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mermaidcamp

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Whistle Blowing 101

September 22, 2014 — 4 Comments

IRS

IRS

The first and the only rule in whistle blowing is: Never stop!!!! The second rule that I have learned is: Contact the Department of the Treasury.   I have had to blow the same whistle about the same crimes being committed by the same people in the same place for over a  decade. Finally, I think I have reached an organization interested in enforcing the law. The United States Department of the Treasury has seen it all, and knows from experience how corrupt government can be. The Royal Canadian Mounties may always get their man, but the IRS always gets their (our) money. I have been frustrated that none of our public officials or law enforcement agencies is interested in stopping obvious crime, but I now have a more realistic view of what to expect from the people I pay to enforce the law. It is naive to think that intense corruption that obstructs justice and fails the public trust does not exist at every level of our government.

I have lived next door to a charity scam operated by our HOA board for more than 10 years. My first request for help was to the local city Council member, Karin Uhlich. She never responded to dozens of requests over more than 5 years. Her assistant, who lives around the corner from me and is a “neighborhood outreach” employee has never been able to respond to the many requests I made for her to look at the evidence. I contacted John McCain two or three times with no response. I called and e mailed Ron Barber to try to get some help for the crime situation in our neighborhood. His office had the nerve to ask me how I liked the customer service from his office when I contacted it. I said I gave them an F since they never responded at all. They never responded to that either.  The Tucson Police Department has willfully denied these crimes by creating a fake neighborhood watch comprised of only the criminals involved in the HOA board.  They then go ahead and ask for a grant from the Feds to willfully ignore federal crimes and call that neighborhood policing. Dozens of requests to the TPD have been willfully ignored until last spring when Lt Frank Hand begrudgingly admitted that charity scamming is criminal and gave me the correct form to contact the IRS to claim a reward and stop the crimes.  I had made attempts to tell the IRS many times, but Lt. Frank gave me the secret key to success…they only respond to the correct form.  I filed the form and within about 3 months I had a response.  This was heavenly after so many years.  If I had it to do again I would physically camp at the IRS until I had a chance to submit evidence.  I completely understand why Edward Snowden chose to tattle outside the country.  Doing so to the agency invested in the corruption can only end in heartache.

The neighbors here petitioned the mayor of Tucson, who is a lawyer and should be able to discern crime from charity, for two years before officer Frank called me.  The cops are not lawyers, so we think the mayor has responsibility to end obstruction of justice rather than participate in it.  The sad news is that our government is not open to hearing evidence that will show how unethical it is.  It will go to great lengths to deny reality if that reality includes crimes committed in broad daylight by our public officials.  It is a shared deluded consciousness that endangers our society.  Who knew you could be made so happy by a letter from the Internal Revenue Service???

What Terrifies You?

September 3, 2014 — 6 Comments

Terror is the new leisure.  We have become so accustomed to the word being used all over the world to describe atrocities, political take overs, and now the rising stars of the terror world, ISIS.  The meaning has become scattered and diluted, so now that real sociopathic mobs roam the desert with intent to do massive destruction we have no new way to describe what they do.  We have allowed fear and loathing to become part of everyday living.  While I am personally glad I am not in a position to direct military or political policy I do see a reason for declaring exactly what we are doing (besides fear and loathing) with our military might.  When war is actually declared there is incentive to negotiate peace and end the war.  By free styling war with no declarations we have gathered new enemies and spread distrust all over the globe.  I have objected and protested publicly against war since I was a teenager, but in all that time the government has never had the guts to declare one.  We are just participating in one huge covert operation that changes frequently and irrationally as we become less popular.

John McCain and I have never agreed before and will not be likely to do so in the future.  I usually think my Senator from Arizona is a paranoid militaristic dweeb with too many houses.  If a bunch of violent punks can declare themselves to be a sovereign nation and run rampant over rule of law the United States needs to declare SOMETHING!!!  Are we bullies?  Are we cowardly?  Are we completely out of touch with reality? I think yes to all of the above questions.  I personally think this is more than a decisive moment in history.  It is  pivotal now to stop this armageddon warm up before momentum takes us to a new world order that we can’t imagine.

What terrifies me is the idea that our government is full of self serving and dishonest people who have no will to act. I am not naming any names because there is no individual responsible.  It is a culture that tells us to “support our troops” without telling us what those troops are really doing and why.  Going to war is serious business, but going straight to hell because we won’t declare war or peace terrifies me.

