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.

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