Gil The Jenius

TEDx San Juan: Marcos Polanco

2012-01-26T08:12:00.004-04:00

[Apropos of this interview, Global Voices Online did a review of five Caribbean-area TEDx events, which quote Me. What can I say, except "Thanks"?]

Marcos Polanco was the Speaker Coordinator of the TEDx San Juan event in November, 2011. Our paths have crossed several times in the past decade, not always in positive or even neutral terms. But that day in November, I gave him his due, for the TEDx San Juan speakers were phenomenal. (I will interview the rest of the TEDx Event Coordination superstars in the coming weeks; I know Marcos better than I know the others, so I started with him.)

Marcos is a serial entrepreneur, with Silicon Valley experience, who came back to Puerto Rico after, in his own words, "crashing and burning" in California. Working in start-ups, he made approaches to government agencies and was invited to become a consultant. One of the first lessons he grokked there was that government work was no meritocracy: talent and brains mattered little, if at all. As Marcos pointed out, he'd just come from Silicon Valley, where brilliant ideas rule; in Our government, brilliant ideas were ignored. As Marcos noticed, an idea would make some small measure of progress if the person submitting it had power or leverage to make the listener do something.

After being a consultant, Marcos was asked to help coordinate with McKinsey Consulting on a major report about Our economic present (in 2003) and future. Marcos realized that since China had outsourced manufacturing and India had outsourced services, Puerto Rico had to find a different business model to offer the world. He found one: federal contracts, primarily based on engineering. Puerto Rico's largely-unknown deep pool of top-notch engineers was a resource that We could leverage for federal projects with little or no global competition.

His insight came in September, 2003, barely less than a month after InfoTech had secured a contract with Pratt & Whitney to take on federal defense contracts and set up shop in Mayagüez, a success story that led to several other "reverse brain drain" projects bringing Our engineers back to Our shores. Marcos played pivotal roles in that development, as he entered the Puerto Rico Industrial Company, PRIDCO, to help develop the Information Technology Business Unit.

PRIDCO--My eternal nominee for "Gilded Busted Sump Pump of the Century"--turned out to be a revelation for Marcos. In his words, it took him "several months" to figure out its complexity and "about a year" to see how "utterly brilliant" PRIDCO was. As an economic attractor, sales arm and industrial developer for Puerto Rico, PRIDCO was "utterly brilliant...for 1955."

(Made Me spit out coffee, he did. Cracked me up.)

PRIDCO was the main agency of the economic miracle that defined Puerto Rico's success from 1947 to 1972. But Marcos found its indifference to change "heartbreaking," for not only is the model broken, but there's no will to change it at a wide enough level. Therefore politics rule what should be a practical reality. As Marcos said, when an entrepreneur brings a project to PRIDCO, they ask 3 questions: how much are you investing, how many jobs are you creating and how many square feet of space do you need. These 1955 questions were pertinent then, but the current economy, where 2/3 of all new jobs are coming from new companies (mainly Internet-based), these 3 questions are far removed from reality. In addition, for PRIDCO, a job is a job, so 300 minimum-wage jobs with drone workers means more to the agency than 50 high-wage knowledge worker jobs. When salary is not important it means Our public economic policy is short-sighted and self-limiting, tossing away true growth in pursuit of "political numbers."

To describe where We are as an economic entity on the global stage, Marcos used the analogy of being once a major stop on Route 66 and when the interstate was built, you are literally "off the beaten path." To Marcos, Puerto Rico has long been off the beaten path, and yet he firmly believes that We can move Ourselves to get back where We belong, because the "shift" isn't physical, but conceptual.

But to do so, We can't rely on PRIDCO or other government agencies. As Marcos pointed out, some agencies have to look outside to deal properly with their functions (like the Government Development Bank and bond traders in New York, PRIDCO with multinationals or Tourism with the travel industry.) But if PRIDCO is so wrong in outlook, despite almost constant "outside feedback," what can be expected of the other "inward-looking agencies" of Our government? In other words, Marcos thinks Our political architecture--as well as Our economic architecture--need to be fundamentally changed for progress to occur.

However.

Politics rules to an overbearing extent. Marcos notes that with about half Our population is in poverty and nearly 27% of Our workers employed by the government, political leaders spend their 4 years in office trying to get more money from the "Sugar Daddy" up north to benefit the poor and government workers, the biggest voter mass We have. Entrepreneurs and knowledge workers, the key elements of 21st century economic innovation, are a diminishing middle class that means diddly-squat (My term) in terms of votes. Not enough votes means no attention which equals indifference and inertia. A sad formula for getting stuck in neutral.

Along those lines, Marcos is appalled that Our continuing and increasing brain drain is not a national emergency. Almost 100% of Our best-rated engineers leave the Island (other professions are close to that, with nurses leaving at a 55-70% clip, doctors at about 40-50% and lawyers at about a 35-40% rate...so there is a silver lining to this brain drain, I guess.) and the loss of human resources in Our "unreal economy" is a powerful blow. It is an unreal economy since Puerto Rico makes what it doesn't consume and consumes what it doesn't make, so its economy is not "directly affected" by most of Our actions. We have little or no control over speeding up cash cycles, which drives economic growth, so Our only true tool is human talent and drive.

And yet, even today, PRIDCO accounts for about 11% of all jobs in Puerto Rico, so it still has a degree of relevance, aside from it being the precursor agency to other government departments (the Ports Authority, for example). As such, it holds sway over economic development and innovation, currently being ridden by the biotech industry sectors (mainly related to the big pharmaceutical companies here), for although innovation is more than biotech, no one in government seemed to have a clue and the biotech sectors gladly accepted the gift of being able to guide economic policy their way.

Marcos is not a pessimist, though. He believes Puerto Rico can become a global player because the technology for globalization is now in the hands of the individual. Marcos himself works with colleagues in Africa, Europe, Asia and the U.S. of part of A. in his latest start-up. Location doesn't matter, but knowledge, energy and will do.

On the other hand, Marcos thinks that trying to turn Our Island into a Silicon Reef (backhand jab of Mine at the Center for the New Economy and their decade of uselessness) won't work because We aren't early tech adopters (willing to take a risk on the cutting edge), Our venture capital is barely-there and wrongly-focused on spending only for "the big score" (ignoring the more secure and proven course of portfolio growth rather than "lucky hit") and We still see Puerto Rico as "the market." In Marcos' example, if your only focus is on 4 million people, it's like you're trying to sell your company's offer to downtown Los Angeles only.

To counteract that, Marcos believes We need to focus on the monetization capacity of the Web. He pointed out that Groupon set a record by becoming a billion-dollar company in just 2 years; the previous record was four years. It's only a matter of time--pun intended--before a company reaches the billion-dollar mark in one year.

And maybe, just maybe, We could play a major part in it.

As Marcos emphasized, We don't have to wait for permission, We don't have to wait for anyone, no one can stop Us...if We believe We can do it, We focus on the global markets and We decide to do it.

Funny how it comes back to choice...

The Jenius Has Spoken.

"Get Out!" Movement, Part 2

2012-01-25T08:12:00.002-04:00

This won't take long...

The basic idea of My "Get Out!" Movement is to punt political parasites out of their cushy tushy-kissing moronic excuses for """jobs""" and make way for a (hopefully) new crop of less-egregious parasites. Now Puerto Rico being Puerto Rico (tautologies suck, but I'm stressing a point here), any name on a "Get Out!" list will be seen through party-politics prisms.

Not good, because as We've seen for decades, My Brethren vote under the notion of "He might be a fucking crook, but he's MY party's fucking crook." In other words, We vote stupid.

Hence, the "Get Out!" Movement. I placed 3 criteria on who to kick out: legislators in key positions (presidents, vicepresidents, etc. of their respective (fart)gas chambers); legislators with more than 12 years of bloodsucking """service""" and mayors who have also spent 12+ years living high off Our pig-stupid voting.

One more thing is needed: a centralized website that does the following:

A) Identifies the "Get Out!" targets under the specified criteria.

B) Targets each, uh, target, their ads, utterings and """service record,""" to make sure that kicking them out is clearly a boon for Us, humanity, several star systems and simple decency.

C) And the clincher: the "Get Out!" website needs to make clear that ANY elected official can be targeted, that once s/he is targeted the website will strive to kick their ass out of office as soon as possible and that the criteria for being on the "Get Out!" list are NOT ideological, NOT status-related, NOT party-politics-as-usual but a citizen's movement to enforce the government We deserve.

So, political parasites in the scope, don't like being on the (future) "Get Out!" list? Here are My three immediate responses:

1) Fuck you.

2) Resign immediately.

3) Do your job right by and for Us and you will drop off the "Get Out!" list.

Some of you may be wondering: And what good does that do, Oh-So-Brilliant Jenius?

Here's My (almost) immediate reply: What good are We doing now?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Admitted Criminal? No, Just "Negligent"

2012-01-23T08:12:00.009-04:00

Summary: A prick of a legislator builds houses without permits, connects them to power and water illegally--therefore getting them both "free"--and doesn't pay taxes on either property. Lies about it at first, then admits the facts: fraud, theft, mendacity and ethical violations as an elected official.

What happened to this pure shitbag, something called José "What? Me Follow Laws?" Rivera?

1) The ethics committee of the outhouse of nonrepresentatives (capital letters imply respect), led by a fatbag of fatheadedness Liza "Morbidly Obtuse" Fernández, decided that "there was nothing to investigate," even though the houses are there, the years of monthly bills were there, the prick's statements were there and the fucking ethical standards of the outhouse are fucking there. No, according to the fatbag, there's nothing to investigate. And lest We be remiss, the 9-member committee voted 6-3 to not investigate, the votes cast impurely along political lines. Can We say statehooders are fucking thieves and just make it part of their platform for 2012?

2) The bigger fatbag of fatheadedness in the outhouse of nonrepresentatives, something called Jenniffer "Gluttonny" González, makes a big hullaballoo about asking the prick (believe Me, not her favorite thing by ANY stretch of the imagination) for "papers," apparently to sop up the grease from her latest quaint meal for four that she ate alone, because she did diddly-squat with the "evidence." Her object was to get some airtime and she succeeded at that; useless to anyone but her ego.

3) Faced with public pressure and the absolute open fucking shamelessness of the prick and fatbag and the whole shitty excuse for a party, the lame-ass ethics committee decided--against the "evidence" of THEIR OWN previous shit-headed decision--to suspend the prick 10 days for "negligence."

The only way that last sentence would please Me is if they hang Lying Thief Rivera by his own prick (if they can find it) for 10 days.

Here's why this is making My language and attacks so beyond the pale: We are seeing the reality of Puerto Rico...and nobody's getting pissed off enough to do serious harm to the perpetrators.

Options abound: firebomb the prick's houses (no, I am not kidding; I'll tell you when I'm kidding); march on the outhouse and break a few doors with several heads; run the fatbags off the road and make them eat a diet meal (okay, now I'm kidding: make them eat ground glass)...or vote the fuckers out, with extreme prejudice.

Let's start the target list: José Rivera, Liza Fernández, Jenniffer González and the five majority-party members of the pig sty commission that couldn't find ethics in a one-word dictionary dedicated solely to the topic: Elizabeth Casado, Albita Rivera, Jorge Luis “Borgie” Ramos, Angel Peña, Jr., José “Pichy” Torres Zamora.

