Have We Gone Nuts? And Merry Christmas!

Within the past week a newscaster was castigated for stating the historical reality that Jesus Christ and Santa Claus were white. A few days later a school teacher told a 14 year old black student that he couldn’t dress as Santa Claus because Santa Claus was white. This was certainly in the spirit of peace on earth and goodwill toward men, wasn’t it? Could you imagine a Jewish man at a costume party being told he couldn’t dress as a knight because Jews weren’t knights in the Middle Ages? Probably not because that’s not likely to happen.

Its common knowledge that Saint Nicholas was a Greek Orthodox bishop in the early 300’s AD whose gift giving provided the basis for Santa Claus. We say “Santa Claus” from our Dutch colonial inheritance, the British say Father Christmas. The now traditional looking Santa was standardized from a Coca Cola ad in 1931 inspired by Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas" better known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. But the reindeer may have come from an earlier source. The Roman goddess Diana was believed to sail through the night sky with deer. Some say the basis of Santa is a Siberian shaman high on hallucinogenic plants flying across the sky with the reindeer. If this is the case than Santa is more closely biologically related to the Native Americans than any other group in the USA.

But whatever the mythological or historical origins, Santa Claus, like Jesus, belongs to all of us; including that black teenager and his seemingly racist teacher.

Merry Christmas!

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Obamacare: Social Security Redux

As millions of Americans are smarting from the inanities of Obamacare, we must not forget another similar liberal scam that has been perverting our economic lives since the 1930’s: Social Security. Over the past 50 or so years Social Security has returned about 1.6% while the average return on invested capital in the United States has averaged over 8%. One reason for this is the vast Social Security Administration which is so rotten to the core that some of its employees have retired on disability from the stress of going to work and having nothing to do. But the primary reason for the low return is that it’s invested totally in US government debt. In other words, it’s just a scheme for the government to borrow even more money that it has no feasible way to pay back.

Last week I received a letter stating that the Medicare benefit portion of my Social Security will be reduced for 2014 based upon my “income” in 2012. But in 2012 I was negative cash flow and was forced to buy groceries with credit cards. However, I withdrew money from retirement accounts in that year to repair my roof and install a solar energy system. That made me a high income person under their arbitrary criteria. However, my basic monthly Social Security amount is very low because for many years I was engaged in owning and maintaining residential rental properties. I could not have paid into Social Security even if I wanted to because my income was considered “unearned income”.

During those years I routinely cut out rotten waste plumbing pipe. Often I would be covered from the neck down with their contents. (But I won’t be more graphic in describing those contents since I’m not an eloquent MSNBC commentator like Martin Bashir.) At that time I often thought of photographing my effluent covered self, pairing it with a photo of a Senator dining at a fancy DC restaurant with a lobbyist and sending it to Congress with the caption: Which of these activities creates earned income? During the Depression there was plenty of work according to my father, but since wages were so low many people didn’t bother. But he didn’t want to be poor, so he worked three jobs. Two were daytime sales jobs for differing wholesalers and then a graveyard shift as a drop forge laborer. Because his efforts made him higher income, he paid into Social Security at the maximum rate from the day it went into effect until his last paycheck was received after he was already dead and in the ground at age 49. Where did that money go? Probably into the monthly checks of someone who took too much LSD and drank too many beers in the 1960’s and is now “disabled”.

When my mother retired she was unable to collect on my father’s Social Security and instead received the lower benefit my stepfather had earned. But she did get a $500 dead benefit and my brother and I were able to go to college on a benefit that lasted until we were 22. My average check was about $93 a month. These sums received were a small pittance of what my father had paid in without even considering about 30 years of interest or investment income.

In the peak year of 1977 about 900,000 students received the Social Security survivors’ benefit for college. Ending this benefit during the Reagan Administration is certainly a contributing factor to the current student loan mess. How stealing someone’s money is considered by some as a legitimate means to shore up Social Security baffles me. The money we pay into Social Security is our money despite it being called a tax. That is why payments into Social Security are not deductible from the computation of taxable income, unlike state income tax or other items. All these rules, terms and definitions define how we live and hopefully prosper in a manner seemingly divorced from reality. All I can conclude is that

Washington must indeed be a very strange place.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Is this really happening?

This past summer I visited a friend in Colorado. He told me that his seamless gutter business was doing OK, but that he had a new and difficult problem. He now has to order parts from so far away that the freight cost vastly exceeds the parts cost. This is not surprising since Barron’s Business and Financial Weekly recently reported that “…nonresidential fixed investment as a percent of gross domestic product shrank to a 50 year low.” Yet many, including those in government, say that the economy is improving and point to the reviving housing market. But many of the newly sold homes are purchased for cash by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), hedge funds and Sovereign Wealth Funds from “friendly” foreign countries such as Abu Dhabi and rented out. California alone has added 500,000 renters and lost 233,000 homeowners since 2007. But this increased demand, partly due to the investments just cited, has raised the price of the median California home from $274,000 in May, 2012 to $352,000 in May, 2013, a 28.4% increase. To make home ownership more affordable the Federal Reserve is trying to stimulate the economy (under its price stability mandate?) to 2% inflation. This means that prices will quintuple during an average lifetime.

