Food For Thought

As we watch thousands of our youth riot, vandalize, burn buildings and beat up strangers with an ideological excuse I can’t help but wonder how many of them took psychoactive drugs as children. Psychiatrists invent syndromes while Big Pharma produces drugs for them. Often it is hard to distinguish between what came first, the drug or the syndrome? But with the social work and education establishment behind them we drugged a generation with damage to their brains only to be documented at some future date. Has that date come?

Most of the crazed mass shooters of the past several years were on psychoactive drugs. However here we are dealing with large numbers of people not unbalanced enough to act that crazy on their own. But with exploitative leadership and a seductive ideology did the drug damage become the key recruitment factor? I don’t know and I can’t prove it one way or the other. But I can’t stop thinking about it either.

Another thought food is Native American sovereignty. Years ago I read that Native Americans wanted to establish an international banking haven (think Grad Cayman Islands, Bermuda, etc) in North Dakota.  It’s always strange when you read about something that seems important and then never hear about it again.  Was the article fake news or was the story suppressed?  I don’t know the details of Native American sovereignty, but if it was legal or not it just wasn’t going to happen. Were casinos the pay off in a deal?

Many of you may be aware of Occidental College due to its former students such as Jack Kemp and Barack Obama. I attended several evening events there when I lived in LA. They always started at 8:05 pm because at one time a noisy train rambled nearby at 8 pm. But after the railroad ceased the decision makers decided to keep the 8:05 start time. They felt that tradition, in and of itself, had value. Current events have caused me to think a lot about their attitude.

Copyright 2020, Mark L. Bennett

Power Increasingly Concentrates

https://nypost.com/2020/07/09/17-nyc-catholic-schools-will-close-due-to-covid-19/

I read the above with alarm. Catholic schools are not only often the best schools available; they are often the only alternative schools available for many lower income, intercity children. Related to this I want to share a story. I grew up in the sputnik/we better have exceptionable schools era. People in Buffalo were familiar with the Bronx High School of Science and other schools in New York City. But Buffalo was a fraction of the size of New York City with the city schools serving about half the population and about a half dozen suburban districts serving the rest. No district had the resources for specialized schools. But the Catholic schools covered the whole area and decided to open a school for geniuses. They gave entry exams and many of those that qualified were Jewish.  Since religious instruction was required they added a rabbi to their faculty.       

But the above is a background story about the growing concentration of power. While a specific school was the project, the greater significance is the existence of a group with resources and some power separate from expansive government and the mega corporations. Warren Buffet represents another somewhat independent source of power. Putting his politics aside, he has traditionally invested domestically and in basic industry. I like that.

The ongoing lockdown has accelerated the concentration of power by so many orders of magnitude that we can’t even currently comprehend it. Both small and large businesses are going under so rapidly that I get confused between the daily news and the science fiction I read as a teen anger.  The Walmarts and Home Depots are thriving. But this process is far more than a news item, it has and will affect us increasingly on a daily level, lockdown or not.

Those of us who post on Facebook know all too well of their censorship and usage suspensions in Facebook jail. Many claim Google search can sway elections. Anyone interested can find   more examples of the media giants and their agenda quite easily. One upon a time, before radio, etc, the average city had about five newspapers. Everyone freely debated their future there.

Along with Facebook, I use Microsoft Word daily. I will type in a word and Microsoft tells me it’s misspelled or that it’s not a word. Upon looking it up, I learn that’s it’s a word and that it’s spelled correctly. The primary system of most written communication today follows a seemingly deliberate plan of dumbing us down. This fits nicely with Gates’ role in Common Core and vaccinations. Read about his deadly experiments with children in India.

I experimented with what could have been a lucrative business on the eBay/PayPal combine. On a cash basis I made some money, but even if being paid $10 an hour I lost money because my time was consumed trying to mitigate their thievery. EBay would mysteriously make charges on my credit card account without my consent.  When I denied and reversed those charges they did the same thing with another credit card of mine. Companies get away with this because you have probably consented with a click. If you question them you get answers like its on page 83, paragraph 5, section 63X. Unless you took a few days off from other activities to study the agreement and perhaps hired a consulting attorney, your click agreed you to be ripped off.

PayPal would refuse to send me my money. During one horrendous phone conversation they produced a list of former addresses and asked me if I had lived there. Like eBay, they had immediate access to all data about me. And the above are just highlights of their thievery.  The fact that I had a 100 % satisfaction rating from my customers was irrelevant to them. For certain items I tried a specialized sales site, but they also required the PayPal monopoly for payment. While undoubtedly others have suffered as I have, PayPal stock is soaring. It’s probably a shrewd bet on the New World Order cashless society. The Globalists are winning.

