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The Depression II
Friday, Janaury 9, 2009

The USA is now in another Depression.  The economy is slowing down.  It is slowing down everywhere not just in the USA but all over the world.  Locally (in Spokane) one can begin to see hardship increase.  People out of work, employers cutting back, foreclosures and bankruptcy up, bills not getting paid.  And with these phenomena greater tension and greater stress.  People are having a hard time.  More and more the greater mass is looking only to their own self-interest.  Generosity is going down.  Relations among people are strained.  

Government cannot keep up, but then government could not keep up even in good times.  Seems to be a lesson somewhere in that.

 Bernard Madoff
Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Bernard "Madoff investments," says a law firm fishing for clients,  "impact many advisors including:

Access International Advisors, Allianz Global Investors, Ascot Partners, AXA SA, Banco Espanol de Credito SA (Banesto), Banco Popolare, Banco Santander, Bank Medici, Banque Benedict Hentsch & Cie. SA, Barclays PLC, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Bramdean Alternatives, Credit Agricole SA, Credit Suisse, EIM SA, Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, Fix Asset Management, Fortis, Gabriel Capital, Genevalor, Benbassat & Cie, Hyposwiss, Kingate Management, Man Group PLC, Maxam Capital Management, Meridian Capital Partners, Natixis SA, Neue Privat Bank, Nomura Holdings, Nordea Bank AB, RAB Capital, Reichmuth & Co., Richard Spring, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Safra Group, Safra National Bank of New York, Banco Safra SA, Bank Jacob Safra (Swiss) AG, Societe General, Swiss Life Holding, Tremont Capital Management/Rye, UBS AG, UniCredit SpA and Union Bancaire Privee."

Each one of these "advisors" was, one can be sure, thought of as a good advisor.  One which deserved great respect.  Each had a certain cachet, a favorable public perception held by the most refined of our communities.  They were beyond reproach one is sure.  They were the epitome of the respected establishment.  

They were money and money is thought to be highly respectable especially when it is dressed in expensive clothing and favorable places to "have homes" such as, in Americal,  East Hampton, Charleston, Casco Bay, Wayzata, Marin County, Cherry Creek, Central Park, Georgetown, . . .  Places where other favorable people live.  

Yet, how strange we have become when we could have become wise.  The people vaunted for their success, are now to be vaunted for their extraordinary losses.  Will they begin to live like the rest of us?  Will they begin to live like the group as large of the rest of us but further out of sight, the poor?  Will they become like us, like the rest of us further out of sight?  One does not know.

And, now we have thousands making claim against the government to help them out of the troubles our human natures have given to us.  It is as if none of what is happening would be happening if government had been doing a better job.

"We have met the enemy . . .  and he is us." Pogo

There is another way, but that would take too much faith.  Too much faith in ourselves and something which is not subject to measurement.

 Snow
Thursday, December 18, 2008

We were greeted with over a foot of new snow this morning in Spokane (we are nowhere near Seattle,  276 miles east on Interstate 90).  It was beautiful.  It kept snowing all day.  Another eight inches fell during the day.  I have worn out two snow blowers just keeping up.  I did not have to machine blow snow but it sure was fun.  In the morning I helped the neighbors on my street.  In the afternoon I went down to the Minnesota - Oakley buildings and cleared the sidewalk up and down my block and up and south and north on the east side of Stevens.  All day long I kept thinking of Orhan Pamuk's novel Snow.

Haven't seen many snow plows truck today.  And, but for a few streets, the city streets are have not been plowed.  The county seems to get its roads cleared easily enough.

I wonder why the City of Spokane has such a hard time getting to the job and getting the job done.  The streets are impassable except for the few who like the challenge.  About 3:30 PM I succumbed and put cable "chains"  on the rear tires of my 1986 Toyota pickup, my garbage hauler.  It worked just fine through most of the day.  But as the snow got higher it was bottoming out.  With the cables I will be able to go anywhere, especially tonight when it really gets cold.


 "We are not in the business of making money."
(Monday, November 17, 2008)

A person involved in city efforts to renovate housing was interviewed on NPR this morning.  The city official said the city bought the rundown house they were talking about for $90,0000, spent $100,000 to renovate it, and sold it for $175,000.  The reporter asked about the fact the city lost $15,000 on the transaction.  The city official said "we are not in the business of making money."  No more was said.

I think we will hear this over and over these days.  The government "we" is not in the business of making money.  I can understand that, but I did not think government was in the business of losing money when it engages in economic activity the private sector can and does engage in.

