Doing Time.

Time is a great leveler. Time proves persons and unrolls a line of life works scrutiny.

This last week, our family carried out an exercise in public service scrutiny. We “met” the Port of Bellingham. I have lived in Whatcom County since Dec 30, 1994, but there is so much that I have not known. In the late 1990’s, I worked as an electrician on the total remodel of the Port of Bellingham office building. I have not passed through those doors again until three days ago, Tuesday afternoon.

First impressions—the port commissioners meeting reminded me of a school board meeting.  The executive, Rob Fix sat at a table with the three commissioners and the executive secretary. A panel of department managers and the legal counsel sat at the second table. Managers gave reports and commissioners voted on various items.

The meeting started with public comment. The frequent fliers were there representing the progressive lobby. Along with their causes of environmental concern and “job creation”, they raised an unholy ruckus over the lack of a video record of the boards meetings. Even county commissioner Rud Browne showed up to grace the effort, suggesting that the Port administrators partner join the happy technology and services that the County will likely roll out – some enhanced video airings of the County Council meetings. Browne said he was speaking as a private citizen, of course!?

Why the screaming call for video? I would suggest the progressive movement and its media allies in Bellingham have an insatiable appetite for public controversy. If you have a degree in a field that lends itself to “community organizing”, you must have stories to fire up your neighborhood controversies. Visuals can be groomed to just the right “message”, and every traditional service can be “retooled” into another cog for the progressive redistribution of wealth machine.

Of course, access to audio or video recordings of port meetings does provide archival records which are a part of due public process.  And, if the Port Authority is moving towards providing such, a person with balance will be grateful and patient, rather than pompous and demanding.

What were we doing at the Port? Our family home schools. As our young people consider life works, we have pushed an entrepreneurial mindset. A major aspect in business startups is capital development and application. In other words, getting and growing money by providing worthwhile services. When I heard that the Port may do an RFP (request for proposal) for video services, we decided to walk a few hundred feet in those shoes. My daughter and I took some simple video equipment in, and recorded about 45 minutes of the 2.5 hour meeting.

The video turned out fine. Sound quality was variable. The Port’s AV system has an upgrade expense line in the budget. Commissioner McCauley has a problem projecting his voice. Otherwise, he did a very acceptable job of keeping the meeting moving. We tested microphone and camera placements. We would need to upgrade our equipment. What else is new! It was a good chance to meet some of the decision makers.

We also watched a bit of a side show, as another group did a video recording dry run. Somehow they obtained a WI-FI hotspot on the port’s network—without adequate authorization. They wanted to demo live streaming. When the hotspot was discovered and taken from them, there was a howl of protest about the Port obscuring its public meetings. Otherwise, they made their recording peaceably as well.

On the home front, this last month has been full with farm projects. More hay has been purchased and brought in. Broken trailer wheel brakes still need repair. A small portable egg laying hen house was designed and put together with the boys. Maybe there will be some takers if this is offered to urban farmers under the new chickens in the back yard rules.

Lambing is in full swing. It is a joy to see new life squirt out, dry off and begin to crave milk. It is sad when newborns are missed and cool off and die. It is a hassle when the baby monitor in the barn transmits those “groans” at three in the morning. The fresh sheep’s milk, and the improved health of our daughter on that milk makes it worth while.

This week, my wife Bev has been attending a three day seminar on cheese making, a five hundred dollar gift from a fellow farmer who decided to not attend and share his seat. Thank you, my friend! It is kindnesses like this that build community.

Farming is hard work. Milking animals is slogging hard work, with limited respites. Making cheese is also hard work. Burnout and personal physical injuries are issues we as adults in our fifth decade of life must consider. Again, the pressures of fast capital infusion are evident, as that new creamery equipment others at the cheese making class are buying must be quickly brought on line to pay down the loans. We have survived with the willing help of family who work together. And by staying out of debt. We are “doing our own time” in our life shackles.

Yesterday, with my wife out of the saddle, I went with our young people to an after school club they lead at Kendall Elementary School. Forewarned, I went prepared to ride shotgun on a certain group of boys that have been turning the club into their own ego show.

Sure enough, a cherubic little ten year old drank his milk quickly, then put the carton down and stomped out a loud pop, easing back in “surprise” when all heads turned his way. Too busy to eat their snacks during the snack time, the boys settled down to discuss their concerns in the back row while they loudly chomped their food in contest with the leader up front.

After an hour of moving ten year old boys farther and farther apart, things settled down to a dull roar in the back row. It is amazing the energy protesters have when there is a joint cause. It is also amazing the grateful responses of little girls who wait for these boys to be quieted so they can peacefully do the games and hear the stories.