 

 

Invasive Species, Rhus Lancea

August 8, 2014 — 7 Comments

Invasive botanical species are like untended social problems. If they are ignored they will take over and eliminate the native species because they are powerful and destructive.  Rhus Lancea is an invasive species that is taking over midtown Tucson.  It was brought here as a landscape plant, but quickly got out of control.  It is a relative of poison ivy, and causes some people to have serious allergic reactions, either respiratory or as a skin rash.  It spreads by producing abundant seeds as well as by spreading underground by suckers.  If there is irrigation water, rhus lancea will be very likely to sprout and grow, taking nutrients and moisture from the native or landscape plants.  Since it develops such a network underground the tree is very difficult to kill.  Cutting it down will not kill it, but will encourage spreading through the roots.  It is like a street gang, very undesirable and hard to eliminate.

I have been thinking about how these invasive plants are like crime.  If everyone ignores crime like tagging, vandalism, and gang activity it sucks the nutrients and value out of the neighborhood.  If drug dealing and other crimes are tolerated they blend into the scene making the whole place less valuable and less safe.  With no awareness, or worse, willful blindness to criminal and anti social activity we can only expect the environment to fill with undesirable behaviors.  We have a vivid illustration of this right outside my front door.  We pay landscaping company to kill our landscaping plants and waste large amounts of water each day.  We (the owners of shares of our HOA)  have just paid to have what was described as a dying mesquite tree removed from our sidewalk.  Since it is not dying and is a rhus lancea, we have paid these gardeners to encourage the growth of all of the children of the tree, that have been left in place.  The stump will probably grow back again too.  If actions we take are based on ignorance we will not arrive at a better situation.  Can you think of situations like this that remind you of government?  Working against our own interests seems to be so common these days.

Tear Down the VA

May 10, 2014 — 3 Comments

I saw a doctor and a veteran on the national news who said the way to solve the VA problem is to dissolve it. I agree completely. I volunteered at the VA because I still believed I could raise the standard of care when I did it. Not only was it impossible to raise the standard of care for just one person to whom I was assigned, the entire institution is unethical and scary as hell.  The electronic medical records system is abused constantly, as are the patients.  As a taxpayer I was shocked and upset at the use of funds to do nothing for the patients.  Money is used liberally, but the outcomes and the patients are the least of the agency’s concern.  As featured in the recent Phoenix scandal, the employees at the VA are shooting for big bonuses rather than improving the lives of the Vets.  They are so far off course that it can’t be remedied.  There is a culture of extreme abuse and fraud.  Those Veterans can just go to doctors of their choice and we can run it like the congressional health care system.  We don’t need to institutionalize abuse any more than we already have.

I was assigned to visit patients at home.  My fist dude lived at home with his wife. After he died I was assigned to  my second patient who lived in a care home.  Both of them mentioned problems with health care and thought I could help them.  I thought so too, until I tried.  The premise was that we would report unsafe of undesirable conditions, which the VA could fix. The problem was that no matter how much money was spent they never addressed the issues.  They simply did something, with no consideration of the needs of the patient. It was a waste-o-rama.  When I met my second patient I could hear the feedback from his hearing aid across the room.  He asked if I might be able to help him get hearing aids that did not screech.   That seemed simple enough, but after more than a year and several long hard visits to the hospital his hearing aid was still loud enough for me to hear it from across the room.  He was suicidal and talked frequently about it, but after a few attempts at helping him with other VA problems I knew it was a mistake to tell them anything that would make them torture him any more.   I finally threw in the VA towel when they directed me to leave him as I found him one day, unconscious and unresponsive in his care home. I had called a nurse, who looked at him for about a minute and left.  I was instructed by the VA not to call 911 or take any action to save his life.  I had to quit my official position and visited him myself without doing any reports to the VA.  His health was in severe decline and he was not able to wake up most of the time, so I eventually stopped visiting him because it was emotionally draining and frustrating.  Nothing he or I asked the VA to do for him was done, but plenty of people received salaries milling around pretending to care for him.  I called the local senior care advocate to help him get out of some of his problems, which did work.  The VA told me that was a conflict of interest, and I was never to seek real help for him from other institutions. I was working against my own beliefs by representing the VA, so I had to end that.

Being left on a waiting list for care is unacceptable, but sadly, so is the care given when they finally manage to give it.  I have heard of those who have had good experiences with VA health care, but nothing recent.  There is no reason to have a separate, corrupt and highly unregulated system that does not serve the patents well.  If we can reform health care, we can eliminate the waste and abuse that the VA contains. Those who have risked everything deserve the best.  Taxpayers deserve to know we are giving them the best care available.  This situation is highly symbolic to me of the disrespect government frequently displays for the citizens who pay for it.  I am a pacifist, so my concern for the soldiers is moral and ethical.  I did not want to send them off to war, but since it has happened I sincerely believe we need to honor that sacrifice they made.