These 8 should be on Our GetOut Movement list. They are worthless parasites, scum I wouldn't wish on Osama Bin Laden's dead ass. But We have them all to Our own until We decide to treat them exactly as they deserve: flush them out with the rest of the sewage.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Fun With Economics!

2012-01-20T08:12:00.000-04:00

It's Friday, Friday, Friday, and now that I've dumped that earworm in your head for several hours, here's a bitter pill of economic information about My Island.

How screwed are We? On a scale of 1 to 10, about a 9.5. And that's not My opinion, but that of the Center for New Economy, a puppet of Old Economy interests, that occasionally drops data on Our heads. This simple chart, apparently created by CNE Executive Director Sergio Marxuach, traces the amount Our Larval (non)government budget pays in debt service (bonds, junk bonds), seen in pink, and how much of the budget is now being invested in "permanent improvements":

Roughly, the ratio is now 3-to-1 debt service over government investment in crooks, thieves and assorted other vermin, a.k.a., the GasoDildo Gang and ilk.

But.

In Our subjugated economy, the only strong method of boosting growth is government-led construction...IF aimed more at true public improvement rather than private enrichment. In this cockroach-frenzy corruption-fest of a (non)government, 3 dollars are going out of Our economy for roughly every dollar practically stolen in queer-as-hell deals. Our debt limit has been reached, so We're facing issuing future debt to pay current debt and the private sector is not receiving investment, either. I'm no economist, but that doesn't sound like a formula that could build national wealth in a million years. And it all starts with not managing debt properly, creating it now (for short-term personal gains) in exchange for an increasingly-iffy future...that the verminous parasites don't give a shit about.

However, Let's be fair here. It isn't only one party at fault. Statehooders may be perfecting the "politics of plunder," but the commonwealth party has often been the initiator and willing partner in crime. (Independentistas used to do their share, but now they're on the Olympic Plan: every 4 years they show up for 2 weeks, make a lot of noise and then vanish.)

Plenty of blame to spread around; We're just seeing the end result of a parasitic gang mentality pushing Our economic future deeper into a latrine in order to plunder the few thin veins of gold flakes left. To blame The Larva and its ilk for where We (yes, I called him an "it"; 'bout time) are is like blaming pneumonia for killing a cancer-stricken patient: yeah, the pneumonia could have been avoided, but the patient was already in bad straits.

And yet.

We. Are. The. Patient.

But We act like We aren't. Fool Me once, shame on you. Fool Me every day for 40+ years...

Sigh.

Fun with economics. On Friday, Friday, Friday...

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Ecological Disaster: $3 A __________ Pop

2012-01-19T08:12:00.011-04:00

Hey! Let's play "Fill in The Jenius Blank"! The rules are simple: toss in the expletive you feel best completes My sentence! Be creative! Be filthy! Be hilarious! I am!

Today's topic: allowing four-tracks to run through the Guánica Dry Forest, the only semi-tropical dry forest in the __________ world! See? We're already playing!

A walking piece of dog _____ pretending to be in charge of Our Natural Resources Department has granted permission to let "ecological vehicles" race through the Guánica Dry Forest--at $3 per person. Or __________ vehicle. And by "ecological vehicle" We're really talking about mother_____________ four-tracks.

Not content with this aberration, Daniel "Dog _____" Galán, principal skanky _______ in the coming orgiastic _____fest raping the Dry Forest has also allowed a private company to """manage""" the Visitor Center facilities, in a UNESCO World Heritage Preserve, for the __________ total of $300 a month. On a 5-year contract. Renewable for 5 more mother________________ years if the Dry Forest simply refuses to die.

In the spirit of Orwellian double-speak--in reality, ____________ lies--here's My description of "Dog ______" Galán in his role as overseer of Our Natural Resources: "fucking whore."

I don't do double-speak. And I filled in a blank for you!

First of all, how in the ______________ hell can a site as unique as the Guánica Dry Forest be tossed like a used lottery ticket into the hands of a ________ private company? To run _______________ four-tracks--an estimated 1-_____-thousand a month--across a terrain that has NO twin anywhere in the world? And to allow access to bicycles and excursions beyond that...for 300 ___________ dollars a month?

Obviously, the federal government hasn't signed off on this. Which means that "Dog _____" Galán, aside from being a "_________ whore" (I let you fill in that one!), could be a ________________ thief, extending a non-enforceable contract to a private company in exchange for who-knows-what. That or he is truly _________________, _______________ and _________________ stupid beyond belief.

Thank you for playing "Fill in The Jenius Blank!" Remember, "Dog ______" Galán is a ______________ whore who wants to ___________ the Guánica Dry Forest! I say We ____________ him first. Repeatedly. And sideways, too.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

TEDx San Juan: Mayra Santos-Febres

2012-01-18T08:12:00.005-04:00

Mayra Santos-Febres was the brilliant closing speaker of TEDx San Juan, with her topic about Our fear of literature and reading. As she said then, We refuse to read because it makes Us more insecure, and We refuse to write because it reveals too much about Us.

I interviewed her to explore these thoughts. Like many of Us here in Puerto Rico who love to read, as a child she noticed that reading was cast in a negative light. Comments like "You'll go crazy" or "It will hurt your eyesight" were common, along with "It will make you think" and "Men don't like women who are smarter than they are."

For Mayra, this anti-reading bias was not really gender-based, or race-based, but based on class. Her middle-class upbringing placed a premium on "being private," of keeping matters under wraps, which extended to "keeping one's place" as well. Class mobility was not a virtue or a realistic possibility, so reading--which could encourage dissatisfaction, give one new ideas or reveal intimacies--was seen as dangerous. In Mayra's keen-eyed phrase, there was an imposition of "necessary silence."

This "necessary silence" could only be maintained through auto-censorship, so communication was per force oblique, hinted, veiled and incomplete. Mayra said she felt as if her family was constantly hiding a secret, and yet never knowing what that secret could be. Reading and writing were thus cast as tools of investigation--and discovery--the two enemies of secrets.

This secretiveness and view of reading/writing as dangerous stems, Mayra feels, from how closely interconnected Our families are, thus creating a tightly-woven society. Our social links within Our classes are strong, cementing identity with it, even if We also engage in linking "above" or "below". With numerous and close links, anonymity is harder to achieve. So is solitude, that fundamental nest of creativity.

In other societies, where anonymity is easier or stronger, literature flourishes. I mentioned to Mayra that while living in Oxford, Mississippi, I regularly spoke to a woman who knew William Faulkner and said she despised him. Her only other comment about him was: "All he did was write down what he heard around here." For insular societies--whether they are islands or backwaters--exposure of the dark sides is betrayal most heinous. But the South affords anonymity that Puerto Rico simply doesn't, where writers have to literally isolate themselves within the isolation or leave the Island to pursue their desire. The few voices that rise above Our "necessary silence" tend to pay a heavy price for their perceived defiance in threatening that silence.

The fear and rejection of reading and writing in Puerto Rico has another class component, according to Mayra. In her view, Our upper class, the wealthy movers and shakers, have less power than in other societies, so they are more fearful. I confess that hadn't occurred to Me and at first glance, I'm inclined to disagree, but Mayra's observation has an undeniable fact: We don't control Our economy, so how "powerful" can mere managers be, even if they are "executive managers"? Those with some greater degree of local power are thus aware that it can be as easily taken from them from "above" as from "below," simply because they cannot isolate themselves enough from either.

This sense of isolation, energized by secretiveness and insecurity, permeates Our culture to the point of leaving Us ignorant (My word) of the outside world. As Mayra says, "the world" to Us is the "the United States and maybe Cuba and the Dominican Republic." The rest? Doesn't exist. And about the Dominican Republic, We have a prejudice, as many of Our families have relatives there and tend to deny that fact.

Another fact Mayra is aware of, as a university professor, is the growing number of women who are outpacing Our men in achieving higher education goals. She sees that trend as emerging from a societal viewpoint that believes that "For men to be men, they must be brutes" (strong, forceful, not bookish), with their primary school being "the street." For women, their primary school IS school and the home, thus pre-disposing them to achieve more. As to what that will mean 20-25 years from now, she doesn't know (no one really does), but she did note that, for now, men still have the dominant share of power in business and politics, and that maybe a more equitable power structure will emerge in those 20-25 years, possibly leading to great changes.

One change We agreed upon is that of overcoming "Our national dream." As I described My post about this topic to her, she almost said the same thing I did: whereas I said "Rescue Us," she said "Solve this for Us." Mayra and I agree that a society that waits for others to do what's needed isn't a society that will produce a large number of writers, that We are in fact Cinderellas without a prince to escort Us to the palace. If We could only understand that no one has to give Us permission to be what We choose… As Mayra pointed out in her TEDx San Juan presentation maybe We don't read so We don't feel worse about Ourselves.

To overcome this aversion, Mayra targets education and "the Island," i.e., Our pursuit of fragmented efforts. Schools need to upgrade and expand their curriculums and include more modern works, as well as a greater variety. As for society, too many well-intentioned projects, from book fairs to literary contests to curation, are running helter-skelter, each too small to have a great impact, fighting against each other for money and resources, eschewing collaboration and cooperation because of ego and/or the fear of being considered a "politicized" organization. As Mayra emphasizes, more could be done if a centralized policy were pursued, one aimed at creating a central repository of information about Our literature, past and present, and Our myriad literary-related events.

That's Mayra's dream: a digital collection of Puerto Rican literature. Not a single-spot archive, but a directory, a digital doorway into Our novels, poems, essays, plays, music and more. Maybe the burgeoning world of digital publishing could also serve as a platform for a "Neo-Boricua" literary movement, much in the way that blogging has become a platform for Our random and not-so-random thoughts.

Some interviews are drags, others are dances and a very few are days unto themselves. To speak with Mayra is like sitting on a beach veranda, a sunny sky and warm breeze as the setting of an easy flow of words. Not one is wasted. Her thoughts move along with the grace of a generous spirit, one that accepts what it sees because it is; no sense in rejecting it for what it should be. I could spend several days enjoying that scenario, engaging Mayra's mind and spirit, exploring that which is so different and yet so much like Me.

Not surprising at all, because when you think about it, that's what reading is, too.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Obama Extends The Fascist Regime

2012-01-17T08:12:00.015-04:00

I mentioned the trend in 2004: of 14 defining characteristics of fascism, the U.S. of part of A. was exhibiting 10 outright and 3 were at the tipping point. It's gotten worse.

Back then, the murderous moron was president, product of two stolen elections. (Facts are facts: both elections were stolen by Republicans in outright fraud. Deal with it...although We haven't, really). The murderous moron and his hyena cabal are gone, but is the slide into fascism reversed under Barack "Hope, I Offered" Obama?

--Corporations are now people--PEOPLE--with a """right""" to free speech meaning that these non-men/non-women can spend as much money as they freaking please to support political candidates. This even though bribery is legal in the form of """lobbying.""" What it does is allow corporations--"""people"""--to outright buy political control of the government and use the media to further their control of the government, a pattern the fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini would easily recognize as the path to fascism.

These corporations are many of the same entities that received trillions of dollars in """necessary""" bailouts, most of it going to rich corporate executives and yet to be recovered, but citizens were barely helped by """economic recovery""" programs that basically amounted to "Hang on while We watch the rest of the world recover faster." Makes sense: bought politicians used Our money to enrich """people""" who will buy them again, while "The People" got screwed.

