The voice from the Sierra Madre Oriental and the entrance to our Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
It's time for a conversation about race....If MSNBC chooses the meanings of the words in the debate....then its Adios
The title of this entry say it all. And....if anyone uses any of these words, phrases, or related concepts.....the game is done. Dr. Watson can leave his pistol in the drawer of his desk. Concepts from the left such as gender equality, "gay" for homosexual, equal rights, civil rights, hope, change, progressive, equality, dialogue, centre-city renovation, and let us never forget, issues important to minorities.
Issues such as, you know, the Negro Weather Report.....something akin to the Zuni and Havasu Drive-home traffic conditions and weather together.
The announcer on the car radio shouts to his audience, "And now, the Eskimo Wall Street Market Closing reports and financial news. When that is over," he shouts out cheerily, "we'll return to Tuscan Kitchen for Yanomamis from the Amazon upper basin."
My radio-television conglomerate billion-dollar-a-day company will make certain that we do everything possible to have full-scale diversity and relevance. So every 30 minute news cycle will have 4,201 hours of simultaneous, multilingual, same-screen, minority-relevant news, weather, and sports.
We shall also strive to intersperse an appropriate number of procto-urologically relevant advertisements, along with ads for the stupid-community who think that "first-accident forgiveness" insurance is anything more or less than paying the higher premium for a presumed certainty of employment of the insurance policy by the stupid driver who is a clear and present danger to him/her/jenner/it/ and/or self.
We simply must "reach out" to people who can, with a straight face raise their arms, as taught by the Obsolete Media and Al Sharpton, the Muslim Brotherhood (Obama's favourite charity), and drone, "Don't shoot! Hands up!", whatever that means. We must begin a dialogue with people who are so stupid, vapid, ignorant, or hopelessly lost in a quagmire of illogique and narcissism that they think the only black lives that matter are the thugs, criminals, and degenerates who finally managed to back themselves into that ultimate corner.....where they finally were killed, justifiably or accidentally, by the police or security officers.
Midnight Basketball adding to Global Warmingcoolingclimatechange and furthering the unearned profits of the 1% by employing un-necessary power to lights that prove the un-fairness of providing to basketball players who are not blind. Please note that almost any bicycle is operated by a "hawk" whose job it is to inform about un- marked police units and OG's encroaching on "our turf". |
"After all, the mf aint gib me my 40 dollars for the bag...an he tol' me 4:00 yestiddy and he be duh noshow. "
"Well, yes Mr. Mohammed da' Mankilla....but you killed a human being over a 40 dollar debt?"
"Shoooa, mf, I always ain't let no one get down by me...I always put'em down fust, mf."
And, of course, it must be pointed out that the fellow who "put down" the guy who did not pay up his 40 dollars, is a Ph.D. and an associate professor of the School of Studies of Transgendered Minority Men/Women who develop stress brought on by learning that the Giraffe they/he/she/it married was part of a Lesbian Giraffe Polygamy sect. They are presently both in a midnight basketball - polygamy - bestiality - cross/re/trans/gendered out-reach programme operated by Al Sharpton down at the new courts that they stole the rims of'n. Mohammed da' Mankilla has to wake up early to-morrow to greet his graduate level class enrolled in "White Privilege in Contrast with the True Builders of the Pyramids, the Coliseum, the Arch du Triumph
Now, can we have a conversation....like trying to figure out why Sandra Fluke wants my daughter and granddaughters to pay for her contraceptives? We need to have conversations. Conversation is a word that right-brain-only leftists use when they mean that they want to shout down anything that has not been programmed into them by deranged "professors" gaining incredible salaries....for essentially doing nothing. That nothing is the same the work that Fidel, Karl, Adolf, and Company did repeatedly, after gaining control of various beautiful, at times magnificent, countries.
Conversation is a buzzword for "Traditionalists!!!! SHUT UP!!!"
We leave the OROGs with this message to tell your friends. If it is not first recognised that there is nothing that can be done with the vermin-whelp of this generation, then forget it.
It is necessary that we reach back when there were pictures of Jesus and Moses on the walls of the classrooms. It is necessary that we march bravely back to that point where each of us had to recite the 23rd Psalm FROM MEMORY in the Fifth Grade.....the preamble to the Constitution in the Sixth Grade FROM MEMORY.....the stupid Gettysburg Address in the 8th Grade (I did that and also General Robert Edward Lee's Farewell Address to the Army of Northern Virginia) both FROM MEMORY!!.
Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, 10th April 1865.
General Order
No. 9
After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.
I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them.
But feeling that valour and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.
By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection.
With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
It should be of interest to military men and women that the overall commander of the main combatant army and the Commander of the Armies of the Confederate States of America at the close of the War, had only issued nine (9) general orders during the four years over which he oversaw much or all of the military activities of the Nation. It speaks volumes concerning his genius and his ability to move men by his singular presence. Even Grant stood in his presence until Lee was seated.
Now, can we have a conversation....like trying to figure out why Sandra Fluke wants my daughter and granddaughters to pay for her contraceptives? We need to have conversations. Conversation is a word that right-brain-only leftists use when they mean that they want to shout down anything that has not been programmed into them by deranged "professors" gaining incredible salaries....for essentially doing nothing. That nothing is the same the work that Fidel, Karl, Adolf, and Company did repeatedly, after gaining control of various beautiful, at times magnificent, countries.
Conversation is a buzzword for "Traditionalists!!!! SHUT UP!!!"
___________________________________
We leave the OROGs with this message to tell your friends. If it is not first recognised that there is nothing that can be done with the vermin-whelp of this generation, then forget it.