Despite the many complaints, including Congressional hearing on social media concentration and censorship, one needs to understand the underlying background of scale.  The number of computer chip manufacturers is surprisingly small. The more sophisticated and expensive production is the fewer participants are possible. Not that terribly long ago in the span of human history you would go to a tailor for a pair of pants. You would be measured and fabric cut by hand. The industrial revolution created the sewing machine which was later electrified. Clothes became made in factories/sweat shops with the fabric cut 10 bolts deep with a band saw like machine. But they pulled at the fabric limiting their capacity with bolt or two being cut a bit shorter. Some of you may remember trying on a pair of jeans, then grabbing another pair the same size and having the clerk tell you to try on the second pair.  They understood the production process. Today laser beams cut fabric in vastly higher quantities.

The more efficient the technology is the greater the scale and minimum investment required. Most people would be frightened to learn how few factories actually produce all the semiconductor chips the world now depends on. While monopolies and public utilities can be regulated are social media a business service or a first amendment protected news media? The hearings on Capitol Hill appear inconclusive.

I have no prognostications, only fears.  Given the technologically driven monopolies or semi-monopolies plus the pandemic and mobs burning businesses, the free enterprise system is in danger. And while capital, as in Capitalism, is critically important and should be available it is useless without innovation.  The free enterprise system means the right to freely enterprise.  The less restrictions you put on somebody, the more likely their innovation will become reality and benefit many. I don’t see it as more complex than that. The rest is all intellectuals talking to each other.

Copyright 2020, Mark L. Bennett 

 

 

Some Quick Current Observations

Many have said, I included, that we live in ahistoric times.  Certainly this jubilation over work-at-home as a great new innovation exhibits that. Being able to go home from work was one of the greatest liberations in human history.  Envision life a few hundred years ago. The peasants lived on the land, the artisans and merchants lived in their shops and the feudal lord’s castle was also their offices. How many of you know of shopkeepers, just a few generations ago, that were enslaved to long hours and often six day weeks? But perhaps this pandemic-induced change will endure. My fear is making that decision blindly, ignoring our historic experience. Cracks are already beginning: https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/07/01/fsu-bars-employees-work-from-home-care-kids/

Frequent headlines announce people and businesses fleeing high tax/over regulated places like California for more business-friendly places like Arizona. But what about future water supply? While I share their motives, I personally wouldn’t move to a place with scarce water. Perhaps this story is a harbinger: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/climate/southwest-megadrought-climate-change.html

This new obsession with racism, real or imagined, has been persuasive enough to affect me. Suddenly I find myself reediting my past. Rather than remembering the people I’ve known for who they are, its now whether they were black or not.  Of course, this is the opposite of what is supposedly intended. This new attitude and resulting chaos reflected in many of our communities has produced a justifiable outrage. I share that sentiment, along with the fear of what is unfolding with those proposing and sometimes engaging in counter violence.

Aside from the obvious horror and replay of Germany in the late 1920’s, don’t they see that they are just playing into their hands? This series of events with predicable counter events, only unfolds the desired dialectic for globalist control. Blood in the streets is not a good omen.   As Brandon Smith said: “Becoming a monster to fight the monster is the same as losing.” http://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/4268-is-america-heading-for-civil-war-of-course-it-is

They say politics is the art of the possible. It is probably possible to get a bill through Congress requiring all goods to be labeled as to country of origin. Not only the physical goods received, but via the means of purchase. Amazon just says “imported” on their descriptions. I don’t want to support Muslim or Chinese terror. Never forget the importance of the votes we cast when we purchase. I still find this common sense despite the current boycott and buycott mania.

Endnote: I didn’t cite the three articles above because I was promoting them or fully agree with them. But hopefully they contribute to our needed conversation.

Copyright 2020, Mark L. Bennett

Outspoken Scott Williams

For several years I have conducted an attempted conversation with Ione’s Scott Williams. In the context of a discussion the of state capital anti lock down demonstration on the FB page entitled “District 2 Politics, Suggestions, and Information” he  made the following statement: “Kind of like the next incarnation of the Tea Party, which was actually a continuation of the John Birch Society, which may have been an extension of the KKK. Timing is about right, as is philosophy.” Since I like challenging, or in this case perhaps, impossible tasks...I will attempt to educate Scott Williams and counter his ignorant remarks.

 Firstly, there were two KKK’s. The first was a self defense organization of locals during the reconstruction period. Many historians consider it to have been a valid, necessary and responsible organization. The second KKK is the vile anti-black, anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic organization with remnants still around today. They were morally empowered by progressive Woodrow Wilson’s membership that many claim lead to the Tulsa riots of 1921. Many white people drove to the ghetto, risking their lives, to save black people and then hide them in their homes. How much credit are they given in the current left wing renditions of history? The Klan blacklisted them along with threats of murder.

