Is it Leninism?

Most Americans are appalled at the violent actions of a few at Donald Trump events. We can all speak our opinion and those that disagree can carry signs, pass out flyers and do the usual and unusual somersaults for the media. From across the political spectrum, we can agree to disagree and respect democratic process. This violence reminds me of Germany in the 1920’s and the consequential willingness of the German people to accept order as their first priority. Upon taking power, Hitler first arrested the Communists. But then the new order became his thugs.

A program of acting violently to provoke more violence is far different than advocating a change in policy. It is an attempt at a usurpation of power rather than a democratic change in power relationships. I have seen this usurpation or abuse used as strategy for a specific agenda unfold frequently in ways that miss the headlines. In the early 1990’s when the Internet took off, ITT Tech in Lathrop was besieged with phone calls. “My granddaughter is disappointed that she can’t email me photos of her birthday party” and other similar statements from older people needing to catch up with technology. So ITT Tech planned for summer courses when many faculty would have often been forced into part time work. For perhaps as much as $500 these seniors would have gotten professional software writers as instructors in small classes, tutoring and an 8 am to 10 pm state of the art computer lab.  They would have spent an intensive summer and willingly pay that tuition. But it then became illegal for a for-profit school to offer any classes that didn’t lead to a degree.

Maxine Waters, before she joined Congress and threatened to nationalize the oil companies, pushed that bill through the state legislature on behalf of the teachers union and the government near monopoly on higher education. The obvious fact that siphoning off more affluent students from the junior college system would create more opportunities for people of modest means there either didn’t occur to her, or she willingly sacrificed them. Many would claim that these are the people she was elected to represent, but she sold them out for the greater good of her fantasy society. I consider this Leninism; any means justify the ends.

I see the Trump disrupters in the same vein. Who can benefit from violence and social disorder? It’s not you, nor I. In limited, verbal ways, several on Facebook have resorted to slur and smear in this vein also, attempting to discredit the writer or their ideas to remove them from discussion.  I have also called this approach Saul Alinsky-style and Maoism. One can be a liberal, a left liberal or a democratic socialist without resorting to these tactics.

Copyright 2016, Mark L. Bennett

Random Observations

Upon taking office, Obama said that he would radically transform America. He has proceeded to do that, often in stealth ways with a compliant press no longer serving as the fourth estate. A key component to achieving this transformation is destroying the middle class. Much of his policy uses executive orders since Congressional approval could interfere. Recently the Labor Department issued new rules for retirement accounts that vastly reduce advisement opportunities for ordinary people.  A 100 Congressional Democrats joined with Republicans to oppose these rules. And some people still wonder where the Trump coalition comes from.

Most people agree that regulating sulfur dioxide emissions is essential. It disassociates in the lungs to form sulfurous acid and burns tissue. But with less sulfur in the air that settles in the soil, we now must add sulfur. So the new industry of sulfur for soil has arisen. This irony hit me along with all that abstract stuff about systems and balance I once studied.

Unless you live in Sacramento, or follow public transportation events, it’s not well known that the renewed (Obama stimulus) Amtrak/Sacramento Valley Station depot did not allow Greyhound to be there and forced them to a distant site. Certainly we can’t have those folk mix with the advanced people who now ride commuter and intercity rail. Key interconnectivity (and tax dollar efficiency) was lost and the “Greens” were absent from the process.

“And that’s the way it is” as Walter Cronkite closed.

Copyright 2016, Mark L. Bennett

Scott Williams, Citizen Extraordinaire

Over the course of many local Facebook discussions I have become familiar with a denizen of Ione named Scott Williams. He writes well and seems intelligent. But all his statements and responses have a cookie cutter quality. After a while they become banal; it’s as if I could write his dialogue in less time than it takes to read it. Then, a possible explanation occurred to me: He has read too many 1890’s muckraking novels and has applied them carte blanche, as a template, upon Amador County.  

He comments resonant to that prior reality with often very little attachment to the present day. He has stated that our county supervisors lack accountability. Has he seen them interact with constituents’ during the open comment period at board meetings? Has he emailed or called any of them? His insults towards two of our supervisors were so unwarranted that a scripted agenda seems the only answer. He asserted that the supervisorial districts were gerrymandered without any factual basis. He questions the validity of ag zoning around Ione related to Newman Ridge while ignoring the obvious that the General Plan is general. Ag zoning around a town is a holding zoning. To rezone for industry or dense residential would unfairly raise the value of one parcel over another. The taxing consequences would be akin to an inverse condemnation. Over-zoning has been a frequent and sometimes accurate criticism of the environmentalists.

He feels that predatory power companies are the reasons behind resistance to solar. While that is true, he neglects the rest of the equation which includes big labor opposing rooftop solar in favor of mega projects with Davis-Beacon style wages and sometimes environmental damage. But if you question his answers, he will usually attack rather than discuss. Pushing his beliefs far outweigh finding a solution. He claims that Amador County is secretly ruled by an old boy’s network. Probably it appears that way to his perception. When I moved here as a total stranger, I was warmly welcomed by the old timers. Probably that was because I liked it the way it was when I moved here and didn’t enter in an attack mode telling others how to live or govern themselves.