--Military tribunals and "secret courts" now have the power to arrest, incarcerate and keep imprisoned ANYBODY they fucking choose--WITHOUT a warrant, WITHOUT due process, WITHOUT explanation, WITHOUT public evidence and WITHOUT guaranteeing that the person will ever emerge alive. That's right: the military and "secret agencies" have the legal power now to kill your ass, on U.S. of part of A. soil or wherever, merely on """suspicion"""...and never have to really explain what if anything you were under suspicion for.

--Along those lines, the use of military force against the citizens--the posse comitatus concept--has been struck down. The military forces your taxes pay for are now free to pound you into the dust if someone in power decides to unleash them in your neighborhood, not because of some natural disaster (the traditional "safety" role of the military), but because someone declares a """terrorist""" situation or """other condition."""

--If you are deemed an "ally" or "abetter" of terrorism, you can be killed. Legally. Without a trial. And if (when) the government makes a mistake and waxes a U.S. of part of A. citizen who was actually innocent, the family gets shit, for the president can decide where the trial is held, whether it will be a federal court (citizen's-based process) or military tribunal (kangaroos be hopping process). What this means is that the government is now above the law. Remember that phrase, because it's coming up again.

--Your privacy--no matter who you are or what you do or don't do--can now be invaded with warrantless surveillance. No justification, no evidence need be presented, no legal process needed, just a government order...and even that could be kept secret. Want to sue or demand your rights? HAHAHAHAahahahahafuckyou: judicial review of surveillance against you is forbidden. Denied. Fuck off, """citizen"""...because if you don't and become too much of a nuisance, the government can now grab you and pack your ass off to some other country. Leave you there, kill you, tell no one you're in jail there, whatever.

Think I'm joking? You think this is NOT the U.S. of part of A. you live in?

THINK AGAIN.

All this is real. Jackboots on the ground and happening as We speak. You are being watched, monitored, tracked and recorded. You have no right of habeas corpus, you have no protection from the government and you have no appeal process to protect you. You are at the mercy of government goons, military thugs and """secret agents""" that owe allegiance and accountability to nobody but themselves.

Read 1984. Read Animal Farm. The hateful and hated concepts therein that were once the abominable traits of tyrannical regimes "over there" are now visible every day in """Our""" government, right here.

Open your eyes and mind and watch how the tangled web of repression is woven, at your expense, to serve those who aren't you. Notice how your rights are increasingly lost to "serve the public good" or "to protect vital interests" that again, are not really yours. Watch as the government that doesn't represent you tries to """protect""" you by increasingly making you the target and victim of repressive laws and processes, treating you worse than a criminal to keep you safe from """terrorists""" that aren't even in this country.

"An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will...Since 9/11, we have created the very government the framers feared: a government with sweeping and largely unchecked powers resting on the hope that they will be used wisely."

What We have now--and that Obama has perpetuated--is a government not of the people, by the people and for the people, and not under the rule of law, but a government of corporations that are not people, acting against the people, buying the people in power to control the government and excusing said government from the rule of law. THIS is the U.S. of part of A. now. And no amount of propaganda and double-speak can hide it...unless you simply don't want to look.

We are siting ducks, because as Lord Acton warned, We cannot expect that these near-absolute powers will be used wisely. Not even by the two-faced specter of a president who offered "Hope" and should he win in 2012, will have no reason to hold back or keep """Hope""" (barely) alive.

Prepare yourself: it's only a matter of time.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 20 Jan 2012: From Daily Kos, an overview of how voter registration laws are increasingly-aimed at limiting minority votes. And what a coincidence! The strongest pushes are made by Republican-led legislatures against these traditionally-Democratic Party bases. Voter fraud is a'comin'? Nah: it's been here for a long time.]

[Update: 26 Jan 2012: Think that "freedom of the press" is going to keep you safe? Think again. According to Reporters Without Borders, the U.S. of part of A. is now 47th--forty-freaking seventh--in journalism freedom, a drop of 20 from its previous position, ranking below Hungary, Ghana and Botswana, but thankfully above Romania, Latvia and Haiti. Leader of the free world? No way. Leader of the censorship movement? Yeah, pretty much...]

The Get Out Movement

2012-01-13T08:12:00.003-04:00

[Jenial Thanks to Janine Mendes-Franco, of Global Voices Online, for selecting two posts, about Our rising emigration and the changes in Our inner voice.]

What kind of voter movement would make the biggest difference in Our deteriorating PanoRama?

First, what would a voter movement be and is one needed? Taking the last question first: crime up, murders way up, education dropping even more than its Third World rating would predict, corruption up, jobs down, economy tanking, government bond debt limit reached, government credit rating dropping, stupid political leaders playing kissie-assie with each other, emigration rising... If anyone thinks the current sewage dump of """leaders""" is going to change their thieving, me-first bullshit, then they are retarded and should not vote.

As for why a voter movement and not some other "peaceful" process: short of a violent overthrow and non-existent recall solutions, the simplest and most direct path to change Our (non)government is through the elections. Since every electoral office is up for grabs every 4 years, the only real chance We have to make minimal or wholesale changes is at the ballot box.

Moving on. The voter movement I envision would obviously have to cross party lines, galvanize abut 350,000 - 425,000 votes and focus on taking out entrenched Fools.

Why?

1) Cross party lines: The average voter wants to feel that his or her vote "wins" in some way. Appealing to only one party or ideology group will cause the average voter (species name: Voticus ignoramus) to fear that their vote will "be wasted." Of course, they don't see that voting for anyone already elected is "wasting" their vote because those already in power are parasites living off Our indifference.

2) Galvanize 350,000-425,000 voters: The average election in Puerto Rico has about an 85% turnout and that means about 1.8 million votes cast. Twenty percent of that number is 360,000, a substantial number that will cause all Fools to take the voter movement extremely seriously. Especially when the movement focuses on point 3...

3) Taking out entrenched Fools: There are folks in Our government that have the morals of an opium fiend with the willies, the ethical standards of a child-molesting priest and the intellectual development of week-old gumbo. Yet these scumbuckets are making decisions about Our economy (crashing), Our education (crashed), Our taxes (crushing) and thus Our future (crushed.) For that privilege, We are paying many of them salary and benefit packages that are simply ridiculous when compared to Our averages: mayors making over $100,000 a year, legislators making over $110,000, Cabinet officials over $190,000 and even support staff is making over $80,000. And what about consultants making over $125,000 on each of two or three "legitimate" contracts?

By attacking the incumbents, the voter movement automatically becomes one "of change, for change." Rather than attack all the incumbents, a series of targets are selected, primarily from the legislature. (Folks, I don't capitalize words for institutions I don't have at least a modicum of respect.) To make the biggest change, targets from each major party are selected and the criteria are simple: Those holding key legislative positions (president, vicepresident, speaker of each chamber, etc.) and those with the longest incumbencies (long-term parasites.)

A quick scan means that media tumors and crap merchants like Jenniffer "Gluttonny" González and Tomás "Mad Dog" Rivera would be targeted alongside commonwealth party tapeworms like Antonio "You Haven't Caught Me" Fas and José "I Look Up to Tapeworms" Varela. As the statehood party currently controls the legislature, there will be more names from that party than from the other, but that's how these changes work: by targeting those who have the most to lose.

In that sense, all legislators elected "by accumulation," i.e., not tied to any senatorial or representational district, are the best targets, for they are often """party leaders""" who use their ""widespread mandate""" to fuck Us. (Notice the absolute lack of quotation marks around fuck Us. Twice.)

Also amongst the targets are certain mayors, who have become entrenched to the point of idiocy. Two examples are Carlos "I'm A Businessman Like the Mafia Is a Brotherhood" Méndez, of Aguadilla and José "City Hall Is My Closet" Rodríguez, of Mayagüez. Why them? because they've been in that chair for over 12 years; their time is past, if it ever was.

The voter movement would focus on kicking out incumbents, targeting them with direct questions, deep analysis of their shortcomings and raising awareness of how utterly useless these high-profile, long-squatting pisspots are. Rather than trying to change the entire political system, the voter movement would narrow its focus to a true leverage position: shaking the foundation of the most ambitious and entrenched.

Nothing strikes more fear into the heart of a Fool--more so than an F.B.I. badge--than a voter group that the Fool cannot buy. A voter movement aimed at knocking off incumbents, that crosses party lines in order to make changes happen, is a powerful force: when that force is applied well, it makes change inevitable.

And once the voter movement proves its worth, it need only target other high-profile, long-squatting smegmacups to make them pay attention to Us. Because that's the whole point of this voter movement: to make the Fools understand that they work for Us and that We hold the power, not them.

A name? Okay, how about Junta Electoral Nacional Independiente Organizada: JENIO.

Yeah, I know that's "Jenius" in Spanish, but it does have a certain ring to it, dissonant yet affecting.

However, for populist appeal, We could go with Movimiento Pa' Fuera, the Get Out Movement.

I know, Brethren: the trilling rhythms of "¡Pa' fuera, pa' la calle!" are already ringing in your ears...

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Voting Fraud A-Comin'!

2012-01-12T08:12:00.001-04:00

The Larva signed a deal with Unisyn Voting Solutions for e-voting this November. As sure as corruption rots Our government, voting results fraud is guaranteed. Book it.

For one, the statehood party has the morals of a brain-damaged crack whore with seeping wounds. For two, the commonwealth party is almost as bad...but they're not in power; however, voting results will get them that power...right? And for three, The Larva has not one, not two, but three elections going on that fubar November day: general (where the brain-damaged crack whore with seeping wounds party will knife the Virgin Mary, Baby Jesus, Barney, Elmo, several Care Bears and Tinkerbell to stay in power...poor Elmo); a status referendum worth even less than the b-d.c.w.w/s.w. party and the patently-manipulative and worth even less than the status referendum "cut the legislature size" referendum.

All this for a slug whose chances for winning the 2012 elections are fading daily, and they were bad to begin with. The Larva's already stacking the deck, what with these two referenda that will be sold--mark My words--as being intrinsically tied to The Larva, so that not voting for it (yes, it) would seem to be a vote against statehood and against reducing the size of the legislature.

Pifflegab. Or in more polite terms, bullshit. The Larva is stacking the deck, but not content with that, he's now marking the deck and hiding the scorecard. The only step reamining here is for him to just run the election in his new Unisyn voting system--without Us--and announce the result.

Farfetched? No. Foregone.

Unisyn Voting Solutions is a subsidiary of Malaysian-owned International Lottery and Totalizer Systems. They yap a lot on their website about "compliance this" and "certification that," tossing out words like "security" and "transparency" like British Petroleum flings "environment" and "community." In other words, it's just words, because e-voting systems are the perfect environment (short of using guns and tanks at polling places) to cheat and steal an election.

And don't think The Larva didn't try to find tanks...

Although I'm not a techie, I firmly believe that open source software and platforms based on it (like Unisyn) are ultimately superior to proprietary software and systems. But elections are also a perfect environment for hacking, for cheating, for breaking the system and making it do something else. Just ask Republicans...of which The Larva is a "darling."

In 2008, University of California Santa Barbara researchers proved repeatedly that voting machines were deeply flawed; some of them could be reprogrammed in 3 seconds using a common USB drive--and the cheating could never be uncovered, even with a paper ballot trail.

But Jenius, that was 2008! Wake up! We're in 2012!

