You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘new jobs’ category.
Steve Newton, one of Delaware’s ablest analysts, issued the warning early in the year… I have since been on the lookout for what he called…. I believe…. The Great Distractor”….
This is a outrage so great, it dominates all discussion, to the extent no controversy can exist beyond it… It gets covered in the News Journal. It is the sole subject for weeks on end on the talk shows… etc…
Even bloggers take up the outrage, so inflamed are they and smelling blood, all want some credit for a kill….
Meanwhile, real bills that transfer the building blocks put in place over centuries of public schooling , get pulled and shuffled over to private enterprise….
Bluntly put, the rich get richer by picking all our pockets while we focus on the bar fight taking place on the floor directly in front of us, little realizing the entertainment is completely staged for our own fleecing…..
Yesterday the same topic dominated both the morning show, and afternoon show on WDEL…. Jonathan Starkey’s piece in the News Journal had done its part…..
There was considerable buzz; legislators were being called up on air, and duly pitching their outrage to get their name out in front of the voters….
The controversy is over the unclaimed property issue… Basically everyone is upset over how the government can claim unused gift cards… Yes, if you listened… that is what the entire controversy boiled down to. , The Republicans think they have an issue. The Government is taking private property because…. they can….
So let us pop this “distractor” and get back to reality… All this controversy is about who should own unclaimed property… Two people see a dollar bill in the road… Who should get it? Why does one have more right over it than the other? Should corporations be allowed to keep money that is not theirs? If I find a wallet with $500, should I keep it and spend it on me? Or should I turn it in to the police, and if no one comes and claims it, they then get to use the proceeds in their service to all….
Obviously, the latter is the more fair. I certainly have no right to that wallet, except by some made-up rule …. finders-keepers. Who does that money belong to? It belonged to someone, one of those who are protected by the police, and who are an individual just like me… Who is more likely to get an inquiry requesting whether anyone turned in a wallet with $500? A random stranger (me)? Or the police?….
Again, it is obvious to which one society would benefit having ownership of that dollar found in the street….. And the amounts of money are paltry… dollar bills for the most part….
Oh, but the outrage!! The Outrage! The outrage…..
“Look, Buzz, an alien…… Ha, made you look…… ”
There are some rather serious crises currently nibbling the foundation of the Markell and Democratic party.. Primarily they are two fold. The economic folly of cutting taxes on the top 1% of Delawareans, who should be funding the state with their windfall capital gains earnings, and that folly’s impact on stifling job growth…. and the crises of building charter schools for “Friends of Jack Markell” by dismantling the public schools that have carried Delaware to prominence up to this point……
They almost need this distraction… In a very bad way….
- Meanwhile they they insist on pushing forward the TDC, to the detriment of all those 30,000 Newarkians who will soon be breathing cancerous particles 24/7….
- Meanwhile they insist on pushing a Charter School agenda forward when next year’s charter schools can only muster 40% capacity.
- Meanwhile they insist on pushing Common Core, by now a completely debunked curriculum, that was so obviously created to summarily give one educational-material corporation an advantage over all others….
- Meanwhile, Delaware’s budget shortfall grows as the economy suffers under too low taxes and way too few government jobs.
- Meanwhile, Delaware is seeing global warming increase all costs statewide, while those wealthy who were to blame for it, get to keep a majority of their earnings off of it, tax free…
- Meanwhile, Delaware is giving far to much of our precious few resources to corporations who repeatedly, had always failed to deliver any return for our investment….
- Meanwhile, Delaware is destroying the 39th best teaching school in America, the educational department of the University of Delaware, to water it down to the abysmal Common Core standards…..
What this administrations sorely needs….
Is ” A Great Distractor”……. “Look, Buzz, an alien!”
Instead we should be watching out for……..
- House Bill # 334
- HB #333
- SB #210
- Looking forward to the necessary modifications to SB 51 and HB 165.
- And the fact that during these 8 years… Delaware’s children in poverty…. DOUBLED!
