We Are Moving?

Most of my Blogger blogs will be moved to WordPress. I've had enough of Google changes and I don't like the force they place on loyal users. I've used Goggle's blogs for several years and enjoyed many of the features. But I've also used WordPress and enjoy most of its features, too. The Christian River Blog may be one of the last ones to move. I have dozens of blogs to migrate. The entire process will take from several weeks to several months. Most of the blogs will go to my self-hosted sites and although they will be WordPress.org rather than WordPress.com blogs I will have full control and will not have to put up with the repeated changes Google and Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! and other companies forced on its users.

I do like the changes made at YouTube although many people do not. I may remain at YouTube for the time being. I'm not sure if I'll make any more posts here until the blog is incorporated into my self-hosted websites. Links and notices will be posted as soon as I make a permanent decision.

Three self-hosted websites where the majority of my Blogger blogs will be moved to in part or in whole are:
Christian River Magazine which is also Christian River Network and the
Christian River website.
The two locations featuring a network of self-hosted sites are http://www.christianriver.net/ and http://www.christianriver.org/.  I also have another website on the same self-hosted platform I own called The Devil Follows Me which is at the web address of http://www.thedevilfollowsme.com/.

I have much work to do struggling through illness to get the websites updated as well as the many blogs moved. I am also moving the original RIVER Organization website http://www.riverorganization.org/.

I may or may not leave the photo blogs at Blogger.

The Pigeon Post

Pigeon Post
By Cliff Harrison

The Pigeon Post is a weekly syndicated column by Cliff Harrison scheduled to be published every Wednesday. For the short term all weekly columns will be published periodically until the columns functional status is established.


Interesting tidbits, fun facts, news briefs, short opinions, quotes and more will be included in the content of Pigeon Post.

Some of the articles may lead to longer work published later in the supporting website, the one where the column originally appeared, or elsewhere on the Internet. Also I've very sick and finding it difficult to operate more than an hour or two at a time before complete exhaustion prevents me from finishing my work. Many articles and columns have been started and delayed. I do so in order to assemble the building blocks I'll use to complete my plan. I apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. Hopefully in the end it will pay off.  That said, all of my work should always be though of as "Work-in-Progress" as that is what it really is.

Blackout

By now most people are away about the blackout started by Wikipedia and other websites to protest SOPA, Stop Online Privacy Act, legislation. The blackout has ended and a message on the Wikipedia sight states, “Thank you for protecting Wikipedia. (We’re not done yet.) It looks like the blackout wars go on.

Concerning blackout the last time I remember the word blackout being used was back in New York, during electrical storms and severe winter storms. ’66 was a special year to remember; just one year major blackouts occurred. But this blackout was an Internet blackout of certain websites protesting the SOPA. In a nutshell the act has something to do with copyright laws. Wikipedia is probably the most prevalent site blacking out. Their site blacked out for 24 hours and continued as this publication was being written. The site has returned to normal since.

On a similar note.

Styrofoam™ is a trademark for the Dow Chemical Company. Like Kleenex®, a registered brand-name for the Kleenex® Brand facial tissue, by Kimberly-Clark, Styrofoam™ although a trademark for Dow Chemical the name is used in everyday household use or generic use anytime someone speaks of or refers to polystyrene foam products used for housing insulation, food containers including disposable plates and drinking cup and much more. Just as there are different brands of facial tissue people often address the item by trade name even when it is not the actual brand item addressed. Companies still have to protect their trademarks, registered brand names from infringement.

Homelessness is increasing in America and along with it an increase in dissentient voices expressing distasteful attitudes and opinions—sometimes purely hateful—toward the homeless. At a time of economic disparity not seen since the Great Depression Americas are falling by the boatload into poverty, many are losing everything they own to wind up with only their clothes on their backs as they end up in the streets, homeless. Yet there is a larger and larger segment of the American population that spews pure hatred for America’s down trotted, all stereotyped into one lot of drunks, drug addicts and brain-dead. I cover this opinion in an upcoming article that will be published in the Christian River Blog and other network sites. The working title of the article still in the early draft stages is The Stereotype Homeless and probably will be the published title. Look for it.

We can land men on the moon but we can’t shelter our homeless population. We can sent three carrier strike groups to the Persian Gulf to ruffle the political feathers of Iran, a cost of billions, but we can’t shelter our homeless.