The John Birch Society was an upper class reaction and seemingly WASP group that included leaders of dubious distinction such as the Koch brothers,along with very credible people such as William Buckley, Jr. He was appalled by the prejudice against his Catholicism and also credited by many as opposing anti-Semitism among conservatives. But whatever one thinks of the Birch Society, their calls such as exit the United Nations has proved pubescent.

The Tea Parties were a mass, populist uprising to the Obama tyranny. Muslim appeasement, anti-Christian maneuvers, under the table but devastating changes in government procedures such as changing the question on the citizenship exam from freedom of religion (American style) to freedom of worship (Soviet style), severe over regulation including usurpation of not granted powers best exhibited with the Pebble Bay EIR, politicizing government agencies into Gestapo type organizations including the Justice Dept., increasing the Federal deficit to unconscionable levels,and many more that I can only list if I decide to allow myself to get sick. Larry Elder, a black man, was a Tea Party leader in Los Angeles while Mark Meckler, a Jew, was a founder of Northern California’s Tea Party Patriots. This is quite different than the Birch demographic and a radical opposite of the Klan.

There is vast diversity among those right of center as there is among those left of center. To believe otherwise is not only ignorant, but also dangerous because it precludes understanding, responsible thought and concomitant, sensible proposals.

Just prior to the above in the same discussion I answered that corrosive comment with:  “I’ve said this before about you and I will repeat it. You seem to take an 1890’s muck raking novel and blindly apply it to Amador County as a template. A few years ago you commented that Pine Grove being in three supervisorial districts is likely the result of gerrymandering. A few decades ago, Pine Grove setup a Community Services District to manage the new group septic system. By custom and probably by law,a Community Services District has to be within one supervisorial district. (That’s called commonsense and functional democracy) The group septic system is good for the environment (remember that there is a creek behind the shops on the south side of Hwy 88) and good for small businesses by relieving them of separate septic systems and their maintenance. It was a consensus project with no known opposition.
But you don’t check before you speak. You once made the comment that there are plenty of jobs in Amador County based on a cursory look at the Ledger. If you actually read those ads, you would notice that they are almost all specialized and affect a tiny number of possible applicants. You have opposed the Newman Ridge project based on your statement: “All that pollution for just nine jobs” I read the complete EIR, that pollution is minimal to nonexistent. How about some facts? The average skilled wage job supports two and a half people. Plus the increased retail employment and sales tax revenue. How about the andesite produced for stronger roadbeds? The recycling of older roadbed materials? The cost lowering nearness of hot mix that will help repair our roads at no additional cost? The property tax revenue to the County? The needed traffic on our railroad to sustain it for the future? To oppose Newman Ridge is a dead wish for our County. You make (or post) snap judgments rather than think critically. I may not be as vociferous as some commentators here, but I can be just as upset.

Did you support the candidate that opposed Brian Oneto in the last election? I went to every forum/debate of that election. That candidate had no rapport with the audience and made no eye contact with them. She frightened me as a possible elected official; totally separate from her various positions.”

He never responded with direct statements to any of my posting nor has he justified his unsubstantiated statements .In 2016, I posted here: “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 to 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.  Overzoning 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.”

Along with the above history, there is much more to the recent FB discussions with Scott that merit rebuttal, but I’ve made my point.

Note: The movie, Birth of a Nation (about the first Klan), is considered by many as the anthem of the current Klan. But remember that D.W. Griffith was a liberal who founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin to be free from the studio system.  The film historian I studied under, who wrote the now standard text on Hollywood history, said Birth of a Nation was edited into the released version against Griffith’s wishes.  I don’t claim to be the final word on this, but it’s certainly worth further study. Griffith’s next film, Intolerance, was according to some a response to what he felt was unjust criticism of Birth of a Nation.

Copyright 2020, Mark L. Bennett        

Dark Skies and Dark Attitudes

I spoke at the 2/11/20 Planning Commission hearing on the proposed dark skies ordinance and made the following remarks:

Since our founding, we’ve had a tradition in America of housing ourselves in what we could afford.  The frontier log cabin was expanded as the economy grew. This “add-on” tradition can be seen today in places like San Mateo, as the basic homes of the post war suburbs become enlarged for the more affluent of Silicon Valley. This tradition also occurred when New York City absorbed massive immigration and tenements were built. They were modest, but safe and sanitary. As the clothing industry prospered the minimum standards were raised into what is called the new law tenement.