- Meanwhile, our cronyism allows our top income earners, to pay little or nothing in taxes……
That last one…… is the real outrage.…. one future generations will hold us accountable for decades to come………
Meanwhile
I was talking to someone who was in favor of Common Core, and yet a vehemently against a power plant going up in her back yard. I was able to show them that both processes were similar, and that she was at different points of the curve on the two separate topics, but they were both curves that were parallel and would end the same……
I got this great idea off of Norquist and pulled out a napkin where we were eating…….
The x axis stands for truth… as in what we know about a topic goes from zero to infinity, and the y axis represents our feelings of favorability towards the project as we learn more…..
As you can see, when someone says… “a data center” we have no opinion at first… We are at (0,0) As we learn of jobs, taking up a brownfield spot, helping out the university by educating engineers, putting topmost technology into our home, Newark Delaware, as well as selling power to the grid, our favorability towards it rises…. Yeah we could use all those things.
But then as we learn more, our favorability sours. WHAT! 248 MEGAWATTS!!!!! Excessive pollution. Dangerous pollution, for 75 years, very loud noise. Huge cancer signatures around gas turbines. poisoning water, digging new gas lines through wildlife areas from Hockessin. A 24/7 operation. The TDC was to sell the power plant, not the power plant being there for the TDC. We sour. Something else, almost anything else could still give us the positives, without the negatives. All those negatives were hidden and still would be, if citizens hadn’t ferreted them out. There was never any plan to mention them if at all, until absolutely necessary…..
We lose favorability based on how much we know… So those still supporting it, even Al Mascitti (unless he changes his mind while on vacation), aren’t more stupid than the rest of us… in fact, they are exactly like us, back when we were at that same point on the learning curve… Instead of bemoaning that TDC supporters are jack-stupid, educate them… Then, after they’ve been educated, if they didn’t change their mind, it was not because they are jack-stupid. It’s because they are sinister. But really, when it comes to dying, very few people are really sinister. It’s really all about knowledge…..
This is exactly the same with Common Core!… This person with whom I was in this discussion, is a member of the Delaware Chamber of Commerce and she was at the milktoast breakfast thrown at the Hotel Dupont where the Grand Poobah of the national Chamber of Commerce came in to elevate support for Common Core. One assumes the Grand Poobah would know what he is talking about… Alas, he is a common man. He is no expert. Because really, very few people there are privy to the facts. You readers happen to be far more privy to what Common Core is really about, because you have seen it here, with your very eyes, and are certainly quite capable to make up your mind yourselves…
I assured my friend, that when I knew as little about Common Core as she did, I too believed in it. Of course it makes sense to have standards the same across the country. Of course it makes sense to raise the bar so students can’t loaf as much as they do now I thought… Of course it makes sense that if we don’t teach our children well, then the jobs will go to those nations which do teach their children well. Of course it makes sense to pay those teachers who do well more, and to weed out those who’s real calling is obviously not teaching… of course it makes sense to train teachers better, instead of throwing them into a classroom and saying: Good luck, here you go…
But none of those are true I found out as I learned more… I learned that poverty is what makes students not perform well, otherwise we are all born equal… I learned that if you give someone a harder test who is relatively impoverished, they will flunk it worse than they flunked an easier test their society wouldn’t provide the necessary safety net to enable them to study. I learned that Common Core was all about money and politics. I learned that Common Core was the brainchild of a mad scientist, David Coleman. Not a group of top educators. I learned that Common Core actually shut out teachers, and was made with one goal: to make more money. When teachers objected, they were summarily dismissed. I learned that it was getting rid of Shakespeare, and subbing in text on how to install a ceiling fan. I learned that students in all of Delaware’s pilot programs were tuning out of Common Core subjects, saying they learned that stuff 5 years earlier. I learned from inside the DOE that in the Common Core pilot classes of 2013, every pilot class had depressed scores. I learned that this administration, co-oped the favor of the teacher’s union, whose leadership jumped in with both feet, and now the rank and file who see Common Core up close, have said loud and clear, they have no confidence in this administration’s roll out.. I learned that grown up professional adults, most of America’s leadership, could not pass a third grade math test. IT is that hard!… I learned that though the test is impossibly hard, but the standards will not even include 8th grade algebra, or trigonometry, or geometry, or pre-calculus, or calculus, all of which are offered now. I learned the meat of Common Core is a crock of shit. Basically.
My friend is looking at me now with a dumb-ass deer expression… sort of like… “Gee, I’m a dumb-ass deer…. I wonder what I should do now….”
“But, but, but, none of that can be true,” she blurted out.. ” I was at the meeting with the Grand Poobah.. None of this stuff was mentioned. Common Core is our future… It is good, It is necessary for this nation……”
All I simply said was this: “And on the power plant they didn’t tell you about the carcinogenic radon and sulfuric acid that would be dropping on your lawns, pets and cars, or the horrendous noise that never stops, or the amount of cancer rares that go up because of a power plant in your back yard, did they?… And… when did you find out how big the 248 MW power plant really was? That didn’t grow on you, you know… That was planned from day one… And…You only found out because other people told you. Just like with Common Core, you need to see what other people are saying about it instead of taking the official side, and then make up your own mind…”
“I need to learn more about Common Core”, she said….
And if you dear reader still think Common Core is all good, then so do you……
=====
As an after thought, it struck me how this pattern has played out rather often since Markell’s second term began….. Kinder-Morgan, Common Core, Delaware City expansion, Coastal Zone eradication, Charter School expansion. Always a very dark undercurrent that only benefits the top 1% at the expense of 99% of the rest of us… It is sugar coated, given the Editorial Board approval, rushed in secret through the GA, where any dissent is squashed by Pete Schwartzkoph and Valerie Longhurst, and the signature gets applied, and commemorative pens are then handed out…. And it bears mentioning that in the first term there was also Fisker…. and Bloom… How much are we paying for Bloom right now with each electric bill? How much did we pay for Fisker?
Well if you still think Common Core is good… do some reading… If you don’t do your reading, (and who has time) you should not give it your support, but instead, … say you prefer the current system until you have time to find out more…. Because as the graphs above show, if you state your opinion too early… as you continue to hear more and learn, you will be forced to change your mind…….
It’s a pun off of the word stagflation which was short for stagnant inflation. Stagpression is short for stagnant depression. It is the most accurate indicator of our economic situation today, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…
We seem to be in a Depression. but we aren’t. The Housing market is recouping, jobs are consistently growing, energy costs have dropped, corporate profits are now at record, higher than just before the 1929 crash, and an all time record high stock market.. We should be booming. But we aren’t. We still have too high of an unemployment both on and off the books, we still have depressed low wages, we have lost massive wealth within the middle class over this century so far, we have record high student loan debt, we have low consumer confidence, Hence, one class of America is booming. The other class is still in Depression mode. Hence we are in Stagpression….
It is easy to see why.
Here is a chart showing the free cash flow of businesses……
Record highs. See? Record highs. We should be growing faster than China, we have so much investment money at our fingertips. But no.
Here is our investment track record…
Ironically as we gave our businesses more and more money with lower taxes, less regulation, tax funded price supports, hand-tied their unions, and made free new technology at our taxpayers expense, despite all these perks and incentives, they invested less. So what are they doing with their money? Pick up any financial publication and read the headlines. They all will let you know.
None of which help our economy. It is as if we work hard, buy their products, and they put that money into a mattress. Soon, we are going to run out of money. Fortunately the Fed has filled the gap by printing more and giving it to banks for free. It too, filters though the system, and when it gets to the top, it goes into the mattress.
Instead of recycling money, we are letting the tap flow from our printing presses to the top echelon of our society… Now do you get it?
What is missing is a system that recycles the materials back into our economy so we have less money we need to print. If we were talking about paper, we would be saying we need to recycle paper to keep from cutting down more and more trees simply to fill up our landfills….
We need a system to return that money to the bottom so it can rise again and again and again.
Here are the options that have been tried.
- Price and pay freezes.
- Government set and regulated prices.
- Lower tax rates.
- Cash incentives from taxpayers to reinvest.
- Pleas and entreaties from the Oval Office.
- Higher marginal tax rates.
Only one of these has worked. Can you guess which one? If you guessed higher tax rates spur reinvestment you are absolutely correct.
Notice the rates of reinvestment climbing in each of these presidencies: Eisenhower, Kennedy-Johnson, Carter, Clinton each time Congress legislated higher marginal tax rates. Also notice the drops under Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush as Republicans cut the taxes… The Bush Tax Cuts held through Obama’s first term, and account for today’s sluggish reinvestment. More precisely, the reinvestment turned upwards under Obama until 2010 when Republicans took over Congress, and has fallen since. I can’t wait to see 2013’s numbers, for I expect to see real investment increase there as well. However those higher tax rates on the top half percent implemented at 2013’s beginning, sent financiers scurrying and bargain empty homes were bought up by investors with lots of cash which brought up the floor of the housing market (perhaps to our future peril). It also accounts for stocks becoming an area of liquidity to hold cash,..explaining the record highs ….
So we have an opposite relationship: cutting taxes increases corporate profits which go elsewhere other than reinvestment back into the ecnomy.
Increasing taxes, cuts into the Free Cash Flow, and funnels some of that flow over to reinvestment projects.
Ever wonder how Delaware’s 3 banks lasted for decades and then all disappeared very close to each other? Bank of Delaware, Delaware Trust, and Wilmington Trust. are now owned by other entities. (Wilmington Trust had some hand in cutting off its own foot). Commerce Bank, which was New Jersey based had the same fate.
They lasted for years because big banks never had enough free money to buy them out. Just think. In Delaware there are now 3 less bank presidents. 18 less bank officers, and who knows how many clerical workers are missing because the work goes to the owners headquarters, not located here…. One still wonders if our state could be better off, had MNBA not been bought up by an outside conglomerate.
So giving more money to businesses and corporations in this case, cost us jobs… and destroyed 3 long termed Delawarean corporations…
That was one example. Across this nation, in every city, every county, every state are millions more….
Raising the tax rates drives re-investment. It is the only thing we know of so far that consistently works to drive re-investment. Everyone who insists on cuts and de-regulation, no matter how they spin it, is pursuing a policy that has been completely disproven by reality and fact and of course, recent history..
Are you better off than you were under Clinton? Your income level will probably determine your answer….. Because yes, some people are indeed, a lot better off. John Carney. Tom Carper. Chris Coons, Jack Markell, to name 4 off the top of my head…. Better off too, are those who these four represent… the 1%. Much better off!
If you find someone willing to raise taxes, stick to them like glue. They are the ones who will lead us back to prosperity…..
Until then, economic stagpression will continue…. continuing through tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow….(at a) petty pace that creeps from day to day….
I am going to try and make the case why you need to change you plans and show up in front of the Newark Municipal Building at 220 South Main St. Newark, DE at 5 pm….
There will be a candlelight vigil to demonstrate against the potential installation of the Newark Power Plant.
I should probably start by saying if you live anywhere in Northern Delaware or South New Jersey, this may be the most important event controlling you life for the rest of its time here on earth.
This decision affects every breath of air you will take. This decision will decide how healthy your old age will be. This decision will decide how long your children will live. This decision will decide whether your pets live and die, cancer free…
There are very few things we actually get to weigh in on that have such a profound impact upon our existence…. Politics come and go, and usually don’t kill us. Jobs come and go and usually don’t kill us. In-laws come and go and usually don’t kill us.
But chemicals, many of them radioactive, kill us… There is undeniable proof that they do…. Despite attempts to wash them under our stream of consciousness, while we are distracted by other things, they enter our body’s cells, change the genetic makeup, and those cells then start producing cancerous versions of their new genetic makeup….