 More Concerns
(Saturday, November 15, 2008)

 We are changing the United States Constitution.  Instead of regulation, instead of ensuring people deal fairly with one another, government taking into itself substantial aspects of economic activity.  As a result, the state will become more and more involved in economic activity and more and more powerful.  As a result there will be ever greater danger to liberty.  The power of government will be used to control any and all who are a threat to its power and its smaller and smaller intrusions into what once was outside of governmental bounds.  In the end we will not have a democracy.  We will have something akin to a form of national socialism.  Which I define as strong government and government control of the economy with private ownership allowed only if it is of utility to the continued power of government.

Socialism Concerns
(Monday, October 28, 2008)

Words are bandied about so often their meaning is lost.  "Socialism" is one such word.  If one were to say it, were to say there should be a concern lest there be socialism, he would be yawned from the room.

Repetition of a problem of a disturbing aspect does not evoke concern.  Rather it evokes apathy.  Yet, the problem may be a real problem and one which one should contemplate and understand lest valuable aspects of proper communal living be destroyed.

The simple question is:  Just how much of what we know do we want to have placed within the power of government, of the national government, the state government, the local city, county government?

This seem trite and inconsequential, yet I do not think it so.  Don't know why.

We Are All Socialists
(Sunday, October 19, 2008)

Republican or Democrat, Anarchist or Communist, if you hold the power of government you are a potential Socialist.  I say this because people in power generally want the government they have power over or think they do to own and control ever greater parts of the apparatus of human effort and capital -- that is, that which produces or is what is known as the "gross national product" or in Marxian terms "the means of production."

Each one of us is a dupe to this phenomenon of power.  Power seeks more power.  People in power think they can increase their power by placating the people they deem to be powerful.  Those of would be power seek alignments with the powerful.  These, the powerful, they seek alignments with government so that government will make them more powerful -- that is, the rich "donor" or "intimate" to a politician desires that the politician will cause his government to do something of benefit to the donor.  

On the local level this usually means having government purchase a piece of property owned by the rich donor or his or her friends.

Alas, we know this goes on over and over again.  What is beyond this greed?  What is the evolution of such greed?  It is Socialism.

Right now this greed is unchecked and Socialism is the result.  The people in control of the local apparatus are Republicans.  Odd is it not.  These are the people who espouse the free and unfettered market.  And at the same time cause government to expand and expand.

War and Death, America and Iraq
(Thursday, October 16, 2008)

Each night when I watch the Lehrer Report I watch until the end so that I can honor the young men and women who have died fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The war must stop.  We are sacrificing our soldiers for no worthy purpose. We have become absurd and harmful.  Some wars have to be fought, they are "just wars."  Our present military effort is not a just war, and it never was.  We were deceived, and it is time for us to end the wrong of the deception.

The State and the Trouble of 2008
(Wednesday, October 15, 2008)

It is truly surprising to see how easily our government has enlarged itself these past few days.  We tend to think we want a limited government.  But we do not.  In fact, those in power, whether Republicans or Democrats, look to government as the answer to every ill.  Our government, the State, has no more moral bearing than "an army on a march."

Now government is being looked to  gloss over and remove the pain caused by what can only be called an "institutionalized criminal class."  

Albert J. Nock, in his book Our Enemy, The State (1935) speaks of Dr. Sigmund Freud and says this:

As Dr. Sigmund Freud has observed, it can not even be said that the State has ever shown any disposition to suppress crime, but only to safeguard its own monopoly of crime.

He goes on to say:

Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.


From the Middle Class to Food Stamps
(Sunday, October 12, 2008)

The Economy. People are losing their jobs. Their income is going down. People in the middle class are now finding themselves having to obtain food stamps. (As of Oct. 1, 2008, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the new name for the federal Food Stamp Program.) One has to be quite broke in order to qualify -- a sign of how bad times are already becoming for many people.

Everyone is beginning to cut back -- cut back on expenditures to essentials, to things necessary.  As they do, the businesses dependent upon discretionary spending are beginning to close.

Things are happening so fast it will be hard to adjust.  The thing to do seems to be to cut expenses to essentials, find work based upon essentials, and start cooking at home, reading books, walking, and maintain the things you have as best you can.   And, do all these things with as much compassion for the one who has less as you can find in yourself.


The Trouble of 2008
(Tuesday, October 8, 2008)

The American markets are down again today.  A speech by the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, did not create any confidence.  In fact, if one listened with a "third ear" one got the sense that things were bad and were going to get worse, much worse.  

