FURLOUGHED FED EMPLOYEE SUPPORTS SHUTDOWN & BORDER WALL (HOW MANY MORE?)

FURLOUGHED FEDERAL EMPLOYEE BOLDLY SUPPORTS SHUTDOWN & BORDER WALL:

HOW MANY MORE DO?

WHY IS CONGRESS ALLOWING SHUTDOWN TO DRAG ON?

IS THIS SHUTDOWN REALLY ABOUT THE WALL?

OR IS IT SECRETLY ABOUT “DRAINING THE SWAMP” & CONTROLLING WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE OF GOVT MONEY?

IS THIS SHUTDOWN SECRETLY BEING USED BY CONGRESS TO LEGALLY GET RID OF LONG TERM FEDERAL GOVT EMPLOYEES OVER THE AGE OF 60??

OR IS IT ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY?

INQUIRING MINDS OF AMERICAN VOTERS WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH.


Post Sources: Fox News, WJLA, YouTube


**** Furloughed federal employee says she supports Trump's push for a border wall


Several times during the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump has claimed that federal workers are on his side.

Now, we’re hearing from one of those workers.

“I’m very strongly behind it, yes,” Amanda Schimone said. “I just believe in what we are doing. I believe in the President’s policies and Secretary Nielsen’s policies, and supporting the border patrol agents.”

Schimone spent 26 years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring in 2012. Now, she works at the Department of Homeland Security’s federal law enforcement training center in Cheltenham, Maryland.

“We train all the federal agents, through all the different agencies. Not just DHS, but FBI, the state department, that kind of thing,” she said.

Despite the fact that’s she been furloughed since the shutdown began, Schimone says she supports the border wall on behalf of her colleagues who patrol the border every single day.

“If you had a tool that would help you do your job better and to be able to have border security – they’re my coworkers – I don’t know them personally, but if they say that’s what they need to do their job, than I support them 100 percent,” she said.

Schimone’s husband also works for the federal government, but is not impacted by the partial government shutdown. She says they’re relying on his income plus a pension she gets from the U.S. Air Force to pay their bills while her DHS paychecks are on hold.

“We’ve put away money, we have a financial planner, we’ve been really cognizant of doing that,” she said. “My credit card bills, they’re just getting the minimum payment right now.”

Still, she knows there are a lot of federal employees who are struggling financially due as the shutdown drags on.

“I do have for empathy for them. I do understand that some people live paycheck to paycheck,” she said.

She also understands that a lot of people may not like her perspective on the government shutdown. And she says that’s okay.

“I don’t judge people,” she said. “They have a right to their opinion, and I have a right to mine.”

At the very least, she hopes people will listen to what she has to say.

“Do I like being furloughed? No. But I understand and I support them,” she said. “I realize America is where people really want to be, but I think there’s a right way to come into our country, and not illegally. And so that’s one of the reasons why I do support the border wall.”

She hopes the president and Congress can soon agree on funding for the wall, and get the government back open.

“Maybe negotiate the amount that President Trump wants or some type of other immigration policies, but it sure would be nice if they would try to work together,” she said. “No negotiations makes me feel like they don’t care about the Department of Homeland Security.”

FTC & DEPT OF VETERAN AFFAIRS CRACKS DOWN ON FAKE VETERAN CHARITIES

FTC & DEPT OF VETERAN AFFAIRS CRACKS DOWN ON FAKE VETERAN CHARITIES:

FAKE VETERAN ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE MILLIONS ANNUALLY FROM THE VA BUT DON’T HELP VETS.

FAKE VETERAN ORGANIZATIONS ARE GRANTED NON-PROFIT IRS STATUS BUT DON’T HELP VETS.

IT’S TIME FOR CONGRESS TO ORDER ANNUAL AUDITS OF ALL AGENCIES & CHARITIES CLAIMING TO HELP VETS.


Post Sources: Military Times, Forbes, USA Today, Non-Profit Quarterly, WTVA, Youtube


******Here’s how state and federal authorities are targeting sham veteran charities


Federal and state authorities have put sham veteran charities on notice.

“I’m here to warn scam artists: Watch out. We’re investigating complaints. We will track you down, and in partnerships with our [state] attorneys general, we will shut you down,” said John Wobensmith, Maryland Secretary of State, during a news conference announcing the initiative that included other states’ attorneys general, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance..

The FTC ― with law enforcement officials and charity regulators in 70 offices from every state, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico ― announced “Operation Donate with Honor,” which includes the crackdown on sham charities, as well as an education campaign for potential donors. Officials announced more than 100 actions across the country.

FTC Chairman Joe Simons announced action against a charity, Help the Vets, Inc., which was run by Neil G. “Paul” Paulson, Sr., who is reportedly an Army veteran, according to his Guidestar charity profile, and according to an Internet Archive of Help The Vets’ website. His military service couldn’t be immediately confirmed. The Guidestar profile says the charity is closed.

Paulson and Help the Vets Inc. will be banned from soliciting charitable contributions under settlements with the FTC and the states of Florida, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon, for allegedly falsely promising donors their contributions would help wounded and disabled veterans. Officials alleged that Help the Vets collected more than $20 million from 2014 through 2017, and that 95 percent of those donations went to fundraising, administrative expenses and Paulson’s salary and benefits ... not to veterans.

Attorneys for Paulson and for Help the Vets Inc. declined to comment, they said, “because there is a lawsuit pending.”

Paulson also reportedly operated charities under the names of American Disabled Veterans Foundation, Veterans Fighting Breast Cancer, Vets Fighting Breast Cancer, Military Families of America and Veterans Emergency Blood Bank.

The FTC has also charged another charity operator, Travis Deloy Peterson, with using fake veterans charities and making millions of illegal robocalls to solicit donations of cars, boats and other property, claiming that the donations would go to veterans charities and that they were tax deductible. Instead, officials allege, he sold the items for his own benefit.

A federal court in Utah has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Peterson from making unlawful robocalls or engaging in misrepresentations about charitable donations, as the FTC moves ahead with its enforcement action. Peterson is accused of violating the FTC Act and the FTC’s telemarketing sales rule.

Attempts to reach Peterson were unsuccessful.

According to the FTC complaint, Peterson allegedly used the charity names Veterans of America, Vehicles for Veterans, Saving Our Soldiers, Donate your Car, Donate That Car, Act of Valor, and Medal of Honor.

The state enforcement actions involved charities seeking donations online, and by telemarketing, direct mail, door-to-door contacts, and at retail stores, falsely promising to help homeless and disabled veterans, to provide veterans with employment counseling, and to send care packages to service members.

“It’s the sad truth there are individuals and organizations that seek to take advantage of the genuine altruism of potential donors, and seek fraudulently to raise money on the backs of veterans to benefit themselves,” said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen.

That said, officials noted that the vast majority of charitable organizations do good and important work. The “Operation Donate with Honor:” campaign is providing resources to help donors find those charities that legitimately meet the needs the donor wants to help address.

As part of their education campaign, officials are urging potential donors to be aware that just because a charity’s name includes words such as “veteran” or “military,” it doesn’t mean the organization is legitimate. At www.ftc.gov/Charity, officials have provided materials on donating to charities that help veterans, those that help service members and their families, and donating through an online giving portal.

