Is It All Just Made Up?

I once heard a disk jockey say that the text he had contained a typo because it said Johnny Cash was from Dyess Colony rather than Dyess County. But Dyess Colony was the New Deal community for the poor where Johnny Cash started picking cotton at eight years of age. I had just observed history being rewritten or written, I’m not sure.  Like everyone else for 500 years I believed that the Roanoke Colony failed. But it has been recently proven that Secretary of State Francis Walsingham intentionally sacrificed the colony to politically defeat Walter Raleigh. The American Pageant, our local high school American History text, defines Roanoke as “… hapless… mysteriously vanished, swallowed up by the wilderness.”  But not mentioned is another “failed” colony, the French Huguenot Fort Caroline, burned to the ground by the Spanish with the inhabitants slaughtered. But I can’t fault the authors for summary or omission, since they had so much material to condense.

But editing such as this has consequences since these frequent judgment calls are often influenced by one’s ideological goal. Along with experience we all make decisions or hold political viewpoints based upon what we know. So what we know and what we don’t know takes on great importance. Not surprisingly French philosopher Voltaire said: “History is the lie that everyone agrees upon”.

Is the New York Times going to run an article about the exemplary record of the National Rifle Association helping blacks arm themselves against Klan violence? The 1960’s play, The Deputy, paints Pope Pius XII as indifferent to the Nazi horrors of his time. Everyone I knew believed it to be true. But after the Cold War it became known that it was an East German/KGB effort to divide those in the Western World. In the late 1920’s the Muslim upper classes told the Palestinians not to trust the Jewish settlers because they were helping oppressed Muslim tenant farmers organize unions.  Is this a bit different that the Crusader narrative we’ve all been fed? Most people believe that an item is priced at $2.97 because they think that the merchant is trying to fool them about a $3 item. But the opposite is true. The $2.97 price forced the clerk to ring the sale and make change rather than just slip the $3 into their pocket.

We all see the world through our limited lens. While this is nothing new, it has taken on critical importance today as Common Core and allied endeavors change our history before our very eyes. Future generations may inhabit these shores, but they won’t be Americans as we understand it. There is even a movement to tear down statues of Thomas Jefferson. As John F. Kennedy said at a White House dinner for Nobel Prize winners: “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”  As much as we owe to Jefferson and others, they were flawed humans. But do we want anyone else in charge, then or now, that isn’t?

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

The Formula for Economic Freedom

I spoke at the 7/28/15 Board of Supervisors hearing regarding Lynn Morgan’s urgency ordinance to ban formula businesses in District 3, an action prompted by the soon to be Dollar General store in Buckhorn. My remarks follow:

“I am absolutely opposed to this proposed ordinance. While there is much I could say, I will limit myself to two issues. First, this proposal makes everything more complex, adding to what I consider a disturbing trend pervasive throughout our society in big and small ways. Often in the name of an improvement, real or just imagined, more rules are made. In the end this added complexity creates more problems than it solves.  Once upon a time, we Americans achieved economic greatness by simplifying machinery. 

Formula stores include franchises. These opportunities allow ordinary people to start a business without having to start from scratch or reinvent the wheel. There are almost 3,000 franchises available with a dozen or so around $10,000 or less.  These include cleaning services, glass repair, travel agencies and exercise studios.  Given this situation some people will request that the ordinance include exemptions and appeal procedures.  Aside from the additional expense, this creates another huddle for a beginning business by someone who still probably has their day job. It could cancel someone’s dream. To add to their difficulty and to inhibit the country’s economic health for someone’s subjective aesthetics and personal preferences doesn’t seem like a fair deal to me.”

Her proposal was defeated on a 4 to 1 vote, but many people spoke in favor of the ordinance. They all wanted to pick and choose through new regulations what businesses can locate upcountry. While I understand their sentiment of not wanting homogenous structures that look the same as everywhere else, their willingness to trade away economic freedom for cutesy buildings seems unbalanced and naïve. Don’t they understand that it’s their own economic freedom that they are destroying? Aren’t they shooting themselves in the foot with perhaps a few year time delay before realization?

When one looks around the world, they discover that a country’s amount of poverty is directly proportional to the amount of economic regulation it has. “It takes 2 days to start a business in Australia, but 203 days in Haiti and 215 days in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Additionally, the more rules there are the greater the incentive there is to avoid them and consequently the greater amount of regulation the greater the amount of corruption. These fine examples illustrate how we can regulate ourselves into unfairness and poverty. But here in Amador County, it’s slow, incremental steps so that it may be too late when we experience their cumulative impact and wonder how this happened.