I hear today the assets of retired persons this year have decreased by $2 trillion ($2,000,000,000,000) ("trillion" means "a thousand billions")

Best Generation to the Indulgent Generation -- The Baby Boomers and Their Off-Spring
(Friday, October 3, 2008)

Today, with the Lender Bailout passage, the care of the culture of America has finally changed hands from the Best Generation to the Indulgent Generation, the Baby Boomers and Their Off-Spring.  From today, the main purpose of the government of the United States of America will be to ensure that her citizens should be able to borrow money from the money lenders.  The grand old concept of the Declaration of Independence -- "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"  has taken on a decidedly new meaning:  The naively hoped for borrowing of money from some in the private sector (if some in private sector wish to lend it (gosh we sure hope they do)).  In this way the Baby Boomers and Their Off-Spring will be able to continue to pursue their main purpose in life -- profligacy and waste.  

America is coming to her end.  It is most obvious.

Bailout?  It Will Not Work.
(Thursday, October 2, 2008)

The Casino Lenders Bailout of 2008 will not work.  It cannot work.  It is based upon a false premise.  The premise is that bad debt is a governmental asset. Is this in any way reasonable?  

It will also fail because the bad debt the government is about to buy is just the tip of the iceberg.  Just look at the millions of new cars and trucks on the streets -- I would venture to say 90% are financed.  Such debt must at least be a trillion.  Most of the people are probably having a hard time paying the debts.

Now add all the consumer debt.  A trillion here, a trillion there, and you have a real problem.  

America has spent its future.  It would be far better to let the market work its way out of this.  Our economy has been one of reckless profligacy.  Of necessity, it will come to an end.  The bailout is dead in the details.  There is no essential truth in the legislation.

Bailout?  Still at No!
(Friday, September 26, 2008)

Still think the government should walk away from a bailout.  Whatever government does, those who have power over the government will take advantage of any intervention the government engages in.  They will do so for their own selfish purposes.  Government should let the market correct itself.  The market is healthy, it can adjust. We are not a nation of sheep.

Bailout? No!
(Wednesday, September 24, 2008)

There should be no bailout.  Government has no place in trying to stem the tide of the development of the economy.  Intervention will be worse that letting the economy make its own adjustments.

Financial Woes
(Saturday, September 20, 2008)

The United States is about to fall apart.  Why?  What is the basic reason for this?  The immediate reason is that "assets" used and leveraged many times over to provide for (a) a consumer economy and (b) a financial economy based on usury (interest payments for the use of money to fund consumption), have lost worth.  The main basis for the economy is failing.  Everything will seemingly come to an end. We will have a "credit crunch."

We have had government intent on satisfying the pleasures sought by consumers and financiers.  Everyone has gone on a binge.  The binge was justified by confusing the principle of liberty with "desire for consumption based on borrowed funds."  Now we are about to pay the price.  

The advocates of limited or no government are coming forward with plans for lots of government.  In the next few weeks the United States government will commence transfer payments from current taxpayers and future generations of taxpayers.  The money will be used to bail out one side of the economic equation of consumers and financiers -- the financiers. The taxpayers will pay and since most are consumers the consumer tax payers will continue to pay on the debt they have taken on.  We, the lumpen taxpayers have little understanding of the raids which are about to take place.  

Our leaders have defaulted on the taxpayers.  They have proven themselves to be without honor, courage, and consistency.  We have been sold a bill of goods, and now we reap a bill of wrongs.

At folo one commenter has posited that the new slogan for the American version of socialism could be:

From each who has the most need.
To each who had the most greed.


Financial Woes - "Adjustments"
(Monday, September 15, 2008)

Osama bin Laden sought to do damage to the United States of America by the physical destruction of the World Trade Center. A day or so later, President Bush fashioned his first response to the assault. He told us to "go shopping." And shop we did.

We have been shopping in spades. The security for the shopping loans is failing, banks are in trouble, people who financed banks are in trouble, the world of finance capitalism is coming to an end.  America is at grave risk.  Our casino, plunder and pillage, waste economy is falling apart, as inevitably it had to.  

Seems bin Laden is still winning.

The disasters about to befall us would be turned back were we to change our ways and limit ourselves.  In the process we might also learn to live with greater compassion.  Compassion, not war, hold the whole thing together.  One would find living in compassion to be more interesting and liberating than living in a state of perpetual war, perpetual aggression one against the other.
 
River Park Square -- Death of Jo Ellen (Patterson) Savage at RPS Garage in 2006
(Wednesday, September 10, 2008)

The Spokesman Review reported last week that the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was referring the criminal aspects of the death of Jo Ellen (Patterson) Savage at the River Park Square Parking Garage on April 8, 2006 to Steve Tucker, the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney.  See the Spokesman Review website.  As a result, I revisited my request for a grand jury to Mr. Tucker and the Spokane County Superior Court judges during May and June of 2006.  Here is my recent letter to Prosecuting Attorney Tucker.  A copy was also delivered to the judges.

