company employees; or stealing credit reports by posing as a landlord, employer or someone else who may have a legitimate need for credit records.

The imposter, then, opens new accounts, ravages existing accounts, makes cash withdrawals or purchases merchandise in the victim’s name. They often provide a different address, claiming to have moved. Once the imposter completes their first transaction, they are well on their way to stealing thousands of dollars and ruining the credit and good name of the unwitting victim.

The Federal Trade Commission estimates that the average number of months between the time the identity theft occurred and was noticed by the victim is 14 months. Additionally, for the typical victim, it takes 600 hours to repair their damaged credit, with an average out-of-pocket cost of $1,000.

While there is no surefire method to guarantee that your identity will never be stolen, there are ways to minimize the risk. The most important concept is to manage your personal information wisely and cautiously. Below are some ways to help protect your identity:

– Review a copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit-reporting agencies at least once a year. You can get a free copy of your credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus by contacting www.annualcreditreport.com or (877) 322-8228.

– Do not give out personal identification information to people or companies that you do not know. Even then, understand why it is required and how it will be used. Give out your Social Security number only when absolutely necessary. Your SSN, along with your birth date are keys to obtaining your credit report. Use a shredder to dispose of paperwork that contains personally identifiable information and account numbers, such as credit card receipts, billing statements, cancelled checks, pre-approved credit offers and etc.

– Protect your mail from theft. Deposit outgoing mail in postal mailboxes, promptly remove mail from your mailbox and have your mail held if you are planning to be away from home for a period of time. Minimize the personal identification information and the number of credit cards that you carry with you. Create unique passwords and PINS for your accounts. Do not use your birth date, social security number or other personal matching information.

– At home and work, keep all items with your personal information in a safe place. Use a secure browser when shopping online. When submitting your purchase information, look for the “lock” icon on the browser’s status bar to be sure the information is secure during transmission.

Identity theft is a serious problem and will become even more so in our high-tech world. However, there are some measures that you can take to reduce your risk and the potential impact on your family’s financial plans. Two helpful websites are: www.consumer.gov/idtheft and www.idtheftcenter.org.

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