There were valid claims, at the hearing, about the traffic flow on Meadow Vista Drive. But that is a factor for the existing building permit process. If that somehow doesn’t work than that process needs changing, not the creation of a new layer of regulation however temporary it’s proposed to be at first.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

More Musings & Observations

One advantage of aging is a longer perspective.  Food companies have been under pressure for decades to reduce the preservatives in their products. One doesn’t have to take a logic class to figure out that anything that prevents food from decaying would also make it hard to decay (digest) in your gut. Those on the left charge that corporate greed demands a long shelf life. The food producers have argued that consumers asked for longer shelf lives. The purer food people denounced that as pure bunk. But one of those requesting consumers was my mother. She was a liberal sticking it to big corporations to sell what she considered a better, longer lasting product.

Some years ago, Greece was too much of a fiscal mess to join the EU so they hired Goldman Sachs to cook their books for a multi million fee. After they did that they then shorted Greek debt and made another bundle. Today Greece is collapsing. I'm sure Hillary Clinton must feel horridly guilty every time she takes another donation check from Goldman Sachs. 

But no matter what happens its always business as usual in Washington. The Department of Agriculture recently received $17 million to inspect catfish despite the Food and Drug Administration already spending $7 million inspecting catfish. Please remember that although outside lobbyists play a major role in closed door Washington, the right of government agencies to lobby for themselves was part of FDR’s new deal for America. Now the two agencies have agreed to work jointly and to, over time, separate their respective seafood turfs. So there’s no need to worry that anyone will lose their cushy job or pension on our dime. It’s easy to understand that those in power want to maintain regulatory pressure on the population of catfish raising rural southern areas similar to what Obama did when reducing the number of auto dealerships during the car companies’ brief nationalization. “Coincidently” many big Republican donors lost their dealerships then. But catfish and similar type fish enter the USA from Southeast Asia with hardly any inspection. If this gives you shivers about the Trans-Pacific Partnership you are probably not alone.

Much of this product has been banned in Russia because it contains E. coli and listeria. But why worry? Certainly California will require a vaccination against those germs soon. And if you can’t wait, you can always become someone you are not. Two billion dollars of the world’s economy are Botox sales. But if the morality of extreme vanity bothers you, again why worry? The government is always there to lend a helping hand. When first quarter gross domestic product figures came in lower than expected the San Francisco Fed suggested changing the seasonal adjustment factors to create a higher number so we could all feel better.

D. Norman recently posted a discussion about entitlements here where in he calls for “complete and factual information.” Then this must include things he didn’t mention such as illegal immigrants who may have never worked a day in this county receiving benefits and the huge benefit provider industry. This includes J.P. Morgan EFS, Affiliated Computer Services, and eFunds. Since 2004 JPMorgan has been paid almost $6 million. The more they enroll the more they make. So there’s an incentive to get people on the dole.  As with too many government programs it’s not the cost of the benefit but the cost of and style of administration. Nobody in America wants to eat diseased fish or let the poor to starve.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

Shadow Government and Socio-Economic Consensus

A “Request for Proposals: Socio-economic monitoring baseline data and data collection methodology and template” was recently issued by the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group. Not understanding why this data is necessary, what the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group really does and how consensus groups came into being I started investigating.

In the 1880’s Karl Marx and Frederick Engels propagated the idea that hunter-gatherer peoples lived communally and made decisions by consensus.  This was called primitive communism, a romanticized state of being to which we all could blissfully return. While this probably happened to some extent, the evidence is scant even today relying mostly on some scattered oral tradition and isolated observations. With the thousands of hunter gatherer groups that once existed, any honest generalization is impossible. Theories about these early human societies seem to flip completely with every new discovery. But the mythology persisted and has since flourished in various circles. 

It merged with Quaker sentiment and morphed into Sociocracy guided by the principle “…that the interests of all members must be considered, the individual bowing to the interests of the whole.” These feed into the Movement for a New Society which believed in “sensitivity training… (and to) challenge members to excise oppressive aspects of their traditional patterns of behavior.” This group influenced many in the 1960’s and that set the stage for its later adoption by the environmentalists.