Real economic growth is being stifled at every turn. The Bristol Bay/Pebble Bay project in Alaska, mentioned in a prior commentary with its 42,000 jobs, has been abandoned due to strictly ideological regulation. Almost 300 coal fired power plants are being shut down. President Obama has threatened to veto a House bill that would open the outer continental shelf to drilling with the potential for 1.2 million full time jobs over 30 years. At the same time the Washington regulators seem afraid of foreign powers like China that steal our trade secrets and intellectual property. The National Security Agency estimates the loss at $300 billion which some equate to about one million jobs.

While the capital that is entering the United States is buying assets like our homes our domestic capital is fleeing. Covanta Holdings processes about 5% of our garbage. They recycle the metals with a new, more efficient method and burn the rest to produce energy. But because a waste to energy facility has not been approved since the 1990’s, they are building their new plants in foreign countries. A recent Indonesian government auction received as many as five bids for one bond. This is a county where burning down churches is a popular pastime.

Talk of change continues to eminent from Washington, usually in the form of increased regulation. Recent rules governing initial public offerings (IPO’S) of stock haven proven so costly that middle market companies have been unable to finance themselves. IPO financing has created 92% of all job growth at public companies since the 1970’s. In a likewise manner, the new rules governing speculative trading in commodities contain loopholes for the mega corporations. These mega corporations, or crony capitalists, in turn do Washington’s bidding. They have driven down the price of gold so that China can exchange the depreciating dollars they receive for something of real value. Almost 50% of the world’s annual gold output now lies within China’s borders. Schemes such as this are necessary to finance our increasing deficits since foreign buying of US Treasuries has decreased to $104 billion from $503 billion a year earlier. This slack has been picked up by the Federal Reserve which now holds about $2.1 trillion in US treasuries and about $1.4 trillion in mortgage backed securities. If, or when, interest rates rise the Fed becomes insolvent. Nothing in the world can bail out the Federal Reserve Bank.

But the clever people in Washington, to whom some Americans still trust their well being, have an answer. Instead of the current definition of wholesaler or wholesale trader for an American company like Apple that makes all of its products aboard, the government will now classify them as manufacturers because their product design and production oversight occurs in the US. This definitional change would have added up to two million “American” manufacturing jobs in the study year of 2007.

The picture doesn’t look as bleak now, does it? If this reminds anyone of the torture/finger counting scene in 1984 you are probably not alone. Our situation is called an “enormous doomsday machine” by former budget director David Stockman.

While I have no magic solution, I do know that we have some power locally and that we must exercise it. It is essential to support the Newman Ridge project and the expansion of gold mining. We must assume jurisdiction over our national forests and begin productive ventures. Potential developments such as the portable slaughter house for cattle and a Pioneer biomass plant must be explored. Do we have any choice if we wish to survive?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

A Pioneer Biomass Plant?

The cedar mill with its exuberant giant pencils is long gone. The “replacement” greenhouse venture has apparently failed. On the hills above the high tension lines remain like a grim picture of a future Detroit. Isn’t this the perfect location for a biomass energy plant? Every time I drive up Hwy 88 dead trees punctuate the national forest. The Foothill Conservancy has done a commendable job of obtaining grant money and clearing dead trees. (Who likes to fill out government paperwork?) But their effort has two fatal flaws. Firstly, the government money is borrowed from the Chinese for which we have no creditable means of repayment. And secondly, the trees are burned as waste which only adds to air pollution. This additional pollution wouldn’t occur in a state of the art biomass plant as the former waste becomes electricity. And the plant could also produce wood pellets for a worldwide market using nearby ports.

Can the County Planning Department, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors package this site for biomass? Can the Amador Economic Development Corporation interest an experienced operator such as Waste Management to do a detailed study at their own expense? And while I wouldn’t venture a guess on the final economic feasibility, it seems clearly worthy of exploration. The present Buena Vista plant only serves a 50 mile radius and partly burns agricultural waste.

Along with the employment, tax revenue and forest cleaning benefits, I have a vision of the plant also operating like a recycling center. Individuals with dead trees beyond their fireplace needs could bring them in for money. This would cause a small, but worthwhile, reduction in home refuse burning. With woody biomass going for $20 to $35 a ton and a Ford F-150, for example, having a capacity over one and a half tons it seems quite reasonable that individuals could participate. Those struggling financially could go into the national forest and cut. Perhaps a whole new entrepreneurial generation of loggers would emerge. Why can’t we have hundreds of people in the forest competing for dead trees? This would also require that all the roads be kept open with perhaps some new ones. Amador County could have cleaner, safer forests, new employment opportunities and perhaps serve as a model to other communities.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Chaos & Ignorance

California’s recent pension reform bill conflicts with Federal law regarding union members at transit districts receiving Federal aid. Missing that $1.6 billion in aid has caused a halt in funding that threatens millions of daily bus and train riders. The legislature is quickly adopting the necessary changes which will add even more uncertainty to the budgetary process.  But between the time that bill passes and the aid returns the Sacramento Regional Transit District may lose up to 10% of its current budget. Other transit districts are presumably in the same situation.  Whatever one may think of Jerry Brown’s political positions, he is intelligent and knowledgeable. The same probably holds generally true for his staff and the Legislature. Am I to assume that ignorance is the answer for passing illegal legislation? If that is the only explanation than this is not liberal government or conservative government but rather chaos government. I find this frightening.

