The More Things Change--a letter from the past

The More Things Change

[Recently in going through some old boxed-up papers, I ran across a really rough draft, replete with typos, of the following letter which I had typed in the Fall of 1974, on a portable Remington typewriter.  As you can see, it was never quite finished, it seems I could not think of a good closing, and of course it was never mailed.  So now I had to do some google searches to be sure of the background for the letter.    President Gerald Ford had taken office in August when Nixon resigned, and was continuing Nixon’s austerity program.  He even devised some buttons that said “WIN,” for Whip Inflation Now.  It seems the government was suggesting ways we could save fuel, and I was responding to their suggestions.  While I have retyped the letter and corrected typos, I have made no other changes except a couple that are enclosed in brackets.  For background I should mention that I and my daughters had moved from Virginia to Montana the year before.]

Hi Prez,

Just a little note to let you know how we’re doing out here in Montana, which ain’t so hot, the living, I mean, not the weather, because that’s been pretty nice, compared to what one might expect out here in Montana; but that’s a digression, of sorts, I don’t know how I always get off on the weather when I write letters, just a compulsion toward small talk, I guess, but now of course I am really supposed to be making large talk.   Now I have found most people aren’t too interested in talking politics or government or foreign policy.  Some will just stop their ears up and refuse to listen or to talk, and you can’t get anyone to argue, because what’s the use of arguing about something you can’t do anything about?  Like Watergate (where’s the Di-Gel?), and sending arms to Turkey, and how to have honest elections.  But when you start talking about economics, of course, you really hit home.  And not that people don’t get sick about that (talk about depression, it’s here now, in everyone who ever gets to talking about the economy).  But it concerns us all.  I mean us middle-class, who don’t have huge bank accounts to fall back on (At least, we don’t have to worry about being wiped out by the stock market), who own only the roof over our heads and a car or two to get around in, who live from paycheck to paycheck, paring expenses to the bone, and now we’re being asked to pare still more for the sake of the nation’s economy.  Now what  I’m thinking is, people don’t mind paring to the bone if they can see something in their future for it, a savings account, or a new home, (for those of us who are only renting); scrimping and saving is great, but when it’s all scrimp with no save, then that’s depression.

Now take us, for instance.  We are a family of six, a woman with five school-age daughters.  (I’m not counting the five who are already grown and gone).  Now we have a total income of *******, which once upon a time we would have thought a handsome figure, boy, what we couldn’t do with that much money, we thought, but here we are, and what can we do with it?  We wouldn’t mind eating beans every night in the week, and oatmeal for breakfast, and walking ten miles to work and back, if we knew we were really salting it away, and would someday own that farm of our dreams.  But no way, it takes every penny just to buy the beans and oatmeal, and the gas for work (well, we’ll just have to be realistic about that ten mile walk).  Just when we think we’re getting ahead, the car throws a rod and the horse throws a daughter, all in the same weekend.  Not yet having paid off the repairs to the car, we need realignment, snow tires, new gas gauge, new thermostat, brakes adjusted, something every month.   In fact, it takes half my month’s pay just to get to and from work.  Now you talk about economizing, we know what we can do on a farm, because we rented one for six years.  Raised and preserved all our vegetables, raised all our own meat--pork, veal, chicken, ducks.  And it didn’t cost much in transportation to do it, either.  And since I wasn’t working, I had plenty of time to save money by sewing for the children, and I didn’t need the clothes I need for work, either.  Actually, I haven’t bought many clothes since I started to work, but those I have just aren’t going to last as long as they normally would, since I have to dress up all the time.  But now how does one do that [buy a small farm] without the money for a down payment?  And how does anyone acquire that? 

Now, to get to some of the points you and other economists have suggested.  We can lower the thermostat and save fuel.  Well, we’ve always done that, because so much of our lives has been spent living in big, old, drafty houses we’re used to a cool house.  Of course, we wear our thermal underwear and an extra sweater or so.  Who doesn’t in Montana?  But now, realistically speaking, if everyone in the country rushes out to buy thermal underwear and extra sweaters, do you realize the effect that would have on the pollution, all those factories working overtime to make underwear and sweaters, not to mention the demand on cotton and wool, which would drive prices sky high and then up would go the prices on underwear and sweaters to where nobody could afford them and would have to turn their thermostats up again.  Now I would be glad to turn the furnace pilot off during the summer, except I have been told it is better for the furnace to leave it on, but I don’t remember why, so if someone would clarify that point for me, I would be glad to comply with your request.  But I have to leave on the pilot on my stove, because I consider it dangerous for my daughters to be lighting the stove, and have had some potentially serious mishaps myself.  Now as to lowering the thermostat on hot water heater, I haven’t decided that that has any value; if I lower the heat, I shall simply use less cold water, and therefore more warm water, which will probably make the heater work oftener, and I’m not sure that would be a saving at all.  Yes, I wash my clothes in cool water-- I have to, or I will run out of hot water.

You can bet I drive at least 5 per cent less than I might, I’m not about to drive all the way to town when we run out of bread, I’ll make some first (how much does it cost to bake bread in a gas oven?)  Now you say to use public transportation and carpools, but out here there’s no such thing as public transportation, and all of us at work live at too great distances from one another to form car pools, except in case of emergency.

It’s hard to see how one can reduce the use of the stove and still save money on food, if we want to do our own baking and such like.  And beans may be cheap, but they take a long time to cook.  The refrigerator has to keep running, we don’t have a freezer, nor a television; we do need electric lights, but it doesn’t take many to light up a little trailer.  As to the washer, well, you can guess it’s running a lot to keep five girls in clean clothes.

