Greed

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The Film Committee

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on December 17, 2013

Posted in: Films & Reviews. Tagged: A Dark Truth, Andy Garcia, Corporate Tyranny, Film, film committee, Film Library, Forest Whitaker, Freedom, Greed, human beings, human-rights, Kim Coates, Life, Natural Resources. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: The Film Committee – 5th Edition

We have one new addition to the must have in film library. This week we add a film entitled “A Dark Truth”2012 starring Forest Whitaker and Andy Garcia. This film speaks to the level of greed we human beings must fight within society. It is the battle we all face as human beings all over the globe.

A battle against the greedy interests and profits of Corporate Tyranny and the right of everyone to enjoy the natural resources of the earth without having to pay someone for them.

Imagine telling your neighbor he/she would have to pay some corporate oligarch for sunlight, air, water, clouds, grass, trees etc. All these things that are naturally occurring and no one’s property. We urge anyone who hasn’t seen this film to check out this powerful and stirring film. An instant classic in our opinion.

Jury Duty 2013: Day 3

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on November 17, 2013

Posted in: Social Commentary. Tagged: Attorney, Auto Insurance, Car Accidents, Civil Service, Common Sense, Damages, Defendant, deliberation, Entitlement, Evidence, Fraud, Greed, Judge, Judicial System, Jury Duty, Jury Selection, Jury Trial, Plaintiff, Testimony, The plaintiff. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: JURY DUTY: Day 3

Day 3 of jury duty began with myself lazily turning over in bed to silence my (trusty if not pesky) alarm which revealed the sad truth. I’d managed to get all of 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Reluctantly, I get myself together and head out for rush hour yet again.

Wearing several layers of clothes definitely helped me brave the hateful cold that lets us all know Winter is right around the corner. I made my way to the subway in good time despite repeated jabs from Jack Frost.

On this day, I arrived at the courthouse early enough to actually eat a little something before heading inside. Once in the meeting room from the previous day, we met with the same court employee from the day prior who then took attendance.

As promised, the judge presiding over the case called us to come up at 9am on the dot. Inside the courtroom we were told to all sit on one side of the courtroom for the name drawing that was about to take place to determine which among us would be selected as a potential juror for the case we were to hear.

An antique looking dark brown wooden box with a crankshaft and wooden door sat on one of the tables as an officer of the court cranked it before he drawing names out at random. Once one’s name was called the person went up to the jury box and relinquished the juror questionnaire.

Both the plaintiff’s attorney and the defense attorney were present, both scrutinizing the dress and appearance of each of us potential jurors. Initially, I wasn’t one of the names called and I dreaded being sent back down to the jury pool.

Then the judge asked two of the jurors direct questions relating to experiences and whether they spoke adequate english and excused them after they gave their answers. The wooden drum was consulted once again. Lo and behold my name’s called next along with one more person to fill the vacated spots.

The attorney’s each brought questionnaires they had for each of us jurors they’d either strike or keep and after some answers were given we were dismissed from the courtroom briefly.

The panel was complete with 6 of us as the deciding jury and 1 alternate in case of anything. We listened carefully to the Judge and his instructions and the opening statements of both the plaintiff’s attorney and the defense attorney.

Interesting side note: the defendants attendance in the case wasn’t required. Only the plaintiff was present and only the plaintiff testified as the burden of proving his case rested squarely with him.

Once the case began we all looked at the plaintiff and listened intently to what each of the attorney’s arguments were in the case. The issue of liability was already decided so for us the jury the case rested squarely on whether the plaintiff suffered permanent injuries as a result of the accident and if we found that he did, how much we would award him.

I’m sure we’ve all seen personal injury cases played out on TV where the plaintiff appears suspect and every move and/or gesture is scrutinized to see if there is any acting going on. This case was no exception. The plaintiff’s attorney presented his case along with a binder with a thick packet of his medical history.

In a nutshell the plaintiff was rear-ended in a car accident, claimed he was permanently injured and lost his former quality of life. He went on to say that the accident caused him to withdraw from playing in a musical band he founded.

He claimed he had emotional distress and “psychiatric” treatment in addition to his extensive stint of attending an in house rehab center referred to him by his Insurance’s lawyer.

We looked at this man as he went about putting on his show of limited mobility by periodically getting up and walking to the rear of the court room then returning to sit near his attorney repeatedly throughout the trial.

When he took the stand a translator sat next to him and translated the questions being asked by his attorney first, followed by the defendants attorney’s cross-examination.