 

Class Wars

April 19, 2014 — 5 Comments


Americans have trouble understanding the whole British royalty and fancy person hierarchy. My own British family has been fairly fancy in their time, but I have nothing to show for it except my family tree. In history brutal repression of common people, or peasants, was the way commerce was conducted. The United States is returning to a system of government that separates the elite in a special world of privilege and security while the majority of the population is loosing security of every kind.  Our country goes around bullying other nations about lack of democratic systems that protect the population.  Who will come to the United States and reprimand us for this recent class and income discrepancy we are growing?  Since many around the world are already hardened against the United States for our politics about war and violence, the facts about our upper crust citizens will cause more disgust for our economically bifurcated culture.  In an odd twist of fate, Americans who often use Brit accents and royalty to make fun of snooty class struggles, are making big strides creating inequity of our own.  What do you think will happen to our reputation abroad, gentle reader?

 

Self Indulgence, Choose Well

March 6, 2014 — 4 Comments

Most luxury goods from ice cream to cars are marketed as being self-indulgent.  The idea that we deserve some luxury is a tried and true method used to sell overpriced goods.  Obviously luxury has to mean different things to each one of us, and our fortunes limit what we include in our worldly possessions.  We do have to choose and over time our choices change.  We move into a new phase or environment or hobby and find that what was a big treat in the past is not even interesting now.  We may own something we thought we needed and wanted that now we no longer like.  This is natural.

I am in favor of self-indulgence if it is done in a true spirit of enhancing  the self.  Self care and self-awareness  are valid and necessary for a healthy balanced personality.  To make good long-term investments in self ask yourself:

  • Are there unhealthy consequences I am ignoring?
  • Will this be likely to make me as happy next week as it does now?
  • Do I have sufficient extra money for this indulgence at this time?
  • Is there a way to try, rent, or take lessons before committing to buy?
  • Am I responding to peer pressure or marketing?
  • Might I enjoy this indulgence more if I saved for it or split the expense with others?
  • Is there a possibility this indulgence may appreciate in value?
  • How great is the possibility of buyer’s remorse?

There may be another element to consider when finding a reward for yourself that will reap future dividends.  Would I enjoy this time/money/thing more if I gave it away or shared it with others in some other way?  I personally can think of at least a million things I would rather own than the yacht A, and a million people who could make good use of a more reasonable boat.  Everything is relative.  To each her own.  Choose wisely, gentle reader.

Self Determination, #VenezuelaMuereTuCallas

March 4, 2014 — 2 Comments

Tomorrow, 5 March, 2014, use #VenezuelaMuereTuCallas to share concern for the violence in Venezuela.  Brutality has broken out all around the globe lately, and none of it was spontaneous.  The seeds of ugly war have been planted long before they bear fruit this bitter and horrid.  It is hard to know if violence has been reduced or increased as a result of YouTube, twitter, and all digital formats.  What is surely true is that we are exposed to it in direct ways that were not possible in the past.  We shall know the truth and the truth will set us free…That is what I learned from reading the University of Texas tower, and I believe it.

The call to action bringing attention to the expanding crisis in this Caribbean nation with petroleum and a history of corruption is close to my heart.  I still have friends who live there.  With the violence heating up I am concerned for their safety.  It is the least I can do to spend some time tomorrow tweeting leaders in Washington.  You can use hash tags now on Facebook too, for those of you who don’t tweet. You just type it all as one word #VenezuelaMuereTuCallas.  It means Venezuela is dying and you are mute.  Please speak up and become informed, gentle readers.

Nextdoor, Lead by Example

February 17, 2014 — 6 Comments

I am enthusiastic about Nextdoor.com. It has potential to become a tool of great value to fight crime and improve life.  I invite everyone I know to start one for your neighborhood.  I opened ours just a few days ago and we have gathered more than the minimum  10 members we need to have our site supported for free for our community.  This is private, non commercial networking to improve the environment and create safer places to live.  It is not connected to any government agency or political group.  This start up knows that cities need this, and is developing the system with venture capital.  It is brilliantly simple.

