Rick Jackaon -- candidate for GA governor

 

Rick Jackson is a billionaire healthcare executive. He is the founder and CEO of Jackson Healthcare, an Alpharetta-based company specializing in healthcare staffing and workforce services that generates an estimated $3 billion in annual revenue. [1, 2, 3]

Jackson has spent his career building businesses in the healthcare sector and is currently the Republican nominee in the 2026 Georgia gubernatorial election. [1, 2]

A staffing company owned by GA gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson recently agreed to a $3 million settlement following allegations that it exploited international immigrant nurses. [1]

The class-action lawsuit, which concluded in a settlement approved in July 2026, thrust Jackson's healthcare empire into the spotlight due to the contrast between his campaign's hardline immigration stance and his company's reliance on foreign labor. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The Lawsuit Against Avant Healthcare Professionals

The 2023 lawsuit was brought against Avant Healthcare Professionals, a company acquired by Jackson Healthcare in 2018. Foreign-born nurses from countries like Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines alleged the following practices: [1, 2]

• Substandard Wages: Immigrant nurses claimed they were paid significantly less than American professionals hired directly by hospitals. [1]
• "Stay-or-Pay" Contracts: Workers were bound to strict, multi-year contracts that restricted their ability to take time off, switch employers, or advance their careers. [1, 2]
• Deportation Threats: Plaintiffs alleged that when nurses tried to resign, Avant threatened to report them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). [1]
• Exorbitant Exit Fees: The lawsuit claimed Avant charged five-figure fees to exit contracts early, demanding as much as $41,832 from a single nurse within 30 days. [1, 2]

Resolution and Campaign Context

Avant denied all wrongdoing, stating the court did not find its practices unlawful. However, the company agreed to the $3 million settlement to avoid litigation costs, which will distribute minor payouts to over 5,000 current and former immigrant workers and waive their outstanding contractual fees. [1, 2]

Critics have called attention to the situation because Jackson's gubernatorial platform emphasizes cracking down on illegal immigration. His campaign has defended the business, clarifying that his platform targets criminal illegal immigration, whereas Avant recruits nurses through legal immigration channels to address severe domestic nursing shortages. [1, 2]

Broader Systemic Issues for Immigrant Nurses

Beyond this specific legal case, foreign-educated healthcare workers in the U.S. generally face several systemic barriers:

• Visa Backlogs: Intense administrative delays and a freeze on certain international nurse visas have stalled thousands of qualified applicants.
• Policy Shifts: Federal policy changes regarding workplace immigration enforcement have increased fear among legal direct-care staff, worsening workforce retention.
• Integration Hurdles: Studies show immigrant nurses frequently encounter distinct cultural gaps, language barriers, and workplace discrimination. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Memory flashback note

I recall a story about the British planting a tree when a building was being constructed that would be mature enough to furnish a replacement for an important part of the construction when and if that beam needed to be replaced years later. What might that be?

You are thinking of the famous legend of the oak beams at New College, Oxford, which is frequently cited as a prime example of generational foresight and long-term planning. [1, 2]

The Legend

The story, popularized by anthropologist Gregory Bateson and author Stewart Brand in his book How Buildings Learn, goes like this:

• The Problem: In the late 19th or early 20th century, the massive, 45-foot-long oak ceiling beams of New College's 14th-century dining hall were found to be heavily infested with beetles and desperately needed replacement. [1, 2]
• The Dilemma: The college council was in dismay because old-growth oak trees large enough to produce beams of that caliber were virtually non-existent in modern England. [1]
• The Solution: They summoned the college forester to ask if any suitable timber existed on the school’s scattered lands. The forester reportedly replied, "Well sirs, we was wonderin' when you'd be askin'." [1]
• The Legacy: It was "discovered" that when the college was founded in 1379, the builders knew the oak beams would eventually succumb to beetles. They planted a dedicated grove of oak trees at the very beginning, passing down a strict directive from forester to forester across 500 years: "You don't cut them oaks. Them's for the College Hall." [1, 2, 3]

The Reality

While it is an inspiring anecdote about sustainable culture, the specific story is a myth. College archivists have pointed out several historical inaccuracies: [1]