Many people question or lose their faith because of some inconsistencies in the Bible. And while most scholars agree that both the New and Old Testaments contain inconsistencies, inconsistencies are inherent in sacred writings from many faiths and traditions. Some may reductively express this as being like a Zen riddle. Personally, I feel that sacred texts are meant to prompt you to resolve the so called inconsistencies. It’s a set up for an internal experience. They are not meant for idle readers. Many people seem to be criticizing from ignorance. 

A very pious physicist once told me something amazing.  Assuming that you accept Einstein’s theory of relativity  that time expands as you move outward  from the center of the universe, then the earth is the billions of years old that official science states. But if you measure that same elapsed time from the center of the universe, what  some call the eye of God  and others ground zero for the big bang, then the earth is exactly as old as the Bible states.   So not only is the accuracy of the Bible reinforced, but the writers- the transcribers from divine intelligence- were in tune with something beyond most current awareness. If what I have said is true, then why isn’t this front page news? Couldn’t this information eliminate much acrimonious and passionate debate which may, in fact, be false?

Are we becoming, as many social critics advocate, more ignorant as a people? Does this create chaos as a natural outcome? Is there more to come?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Frogs, Toads and Best Available Science

As was advertised here on Amador Community News and elsewhere Congressmen McClintock and Nunes held a hearing on August 6th in Sonora regarding the designation of over two million acres as critical habitat for various frogs and toads. What follows is an observation of one element of that hearings’ discussion and a response an environmentalist’s letter to the editor in a Sonora area newspaper.  Since this argument hasn’t changed regular readers will notice that I have repeated prior statements.

At the hearing the US Fish and Game representative repeatedly stated that they would use the “best available science”. In 1930’s Germany the best available science proved racial superiority. In the former Soviet Union the best available science, Lamarckism evolution, would create the new socialist person within a few generations. In present day America the best available science says that a former rat poison ingredient, Sodium Fluoride, must be added to our drinking water for its dental health benefits. Science is in service to the mega corporations and the government (see who funds research). Probably the most blatant example of official science/best available science is the total fraud of climate change.

Climate change is one of the reasons noted by Justin Augustine from Oakland’s Center for Biological Diversity for the designation of over two million acres as critical habitat. He also gives pesticide use as another reason.  Who is using pesticides in the National Forests? I know of no one and if he does he should come forward with that information. Another of his reasons is habitat loss. Not only have the boundaries of the National Forests not changed, but vast amounts of land in California has been added to parks, preserves, conversation easements, etc. Go to the El Dorado National Forest website, look up Indian Creek and see the vast sums of public money being spent on building new frog habitat. He also cites introduced species as a cause. This is correct because California Fish & Game has introduced non native fish into higher elevation lakes. Has this stopped? Has the Center for Biological Diversity lobbied against this practice? His last reason of disease is also true; a parasite from the imported African claw frog is killing local species. But how does the designation fight the disease? It has been fought in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and on the grounds of UC Davis. And while I object to the cost, I would not publicly oppose the breeding in captivity of healthy allegedly endangered or threatened species and their release into the wild.

Mr. Augustine stated that the designation opponents don’t understand the Endangered Species Act and that it won’t cost jobs or restrict access. When he says that “This is simply untrue” I suggest that he look into the mirror regarding who is lying. He has chosen to ignore the track record of the Forest Service and their litigious environmental allies in closing roads and banning logging and grazing.  Grazing is essential for the health of our Sierra ecosystems. Over 40,000 elephants were killed in Africa because the prior best available science said otherwise. Go to Allan Savory’s videos on YouTube for proof.

What Mr. Augustine ignores or is uninformed about is that this designation is part of a larger program to depopulate the rural areas (Agenda 21) and to destroy the middle class as a precondition to a possible totalitarian state. The boisterously clapping participants at the recent hearing are well aware of this reality.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Supervisors’ Discussion: the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and Prop 84 funds

On 7/23/13 the Sierra Nevada Conservancy made a presentation to the Amador County Board of Supervisors. I made the following public comment:

"We are all forced to make decisions within constrained “black boxes” that we did not create and often don’t like.  Therefore, I do not oppose applications for Prop 84 funds. If money is available we should take it. However, I have read the Prop 84 grant history, the material from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and their allied organizations and wish to make several comments.

All of these documents and projects are to protect watershed, but there is not one mention that watersheds are threatened because the water remains in the overgrown forest canopy and evaporates before it can reach the ground. There is also no mention of reducing overgrown forests through increased logging, which would produce profits rather than subsidy. The Sierra Nevada Conservancy values forests for carbon capture, accepting the fraud of CO2 induced climate change. Today that increased carbon is making deserts bloom around the world. Also the Sierra Nevada Conservancy initiates, encourages and supports efforts that improve, among other things, the social well being of the Sierra Nevada Region.  This is a radically new concept of government responsibility and I wonder about its origin and purpose. There is also troubling god like desires to micro manage nature and other areas of endeavor partly expressed in the inordinate expenditures for studies. The website of the Central Sierra Resource Conservation & Development Area informed me that the ancestry of 46% of the white population of this area is of English, German and Irish origin. That may make a great freshman Sociology term paper, but it seems hard to justify as an expense of over indebted government.