This isn’t the first time the FTC has addressed the problem.

In 2009, the FTC and officials in 49 states launched “Operation False Charity,” a crackdown on allegedly fraudulent telemarketers who claimed to help police, firefighters and veterans.

U.S. MILITARY VETERAN NON-PROFIT AGENCY FRAUD (VA FUNDS ABUSE)

U.S. MILITARY VETERAN NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FRAUD (VA FUNDS ABUSE):

ADOPT-A-VET HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION & FINANCIAL HARDSHIP AGENCY FRAUD & ABUSE.

THEY SERVED & SACRIFICED HONORABLY, SO WHY MUST THEY NOW BEG TO RECEIVE HELP?

WHY ARE SO MANY NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, AGENCIES & CHURCHES CLAIMING TO HELP VETS, ALLOWED BY CONGRESS TO DO VERY LITTLE FOR VETS TO MAINTAIN THEIR NON-PROFIT STATUS?

WHY DOESN’T CONGRESS ENACT LEGISLATION TO ANNUALLY AUDIT ALL NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS & AGENCIES WHICH CLAIM TO HELP HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS?

WHY ARE SO MANY HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS BEING DENIED VA LOANS BY FANNIE MAE AND MORTGAGE SERVICE COMPANIES?

WHY ARE SO MANY HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS BEING FORCED INTO FORECLOSURE BY LENDERS?

WHY ARE SO MANY HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS HOMELESS OR AT-RISK OF BEING HOMELESS?

WHY ARE SO MANY HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS HUNGRY OR BEING DENIED FOOD STAMPS?

WHY ARE SO MANY HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS BEING BURDENED WITH STUDENT LOAN DEBT WITH NO RELIEF?

WHY ARE SO MANY HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS BEING DENIED SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE BLOCKING THEM FROM CREATING JOBS?

WHY ARE SO MANY HONORABLE U.S. MILITARY VETS IN SOUTHERN STATES BEING PAID VERY LOW WAGES?

WHY???


Post Sources: CNN, FTC, Huffington Post, AP, Military Family Support Foundation, Youtube


******** Veterans Charity Fraud: Despite Widespread Outrage, Groups Continue To Abuse Public Trust


For hundreds of thousands of veterans returning home from the battlefronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, making it home alive is just the first challenge.

An estimated 25 percent of returning U.S. service members will experience combat-related problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), depression or anxiety disorders. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas — 1,000 former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. About 50,000 veterans are experiencing chronic homelessness, according to nonprofit housing group HELP USA.

And the unemployment rate for 18 to 24-year-old veterans is 21 percent, much higher than the 16.6 percent rate for non-veterans of the same age.

Though the VA has come a long way from the 1970s, when many Vietnam veterans failed to reintegrate into society and became homeless and addicted to drugs, the department still has problems. The VA bureaucracy is notoriously difficult to navigate, and veterans are left to figure out on their own what benefits they are eligible for. As a result, many fall through the cracks — more than 720,000 veterans do not take advantage of VA benefits for which they are eligible.

To fill in the gap, veterans charities are a crucial resource — providing financial assistance and job training, funding medical research and rehabilitative services, and helping veterans obtain government benefits. Every year, Americans give millions of dollars to such groups, expecting that the money will assist those who’ve served their country.

But as a group, veterans charities are prone to abuse, profiteering and outright fraud, say philanthropy watchdogs.

Almost half of the 39 veterans charities rated by the American Institute of Philanthropy in its April/May 2011 report received F grades, largely because they devoted only a small ratio of their expenses to charitable programs, in part due to excessive fundraising expenses. Some of these groups defend their spending by arguing that reliance on such ratios is misleading, claiming that new nonprofits may have to spend over 50 percent of their revenue on outreach, education and fundraising for a while. But charities that spend up to 90 percent of their donations on overhead have been widely condemned and were the subject of congressional hearings in 2007.

Despite bipartisan outrage at such practices, there was no real follow-up, either through enforcement efforts or new rules and regulations. And several of the charities publicly shamed at those hearings continue to receive poor grades. In the last few years, there have been several prominent cases of nonprofit groups that preyed on the public’s patriotism and generosity, promising assistance to veterans while lining their own pockets. They range from an impostor — currently one of the most-sought fugitives in the country — who claimed he was a Navy commander and ripped off at least $2 million, to a classic fraudster, who set up a table for non-existent veterans groups in front of the local post office and raked in money for years.

CRUCIAL LIFELINE TO THOUSANDS OF VETERANS

Their misdeeds cast a pall over the sector, making the public skeptical of veterans charities and threatening future donations to those groups that deserve praise.

“Veterans charities are extraordinarily important,” Oregon Attorney General John Kroger tells The Huffington Post. “There is a lot the VA doesn’t do, and charities help fill that gap. And the majority of them do an excellent job, but if you’re looking to line your own pocket, it’s an easy way to raise money. If you’re looking for a feel-good cause that can raise money on the phone, there is very little that has as much appeal as veterans’ issues.”

Darnell Epps, a 52-year-old veteran living in Virginia Beach, was homeless for years until he discovered Vetshouse, the only nonprofit in Virginia to help homeless veterans. Through the group, he was given a car to help him start his cleaning business and provided with transitional housing and food.

“If it wasn’t for them, I would probably still be out on the street,” he says. “They gave me my life back. The VA can’t do it all and these charities are key; they’ve helped many of us vets.”

Ed Edmundson credits veterans charities with easing the burden of his son, Eric, who incurred shrapnel wounds and a brain injury in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq. The North Carolina native says he sold his business and cashed in his savings and retirement to pay for the cost of moving in with Eric and his family to provide round-the-clock care. Some of the family’s expenses, including the cost of flying Eric’s wife and daughter from Alaska to Walter Reed Medical Center, were covered by various charities, such as the Wounded Warrior Project and the Semper Fi Fund.

“Non-profit organizations became an answer to our prayers,” says Edmundson.

The Wounded Warrior Project and several other prominent veterans charities such as Fisher House Foundation, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and the National Military Family Association, have been praised for assisting thousands of veterans.

ABUSING THE TRUST OF DONORS: ‘THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM’

Attorney General Kroger says the issue is close to his heart since he himself is a veteran of the Marine Corps. But when his office recently surveyed the rising number of charities in Oregon and which ones spend the most on overhead as opposed to charity, “a number of veterans groups came up extraordinarily high on the list. One was outright fraud — a guy setting up a table at a shopping mall — and another problem was people who were raising money and not being honest about where the money was going. This is a huge problem.”

Since taking office in 2009, Kroger has been particularly aggressive in taking legal action against veterans charities that abuse the trust of donors. Among his cases is a lawsuit against Veterans of Oregon, charging that the charity claimed that donations were helping homeless and hospitalized veterans when in fact it was largely used to award medals to veterans. In addition, the group failed to disclose to donors that its fundraising partner kept 80 percent of the money it raised. The head of the charity, William “John” Neuman, is fighting the case, adamantly denying to the Chronicle of Philanthropy that he misled donors.