While I don’t know how they started, the “Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group is a community-based organization that works to create fire-safe communities, healthy forests and watersheds, and sustainable local economies.” (Sustainable is their favorite word) They support projects we all like such as fire breaks, forest cleaning, biomass plants, etc but are also concerned with spotted owls, greenhouse gases and wildlife corridor connectivity. Their members include the Foothill Conservancy, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Sierra Forest Legacy, PG&E, forest service, firesafe councils and many others with John Hoffmann representing Amador County. Supervisor Lynn Morgan attended a recent meeting.

Their decisions are made by consensus. “If consensus cannot be reached, the person or persons expressing concern are responsible for proposing an alternative which meets the same end goal. If alternatives cannot not be defined immediately, the person opposing a decision is responsible for convening a meeting with relevant persons to clearly define the alternative for consideration at a subsequent meeting.” Many people may find this process not that dissimilar from reeducation in Maoist China. But despite extensive study I couldn’t find the consensus for Daniel Boone crossing the Cumberland Gap or inspiring those for the long journey on the Oregon Trail. They appear to be a shadow government ruled differently than the concept of majority rule and minority rights I learned in what now seems to be an archaic America.

The prosperity we all enjoy, including the poorest among us, was undreamed of 250 years ago when the free enterprise system began. Private enterprise and the human spirit it harnesses, despite its imperfections, is the best way to get things done. However, I am not categorically opposed to consensus groups, non-profits, governments sponsored enterprises or a host of other organizational forms.  We are a big, diverse nation and should have a variety of venues to choose from for the task at hand.  But we need to choose wisely and be aware of where we are trending.  And while I wish it began by other means and had a less elaborate structure, I strongly support the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group’s participation in the Wilseyville biomass plant proposal. If they could have received the waste how many of the recent out of control burn pile fires could have been avoided?

Adding more layers and complexity to decision making has its cost. When a group of architects and such were discussing where to pave walkways between new classroom buildings at Columbia University then university president Dwight Eisenhower stopped them. He suggested letting the students walk between the buildings and then paving the paths they found convenient. Sometimes expertise lacks the simple elegance of common sense.

But micro management, at the very least, must have motivated the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group to issue “Request for Proposals: Socio-economic monitoring baseline data and data collection methodology and template”.  This proposal involves “sustainable local economies” and “will comply with the mandates of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program”.  It is concerned with “community development challenges …to better monitor socio-economic conditions in our communities” and requires a “recommended frequency of data collection”. But the Demographic Research Unit of the California Department of Finance estimates and forecasts population, school enrollments, etc by county. Washington’s Bureau of Labor Statistics issues quarterly employment and wage data by county. The General Plan, the General Plan EIR, the separate Housing Element, the various transportation and transit plans and the plans of social service agencies contain reams of socio economic data.  The benefit this proposal could contribute to what is already available is very marginal at best and hardly seems sufficient to justify additional expense.  

Most people are aware of what is happening in their local community by daily observation and experience. The more curious ask those they encounter. The well being of a community is hardly obscure. A few decades ago the dollar rose or fell based on the monthly balance of trade figures. Software was primitive then and one investment firm spent a million dollars to produce projections slightly better than the others. But no matter how hard they all tried, one investment firm always beat them.  After this phase of investing ended they revealed their secret: they went down to the docks and asked about upcoming ship arrivals and departures. 

Aside from the more frightening social control aspect of consensus groups’ shadow government and the proposed even more elaborate monitoring of daily life, this is just another example of pencil pushing rather than beneficial production. How much do the fire safe councils spend on promotion, study and overhead versus projects like the firebreaks that we created them for? As I have stated previously groups like these and especially the EIR process serve a primary purpose to create employment for those interested in archaeology, for example, who would otherwise be unemployable.  Having more people producing less and less tangible result is creating a downward economic spiral that will engulf all of us.

Endnotes: Katherine Evatt recently asked me to join the Amador- Calaveras Consensus Group and I turned her down. It was not because of anything I’ve said above, most of which I didn’t know then, but because I don’t have the time. That hasn’t changed. Also I am a pension board trustee and we generally make decisions on a consensus basis. This is because no one individual wants to be on the hook for a multimillion dollar blunder. And do not confuse the primitive communism discussed with spiritual communism, an obscure late 1800’s French group that utilized repetitive work to induce meditative trance. But the primitive communism concept still remained as exhibited by the oil field workers’ homes in Baku being between the oil derricks due to their alleged mystical attachment to their work. Needless to say they all died prematurely from cancer.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett  

Smart Growth means Our Style Growth

Recently Smart Growth principles were posted on Facebook. What follows is my brief take on them.

