Revive Passenger Rail

November 11, 2016

Now that we have a Republican president-elect, one who some say will support infrastructure re-building, I’d like to put in my bid for passenger rail.  This is not a new issue for me.  In fact, I wrote President George Bush a letter about it in December, 2005, posted it on my now-defunct website, and sent copies by snail-mail to multiple players on House and Senate committees.

As I see it, the primary reason passenger rail has given way to the private automobile is that the roads and highways are under the public domain and maintained by various Departments of Transportation, but the rail lines are owned by private corporations, like CSX, Norfolk-Southern, and Western Pacific.

President-elect Trump has indicated he wants to expand eminent domain, but no one has suggested eminent domain should be used to acquire corporate land, especially land that holds such a nationally valuable asset such as rail infrastructure.

For a little background on this particular subject, I’m posting below the un-edited letter I wrote to President Bush in 2005.  I have not followed Amtrak since but still believe the passenger rail system deserves careful consideration in light of the energy crisis, global warming, oil pipelines, fracking, automobile congestion, traffic fatalities and and other unhealthy and energy inefficient practices that we have inherited.

 

December, 2005

All Aboard for
DAVID GUNN
 former CEO of Amtrak

A Voter-Citizen-Taxpayer  Apology  For the way he was treated by
the United States Government

George W. Bush
Chief Executive Officer, USA Corporation
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear George:

The jig is up, Prez.  The plutocracy can no longer hide the garbage it has dumped in our laps, and the “oil crisis” is the pivot point. This latest ploy to churn public assets into private friends’ hands is the last straw.  Let’s compute taxpayer costs of the artificially created markets, fake wars, price supports, subsidies, duties, tariffs, and taxes, at every step of the exploration-to-drilling-to-gas pump vampirism.  Let’s add up the costs to voter-taxpayer-citizens of US government spending to assist US corporations engaged in domestic and foreign oil exploitation, and all the political “friends” who are selling war machines to every country with the money to pay for them . . . and then explain why you want to starve the US public transportation system.

Yes, I am talking about Amtrak. I last traveled Amtrak in May, 2004.  When was the last time you did?  Even though the House last week has tentatively approved $1.315 billion for Amtrak, your original budget provided no money for passenger rail service.  Meanwhile, Amtrak ridership has grown for three straight years, reaching 25,374,998 in FY 2005.

I learned a lot on my Amtrak trip.  Bureaucratic red tape delayed my Silver Star five hours.  I know, because I spent that time shooting the breeze with off-duty conductors and engineers.  They told me how much they respected David Gunn.  They said he’d made a monumental effort to locate un-catalogued warehouses full of parts, supplies, tools, and other equipment that had been lost for decades.  By indexing these supplies, he made it easier for Amtrak employees to find the items necessary to fix problems quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively.  They said Amtrak employees at all levels of the system respected and liked him.  Their attitudes showed it.

You might understand why I was horrified to learn the Amtrak Board Chairman David Laney, Esquire fired Mr. Gunn November 9.  It doesn’t make sense to this aging Boomer, who believes I’m more competent to provide for my future than you are. How, in this “oil crisis” can you justify disabling the most efficient and time-tested use of transportation energy ever devised?

Are you crazy?  I must be crazy to subsidize this incompetence.  So I work and spend as little as possible, to reduce my taxes legally.  The best things in life really are free, so far. Meanwhile, this is how I vote my tax dollars:

DEFENSE – 0%
AMTRAK- 100% of my tax dollars for the rest of your term
(except for 2005, which I’ve already promised to West Central Psychiatric Hospital in Columbus, GA)

One citizen = one vote

Here’s what we need to do.  Eminent domain all the intercity train tracks back.  Passengers have priority over freight, because the passengers pay the taxes and buy the freight.  If the United States Supreme Court can take Susette Kelo’s neighborhood for Pfizer Corporation, the US government can nationalize the rail lines and maintain them as part of the transportation grid.  Link them to the interstate highway system under the Department of Transportation’s maintenance budget, and voila, Amtrak begins to look a lot more attractive.

This cost-saving move will liberate Amtrak to run a user-friendly railroad passenger and freight service. First, we fire the idiots who are quibbling about food cars.  Can’t the US government make a profit on a food monopoly in a hungry, captive, market, with money to spend, on a long distance trip?  Lease me a franchise food car on any Amtrak train, and I’ll show you how.

Better still, lease me a franchise cyber café car with a liquor license.  Think you could pull some strings and get me one of those?  Solar panels on the roof, and an outdoor smoking patio at the back of the car?  Did you know the government gets $3.50 for every legal fifth of liquor sold?  And the tax on cigarettes was 76 cents a pack, last time I checked.  It stimulates the economy to encourage these vices.  Why fight it?  If you want to privatize government, let’s do it in style.

As for Express Trak Freight . . . Do UPS and FedEx pay you to lose money?  They’re getting good value for their shareholders.  I wish the CEO of the USA Corporation could claim as much.

I believe the USA has the worst public transportation system in the world, but I haven’t been everywhere you’ve been.  Tell me, does anybody have worse public transportation than us? Not counting Iraq?  I’d love to see some pictures.  Remember, I pay your travel expenses, but you don’t pay mine.  I stay home, monitor the domestic front, and write letters.  Lots of them, as you probably know.

So George, ask DOT Secretary Mineta to look into that fancy Japanese railroad technology, but make sure he understands we don’t want the equipment unless they teach us how to install and service it.  The technology is worthless if you don’t have local skilled labor to keep it running right.  Besides, if China blows Japan out of the water, we lose if we can’t maintain our own stuff.

This way, we could bring soldiers home and put them to work on the transportation infrastructure. Same salary and benefits.  Help local communities upgrade local systems, so people who can’t afford cars can still work.  I’d support that taxpayer expense.  Help them help themselves, and all that.  Teach a man to fish.

Speaking of the Department of Transportation, what is that $1.1 billion federal grant to Georgia’s DOT for?  Our local legislators plead ignorance.  Is it to promote this Interstate 3 idea between Savannah, Augusta, and Knoxville, Tennessee?   I hear you want to cut a wide swath with barricades at eye level along the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.   I can understand why you’ve kept this funding bonanza quiet.  It appears you don’t want Americans to know how you’re spending our money here.  We live here, George.  We have a right to know.

Now, if you want to allocate that $1.1 billion to reviving the Nancy Hanks passenger train between Savannah, Macon, and Atlanta, I’ll be happy to help, if you’ll  re-hire David Gunn.  I would eagerly support that taxpayer expense.  Mention it to Governor Sonny Perdue, if you think it’s a good idea.  I write letters to him, too.

You and I begin to speak the same language if you talk about an environmentally friendly passenger trains through our lovely country.  Train travel takes us beyond media hype, to the America that exists in three dimensions.

Next question.  I’ve been doing research on the National Rail Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) Board of Directors.  Let’s see if I have this straight.  The board is supposed to have seven members, but it only has four.  As a member of your Cabinet, DOT Secretary Norman Y. Mineta holds one seat.  Of the three remaining members, all are Bush appointees, but only one of them has been confirmed by the Senate.  This gentleman is David M. Laney, Esq., Chairman of the National Rail Passenger Corporation Board of Directors and the man who fired Amtrak CEO David Gunn on November 9, 2005. The other two members, Enrique Sosa (announced April, 2004), and Floyd Hall (announced August, 2004), were recess appointments and were never confirmed by the Senate.  Not only that, but their terms are due to expire this month.

Of course everyone questions whether Mr. Gunn’s firing was legal, a point raised by Transportation & Infrastructure RR Subcommittee Chair Steven LaTourette (R-OH) and echoed by others.  What, exactly do the NRPC’s by-laws say about this?  We need to clarify them so this doesn’t happen again.  In fact, I believe the NRPC should be scrapped, and the Department of Transportation should embrace Amtrak under its protective funding umbrella.  This would elevate passenger rail to the same status as the private automobile and dramatically reduce our perceived dependence on foreign oil.

In any case, George, which member of the current board represents any opinion but yours?  And who gave David Laney that $100,000 for your election campaign?  What do these mysterious benefactors say about Amtrak?

I longer feel obligated to put up with this.  As government costs more and more to do less and less, I begin to wonder what I need government for. Not just you, George, but the entire federal government, including the Legislature and the Supreme Court.  Especially the Supreme Court, after the Kelo decision, but I can deal with only one problem at a time, since don’t get paid for this and have to make my time count.

You made a big mistake firing Mr. Gunn.  He came out of retirement to work for you in May, 2002, so what changed?  Makes you look awfully wishy-washy. I vote for you to offer him an apology and a raise, and beg him to come back.

That he had to fight the US government to protect the US public transportation system was a pathetic waste of his talent.  Government isn’t supposed to make a profit.  That’s why it extorts taxes to support inherently unprofitable services.  Like the presidency, for instance.

This taxpayer wants someone who can get the job done right, on time, with a minimum of hassle. How much does he need?  Give it to him, Prez, then get out of the way. That’s my vote.

Government has a public obligation to insure good value for our taxpayer money.  Its primary responsibility is to pay for the infrastructure that ensures a smoothly functioning society.  By doing this, it shifts larger costs to the larger group, which maintains the balance by using the services.  This makes it easier for individuals and businesses to profit from genuine free-market capitalism in a social context.

Sincerely,
Katharine C. Otto, MD
President, Chair, and CEO
Psychiatrists for Sanity
(and so far, the only member)

cc: David Gunn Former CEO of Amtrak Wherever You Are National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) www.narprail.org Another great source David H. Laney, Esq. Chairman of the Board National Railroad Passenger Corporation 60 Massachusetts Avenue NE Washington DC  20002 Secretary Norman Y. Mineta US Dept of Transportation 400 7th Street, SW Washington DC  20590 US Rep Don Young (R-AK), Chairman Transportation & Infrastructure 2111 Rayburn HOB Washington DC  20515 Phone:  202-225-5765 Fax:  202-225-0425 US Rep Steven LaTourette (R-OH) Transportation & Infrastructure RR Subcommittee Chair 2453 Rayburn HOB Washington DC  20515 Phone:  202-225-5731 US Sen Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) 416 Russell Senate Bldg Washington DC  20510 202-224-3521 US Sen Johnny Isakson (R-GA) 120 Russell Senate Bldg Washington DC  20510 202-224-3643 US Sen John McCain (R-AZ) Commerce, Science & Transportation 241 Russell Senate Bldg Washington DC  20510 Phone:  202-224-2235 US Rep Jack Kingston (R-GA) 2242 Rayburn HOB Washington DC  20515 Phone:  202-225-5831 Fax:  202-226-2269 Savannah office: 1 Diamond Causeway, Ste 7, 31406 Phone:  912-352-0101 US Rep John Barrow (R-GA) 226 Cannon HOB Washington, DC  20515 Phone:  202-225-2823 Savannah office: 400 Mall Blvd, Ste G, 31406 912-354-7282 US Rep Charlie Norwood (R-GA) 2452 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC  20515 202-225-4101

Friends of Amtrak  www.trainweb.org/crocon A great resource for Amtrak information US Rep Corrine Brown (D-FL-JAX)* Transportation & Infrastructure Ranking Member of RR Subcommittee 2444 Rayburn HOB Washington DC  20515 202-255-0123 Fax:  202-225-2256 US Rep Joe Schwartz, MD (D-MI) 128 Cannon HOB Washington, DC  20515 202-225-6276 Fax:  202-225-2681 US Sen Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) Commerce, Science & Transportation 324 Hart Senate Bldg Washington DC  20510 Phone:  202-224-3224 Fax:  202-228-4054 US Sen Trent Lott (R-MS), Member Commerce, Science & Transportation 487 Russell Senate Bldg Washington, DC  20510 Phone:  202-224-6253 Fax:  202-224-2262 US Sen Conrad Burns (R-MT) 187 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg Washington DC  20510 202-224-2644 US Rep Mike Castle (R-DE) 1233 Longworth HOB Washington DC  20515 202-225-4165 US Rep James Oberstar (D-MN) 2365 Rayburn HOB Washington DC  20515 202-225-6211 US Rep Lynn A. Westmoreland (R-GA) Transportation & Infrastructure 1118 Longworth HOB Washington DC  20515 Phone:  202-225-5901 Fax:  202-225-2515 Justice Clarence Thomas Supreme Court of the United States One First Street NE Washington DC  20543 202-479-3211 Justice John Paul Stevens Supreme Court of the United States One First Street NE Washington DC  20543 202-479-3211 Harold Linnenkohl, Commissioner GA Dept of Transportation (GDOT) 2 Capitol Square SW, Room 102 Atlanta, GA  30334 404-656-5206 Fax:  404-657-8389

*Our sister to the south, US Representative Corrine Brown (D-FL-JAX), is the ranking Democratic member of the Railroad Subcommittee of Transportation & Infrastructure.  She is also a strong Amtrak advocate and supporter of re-hiring David Gunn.  See her press release at http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/press109/pr051109.htm.

On November 9, 27 members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure sent a letter to Mr. Laney, expressing their “outrage” at David Gunn’s  dismissal.

Voter-citizen-taxpayers who support apologizing to Mr. Gunn, offering him a raise, and guaranteeing him as much money as he needs to get the job done right, please send a train to the Prez.  I don’t believe he’s ever had one. President George W. Bush United States of America 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Phone:  202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 e-mail:  comments@whitehouse.gov Congressional switchboard:  1-202-224-3121 Senators:  www.senate.gov Representatives:  www.house.gov A public service initiative courtesy of  www.mhconnections.com

Here’s How 061916: Government Creep by Eminent Domain

Five days ago, I posted a blog that referenced the Supreme Court’s 2005 “Kelo” decision about eminent domain.

Four days ago, I read in the Savannah Morning News about the latest example of government creep by eminent domain.  At issue is the request by oil-and-gas pipeline corporation Kinder Morgan for eminent domain privileges through 210 miles of coastal Georgia.  The so-called “Palmetto Pipeline” is intended to transport oil, gas, possibly natural gas and ethanol (although this is not clear) to ports at Savannah, Brunswick, and Jacksonville for export.

Now Richard Kinder, head of Kinder Morgan, was one of the principals at Enron, when it collapsed in bankruptcy, following an internal scandal revealed in October, 2001.  Enron’s was the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history, at $63.4 billion in assets, until WorldCom surpassed it a year later.  (Wikipedia, 100415)

More recently, in 2014, one of Kinder Morgan’s existing pipelines spilled 370,000 gallons of gasoline in Belton, SC.

In 2015, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal did something right, for a change, and denied Kinder Morgan’s bid for eminent domain.  Kinder Morgan appealed the decision, but a Fulton County judge (Atlanta) upheld it, and Kinder Morgan officially withdrew its application.

Now comes the Georgia Legislature to help Kinder Morgan out.  The SMN’s article “Pipeline study group forming,” by Mary Landers, says House Bill 1036, signed into law May 3, 2016, has created a “study commission” tasked with recommending changes to the way Georgia evaluates gasoline and diesel pipelines.  This “State Commission on Petroleum Pipelines” has until December 31 to “conduct a detailed study to ensure the exercise of eminent domain powers by petroleum pipelines is carried out in a prudent and responsible manner consistent with the estate’s essential public interests.” (Quoted from the Savannah Morning News’ quote of the press release).  (KO Translation:  “We are trying to find a way to grant eminent domain privileges to Kinder Morgan.”)

Yours truly, here, has been keeping her finger on the pulse of the planet for forty years, and she has been right too often to doubt her assessment now.  This is how government works to benefit asset plunderers and money churners, at the expense of the taxpayers who pay the costs of the industry as well as the environmental costs on land they thought they owned.

Before Governor Deal denied the original application, I wrote letters to him and to Richard Kinder, threatening to look into stock investments of everyone involved in the decision, including judges.  I sent copies to everyone I could think of, because this is cheaper than filing lawsuits and dealing with the perpetrators in their own lair and on their terms.

As a tactical move, it also shows how legislators and bureaucrats at every level of government have an inherent conflict of interest as long as they have or control pension plans invested on Wall Street.  As long as they are making decisions that affect us all, we have a right to know where their taxpayer-funded investments are going.  After all, the biggest eco-rapists, like the energy companies, pay the highest dividends, and corporate and pension fund managers want to show high rates of return.

I posted the following satirical article about the Kelo decision on my now-defunct website in October, 2007.  It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

–news from the event horizon–

A RETROSPECTIVE: October 28, 2007

by Katharine C. Otto

VIAGRA BLINDS US SUPREME COURT
United States Government Implodes Following Eminent Domain Decision

Homeowners quit buying homes and paying property taxes after the United States Supreme Court sold them out to a higher bidder. On June 23, 2005, the High Court sided 5-4 with the New London, Connecticut City Council, allowing the city to take Susette Kelo’s and her neighbors’ homes by eminent domain.  When Kelo, et al. lost their property rights, homeowners everywhere realized US law no longer guarantees ownership, so property taxes are invalid.

Multibillion-dollar international drug manufacturer, distributor, university and medical education grantor, researcher, lobbyist, political donor, NYSE high roller, and advertizing giant Pfizer, Inc. denied a role in the Supreme Court decision. A spokesman for Pfizer, who refused to be identified, claimed the mega-corporation has not leased or purchased any part of the conference and convention center planned atop Kelo’s neighborhood and next door to Pfizer’s new, $270 million, global research facility.

Pfizer also says its popular erectile dysfunction drug Viagra does not cause blindness–despite litigation to the contrary–but a source close to the labs hints this is how Viagra works. (“FDA Was Told of Viagra-Blindness Link Months Ago:  Senator Criticizes Delay in Alerting Consumers After Safety Officer Warned Agency About Drug,” washingtonpost.com, by Marc Kaufman, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, July 1, 2005.)

Viagra blinded local governments, though. Running with the Supreme Court’s balls, city and county governments drove thousands of people from their homes, offering zoning changes and tax incentives to commercial developers.  Sadly, no one could pay the price.

This caused a general collapse of US currency. “The dollar no longer makes sense,” said a famous economist who asked for anonymity.  “This means there’s no difference between rich and poor.  And, since we have no property rights, tu casa es mi casa, as any illegal alien can tell you.”

Hoards of homeless men, women, and children hailed the news. They swarmed the White House, governors’ mansions, and other public housing, where they spread blankets and took up residence.

Government officials and bureaucrats, fearing angry mobs, barricaded themselves in government buildings, but no one tried to get in. When they attempted to leave with their hands up, they found doors locked from outside.

Ex-taxpayers gathered outside and questioned whether public servants serve the public. One woman insisted they could be taught.  She recommended re-writing their job descriptions, but others doubted they could learn anything new.  A janitor claimed it’s theoretically possible to rehabilitate federal employees with short job titles, but it would be taxing.  They could start by cleaning out their own offices.

A former property owner, who still lives at home, said quarantining public servants taxes no one but the government. It protects neighborhoods and keeps cities safe from democracy.

“We discovered the blockhead period of architecture—so popular with the feds since the 1950s—is perfectly suited for housing our surplus supervisors until we figure out what to do with them.” When asked how they would feed the thousands of incarcerated deciders, she replied, “Let them eat paper, since that’s all they produce.”

Junk food corporations broadcast outrage at this cold-hearted attitude. They have responded by donating millions in food and drink for the trapped victims.  Now, inside sources say the prisoners are far from starving, and many can finally stay on their diets.

But angry environmentalists are threatening to torch the burgers with the packaging, if McDonald’s and others don’t pack out their own trash. In a furious back-lash, the fast food and packaging industries are lobbying Congress to require more trash cans outside government buildings.

But Congress has more urgent problems. Legislators are locked in the Capitol and strapped for bathrooms and toilet paper. They are working on bi-partisan emergency legislation for men’s room rationing and other limitations on dumping. Already, government waste has backed up the sewage system and flooded the nation’s capitol, creating the most blighted neighborhood the world has ever smelled.  The President has declared a national emergency and is pumping trillions of electronic dollars into the sewer system.