It is necessary that we reach back when there were pictures of Jesus and Moses on the walls of the classrooms. It is necessary that we march bravely back to that point where each of us had to recite the 23rd Psalm FROM MEMORY in the Fifth Grade.....the preamble to the Constitution in the Sixth Grade FROM MEMORY.....the stupid Gettysburg Address in the 8th Grade (I did that and also General Robert Edward Lee's Farewell Address to the Army of Northern Virginia) both FROM MEMORY!!.
Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, 10th April 1865.
General Order
No. 9
After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.
I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them.
But feeling that valour and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.
By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection.
With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
— R. E. Lee, General, General Order No. 9[1]
It should be of interest to military men and women that the overall commander of the main combatant army and the Commander of the Armies of the Confederate States of America at the close of the War, had only issued nine (9) general orders during the four years over which he oversaw much or all of the military activities of the Nation. It speaks volumes concerning his genius and his ability to move men by his singular presence. Even Grant stood in his presence until Lee was seated.
______________________________________________
These fellows are singing in a language that is now un-recognisable. It is called, "English". Their message is overly simplistic. But it made the least of them about 144,000 dollars before he hit the age of 30 and that was when a 1957 hard-top convertible Thunderbird with air-conditioning, and a 292 / V-8 would cost about 4,000 USD (and new tires). They (along with others) were the inspiration for the Invictas back in those days. That was a group that formed with David McColl in Harlingen, Texas and that would call me up when they needed a piano/organ guy, every now and then.
El Zorro and I tried to, essentially, take over, another group
led by Lance Smith from Edinburg/Donna, but Lance drove it into the ground before we could commit our sedition.
By the way, Billy Jeff wishes that he could play, for real, 1/10th as well as El Zorro on the Saxophone.
More later. We have a lot of things to cover before we go to San Antonio and then down to our little mud hut.
El Gringo Viejo
____________________________________________
Monday, 1 June 2015
We Lament This Borrowing from the Anglican Curmudgeon, but it is necessary
_____________________________________________________
We do most heartily bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, including the wholesale lifting of this meticulous accounting of the literal wholesale hijacking of the resources of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America. Literally millions, upon millions of dollars are being drained into the coffers of attorneys who are paid to harass and combat traditionalist parishes and dioceses, tooth and nail, at every legal corner and procedural wall in hand to hand combat, essentially.
Other moneys are being used by liberal-left, secular humanist moles in monk's raiment to flood the American landscape with Islamic "refugees", many if not most of whom are un-vetted, and all of whom are inserted on the public and church contribution dime. This is being done, while simultaneously, legitimate refugees who are Arab Christians, in extreme danger, are denied refuge assistance of even a temporary kind. In this matter, the Episcopal Church, and all the "apostolic lineage" of churches, as well as various "progressive" Jewish organisations are fully, and knowingly, complicit with official Obama State Department rules and regulations.
Please follow this article, penned by one of, if not the most, accomplished student and observer of Church Law and its interface with the practice of State, Local, and central government Constitutional law in these times. His brilliance may or may not be traced to the fact that he haveth not a boob-tube in his tent, nor does he comtemplateth the brayings of the popular culture or the Obsolete Press. I defer at this point to a brief, stunning recently posted article on the ANGLICAN CURMUDGEON. To wit:
________________________________________
What Is ECUSA Spending on Lawsuits? (Updated for General Convention 2015)
[WARNING: the following post may be
dangerous to one's mental health. The panoply of unbelievably large figures in
it may also cause one's eyes to glaze over. For those who cannot wade through it
all, here is the bottom line:
The Episcopal Church (USA) has spent, and further committed (in its adopted budgets) to spend, a total of $42,675,466 on suing fellow Christians in the civil and ecclesiastical courts over the first eighteen years of this century. When one adds in the estimated additional amounts spent by individual dioceses on such litigation, the total amount exceeds Sixty Million Dollars.
Can't believe it? Well, then, read on -- you have been warned.]
Since September 2010, when I put up an analysis, based on ECUSA's monthly statements and their annual audited statements through 2009, I have kept track of how much ECUSA and its major dioceses has spent on attorneys' fees and other costs associated with all of the 90 or so lawsuits against former Episcopalians to which it (or one of its dioceses) has been a party. In 2010, it was only 60+ lawsuits, as catalogued here (see pgs. 23-26), but the Church continues to sue everyone who leaves it, whether the law is against it or not. In order to give as complete a picture as possible back then, I also included the latest ECUSA budget projection of legal expenses through the triennium 2010-2012.
One has to realize that ECUSA does not make it easy to discover the amounts it spends on litigation -- the leadership at 815 Second Avenue would obviously prefer that those who sit in the pews every Sunday and contribute their pledges not be aware of just how many millions have been squandered on ECUSA's scorched-earth litigation policy.
I am fully aware that those are fighting words to all those who support the current administration at 815 Second Avenue: "Prove it!" they say. Well, in the course of this post, I intend to do just that. So please suspend your judgment until you have digested the entire piece, and checked out all the links to my sources -- which are uniformly from ECUSA's own published financial statements and official minutes. I am a lifelong Episcopalian myself, and I am utterly ashamed and outraged by what the Presiding Bishop and her cohorts are doing in our Church's name.
The amounts the Church spends due to its litigation policies come in a number of different categories. Not all the categories are shown in the same financial documents. For instance:
The yearly audited financial statements, which are the most accurate source, do not break out "litigation expenses" as a separate category, but instead lump them in with all the other general operating costs of the organization. But what they do disclose are (a) the amount of moneys loaned (not granted outright) to rump dioceses; and (b) the amount of legal out-of-pocket expenses contributed to ECUSA by the Presiding Bishop's Chancellor's law firm, Goodwin Procter.