 “Mix Land Uses” is conceptually a good idea.  Certainly it’s a reasonable response to the extreme city antiseptic planning of a century ago. While it creates convenience it also requires tolerance. I remember working in an office building where the air ducts picked up the cooking smells from the restaurant next store and people felt olfactory assaulted. And remember than our General Plan EIR goes to extreme lengths to prevent or regulate noise pollution, an obvious problem outcome of mixed uses.

“Take Advantage of Compact Building Design” negates one’s freedom to live as they want. It’s not the government’s role to design buildings except for basics such as safe wiring, etc. North Natomas was developed as a smart growth area and the homes are too close together. They are like the homes I lived in that led me to leave for Amador County. They are the style of our prior less affluent society being sold as a new idea. Is this planning for a possible decline in the standard of living?

“Create a Range of Housing Opportunities and Choices” sounds nice, but when it’s not done in the free market but rather administered it becomes arbitrary. Ask people in Stockton about the required mini apartment ghettos in each new development. They hate it.  While this glib principle often means a contrived “statutory” diversity, apartments that fit into a neighborhood’s character are essential for the elderly to remain there. When one leaves their single family home they should be able to stay put and continue ties and affiliations.

“Create Walkable Neighborhoods” again sounds nice, but it often means “stack and pack” housing. I would submit that neighborhoods became less walkable when we gave up the grid pattern for the current curvilinear pattern along with cul de sacs. This is not about density, but rather just design.  But the other side of the curvilinear argument is the number of dwelling units than can be fit into an area and in some cases preserving the topography an environmental plus for many. Also some people prefer the privacy and lack of pedestrians (strangers) in curvilinear areas.  Doesn’t the reality of create walkable neighborhoods contradict creating a range of housing opportunities and also choices for people with preferences deemed politically incorrect by those in power?

“Foster Distinctive, Attractive Communities with a Strong Sense of Place” sounds yummy. If this is done over time by many individual people, it creates the charm and character we all cherish. But if it is administered by a committee the result is often contrived. In only a few seconds one can decide if the business they just entered was designed by a corporation or grew out of the unique experience of a person or family. Does anyone remember the old joke: What is a camel? A horse designed by a committee.

“Preserve Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas” What is so smart about assigning subjective judgment calls, open to abusive interpretations, of natural beauty and critical areas to government seers or stacked consensus groups? This is only smart if you want a preconceived ideological outcome.  An example I have cited before is locating a restaurant or gas station along the Hwy 88 scenic corridor.  While most people would consider such a facility as convenience, it would mar the Sierra’s beauty for an esoteric, but empowered, few. As an example of this attitude a recent photo posted on Facebook claiming to represent the intended Newman Ridge project was regarded as disgusting by those who find any productive enterprise as ugly. This is a problem attitude best dealt with by psychologists, not planners. 

“Strengthen and Direct Development towards Existing Communities” This premise compromises the principle that people are free to live where they want. The government is here to serve us, not to make us accommodate their intellectual desires of social design divorced from our traditions. American land tenure, in rural areas, is your home near the middle of your property. This pattern made America freer and different from the Europe of crowded villages most of our ancestors left behind. Divorced from reality and tradition, this statement appears to be the product of isolated intellects with the hidden agenda of homogenizing us to look like Europe along with their roundabouts.

“Provide a Variety of Transportation Choices” How many potholes do we tolerate to placate the few, but vociferous bicyclists? Resources are not infinite. Or was my mother wrong when she told me that money doesn’t grow on trees? Public transit is a vital opportunity that allows people to help themselves, just as public education does. But given the prevalent patronage and social welfare model rather than a public sector business model, throwing money at most big city transit agencies is grossly wasteful without a revolutionary change in their planning and management.

“Make Development Decisions Predictable, Fair and Cost Effective” Fair is a buzzword for social justice, the rebranding of failed socialism. How stable is a society based on entitlements compared with one based upon what you have earned?  Cost effectiveness can be judged by whatever unrealistic ideological assumptions are in charge. My prior discussion of a twisted and rather extended concept of externalities is a perfect example. While nothing can make life predictable, this desire requires at the very least an acceptance of stagnation.

“Encourage Community and Stakeholder Collaboration in Development Decisions” depends, of course, on who is a stakeholder or community member. Certainly people without children and with extra time and means are most likely to appear at meetings as participants. Community groups often are multipliers of the same people appearing as more numerous than they are.  Sometimes I wonder if the number of groups concerned with the Mokelumne River equal the number of fish or frogs there. Caltrans found that neighborhoods often change more rapidly than project timeframes and only chaos and discord ensue. 

Smart Growth is an advertising slogan that can’t help remind me of “You can sure if it’s Westinghouse”. Remember that great company that dissolved with some parts now owned by foreign companies?

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

Everyone Loves the Circus

On 6/9/15 the Board of Supervisors had a public hearing on a possible referendum about the Newman Ridge project. I made the following statement:

“Not too long ago on my way into a local market I was approached by an agitated man. At first I thought he was a carnival barker in an old B movie. But he wasn’t tempting me to see the bearded lady or the five-legged frog. Instead, I was informed that our ranchers and farmers water was in danger unless I signed here.

It is a sad day for Amador County when dishonesty triumphs.  Deciding to rescind the favorable decision is to cave into a megalomania of well financed deceit. The other option, to have a vote in what will probably be a year and a half, could suspend the benefits of the project at best, and also subjects this County to a continued derisive debate with a group devoid of integrity.

I have followed this project since its public inception and have often publicly commented upon it.  I devoted a week to reading the EIR, including an independent study of the alleged air pollution. Since this project already has remediated old mines and will recycle old roadbed and will be critical to saving our railroad, the alternative to diesel trucks, I consider this project to be an environmental winner.

While it is easy to understand this shrieking abuse of environmentalism, it becomes sickening to consider what appears to be the nihilism involved and enviable outcome of economic suicide.”

At the hearing, however, we all learned that there were not the simplified two, but given the various consequences there were six options including a new consideration. Since the referendum petition contained the reclamation plan which is ministerial, not legislative, it may be invalid. As an example my recent reroofing permit is ministerial and could not be denied by a referendum of people trying to drive me out of the county. This problem arose despite the attorneys for both the county and the anti project LAWDA organization engaging in prior discussion.  Apparently for LAWDA, their fanaticism overruled legal tradition.

The Board of Supervisor voted unanimously to ask the court for clarification via an action for declaratory relief. Perhaps the referendum decision will be revisited later. At the very least this will delay the employment opportunities and cause us taxpayers an unnecessary expense.

Once again the anti project contingent portrayed the situation as if they were quoting a century old muckraking novel, seeing the supervisors as oppressors. And they present themselves, buttressed by their dishonest petition and referendum campaigns, as representing “the people”.  This hallow claim has been repeatedly shown as prosperous at every public meeting I have attended."

After my presentation at an Ione City Council hearing, people lined up to thank me for speaking on their behalf.  It was a very gratifying experience.

 Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett    

Something Deeper Happening?

They say all politics is local. Here we have Newman Ridge. In Calaveras County a similar battle is unfolding over a proposed asphalt plant. The tactics of the opposition appears to come from a similar playbook. Is this all more than coincidence?

Marketwatch.com recently ran a story that stated: “The number of drugs in short supply in the U.S. has risen 74% from five years ago, to about 265... They range from antibiotics and cancer treatments to commodity items such as saline.” A recent article in Barron’s said that as of 2013: “…no new landfills have been permitted in the U.S. in 18 years, and no new hazardous-waste incinerators have been built in the past 15 years.”

Maintaining our roadbeds, having essential pharmaceuticals and disposing of our waste are not economic growth projects, they are staying put projects. Without them, we fall behind and enter a period of decline...and this is without even adding in population growth both natural and from legal and illegal immigration. While we debate social issues like gay marriage and some see a moral decline, the economic decline is most often only witnessed locally. I believe most people think that their town is in trouble, but that things are pretty good elsewhere. Everyone in Kansas feels relieved that they don’t have to pay the rents in San Francisco. The new media may have exploded, but most people still see their limited, habitual sources. If it’s not a crisis yet, it isn’t news.

This may well be the Chinese century, but the United States doesn’t have to sink into oblivion. How close to sinking into a deep hole are we? Our illusionary life is sustained by debt. The Federal Reserve buys about half the debt of the US Treasury. Most of the other half is sold to unknown entities in places like the Grand Cayman Islands. This is less stable than a house of cards. Some say a collapse is being engineered and that recent domestic military maneuvers are preparation. But others say this is total paranoia. Clairvoyants say the USA will break apart into a series of regional republics. We all know that movements such as the State of Jefferson are now occurring.

I don’t know what will happen nor can I predict the future. But I acutely observe what is happening, find it alarming and struggle for optimism.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett