Opinion

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Written by: Nelson Strasser

Published: 03 December 2011

About three decades ago, an idea swept into power: The notion that if we unleashed the chains of government from the capitalist beast, we would all be better off. That is to say, “a rising sea floats all boats.” The reality became, as someone quipped, “a rising sea floats all yachts.”

This is also called “trickle down.” If we consider that wages have virtually been frozen for the past 40 years, we have to wonder exactly what it is that is trickling down.

For example, in 2006, 15 million Americans earned the minimum wage, then $5.15 an hour, while the CEO of Goldman Sachs investment bank earned a $53.4 million bonus.

The truth is that unfettered capitalism has created one debacle after another, from the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s to the present derivative disaster. The government has rescued the finance sector, time after time.

For those of you who cling to the belief that the Republicans are the party of business, think about this: the financial sector, which in terms of percentage of GDP now dominates the economy, contributes more to the Democratic Party than to the Republican Party.

My pop used to quote the axiom, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” And, the financial sector gets what they pay for in rescues and bailouts and lack of regulation. The reality is that the capitalism could not exist without the state.

In addition to this, private and public debts have skyrocketed. Do we want to tax wealthy individuals and corporations in order to cut the deficit, or cut services to the elderly, students, and the poor?

As an aside, those of us on Social Security have not had a cost of living increase in two years, even though our expenses have gone up.

How did this happen? Increases in Social Security are tied to the Consumer Price Index, which is based on the prices of “a basket of goods.” The government “cooked the books” by not including essential, rising-cost items in the basket.

Meanwhile another catastrophe is coming: peak oil. This is the notion that there is less oil on the planet than what we have already taken out.

What this means is that, sooner, rather than later, we will run out of oil. We already import way more than we produce, and that is why we are fighting “resource wars.” At the same time, the demand in Asia grows.

It gets worse: as we are running out of oil, we are also running out of planet due to global warming. So, there is a race to extinction. These facts would seem to indicate that we need an incredible concentration of brains and resources to wean us off carbon fuel. Hopefully, we can use the same brains and resources that we are now using to kill people.

The finance sector needs to be limited to providing credit, and kept from devising exotic schemes with dizzying returns that end in debacles. How do we accomplish this when elections in America are now advertising campaigns: focus groups are formed to find out what we want to hear, and then that is what candidates tell us. (Remember “hope and change,” which became “more of the same”?).

So, the question for us all is this: Will we accept reality and mobilize to deal with a changing world, or, will we go from crisis to crisis and war to war?

Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.

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Written by: David Gebhard

Published: 01 December 2011

I voted for both the district attorney and the sheriff, but now I must say that I am disappointed that the district attorney is wasting his time on protecting the rights of the Hells Angels.

Not that they do not have the same rights we do, but the district attorney is the public prosecutor, not a civil rights activist.

Blocking off freeways to keep warring outlaw bikers apart is a trick as old as the Watsonville-Hollister takeovers by these same Hells Angels.

I am sure that if they had known in advance what would have happened, they would have employed the same tactics to provide for public safety.

The temporary loss of rights is as old as man; when the public good is threatened, we even suspend property rights.

I wish both departments would just do their jobs and work together. We have big enough challenges with the state shifting prisoners back to the counties with no increase in facilities.

Maybe the district attorney and the sheriff are too young to remember Watsonville-Hollister and the Angels, but there is a movie that shows the fun they had at everyone else’s expense.

Remember that we must learn from history, or else.

Save the politics for elections, keep the emphasis on public safety and justice for all.

Too often, small rural agencies become private fiefdoms, extensions of their leaders. That may be fun for the leaders, but as a citizen, I would feel better if they concentrated on their responsibilities.

David Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.

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Written by: Deb Baumann

Published: 01 December 2011

The No. 1 myth about the Occupy Wall Street movement is that it has no clear message.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The 1 percent are rolling out the big media guns to convince Americans to believe that OWS has no message, because OWS's message is TOO CLEAR.

The mainstream media has been near-universal in proclaiming that OWS “has no clear message.” Five thousand people chanting “Banks Got Bailed Out, We Got Sold Out” translates to “no clear message” if you work for the mainstream media.

The reason all these corporate-owned news outlets are faithfully repeating that lie is, again, because OWS's message is TOO clear. Too consistent. Too widely agreed upon (by the 99 percent).

So, corporate media employs the old Chinese trick, “a lie told a thousand times becomes truth.” But just because you find the same thing being said on every channel, does not make it true.

There are a few key messages you will find universally repeated, nationwide, throughout the OWS movement.

One is that we need to reinstate the Glass-Steagal Act, because deregulation has turned our banking system into a casino for the uber-wealthy. And it's a casino where they cannot lose, because if the dice don't roll their way, us sucker taxpayers bail them out.

Another demand you will find repeated throughout the OWS movement: End corporate personhood.

The corporate-lawyer-dominated Supreme Court voted 5-4 against Citizens United and deemed that corporations were people, with human rights including freedom of speech, and that money was speech.

In his dissent, Justice Stevens wrote: “… corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their “personhood” often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of 'We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

If you had driven by any of our Occupy Lake County events, you would have seen signs saying “End corporate personhood” as well as “Reinstate Glass-Steagal.” Pretty clear messages.

Other widely-agreed-upon demands you will likely find on every OWS Top 10 list include raising taxes on the 1 percent (make them pay a fair share) and stopping the purchasing of elections (election reform).

We the People cannot afford to buy politicians. So, we are carrying signs. And no matter how much the mainstream media wants you to believe otherwise, we ARE getting our message across.

The issues are complicated, but the spotlight that OWS is shining on the problem (our rigged financial and political system) has been unwavering, and that is what unnerves the 1 percent.

Visit www.OccupyLakeCounty.org to learn more.

Deb Baumann lives in Upper Lake, Calif.