Time Is On Their Side

Jim Van Der Pol, in a recent column laid out the situation rather starkly, completely, and correctly. The Right Wing, in the employ of the financial, corporate, and military elite are on track to kill any hope of democracy breaking out in this country, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. He makes the point, clear enough already to all who care to look, that jobs, not just good jobs but most jobs, are leaving this country and are not coming back. The unemployment rate will remain high until population growth declines and the baby-boomers at long last pass away. As he says, there are bigger markets and faster growing affluence in China and India; that's where the money has been going since the 1980's when Reagan, claiming 'government is the problem', started the mass transfer of wealth upward and the privileged elite trickled down on the rest of us.

The only thing the Right Wing believes government should do of course, is wage war. Social spending, so-called 'entitlements' are a drain on the transfer of wealth from working people (who don't deserve it) to the elites and must be stopped. There is no concern however about spending on the military contractors.

There's a good reason for this of course. Currently there is no other military in the world that can be trusted to do the bidding of the ruling class unquestioningly and with such brutality. But of course that could all change in a instant. China, the only other nation in the world capable of challenging the enormous spending on war of the United States could become that force. Of course, they would have to be conditioned to support the aims of the ruling class first and that hasn't happened. Yet.

Once the United States is no longer needed to wage immoral wars to steal other nations' natural resources and enrich the ruling class, there will be no need for a United States at all.

No People Here

There is a creature let loosed upon the world; a fearsome monster, some would say that some other men call Human. It has been given many strange, alien-sounding names: Exxon, Walmart, and General Electric, to name just a few, although none of them has ever been born. We are told they have free speech, although they have no mouths and cannot talk. We're told their money is their voice, yet they have no hands in order to write checks or count out coins. They can marry, yet they have no gender; they cannot reproduce the way natural humans do, and yet, they are said to breed. They do not think nor do they breathe. Like their God, they cannot eat an ice cream cone or laugh. Yet, Human they are said to be. I say it is a fearsome monster not because, unlike you and me, they can live forever. They are fearsome because of the awesome power they possess by virtue of the fact that they are not alive. Like the disembodied brains on the planet Triskelion, in an early Star Trek episode, these "Providers" appear to control events for their own profit and amusement; manipulating people, creating products, and poisoning the environment. We seem to be powerless before them; they are all-seeing (cameras everywhere), all-knowing (experts at their beck-and-call), and omnipotent (armies of lawyers). Now, they are the most powerful Humans on the planet. Back before these creatures were fully human, we real Humans put limits and requirements on what people could create. We also taxed the profits that people made from these creatures. But no more.

Today the creature called General Electric had $14 billion in profits but paid no taxes. It got a $1.9 billion refund.

The creature called ExxonMobil paid no taxes. It got a $156 million refund.

The creature known as Bank of America, made $4.4 billion in profit but paid no taxes and received a $1.9 billion refund. You might recall, this creature was given a great deal of money directly by the American People in 2010 in order to keep it alive.

The creature called Chevron made $10 billion in profit. It also paid no taxes and got a refund of $19 million.

The creature called Citigroup made $4 billion in profit. And, yup, you're getting it: PAID NO TAXES.

It's funny, of course. Many like to ridicule those who say that chipmunks have awareness or that trees are alive. They are called Pagans, nature-lovers, fools, or worse ('environmentalists'!). What do you call someone who believes that a piece of paper is not only alive but that it can talk, think, and act on its own? A stock holder! It is more than past the time that we The People cram regulations down the throats of these Frankenstein Monsters and make the stock holders bow, scrape, and do our bidding for a change.

And, oh yeah, make them pay their taxes like the rest of us!

Time To Get On A New Path

So, is this another "blonde moment" for the all-Republican Frederick Board of County Commissioners? Or is it just business-friendly-as-usual nonsense from people who want to completely destroy the rural legacy of Frederick County?
(OK, so for all you natural blondes, I apologize for the insensitivity)
Now, not surprisingly, they want to give tax breaks to wealthy business owners to entice them move to Frederick and hire local workers. Once again, the Corporatist economic system operates on the idiotic assumption that in order to get wealthy people to do the right thing, you have to give them money, BUT, in order to get the same response from working people, you have to take money away from them!
Once again, Establishment lackeys of the Corporatist state are selling you the big lie about how the economy needs to work; we have to lure ("woo", as Young puts it) giant corporations into the county with the one promise no rich person can resist: NO TAXES.
"...this will help us compete with other counties for jobs." that Neanderthal C. Paul Smith intoned. Is that how the Corporatist economy works, it pits one group, one county against another in a dog-eat-dog battle? Is that so, when we "woo" Google headquarters to Frederick we can thumb our collective nose at Loudoun County?
Nyaa - Nyaa. We beat you! Frederick rules! Take that, PG County! How pathetic!
Frederick's unemployment rate is bad, 6.7% according to the article, but not the worst in the state. When you consider that the civilization Formicidae has a 0% unemployment rate (and there are a lot more ants than even people), our economic system could stand some improvement.
But enough bashing closed-ideology, non-thinking elected Representatives; they try.

We all understand the rationale for attracting large businesses and corporations to the area, and it's not about putting that 6.7% back to work; it's about GROWTH. And PROFITS. As Noam Chomsky observed recently, the wealthy corporate owners and their lackeys NEVER use the term. In fact, as Chomsky pointed out: the way they pronounce P-R-O-F-I-T-S is ‘jobs’.