Kroger also sued the Oregon War Veterans Association and Military Family Support Foundation, claiming that founder Greg Warnock kept most of the money he raised and used donations to make contributions to powerful politicians in the state. The group has called the suit “baseless” and called for an investigation of Kroger.

After initially declining to comment, Warnock wrote HuffPost a lengthy statement. Among his claims, he states that “Kroger’s claims are purely political in nature and do not warrant the kind of destructive abuse we are enduring from him, especially considering all of the amazing accomplishments we have made on behalf of veterans in Oregon and beyond.” Warnock vehemently denies that he kept most of the money his group raised and claims that Kroger neglected to interview the group’s board members, donors or recipients. Warnock also says the campaign contributions were permitted political activity.

The attorney general says he can’t comment due to the pending litigation but emphasizes, “When you’re going after people and trying to hold them accountable, lots of them fire back.”

Such schemes that exploit patriotic sentiment for the plight of veterans have been around for many decades. In 1926, the New York Evening Post exposed a plot hatched in the wake of the armistice that ended World War One by the “battalions of bunk” to raise several million dollars “purporting to aid former soldiers but actually hiding the proceeds away in secret bank accounts.” Part of the scheme involved several cleaning women who borrowed neighbors’ children, dressed them in rags and pleaded for money from passersby. And in 1958, five Chicagoans were dragged before the House veterans affairs committee to defend themselves against charges that they bilked Disabled American Veterans of $2 million — three of them were later charged with mail fraud and conspiracy. That same year, Rep. Olin Teague “found so much abuse in fund raising [sic] for veterans” that he urged the House Government Operations Committee to open a wide-ranging probe into the entire field of tax-exempt charitable fundraising, reported the Gadsden Times.

“The most popular causes — veterans, firefighters, police — tend to be the least efficient because they attract money-hungry types,” says Daniel Borochoff, the president of the American Institute of Philanthropy. “There is very little oversight so it keeps happening again and again.” He notes that most enforcement happens on the state level, which often just prompts fraudulent groups to cross state lines “and come out under a different name.”

BIPARTISAN OUTRAGE AT ‘INTOLERABLE FRAUD’

The prevalence of fraud and misrepresentation in the sector has prompted Congressional scrutiny and bipartisan outrage but very few repercussions. In 2004, the Senate Finance Committee called for a panel to examine nonprofit governance, transparency and ethical standards. Though it concluded that government oversight and regulation was necessary to deter abuse, misrepresentation and fraud, it also maintained that charities are granted wide latitude in their activities due to First Amendment protections and did not recommend any new legislation.

In December 2007 and January 2008, the House Oversight Committee held hearings to spotlight abuses in the system, highlighting several egregious examples. Then-chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) noted that the American Institute of Philanthropy had given failing grades to 70 percent of the veterans charities it examined for several reasons: managing their resources poorly, paying high overhead costs and direct mail campaigns and excessive salaries. Citing the example of the American Veterans Relief Foundation, which raised $3.6 million and spent only $21,000 on veterans’ grants and assistance, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) thundered:

They fall into the category of what I would call “profiteering,” profiteering by those who use the name of a soldier or a cause in order to justify fundraising that ultimately leads to profit for individuals who may or may not be veterans, may or may not have any need, may simply be good at fundraising.
That particular charity is now defunct, but two other prominent charities whose leaders were subpoenaed to appear before the committee still operate and continue their questionable practices.

One of the hearing’s most dramatic confrontations was with Roger Chapin, a self-described “nonprofit entrepreneur” and former
real-estate developer who has launched more than 20 charities. One of those charities, Help Hospitalized Veterans, has been praised for distributing millions of therapeutic arts and crafts gifts to patients at VA medical centers, state nursing homes and military hospitals. The group, which also provides a variety of services to homebound veterans and cash support to many VA special events, has been praised by presidents and Congressional leaders since its founding in 1971.

But a Forbes magazine articles questioned whether Chapin and his wife were using their charities to fund their high salaries and illegitimate expenses such as vehicles, real estate investments and a $17,000 annual country club membership. In addition, the magazine reported that out of every dollar donated to HHV, only 9 cents went to the kits, 5 cents went to administrative expenses and for counselors visiting hospitals and 47 cents went to direct-mail expenses.

One of the charities’ critics was Edmundson, who said he didn’t feel it was “appropriate” to give a small percentage of donations to charity. He added, “I am concerned, the negative effect that the few self-serving non-profits will have on the ability of the legitimate non-profits to obtain funding from the general public. It would be an unfortunate turn of events if the service they provide is not available. As I have shared, the service they provide is immediate and personalized to the needs of the soldiers and their families.”

Chapin didn’t win any friends by reportedly going into hiding after refusing to comply with a subpoena to appear before the committee. When he did finally appear a month later, he explained that fundraising for many charities across the country depends on direct-mail expenses and that it was unfair to pick on his charity. Chapin claimed that HHV was awarded two stars by Charity Navigator, a leading watchdog group. Coming to his defense was Richard Viguerie, prominent conservative fundraiser, who lashed out at the committee, claiming that Waxman’s agenda was “unconstitutional” and “mean” and stating that advertising mail can be valuable just by generating sympathy for returning veterans.

Chapin retired from Help Hospitalized Veterans in 2009 with a $2.2 million payment package. He still serves as the president of another of his charities, the Salute to America’s Heroes Foundation. Both charities were given zero stars in Charity Navigator’s most recent evaluation, though they have increased the percentage of funds they spent on charitable programs.

Reached at home, Chapin said both charities had not made any changes in response to the criticism of their fundraising expenses, defiantly stating, “Hell, we just keep doing what we’ve been doing.” He called the hearing a “charade” and a “witch hunt,” explaining that SAHF has helped almost 20,000 veterans. He continued to defend the heavy reliance and spending on direct mail practitioners, even in the age of Facebook and Twitter and online charitable tools. “It’s an expensive way to raise money but we’re all challenged and it’s tough as hell to get donations. But something is a hell of a lot better than nothing.”

The other target in the sights of lawmakers at the 2007 hearing was Pamela Seman, the executive director of the Disabled Veterans Association, a charity which kept only $500,000 out of $4.5 million in donations raised — about 10 percent — through a professional fundraising group.

“It makes all of us angry that the veterans, people who have served our country are used to raise money to give [to] some professional organization in the business,” said Waxman. “It’s absolutely inexcusable.”

Seman, who still leads the organization, did not return calls for comment. DVA received zero stars in its latest evaluation from Charity Navigator and an F rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy. Its fundraising ratio has grown even higher, with only 5 percent going to charitable programs.

WASHINGTON DITHERS WHILE FRAUD CONTINUES

In Washington, there has not been much action. On the first day of the 2007 hearings, former Rep. Sarbanes, the author of the post-Enron accounting rules that bear his name, stated that there may be a need for stricter regulation of charities, emphasizing that “charities that serve our veterans have an extra obligation because there is a deeper trust placed in them, a broader trust than with respect to just about any other charitable endeavor.”