So, I return to public comments at the port. Sometimes, the little boys and girls never grow up inside, becoming adults who still love to show off in public comment. Do they seek the public good? Or, are they more concerned with turns of wit, with showing off extraneous knowledge while they take down leaders who have “done their time” and proven themselves in public service. These activists are also doing time, but in a different prison.

                -- JK

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Last night, January 28, 2014, several hundred Whatcom County residents packed out the Council Chambers to watch and speak to the decision on continuing or dropping the Whatcom County Government appeal over the GMHB determination on exempt wells.

The crowd about 10 minutes before the meeting started.

As if anticipating a heated, blistering evening of rhetoric, Carl Weimer and Ken Mann opened the Council meeting with an announcement that a closed door decision had not been made during the immediately preceding executive session. They then promptly moved to continue funding for the appeal. Carl Wiemer generously acknowledged that a court ruling in this situation would provide certainty that would be good for all. Great guy, Carl Wiemer. Council voted 7 to 0 to continue funding the appeal. Then open session testimony began.

Testimony largely ran unchecked in favor of challenging the growth management hearings board ruling. There were several who chided council and landowners for seeking financial gain over wellness or good will. There were also two sizable groups that spoke in favor of 1) local regulation of marijuana growing or processing business locations and 2) creating taxing authority (another progressive funding stream) for arts groups in local settings.

Having watched the acrimony of the past election season, and seen the predominance of progressive minded testimony on local issues in the last year, the silence from the local progressive organizers last night was deafening. Adding that to the strong campaign promises of Mann and Wiemer with their pre-election votes to scuttle the GMHB well appeal, I said to myself, “What is up? Is this another charade? Why the tight lipped silence from the progressives? Something is fishy here.”

After a prolonged release of air from the emotional balloon, the open session ended and 75% of the people went home. Then came the selection of appointees to various commissions and boards. I said to myself, “Perhaps this change of course for Mann and Wiemer on the well appeal is calculated to clear the air, to suggest a spirit of good will and coming together. Perhaps, but keep watching, John.”

Sure enough, a different tack was taken with appointment of planning commissioners. Incumbents Jeff Rainey and Rod Erickson, having a track record of supporting existing property rights and landowners and challenging progressive initiatives from planning department staff, were decisively replaced with three progressively oriented commissioners. Michelle Luke did not re-apply.

One of the “new” planning commission appointees, (having served two prior terms on the planning commission), lawyer David Hunter,  has a reputation as being extremely verbally abusive, a gifted and biting cross examiner of property and business owners that “enter his private court” during planning commission sessions.

The David Hunter appointment, to me is instructive of where things will go with this council. Ken Mann and Barry Buchanan first preferred a more moderate progressive, (there is the engaging smile) while Carl Weimer and Rud Browne voted for Hunter (the finger in the eye). Brenner, Crawford and Kremen voted for Jeff Rainey. In the second vote, Mann and Buchanan came together with Weimer and Browne to appoint David Hunter.

The impact of the planning commissioners, in my view, will have a far greater impact on ongoing county policy than the exempt wells ruling appeal. Smart, hungry progressives. Sleepy, sheepy conservatives. The fairy tales of The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood are playing again.

Good cop, bad cop. Limiting choices. Move county policy and citizens left, left, left.

How does Saul Alinsky advise his disciples to operate? Only moderate in appearance. Always go for the kill. Keep the fight going. If they bring a knife, you bring a gun. Alinsky’s dedication of his book, Rules for Radicals, to Lucifer is fitting. Once upon a time there was a cruel king named Herod. No means were too violent, too evil if they kept him in power. Watch out, Whatcom County!!

One last thought. What if the exempt wells ruling appeal went to negotiation? What if the appeals court or the supreme court never had to validate the rule of law here? What if Mann and Wiemer met with the lawyer for the exempt wells litigants behind closed doors and worked out some concessions from the county for a measure of peace and joint progressive advance? RE Sources (Weimer) and Futurewise (Melious) both have the same basic playbook.

What if the same pattern that got the Lummis off the hook in the ground water dispute several years ago was used here? In that setting, when the judge was indicating that the Washington State supported Lummi claims were without grounds, the Lummi’s withdrew their suit and filed for negotiation. In the end, they got a large measure of what they wanted, outside the courts, and their claims were held in abeyance, never ruled against.

Good cop, Bad cop. The game is on.

What is the next stage? Just as the national Republican Establishment is at war with the Tea Party over stripping away entitlements and K Street influence, so local individual conservative activists will likely end up ground between the progressive upper mill stone, and the corporate business lower stone.

