Hidden History of Texas--Conclusion: 1996-2012

(The following article was originally posted on The Rag Blog on June 19, 2013)

Despite the surplus wealth accumulated by some ultra-rich folks in Texas between 1996 and 2011, the number of people living in poverty also continued to increase during these same years. The University of Texas' Texas Politics website indicates the extent to which the economic, educational, and health care needs of large numbers of people in Texas are still not being met by Texas society in the 21st-century:

"In 2007 Texas ranked second among all the states in the percent of its populace that was poor... The poverty rate for Texas in that year was 16.5 percent. The only other state that had higher poverty rates was Mississippi (20.1 percent)... Texas...clearly has the highest poverty rate of any large industrial state... Its poor population in absolute numbers: 3.934 million people... California...is the only state with a larger number of poor people...than Texas...

"Texas therefore has both a large number of poor people and a high percentage of its population living in poverty. In 2007, Texas ranked 9th in the poverty rate for the elderly; it ranked 49th in the percentage of its adult population with a high school diploma; and it ranked first, at 24.4 percent, in the percent of the populace with no health insurance...

"Of the Anglo population, 8.4 percent is poor, while 23.8 percent of the African-American and 24.8 percent of the Hispanic populations are poor. In other words, the rate of poverty among the two minority groups is three times greater than among the Anglo population… If we take the entire poor population of Texas (some 3.9 million people)…23.8 percent of all poor Texans are Anglo, and 15.8 percent are African-American, but well over half (53 percent) are Hispanic...

"...In the entire United States, the two absolutely poorest [counties]... were both along the Texas-Mexico border -- Cameron County and Hidalgo County... Cameron and Hidalgo were the only two counties in the United States with median household incomes under $25,000... Cameron and Hidalgo counties also had the highest poverty rates of any counties in the United States; each had a rate of about 41 percent...

"El Paso had a poverty rate of 29 percent... Of the 10 poorest counties in the United States, Texas had El Paso (sixth) and Lubbock (tenth) in addition to Cameron and Hidalgo. Texas was the only state to have more than one of the poorest ten counties nation-wide..."

And according to a recently-released report of Austin’s Center for Public Policy Priorities, titled "The State of Texas Children 2011," 24 percent of all children in Texas and 22.2 percent of all children in Austin were now living in poverty in 2009, while the poverty level for the total population in Texas increased to 17.1 percent in 2009 (even before the state’s official jobless rate reached 8 percent in December 2010) and 16 percent of all people living in Austin were now economically impoverished.

A May 5, 2011, issue brief of the Economic Policy Institute, titled “Distressed Texas,” also noted that “the African-American unemployment rate in Texas rose from 8.1 percent at the beginning of the Great Recession to a high of 14.8 percent in the second quarter of 2010,” and “in 2010, 13.6 percent of African-Americans and 9.6 percent of Hispanics were unemployed, compared with 6.0 percent of white non-Hispanic Texans.”

And, according to "Ongoing Joblessness in Texas," a May 16, 2013, report from the Economic Policy Institute, "In Texas, where the overall unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 (compared with a national average of 7.8 percent), African American and Hispanic families continue to bear the brunt of that economic pain."

In a February 1, 2003, speech before the W.H. Passion Historical Society at Austin’s Southgate-Lewis House, former Austin SNCC activist Larry Jackson made the following observation about the extent of perceived white racism in 21st-century Austin, a town otherwise known as a progressive enclave:

"Austin, Texas has been and still it is, I think, a place that is hung up in the late '40s. I think Austin is a very racist city. Matter of fact, even though I have received a lot of the goodness that Austin offers, and I have been blessed, I find Austin to be a real racist place. And I was born in Hearne, Texas, and I know racism when I see it. And it is here [in Austin] greater than it exists anywhere else in this state.

"And there’s just a different kind of a slave mentality here than just other places. There’s also more opportunity here than in most other places. But people here are so hell-bent on seeing themselves a little bit better than the people in Elgin and Giddings because that’s their yardstick. So you don’t have to be a lot better; all you have to be is just alive."

Though there are towns in Texas where racism is certainly more blatant, Austin is a very segregated city and is experiencing substantial displacement of blacks and Hispanics due to gentrification. More overt racism may be found elsewhere in the state, especially in towns like Vidor and Jasper in East Texas that have struggled to overcome histories of KKK-dominated racial violence.

An April 25, 2013, article in Business Insider on the 21 most segregated cities in the U.S. included only Houston (at 20th) among Texas cities. But an August 2, 2012, feature in the same publication, citing a study by the Pew Research Center, called Houston "America's most economically segregated city," citing that "Houston leads the way among the nation's 10 largest metropolitan areas when it comes to affluent folks living among others who are affluent, and poor living with poor."

In Houston, according to the article, "the percentage of upper-income households in census tracts with a majority of upper-income households increased from 7 in 1980 to 24 in 2010. Likewise, low-income households in majority low-income tracts jumped from 25 to 37." Of the nation's 30 top metropolitan areas, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas topped the Pew study's "Residential Income Segregation Index."

According to the Sentencing Project website’s most recent figures, for every 100,000 African-Americans who live in Texas, 3,162 are now imprisoned, while the rate of incarceration for white people in Texas is currently 667 per 100,000. And since 1995 the total number of people of all races locked up inside state and federal prisons in Texas has increased from 127,766 to 162,186 (including 11,620 female prisoners).

So as we enter the post-2012 period of Texas history (and a possible post-2017 “Perry Era” of right-wing political resurgence in U.S. history), the anti-democratic direction of recent Texas history has no yet been reversed; and the majority of people in the state continue to be economically exploited and politically dominated by the white corporate power structure and political establishment of Texas -- which has been the story for the last 190 years of the hidden history of Texas.

Stop Simon Properties Group and Neiman Marcus' "Jim Crow" Skyscraper Reconstruction Project at Copley Place in Boston's Back Bay: Part 13

Only 13 percent of the 542 additional residential units that the Simon Properties Group is now proposing to construct (within a newly-built 52-story skyscraper) on the Copley Place land in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, that it leases from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, would be "affordable" rental units.

Yet--like the premises of the existing apartment building on Copley Place project land at 16 Harcourt Street--the premises of the Simon Properties Group's proposed additional residential units at the Copley Place project are subject to "the requirement that a minimum of 25 percent of the units must be available for rent at all times to persons and families of low income" pursuant to "Schedule C of the Master Lease;" and "the provisions of this paragraph may not be amended unless such provisions as amended are consistent with the requirements to provide housing set forth in Schedule C of the Master Lease..." (See Bk. 11488/074 to 095 in Suffolk County Registry of Deeds).

So unless 135 of the additional residential units that the Simon Properties Group is proposing to add in its reconstruction of the Copley Place project are to be "available for rent at all times to persons and families of low income" pursuant to "Schedule C of its Master Lease" with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the Simon Properties Group's Copley Place Reconstruction Project would still apparently be in legal violation of the terms and land use restrictions of its Master Lease, and should, thereforre, not be approved by the City of Boston.

As Andrew Warner--the then-director of sales of United Development Consulting Corporation, the former management agency for The Residences of Copley Place--indicated in a 1984 Christian Science Monitor article, the existing land use restrictions on Copley Place project land commits any real estate developer "to provide 25 percent of any housing built on Copley Place to low- and moderate-income senior citizens and families."
     

Quotations From Pete Seeger: Folk Music vs. Show Business

In his July/August 1974 Sing Out! magazine column (that's included in the recent book Pete Seeger: In His Own Words which Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal edited), Pete Seeger criticized the way most music magazines cover the folk music scene for the following reason::

"What's good about folk music is that it is not show business. It should not be show business.

"But the trouble with most `folk music' magazines...is that they tell me what professional performer is singing here, and why that one is better than some other one. And somehow millions of people have gotten the idea that folk music is somebody standing on stage with a guitar in his or her hand. I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with giving such a false impression..."

Quotations From Pete Seeger: On Fame and Celebrity Worship

As the recently published book Pete Seeger: In His Own Words that Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal edited indicates, during the 1970s Pete Seeger wrote the following about the negative effects of fame and celebrity worship on people in modern society:

"...I feel very deeply that the whole feveish search to get close to `fame' is not only foolish but a symptom of something very bad in modern society around the world.

"Modern technology, mass production, has made some people too famous and has left billions of people feeling that they are unimportant, that they are just cogs in a big machine...This is really false. Everybody is important in this world...

"...I urge all autograph collectors to realize that the kind of fame people get in show business and politics is about the phoniest of all. To be in show business is to be in the professional publicity business. People are hired to send out releases to newspapers and to arrange for TV interviews..."

Quotations From Pete Seeger: On The Movement and The Celebrity Star System

In a May/June 1975 Sing Out! magazine column that was included in the recent Pete Seeger: In His Own Words book that Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal edited, Pete Seeger wrote the following about Movement activists' failure to generally fight against the U.S. corporate entertainment media's celebrity star system:

"You ask me, do I know `some big name performer' who can help your cause. Don't you realize that we all have to fight the star system? In this technological society, we have to oppose the cult of personality...

"...Revolutionists have always had to teach the people that some of the greatest talents in the world have no reputation to speak of; they have just been sitting beside us all the time, and we didn't know about it."

Quotations From Pete Seeger: On The Kingston Trio's Act

In a May 25, 1961 letter that was recently included in the recently-published Pete Seeger: In His Own Words book that Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal edited, Pete Seeger wrote the following about The Kingston Trio's early 1960s commercial folk music act:

"I listened to a couple of performances of the Kingston Trio last summer and was appalled to discover that they were unable to sing one single song straight unless it was a mawkishly sentimental song. Otherwise, they always at some time had to crack a joke to let the audience know that they didn't take it seriously. This reminds me of a comment made by Woody Guthrie once to Walter Lowenfels, `Why are you guys scared to be serious?'..."

Quotations From Pete Seeger: On The Commodification Of Folk Songs

In 2009, Pete Seeger wrote the following:

"...Since about 1940 it had been standard practice in the music industry for performers when recording an old song in the public domain, to copyright the song, because they had `adapated and arranged it.' Now they receive royalty payments as songwriters as well as performers..."

from--Pete Seeger: In His Own Words, selected and edited by Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal)

Quotations From Pete Seeger: On The `Folk Music Revival'

In a letter that he wrote to Don West in the 1960s that was recently published in a book that Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal edited, Pete Seeger: In His Own Words, Pete Seeger made the following critique of the post-1960s "Folk Music Revival" in the USA and elsewhere:

"...The whole character and definition of the word `folk music' is being warped by the commercial image of the solo professional performer and the publicity surrounding (him or her)--and I think that you are right that magazines such as Sing Out are consciously or unconsiously contributing to this bad state of affairs by continually boosting the names of performers in articles rather than talking about the music and the unknown people who have created it and kept it alive.

"...In our present commercial system the star syndrome is the regular thing and I believe among the biggest victims of it are the so-called stars themselves. I know that I feel a victim of it personally because for 10 years I have tried to persuade Sing Out to play down my name, but it keeps popping up in every issue. I keep sending letters to publishing companies and record companies, but the basic facts of economic life keep running against me and there goes my name up in huge letters. I consented to a normal interview with the Christian Science Monitor and suddenly see a headline, `A Folk Hero Is Born.' What are you going to do about this kind of shit? I can tell you for sure that many times I've thought of quitting the whole music business because of it..."

In a March 25, 1986 letter that was recently published in the same book, Seeger also wrote the following:

"...In the long run what the human race needs in the way of music is the ability and the confidence to sing a song, whether it is at the fireside, bedside, tableside, workside, sidewalk side, or anywhere side without having to think of it as a `performance.' And none of the `folk revivals' in any country nor any festivals, magazines, recordings that I know of have really attacked the problem and made much headway in solving it...Music seems still to be in hock to the experts, and most of the millions listen..."

And in a December 20, 1986 letter that was also recently published in Pete Seeger: In His Own Words, Pete also wrote the following:

"What I wanted to do was try and get rank-and-file people singing again, whether parent singing to children or workers singing on the job or friends harmonizing in a car as they drove down the highway. But the prevalence of loudspeakers has defeated me and a lot of others and in the end our `Revival of Folk Music' seemed more like simply starting up another minor branch of the pop music business, especially appealing to middle-class whites..."

Hidden History of Texas: 1996-2011--Part 21

(The following article was originally posted on The Rag Blog on May 29, 2013)

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of people living in Texas increased from 16,986,510 to 20,851,820; and by 2010 the total was 25,145,661 -- an increase of 20.6 percent over the population in 2000. Austin’s population jumped from 656,562 to 790,390 between 2000 and 2010 -- an increase of 20.4 percent. And although there were still 228,300 farmers in Texas in 2000, by 2007 about 86 percent of all residents of Texas now lived in urban areas.

During the first decade of the 21st century, the number of Latinos living in Texas increased by 42 percent, the number of African-Americans living in Texas increased by 22 percent and the number of white Anglos living in Texas increased by just 4 percent. In Austin, for example, the Latino population grew by 45 percent between 2000 and 2007.

An estimated 215,000 Native Americans or people of partial Native American descent still lived in Texas in 2000; and between 120,000 and 131,000 people of Jewish background currently live in Texas in the 21st century. And according to 2010 census figures, 11.8 percent of Texans are now African-American, 37.6 percent are Latino, 3.8 percent are Asian-American, and 45.3 percent are white Anglo.

One apparent reason a few ultra-rich residents of Texas are able to accumulate surplus wealth decade after decade is that wealthy people in Texas (unlike wealthy people in states like New York) still don’t have to pay any state tax on their personal income, to help finance a state government that still generally serves their special class and corporate interests.

Since the ultra-rich folks in Texas, who have dominated the state's politics for most of Texas’s history, still don’t want to pay a fair share of taxes to the state government, Texas has the nation’s fifth most regressive tax structure among the 50 states, according to United For A Fair Economy analyst Karen Kraut.

So, not surprisingly, in February 2011 the Texas Forward coalition of politically dissatisfied Texas residents and activist groups called for the creation of new sources of revenue that are more equitable than Texas’s current tax structure and for the elimination of unwarranted tax exemptions, in order to help finance those state government programs that actually benefit people in Texas.

Other reasons a few ultra-rich Texans are able to accumulate so much surplus wealth might be that: (1) many workers in Texas are still not unionized; (2) the hourly median wage rate of Texas workers has continued to be lower than the national average; and (3) the special needs of economically-impoverished people in Texas are still being ignored and neglected in the 21st century by the state's white corporate power structure and its right-wing political establishment.

According to the Texas AFL-CIO website:

"Texas has more than 1,300 local unions. The largest Texas AFL-CIO affiliates in the state (membership above 5,000) are the Texas AFT, Communication Workers of America, American Federation of Government Employees, United Steel Workers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Fire Fighters, UAW, Transport Workers Union, International Association of Machinists and United Transportation Union."

The same website also notes that in Texas, “some medical professionals, including podiatrists, doctors and nurses have joined unions;” and the Central Labor Councils in Austin, Coastal Bend, Dallas, El Paso, Galveston, Harris County, San Antonio, and Smith County each protect the economic interests of 5,000 or more labor union members.

Yet in 2011 less than 20 percent of Texas public sector workers are covered by union contracts. In addition, of the 10,526,000 people who work in Texas only 220,000 are members of Texas AFL-CIO-affiliated unions, although “Texas has substantial union membership that does not affiliate or pay dues to the Texas AFL-CIO” and “if you add non-affiliates about 500,000 union members work in Texas,” according to the Texas AFL-CIO.

The hourly median wage for Texas workers in 2003 of $12.01 was also still just 88 percent of the national average in 2003, according to an Economic Policy Institute study. And the median income in Texas in 2005 of $42,131 was less than the national median income at that time of $46,242, according to the Texas Politics website. In addition, according to a May 5, 2011, study of the Economic Policy Institute :

"Texas is tied with Mississippi in having the largest share (9.5 percent) of hourly workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage. This compares with just 6 percent nationally...12.6 percent of U.S. workers earning the minimum wage or less work in Texas... Between 2009 and 2010, the number of people working at or below the minimum wage in Texas grew by 76,000."

A 2009 study by the Austin-based Workers Defense Project, titled "Building Austin, Building Injustice: Working Conditions in Austin's Construction Industry," found that in Austin (where the proportion of Latino/a construction workers grew by 13 percent between 2000 to 2007), “50 percent of surveyed construction workers reported not being paid overtime,” and “45 percent earned poverty level wages,” according to an article by Carlos Perez de Alejo that appeared in Dollars & Sense magazine.

As this same study revealed:

"...50,000 Austin residents work in the construction industry... Texas construction workers earn 2 to 3 dollars less than their counterparts in other states who performed the same skilled work... One in five workers reported being denied payment for their construction work in Austin...The large majority of construction workers lacked health insurance (76%), pensions (81%), sick days (87%) or vacation days (73%)... In 2007, 142 construction workers died in Texas, more than any other state in the country... In 2008...construction laborers...earned a median wage of only $10.68 per hour."

`CounterPunch' and ISO's Lannan Foundation Connection--Part 2

“The Lannan Foundation was formed in 1960 by the late J. Patrick Lannan, entrepreneur and ITT director….When the foundation received $100 million from the Lannan estate in 1986, trustees vowed to concentrate on support for the contemporary visual arts….Directors who have input are Sharon A. Ferrill, John R. Lannan, Michael J. Lannan, Frank Lawler, Patricia Lawler, John J. Lannan, Tscheng S. Feng and Mark Hampton."

--the Los Angeles Times (10/16/86)

“…Defendant Lannan received a direct financial benefit by ignoring the numerous red flags raised by the China Trust Bank participation loans, approving them regardless, and then accepting a $75,000 referral fee on the very loans he approved…”

--from the “Complaint for Negligence, Gross Negligence and Breach of Fiduciary Duty” filed on April 20, 2012 by the FDIC as Receiver for First Bank of Beverly Hills (case 2:12-CV-034480DDP-CW)

CounterPunch and ISO’s Lannan Foundation Connection—Part 2

Following the failure of the First Bank of Beverly Hills, the California Department of Financial Institutions closed the First Bank of Beverly Hills on April 24, 2009 and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [FDIC] was appointed as its Receiver. The FDIC was then compelled to spend around $349 million to reimburse the First Bank of Beverly Hills customers whose deposits had been insured by the FDIC; and those First Bank of Beverly Hills depositors whose accounts contained more than the maximum amount covered by FDIC insurance also lost around $179,000 in uninsured bank deposits.

On April 20, 2012, the FDIC then filed in court a legal “Complaint for Negligence, Gross Negligence and Breach of Fiduciary Duty” against the First Bank of Beverly Hills’s former executive officers and directors which stated the following:

“…The FDIC as Receiver [for First Bank of Beverly Hills] seeks to recover losses of at least $100.6 million the Bank suffered…In derogation of their duty to engage in `safe and sound’ banking practices, Defendants recklessly implemented an unsustainable business model pursuing rapid asset growth concentrated in large high-risk loans without having adequate loan underwriting policies and practices to manage the risk. In addition, Defendants routinely violated the Bank’s Loan Policy, thereby improperly approving loans that had little chance of repayment…

“Defendants’ abdication of responsibility rose to a new level of willful blindness when, shortly after receiving significant regulatory criticism concerning the Bank’s poor underwriting practices, Defendants approved two large Loss Loans containing the exact same deficiencies the regulators had just criticized.

“By approving the Loss Loans despite their myriad obvious deficiencies, the Defendants lined their own pockets when First Bank of Beverly Hills dividends, boosted by false profits on large problematic loans that were unlikely to be repaid, were upstreamed to the Bank’s parent company—of which numerous Defendants were shareholders….Defendants…voted to approve nine loans in the total amount of $143.5 million in disregard of sound banking principles and the bank’s own lending policy…”

The FDIC’s April 20, 2012 legal complaint also contained the following references and allegations with respect to a former First Bank of Beverly Hills director named John Lannan:

“John Lannan was a director from June 2003 until June 2008…The China Trust Bank loans were part of a $117.1 million package of eight loan participations with China Trust Bank…Lannan voted to approve the purchase of the China Trust Bank loan participations, despite the fact that he stood to benefit personally from the approval of the loan. In fact, Lannan received a $75,000 referral fee from the Bank for referring the participations to the Bank…Defendant Lannan owed to First Bank of Beverly Hills the duty to not approve loans for which he would obtain financial benefit…

“Defendant Lannan was negligent in affirmatively voting in favor of approving the China Trust Bank loans and then accepting financial benefit in connection with those same loans, in the form of referral fees for bringing the China Trust Bank loans to First Bank of Beverly Hills…As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Lannan’s negligence, the FDIC-Receivership suffered damages in an amount to be proven at trial in excess of $52 million…”

Coincidentally, according to an October 16, 1986 article in the Los Angeles Times, a “John R. Lannan” and a “John J. Lannan” were members of the Lannan Foundation board of directors during the 1980s; and according to the Lannan Foundation’s Form 990 financial filing for 2006, a “John J. Lannan” was an assistant treasurer of the Lannan Foundation at that time.

According to its Form 990 financial filing for 2011, the tax-exempt, “non-profit” Lannan Foundation paid its president—former Federal Signal Corporation board member J. Patrick Lannan, Jr.—an annual salary of over $260,000, earned over $5 million in interest and dividends, and took in over $5 million from its sale of assets in 2011. In addition, between the beginning and end of 2011, the value of the “non-profit” Lannan Foundation’s total assets increased from over $199.7 million to over $213.1 million.