Correct. And the hackablilty of these systems is still a problem. In September of 2011 several parties showed that Diebold voting machines, the primary provider of voting systems that year, could be hacked by remote control. For about $30 and with roughly an 8th-grade education. Sound secure to you? The method involved blocking the signal of the vote (when a button is pressed) and replacing that signal with the chosen frequency, i.e. vote changing. Simple and every system on the market could be hacked in the same way.

But what about Unisyn's "paper receipt"? That would prove which vote was made!

Really? That system of "Voter Verifiable Paper Trail" (VVPAT) was exactly what the UCSB researchers proved was hackable and ultimately untraceable. Why? Because the machines could be rigged to "prove" the falsified data.

Think about it. You go to vote, push several buttons for your parasitic asshole of (limited) choice and get a slip of paper that records your vote. You check it, see that it matches your choices and leave.

What the system can do to cheat you is alter the tally of your selections. Say you vote for parasitic assholes A, B and C. The machine's receipt says A, B and C, but the votes are logged as A, B and D, or some other combination chosen by the current parasitic assholes in power. It even "prints" an A-B-D receipt during "verification" so that whatever tally it was programmed (or reprogrammed) to display, it will.

At that's the key: the machines can be rigged to cheat or changed to cheat, invisibly and by practically anyone with a little knowledge, cheap electronics and a few minutes.

Even if the cheating is limited to certain areas, or bungled, the end result will be either a rigged election or confusion. And who gets the benefit of electoral confusion? Whichever party holds sway in the local Supreme Court...the same Court The Larva packed with statehood-supporting offal a year ago.

Now I'm sure The Larva didn't plan that far ahead, but never forget that the principal goal of government and those in it is to consolidate power to sustain themselves. Packing the Supreme Court (it went from 7 to 9 judges, 6 of them named by The Larva) is just consolidation of power, but power that isn't used is not power.

Are We headed for voting results fraud? In a country where one party shows up every 4 years just for the cash handout (¡Arriba independentistas!), where both major parties see the game as having power to use it for their own benefit, where corruption and ethical lapses in said government are encouraged and thus expected, where law enforcement and "justice" is secondary to political affiliation and where voters are largely as smart as a rutabaga (but thousands of times more noisy) and three voting procedures are going on at the same time?

Oh yeah. There'll be rampant cheating. Our 2012 elections will be a fraudfest.

Book it. (Electronically or in print.)

The Jenius Has Spoken.

One Vote, One Bullet

2012-01-11T08:12:00.010-04:00

Somebody needs to get shot.

A man builds not one, but two houses, without the proper permits. At both houses, he has been receiving electrical and water services for years without a legal hookup...and without paying for the services. He has never paid property taxes on either house. Bad stuff, huh?

He admits all this. I said: He admits all this in public. Accepts that he has done these things and broken the law. And he, Luis "Slimy Tumbleweed" Rivera is a member of Our (Out)house of (Non)representatives. Worse stuff of all, right?

Wrong. This bag of shit, who OBVIOUSLY belongs to the statehood party, has just had his """Ethics Commission""" investigation...dropped. Dropped, I said. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Apparently the fat tub of goo (yes, that's a personal insult: fuck it) called Liza "Fat Tub of Goo" Fernández, chairperson (or with her size, sofaperson) of the unethics commission and OBVIOUSLY a member of the statehood party decided that what Slimy Tumbleweed had done, what with no permits for two houses and getting free power and water for years and not paying taxes, well, that's all copacetic. That he is a member of the highest-paid and least-valuable legislature in the freaking free world and thus SHOULD be held to a higher standard is, to the Fat Tub of Goo, irrelevant. She can't stand to see a standard just like she can't see her feet when standing.

So.

There are no standards. Fuckers like Slimy Tumbleweed, whose main claim to fame so far was rolling along the pavement after being hit by a car (thus, his sobriquet) can flout the laws over and over and over and over and over again, and then again and again and again and again, and as long as they are part of the Inner Circle-Jerk of Ass-Sucking Slimebags known as the """New Progressive Party leadership,""" they will get out of trouble...as long as its with local """authorities."""

Luis the Freeloader, who was most likely impotent and retarded (yes, that's a personal insult: fuck him for being a crook) before he turned into pre-roadkill is one of too many in Our (non)government who need to be told: "One vote, one bullet. Choose."

What I'm saying here is that We MUST hold these shitbags accountable and if We're not going to do it with votes, then I'm saying We consider doing it with bullets.

Bad taste, Jenius. Too many murders on this Island, too much violence and you're tossing out this piece of demagoguery?

It isn't demagoguery because I'm not making a false claim, a promise or seeking power. I'm saying this: Unless We stop these motherfucking bastards in BOTH parties, they will continue to rape Us. And We can stop them with votes...or violence.

But what about non-violence, peaceful protests, Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

What about them? Wonderful ideals, great concepts, heroic leaders...but whacking a few of these motherfucking bastards will change things instantly. We've run out of time for patience and soft-selling solutions. And We can whack them at the voting booth, nonviolently, peacefully, instantly.

Think about it: Two houses, NO permits, STOLEN power and water services for years, NO taxes paid for years, a representative of the people...and NO charges, NO investigation, NO punishment.

Do you have two houses? Free power and water? Don't have to pay taxes? THEN WHY SHOULD HE?

Slimy Tumbleweed as a human being is worth less than the shit I scrape off My shoe. He's a thief, a liar and a panderer. And if I had to choose between running him over or avoiding a dead dog on the road, I'd avoid the dead dog and gun it. The engine, I mean. I think I mean the engine...

But then, that's Me. I'm fed up with all this crap. So I'm making it very clear: One vote, or one bullet. It's time We picked one to make the change.

To quote John Kennedy: Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Political "Go Fish"

2012-01-10T08:12:00.000-04:00

The Larva, Our pathetic excuse for a (non)governor, goes by the name of Luis Fortuño, signed a measure to place into the upcoming referendum the notion of reducing the size of Our legisalture. This as a result of a referendum voted on in 2005 that ended up saying "Reduce the size of this $!@&#%&*@ legislature."

Why is a 2005 result, condemned and then ignored by his own party (and Let's be fair: by the other major party as well, whose then-governor actually put it out there) coming up for "debate and vote" in this here 2012?

Backtracking: The Jellyfish, then-governor Aníbal Acevedo, attacked the legislature, led by the opposition, with this idea of reducing their size, and thus their "power." He took it to the masses who were massively indifferent to the whole thing. (I didn't vote.) About 28% of the eligible voters said "Reduce it," and the legislature...farted on the whole thing.

In Our system, the legislature votes about itself, so changes like a reduction in membership size or a salary hike, are voted on purely on institutional self-interest. The battle in 2005 was not about the size of the legislature (as it should have been, because it's too damn big), but about appealing to voters for "momentum."

Same as in 2012.

The Jellyfish had a contrarian legislature hell-bent on screwing him over at every step. "The hell with running the country and helping it grow: this is politics!"

The Larva (he wishes he had a sting, like The Jellyfish, but he's just not "big" enough to have one) has a contrarian legislature hell-bent on screwing him over at every step. The difference: in 2012, both branches are under the control of the same party.

Historians say that civil wars are the worst, because they pit brother against brother. In Our case, The Larva's (non)administration has pitted slimebag versus slimebucket in another sickening bout of "The hell with running the country and helping it grow: this is politics!"

What did The Jellyfish gain in 2005? A political "card" he could toss on the table to (A) hint that the legislature didn't listen to the people; (B) distract the people from whatever pissant problem he didn't want deal with or (C) claim speciously that he had the people's best interests on his side.

Did it work? Not well. Maybe the 24 charges filed against The Jellyfish in federal court took the sting out of the legislature reduction card. (He as found "not guilty" on all counts.)

What could The Larva hope to gain with this card now?

Ignorant votes. The best kind, cuz We got plenty of 'em!

Here's The Larva's fiendishly transparent plan, in monologue form (smartened up to make it worthy of being placed here):

"Doh! I'm gonna lose the election! Crime! Moiders! De economy! Edumacation! It all sucks! I'm being blamed! But wait! A referendum on status could scare people into voting for me!! We could sell it as if a vote for me is a vote to stay sucking on Uncle Sam's...tit. Yeah!! But that isn't enough!! OH NO! What to do?! [Several weeks later...with a HUGE headache...] I got it! Make another referendum that makes the meanies in the legitasor--legisrazo--Capitolio look bad AND confuses people into voting for me!! The 'cut the numbers' vote again!! Yeah! Hey, where am I?*"

The Larva is trying to stack the deck for his benefit, not Ours, and to try to gain some measure of control in his own party. When the opposition--his own party or the other---attacks him as expected, he will play one or both cards, to hint about the opposition, distract the media and masses or whitewash his pathetic image.

The opposition will say "Crime," and he will play "Status." The opposition will say "Jobs" and he will say "Cut the ones in the lesligato--Capitolio." And because neither card means anything or matches anything truly relevant to Our current situation, this game of "Go Fish" will have no valid conclusion, no true measure of progress, until Election Day.

And after that, some other totally worthless and immensely stupid game will take its place.

Politics as usual.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

*Freebie: Waldo joke.

A Change In Inner Voice

2012-01-09T08:12:00.005-04:00

Stopped at a gas station, for petrol. (Look it up.) Read a banner about a jazz fest. Weekend event. City park known more for being "kiddie-oriented" and across the way from the Central American and Caribbean Games facilities in Mayagüez, about 20 minutes from Chez Jenius. Borders the ocean. Nice place. The park; not Chez Jenius, which is a nice place, but not near the ocean. Sometimes in a lake, though...

Jazz. Not my favorite kind of music. None of the musicians and groups rang a bell. (Maybe while performing...) But Mrs. Jenius and I have a habit of just taking off and going places, seeing things, exploring. Our inner voices on events like this are a combination of "Could be fun," "Never done that," "What else can We discover?" and in My case, "What will I end up writing about?"

Personally, My inner voice adds sub-vocally: "I hope it isn't crowded." Don't like crowds. Can deal with them well now, but still don't like 'em.

Back to the jazz event. Colorful poster. No Jenius plans for that weekend. Mrs. Jenius and I always looking for a something new. Close by. Different. (Mrs. Jenius is a clarinetist, but jazz is not her main musical taste, either.) And then, My inner voice pipes up...

"Yeah, but what if you get shot?"

Public event, across the street from a housing project, a couple of thousand people expected, beer galore, on an Island where murders are close to 100 a month...

Made Me pause. My inner voice was definitely yapping negative. Made it shut up. But the point had been made.

It's not the same Island, is it?

Shook My head. Drove to Chez Jenius. Thought about the poster, the event, the location, My inner voice...Mentioned the event to Mrs. Jenius. Took her a second to answer...

"Sounds good. But what if something happens?"

The "something" Mrs. Jenius referred to wasn't "something good," or "odd" or even "awkward." The "something" was "something bad." This from a woman who hiked into the Amazon and has also voluntarily tended to the sick and injured along the Haiti-Dominican Republic border and the drug-filled streets of San Juan. She's not the sunniest optimist, but she's not the gloomiest pessimist, either. Her inner voice has changed, too.

And for the sunniest of optimists, like Me, that change in Our inner voices is heart-breaking.

We blame the pathetic excuse We have for a (non)governor and his hyena pack of vandals, and yes, they deserve part of the blame. But I've said many times: We are to blame as well. What brings Me back to that topic now is that when Our inner voice changes, everything else changes as well. Mine is going from "adventure" to "caution," while that of many of My Brethren is going from "I don't care" to "I'm getting out of here."