Haiti and the Hurricanes -- America  
(Sunday, September 7, 2008)

We are a generous nation.  But sometimes I wonder about our generosity bona fides.  Over the last few days we have had hurricanes in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and US Atlantic seaboard.  We worry for the trouble and danger these cause.  Our news sources focus on the trouble and potential trouble minute by minute.  Our interest is driven by our compassion.  Or is it really driven by our narcissism?  I ask --

Why haven't we shown interest in the trouble and devastation and loss of life these storms have created in places of less interest to us and our credit cards?  What about Haiti for example?

I think we may have a long way to go.

Hurricane Gustav
(August 31, 2008)

Hurricane Gustav moves closer to the Louisiana Coast.  The winds are a steady 73 mph. The rain will be heavy.  The devastation considerable.  Two million people have left their homes and have moved inland.  Meanwhile life goes on elsewhere and most pay no attention.  What can they do?  Only pray, I guess.  

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is dead.  Rest in Peace good man.   

I have read and re-read much of A. Solzhenitsyn has written.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich expressed truths one could not deny.  I even sent him a thank you letter a year or so after he found himself in Cavendish, Vermont.  No reply.  I did not expect or seek a reply.  I simply expressed my gratitude for his works and the hope he expressed in the stories and the various characters he wrote about.  I particularly enjoyed a short novella called Matryona's House.  Matryona was that one righteous person without whom no community could stand.  One can imagine if there is a supreme being who loves each of us such love would surely be expressed toward a Matryona.    Matryona's House at Amazon.                                                       


The Oakley, Minnesota and Stewart Buildings
West 400 Block of 1st Avenue
Spokane, Washington

Apart from the law, the renovations of these three turn-of-the-century "after the fire" Spokane buildings have been part of my greatest pleasures.  Each building has been completely renovated.  Now I have progressed to renovations of renovations.  This time conversion of office condominium units to residential units.

















Death of Mankind: No Longer Postponed

Mankind has been able to deny death -- so far.  We have done so by being successful at predation.  We use our death instinct to live but we decieve ourselves.  Our deceit is the delusion that success at all costs does not come at a price.  Human fantasies have no impact on reality.  The livelihood of the Earth, the resources available to us for life are finite.  Despite of all of the possibility of mankind we are still in thrall of death and destruction.  Our success in this regard will soon defeat the Earth, . . .  and us.

The Quakers and Congregationalists of Nantucket went down to the sea in ships to wantonly kill and harvest whales.  They were so successful in their efforts, so blinded by the lust for blood and money, they destroyed themselves by killing the whales.  A great success as far as many today would rationalize.

But there is hope of a sort.  If mankind goes away for a while, the Earth seems to regenerate itself at least in some instances.  Not true where where there has been wholesale destruction.

The End of George W. Bush

Watching the end of the regime of George W. Bush (it is June, 2008) is to watch the end of power which is just recently becoming understood.  Becoming understood as immoral and corrupt.  

And, it is significant, if you really want to think about it, that the leader of the free-world (so he arrogantly thinks) told the architect of his rise and claims to power, Karl Rove, while they were attending church  he was fired.  The combination of church going and war of aggression is always puzzling.

The European Economic Union and Institutionalized Animal Cruelty

The EEU is being asked to subsidize bullfighting.  We have hardly progressed.  Here we have a government of Europe thinking of funding events whereby animals are wantonly killed for the blood lust, the emotional pleasure of other animals.  It is June, 2008.

Words and Deeds?

It was once said of a well-known political and economic thinker

He had a burning desire to help the oppressed, and was fully conscious of the need for proving himself in deeds, and not only in words.

Today, we mostly have talkers, pundits, commenters, and reviewers.  Some of these people may even be truly concerned for the oppressed.  Concerned for the health of our environment.  Concerned for truth.  But, most of these people have no desire, no need, to do anything about any of the things they say they are so greatly concerned and wise about.  Their words are their deeds.  Surely, they think, "big people" will do what needs to be done.  "My words are enough. After all, are they not clever words, aren't you impressed?" they say to their readers.

It is June in America, 2008.  The cost of the single basic resource Americans are dependent upon has doubled in the last 8 months.  We cannot waste it fast enough even at twice the cost.

Let's Rebuild America First

George W. Bush, our president, is going to tell the Air Force Academy graduation class we are in Iraq and Afghanistan to rebuild the countries like we rebuilt Europe after WWII.  What utter nonsense.  We financed the reconstruction of Europe, we did not rebuild it.  Sending money to Iraq and Afghanistan will not cause these countries to be rebuilt.  Nor will sending troops and American contractors to rebuild the countries cause the countries to be rebuilt.  Heavens!  We cannot even rebuild America.  Look at our cities, look at New Orleans, look at our roads, look at our bridges, look at the sad state of our railroads -- I mean the roads made out of rails.  What are we to do now that we have not planned for the high cost of fuel.