Cold War with Iran

So here we go with the cold war with Iran. Unlike Iraq, Iran hasn’t to my knowledge murdered millions of innocent people like Saddam Hussein regime did. Iran is a sovereign nation, Iran, like Iraq, had the right to store weapons of mass destruction....

Editing in progress. Work-in-Progress.

Interview Video

Food Not Bombs - Las Vegas from Michael Zayas on Vimeo.

Premiere Issue of Carrier Pigeon

Carrier Pigeon

By Cliff Harrison

Monday the 16th of January 2012

Carrier Pigeon is a weekly column by Cliff Harrison bringing you the Headline news, Back-Page News, interesting stuff, fun stuff, all but the turkey stuffing stuff and much more.

Carrier Pigeon premiere issue 16 January 2012.  The Premiere Issue is launched in more than a dozen publications. The launching of Carrier Pigeon is a historical event that will go down in history books as a major news event and will surely be the talk of the water cooler crowd and pigeon watering holes around town for centuries to come. Every copy sold out minutes before the official launching time at 9:11PM PST.

Welcome to the first issue of the Carrier Pigeon, a syndicated mini-column by Cliff Harrison. The Carrier Pigeon will be a grab bag of headline news—local, national and world news and events—news recaps from previous news stories of the week. A treasure chest of things you should know and such mini reports of recent or ancient discoveries you may not yet have heard about will be sprinkled in the Carrier Pigeon reports. Tips, tidbits, what’s new, pet peeves, how-to stuff, fun facts, announcements, social news, celebrities and entertainment pieces, scientific & historical truths, (and lies), Did You Know? pieces without the “Did You Know?” headline title, one-liner opinions, maybe two-liner opinions, mini satire pieces, mention of “this time in history” and historical events of the day or week, and abstracts and interesting discoveries found from my research notes are always being inserted into the Carrier Pigeon’s message box and much more fun things to learn and talk about at the water cooler (and pigeon watering hole) will be included as well as a little sprinkling here and there of lightly humored seasoning.

Our birds don’t tweet, but they are faster than Superman and spread the white stuff called pigeon droppings faster than Oscar Goodman can spread his evil. It's their way of sharing the wealth. Oh, did I mention there will be teasers of the homey boys and their brave flights to protect the skies of Vegas from hostile aggression called the Agitators?

Yes, sir, that's right. Step right up for your free copy of the Carrier Pigeon Syndicated News Column and "...hear all about it. Hear all about it! Extra! Extra! Read all about it." You can hear them cooing now, "News! News! Carrier Pigeon News! Come and Get it! That latest edition! Extra! Coo! Coo! Poo! Poo! See who got pooed! Coo-Coo Poo-Poo!" Holy Pigeon holing, here comes the preacher.

There will be teasers and lead-ins to fiction pigeon stories and an introduction to our home boys, homeys hatched right here in Fabulous Las Vegas under the eaves of the famous Welcome Sign, local pigeon crap-shooters, Splashy, Splishy and Splendid, better known locally as the Splendid Splish Splash Sorties Shhhhootin' Strutting Stick Squabs. The grandmothers call them the S-8 boys, boys will be boys. Grandpa calls them the 8-S boys. Pigeon hole, pigeon toed, the flying rats, the daredevils braver than motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel as they boldly dive into the road and pick up a kernel of popcorn before the flying machines runs over them...

Unlike much of my other longer writings, Carrier Pigeon joins a family of short-shorts or what I call “mini-columns”. It is currently scheduled to be a weekly published every Monday. This first issue happens to be on Monday the 16th of January 2012. Carrier Pigeon may appear on different days in publications that do not offer a Monday publication or if publishing delays occur. With my sickness, and chronic fatigue that’s more than likely to occur. I’m certain I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, something no doctor in Vegas has even considered, but the excessive exhaustion zapping my strength could cause delays in scheduled publishing. Alas, live with it. Get used to it and I’ll do my best to surprise you. I can't complain, two years ago I was given only one year to live so I really have nothing to complain about, have I? I beat the odds by at least 365 days.

This debut edition of course is much longer in length than the planned future publications of Carrier Pigeon due to the introductory and starter information.

Due to the volume of subjects mentioned a credit line will usually not be available for the source of information, but generally it is something I found during my routine research and pass along to you. Wikipedia is often an initial source of my research. But my research comes from all over the web and from the humanities of life.