So I ask: does that sound like a formula for success?

That's My inner voice making itself heard. Wonder what your inner voice says in response...

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Emigration: What Does It Mean?

2012-01-05T08:12:00.014-04:00

Over a 6-year period, covering 2005 to 2010, more than 178,000 of My Brethren left Our Island, a reported 28,000 in 2010 alone. The true number is almost certainly higher, suggests the Statistics Institute of Puerto Rico, but Let's just use 178,000 for now. It's bad enough.

What does this historic reversal of Our population dynamic mean? Beyond the evident flight from crime, limited economic opportunities, higher taxes, corruption (a particularly distinct form of crime) and diminished quality of life, what does this emigration really mean?

{You mean that isn't enough, Jenius? No. Many other places suck worse than Puerto Rico, but haven't lost almost 5% of their population. There is more here than meets the eye. That's what I'm here for. You're welcome.}

There are three distinct sub-texts to this emigration that also need to be addressed:

1) It is brain drain multiplied. The average age of Our latest emigré has dropped to 28. That means that most emigrants are old enough to have completed college and a graduate degree. Old enough to have gained work experience or career-related experience. Old enough to have established a network...that can be influenced to join the emigration.

My lovely friend Laura told Me six years ago, in late 2005, that nearly all her social circle had left Puerto Rico. Though most were above 28 in age (and thus in the median of the emigration age at the time), they were all connected in more than one way: school, work, hobbies, social organizations, etc. They moved en masse, with their valuable experiences, talents and energy leaving Our day-to-day society. As the study quoted in the article notes, many of the emigrants are doctors and engineers in their mid-30s and early 40s, key cogs in any society. Losing bright minds is never a winning proposition.

2) It reveals how divided Our society is. The Puerto Rican emigration of the 1940s and 1950s--a so-called "diaspora" by people who live inanely for melodrama--was largely a search for jobs and growth. But the latest emigration is quite divided: a very large group of "brain drain" qualified professionals who leave to expand their career opportunities and a shockingly large group of young, single men who move to the States...and don't get a job.

The obvious difference between the 40s and 50s and now is welfare, but there's a deeper current here: young, working-age men who can't or don't want a job here moving "there" to not work is a basic formula for crime. Or a backlash. Just as the "Puerto Rican welfare mom" was a cliché, the"Puerto Rican welfare bum" could become one. And Let's note that Our decades-long increase in women earning college and graduate degrees, exceeding the number of men by far, means We're looking at a society where women are generally better-qualified for most jobs than men, that they outnumber the qualified men and yet, must battle a machista society strangled by its own ignorance and barnacle-grip of the past.

It is possible that the emigrating men are a reaction to this "women are better qualified" trend, or that the "natural" tendency of Our men to think they can "hustle" their way to success--gansos ganseando, literally geese goosing their way up--has come home to roost. Or maybe the rise of the drug trade combined with the wholesale failure of the educational system has created an alternate path to economic success, one that involves investing several years in prison as part of the price. (We are exporting convicts...to Oklahoma. Steve, how's that for a connection between Us?) (Folks, that's a personal aside. My blog, My personal asides.)

3) This emigration means We aren't fixing Puerto Rico: it's headed for collapse. No, I'm not being melodramatic. Think about this closely: the economy has shrunk by double digits, the population decreased by about 5%, crime is rising dramatically [no matter what Our idiotic Larva of a (non)governor keeps prattling to the moronic contrary), corruption shreds the Island's socioeconomic fabric, education by imbeciles turns out ill-prepared adults (almost half not even completing high school), what passes for leadership in this country makes the average retarded monkey troop look like a Mensa meeting...

What, in Our panorama, gives Us the hope that collapse is not Our destiny?

Nothing.

Not. A. Thing. Because the people We need to right this foundering ship are leaving. With some of the rats.

To "fix" Puerto Rico doesn't take money; money is a tool, not a cure-all. It doesn't take a "status consultation" or "status fire drill" or "status tomfoolery"; We simply don't give a lab rat's cloaca about status and only demagogic pissheads ever have. It doesn't take "outside intervention," particularly not by Our gringo neighbors who are mired in fascism--President Obama's abject betrayal of the Bill of Rights now a fait accompli--and can't find their own lab rat's cloaca with a map.

No, only We can "fix" Puerto Rico. But the more of the key cogs leave, the harder it gets. Even when some of Our rats also leave, too many indifferent, ill-prepared, lizard-brain-first numbskulls remain...most of them in government.

Those of Us who have long seen what's happening would look around in 2005, 2006 and say "We have to get the others who think like Us together to make a difference." Now We look around--and this is hard to admit--We make plans to leave, because We certainly don't want to be one of the few left behind when the feces hit the fans.

Or the only one.

Damn it.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 21 Jan 2012: From New America Media, a darker picture of Our emigration trend than reported in major mainstream media.]

Propaganda Over Police "Work"

2012-01-04T08:12:00.000-04:00

Here, from Leo Gómez, comes a statistical fact that nails The Larva through his non-existent genitalia:

In brief, the budget for the Police Department's Criminal Investigation Program decreased 30%, a roughly $40 million reduction, while the Police Department's advertising budget--I said "advertising budget"--shot up from $57,000 in a 4-year period to over $7.5 million in a 3-year period.

Makes Me wish The Larva were shot so he could "benefit" from the reduced investigative capacity of the Police, but be forgotten with the next new "Police release."

Now, Let's try--just because I have a few free minutes--to figure out why Our pathetic excuse for a (non)governor would sit and watch this happen. (Yes, watch: I don't think he could actually do this all by himself.)

--The Program is no longer needed? Puerto Rico did establish its first 25 detectives in 2009-2010, i.e., police officers specifically geared to major crime investigations. Are 25 enough? Not with 1,136 murders in 2011, a rise in drug trade and serios bone-deep corruption within the Police itself.

--The Program was over-funded in the first place? Okay, so We drop the budget some $40 million and someone--obviously a person with ad agency connections--decided to shift $7 million of that to whitewash the Police force's cruddy-crappy image? This sounds likely, though it does nothing to excuse the abject stupidity of the act itself.

--The advertising was meant to divert/diffuse/confuse issues? Obviously. That's what propaganda is. To paraphrase what's attributed to Lenin, a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. Advertising the Police, for the Police, is a useless activity. If the ads were not "about" the Police, but for public service, then why attribute it to the Police's budget? Look at the numbers again: $57,000 for 4 years, $7.5+ million for three. Is this accounting legerdemain or a satchel of corruption?

Given the track record of Our governments, of The Larva and his 40,000 thieves, of the corruption-riddled Police...then yes, this is another satchel of corruption.

Now Let's ask: what ad agencies got the bulk of this $7.5+ million windfall?

Prediction: The same ones that did most of the work for the Statehood party's campaigns.

I'll even call it now: I'm 1-for-1 in 2012.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Shots Fired...At The Wrong Targets

2012-01-03T08:12:00.000-04:00

New Year's Eve. Largely a happy time, if you're actually happy or in denial. A sad time for many folks. And a rousing invitation to crass idiocy for too many others.

About five minutes before 2012 arrived, a young pair, brother and sister, capture on video a fusillade of bullets fired in the air and in who-know-what-direction. The young man, an Iraq veteran, immediately recognized the sounds for what they were: AK-47s, illegal under the law, required on the drug-infested streets We harbor.

Watch the video and listen to the sheer number of shots being fired. The constant ratchet of sound is, with every passing second, a slap in the face of ordered society, of community, of the rule of law. What is worse: the people in the video, by all accounts law-abiding, "average" citizens, sit in the living room, calmly discussing the barbaric display.

Why don't I embed the YouTube video? Because We come to the worst part of the story, to the absolute shit-hole depths of Our stupidity: too many people complained about the video.

Let Me repeat that: too many shit-heads complained about this video of criminal activity.

Not that it was the only one...

Arnaldo and Sariely didn't take the video to make money: they uploaded it for free. It was quickly picked up by CNN as part of their citizen-journalist effort. Despite the siblings' efforts, hundreds if not thousands of people expressed the opinion that their video was "intrusive," " a violation of privacy," accusing them of being "rats," of "demeaning Puerto Rico," of "ruining the island's image," of being "nosy busybodies" and implying they were of--how to put this in politer terms?--"deviant" sexuality.

Here's My reply to the people who criticized Sariely and Arnaldo about this: kiss My ass. You're all fucking cowards and to put it bluntly, worthless.

One aspect of the criticism is true: Arnaldo and Sariely risked their lives by posting this video. The vermin that preys on Our streets--on so many more of Our streets now--will react in their sewer-lizard way and try to harm them, most likely kill them. But look and listen to that video again: are those the actions of people you want in your community? I have no fear that any of you will say "yes" because those inclined to do so can't read English. Or Spanish, for that matter.

Armed gangs are taking over Our streets, just as they took over Our housing projects, isolated wards and urban cul-de-sacs. Drug and gang-related deaths are happening in Our malls, Our highways, bars and even softball games. The reason these fucking vermin spread is not because they are many--they aren't--it's because We allow them to. We choose cowardice over confrontation, fear over facedown and hiding over honor, dignity and quality of life.

In that sense, Our stupid excuse for a (non)governor represents Us perfectly, for he too is a piss-himself-first coward who avoids confrontation, hiding behind walls and words, getting comfort from the increasingly-pathetic notion that "It's all happening over there."

It's happening right here, right now. As the thousands of bullets flying through Our air every day prove, We are living in a war zone, and instead of fighting back, instead of firing back at the true targets on the other side, We are taking stupid potshots at the brave, peashots at the craven and shots of rum to drown out the rattling sounds of Our cowardice.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Note: " target="_blank">Here's an embed code for the CNN video.

The Larva's Number Is Up

2012-01-02T08:12:00.007-04:00

The image is indelible to open-eyed and open-minded observers of Election Night 2008, as newly-elected governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño was trying to speak to the crowd outside of the party's headquarters. Television reporters had already commented on how New Progressive Party (neither one, nor the other, nor the other) """leaders""" were openly angling for legislative presidencies and in fact, some of their speeches had already shouted out their intentions. Then, with the Island's vote tally at about 85% complete, it was the new governor's turn to spew, er, speak.

And as soon as he started saying that legislative positions were not be discussed until later, Thomas "Mad Dog" Rivera snatches the microphone from The Larva and contradicts him.

Game. Set. Match. The Larva's days were clearly numbered and beyond any shadow of any doubt in any way, no one can deny that The Larva's governorship will end in 2012.

Because it was over in 2008.

Back to that night. The Larva had only 3 possible responses to that blatant and humiliating insult he received in what should have been his moment of (temporary) glory:

1) Continue his speech and then decapitate Mad Dog and his cronies during in-party meetings prior to occupying La Fortaleza.

2) Force a confrontation right there, at the mike, to make it clear that The Larva was the supreme leader of the party and the upcoming government.

3) Punch Mad Dog in his BB-sized nuts.

The Larva did none of these, and with three years of ineptitude on the books, some of it caused by in-party divisiveness, 2012 is the curtain for this (non)governor. His countdown is in single-digits at tbis point.

There is one number that will literally kill The Larva: 1,136, the number of murders committed in Puerto Rico during 2011.

The previous record was 985, so 2011 marked a 15.3% increase in murders, 151 deaths beyond what was Our bloodiest year ever. Tack on the declining employment stats, reduced federal funds because The Larva's party harbors thieves and encourages them to steal, increased taxes and fees, declining population and total trashing of Our credit and you are looking at a Larva about to be crushed.

