Charitable Babes

Barbara Bush gave money to a hurricane relief fund on the condition that it be spent to buy educational software from her son Neil's company.

No surprise, as I've blogged previously on the inner workings of charity, grants, funds, foundations, etc. Babs act is SOP. What some call "philanthropy" I call "philandering" (casually screwing many). If we could view the stipulations, conditions, provisions, earmarks, dispositions of monies "donated" by the wealthy we'd find a maze of Barbara-ism. And where definitive written transfer of funds are not found there is a handshake agreement. But more likely you'll find all the charitable philandering in writing as they don't trust one another to not screw one another at times.

I'll "scratch" (donate) to your organization, fund, foundation, charity if you "scratch" (buy, donate, found, fund) mine. Charity is one of THE biggest scams the elite run on us. The elite might be the first to tell you charity does begin at home, with home being a palace, an estate, a compound, etc. It is "their" money though, and tax deductible. (There are a few charitable exceptions, St. Jude Hospital for example.)

In my small town of 17,000 I stopped counting the number of local elite who do receive federal tax dollars to administer grants/funds "earmarked" for the disadvantaged in our community. Big bucks, thousands of programs nationwide, public and private foundations, operate more or less the same.

Example: Linda (pretty white lady), wife of a physician receives $1,000,000 per year to operate a soup kitchen in the Sunset area (our Black section of town, pop. 3000). For a steep price Linda rents the old school house in Sunset from Richard, town mayor and her hubby's golfing buddy. Ms. L. provides 1 lunch 5 days a week to perhaps 50 hungry folks per day, if it's a busy day. Foodstuffs and supplies are purchased from businesses of friends, relatives, and national suppliers who occasionally thank Ms. Linda with "extras" which will perk to her own cupboard and kitchen.

One must have an official "organization" or institute to receive these grants and with such a not-for-profit business comes the credit cards, company car, office space, cell phones, business trips, etc. Whose to know that flight to San Fran for a "seminar" was 2 days "seminar" and 4 days fun in the sun? And can she help it if the organization's credit card is inadvertently used to fill up the Navigator's tank on the way to the soccer match?

(There is one Black not-for-profit organization in town but – that's right – their funds must go through the City Fathers, who skim a lot to make sure Black members only pilfer a little. This org. was setup by the City Fathers as soon as they learned money was out there but earmarked only to org's that had Black administrators.)

Sometimes, over a few years, a few poor actually benefit from these programs locally, despite all the hands in the till. These non-profits often have in their title words such as Mission, Relief, Community and/or Faith.

When applying for this grant each year, and received for several years, Linda has the arduous task of stipulating her own salary and that of tennis club friends who might wish to dally part-time as secretary or other openings in the administrating part of her charitable business career. She must appoint non-salaried board members who meet every blue moon (literally) to advise and oversee that she is running the program and funds properly. Board members are upstanding cohorts of Ms. L. She may at times reciprocate and serve as a board member on their charitable org./foundation.

The good part is most weekdays Ms. Linda gets to spend an hour a day in the old school house kitchen, supervising the local Black church volunteers who cook and clean up. She may mingle with and rub a few heads carrying on about how cute the children are of these people, charming as she can be in $400 jeans and cashmere.

Doing the math it averages out to about $80 per person per meal. Now Bubba or Willie May will tell you that bowl of chicken soup or styrofoam plate of chicken wings and instant mashed potatoes don't taste like no $80 worth. But, to folks like Linda and Babs Bush, do-gooding can look and taste like a million bucks.