Sadly, nationwide polls show little sympathy for Washington’s plight. “Let ‘em eat shit,” said a Kansas farmer who was paid not to farm.  “Nobody owns this land now.  Money has no value, but my family still has to eat.  People around town are helping out.”

He laughed when offered federal assistance. “Pay them to stay away,” he said. “I’ll distill corn ethanol, stay home, and party. Can we tighten that Beltway some more?”

He suggested selling or leasing government employees to third world countries. When reminded money was worthless, he suggested giving the public servants away, but admitted this may not be feasible, either.

An Alaskan book dealer said the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seems safe, for now. People who worked only for the money have quit their jobs and no longer drive so much.

A Montana rancher didn’t know the government had collapsed, because he had no TV. He asked if that explained why road projects through nearby National Forest lands were abandoned.

A Georgia shrimper wondered about the sudden disappearance of the DNR, EPA, DEA, FBI, CIA, Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services, Department of Homeland Security, Army Corps of Engineers, US Coast Guard, city and county police, and military aircraft from the coastline.

Large retailers, who expected mass looting when the dollar collapsed, discovered nobody wanted anything they had. The stores have been abandoned.  When asked why she no longer visits Wal-Mart, one former shopper said she just enjoyed spending money.  Now, she uses what she has.

The packaging industry is in crisis, because like the government, fast food, and Wal-Mart, it provides nothing of lasting value. Similarly, bankers, accountants, and lawyers have found their skills obsolete in a cashless, lawless society.

The rest of the world has questioned why the US stopped bombing Iraq.

“Economics,” everyone says. “When no one gets paid, the relative value of life goes up.”

The collapse of the US economy has surprised no one except the economists, who claim the dollar really does have value, despite appearances.

Overall, the implosion of the United States government has not been the disaster everyone feared. Of course, creditors with liens against the country want to collect what they can, but they are finding little worth taking.  Some have even resorted to accepting government employees.  It is hoped that outsourcing the largest worker force in the nation will spread democracy around the globe and provide the balance of trade so crucial to world peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s How 061416: “Value Added Packaging”

I consider it a triumph when I can extend the life of packaging beyond a single use. To add value to packaging sometimes requires as little as soaking labels off jars or cutting the flaps off a box.  Then I can re-label as needed, using masking tape and a felt pen.

This photo shows some of the uses I’ve found. Jars, preferably those with metal tops, work for everything from keeping mice out of chicken food (and pantry supplies) to serving as storage containers for my dried herbs.  Claussen pickle jar, chutney jar, and preserves jar shown.  The preserves jar holds my chocolate chip/dinner mint/nut snack food.  The tall jar is a re-purposed red wine vinegar jar that serves as a pen dispenser.  It dispenses one pen at a time.  The plastic topped jars that I’ve converted into “Supreme Court Balls Starter Kits” held Publix natural peanut butter (crunchy).

The “Supreme Court Balls Starter Kits” were an inspiration following the infamous 5-4 “Kelo” (eminent domain) decision of 2005. This land grab by Pfizer pharmaceuticals, acting through the New London, Connecticut City Council, invalidated property rights for individuals when a higher bidder comes along.  Subsequent events by all levels of government have proved they are quick to eminent domain property whenever it suits their financial interests.  The jars pictured here hold coins.  One is full of pennies, $6.80 when filled to the brim.  The pennies weigh 2.025 kilos or 4.45 pounds.  The jar holds 400 ml or 1.75 cups of water.  It is 12.7 cm (5 inches) high and 24.75 cm (9.75 inches) in circumference.  So this jar is also a teaching tool for metrics.  It also highlights my belief that saving spare change in jars is a good hedge against bank failure, since they can’t be hijacked by a keystroke, they retain metal value, are hard to steal, and don’t burn up in a fire.

I imagine the “Supreme Court Balls Starter Kits” and the accompanying “Supreme Court Balls Designer Labels” will be worth a lot of money when people wise up to what the Supreme Court has done to individual property rights.

The metal spice container is now a salt shaker that allows me to add uncooked rice in the large middle opening and shake the salt out of the shaker opening. This is necessary in the humid South, because rice alone does not keep the shaker holes from getting clogged.  For this, it is necessary to close the top.

The yogurt containers (or any dairy container, such as those for sour cream) are useful for cooked food or to freeze cooked food. They are also great for giveaway food.  This maneuver serves the dual purpose of adding food value to used containers and getting rid of the packaging without having to throw it away.  Note the mouse-damaged plastic top that prompted me to transfer chicken food from yogurt container to glass jar.

The home-made pesto is in a re-purposed cake icing container.

Old spice jars are also good for storing small items, like hooks and screws. Film containers (for those of us who still use film cameras) store things like razor blades and small screws.

Then there’s the grocery store produce bag, which can keep whole bowls of food fresh in the refrigerator. This one is protecting grated cheese.

Old shoe boxes make great storage containers for CDs and photographs. Any de-flapped box becomes a great, lightweight tool for organizing and storing clutter.  I use them as trash cans, too.

Then, there’s the tool room, where old tin cans serve to organize my supplies of bolts, drill bits, and nuts. The plastic containers hold various screws, hooks, and assorted hardware, including replacement blades for the box cutter.

Chicken food, wild bird seed, and deer corn bags become trash bags. They are sturdy enough to hold sharp objects, like broken glass, without puncturing.  Buckets like the one here that held joint compound are valuable enough by themselves to be sold at outlets like Home Depot.

Finally, the water-filled milk containers between the mint and stevia plants are an experiment. The idea is to keep plants cool on the hot deck and to have spare water if the pump breaks or the power goes out.  I washed the jugs thoroughly and added 3 drops of chlorine bleach to the water, as we were taught to do during the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s.  The versatility of concrete blocks will be explored more thoroughly in a future blog about my inventions.

 

 

Packaging

Has anyone considered the carbon footprint (and excessive waste) of all this single use packaging?  Whatever that fluorescent light bulb saves in end-of-line energy use is used up front in excessive packaging.  Why has Congress outlawed incandescent light bulbs?  Because if people had a choice, they would buy them.  Deprived of choice, people are forced to buy the patented technology or go back to using candles.

 

Here’s How 060616: Ode to Demeter

Corn, Cochran, GA.  Supposedly, 80% of corn sold in the United States is already genetically modified. It’s too late to label GM products.

Ode to Demeter, Goddess of the Corn
daughter of Cronos and Rhea

Microsoft is on the KO! Economic Hit List this week because I just spent $70 to get Windows 7 reinstalled.  This is because Microsoft is busy providing “free” downloads of Windows 10, which my computer doesn’t have enough memory to handle.  Yes I missed the chance to refuse Windows 10, supposedly, but I was in the middle of composing an e-mail on line when Microsoft butted in and commandeered my computer for at least the next 24 hours.  After 48 hours, I called my computer tech for help.  She said this is happening to everyone.  She’s making a lot of money at her hourly rate to uninstall this free gift from one of the richest corporations in the world.  Beware Windows 10 offers unless you know what you’re doing.  And sell Microsoft stock, if you have it.