(Note: While the IRS does not allow lawyers to deduct the value of their services rendered pro bono, it does allow them to deduct out-of-pocket expenses incurred in performing the services -- travel, hotel and meals; telephone, freight, postage and similar amounts. In order to keep track of ECUSA's full legal expenses, these contributed costs must be added back into the totals, or else those totals would appear artificially low in comparison to other corporations incurring similar legal services and related expenses. Moreover, ECUSA includes their amount in its income -- see the auditors' note -- so they have to be part of its expenses, as well.)
The monthly statements of operations, though not audited, are the best source of information for (c) the cost of Title IV proceedings -- at least until recently -- and (d) the amounts paid to Goodwin and Procter over and above their donated services, as well as to local law firms retained in various states by ECUSA.
The minutes of the Executive Council are the best source for (e) the amounts of grants and credit lines extended to the rump dioceses. (The audited financials show only the amounts actually borrowed against credit lines as of the year end; they do not disclose the total amount of credit lines extended.)
The budgets adopted by General Convention and the Executive Council are the best detailed source for actual moneys spent in the past on particular line items, and they are the only source for (f) the future anticipated legal expenses of the Church. These are most often wildly understated, and Executive Council is constantly having to revise them upwards.
In September 2010, I had concluded that ECUSA and its Dioceses of Virginia, Los Angeles and San Diego had committed to date a combined total of Twenty-one Million Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($21,650,000.00) on litigation for the years 2000-2012. Four years later, I revised the total spent by ECUSA alone (not including any of its dioceses) during that same period to $21,858,714. This number I broke down as follows:
For the Griswold years (2000-2006), the total is somewhat higher than estimated previously, because I found an entry for "Legal Support to Dioceses" paid in calendar 2006 in the amount of $443,519. The new total is:
TOTAL 2000-2006: $ 1,777,180.00
For the first triennium under Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori (2007-2009):
Title IV Expenses: $ 1,702,222 -- i.e., almost as much as PB Griswold spent on everything legal!
Litigation Expenses (including contributed expenses): $ 8,392,584
Grants to Sustain Rump Dioceses: $1,200,000
TOTAL 2007-2009: $ 11,294,806.00
For the second Jefferts Schori triennium (2010-2012):
Title IV Expenses: $ 992,921
Litigation Expenses (including contributed expenses): $ 4,933,807
Grants to Sustain Rump Dioceses: $ 575,000
Loans to Rump Dioceses: $ 2,285,000
TOTAL 2010-2012: $ 8,786,728.00
Jefferts Schori Actual Total, 2007-2012: $ 20,081,534
Plus: Griswold Total, 2000-2006: $ 1,777,180
GRAND TOTAL, 2000-2012: $ 21,858,714
That amazing number is now historical fact, and does not change. But the totals since 2012 do.
At the time of my 2014 post, I did not have the final, year-end figures for 2013, but now I do. Actual 2013 legal expenses alone (not including contributed expenses) were reported (p.3) at $2,125,008 -- more than $1.1 million over the amount budgeted. (This item includes in-house legal staff support, such as the salary of the Presiding Bishop's Special Assistant for Litigation, Mary Kostel.) To this must be added the amounts of contributed legal expenses, which are disclosed only in the 2013 audited financial statements (p. 11): $386,000. (The Presiding Bishop's Chancellor's law firm, in return for being awarded all of ECUSA's litigation work, gives ECUSA "discounted hourly rates" -- isn't that fine?)
The total thus for 2013, exclusive of grants, loans, and Title IV expenses (which the Treasurer no longer itemizes), comes to $ 2,511,008.00. Now include the $735,000 authorized in grants and loans to just the South Carolina rump diocese in 2013 (after a further $300,000 increase authorized in June), the $785,000 authorized for San Joaquin, plus amounts to other dioceses, and the $270,000 spent on Title IV (per the 2014 budget, line 277), and you reach:
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE) FOR 2013: $4,601,008.
For calendar 2014, ECUSA has reported legal expenses of $1,741,166 -- this time only $526,681 over budget. (Those darn legal expenses! Just cannot budget for them!). Contributed expenses are not known yet, but a safe estimate is $300,000. Add in the 2014 grants and loans to litigating dioceses: a general $500,000 line of credit approved in February 14 (FFM038); a separate loan of $785,000 to the Diocese of San Joaquin approved in June 2014 (FFM050), along with a further $775,000 to be drawn as necessary for the "maintenance of any recovered property"; and $270,245 budgeted for Title IV proceedings (line 277). The total then comes to:
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE) FOR 2014: $4,371,411.
For calendar 2015, we have budget amounts only thus far (which are notoriously underestimated). The budget for legal expenses in 2015 is $1,160,486 (line 346), and for Title IV expenses (line 277) $275,622. The number for legal expenses almost certainly needs to be increased (March 2015 already ran 50% over budget), and we do not have the figures for any of the other components yet in 2015. The safe thing to do is to estimate that the total for 2015 will be something like the average for 2013-2014:
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE; ESTIMATED) FOR 2015: $4,486,210.
This in turn allows us to estimate the total for the last triennium of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori's term: it comes to $ 13,458,629. Note that the total far exceeds either of the two preceding triennia ($11,294,806 for 2007-2009, and $8,786,728 for 2010-2012). And so, for 2000 through 2015, we have:
Jefferts Schori Total, 2007-2015: $ 33,540,163
Plus: Griswold Total, 2000-2006: $ 1,777,180
Note the hugely disparate legal expenses under Jefferts Schori, as compared to Bishop Griswold's last six years (there were no litigation expenses during Griswold's first three years) -- an increase of nearly 1,900%. Now do you see what I mean by "scorched-earth litigation policy"?
Together, the two are responsible for the Church's spending the following
GRAND TOTAL, 2000-2015: $ 35,317,343
Just to put that number into perspective, take a look at line 362 in the (2014) budget. It is even larger than the amount as ECUSA budgeted to spend for ALL of its operations in calendar 2013! And we are not done yet.