None of what I’ve said is meant to abrogate, among the many millions of dollars and hundred plus projects, the value of some projects such as firebreaks. But can’t existing parts of government do this? How many agencies do we need? Many of the Prop 84 monies have been appropriated to other parts of government such as UC Berkeley, the US Forest Service and to state parks which we know have hidden funds elsewhere.  This process where one government entity appropriates money to another government entity can only lead to government by connivers.  I much prefer the transparent process where the actual appropriations to education, or parks, or forests or whatever are discussed openly. This process also funds unelected bodies like the Association of Bay Area Governments which appears to be usurping local governmental authority with its One Bay Area Plan. Also funded, and among the various stakeholders, are ideological advocacy groups.

Prop 84 has devoted a huge amount of funds to land trusts and easements of various sorts. All these schemes have taken land from private ownership and preclude future subdivision and private ownership. This reverts to the aristocratic land tenure system of the Middle Ages. I find little difference between the omnipotent aristocrats of the past and the replacement omnipotent bureaucrats of today.

The entire American dream of land ownership is being assaulted. The Mokelumne/Amador/Calaveras Integrated Regional Water Management Plan Update, Community Outreach Plan contains appropriate wording protecting economically disadvantaged individuals from changes their plan may create. And while certainly there are some individuals to old or disabled to care for themselves, the vast majority of low income people are best served by plans that make economic growth the priority.”

Copyright 2013 © by Mark Bennett.

Who Is This Man?

He’s a registered Democrat who campaigned for and voted for Obama. His business partner is black. His high school girlfriend and prom date was black. When funding ran out for a local program mentoring black youth he continued working with them. He organized assistance for a local homeless black man who was assaulted by a white man.  He is part black and his black relatives once lived with him.

This man is George Zimmerman, a “racist white Hispanic” according to many in the media and government.  Certainly truth can’t be allowed to interfere with a political agenda, can it?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Beneath the Radar

Most of what I have written has discussed well known local and national issues. This time I will look at two developments presently “beneath the radar”.  First is Statement No. 67 issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (appropriately referred to by the acronym GASB).  This does not change how pension funds calculate their finances or obligations, but it does change how they publicly report their financial situation.  So within the next year or so, while nothing significant will have changed with pension stability, the media will alarm the public based solely on the changed reporting requirements. 

This will sow more distrust and provide another excuse for more government regulations with proposals for higher taxes for public pensions. Businesses will be asked to delay investments and/or reduce dividends to make greater pension contributions. It will also require more people sitting at desks crunching numbers instead of doing productive work that builds a future. Score another one for those destroying the United States.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, The Environmental Protection Agency and countless other regulatory agencies have for many years now engaged in what is essentially an extortion scheme. They charge a company with wrongdoing and then have that company pay the agency money without legally admitting any wrongdoing. Companies such as Facebook, Merck, Goldman Sachs and others have been involved. Some consider this efficient government since the money helps support the agency without additional tax monies. Of course, it also helps them to expand with minimal outside approval. Federal and state agencies received $1.92 billion from HSBC, the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp, for agreeing not to indict them for money transfers which included Mexican drug cartels and the Iranian government.

But the agencies’ prosecution of corporate wrong doing looks good in the media and the public seems to accept that they are doing their job.  And while some cases are probably simple extortion, many clearly are not.  But without an admission or legal ruling of guilt, it is extremely difficult for an ordinary person or group of ordinary people to sue and collect damages if they have been injured.  You would have to prove, for example, that a pharmaceutical company lied about a drug that disabled you rather than be

able to just sue based upon the regulatory agency’s court sanctioned legal finding of guilt. No matter what the merits of your case your adversary can file appeals until long after your death. Cynical Charles Dickens said “People are born into the case and people die into the case,” in Bleak House, his novel about the legal system.

While I am opposed to legislating from the bench, I am pleased to hear dissension from several judges. In one instance U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan called the $298 million arrangement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Barclays Bank, which included dropping of charges for trading with hostile foreign powers, a “sweetheart deal”.  Going a bit further, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff refused to approve a payment of $285 million for likely securities fraud from Citibank to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and demanded a trial with a conclusion of guilt or innocence.  Both the SEC and Citibank said that Judge Rakoff made a “clear error of law”. But Rakoff’s decision has brought forth support which spans the political spectrum from small business conservatives to left wing Senator Bernie Sanders.

The new SEC head, Mary Jo White, said that she would like more admissions of guilt. Attorney General Eric Holder stated that the Department of Justice would pursue more cases and that making billons and then paying fines in the millions is hardly a disincentive to crime. Time will tell if anything changes the status quo.  Will they decide if these laws are to protect we the people or just to enrich government?

How long can we endure the government in itself, by itself and for itself?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

More Obama Atrocities

Some of my readers have informed me that my prior commentary about Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was too technical. So this commentary will skip the mechanics and discuss only the outcomes of Obama’s planned limits on retirement account savings.  Its complexity is mind numbing, expensive and with perhaps impossible requirements. It appears analogous to the concept of vague laws that are unenforceable within democratic traditions. Therefore it may entrap citizens and will contribute to the why bother to achieve attitude prevalent among so many young people today.

People’s retirement savings will be vastly reduced. While it is being sold as a tax the rich scheme with its 3.4 million dollar retirement savings cap, a closer look reveals that it could set limits as low as $131,000. Private invested capital within our economy would be vastly reduced.  This leads to lower standards of living, more government borrowing and more dependence upon government. But it does satisfy the lust of the hate the rich crowd while producing relatively meaningless amounts of additional government revenue. 