Several red flags immediately went up when us jurors got the medical history and looked at not only the high-lighted sections we were spoon-fed by the plaintiff’s attorney, but the non high-lighted portions showing this guy as the defendant’s attorney worded it “opportunistic and feeling a sense of entitlement”.

To solidify this we were shown pictures of the “damage” to the plaintiff’s vehicle by the defendant and not the plaintiff. Red flag 1. There was no visible damage whatsoever one could see with the naked eye to the plaintiffs vehicle which he claimed sustained a “heavy impact”.

The plaintiff’s girlfriend was also in the car, yet she sought no medical attention nor did she go with him to the hospital from the scene as the plaintiff testified that he went. Red flag 2.

Then out of his own stupid mouth the plaintiff testified that while stopped at a red light, with several cars in front of him, his vehicle was struck from behind.

He then got out of his vehicle in which he was wearing his seatbelt and walked to the back of his minivan to see what damage there was before asking the defendants for insurance info and calling the police (who sent an ambulance to the scene). Red flag 3.

Red flag 4. Plaintiff never mentions his emotional distress he claims to have suffered in his lawsuit during his testimony. Red flag number 5. Plaintiffs doesn’t go to his primary care physician but instead to the insurance company’s referred rehab center and sees no specialists.

Plaintiff’s medical visits to this rehab center shows repeated rubber stamped visits 4 times a week with 15 minute treatments that all say Neck, Back pain plaintiff complains of.

Red flag 6. While the medical record did show herniated discs the plaintiff had these as pre-existing and used a cane several years prior to this accident when he had open heart surgery.

He lied and told us that he never used a cane before the accident. When we looked further into the plaintiffs medical history Red flag 7 and 8 grabbed us by the face.

Red flag 7. Plaintiff never saw a neurologist or orthopedic doctor. Plaintiff was released same day from hospital and was found to have no significant injury was given a local pain killing shot and released.

Red flag 8 medical records showed post accident plaintiff’s gait is “normal” and listed as such up until the last visit to the rehab center where his insurance cut him off due to paying for 3 years of treatments at 15 minute intervals 4 times a week at $150 a pop.

Red flag 9. Plaintiffs attorney tried unsuccessful to get the plaintiff to tell us that due to this accident he wasn’t able to perform sexually in the bedroom. However, the plaintiff couldn’t quite bite the carrot she dangled.

We all as jurors knew what she was hinting at with her line of questioning about his personal life at home since the accident. We deliberated for about an hour before we returned a verdict that the plaintiff failed to prove his case and we sent him on his way.

After the verdict the judge thanked us for our service, told us how important we were as jurors to the legal process, and that he believed here in America we have the best legal system in the world even though it’s not perfect because we let the jury decide with the evidence provided in the case.

Once we were dismissed from service we went downstairs to the jury room to receive our completion of jury service letters for work. Once there the defendant’s attorney approached us and thanked us for seeing the case for what it was. In addition, defense counsel said we shouldn’t feel bad for the plaintiff as they already had a financial agreement in place to compensate him something.

I’m certain he thought we were all idiots and couldn’t see what he was doing. We were all like sorry sir no free lunch today, no soup for you, get the hell on Felicia!!!

It was my first time on a jury but I must say that the experience overall was not lost on me. I was happy this time around that schedule wise things worked out better than they had in the past serving jury duty. In the end common sense, evidence, and the law worked to bring about a just outcome.

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Corporate Tyranny vs The Working Class

Written by T.D Moody

Recently, I heard about a situation occurring with someone I know that left a very unsavory taste in my mouth and fire in my belly . We all know that jury duty summons’ are a pain in the ass because most of the working class can’t afford to lose a day’s pay for $40 pre tax.

Well listen to this, recently someone I know (who has been with her job for over 18 years) received a jury duty summons and immediately notified Human Resources at work of the summons and submitted a copy of it to the HR department inquiring about compensation during jury service.

Human Resources then stated to this person that as an “exempt” employee as long as one hour of work per week was completed the person’s full weekly salary would be paid for the duration of the jury service period.

Low and behold this employee is selected from among the jury pool to serve on a jury case which is to last four to five months. After several weeks of jury service and receiving salary, the supervisor of this employee came to present three options to choose from with regards to her continuing to receive her weekly salary.

Astonishment, anger and dumbfounded were some of the adjectives used to describe what she felt upon reading the three options her supervisor was presenting on behalf of the company’s President/CEO. Bare in mind that this person would be at trial 4 days a week and worked Friday’s and holidays while still serving jury duty.