[While I'm here, why the hell don't We have a recall system in place? Either that or baseball bats upside the head, but We have to implement a system to get Fools out without waiting for the calendar and the idiot vote.]

Even a party as flat(ulent) as the Popular Democratic Party (neither one, nor the other, nor the other) can beat The Larva, even with their Loopy Pony of a candidate, Alejandro García, a dark horse looking for a race he can win...but a race implies competition and that's where the Loopy Pony stumbles. However, given the in-party fighting that The Larva faces, even if the PDP beats the incumbent, it doesn't mean that they will win: they have to look beyond The Larva and beat down the Mad Dog, too.

(That We as the people don't win no matter who gains La Fortaleza is a given; I'm just focusing on the Mad Dog and Loopy Pony show here.)

And as if that weren't enough, behind the Mad Dog (in a figurative sense, not in a supportive sense) lies Jenniffer "Gluttonny" González, a Queen Kong in the (temporary) shadow of a Bark Vader. So the Loopy Pony is not even in a match race: he's in a stakes race, the stakes being "Puerto Rico" and the stakes being driven through Our chests, to push a metaphor to beyond the breaking point.

Which is where We are and have been for years. The Larva's number is up; Ours really is, too. We can see what's going to happen to the pencil-brained feeb...but can We see what's going to happen to Us?

And care enough to avoid it?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

TEDx San Juan: We're Not Alone

2011-12-10T13:12:00.013-04:00

Oh yeah, I was wrong.

TEDx San Juan was a rousing success. As I tweeted: I'll eat some of My words, happily.

Let Me dismiss My off-targets first: I sill don't agree with hiding the speakers line-up until just before the event. Sharing of anything is enhanced by symmetry and symmetry means We have the same or as much of the same (information) as possible. I would have gone to TEDx San Juan no matter the line-up, and...

Given that over 1,000 people applied and only 100 were allowed (My second point) by TED guidelines (for a first event), then there would have been no problem filling up the event. Only 100 was a stipulation, not a whim: I would have liked to know that beforehand. So picking Me to attend was not a mistake (I don't know what criteria applied), but a a pondered decision that actually honors Me.

Now for the positives: TEDx San Juan is the first event I have ever attended locally that exceeded My expectations. My biggest Congratulations go to the organizing team: Ramphis Castro, Iván Ríos, Marcos Polanco, José Padilla, Arelys Rosado and Héctor Ramos. They did a magnificent job.

A special Congratulations goes to Marcos Polanco for coordinating the speakers. I understand the selection was made by a group, but Marcos had the direct responsibility for the line-up and the agenda and his choices in both regards were impeccable.

Another special shout-out goes to Jenial Friend Luis Herrero as his company was in charge of the video and livestreaming, which I understand was world-class.

The speakers deserve their own recognition, to wit:

Justo Méndez, Nuestra Escuela: Born from the tragic loss by auto accident of his daughter, Nuestra Escuela takes in troubled kids and gives them back their capacity to dream and reach that dream.

Fernando Lloveras described why he created an organization to rescue Puerto Rico's rapidly-diminishing land area, preserving it for Our future.

Jorge Rigau presented his two proposals, a Metropolitan Walking Paths project that could easily and economically provide San Juan with some 3,000 miles of "urban walking paths," rescuing little-used spaces and a project, already done once, to convert a 35-kilometer irrigation canals infrastructure into a passive recreation/tourism attraction.

Dr. Daniel Colón talked about the exponential impact and importance of basic research, so strongly-maligned now, in healthcare and broad-based public benefits.

Tara Rodríguez described her Department of Food company, linking organic farm products with urban and suburban deliveries of high-quality vegetables and fruits.

Jorge Gaskins spoke about microalgae and the enormous potential they have for both food and fuel. Key number: microalgae can produce over 10,600 gallons of biofuel per acre per year; no plant can produce more than 780 gallons per acre per year.

Noel Quiñones spoke about and showed excerpts of his documentary about a school in Maricao that after 9 years of failing the standardized department-wide tests, and facing closure if it failed again, dramatically rocketed its scores to pass the tests...in 60 days.

Lawrence La-Fountain spoke of "sexiles," Puerto Ricans who leave the Island or are marginalized because of their homosexuality and how they respond through artistic expression to that exclusion.

Andrea Pérez (daughter of My Friend Lovely Laura) spoke about her personal decision to truly give, consciously developing sustainable charitable work, based on her experiences in Sudan (yes, Sudan) and Haiti.

Giovanni Rodríguez reconnected with his Puerto Rican roots and described his path to becoming a (cheer)leader for social engagement, social media use that foments change amongst Latinos, the "original retweeters." (In joke...)

Mayra Santos, accomplished writer and teacher, told Us two powerful truths: We need to lose Our fear of literature (We don't read enough) in order to tell the world Our stories, for without Our stories, the world and Us are diminished from full potential.

Four videos were shown: Emiliano Salinas on the attitude change needed to properly face up to the horrendous crime wave in his native Mexico; the Khan Academy's re-framing of education; Joan Halifax on the powerful nature of compassion and a brief video with Joachim de Posada indicating that delayed gratification--not eating the marshmallow for 15 minutes (watch the video)--is an almsot 100% predictor of success.

Three artistic presentations, a TED conference requirement, had strong impact as well: Y No Había Luz, Andanza and Time Machine Squad.

For My money, every speaker was a huge hit. I was especially moved by Andrea Pérez, Noel Quiñones and Lawrence La-Fountain, intrigued by Fernando Lloveras, Jorge Rigau and Jorge Gaskins and I fell in love with Mayra Santos (who is a sex symbol and rightly so.)

I must give a special thanks to Dana Montenegro who served as an energetic, quirky and hugely engaging emcee. I can offer no greater praise than "I couldn't have done it better."

Suggestions? Tables so attendees can sit and share, better monitoring of time so We can start/finish and explore with each other during the event and some stronger form of "connecting," like maybe setting up the tables with names so that you end up sitting with a group of (hopefully) strangers that you can then engage with.

But these are minor quibbles, at best. TEDx San Juan was interesting, dynamic, moving and impressive. Three thoughts came together during the event:

1) I'm so used to events like these being "what could have been" that I have become too cynical about "what could be." I won't do that again.

2) I, and We, are not alone. There are plenty of My Brethren who not only want to make a difference, they actually are making a difference.

3) The next TEDx has already begun. And it will be even better than this one.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 11 December 2011: Videos of the TEDx San Juan speakers are here.]

TEDX San Juan: Stale Cracker Or Artisan Bread?

2011-12-08T14:12:00.019-04:00

As I write this, TEDx San Juan, first edition, is to start in 17 hours.

I have no idea who's speaking. Or what they'll talk about.

The only information I have is that the theme is "Bursting the Bubble," referring to My Brethren who are pushing the envelope, boricuas breaking new ground. Good. Marvelous. But to be blunt: so what?

Now for the two of you who don't know what the TED events are, they refer to a series of brief (10-20 minute) presentations on topics related to technology, education and design--TED. (Careful: the website is addicting to curious minds. The average statehooder will be bored.) The driving force behind the concept is to bring to light new ideas and have them create synergies. For that to happen, information must flow...so not sharing information defeats the whole purpose of TEDx.

Let Me point out something else: to be able to attend TEDx San Juan, you had to be selected. By who knows who based on who knows what. My feelings about this are best defined by quoting Marx: "I don't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member." What's the idea behind this? (And the Marx quoted was Groucho.)

If the purpose is to "create a better atmosphere/event," then it begs the question: Better for what? And for whose benefit? With no criteria/explanation/definition/reason/plausible excuse offered, then I think the only reason for this little exercise in pedantry is ego: the organizers want to exert a "zero-sum" level of control over an event that is meant to be the total antithesis of that (poor) posture.

More proof? No agenda yet, a "You can't prepare for this until we say you can" gambit.

Now maybe, as friend Kevin has pointed out, the idea is to enhance the event's appeal or manage expectations by using "surprise" as a marketing tool. I give these a 3 on a scale of 1-10 for marketing ideas, with 1 being tossing a dead cat on the salad bar. I don't buy these as good marketing, much less for a TEDx-caliber event. On the other hand, I've also been told that I shouldn't seek conspiracy where incompetence can be the answer.

I know two of the lead organizers of the event; one I have direct negative experiences with and the other I know only through e-mail exchanges. Of the one I know well, this petty power play seems quite in character, the kind of action a low-level bureaucrat would take in office politics. Given his background of several years in government, where his endeavors labeled him as nothing more than a stale cracker in an artisan bread convention, I can see where TEDx is shaping up to be a severe letdown.

(Clarification: The government of Puerto Rico is by no stretch anywhere near being as good or as productive as an artisan bread convention. I was using the analogy so I could write "stale cracker." My blog, My rules.)

So Jenius, if you're so down on the event, why are you going?

Because I could be wrong. I could be wrong that the agenda, when it is finally revealed, will be a flop, a collection of butt-buddies brought in to present a skewed shadow of "Bursting the Bubble" excellence. I could be wrong that the speakers chosen qualified more as "personal networking" for the Speaker Coordinator than as the antithetical proof that We don't need to live with a zero-sum mentality. I could be wrong that TEDx San Juan has a somewhat hand-picked audience solely/primarily in order to establish a power-base for one or more of the organizers. I could be wrong that I shouldn't have been "selected" to go (and buy a $20 ticket) over others I'm aware were told "You aren't worthy." I could be wrong that this event will fail to coalesce its enormous potential and become another in a long line of "what should have beens."

For those of you not deemed worthy and who believe that not sharing basic information is cool, you can tune into the live stream of the event.

And don't bother looking for @GilTheJenius tweets or live-blogging during the event. I'm not going as a reporter, though I can. I'm not going as a social media user, or even as a blogger: I'm going for My sake, to see if My vision of what's possible in Puerto Rico has been discovered by TEDx San Juan.

If their intent was to control the event to manage My expectations, they failed: I have My own. Always have, always will. Bottom line now is that the organizers have to prove to Me that they can live up to Mine.

Good luck.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Yocasta Brugal Has Screwed 570 People...And Counting

2011-12-02T09:12:00.023-04:00

So the San Juan Bautista Hospital has fired 300 employees as part of the $5.1 million bankruptcy buyout by Menonita Hospital Group.

That's what Brugal MendDacious and her lying liars were hiding: that the bankruptcy deal would leave 300 professionals without a job, many of whom had not been paid in months.

What a piece of work this Yocasta Brugal, huh? Screwed the hell out of 270 students by being so massively incompetent and possibly criminal that the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine lost its accreditation (and got it back only by going to court) and now her """leadership""" has royally screwed 300 employees of the Hospital she claims she "didn't run," but made practically every major decision for.

Let Me ask this, finally: Why the hell is this Brugal thing in that position? What the fuck is going on that a woman so demonstrably and viciously incompetent (see the list below) is nevertheless allowed to continue screwing people?

Here's what's on Brugal MenDacious' resumé, since she took over and squatted at the SJB School and Hospital in 2007:

* BOTH the School and Hospital lost accreditation and regained it only only by outside intervention, i.e., not because she and her lying liars did anything to improve either institution.

* The Hospital went even deeper into debt to the point of tossing it into bankruptcy, with no debt reduction perceived in 4+ years.