Over the past few decades all Presidents and all Congresses have done the opposite of Obama. They have produced legislation to make it easier to save for retirement because it is good for the economy, good for the individuals involved and represents the will of the people. Obama, however, “hears a different drummer”.

Obama wanted credit for his appointment of Sonia Sotomayer as the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. However, Benjamin Cardozo was the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. But truth is never an impediment to Obama. He just changed history like past dictators who erased people from photos and the lapdog media, including government funded PBS, complied. They claimed that he was Portuguese and therefore not Hispanic.  Anyone familiar with that historical period knows that his ancestors fled the Spanish Inquisition to Portugal and then on to the New World as alleged Portuguese. Besides, Mr.Cardozo has a politically incorrect background, his family was wealthy with Revolutionary War heroes among his ancestors.

Is this pattern of Obama’s actions, along with Obamacare and his other programs, becoming clear yet? But Obama’s lucky being black, that makes him harder to confuse with Joseph Stalin. 

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Guilty of Fraud

Buried within the 2,300 pages of Dodd-Frank is the creation of a new federal agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  This agency has taken responsibilities from other Federal agencies governed by the Congressional oversight we used to take for granted as democratic checks and balances and now exercises those powers without Congressional oversight.  The CFPB operates from within the independent Federal Reserve Bank with funding from the Fed but without supervision from them and also separate from House of Representative’s power to appropriate or not appropriate money. The CFPB has the power to define legally vague terms such as abuse and therefore attack a financial institution under its own seat of the pants rules. It has been accused of “ad hoc prosecution” by former White House counsel C. Boyden Gray.  It can create regulations and recently produced 804 pages for qualified mortgages and 753 pages for mortgage servicing. It has been acquiring checking account, credit card, etc. records from banks and others in a data mining effort similar to that of the National Security Agency.

The head of the CFPB is Richard Cordray, appointed by Obama as a recess appointment when the Senate was not in recess. The legality of this is presently working its way through the Federal Courts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, who before becoming a senator from Massachusetts, set up the agency as a special adviser. She was appointed as special adviser so Obama could avoid a probably contentious Congressional approval process of her as director. Prior to this Ms. Warren had advanced her career as Harvard’s “first women of color”, a minority law teacher in the American Association of Law Schools directory and one of eight minority persons to win a certain award at the University of Pennsylvania. She even contributed to the 1984 “Pow Wow Chow” cookbook with allegedly Cherokee recipes which included one with the hardly traditional Cherokee ingredient of cognac.  Apparently this recipe was from a 1979 New York Times food column. She also listed herself, at times, as white despite her supposed 1/32 Cherokee blood. The Nazis’ used a 1/8 rule to decide who would live or die. The Federal government uses the 1/16 rule to determine who is entitled to various benefits for Native Americans. A 1/32 doesn’t mean anything.

However, genealogists have determined that Ms. Warren not only has no Cherokee blood, but that her specific 1/32 ancestor was married to a member of the Tennessee Militia that rounded up Cherokees and imprisoned them in a stockade as part of the infamous trail of tears. According to one Native American commentator Ms. Warren has not only never affiliated with any Native American organizations, but has rebuffed them including delegates to a Democrat National Convention.  When four Cherokee women traveled cross county to see her she accused them of being part of a right wing conspiracy. Another Native American writer said, “Elizabeth Warren has not just stolen an ethnic identity that does not belong to her, but she has also personally benefited from it and harmed the integrity of the American ethos…Americans cares about these things because America cares about integrity, honesty and fair treatment.”

Perhaps an agency with illegitimate powers, run by a fraudulently appointed director and designed by a fraudulent person is best suited to root out fraud from consumer financial products? Perhaps I don’t understand the wisdom by which Washington governs today?  Recently the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has undertaken a massive study of bank fees and has also caused Capital One to refund $149 million to customers, Discover $200 million and American Express $85 million. Whatever the merits of these situations or the quality of the processes, the average person who has not looked deeper sees good stuff happening. Therein lays the danger of the CFPB. It is a Trojan horse to establish more regulatory agencies without, at least, the structural checks and balances of American democracy. As it is, today’s news is unrelenting in its stories of renegade existing agencies with supposed safeguards.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: Polarization & Extremism

In my 1/16/11 commentary entitled “Arizona and The State of the Union” I discussed the dangers of polarization in American politics. Two recent new articles illustrate how extreme the situation has become.  “Court: Christian driver can sue Oklahoma over ‘rain god’ license plate” describes a man’s anger over the “pagan” image of a Native American shooting an arrow to the rain god on the Oklahoma license plates. Monotheism is relatively new in the human experience. Does this man forget that the days of the week are named after Roman gods? Or that many consider the E-I-E-I-O chorus of Old McDonald’s Farm to be an ancient chant to the Celtic fertility goddess? Or that the desires of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt to destroy the pyramids has outraged people worldwide? Personally, I observe Deuteronomy 27:17: “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.” Isn’t respect critical to Biblical faith

On the other side of the spectrum I read an article entitled “Children’s media use cuddly animals to reinforce ‘racist’ and socially dominant norms,’ researcher says”.  “Young children’s media reproduces and confirms racist, colonial, consumerist, hetronormative, and patriarchal norms” the article continued in their objections to “The Berenstain Bears”, “Goodnight Moon” and “Five Little Monkeys jumping on the bed”. While what they consider colonial or racist was not defined in the article, their agenda is clear when they state “…bees buzzing around a hive or ants in an ant farm can teach the importance of community and teamwork…” Do they really think that the behavior of bees and ants is akin to the values of individualism and responsibility necessary for freedom and democracy? Or is this just the logical reverse of their objection to the anthropomorphism of animals? They base their critique of this on the same radical environmental agenda that says it’s OK to be mauled by grey wolves.