If that isn’t a good enough reason to sell Microsoft stock, here’s another:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is big into finding a patented vaccine for malaria.  Oprah Winfrey is also involved, probably not realizing what she’s lending her name to.  My guess is Oprah is being used to front for the perpetrators.

Who are the perpetrators?  Any number of ever-shifting pharmaceutical shells.  Trying to keep up with Pharma’s rolling dice is like trying to walk over a room full of billiard balls.

This is how it works.  Bayer has recently offered to buy Monsanto for $62 billion in cash, but Bayer apparently would have to borrow money to supply the cash. Bayer is also a prime mover into genetically modified (mutated) food products, such as soy, corn, and potatoes, among others, products which are fed to livestock as well as humans. Meanwhile, Pfizer is offering to move its international headquarters to Ireland, but the US doesn’t want to let go of Pfizer’s patents.

But Novartis is the most noteworthy player for the anti-malarial/Gates swindle.

There’s an international unsettled question of patents, if you’re an international corporation.  Is any government really obligated to honor another government’s patents?  Since I don’t believe in them (patents or governments), I might choose to live in a country where everything is generic, like artemisia in Africa.  If a country like Cuba, for instance, were to refuse to honor Monsanto’s patents, would that save Cuban agriculture from GMO products?  Same with Dow/Dupont and their plastics and insecticides?  I want to get to Cuba before the litter takes over.

Back to mosquitoes and malaria.  Artemisia is a naturally occurring anti-malarial plant that grows in complement with the malarial parasite in Africa, among other places.  It has been used for generations as a natural antidote to malaria.

Enter Novartis, the drug company, and the Gates foundation, and other advocates of patented, processed, and artificially enhanced traditional remedies.  They buy up or wrest control of huge tracts of formerly food-producing or forested land.  They clear it and plant mono-culture fields of artemisia.  Mono-agriculture is one of the most economically unsound, disease-promoting, and earth-depleting agricultural practices we have going, but you won’t hear this from Big Ag.

Anyway, this dinasour-like take-over of previously sustainable agriculture (for the local population, anyway) is no longer available to natives.  Instead, they are rewarded with local wells gone dry or contaminated by industrial pollutants (as both Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola have done in India*).  Instead of providing locally for extended family and villages, the corporations “create jobs” for those who “live below the poverty line,” partly because they grew or found their own food, and didn’t need so much money.  Now, they are on the tax rolls working for the corporations, at bare sustenance wages, so that shareholders on Wall Street can reap enormous unearned profits.

So this is how the US raises the poverty level worldwide, including at home.

But that’s not all.  It gets worse from here.

The next step is to produce a prototype vaccine using artemisia as a base, but the FDA approval process takes years in the US.  Besides, we’ve eliminated malaria and yellow fever (for the moment) by installing good public works and sanitation programs, like draining mosquito habitats (but not poisoning).  In the 18th and 19th centuries, annual outbreaks of seasonal malaria and yellow fever drove people like Alexander Hamilton and plantation owners from cities to farms in summer to escape the recurrences of deadly disease.

Thank Walter Reed and William Gorgas (at the turn of the 20th century) for the scientific discovery of mosquitoes as vectors and of habitat drainage for public health.  Reed was head of the original Army Corps of Engineers Panama Canal digging crew but died in 1901.  His assistant, William Gorgas, assumed the task of draining low swampy land to curb the mosquitoes.

They didn’t have industrial pollution, highway runoff, carcinogens, plastic, litter, junk mail, sewage waste, agricultural chemicals, household poisons, and radioactive isotopes to deal with then, and few patented drugs, so they had to rely on brains and brawn working together to survive.

In any case, since we’ve cured these diseases in the US by sane, low-cost, public health measures, the asset plunders and money churners now want to profit from the diseases we’ve eliminated by doing the opposite of what worked.

This is why GoverCorp is imploding.  It is suicidal, homicidal, psychotic, and out of emotional control.  In Savannah and nationwide, it is breeding mosquitoes by the bucketful with its mono-agriculture, poisoning the entire region with with exhaust fumes, machine noise, pesticides, herbicides, rodentocides, chemical fertilizers, industrial waste, depleting and contaminating groundwater, and poisoning or drying up local wells as fast as it can get away with it.  It is replacing tried and true farming techniques, cultural wisdom, heritage, tradition, and land with cheap American hype and the devastation it causes.

And you, Josie Taxpayer are paying for this through your taxes, purchases, and Wall Street investments. I say “Josie Taxpayer” instead the more urbane “Joe,” because women have more chromosomes than men.  This gives them more genes to work with, and a sixth sense, Common Sense.

So, if you want value for your US tax money, start selling international corporation stock.  Your dividends come on the backs of the world’s most disenfranchised people and the eco-rapists at home.  Can you really rest easy with your retirement portfolio, knowing this, when there are so many more rewarding investments closer to home?

The story about patented malaria vaccines continues, because we still have FDA trials to go through, but we need a “cohort” of test subjects.  Unfortunately, the US has eradicated malaria here, as previously noted, so we need to go to a malaria-infested third world country to find our study “cohort.”  We accomplish miracles with very little money by “gifting” that country’s leadership—as we did in Ecuador a few years back—with vaccines and supplies for vaccinating everyone in the infected area.  Volunteer doctors and medical staff help; needles and other tools are supplied.  This is timed with a huge marketing campaign concocted by Madison Avenue and Wall Street, stocks go up, and dividends prosper.

This GoverCorp plot is given full court press by the media.  For instance, a New York Times column by Thomas L. Friedman (of The World is Flat mentality), on April 20, 2007:  Friedman applauds Bill Gates’ and Novartis’ invasion of Africa.  According to Friedman, we “need to channel [Africa’s] wild, unregulated, informal, individual brand of capitalism” into “formal companies.”  We learn Africa “needs capitalists” like Bill Gates.  It also needs Novartis, which through Advanced Bio-Extracts (ABE) and its head Patrick Henfrey, is paying farmers to grow a “green leafy plant ‘artemisia,’ often called ‘sweet wormwood’ and transform it into a pharmaceutical grade artemisinin–a botanical extract that is the key ingredient in the new generation of low-cost effective malaria treatments.”  We also find Mr. Henley has “contracted with 7000 farmers, most with small farms to grow Artemisia in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.  The crop gives farmers four times the financial yield of corn.”

Yes, but it doesn’t feed them, I claim, and when food becomes more expensive than the money can buy, farmers are left worse off than before.  Also, subsequent reports point to growing resistance of the Plasmodium (malaria) parasite to the manufactured drugs.