An example of this is the proposed WID system that farmers are considering. To maintain some self determination, farmers are realizing that they have to organize like their tribal and governmental bureaucracy adversaries. It is not just enough to show up, you have to have taxation authority (funding), and be able to threaten serious damage to the other side.

What a great place to live. Behind the tall cedars and glorious vistas of Whatcom County is this war. Will local corporate interests stand up for their historical neighbors? Most likely not. Survival of the business will supersede survival of traditional local values.

Case in point? Again, from last night, it is a local corporate name, Lautenbach, that has applied for a marijuana license in a building in the middle of Clearbrook community in north Whatcom County. After considering an appeal from the Clearbrook families to grow/process marijuana with some setbacks from the homes, the applicant has decided his hot business prospects trump local family values and safety concerns.

Good cop, bad cop. The only winners will be those whose endgame is multi-generational. After this “cold, socialist war” plays itself out, in thirty or fifty or one hundred years, (think USSR 1916-1989) some one’s descendants will rebuild something here.

What does the future hold? The future is the children!

-- JK

Sure Footing

When I was fifteen, I bought a pair of hiking boots. I wore them every day during that summer. Jumping from boulder to boulder along miles of beaches, pulling myself along the abandoned rail grades through tall forests on Quadra Island, I was able to enjoy the company of other like-minded young people as we lived out the idyllic weeks of summer and sun. I still have those boots, forty years later. They were quality made!

How did those boots tame sharp rocks? What made them laugh at soggy rail beds? They were crafted to endure and protect, to carry human sized weights with comfort and strength. They gave sure footing.

Rural and suburban residents of Whatcom County are facing sharp rocks and steep inclines these days. Certain “neighbors” have taken it upon themselves to “democratize” the rest of us, to use lawsuits and social action groups to “correct” land and water usages which they have decided are immoral.

There will always be playground bullies, acting out the good cop/bad cop routine.  When bullies gather in gangs, they usually get their way. When bullies are sophisticated in massaging the truth to their ends, they can go quite a ways towards gaining their objectives before their victims even know they are being plundered. Surprise and subterfuge are important. Paralyzing dismay indicates the “game” is almost over, the plunder is almost complete.

Such is the state of Whatcom County, of Washington State, of America. The progressives have been termiting our culture for many decades.

How did we get here? Is there anything that can be done? What victim reactions will do more damage than the oppressors could ever imagine? Who are the oppressors? Who ARE the victims?

Is the system beyond repair? What compromises must be endured? Are compromises even a possibility? Must the polarizing of this county and country increase? What happened to win-win solutions?

I would like to use three of Solomon’s proverbs to attempt to craft footwear for these perilous times here in Whatcom County.

(Just as the Bolsheviks redistributed the wealth of Ukrainian businessmen in the 1920’s, and brought decades of famine and death, so we have progressive politicos who are toying with the money of Seattle millionaires to affect redistribution of property and water rights in Whatcom County by electing extremely progressive legislators who appoint extremely progressive judges and commissioners.)

Proverbs 22:3  A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Proverbs 28:28  When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.

Proverbs 29:18  Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Good people are now calling for an all out appeal to the newly elected Whatcom County Council over their expected decision this coming Tuesday evening,  regarding the water rights appeal lawsuit before the Washington State Appeals Court. It is good to speak up for rights established in law. I would encourage you to speak up in favor of completing this appeals court lawsuit.

It can be argued that where “conservative” council members have been besieged by legions of foppish progressive proxies, the appearance of awakened conservative land owners in county chambers has slowed the progressive onslaught somewhat. Such appeals strengthened the resolve of conservative leaders to oppose redistribution of wealth and unlawful takings of property.

But is this the full hiking boot that is needed for the razor sharp perils we must walk through? What is the vision that will surmount the evil day?

1) Identify and work with real problem solvers. Cut out the pretenders. Cross boundaries and de-stratify conservative action groups.

Last week, I listened to a group of farming community leaders discuss plans to counter the progressive land and water grabs.

ReSources was there, and used their allotted to ten minutes to put their best foot forward. Carl Wiemer, ReSources guru, attended, and listened attentively as Wendy Steffenson painted the ReSources project in the Ten Mile Creek watershed in glowing water stewardship colors. Sharp questioning was deferred, and a civil atmosphere was maintained.

The Lummi Tribe was there. Jeremy Friemund made a case for Lummi water rights, however, in contrast to the ReSources presentation, there was extensive, substantive questioning that went back and forth.

The last hour of that meeting was a nine member working group of farmers, three each from dairy, berries and general horticulture, who presented a plan to create county wide Water Improvement Districts. By law, a WID can self organize itself, collect, and use taxes to carry out its agreed on projects. In other parts of Washington State, WIDs have worked together with tribes to hammer out win-win solutions. The state legislature seems to look with favor on such coalitions, sending millions of dollars of funding to help with capital infrastructure programs such as separation of handling facilities for potable water from irrigation water. After the meeting, farmers were encouraged to sign up for involvement in setting up WIDs in five or six sub-watersheds in Whatcom County.

What is my point?

Farmers are large water users. For a couple of decades, farmers have been hiding themselves. A barrier to the EPA/DOE WA onslaught was created by having WSDA inspect local dairy farms for manure handling and water quality standards. That barrier is now under large assault by progressive change agents.

Now, however, with a progressive dominated county council, farmers have their backs to the wall. Other resource use groups such as the BIA of Washington State are stepping up to plate to offer funding for this water appeal. Such developments are heartening, but late in the game. Still, the progressive bullies may have to play hardball instead of plundering other surprised citizens.

My question is this. Farmers who feed the rest of us have grounds to push back against water and property grabs by the progressives. But, where are the farmer’s kids? Where is the next generation? There were many youthful faces in the farmer’s meeting. But, how can an electorate that votes to deny local slaughterhouses come to terms with the practical careers of producing food?

2) Invest in children. This is a contest of generations. Get ready to pass the baton to the next generation.

Many conservative water rights activists themselves live the life of Riley, eating but not producing food. After the farmers’ WID meeting, the question was, what is the role of the non farmers in water rights discussions? If the WID group dominates, what about well owners? Manufacturers? Other non farm groups? The stratification of modern culture is much more pervasive than we realize. Do we really understand and accept and work with other groups we pay initial lip service to?

One more window. Last week I was invited to a multi-level marketing promotion. A privately held company, ACN Inc, has gained the confidence of many essential service providers. With the legislated deregulation of gas and electric utilities, individuals will be able to shop rates from businesses that buy and sell gas and electricity futures. There is big sales force money to be made as service providers prefer the efficiencies of multi-level marketing groups such as ACN.

Apart from disliking multi level sales pressures, I am alarmed. The return on investment of corporate employees has fallen so low that all large cellular providers allow ACN to underbid their own in house plans, knowing they will make more money from the motivated external sales and service agents than from their own employees.

What a commentary on our culture. What a rebuke to our business systems, to our educators, to our parents. What footwear can give sure footing in such cultural quicksands? The problems of water and property rights in Whatcom County pale in comparison to living in a nation of incompetents.

What hiking boots will carry the day? What gives sure footing? An evil day brings suffering to all.

One. Survivors measure objectives against abilities. Douglas MacArthur did return to the Philippines to lead liberation forces against Japanese invaders, but he had to leave first. Sure footing requires sure ground, and engagements in quicksand usually end in both parties being sucked to doom.

Two. Survivors see the end game. Folly collapses under its own weight, but not usually the first day.

Three. Survivors stay fit. Seriously, why did conservatives along the BNSF right of way become the slim majority that gave the progressives this most recent Whatcom County election? Maybe we conservatives need to lose some pounds to fit into the hiking boots. Maybe we have become like the monkey that is easily captured because it will not let go of the peanuts in the entrapping gourd. What is more important? Money? Investments? Retirements? Luxury waterfront homes? Or skills, character, generosity and generational transfer of values?

Four. Ultimate survivors see and serve the hidden hand. There is a transcendent element to this life on this ball. We are not just animals, fighting out survival and then vanishing forever. There is a God who rules and rewards, who even allows progressive county councils for his larger purposes. Is Whatcom County the destination, or a “green room” for something bigger?

In his book, “How Civilizations Die”, David Goldman singles out evangelical Christians and orthodox Jews as ethnicities that will survive when other groups fall below a reproduction rate of 1.2 children per family. He says it is their sense of heaven or a coming kingdom of God where physical death is reversed and life is restored in an ultimate paradise that motivates them to bear and raise full families that preserve their traditions.

So, let’s speak up. Let’s organize. Let’s force the progressives to stop playing shell games. Let’s work with real stake holders like the tribes, not these phony pretenders like Stalheim and Melious and their millionaire meddlers. Let’s grow some of our own food. Let’s encourage the farmers who feed us. Let’s understand the tribal groups and give them a measure of the certainty that they desire. And, let us also be willing to invest, even die for the next generations, not just our own petty comforts.

-- JK

Water Rights Talking Points For Letters To County Council Members

Children Are The Sure Footwear Of The Future.

Reporter Austin Jenkins And His Story Vetted By Conservative Activist, Gary Randall

Progressive Generations And Successes In America

Progressive Activist, David Stalhiem, Gets Huffy at County Council

 

Capitalism, Families, Corporatism, Charity.