Here are the three options she was given to choose from:

Option 1 : Work every Saturday and Sunday for the duration of jury duty service.

Option 2: Take an unpaid leave of absence for the remainder of the jury duty service period.

Option 3: Work on Fridays only and only be paid for Fridays.

I immediately became incensed upon fully grasping what she had just revealed to me. Both her and my first question was, is this legal? Well friends this is where doing homework and checking policies and the law with regards to jury duty becomes invaluable. According to http://www5.cbia.com

Waiver of Jury Service Compensation
Employers may submit a written request to the court in which the juror served to waive the requirement to pay an employee for jury service if payment would result in extreme financial hardship to the employer. Small employers, in particular, have successfully taken advantage of this provision.

The request must be made within fifteen days of receiving the waiver application, which is provided to the juror upon completion of service. If the employer is excused from its obligation to pay an employee, the court will reimburse the juror’s regular wages for up to $50 per day. If a waiver application is denied, the employer may apply for a hearing within 20 days from the court finding.

Employers’ Failure to Pay Wages
Under state law, employers who have not obtained a waiver and who fail to pay an employee serving on a jury may be liable for treble damages and attorneys’ fees. If a juror sues the employer under these circumstances, extreme financial hardship is not permitted as a defense.

Employers’ Obligations – Federal Courts
Federal law does not require employers to pay their non-exempt employees’ wages for jury duty. Employers are, however, required to (1) consider employees on a leave of absence during jury service; (2) continue their insurance and other benefits according to established leave of absence policies; and (3) reinstate employees to their positions without loss of seniority. Federal jurors are paid $40 per day and, in most courts, reimbursed for reasonable transportation and parking expenses.

Employers’ Personnel Policies
Although not required to by law, many employers also pay the difference between jury duty pay and the employee’s regular wages. If your company has an employee handbook, it’s a good idea to include your jury duty policy in it to ensure that the policy is applied consistently.

Prohibited Actions by Employers
Both state and federal law prohibit employers from discharging, threatening or coercing employees who are summoned for jury duty or who are subpoenaed as witnesses in court proceedings.

Employers may be fined up to $500 or imprisoned up to thirty days or both under state law and fined up to $1,000 per violation under federal law. In addition, employees who are discharged in violation of this law may seek reinstatement, lost wages and reasonable attorneys’ fees from the employer.

I then checked http://www.nyjuror.gov/pdfs/hb_EE.pdf and found a guide for the State of NY on jury duty to further consolidate my understanding of what is legal and illegal with regards to employers responsibilities per jury duty and their employees.

The following is what I found.

Employers’ Obligations

Must employers allow employees to serve? Yes. An employer must allow employees time off from work to
serve as jurors. An employer who discharges or penalizes an employee for serving as a juror may be prosecuted by the Office
of the Attorney General and subjected to criminal penalties.

May an employer change an employee’s regularly scheduled hours of work when the employee is scheduled to serve as a
juror?

Schedule changes that are designed to accommodate the employee’s obligation to serve are permitted. Schedule changes
that penalize an employee may result in prosecution by the Office of the Attorney General and criminal penalties.

May an employer require an employee to take vacation or other paid leave while serving?
No. It is an illegal penalty to force an employee to charge jury duty absence against vacation, personal or sick time. However,
an employee may choose paid leave over losing wages.

An employer who penalizes an employee for service as a juror by forcing the juror to use paid leave may be prosecuted by the
Office of the Attorney General and subjected to criminal
penalties.

May an employer require an employee who serves as a juror to make up time?
No. An employer who forces an employee to work on days when the employee is not normally scheduled to work in order to
make up for time lost as a result of jury service may be prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General and subjected
to criminal penalties.

After reading the above she drafted a response letter to her supervisor and employer requesting that the three options given to her be put into writing on company official letterhead so that she could submit it to the judge. She’s still waiting for a response. LOL

MTA Etiquette 102

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on December 12, 2012

Posted in: Social Commentary. Tagged: Greed, MTA Etiquette, Public Transportation, Selfishness, Transit. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S MTA Etiquette 102

Recently one night while on my way home while riding the good old MTA, I happened to be watching an episode unfold in which a bus driver was engaged in an argument with a passenger who didn’t have the fare to ride the bus. The passenger was giving excuses as to why he didn’t have the money and why the bus driver should let him ride for free. I sat back observing and listening to the exchange thinking to myself I hope this doesn’t turn out be a live event like the video I’d seen of an incident in Cleveland where a bus driver got into it with a passenger who he eventually punched in the face and threw off the bus.