Are children pawns in someone else’s social experiments or do they simply need to feel secure? Is there anything wrong with knowing that daddy goes to work and pays the mortgage and that mommy is there with a hug and a band aid when you scrape your knee? A secure childhood is the basis for adults to later thoughtfully examine themes like colonialism or consumerism. And extreme ideas do help to articulate the arguments and define the consensus middle ground that most can agree on. But do objecting to “pagans” on license plates or traditional roles in children’s books do this? I find them to not be expansive to the mind, but rather defensive postures. They contribute to polarization, not healing.

There may be hope. A broad coalition is emerging to oppose Obama’s civil liberties sins. Many people are saying that while we can disagree, we can all agree to play fair. A religious revival, another great awakening, is a possibility to renew America. Clearly, but perhaps not consciously, Obama’s war on religion (except for Islam) is working to prevent this.  Since so many of us are being persecuted, it is natural to feel defensive such as the license plate objector.  Just as narrowly the paper criticizing children’s books led the writer to academic advancement in her ivory tower.  But what are effects of one’s beliefs and actions on society as whole and the ability of America to thrive or to continue in decline?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: Musings & Observations

During the Presidential debates I wanted the various moderators to ask both Obama and Romney this question: How would have President Andrew Jackson responded in Benghazi?

Obama’s persecution of the press appears to repeat the mistake the British made with the Stamp Act. They taxed the press and their editorials retaliated, partly leading to the American Revolution. Obama should have known this, but apparently the American history curriculum was lacking in the Indonesian madrassah where he studied.

In 1790 Alexander Hamilton sent his proposal for the Treasury Department to James Madison for review. Madison replied that if we sell bonds into international markets, foreigners may buy them and try to control us. You are probably more likely to learn this studying American History in Beijing than Washington. Read history answered Winston Churchill when asked how he learned leadership. Harry Truman answered a similar question with read biography. Every form of government throughout history was examined and debated by the Founding Fathers.

Some say that our Constitution of limited government is outmoded. Have the Ten Commandments lost relevance over the last 3200 years? Far too many people today view the world around them through the blinders of a preconceived ideology. An ahistorial attitude best describes the circus in today’s Washington. Recalling the vernacular of my youth I ask: Do you know what is really real?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Environmental Extremism Metastasizes

A Greek mining project worth about a billion dollars in exports to Greece, equaling 2% of their total exports, is being delayed. Joining forces with the environmentalists is the Greek Communist Party.

“Blood will flow if this continues,” stated one opponent.  In addition to Greece mining projects have been stopped or inhibited by environmentalists in Portugal, Spain and Cyprus. Does all this have a relationship to their economic plights or is it just some inexplicable coincidence?

The Bristol Bay/Pebble Bay project in Alaska could create 15,000 American jobs and contribute over $2.4 billion to GDP annually. To prevent this the EPA has adopted a new and unprecedented approach. They rejected the project based on their own biased, in house model before the project developers could even submit their proposal which contained newer and more detailed information costing them over $150 million dollars. The environmental opposition’s rhetoric bears an uncanny resemblance to the local Newman Ridge opponents. The potential of the local Sutter Gold property, only 4.6 % of Amador County’s share of the Mother Lode, is about $1.5 billion at current gold prices. And that’s with 90% of their small property unexplored.

We are lucky to have mining potential here since the timber industry has been destroyed.  Other timber counties are not so lucky. Josephine County in Oregon is now considering having just one Sheriff’s patrol for its 83,000 residents. Curry County, also in Oregon, is facing a state takeover. Liberal Democrat Governor John Kitzhaber, who sat in Michelle Obama’s box at the 2013 State of the Union address, proposed an increase in property taxes for these two distressed counties. After the voters rejected that he proposed a local income tax and threatened the residents with National Guard troops or state police to replace the depleted locally controlled law enforcement.  The logic of fighting poverty by increasing poverty escapes me.

Is there any lesson here for Amador County?  While we are well governed fiscally, and are near major cities that send us tourists unlike the Oregon counties discussed, the situation grows worse each year.

Yet an elitist well financed and manipulative minority has undue influence here and throughout the foothills. They call themselves environmentalists; I call them the pro poverty lobby. How long are we going to put up with this?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: Environmental Extremism & God Continue

The Federal Government is planning to spend about a million dollars a year to kill around 9,000 striped owls because they are winning the competition with the deified spotted owl.  Among the striped owls crimes are interbreeding with the spotted owls. And I had naively thought that the crime of miscegenation disappeared with the rest of the racist Jim Crow laws.

