Drugs “Legalize It All”

Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 2:04 am  //  Dick Conoboy

A great article on the futile "drug war" and its terrible consequences appears this month in Harper's.  Started by Prez Tricky Dicky this monumentally stupid war has caused death, anguish and untold expense for naught much like the tax policies of Reagan that have brought us to this sorry point in economic history. Unfortunately neither is still alive to have the devastating results shoved into their faces. The author of this Harper's piece tells of his visit to former Nixon aide Erlichman. Excerpt:

"I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this [drug war] was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”"

Read about the results and what we ought to be doing in the Harper's article by Dan Baum here.  

League of Women Voters deserves our thanks

Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 1:36 am  //  John Servais

Open and transparent government is becoming a mantra that city, county, port and state governments like to boast they believe in.  Ahh, but what is transparent and open?  Case in point: The county should be doing videos of the Districting Committee meetings and posting them online for all citizens to review.  The meetings are held at noon on Mondays - a time when only retired folks and some activist students can attend.

The county keeps saying they want to do more videos of more meetings but technical challenges, equipment, money, manpower, etc. are all really serious challenges that need to be surmounted. And there is the promise that a new - another new - county website is in the making and it will enable more videos.

Enter the League of Women Voters - in the person of Judy Hopkinson and her iPhone.  Check the photo at the top of Ralph Schwartz's article today and that is Judy in the far left - way at the other end of the room.  She is making a pretty good video record of the hour and a half meeting today.  It ended up being two sections - and you have to choose a 30 second commercial to watch - but you can sit and watch the intense and high stakes meeting of the Districting Committee.  Close up - like being there.  All done by Judy, the League, and the internet.  

Videos of meetings are cheap, easy and do not require expensive equipment.  All committees, commissions and councils should be fully video recorded by the county and posted the same day online and left there as a permanent record.  That would be a step toward transparent and open government.  The excuses are fabricated and lame.  It takes some money but is well within the budget of the county. Meanwhile we can thank the League and Judy for doing their best to make our government transparent.

Here are the links to today's videos.  And they are now in the right side column under the LWV red label.   The first 60 minutes are here (meeting starts at 10:40 on the video). The final 20 minutes are here.  Thanks Judy.  Nice work. I am pleased to be able to report on your work and link to it.  Citizen journalism at its best.

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Live streaming the Districting Committee

Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 2:15 am  //  John Servais

The League of Women Voters will be live streaming the Districting Committee meeting this noon today, Monday.  They will later maie the video available on YouTube and we will post the link in the right side column under the LWV category near the top.  

This meeting of the committee is important as the neutral districting master will be presenting his version of districts after listening to arguments from both sides last week.  My opinion is there will be no agreement of any sort between the two sides.  And for that reason it is of value for citizens to watch and listen to the meeting - either live or later.  We may have a desire to favor "our" team - liberal or conservative - but the need in our county is for fair voting districts.  By attending these meetings and as an independent voter, I have seen that both sides have beeen unreasonable.  I especially fault my liberal friends for being totally uncompromising.  They really figure they have the battle won.  This is as sad as when the conservatives figured last June that they had the battle won and were rather condescending towards the liberals.  One would think that after while the two sides would work for the good of all citizens.  But - not a chance of that.  

So, take a look at what a charade the meetings are. This process will end up in the courts.  

We thank the League for their efforts to video these meetings and post.  Of course this is something our county government should do.  But does not.  

Jail Notes - Elfo and Everyone Else

Mon, Feb 22, 2016, 10:45 pm  //  Tip Johnson

Sheriff Bill Elfo is scheduled to make a presentation to the County Council tomorrow.  Agenda Bill 2016-100 states only that the presentation is about the Jail Use Agreement with the City of Bellingham.  No background or additional content is offered.  It’s difficult to see how he will make much progress.

Also on the agenda, Council members Buchanan, Mann and Weimer offer a resolution (large agenda packet pdf - p. 235) “Adopting a Statement of…Jail Planning Principles…”. 

The resolution finds that the Council’s leadership is needed in the wake of the administration’s failed jail tax.  It finds that coordination with tribes and participating jurisdictions is necessary to a comprehensive outcome, resolves to find a solution voters can support, and asks for the adoption of a refreshing platform of principles (agenda packet - pp. 236-238).

These principles include an attempt to reintroduce “fiscal responsibility, fair treatment, harm reduction, healing and prevention” into the equation of Criminal Justice and Public Safety.  They directly question a number of assumptions that have been consistently ramrodded through the public process:  Why a central jail location was torpedoed, whether the existing jail can be repaired or repurposed, if mental health needs are better served in the community than in jail, and to what extent diversionary and preventative practices might be implemented.

Perhaps most important, the principles assert that “crucial information has been lacking” and that “decisions must be based on data and evidence”.  That is indeed a 'very good place to start'.

While they are at it, they might at least wonder why the administration would go to voters for a tax, but without an approved jail plan, much less a bona fide needs assessment, and attempt an end run around all imaginable community priorities now being enunciated to build a jail way too big for Whatcom County, but just right for the prison industry.

February 23 Schedule:

Agenda Item: Elfo Presentation
Finance Committee, 11AM, Council Chambers

Agenda Item: Buchanan, Mann, Weimer Resolution
Planning Committee, 2:30PM, Council Chambers

County Council Meeting - All Agenda Items
7PM, Council Chambers
===

Tip Johnson
 

the guardian for American news (from England)

Sat, Feb 20, 2016, 11:12 pm  //  John Servais

Today the NY Times has a minuscule link from its home page to an important news article.  In the Sunday print edition tomorrow, the article will be on page 14. You cannot find the story on most news websites - because they have ignored it. You can google it and find a few alternative and black newspapers with the story. But by the standards of United States corporate news media, it is not news.  Probably because it is awkward and about a black man. 

I found the story in a foreign newspaper that does a better job of covering US news than any paper in our country. It has been linked in the right column for years. The Guardian. A British newspaper started in 1821 in Manchester, England. Manchester means a lot to the British because it is the north west, is liberal, is the industrial center of England and is rich.  Always has been. But I digress.

Albert Woodfox, a black man, has just been released from a Louisiana prison where he spent the last 43 years in solitary confinement. For a crime he was probably framed for by law enforcement.  He kept his sanity and is now free. It took a lot of effort to get him released. We should know that such things are happening in our country. There are still thousands of cruel imprisonments in our country and solitary should be considered torture.  

Check it out. The Guardian of England - for what is happening here in the USA. They broke the Edward Snowden story for us - of the NSA spying. They are not afraid like so much of our American press is. One of my favorite sites.

And here is the link to the NY Times article.  Between them we get a pretty complete picture.  

County planning slapped by court

Fri, Feb 12, 2016, 3:19 pm  //  John Servais

Sometimes a building project fits all the zoning and environmental requirements but the city or county planners just do not like it.  As people with college degrees in planning, it is not what they think should be built at that particular location.  They just don't like it.  And so they find some flimsey rule to deny the project.  And the proponent can drop their plans or risk a lot of money by taking the city or county to court.  

Elisabeth Britt's Latte Republic website has been following just such a situation unfolding up between Blaine and Birch Bay.  The county denied a permit for building the Lincoln Park Retirement Center - even though it fit perfectly all the zoning requirements.  Problem was the county government planners had apparently not envisioned such a use for that land and did not want a retirement home out on Lincoln Road.  So they found some trivial technicallity to deny it.  The developer filed a suit.  The court has ruled against the county and instructed the permit be granted. 

Elisabeth has the story and links to the websites and to her earlier story.  What I want to add is we should tell our county council representative to vote to prevent the county from appealing the decision. Governments hate to lose and they use our tax dollars to fight lawsuits by individuals.  They will blow our money out the window on lawsuits that are absurd.  

Nothing in the Bellingham Herald on this - and probably won't be.  You need citizen journalism these days. The Latte Republic is one of our better citizen journalism sites.  A permanent link is in the right side column. 

Debt Crisis Redux

Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 4:47 pm  //  Dick Conoboy

Just over a week ago I wrote about the pending economic crash in a piece entitled "It's the Derivatives, Stupid!"   Chris Martenson in an article today,10 Feb 2016,  writes: "Bubbles arise when asset prices inflate above what underlying incomes can sustain. Centuries ago, the Dutch woke up one morning and discovered that tulips were simply just flowers after all. But today, the public has yet to wake up to the mathematical reality that over $200 trillion in debt and perhaps another $500 trillion of un(der)funded liabilities really cannot ever be paid back under current terms. However, this fact is dawning within the minds of more and more critical thinkers with each passing day."   Economist Michael Hudson has been speaking about this debt for years and has wrapped it all up in his most recent book, Killing the Host.  You can read Paul Craig Roberts' review of Hudson's book here at Hudson's site.  Excerpt: "Hudson shows that Western economies have been financialized in a predatory way that sacrifices the public interest to the interests of the financial sector. That is why the economy no longer works for ordinary people. Finance is no longer productive. It has become a parasite on the economy."  Hudson states often that debts that cannot be paid, will not be paid.  Now think about all those unfunded liabilities out there to the tune of hundreds of trillions and tell me that there will be no collapse.

Bellingham Wins features George Dyson

Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 10:04 am  //  John Servais

Local website Bellingham Wins has its lead story today about local resident George Dyson. It is informative and a good read - as are all the posts on their site.  We have a permanent link to Bellingham Wins in the right side column - under Local Leisure. If you read this post in the future, here is the link directly to the article about George.  

I've known George since he came to Bellingham in the late 1980s. He bought the just closed Dick's Tavern on West Holly - and there were still half pitchers of stale beer on the bar.  He uses it as his office for writing, but it is still crammed with built and partially built baidarkas. The article explains about the boats.  And it also tells of the books he has written and how he got into writing.  

Not mentioned is the book that first made George famous - 'The Starship and the Canoe', by Kenneth Brower, published in 1978. It was of George and his father, the famous physicist Freeman Dyson.  The book took liberties with the reality of their lives, but was a fun read in the waning days of the alternative living era. George became a sort of counter culture cult hero. I mean, how does one live high in a fir tree on Vancouver Island for three years? Well, he was young and he was finding himself.

The web site 'Bellingham Wins' splits its features between local persons and local cool places and events. It is a project of Bob Pritchett, the owner of Faithlife, the online bible resource company in Bellingham.  Bob moved his company to Bellingham because he likes this place a lot. This website is also a fun digression for his Faithlife staffers. There is a new feature article irregularly but about twice a week. It is under 'Leisure' because of the good articles about events.