We have a budget proposed for General Convention to adopt for the next triennium, 2016-2018. There we see (line 346) $3,572,082 proposed for legal expenses, and (line 277) $888,305 for Title IV expenses. Given the inadequacy of the previous budgets to forecast actual amounts, it would be safe to increase the larger amount by 50%, so say: $5,358,123. Then to that total must still be added the (unbudgeted) estimates for loans to litigating dioceses, and for contributed expenses (will the new Presiding Bishop elected in 2015 continue to use David Booth Beers and his law firm, Goodwin Procter, to handle all of ECUSA's litigation?). A good estimate for those numbers, as we have seen, is a round $2 million.
So the total spent and committed to be spent by the Episcopal Church (USA), all on its own, and for the first eighteen years of this century, comes to
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE; ESTIMATED) FOR 2000-2018: $42,675,466.
Note that this total now exceeds the amount budgeted by the Church for all of its operations in 2015 alone ($40.8 million).
And we still are not done. We have to add in the amounts spent by individual dioceses -- Los Angeles, Fort Worth, San Diego, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, etc., etc. Starting with Virginia, we know the Diocese took out a $2 million line of credit, but that sufficed for only the first two years of its protracted litigation. Taking into account interest and the duration of the lawsuit, it is safe to estimate that Virginia alone spent $4 million litigating against former parishes. Los Angeles' total must be comparable. But Fort Worth's litigation is not yet over, and because it has hired several law firms, it is safe to say its budget is the highest of all -- around $6 million. Add another $6 million total for all the many other dioceses in litigation (see the bottom of this page) and you can easily see how, by the end of 2018, the total spent on litigation-related items within ECUSA will easily be WELL OVER SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS.
In other words, the total estimated amount has trebled since I first estimated it five years ago, and increased by 50% over my estimate just last year. That is an unconscionable waste of non-profit resources. Even taking into account Bishop J. Jon Bruno's (he of the forkèd tongue) announced intention to sell the St. James property for $15 million -- rather than allow the parish for which the Diocese supposedly sued to recover its property to continue to use it -- the amounts recovered in property values to date pale into insignificance compared to the amounts being squandered in seeking to recover them.
And the administration at 815 is becoming less and less transparent in disclosing the waste on this huge scale. No longer do they break out "legal aid to dioceses" or "Title IV expenses" as separate line items in their monthly statements. And why do they not publish the total amounts they expect to be repaid from the dioceses receiving the loans? Is it realistic, for example, to expect the rump Diocese of San Joaquin alone, which is unable to sustain itself on its own, to repay the more than $3 million ECUSA has loaned to it thus far? How does that represent "good stewardship"?
Will no one at the forthcoming General Convention -- House of Bishops, House of Deputies, clergy, or laity -- hold them to account?
Will the bishops and deputies not require each candidate for Presiding Bishop to state clearly his intentions regarding carrying on this waste of the Church's precious resources?
Ultimately, the New York Attorney General is the officer who has the jurisdiction and power to look into the misuse of non-profit assets, and it is high time he did so. After all, at the request of both clergy and laity he invoked his jurisdiction over the scandal involving Treasurer Ellen Cooke, and that involved only a few million dollars: chump change in comparison to what is going on now.
For almost ten years now, the Episcopal Church (USA) has had an out-of-control litigation budget. It is a scandal of ineffable magnitude. It must -- and hopefully soon will -- be brought to a halt.
____________________________________________
The Episcopal Church (USA) has spent, and further committed (in its adopted budgets) to spend, a total of $42,675,466 on suing fellow Christians in the civil and ecclesiastical courts over the first eighteen years of this century. When one adds in the estimated additional amounts spent by individual dioceses on such litigation, the total amount exceeds Sixty Million Dollars.
Can't believe it? Well, then, read on -- you have been warned.]
Since September 2010, when I put up an analysis, based on ECUSA's monthly statements and their annual audited statements through 2009, I have kept track of how much ECUSA and its major dioceses has spent on attorneys' fees and other costs associated with all of the 90 or so lawsuits against former Episcopalians to which it (or one of its dioceses) has been a party. In 2010, it was only 60+ lawsuits, as catalogued here (see pgs. 23-26), but the Church continues to sue everyone who leaves it, whether the law is against it or not. In order to give as complete a picture as possible back then, I also included the latest ECUSA budget projection of legal expenses through the triennium 2010-2012.
One has to realize that ECUSA does not make it easy to discover the amounts it spends on litigation -- the leadership at 815 Second Avenue would obviously prefer that those who sit in the pews every Sunday and contribute their pledges not be aware of just how many millions have been squandered on ECUSA's scorched-earth litigation policy.
I am fully aware that those are fighting words to all those who support the current administration at 815 Second Avenue: "Prove it!" they say. Well, in the course of this post, I intend to do just that. So please suspend your judgment until you have digested the entire piece, and checked out all the links to my sources -- which are uniformly from ECUSA's own published financial statements and official minutes. I am a lifelong Episcopalian myself, and I am utterly ashamed and outraged by what the Presiding Bishop and her cohorts are doing in our Church's name.
The amounts the Church spends due to its litigation policies come in a number of different categories. Not all the categories are shown in the same financial documents. For instance:
The yearly audited financial statements, which are the most accurate source, do not break out "litigation expenses" as a separate category, but instead lump them in with all the other general operating costs of the organization. But what they do disclose are (a) the amount of moneys loaned (not granted outright) to rump dioceses; and (b) the amount of legal out-of-pocket expenses contributed to ECUSA by the Presiding Bishop's Chancellor's law firm, Goodwin Procter.
