To coin the Christmas tune, “Baby it’s cold outside”, but I and my 2 pups are safe and warm, enjoying the crackling log inside the fireplace insert.  The insert was installed back in April, but is exhibiting it’s true value now. The fuel is cut in the back woods and the honey that is in the warm milk that I am drinking right now comes from my bees. Maybe next year the milk will come from my own cow.

I just came in from feeding and watering the chickens and putting them to bed for the night.  Not anxious to endure the cold, my pups have to be strongly encouraged to accompany me on this venture.  Now, back inside, little Nell sits next to me on the hearth rug and stares as I type these words.  Dudley seeks comfort in the leather recliner.

Why do I tell you all this?  I guess it’s to explain where I have disappeared to since my last post in the summer.  Politics have left a sour taste in my mouth and I have refocused on what I can do, as an individual to make a difference.  Campaigning has not been a positive endeavor.  Even when I win, I lose. I can try to get the word out on hydrofracking, but when the governor of NYS trades hydrofracking for marriage equality, what is my measly voice going to lend to the discussion? Nobody listened when I railed against the miserable attempt at healthcare reform. The lump on my head has finally healed, should I really start the head banging again?

My energies have turned toward debunking the myth of pet overpopulation and encouraging the “No Kill” movement locally. My friend, Mary Ellen and I traveled to Best Friends Animal Society in Angel Canyon, Utah ( you may be familiar with the Dogtown series by National Geographic) last September for a week of volunteering in the largest “No Kill” sanctuary in the US. My current read is “Redemption” By Nathan J Winograd.  I’ve moved from political activist to animal activist where the results of my endeavors are realized so much more expediently.

So, my political “Fire in the Belly” has been replaced by a warm glow of animal rescue and rehabilitation.

No more homeless pets.

Hey Roc City!

You may have already heard, but yes, there is something you can do. De-fund the 1%, and fund locally.  The Occupy movement has inspired hundreds of thousands to move their accounts from the “too big to fail” banks to local credit unions. There’s a lot of reasons to do this - it’s not just altruism.  You can potentially get better rates (we got a great rate on our mortgage), better or no fees, and a personal touch.

A new site, Banxodus, has been launched to help folks figure out where to move their money.  I believe this is one of those “Crowdsourced” sites, meaning that they may be able to use some help filling in some of the info about Rochester area banks. Take a look and see.

Have any RT readers “moved their money”?  I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.

WWJD?

WWJD?

From the D&C:

Over the past decade, the poverty rate in this Arnett Boulevard neighborhood has doubled. Forty-four percent of Morehouse’s neighbors now live below the poverty line, census figures show, and 59 percent of them are children. And total population has increased.

Poverty is becoming more concentrated and enveloping more of Rochester and other U.S. cities. The number of people living in neighborhoods in which 40 percent or more of residents are below the poverty line increased by one-third nationally in the past decade, according to a Brookings Institution report released last week.

No surprise - as the 1% sucks the money out of the economy, it affects everyone, the poorest first.  Rochester is being affected similarly to almost everywhere in the country. The question is, what can we do about it at the city/regional level?

If you haven’t been invaded recently, thank a veteran!

And if you know of one of the increasing number of veterans who are participating in the Occupy movement, thank them twice!

These folks have given a lot so we owe it to them to work together to preserve the country they’ve fought and died for.

So, I’d heard that the GOP did some wacky redistricting this year. I had no idea how crazy it actually is.

Here’s a thumbnail - click on it if you want it full-size.

mc-2011-redist-map

A couple things had me scratching my head:

• Look at district 20 (the yellow one) - it goes all the way from the western edge of the county to the city - how does that make sense?
• Note how they chopped up the Villages of Brockport and East Rochester. Why?
• How about district 5 (the green one)?  It’s a crazy curl going from south Pittsford, through Mendon and Rush, finally taking a bite out of Henrietta. Why?

How does that make sense except to neutralize the opposition (aka Democratic) voters there?

That said, it’s a great way to help make sure the ruling party stays in power, and can avoid accountability.   The more comfortable they feel about being re-elected no matter what, the more they’ll try to get away with.

What happened to checks and balances?

Based on the unofficial results from the Monroe County BOE, this was a mixed night for Dems.

Key indicators:

• They only won 11 of 29 seats on the County Leg.  I believe the GOP did a partisan redistricting this year - that would explain a lot of this loss.
• Sandra Doorley won for DA. 58/41.  Nice.
• Sandy Frankel lost to Maggie Brooks. 57/43.  Not a bad showing, but it still begs the question - what will it take to wake up that additional 8% of Monroe County?