We all understand, or at least should, that the best way to create meaningful, long-term, sustainable employment is by creating local businesses, not by bringing in immigrant corporations from outside the state. These businesses bring most of their employees with them, clog our highways as their workers seek out lower cost housing 30 to 60 miles away; they overcrowd our schools, tax our infrastructure, and drive even greater sprawl. And PROFITS.
What Frederick should be doing, of course is using that carrot to foster small, local businesses.

Here's a prescription for real economic vitality and stability:

• Frederick city and county should confiscate all commercial properties vacant for longer than 6 months and make them available to small, local businesses and entrepreneurs at reasonable rent.
• The money that was to be given to corporations should instead be used to seed micro-lending institutions in each municipality. Citizen volunteer boards in each locale then help local entrepreneurs start their small businesses as well as assist existing local businesses to expand and remain prosperous by making that money available to them at low or (preferably) no-interest loans.
• The county should redirect their vast array of departments, commissions, and individuals to focus on local business development and the needs of each community, rather than this one-size-fits-all approach to economic activity. We should not engage in a competition for big businesses that create a vacuum and community crisis when they decide to pack up and move to greener havens.
• Local communities should have the ability to develop business incubators that meet their own, unique community needs; these incubators must have the flexibility to provide support to all looking to start a business in the community.
• With then end of cheap oil, and scarce resources becoming ever scarcer, communities must have the tools necessary to maintain stable, vibrant economic activity without growth.

It's clear from his title what Tobin's job will be for the county; give the wealthiest individuals in the world more while taking from the rest of us. And it's not just money we're talking about here; it's our health, our environment, our community - what's left of it.

The time has come for fundamental change. NO...real fundamental change. We must stop the Corporatist mindset of bigger...more...growth... and start thinking small, as in Local, Community, Stability, and Vitality.

The old way is at long last, a dead horse that we can no longer afford to beat. It has been shown to have never delivered on its promises. It's time to travel a new path, a path that those, like the current Board of County Commissioners, trapped in 19th Century thinking, can not even find, let alone lead us on.

The Road for the Masses

The bi-partisan effort to get the mess called the Intercounty Connector (ICC) approved and built is now complete. This highway was built over the objections of common sense, environmentalists, and others who see the cost to build this boondoggle as a massive waste of money. The highway is officially open. This is a toll road, designed and built to accommodate high income and other well-off individuals so they can burn oil and pollute the environment without having to share the road with low-income riff-raff. The first few days were free to use, and about 36,000 travelers used the road the first day. On subsequent free days, an average of about 30,000 cars used the road. On the first day tolls were assessed, 8,500 commuters saw fit to use it. That's a 76% drop in use in one day! They don't tell you what the toll is but if you don't have EZ-Pass, you're billed the going toll PLUS a $3 'service charge'.
This is indeed a road designed for the masses of workers.
That's why I was amazed to see the editorial in the Frederick News Post (Long & Lonely Road, Feb. 27). In it, the editors state, "...it could be years before we know whether the impact on commuters is worth the $2.56 billion cost to build (it)..."
How incredible! We have to wait YEARS to know whether or not we wasted $3 billion?
Is that what passes for conservative, fiscal responsibility these days? I would be laughing if it weren't so damn serious.
There is nothing Conservative whatsoever about spending $3 billion on the chance that traffic congestion will diminish. The approximately .35 per mile toll is nothing less than a tax on people who commute; a tax that actual working people can ill-afford.
We all understand, I think, that expenditures for new or 'improved' roads are only further subsidies to wealthy and well-connected land speculators and their crony developers. There has never been a road built in any city in the United States over the last 55 years that has reduced traffic. In fact, studies show that for every mile of new road built, there is an increase of 2 miles driven.
As someone once observed: Building roads to relieve traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity.
Our local newspaper does its readers a disservice by blurring facts. They further the popular myth that more is progress and that progress is good. And if it turns out not to be good, then we're told that it's just 'inevitable', so get over it.
It's time we got over the foolishness that growth is good, that it's 'grow or die' and that, somehow, spending billions is good for the economy.
Conservatives are very frugal when it comes to doing what government is supposed to do: serve the people, yet their largess knows no bounds when it comes to feeding the wealthy, corporate hogs.
The time has come to put some truth to the nonsense of growth and the lie that transferring wealth from working people to the rich is 'progress'. If that's what 'business' is all about then we need to make sure that Maryland is NEVER 'Open for Business'.

What law? NO law

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That's the first amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1791,
What part of 'NO law' is so hard to understand? Now, there is nothing socially redeeming about the people who call themselves The Westboro Baptist Church. Their beliefs and actions are odious and a disgrace; they give form to the fact that some of us are less evolved than others. But people (as opposed to corporations) cannot be silenced in a civilized society. We see that today, starkly in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Wisconsin, Palestine and a thousand other places. So, the sociopaths of Westboro likewise cannot be silenced or even punished for their speech.
Sight of this is often lost in the schizophrenia that is the American legal and social system. So many limits are imposed on our ability to freely speak; not on 'private' property, not too close, not to vehemently, not too offensively, not too often, not without a permit, not without paying cash and posting bond, not here, not now. Limits to express oneself are limits on liberty, our ability to rule ourselves, our - the people's sovereignty.
For a statement so clear - Congress shall make NO law...
we've strayed so very far.