Yesterday, the Post & Courier had an opinion piece by Dave Schwartz. You may not know him; he doesn't even have a wikipedia page. But this is just the way his employer, David Koch, of the Americans for Prosperity, likes it. Anonymity allowed him and his brother, the other Koch, to get away with years of control of our legislators, until investigative journalists like Rachel Maddow forced them out of the shadows.
So we have this new guy who comes into town and spreads lies about bad government and good corporations, bad taxes and good job creators, and then moves on. He has been State Director for AFP in Maryland, then Virginia, and now South Carolina.
The opinion piece in the Post and Courier is an example of the dirtiest of dirty work, full of blatant and absurd lies, like calling the American Legislative Exchange Council "non-partisan." He argues, predictably, that it is our high state taxes that is the cause of all our ills. If only we had low taxes like Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, we would have -- that's right -- job growth and prosperity. And he sites that other "non-partisan" group, the Civitas Institute, for research that states that SC has the highest tax rate and the "lowest take-home pay in the region." The Civitas Institute, for those of you who aren't aware, is that North Carolina group of right wing-nuts who, despite Schwartz claim that they are non-partisan, describes themselves as "North Carolina's conservative voice." A voice that is funded by Art Pope, who as NC budget director engineered the cutbacks that have devastated North Carolina in recent years. He has just resigned; we might want to keep an eye on him to see where he will be going to spread his dysentery next.
Anyway, to get back to Dave Schwartz and the Post & Courier. He has made claims in that piece that are totally fabricated, made to scare and anger readers. We know he is disseminating lies. We know that our governor bribes businesses to our state with tax giveaways, that our education system suffers as a result, that too many of our workers are not paid a living wage. We know that the reason our economic growth in SC is lower than much of the rest of the country is that our yahoos in the legislature and our governor are wasting our resources working to cut services to the poor, deny voting rights to seniors and minorities, and ensure that workers are not allowed to fight for a living wage. We also know that big corporations are favored over small businesses, and that because the wealthy who profit in our state are not made to contribute, our education, health care and infrastructure resembles that of a third world country, where the lines are clearly drawn between the rich and the poor, and those in the shrinking middle struggle every day to access the American dream.
We should not allow Dave Schwartz and other Koch and Pope minions to get away with disseminating lies without fear of contradiction. When we see an article online, let's quickly comment. Let's write letters to the editor pointing out the fallacies and distortions, and correcting the misinformation. Let's not complain among ourselves, or ignore these outrages. They will not go away. They will invade and erode, so that truth becomes fiction. They snuck into North Carolina like body snatchers and left its government wasted and its people devastated.
It is hard to believe that we have elections coming up in a few months. Interest has been pretty lackadaisical, considering all we have at stake. Our Democratic politicians and candidates aren't screaming loud enough, they aren't showing enough outrage. Shouldn't one of those candidates be writing an Op Ed in the Post and Courier denouncing Dave Schwartz's ridiculous claims?
Somebody, anybody, everybody, please, speak out. And let's start with the fact that he is misrepresenting who he is and what his organizations stand for.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
War at Home
I have been away for awhile. I found that it seemed I was writing the same old over and over again. No new information, no new perspectives. It has been nice being a member of the uninformed public. Also, when I got back not a thing had changed -- except that somebody told me gay marriage is now legal in South Carolina, which I guess would be earth-shattering news if it were true.
The "riots" in St. Louis are related to George Zimmerman being handed his gun and set free with the blessing of the NRA and the KKK. And the Zimmerman outrage is related to the fact that Columbia, SC, last year bought a tank from the federal government.
Rachel Maddow last night had an excellent retrospective on the shootings at Kent State in 1970. But then she went farther back, to the campus protest in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1967, when Vietnam protests were turned over from local campus police to city police, ending in 65 people hospitalized.
After that, Madison hired a new chief of police, David Cooper, who in his long career there successfully demilitarized the police force, and began what is now called "community policing."
I urge you to read The Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko. He paints a gruesome picture of how police departments in small communities in this country over the past decade have become armed. Just as the US is supplying their favored sides in battles in the Middle East, they are also arming our communities. And what they are being armed for is not fighting neighborhood crime, but for war.
Here are the priorities in the nation today: we do not have money to spend on education, on housing, on psychotherapy. We do have unlimited amounts to spend on arms and prisons. And the citizens of our country are the ones who have chosen these priorities, because they are the ones who are voting. They may be voting out of ignorance, they are certainly vulnerable to the hysterical fear-mongering of Fox News and the NRA, but the fact remains, we voters have chosen.