For world healing to begin, it’s crucial that Americans recognize the hypocrisy of the system we’ve created.  This first essay in the “Here’s How” series hopes to show more than tell how America’s pompous claims to greatness look more and more delusional on the world stage.

*”Killa-Cola,” by Keith Hyams,  the ecologist, April, 2004.

“We don’t intend to honor patents”

In my wildest dreams, I envision Fidel and Raul Castro refusing to honor foreign patents.  Think of it:  dream dirt, fertilized by oxen and horses since the USSR collapsed in 1991.  Cuba lost its oil source and its sugar market at the same time.  Cubans almost starved, so Fidel invested in the improvements necessary to life:  food and health care.  As a result, he has grown generations of healthy, self-sufficient individuals.

Because of ongoing US spitefulness, in the form of trade embargos, torturing operations, and general scapegoating, Cubans have been forced to remain stuck in time, before tools were made of plastic, before bulldozers and pavement planted thermals in over-heated cities.

Much to United States’ embarrassment, the Castro team has proved that Cuba can survive and prosper without US help.

Hahaha.  Well, if Cuba refused to honor foreign patents, Monsanto and Dow/Dupont’s stockholders would poop in their pants.  Patents are hot commodities, a bloodfest for lawyers, who win either way the FDA blows.  I’ve read that up to 80% of America’s corn is already mutated, so the time for labeling is long past.  Just assume it’s patented food until otherwise proven.

Cuba could then thumb its nose at the FDA, whose nose is up its ass.  (I know this because FDA recommendations stink.  I’m horrified at the succession of FDA-launched food scares, intentional panic-creation with too little or misleading information.)

Beware the patent industry, is all I gotta say to the Castros’ Communal Capitalists, who believe the product is its own patent.  Let the lawyers and government do the paperwork on their own time.

Also, don’t let them trap you into debt.  Eminent domain all foreign assets, including Guantanamo Bay, and especially assets held by corporations like Pfizer, Walmart, and McDonalds.  Use the reclaimed land to pay off any debt, then party with unpatented drugs, and drink to everyone’s health and wealth.

The more I think of it, the better it sounds.  As America drowns in its environmental toxins, it continues to churn out more of them, with no thought of tomorrow.  I think about the growing cesspool of “unintended consequences” now.  I also hate seeing deformed birds, strangled porpoises, and sickly babies that “progress” (downhill fast) is bleeding us to pay for.  Cuba is relatively plastic and packaging free, I hope, at least so far.  Let’s hope they can keep it that way.

Cuba:  A New History, by British journalist Richard Gott, was published in 2004.  I reviewed it on this blog 10/22/15.

In 2005, Harpers‘ published “The Cuba Diet: What will you be eating when the revolution comes?”, by Bill McKibben, April, 2005.  The following month, the ecologist came out with  “Cuba: Health Without Wealth,”  by Brendon Sainsbury, June, 2005.

 

Making Waste

April, 2016

It occurred to me yesterday that money hoarding and information hoarding go together.  Information hoarding is most obvious in the patent industry.  This translates into mass confusion at the grassroots level, where multiple companies compete on the same turf for “market share.”

My new bathroom faucet provides the most recent example of this dysfunctionality.  Home Depot supplies only one brand of faucet, and the bottom of the line (read “simplest”) faucet only comes in one color, an off-color, “polished nickel,” so doesn’t match my formerly standard chrome.  In the 20 years since I bought the old faucet, the metal to plastic ratio has declined maybe 50%.  The drain pipe, pivot nut, and strap are now plastic.  I only needed the new faucet because the plastic gears inside both handles on the old one broke.

Plastic gears, plastic joints, and plastic moving parts have replaced metal in an across-the-board move that creates enormous waste and is dangerous, to boot.  I’m thinking of the aluminum lawn chair that snapped without warning because of the plastic joints.  Plastic, unlike metal or wood, is unfixable, so the entire product must be discarded.

Back to the faucet:  I considered substituting the old metal drain pipe for the new plastic one, but found that male and female ends had been reversed.

Why?  I have to wonder if patents have replaced standardized parts in our universalized conveniences.

Who benefits from this subtle downgrading of standard household equipment?  Certainly not the homeowner, who has not only the expense but the inconvenience of replacing equipment that should have lasted much longer.  Faucets installed all over town in the early 1900s are still functional.   While somewhat corroded and rusty on the outside, they still work as well as ever.

This isolated example would be a minor problem, except that every new replacement product I buy is worse than the old one.  Why did I even have to buy a new one?

“We can’t get parts,” is the standard answer.  When I suggest that digital controls on everything from my propane gas stove, dryer, and tankless water heater, to microwave–and even coffee percolator–add unnecessary levels of complexity and increase electrical and repair costs, people look at me as though I’m the crazy one.

Why, in an age when we claim to want to reduce energy waste, are we being maneuvered into untenable situations like this?  My desire to free myself from the grid and Southern Company’s monopoly is blocked at every turn by corporate desperation to keep me hooked into a system that bleeds individuals like me dry.

And they wonder why the economy is imploding?

*The Waste Makers, by Vance Packard, (1963) which I read in the 1970s, made a profound and enduring impression.  I skimmed through it while writing this blog and see that Packard’s observations are even more apparent today.  It should be required reading in every high school.

**Total cost of replacing the Frigidaire stove’s digital control panel was $115. (The replacement part was $82).

 

Chemistry Quiz

1. What is the difference between organic and inorganic chemistry?
2. What is this molecule?

                           CH4

3.  What is this molecule?

                           CH3-CH2-OH

Answers:

1.  The difference between organic and inorganic chemistry is carbon. Carbon (C) is the basic building block of life, thus “organic chemistry”. Everything that lives or has ever lived contains it.  Carbon dioxide (CO2), considered a “greenhouse gas” in today’s parlance, is part of the natural life cycle, exhaled by human beings and animals, used by plants for growth.  The earth’s atmosphere is composed of 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen.  The remaining one percent consists chiefly of argon, with extremely small amounts of other gases.  Carbon dioxide, then, constitutes significantly less than one percent of the earth’s atmosphere.

Green plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen in “photosynthesis,” a process involving chemical reactions, using the sun as an energy source.

Life is an organizing force which defies “entropy.” “Entropy” has several definitions, but it is generally perceived as the ultimate degradation of matter and energy in the universe toward patternless conformity, degradation, disorder, and death.  However, the organizing force of life concentrates the energy in the living or dead organism.  Wood, coal, oil, and natural gas are examples of stored energy sources derived from living or formerly living organisms.