Reduce the use of nonessential appliances.  Now I’m not sure what you mean by nonessential.  Do you mean, electric percolators, frying pans, roaster ovens, and the like?  Because if you don’t use these, you will have to use the stove, and I’ll bet statistics would show that the smaller appliances are more efficient users of electric power.

Adding insulation and storm windows is a praiseworthy idea to save fuel, but how much fuel is it going to take to produce all that insulation and storm windows, not to mention other natural resources it would take.  Another example of suddenly escalating prices, too, I would expect.

WHO IS LEFT TO VOTE REPUBLICAN?

 Who will be left to vote for Republicans, once they have completed their Hate List? Every day the list of persons, peoples, and entities that the Republicans despise is extended. Who is left, other than each other, those of their own ilk? Wall Street? Chamber of Commerce? Oil, Gas, and Coal Industry?
Ah, but never think that the Republicans don’t have a plan. Call it voter suppression, which involves disenfranchisement of voters, caging of voters, purging of voter registration lists. New laws limiting early voting, absentee voting, registration. Inadequate voting facilities, voting equipment, voting supplies in poor and minority enclaves. Distributing false and misleading information about polling places, dates, and times. These laws and actions disproportionately affect minorities, aged, students, the poor. They are in violation of the spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
More than a dozen states have passed laws that could make it difficult for from five million to 21 million eligible voters to actually vote. The states affected account for 171 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Eight states have enacted voter photo ID laws, and five are reducing early voting and absentee access.
I have these suggestions:

(1) No name can be purged from existing voter registration lists. Everyone who has ever voted is presumed to be a valid voter, in effect, grandfathered in. Exceptions for treason or felony conviction (until sentence and probation are completed) or proven voter fraud.

(2) It may be valid to require photo ID of all new registrants, but this should not be retroactive for registered voters.

(3) Place a moratorium on all new voter laws; none to take effect in 2012, but all to be reviewed by Department of Justice, and those approved will not take effect before 2014.

Following is the list I have compiled of persons, people, and entities that the Republicans hate.  Some of these have been named by political candidates, legislators, politicians, and some by pundits and writers.  Perhaps I have been too harsh, you might want to add or detract from this list. 
ACORN, Activists, Agnostics, Arugula eaters, Atheists, Blacks, CDC, CFPC, Climate scientists, Communists, Community organizers, Constitution (except the parts they like), Democrats, Department of Education, Dijon mustard lovers, Elderly, Environmentalists, EPA, FDA, Firefighters, Food stamp recipients, Gays, Al Gore, Head Start, Health care providers, Hispanics/Latinos, Hoffa, Homeless, Immigrants, Janitors, Jon Stewart, Judges, Kucinich, Labor stooges, Lesbians, LGBT, Liberals, Media Matters, Medicaid recipients, Medicare, Middle class, Minimum wage, Mormons, MSNBC, Muslims, NLRB, NPR, Obama, Occupiers, PBS, Peacemongers, Nancy Pelosi, Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice Movement, Policemen, Poor people, Progressives, Progressive Radio, Protesters, Public sector workers, Harry Reid, Bernie Sanders, Scientists, Secular Humanists, Sick people, Social Security, Social workers, Socialists, College Students, Teachers, Trumka, Unemployed, Unemployment benefits recipients, Union members, Veterans, Voters, Elizabeth Warren, Welfare queens, Welfare recipients, Women, Working class, Working poor.
The question remains:  Who is left to vote for Republicans?

Parable of Jesus re Bank Bailouts

Trying to follow the saga of the banks that are “forgiven their debts,” and bailed out with taxpayer dollars, then refuse to forgive their own debtors, and proceed to foreclose on and evict homeowners by the tens of millions, puts me in mind of the analogous parable of Jesus, as related in Matthew 18:23-35.  A king had threatened to have sold into slavery a servant who owed him $10,000, but the servant pleaded with him for patience, promising to pay him all.  The king was moved with compassion, and forgave him the debt.  But that servant then went out and collared a lesser servant, who owed him $100, and though the lesser servant pleaded with him for compassion, and promised to pay him all, the former threw the latter into prison.  But when fellow-servants saw what was done, they went to their king and complained, and the king was wroth, and said, “Shouldn’t you have had compassion on your fellow-servant, even as I had pity on you?” and then turned him over to his tormentors.

But we are still waiting for that last bit of retribution.

Privatization Nightmare

I am posting this article in its entirety, as there is too much information just to summarize.  Lots of good links here.  If you have been following this issue, then you are aware that this has been going on for decades, under the guise that privatization saves the government, and hence us taxpayers, money.  Common sense alone would tell you otherwise.  Private corporations must make money,

and if they do not perceive that they will make money, they will not consider taking on such a project.  They will make money at the expense of wages and benefits for employees, and by reducing services.    Just the accounts of the privatization of prisons and parking meters are mind-boggling; you might want to do research on the results of privatization of toll roads, as well.  This is unconscionable.