Copyright 2016, Mark L. Bennett

Our Locally-Used American History Text

Over the past few years I have read, digested and pondered our local American History text. This culminated in a Guest Commentary in the Ledger: http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/a-closer-look-at-our-local-high-school-american-history-textbook-2

Following that publication Eric Winslow published a vitriolic response: http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/former-teacher-uplifts-an-honest-view-of-american-history-2

I rebutted him which the Ledger agreed to also publish:                

http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/a-third-salvo-in-the-american-history-textbook-battle-2

Read together, they illustrate the wide cleavage in the understanding of our history and the thrust of revisionism to rewrite that history as the basis for a very different America.

Amador’s Gold

Over the weekend I posted an article (http://www.birchgold.com/news/is-golds-rally-just-beginning) on various local Facebook pages with the following comment: Is there a lesson here for Amador County? Battle Mountain, Nevada has 3,665 residents. “Yet as many towns of similar size grew dilapidated, CNN’s Jeff Simon reports that Battle Mountain was able to build a new football field, a new hospital wing and even a courthouse…Battle Mountain sits on several large mines that reap billions in annual revenue, but the miners have to pay a tax called “net proceeds”. This tax on mining companies brought the town $20 million in 2014 alone, down from $60 million in 2011 when all of America was stockpiling the metal…Aside from securing generous proceeds, gold also brings in the jobs: The average annual salary of a worker at a nearby mine called Newmont’s Phoenix amounts to a respectable $90,000.”

Katherine Evatt replied: “Sutter Gold was approved decades ago. Where are all the jobs, Mark? The revenues? One reason people like me are so skeptical of claims like yours is that for decades, we have seen projects approved based on the promise of jobs and revenue that never materialize.” Since these are important questions I have decided to answer at length in this blog post.

Aside from Sutter Gold, I don’t know what projects she is referring to aside from residential development, so I will respond with the assumption that they are residential developments. Demand here for this type of housing comes from primarily three areas: Economic growth, including household formation, retirees and commuters. Retirees and commuters are fickle markets which respond to almost all the quakes in the economy. Locally, it appears that the market cycle for those types of housing is vastly shorter than the litigation ridden approval process. Projects are stalled and Amador County has told potential investors that they’re not wanted. The remaining category of housing demand, economic growth including household formation, is stagnant or in decline given our County’s current situation.

A few years ago I wrote in favor of Sutter Gold and noted that there is at least a billion dollars of gold in Amador County with much more throughout the Mother Lode. The map in the mineral resources element of the proposed General Plan shows the extensiveness of the Mother Lode. Little if any of this has been surveyed and mapped with state of the art technology. The unrealized potential is unknown.

I also stated at that time that much of the demand for gold was about a billion people in India, China and elsewhere making it from the peasantry into the working class and from the working class into the middle class. They are buying gold in their fluctuating local currencies, often in the form of jewelry. This trend has not only continued, but has expanded. Also increasing is the sales of high tech products which all use some gold. But gold is priced in dollars, and we’ve all seen the dollar price drop and stall out Sutter Gold. This didn’t happen as a coincidence.

The United States is technically insolvent considering the national debt plus unfunded liabilities. The Treasury Department literally sells our debt securities through shady intermediaries in the Grand Cayman Islands and Belgium as if we were a criminal organization. But we are in the best house on a bad street situation compared to most other nations. So the dollar remains strong. And given out trade imbalances China now holds oodles of our dollars. Those in charge there understand our fiscal predicament far more precisely than most Americans. They have our dollars and know their potential worthlessness. A deal was made to drive down the price of gold and allow the Chinese to trade their dollars for cheap gold. Goldman, Sachs advised everyone that gold was going down. What appeared to a self fulfilling prophesy was orchestrated by them and their allied traders. This then became a crowded trade with many others climbing aboard. Much of the world’s gold has now gone to China. Even today as gold rises, Goldman, Sachs is predicting a declining price while buying for their own account. But you can’t fool all the people all the time, and the market always rules: above ground, underground or simply unseen. So gold is now finally rising in dollars. Negative interest rates and invited Muslim invaders have added many Europeans to the buyer’s side.

Despite our vocal anti-business coterie that they subjectively and deceptively redefine as selective business and not anti-business, Amador County should receive renewed interest if the gold price continues to increase. The economic benefit could be staggering. As with housing subdivisions and Sutter Gold, my greatest fear is that again the permitting process will exceed the market cycle and he will have lost another opportunity. Look at the possibility of a future Trump Administration beginning massive infrastructure projects over the next few years. Will Newman Ridge have ready product for anything but the obstructionists and lawyers?

Copyright 2016, Mark L. Bennett