For better or worse, Life 101 involves capital assets. Capital assets can be tough to manage. Capital assets provide for us, and also can get us into a lot of trouble. No pain, no gain. No risk, no return. No humility, no charity.

When we are children, we are provided for. When we are parents, we provide. When we are grandparents, we watch provision wobble on. Gaining, using, sharing, hoarding, leaving behind… asset management is pervasive.

Two opposing realities all people experience are life and death, order and entropy. There is the wonder of the green blade springing out of the earth, providing food, shelter and beauty. There is the shock of drought, disease, fire and harvest, life consumed in death and the struggle to not die so fast.

No where is this so evident as on a farm.

Cycles of planting, cultivating, harvesting, and dormancy miniaturize seasons of human life every year. Cycles of animal breeding, gestation, birth, nurture and independence model cause and effect for us and our children.

And, nothing escapes the tearing and shock of destructive forces that are beyond our control. A lamb dies when the mother ewe inadvertently smothers it on a cold spring night. A lamb dies when a birth defect robs it of its functions of life. A lamb dies when a coyote makes a meal out of it.

Life and death. Shiny new metal tools that get rusty blades and rotten wooden handles. We get tired of the fight, and look for mitigation. Why not sell out and retire into town. That corporate job sure looks good! Shift work? 12 hour days? Unhappy mommies? We can put up with it.  "Can" the farm troubles!!

Recently, I read several eye popping histories that look at American corporate investments and values at probably the most sensitive level—espionage. Some of you may recognize the name of former federal prosecutor, John Loftus. His several epic portrayals of 20^th century international political and economic subterfuge are at least highly controversial, and at most totally damning of the American corporate soul.

In short, shut out of extreme corporate advancement by Theodore Roosevelt’s anti-trust/monopoly laws, American big money families gained a legal loophole that enabled them to play business cartel games at the international level. Two decades of lucrative investments into Russia, Germany and Saudi Arabia culminated in huge conflicts of interest as World War 2 burst into flames.

Indicted at the highest levels by previously highly classified and deliberately buried government archives, leading American corporate families and American State Department officials were co-perpetrators of the Holocaust. After the war, they became more deeply enmeshed with other Western governments and the Vatican in a huge cover up of Nazi war crimes and criminals. All this was done in the interests of American corporatism and preserving American, British and German capital assets.

This last month, Whatcom Works has been silent. In the recent quarter, our capital assets took a beating. The windstorms ripped a stretched fabric shelter to pieces. Two older vehicles died. A third vehicle had significant repairs. A fourth vehicle kissed a tree on the other side of the ditch. A hard disk died. The color printer died. We have been a little distracted and busy.

Yet not all was bad. There were several good electrical jobs. The registered Labrador Retriever had nine puppies. We were able to car pool and get new tarps on and save the data on the hard disk. We were able to keep going with the after school clubs in Kendall. We were able to complete commitments in the election cycle. New public policy doors are opening.

If I were working for a corporation, I would have had much less flexibility to team up with family members to do these things. Corporations pay you to be there at set hours. Family job wages come with strings attached.

If I were working for a corporation, I may have had more money to buy better vehicles. Farmer and self employed electricians seem to pay less attention to having a late model car or truck. Family based businesses are more vulnerable to the blows of life, and often lack the capital and trained professionals to quickly leverage themselves into sudden, golden market opportunities.

Corporatism is attractive! Let’s get a coal terminal. OR, lets get Sierra Club or Washington Conservation Voters to throw their corporate assets at shutting out the coal terminal. (Is it just a rumor that the big donor from California to the no coal campaign actually owns significant right-of-ways for the Keystone Pipeline, and stands to benefit from oil (trains?) more than coal trains? I would like some feedback on this.)

May I suggest that although family based endeavor is fragile and weak, that is the model the founders of America used to build this great nation. Checks and balances were the watch word. Families checked families. Cities checked cities. States checked States. Citizen rulers checked prior citizen rulers. 

When a businessman becomes a corporate titan, he has the option of leaving his roots and joining the macabre wax museum club of international corporations. Uber-rich families with unbroken successes usually become wrinkled, strange caricatures that grasp and groan and kill to keep their grip on their assets. Failure teaches far more life lessons than success.

Charity. As a parent, I run the world’s best charity. I get to give daily to the poor and needy under my roof. As a family, we can share freely with our neighbors, without having to get the head office to put it into the budget. When the tarps blow off and the cars go off the road, we are grateful for the words and acts of charity from other families and people who have skin in the game. You know who you are. Thank you!