The Lannan Foundation earns its dividends and interest—and obtains much of its money for “charitable” grants—from investing in the stocks and bonds investment portfolios of funds like Prime Global Assets Fund, FPA New Global Allocations, Crescent Fund and Blackrock Global Allocation—whose portfolios include stock in transnational corporations that exploit workers and consumers in the United States and foreign countries. According to its Form 990 financial filing for 2006, the Lannan Foundation owned, for example, $124 million worth of corporate stock—including big chunks of stock in the following corporations: Wal-Mart Stores ($3.5 million worth of stock); Goldman Sachs ($3.5 million worth of stock); Wells Fargo ($3.9 million worth of stock); AIG ($3.1 million worth of stock); Berkshire Hathaway ($6 million worth of stock); Coca-Cola ($2.8 million worth of stock); Walt Disney-ABC ($1.3 million worth of stock); Gannet Inc/USA Today ($2.5 million worth of stock); General Electric ($3.8 million worth of stock); Johnson and Johnson ($3.1 million worth of stock); IBM ($3.9 million worth of stock); Microsoft ($2.4 million worth of stock); Pepsico ($2.9 million worth of stock); Procter and Gamble ($1.8 million worth of stock); and Manpower Inc. ($861,000 worth of stock).

Yet, ironically, some U.S. alternative media groups and U.S. left groups and columnists who claim to be opposed to the exploitation of U.S. working-class and middle-class people by ultra-rich families like the Lannan family--and the transnational corporations which the ultra-rich families and their foundations own-- apparently accepted “charitable grants” in 2011 from the Lannan Foundation that former ITT Director and major ITT stockholder J. Patrick Lannan, Sr. originally set up in 1960.

Besides giving the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity/CounterPunch alternative media group a $2,000 charitable grant for “support of CounterPunch” and $117,000 in charitable grant money plus a $200,000 interest-free loan to the International Socialist Organization [ISO]-affiliated Center for Economic Research and Social Change in 2011, the Lannan Foundation--according to its Form 990 financial filing--gave the following other grants to U.S. alternative media and U.S. left or left-liberal groups or individual journalists in 2011:

1. A $300,000 “charitable grant” to the Democracy Now! “Foundation"’/Democracy Now! “for general operating support;.

2. A $180,000 “charitable grant” to The Nation magazine/The Nation Institute;.

3. A $150,000 individual “Cultural Freedom Award” charitable grant to then-Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald;.

4. A $100,000 “charitable grant” to Mother Jones magazine/Foundation for National Progress; and

5. A $2,000 “charitable grant” to Common Dreams.

So don’t expect much critical investigative reporting about current ultra-rich Lannan family members, J. Patrick Lannan, Sr., the Federal Signal Corporation or the Lannan Foundation and its special economic interests to be provided by CounterPunch, Democracy Now!, The Nation magazine, Glenn Greenwald, Mother Jones magazine, Common Dreams, Haymarket Books or any ISO-affiliated publication during the next few years. (end of article)

`CounterPunch' and ISO's Lannan Foundation Connection--Part 1

“In 1960 J. Patrick Lannan, Sr., entrepreneur and financier, established Lannan Foundation. A self-educated scholar and liberal thinker, he believed strongly in the social importance of charitable programs and in the cultural importance of innovative and controversial forms of visual and literary art…. Mr. Lannan died in 1983 at the age of 78. In 1986 Lannan Foundation received a substantial endowment from his estate. “

--from the Lannan Foundation website

“J. Patrick Lannan, the late Chicago financier, by all accounts would have made Irwin Jacobs and other latter-day corporate raiders look like Boy Scouts….A battle among Lannan`s children, relatives and friends for control of Lannan`s $100 million estate has moved into court here and in Palm Beach, Florida…Lannan…controlled corporate assets estimated at more than $2 billion in the early 1960s. He died in September, 1983, at age 78, leaving his estate, including stocks in numerous companies, to a foundation he created in Palm Beach that collected modern art… Within days of Lannan`s death in New York City, some of Lannan`s six children instructed the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown & Platt to seek an accounting of the foundation. Not one of Lannan`s children was directly provided for in the estate…Four of Lannan`s children are suing in Cook County Circuit Court for a greater role in the foundation: Michael, vice president of a Chicago insurance firm, Lannan & Co.; J. Patrick Lannan Jr. of Los Angeles, another son who is a director of Federal Signal Corp. in Oak Brook; Sharon L. Ferrill of Evanston, a daughter; and Patricia Mary Lawler of Scottsdale, Ariz., a daughter. Also suing is John R. Lannan, a nephew….One of the bitterest combatants apparently is Harve A. Ferrill, Sharon`s husband, who is a Chicago investor and director of such companies as SFN Companies Inc. of Glenview, Advance Ross Corp. of Chicago and Laidlaw Industries of Hinsdale….”

--the Chicago Tribune (1/30/85)

"J. Patrick Lannan [Sr.]…has…become…an influential investor in enterprises such as International Telephone & Telegraph [ITT], Duquesne Light, and the Milwaukee Road...”

--Fortune magazine in December 1959

“Mr. Lannan was a director of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation [ITT] for 36 years. He retired as director emeritus last May. He was also a director and member of the executive committee of the Macmillan Publishing Company...In 1962, Mr. Lannan…was chairman of the Susquehanna Corporation, an investment-banking concern in Chicago, and was on the boards or the executive committees of 19 major corporations….He is survived by three daughters, Patricia Lawler and Colleen Dillon, both of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Sharon Ferrill of Evanston, Ill.; three sons, Michael J. and Lawrence P., both of Chicago, and J. Patrick Jr., of Los Angeles; a brother, Lawrence T., of Palm Beach; 29 grandchildren and 10 great- grandchildren.”