When will we experience some basic common sense in the affairs of our nation?  Unless the people rise up and claim a politics of common sense and realistic priorities we are doomed.  We will look back on the Depression as a walk in the park.

Is there cause for alarm?  You bet!

My Dogs and Their Bones: Afghanistan, U.S. Foreign Policy, and the "Real Truth"

I am watching my dogs in the back yard.  They are completely devoted to chewing on the “marrow bones” I gave them – bones I got from the local grocery store. Especially, I am watching my Lab-Chow mix dog (not trained and not trainable) (my pound dog) chew on his bone.  He is enthralled.  Every sinew of his body is directed to chewing on his bone.  He is going to get as much from that bone as he possibly can get.

I look over to my Golden Retriever.  She is 12 years old and approaching the end of her life (just as I am) and what is she doing? She is going after her marrow bone with as much vigor and “testosterone”as my Lab-Chow Mix is going after his!  And, get this, she is as gentle as a vegetarian!

Makes one think.  Are humans like that?  Do humans find objects to which instinctively they direct all of their attention  – chew on, dominate, control, master or try to master?  Is this not in the hard wiring of our beings? And, even if they are vegetarian, gentle, not predacious -- do they not do what the least gentle, most predacious try to do?  They do, it is obvious "patently" obvious.

Jump to a new thread, a progression --  hope you are with me!

And, if one is thinking about the so-called war in Iraq and Afghanistan one might wonder whether America is giving certain dogs of those countries bones to chew on?  The bones being, of course, us?

Points to ponder, for sure.

In my opinion, I think it is time for us to come home for a while, to regroup, to come back to the redoubt of North America and to give some serious thought about who we are and what we might want to become if it is not too late.

An aside:  Just a few years back, did not Russia give Afghanistan, bones to chew on?

And do you remember what those bones were?

P.S.  I have a couple of Magpies who have taken refuge in my back yard in the evening, as if those wily fellows needed to take refuge.  The Lab-Chow, when not chewing on his bone or barking to tell the world where he is, turns and chases them.  After they let the stupid klutz of a dog get close, they flap their wings, lift themselves into the air and fly away.

Wonder -- should not America fly away for a while.  Fly away, not in defeat, but in need of figuring out what she really should be doing in this world? At this time?


Where is al-Qaeda?

September 11, 2001 -- the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are assaulted by commercial airplanes hi-jacked by al-Qaeda terrorists.  Over 3000 people are wantonly killed.  For the past 6 years at least we have been at war in the Middle East and Asia against "al-Qaeda" and its leader, the son of a very wealthy construction company owner, a veritable Middle Eastern George Babbitt, who has great wealth, extensive financial support from people we give our money to so we can have cheap oil for our trucks, planes, recreational vehicles, boats, and more.  

But where is al Qaeda?  Where is Bin Laden, the son of the Saudi Arabian George Babbitt?  And, what is the threat?  What is the real threat?

I have listened to those who are supposedly in the know about such things, but they know nothing.  What they mouth is stuff used for centuries to gin up the masses to fight and spend money on fighting during times of war, hoped for or real.

I am suspicious.  Also, I sense in my bones the current power structure, the groups which benefit by all this is ready to launch a salvo of sorts.  One which will draw the supporters the political parties into more war.

I wonder, is it just time to leave.  Just time for us to come home and take care of our own problems.

And, then I wonder also whether we might as a nation really do some good in this world if we simply wanted and did good.

Where is the decent American?  Lost, I suspect, in the illusion that war can bring peace and good societies.

U.S. Participation in Mass Executions in Korea, Summer 1950

The local newspaper out here in Spokane brings news of mass executions in South Korea in the summer of 1950.  "With U.S. military officers sometimes present"  the U.S. backed regime in South Korea is said to have executed over 100,000 people.  People who were thought to be a danger to the South Korean government.

Out of Iraq in 2013?
Presidential Candidate John McCain tells us we will be out of Iraq in 2013.  That, I suppose is good news.  But why will we be out?  It is, he says, because the Iraqi troops will be able to take control.  Nonsense.  If Iraqi troops were there or could be created they would be in control now.  How long did it take the fighting sides in the United States Civil War to mobilize troops -- months only.
Seems the United States is having a hard time mobilizing these troops.  The reason of course is that Iraq is in a religious and ethnic civil war.  What is to be done?  
Face it, we will not be out by 2013, not unless some other reason to leave comes up.  What a tragedy we have found ourselves in.  We tried to help, one supposes, but where has it led?
"Same Case," Different Result: What Gives?
The Washington Court of Appeals, Division Three, decided another case dealing with whether the Washington Public Disclosure Act (RCW Ch. 42.56) applies to non-public entities which provide government services at the behest of the government. Leonora Claire Clarke v. Tri-Cities Animal Care & Control Shelter, No. 25222-1 - III (Apr. 24, 2008). In this case, the court held the PDA did apply.  See more . . . . .