But about 40 years ago we discarded our heritage. People whose feet seem to be off the ground and who often substitute intellectualism for reality began promoting an upper middle class home for everyone. Areas were down-zoned, with housing developments cancelled.  Codes, requirements and restrictions multiplied. Housing costs soared. Many younger people today have given up the American dream of home ownership. But for others, it means being camped out somewhere or living on the streets. Many of these homeless die there while breeding contagious diseases that affect others. 

This didn’t happen suddenly. It was a little bit by another little bit and always justified by noble ideals. The Dark Skies proposal is another little bit. I oppose this and anything else that unnecessarily raises the cost of housing. We need less, not more, regulation and government control. But there is nothing wrong with ideas like downward facing lights. Certainly, it is someone’s right to chose this lighting style. The dark skies proponents could institute an education campaign. But raising the cost of housing and the further enlargement of government that Dark Skies includes is what I strongly oppose.

Mark Bennett

Pine Grove

Some Thoughts About Socialism

Someone I knew from communist Hungry worked for many years in the office of a vineyard. Everyone was paid the same,and no one could get fired. As a result of the drudgery and banalness, they held contests. At noon, everyone was surveyed. One would say I looked busy all morning and wrote two paragraphs. Pretty good would say another, but I wrote only one paragraph. Then another chimed in saying I wrote only one sentence this morning. They were declared the winner and everyone else chipped in and bought them lunch.

A goodwill tour of the Moscow shocked an American transit official (he was also a retired Air Force colonel and should have, to my mind, known better). All their buses had short life spans and sloppy maintenance. He expected Communism’s puritan quality to lead to a very different outcome.  But there was no bottom line or Judgment Day. (Stalin did have a puritan streak. He edited out the milk maid scene in Dovzhenko’s Earth as too exotic.) 

People like to achieve. If they didn’t we’d all be living in caves and wearing animal skins. To those of faith this achievement is often more inner than outer. But the desire to achieve, to take pride in one’s work, is often about the inner peace of contributing more than merely wealth or fame. If one were to criticize my perspective, they may point to the great scientists of Soviet Russia. Fortunately, there are always individuals like that. However, that doesn’t relate to the vast majority of everyday people and their sense of satisfaction.

But tragedies like the massive cave-ins of apartment buildings in Soviet built Armenia during an earthquake brutally affect everyone. When there are no checks and balances it becomes the short term solution of all participants to cover up. Socialism, or one party rule in much of America, bases itself on these unitary or cohabiting institutions. Many people on both the Left and on the Right agree that we live in an oligopoly. Apologists for our current arrangement point to our abundant consumer choices. We shop at Walmart instead of Sears. We stream movies rather than wait in theatre lines. But is this just an illusion of control while real power lies elsewhere?

While the FAA may finally correct shoddy Boeing software, why did they approve it in the first place? Our Public Utilities Commission allowed PG&E’s negligent maintenance. The Left is now proposing a government takeover of PG&E.  This may be as efficient as California high speed rail construction.

I wonder if people really understand what they are getting into.  Some time ago it was suggested that the giant public pension funds buy large corporations with annuity like income streams. This came closest to fruition when the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan proposed buying Bell Canada. What if all the telephone line workers got cancer from PCB’s in the equipment? Normally the stockholders lose as the company is liquated to pay the injured their claims. How would a situation of the school teachers vs. telephone line workers play out? Would the teachers have their pensions threatened? Would there be an incentive to cover up? Would the union movement’s slogan of solidarity take on a new meaning? 

Are these predicaments a parable of our present day and especially in California?

Copyright 2019, Mark L. Bennett

Define Historic Preservation?

On the surface this sounds like a silly question. No one is proposing tearing down Independence Hall, the Old North Church, the California Missions or Casa Grande. Where I live in the Mother Lode, everyone would be appalled if historic Jackson or Sutter Creek were threatened. Nationally, there has been recent vandalism of statues of those judged politically incorrect by some. And, of course, the historic preservation movement has its lunatic fringe. But that’s human nature and says nothing substantive about historic preservation.

This article is not about political vandalism or the antics of fringe folks. But it is about soliciting opinion on an issue that has troubled me for years. Several decades ago, I was a consultant to the [then] Santa Monica Mountains Comprehensive Planning Commission. Governor Ronald Reagan approved the sale of the 20th Century Fox property, turning it into Malibu Creek State Park. This was to be the genesis of the much larger Santa Monica National Recreation Area which is now a national park service facility. While my consulting was limited to public transit, I did observe the facility’s evolution and have been troubled ever since.

It was decided to preserve remnants of Native American villages without, to my knowledge, any opposition. But the remains of movie sets, including a Chinese village from Steve McQueen’s The Sand Pebbles were destroyed. Certainly some would argue that these were temporary structures prone to quick decay. That danger is real, but how is this different from many other protected ruins? And perhaps the studio didn’t want us to see how they fake things. But I believe that movie making is part of our heritage just like Native American settlements and that the movie sets should have also been preserved. What do others think?