--the New York Times (9/27/83)

“…Lannan owned 1 million shares of MacMillan Publishing Company…and another million shares of a public company based in Chicago…Lannan was a senior member of the board of ITT…”

--the Palm Beach Daily News (9/26/83)

“…Lannan…had assets ranging from the Oakland A’s to a majority stake in International Telephone & Telegraph [ITT]…”

--the New York Daily News (10/18/95)

“The Lannan Foundation has always been and continues to be a family-run organization… Patrick took over the reins of the Lannan Foundation in 1985…Patrick Lannan entered banking and then moved on to a Chicago ad agency before being transferred to New York City. From 1967-1972, he managed an answering service and paging business and then became involved in an investment business throughout the seventies. Among his last endeavors prior to succeeding his father as Head of the Lannan Foundation were in commercial radio in Fresno, California, and in Honolulu, Hawaii.

--the Santafe.com website (7/1/09)

“Mr. Ross also announced that J. Patrick Lannan, Jr. is retiring from the board after twenty years of dedicated service to the company…He noted that during Mr. Lannan's tenure Federal Signal grew from a $91 million company to more than $1 billion in annual sales and that the stock price, adjusted for stock dividends and splits, increased from less than $1 to more than $23 per share….”

-- from a 1998 Federal Signal Corporation press release

“…In 1975, 70 percent of all civil defense warning systems sold in the United States were manufactured by Federal's signal division. Sales topped $29 million, providing 40 percent of the company's total volume. Three years later, however, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Federal of attempting to monopolize the market. Specifically, the FTC alleged that Federal had collaborated with local governments to devise the advertisements soliciting bids and providing job specifications, and that these advertisements were designed to prevent other companies from bidding successfully….

“…Several challenges surfaced in 1986. That summer, union contract negotiations failed at Federal's Chicago-based signal plant, as well as at its Elgin street-sweeping plant. Workers walked out, production at both plants was severely curtailed for several months, and profits rose by only two percent, 11 percent below the company's average growth. In September, Federal replaced all striking workers at its Elgin plant. Although the strikes had a negative short-term impact on profits, management was able to reduce labor costs at both plants by 20 to 25 percent and announced that both production operations would remain profitable due to 'lower, competitive labor costs.'…

“In 1990...Federal…received its largest contract: a $47 million order from the U.S. Air Force to furnish components for its rescue vehicles….”

--from the Corporate history website

“…As a reader-supported independent press, we depend on your solidarity and generosity. Consider making a donation to Haymarket Books today…”

--from the ISO-affiliated Haymarket Books website

“The Institute requires disclosure of any transaction other than our own compensation from which such a person might benefit that they feel should be disclosed…This enables us to determine when a conflict of interest should be disclosed and to whom…”

--from the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity/CounterPunch Form 990 financial filing for 2011

CounterPunch and ISO’s Lannan Foundation Connection--Part 1

According to the Form 990 financial filing for 2011 of former Federal Signal Corporation board member J. Patrick Lannan, Jr.’s Lannan Foundation, a $2,000 charitable grant was given in 2011 to the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity/CounterPunch alternative media group for the “support of CounterPunch.” In addition, the foundation that ITT’s former majority stockholder and long-time board member—J. Patrick Lannan Sr.—set up before his death in 1983 gave four charitable grants in 2011, totaling $117,000, to the International Socialist Organization [ISO]-affiliated Center for Economic Research and Social Change for “general operating support,” “general support of Haymarket Books” and to “support Tariq Ali speaking tour,” according to its Form 990 financial filing for 2011.

Besides receiving $117,000 in charitable grants from the Lannan Foundation in 2011, according to the Lannan Foundation’s Form 990 financial filing for 2011, the ISO-affiliated Center for Economic Research and Social Change also received from the Lannan Foundation a $200,000 “interest-free loan to provide advance funds for book publishing costs of Haymarket Books” in 2011; with “payments of $50,000 due in four installments between June 30, 2012 and December 31, 2013.” And, if the ISO-affiliated Center for Economic Research and Social Change “raises an additional $50,000 by December 2013, the last $50,000 payment will be forgiven” by the Lannan Foundation. (end of part 1)

`Democracy Now! 'Co-Host Amy Goodman Raised Her Annual Salary to $148,000 In 2011

In early 2009, the majority of people who work at straight jobs in the United States were paid annual salaries of less than $50,000. Yet according to its Form 990 financial filing for 2011, the co-host and president of the Lannan Foundation and Park Foundation-subsidized Democracy Now! Productions Inc. alternative media group, Amy Goodman, apparently paid herself an annual salary of $148, 493 in 2011.

Although Goodman's Democracy Now! Productions Inc. alternative media firm is a tax-exempt, "non-profit" organization, in 2011 its total revenues of over $6.5 million exceeded its total expenses of $5.4 million by over $1.1 million, according to its Form 990 financial filing; and the Democracy Now! Production Inc. firm's total assets increased from over $11.7 million to over $12.9 million between the beginning and end of 2011.

Of the $6.5 million that Democracy Now! Productions Inc. took in during 2011, over $1.1 million was derived from "broadcasting fees;" and a significant percentage of Democracy Now! Productions Inc. came from the "charitable grants" of tax-exempt foundations like the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Lannan Foundation. According to the "non-profit" and tax-exempt Lannan Foundation's Form 990 financial filing for 2011, for example, in 2011 a $300,000 charitable grant was given to the "Democracy Now! Foundation" for "general operating support."