The only way to prevent that process is to never start it.
The power plant burns natural gas. That natural gas contains elements from the earth. Most elements are poisonous to life. Arsenic, Radon, Lead, Uranium, will be sucked in every breath you take…
Enough scaring you. Just wanted to tell you why this was important.
Many things in life we have no control over. Our boss tells us to go to Delaware we go to Delaware. We have a child, we accept how it comes out. A chemical plant dumped residue into the ground before we were born, we live around it.
It is rare when we have a chance to change our life. We have one chance and that is tonight.
The City of Newark must change the zoning underneath that power plant for it to be built. They are deciding now. They want to do the right decision. Just like you, if you were in their place, would also want to do the right decision.
If they hear from the Governor, the Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, the Labor Unions of the Building Trades, the state’s own DNREC, and hear nothing from you, their decision will be obvious. Just like yours would be in that position. Look at all these people you would say, who need this to go forward and look at all the good going forward would do. And look how only a very few people care about stopping it. Obviously if I jump in front of the flying bus, for the sake of a handful of people, i’m getting run over……
But jumping in front of a bus to keep it from wallowing through a gigantic crowd of people is different ballgame. Instead of being the “disruptor” of progress, you have become the “Protector” of “the people.” All of us would like to be known as the protector of the people, and so would those elected to govern Newark.
We just have to give them the reason they need. We have to show up. If we don’t show up tonight…. , the power plant gets built. Toxic chemicals start falling on our lawns, cars and pets,
If we suffer the complete inconvenience to our schedules and do show, and show up in large enough numbers, we will stop the zone change and thereby stop the power plant….
WE need more than 10, 20, 30, or 40…. We need 1000’s … If you don’t show, it won’t happen…. If you do show, it may still happen, but you could say, that when Newark needed its finest to show, you were there…..
And win or lose, that is what is most important about being an activist…. Showing that it matters to you….
You may choose to slough if off with “oh, it’s raining. it’s cold. it’s flu- season”….. but fast forward to 10 years hence, you lying almost dead hooked up to monitors so the staff knows whether they can shuck your corpse out to replace you with another body,….
You could have been home, holding your grandkids, making them dinner, reading them books, if you had only showed up tonight, 5pm on S. Main Street (Old Elkton Road) in Newark to show those fine people on Newark’s City Council, that yes, this is important to you….
It is tonight. Change your plans and go…..
§ 7557A. Complaint procedure; unlawful election activity altering result of election.
(a) A citizen of a municipality may submit a written complaint to the State Election Commissioner regarding any aspect of that municipality’s election activity that is contrary to state or federal law which altered or is reasonably likely to have altered the result of the election. Such complaint shall be filed no later than 20 days after the result of the municipal election shall have been certified by the municipality’s Board of Elections.
The complaint shall state with particularity:
(1) The action or activity that is contrary to state or federal law; and
(2) The specific basis for the complainant’s belief that such activity altered or is reasonably likely to have altered the result of the election…..
====
The election law is very clear and is designed to prevent an outside group with lots of money from dominating and one-siding an election before anyone has any idea it is being done…
This law was put in place for the protection of the majority of a municipality’s citizens. It has been a long standing tradition grounded in Delaware election law, that every candidate, PAC, or group trying to influence an election file finance reports. The first deadline is 30 days. The second one is 8 days. Then the final one gets filed at the end of the year.
There was still a window under old law, where a person could spend from the 7th day onward, and the election would be over two months old before any accountability would be mustered. One could then see that one’s official was not the real choice of the people, but perhaps the choice of someone willing to put up a lot of money…
That window was closed by Tony DeLuca last year. After the 7th day, every large expenditure has to be reported in 24 hours… thereby giving the public decent time to acknowledge its influence and use that as part of the electioneering decision.
Polly’s campaign spent $5000 on winning the election. The PAC spent $45,000… That is a big expenditure. Nine times what any other candidate spent.