We have sunk to a new nadir in Tucson.  Our neighborhood has a federally funded neighborhood watch consisting of only 5 households, for the sole purpose of willfully denying the presence of the charity scam, “Feeding the Homeless in Tucson’s Parks“.  It is a sad state of affairs when your city will break federal revenue law, getting a grant to help a small group of white collar criminals break federal revenue law in front of everyone in the neighborhood.  This makes it look like the best way to stay in any criminal business is to found a fake neighborhood watch to protect it, and help your local cops get a federal grant to help you deny that it is criminal to collect donations without reporting them to the IRS.

It is completely ironic to call this neighborhood watch when the majority has to watch the minority…and the authorities…openly break the law.  This is why Nextdoor is an important way to clean up neighborhoods. When people know what is happening around them they can make improvements together for the benefit of all.  When people live isolated lives, crime has more opportunity to exist.  If there is a real neighborhood watch that succeeds in real life, I applaud you. In our case, we need to start by simply getting some neighbors to know their neighbors.  That is progress in itself where I live.

Born Again Babe of Justice

February 13, 2014 — 2 Comments

I had a magical experience that changed my life last year. During the government shut down my friends and I were treated to a tour of a working monument to justice in San Francisco.  The very special building, which is owned by the taxpayers, was still open for business while the irresponsible part of the federal government was having an irrational fit at the taxpayers’ expense.  We each had a chance to put on a robe and pose with the babes of justice, as my friend who works with them calls them.  We all felt very special and talked later about being so lucky and having so much fun that day.  Sometimes events take on more meaning as time reveals a larger meaning.  I was being baptized on that bench and accepting a big mission that I recognize now.  We were joking and laughing, really being free and happy, but a vow to liberate others through justice was happening at the same time.  Let me explain:

My first teacher of Buddhism was Claude D’Estree, a monk who hangs tight with the Dalai Lama of Tibet.  When we were lucky enough to receive teachings from his holiness in September of 1993 Claude flew down from Denver once a month for a year before his arrival to initiate us to Tibetan Buddhist teachings in preparation.  We had classes at St Phil’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, and held retreats on that beautiful campus to learn about the three jewels.  The subject was new to me, but Claude is an excellent teacher.  From the dedication of merit to dependent arising, he covered the material in such a way that very complex concepts became clearer.  I will never forget an example he used to explain compassion, using his own personal life experience.

He had worked as a federal prosecutor, who has the obvious job of defending justice and fighting evil.  This job exposed him to egregious wrongdoing.  As a monk he has the job of using compassion to save the world from pride, delusion, and anger by practicing patience.  This seems like a paradox, and it is.  He taught us that the most compassionate thing to do for people who are delusional, destructive and angry is to stop them.  The trick about doing it as a prosecutor-monk, or monk-prosecuter is to do it without any attachments or aversions, in other words, without anger.  Compassion turns anger into patience, an alchemical process that takes much dedication and study to achieve.  He had to prosecute very serious criminals in the line of duty.  He had also taken the Bodhisattva vow to return to earth until all beings are free and happy.  He has undertaken this giant mission to meditate and cultivate diligence for those whose minds are slack and wondering ( a seemingly unending group).  Since we all were given the rare opportunity to tread the path of buddhahood Claude was showing us how to meditate and turn our own merit into bliss for others who are suffering.  I think of him and his teaching often when my patience is challenged.

The year of study and retreat was a deeply religious experience, but did not require the student to become a proclaimed Buddhist, or join any group or movement.  The teachings were given to help us comprehend the even deeper experience of our time with his holiness.  We were initiated to Green Tara and introduced to Shantideva.  These are deep teachings that can take lifetimes to comprehend, but the Dalai Lama encouraged the women in the class by telling us that we have a better chance of spontaneous or instant enlightenment than the guys.  We learned the mantra for Green Tara, who has the specialty of speed.  She is the Mother of all Buddhas who saves us from our envy, wrong view and avarice.

For years I have been involved in an anger/patience/justice drama about my home.  Now I am going to have to do some serious patience practice while I sue the flaming pants off the city of Tucson for violating federal revenue law and obstructing justice like crazy fire.  I am calling on Green Tara to save me from attachment and doubt in order to liberate our neighborhood from evil.  I have taken the vows too, and have a responsibility.  Green Tara and I are now both babes of justice.  Wish me luck as I walk through the valley of the shadow of anger.

GUEST BLOG: Social Media and Crime – by Sandra Mills

January 7, 2014

Social Media is changing the way crime is done. Be aware of the connection. Keep yourself save and secure by knowing the odds and the methods, which are constantly evolving. Since the big fat Target at Christmas event we need to evaluate how and when we do anything on line.