Gramma Windy                                                   

Privatization Nightmare: 5 Public Services That Should Never Be Handed Over to Greedy Corporations By Dave Johnson, AlterNet Posted on November 17, 2011, Printed on November 20, 2011 http://www.alternet.org/story/153093/privatization_nightmare%3A_5_public_services_that_should_never_be_handed_over_to_greedy_corporations Who gains – and who loses – when public assets and jobs are turned over to the private sector? The corporate right endlessly promotes “privatization” of public assets and public jobs as a cash-raising or cost-saving measure. Privatization is when the public turns over assets like airports, roads or buildings, or contracts out a public function like trash collection to a private company. Many cities contract out their trash collection. To raise cash Arizona even sold its state capitol building and leased it back. The justification for privatization is the old argument that private companies do everything better and more “efficiently” than government, and will find ways to cut costs. Over and over we hear that companies do everything for less cost than government. But it never seems to sink in that private companies don’t do things unless the people at the top can make a bundle of cash; if the CEO isn’t making millions, that CEO will move the company on to something else. When government does something they don’t have to pay millions to someone at the top. So how do private companies save money? What costs do companies cut that government doesn’t? When you hear about “cost-cutting” here is something to consider: what if by “costs” the privatizers are talking about … us? The Human Cost A recent NY Times piece brought the human cost of privatization to people’s attention. In the article, A Hidden Toll as States Shift to Contract Workers, the Times’ Motoko Rich reports, With state budgets under pressure, Michigan says it can no longer afford the relatively high wages of the public workers, which range from $15 to $20 an hour, along with health and retirement benefits. According to Salary.com, certified nursing assistants in private long-term care facilities in the area earn a median salary of just over $25,000 a year, or about $12.25 a hour. Summary: when a public function is privatized the employees get paid less and lose benefits, but other state agencies pick up the costs that occur when people get paid less. Private managers and executives get a big chunk of the “savings” and then there are the costs to the larger economy from ever more people making less and less. From the Times article, Economists and other academics who study outsourcing are divided about whether it usually saves a government money. Recent data from Arizona shows that privately operated prisons often cost more to operate than state-run facilities. A study by the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit Washington group, found that in 33 of 35 occupations, using contractors cost the federal government billions of dollars more than using government employees. Laura Clawson at Daily Kos added to the NY Times story, in, Low-wage contract workers in Michigan veterans home come with hidden costs, What do you want to bet that guy gets health care, and retirement benefits, and earns more than $10 an hour? And that he's probably not the only person at J2S of whom those things are true. So while the hourly wage a nursing assistant working for J2S gets is $10, the state is paying J2S more. How much more, the New York Times does not report. But Eclectablog points out that the state pays J2S Healthcare Group $15 an hour for those $10 an hour nursing assistants. When a public job is contracted out, usually public employees are replaced by people who are paid much, much less and receive fewer, if any benefits. Corporate propagandists complain that public employees are overpaid, receive “lavish” benefits, and are difficult to fire. But the question we all should ask is: is it in the public interest for Americans to be paid less or more, and to receive or not receive benefits? If we believe it is better to be paid more and receive benefits then We, the People should do that. Corruption Incentive Along with people getting their pay cut, privatization creates an incentive for corruption on the part of public officials. When a company (or, really, the people at the top of a company) can make a bundle form privatization, then they have a really good reason to bring various forms of … uh … influence to bear on the public officials that make the decisions about whether or not to privatize. Five Privatization Nightmares Here are five nightmares resulting from privatization: Privatized Prisons Think through the implications of a privatized prison system: if people go to prison it means more profit for the big for-profit prison corporations. This puts corporations, with all of their influence over the government, in the position of wanting more of us sentenced to long terms in jail so they can make more money! Even worse, there is an added corporate benefit: cheap prison labor. Of course, the result you would expect from these incentives is exactly what has been happening. For example, you may have heard about the "Kids for Cash" scandal in which Pennsylvania judges pleaded guilty to sentencing kids to privatized detention centers in exchange for payoffs from the profit-making companies that ran the centers. First the judges arranged for public detention centers to be defunded. Then they started sentencing a disproportionate number of kids to private detention centers in exchange for bribes. The profit incentive to put more and more of us in prison is not just an isolated local problem. This year The Nation looked into prison privatization, in The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor. They found that the notorious, Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), in an effort that is sponsored by the big for-profit prison corporations and companies that benefit from the cheap labor this provides, is helping to pass laws to put more and more of us in jail. According to The Nation, … prison labor for the private sector was legally barred for years, to avoid unfair competition with private companies. But this has changed thanks to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) .... [and their] instrumental role in the explosion of the US prison population in the past few decades. ALEC helped pioneer some of the toughest sentencing laws on the books today, like mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders, “three strikes” laws, and “truth in sentencing” laws. … ALEC has also worked to pass state laws to create private for-profit prisons, a boon to two of its major corporate sponsors: Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections), the largest private prison firms in the country. An In These Times investigation last summer revealed that ALEC arranged secret meetings between Arizona’s state legislators and CCA to draft what became SB 1070, Arizona’s notorious immigration law, to keep CCA prisons flush with immigrant detainees. ALEC has proven expertly capable of devising endless ways to help private corporations benefit from the country’s massive prison population. [. . .] Much of ALEC’s proposed labor legislation, implemented state by state is allowing replacement of public workers with prisoners. Parking Meters? Parking meters don’t sound like a big issue, but look what happened to Chicago. In a 2008 deal with Morgan Stanley, Chicago privatized its parking meters. In return for $1.15 billion Chicago gave up $11.6 billion of future revenue. Worse, the city gave up public control of its roads: If any road with parking meters is closed by the city for repairs, street fairs, parades, etc., the city has to come up with cash to cover loss of revenue. The lease eventually ended up under the control of Abu-Dhabi. Matt Tiabbi wrote in Rolling Stone about the effects of this deal, To start with something simple, it changed some basic traditions of local Chicago politics. Aldermen who used to have the power to close streets for fairs and festivals or change meter schedules now cannot — or if they do, they have to compensate Chicago Parking Meters LLC for its loss of revenue. So, for example, when the new ownership told Alderman Scott Waguespack that it wanted to change the meter schedule from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, the alderman balked and said he'd rather keep the old schedule, at least for 270 of his meters. Chicago Parking Meters then informed him that if he wanted to do that, he would have to pay the company $608,000 over three years. … Written into the original deal were drastic price increases. In Hairston's and Colon's neighborhoods, meter rates went from 25¢ an hour to $1.00 an hour the first year, and to $1.20 an hour the year after that. … "There are so many problems — I've had so many problems with them," says Hairston. "It tells you you've got eight minutes left, you get back in seven, and it charges you for the extra hour. Or you don't get a receipt. It's crazy." But to me, the absolute best detail in this whole deal is the end of holidays. No more free parking on Sunday. No more free parking on Christmas or Easter. Wisconsin Since the election of Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin is a statewide privatization nightmare. In Privatization At The Heart Of Divisive Battles In Wisconsin, Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel reports on the state’s privatization battles and the Governor’s efforts to privatize many public functions: During his tenure as county executive, Walker proposed privatizing park maintenance, the county zoo, psychiatric staff and other sectors. Most of the time, his ideas never went