Endnote: The park’s website states under Historic Archeological Materials that their museum includes “…historic archeological material from historic sites related to ranching, homesteading, agriculture, space technology, filming and recreation.”  To what extent and with what commentary the movie sets are documented I have no idea.

Copyright 2019, Mark L. Bennett

The Disunited States of America

Many years ago in the Bay Area I heard a clairvoyant speak.  She hated George Bush II and looked into the future to see the outcome of his policies. But instead, she saw the break up on the United States into a series of regional republics. Shock gripped the audience. When mine subsided, I realized the question was not if this will happen, but rather, are the preconditions here? My own suspicions that they were became confirmed with Bill Bishop’s 2008 book: The Big Sort.  Later, I read a Christian website suggesting leaving high housing cost states like California for low cost housing states. Why be a two paycheck family with added daycare expense when you can be a stay at home parent elsewhere? That seems like a common sense path to family preservation and good parenting.

Locally, two leaders in the former Mother Lode Tea Party have left, one to Idaho and the other to Utah. It now costs $2,085 for a U-Haul from San Francisco to Las Vegas but only $132 for the return journey. I made an emotionally and politically similar move, although within the same state, to Amador County from LA. I documented my tyrannical government experience there while trying to develop affordable housing in my 7/16 Outside the Ivory Tower entitled Reality Intruded. Amador County has since transitioned from loggers and other feet on the ground folks to something very different. Often court decisions now seem made by the judge’s ideology rather than rule of law. Certainly this includes the Obama appointees, but also some judges closer to home. I researched the relevant cases, but was warned by someone with greater expertise than me to not mention names and get sued.  My immediate response recalled my prior visceral response to Obama’s attacks on The Little Sisters of the Poor: I am not living in America anymore.

The data keeps reaffirming the resorting of the American population. Major media and especially social media now commonly use the term "Civil War". While polarization will continue along with political and “random” violence increasing, it wouldn’t be the armies of one state against another. The United States will likely break into a series of regional republics. I’ve read others that share this same prognostication.  Perhaps the national debt will never be repaid with the swamp creatures of Washington migrating to areas of their liking. A breakup is the cleanest way to destroy the power of the United States. The globalists will then have won and proceed to determine the next millennium of human history.

End notes: Bill Bishop’s The Big Sort is worth reading, but it occasionally suffers from his liberalism. For example, he underestimated the influence of Evangelicals and was certainly proven wrong with Trump’s election.

East, South and West conflicts have always been part of American history. But despite one civil war, most people were preoccupied within their smaller region or a city and its hinterland and their respective economics.

Copyright 2019, Mark L. Bennett

The Times They Are A Changed (to paraphrase Bob Dylan)

In the 1970’s I worked 8 to 5 in downtown LA. Following that I took an express bus to Cal State, LA, gobbled down a reasonable dinner in the school cafeteria and started class at 6 pm. Due to situations like that and others in my life I have prided myself as a hard working, self reliant, conservative American. But the realization hit me that I couldn’t do that today given current tuition prices. Also, I ate a somewhat subsidized meal. Today, it’s likely that food service at Cal State, LA is a mall-like court of fast food outlets as it is now at Sac State.

While much discussion has occurred, both pro and con, about college sports subsidy, inflated faculty salaries and benefits, too many foreign students, etc. the largest culprit by many orders of magnitude has been administration especially diversity and similar programs. Not surprisingly, they employ the graduates in fields such as Gender Studies who would otherwise be unemployable.  Our institutions of higher learning have become self-perpetuating organizations with education as the excuse and no longer the reason. The very people the colleges exist to help have, instead, become the victims.

There is no need to repeat the severity and personal hardships of the student loan debt crisis. The Liberals have created this crisis and now advocate high tax solutions such as free college while ignoring the causes. They create problems for the opportunity to offer solutions that increase government and reduce personal freedom with the human suffering induced being irrelevant. I saw this phenomenon in LA. The central city was down-zoned with many developers creasing business or finding themselves bankrupt. Like with student loan difficulties, there is no need to repeat the squalor or disease of homelessness. But the environmentalists thought they were saving the city while the far left knowingly exploited them to create a demand for government control over housing.

But while I was “subsidized” as a college student, it was clearly in the context of someone helping themselves, not surrendering their freedoms to dependency. The goal of liberal democracy (in its historic meaning) is to guarantee opportunity, not to guarantee success. This was well articulated by Abraham Lincoln in his signing the Land Grant College Act (officially the Morrill Act) creating our state university system. Affirmative Action espouses the opposite ideology.