Corporations. Families. Capitalism. Conservatism. May I encourage you to continue to invest in families, and as families. Big corporations are probably smarter and more efficient than big government, but beware of the larger levers of community that both the big corporations and big government move. See the links at the end--

• Common core and dumbing down children to being factory workers rather than entrepreneurs and corporate competitors. RINO legislators are deliberate malefactors here. 

• Immigration of willing workers who are malleable to corporate interests.

• Locking up of natural resources by green groups who are largely pawns of international corporations and educational institutional survivalists.

• Foreign policies that pawn lives and families in large and uncertain circles of economic intrigue.

• Moral confusion that blackmails gifted people into zombie like corporate servitude with bitter ends.

Families? Yes! We will keep on trucking! Lets ignore the uncommon ground and work together. Lets use checks and balances at the local, community level. Then, perhaps, we can mitigate the monopolies at the top. --JK

Puget Sound Partnership – Nepotism and Waste. These are the people who pay for community agitators/organizers, like below.

Local environmental activists apply to Puget Sound Partnership for a corporate donation 

The local ethereal community vision of Puget Sound Partnership funded (your tax dollars) environmental seminars. Short term jobs for students and handlers.Skills in feeding at the public trough.

Federal corporate RINO’s fund Common Core candidates

Federal corporate RINO’s ignore checks and balances in immigration

Google and Nest penetrate home power management—does corporate reality lend itself to goodness?

Read this Loftus book first. Then go back and read “Unholy Triangle” and “Secret War Against the Jews”. This is a foundation of the struggle between the Tea Party and the RINO’s. This is the club the top Democrats (Bi-llary, Sierra Club) have joined, and the lowest level Democrats (WWU student activists) are at “war”with.

A Truth Table: Conservative, Capitalist, Liberal, Progressive

Elections profile voter motivations. Elections also birth consequences. There are consequences for voters, and for those who are voted into office. And, those consequences in turn change the ranking of local motivations. What motivations might shape Whatcom County life in months and years ahead?

I would like to examine and whimsically profile two commonly associated public policy categories, social and fiscal values. Social values may include both caring for the weak and denying or indulging passions. Fiscal values may include work, wage, capitalization and taxation elements. Both social and fiscal public policies are determined by governments, which are formed by the leader “worthships” (elections in America) of its citizens.

Both social and fiscal policy have a nexus in work. I would say that fiscal policy enables social policy, and social policy redeems fiscal policy. This is one reason why Whatcom Works =).

Here is my analysis.

		Social	Fiscal
Conservative		x	x	single family capitalized Reformation Protestant / Catholic
				[Classical Music Home/Public School Family]
Conservative		x		bank capitalized Ref. Protestant/Enlightenment Catholic
Capitalist			x	[Age 50+ Lynden Business/Farm Family]
Liberal		x		bank capitalized Enlightenment Protestant / Pragmatist
Capitalist			x	[Country Republican/Tea Party/Young Lynden Business Family]
Liberal		x		mixed bank/tax base capitalized Post Modern Pragmatist
Capitalist			x	[Bellingham Businessman/NGO/Gov’t Agency Sector]
Liberal		x		tax base/bank capitalized Post Modern Evangelical
Capitalist			x	[CCM / Russian immigrant / Home or Public Schooled Family]
Progressive		x	x	tax base capitalized age 18-45 Modern/Post Modern Utopian
				[Huxley-WWU, Bellingham lawyer/medical/educator class]
				[global multi-national high tech business circle e.g. Bill Gates]
Progressive		x		single family capitalized Post Modern Communitarian
Conservative			x	[Grow Local, Food Coop, Under-employed Wage Worker]
Conservative		x	x	single family capitalized Post Modern Catholic, Mormon, Hispanic, Muslim…
				[Union Wage Worker, Corporate Wage Worker]

 
As a service and remodel electrician, I work in many homes. I enjoy conversations with many sectors of people. As I stated above, this is a whimsical, anecdotally driven analysis. But I think it is fairly accurate.

Conservatives generally minimize risk and value continuity. They value traditional community, family and God relationships as their mile posts in life.

Liberals are the end product of the incipient globalism of the 1500’s, the colonizations of the 1600’s, the industrialization and enlightenment of the 1700’s and 1800’s. Liberals take a pragmatic, largely live and let live approach to life. Liberals absorb and discard social mores throughout their lives, and largely disdain the social and faith based strictures of conservatives. Liberals see no reason why broken people can’t be fixed with money. Aging liberal grandparents decry the rot from socialist fiscal policies in their grandchildren, yet advocate for youthful flaming sexual passions. They then continually bemoan the revolving bedroom door of living partners of their offspring. Liberals fixate on the surface social elements of aboriginal cultures and spiritist religion, then destroy those same people by transferring boat loads of money from local taxpayers into aboriginal circles.