* Hundreds of employees were treated no better than slaves by having their paychecks unilaterally curtailed or cut off. And now they're fired.

* And as detailed in My previous post, the SJB had received almost $23 million in federal funding over a 5-year period UNTIL 2007-2008, when--you got it--Brugal MenDacious plopped her incompetent fundament at the helm and suddenly...no more funds.

A summary looks like this:

* The SJB School: Lost accreditation, now on probation.
* The Hospital: Lost accreditation, got it back because the local Health Department intervened directly, no debt reduction causes bankruptcy and a sale for $5.1 million, with 300 employees fired.
* Federal funds: Down from $22.8 million to $78,000. And under investigation for possible commingling of funds.

Okay, I'll ask it again: What the fuck keeps this incompetent lump in her job?

If she were a politician, her record would be "average." Ask The Larva, who tried to buy police votes with lies. As an administrator, her record proves she has the Sadim touch--the opposite of the Midas touch: everything Brugal MenDacious touches turns to shit.

The School? A shitstorm with the loss of accreditation that Brugal MenDacious caused and then hid from the students.

The Hospital? A shit sandwich diet shoved for years down the throats of 300 employees, fired today.

Federal funds? A shitfest that's about to hit the fan.

Again: Why is Brugal Sadim still at the helm of the SJB? Why hasn't the Board of Trustees--also known as the Mon(k)ey Cage--fired her incompetent Sadim ass? How long are the employees and students of the SJB School of Medicine going to sit back and watch the (bull)shit fly into their faces? Are they going to react only when the whole crapload is thrust down their gullets, like the Hospital employees?

And now I can turn My attention to the Menonita Hospital Group, who I considered blameless in a straight-up deal But this is not a straight-up deal. The Menonita Hospital Group (MHG) is no better than a self-righteous pimp exploiting a crack whore and calling that "missionary work." Taking over the Hospital is a good thing: knowingly doing so at the expense of 300 employees is wrong. All the MHG has shown here is that it is willing to descend to Brugal's level in dealing with employees, the mushroom level: keep 'em in the dark and shovel shit on them.

So here's what I want to see:

Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars fired. Now.

The Menonita Hospital Group dragged to court and spending $5.1 million to defend itself...and losing the case.

But first steps first: Fire Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars now. Am I sounding like a broken record? That's only because Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars are the very epitome of a broken--a very broken--record.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

22,848,733 Reasons To Fire Yocasta Brugal & The SJBullshitters

2011-11-26T18:12:00.005-04:00

In 2002, the San Juan Bautista Medical Center was awarded $5,986,306.

In 2003, the SJBMC received a $6,233,513 grant.

In 2006, the SJBMC received another grant, this one for $5,660,545.

In 2007, the SJBMC received a $4,968,329 grant.

It seems that the 2002 award was deemed a good start and the 2007 award was the crashing end. (Kind of like what happened with the accreditation thing.)

So what happened with that $22,848,733?

Let's close a circle around that question, shall We? For comparisons in funding, between 2000 and 2008, the SJBMC received exactly four federal fund awards, for the total of $22,848,733 over that span. Now granted (pun intended), this is not revenue with a lot of profit, but it does denote an institutional ability to get jobs done.

In that time span, tracking only the two other private medical schools in Puerto Rico, you will find the following awards:

2000:
Ponce School of Medicine -- $5,008,075.

Universidad Central del Caribe Medical School -- $6,092,289.

2001:
Universidad Central del Caribe -- $550,289 and $5,576,264.

Ponce School of Medicine -- $5,317,538.

2002:
Universidad Central del Caribe -- $237,740 and $332,844 and $7,765,360.

Ponce School of Medicine -- $7,672,536.

2003:
Universidad Central del Caribe: -- $208,935 and $251,951 and $7,584,175.

Ponce School of Medicine -- $7,417,070.

2004:
Universidad Central del Caribe -- $262,394 and $392,541 and $6,349,547.

Ponce School of Medicine -- $8,045,161.

2005:
Universidad Central del Caribe -- $358,970 and $6,972,037.

Ponce School of Medicine - $5,793,999.

2006:
Universidad Central del Caribe -- $5,994,906.

Ponce School of Medicine -- $7,088,814.

2007:
Ponce School of Medicine -- $5,220,078.

Universidad Central del Caribe -- $6,505,781.

2008 (only Quarters 1 & 2):
Ponce School of Medicine -- $497,469.

Over the same time span, the other two private medical schools in Puerto Rico had at least the following totals:

Ponce School of Medicine: $41,735,127 (averaging $5,216,890 a year).

Universidad Central del Caribe: $55,436,323 (averaging $6,092,297 a year).

So SJBullshitters: What happened to that money stream?

What happened with the federal fund stream that pumped $22,848,733 into the SJBMC over a 5-year period?

Why did the federal fund stream dry out around 2007, when the School received its accreditation?

How is it that the School listed for the LCME Status Report (covering 2010 data) only $78,220 in federal funding for 2010? Yet it also declared a total revenue of $7,657,164, with $5,319,348 in expenses, leaving a gross profit of $2,337,816.

What happened to that profit, SJBullshitters?

While the other medical schools add $5.2 million and $6.1 million a year to their revenue stream, the SJBullshitters can only claim $78,220 for one year. No wonder the School gets 70% of its revenue from students: Brugal MenDacious and the SJBullshitters fucked up the SJBSOM's federal funding potential.

So how did they do it? Could it be that the SJBullshitters--as a commenter suggested--were caught commingling funds, robing Sam to pay Pedro, or Enrique or Marta or someone who shouldn't have been paid with federal funds? Or did they violate some other financial, legal and/or ethical standard? Again?

And another thing: how bad is the SJbullshitters' incompetence? Even when they were allowed to compete for federal funds, they were unable to match the other local private medical schools in leveraging the three huge advantages they share for federal funding:

1) A region with higher poverty levels than almost anywhere in the States.

2) Minority (Hispanic) status, with the concomitant sociocultural angles.

3) Unique (in the U.S. of part of A.) socio-economic demographics and health-care infrastructure.

[I'm not saying these are good things, only that they are relevant to every aspect of procuring federal funds.]

How much would $4 million a year, less than the other two schools average, help the SJB School of Medicine? How much would it have helped to avoid the precarious situation the School has been since 2007, culminating in the loss of accreditation? Why isn't that funding making a difference now?

Because these questions are fundamentally relevant to firing the SJBullshitterss, We have to ask Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars, loudly, insistently and with ferocious intensity: What happened to take the reality and potential of federal funding away from the SJBSOM?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 28 Nov 2011: San Juan Bautista Hospital employees protest that their jobs are about to be terminated under the new deal with the Menonita Hospital group. At this time (5:44 PM), no SJBullshitter has responded to either employee requests for information nor provided a written response to a local TV news department (WAPA-TV), as they said they would. Lying liars need to be hit. Hard.]

If True, Then Kick Yocasta Brugal & The Board Out NOW

2011-11-25T06:12:00.006-04:00

From the Comments to My previous post Stiff Yocasta Brugal & Her Lying Liars concerning the situation at the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine (SJB):

One little known fact is that the chairman of the Board Aracelis (sic) Roque hired her son to be the lead attorney for SJB...

Feds are looking into a commingling of funds problem...

Fraud, misrepresentation lawsuits being prepared, SJB has to be taken over in order to survive, the name should be changed and a new identity given by a reputable institution of higher learning.

The anonymous commenter has left Us with a few points to ponder. Let's take the first one, that the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Aracelys Arroyo de Roque hired her son to work with the SJB.

First of all, Arroyo might be the Chairman of the Board, but she's listed only as a member of the Board (along with legendary golfer Chi Chi Rodríguez) in the 2008-2010 SJB catalog. That would mean she rose to the Chairmanship after 2007, in other words, after the SJB received its accreditation.

Why is this significant? Because it means that Arroyo has been privy to what the SJB administrators, particularly Yocasta Brugal MenDacious, have been saying or doing for the past 4 years, the period covering denied accreditation/granted on appeal/withdrawal of accreditation/placed on probation after appeal. Toss in the Hospital fiasco and you have a log that looks like the last 8 hours of the Titanic...only with barely enough lifeboats.

This places Arroyo in a position of full--let Me repeat that--full responsibility for what has happened in the SJB and for what the SJBullshitters have wrought. If from that position she has committed a serious ethical breach along the lines of hiring her own son to be the legal counsel for the School, then she not only confirms what We've been thinking about the SJB and its pusillanimous Board (and what I've been saying with sneering contempt), she has placed herself and the Board squarely in the argument of "Dump them as part of the SJBullshitters."

Point two. Commingling of funds is not proper financial management, crossing legal and ethical lines. It simply means using money entrusted for one purpose on another. In the case of the comment above, one needs to stress that federal funds are never--repeat, never--to be commingled. Quoting: "The federal government especially forbids commingling their funds with other funds because they want federal grants to be used only for the purposes intended by Congress... If you do...they will pull the plug on the program and take their money back plus a penalty."

The commingling issue is made very clear at every step of the federal funding process, from RFP to grant award to funding award and subsequent audits. If the commenter is accurate, then We have further potential confirmation that the SJBullshitters did a shitty job with money management and federal funds, causing the School to lose potential monies that nearly every other medical school uses broadly. That incompetence led to decisions like straining already over-used clinical resources by bringing in students from other Caribbean med schools in a desperate search for cash flow...a key issue in the subsequent loss of accreditation.

So is the commenter's closing paragraph any surprise? Is there any doubt that the shadow spasms of incompetence desperate to cover their baboon asses is emerging into sharper focus? And is there any doubt that pushing the SJBullshitters out NOW is the only way to truly correct the chaos?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Stiff Yocasta Brugal & Her Lying Liars

2011-11-24T17:12:00.028-04:00

Happy Thanksgving! Thank you for visiting The Jenius any day of the year.

In a surprise announcement, the San Juan Bautista Hospital (SJBH), affiliated in some nebulous way with the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine (SJBSOM), incompetently run by the SJBullshitters (SJBullshitters), reports it is to be purchased by the privately-owned Menonita Hospital Group.

In one action, the SJBSOM's lack of clinical resources could--could--be improved. Given that the School is on probation now, after a fulminating loss of accreditation in early October, strengthening an obvious weak point, a vital component for accreditation, seems like the right move.

Seems.

The Menonita Group purchase of the SJB Hospital might be honest...from the Menonita's side. They currently operate two successful hospitals in nearby Cayey and Aibonito, as well as a handful of clinics in the same areas. A geographic expansion into a larger regional city, albeit with a troubled hospital, is a good move. But is this as clear as it appears to be, the straight-up salvaging of a weak hospital?

Let's be objective:

1) It is possible that the Menonita Group (MG) was already negotiating with Brugal MenDacious before the LCME arrived in March after finding out--from a press report--that the SJBH had filed for bankruptcy in February. Maybe placing it in bankruptcy was part of the "sweetening" of the deal to make the Hospital more appealing to the MG. (It happens.) But if that is the case, and given the enormous weight the LCME gave to the SJB's very weak clinical resources since 2007, why didn't Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars not mention any of this potential deal in their """defense""" of the School's accreditation?

The Menonita Group would benefit more from the School being accredited, the Hospital would be more valuable to the LCME (for SJBSOM accreditation purposes) under MG than under the SJBullshitter's fecal-foolish follies and the deal could conceivably have bought the School time and not lose its accreditation. Any of these reasons would make at least mentioning the potential deal an absolute must, never mind all three--but only if the deal was already in the works.