From the far left to the far right, there is now an overly abundant public discussion of our social welfare system. I find it more framed in rhetoric than fact. All societies have had social welfare systems. In 19th century America it was primarily voluntary organizations like the Masons, Elks, etc. Our local Italian Benevolent Society dates from that period. In the Middle Ages, it was the Catholic Church. Religious charities still play a major role in social welfare today, but are and have been under attack by the secular left.  I still cringe recalling Obama’s cohort attacking The Little Sisters of the Poor. Before that, the left vicously attacked Bush for discrimination when he proposed that church-run child care facilities which received government money would be expected to hire those of the same faith or domination. But Bush was right, and endless data shows that religious-oriented social services have higher success rates.

But throughout history until a few generations ago, social welfare was primarily the extended family. It still is, but not to the pervasive extent it was in the past. Now we have care giver programs, etc. that subsidize and partly replace the family.

Today’s situation is “a changed” and our politics seem simply insane.  I find it, except for far left motives of destructive social upheaval, beyond comprehension to have an open border for criminals and terrorists along with granting some of them welfare. That is one of many examples of the impossibilities of today’s discussions. Nevertheless, I refuse to give up hope and make the following proposals. I do this in the context of sadly having to acknowledge the existent government role, the vast number of single parent households and other manifestations of the immediate past than can only change over a generation or two.

Firstly, colleges need to be audited as if they were corporate takeover candidates or Chapter 11 make overs. Costs can be eliminated without sacrificing the clear goal of education. Since most colleges are state run or regulated, but dependent upon Federal aid, there are various issues here. The Federal do- -as-I-say began with New Deal aid programs and has probably polluted America ever since. Given today’s political landscape, the initiative would come from Trump. I don’t like the predicament we’re in of having to further strengthen the federal government, but I am a realist and that’s our only choice.

I’ve always supported public transit, like the land grant colleges, because it helps people help themselves. And the situation there is not unlike universities. Transit agencies with business people on their boards (unheard of in California) run far more efficiently. Again, this could be changed with Federal grant requirements, but we are in the same quagmire as with education. 

Real public discussion seems the only answer, but that possibility seems to diminish daily. But it’s still important to ask in formulating social welfare policy: Does this help people help themselves or does it encourage dependency?

Copyright 2019, Mark L. Bennett 

  

State of our State

A bureaucrat rises in position not by moving up through the narrowing channels of management, but by adding employees below them and therefore increasing their department size and weight within the organization.  Compare the number of HR staff with actual production workers in many small and medium companies and you will be shocked. But at least the marketplace exhibits competitive pressure while the government bureaucrat relies primarily upon propaganda.  And please remember that the privilege of a government agency to use our tax dollars to lobby for its continued existence plus expansion was an innovation of FDR.

While I receive my retirement healthcare from CALPERS, my pension lies elsewhere. But CALPERS continually sends me pension booklets as part of “the CALPERS family” that are irrelevant and trashed.  My CALPERS healthcare also sends me booklets that contain such “startling” new information as regular exercise and eating fresh fruits and vegetables contribute to health. This waste is created by people inventing a need for themselves with likely justification by consultants with rows of PhD’s.

Some years ago a co-worker of mine, a retired corporate executive and a master at corporate/government paperwork, was closing out the affairs of his recently deceased mother.  He sent the appropriate paperwork to Social Security and quickly received a case closed reply. But a California bureaucrat suspected fraud with his filling to end a small state pension. My friend was raked over the coals for months until resolution. But our Sacramento parasite was probably rewarded for suspecting and pursuing possible hanky panky.

Many years ago my partners and I decided to liquidate a corporation we had. The proper documents were sent in sufficiently before the annual deadline. But we never heard back until the following year. The Department of Corporations wrote back that we were late and therefore owned them another fee to exist in the current year to process the dissolution filing. Our lawyer fired back by saying you withheld the filing intentionally and that if you did this to us you are doing this to others. Would you like a class action suit to prove our contention? We then received an apology saying they had made a clerical error and we didn’t owe the fee. But departments and agencies that produce revenue maintain a certain shine.

As deadly as the growth of California’s government has been, it now appears to have accelerated from an arithmetic rate to a geometric rate. Newsom equals oblivion.

Copyright 2019, Mark L. Bennett

   

What is Cultural Appropriation?

“If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”-  Sir Isaac Newton

Cultural appropriation is another intellectual device to attack people for what is considered, and has been throughout history, normal everyday behavior. I can understand their sense that cultural symbols can be used or appropriated in disrespectful ways, but it is those appropriation critics that seem the most disrespectful, the most intolerant and the least open to new experience. Beyond being a propaganda tool that frighteningly inhibits free behavior, I cannot make any sense of it. Others agree and use the term loony left. Some time ago a local pundit on a local forum complained that some current practice dilutes Mexican culture and was therefore wrong.  Apparently she has never observed a Fourth of July piñata. Mexican immigrants become Mexican American, not unlike all the prior immigrant groups, and contribute to our dynamic American culture. We all eat burritos now, just like we eat pizza or bagels.