And, coincidentally, the "philanthropic" Lannan Foundation's Form 990 financial filing also indicated that the Lannan family's "non-profit" Lannan Foundation--whose board of directors currently includes Patrick Lannan, John R. Lannan and Lawrence P. Lannan Jr.--also paid the Lannan Foundation president--"J. Patrick Lannan"--an annual salary of $260,535 in 2011--despite the post-2008 endless economic recession for working-class people in the United States.

Quotations From Pete Seeger: On Bob Dylan's Artistic Deterioration

On July 28, 1965 Pete Seeger wrote a memo to himself that contained the following reference to Bob Dylan's apparent post-1964 artistic, moral and political deterioration:

"It isn't pretty to see a corpse--man or beast...

"I knew that last week at Newport, I ran to hide my eyes and ears because I could not bear either the screaming of the crowd nor some of the most destructive music this side of Hell. Bob Dylan, the frail, restless, homeless kid who came to New York in `61 was now the frail, restless, homeless star on the stage.

"...When we see a flaming streak across the sky, we all exclaim, though the light has died before the echo of our voices. But I am glad I saw this shooting star...The songs Bob wrote in 1962 and 1963 will be sung for many a year...

"...What is the reason for the change--I don't know. A girl gone perhaps. A manager come. The claws of fame. Or was he killed with kindness?...

"His more recent songs--who is going to sing them? And for how long?..."

(from the Pete Seeger: In His Own Words book of 2012 that Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal edited)

Quotations From Pete Seeger: On The `Star System'

In an October 30, 1969 letter, Pete Seeger wrote the following in reference to the U.S. music industry's undemocratic "star system"--and its undemocratic influence on U.S. left-wing and left-liberal activists and organizers:

"...Unfortunately, the average person that calls me is just as much a prisoner of the `Star system' as anybody else, and they always want to get someone with a well-known name who can help fill the hall..."

( from Pete Seeger: In His Own Words, selected and edited by Rob Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal and published in 2012 by Paradigm Publishers)

Black Youth Unemployment Rate Increases To 42.6 Percent In May 2013

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age jumped from 40.5 to 42.6 percent between April and May 2013; while the official unemployment rate for all Black workers (youth, female and male) in the United States increased from 13.2 to 13.5 percent during the same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data.

Between April and May 2013, the official number of unemployed Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 20,000 (from 287,000 to 307,000); while the number of Black youths who still have jobs decreased by 10,000 (from 423,000 to 413,000) during the same period.

The official unemployment rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age jumped from 12.6 to 13.5 percent between April and May 2013; while the official number of unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 82,000 (from 1,058,000 to 1,140,000) during the same period. In addition, the number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age who still have jobs decreased by 18,000 (from 7,319,000 to 7,301,000) between April and May 2013.

Between April and May 2013, the total number of officially unemployed Black workers in the United States also increased by 71,000 (from 2,450,000 to 2,521,000); while the official jobless rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 11.2 percent in May 2013.

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 21.6 percent in May 2013; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 28 to 28.5 percent between April and May 2013. In addition, between April and May 2013 the number of unemployed Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 29,000 (from 291,000 to 320,000), according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 7.5 to 8.1 percent between April and May 2013; while the number of unemployed Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 81,000 (from 734,000 to 815,000) during the same period.

The “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Latino workers (youth, male and female) increased from 9 to 9.1 percent between April and May 2013; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 7.2 percent in May 2013.

Between April and May 2013, the total number of officially unemployed white workers in the United States increased by 49,000 (from 8,238,000 to 8,287,000); while the official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all white workers (youth, male and female) was still 6.7 percent in May 2013.

The official “seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 12,000 (from 1,005,000 to 1,017,000) between April and May 2013; while the jobless rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 6.4 percent in May 2013.

The official “seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 38,000 (from 3,098,000 to 3,136,000) between April and May 2013; while the unemployment rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 5.7 to 5.8 percent during the same period.

According to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, the number of Asian-American workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 63,000 (from 4,788,000 to 4,851,000) between April and May 2013; while the unemployment rate for Asian-American workers was 4.3 percent in May 2013. In addition, 365,000 Asian-American workers in the United States were still officially unemployed in May 2013, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

Between April and May 2013, the official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 24.1 to 24.5 percent; while the total number of officially unemployed youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the United States increased by 69,000 (from 1,372,000 to 1,441,000) during the same period.

For all male workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States, the official jobless rate increased from 7.7 to 7.9 percent between April and May 2013; while the total number of unemployed male workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States increased by 182,000 (from 6,382,000 to 6,564,000) during that same period.

Between April and May 2013, the official unemployment rate for all male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States also increased from 7.1 to 7.2 percent; while the total number of unemployed male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 110,000 (from 5,644,000 to 5,754,000) during the same period. In addition, the total number of male workers over 20 years-of-age who still have jobs decreased by 35,000 (from 74,159,000 to 74,124,000) between April and May 2013; while the total number of male workers over 20 years-of-age not in the U.S. labor force increased by 28,000 (from 29,933,000 to 29,961,000) during the same period.

The official unemployment rate for all U.S. workers increased from 7.5 to 7.6 percent between April and May 2013; while the total official number of unemployed workers in the United States increased by 101,000 (from 11,659,000 to 11,760,000) during the same period, according to the “seasonally adjusted” date. In addition the jobless rate for all female workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States was still 7.1 percent in May 2013; while the official jobless rate for all female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 6.5 percent during that same month.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ June 7, 2013 press release:

“…In May, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was unchanged at 4.4 million. These individuals accounted for 37.3 percent of the unemployed…In May, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was unchanged at 7.9 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job…

 
“In May, 2.2 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

“Among the marginally attached, there were 780,000 discouraged workers in May…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

 
“Within government, federal government employment declined by 14,000 in May…Employment in…mining and logging, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, and financial activities…showed little or no change over the month…

“The change in total nonfarm payroll employment…for April was revised from +165,000 to +149,000…Employment gains in March and April combined were 12,000 less than previously reported…”

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Did Ruby Have Connections To H.L. Hunt Dynasty?