The reason we voters choose an armed America is because we believe that only the bad guys will get hurt. But the battering rams are not shattering the houses of drug lords, but homes of individuals who may have their small stash of pot. They aren't going after cartels, but people enjoying poker night.
Don't believe it? Neither do most of us, because it is too horrendous to consider.
But there are a couple of truisms about this situation. First, there is the supply of weapons. Then there is the fact that we will pay for the toys, but not for the training. And then there is the fact that the police have gone from those who live in the community and are hired to protect us, to those with too much firepower, too little training, and who believe that they need to be constantly vigilant, in order to protect themselves.
And of course, police violence like that going on in Ferguson, Missouri, won't be likely to happen in suburban white communities. We have over the past several years, been fed racist attitudes that have allowed black teenagers to be targeted. It may be that Michael Brown stole cigars from a convenience store, but maybe not. He may have pushed the officer, but maybe not. Whatever he did do, he was unarmed, and shot eight times.
This is not our system of justice. This is a national corrosion of values, evident in "stop and frisk" and "papers, please." Where guns are not just allowed but welcomed, because politicians and, yes, our courts, don't really have a clue about the second amendment but prefer to sow seeds of fear across the country, and quash state and individual rights to protect themselves through peaceful measures. In fact, the second amendment has become somewhat like a Rorschach Test, reflecting just how power hungry and paranoid we are.
This time, though, there were journalists -- white journalists -- who got caught in the tear gas and the rubber bullets and the jailing. It was a middle class, conservative campus in 1970 where the murders of four unarmed students forced the nation to look at its war on its young citizens. I am hoping that the media, because members of its own were caught in the crosshairs of a militant police action, will pick up this fight. Because we are looking at a future with tanks and assault weapons, where people are watched from cameras on the street corners, and are guilty until proven innocent, or maybe until killed.
The "riots" in St. Louis are related to George Zimmerman being handed his gun and set free with the blessing of the NRA and the KKK. And the Zimmerman outrage is related to the fact that Columbia, SC, last year bought a tank from the federal government.
Rachel Maddow last night had an excellent retrospective on the shootings at Kent State in 1970. But then she went farther back, to the campus protest in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1967, when Vietnam protests were turned over from local campus police to city police, ending in 65 people hospitalized.
After that, Madison hired a new chief of police, David Cooper, who in his long career there successfully demilitarized the police force, and began what is now called "community policing."
I urge you to read The Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko. He paints a gruesome picture of how police departments in small communities in this country over the past decade have become armed. Just as the US is supplying their favored sides in battles in the Middle East, they are also arming our communities. And what they are being armed for is not fighting neighborhood crime, but for war.
Here are the priorities in the nation today: we do not have money to spend on education, on housing, on psychotherapy. We do have unlimited amounts to spend on arms and prisons. And the citizens of our country are the ones who have chosen these priorities, because they are the ones who are voting. They may be voting out of ignorance, they are certainly vulnerable to the hysterical fear-mongering of Fox News and the NRA, but the fact remains, we voters have chosen.
The reason we voters choose an armed America is because we believe that only the bad guys will get hurt. But the battering rams are not shattering the houses of drug lords, but homes of individuals who may have their small stash of pot. They aren't going after cartels, but people enjoying poker night.
Don't believe it? Neither do most of us, because it is too horrendous to consider.
But there are a couple of truisms about this situation. First, there is the supply of weapons. Then there is the fact that we will pay for the toys, but not for the training. And then there is the fact that the police have gone from those who live in the community and are hired to protect us, to those with too much firepower, too little training, and who believe that they need to be constantly vigilant, in order to protect themselves.
And of course, police violence like that going on in Ferguson, Missouri, won't be likely to happen in suburban white communities. We have over the past several years, been fed racist attitudes that have allowed black teenagers to be targeted. It may be that Michael Brown stole cigars from a convenience store, but maybe not. He may have pushed the officer, but maybe not. Whatever he did do, he was unarmed, and shot eight times.
This is not our system of justice. This is a national corrosion of values, evident in "stop and frisk" and "papers, please." Where guns are not just allowed but welcomed, because politicians and, yes, our courts, don't really have a clue about the second amendment but prefer to sow seeds of fear across the country, and quash state and individual rights to protect themselves through peaceful measures. In fact, the second amendment has become somewhat like a Rorschach Test, reflecting just how power hungry and paranoid we are.
This time, though, there were journalists -- white journalists -- who got caught in the tear gas and the rubber bullets and the jailing. It was a middle class, conservative campus in 1970 where the murders of four unarmed students forced the nation to look at its war on its young citizens. I am hoping that the media, because members of its own were caught in the crosshairs of a militant police action, will pick up this fight. Because we are looking at a future with tanks and assault weapons, where people are watched from cameras on the street corners, and are guilty until proven innocent, or maybe until killed.
Friday, August 8, 2014
The Gun Conundrum
So you're carrying your gun. Either you watch a lot of Fox News and have been frightened into believing that anywhere you go there will be a paranoid bully waiting to take you out. Or you are a paranoid bully looking for someone to take out.
Fact is, the world is a confusing place for gun-toters. Let's take the beach community of Atlantic Beach / Morehead City, North Carolina, which is where I have been vacationing this week. My own resort has posted by the tennis courts a sign that says that guns are not allowed anywhere in this resort.
I was relieved, but then I thought, how would all the gun-toters know about this? I've been here for five days and only just saw the sign. Suppose I'd been traveling from Georgia, where everybody is encouraged to carry their arms everywhere, all the time, just in case. Or maybe to impress the ladies. And I've heard (from Fox News) that here in the South (you gun-toters know it as "Dixie") no bleeding heart Obamacare liberals are going to stop you from protecting yourself and your loved ones from, well, them damned liberal gun-toting Obama-loving Democrats. And especially in North Carolina, where their God-fearing, Koch-worshiping politicians have ensured that those that got it, flaunt it.
So of course I take my weapon on vacation.
And here we are, a real American family, on vacation. We've been to the beach, we've barbecued and stayed up late drinking our brew. We've even honored the voluntary ban on smoking in the rooms. But we've never been to the tennis courts. Are we in the wrong here? And if we were (which we are probably not) how are we supposed to know? And if we found out when we got here we aren't supposed to be carrying our guns, what the heck are we supposed to do with them?
Here's another example. Last night I went out for Italian. Let me tell you, I have been coming here, on and off, for twenty-three years, and I say with some confidence that there is not a lot of great food in the Atlantic Beach area. And I am the person who is able to rout out great food nearly anywhere I travel. But I figured this place, a couple miles away in Morehead City, sounded like it had potential. I'd been eating in all week and thought I might have my dinner there. I had already checked to make sure they served alcohol, because in these God-fearing parts of the South, you never do know when a family restaurant will just assume lemonade and sweet tea are the perfect accompaniments to steak or oysters.
Crispino's had an interesting online menu and served beer and wine. It was in a large shopping center, and looked like either they were preparing to expand, or they had just decided to use the shop next door to store pizza boxes. It was fairly small, with several people waiting for take-out, and otherwise empty. Not a single person eating in. So I decided I would do take-out. As I sat waiting for my order, I noted with displeasure that Fox News was on the television, but at least sound was muted. I prefer my pizza without partisan politics, but one young man watched, rapt, as the gospel according to Fox played on the screen. I took out my book.
But just before my order was ready, I noticed a sign that said:
Fact is, the world is a confusing place for gun-toters. Let's take the beach community of Atlantic Beach / Morehead City, North Carolina, which is where I have been vacationing this week. My own resort has posted by the tennis courts a sign that says that guns are not allowed anywhere in this resort.
I was relieved, but then I thought, how would all the gun-toters know about this? I've been here for five days and only just saw the sign. Suppose I'd been traveling from Georgia, where everybody is encouraged to carry their arms everywhere, all the time, just in case. Or maybe to impress the ladies. And I've heard (from Fox News) that here in the South (you gun-toters know it as "Dixie") no bleeding heart Obamacare liberals are going to stop you from protecting yourself and your loved ones from, well, them damned liberal gun-toting Obama-loving Democrats. And especially in North Carolina, where their God-fearing, Koch-worshiping politicians have ensured that those that got it, flaunt it.
So of course I take my weapon on vacation.
And here we are, a real American family, on vacation. We've been to the beach, we've barbecued and stayed up late drinking our brew. We've even honored the voluntary ban on smoking in the rooms. But we've never been to the tennis courts. Are we in the wrong here? And if we were (which we are probably not) how are we supposed to know? And if we found out when we got here we aren't supposed to be carrying our guns, what the heck are we supposed to do with them?
Here's another example. Last night I went out for Italian. Let me tell you, I have been coming here, on and off, for twenty-three years, and I say with some confidence that there is not a lot of great food in the Atlantic Beach area. And I am the person who is able to rout out great food nearly anywhere I travel. But I figured this place, a couple miles away in Morehead City, sounded like it had potential. I'd been eating in all week and thought I might have my dinner there. I had already checked to make sure they served alcohol, because in these God-fearing parts of the South, you never do know when a family restaurant will just assume lemonade and sweet tea are the perfect accompaniments to steak or oysters.