Many current Progressives are rebranded liberals who are hyper dogmatized like many conservatives. They harshly impose their social values, only, without God and with an enlarged, somewhat dysfunctional definition of community. In reality, progressives are their own mini-gods, and spend an inordinate amount of time propping up their sagging self-image. Go progressive left far enough and you meet the utopian instincts of the religious right. Most grass roots progressives give an amazing amount of their time to their neighbors. Maybe too much for the good of either party. At elite levels, progressives are usually closet capitalists, and could care less for social needs.

Capitalists struggle to fulfill social responsibilities. The burden of corporate upsizing exiles its inhabitants to a moonscape of cash flows, collections, markets, and materialistic fulfillments. Capitalists who are elected into public office may promise tax reductions, but unless they are rooted in a conservative religious element, have a very small relational resource base to drive solutions for community social problems. After the election, they rather quickly capitulate to the system of transfers of tax revenue to non-religious NGOs and government agencies. They find themselves unable to counter NGO and government financial bloat and relational inefficiencies.

Many evangelicals consider themselves social conservatives because they donate money to faith based charities and advocate heterosexual marriage for life. However, there is little difference between them and most liberals. The common ground is closing the home’s door to larger families, (“two children is more than enough”) which also blunts skill and vision for later social service contributions.  Hypocritical evangelical birth control usage is glossed over, yet abortion is unconscionable. The end result in both groups is fewer children and more materialistic freedoms. And, abortionists laugh all the way to the bank. Small time family capitalization gives a “lower” standard of living, but the long term benefits for children are much greater with limited family capital than with big time bank or tax base corporate capitalization. Most evangelicals seek loans and reject children.

In the chart above, there is a sequence. At the top is a Reformation era/type of person. Most early European Americans came from German, Anglo and French Reformation stock. As material prosperity was enabled by global exploration, colonization and industrialization, a corporate mindset replaced family and clan capitalization and culture. Capitalization became a driving and increasingly resented marker in the enlightenment era. God became a distant or non existent reality for elites flush with world capital.

European continental social passions were openly indulged in increasing measure in the 1700’s and later. The ravages of early industrialization were tempered by confrontations with corporations in the late 1900’s, but the social equity of capitalism remains very low. Working for a corporation has more value than not working at all, but corporate “family job wages” do not compensate for reduced formative time with one’s children. The public school is also a poor nanny. Many young families are having to rediscover nuclear family life.

The chart lists several concurrent groups.

Progressive wage workers grapple with falling standards of living, either living in welfare or seeking some elusive tryst with nature and aboriginal cultures.

Older capitalists and wage workers struggle to maintain retirement prospects by shifting their investments through a dizzying range of unstable stock portfolios.

Progressive grant tycoons compensate market job losses by enlarging local grant driven agencies. As government (and progressive millionaire) resources dry up, grant based agencies will shrink and scale down their grand progressive agendas. Many welfare supported families will get very upset. There is a reason to base income on work initiative, not need.

Younger capitalists eat their own health, carrying family killing loans and pleasures.

My harshest words are reserved for my own kind. Christians. Fundamentalists. Evangelicals. Conservatives. We have lost touch with the transcendent power of a God who waits to show his power in meeting the material needs of his bond servants. We have become unaccountable, materialistic wraiths, slipping through life, grasping for college degrees, houses, late model cars, cosmetic beauty, athletic honors, with a modicum of theological correctness after Sunday dinner.

We spend an inordinate amount of time in church buildings and with church friends.

Conservative Christian, take my challenge. Do what your Master says. Lift up your eyes and look about you.  Engage in the public square. Enable the worthy leader, elected or appointed, as he moves resources to meet needs. Take the transcendence and power of your God into the public square. Sharing CCM worship music in a mall is tripe in the public square. Christian athletes and models suck when compared to Christian businessmen who know and address local social needs.

Evangelical father, develop financial discipline. There is a time for elegance and academics, but how much of that is needed, and when? Now is the time to get down and dirty, to earn and share your capital. Teach your children to major on work, not on loans for college and homes, not on football and beer parties. Also, put your time and children in the public square, not just your money.

Finally, expect to go it alone. Your Christian friends will likely not follow you, at first. It is the uncommon ground that counts, but uncommon ground has risks, and does not have a “predictable” financial return. But then, who came to the uncommon ground as a baby 2000 years ago? Go figure!                       -- JK

Uncommon Ground

Epistemology. What is it? Webster’s Collegiate Fifth, page 336—

“ the theory or science of the method and grounds of knowledge,

especially with a reference to its limits and validity.”

