Traumatized Worker Syndrome

Thu, Mar 31, 2016, 9:15 pm  //  Dick Conoboy

Journalist Chris Hedges interviews economist Michael Hudson in a video entitled Traumatized Worker Syndrome. This is a clear explanation of why we are here today and where we are headed...to an inevitable crash that our politicians do not talk about. [You can watch the video or read the accompanying transcript.] Locally the problem is that our leaders and lawmakers at the city and county are not paying attention to this and so our discussions of the Comprehensive Plans at those levels is essentially based on growth myths. The fantasy jail proposal will not come to pass because there will be no money for it. When the ultimate failure arrives, the tax base will collapse along with those grandiose growth projections. Essentially a repeat of 2007/2008 but, as they say, on steroids. It all starts here...

Excerpt: HUDSON: The key of demagogic politics is to realize that the people who are really backing you are your campaign funders. Your job as a politician is to say, “I can deliver this constituency to you backers. “Obama was a genius at doing what Donald Trump is trying to do today: taking a constituency. That’s his column A: a focus group listing everything the constituency wants. They want debt relief. They want better jobs. They want higher minimum wage.

HEDGES: And not trade agreements like NAFTA and …

HUDSON: Right. And then column B, that he didn’t tell them, was what the campaign backers on Wall Street want. Obama was picked essentially by Robert Rubin, who then became head of Citibank after having come out of the Goldman Sachs. Obama was picked by Rubin of Wall Street to promise was he was going to really do. It was what any president today is going to do: A politician’s job is to deliver whoever voted for you to your backers, who are on Wall Street. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, but especially if you are a Democrat – that’s really the Wall Street wing of the American political system. The Republicans are for the corporate monopoly, oil and gas wing of it.

Feeling screwed yet?

Bernie vs Donald

Mon, Mar 28, 2016, 1:58 pm  //  Dick Conoboy

A wonderfully thought-provoking piece by Bill Martin appeared on the Counterpunch site today. It is entitled "Bring on the Crackup: Hoping for a Trump–Sanders Election". It is not often that in reading a very long analysis, as this is, that one has to stop and mull over the implication of that which the author just said in the last paragraph. The article is so replete with interesting analyses, it is difficult to provide an extract that is representative of the entire piece. But here is an extract nonetheless. I encourage you to read the entire piece...and by the way, I will still support Bernie until he wins or is run out by the lickspittle Democratic party rulers and their odious, controlling super delegate system.

Excerpt: "For instance, consider what Hillary has proposed as the alternative to Bernie Sander’s supposedly one-sided campaign, her “realism,” her supposed ability to “get things done.” In actuality, what she has gotten done is very little, and most of what she’s gotten done and what she aims to get done is bad stuff. If Hillary Clinton’s installation as president will mean for women what Barack Obama’s presidency has meant in the actual lives of African-Americans, then I worry for women in the United States. On the other hand, liberal feminism has worked out better for middle-class women, and some women in academia, as primarily a career strategy aimed at getting a larger piece of the imperialist pie (and of course I say this regarding purely systemic questions, and not in a personal way, and recognizing that I myself am in the previously and presently entitled group–but that’s not what this is about), than any movement has worked for African-Americans, whether of a more radical or a more reformist sort. Even so, whatever there is of Hillary Clinton’s ambitions or agenda that could be called “feminist,” it is so clearly class-bound that it is hard to see it helping working-class women, and quite possibly it will hurt them. This is to say nothing of all the girls and women around the world who have been hurt by the militarism Clinton advanced from the White House, the Senate, or the State Department. That she recently called in Madeline Albright, who was referred to in the article I read as a “feminist icon,” to help her attack Bernie speaks volumes all by itself. Needless to say, Clinton’s liberal feminist and other “progressive” supporters care as much for the victims of U.S. imperialism, the majority of whom are probably women, as secretary Albright did when she said that all the deaths caused by U.S. sanctions in Iran were “worth it.”

Eagle cam on Washington DC nest

Sun, Mar 20, 2016, 2:28 pm  //  John Servais

We have a new online video to check out.  In the National Arboretum in Washington DC, a pair of eagles have parented two hatchlings. There are two video cameras focused on the nest and we can all watch in real time as the parents do their parenting - keeping the chicks warm, feeding them, etc. There are two cameras to provide two different angles on the nest and you can switch cameras. Someone at the arboretum zooms in and out as appropriate for us to follow the action.  

Of course, feeding is the most interesting as the two chicks vie for food that is pushed into their mouths by a parent. It is live and in real time. It is a new way to waste time on the internet, or it is highly educaational or it is just plain fun to watch. Whatever it is to each of us, it is amazing to be able to watch eagles so close and even intimately. One cannot help but be in awe at the gentleness of these large fierce birds towards their couple ounce chicks. 

The secnd chick was just hatched on Friday. And today, Sunday, is unusually cold in DC, being 41 degrees this afternoon, where the normal is 57 for this date and in Bellingham today we have 54 degrees. The parents are keeping the chicks warm, letting them out only for feeding. The cameras provide high definition video, so going full screen provides incredible detail. We are indeed, quietly sitting on a branch about 5 feet from these eagles and they don't even notice us. I guess for young folks this is not as amazing for those of us who are older and remember the early nature films.

Update:  3 pm feeding has replaced the 2 pm pic. Googling this you will find several websites with more information. And all this is is courtesy of several orgainzations, but foremost the American Eagle Foundation at eagles.org

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.