2.  If you answered that CH4 is methane, you would be right. Methane is another so-called “greenhouse gas.” It is produced by all living and decaying organisms.  It is the simplest molecule in organic chemistry, consisting of one carbon and four hydrogen atoms.  Everything from marshlands to landfill, from animal waste to human farts, add methane to the atmosphere.

If you answered that CH4 is natural gas, you would also be right.  This is why natural gas is considered the cleanest fuel of all, because it produces no toxic by-products.  The chemical reaction for natural gas when used for energy production is:

CH4 + 2O2 + flame = CO2 + 2H2O

Translated, this means that one methane molecule plus two oxygen molecules plus heat of combustion generates one carbon dioxide molecule and two water molecules. Thus, burning natural gas generates twice as much water as carbon dioxide.

If you are considering “greenhouse gases,” you must recognize that water (steam) is a potent one. The cloud cover of the earth has the effect of trapping heat inside the atmosphere.

You will note that “climate change scientists” want to reduce CH4 levels, but oil and gas companies want to capture and sell CH4 in the “global economy.” They are using “fracking” and other techniques to extract CH4 from trapped deposits in the earth.

3.  If you answer that CH3-CH2-OH is whiskey, you would be right. Whiskey is a distilled alcohol, usually from grain, such as rye and maize or corn. It is also distilled from barley.  Corn liquor was an early American product and used in bartering by cash-strapped farmers to pay bills.  George Washington was a large-scale whiskey distiller.  In his later years, he made most of his money from the distilling business.  Distilleries are examples of “economic narrows” that operate as toll gates between producer and retail purchaser.  Washington and Alexander Hamilton conspired to enact the “Whiskey Tax” in 1791 to undermine the bartering system and replace it with a cash-based system that could be more easily taxed. (Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow, 2007) This led to the infamous Whiskey Rebellion, in which Washington betrayed the farmers who had fought in the Revolution (thereby neglecting their farms) and were going bankrupt because of debt, taxes, and the devaluation of the Continental dollar, after the new United States currency was introduced.

If you answer that CH3-CH2-OH is ethanol (or ethyl alcohol), you would also be right.  The 2007 Congressional mandate to blend gasoline with at least 10% ethanol proved a boon for Archer Daniels Midland and other corporate giants, which benefitted mightily from the mandate, through tax breaks, other ethanol subsidies, and price supports.

It must be remembered that “farmers” and the “farming industry” are not the same. In fact, “farmers,” as we perceive them, are being displaced in large numbers by corporate mega-farms.  The corporate “farming industry” has significant political clout through donations to both major parties.  They also have armies of lobbyists, lawyers, and friends in federal and state regulatory agencies like the USDA and EPA.  They are the major beneficiaries of federal and state mandates, subsidies, and price supports.  They have their fingers in every point of the farm to table (or vehicle) distribution chain, including storage, distilleries, commodities futures markets, transportation (ADM Trucking is a subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland), and global sales.

In this election year, while the media and public are focusing on the presidential candidates, let us not forget that the entire House of Representatives and one third of the Senate are up for grabs. Whatever anyone thinks of Donald Trump, we must admit he is a game-changer.  His grass roots appeal is showing the power of the people to make a significant difference in how the game is played.  We may be moving closer to a true democracy, by default, as the “ruling elite” of the two-party system desperately tries to recapture its “market share” of public trust and acceptance.

Yes, the individual can make a difference, whether at the national or local level. If that individual is informed well enough ask the right questions of all candidates, from local to national levels, and to demand informed answers, we might wrest a revolution in consciousness from this circus of political psychodrama.

So far, Ted Cruz is the only presidential candidate who has come out against the ethanol mandate, but he has begun to waffle under political pressure from the “farm lobby” and others. Hillary Clinton does not seem to know the difference between natural gas and methane.  She is not alone.  It is frightening to think that so many people with zero knowledge of science are in positions to write and pass legislation mandating, regulating, and subsidizing industries that affect us all and to such a great extent.

It probably doesn’t matter much who becomes president. The real power is in Congress, which has the power to repeal stupid legislation, like the ethanol mandate.  Especially now that there’s a worldwide oil glut—one of the premiere reasons for passing the mandate—it’s especially good timing to revisit that law and its consequences.

 

 

Go Metric

I put myself on the metric system years ago, using it for everything from sewing to woodworking. It’s especially useful for calculating gas:oil ratios for my various power tools.  My chain saw fuel tank holds about a cup, and the required ratio of gas to oil is 50:1. To avoid mixing more than necessary for the job at hand, I have in the past gone through rigorous calculations to reduce gallon:ounce to cup:teaspoon sizes.  This takes a master mathematician, unless you know that a cup is almost exactly 250 milliliters, and a teaspoon is almost exactly 5 ml, good enough for my chain saw’s 50:1 requirement.

The framers of our Constitution realized the economic importance of having a consistent system of weights and measures. Article 1, Section 8 gives Congress the power “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures,” all in the same sentence.  In the beginning, it was a political issue.  Thomas Jefferson argued for a decimal-based system, while Alexander Hamilton preferred the British “inch-pound” one.  Jefferson won in the money category, which is why we have a decimal-based dollar.  As he explained, the British system of fractions “works for bankers, but not for farmers.”

In 1975, the US Congress passed the “Metric Conversion Act,” which recommended but did not mandate that the US switch to the System Internationale d’Unite´s, commonly known as the “metric” or “SI” system. In 1988 it made the SI system the “preferred” system.

However, the US has been slow to convert. It is now the only country in the world that still uses the old “inch-pound” system, based on the British standard used in the 1700’s.  Even Britain began converting to metric in 1965.  New Zealand began conversion in 1969, Australia in 1970, and Canada in 1975.

We now see a blend of the inch-pound and metric system on grocery items, with weights and liquid measures given in both. We have yet to see many tools with metric measurements.  Rulers, measuring tapes, squares, hardware, and other items in metric are hard to come by.

That the US is out of phase with the rest of the world is nowhere more obvious than in our stubborn adherence to the antiquated inch-pound system. The costs are incalculable, as the “global economy” must adapt to our standards to sell products here.  Modern machines contain parts from all over the world, with both measurement systems applied in many large ones, like cars.

Metric is easy. Conversion back and forth is hard and error-prone, responsible for at least one satellite explosion so far.  Convenience is a major feature of the SI system.  It is based on one family of units.  It relies on decimals rather than fractions.  It employs standard prefixes, and different quantities relate to each other in a simple way.

The inch-pound system, by contrast, is based on a combination of units developed separately, with some, like the mile, coming from the Roman Empire. It derives from “mille passus”, Latin for “thousand paces.”  The foot was established from the length of King Henry VIII’s feet.  His daughter Elizabeth I, in the 1500’s, set the mile as 5280 feet, or eight furlongs.  A furlong was the length of a furrow an ox could plow without resting.  The inch was gauged to be three barley corns, laid end to end.