The PAC did not acknowledge its existence until 14 minutes before the Election Office closed on the eve of the election….
At points beforehand,
- they had previously made calls to organize.
- Got promises of financing.
- Designed and approved proofs of printing.
- Put down a deposit for the printer.
- Called and acquired manpower for their distribution
- Paid in full all those who distributed the pamphlets.
- Paid for gas for those vans distributing the pamphlets.
Every one of these acts is in violation of existing election law…
The (a) provision is fulfilled.
Now for the (b) provision…
(b) The State Election Commissioner shall review the complaint and such other materials as he or she deems necessary or appropriate. If, following such review, the Commissioner determines there is reasonable probability that conduct in violation of state or federal law altered or is reasonably likely to have altered the result of the election, then the Commissioner shall file suit in Superior Court on behalf of the complainant to invalidate the result of the election or such other relief as shall be appropriate.
===
As one can see from the text it is up the the subjectivity of the commissioner. Which means if she chooses to ignore the overt influence caused by 9 times what any other campaigner spent across the municipal election, all of which was purposefully not legally reported, … she is free to do so.
She apparently taken that choice, and has chosen instead to reflect upon the sidebar of there being little evidence of misdirected voters, instead of a blatant gross violation of election law. She has thereby reinforced the continuance of actions, this law was expressly passed to forbid.
One can never know who showed up at their regular polling place, which of course would be in its normal business operation as a school, office, etc, and seeing no polling signs, then left….
Could it have possibly been 116 people? That is indeterminable. But at a ratio of only 19 per district if falls within the areas of possibility, and we do know that in the districts where this literature was reported being hung, all voted overwhelmingly for the other candidate…. In fact, it appears that this entire $45,000 expense was not to promote a Data Center among voters most likely to be negatively impacted by its creation in their own back yards, particularly in the two districts where it was distributed, …but to instead, confuse and obfuscate the proper location of the polling places in order to cut down the number of supporters who would actually vote, which if they did could overwhelm the election in favor of the candidate who was against the building of the power plant.
This leaves two overwhelming clouds of doubt. It leaves a cloud of doubt over the Commissioner of Elections… Is she kowtowing to the pressure to overrule common sense and allow this vote to continue? A doubt will always remain. This decision also casts doubt upon the current winner. Is she the real choice of the voters, or was she put in solely by illegal methods despite the voters choice of a different direction?
When clouds of sulfurous gases, rare earth elements, and radioactive particles begin descending upon the patio furnature, pets, cars and children of Newark, the clouds of this election will become even more important….
The clouds of doubt need to be removed.
That is why the subjective will of the commissioner needs instead to nullify this election, for the very reason that all appearances portend that illegal activities have “perhaps” caused a mis-election…. The commissioner has taken great pains over the past to keep the aura of trust that Delaware’s elections are honest and open… Now with one fell swoop, she is throwing that out of the window?
Nine times the amount spent by any candidate, was dumped into this election… 9 times the amount… Campaign finance laws were broken, and based on the time line we can almost ascertain, done so with intent….
The only proper thing which would put this past behind us… would be to have a runoff election between the two top candidates…. it could be held in two weeks…
Only then, would we know… for sure…
I am just as guilty of this as is every one else.
A single issue polarized this election for outsiders. A huge power plant, which will dominate the skyline from Academy Avenue southwest to Chestnut Hill.
However there are other factors not being taken into consideration. The 115 margin is disheartening to many of those outside Newark who will be soon breathing toxic air. But it is a miracle that it was even that close when one considers the dynamics of a small town mayoral race.
The first factor left out of every discussion so far up till now, is that the incumbent was considered by most Newarkeans to be the best mayor they have ever had. Both business interests and residents have commented in private, that Vance Funk “got it” . He understood how things worked together, development and quality of life, and rode the magic line right down the middle. In truth, the Newark of today is almost unrecognizable from the Newark of the early 2000’s… Now when one says Main Street of Newark, one has to ask… which one?