But in addition to the desired process of assimilation, I also can’t comprehend the premise of cultural appropriation. After all, what is Mexican culture? It’s a blend of Spanish and Aztec. Aztec culture is a blend of the prior Olmec plus other indigenous peoples. Spanish culture is a blend of the Visgothic and Roman cultures. The Roman culture, in turn, is a blend of the Etruscan and Greek with prior indigenous Roman culture. This has always been called human history but is now apparently considered a social construct like the multiple genders.

In the posted comments section of some discussion a while back some anti-Semite said that the Jews were a fraud because they stole Hammurabi’s Code and then sold it to the world as there’s.  While some Jewish scholars may not recognize their Babylonian origin including the prior Epic of Gilgamesh, logic says it’s likely just as the prior Sumerian and Akkadian cultures helped create the later Babylonian culture.  The early Hebrews built on their past and created something new. That led to Christianity. Is Christianity invalid because it’s a cultural appropriation from Judaism?

The only example I know of in history of the freezing of cultures was Stalin’s program of preserving folk cultures which turned them into meaningless ritual. Cultures are dynamic. If we didn’t learn from each other humanity would surely be in an even sadder state.  Rootless ahistoric experts like those who proclaim multiple genders are now deified as philosopher kings. The expression loony left is probably an understatement.  The dangers are obvious and imminent.

Copyright 2018, Mark L. Bennett

Yes on 6 and End Bike/Ped Studies

I spoke at the Republican Party Labor Day picnic and made the following remarks:

“On the November ballot is Prop 6, Repeal the Gas Tax. This new tax could honestly be called the Caltrans Corruption Tax. We have all witnessed Caltrans in our local area. Projects are broken into smaller and smaller pieces. I’ve gone to Pine Grove/Hwy 88 meetings for at least 20 years now. Caltrans appears to organize their work to employ their staff and enrich their consultant buddies. I would consider this as structural or institutional corruption. But Caltrans employees handing out No on Prop 6 flyers to motorists during their work day clearly illustrates a more fundamental corruption. Plus reliable sources claim the existence of the more traditional types of corruption in contracts and construction, but without details. However, I will relate two of my direct experiences with Caltrans.

With an original estimate of a mere $64 million dollars Caltrans wanted to build an HOV- high occupancy vehicle lane- on the Hwy 50 Freeway in Sacramento. They needed an endorsement from Sacramento Transit. This landed on my desk, but I could not find any benefit from this project. The only bus route this lane could possibly use, the one from Orangevale, required more time to transition in and out of the HOV lane than if it stayed in the right lane. I turned in my negative findings. I was later layed off with this project having been given to someone else. Caltrans did receive their needed Sacramento Transit project endorsement by promising them $7 million for a light rail extension as mitigation money. So in their logic light rail mitigates a busway.

This imperial arrogance surfaced when Los Angeles decided to reopen the LA-Long Beach for an initial cost of $400 million. Caltrans’s transportation dominance was so threatened by this that they built a billion dollar busway on the parallel Harbor Freeway. I’ve always been curious about how and who made this decision.

We can temper their power by repealing the gas tax. Yes on 6 yard signs are available to order right now. Please talk to your friends and neighbors to vote for repeal. This should also help to bring out the nonvoting Republicans.

And there is a thing we can do to improve our roads that doesn’t involve Caltrans: Abolish the Bicycle/Pedestrian Fund.  The sales tax on gasoline goes into the Local Transportation Fund for roads and transit of which 2% goes into this bike/ped fund. While some has been spent such as sidewalks in Ione, most of the funds are banked for future matching grants from Washington to build a probable million plus bike trail. Of course, this fosters the future vision of a select few Amadorians. However, the flow of Federal dollars into our county is a valid and seductive argument. But the reality is quite different. As slight as these grants possibilities are, they have also hopefully diminished with President Trump. But to get these grants you must have an updated Bike/Ped plan. So every ten years or so tens of thousands of dollars flow to consultants as a subsidy to the environmental left.

The bike/ped fund is not large, about $330,000 now plus some uncalculated overhead. But it is our money sitting there rather than filling potholes. This fund should be abolished for us and the other 14 counties in California with under 50,000 residents. Can we contact our supervisors, state legislative representatives and RCRC, Rural County Representatives of California, to bring this to a vote in Sacramento?” 