Being that this is the 16^th of January it is only fitting to write something about this day in history. Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2012. The nation celebrates his birthday. Born on 15 January, 1929, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist who spoke out against racial discrimination. He preached nonviolence in his civil rights movement and is best known for his nonviolence and his “I Have a Dream” speech while advocating civil rights for black Americans. King was cut down by an assassin’s bullet on 4 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. King’s assassination preceded Bobby Kennedy’s assassination which came two months later.

Wikipedia Blackout, Wikipedia the free online encyclopedia prepares for a worldwide blackout which will occur within 22 hours from Midnight Tuesday, 17 January 2012. The blackout will be to protest the SOPA and  PIPA which concern copyright legislation for the Internet. The English Wikipedia will blackout for 24-hours and no English version Wikipedia will be available even for people who spent thousands of dollars donating to the nonprofit charity. It is most likely those people support to blackout to begin with The protest is over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIIP). IP stands for Internet Protocol. beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 2012 the worldwide blackout will begin.


Dolly Parton turns 66 this week. Born 19 January 1946, the beautify Dolly Rebecca Parton an American singer-song writer with  multiple additional talents has been pleasing American country and western fans as well as other music genres for decades. Dolly is one of the most successful country music artists of all times.  Thursday will mark the sensational singer's birthday. Parton is a famous country and western singer, who this author was kissed by back in the seventies when he and his girlfriend at the time went to the Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady, New York to watch Dolly Parton and Porter Wagner perform.  WGNA the country music station of the area kept us informed of the Proctor's performances of stars like Dolly. You can’t do today what you could back then. We kissed and shook hands and took pictures. Those were the days. Happy Birthday, Dolly! We love you!


One final note on Dolly PartonHer philanthropy runs wide and deep like her warm heart.  She runs a literacy program called Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Parton enjoys a book club, or library, as it is called where she helps collect books and sends them to school children as well as pre-schoolers. Her club started with just “a few dozen books “and now mails over 40 million books to children in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. There’s much more to tell about this story, but Dolly Parton is a significant factor in improving the literacy of children. For her birthday she deserves two bows for helping to attack one of poverty's greatest factors, illiteracy.

Editing, work-in-progress...

Five Feet from the Finish Line

The Devil & Me
By Cliff Harrison

I shouldn't let the cat out of the bag and go spoiling a good story prematurely, but I'll tell you why I chose the title, "Five Feet from the Finish Line."  That's what it feels like.

One of the stories I'll publish one day in an up and coming installment of The Devil & Me is about a snowmobile race I was in back in the 70s. There I was leading the pack darn near a half a lap ahead of the nearest snowmobile coming up on the finishing line. Five feet before the finish line my drive belt broke, stopping me dead in my tracks.

There I sat unable to even push my sled across the line for a win. I was clearly ahead for most of the race and I only had sixty inches to cross the finish line and be the winner to take home the trophy. Sixty inches!

I just shook hands with the devil and thanked him as sled after sled passed me by as if poking fun at me for being that close to a winner only to be the worst loser of the entire race--dead last.

I feel like that now. Five feet from the finish line.

I've got so many writing projects that I just know are winners but I can't even get up enough energy to get them put together and published in the organized order they need to be in. Five feet from the finish line is where I am at stuck with a broken drive belt that went just like that.

I guess today I'll make more than one entry in my journal.

I can see the finish line. I can touch the finish line. I just can't get across the finish line. It's like in my mind as if I'm a cowboy in one of those old western movies and I'm crawling in the desert trying to reach the watering hole that is really nothing but a mirage while buzzards circle overhead. I'm just about there. But almost isn't good enough and those birds of prey are starting to call out to one another communicating about the bodacious dinner that's coming up.

Better men than me would have committed suicide by now. Just end it. Put themselves out of their misery. But not me. I like hanging around and giving the devil a hard time.

There are too many demons in this world to just up and leave them. It's more fun hanging around and making their life miserable like they do God's Children.

So, I guess I'll just have to plug along and do what work I can. My writing could be so much better if I didn't have this demon inside of me holding me back while draining my energy.

Well, what do you know? I meant this to be an entry for my journal. But you know what? I just wrote a piece for The Devil & Me. Why not? Maybe I can push my sled over the finish line.