anywhere, but in March 2010, he was finally able to privatize courthouse security guards. The plan ended up backfiring and costing the county extra money whena judge ordered to reinstate the guards and give them back pay, meaning the government had to pay both the public workers and private guards for a period of time. … The project that he embarked on as a freshman governor in 2011 is little more than an extension of the philosophy he displayed as county executive: Walker is trying to undo the social contract and replace it with a private one. … A state audit released this month found Wisconsin's privatization occurred with insufficient oversight from the legislative branch and may have violated federal rules. State officials paid two contractors $27.6 million over two years to handle enrollment in food assistance and health care programs for low-income individuals. "[The state Department of Health Services] appears to have established and rapidly expanded the Enrollment Services Center with little organized planning, limited legislative oversight, and no formal efforts to determine the appropriate mix of contract and state staff," read the report's conclusion. [… one] measure, which recently passed the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee on a party-line vote, would require local governments to contract with private road builders for projects costing $100,000 or more in certain situations, rather than using their own public employees. "The only ones who seem to benefit are the road builders," said state Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) in a statement. [. . .] Tucked away in the state's budget repair bill was a provision that would allow the state to sell or contract out any state-owned energy asset in no-bid deals with private corporations. "The department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state," read the legislation. Questions were immediately raised about whether the arrangement would end up disproportionately benefiting GOP campaign donors, such as the Koch brothers -- speculation that Walker quickly denied. Louisiana Privatizing Public-Employee Health Plans Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is trying to privatize state employees’ health insurance. Supposedly this will save the state money. But In the article, LEAKED: Secret Report On Jindal’s Privatization Plan, TPMuckraker reports on a secret report describing what will really occur. A confidential report at the center of the debate over Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s push to privatize state employees’ health insurance has been leaked. The so-called “Chaffe report,” published Tuesday by the Baton Rouge Advocate, seeks to “establish the fair market value of the operations” of the state’s Office of Group Benefits (OGB), which provides health care insurance for around 250,000 state workers, retirees and their dependents. The Advocate reported that the Chaffe report “concluded that premiums would increase under privatization.” According to a story at Colorlines, Bobby Jindal’s Plan to Privatize Health Insurance for 250,000 Workers, Jindal’s privatization plan is very good for Goldman Sachs but not Louisiana, Jindal’s plans to privatize the OGB would affect about 250,000 state public employees, retirees, and their dependents. His administration says hiring an outside contractor to run the program would save taxpayers money by eliminating about 150 jobs and generating a recurring savings of over $10 million, in addition to $150 million in up front cash. However, opponents say the OGB does not need fixing, especially since it already has a surplus of a half billion dollars, and that long-term, it would cost more taxpayers money in the form of reduced benefits and increased premiums. Critics, including Louisiana democrats, also accuse Jindal of attempting to raid the $500 million surplus money, to help plug the state’s $1.6 billion budget hole. “Bobby Jindal’s plan to sell the Office of Group Benefits could jeopardize the quality of health care received by more than 250,000 active and retired Louisiana workers and their dependents… OGB does not cost taxpayers a dime to run and selling it will not save the state of Louisiana any money.” Louisiana Democratic Party Chairman Claude “Buddy” Leach, Jr. said in a statement. “The only folks likely to benefit from the sale of OGB are the big Wall Street corporations like Goldman Sachs who want to turn it into a profit making venture and Bobby Jindal, who would love to get his hands on the office’s half billion dollar reserve fund.” Indeed, an employee of the state’s Office of Risk Management reported that Goldman Sachs helped write the OGB’s Request for Proposals, and offered the only bid for the advisory role. The employee also said that the surplus would be reportedly split between the state and the purchaser. A new state bill also seems to override Louisiana law that would prohibit the OGB’s surplus from being used by another department in the administration. Traffic-law enforcement (including red-light cameras – decisions are made on profit motive, not good judgment) Many cities are installing privatized speed and traffic cameras. But while public law enforcement is interested in justice and fairness, private systems are only interested in profit. So judgment and compassion are thrown out the window. For example, some municipalities have contracts requiring them to approve a certain percentage of all tickets, regardless of whether there is a violation that a judge would. The result is that the public, not understanding or caring that the enforcement has been privatized, comes to see local government as little more than one more scammer after their money and loses trust and faith in government in general. Profit incentives also threaten public safety, when companies set yellow-light duration times too low. Some localities even allow these companies to write low yellow-light duration into the contracts, trading public safety for private profit! In the report, Caution: Red Light Cameras Ahead: The Risks of Privatizing Traffic Law Enforcement and How to Protect the Public, US PIRG found that, Privatized traffic law enforcement systems are spreading rapidly across the United States. As many as 700 local jurisdictions have entered into deals with for-profit companies to install camera systems at intersections and along roadways to encourage drivers to obey traffic signals and follow speed limits. Local contracting for automated traffic enforcement systems may sometimes be a useful tool for keeping drivers and pedestrians safe. But when private firms and municipalities consider revenues first, and safety second, the public interest is threatened. [. . .] Contracts between private camera vendors and cities can include payment incentives that put profit above traffic safety. [. . .] some contracts, including those in the California cities of Bell Gardens, Citrus Heights, Corona and Hawthorne, potentially impose financial penalties on the city if traffic engineers extend the length of the yellow light at intersections with red-light cameras, which would reduce the number of tickets the systems can issue. Many Other Nightmares There are many other nightmares, as state and local governments, defunded by right-wing anti-government tax-cut schemes turn to privatization, sell off public assets and firing public employees to try to stay afloat. Areas being privatized include highways, airports, water systems, trash collection, bridges, parking garages, nursing homes, traffic schools, and, of course, schools. The Biggest Nightmare: Privatization Just Shifts Costs To Other Parts Of Government Or To The Economy Does government really “save” if one government agency saves some money by contracting out, but other government agencies have to pick up the same costs. For example, if the contracting results in pay cuts for working people, then another part of the government might then spend more on poverty, nutrition or health programs for the people who now make so little. So does privatization really cut costs, or does it just shift them? And if it does just shift them (it does) see if you can guess who privatization shifts these costs to? But even worse than this shifting of costs to other parts of the government is the bigger picture of what this does to our economy. The result of this “cost-cutting” is that people in the economy that were making $25/hour now only make perhaps $10/hour and most likely no longer get benefits. Same larger economy, $15 an hour less. After a while this adds up, and everyone has less, except for a few at the top. Kind of like … now. The Equation Of Privatization The equation of privatization works like this: tax cuts leave governments desperate to raise cash, so they sell off public assets (the things We, the People own together) or cut jobs. Then they rent them back or the public pays for their use. Defunded, Chicago has to sell its parking meters to raise cash; Arizona state capital, same thing. Privatization is the 1% taking public wealth so they can make money off of it for themselves. Instead of democracy collecting taxes from the 1% privatization leaves everyone poorer and paying rent to the 1%. Private Not Public Interest There is a fundamental conflict of interest between public and private. When things are privatized of course profit comes first, not public interest. Public functions are supposed to serve the public, us, We, the People. The ‘private’ in ‘privatization’ means that it is done for the private gain of a few. When a public function is privatized it means that instead of operating for the benefit of We, the People – the 99% – it is operated for the benefit of a few – the 1%. © 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/153093/

[w2]

Bipartisan Economic Plan

The Democrats walk along the street handing out blankets to the homeless; the Republicans follow the Democrats down the street taking the blankets back.

To paraphase a Bible verse, don't let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.  Because if you do, the right hand will undo whatever the left hand did.

Gramma Windy

American Exceptionalism indeed...

Is my outrage misplaced?   Although I would have to say that outrage must be good for the heart, because this 80-year-old heart is still going strong, maintaining a low heartbeat and low blood pressure—‘course, no one is around to check either when I am reacting to news on TV or radio…

Is it not our Constitution that makes our country exceptional?  And don’t we love to recite the First Amendment, including the priceless phrase “…the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”

Mayor Bloomberg has just said that the first amendment “protects speech but it does not protect tents.”  Oh, WOW, just consider, the Supreme Court has ruled that money is speech, yet Bloomberg proclaims that tents are not speech.

If you want to watch the police state in action, as NYPD destroys Zuccoti Park village, you will have to watch Democracy Now, at freespeechtv or linktv, or access it on the internet at www.democracynow.org   as I believe they were the only journalists at the scene when the park was raided this morning.  If you are not moved, then I would have to say, as Rick Perry did in another context, “you have no heart.”   One of the most moving moments was perhaps when Amy Goodman leaned over and picked up out of the debris a battered paperback book, “Brave New World Revisited.”

 How is it that we applaud the Arab Spring, as it occurs in foreign countries, and condemn the governments that suppress those protests, and yet around our country storm troopers and riot police are invading encampments, beating and harassing and arresting protesters, evicting them and destroying their belongings?

 Shouldn’t the First Amendment trump park rules?  How is it that simply making rules about curfews and tents can stop the people’s right to freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble?  Who put limits on when or where these protests could take place?  Oh, right, remember the “Free Speech Zones” at national political conventions?

 A few days ago someone, probably on Fox News, opined that every parent watching these scenes of occupiers is fearful of spotting the face of a child in the crowd.  Well, don’t count me in that bunch.  I find myself, with hope, scanning the faces I see at those protests for any sign of a grandchild of mine, and do know this, I would stand with that grandchild, in spirit at least.

 Is Hope, in fact, still shut up in Pandora’s Box?

 Gramma Windy 

Will Rogers' on the Great Depression

Notes made on 10/15/11:  Many of you younger ones will possibly never heard of this man, but here is an introduction.

I just watched a PBS documentary on Will Rogers.  And WOW, is he timely.  Of particular interest to the occupy Wall Street movement would be a radio broadcast in October 1931, in which h he dispensed with jokes and discussed seriously the problems that were going on.  He was directly preceding a talk from President Hoover in which the latter was going to tout some of his policy.  This broadcast is known >>as the “Bacon, Beans, and Limousines” speech.  [You can watch/listen to this at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyfvamwM4Yo  very moving.  There is not a word he says that is not applicable to today.] He began by pointing out that 17 million people were out of work.  He said that people shouldn’t be worrying about prohibition when the neighbor’s children did not have food to eat.  He pointed out that a few years ago people worried about whether the poor could get a drink, now “we fixed it so they cannot even get anything to eat.”  Speaking of jobless and hungry, he says that the unemployed and hungriest of men have contributed in some way to the wealth of every millionaire in America.  He says there is as much money as there ever was, it’s just in fewer hands.
Other sayings: 

·         Every time Congress makes a joke it’s a law and every time they make a law it’s a joke.