(Note: While the IRS does not allow lawyers to deduct the value of their services rendered pro bono, it does allow them to deduct out-of-pocket expenses incurred in performing the services -- travel, hotel and meals; telephone, freight, postage and similar amounts. In order to keep track of ECUSA's full legal expenses, these contributed costs must be added back into the totals, or else those totals would appear artificially low in comparison to other corporations incurring similar legal services and related expenses. Moreover, ECUSA includes their amount in its income -- see the auditors' note -- so they have to be part of its expenses, as well.)
The monthly statements of operations, though not audited, are the best source of information for (c) the cost of Title IV proceedings -- at least until recently -- and (d) the amounts paid to Goodwin and Procter over and above their donated services, as well as to local law firms retained in various states by ECUSA.
The minutes of the Executive Council are the best source for (e) the amounts of grants and credit lines extended to the rump dioceses. (The audited financials show only the amounts actually borrowed against credit lines as of the year end; they do not disclose the total amount of credit lines extended.)
The budgets adopted by General Convention and the Executive Council are the best detailed source for actual moneys spent in the past on particular line items, and they are the only source for (f) the future anticipated legal expenses of the Church. These are most often wildly understated, and Executive Council is constantly having to revise them upwards.
In September 2010, I had concluded that ECUSA and its Dioceses of Virginia, Los Angeles and San Diego had committed to date a combined total of Twenty-one Million Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($21,650,000.00) on litigation for the years 2000-2012. Four years later, I revised the total spent by ECUSA alone (not including any of its dioceses) during that same period to $21,858,714. This number I broke down as follows:
For the Griswold years (2000-2006), the total is somewhat higher than estimated previously, because I found an entry for "Legal Support to Dioceses" paid in calendar 2006 in the amount of $443,519. The new total is:
TOTAL 2000-2006: $ 1,777,180.00
For the first triennium under Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori (2007-2009):
Title IV Expenses: $ 1,702,222 -- i.e., almost as much as PB Griswold spent on everything legal!
Litigation Expenses (including contributed expenses): $ 8,392,584
Grants to Sustain Rump Dioceses: $1,200,000
TOTAL 2007-2009: $ 11,294,806.00
For the second Jefferts Schori triennium (2010-2012):
Title IV Expenses: $ 992,921
Litigation Expenses (including contributed expenses): $ 4,933,807
Grants to Sustain Rump Dioceses: $ 575,000
Loans to Rump Dioceses: $ 2,285,000
TOTAL 2010-2012: $ 8,786,728.00
Jefferts Schori Actual Total, 2007-2012: $ 20,081,534
Plus: Griswold Total, 2000-2006: $ 1,777,180
GRAND TOTAL, 2000-2012: $ 21,858,714
That amazing number is now historical fact, and does not change. But the totals since 2012 do.
At the time of my 2014 post, I did not have the final, year-end figures for 2013, but now I do. Actual 2013 legal expenses alone (not including contributed expenses) were reported (p.3) at $2,125,008 -- more than $1.1 million over the amount budgeted. (This item includes in-house legal staff support, such as the salary of the Presiding Bishop's Special Assistant for Litigation, Mary Kostel.) To this must be added the amounts of contributed legal expenses, which are disclosed only in the 2013 audited financial statements (p. 11): $386,000. (The Presiding Bishop's Chancellor's law firm, in return for being awarded all of ECUSA's litigation work, gives ECUSA "discounted hourly rates" -- isn't that fine?)
The total thus for 2013, exclusive of grants, loans, and Title IV expenses (which the Treasurer no longer itemizes), comes to $ 2,511,008.00. Now include the $735,000 authorized in grants and loans to just the South Carolina rump diocese in 2013 (after a further $300,000 increase authorized in June), the $785,000 authorized for San Joaquin, plus amounts to other dioceses, and the $270,000 spent on Title IV (per the 2014 budget, line 277), and you reach:
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE) FOR 2013: $4,601,008.
For calendar 2014, ECUSA has reported legal expenses of $1,741,166 -- this time only $526,681 over budget. (Those darn legal expenses! Just cannot budget for them!). Contributed expenses are not known yet, but a safe estimate is $300,000. Add in the 2014 grants and loans to litigating dioceses: a general $500,000 line of credit approved in February 14 (FFM038); a separate loan of $785,000 to the Diocese of San Joaquin approved in June 2014 (FFM050), along with a further $775,000 to be drawn as necessary for the "maintenance of any recovered property"; and $270,245 budgeted for Title IV proceedings (line 277). The total then comes to:
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE) FOR 2014: $4,371,411.
For calendar 2015, we have budget amounts only thus far (which are notoriously underestimated). The budget for legal expenses in 2015 is $1,160,486 (line 346), and for Title IV expenses (line 277) $275,622. The number for legal expenses almost certainly needs to be increased (March 2015 already ran 50% over budget), and we do not have the figures for any of the other components yet in 2015. The safe thing to do is to estimate that the total for 2015 will be something like the average for 2013-2014:
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE; ESTIMATED) FOR 2015: $4,486,210.
This in turn allows us to estimate the total for the last triennium of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori's term: it comes to $ 13,458,629. Note that the total far exceeds either of the two preceding triennia ($11,294,806 for 2007-2009, and $8,786,728 for 2010-2012). And so, for 2000 through 2015, we have:
Jefferts Schori Total, 2007-2015: $ 33,540,163
Plus: Griswold Total, 2000-2006: $ 1,777,180
Note the hugely disparate legal expenses under Jefferts Schori, as compared to Bishop Griswold's last six years (there were no litigation expenses during Griswold's first three years) -- an increase of nearly 1,900%. Now do you see what I mean by "scorched-earth litigation policy"?
Together, the two are responsible for the Church's spending the following
GRAND TOTAL, 2000-2015: $ 35,317,343
Just to put that number into perspective, take a look at line 362 in the (2014) budget. It is even larger than the amount as ECUSA budgeted to spend for ALL of its operations in calendar 2013! And we are not done yet.