The Devil & Me is a syndicated column by Cliff Harrison

1st Issue of the Town Crier

Town Crier

By Cliff Harrison
Friday the 13^th January 2012

Welcome to the first issue of the Town Crier, a syndicated mini column by Cliff Harrison. The Town Crier will be a grab bag of headline local, national and world news and events, news recaps, as well as a treasure chest of things you should know such as recent or ancient discoveries you may not know about, tips, tidbits, what’s new, pet peeves, how-to, fun facts, announcements, scientific & historical truths, Did You Know? pieces without the “Did You Know?” title, one-liner opinions, mini satire pieces, this time in history and abstracts from my research notes always being inserted and much more fun things to learn sprinkled lightly with humor seasoning.

Unlike much of my other longer writings, Town Crier joins a family of short-shorts or what I call “mini-columns”. It is currently scheduled to be a weekly published every Friday. Ironically this first issue happens to be on Friday the 13th in January 2012, a very scary day. Town Crier may appear on different days in publications that do not offer a Friday publication.

Due to the volume of subjects mentioned a credit line will usually not be available for the source of information, but generally it is something I found during my routine research and pass along to you. Wikipedia is often an initial source of my research.

Being that this is Friday the 13th it is only fitting to write something about this day in history.

Friday the 13th is associated with bad luck.

They are tongue twisters but friggatriskaidekaphobia is fear of Friday the 13th which many people are superstitious about and triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13. In 1911 the word paraskevidekatriaphobia

Editing continues...

Begging for Food



The week before Christmas 2011
 at Amazing Grace Ministries















By Cliff Harrison

A homeless person, a hungry person or a poor person ought to be able to go to any charity in the business of passing out free food without begging.

A hungry person ought to be able to go and get food to eat without all the communistic forms to fill out like Catholic Charities and so many other nonprofit 501(c)(3)s make so many people do.

Most so-called charities today are nonprofit 501(c)(3)s. That means the people gave them special privileges usually in special tax favors and the benefit to their donors to have their donations inturn tax deductible.

Charities are not owned by any person like a corporation or a private business. They cannot be sold or bought. They are not entities ruled by kings and queens, but are granted special privileges by the people through Congress and through the IRS.

In a heartbeat they can be shut down and their executives imprisoned for violating the strict codes and laws which govern them.

But not all the blame should be shouldered locally for today's misfits that operate America's so-called charities. HUD, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, often mandates that charities do a body count and to keep communistic records on the poor they serve.

HUD is a government agency we can stand to eliminate as they waste billions of dollars every single year in a foolish counting of homeless persons rather than use those dollars to house the homeless.

But this article is not about HUD and every time I think about that evil outfit that is neither catholic nor charity I gain a sickness to my stomach.

I just want to say this. Last night I attended a church feeding which is held every Wednesday night at 5:00 at St. Louis and Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas. It is a feeding of the homeless, the hungry and the poor which has been going on for years and years. It is called the Amazing Grace Ministries and it is put on by Presbyterian Churches that alternate volunteer duty to feed the poor.

At Amazing Grace Ministries the homeless and poor don’t have to beg for food like at Catholic Charities and other Las Vegas nonprofits. There is no begging for food. Food is freely delivered with the loving hands of God.

Not only does the Amazing Grace Ministries provide wholesome good food, as opposed to the slop served at the place that calls itself catholic, its food is delicious and filling. One can have seconds and even thirds and if there is enough as there always is a take home container is filled to go. Yes, even takeout containers that no downtown "homeless shelter" or soup kitchen ever provided are handed out.

Seldom if ever does the local press ever tell the story of the real compassionate people in town who are 100% volunteering and out of the kindness and caring of their hearts bring love to the community's homeless, hungry, needy and poor. And they do so without ever making one beg or fill out papers telling who they are or what their private information is all about.

We will always have thieves and liars among us. We will always have dishonest people in our company. It's darn hard to feed a belly that isn't truly hungry.

Catholic Charities and HUD has no right, absolutely no right whatsoever to ask anyone for identification or proof of their disability in order to gain food at their soup kitchen. HUD has no right to invade the privacy of the poor. We would be better off if both were shut down and and the people's money diverted elsewhere to a better cause.

Places like the Christ Church which houses the hall where Amazing Grace Ministries hold their weekly feeding program feed hundreds of Las Vegas Valley poor with a fraction of the money the big charities use and they invite the hungry with no requirements or forced rules or regulations in order to eat.

There are no nasty misfits operating the establishment, no "Staff" with behavior problems or "I'm the boss you do what I say or else" attitude.

