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Letters
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
The coming presidential election reminds me of an old joke: A man dies who is despised by everyone in his congregation. A service is held, and the Rabbi asks, “Before we bury this man, has anyone got anything good to say about him?”
There are a few moments of silence, and then a voice comes from the back of the room, “His brother was worse!”
Some background: When Ronald Reagan said that government was the problem and not the solution; it marked the beginning of the age of deregulation.
Deregulation meant the fox was guarding the hen house, and resulted in a series of disasters which began with the savings and loan scandal and ended with derivatives and credit default swaps which, if not for government intervention, would have brought the flow of credit, and thus commerce, to a standstill.
An example of a derivative (meaning its worth is derived from something else) is a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO. A CDO could be a bundle of mortgages, some being subprime mortgages, that would be divided up into tranches (the French word for trenches).
Perhaps one of the tranches would have mortgages held by people with good credit scores, and there might be 14 other tranches, each more risky. The risky tranches are cheaper, because they are more likely to fail.
One problem turned out to be that if a relatively small number of loans went into default, the entire CDO was junk.
It gets worse. You could bet deals would fail (called going short) by buying a kind of insurance called a credit default swap.
Companies who issued the “policies” did not have the capital to cover the losses and when tons of deals went bad, as they did in 2008, collapse was imminent.
Enter the U.S. government to save the day. The powerful financial sector had opened the door to this debacle by erasing any meaningful restraint on the gluttony of the greedy. What all this means is that we got screwed.
Enter Romney, like the neighbor across the hall from the Jack Nicholson character in the movie “ As Good as it Gets: selling “crazy.”
Romney asserts that business will create the jobs to put the middle class back to work (maybe he is going to hire all the unemployed at Bain Capital), and carping away at “big government.”
That myth never gets old, and the beauty of myths, as John Maynard Keynes pointed out, is that you can have an opinion without thinking or reading a book. So, bad as Obama is, and that is pretty bad, I think Romney is worse.
The main point that I want to make, is that the issue of “big government” or “bad corporation,” is, a misdirection play: The blockers all move to the right, but when the running back gets the hand-off, he goes left.
The real issue is that no person, group or organization should be able to function under the cover of darkness, with no oversight and no “checks and balances.”
Human nature is such that even the best and most well-intentioned among us need limits.
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Solliday
Many thanks to those South Lake County residents who helped support the South Lake Fire Safe Council in 2011!
The SLFSC is operated solely by volunteers, and our mission is to allocate significant resources to wildfire education, prevention, and preparedness projects in the South Lake County area.
The support that we received in 2011 was invaluable in helping the SLFSC continue its programs and projects, and we are grateful to all of our supporting members.
Thanks to the donations of residents throughout South Lake County, here are some of the projects that the SLFSC was able to accomplish in 2011:
- Inexpensive chipping provided at over 115 different residential sites,
- A large fuel break created on Bottle Rock Road,
- A large fuel break created around Hidden Valley Lake Subdivision,
- A new fuel break started on Sulfur Creek Road in Cobb,
- Several existing fuel breaks received much-needed maintenance.
It is only because of our supporting members that these projects were possible, making our South Lake County neighborhood a safer place to live.
Please, take a moment to express your support for the South Lake Fire Safe Council by sending a check of $25 or more to:
SLFSC
PO Box 1773
Middletown, CA 95461
Checks should be made payable to the “SLFSC” and please write “2012 Membership” on the memo line of your check.
Elizabeth Solliday is director and treasurer of the South Lake Fire Safe Council based in Middletown, Calif.
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- Written by: Barbara Christwitz
“Why did you dump tons of garbage east of Pomo School in Clearlake and what, if anything, would persuade you to dump at the landfill?”
On Saturday, April 28, I asked the above questions as I joined a band of others cleaning up the illegal dumpsite.
Are there solutions, or will residents of Clearlake simply continue to divide between the cleaners and the dumpers? Below is my brainstorm for possible ideas that could help. What else?
1. A garbage club hotline for people who need to dump NOW can request a free dump pass, if necessary, and even receive transportation. Such a hotline could be funded through a special grant if such a grant existed.