Though there was some discussion of legislative remedies in the wake of the hearings, especially in regard to requiring more disclosure of charity spending in direct mail pitches, nothing happened. Though some watchdog groups have pressed for more hearings to re-examine the issue, none are planned. A spokesman for Rep. Issa, who now chairs the Oversight Committee, did not return emails requesting comment.

“It got a lot of press attention during the hearings but after that died down, there wasn’t any significant demand for more disclosure or information,” says Bennett Weiner, the COO of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance and an advocate of voluntary standards rather than government regulation. He says that veterans charities have slightly improved their performance, noting that the number which failed to meet one or more of their standards dropped from 62 to 54 percent. But he notes: “No question about it, veterans and police and firefighter groups have been well-known to be subject to questionable practices by those who got involved in the field and realize that there is public sympathy and the chance to raise money.”

Meanwhile, the alleged scams continue. Last month, prosecutors in Ohio pursued Vietnam veteran Michael Muhammad, claiming that he raised money for himself through his charities, Help Homeless Veterans and Veterans Hope Community House. They also claim that he was charging veterans to stay at a shelter that offered horrible living conditions. His lawyer denies the charges, saying that the money raised went to aid veterans.

And last week, an associate of one of the most brazen fundraising fraudsters in recent history pled guilty to corruption, theft and money laundering at a county court in Ohio. Bianca Contreras was the treasurer of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, a group founded by a man known as Bobby Thompson, who is accused of using a false identity to raise millions of dollars.

Though the money was ostensibly intended for Navy veterans and Thompson attracted praise from Congressional leaders for his purported efforts, the money went into his own pocket, say attorneys general in several states. Thompson is currently a fugitive, and officials remain tight-lipped about any progress in finding him. But Contreras is expected to cooperate with prosecutors, which may reveal some clues to his identity. The 39-year-old Tampa woman faces up to 25 years in prison when she comes up for sentencing in August.

Donors who’ve been misled can be hard to identify, since most are not aware that they’ve been ripped off, says Weiner. “The number one recommendation for people wanting to contribute to a good cause is to check out the charity — the vast majority of people don’t do that. Get a financial report from the group’s website, verify that they are properly registered in your state, check with a third-party group that checks these groups out.”

This story has been updated to include comment from Greg Warnock, founder of Military Family Support Foundation.

WASHINGTON DC’s LAME 2018 MEMORIAL DAY PICNIC (VA)

WASHINGTON DC’s LAME 2018 MEMORIAL DAY PICNIC (VA):

VA CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES DON’T REALLY GIVE A DARN ABOUT OUR NATION’S U.S. MILITARY VETS.

MANY CIVILIAN VA EMPLOYEES SECRETLY BELIEVE OUR NATION’S VETS DON’T DESERVE TO BE HONORED FOR THEIR SACRIFICE & SERVICE.


Post Sources: VA, Youtube


Thursday, May 24, 2018 the VA Vet Center in Washington DC hosted a Memorial Day picnic for our nation’s Vets.

What a shame it was held in a Parking lot without any Tents in the HOT Sun.

In addition the event ran out of Food early causing many Vets some of whom were in wheelchairs, to wait for extended periods of time in the HOT Sun for Food and Water.

I’m sure this VA Center most likely received $5,000 or more from the Veterans Affairs Administration for this event but in reality only about $500 was spent on this event, if that much.

So where is the remaining money?

It will be used on an Awesome Memorial Day picnic for the Civilian employees.

I wonder just how much Federal money Vet Centers across the country annually receive from the Veterans Affairs Administration that is NOT actually being properly allocated to help our deserving Vets??

This needs to be investigated and every Vet Center needs to be Audited.

What a shame because our nation’s Vets deserve so much more for their Sacrifice & Service.

TRUMP’S FOOD STAMP FOOD BOX - BRILLIANT STRATEGY (BLUE APRON)

TRUMP’S FOOD STAMP FOOD BOX - BRILLIANT STRATEGY (BLUE APRON):

FOOD BOXES WILL PREVENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS & FOOD STAMP CARD FRAUDSTERS FROM ABUSING SNAP SYSTEM.

PROVIDING POOR FAMILIES WITH FULLY STOCKED, NUTRITIONAL FOOD BOXES INSTEAD OF FOOD STAMP CARDS WHICH CAN BE SOLD FOR CASH.

DEMOCRATS SHOULD STOP POLITICIZING THIS IDEA AND CARE MORE ABOUT HUNGRY CHILDREN NOT BEING FED BECAUSE PARENTS ARE SELLING FOOD STAMPS.

RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE FOR LOW INCOME WORKERS.


Sources: Washington Post, CNBC, Youtube


**** Trump wants to slash food stamps and replace them with a ‘Blue Apron-type program’


The Trump administration wants to slash food aid to low-income families and make up the difference with a box of canned goods — a change that Office of Management and budget director Mick Mulvaney described in a Monday briefing as a “Blue Apron-type program.”

“What we do is propose that for folks who are on food stamps, part — not all, part — of their benefits come in the actual sort of, and I don't want to steal somebody's copyright, but a Blue Apron-type program where you actually receive the food instead of receive the cash,” Mulvaney said. “It lowers the cost to us because we can buy [at wholesale prices] whereas they have to buy it at retail. It also makes sure they're getting nutritious food. So we're pretty excited about that.”

Mulvaney's remarks drew raised eyebrows from some critics, who accuse the Trump administration official of drawing an unfair comparison between the food stamp program, which delivers an average of $1.37 per meal to America's poorest, and a high-end meal kit that runs $10 per serving.

On Monday, the Trump administration proposed cutting food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, by $17 billion in 2019 and more than $213 billion over the next decade.

The dramatic reductions came as part of a budget proposal that made sweeping, across-the-board cuts to popular safety net programs, including federal housing subsidies and Medicaid.

But the administration's SNAP proposal was particularly striking, advocates and experts said, because it advocates a fundamental change to the program's administration. For the past 40 years, the Agriculture Department has distributed benefits as either paper coupons or virtual disbursements on Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, allowing recipients to use them as cash on foods of their choice and at their own grocery store.

But under the Trump proposal, which the Agriculture Department has dubbed “America’s Harvest Box,” all households receiving more than $90 per month in benefits — 81 percent of SNAP households overall — would begin receiving about half their benefits in the form of government-purchased, nonperishable food items.

Those foods would include shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned meat, fruits and vegetables, according to the USDA. The department estimates that it could supply these goods at about half the cost of retail, slashing the cost of SNAP while still feeding the hungry.

“USDA America’s Harvest Box is a bold, innovative approach to providing nutritious food to people who need assistance feeding themselves and their families – and all of it is home grown by American farmers and producers," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. "It maintains the same level of food value as SNAP participants currently receive, provides states flexibility in administering the program, and is responsible to the taxpayers.”

It is this program that Mulvaney likened to meal-kit delivery service Blue Apron — whose shipments typically include fresh fish, meat and produce — earning the derision of some on social media. A spokeswoman for Blue Apron could not immediately be reached for comment.

“Hearing that the Trump Admin is selling this as the 'Blue Apron-ing' of SNAP. Um, no,” tweeted Chad Bolt, a senior policy manager at the progressive group Indivisible.


“With Blue Apron, you get to pick your meals and decide when they come. And it gives you all the ingredients you need to complete it,” echoed New York Times op-ed writer Bryce Covert. “Under Trump's plan, the government decides what you get and when you get it.”

Many anti-hunger advocates and analysts are equally skeptical of the proposed “food box,” which — if approved — would affect 16.4 million households. They say it's unclear how USDA would deliver the boxes and how much that would cost. Equally unclear is whether USDA would allot the same foods to, say, an elderly diabetic and a family with young children.

“It boggles the mind how that would play out,” said Kathy Fisher, policy director at Philadelphia’s Coalition Against Hunger. “We know SNAP works now, when people can choose what they need. How they would distribute foods to people with specialized diets, or [to people in] rural areas … It’s very expensive and very complicated.”

The proposal is also likely to enrage food retailers — particularly Walmart, Target and Aldi — that stand to lose billions if food stamp benefits are cut, analysts say. On Monday, the Food Marketing Institute, a trade association for grocery stores, condemned the Harvest Box proposal as expensive, inefficient and unlikely to generate any long-term government savings.

Ironically, that sort of criticism has also dogged Blue Apron, which saw its customer base contract in 2017. A recent report by the market research firm Datassential found that four in 10 lapsed meal-kit subscribers dropped their service because they were too costly.

As much as a third of the price per box goes toward shipping and logistics, which remain daunting, industry analysts told The Washington Post last June. Food policy experts expressed skepticism that the government could do better.

In a statement, Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, described the proposal as a “a Rube-Goldberg designed system of commodity distribution via food boxes.”

"[It] will be administratively costly, inefficient, stigmatizing, and prone to failure,” Weill added. "[And it] will return the country to Depression-era anti-hunger approaches.”

CORRINE BROWN - BLACK CONGRESSWOMAN GOES TO PRISON (FAKE CHARITIES)

CORRINE BROWN SENTENCED TO PRISON (FAKE CHARITIES):

BLACK POLITICIANS ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW.

BLACK MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CAN'T REST ON THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS LAURELS FOREVER.

BLACK POLITICIANS NO LONGER EFFECTIVE & JUST IN IT FOR $$$$ SHOULD RESIGN.

STOP MAKING BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA LOOK BAD.

I'M JUST SAYING.


Sources: NY Times, First Coast News, Youtube


***** Corrine Brown, Ex-Congresswoman Who Ran a Sham Charity, Gets 5 Years in Prison


Corrine Brown, a former longtime United States representative from Florida, was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for operating a fraudulent charity that she used for more than $300,000 in personal expenses, including tickets for N.F.L. games and a Beyoncé concert.

A federal judge handed down the sentence in a Jacksonville, Fla., courtroom, excoriating Ms. Brown, 71, for abusing her powerful position in the House of Representatives for “entitlement and greed” to support a lavish lifestyle. Ms. Brown, a Democrat who represented parts of Jacksonville and northern Florida for nearly a quarter-century, must surrender to the authorities next month.

“Brazen barely describes it,” the judge, Timothy J. Corrigan of United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, said of Ms. Brown’s sham charity.

Ms. Brown was convicted in May on 18 criminal counts, including mail and wire fraud and filing false tax returns. She lost her re-election bid in the Democratic primary in August 2016, a few weeks after she was indicted.

Her lawyer, James Smith, said he planned to appeal the verdict and the sentencing. “The sentence was substantively unreasonable, and it was too harsh,” Mr. Smith said in an interview Monday evening. While sentencing guidelines called for a term of between more than seven years in prison up to nine years, Mr. Smith said that politicians convicted of similar crimes had received more lenient sentences.

Ms. Brown was among the first African-American politicians elected to Washington from Florida and burnished a reputation in state and national politics as a civil rights champion and as an advocate for the less fortunate. Because of that legacy, the charity, One Door for Education, may have seemed to donors as an extension of her passion.

Ms. Brown, along with two other people, collected more than $833,000 in charitable donations, telling benefactors that their money would help students pay for college and allow schools to receive computers. But One Door for Education did nothing of the sort.

Instead, the donations were funneled into Ms. Brown’s personal bank accounts and toward extravagant items. About $330,000 of the charity’s donations paid for events that included a Florida golf tournament, professional football games and a luxury stadium box for a Beyoncé concert.

“Ms. Brown leveraged the authority of her office and the relationships she had cultivated to illegal purpose,” Judge Corrigan said. “She cast aside the very laws that she helped to enact. The rules, she decided, did not apply.”

The One Door for Education charity was run by Ms. Brown, who personally solicited many of the donations; her chief of staff, Elias Simmons, known as Ronnie; and the organization’s president, Carla Wiley. Ms. Wiley started the charity in Virginia in 2011 but raised very little before she recruited Mr. Simmons to help. He brought in Ms. Brown to raise money.

While One Door for Education may have begun as an honest charity, it turned into a slush fund for all three, prosecutors said. Mr. Simmons withdrew $93,536 in cash from A.T.M.s and gave some of the money to Ms. Brown and kept the rest for himself, they said. Ms. Wiley also pocketed $182,730, prosecutors said.

While Ms. Brown pleaded not guilty and went to trial, both Mr. Simmons and Ms. Wiley pleaded guilty and testified against the former representative. The judge also sentenced them on Monday, with Mr. Simmons receiving four years in prison and Ms. Wiley 21 months.

At the hearing, Judge Corrigan noted that Ms. Brown had earned the respect and admiration of many people in her district during her time in Congress and the decade before that in the Florida House of Representatives. But the judge criticized her for showing no contrition for the crimes.

“She cannot be accorded the same sentencing consideration as someone who accepts responsibility for her wrongful action, expresses remorse and promises to make amends,” Judge Corrigan said.

TRUMP CHIDES UNITED NATIONS FOR MISMANAGEMENT, URGES IMMEDIATE REFORM

TRUMP CHIDES UNITED NATIONS FOR MISMANAGEMENT, URGES IMMEDIATE REFORM:

TRUMP WANTS TO LEAD UNITED NATIONS IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION TO HELP MORE PEOPLE GLOBALLY NOT FATTEN THE POCKETS OF ELITE GLOBALISTS.


Sources: Business Insider, CNN, Fox News, Reuters, Youtube


**** 'Bureaucracy and mismanagement': Trump urges reform during his first UN visit


U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the United Nations for bloated bureaucracy and mismanagement on his first visit on Monday to U.N. headquarters, calling for "truly bold reforms" so it could be a greater force for world peace.

Ahead of his maiden speech to the annual U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump hosted a short event to boost support for changes to the United Nations.

"In recent years the United Nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement, while the United Nations on a regular budget has increased by 140 percent and its staff has more than doubled since 2000," Trump said.

"The United Nations must hold every level of management accountable, protect whistleblowers and focus on results rather than on process," Trump said.

"I am confident that if we work together and champion truly bold reforms the United Nations will emerge as a stronger, more effective, more just and greater force for peace and harmony in the world," Trump said in his first remarks at the U.N. in New York since his inauguration as president in January.