No, there is none of that. There is only love and compassion, friendly service and not one of the volunteers are ever seen screaming and throwing a fit at the homeless.

Often, in addition to a great meal, there are clothes and other goodies passed out by the good people that the local press never mentions. The real charity in this town is done by the people that never get any of the attention or glory. People that treat the homeless and poor like human beings instead of herded animals.

And you know what? That's probably the nice thing about it because there is no evil anywhere around. Let's keep it that way.

Unexplained Phenomena

The Devil & Me

By Cliff Harrison

My own personal experiences with demonic beings can best be taken with the collective results of the stories to soon be told. The unexplained phenomenon can only be truly assessed in the final analyst of the collective stories compiled and combined in the complete book. The Exposés and Reflections of Demonic Experiences that I tell in the forthcoming stories collectively fit as pieces into one story.

Although each story is a standalone story, without the entire collection there isn’t much evidence of supernatural interference.

Collectively one might think they are demonic situations.

I make no claims to be “possessed” in the literal term as in demonic possessions. However, exorcisms are routinely performed on me as a matter of religion exercise and practice to expel or ward off any demons that may dwell in or near me.

Those exercises of “exorcism” can be found and explained in the sidebar listing under “Featured Related & Unrelated Links” at the right of The Devil Follows Me website and in the top navigation menu. But they are not like the Hollywood Exorcisms or the accompanying links of historical true-life exorcisms and experiences with demonic possessions or appearances.

My writing, my stories, my syndicated columns, my blogs and websites and my books all have messages, metaphor and idioms—sometimes hidden—ones that the reader should often figures out for himself.

Figuring things out for yourself is often the treasure of readings and applying intelligence.

The exposé stories will tell the truth and reveal—or expose—the entities, those evil creatures, persons, places or things, I have experienced negative and evil events with. The exposés are no-hole-barred. I hold nothing back. It took me many hours, days and weeks to decide if I was going to hold anything back, including names. I have decided. I rarely will.

I’m not here to make friends. No one is going to be invited to a weekend barbecue in my backyard.

I’m here to tell a story and that’s just what I’m going to do. And those stories I tell will certainly make me some genuine enemies. So be it!

It’s like this: The innocent have nothing to worry about. But, I’m not going to protect the guilty.

The stories concerning reflections deal with experiences that do not particularly fault any organization or entity but situations or incidents themselves which were negative or evil.

Read More at >>>The Devil Follows Me Website

The Devil & Me is a syndicated column by Cliff Harrison

I Hate Change!

Common Sense
by Cliff Harrison

Bank of America tried it. Wells Fargo tried it. Verizon “Can you hear me now?” Wireless tried it. Countless other big corporations tried it. And the public revolted. Change. Everybody says they want change. But nobody wants change. No, not really.

Google, AdSense; no, AdSense changed to AdWord, Blogger, YouTube, Yahoo!, they’re all making change. Change that is disturbing their customers. More change more tempers flare. More change more people drop the big 1% corporation they love to hate.

Microsoft, oh, don’t get me going.

I do like the changes YouTube made. I especially love their new music “mix” where you can play consecutive songs by the same artist. The one thing YouTube needs to add is the ability to “repeat” a song, like all music players have. I like repeating good songs. You see, I like sticking with what I know. I like sticking with what isn’t broken. I like sticking with what works. I like sticking with what I like. The changes made at YouTube aren’t so drastic that someone who liked the “old version” isn’t satisfied.

Why can’t all America’s corporations learn that?

One thing that never has changed, and it’s Microsoft “Change Daily” is the word processor spell checker. I spelled AdSense the way Google spells AdSense.

No matter how many times I click “ignore” it keeps coming back with the red line under the word indicating it is misspelled. Pssssst! Try clicking “ignore all”. Oh, my God! I thought that read ignorance.

“Ignore all” isn’t available every time, often only “ignore” is. And it keeps coming back.

They seem to change the stuff that works well and they don’t change the stuff that doesn’t work. The problem we have in America is we have too many geeks employed. If we had more geeks in our soup-kitchen lines maybe they’d change the soup-kitchen and give us something decent to eat and leave the rest of the stuff alone.

As I publish this I review the YouTube video that came with the Gmail “New Look”. 41,052 people voted they “liked” the video, meaning they liked the change while a whooping 36,300 disliked the video/change. That is the largest dislike I have ever seen on any YouTube video, nearly 50% of the voters rejected it.