• Wrong Wood: When the roof was actually heavily restored in 1786, the college couldn't find enough large oak and used British pitch pine instead.
• No Dedicated Grove: The college did not plant a specific grove for the hall at its founding; much of the woodland in question wasn't even acquired until 1441, decades after the hall was completed.
• Standard Practice vs. Legend: The true core of the story lies in routine medieval forest management rather than a single prophetic plan. Medieval foresters routinely grew and preserved oaks on 100- to 200-year cycles to maintain a rolling supply of structural timber for the college's ongoing needs, rather than setting aside one magical "break in case of emergency" grove. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Similar Historical Truths

If you are looking for real-world historical examples where this actually happened, you might be thinking of:

• ⚓ The Swedish Naval Oaks: In the 1830s, the Swedish Navy actually planted 300,000 oak trees on the island of Visingsö to ensure they would have timber for warships centuries later. When the trees finally matured in 1975, modern navies were building with steel, rendering the timber obsolete for its original purpose. [1, 2]
• 🪓 USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"): To this day, the U.S. Navy maintains a dedicated grove of mature white oak trees at Naval Support Activity Crane in Indiana. These trees are grown specifically to provide massive, historic-grade planks whenever the 229-year-old commissioned warship requires maintenance. [1]

CIPS is the China trade alternative

 China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) serves as the primary non-Western financial alternative for global trade settlement, designed specifically to internationalize the Chinese Yuan (RMB) and reduce global reliance on the US-dominated SWIFT network. Backed by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), CIPS has evolved from a niche clearinghouse into a prominent geopolitical tool used extensively by the BRICS bloc, sanctioned nations, and emerging markets across Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America seeking sanction-proof trade routes. [1, 2, 3, 4]

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📊 How CIPS Compares to SWIFT

While many view CIPS as a direct clone of SWIFT, they serve fundamentally different operational purposes. SWIFT is strictly a financial messaging network that does not move money; CIPS is a clearing and settlement system that actually executes the movement of funds across onshore payment rails. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Feature	SWIFT	CIPS (China)
Primary Function	Financial messaging system only.	Transaction clearing & settlement.
Currency Focus	Multicurrency (dominated by USD/EUR).	Primarily RMB (expanded to HKD/Foreign currencies).
Network Size	~11,000+ institutions globally.	~1,600+ direct & indirect participants.
Sanction Vulnerability	High (controlled via Western regulations).	Low (independent onshore sovereign network).
Interdependence	Fully independent network.	Partially relies on SWIFT messaging standards.

🔎 Key Structural Pillars of the Alternative Network Direct vs. Indirect Access: Direct participants open dedicated accounts inside CIPS to settle transactions in real-time, while indirect participants use intermediary direct banks to clear payments. [1, 2] Multicurrency Expansion: In early 2026, Beijing updated its business rules, expanding CIPS from purely Yuan transactions to handling offshore RMB, Hong Kong Dollars (HKD), and other PBOC-approved currencies. [1] Deregulated Governance: The 2026 regulatory overhaul removed strict participant eligibility requirements, empowering operating institutions to manage their own rules—a step towards a fully parallel, non-Western network. [1] 📈 Strategic Drivers and Global Adoption Africa-China Corridors: Major players like South Africa's Standard Bank and the African Export-Import Bank utilize CIPS to settle billions in infrastructure, energy, and mining trades directly in Yuan. [1, 2] Sanction Insulation: Following the freezing of Russian central bank reserves by Western powers, nations such as Russia (via its domestic SPFS system connecting to CIPS) and Libya have migrated trade to CIPS to insulate themselves from unilateral G7 sanctions. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] The Digital Renminbi (e-CNY): Operating adjacent to CIPS, China’s Digital Silk Road utilizes blockchain infrastructure and smart wallets to settle trade seamlessly, bypassing correspondent banks entirely to minimize settlement time. [1, 2] ⚠️ Current Limitations and Structural Risks The SWIFT Dependency Trap: Despite its growth, roughly 80% of CIPS transactions still rely on SWIFT's underlying messaging formats to complete cross-border communications. Liquidity and Capital Controls: Because Beijing maintains tight capital controls on the onshore Yuan, global traders face friction moving liquidity freely compared to the deep, open markets of the US Dollar. Centralized Tracking: Utilizing CIPS or e-CNY eliminates Western surveillance but shifts total transparency to Chinese central financial authorities, who maintain comprehensive tracking of all transaction data. [1, 2, 3, 4]