In a building where long statements are commonplace, Trump spoke for just four minutes.

Some 128 countries were invited to attend Monday's reform meeting after signing on to a U.S.-drafted 10-point political declaration backing efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "to initiate effective, meaningful reform."

U.N. Security Council veto powers Russia and China did not sign the declaration.

Businessman Trump, who complained during his 2016 election campaign about the United States paying a disproportionate amount of money to the United Nations, made the point again on Monday.

"We must ensure that no one and no member state shoulders a disproportionate share of the burden and that's militarily or financially."

The United States is the biggest U.N. contributor, providing 22 percent of its $5.4 billion biennial core budget and 28.5 percent of its $7.3 billion peacekeeping budget. The contributions are agreed on by the 193-member General Assembly.

Guterres, who also took office in January, told the meeting: "To serve the people we support and the people who support us, we must be nimble and effective, flexible and efficient."

He agreed that U.N bureaucracy was a problem that kept him up at night.

"Our shared objective is a 21st century U.N. focused more on people and less on process," Guterres said. "Value for money while advancing shared values – that is our common goal."

Trump also said that all peacekeeping missions should "have clearly defined goals and metrics for evaluating success."

The United States is reviewing each of the U.N. peacekeeping missions as annual mandates come up for Security Council renewal in a bid to cut costs.

The United States is a veto-wielding council member, along with Britain, France, Russia and China.

On Sunday night, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

When asked if the U.N. refugee agency could perform its current missions if the United States cut its voluntary contributions to the budget, according to a pool report Grandi answered: "I would say no."
"U.S. aid is vital to what we do to support refugees around the world and to find solutions to their situations," Grandi said.

VETERANS REMAIN JOBLESS & HOMELESS, COMPANIES CHEAT FEDS, RECEIVE FED $$$ & TAX BREAKS BUT WON'T HIRE VETS (AUDITS??)

VETERANS REMAIN JOBLESS & HOMELESS.......WHY??

COMPANIES RECEIVE FEDERAL TAX BREAKS FOR HIRING VETS YET MILLIONS OF VETS REMAIN JOBLESS & HOMELESS.

WHY ARE SOME COMPANIES RECEIVING FEDERAL MONEY & TAX BREAKS FOR VETS WHO ARE NOT ACTUALLY ON THE PAYROLL??

WHY DOESN'T THE VA CONDUCT AUDITS OF COMPANIES THAT RECEIVE FEDERAL MONEY FOR HIRING VETS??


Sources: SBA, US Veterans Magazine



***** Tax Credit for Hiring Veterans


~ Besides honesty, loyalty, and responsibility, veterans may bring you a tax cut.

Many employers have come to learn that veterans make excellent employees.

They usually are easily trainable and possess desirable characteristics, such as honesty, loyalty, and responsibility.

If these attributes were not enough to induce employers to hire veterans, the tax law offers even more.

The tax law encourages employers to hire certain targeted groups of workers by offering a tax credit tied to the wages of these new employees, and certain veterans are treated as a targeted group.

Here are the special rules to know when hiring so that you may take credit where credit is due.


Which veterans qualify?


As a small business owner, you qualify for the work opportunity tax credit (WOTC) if you hire a veteran who falls into any of the following categories:

• Having a service-related disability
• Unemployed for a specified period
• Receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits

However, even if a veteran does not fall within any of these categories, he or she may still be a member of another targeted group.

This would still allow you to take a tax credit. For example, a veteran who has been a member of a family that received TANF payments for at least 18 consecutive months is treated as a member of a targeted group for long-term family assistance recipients.

What is the tax credit amount?

The tax credit reduces your tax bill dollar-for-dollar, so each $1 of WOTC saves you $1 in taxes. The credit is based on the amount of wages paid to an eligible veteran in the first year of employment.

The maximum tax credit is based on a set percentage of maximum first-year wages, which is fixed by law, and the number of hours worked. For example, for veterans, the basic percentage of first-year wages is 25 percent for those who worked at least 120 hours but fewer than 400 hours; it is 40 percent for those who worked at least 400 hours.

The maximum credit for a veteran working at least 400 hours is:

• Service-related disability and unemployed at least 6 months in the year ending in the hiring year: $9,600 ($24,000 in wages × 40%).
• Service-related disability and hired within 1 year of discharge or release from active duty: $4,800 ($12,000 in wages × 40%)
• Unemployed at least 6 months: $5,600 ($14,000 in wages × 40%)
• Unemployed at least 4 weeks: $2,400 ($6,000 in wages × 40%)

• Receiving SNAP benefits: $2,400 ($6,000 in wages × 40%)

There is no limit on the number of eligible employees you can hire for the credit.

For example, if you hire 3 veterans with service-related disabilities who are unemployed at least 6 months, your credit is $28,800 ($9,600 × 3).

The WOTC is set to run through 2019, and you can take the credit year after year as you expand the size of your staff. Thus, even if you take a tax credit for hiring a veteran in 2016, you can do so again next year.

Other rules:

Being eligible for the credit isn’t enough to claim it on your return. To take the tax credit, you must submit IRS Form 8850 to your state workforce agency within 28 days of the first day of employment.

Also submit ETA Form 9061, or ETA Form 9062 if the employee has already been conditionally certified as belonging to a targeted group at the same time.

The purpose of these submissions is to confirm that your new employee is indeed a member of a targeted group.

The credit is claimed on IRS Form 5884, which is attached to the employer’s income tax return.

Something to think about:

When hiring, keep the WOTC in the back of your mind.
While it may not be a primary factor in making a hiring decision, it may just be the tipping point in favor of one applicant over another.

TONYATKO IS A SCAM ARTIST OR NO? YOU BE THE JUDGE

TONYA TKO IS A SCAM ARTIST OR NO? YOU BE THE JUDGE

RAISES $12,000 VIA GOFUND ACCOUNT BUT STILL LIVES IN HER CAR.

Sources: Madame Noire, Huffpost, Tommy Sotomayor, YouTube

Just one month ago I uploaded a video encouraging all the Haters to stop harassing Vlogger & former NYC Businesswoman Tonya TKO who used a GoFundMe account to garner donations after losing her business and profits to the IRS. 

She communicated to her viewers that she re-located to California to start over and not give up on her Dreams.

Since moving to California and securing more than $12,000 in donations,  Tonya TKO is currently still living in her Vehicle.

I initially thought  Tonya was seeking a permanent place to lay her head at night.

However it now appears she may indeed be running a SCAM.

I hope I'm wrong. 

You be the judge!

***** Tonya TKO Talks Living In Her Car; The Blessing And Curse Of Asking For Help

Tonya TKO is not a household name but she has amassed quite a following on YouTube, particularly among Black women.

Since 2007, over 100,000 subscribers, or “love birds” as she calls them, have flocked to The Tonya TKO Show, to receive their bi-weekly fix of dating and relationship advice, self-esteem boosts, travel tales and good old fashioned wisdom.

Part-radiant personality and part-savvy business woman, Tonya was able to use her platform to not only launch her successful TKO Skin skincare line but also establish herself as a trusted lifestyle brand. She even began using the moniker, “Media’s #1 “Big Sister.”

In spite of her online success, the prominent Youtube vlogger (and New York resident) would earlier this year shock the online community when she announced, via her YouTube channel, that she was homeless and living in her car in Los Angeles.

Through her desperate plea, Tonya TKO raised nearly twelve thousand dollars via aGoFundMe campaign, which was supposed to cover the cost of shelter as well as production costs associated with her new webseries entitled The Displacement Diaries. But after weeks of updates and little change, some folks began to question the validity of her claims. This included other YouTube vloggers who have accused TKO of lying about her homelessness, being mentally ill and bilking her followers out of both money and attention (for a quick primer on the criticisms and allegations, check out this Huffington Post article).

Over the weekend, I had a chance to speak to Tonya TKO about her Displacement Diaries, the criticism and online harassment she received and living through the expectation versus the reality of Internet celebrity. This is what she had to say.

Yeah I know it’s a long piece. But we talk about homelessness. We talk about reaching our dreams. We never talk about the intersection of both. So for those who want to know what it is like, and for those in the midst of the struggle, this is an interview you will want to read to the end.

Charing Ball: The last video I saw, you were looking for a house, how close are you to making that happen? 

Tonya TKO: Well, The Displacement Diaries is a little bit behind real life. There are some episodes that had three or four days in it and published one day after another. And then I wasn’t publishing on Sunday. So actually we are a few weeks behind and what you seen actually happened about a month ago.

CB: Okay, that’s interesting. So to clarify: you are publishing these videos a month after everything in real life was already recorded?

Tonya TKO: Yeah…when you are doing a daily blog, if you miss a day you are pushed behind by a day. If you miss two or three days, you are pushed behind by half a week.

 And if a few weekends go by without you publishing every single day, than you start getting pushed behind by like a week. Because I first started getting pushed behind right in the very beginning. 

I actually started publishing every day when I started to get the criticized after I got the money. Once I got the money, I started looking for a place feverishly and I was concentrating all of my efforts on that. 

So people were like, “oh look. Now she got the money; now she’s not making videos anymore.” Anyway, originally I lost two or three days in the very beginning. 

And then I went to a red carpet event and I lost three days there. So when you miss two days here and three days here, that becomes a week.

Another thing, and I haven’t told anyone this, but there was a Youtuber who told people to flag my channel. 

And so I had gotten several flags on my channel in the very beginning [of filming] and because of this I had several strikes. I was in the process of appealing. And since I didn’t want any more strikes while in the process of appealing, I limited my videos so they weren’t longer than 15 minutes.

 If you look at the beginning of The Displacement Diaries, the videos were 20 to 25 minutes but after I got that strike, I had to limit my videos. So at first, people were complaining, like why are you making these short videos. 

But I really couldn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want the people who were making these strikes, to know that they were having an effect on my account.

So that’s how The Displacement Diariesended up behind schedule… And now that I’m only publishing three days a week, it is making it spread out even more. I don’t know how people do daily blogs. Daily blogs are very difficult. Before I used to do videos that were taped and it would take about three to four hours to chop it up. Now with the music and the video clips and cuts, it takes about six hours.

CB: I will say that the production value on the videos is fantastic. So does that mean you have a house now or is that something you are kinda teasing out for the viewers?

Tonya TKO: Yeah…[laughing]…Stay tuned. Everything becomes revealed. But I will say that the way things unfold is a way that I didn’t even expect. And that everything, whether it seems like a curse, actually turned into a blessing.

CB: So let’s talk about that. Just to recap: You had this really successful skin care line. You decided to quit that to travel the world for a couple of years and write a book. You got home and then what happened?

Tonya TKO: Well, I only traveled eight months. I went out of the country in 2015 to write the book. I went to Latin America and the trip was difficult. So I came back and the book wasn’t written. I stayed in New York for about three months.

 I was just going to the YouTube space in New York; just making videos and really trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the Tonya TKO show. 

And my spirit told me to go back to Los Angeles. So I took care of all of the things I needed to take care of in New York and then I headed out to Los Angeles. When I got to Los Angeles – I don’t know how much of this story you want – I was supposed to be staying in one of the bedrooms in the home of an associate. 

And when I got there, the situation was a lot different than I thought it was going to be. And I was actually sleeping on the couch…

Just to be totally transparent, four days before I was supposed to rent the room in her apartment, she told me her daughter was going to be renting the room instead and offered the couch. 

And when I got out there, I started getting all of these emails from my different banking institutions that my accounts had been levied.

And so I had a few thousand dollars left over after that long, extensive trip. And you know, I hear criticisms from people. But I also hear that the average American can’t go sixty days without a paycheck. And I went July 2014 to January 2015 on the money I had saved after I closed by business. And all of that was taken.

CB: From the government. The Man got you. 

Tonya TKO: [laughing] Yeah, you are so funny. But it is my fault. When I was out of the country, I was not getting the corespondents informing me that there was a problem. And I didn’t close the business down properly. And when you don’t close your business and you’re collecting sales tax, they will average what they feel that you owe.

CB: And it happens. It’s not really unusual for small business owners to mess up with the paperwork. But is the tax troubles – combined with the couch situation – how you ended up in your car? 

Tonya TKO: Okay this is how it happened: The couch situation was just not working out. 

At the same time that was happening, I was at an three-day seminar at YouTube and when I left, I was looking for an [alternative] place to stay because I had to be right back there in the morning. In Los Angeles, it costs about $100 to $125 to stay for a night – to stay at the Motel 8 is like $99 a night. So when I was looking for a place, I figured I would just get some sleep in the car and come right back in the morning.

 So the first night, I went to a construction site and they had all-night security over there. I told the night security that I would be in my car and the security guy looked out for me all night. 

Unfortunately, construction started at 4 a.m., so I had to find another place.

 But yeah, it started out with me just looking for a place to sleep for one night. And then one night turned into two and two days turned into a week and a week turned into almost three. 

And when I got to the 18th day, that’s when I made my first video.

Okay so what happened on that 18thday that made you realize that you should be documenting this? 

Tonya TKO: You know, the original video wasn’t even a documentation. The original video was a plea for help. I was going to the Starbucks daily to make videos and stay in the realm of creative people – because I was in my car. And I didn’t have anywhere to go during the day. 

So it was like, where do you go, when you have no place to go? I was in a new city; I didn’t have a place to chill. I didn’t want to chill in the car because it’s hot out there and during the day. 

And the only place I knew that had free wifi, a bathroom and food was Starbucks.

So, I met a guy at Starbucks and we get to talking. And he tells me that he too was displaced and living in his car. 

And at the time, I really didn’t know where to sleep with the car because I was new to it. 

And I was staying in residential areas and people were going to school in the morning. And I felt kind of weird in my car, parked outside of people’s houses. 

So this guy said that he was parking on the roof of this big box store. So the first night, I parked up there. It was a really quiet night; he was in his car and I was in my car. 

So I felt a little safer. So the next night, he told me that he was going to be spending a few nights some place else. So was by myself for a few days. 

One night, the motion sensors on the street lamps kept coming on. And I heard some stuff outside of the car. And I was frightened. 

That’s when I said, “I can’t do this.”

I tried making a video the day before [that incident happened], asking for help. This was in January and I hadn’t uploaded a video since Christmas. Matter of fact, I hadn’t actually made a video a month before that; I just uploaded on Christmas. And I usually post a video once or twice a week. And this one particular subscriber named Kim who had been following me since 2007, tapped me on the [Internet] shoulder and said, “where are you?” And I opened up to hear to let her know what was going on. I was really embarrassed at first. It’s embarrassing sleeping in your car. 

It’s embarrassing not having money. It’s embarrassing being grown and not being able to take care of yourself. And I opened up to her and told her what was going on and she told me to make a video about it; that I always shared the ups and downs with people. And after she said that, I started thinking she was right; that I should at least let people know what’s going on. I tried to make the video and I couldn’t. And I ended up making the video the very next night, which was the night I was frightened.

I just couldn’t find anyway out of the situation. I don’t make that much money from YouTube ad sense. I just don’t. 

And you’re caught in this weird conundrum where you’re Internet famous because you have all of the down parts of celebrity. 

You know: you have the living in a fish bowl; you have the people who know your face; and followers and people criticizing you. So you have all of the down parts of celebrity and none of the upsides. 

YouTube just don’t pay. Like I seen people writing, “oh I may quit my job and go do YouTube” and I’m like, “no.” YouTube does not pay you enough to make money.

 Because of the [YouTube’s] terms of fairness, I can’t talk about the actual break down of pay but I will say this, you need to make millions of views per month to just barely make it. So if you are getting tens of thousands of views, or even hundreds of thousands of views, that’s not enough to live off of. That’s barely enough to buy groceries with -not rent, not clothes and not take care of your children.

CB: I’m glad you brought that up. Technology has kind of altered how we view people. But going back to the first night that you did the video, was that before or after the GoFundMe? 

Tonya TKO: No, the first video was the GoFundMe video.

TONYA TKO IS NOT A FRAUD NEITHER AM I (SUPPORT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS)

TONYA TKO IS NOT A FRAUD NEITHER AM I:

FINANCIALLY SUPPORT THE TONYA TKO SHOW  &  BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ YOUTUBE CHANNELS.

Sources: Tonya TKO Show, Huffpost, Youtube

The Tonya TKO Online Talk Show was conceptualized in 2007 by a young Black Carribean-American woman from New York City named Tonya Daniels.

Tonya's show quickly became very successful, which encouraged her to launch her next business venture: the Tonya TKO Organic Skincare product line.

Like her talk show, Tonya's organic skincare product line also quickly led to success.

After 5 years Tonya's skincare line employed 8 people and earned her a profit margin of more than $150,000 after paying expenses and salaries.

Tonya was on the road to talk show franchise success when she targeted by the IRS.

As many Black small business owners and Black celebrities have adversely experienced under the OBAMA Administration, Tonya's assets were snatched via false claims of IRS fraud.

Tonya was forced to fire her employees,  close her business and leave NYC.

However instead of hiding away in shame or giving up on life Tonya decided to fight.

She has since relocated to California and is now living in her car.

Tonya used her YouTube channel and a Gofund account to seek help from her supporters.

Not only did she receive financial help, many people also offered housing, food, speaking engagements, paid interviews, etc.,

Despite being labeled as a FRAUD by JEALOUS haters, the support she received has enabled Tonya to move forward and continue to be a lifelong Entrepreneur who encourages other Women to pursue their dreams.

Choosing to use my grassroots online media network (Black Political Buzz) to support GOP candidates and to encourage Black voters to consider another political choice instead of always voting for Democrat candidates, has led many people to accuse me of being a FRAUD.

I've never received any money from the RNC, the GOP or the Trump campaign, yet I've been labeled as a FRAUD.

Ironically most of this criticism has come from Black leaders.

So why am I supporting a GOP presidential candidate in this election? 

Two Reasons:

1)  I want to see a resurgence of Black business owners and since the GOP is promoting a Pro-Business platform, supporting the GOP it seems to be the most logical choice during this election.

2) I am sincerely concerned about the future of our country and the US Military.

If you have been inspired by the Tonya TKO show and the Black Political Buzz media network, please financially contribute to the longevity of both YouTube channels via donations of any amount.

Thank you

**** Black (Women’s) Lives Matter: A Conversation with Tonya TKO

Continued police brutality in an age of social media and video sharing has awakened a racially charged fire in America we know now as Black Lives Matter. The flames have primarily been fuelled by the headline-grabbing deaths of black men including Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray. But what about the women?

Black women in America today are not immune to the intolerance, profiling, and even brutality of their male counterparts, often targeted in the same exact way. They also face experiences of distinctly gendered violence in the form of sexual exploitation and violence, too often left unreported. 

So where’s the outcry? Where are their names in the protesters signs? Tonya TKO certainly wants to know, and as she broadcasted to her thousands of followers on YouTube, she’s just about done. 

In a follow-up to her November 2015 video, we got the opportunity to get totally candid with Tonya-who is currently facing tough times of her own , living out of her car due to a crazy string of money issues, and still trying to get production started on her show-on some of the issues facing black women today, and hear why she thinks they keep getting lost in conversation.

“We focus our attention on how every 28 hoursa Black person in the US is killed by the police”, Tonya explains. “We usually highlight the Black males murdered, yet some of the Black people killed by police are female.” The roots of this disconnect, she continues, due (at least in part) to “the appreciated value of male life across the globe”. As Tonya sees it, it’s a gender-less crisis, so why aren’t we hearing more female names in the headlines when the crimes do occur? 

Then comes the issue of crimes that do follow gendered, and even racial, patterns. “Every 19 hours in the US a Black woman is killed by a man she was dating or married to, while one in six women in the US in her life will be sexually assaulted; a number for black women that jumps dramatically to one in five,” Tonya points. Horrifying numbers by any standard, and something that triggers an emotional response from TKO, as she then looks to what she sees as the biggest problem when it comes to the community’s response. “We talk to girls about not getting raped, but where’s the conversation to boys about not raping? Why do we place the blame on the victims, finding them at fault because of the way they were dressed? The commonality between all cases of rape is the rapist. If it weren’t for rapists, no rapes would occur.” 

So why, as Tonya so frustratingly professes, are we still blaming short skirts, provocative dresses, or the inability for females to properly guard their bodies? It’s a question that’s even more puzzling to her as she addresses a further underlying issue, in that the general understanding of the crime itself still remains blurred. “I believe many people are confused by dramatizations of violent stranger-rape, when the majority of rapes occur with persons whom the victims are acquainted, and aren’t violent at all”. They instead occur “when consent not only is not given, but also when it can not be NOT be given - like coercion, or when the woman feels she has no choice but to relent and allow the violation of her body.” 

It comes back to, as Tonya ends with, the issues of the country remaining so deeply embedded in a female devaluation that allows a rape culture to survive. This is why she is calling for 2016 to be the year that we all support the rise of the feminine. It’s time for ladies everywhere, in the words of Beyonce, “to get into FORMATION”, and it’s time, as Tonya so intensely pleads, that black women’s lives really matter too.