We have a budget proposed for General Convention to adopt for the next triennium, 2016-2018. There we see (line 346) $3,572,082 proposed for legal expenses, and (line 277) $888,305 for Title IV expenses. Given the inadequacy of the previous budgets to forecast actual amounts, it would be safe to increase the larger amount by 50%, so say: $5,358,123. Then to that total must still be added the (unbudgeted) estimates for loans to litigating dioceses, and for contributed expenses (will the new Presiding Bishop elected in 2015 continue to use David Booth Beers and his law firm, Goodwin Procter, to handle all of ECUSA's litigation?). A good estimate for those numbers, as we have seen, is a round $2 million.
So the total spent and committed to be spent by the Episcopal Church (USA), all on its own, and for the first eighteen years of this century, comes to
TOTAL LEGAL EXPENSES (ECUSA ALONE; ESTIMATED) FOR 2000-2018: $42,675,466.
Note that this total now exceeds the amount budgeted by the Church for all of its operations in 2015 alone ($40.8 million).
And we still are not done. We have to add in the amounts spent by individual dioceses -- Los Angeles, Fort Worth, San Diego, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, etc., etc. Starting with Virginia, we know the Diocese took out a $2 million line of credit, but that sufficed for only the first two years of its protracted litigation. Taking into account interest and the duration of the lawsuit, it is safe to estimate that Virginia alone spent $4 million litigating against former parishes. Los Angeles' total must be comparable. But Fort Worth's litigation is not yet over, and because it has hired several law firms, it is safe to say its budget is the highest of all -- around $6 million. Add another $6 million total for all the many other dioceses in litigation (see the bottom of this page) and you can easily see how, by the end of 2018, the total spent on litigation-related items within ECUSA will easily be WELL OVER SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS.
In other words, the total estimated amount has trebled since I first estimated it five years ago, and increased by 50% over my estimate just last year. That is an unconscionable waste of non-profit resources. Even taking into account Bishop J. Jon Bruno's (he of the forkèd tongue) announced intention to sell the St. James property for $15 million -- rather than allow the parish for which the Diocese supposedly sued to recover its property to continue to use it -- the amounts recovered in property values to date pale into insignificance compared to the amounts being squandered in seeking to recover them.
And the administration at 815 is becoming less and less transparent in disclosing the waste on this huge scale. No longer do they break out "legal aid to dioceses" or "Title IV expenses" as separate line items in their monthly statements. And why do they not publish the total amounts they expect to be repaid from the dioceses receiving the loans? Is it realistic, for example, to expect the rump Diocese of San Joaquin alone, which is unable to sustain itself on its own, to repay the more than $3 million ECUSA has loaned to it thus far? How does that represent "good stewardship"?
Will no one at the forthcoming General Convention -- House of Bishops, House of Deputies, clergy, or laity -- hold them to account?
Will the bishops and deputies not require each candidate for Presiding Bishop to state clearly his intentions regarding carrying on this waste of the Church's precious resources?
Ultimately, the New York Attorney General is the officer who has the jurisdiction and power to look into the misuse of non-profit assets, and it is high time he did so. After all, at the request of both clergy and laity he invoked his jurisdiction over the scandal involving Treasurer Ellen Cooke, and that involved only a few million dollars: chump change in comparison to what is going on now.
For almost ten years now, the Episcopal Church (USA) has had an out-of-control litigation budget. It is a scandal of ineffable magnitude. It must -- and hopefully soon will -- be brought to a halt.
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The thing we do urge, actually even recommend strongly is that you as an OROG invest a minute or two in reviewing this article en campus at accurmudgeon.blogspot.com where one can make all kinds of secondary connections to check facts and be otherwise astounded at the State of Things within the Body of Christ. The above article is physically a bit two-dimensional because it lacks all of the connectivity available on the home-page itself. On the home-page itself, it becomes a wonderfully cornucopia of linkages.
Check it out. Like El Zorro's more military, journalistic reports it is a different style...but also very worthy of my OROGs.
El Gringo Viejo
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Sunday, 31 May 2015
General Comments - Some New Topics, Some a Bit Old
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We have been a bit snowed-under (not literally) with various small to medium-sized responsibilities and therefore have relax from the responsibilities to pontificate at every corner and creek. However, allow us to catch up, at least in a brief way.
(1) The previous posting concerning the matter of "climate change", written by the hand of a noted and respected meteorologist was refreshing. While we do not agree that there is fault on the right for sealing ourselves away and listening only to our own echo chamber music, there was much about the article that attempts to bring considerable reason to the table of reasonable things.
To begin, though, it is not thought by most of us who never fell for concepts such as "hope and change" or the snake-oil shysters who sell such products that we have any obligation to listen to snake-oil shysters. We understood that the "Climate Shysters" only real product is the increased gouging of the American Taxpayer, ostensibly to offset the costs borne by the undevelopable world in its effort to grapple with global warming, cooling, climate change, nuclear winter, and Polar Bear shortages.
That cost, quite obviously, is neither justified nor justifiable. One cannot doubt that giving money to any selected group of General Assembly members of the United Nations....let us say, to the level of 70 per cent....would be any less a warping of moral and legal purpose than Obama giving 700,000,000 USD to crony capitalist Democrat thugs to build solar panels. You all remember, I am sure....the solar panel factory that employed people to do nothing except play chess and cards....since no one bought the two or three thousand solar panels they ever built.
Of course, in keeping with the third-world, low-class, ever-crooked, thoroughly corrupt way of doing things that typifies all Progressive "Great Leaps Forward" the Solyndra mess did generate millions in kick-backs to Obama and ultra-leftist campaign coffers.....the original intent of the "shovel ready stimulus investment for the middle class that Bush left in poverty". You just gotta luv' that hope & change.