In other words, how you know what you know.

A couple of nights ago, I viewed a documentary on climate change, the geological speculations of Michael J. Oard . Historical climate change. Warm seas. Wet warm valleys. Cold, glaciated mountains. Millions of dead woolley mammoths, buried beside hippopotamii. Washington State’s Missoula Lake flood. Interesting ice age theories. Interesting stuff. Controversial stuff. How does he know what he says he knows?

Michael J. Oard, has a B.S. and M.S. degree in atmospheric science from the University of Washington. He was a research meteorologist for 6 years at the University of Washington. In 2001, he retired as a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Great Falls, Montana.

As for myself, I grew up in Alberta, Canada. Cold, dry air winters were the norm. Maximum three feet of snow on the ground. Extreme temperature swings of 80 degrees were common, when arctic air was pushed aside by dry chinook winds from the west coast. Sidewalks with a ground temperature of -30 F built up a half inch of frost when air temps moved to +50F in a matter of two hours. Could this be called climate change? Three feet of snow was reduced to a half a foot in one day, and rivers of water flowed down sloping streets.

Then, the bitter cold came back with a vengeance, leaving streets and sidewalks a dangerous aggregation of frozen slush and lakes in various non-navigable patterns. The ground frost remained all winter to a depth of at least four feet. No one dug new foundations until the middle of May. Climate change! Yeah! Of sorts.

Our family moved to the West Coast 23 years ago. I love the mild winters where I can “play” in the dirt all year around. Granted, the gray, watery days keep things in perspective, but I love the ground here.

Uncommon ground. A very wise man once wrote, “Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house”.

What creates commerce? Markets? Need! Some would say, desire.

We live in an age of specialization. The great majority of people do not produce their own food. They have largely forsaken the field, the ground. Silly city people hug trees and finger shells and pretend food independence. For them, growing food is uncommon, something to preach about and regulate for others, but not to do.

Soil is relatively heavy to a man. Opening the soil for seed, whacking weeds, training vines, turning in amendments and fertilizers, digging out the precious fruits—this takes strong arms and backs.

Fossil fuels (and electrical power conversions) have made possible this detachment from the soil. In Washington State, significant water power has been harnessed as well. Wind and solar power is a dream that moves closer, but (grind your teeth if you wish), it is oil that puts food on our plates.

Uncommon ground. In 1994 we purchased five acres as a family playground and homestead. In 1999 we purchased four milking sheep. Our family has grown to nine, that is seven children. This is uncommon ground. I get asked if I am a Mormon or a Catholic. I am neither. We see children as a gift, the seed of the next generation, a legacy of hope, not something to be flushed down the toilet the morning after, like many other “Christians” of our day.

Uncommon ground. Sheep take work. Children helping is a win-win situation. We had to weather several learning curves at once. Fieldwork. Animal husbandry. Farm shelters. Milking skills. Cheese and yogurt making. Ice cream making was not so hard! We did this on the cheap. No bank loans. Seasons of waiting for cash to build up. Seasons of trying to orient to government health rules based on large, quick capital infusions. We wanted our children to see how businesses used to be started when grants and loans were not the norm. We have enjoyed not feeling the bite of the bank.

Uncommon ground. We took the time to relate our heritage to our “farm”. Have you ever read what the Bible says about farming? About sheep? About milk? The Bible is a big thing in our larger family circle. Maybe not yours. Probably not, especially if you are one of the privileged, “educated” class who eats what other people grow. (I do have a college degree). We love to contribute in our local church fellowship. We share our soil’s produce and our Bible insights there.

Uncommon ground. You may notice that I will post to Whatcom Works less frequently in days ahead. I am working on another website which will be called UnCommon Ground. Whatcom Works is supposed to be a local “Drudge” page for news and conservative commentary. Digging up and writing stories and aggregating news has to take a back seat to earning a living. I do not have EPA grants to allow me to watch other people all day as they grow my food.

But, it is the uncommon ground that holds the potential for the future. Political process and public policy spring out of the community of people in their given locale. Neighbors actually have a lot of uncommon ground. How can we come together? A lot of acceptance is needed. Patience. Negotiating. When uncommon worldviews mix without trust or giving, there are wars.

Uncommon ground. He who sits above the circle of the earth walked uncommon ground with men 2000 years ago. Christmas has roots. So does Easter, or Pasqua, or Passover. If you don’t like religion, don’t read our work at Uncommon Ground. But then, don’t brag about being a tolerant liberal.

Thanks for your time. Have a good Whatcom work day!

--- JK

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The Great Ice Age – Awesome Science Media

Michael J. Oard, B.S., M.S., University of Washington