I sort of felt bad after I sent a nasty comment to the geeks for changing Gmail but I don’t feel bad now, read the comments thousands of pissed users posted in the video comments.

I bet tomorrow we’ll hear a lot of the same thing we heard from Bank of American, Wells Fargo and Version Wireless, “Gmail dumps new look for old version after user revolt.”

After you send in a message for ‘feedback’ you are taken to a ‘help’ page which shows all of the Google help centers as if now they want to help you when before you had to pull your hair out in order to get help.

When you go to the menu page you can’t even find AdWord anymore. You have to hunt for it. It used to be first on the list. Google screwed up AdWord so much I’m about to pull the plug on any Goggle product, just like I did Yahoo! and Microsoft. Ignorant idiots!

Google started out a simple company with user friendly features. They should have left well enough alone.

By the way, spam has increased a thousand folds on Gmail.

The only changes Google ought to be making is they ought to fire everybody companywide from top to bottom except the YouTube division.

There is no common sense at Google.

If Google was Bank of America it would be bankrupt.

I rest my case!

Common Sense is a syndicated column by Cliff Harrison.

New Year’s Resolution: A Syndicated Message

I Can Dream Can’t I?
by Cliff Harrison

The last day of the year 2011 has arrived and we will soon be going into the 2012 New Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My New Year’s Resolution is described below…along with my last post of the year and my first post of the year.

Writer Dave L Turo-Shields, Psychotherapist and Success Coach, wrote in one of his columns posted in bipolarworld.net about New Year’s Resolutions: The most important question for you is... are you ready for a change? And, if the answer is "yes," the second question is... how ready are you?

 Those are great questions.

We all want change, don’t we? We’re all ready for change, aren’t we? But like Dave asks just how ready for change are we? I’m real ready. I’m so ready for change I can taste it. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’m tired of poverty. I’m tired of the lying, stealing, corrupt and greedy self-serving nonprofits, politicians and corporate slave masters. I’m tired of elective officials screwing the very people who have put them in office. I’m tired of nonprofits disrespecting the poor and getting fat and rich off of the homeless victims they tread on. I’m tired of a lot of things. I’m tired of poverty. I’m tired of losing my independence. I’m tired of depending on people you can’t trust let alone depend on. Like the people in government and in nonprofits and in corporations.

I’m ready for change. I’m big time ready for change, real change. And I mean change.

Today, network wide, I’m going to talk a little bit about what changes I’m going to be making as a New Year’s resolution for the network, the Cliff Harrison Network. The resolution I’ll be talking about is being syndicated throughout the entire network, or at least as far as I can reach in the time I have to reach. Change is coming. I resolve to make the change happen. Isn’t a New Year’s resolution really about change? It is. If we start doing something or stop doing something we’ve changed. And that’s what makes a New Year’s Resolution so exciting, especially if the change sticks.

As I started posting this article and resolution across the network for a syndicated release in some of the blogs it is already midnight and therefore the New Year, in New York. In fact, by the time I managed to get all the posts finished it is the New Year in Vegas as well.
Still editing...

Catholic Charities Reeks with Evilness Part I

St. Vincent's Catholic Charities

By Cliff Harrison

Part I In a Series: An Exposé

The scumbags that run some of Las Vegas charities are frauds. Fraud isn’t something which is new in Vegas. There has been much corruption among Vegas nonprofit charities as there has been among city and county government. Often they sleep in the same bed.

Vegas—Sin City—happens to be a place where demons dwell and flourish.

The image Catholic Charities, and other nonprofits that are in business to provide food and shelter for the homeless in Vegas, try to paint an image of a friendly, compassionate nonprofit who cares for the homeless and poor.

I’m going to show you in a series of articles, reports and exposé that that is not always the case.

It came across the Reuters wire that some Las Vegas Charities giving away toys and turkeys this season have started asking families for identification. Reuters named some of the charities, Salvation Army and HELP  of Southern Nevada and Lutheran Social Services, but I’ll name one charity that has been stealing from the people and blocking the aid their donation campaigns promised to help the poor with while compiling extensive private and confidential information on the homeless and poor--Catholic Charities.

Reuters claim the charities said the controversial move to require identification, such as Social Security or state identification cards or birth certificates was to prevent fraud because of the economical condition of the state.

Catholic Charities not only requires identification for shelter they abstract a long profile of homeless persons seeking shelter and food. Not only does Catholic Charities invade the homeless privacy they share the information they force from the clients that seek shelter and food.

Such private and confidential information which Catholic Charities had agreed with the data bank that stores the information to handle it with care and with restrictions in the office that collects the information. That is not the case with Catholic Charities who grossly violates this system.  The form I filled out recently was stuffed in the back pocket of the man who processed the information. Further I asked for a copy of what I filled out and was handed a black form. My rights were violated at that point a second time by Catholic Charities in one night.

At least six members of the Catholic Charities employees at the Las Vegas complex knock down over $100,000 per year salary plus special perks and benefits including holidays with paid days off to match the unionized government workers.

I’ve written in this blog and others about the disgrace of the Three Square food bank CEO commanding a salary of $212,000 per year. I’ve written extensively how I could feed, clothes, shelter and supply hundreds of homeless with their needs for $212,000.

The CEO I wrote about up and left Three Square and moved out of state shortly after I published the serial articles about the outrageousness of her greed and calling herself someone who cared for the poor. Her actions were certainly not charity, it was self-serving greed and self-serving greed will not be tolerated in the nonprofit sector called charity.

At Catholic Charities, the day after Christmas, I was told I could not come back and eat at the free lunch which is always slop soup and rotten fruit and expired-for-days sandwiches. I wasn’t on the list, the guy said. I needed to fill out forms. I needed to provide information. Never mind, they already have tons of private information on me and carelessly processed that information which they share with several other communist bodies. I’ve detailed all that in other articles I’ll publish in the future.

Most or many of these “staff” that processes you when you are on the grounds for food or shelter are addicts who are going through rehabilitation programs and/or are also in work programs to earn their keep. Not the most trustworthy people in the world. Yet you are providing confidential information. It wasn’t so long ago these same people were homeless or poor themselves.  For many of them a little bit of power goes instantly to their head and some of these guys can’t handle power. When a little bit of problems develop they instantly loose it and go ballistic like they did on me when I simply asked if there was shrimp in the food, which I am deathly allergic too.

I’ve asked dozen of people since, their opinion, if they thought I was within my rights of what most people would agree was a reasonable question to ask. All agreed I was.

A volunteer, not a Catholic Charities staff  member processed my plate on Christmas Day to eliminate the threat of severe illness caused by the ignorance of Papa Leary, the top brass at Catholic Charities. One must assume the man in charge is ignorant to allow what is to some people a deadly allergen to be served to hundreds of people without any safeguard to protect those people from serious illness.

Part II of this continued series will be published shortly.

O Holy Night-Sung In Navajo-Native American

Merry Christmas
Jana


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Winter in Granville, New York

By Cliff Harrison

We can't bring the snows of Granville, New York to you here in Vegas, but we can bring you to the snows of Granville via YouTube.

What is Christmas season without snow?

December is sometimes colder in Nevada than it is in New York. A nice hot cup of chocolate and some Christmas Gingerbread cookies will do the trick for keeping us snug.

Enjoy the winter scenes where there is always plenty to do outside in the wintertime, in Granville in Upstate New York.

Being homeless in wintery places like New York can not be fun. For those who are homeless on the eastcoast and there are thousands of people who are, we pray for them and hope they can stay warm this Christmas Season.

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River

By Cliff Harrison

Christmas season is upon us once again. People are out mailing Christmas cards. Families are out searching for the best Christmas Tree around and bringing it home to decorate it.

While we enjoy hot chocolate and spice Christmas cookies we finish the last of those Christmas cards. Christmas music is playing in the background and we find ourselves in the Christmas spirit. We have the whole month of December to enjoy the season's jolliness.

Those of us who are Christian will celebrate with Church friends the importance of this time of the year as we worship Jesus Christ.

We say our blessings and prayers. We remember the homeless and how the poor has to deal with the struggles of having little or no money at Christmas time. We think of those who have nothing at all, those who are outside with no shelter in the elements of the cold winter trying to stay warm.

Sharing is an important part of the Christmas season. Giving to others who have nothing or who suffer the blows of poverty helps us warm our own hearts as well as the hearts of others.

The most important thing is to keep the Christmas Spirit in our hearts glowing like a log on a warm fire. It's important not to let that spirit burn out.

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River - Sarah McLachlan