To seal off point number one, there never has been a discipline-wide agreement or consensus of any kind about any of ghostly, floating notions about warming, cooling, changing, or anything. It has all been a running sham to scare the h-lasting Hell out of grade school children, to defame America and American industriousness, and to raid the exchequer of each productive household and of the Treasury of the United States.
It is like the Lie of Three Mile Island.....and....can you imagine, the Great Oil Spill of California....where over 100,000 gallons of oil leaked up on the beach from a filthy, crummy, purposefully left unrepaired, polluting for-profit fossil fuel big business. Any real Texan knows that 100,000 gallons of oil is not a disaster of any kind. The first thing to do is find animals that might be affected (there will be relatively few), grab a few bottles of Dawn, and clean the animals. The oil can be either vacuumed, or mopped up, to lesser and greater degrees of effectiveness. Very quickly.
It was a source of considerable humour to note that about a week after the pipe-leak, there began to appear on another beach, quite distant from the first, tar-balls....actually coagulated oil blobs, from 1 - 3 inches square....began to wash up on the beach and also blob and bob around on the surface of the surf, just off-shore. On the Texas coast, we are accustomed to these outbreaks of oil that rise up from the ocean floor, usually a few miles to many miles offshore. They do it naturally....without any provocation from dirty, for-profit companies. They almost always degrade, onshore or off, after a few days. It is recommended to not allow your children to eat too much of the oily, "tar"-balls.
One might notice the level of significance of the pipeline leak was such that not even the marxist, anti-business Obsolete Press could maintain interest in the matter for more than 9 days.
(2) We go back and forth between an Episcopal Church, or what is left of it, and a Roman Catholic church that never ceases to leave one scratching his head in wonder. My better three-quarters is very active on both fronts, as are many in the South of the Republic of Texas. El Gringo Viejo attends with a regular irregularity the Episcopal Dresden-scape, and only very occasionally manages to loop the Roman Church into his orbit, save on infrequent occasion in Mexico.
As an Orthodox believer and communicant, however, one tries to keep up, and to try to care even though both Denominations look like Dresden in late 1945, at least to this observer. This past Sunday the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville sent a message out to all the parishes....the communicants number in the area of 400,000 or thereabouts. In the communication he states that (a) the poor are never considered when it comes time to provide free medical services, (b) that neither he nor the Church would assume to tell people what to think or how to vote or advocate concerning the matter of establishing a free-medical hospital district for the Poor Community, (c) and, further, since they were not going to be told what to think and what to do, they might want to turn the announcement over where the parishioner will find a petition sheet, with ten entry line for signatures. These petitions will be collected by the laity and clerics and then forwarded to or collected by the See of Brownsville. The petitions will then be delivered to the various concerned political authorities so that they will be better able to determine the attitudes of the population concerning the need for free medical care for the illegal aliens, the poor, those with chronic and self-induced infirmity, the anchorbabymothers, and whomsoever else feels self-entitled to latch on to someone else's estate.
The Bishop did not speak consolingly to the productive class of people who have been good stewards of the vineyard to the glory of God, and according to the parables as instructed by the Nazarene. He spoke rather to the needs of the multigenerationally defective cultural units who have become accustomed to free housing, food, school, Head-Start (babysitting), medical services on-demand including free ambulance rides, etc.
His Reverence did not speak to the literal carpet bombing of the four-county "Magic Lower Rio Grande Valley" by those disposed to commit home invasion, harbour illegal aliens under the most brutal of conditions. He seems to not be concerned that the culture concocted in a "Soul Free Zone" is about its work of killing common, working people by incessant DWI collisions, entering into membership with depraved criminal gangs that commit all manner of heinous crimes from rape to arson to murder to armed robbery, etc.etc.etc.
We live in a "Free Crime Zone" for all practical purposes, and after a really good intergang confrontation where one might have a few wounded survivors, it will be certain that the wounded will be literally dumped off at the entrance of a hospital convenient to the midnight basketball facility where the shootings and knifings took place.
But instead of striking out and beginning what will be a long, multigenerational journey back to reality, the good Bishop decides that instead it would be better to provide more cannon fodder for the gang wars (over 6,000 gang members in the LRGV) and more "hungry little mouths to feed" and "broken little bodies and medical conditions common to poverty".
The problem can only be solved by wading into the filthy waters, full of sharks and serpents, and re-establishing a spiritual culture and a certainty of reasonable paternity. This can only be done by minimising the certainty of receiving rewards and accommodation for bad decisions. This can only be done by stopping the incessant insult against those who strive to care for self, family, neighbour, and friend and to those in true, temporary need.....and set them free from being incessantly taxed and shamed for having paid so little tax to support the criminal and dependent bottomless pits. Pity we can have. But there comes a time when it has to stop!! All of it has to stop; the infirmities brought on by peculiar sexual practices, self-abuse, drug addictions, and the like.... 28 year old non-citizen grandmothers who are living on an equivalent of 40,000 dollars/year because their fatherless babies were born in a midwifery..... midwives trained to make the new baby a US/Texas citizen and that the mother, illegal alien though she is, is the only means of support for the baby...and therefore must remain in the country on complete public assistance....it has to stop.
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More later
El Gringo Viejo
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Friday, 29 May 2015
Truer Words....AlGore, ere ye lis'nin?
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The Age Of Disinformation
by James Spann:
I have been a professional meteorologist for 36 years. Since my debut on television in 1979, I have been an eyewitness to the many changes in technology, society, and how we communicate. I am one who embraces change, and celebrates the higher quality of life we enjoy now thanks to this progress.
But, at the same time, I realize the instant communication platforms we enjoy now do have some negatives that are troubling. Just a few examples in recent days…
I would say hundreds of people have sent this image to me over the past 24 hours via social media.