Crispino's had an interesting online menu and served beer and wine. It was in a large shopping center, and looked like either they were preparing to expand, or they had just decided to use the shop next door to store pizza boxes. It was fairly small, with several people waiting for take-out, and otherwise empty. Not a single person eating in. So I decided I would do take-out. As I sat waiting for my order, I noted with displeasure that Fox News was on the television, but at least sound was muted. I prefer my pizza without partisan politics, but one young man watched, rapt, as the gospel according to Fox played on the screen. I took out my book.
But just before my order was ready, I noticed a sign that said:
Now this really got me thinking.
If the proprietor appreciates judicious marksmanship, does this mean for just the good guy with the gun? I'm assuming one would prefer the bad guy not to hit any unintended targets as well. Also, was the young woman who took my order so inordinately polite because she was afraid that being rude might cause the need to arise for a weapon to be unholstered? And just suppose that some bad guy comes in to this very small pizza place and even judiciously targets another customer (or employee); what are the chances he is going to be able to hit his target without taking some chunks out of the booths? And suppose another customer decides to judiciously fight back; how likely is it that not a single customer standing there waiting for their take-out is going to get hit? Not to mention the possibility that the gun-toter in question doesn't know the meaning of the word "judicious?"
Well, fortunately, I was sitting so I wasn't a great target. Even more fortunate, I wouldn't be sitting for long because my order was almost ready. I was glad I had decided not to eat in after all.
But later I wondered at the confusion caused by this situation. Suppose you had your weapon at home and you were feeling a bit naked and unprotected, and then you came in here, ordered your pizza, and then realized you could have brought your gun. And also that other people probably already know they can bring their guns. How can you possibly enjoy your meal under the circumstances?
Or suppose you bring your gun, enjoy your pizza without incident, and then walk over to Dunkin' Donuts only to find that they don't allow guns. Or maybe they do, my point being you don't actually know until you go in. Some quandary, isn't it? I would think the situation would put so many people on edge that somebody is bound to get shot just from the stress of not knowing whether to tote or not.
Meanwhile, back to Crispino's. The food was good. I would certainly have gone there again on a future vacation. But now that I know guns are welcome, it's put a damper on my enthusiasm. So my plan is to go to TripAdvisor and write an honest review, stating that there is no food that is worth the risk of marksmanship, judicious or not.
I encourage all y'all to do the same when you encounter an establishment that doesn't just allow guns but encourages them.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Awesome in North Carolina
I know, I couldn't wait to get away from SC politics, so here I am, in North Carolina. Well, it couldn't be helped. It's a timeshare week that I hoped to rent to help cover my recent blue state getaway, and since I couldn't rent it I figured I'd head on out to Atlantic Beach and see how much it's changed in five years.
My resort is still fairly nice, hasn't changed much, and it's lovely to have the beach a short walk away. The skinny little island, however, is just sad. It's been way too wet lately, and the standing water and drizzle combined with the fact that ugly three-story tall houses two feet away from other three-story tall houses have been stuck any wherever they barely fit make it seem that the whole thing is just going to sink fairly soon. I walked the main drag to the causeway yesterday and it's so trashy it's depressing. It pretty much seemed like a testament to greed and refusal to care. After my time at the beautiful beach towns in Rhode Island, I couldn't have imagined a greater contrast.
But today I decided to head out to neighboring Morehead City to find Sugarloaf Bakery. Despite my poor sense of direction, my GPS got me there with no problem. Traffic was light and I took a careful u-turn and parked in front of the tiny building, and looked up to see a cop car with lights flashing pull up behind me. The 30-40-ish African American officer took a few seconds to check out my out-of-state plate and no doubt my blatantly liberal bumper stickers.
I couldn't figure out what I might have done wrong, so when the cop walked over and I asked "What did I do?" I was very obviously not faking it. I had taken a u-turn under a small unobtrusive sign that said "No U-turns." I apologized and explained that I was looking for the bakery and hadn't been here before. He looked up at the bakery and commented, "They have great cheesecake. The best in the state." And then he explained to me about the u-turns and told me -- nicely -- not to do it again. And left.
The tiny bakery was supposed to have opened at 11, but the sign on the door said that due to roof damage from the rains they would be opening at 12, and it was just a couple minutes before. So far, I'd been lucky all the way around.