·         He referred to a president who “didn’t do nothin’ but that’s what we wanted done.”

·         Broadcasting over NBC, when he was announcing the station, “NBC—No Body Cares…Whatever you say tonight you can come back tomorrow night and deny it in case anybody remembers.”

·         When he nominated Henry Ford for president he mentioned that some people said he didn’t know enough history, but “What we need is a man who can make history, not one who can recite it.”  [Hmmm, maybe some of these Republican candidates could use that line.]

·         It takes nerve to be a Democrat, but it takes money to be a Republican.

·         If there’s anything that we do worse than any other nation, it’s to try to manage someone else’s affairs.

On Sleeplessness and Deep Breathing

Having endured many nights of sleeplessness and restlessness, sometime ago I decided to try deep breathing, though I had never heard it suggested as a remedy.   Several times over a period of weeks I tried the deep breathing exercise, but I could never remember later whether or not it worked.  I could not remember, though, lying there still wakeful and thinking that it hadn’t worked.  Although I couldn’t vouch for it, and never recommended it to anyone, still I would occasionally try again.
A couple of nights ago, still wakeful at 3:30 a.m., I decided to try again.  I began to take deep breaths, then I was dreaming that I was explaining to someone how the exercise worked, and was saying, “They say that even Republicans have tried it.”  I awoke to my terrier, Tessa, whistling in my ear that she wanted to go out.

So I am still not sure if it works.  Has anyone tried it? 

But I am sure that it is a bipartisan exercise.

Republicans Standing Tall

Notes made early in October:

Sometimes Republicans stand tall:

Rick Perry when he provides in-state college tuition for children who are illegal immigrants because brought here by their parents, and then speaks in eloquent defense of the need for this action.

Jon Hunstman when he supports science, as in evolution and climate change.

Ron Paul when he rails against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mitt Romney when he provided universal health care for Massachusetts residents.  [At the time he supported it as a model for a national program, but now says not, and says he would repeal Obamacare.]

Herman Cain when he was asked about abortion on Meet the Press:  It’s not the role of government to get in the way of anybody’s decision, it ultimately comes down to the decision of the family and the woman, “it is not up to me as president, nor some politician, nor a bureaucrat.”  [But now he says he is prolife at conception, would not allow any bureaucrats to get in the way of the life of the unborn, and that if they give him a bill to defund planned parenthood, he will sign it.  He would also sign a constitutional amendment banning abortion (Note: presidents don’t sign amendments.)

Rick Santorum ???

Michele Bachman ???

Newt Gingrich ???

Chris Christie when he appoints a Muslim to the court system and then defends his appointment and the man’s qualifications.   Then he stands even taller than he is wide.  As well, he supports immigrants, science of climate change, gun control, hmmm, something else.  Which may be enough to take him out of the running for Republican candidate for governor.

Make it a Special Day!

 I just learned that there is a move to persuade people to shop only small businesses on Saturday, November 26, the day after ‘Black Friday.’  Patronize your local small business shops that day, you might be surprised at the exciting holiday gifts you can pick up.   Oh, and take a break for lunch at a local Mom and Pop restaurant.

First Frost and First Snow

Saturday October 29

Who’d’ve thought?  First Frost and First Snow within a week.

On Sunday, the 23^rd, with the temperature at 36.5^o at 7:30 a.m. I wasn’t imagining any frost here.   As I started my early morning dash to Sheetz in Romney to pick up the Sunday papers, I turned on the wipers to clear the dew from the windshield, but the wipers skimmed the dew, because it was, in fact, frozen.  There was no other frost at my place, but as I drove down Jersey Mountain Road, I saw low-lying fields white with the frost, and later Hazel, who lives just down the road from me, said that they had had frost.  As their property lies lower than mine, they always get frost earlier in the fall, and later in the spring, than I do. 

It wasn’t until Friday, yesterday, that there was real frost here on my place, but I had to walk down to the lower lawn to check for sure, as it still was not as whited as the fields along Jersey Mountain Road on Sunday.  But the talk now was of snow.   On Thursday night, when I met with some friends for supper, talk was of possible rain or snow on Saturday, with temps not above 41^o, so we agreed to cancel our planned Adopt-a-Highway litter pickup.   Yesterday (Friday) when I lunched with my sister, Lois, in Martinsburg, she said that in Hagerstown  5 to 8 inches of snow was forecast.    I could hardly believe that, but when I stopped by for shopping at Lowe’s, Sheetz, and Target, the talk among customers and staff was all about expected snow.    When I arrived home a little before 5, I noticed the Weather Alert red light was on, so I listened, and they were indeed predicting rain mixed with snow, changing to snow mixed with rain, or something like that, beginning in the evening and continuing through the day on Saturday, possibly accumulating 4 or 5 inches.

And so it began, from rain throughout the evening, snowflakes appeared in the mix along about 9 p.m., and by bedtime it was pretty much snow, heavy, wet stuff, just beginning to cover the ground.  Now, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, we have probably a good three inches.  Beginning about 7 a.m., power began flickering off at intervals, making it impossible to watch my Saturday morning show, Up With Chris, or even to adequately dvr it.   Flickers began to increase in frequency, and now, as of about ten minutes ago, the lights went off, apparently quite seriously this time.  So I am constrained to finish this little epistle before the battery goes out on my laptop.

Can’t help thinking about those intrepid souls at Occupy WallStreet, in NY, Boston, and elsewhere, this is not going to make their vigil easy.  I know that a couple of days ago when snow fell in Denver on their occupy site, two of the protesters were taken to the hospital suffering from hypothermia.  A day or so ago in Zuccoti park an infiltrator, a right-winger associated with the likes of James O’Keefe and Breitbart, was passing out free bongs and wrappers to protesters and asking to take their photos as they smoked.  Someone got suspicious and asked was he going to turn those photos over to Fox?  He pretended innocence and asked why couldn’t he just pass out free stuff?  A distrustful  protester standing behind him had been chanting “f…f…f…” at him, and then asked, “Why don’t you give out something useful, like thermal underwear?  It’s going to get cold here.”  I thought  about him last night.

Monday

We probably had a good 4 to 5 inches of the white stuff, power was off about 8 hours, and again about an hour Sunday morning.  Today I hear that in the Northeast where snow was up to 3 feet and with strong winds, there are about 4 million people without power, and it may be days before some of them get it back.  Imagine, snow days on Hallowe’en. 

I was not at all looking forward to this snow.  While I am known to love the snow, I am more used to having time to look forward to it, after long, cold, frosty, gray, dull winter days, with ice beginning to form on the pond, snow has somehow seemed like a comfort to me, indeed, I have likened it to a downy comforter settling down warm, cozy, and silent around me.  I suppose that in light of the weather service predicting December and January to be colder by 2 or 3 degrees than normal, and with more precipitation, meaning snow, I was looking forward to winter with some trepidation.  So this early snow did not fill me with delight.

Weather is expected to become milder through the week, and I can cut some more turnip greens and kale, cut those last little cabbages that formed on cut cabbage stalks, and bring in the Brussels sprouts, which are beautiful this year, five plants of them.   Consider covering winter garden.  Gather more kindling and carry more firewood.  Get out the flannel sheets and long johns, and where did I leave those foot thingies with the cleats for walking on ice?

At 7:15 there was a scene on tv of sunrise behind the capitol, but here it is not up yet. 

9-9-9 plan and beyond

I began this post early in October, but because my internet was down for the month and beyond, have only just now been able to post it.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan

Early October

Ah, simplicity itself.  9-9-9. How could anything be better?  Easy to understand too.  Fewer pages to read.  9-9-9.  As long as you don’t read it upside down, as Michele Bachmann suggested.

No wonder Herman Cain has surged ahead in the polls.  He has a message, a plan, that everyone can understand.  Or at least, they think they can understand it; I wonder how many have actually read it and can tell you what the 9-9-9 stands for, or what the economists have to say about how it would work. 9% corporate income tax.  9% personal income tax.  9% national sales tax.  No payroll taxes, no medicare taxes.  No deductions or tax credits.  No capital gains tax.  Ah, yes, simple indeed.

Here’s how it would work, according to Center for American Progress.  Poor America would see their taxes increase by 900%.  That’s great.  It would help to make up for all those years that 43% of Americans paid no federal income taxes at all.  There would be a substantial increase on the middle class.   Two examples:  A family with an income of $50,000 who presently pays $3,515 in taxes would see their taxes double to $7,500, a 100% increase.   A family with an income of $120,000 presently paying $31,600 would see an increase of $800, to $32,400.  The richest 1% of the population would see their taxes fall from 28% to 11%.  Well, what could be more fair?  They have been carrying such a heavy burden of taxes all this time.    Social Security and Medicare would be abolished.  People in need would get help from their state and local systems, and from churches, charities, and neighbors. 

This is deemed by critics the greatest shift of taxes from wealthy to poor ever.  It would explode the deficit to the highest it’s been since WWII, and it would bankrupt the country.  So they say.

Now admittedly I have not done in-depth research on this, since my internet was down for the month of October, but I understand you can go to Herman Cain’s website and read it for yourself, and then to the above cited source, or any other you can access, and see what the results would be.   I understand that Rich Lowrie, not an economist but a bank manager and associate of Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, developed his plan.

Now we have just learned that the 9-9-9 plan appeared originally as the default plan in SimCity 4 video game.  But Cain says that whoever says that is lying.

Update Monday Oct 17

Sometime ago someone suggested that Herman Cain was being bankrolled by some entity that specifically wanted to keep him in the game to give the Republicans cred as being inclusive.  But that seemed like a wild guess.  Now it seems that a half-dozen or more current and former members of Cain’s staff were formerly associated with Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity.

Update Sunday Oct 23

Now Herman Cain has modified his 9-9-9 plan to a 9-0-9 plan for people below the poverty line.  They would pay no taxes.  And he is also considering an opportunity zone, where in order to improve job opportunities the minimum wage would be abolished.  Opportunity, indeed.  For whom?

NOTE:  The top 1% owns 40% of the wealth, gets 24% of the income, owns 50% of stocks.   The top 10% owns 90% of stocks, 75% of the wealth.  The top 400 families own as much wealth as the bottom 150 million people.

Who would benefit?  Last year Herman Cain had earned income of $800,000, on which he would have paid 9% income tax, which would have left him with just $692,000.  Although there is also that income from sale of stocks, etc., which brought him another $800,000, which, under his plan, would not have been taxed.  Oh, and of course, he would have had to pay sales taxes on merchandise purchased.

Monday October 31

Now Rick Perry has come out with his 20-20-0 plan.  Flat tax of 20% on everyone, 20% corporate tax, no sales tax.  No taxes on capital gains, dividends, investment.  When asked about the exorbitant benefit this would be to the rich, he says:  “I don’t care about that.  Just so they have more money to invest.”  Yeah, right.  His plan was devised by he of the flannel shirts, remember Steve Forbes?  Ran in ’96 on this plan.    Didn’t get him very far.

Now we hear that Mitt Romney will be presenting his own “flatter” tax scheme.  And, if I recall, Rick Santorum has his own 0-0-0 plan.  

I'm ba-a-ack

If you have been checking this site at all for updates, you have probably given up on me because of the lack of posts.  My internet was down for the month of October and beyond, but now it is back, and I have prepared several items that I will be posting over the next few days.   I hope there is something for your tastes.