The gist of the exchange was that this nonpaying rider was trying to justify being a bum and telling the bus operator that the employees of the MTA get to ride for free so why should he care about him not paying the fare. I thought to myself this idiot is incredulous. He couldn’t possibly have said what he just said out loud. Of course it wasn’t a dream it was reality and he in fact was dead serious with his comments. Now as a fare paying rider I found it stupefying and maddening that our growing youth are becoming more maggot like in attitude and thinking every day. The bus driver’s voice began to reflect an irritated tone the more this idiot spoke during their exchange.

Now as I stated in the previous MTA Etiquette 101. I believe wholeheartedly that if you don’t have the money to pay the fare for the bus you should walk or borrow the $2.25 to ride period. I find it highly offensive and disgusting when freeloaders are allowed to ride for free at the expense of the fare paying riding public. Especially when they can display cell phones and expensive Beats by Dre headphones (which retail for over $300) but not the requisite $2.25 to get where they are going.

The bus operator expressed this exact sentiment to this particular freeloader. After hearing the guy make a remark to the effect of it’s not costing you anything to let me ride what’s the big deal? The operator said “Ain’t nothing free! You really believe what you’re saying?! Ain’t nothing free!! How about the people who pay the fare to ride? Because of people like you they have to pay more to use the bus and train because people like you feel that you shouldn’t pay your fare!At that moment I’m both thinking it and saying it out loud to myself, every time there’s a fare hike on the MTA it’s because of these free loading maggots.

I happen to ride the MTA almost everyday like most NYC residents or commuters and any extra money that has to come out of my pocket is an unwanted event, especially when you consider the fact that this is preventable if others were responsible, unselfish fare paying riders. It seems like every year or two the MTA proposes a fare hike and this monster has no designs on slowing down. The working class must galvanize to fight this unfairness. The problem most definitely has its roots in MTA employees allowing free-loaders and not enforcing fare collection as well as corruption (misappropriation of revenue or waste) which we all know is rampant in any civil or government agency. How can they justify increasingly crowded trains and buses and increasing fares without showing us the fare paying public why these increases are so frequent and what they are doing to combat the problem?

In my opinion it seems like everyone turns a blind eye to the situation and says let the working class pay for everything. Wages are not on the rise to match the increasing costs of living. This speaks to a larger part of the decay in the values and character that was once an asset and credit to this country the U.S.A. Hardworking people still do make this economy go but the sad reality is there are far too many spoiled, lazy, selfish people who unfortunately as Romney stated feel themselves to be victims and don’t want to do anything to help themselves but rather would prefer the state and others who are pulling their own weight and more to care for them.

Once the loser got off the bus and it was just myself and the bus operator alone. I spoke to the bus operator on the subject and he in effect told me that it’s gonna take a mass effort of us fare paying riders to organize and boycott the MTA like back in the civil rights era in order to effect some change in the MTA managements approach to increasing fares on the working class riding public. I mean it’s bad enough that you can’t go one stop hardly without someone coming through a train car begging for change or disturbing you with drum playing or some sob story. It’s reality but it doesn’t have to be is the point.

I for one plan to attend the next public hearing scheduled on a proposed fare hike and will express my opinion to the MTA management because if things keep going the way they are something will have to give. There is a threshold for what consumers will put up with but I believe until people wake up, speak up and educate others around them about what’s happening, this sad, financial and emotional drain will continue.

Lastly, I will point out that I’ve seen some of the most selfish behavior exhibited by some of these freeloaders once they’ve been allowed to ride for free. On numerous occasions I’ve personally witnessed where they will sit in a double seat, take the aisle seat and position themselves and their faces with a look to say these seats belong to me and how dare anyone else think of trying to sit next to me. I mean really!!!? You receive an act of kindness and generosity and pay that forward with selfishness and greed. Mankind we have so much work to do. I’m starting with myself, because I know one can not live by meat and bread alone as it says in the bible. What has happened to morals and character? Why is it acceptable to be a douche bag parasite on society?

Why are the youth of this country the way they are today? As the freeloader was preparing to get off the bus I yelled out “Get a job!!” I had to do it so do you!! I don’t care if it’s McDonald’s or the supermarket do something!! The bus operator said to me “Who wants to work anymore? Who wants to do anything anymore? You look around and people don’t want to do nothing but they want to get paid huge.” I fear soon, the way things look, this country will be known as America the Fallen. Feel free to comment and give your two cents on this subject.

Till next time this has been another report by THEJNSREPORT.