The shelves of goodies were still being stocked, and the woman behind the counter described the different sweets. I bought too many, and as we said our good-byes I told her I was glad they were open and that I hadn't been given a ticket. She replied that she had noticed my bumper stickers and that she had seen me being stopped for something that people do all day. Given that I had been let off with the recommendation to try the cheesecake, I really didn't think the stop had been because of the bumper stickers. The man was, after all, a police officer, and he was a black man, so I thought that I had those two details in my favor.
But she is a Democrat, and we talked about the sad state of North Carolina in the maws of the Republican party and the Kochs, and treading cautiously with a small business in the belly of the beast. Being from SC, I commiserated, and I told her how astonishing it was to see NC get taken down, and how proud I was that with groups like the SC ACLU, we managed to not have a single anti-abortion law passed in this last legislative session. Then I got the great opportunity to talk about being fearless, taking chances (like plastering pro-Obama care and anti-Citizens United bumper stickers on your car). It was a very happy meeting.
And the more conversations I have like this, the more I heartily believe that there are far more of us out there than our Democratic politicians believe. They just need to know -- we just need to know that we are not alone. We need to know that our representatives, our candidates, will really stand up for us. Elizabeth Warren did it in 2012. In South Carolina we have a few who are unafraid to speak up on issues like women's reproductive rights and gun control, and they even get elected. Fearless women like Gloria Bromell-Tinubu. Heck, there are even a couple of men who proudly fight for marriage and workplace equality and women's reproductive freedom.
And that is what it is going to take. Because we really are the ones who are fighting to protect the American people.
So speak up.
My resort is still fairly nice, hasn't changed much, and it's lovely to have the beach a short walk away. The skinny little island, however, is just sad. It's been way too wet lately, and the standing water and drizzle combined with the fact that ugly three-story tall houses two feet away from other three-story tall houses have been stuck any wherever they barely fit make it seem that the whole thing is just going to sink fairly soon. I walked the main drag to the causeway yesterday and it's so trashy it's depressing. It pretty much seemed like a testament to greed and refusal to care. After my time at the beautiful beach towns in Rhode Island, I couldn't have imagined a greater contrast.
But today I decided to head out to neighboring Morehead City to find Sugarloaf Bakery. Despite my poor sense of direction, my GPS got me there with no problem. Traffic was light and I took a careful u-turn and parked in front of the tiny building, and looked up to see a cop car with lights flashing pull up behind me. The 30-40-ish African American officer took a few seconds to check out my out-of-state plate and no doubt my blatantly liberal bumper stickers.
I couldn't figure out what I might have done wrong, so when the cop walked over and I asked "What did I do?" I was very obviously not faking it. I had taken a u-turn under a small unobtrusive sign that said "No U-turns." I apologized and explained that I was looking for the bakery and hadn't been here before. He looked up at the bakery and commented, "They have great cheesecake. The best in the state." And then he explained to me about the u-turns and told me -- nicely -- not to do it again. And left.
The tiny bakery was supposed to have opened at 11, but the sign on the door said that due to roof damage from the rains they would be opening at 12, and it was just a couple minutes before. So far, I'd been lucky all the way around.
The shelves of goodies were still being stocked, and the woman behind the counter described the different sweets. I bought too many, and as we said our good-byes I told her I was glad they were open and that I hadn't been given a ticket. She replied that she had noticed my bumper stickers and that she had seen me being stopped for something that people do all day. Given that I had been let off with the recommendation to try the cheesecake, I really didn't think the stop had been because of the bumper stickers. The man was, after all, a police officer, and he was a black man, so I thought that I had those two details in my favor.
But she is a Democrat, and we talked about the sad state of North Carolina in the maws of the Republican party and the Kochs, and treading cautiously with a small business in the belly of the beast. Being from SC, I commiserated, and I told her how astonishing it was to see NC get taken down, and how proud I was that with groups like the SC ACLU, we managed to not have a single anti-abortion law passed in this last legislative session. Then I got the great opportunity to talk about being fearless, taking chances (like plastering pro-Obama care and anti-Citizens United bumper stickers on your car). It was a very happy meeting.
And the more conversations I have like this, the more I heartily believe that there are far more of us out there than our Democratic politicians believe. They just need to know -- we just need to know that we are not alone. We need to know that our representatives, our candidates, will really stand up for us. Elizabeth Warren did it in 2012. In South Carolina we have a few who are unafraid to speak up on issues like women's reproductive rights and gun control, and they even get elected. Fearless women like Gloria Bromell-Tinubu. Heck, there are even a couple of men who proudly fight for marriage and workplace equality and women's reproductive freedom.
And that is what it is going to take. Because we really are the ones who are fighting to protect the American people.
So speak up.
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