Letter to Chris Hayes

Up with Chris Hayes letter

Chris, how can you do this to me?  My weekends have been such a respite, tranquil, devoid of news and commentary because there was little worth watching or listening to, and now, there you are, inviting yourself into my house, gathering with your friends around my table, and with coffee and pastries yet.  Has a person no peace?

But thank you, thank you, for this wonderful, informal format and the caliber of your guests, and mine.   And the variety of topics discussed.   Of course, there are problems about those donuts, but I actually join you there, on Sunday morning at least, when I make my mad dash out for the Sunday papers and my weekly treat, one donut.  “Mad dash” is putting it mildly, I have to drive 14 miles into Romney, the county seat of Hampshire County, in West Virginia, and stop in Sheetz to pick up the Washington Post and New York Times, paying a premium for these papers way out here.  I have to make it by 7:30 a.m., because they only lay in three copies of NYT, and I have to be early to get a copy.  Last Sunday I picked up the last copy, and the last custard-filled-chocolate-iced donut, and made it back in time to settle in a comfortable chair and join you and your friends—our friends-- coffee, donuts and all.

A real problem is developing, because after a dearth of progressive commentary on tv for lo, these many years, I now find myself DVRing a full lineup (from 3 to 11 p.m)  on msnbc every evening, whereas once upon a time there were only Amy Goodman,  Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, and then airamerica on xm radio.    When my children gifted me with satellite tv, in 2004, the first thing I did was watch O’Reilly and Hannity, to see if they were really as bad as I had heard; they were, and I never tuned them in again.  Which is strange, because demographics would have it that I would listen to them, and not to you, Olbermann, Maddow, Hartmann, Uyger, Schultz, and the rest,  because I am an 80-year-old mother, gramma, and ggramma, as well as retired teacher.   We are supposed to follow O’R and his ilk.  Where did I go astray?

I didn’t even discover msnbc till Keith Olbermann did a Special Comment in 2006, and it blew me away.  I have been a fan ever since, and have watched in awe as first one and then another wonderful  and provocative commentator is added to the list. 

Anyway, thanks for helping me take pleasure in going astray.  Keep up the good work. 

Warmest regards,

Gramma Windy

Food Safety Regulations and Inspections

When I heard on tv that Michelle Bachmann had visited a meat packing plant in Des Moines and railed against govt regulations and inspections of meat processing plants, I googled “Michele Bachmann visits meat plant” and came up with a number of articles about her visit.  To one of which I posted the following comment:

Perhaps the media should invite the owner/operator of this meat-packing plant, Amend Packing Plant, to disavow Ms Bachmann's jeremiad against government regulations and inspections of meat-packing plants, and assure the public that Amend supports the role of the government in helping them to be sure that their meat will never sicken consumers.  They need to tell us that she doesn't speak for them.  She is using them.

I then googled Amend Packing Plant and emailed them a request that they publicly disavow her comments, and promise that they wanted their products to be safe for consumers.

Following is an excerpt from article in June about GOP congress cutting funds for food safety.  Have you kept up with the latest news about contaminated cantaloupes, ground turkey and ground beef?

House Republicans vote to cut funds to implement food safety law

By Lyndsey Layton, Published: June 16

Arguing that the U.S. food supply is 99 percent safe, House Republicans cut millions of dollars Thursday from the Food and Drug Administration’s budget, denying the agency money to implement landmark food safety laws approved by the last Congress.

Saying the cuts were needed to lower the national deficit, the House also reduced funding to the Agriculture Department’s food safety inspection service, which oversees meat, poultry and some egg products. And lawmakers chopped $832 million from an emergency feeding program for poor mothers, infants and children. Hunger groups said that change would deny emergency nutrition to about 325,000 mothers and children.

No Democrats voted in favor of the agriculture appropriations bill, which passed by a vote of 217 to 203. Nineteen Republicans joined the Democrats in opposition.

The White House opposed many of the cuts, saying they would force the USDA to furlough inspectors at meat and poultry processing plants and leave the FDA unable to meet the requirements of a food safety law passed in December,…which was the first major change to the nation’s food safety laws since 1938, and calls for the FDA to significantly step up scrutiny of domestic and imported food and devise a system aimed at preventing the kind of contamination that sickens one in six Americans every year.

The law, which received bipartisan support, followed years of cutbacks at the FDA and waves of food-borne illnesses linked to foods as varied as spinach, peanuts and cookie dough.

To carry out the new law, President Obama is seeking $955 million the FDA’s food safety program in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Republican leaders in the House pared back that to $750 million, which is $87 million less than the agency currently is receiving for food safety.

They also shaved $35 million from the USDA’s food safety and inspection service.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), chairman of the House subcommittee that wrote the agriculture appropriations bill, said the cuts to food safety were justified because the nation’s food supply was “99.99 percent safe.”

“Do we believe that McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Safeway and Kraft Food and any brand name [how about Jenson and Cargill and Tyson and …] that you think of, that these people aren’t concerned about food safety?” Kingston said on the House floor. “The food supply in America is very safe because the private sector self-polices, because they have the highest motivation. They don’t want to be sued, they don’t want to go broke. They want their customers to be healthy and happy.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 48 million Americans get sick from tainted food every year. Of those, about 28,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die, the government says.

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) tried unsuccessfully to restore some money to FDA by arguing that the agency is overwhelmed by imported foods, inspecting just about 1 percent of the supply after it arrives in U.S. ports….

Food safety advocates said they are counting on the Senate to restore the funding for the FDA that the House cut. “Clearly, we still think there’s a serious need for additional resources for FDA,” said Erik Olson, director of food and consumer product safety programs at the Pew Charitable Trusts.