A lot of the magic that is Newark is due to Vance Funk. So when someone of such stature endorses his pick as someone who will carry the same theme forward, it carries a lot of weight. Many votes for Polly are votes of thanks to Vance. “He’s a good guy, so if he picked her, she must be alright too” was a sentiment heard across the streets of Newark the past two months…
Against this, two great candidates, Amy Roe and Rebecca Powers, would probably not have done as well had they not had the thermal of the power plant issue burning underneath them…. From Amy’s personal biography one has to wonder if she would have ever run, had this not become an issue requiring someone of her stature to step up… I’ll let Ezra speak for Rebecca.
In point, if one lives in Newark, this race was not only about a power plant. It was about people you know; it was about how you feel about the town; it was about who should lead the town in the future on all issues, not just the town’s approval of a power plant…..
And the people spoke. And it was close. Whether the power plant goes in, or another controversy rises up to stop it, (a severe economic crash for example)… the people will have to live with their choice for a long time.
I think it should be noted, that Amy Roe handled herself in the spotlight rather well, and in the future, all this effort will undoubtedly lead to a greater good.
And, just in case no one heard Allan Loudell’s observation on WDEL, all the top three vote getters were women…. How nice is that?
One of the sad things one realizes as one gets older is that all the crap one accepted as being the way the world worked, could have been changed. It wasn’t the way the world worked… It was the way those benefiting from that arrangement, wanted the world to work.
One of the worst realizations about life, is that when one reaches this level of wisdom, one is already depleted of energy and doesn’t possess enough force to fight for it…..
Our world is made up of forces constantly fighting each other. The way things are, is the way the stronger forces keep it… If the forces that were weak, ever bonded together to overcome the force that dominates… things change…, As a metaphor it is very similar to how our world will reverse polarities very soon (if it hasn’t already)….
In other words, the 60’s revolt against the draft…. would never have happened unless people revolted against the draft. The fight to protect the environment, would never have happened if people didn’t fight to protect the environment…..
I was reminded of this, listening to Sam Latham on WDEL’s Rick Jensen show while talking to John Flaherty who was filling in for Rick. Sam represents the AFL-CIO and his role is to promote jobs in Delaware… That is his role, and he fills it well…
Some listeners may have heard that 50% of Delaware’s building trades union workers are out of work.. That is a lot. One would certainly feel for them and would like to help them get work if one could… We all live in fear of suddenly losing our job, and at our backs we here the words, “what if it was you” and naturally want to do what we can to help a brother out…
While enunciating emphatically, Sam said… “He cared only about jobs, Not clean water, not clean air, but jobs.” He was making a point. Later he said.. ” Of course I care about those two; just not now; Now we need jobs.”….
If it helps Sam, it is a good thing he spoke that way. His job is to drum up jobs, and his cadre is shrinking as each day passes. High paying jobs get termed; low paying jobs get hired….
The point of this election however, is not jobs in Delaware. It is not energy in Delaware. It is not about getting rid of shysters hiding in political closets, who pretend not to recognize themselves on literature supporting them, but supposedly done by an independent organization….
Nor is it about poisons raining down on you. Nor is it about sucking White Clay Creek dry in the summer time. Nor is it about a loud clanging, louder than your morning alarm, that goes on 24/7 and never (it’s in their contract), stops.. Never. Stops.
This election is not about any of those… It is about something far more important… Much more than all of that….
It is about … you…
Let me define. You need to vote for what will make your life better… Because you are you… I know it sounds simple, but it is rather profound, so work with me here. 🙂
- If your life would be better by having one of these jobs, you need to vote for Polly. Your life will be better.
- If your life would be better by having this deal go through, as would be that of the heads of the University, you need to vote for Polly.
- If you live would be better by having this deal go through, as would be that of any in the building trades, or contractors, you need to vote for Polly….
Too obvious you say? But, …
If your life would be better by not having 24/7 clanging louder than your alarm, you need to vote for Amy Roe.