2. Posting guards and/or surveillance cameras. Perhaps a homeless person or two could make camp to help guard the area, paying them for valid information on illegal dumps,
3. Secure fencing to prevent access to vacant lot areas (good luck).
4. Deposits at time of purchase on appliances and electronics. The deposits can be refunded when the items are brought to the landfill as garbage, similar to when people are paid for recycling California redemption items.
5. Pay private hired haulers only after the hauler has produced the receipt from the landfill. This prevents haulers from dumping illegally and pocketing the money which was to have gone to the landfill
6. Write grants to employ local youth to help clean up our city. This would include returning shopping carts which are taken from the stores.
7. Reduced landfill fees for low-income people. (Three adult students called the fees “outrageous.”)
For the past few days my husband, Bandit the cat, and I have walked the area we helped reclaim. The manzanitas and scrub oaks seem to be joyously breathing freely there at the foot of Mt. Baldy under the azure sky.
I hope we as a community can preserve this piece of paradise.
Barbara Christwitz lives in Clearlake, Calif.
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- Written by: Howard Glasser
By the time you read this, it will be the last day PG&E gave you to opt out of their Smart Meter program and you’d be well advised to call PG&E TODAY to be sure you are on the opt-out list.
This applies to those who may have opted out online.
Additionally, unless a sticker has been placed on your meter by PG&E indicating your opt out choice, PG&E will tell you that “they can’t guarantee you won’t get a Smart Meter” so it’s time to pick up the phone and it’s worth the wait. The number to call is: 1-866-743-0263. Bypass the automated system by pressing zero and get connected to a live operator to be sure your request is logged.
Reports are pouring in from every area of California where Smart Meters were installed and bills have skyrocketed.
Even more troubling news is that scores of customers report having developed disabling health conditions ranging from migraine headaches to dizziness to insomnia and a host of other neurological disorders that have turned their lives in to a nightmare and in some cases, driven families from their homes.
Yes, you heard right! People have actually abandoned homes that became uninhabitable because of Smart Meters. This is due to a sensitivity people often don’t know they have until after they’ve been exposed to the particular type of radio frequency transmission emitted by Smart Meters and by then it’s too late.
While PG&E claims Smart Meters are perfectly safe and commissioned the science to back up their claims, many well reputed scientists around the world have warned of the problems caused by the wireless Smart Grid phenomena.
We’re not talking about crazy technophobes or chronic complainers. These folks aren’t hypochondriacs and they have no axe to grind with PG&E.
These people have been made sick by Smart Meters and when you’re ill and you were just fine until a Smart Meter was installed, it’s not coincidence.
Those with heart conditions should be particularly concerned as should pregnant women and families with small children. This is not just an inconvenient truth. This is about your health and the health of those you love.
To date, 56 California local governments (11 counties and 44 cities including Lake County, Lakeport, Clearlake and the Big Valley Rancheria tribal community of Pomo Indians) have opposed PG&E’s mandatory Smart Meter program. PG&E ignored the cities and counties that banned Smart Meters claiming that local governments had no say in the matter.
PG&E was allocated $2.2 billion to roll out Smart Meters in California. That’s the largest Smart Meter installation in North America and they’re not doing this because it’s the “green” thing to do. They’re doing it for the money and they expect you the ratepayer to pay for privilege of having your health damaged.
PG&E is invested in two types of mining – coal and data. Start by looking up the damage the PG&E-operated Boardman Coal Plant did to Oregon’s lakes and national forests dumping five million tons of carbon dioxide annually in to the environment.
By data mining, examine the fine print among the innocuous looking inserts that were mailed to you with your utility bill.
The little item called the Customer Data Access Application decision permits PG&E “to provide third party access to a customer’s energy usage data.” They get to sell the data they collect on you and then charge you for collecting it.
It gets better. They’ve asked the CPUC for $19.4 million in additional rate increases through 2016 to help them pay for their data collection program.
For more information about Smart Meters, the following web sites offer a reliable source of information:
Howard Glasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.