Take a Trip to Mississippi. If you want to have some fun in and about Mississippi, take a trip to a blog called Folo.  This entry into the written word in the ether is interesting and frustrating.  If you read it regularly you will have some fun getting to know and predict the effusions of some of the regulars.  There parts one may like --  it is decidedly for getting innocent people out of jail.  The main theme of the site will bother the heck out of you if you think Dick Scruggs, Zach Scruggs and Sidney Backstrom deserve to be treated with a modicum of respect despite their plea bargained admission wrongdoing.  The site takes great pleasure in the fall of Dick Scruggs.
River Park Square Redux.  The Cowles Family and their newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, are congratulating themselves on an award the paper got a few days ago. As I recall it had to do with the "self-examination" the paper went through regarding its reporting of the Spokane River Park Square debacle.  More . . .
April 11, 2008: Ralph Nader. Just listened to Ralph Nader on C-Span.  He makes a great deal of sense and carries himself in a fine manner.  We would certainly do well with the changes which would come about if he were to be elected.  He speaks for the Remnant.  The Remnant is not large enough to carry the day.  It is still good to think about a rational government and a rational polity.  We are a people of excess.  And, because of our denial we are killing ourselves and our environment.  If you think I am wrong, step back, distance yourself for a moment and look around.  One would be hard pressed to deny the fact of our excess.  And think of this:  The rest of the world seems intent upon the same lifestyle of excess.  How can anyone logically conclude things are moving in a good direction?
Minnesota - Oakley Buildings.  Next week we will begin work on the conversion of three office suite condominium units to residential units.  The first effort will be (a) to bring separate power to each of the units and (b) to put in a steel pipe fire sprinkler system in the hallway and each of the units.
Do you ever wonder how much income households in Spokane have to spend?  Over 38,250 households have less than $25,000 per year to spend.  That's 38% all the households in Spokane.  Do you think a 25% tax on utility bills is a fair tax?
25% Tax on City Utility Services -- Too Much.  An initiative to the people of the City of Spokane to put a limit on City Utility Taxes.  Initiative 2008 - 0001 has been approved.  Get it here.  See more at  Spokane Fair Tax. Questions?  Go to Frequently Asked Questions.
Richard Scruggs Matter.  An effort to understand the facts and permutations thereof  of the Richard "Dickie" Scruggs Indictment and related events in Oxford, Mississippi.  This case presents a never before advanced "defense of entrapment at law."  More to come. See www.wikiscruggs.com.
Minnesota - Oakley Buildings.  Management of the Minnesota - Oakley Condominium Association and reconstruction of four office condominium units into living units.  See www.minnoak.com.   The Minnesota Building is in the center, the Oakley to the left, the Stewart to the right. Mound Hardware renovated the Stewart Building first and then moved on to the Minnesota and Oakley buildings.  These buildings were constructed shortly after the Spokane Fire at the end of the century before last.

 War in Iraq, Time to Come Home

  I "supported" the war in Iraq at the outset for a simple reason.  I thought Hussein was a tyrant and was killing the people of the area.  His own people and the Kurds and the Iranians.  I did not think at any time Hussein had so-called "weapons of mass destruction" or that if he did they would not be used.

I have changed my mind.  This has taken about a year or so.  I now believe we should withdraw as best we can and perhaps bring to the West (the United States of America) those whose lives will be in danger when we leave.

We cannot support nor should we stay in war which will last for decades. Are  we in a war like the 100 Years War?  I think we are.

We have to find a way to support our energy needs.  We should use the resources available to us to solve those problems.  They are not going to be solved spending another 3 Trillion Dollars on war in the Middle-East.

I am still the humanitarian I was back in 2001 - 2002.  But, I am more realistic about it.  Massive deployment of troops to an area will not solve the problems.  Maybe an independent international police force could help, but it seems, and sadly I think I have to admit this, we have to let the peoples of nations work out their frightening problems on their own.

But, there may be another way.  But I shudder to say it.  If we want the kind of "peace" I think we want the way to acheive it would be for us, the people of the West, to in physical fact move to these geographic areas in large numbers and actually become the dominant members of the culture.  

We cannot do it from Washington with troops and proxy troops.

Some time ago, Aleksandr Solhenitsyn said Russia should embark upon a time of self-limitation and repentance.  How true his words are today as applied to the United States of America.

 Home Economics, The United States of America, Spring 2008

Diesel $4.00 plus, gasoline $4.00 plus, home foreclosures everywhere, residential prices plummeting, major money lending institutions being bailed out, loan defaults looming everywhere, bankruptcy law firms gearing up, the Federal Reserve dropping its basic rates -- it goes on and on.  Things may get much worse.  In a way these events, this financial crisis, may bring my country, the United States of America to it's senses.

My fellow Americans and I have been on a long drunk.  Maybe, we might sober up and begin to take care of ourselves, renew ourselves.

Maybe, we will take some time out from our world involvements and campaigns to come to a better understanding of how we should relate to our fellow world inhabitants.

Maybe, just maybe, we might try once again to be a "Good Country."

We might even use our significant talents to engage in a major world public works project.  A project to deal with our burgeoning need for water, tillable soil, forest, non-carbon producing energy, population explosion.  The trillions we have spent on war in the last five years would be a good start.  The debate is no longer "guns and butter"  it is "guns and world survival."  I am afraid the guns are going to have to go.

I have hope.  But, I am not going to go to Las Vegas or a local casino to think about it, I am not going to wander the aisles of the local Costco,  I am not going to buy a new high definition television to watch a sporting event.

No, I am going to out to my back yard and rake, dig, smell, look across the river valley to work of a man from Denver who is reclaiming an old railroad yard from years of hazardous waste deposits. Then, I am going to go for a long walk along the Rimrock which overlooks my little community, the place where I have helped raise a family.

And, I am going to think about what to do about my country.



 Kenya, January 28, 2008

In the 1960's the African nation of Kenya was a subject of much interest of those with hopes of a free Africa.  In Africa no longer under the control of colonial powers.  Kenya seemed to be the brightest hope.  Its primary leader was Jomo Kenyatta.

Now, 40 years later, Kenya is falling apart.  It is breaking into tribal warfare.  Perhaps looking back one can see the inevitability of what is happening in Kenya today.

Jomo Kenyatta was Kikuyu.  The Mau Mau military group putting most of the pressure on the British who were in control of Kenya at the time were mostly, if not entirely Kikuyu.  Indeed, to be a young Kikuyu tribesmen meant you were likely to become a member of the Mau Mau.

After liberation, Kenya was essentially ruled by Mr. Kenyatta and people of the Kikuyu tribe.

Now other tribes are coming to the fore and are doing so with political and military might.  The battles beginning to take place are between the Kikuyu tribe against  Luhya, Luos and Kalenjins tribesmen.

The ethnic breakdown of the Kenya is Kikuyu 22%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin 12%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6%, Meru 6%, other African 15%, non-African (Asian, European, and Arab) 1% .  CIA Fact Book.

No doubt there are other deep and intractable problems in Kenya.  However these probably only serve to energize the greater problem.  The greater problem is that the tribes remained tribes rather than melding and becoming a people with a nation.  

Nationalism has not worked.  It did not work because Kenya was based upon endogamy rather than exogamy – marriage inside the tribes rather than outside the tribes.  

The nation will devolve into tribal warfare.  One wonders what the members of the United Nations will do?  Probably send troops to stand by and watch the violence and hope some international solution will magically present itself.  See the experience of Canadian Romeo Dallaire.

I suspect the "solution" will simply be a product of a powerful group coming into power.  A group which then finds itself tired from all of its butchery.  The souls of boys and men and politicians -- of the butchers -- will eventually be sated, at least for a time.

And then, because nothing will have changed, a few generations hence, the cycle will begin over again as power shifts from one tribe to the next tribe or tribes.

The question the United Nations and its members must ask is :

Just what are we really going to do about this whole process which seems bound up in the genetics of the human animal?


 Judge Richard Posner, January 27, 2008.

Judge Richard Posner.  The legal community has been lionizing Mr. Posner for many years now.  He has a large output (he publishes a lot), has a nice smile and seems to be a bit of an intellectual snob who is supported by a lifetime appointment to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.  He reminds me very much of the people I have known who have worked as clerks for justices of the United States Supreme Court – all very self-confident, very bright and who seemed not only to know it, but presumed, everyone around them shared in a high opinion of themselves.  They were interesting and in their way, likeable, as only a lawyer could like another lawyer.

I have been reading a lot of Posner lately.  He is interesting and he writes well (who am I to judge!).  He is also well read.  I like that.