- If your life would be better by not having cancer in 10 years, (true average exposure time around power plants), you need to vote for Amy Roe.
- If your life would be better by having beautiful White Clay Creek still flowing and not diverted to the power plant in summer, you need to vote for Amy Roe.
- If your life would be better by having less deep earth elements on your car, patio furniture, pets, and lawn, you need to vote for Amy Roe.
- If your live would be better by having another employer in that spot on the STAR campus, instead of an industrial plant which will chase away more sophisticated new high quality jobs than it could attract, you need to vote for Amy Roe.
In other words there is a myriad of people with a myriad of interests out there… All of them mean something to each person… If I value jobs more than anything, I can’t really fault you for valuing your health over anything… And vice versa… You don’t know me and if I value putting jobs before environmental concerns, then I have a history for wanting to do so… I’m certainly not stupid, and neither is Sam Latham. Nor is Amy Roe…
(I’m not yet convinced that doesn’t apply to Polly Seirer or Vance Funk considering how easily they got played …. or caught…. )
But other than those two possibilities 🙂 , people for the most part, are not stupid. Everyone votes on the concerns they have for their own lives….
So how does one determine which is right and which is wrong? Pretty much by the numbers… We count the votes and say … “it appears that those who care enough to vote, want this town to go in this direction….” If the town goes in that direction, there WILL be a minority that does not agree…. But there WILL be an even bigger majority who thinks going there is the correct direction, and since more feel that way than don’t, … that is the way we should go….
Yes. This is too simple. Yet it is very profound…. For across the study of history, whenever a majority of citizens wants to go towards a certain way, the profundity is that it usually works out for the best. Not always, (Prohibition) but history always tends to work better, when things are decided by a majority… In my past, when I found myself on the losing side, I still could see the gains in other arenas, that happen because of the vote… True, they don’t happen according to my priorities, but they still happen nevertheless…. and the good that was promised by the other side, came about.
Which brings us to the center. How we convince those deciders is the prime issue. If one side, then another side makes their passionate arguments, it is done to try to convince the merits of their presentations to those voting … Then those voters vote…..
That is why too much money, is an attempt to obfuscate the balance that this discourse provides. If one gains a monopoly on the argument by buying out the media, by putting only one side’s ideas into people’s minds, one is damaging the brand called democracy. One is trying to grab power, to make outcomes based on trickery, untruths, and lies. Lies are very ineffective if allowed the opportunity to be proven wrong. In fact, if lying is ever proven beyond a doubt,… it usually backfires upon the liar. All then side with the victim about whom the lie was told…
But if one hears only one side because of a monopoly on the media… bad decisions get made…. Even though that lie can make rational sense in light of all arguments presented, without it’s opposing view getting air, it can never get BUSTED!
When one tries to create a monopoly on the conversation, one violates the good decision making process our elections provide… When one wants to win so bad, enabling themselves to put their decisions in effect without having the necessary vetting required, there is a very high probability that the decision made, will turn out to be rather costly…
If it was good, it would have been voted on by the electorate anyway…
So… are “one, two, or even three new jobs” to one, two, or even three Delawareans worth your death 40 years earlier than otherwise? Could be… or … could not be… But you need to decide that, and no one else.
That is why this trickery performed in order to influence the election of Newark’s mayor, is so troubling….
- One more reason to vote for Amy Roe.
That familiar moment to most of us, when the official amount of power needed simply shocks us all.
Newark will have the largest single boiler in the state, just 200 feet from private homes. The distance of a long field goal attempt….
Nancy’s blog points out that the Newark Data Center’s Listed International Corporate Headquarters are in a little tiny mailbox 6 inches times 4 inches, inside a Mail Boxes Etc. strip mall shop just off Paoli Pike in West Chester PA. Is this whole operation being mapped out by Tinkerbells?
Hmmm. Who else do we know that is very familiar with Mail Boxes Etc…?
kavips 