We were overrun with English sparrows when I was growing up in Western New York.  Everyone said that they came with the original English settlers, had no known predators and were here to stay.  But on a return visit a friend pointed out that the sparrows were gone and had been replaced by wrens and finches. Nature moves in cycles. The Ancients knew this, from the prophets in the Bible to the misunderstood Mayans.

From the cells of our bodies to the galaxies of interstellar space, everything is in motion. Creation is ongoing. To paraphrase an old Bob Dylan song: those not busy being born are busy dying. There is no stasis.  But science, by its very nature, requires a freeze in time and space.  This is essential for observation, but serves poorly as a state religion. The change from the ecology movement to environmentalism was more than a change in terminology. An awareness of dynamism became policies, inherently doomed to fail, of attempts at forced stagnation.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: Memorial Day

At this time of year, in what used to be a far more solemn occasion, we honor our war dead. The other name for this day, Decoration Day, has fallen out of favor as few today decorate their graves or pray at the cemeteries for those who have kept us free.  Someone who had once visited the Normandy Beach cemetery told me that no words could express her emotions as the graves disappeared over the horizon.  

Memorial Day started spontaneously during and after the Civil War.  While Waterloo, NY got the official nod as the first, many communities could claim that honor. One was Charlestown, South Carolina, then called the “city of the dead”. The Washington Race Course had been converted to a POW camp where about 257 dead Union soldiers were thrown together into a series of shallow graves. When the war ended about 10,000 grateful former slaves marched to the site. Some of them remained and after two weeks of gruesome work they had exhumed the bodies. They gave every veteran a proper burial, calling them the Martyrs of the Race Course. They called themselves Friends of the Martyrs and the Patriotic Association of Colored Men. Almost 3,000 children, the first generation of freedom, marched to the finished cemetery singing John Brown’s Body and the Star Spangled Banner. They threw enough flowers to create hill of rose petals. Joined by other participants including missionaries and union soldiers, black and white, they sang a hymn and prayed.

This is a sharp contrast to mob violence rallying cry of “get whitey”, critical race theory and the race baiting of Al Sharpton and many others. When we honor those who died we should not forget why they died. Politically profitable race hatred is not among the reasons.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: Yellow Legged Frogs Rule!

On May 15, 2013 the Board of Supervisors discussed sending a letter of opposition to the US Fish and Wildlife Service regarding their proposal to remove about 1.8 million acres from constructive use as designated habitat for the allegedly endangered or threatened yellow legged frog.  The Supervisors wisely decided to reopen this discussion at a later date as a public hearing with the intended presence of the Fish and Wildlife Service.  I made the following comments to the Supervisors which incorporate some statements I’ve made earlier:

 “Thank you for letting me speak. About a year ago I went to the Forest Service website to see what they were doing in our area and read about ten projects in the El Dorado National Forest.  One was  The Indian Valley Restoration Project which involved ‘three quarters of a mile of a tributary stream of Indian Creek using a series of plug and ponds to enhance habitat  for yellow- legged frogs, Yosemite toad, willow fly catcher’ and others.  Note the word enhance. Many within the Forest Service and in the proposal’s public comments stated that the project was unnecessary. Sometime later I went back to the Forest Service website and could not find those comments. Perhaps the project comments were taken off their website or perhaps it’s a lack in my computer skills. However, those proposal comments are public record and I would assume available to the County.

I also learned that plug means bringing in boulders from the Silver Lake area. Since many within the Forest Service want to ban vehicles by closing roads, I wondered what equipment was used. At a recent Forest Service public meeting I asked one of the forest rangers. I was told yes; they were using diesel trailer trucks or similar equipment.

While the Forest Service site gave details about the projects, their cost was conspicuously absent. So I emailed the Forest Service. Their prompt and courteous reply said that the Indian Valley Restoration Project “is estimated at about $200,000.” I would like to make the simple statement  that this environmental extravagance is a waste of taxpayer dollars, but I cannot say that since this money is borrowed from the Chinese and others, or just printed by the Federal Reserve which will curse us, at some  future time, with inflation and hurt lower income people the most.

Also over the past year I have been a member of the Amador County Transportation Commission’s Pine Grove Stakeholders Group. During this time two critical yellow legged frog habitats suddenly appeared in Pine Grove.  I don’t believe that the yellow legged frog and these other animals are endangered or even threatened. I don’t confuse an excuse with a reason. I do believe that these species are a subsidized, political constituency that are part of the larger picture of kicking people and economic activity out of rural areas. The discussions in this chamber regarding homeowners’ insurance, grey wolves, mountain lions, town centers in the General Plan and countless other topics are part of that same larger picture. I ask that you move forward with this letter of opposition to the designation of about 1.8 million acres as critical habitat.”

After I spoke someone told me that the project had changed and that Coca Cola is now financing it. This led me to: http://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/r5/workingtogether/?cid=stelprdb5390138&width=full

Along with Coke another corporation is sponsoring this project as part of a partnership of about 11 organizations. Included is the Foothill Conservancy which is monitoring the project. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t say if they are getting paid. The project has now grown in scope to approximately 35 plug and ponds.  This involves three days for road construction, about one week for materials delivery and about three to four weeks for plug and pond construction.   Yet this new construction is called a restoration and is being sold to the public as such.  The project promoters are obliviously lying. Their only evidence is the Washoe Tribe claim that this is consistent with prehistoric conditions.