I have this problem with him though.  It’s not really a problem.  It’s just that what “I think” he is saying is true but I would like to think it would be otherwise.  Posner is a “pragmatist.”  That’s for sure.  He thinks, as best I can tell, that judges decide cases on things other than the rule of law and that they should do a better job of making their decisions sound rational, that is, tied to the rule of law.  He’s saying its all right to be irrational, just convince the “people” your decision looks like it is rational, that it follows the rule of law.  To me he is saying “make your irrationality more convincing.”

Now understand I could be getting Judge Posner all wrong.  In any case, my comments are expressed in a good spirit.  How can you dislike a guy who points his butt to the security card reader in the elevator in his courthouse (he learned he did not have to take his card out of his billfold for the reader to read it) to get to his office floor?  And he has a wife who sounds like a saint, very much like Mrs. Sigmund Freud in her devotion to the satisfactions and contentment of her husband so that he could direct his libido to sublimations of a rather sublime if not esoteric object cathexis.

Justice William O. Douglas is said to have said:

“At the constitutional level where we work, 90 percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.”

Really, Chief Justice Hughes said that to Justice Douglas, according to Justice Douglas’ memoirs.

I think Judge Posner would agree with the statement (even though he has little respect for Justice Douglas).

So where are we?  I know judges make decisions on emotion.  They make their decisions based upon their own irrationality.  Sometimes they are really corrupt in the process.  They rewrite the facts, misstate the issues, fail to address the issues, misread the law, and so on. All so their decisions seem to follow the rule of law.   In essence, judges make decisions based upon how they think the power of the state should be used.  They dispense the favors of the power of the state.  Does not sound too good to me.  Maybe that is why I have concerns about Judge Posner.
Posner would say it is ok for judges to decide cases on bases other than the rule of law.  He would just have them do a better job of being convincing the people of the correctness of their decisions.  As if to say, its all right to decide on the emotional level just make sure you do a better job of making your emotional effusions sound reasonable.     

In the final analysis, he seems to be an apologist for the judgment of power.  Not a good thing as far as I am concerned.  Yet, the rule of law would provide a bit of a leavening influence if judges would just be honest.  I think Judge Posner is an honest man, or least so it appears to me.  So maybe the rule of law would not necessarily be forgotten.

 "Our Economy is Fundamentally Sound" [sic]

This morning the President of the United States said that the economy of the country was "fundamentally sound."  An economy based so much on (1) infusions of borrowed money (2) spending on unnecessary consumer goods and services and (3) a rapidly wasting natural resource (especially a resource which will never be replaced which, at present, is located mostly in another continent and in countries controlled mostly by tribal groups excited about their religion) can hardly be called an economy which is "fundamentally sound."  

To be truthful it should be called an An Economy of Illusion.

[Posted January 24, 2008]


 A Real Economy

Do we have a real economy?  Do we have an economy which is based upon the manufacture, distribution, and purchase and sale of "real" goods and services?  By real I mean goods and services which are generally useful and necessary.

We do not.  Much of our economic activity is unnecessary.  Indeed, much of it is frivolous.

The United States is pursuing a disasterous economic policy.  

Our economic policy is driven not so much by earned income but rather by debt.  The consumption our policy requires is driven by debt.  Simply, it is driven by the expenditure of money we do not have.

Also, our economic policy is further based on many externalities to the economic transactions which take place moment by moment at an ever increasing rate. The externalities are the costs built into the economic transactions which are borne by those who are not a part of the transactions -- those who are air pollution, water use, carbon dioxide emissions, the list is endless.

And, our economy is rapacious.  

It makes no real difference upon which political system an economy such as ours is based whether it be capitalist, socialist, religious or tribal.  Its abiding principle is that of illusion that something can be gotten for nothing.  

It is time to build real economies.  The Bush Tax Cut is not the way.

[Posted January 22, 2008]

 The Bush Tax Cut, 2008

To those who still have some sense, or might otherwise be interested:

After 9/11 the President of the United States advised us to take a single specific action in the face of the threat of "Al-Qaeda." He said "Go Shopping." He did, I remember it very clearly. He did not say go out and save rubber, tin, aluminum. silk, make a sacrifice, give up something, he said go out and indulge, spend, spend, make sure you tell those bad people that we can still spend, that we still have "confidence."

Now, in the face of the disaster brought about by the same mentality which brought us Penn Square, the Savings and Loan Mess, and the dot.com / Enron debacles, President Bush wants a tax cut equal to more than $145 billion.  For what you may be curious to know? So we -- you, me, the aficionados of the gambling halls springing up all over America, women, children, bus riders --  will go shopping. So we can go shopping!!!

Does the malignant enormity of this philosophy trouble you?  We live in a world governed by children.

I suspect "Armageddon" or some greater mess than we have, is not far off.

By the way, I do not think the Democrats are any more "adult" than President Bush.

[Posted Janaury 20, 2008]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
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