Comments are attached… like “This is a cloud never seen before in the U.S.”… “can’t you see this is due to government manipulation of the weather from chemtrails”… “no doubt this is a sign of the end of the age”.
Let’s get real. This is a lenticular cloud. They have always been around, and quite frankly aren’t that unusual (although it is an anomaly to see one away from a mountain range). The one thing that is different today is that almost everyone has a camera phone, and almost everyone shares pictures of weather events. You didn’t see these often in earlier decades because technology didn’t allow it. Lenticular clouds are nothing new. But, yes, they are cool to see.
by Brady Smith; Coconino National Forest.
Saucer cloud over Campbell Mesa Trails. A
relatively common cumulus lenticulus
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No doubt national news media outlets are out of control when it comes to weather coverage, and their idiotic claims find their way to us on a daily basis.
The Houston flooding is a great example. We are being told this is “unprecedented”… Houston is “under water”… and it is due to manmade global warming.
Yes, the flooding in Houston yesterday was severe, and a serious threat to life and property. A genuine weather disaster that has brought on suffering. But, no, this was not “unprecedented”. Flooding from Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 was more widespread, and flood waters were deeper. There is no comparison. In fact, many circulated this image in recent days, claiming it is “Houston underwater” from the flooding of May 25–26, 2015. The truth is that this image was captured in June 2001 during flooding from Allison.
Flood events in 2009, 2006, 1998, 1994, 1989, 1983, and 1979 brought higher water levels to most of Houston, and there were many very serious flood events before the 1970s.
On the other issue, the entire climate change situation has become politicized, which I hate. Those on the right, and those on the left hang out in “echo chambers”, listening to those with similar world views refusing to believe anything else could be true.
Everyone knows the climate is changing; it always has, and always will. I do not know of a single “climate denier”. I am still waiting to meet one.
The debate involves the anthropogenic impact, and this is not why I am writing this piece. Let’s just say the Houston flood this week is weather, and not climate, and leave it at that.
I do encourage you to listen to the opposing point of view in the climate debate, but be sure the person you hear admits they can be wrong, and has no financial interest in the issue. Unfortunately, those kind of qualified people are very hard to find these days. It is also hard to find people that discss climate without using the words “neocon” and “libtard”. I honestly can’t stand politics; it is tearing this nation apart.
Back to my point… many professional meteorologists feel like we are fighting a losing battle when it comes to national media and social media hype and disinformation. They will be sure to let you know that weather events they are reporting on are “unprecedented”, there are “millions and millions in the path”, it is caused by a “monster storm”, and “the worst is yet to come” since these events are becoming more “frequent”.
You will never hear about the low tornado count in recent years, the lack of major hurricane landfalls on U.S. coasts over the past 10 years, or the low number of wildfires this year. It doesn’t fit their story. But, never let facts get in the way of a good story…. there will ALWAYS be a heat wave, flood, wildfire, tornado, tyhpoon, cold wave, and snow storm somewhere. And, trust me, they will find them, and it will probably lead their newscasts. But, users beware....
1605 San Jacinto
$225 per night plus tax
James Spann
- AMS certified meteorologist in the media.
Host of WeatherBrains
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Thursday, 28 May 2015
El Zorro sends this stunning piece of film about German work ethic / except on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate
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El Zorro sent this film, contributed originally by a German adolescent and his family, apparently shortly after the termination of World War II hostilities, being taken in August of 1945. The film, in a very positive way, is a tribute to the work ethic of the German people...although it is clear that progress was much slower in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik east of the Brandenburg.
As a German, this camera operator could make a few moving picture records of the difference between East and West even by August of 1945. More concern seemed to be exhibited in the direction of building a suitable monument to Uncle Joe, than to advancing the life-condition of the Deutschevolks for those "volks" who were living under the Bear's thumb.
El Zorro is a bit reticent about his work in Cimarron, because it remains still, one of the most premier "living communities" in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and the "engineering the cable placements" involved things about which nobody had ever heard in those days. Because of his studies and experience in the Air Force...frequently under combat conditions....he melded into this very advanced projection of technology in those days.
Cimarron is referred to as "Stalag San Pedro" due to the number of multi-millionaire, old-money wealthy people who own one or more homes there, and who are from the city of San Pedro de Garza Garcia, the contiguous city to Monterrey where the maids have masters degrees. The development is something like "The Villages", and remains a golfing paradise, along with being an idyllic way station in life (especially for people from San Pedro de Garza Garcia).
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Gringo Viejo,
This came to me from a friend who lives in Mission. He was my boss in McAllen in telco engineering. He lives in the Cimarron development… a subdivision where I engineered all the cable placements for telephone service (has nothing to do with the message below).
I thought this, below, might be of interest to you in case you ever get to the Mission Int’l Lions Club. The linkage is at the bottom of this overall transmission.
EZ
This shows what happened with the defeat of the power hungry Nazi Regime. Destruction!
This video was sent by a friend who was there.
Thank you Lion Ron for sending the Video of Berlin 1945.Yes, when I look at this video I can say our city Offenbach am Main across the river from Frankfurt looked just as bad, those images can never be erased, I was 12 years old.I clearly remember, my father died in May of 1942 of poison, a chemical reaction from work. My father's brother Kristian was unable to work, he was ill with Parkinson's disease, the Nazis came to my aunt's house in early 1943 and told her that they have to take him to a clinic, two weeks later they said that he died and sent her his ashes. In August 1943, we were totally bombed out, we were only able to save our lives; we had nothing but the clothes we were wearing.But life is good. I legally emigrated to the United States in October 1952.Lion Henry (Heinz), Member of the International Lions Club, Mission, TXOn Saturday, May 23, 2015 2:20 PM, Ron D'Andrea <rgv99ron@gmail.com> wrote:Lion Henry:Came across this 7 minute color video - - thought of you
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