Anyone familiar with the philosophy behind RochesterTurning will understand why I love, support, and otherwise totally dig the Occupy movement. It’s like the world is finally waking up to the fact that what we’ve been doing isn’t working, that funnelling money from everyone to the top 1% is great for the wealthy and the politicians and media they’ve bought, but is ultimately a hugely destabilizing force in our country, and the world.

It’s not sustainable. And no matter how many suit-wearing know-it-alls appear on talk shows to talk in a very reasonable way about how we should just keep going in the same direction (as the train goes over the cliff), enough people are starting to be affected by it that it’s impossible for the PR hacks to spin it effectively anymore.

The conversation’s turning - I’m finally seeing it in day-to-day conversations I’m having and (finally!) in the media.  That alone is a victory for the Occupy’s movement’s intent to raise awareness.

I was in NYC in October and had the privilege to meet a few of the OWS folks.  I told them they’re “doing the Lord’s work”, and they laughed.  I guess they didn’t expect to hear that, even from a lefty Christian like myself.  But I have to believe if Jesus were here today, he would be more at home in the Occupy camps than in the boardroom.

I hope to write more about Rochester’s own Occupy movement soon.  They too, are “doing the Lord’s work”, right here in our very own backyard.

In the meantime - I think I found a great theme song for the Occupy movement.  It’s a great song to begin with, musically, but add the lyrics, and then the video?  Powerful stuff:

You may have already noticed, but in case you didn’t, there’s an election today. So vote! Take your kids! It builds strong bodies 12 ways!

I’ve been a bit out of the loop, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that there’s a Monroe Exposed website, which does a good job of rounding up all the shady stuff that’s been going on with the Monroe County administration. Here’s the link:

http://www.monroecountyexposed.com/

I didn’t realize there’s been so much in the news about the corruption in just the last few months - Monroe Exposed does a good job of rounding up the many articles and editorials.

Putting aside commentary by the Monroe Dems, it’s sobering to see how many naughty choices are being made. But then, as we’ve documented here at RT, the Monroe County GOP has built an impressive machine that is self-perpetuating. And since money is the fuel for that machine, of course you need corruption to ensure a steady fuel supply.

That’s why you have Robutrad, sweetheart deals with vendors, etc. It’s not rocket science. Where’s the accountability? If Maggie Brooks breaks the law, some underling gets thrown under the bus and the PR machine goes into overdrive for a while.

It’s always had me scratching my head why more folks in Monroe County don’t give enough of a crap about the corruption and waste of tax dollars that they vote the current administration out of office and let some sunlight in to the county apparatus.

That is a fundamental question that needs to be answered if folks want to move forward in this community.

That, and, “Where’s the accountability?”

Wish I had seen this earlier, but I would like to give these two activists a little blog space, however inactive we have become.  For anyone out there who has the time and the inclination to continue to fight the good fight, here is your chance:

Two longtime local activists are teaming up to start a Rochester chapter of Move to Amend, a national movement that carries an end of goal of changing the U.S. Constitution to keep the government from being tied to corporate interests in the wealthy.

Co-founder Dave Atias, who is working with Sam Fedele, says a Rochester chapter has already received an official affiliation from the national Move to Amend organization. The idea came about after the pair heard David Cobb, former Green Party presidential candidate, speak in Rochester in August.

Unfortunately, the first meeting was last night, but I’m sure there will be more to come.  Many thanks to Dave and Sam for getting this up off of the ground.

Seems we have a new county legislative district here in Monroe County which encompasses Mendon, Rush, Henrietta and part of Pittsford.  It’s obviously an open seat and I am delighted to announce that Moe Bickweat, former Mendon Supervisor and current Mendon Town Board Member will be running for that seat.

You will recall Moe from a past post in 2009 when he ran and won a seat on the Mendon town board and when he won his second term as town supervisor.

An intelligent, fair and decent man, Moe was well liked as a supervisor and was supported by Democrats, Republicans and Apolitical citizens alike.  A quote from Moe’s facebook page (Moe Bickweat for county legislature) by Sandy Rubin states a generally held opinion, around town here:

Moe is on the Mendon Town Board and has the reputation of working for the town. His work ethics and concern for what is right and best for the town AND his ability to get things done are just some of the reasons we love him. The County Legisture will improve when he walks in the door.

We have such very little influence on a national level.  We’ve been disappointed time and again. But here, locally, we can make a difference. So, anybody with any political activsim left in his heart, here’s a place to be active.  I’ll be working for him-it’s all I’ve got left.  (left, of course being the operative word here.)

My embarrassment for working to elect this man knows no bounds.  Seriously.

If one more person says, “Yes, well, he’s not perfect, but we could have had John McCain.”, I will laugh in his face.

I have written many posts on this and been chastised for it in the comments.  Well, sorry-here’s another. This is the clincher, though.  The treatment of Bradley Manning, whistle-blower to wikileaks in this, “Land of the Free, Home of The Brave” where we do not torture, has me absolutely steaming.  Has anyone else read this?

To destroy Manning as a human being, the Pentagon for the past seven months has barred him from exercising in his cell, and to inhibit his sleep denies him a pillow and sheet and allows him only a scratchy blanket, according to Heather Brooke of “Common Dreams” (January 26th.) He is awakened each day at five a.m. and may not sleep until 8 p.m. The lights of his cell are always on and he is harassed every five minutes by guards who ask him if he is okay and to which he must respond verbally. Stalin’s goons called this sort of endless torture the “conveyor belt.”

Now, if I’m not mistaken (and this article would have me believe that I am not) then, John McCain was a POW in Vietnam, was he not?

In the 2008 presidential race, Gawande wrote, both Obama and McCain came out firmly for banning torture and closing Guantanamo Bay prison where hundreds have been held in years-long isolation, yet neither “addressed the question of whether prolonged solitary confinement is torture.” McCain spent two of his five years as a POW in Viet Nam in solitary, later stating: “It’s an awful thing, solitary. It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.”

I think with this issue, McCain might be on the winning side.

I’m not suggesting McCain would have been any better, all I am saying is Obama seems to be moving slightly to the right of McCain, and I can’t believe that McCain would have been all that much worse.

So, there you have it.  I’ve said it.  It’s not an April Fool’s post, it just happens to be posted on April 1st.

(Apologies to those who wanted me to cover, more in depth, the new mayor of Rochester- haven’t had the GAS meter repaired for that yet)

2 Days ago I posted on Bob Herbert’s last column in the NYT.  I haven’t written anything in the past couple of months and felt we should acknowledge that another progressive columnist has exited the NYT.  In so doing, I had a commenter question why RT has not written on the Rochester Mayor’s race which took place this last Tuesday.  I certainly can’t answer for everyone at RT, but for me-the GAS meter has been broken for a long time.

Really, what is going to change with the new mayor?  He’s just the old mayor in a different body.  Here’s the coverage from WHEC.  Anything new here?

Monroe County Democratic Chairman Joe Morelle said, “I think it’s great. Tom Richards is a newcomer to politics. Basically he gets 50-percent of the vote in a three-way race. I’m very, very proud of him. But most importantly, I’m delighted for the City of Rochester. They are going to find out what a great leader he is.”

Blah, blah, freaking blah.

It’s been so long since I have posted anything that I actually had to think about every step getting here.  Sent to me, by my friend, Gary, I am posting the full column from the New York Times.  I’m not sure if that’s a kosher thing to do, or not, but let’s hope I don’t end up like Julian Assange or Bradley Manning:

March 25, 2011

Losing Our Way

By BOB HERBERT

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.

Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.

Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.

The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.

There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.

Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now.

The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8 percent.

This inequality, in which an enormous segment of the population struggles while the fortunate few ride the gravy train, is a world-class recipe for social unrest. Downward mobility is an ever-shortening fuse leading to profound consequences.

A stark example of the fundamental unfairness that is now so widespread was in The New York Times on Friday under the headline: “G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether.” Despite profits of $14.2 billion, $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States” General Electric did not have to pay any U.S. taxes last year.

As The Times’ David Kocieniewski reported, “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.”?

G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully committed to the best interests of working people.

Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home.

New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed.

###

This is my last column for The New York Times after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society. My thanks to all the readers who have been so kind to me over the years. I can be reached going forward at bobherbert88@gmail.com.

I have nothing to add, other than my own sadness that we will no longer be able to enjoy this man’s thoughtful and insightful comments on the pages of the NYT.

Sometimes it takes a joke to sum up what’s really going on:

A CEO, a tea party member, and a union worker are all sitting at a table when a plate with a dozen cookies arrives. Before anyone else can make a move, the CEO reaches out to rake in eleven of the cookies. When the other two look at him in surprise, the CEO locks eyes with the tea party member. “You better watch him,” the executive says with a nod toward the union worker. “He wants a piece of your cookie.”

So much Tea Party anger is misplaced - and it’s a shame - we could use that energy to drive real change, instead of just accelerating what the corporate world has been dreaming about for years.

There have been a lot of questions about what’s going on with RT.   Watch this space - we’re discussing it and will let you all know soon.