It's now 9/4/21 and a lot is different than it was just a year ago.  

Most importantly and most obviously the rich are richer than ever.

Home prices are astronomical and have risen about 25% in Seattle last year alone and it appears that investment companies are doing most of the buying.

The war in Afghanistan is over and no one seems worried that all that military hardware is un-maintained and going to waste.  Or is it?  Maybe the objective of the companies that make this stuff is for the government to buy it.  It doesn't matter if it's used or not.

And, as a small consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, government subsidies of a few hundred dollars per family have lifted about 45% of the poor out of poverty.

That last thing sounds good but what is happening overall if we step back and take a look.  The rich are getting ever richer and stashing their money in real estate forcing the middle class out of the housing market but at least they won't be in abject poverty.  One percent of the population will have everything and the rest of us will be easily controlled.

Doesn't sound like a democracy to me.  More like an oligarchy.  Let's hope it's a somewhat civil oligarchy like the British in the 19th century and not like the corrupt Russian oligarchy. 

 The dictionary offers these synonyms for oligarchy ... autocracy, oppression, domination, cruelty, authoritarianism, despotism, totalitarianism, coercion, terrorism, absolutism, severity, monocracy, fascism, totality, imperiousness, high-handedness, unreasonableness, reign of terror, peremptoriness.

Wish us luck.

3/7/20

Biden surged in Super Tuesday after South Carolina voted.  Blacks led the way and apparently whites followed their lead.  Turnout was good but didn't seem to help Bernie much

I'm disappointed that Bernie isn't doing better but my position all along is to support any Democrat who wins the primary in order to get rid of Trump.  AND, regardless of who wins, keep the Movement going to make the Democrats more progressive or even lay the groundwork for a third Progressive Party.

Poor Bernie.  He hasn't lost yet but it has been apparent for months that he's not going to win going head to head with the drug companies, insurance companies and fossil fuel corporations and maybe all corporations and the one percenters.

If I were Bernie I would name Stacy Abrams as vice president if he wins, tell Elizabeth Warren that he would like to name her as Attorney General but that it's awfully important that she stay in the Senate.  I would also not pick fights with all the rich and all the corporations at the same time.  Target the corrupt and greedy but work with the few who see that regulation and fair taxes benefit us all and keep the system sustainable.

Bernie might have one last dramatic chance.  But most importantly we all need to keep the Movement going.  What is the Movement? The Progressive Caucus, Justice Democrats and Courage to Change as well as Bernie and AOC??

The democratic wing of the Democratic Party*
who don't take funding from corporate PACs
who are not rich and do not become rich in office
who practice transparency and full disclosure

Which leads to representatives who represent ordinary middle and working class people and not corporations and the super rich.

The democratic wing is not so much an ideology as it is a commitment to the democratic process. It might include some on the left, liberals, socialists and progressives without some of the pejorative connotations. It could also include centrists and conservatives but not those who represent corporations and the super rich.  The democratic wing favors transparency and full disclosure and democratic process in elections and government.

Okay, Bernie Sanders is in the race and just tied with Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Caucus. If he wins, Bernie says, we need a movement to achieve a "political revolution".

Seems to me we need a movement even more if Bernie doesn't win.

Who's going to organize it? Will MoveOn, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, the splintery leftist and socialist groups, the many single interest groups interested only in guns, immigration, women's rights, etc. all join together?  How about what's left of the American unions?  

Maybe Bernie's campaign organization? Obama said much the same thing in 2008 according to Robert Reich but his campaign organization, “Organizing for America”, morphed into “Organizing for Action” and essentially became a PAC for obamas 2012 election.

Socialism is not working for me anymore.  How about the American Cyber-Luddites Union (ACLU)? That was John's idea. Clever. But I really want a group not welded to a nineteenth century ism that works for a system that is not controlled by corporations, banks and very rich people. That's a lot of negatives.  So maybe the ACLU is not so bad after all.

Boeing and the IAM 751

Boeing has really irritated me recently as they attempt to blackmail and break the local machinists union, the IAM District 751 by threatening to move the 777X
plant to one of 22 other states they have conned into offering Boeing massive tax give-aways.

It’s just another drive to the bottom. North Carolina is just a step toward Mexico. No different from Walmart or COSCO.

You might think machinists enjoy a high union wage scale but take a look at it at the current wage scale. The average union wage turns out to be about $16 per hour. Meanwhile the Boeing Corp is racking up record profits and CEO, Jim McNerney, just got a nice multi-million dollar bonus.

It’s unfortunate that the national union is not backing the local. The national is parroting the Boeing threat in what appears to be a hopeless and short sighted appeasement effort. In fact all the politicians (except one) also back Boeing. Save the jobs - we don’t care if they are minimum wage jobs. This is just a way to drive union workers out of the middle class which is exacerbating the polarization of income in America.

Boeing’s competition, Airbus, is owned by EADS, a mostly government-owned European consortium.

Hey, there’s an idea. Why not nationalize Boeing?

“Boeing's attacks on its workforce, together with the company's demand for $8.7 billion in concessions from the State - to be paid  for out of increased taxes on all workers and small businesses - can only be described as corporate blackmail.” and …

“The only viable response to such a situation is to say the needs of the people of Washington – the same ones who have subsidized Boeing with tens of billions of tax payer handouts – come first.  While Boeing CEO’s are free to leave, Boeing's assets - including the intellectual property developed by generations of dedicated engineers and machinists – would need to be taken into democratic public ownership.”*

That’s where I stand and I can’t say it any better than the one elected official who sides with the local and understands the stakes  - * Kshama Sawant who was just elected to Seattle City Council.

Attempt to Privatize Fort Worden State Park

The Attempt to Privatize Fort Worden State Park

In his July message to the Port Townsend community, tucked into our water bills this week, our mayor, David King, tries to promote the Fort Worden Public Development Authority (FWPDA) - the group that wants to take over the management of Fort Worden State Park here in Port Townsend. Many of us think that is a bad idea and that state parks should be owned and managed by the state.

For one thing the mayor points out that a PDA can issue bonds but he also says "the park can never be mortgaged". Really? Don't you need collateral to issue bonds just as with any other debt? When the bonds can't be paid what do the investors get? Wouldn't we in fact be mortgaging the park?

The mayor also claims that the park cannot be "hijacked by private interests" because it will always be under the authority of the City. (At best he is advocating that the state park be managed by the city.) But the next sentence is even worse where he points out that the PDA would be "insulated" from the political process. Is that just a positive spin on not being transparent? It's precisely because the park should be owned and managed openly by the state (not the city) and not "insulated" from the checks and balances of the political process that we oppose control and management by the FWPDA.

The mayor, well-intentioned though he may be, says that control by the FWPDA does not "privatize" the park - a word that he uses - as well as the wonderfully evocative "hijacked by private interests".  I think he has given us a great slogan:

You like the privatization of liquor? You'll love the privatization of of our state park.

Good for the 1% - not so good for the rest of us. More information at "http://tinyurl.com/7dqklng" Or email us at "21stCenturyFortWorden@gmail.com"