In the 1600’s there was no universal standard, which became inconvenient for merchants involved in trade with different regions. In 1790, the Parliament of France took action, and in 1795 it officially adopted the SI system.  It established the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator.  A gram was one cubic centimeter of water at a specified temperature, and the centigrade scale spanned from the freezing to the boiling point of water.  Thus, the meter tied length, area, volume (capacity), and mass together.

The complexity of weights and measures shows in the SI’s “base units” for different types of measurements. The meter is the base unit of length; the kilogram of mass; the second measures time; the Kelvin is for temperature, using the same unit-span as Celsius but having a different start-point (absolute zero, or -273.15 degrees centigrade).  The ampere is for electric current; the candela for light brightness; and the mole for substance.  One liter of water has a volume of 1000 cubic centimeters (or cubic milliliters) and a mass of one kilogram.  “Horsepower” is the inch-pound equivalent of watts, with 750 watts equal to one horsepower.

Despite our general reluctance to keep pace with the rest of the world, metrically speaking, we are moving that way in subtle fashion. Anyone who has measured a standard two-by-four—a piece of lumber used in framing houses, among other things—knows it is not two inches by four inches.  It is one-and-a-half inches by three-and-a-half inches.  But if you measure with a metric ruler, you will find it is exactly 4 centimeters by 9 centimeters.

An even better example of “metric creep” shows in the four major coins we use, the dime, penny, nickel, and quarter. Measure with a metric ruler, and you will find there is a consistent progression in diameter.  A dime is exactly 1.8 centimeters, a penny 2.0 cm, a nickel 2.2 cm, and a quarter 2.4 cm, each 0.2 cm larger than the one before.

The inside diameter of a 3/4” PVC pipe is 2 cm.

In this election year, I would like to see candidates for all offices move toward practical, easily attainable goals that benefit everyone. Officially adopting the metric scale would be a start.  Abolishing Daylight Savings Time would be nice, too, as it costs way more than it’s worth, for many of us.  In future blogs, I plan to make a case for repealing a number of mandates, primarily the ethanol mandate.  I could make a strong case for repealing the air bag mandate.  Finally, the incandescent light bulb needs to make a come-back, at least until someone finds a better way to heat chicken coops in winter.

Walmart Sweeps Up

I took the above photographs in November, 2003, as Walmart moved in on Sandfly, a 200-year old black community that had already lost housing by eminent domain for the Truman Parkway.  The parkway is a SPLOST-funded north-south highway the length of the city, from the Savannah River to International Paper’s gated real estate development on Skidaway Island.  Sandfly was in the way, as was the first air-conditioned drive-in theater in the world, discontinued long ago.  Walmart breezed through Chatham County’s approval process with the collusion of all the real estate developers on the Metropolitan Planning Commission as well as the Chatham County Commissioners.  The process was engineered by the county attorney, who struck panic in the ruling elite by claiming Walmart threatened to sue if denied.

Now, the same county attorney has been given authority by the County Commission to conduct negotiations in secret to eminent domain other parcels for road (and possibly other) improvements, with payment by SPLOST.  At the top of the eminent domain list is Speedwall United Methodist Church, in Sandfly, where the major Walmart opposition held its meetings.  The tax collectors want to replace the church with a roundabout, a totally unnecessary waste of taxpayer money and yet another kick in the groin to Sandfly.

Coincidence?  Let’s just say that Chatham and probably other counties have used the twin weapons of eminent domain and SPLOST since 2005 to run roughshod over the community, primarily the disenfranchised black community, using the power to seize property under any pretext (such as “blighted neighborhood”) and to provide government contracts to insiders to build buildings and roadways funded by SPLOST.  The practice is so entrenched that people have come to believe this is normal.

Probably the best way to stop the bulldozing of middle America is to defeat SPLOST, locally, as well as in other communities that have been conned into this sales-tax add-on.

I wrote the following vignette in November, 2007, after the new Walmart was opened and operational.

WALMART SWEEPS UP
by Katharine C. Otto

I stormed the Walmart bastion at 2 a.m., after machine noise from its street sweeper woke me up, one-half mile away.  I started in the parking lot with the machine’s sweet-looking operator, then spoke with the “Securitas” driver.  She sat with lights flashing while I took pictures of her and the poor little black man who runs the street sweeper and was just doing his job. Then I went inside and accosted Arthur, the assistant manager, who has no last name.  I told off the cashiers and the lone customer inside the store, amidst the acres of Walmart’s trash on the shelves.

“If you didn’t sell so much cheap plastic junk encased in too much packaging,” I suggested, “you wouldn’t have so much litter in the parking lot.”  I didn’t tell him how vigorously I campaigned against this monstrosity of a spot-zone, and it’s not too late to shut it down, if I can’t sleep.

Poor Arthur just looked at me and claimed he didn’t hear the noise.  I should have said that’s because the machine noise inside the store is even louder.  I could have said you get paid to listen to it, but I don’t.  In fact, as a taxpayer and disgruntled neighbor, I pay multiple times to listen to that noise.  Is deafness a job requirement here?

My only cost was the gas and time. A good time was had by all.  Even Arthur had a chance to show how he could be of service.  I told him on the way out – he wanted to hear for himself – that Walmart was exporting money out of town as fast as possible, it was spot-zoned, etc.  I said I’m ready to shut the place down.  Next time, maybe I’ll call the head of the Chatham County Commission at home, so he can hear the noise, too.

Now I wonder why Arthur took me outside, as if he didn’t know what a street sweeper sounds like.  Of course the sweeper was quiet, since I had put the fear of the Lord in the driver before storming Walmart’s inner sanctum

A small audience sat outside the entrance, presumably off-duty employees waiting for the bus.  As Arthur and I stood there, listening to the blessed new silence, I told him I should not be here.  I should be sleeping.

I turned to leave, saying “Good night, everybody,” over my shoulder. I stalked to the car, parked in a handicapped spot in the vast parking lot, empty but for litter, security, the street sweeper, and one or two stragglers.

Actually, we had 2 a.m. twice that night, because we went off Daylight Savings Time. I probably confronted Walmart’s attitude between 2 a.m. and 2 a.m. The clock in the car said something like 2:40 when I drove home.  I relate machine noise to Shape Shifting Alien Reptile vibe sucking. According to author David Icke in Tales from the Time Loop, the Shape Shifting Alien Reptiles (SSARs)  sap human psychic energy and funnel it to their home dimension between the spaces of physical reality.

The fact that I chose the window between the 2 a.m.’s to attack the SSARs in their own dimension is a story for science fiction. I wonder if this has cosmic significance. Of course it does, if I believe it.  The people I met seemed almost grateful to have me raise a stink.  The battlefield has been quiet ever since.

You want entertainment?  Turn off the TV.  Life is in the now.