At a recent Upcounty Community Council meeting I heard that Gallagher’s Pub and adjoining facilities in Pioneer will soon be closing and that the greenhouse operation at the former cedar mill site is having financial trouble. Also discussed was Family Dollar Stores pressuring Payless Market in Pioneer to close. This is all a stark contrast to the resources devoted to plugs and ponds for the yellow legged frog. Some people’s priorities seem distorted. Perhaps I need a social psychologist to understand them.  But unless something changes we should all learn to love the yellow legged frog since our developing economy may depend on them.

Yellow legged frogs do, at least in coastal and nearby areas, have a real problem. A fatal parasite came here attached to the imported African clawed frogs. (Giant African land snails, which can transmit meningitis to humans, have also entered parts of the USA. Isn’t globalization wonderful? We send our jobs overseas and get back new diseases in return.)  But if yellow legged frogs are in danger, the approach of the environmental movement of propagating more of them has the consequence of spreading more of this parasite.  It’s as if medieval people decided to fight the black plague by having more children.  Instead, those who survived did so by cleaning the streets of rats and garbage and washing their bed linen more often. Common sense says to fight the disease as was done at the UC Davis campus. But this is not about the environment; it’s about social and economic control. As I stated to the Board of Supervisors: “I don’t confuse an excuse with a reason… these species are a subsidized political constituency that are part of the larger picture of kicking people and economic activity out of rural areas.”

Rather than being loved, the frogs are being used.  Personally, I am rather fond of frogs and have had some “pet” frogs on my property. And if I am ever able to complete my landscaping projects, I will have a frog habitat in my garden.

___

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett except for the section spoken to the Board of Supervisors, which is now public record.

Outside the Ivory Tower: Global Warming, Environmental Extremism & God

Many environmental extremists are hysterical about global warming to the point of calling insane those opposed to their dogma. They blame industrialization’s greenhouse gases for an allegedly warmer earth.

Their reasoning appears to be some sort of collective secular guilt for which they propose mass suffering by destroying our present way of life. But in reality the very environmental extremism policies they have implemented are a significantly larger contributor to greenhouse gases than industrialization.

Desertification, the process by which grasslands become deserts, reduces potential food supply and increases greenhouse gases more than industrialization. Grasslands, in the US, were normally full of buffalos and other herd animals. When they traveled through, even if there was little too eat, they fertilized as they walked and more importantly they trammeled the ground. Without the soil breaking under their hoofs the soil cannot retain moisture from the rainy season and bakes hard in the summer.

The next rainy season the water runs off the hardened soil and a desert begins. Prior to environmental extremism the wild animals were replaced with sheep and cattle herds grazing our Western “public lands”. The land was healthy, as Range Magazine has repeatedly shown, but environmental “science” said that the sheep and cattle were destroying the land.

Biologist Allan Savory was responsible for killing 40,000 African elephants to save the land before he realized that he was actually creating the deserts he was trying to prevent. Science often makes the presumption that they know better than what has been natural for countless millennia. To my mind this is humans thinking they are God. In this very scientific National Geographic video, Allan Savory makes a public confession. I found it straight forward and haunting.

I urge everyone to watch: http://

newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/06/how-cows-could-repair-the-world-allan-savory-at-ted/

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: 42 Roads Continued

Outside the Ivory Tower: 42 Roads Continued

At the end of October “42 Roads and the New Forest” was posted. It asked people to attend a Forest Service open house. Their plans have moved along and on 3/6/2013 another open house was held. I submitted the following:

Comments on the El Dorado National Forest Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Travel Management Project dated February, 2013

Firstly, I wish to thank all those responsible for this detailed analysis of the National Forests’ roads. And I want to especially thank those responsible for the very productive efforts that produced alternatives exhibiting common sense enforcement of the existing environmental laws. Some of these alternatives significantly modify a court order of extreme environmental ideology. However, I am not satisfied with any of them. No routes, except for rare exceptions, should have been closed. Given our population growth and the growing need of outdoor experience for urban people, the Forest Service should be expanding, not reducing, use of the National Forests. “Cross country travel” roads, which are now prohibited, are essential for emergency services and for logging. They also allow people to enjoy the forest while going to other destinations.

Forest roads should not be reserved only for those with the time to explore dead end roads. But dead end roads should also not be closed because they provide access to more private locations. People have the right to experience a forest, not a more crowded park like situation. None of what I’ve said, however, is meant to preclude improvements or changes in a probably small number of very destructive road situations. I would prefer the Forest Service to devote itself to fixing those very few situations and expanding, not restricting, forest use.

Mark L. Bennett, Pine Grove

Outside the Ivory Tower: F-16’s to Egypt

With news stories such as “innocent civilians crushed and shot to death, and their only crime was participating in a peaceful march to reject the destruction of their church” many Americans have understandably objected to our recent gift of F-16’s and other state of the art weapons to the current Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt. Those in favor have stated that we made an agreement with the prior Egyptian government and therefore we must honor it.

After the French Revolution occurred the new French government attempted to get us into war with England based upon our alliance during the American Revolution. But we said no. A new and different French government in power made that agreement with a prior government invalid and we proclaimed our neutrality. We avoided a calamitous war with England and prospered from trade while France became a bloodbath ended only by Napoleon’s dictatorship.

It appears to be that ignorance of American history and precedence is a perquisite to being in power in today’s Washington.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett