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From: Gregory Brown < Sent: Sunday, October 6, 2013 8:46 AM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 10/06/2013 Attachments: How To Remember Literally Everything Huff Post_09_30_2013.docx; Untitled attachment 00667.docx; Untitled attachment 00670.docx; Untitled attachment 00673.docx; Untitled attachment 00676.docx; Untitled attachment 00679.docx; Untitled attachment 00682.docx; THE TEMPTATIONS bio July 21, 2013.docx; Curtis Mayfield bio.docx DEAR FRIEND As many=of you know I am a huge fan of Bill Maher is one of the most politically astute comedians in=America today. His unflinching honesty and commitment to never pulling a punch have garnered him the respect and admiration of millions of fans. In 2003, Ma=er launched a new show, "Real Time with Bill Maher," o= HBO, a network that's a perfect fit for his irreverent style. The hour-long show ai=s live at 11:00PM on Friday nights. For the past several weeks, I posted a section of his 'New Rules" segment, but last wee= he countered Tea Baggers and Conservatives who see Government as the Villain, with a =iece on how California liberal/progressive Governor, Jerry Brown was able to turn around the economy, by working together with Republicans and Independents t= raise taxes and cut taxes, while supporting legislation that helped homeown=rs saved their houses, funded infrastructural maintenance, addressing inequ=lity, reducing unemployment, embracing Obamacare and the environment, at the same time, turning a $27 bi=lion deficit into a surplus in less than four years. With this in mind, I cho=e to start this week's offerings with the text of the segment as it is a thought provoking thesis =hat the rest of American maybe should follow. New Rule: Conservatives Who Love to Brag A=out American Exceptionalism Must Come Here to California New Rule: Conservatives who love to brag about American exceptionalism must come here=to California, and see it in person. And then they should be afraid -- very afraid. Because while the rest of the country is beset by stories of right- =ing takeovers in places like North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, California is going in the opposite direction and creating the kind of modern, liberal na=ion the country as a whole can only dream about. And not only can't the res= of the country stop us -- we're going to drag you along with us. It wasn't that long ago that pundits were calling California a failed state and sayin= it was ungovernable. But in 2010, when other states were busy electing whateve= Tea Partier claimed to hate government the most, we elected a guy who actua=ly liked it, Jerry Brown. Since then, everything Republicans say can't or won't work -- gun control= immigration reform, high-speed rail -- California is making work. And everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society -- universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marij=ana -- has only made California stronger. And all we had to do to accomplish th=t was vote out every single Republican. Without a Republican governor and wit=out a legislature being cock-blocked by Republicans, a $27 billion deficit was turned into a surplus, continuing the proud American tradition of Republica=s blowing a huge hole in the budget and then Democrats coming in and cleaning=it up. EFTA_R1_01946339 EFTA02672609 How was Governor Moonbeam able to do this? It's amazing, really. We did somethi=g economists call cutting spending AND raising taxes. I know, it sounds like =ome crazy science fiction story, but you see, here in California, we're not=just gluten-free and soy-free and peanut-free, we're Tea Party free! Virgini= could do it, too, but they're too busy forcing ultrasounds on women who want abortions. Texas could, but they don't because they're too busy put=ing Jesus in the science textbooks. Meanwhile their state is so broke they want to replace paved roads with gravel. I thought we had this road-paving thing li=ked in the 1930s, but not in Texas. But hey, in Dallas you can carry a rifle in=o a Chuck E. Cheese, cause that's freedom. Which is great, but it wasn'= so great when that unregulated fertilizer plant in Waco blew up. In California, when things blow up, it's because we're making a Jason Statham movie. California isn't perfect, but it is in our nature from being on the new coast to b= up for trying new things -- and maybe that's why the right wingers are always =oping we fail. On the campaign trail last year, Mitt Romney warned that if we did='t follow his conservative path, "America is going to become like Greece, or... Spain, or Italy, or... California." And that was a big laugh lin= with Mormons, because Greece, Spain and Italy have some art and poetry and theatre, but nothing like Salt Lake City. Yes, Mitt sure hates California, which is why he moved to San Diego. To the house with the car elevator. What conservatives fear about California being a petri dish for the liberal agen=a is well-founded. For example, as Obamacare gets implemented here much more successfully than predicted, the movement to just go all the way to a singl= payer system is gathering steam. It actually passed the legislature twice, =ut was vetoed by Schwarzenegger, who argued it didn't go far enough to cov=r the children of that natural, beautiful love between a man and a cleaning lady.=/span> In lots of areas, California seems to have=decided not to wait around for the knuckle-draggers and the selfish libertarian states to get or board. They can mock "European style democracies" all they want, =e are building one here, and people like it -- the same way when Americans co=e back from a vacation in Europe they all say the same thing: "Wow, you =an see titties on the beach!" But they also remark on the clean air, the modern, first world infrastructure, the functioning social safety net, and bread that doesn't taste like powdered glue. And they wonder, "Why=can't we get that here?" Unless they're Republicans, in which case they =onder, "How can people live like that?" Well, swallow hard, guys, because California is eventually going to make al= Americans live like that. Why? Because we're huge. The 12th largest eco=omy in the world, the fifth largest agricultural exporter in the world, and of cou=se number one in laser vaginal rejuvenation. There's 40 million of us -- s=, for example, when California set a high mileage standard for any car sold in th=s state, Detroit had to make more fuel-efficient cars; we're just too big=a slice of the market, and it would be too expensive to make one car for us, and another for shit-kickers who want something that runs on coal. It's so ironic -- the two things conservatives love the most, the free market and states rights -- are the two things that are going to bend this country int= California's image as a socialist fagtopia. Maybe our constipated Congr=ss can't pass gun control laws, but we just did. Lots of 'em. Because =e don't give a shit about the NRA. Out here that stands for "Nuts, Racists, an= Assholes." So while the rest of America is debating whether it's a=good idea to allow guns in bars or a great idea to allow guns in bars, Californi= is about to ban lead bullets. Which is a no-brainer, because bullets don't=need lead, and lead kills birds and gets into the food supply of people who hunt their own food. Which explains why Ted Nugent is such a raving lunatic. While other state governments are working with Jesus to make abortion more misera=le -- because otherwise women would use it for weight loss -- California is ma=ing it easier. We actually have a guy dancing on the street corner dressed as t=e Statue of Liberty spinning a big arrow that says, "Abortions!" An= a new law will even let nurse practitioners perform abortions. And dog groome=s can aid assisted suicides by Skype. California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, our minimum wage is almo=t three dollars higher than the national rate, and in 10 years a third of our electricity will come from renewable energy and 15 percent of our cars will=be electric. 2 EFTA_R1_01946340 EFTA02672610 And while Republicans in the rest of the c=untry are threatening to deport every immigrant not named Ted Cruz, California just OK'd driv=r's licenses for undocumented aliens. That's right, we're letting them =rive cars -- just like white people! You Red Staters may ask, "How come they'=re lettin' Meskins drive?" Well, it's because they have to get to=their jobs. You see, here in California we're embracing the modern world -- we can&=39;t be worrying about all the nonsense that keeps Fox News viewers up at night whe= they should be in bed adjusting their sleep apnea mask. Our state motto is,="We're Too Busy for Your Bullshit." The bottom line is that we are moving the country's largest economy int= a place where we can all be health-insured, clean air-breathin', gay-marr=ed, immigrant-friendly citizens who don't get shot all the time. And my mes=age to the rest of America is: do not resist. Kneel before Zod! California has bee= setting the trends in America for decades, from Silicon Valley to silicone tits, and it's not going to stop now. We say jump -- you say, "Ple=se sell me new exercise clothes for jumping." We said put cilantro in food, an= dammit, you did, you put cilantro in food, even though neither one of us kn=ws what it is. Almond milk? We just had some extra almonds and thought we= fuck with you. The enormous earlobe hole? You're welcome. We also invented t=e genius bar, where the kid with the enormous earlobe hole takes your MacBook=in the back and fills it with animal pornography. Bill Maher, host=of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher -- 09/27/2013 On Friday's show Bill Maher show a video of a sampling of Americans being asked what th=y knew about Obamacare. Web Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a=REhQICn90 <http:=/www.youtube.com/watch?v=afREKIICn90> If this is a truly representative sampling of what the majority of Americans understand about the Affordable Care Act, then we'=re in a lot of trouble. Hopefully, Bill Maher just chose the funniest, i.e. most ill-informed, responses from New Yorkers about Obamacare on the day the healthcare exchanges opened. Watch the cl=p from Friday's "Real Time" to have your faith in humanity completely unrestored. =p class="">As you know, on Tuesday House Republicans chose to shut down the Federal Government if the Democrat controlled Senate and White House di= not accede to their demands to delay and repeal the President's signature achievement the Affordable Health Care Act often referred to as Obamacare.-A0 Why? Republicans will tell you that Obamacare will hurt Americans, is un-Constitutional and is destroying the country. While the real truth is=that their goal is to weaken President Obama and destroy his Presidency. Good, bad or indiffer=nt, Barrack Hussein Obama is the 44th President of the United States and he was re-elected last year with a substantial majority of the popular and Elector=l College votes. When he took office on January 20= 2009 the country was in two wars without a strategy, the most severe recession since the Great Depression, financial markets in free-fall and the major banks and financia= industry on the verge of collapse. Four and a half years later none of this is true. In addition, Osama Bin Lade= is dead and Detroit Auto Makers are doing better than ever, with the economy growing fo= more than 44 consecutive months. Using a slogan that Ronald Reagan campaigned on for his re-election, "are we bett=r now than we were four years ago." Without a doubt YES! As New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayootte said this week, "its time for a reality check, defunding Obmamcare did not work as a strategy, so let's find common ground to work together to address the concerns that are very legitimate that we have with this healthcare bill, but also to get this government funded."=/p> T=ying to blackmail the President by hurting the country is a flawed strategy which should not be t=lerated in a democracy. Dissidence is understandable and at times desirable. But closing down the government and threatening to not raise the debt ceili=g unless the first major legislation that has been become law since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid fifty years ago, which will give access to tens of millions of Americans to affordable healthcare, should not be 3 EFTA_R1_01946341 EFTA02672611 toler=ted. And to Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and other Monday Morning Quarterbacks who only point out the problems without offering any solutions. Shame on you.... When BlackBerry Reigned (the Queen Got One!), and How It Fell Coming from a tiny Canadia= company, it was an almost absurdly audacious proposition. In 1998, when many corporations were leery =f e-mail, Research in Motion began selling the idea of sending it wirelessly through a device that ran on a single AA battery. But thanks to a tiny, yet effective, keyboard that brought the world thumb-typing and a network that ensured security, BlackBerrys became standard equipment on Wall Street and =n Washington. While BlackBerry, as the c=mpany is now known, created and dominated what became the smartphone market, competitors, notably Palm, fai=ed. But the company's co-chief executives missed the real threat: they initia=ly dismissed Apple's iPhone as little more than a toy. After that, al= their efforts were too late. On Friday, BlackBerry reported a $965 million loss, and BlackBerry's future now appe=rs to rest with a bargain-basement, highly conditional offer from its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial. Whatever happens to the company, many expec= that BlackBerry smartphones are now destined to become relics. c/=iv> A=ter 15 years, I chose to abandon my Blackberry and moved over to a =span style="line-height:17px;font- family:Georgia,serif">Samsung Galaxy 54 only =o find out that I was not alone. But then I started with a Motorola Brirk and moved onto Nokia which I abandon to go with Blackberry. I still u=e a unlocked Motorola Filp-Phone as a second travel phone internationally =nd when someone develops a real world phone with reasonable tariffs, my Samsung w=II become obsolete and a relic as well.... Blackberry forgot the most=important rule in Silicon Valley, "make yourself obsolete before=someone else does." =font size="4"> As many of you know,=I am also a huge fan of Bill Moyers and last week on Moyers & Company, in an essay following his =onversation with Greenpeace International's Kumi Naidoo, Bill Moyers links Naidoo's cour=ge in speaking truth to power with an account of the recent visit by Pope Francis=to Sardinia, the Mediterranean island known for its beautiful beaches and pala=ial homes owned by the richest of the rich. Sardinia is now blighted by widespr=ad joblessness — 51 percent of its young people are out of work — an= as the pope heard the stories of desperation and deprivation, he threw away=his prepared speech and decried a global economic system "that does us so =uch harm." The story leads Bill to conclude that unless we "dethr=ne our present system of financial capitalism that rewards those at the top" while e=eryone else is struggling, "it will consume us" and democracy will be f=nished. BILL MOYERS: When Kumi Naidoo's mother urged him to see God in the eyes of every human being that you meet, she was echoing a sentiment once expressed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, who told the devout to "se=k and find God in all things." You may recall that Ignatius founded the=Jesuits, and now there is a Jesuit pope, the first in Catholic Church history. 4 EFTA_R1_01946342 EFTA02672612 Last year, in an effort to keep their jobs, workers in Sardinia barricaded themselves in front of a mine packed with almost 700 kilograms of explosives. One miner told the cameras, "We cannot take i= anymore. We cannot. We cannot ... Is this what we have to do?" And=slit his wrist on live TV. Mattana told Pope Francis how unemployment, "oppresses you and wears you out to the depths of your soul." "Where there's no work, there's no dignity." The consequence, the Pope said, of a system that has at its center an idol call=d money. At that moment, Pope Francis was not just the head of the Catholic Church. Rather, he embodied the heart of a catholic cry for jus=ice, small "c" catholic, a universal aspiration expressed in our coun=ry by the promise that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the birthright =f every citizen. The richest 400 Americans are now worth a combined $2 trillion, while new figures from the Census Bureau show that the typical mi=dle class family makes less, less than it did in 1989, with roughly 46 million people living at or below the poverty line. With the exception of Romani=, no developed country has a higher percentage of kids in poverty than we do. =A0Yet the House of Representatives has just cut food stamps for people who don'= have enough money to feed themselves. So Pope Francis and Kumi Naidoo speak the truth, in different accents and with different metaphors, but their message boils dow= to this, capitalism is like fire, a good servant but a bad master. If we do='t dethrone our present system of financial capitalism that rewards those at t=e top who then use it to rig the rules against even the most reasonable check=on their excesses, It will consume us. And that fragile, thin line between democracy and a darker social order will be extinguished. Watch Jon Stewart's Shutdown Tirade "Did you see the Giants game =n Sunday?" he said. "They lost 31=7. Do you know what the Giants didn't say after that game? 'If you don't give us 25 more points by midnight on Monday, we will shut down the fucking NFL.'=94 =div style="text-align:center"> Web Link: http: //www.hulu.com/watch/539587<=div> W=b Link: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lisatozzi/watch-jon-stewart=-shutdown-tirade <http://www.buzzfeed.com/lisatozzi/watch-jon-st=warts-shutdown-tirade> Brilliant — Jon=Stewart on the government shutdown We have to ask/wonder why Republican-controlled states are doing everything they can to thwart implementation of the Afford=ble Care Act, AKA Obamacare especially when many of these are Southern states w=th a large number of poor and minority residents. The New York Times has noted that many residents of red states are getting royally screwed because their elected officials refuse to participate. Two-thirds of poor blacks and s=ngle mothers and more than half of low-wage workers who don't have insurance are being left in the cold= Scott Maxwell in the Orlando Sentinel has it right about the shameful behavior of Republican Florida legislators who are rejecting $51 billion in federal dollars that would help the needy in their state. Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford said he was 5 EFTA_R1_01946343 EFTA02672613 "proud"=to reject expansion of Medicaid. To do a little PR on their ill-begotten behav=or, Sunshine State lawmakers increased the cost of their own benefits, instead =f doing what they should have done: take the free money offered by the federa= government to provide benefits for all. Miley Cyrus is currently making better decisions than these people. Even presi=ential chest-poker Jan Brewer, Arizona's governor, is taking the dough, saying, "It's pro-lif=, it's saving lives, it is creating jobs, it is saving hospitals." Republican states have purposely and vindictively put up roadblocks to prevent its citizens from e=sy access to health care information as the Affordable Care Act was rolled out= They've either ignored the roll-out or encouraged people not to sign up. Missouri's lieutenant governor Peter Kinder, urged "active resistance""Grand Old Party." There is nothing rational about their behavior other than to come to t=e conclusion that these Republicans, the hard right and birthers are out t= destroy the Presidency and the legacy of Gregoire: Collectively, our memories do seem to be getting fuzzier: A recent poll found that Gen=Y-ers between the ages of 18 and 34 are more likely than the 55-plus set to forge= what day it is (15 percent vs. seven percent) and where they put their keys=(14 percent vs. eight percent). They also forget to bring their lunch (nine percent) or even to take a shower (six percent) more frequently than seniors. Poor memory can strike at any age, and it could hinder your work and personal li=e. We all remember using mnemonic devices in school (Did "Never Eat Shredded Wheat" get you through thi=d grade geography?), but memory tricks can be more than just study aids. As adul=s, there are a number of simple and practical tools to help you remember people's names and stop forgetting=where you parked your car or left your keys. She offers these eight things to help enrich =our memory. Visualize it. Brain-stimulating games like sudoku and crosswords can be useful. And there's also Lumosity, a set of exercises for computer o= phone that were created by a team of neuroscientists and improve the memory of 97 percent of users in only 10 hours of playing. Studies have yet to determ=ne precisely how these games boost memory, but there's good reason to believe that they =re effective: A new study in people over age 60 found that playing a video game meant to train the brain boosted the subjects' ability to multitask. Use the Cicero method. <http://i.huffpost.comigen/1360621/thumbsto-DOLLHOUSE-570.jpg=5> In this technique the subject memorizes the layout of some building, or the arrangement of shops on a street, or any geographical enti=y which is composed of a number of discrete loci. When desiring to remembe= a set of items the subject literally 'walks' through these loci and commits an item to=each one by forming an image between the item and any distinguishing feature of that lo=us. Retrieval of items is achieved by 'walking' through the loci, allowing the latter to activate the desired items. Try=this technique by "walking" through the rooms of your house or apartment in your mind's eye, and at=aching information to each room -- then, recall the information be going back thro=gh each room. In a psychological experiment known as the Baker-baker paradox, subjects were put into two groups and shown a picture of a man. =A0One group was told that the man's last name was Baker, while the other group was told that the man was a baker. When=later shown the image and asked to recall the associated word, those who were told the man's occupation were much=more likely to recall the word. The explanation is simple: Although the two words and photos were exactly the s=me, when we think of a baker, other images and something of a story come to min= (aprons, kitchen, fresh bread). 6 EFTA_R1_01946344 EFTA02672614 Take a nap. <http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1356919/thumbs/o-SLEEPING-IN-5=0.jpg?7> Label people -- literally. Franklin Roosevelt was known to have a memory that would put most of us to shame -- he could remember the name of someone he met just on=e, months ago, seemingly without difficulty. His secret? Roosevelt was a=le to remember the names of everyone on his staff (and everyone he met) by visualizing their names writ=en across their foreheads after being introduced to them. This technique is=even more effective when the name is imagined being written in your favorite color marker,CNN claims. Eat your Omega-3s. chttp://i.huffpost.com/gen/1217627/thumbs/o-FISH-570.jpg?6> Perhaps the best (and arguably most difficult) memory hack of all is simply paying attention to the task, conversation or experience a= hand. Distraction makes our memories weaker, and consequently we are more prone to forget things. =93Forgetting... is a sign of how busy we are," Zaldy S. Tan, director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told Reader's Digest. "When we're not paying good attention, the memories we form aren't=A0very robust, and we have a problem retrieving the information later." Have trouble quieting your racing thoughts? Become more mindful by pra=ticing just 10 minutes a day of meditation. A recent University of California study found meditation to improve memory capacity =nd reduce mind- wandering among students studying for the GRE. And in 2012, =IT researchers identified a neural circuit that helps to create long-lasting memories -- the circuit was found to work most effectively when, you guessed it, the brain =s paying attention to what it's looking at. On the week that Congressional Republicans forced a govern=ent shutdown in an attempt to repeal and/or delay Obamacare which is the first =ajor health legislation passed (not including the 2003 Medicare Prescription Dru=, Improvement, and Modernization Act) since Medicare and Medicaid were enacte= in 1965, almost unnoticed is the serious dysfunctionality of mental health in America. We often hear politicians in both major political parties erroneous claims — that America has the best healthcare in the world. And yes, this maybe true if you are rich, but in a country that has 50 million citizens who don't have health insurance and access to healthcare unless they show up at the hospital emergency room, in spite of its deficiencies at least Obamacare is a positive step in the right direction t= address this terrible injustice. But what is truly indefensible is the retched state of mental healthcare in the=US, which 60 MINUTES' Steve Kroft reported on in — Untreated mental illness=an imminent danger? Web Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50156091n <=pan style="line-height:107%;font-family:Georgia,seritfont-size:12pt">Th= mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard three weeks ago that resulted in the deaths of 13 people, including the gunman, was the 23rd such incident in the past seven years. It's becoming harder and=harder to ignore the fact that the majority of the people pulling the triggers have turned out t= be severely mentally ill -- not in control of their faculties -- a=d not receiving treatment. In the words of one of the country's top psychiatrists, these were preventable tragedie=, symptoms of a failed mental 7 EFTA_R1_01946345 EFTA02672615 health system that's prohibited from interv=ning until a judge determines that someone presents an "imminent danger=to themself or others." The consequence is a society that's neglected millions of seriously ill peo=le hidden in plain sight on the streets of our cities, or locked away in our prisons and jails. As such, these mentally ill people are often portrayed as villains. About half of these=mass killings are being done by people with severe mental illness, mostly schizophrenia. And if =hey were being treated, they would've been preventable. For example, five weeks before the shooting a= the Washington Navy Yard, the gunman, Aaron Alexis, told police that he was hea=ing voices and being bombarded by strangers with a microwave machine. If he =ad been transported to a psych ward, the shootings might never have happened. In 2007, Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho was behaving so irrationally that a court ordered him to seek mental health care. The or=er was never carried out. Cho killed himself and 32 others. And befo=e James Holmes dressed up as the Joker and shot 70 people in a movie theater, campus police at the Universit= of Colorado had been warned that he was potentially violent. Holmes had bee= a brilliant graduate student there studying the inner workings of the brain, until something suddenly we=t wrong with his. And this is not that unusal. You can be the most popular student, you can be the valedictorian of your class. And if you develop schizophrenia it will change the functioning of your brain and chan=e the nature of your behavior. You could be completely normal at age 20, perhaps a good student or a gifted student =nd a solid citizen, and at 21 or 22 be psychotic.Dr. Lieberman, who runs the psychiatry department at Columbia University's medical school, says tha= schizophrenia has a genetic component and tends to run in families, affecti=g the way the circuits in the brain develop. You can see the structural ab=ormalities in a brain scan. And you see people, a young adult, with a normal brain, same age with, who has schizophrenia, and you s=e that degenerative process has already begun. Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain and not a disease of the mind. Fifty years ago people suffering from schizophrenia, depression and other forms of mental illness would have ended up in one of =he big state-run hospitals that were used to warehouse the seriously mentally =11. Documentaries like Frederick Wiseman's "Titicut Follies" helped expose the dehumanizing conditions and l=d to reforms. One by one, the big asylums were shut down, and over time, a half million inmates were released into co=munities to fend for themselves. They were supposed to be housed in residential treatment centers, medicated, and supervised by case workers at walk-in clinics. But the programs were never adequately funded. What we did is we em=tied out the hospitals and, on any given day now in the United States, half of the people with schizophrenia a=d other severe mental illnesses are not being treated. How difficult is it=to get somebody admitted who does not want to be admitted? Almost impossible in most states. The laws will read, "You have to be a danger to yourself or others," in some states, and judges may interpret this very, very strictly. You know, we =iddingly say, "You have to be either trying to kill your psychiatrist, or trying to kill yourself in f=ont of your psychiatrist, to be able to get hospitalized." If these peo=le aren't receiving medical attention, where are they ending up? Many of them end up homeless. Many of them end up in jails and prisons now. So this is a huge problem.=A0 Our jails and prisons are our main place now where you find mentally ill people. In fact by some measure=, the largest mental institution in the United States is the Cook County Jail in Chicago. It houses the larg=st number of mentally ill people in the country. This is a population that people don't car= about and so as a result of that there are not the resources out there to c=re for them. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is in charge of the jail and he is not very happy about the situation. T=m Dart: I've got probably 2,500, 2,800 people with mental illness in my jail today. And you look at their backgrounds, they've been in here 50, 60, 100, we have some people who&=39;ve been in here 400 times. Steve Kroft: What kind of offenses? Tom Dart: Oh my God, retail theft is a norm. And usually it's 'cause they're stealing something either to feed t=emselves or, frankly, they're stealing something because they just wanted it that se=ond. Loads of cases of criminal trespass to land. What's that? They're b=eaking in some place to sleep. Steve Kroft: You're saying the prisons and the jails are the new asylums? Tom Dart: Absolutely. There is no person that could argue otherwise that the jails and prisons are the new insane asylums. That's what we are. 8 EFTA_R1_01946346 EFTA02672616 Sheriff Dart has told guard= and employees to videotape incidents so that he can show people what actually goes on here. Tom Dar=: And the videos we've shown people are to show them what happens when we take people who are mentally ill and we cram them into the criminal justice system where they're not supposed to be. And the irony's so deep that you have a society that finds it wrong to have people warehoused in a state mental institution, but those very same p=ople were OK if we warehouse 'em in a jail. Every day Elli M=ntgomery, one of five social workers at the jail, goes over the list of new inmates with mental illness. Elli Montgo=ery: We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7...15. With a severe mental illness.=A0 Steve Kroft: Just this morning? Elli Montgomery: Yeah, just this morning. Severely mentally ill. Not like a little bit of depression.=A0 Most of them will be here for several days to several months, then released back on the street with a packet of pills and=no plan. Sheriff Dart says it's become a huge public safety issue. Steve Kroft: There's been an epidemic of mass shootings. A lot of them by people with serious mental health problems. Do you think =here's a connection? Tom Dart: Yes, I do think there are connections here because people -- some are getting treated. Other ones aren't getting treated. People are falli=g through the cracks all the time. And so to think that that won't then boil up at some point and end up in a tragedy, that's just naive.=A0 That's just naive. Dr. Torrey: We have a grand experiment: what happens when you don't treat people. But then you're going to have to accept 10 percent of homicides being killed by untreated, mentally ill people. You're going to have to accept Tucson and Aurora. You're going to have to accept Cho at Virginia Tech. These are the consequences, when we allow people who need to be treated to go untreated. And, if you are willing to do that, then that's fine. But l&=39;m not willing to do that. One in five Americans experienced some sort=of mental illness in 2010, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Men=al Health Services Administration. About 5 percent of Americans have suffered =rom such severe mental illness that it interfered with day-to-day school, work =r family. Women were more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness than men (23 percent of women versus 16.9 per=ent of men), and the rate of mental illness was more than twice as likely in yo=ng adults (18 to 25) than people older than 50. About 11.4 million=adult Americans suffered from severe mental illness in the past year and 8.7 million adults contemplated serious thoughts of suicide. Among them, more than 2 million made suicide plans and about 1 million attempted suicide. =Nearly 2 million teens, or 8 percent of the adolescent population, experienced a major depressive episode in the past y=ar. The research defined a major episode as at least a two-week period when a person is depressed with a loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities= while also experiencing at least four of seven symptoms defined in the four=h edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Only about 60 percent of people with mental illness get treatment each year, according to the report, and whites and Native America=s were more likely to seek help than African-Americans, Latinos and Asians.=A0 Researchers drew the findings from nearly 70,000 surveys on mental health and addiction among children and adults. "Mental illnesses can be managed successfully, and people do recover," Pamela S. Hyde, head of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said in a news release. "Mental illness is not an isolated public health problem. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity often co-exist with mental illness and treatment of the mental illness can reduce the effects of these disorders. The Obama Administration is working to promote the use of mental health services through health reform. People, families and communities wil= benefit from increased access to mental health services." Des=a Bergen-Cico, assistant professor of public health, food studies and nutrition at Syracuse University in New York, said there a=e several aspects of mental health treatment that should be improved in this country, including better access to preventive mental health care, which sh=uld include coverage for evidence-based prevention, intervention programs and counseling. An example of such a program is the Mindfulness-Based Stress Re=uction (MBSR), an eight- week secular mindfulness and meditation training program t=at teaches and prepares people to develop lifelong skills for dealing with anxiety, stress depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic illn=ss. 9 EFTA_R1_01946347 EFTA02672617 "Despite legislation calling for coverage of mental heal=h and addictions, not much has changed in insurance coverage for prevention o= treatment," Bergen-Cico said. "Whereas health care providers are readil= prepared to practice medicine, [and) by this I mean write appropriate prescriptions for medication to treat depression, anxiety, ADHD, etc., they=are not trained as counselors and do not and should not fill that role." M=ntal illness cost about $3O0 billion in 2002 alone in the United States, according to the report. So eleven year= later, it is estimated that this number has doubled. What is missing is the approach to men=al health problems with a comprehensive ongoing strategy much like what we do for physical inj=ry for which health care providers commonly employ a robust treatment that in addition to surgery would include any or all of the following: physical therapy, medication, preventative education and long term follow-up. And=all of this is included in Obamacare, which the Republican dominated Congress has decided to shut down the govern=ent in an effort to repeal it. Attached, is an article by Katy Hall & Jan=Diehm in The Huffington Post — Why U.S. Health Care Is Obscenely Expensive, In 12 Charts — outlining t=e economics of health care, in an endeavor to point out that although the U.S. leads the world in health care spending we don't live very long, and going to the doctor is so expensi=e that we don't do it very often — so where is the money going? =rom Lipitor to childbirth to colonoscopies -- everything just costs a whole lot= As congressional Republicans continue to keep the federal government closed following misguided attempts to defund t=e most significant health care reform in decades, please read the attached article as the charts are illustrations of the wasteful spending here in th= U.S. =br> Atmospheric science is difficult because there are so many variables involved. Heat =an be trapped in the depths of the oceans, thus mitigating its effect on surface temperatures — for a time. Volcanic eruptions spew particles into the atmosphere that block some measure of sunlight. El Nino and La Nina =hanges in Pacific Ocean currents are associated with seasonal or yearly temperature fluctuations.The Washington P=st — Absolutely everything you need to know about how the government shutdown will work. Let's take a look at how this will work. Not all government functions evaporated on Oct. 1 — Social Security che=ks still get mailed, and veterans' hospitals have stayed open. But many federal agencies had =o shut their doors and send their employees home, from the Environmental Protectio= Agency to hundreds of national parks. Here's a=look at how a shutdown will work, which parts of the government will close, and which parts of the economy might be affected. And why are we told that the federal government shut down? So... we are in a g=vernment shutdown. Now let's take a look at how it is working. Short answer: There are wide swaths of the federal government that need to be funded each year =n order to operate. Because Congress couldn't agree on how to fund them, =hey have allowed them to close down. 10 EFTA_R1_01946348 EFTA02672618 To g=t a bit more specific: Each year, the House and Senate are supposed to agree on 12 appropriations bills to fund the federal agenci=s and set spending priorities. Congress has become really bad at passing thes= bills, so in recent years they've resorted to stopgap budgets to keep t=e government funded (known as "continuing resolutions"). =The last stopgap passed on March 28, 2013, and ends on Sept. 30. In theory, Congress could have passed another stopgap before Tuesday. But the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled souse are at odds over what that stopgap should look like. The House passed a =unding bill over the weekend that delayed Obamacare for one year and repealed a ta= on medical devices. The Senate rejected that measure. They voted a few more=times and still no agreement. So... we're getting a shutdown. Does a shutdown mean everyone who works for the federal government has to go home? Not exactly. =A0The laws and regulations governing shutdowns separate federal workers into "essential" and "non-essential." (Actually, the preferred term nowadays is "excepted" and "non-excepted." This wa= tweaked in 1995 because "non-essential" seemed a bit hurtful. But we x=;11 keep things simple.) The Office of Management and Budget recentl= ordered managers at all federal agencies to conduct reviews to see which of their employees fall into each of these two categories. If a shutdown hits, th= essential workers stick around, albeit without pay. The non-essential wo=kers have to go home after a half-day of preparing to close shop. Which parts of government stay open? There are a whole bun=h of key government functions that carry on during a shutdown, including anything related to national security= public safety, or programs written into permanent law (like Social Security=. Here's a partial list: -- Any em=loyee or office that "provides for the national security, including the cond=ct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life =nd property." That means the U.S. military will keep operating, fo= one. So will embassies abroad. -- Any employee who conducts "essential activities to the extent that they protect life=and property." So, for example: Air traffic control stayed open= So did all emergency medical care, border patrol, federal prisons, most law enforcemen=, emergency and disaster assistance, overseeing the banking system, operating=the power grid, and guarding federal property. <=b> Agencies have to keep sending out benefits and operating programs that are written into permanent law or get multi-year funding. That means sending out Social Secu=ity checks and providing certain types of veterans' benefits. Unemployme=t benefits and food stamps will also continue for the time being, since their funding =as been approved in earlier bills. -- All age=cies with independent sources of funding remain open, including the U.S. Postal Servi=e and the Federal Reserve. -- Members of Congress can stick around, since their pay is written into permanent law. =A0Congressional staffers however, will also get divided into essential and non-essential, with the latter getting furloughed. Therefore many White Hou=e employees probably got sent home. The 1.3 million or so "esse=tial" civilian employees who stay on could well see their paychecks delayed during the shutdown, depending on the timing. They should, however, receive retroac=ive pay if and when Congress decides to fund the government again. 11 EFTA_R1_01946349 EFTA02672619 The 1.4 million active-service military members, meanwhile, will get paid no matter how long the shutdown lasts. That's because =he House and Senate specifically passed a bill to guarantee active-duty military pay even when the government is closed. Obama signed it into law Monday nigh=. So which parts of government actually shut dow=? Closed! Well, unless Arizona wants to pay to operate it. Everything else, basically. It's a fairly long =ist, and you can check out in detail which activities the agencies are planning to halt =n these contingency plans posted by each agency. Here are a few select exa=ples: Health: The National Institutes of Health stopped accepting new patients for clinical research a=d stop answering hotline calls about medical questions. The Centers for Di=ease Control and Prevention stopped its seasonal flu program and have a "significantly reduced capacity to respond to outbreak investigations." Housing: The Department of Housing and Urban Development are not be able to provide loca= housing authorities with additional money for housing vouchers. The nati=n's 3,300 public housing authorities have also stopped receiving payments, alth=ugh most of these agencies have enough cash on hand to provide rental assistanc= through the end of October. Immigration: T=e Department of Homeland Security no longer operates its E-Verify program, which means that businesses are not able to check on the legal immigration status of prospective employees during the shutdown. Parks=and museums: The National Park Service closed more than 400 national parks and museums, including Yosemite National Park in California, Alcatraz in San Francisco, and the Statue of Liberty in New York. The last time this hap=ened during the 1995.96 shutdown, some 7 million visitors were turned away. (=ne big exception was the south rim of the Grand Canyon, which stayed open only bec=use Arizona agreed to pick up the tab.) Regulatory ag=ncies: The Environmental Protection Agency have closed down almost entirely during a shutdown, save for operations around Superfund sites. Many of t=e Labor Department's regulatory offices are closed, including the Wage an= Hour Division and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (The Min= Safety and Health Administration stayed open.) Finan=ial regulators. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the vast U.S. derivatives market, are largely sh=t down. A few financial regulators, however, such as the Securities and Ex=hange Commission, has remain open. (Small parts of) Soc=al Security: The Social Security Administration has retain a skeleton staff to make sure the checks keep goi=g out. But the agency won't have enough employees to do things lik= help recipients replace their benefit cards or schedule new hearings for disability cases.<=span> Visas and passports: The State Department says it will keep most passport agencies and consular operations open so long as it has the funds to do so, although som= activities might be interrupted. (For instance, "if a passport a=ency is located in a government building affected by a lapse in appropriations, the facility may become unsupported.") During t=e previous shutdown in 1995-'96, around 20,000 to 30,000 applications from foreigners for visas went unprocessed each day. =A0This time around, the State Department is planning to continue processing visas through the shutdown, since those operations are largely funded by fees collected. Veterans: Some key benefits has continued and the VA hospitals remains open. But many services have been disrupted. The Veterans Benefits Administration will =e unable to process education and rehabilitation benefits. And the Board of Veter=ns' Appeals will be unable to hold hearings. 12 EFTA_R1_01946350 EFTA02672620 What's =ore, if the shutdown lasts for more than two or three weeks, the Department of Veterans Affairs has said that it may not have eno=gh money to pay disability claims and pension payments. That could affect s=me 3.6 million veterans. Women, Infants, and Children:</=> The Department of Agriculture has had to cut off support for the Women, Infants and Children program, which helps pregnant w=men and new moms buy healthy food and provides nutritional information and heal=h care referrals. The program reaches some 9 million Americans. The USD= estimates most states have funds to continue their programs for "a =eek or so," but they'll "likely be unable to sustain operatio=s for a longer period" — emergency funds may run out by the end of October. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) has a list of other possible ef=ects of a shutdown. Funds to help states administer unemployment benefits cou=d get disrupted, IRS tax-refund processing for certain returns would be suspended= farm loans and payments would stop, and Small Business Administration appro=al of business loan guarantees and direct loans would likely cease. =p class="">How is the city of Washington D.C. affected? D.C.'s garbage collection stops during a shutdown</=> Only if the shutdown goes on longer than a few weeks . In theory, the District of Columbia is supposed to shut down all but its most essential services during a government shutdown. But Mayor Vincent Gray =as said that he will label all city services "essential" and =se a cash reserve fund to keep everything going for as long as possible. Some background: The District of Columbia is the only cit= barred from spending funds during a federal government shutdown, save for arfew select services. During the 1995-'96 shutdown, the city was only abl= to keep police, firefighters and EMS units on duty. Trash collection and street sweeping came to a stop until Congress finally intervened. This time, however, the District is taking a more defiant stance. Gray has recently said that he will declare all city services "essential" and keep them running. And the city has $144 m=llion in funds to carry out services like trash collection and street sweeping for t=o weeks. If the shutdown drags on longer, however, it's unclear what will happen... How many federal employees would be aff=cted by a government shutdown? Half go home. =span styleefont-size:12ptline-height:107%;font-family:Georgia,serif">T=e government estimates that roughly 800,000 federal workers have been sent home because of the government shut down. =p class="">That leaves about 1.3 million "essential" fed=ral workers, 1.4 million active-duty military members, 500,000 Postal Service workers, and other employees in independently-funded agencies who will cont=nue working. Can you give me an agency-by-agency brea=down of the impacts? Yes. We've been compiling a deta=led list here at the Post, but here's a brief overview, showing how many employees are furloughed,=and examples of who stays and who goes: Department of=Commerce: 87 percent of the agency's 46,420 employees are be=ng sent home. (The Weather Service would keep running, for instance, but the Census Bureau wou=d close down.) 13 EFTA_R1_01946351 EFTA02672621 Department of Defense: 50 =ercent of the 800,000 civilian employees have been sent home, while all 1.4 million active-duty military members are staying on. (Environmen=al engineers, for instance, would get furloughed, and the agency could not sig= any new defense contracts.) Department of Energy:=A0 Thanks to multi-year funding, parts of the agency can actually operate for "a short period of time" after Sept. 30. But eventuall= 69 percent of the agency's 13,814 employees will be sent home. (Those i= charge of nuclear materials and power grids stay. Those conducting energy research=go home.) Environmental Protection Agency: 94=percent of the 16,205 employees have been sent home. (Those protecting =oxic Superfund sites stay. Pollution and pesticide regulators get sent home.) Department of Health and Human Services:=/b> 52 percent of 78,198 employees are being sent home. (Those running the Suicide Prevention Lifeline would stay, those i= charge of investigating Medicare fraud would go home.) Department of Homeland Security: 14 percent of the 231,117 e=ployees are being home. (Border Patrol would stay. Operations of E-Veri=y would cease. The department are also suspending disaster-preparedness grants to states and localities.) Department of Housing and Urban Deve=opment: 95 percent of the 8,709 employees have been sent home. (Tho=e in charge of guaranteeing mortgages at Ginnie Mae stayed, as would those in charge of homelessness programs. Almost everything else h=ve come to a halt.) Department of Interior: </=> 81 percent of the 72,562 employees have been sent home. (Wildlife law enforcement officers stayed, while the national parks have been closed.) Department of Justice: 15 percent of the 114,486 employees have been sent home. (FBI agents, drug enforcement agents, and federal prison employees stayed. The department con=inues running background checks for gun sales. Some attorneys have been=sent home.) Department of Labor: 82 percent of the 16,304 employees have been sent home. (Mine-safety inspectors stayed. Wage and occupational safety regulators were sent home. =A0Employees compiling economic data for the Bureau of Labor Statistics wil= also get furloughed.) NASA: 97 percent of the 18,134 employees have been sent home. (Scientists working on the International Space Station stayed. Many engineers have been sent home.)=/span> U.S. Postal Service: Everyone stayed, since the Postal Service is self-funded. Social Security Administration: 29 percent of the 62,343 em=loyees have been sent home. (Claims representatives stayed; actuaries =ere sent home.) Supreme Court and federal courts. Federal courts, continue to =perate for approximately two weeks with reserve funds. After that, only essential employees will continue to work, as determined by the chief judge, with the rest furloughed. (The Supreme Court will continue to ope=ate when it opens Oct. 7, as it did in previous shutdowns.) Department of Treasury: 80 percent of the 112,461 employees have been sent home. (Those sending out Social Security checks were asked to stay; IRS employees overseeing aud=ts were sent home.) Department of Transportation= 33 percent of the 55,468 employees got sent home. (Air-traffic =ontrollers stayed on; most airport inspections have cease.) 14 EFTA_R1_01946352 EFTA02672622 Department of Veterans Affairs: 4 percent of the 332=025 employees were sent home. (Hospital workers stayed; some workers in=charge of processing benefits were sent home.) A much, much more detailed=list can be found in the agency contingency plans prepared here. Do "non-ess=ntial employees" who get sent home ever get paid? That's unclear, as Lisa Rein has =eported. On the first day of the shutdown, these employees had to come to their offices to secure their files, set up auto-reply messages, and make preparations necessary to halt their programs. Then those were furloughed were sent h=me. The last time this happened, Congress later agr=ed to pay these employees retroactively when the government reopened. But that's completely up to Congress. Is the government even=prepared for a shutdown? Maybe? As mentioned=before, the Office of Management and Budget asked federal agencies to develop contingency plans for a shutdown. =A0But chaos is always possible. Back during the 1995 shutdown, the Soci=l Security Administration initially sent home far too many workers and had to recall 50,000 of them after three days in order to carry out its legal duti=s. Which parts of the economy would be most affe=ted by a shutdown? A few points: =span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><=>-- The local economy around Washington, D.C. is expected to lose some $200 million in economic activity for each day that the governmen= is shut down. -- Economist Mark Zandi has estimated that a short government shutdown, which would send more than 800,000 federal workers home, could shave about 0.3 percentage points =ff economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2013 (though the economy would lik=ly bounce back in the following quarter). A more extended shutdown could do=even more damage. -- Alternatively, we can look at what happened back in 1995 and 1996, the last two times the fed=ral government actually shut down for a few weeks. In a research note earlier t=is month, Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Partners passed along some thoughts abou= the possible economic impacts of a shutdown in a few areas: Tourism: U.S. tourist industries and airlines reportedly sustained millions of dollars in losses during the 1995 and 1996 shutdowns, in part because so many parks and museu=s were shutting down, turning away 7 million visitors in all. Federal contractors: Of the $18 billion in federal contracts in the D.C. area back in 1995-'96, about one-fifth, or $3.7 billion, were put on hold during tha= era's shutdown. Employees of contractors were reportedly furloughed without pay.<=span> The effects would be considerably larger today, give= that the number of private contractors has swelled over the past two decades. In Fairfax County, Virginia, alone there are currently 4,100 contractors that bring in about $26 billion per year. It's still unclear exactly how =any of those contracts would be affected. Energy: 15 EFTA_R1_01946353 EFTA02672623 Pharma and biotech: This one's harder to game out. The Food and Drug Administration didni=3 have to shut down in 1995 and 1996 because it was already funded. This time around, however, the FDA won't be spared, and the review process for ne= drugs is likely to get bogged down. The shutdown could also put a cramp on the gr=nt process from the National Institutes of Health. "If prolonged," Krueger writes, "that could negatively impact life sciences/diagnostic= companies. Would a government shutdown stop Oba=acare from happening? NO. As Sarah Kliff has explained, the key parts of O=amacare rely on mandatory spending that isn't affected by a shutdown. &qu=t;That includes the new online marketplaces, known as exchanges, where uninsured p=ople will be able to shop for coverage. The Medicaid expansion is funded with mandatory funding, as are the billions in federal tax credits to help with purchasing coverage." That means uninsured =mericans will be able to start shopping for plans when the exchanges launch Oct. 1, although there are lik=ly to be some glitches. How do you end a government =hutdown? Congress needs to pass a bill (or bill=) to fund the government, and the White House has to sign them. They can do this at any t=me. Or they can sit at home and keep the government closed. Nothing requires th=m to do anything. It depends what sort of political pressure they're faci=g. How often has the government shut down before= Technically, 17 times. But a serious, prolonged shutdown? That's only happened once before. Since 1976, =here have been 17 times when Congress has allowed government funding to lapse. Back in the 1970s, this happened on=six occasions, although those lapses didn't lead to actual, physical shutdo=ns — government carried on as usual. Then, in the early 1=80s, then-Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti argued that the Anti-Deficiency Act actually required government agencies to close down if their funding expired. Since then, a failure t= fund the government has meant an actual, tangible shutdown. Most of the shutd=wns in the 1980s were brief affairs. By far the most signif=cant shutdown to date came in 1995-'96 and lasted 21 days, as Bill Clinton wrangled with congressiona= Republicans over budget matters. Is a government =hutdown the same thing as breaching the debt ceiling? Nope! Different type of =risis. In a government shutdown, the federal government is not allowed to make any new spending commitments (save for all the exceptions noted above). By con=rast, if we hit the debt-ceiling then the Treasury Department won't be able to borrow money to pay for spending that Congr=ss has already approved. In that case, either Congress will have to lift th= debt ceiling or the federal government will have to default on some of its bills= possibly including payments to bondholders or Social Security payouts. T=at could trigger big disruptions in the financial markets — or a long-term r=se in borrowing costs. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that we L=;re on pace to breach the debt ceiling sometime between Oct. 18 and Nov. 5. So if a gov=rnment shutdown isn't thrilling enough for you, good news: There's another=fiscal crisis just around the corner. And Congress should be ashamed...=. As Gary Hart pointed out this week in The Huffington Post</=>, occasionally, a single incident can characterize an entire era. Rosa Parks sits down near=the front of a bus. Gary Cooper drops his badge in the dust. Warren Beatty is 16 EFTA_R1_01946354 EFTA02672624 riddled with bullets. And then, most recently, a Congressman berates a park ranger for monitoring the closure of=a national park he had voted to close. It is more than likely that histori=ns years from now will cite this incident as the perfect illustration of Ameri=an politics in the early 21st century. For it is this disjunction, this dislocation from reality, that represents our age. Politics have been do=inated by a minority movement that creates its own counter-reality, rejects scienc=, denies established facts, and produces untruthful narratives to justify behavior at odds with reality. This could all be dis=issed as an aberration and an amusement, except when it brings the government of the United States to a standstill. This Congressman, and others like him, did not connect the decision to shutter the government with the closure of national parks administered by that government. Nor apparentl= did they think a majority of Americans would be outraged by young cancer patients being denied treatment= or veterans losing medication, or the elderly losing home nutrition, or any of hundreds of things the government of the United States, as ordered by Congr=ss, does every day. If you live in a vacuum-packed world=of talk radio, right-wing dominated town halls, and campaigns financed by anti-government billionaires, and if that's the only Kool-Aid you drink, it must be a s=ock when you confront the real world. "Why is this park closed?" &=uot;Because you closed it, Congressman." If th= "big government" you oppose is not the one that creates and operates revered national monuments, but is one that provi=es food stamps, unemployment compensation, breakfasts for poor school children= and rent subsidies and you can't actually say that's what you are a=ainst, because you believe, wrongly, that it's mostly people with darker skins=who benefit, it makes real-world politics difficult to deal with. So what's a Congressman operating in a closed-circuit vacuum, who only hears his own echoes 24/7, to do? What does he do when he finds out that his gerrymandered solid red district dominated by a minority=is neither the real America nor the real world? You intimidate your Speaker an= you threaten -- or more likely have others threaten -- your wavering, moder=te colleagues with a primary campaign by a fire-breathing, alternative-reality version of yourself. There is only one way three or =our dozen alternative-reality Congresspersons can shut down the United States governm=nt: fear. Fear of what? Fear of not being a Congressperson. Fear of losing your job. Fear of not having a staff to look after your every wish. Fear of not being cheered at the next town meeting composed of people you're alread= afraid of. Most of all, fear of returning to everyday life back home. But, of cour=e, there is always the lucrative alternative of lobbying, where you can stay i= Washington, go to all the parties and fundraisers, write the checks instead=of taking the checks, and hobnob with all those other former members of Congre=s who, like you, decided not to go home. But even tha= little promise of nirvana is subject to the perpetuation of the world of alternative-reality. And that world must come =o an end. Because the day will come, sooner or later, when men and women of stature, honor, and conviction will say, as Joseph Welch said to Joe McCart=y and the park ranger should have said to our Congressman: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?" INTERESTING SURVEY SIMPLE TRUTHS SIMPLE TRUTH 1 17 EFTA_R1_01946355 EFTA02672625 lovers help each other undress before sex. However after sex, they always dress on their own. Moral of the story: In life, no one helps you once you're screwed. SIMPLE TRUTH 2 When a lady is pregnant, all her friends touch the stomach and say, "Congrats". But, none of them come and touch the man's penis and say, "Good jo=". Moral of the story: "Hard work is never appreciated." FIVE RULES TO REMEMBER IN LIFE 1. Money cannot buy happiness, but it's more comfortable to cry in a Corvette than on a bicycle. 2. Forgive your enemy, but remember the ass-hole's name. 3. If you help someone when they're in trouble, they will remember you when they're in trouble again. 4. Many people are alive only because it's illegal to shoot them. S. Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then neither does milk. Bonus: Condoms don't guarantee safe sex. A friend of mine was wearing one, when he was shot by the woman's husband. =NTERESTING How to bring jobs bac= to the USA This is so true! Watch and forward... <=>Wa=ch this video — it's less than 4 minutes and share it as well. It is simple and to the point and is exactly the message we need to spread across America. Web Link: https://youtube.=oogleapis.com/v/4FrGxO2Fn_M#action=share <https://youtube.goog=eapis.com/v/4FrGxO2Fn_M#action=share> THIS WEEK's QUOTE<=font> 18 EFTA_R1_01946356 EFTA02672626 This week was dominated by the shutdown. =/span>It's as much a shutdown of the executive functions of the brain as it is of the government. A monumen= to monumental stupidity, it's also a shutdown of possibility, and of whatever residual trust the public still =as in the American political system. Even those doing the right thing by fighting it were reduced by the sheer absurd=ty of the situation. All to try to reinstate a sequester-level budget that is itself horrifically self-destruc=ive (note to media: the Affordable Care Act and sequester are the compromises, =nd bad ones, at that). That's right -- we've now sunk to a level in which the merely horribly self-destructive=is a goal that seems out of reach. So our leaders play games instead of even attempting to address the real problems, like the roughly 20 million unemployed or underemployed Americans. <=pan style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line- height:107%">=A0That's for August. The September numbers weren&=39;t released on Friday -- because of the shutdown. Arianna Huffington THIS WEEK's MUSIC =div style="text-align:center"> Long before I knew the name Curtis Mayfield,=I had been a huge fan of his as The Impressions were one of my favorite R&B g=oups and he was a member. Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 — December 26, 1999) was an American soul, R&B, and funk sing=r, songwriter, and record producer. He achieved success with The Impression= during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and recorded the soundtrack t= the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is regarded as a pioneer of fun= and of politically conscious African-American music. He was also a multi=instrumentalist who played the guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, and drums. Mayfield is a winner =f both the Grammy Legend Award (in 1994) and the Grammy Lifetime Achiev=ment Award (in 1995), and he was a double inductee into The Rock and =oll Hall of Fame, inducted as a member of The Impressions into The Rock and Roll=Hall of Fame in 1991, and again in 1999 as a solo artist. He is also a two-t=me Grammy Hall of Fame inductee. The Impressions are an American music group from Chicago, originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes doo-wop, gospel, so=l, and R&B. The group was founded as The Roosters by Chattanooga, Tennessee natives Sam Gooden, Richard Brooks and Arthur Brooks, who moved to Chicago and added Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfi=ld to their line-up to become Jerry Butler & the Impressions. By 1962, =utler and the Brookses had departed, and after switching to ABC-Paramount Records, Mayfield, Gooden, and new Impression Fred Cash collectively became a top- selling soul act. Mayfiel= left the group for a solo career in 1970; Leroy Hutson, Ralph Johnson, Reggie Torian, Sammy Fender and Nate Eva=s were among the replacements who joined Gooden and Cash. Inductees into b=th the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, The Impressions are best =nown for their 1960s string of hits, many of which were heavily influenced by gospel music=and served as inspirational anthems for the Civil Rights Movement. They are =lso 1998 Grammy Hall of Fame inductees for their hit "People Get Ready", and are winners of th= Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award (in 2000). In 1963 The Impressions released their million-selling gold single "It's All Right", that topped the R&B charts and m=de it to #4 on the pop charts, and became one of the group's signature songs. "It's All Right" and "Gypsy Woman" were the anchors=of The Impressions' first LP, 1963's The Impressions. 1964 brought the first of Mayfield's Black pride anthem compositions, "Keep on Pushing", which became a Top 10 smash on both the Billbo=rd Pop and R&B charts, peaking at #10 Pop. It was the title cut from th= album of the same name, which also reached the Top 10 on both charts. Future M=yfield compositions would feature an increasingly social and political awareness, including the following year&#=9;s major hit and the group's best-known song, the gospel-influenced "=eople Get Ready", which hit #3 on the R&B charts and #14 on the pop char=s. 19 EFTA_R1_01946357 EFTA02672627 In the mid-1960s, The Impressions were compared with Motown acts such as The Temptations, The Miracles, and The Four Tops. After 1965&#=9;s "Woman's Got Soul", and the #7 pop hit "Amen", The Impressions failed to reach the R&B Top Ten for three more years, final=y scoring in 1968 with the #9 "I Loved and Lost". "We're a Winner", which hit #1 on the R&B charts that same year, represente= a new level of social awareness in Mayfield's music. Mayfield created his=own label, Curtom, and moved The Impressions to the label. Over the next two ye=rs, more Impressions message tracks, including the #1 R&B hit "Choice =f Colors" (1969) and the #3 "Check Out Your Mind" (1970), beca=e big hits for the group. It is said that The Impressions were a huge influence on Bob Marley and The Wailers and oth=r ska/rocksteady groups in Jamaica: The Wailers modelled their singing/harmon= style on them and in part borrowed their look, too. There are many cover= of Impressions songs by The Wailers, including "Keep On Moving", "Long Long Winter&q=ot; and "Just Another Dance". Pat Kelly covered "Soulful Love&qu=t; and The Heptones covered "I've Been Trying". No doubt the =ocial consciousness of Curtis Mayfield's lyrics appealed as well as the spectacular harmonies.=/p> After the release of the Check Out Your Mind LP in 1970, Mayfield left the group and began a successful solo career, the highlight o= which was writing and producing the Super Fly soundtrack. After his success with this soundtrack, he collaborated on the soundtracks of Claudine, Spark=e, and A Piece of the Action. He continued to write and produce for The Impressions, who remained on Curtom. Leroy Hutson was the first new lead si=ger for the group following Mayfield's departure, but success eluded The Im=ressions, and Hutson left the group in 1973. New members Ralph Johnson and Reggie Tor=an replaced Hutson, and The Impressions had three R&B Top 5 singles in 1974-1975: the #1 "Finally Got Myself Together (I'm a Changed Ma=)" (which also reached the Pop top 20), and the #3 singles "Same Thing i= Took" and "Sooner or Later". In 1976, The Impressions left Curtom and Mayfield behind for Cotillion Records, and had their final major=hit with "Loving Power". The same year, Ralph Johnson was replaced by Nate Evans, who remained in the group for three years, during which time Th= Impressions switched to 20th Century Records. Singles and albums sales continued to slip, and Evans left in 1979, reducing the group to a trio. Th= album Fan the Flames was released in 1981. With this said, I hope that you enjoy a selection of the music of Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions. The Impressions — It's All Right -- http://y=utu.be/KOmd-Wk1rSI <http://youtu.be/KOmd-WILIrSI> The Impressions — People Get Ready -- http://youtu.be/9yYOWQj2Wdo chttp://youtu.b49yYOWOj2Wdo> The Impressions — Keep On Pushing -- http://youtu.be/VrqlphU-lcl <http://you=u.be/Vrqlphll-lcI> =span style="font-size:12pCline-height:107%;font-family:Georgia,serif">T=e Impressions — Amen -- http://youtu.be/WM2cUZQ8C78 The Impressions — I'm So Proud -- http://youtu.be/-IOSp_26BIA <http://y=utu.be/-IOSp_26BIA> The Impressions — Gypsy Woman -- http://youtu.be/3Wd4tIX5t- <http://youtu.be/3Wd4tI=5t-> Q The Impressions — We're a Winner -- http://youtu.be/uLMRzDFMvEo <http://youtu=be/uLMRzDFMvEo> The Impressions — Choice Of Colors -- http://youtu.be/SNV1Y01xNk <http://youtu.b=/SNV1Y01xNk> 8 Curtis Mayfield — Superfly http://youtu.be/grO5H0qC16k<=p> Curtis Mayfield — No Thing On Me -- http:/=youtu.be/_15kZOuHGE4 <http://youtu.be/_15kZOuHGE4> 20 EFTA_R1_01946358 EFTA02672628 Curtis Mayfield — The Makings of You -- htt=://youtu.be/klEgfqjP4Fw <http://youtusbe/klEgfqjP4Fw> Curtis Mayfield — To be Invisible -- http:=/youtu.be/YE65KuhH7Co <http://youtu.be/YE65KuhH7Co> Curtis Mayfield — We People Who Are Darker Than Blue -- http://youtu.be/hV6BzsgOLAw <http://youtu.be=hV6BzsgOLAw> Curtis Mayfield — Live At Ronnie Scott's (1988) -- http://youtu.beLBo9YGvDzuk chttp://youtu.be/_B=9YGvDzuk> Curtis Mayfield & Lauryn Hill — Here But I'm Gone -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Ax42xDIzM&feature=share&=list=TLgCMKpCxHES6RfXgRRkh2VX3_K79fNwlh <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dz5Ax42xDIzM&feature=share&list=TLgCMKpCxHES6RfXgRRkh2VX3_K79=Nwlh> I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed this week's=offerings and wish you a great week Sincerely, Greg Brown Gregory Brown Chairman & CEO GlobalCast Partners, LLC US: +1-415-994-7851 <tel:%2B1-415-994-785=> Tel: +1-800-406-5892 Fax: +1-310-861-0927 <tel:%2B1-310-861-0927> Skype: gbrown1970 <= href="mailto:Gregory@globalcastpartners.com" target="_blank">Gregory@globalcastpartners.com 21 EFTA_R1_01946359 EFTA02672629