The guy who killed Lee Oswald on tv two days after JFK was eliminated, Jack Ruby, apparently had a few connections to the family of H.L. Hunt. As Texas Rich by Henry Hurt III recalled in 1981:

"The FBI uncovered two...possible links between Jack Ruby and H.L. Hunt. One was Isaiah Howard Haynes. A black laborer and handyman, Haynes had worked for Ruby for 16 years. His job was to clean up at Ruby's Carousel Club between the hours of 4 and 7 pm. But during nine of those years, Haynes had also been employed as a houseman-porter-chauffeur for the Loyd B. Sands family...Loyd Sands was the son-in-law of H.L. Hunt. Haynes was still employed by both Ruby and the Sands on the day Kennedy was shot. Ruby and the Hunt family also shared another black employee--Andrew Armstrong...He was employed at the Holiday Hill apartments, which the Hunts owned, from May to December of 1961. Two months later, in February of 1962, he went to work for Ruby as a maintenance man at the Carousel Club. Strangely enough, the Warren Commsision investigators questioned Haynes and Armstrong about possible connections or contact between Ruby and Oswald (both said they knew of none), but did not ask them about possible connections between Ruby and the Hunts."

(Aquarian Weekly 1/15/97)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Was H.L. Hunt Dynasty Involved In JFK Assassination Cover-Up?

As the 1973 movie Executive Action indicated, many folks in the U.S. suspect that Texas oil billionaires like H.L. Hunt were involved in plots that led to JFK's elimination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. And in his 1995 book Killing Kennedy, Harrison Edward Livingstone included the following references to H.L. Hunt and the Hunt dynasty:

"I had high-level information in Dallas that the original Zapruder film (from Zapruder's camera) was first obtained by H.L. Hunt before Life bought what they thought was the original...The indication is that Hunt's people obtained it and passed it on to the FBI who sent it to headquarters in Washington shortly after it was developed...What happened to H.L. Hunt's copy? Why won't the Hunt family discuss this?"

Coincidentally, Texas Rich by Henry Hurt III also recalled in 1981:

"The Hunts learned that President Kennedy's visit to Dallas might be greeted with violence nearly three weeks before the president crossed the state line. The warning came from the family's master intelligence man, Hunt Oil security chief Paul Rothermel. In a November 4, 1963 interoffice memo headlined `POLITICS,' Rothermel informed his boss that there had been `unconfirmed reports of possible violence during the parade' scheduled to take place when Kennedy arrived in town on November 22...

"The pandemonium that engulfed Dallas swept through the offices of Hunt Oil Company with gale force...Someone reportedly began shredding most circulating copies of Rothermel's memo of November 4..."

(Aquarian Weekly 1/15/97)

45 Years Since RFK Assassination Retrospective: Who Burned RFK Assassination Investigation Photos?

Coincidentally, around the time of the 1968 Democratic National Convention much of the photographic evidence related to 1968 Democratic presidential primary candidate and U.S. Senator from New York Robert Kennedy's elimination was apparently burned. According to The Kennedy Encyclopedia by Caroline Latham and Jeannie Sakol:

"In August 1988, the state of California released much of its documentation of the investigation of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's assassination on the night of June 5, 1968. Among the more than 50,000 pages of material was a certificate attesting to the fact that 2,410 photographs taken during the investigation were burned on August 21, 1968, little more than two months after the shooting. The Los Angeles Police Department said they did not know why the photographs were destroyed. Scholars have labeled the burning `incredible' and suggested it might be the resultt of something more sinister than mere incompetence."

(Downtown 7/22/92)

45 Years Since RFK Assassination Retrospective: Media Coverage Of The RFK Assassination

In Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: New Revelations On The Conspiracy and Cover-Up, Southeastern Massachusetts University Professor Philip Melanson asserted in the early 1990s that "after more than two decades of tortured evidentiary logic, secrecy and deception, the official version of the RFK assassination has been so discredited that it collapsed like a house of cards" and "a second gunman, a female accomplice, a hypno-programmed assailant--all have been obscured by what is surely one of the most concerted, longest-running, best-documented cover-ups in the history of U.S. law enforcement..."

The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination book also asserted the following:

"Media coverage...has all too often been absent, biased toward official sources, sensationalized or geared exclusively toward human-interest stories (that is, who is still interested in the case and what makes them tick)...The effect of this deficient attention has been to make it easier for the investigating authorities to shield themselves from accountability as well as to perpetuate myths and disinformation suupportive of the official version of the assassination...

"The Hollywood myth of the RFK case--lone assassin, open-and-shut, thorough investigation--that presently dominates our political culture is a costly deception."

Coincidentally, in its November 1966 issue, the alternative newspaper The Movement noted the following:

"Last month Robert Kennedy's brother-in-law was killed in the crash of a private plane in Idaho. Killed with him was Louis Werner II, a St. Louis investment banker. The AP dispatch on the crash identified him as an employee of the CIA. The New York Times story said he had been for 15 years the chief of the St. Louis CIA office, and that his principal job was the recruitment of personnel for the spy agency."

(Downtown 6/29/94)