2) Conclusion: the MG deal is recent, at least no older than late September. Why? Because the Appeal Panel hearing was in mid-September, and if--a huge "if"--Brugal MenDacious had the brains God gave a gangrenous bone(-headed) tumor she might have anticipated the School getting hammered badly and opened a channel to the MG as early as mid-September. But that would be giving her credit she hasn't shown she deserves. Ergo, the deal dates from after the loss of accreditation letter on October 3rd, meaning that Brugal MenDacious and whatever lying liar she used as a go-between (I'd look to the Board of Trustees on this one...) basically put this deal together in about 6 weeks.

Think about it: if Brugal MenDacious were operating from a basis of honesty and good faith at the (broken) helm of the SJBSOM and Board VP of the SJBH, would she have any reason to not talk about the Menonita Group? If she were operating in the best interests of the SJBSOM and the SJBH--a postulate with about as much evidence behind it as creationism--(a) couldn't she have avoided the loss of accreditation mess and (b) wouldn't the timing of this deal be different, i.e., earlier?

3) Given these premises, doesn't it seem that the deal is not exactly a godsend, but is probably another "trick" in the lengthy "Cover Lying Asses" saga of the SJBSOM and the SJBullshitters? To wit: what did the SJBH and the SJBSOM give up to close the deal? Note I'm not accusing the MG of any wrongdoing; Let's face it, they don't have to do anything even remotely off-center to get this hospital because the urgency is entirely on the other side. It's a buyer's market...and the seller is a desperate group of shitheads.

Did the SJBSOM get a good deal? Depends. The students should benefit from an expected exponential improvement in the Hospital, as well as having additional clinical resources. But is the School better off? What's going to replace the roughly $1.7 million revenue the SJBH gave the SJBSOM, an amount so significant that Brugal MenDacious made a point of including it in the Status Report appeal to "prove" that the School didn't receive 70% of its total revenue from student registration and fees, but only 50%...when the national average is 4%.

What exactly did the SJBSOM give up? What exactly are they hiding with this deal? And for those of you objective (or foolish) enough to ask "Why would they be hiding anything, Jenius?", let Me reply: read every Jenius post and comment made on this issue, as well as the Status Report and other documents. They hid the hospital's bankruptcy. They hid the loss of accreditation. They hid(e) the Status Report. They hid(e) their finances. The SJBullshitters have earned that nickname repeatedly. What makes anyone think they are changing stripes now?

So here's My call: Stiff Yocasta Brugal and her lying liars. (And that's funny because Brugal MenDacious is a forensic specialist, or as Jerry called them, a deadhead. Please feel free to chuckle at leisure.) Students, don't register until Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars are fired. Dumped. Tossed out like garbage. Their argument, and that of their feeble-minded apologists, that the School needs money now that it is on probation is facetious at best and fraudulent at worst. The School always needs money, but a well-run School earns it: no need for begging. And without a trustworthy administration, collecting student registrations and fees for a semester that could knowingly end in disaster is tantamount to theft on their part and outright foolishness on yours.

Put the pressure on Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars. Get her out of her fouled nest before she and her lying liars leave on her own terms, gained at your expense and that of equally-mistreated employees. Do it now...or watch as the whole lying house of cards collapses in the coming months.

As one of My commenters said, in closing: You have been warned.

The Jenius Has Spoken

Yocasta Brugal: Fire Her Now

2011-11-21T16:12:00.001-04:00

In a surprising development, the Liaison Commission on Medical Education (LCME) reversed the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine's loss of accreditation (Public Announcement, 18 November, 2011). The SJBSOM is now under probation, pending a visit by the LCME in late January/early February 2012. The good news: The students, including Mrs. Jenius, can continue or complete their studies under accreditation, a huge academic and professional difference. The bad news: I was wrong about the possibility of a reversal, but I can take that because the right decision was made and I have been right about everything else.

Which brings Us to worst news: Yocasta Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars are still at the head of the SJBullshitters. And the possibility that they will get kicked out on their fat asses anytime soon seems remote. My guess is that they won't be kicked out before the LCME visit and I would LOVE to be wrong about that.

But I won't be.

The reasons to kick these incompetent lumps of uselessness out are legion, and many of them have been detailed in previous Jenius posts and the comments. (Check out "Yocanda Brugal: Incompetence Recognized" for a lengthy comment thread.) There are plenty of reasons, in truth, a veritable excess of plenty of reasons why Brugal MenDacious and her ilk have to go. The disease is diagnosed, the remedy is obvious and has proven quite often to be the successful cure for the disease. But the will to act is missing. And without the will, the action doesn't exist.

The will can only come from two collective minds: the Board of Trustees, a gang of monkeys with the total integrity of a frog's cloaca. Their interests--based on their inaction so far--seem to be deeply intertwined with that of Brugal MenDacious and the lying liars, so the incentive to dump their partner/ally/crony/shield/protector/benefactor is virtually nil.

The second group is composed of the students. If the students raise their voices in clear objections to giving the S.S.JBullshitters back to the captain and crew that piloted the leaky vessel into rocks, eventually that captain and crew will be replaced. Staying silent, acquiescing, granting approval by simply continuing with business as usual will doom the SJBSOM to lose its accreditation in 2o12. And this time, it will be for a very long time. I have absolutely no doubt on that point.

A comment on the post linked above called for the students to refuse to register for classes until Brugal MenDacious and her lying liars leave. Good start. But more needs to be done. There are three flanks to attack:

1) Revenue: Why is the SJBSOM begging for scraps from Antigua and the Dominican Republic?

2) Federal grant funding: Why is the SJBSOM so utterly useless in securing funding that nearly every other private medical school receives in bulk?

3) Clinical services: In a nation with a huge population density and complex widespread health problems, why can't the SJBSOM develop alliances and programs strong enough to secure accreditation?

Here's the crux of the matter: the SJBSOM is a miserable failure as a healthcare resource, and its recent actions prove it is also a miserable failure as a school. For the students, some 30-40 of whom have already chosen to leave, the battle must be seen as more than "getting Mine now": it has to be seen as "getting better for all Our sakes."

The chance to turn the SJBSOM from a pigsty run by retarded barnyard rejects into a worthy institution has to be won now...for if it isn't, if the animal farm is allowed to continue its manure-dumping ways, then the SJBSOM will quickly become shuttered, ignored by everyone as it closes its doors.

At that point, it would be very much like locking the door after the horse is gone, so why don't We focus on kicking the horses' asses out first and then making sure the barn is run by competent people?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

It's My Birthday!!

2011-11-12T08:17:00.001-04:00

Yes. It's that magical tiME of the year (and those who know ME know I MEan "almost all the year") when the world celebrates My Birthday! The cakes have been baked, the candles have been warehoused in hangars (very funny, people) and the chili's hot enough to strip chroME from a new bumper. So We are ready!

What can I say about a year that saw ME get married and be happy? Well, for one thing, I can say: Thank You, Mrs. Jenius! I love you!

What can I say about a year that saw My Son excel in school (MEdals enough to start a museum) and on the basketball court (All Star selection and solid MVP candidate)? I can say: Well done! You're admirable in so many ways! I love you!

What can I say about a year that saw true friends step up and others lose the label "friends" as they pulled away in haste? To My Friends: you're all gifts from the Universe. To the others: I'm giving you back to the Universe. I expect refunds.

What can I say about a year that saw My Family struggle to deal with daily life and eMErge tempered? Family is the heart of a society, and as for My Family, its heart beats strong.

What can I say about a year where My Island sinks ever lower into a morass of violence and corruption? I can issue a warning: the reckoning is coming, jackals. It won't be pretty. For any of Us.

What can I say about life in general as I tack on another digit to My age? That it is tiME for a fundaMEntal change in My life. The groundwork has been laid for Me to move on to new challenges, to wholeheartedly pursue My ambition and push My talents to the utmost.

To My chagrin, I haven't challenged Myself seriously in almost four years. That's just wrong. What's the point of Life if not to tackle new challenges and explore new horizons. "Life is either a grand adventure or it is nothing." Helen Keller said that. And if she could pull that off, why can't I? Why can't We?

So here's to Me, to My Birthday and the chance to whoop it up with loved ones near and far. And here's to facing Life's challenges, from the personal to societal, with verve, will and integrity. It has been--overall--a great year for Me; I can foresee next year being even greater.

Hopefully greater for all of Us.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Yocasta Brugal Should be Fired

2011-11-10T13:12:00.005-04:00

Yes, I've been fairly quiet lately. Steaming, if you want to know. But I have some announcements to make, so here they are:

1) Yocasta Brugal should have been fired as Head Dissembler of the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine.

2) That the SJBSOM's Board of Trustees has not done that is because they are cowards, "spineless sea cucumbers" I called them, whose lack of integrity is another cesspool in the SJBullshitter's arsenal. (Think about it and you'll agree I'm right. Again.)

3) I have read the LCME's Status Report that triggered the decision to take away the SJBSOM's accreditation in June of this year. Doubt Me? Here's a quote that has not appeared (as far as I know) in the public documents of the case: The financial health of the school of medicine depends heavily on student tuition/fees. Aside from one contract to provide mental health services to the Commonwealth's correctional facilities, there are essentially no other revenue sources.

Furthermore, a quick bit of research indicated that the average revenue percentage a private medical school receives as student tuition/fees is 4%; at the SJBSOM, it was 70%.

Seventy. Percent.

Where are the service contracts for the SJBSOM? Is providing mental health to cons the only thing the SJBSOM is good for? Apparently so, according to Brugal MenDacious.

Where are the federal funds that support research and community-based studies, a bread-and-butter staple of nearly all private medical schools? Is the SJBSOM somehow unable to access these funds? If so, why? Could it be lack of resources? Could it be a lack of initiative, talent, imagination and competence by the SJBullshitters, led by Brugal MenDacious? Or is it that in some way the SJBSOM is barred from seeking and securing federal funds?

Where is the decisive action from the Board of Trustees? Again, quoting Me: "Their job is to ensure that the SJB stays on track, legally, ethically, academically and financially." It is beyond ANY doubt that Brugal MenDacious and her raving band of deluded lunatics have failed to protect the SJBSOM academically. In doing so, they have seriously transgressed ethical bounds, have seemingly gutted the school's finances (the stated "Net Revenue" of the SJBSOM for FY 2009-2010, Total Revenue minus Total Expenditures amounted to $2,337,816--that's gross profits people) and have, through their demonstrable incompetence and venality exposed the School to massive legal action. So why hasn't the Board acted?

Because they are useless. Or they are part of the abject failure. Or most likely, both. "Thick as thieves," as Theodore Hook would say.

Yocasta Brugal should have been fired. Summarily. That "summarily" also goes with "executed" is nothing but a conscious choice on My part.

This coming Monday, the 14th, something called a Dr. Márquez will lead the (cough-chuckle-spit noisily) """charge""" to rescue the SJBSOM from the new Court-ordered Appeals Panel. As the evidence hasn't changed and the primary missions on both sides remain the same as well, I foresee another unanimous bitch-slap against Brugal MenDacious and the lying lumps of lamebrains masquerading as "administrators" and "trustees."

I'd tell these sacks of human waste to "Fix this!" if it weren't for two facts: they will never--never--know how and they never--never--should have made this happen in the first place.

The Jenius Has Spoken.