Buena Vista Casino & Public Transit

I spoke at the Amador Transit Board of Directors/Amador County Transportation Commission meeting on 8/2/18 and made the following remarks:

“I am here speaking as a private citizen and not as a member of SSTAC (Social Services Transportation Advisory Council). However, through that involvement I have become aware that transit service to the Comanche area, which once was more frequent, is presently our most significant unmet need. But service to meet this need should also be designed for maximum ridership potential. The best routing solution, although complexified by the institutional framework, seems to be Valley Springs/Ione. It would split within the Comanche area similar to the present loop. It could develop two directional travel, a perquisite for efficient transit as well as probably reducing the costs of the present Ione route. If, at some later date, a non rush hour service to Sacramento via Ione begins then we will have greater interconnectedness, another perquisite for efficient transit. And more service to Sacramento is the second unmet need in importance after the Comanche area.

While these suggestions all received positive responses among SSTAC members, they stayed dormant. But circumstances have changed prompting me to appear here today. Is Amador Transit a participant in the present mitigation discussions and agreements regarding the Buena Vista Casino? Aside from the obvious possibility of direct subsidy, I have other concerns. Will the casino operate buses from Valley cities as some casinos around Sacramento presently do? Do we have transfer possibilities that could add convenience and ridership/revenue? Will any potential transit service be able to stop at the main entrance without canopy or pavement problems?

Therefore, I ask that this commission, by whatever is the appropriate procedure, officially request that Amador Transit be included in these discussions and agreements. Thank you.”

In addition to the above it should be noted that an Ione/Valley Springs route could produce seat turnover, like table turnover in a restaurant, and therefore produce more revenue. Probably the largest ridership market for this possible service will be casino workers. Can an unskilled young person take advantage of these new employment opportunities without owning a car? Also the casino impacts will likely require redesigning existing service in the Comanche area whatever Amador Transit’s participation in the mitigation process is or isn’t.

Since I spoke during the citizen comment period, on a nonagenda item, there was no discussion among the commissioners. But after the formal meeting conversations ensued. One commissioner stated that the county and casino had already made their deal and that to reopen negotiations was a can of worms. That’s a point well taken because it sets a bad precedent. Another said that the casino canopy design will be reexamined. Overall, my presentation was thoughtfully received, but will anything be changed?

Shouldn’t have Amador Transit have been included in the original process? Is asking for 50K to 100K annually in mitigation fees for this new bus route considered outrageous? What do other Amadorians think? What is the final verdict of public opinion?

Mark Bennett, Pine Grove

Fly Over Country

Many years ago I was driving cross county and had a breakdown near Council Bluffs, Iowa. I went ahead to get help and my companion stayed with the vehicle. When I and a tow truck returned, she spoke astoundingly about all the people that stopped and asked if she needed help. She vowed to remember that place because she found this unusual having lived only in San Francisco and Long Island, New York. But it wasn’t unusual; that place was the United States of America.

Years later at a dinner party in Hollywood, a very successful screenwriter told me of his involvement with the CIA. Following 9/11 they wanted help in understanding the minds of Islamic and other terrorists and convened a secret group of fiction writers to assist. (I can tell this story just as he was able to tell me because it was leaked to and disclosed by the “patriotic” New York Times) This writer was honored to be selected and even more honored to serve. But as the conversation proceeded, I learned that he had only lived in Philadelphia and Los Angeles and was too afraid to travel through Middle America. He saw those inhabitants as all possible Klan-types complicated by and projected from his fear of anti-Semitism.

These personal experiences reflect the ongoing American cultural divide. But how deep and persuasive is this? About 25 years ago I heard a Bay Area clairvoyant speak. She hated George W. Bush and looked into the future to see the outcome of his policies. But what she saw was the breakup of America into a series of regional republics. We all were dumb struck. Later I realized that the question was not a future breakup of the USA, but rather are the preconditions here? Bill Bishop’s book, The Great Sort, lays out the intensified political polarization and increased sorting of the population. Locally, two former Mother Lode Tea Party leaders have vamoosed to other states.

I don’t know the outcome, but I suspect that it will get worse before it can get better. Certainly the #Walk Away Movement of Democrats saying bye-bye is hopeful given their attitude of down home American common sense. Perhaps our new media is replicating Sam Adam’s Committees of Correspondence. I pray that we can heal. But I’m also always aware of the years of miseducation that negates rather than loves America and that still lives within many younger people. We have too many Americans who live here, but don’t know where they live.

On personal note, when I left home, I was full not only of the history of America, but the romance as well. I walked and hitchhiked the Oregon Trail, I sunbathed on the levees along the Mississippi, and I got drunk on the corner of 12th and Vine in Kansas City.

Copyright 2018, Mark L. Bennett