Badlands Journal

A Merced political curiosity or 

During the Sept.-Oct. 2013 campaign-finance reporting period, Merced mayoral candidate Noah Lor reported an expenditure of $300 for an “appearance” by state Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced.

Is this legal?

 It was uncharacteristically candid, at least a PR faux pas:  a state water official actually stating that it was not possible for the government to make it rain. And this despite the governor’s profound concern for west side farmers  in an election year. The times probably make Jerry nostalgic for his youth, during which bags bulging with cash came from the west side to his father in return for road and water projects. They don’t call the canal carrying State Water Project water the ‘Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown” canal for nothing.

We began to read Dean Baker, founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, during the early years of the real estate boom when he, practically alone, described the growing distance between rental and mortgage prices and how it was so far out of balance that “we were in uncharted waters.” He is a useful economist because his predictions have come true unlike those of the cheerleaders for monopoly finance capitalism. After predicting the dire results that have occurred as a result of trying to use strictly monetary measures to deal with the economic collapse following the real estate boom, he returns to the problem to show how the lack of meaningful fiscal action -- deliberate conservative political policy – has been a disaster for the country. -- blj

Norman Brownstein, bigshot Denver attorney/lobbyist, who sells himself at "the 101st US Senator," is going to rue the day he took the $20,000/month lobbying contract to represent Westlands Water District, and came to the attention of Lloyd G. Carter, Fresno journalist/attorney.

In the piece below, Carter's latest foray into the Intermontaine Wastelands, he slices, dices, filets, boils, broils and barbecuesa a number of the rare species of twisteed plutocrati in any way associated with Brownstein and the Denver law firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck. Bigshots in Denver may not have taken such a thrubbing since Gene Fowler carved on Bonfils and Tammen.  -- blj

Chronicles of the hydraulic brotherhood…lloydgcarter.com

Well, Innumerable Readers, the end of another year arrives. We can’t wish you Merry Christmas or even Happy Holidays anymore, since those terms have been forever sullied by religious sectarianism. Even though History is Dead and High-Tech/Bio-Tech Growth remains the Only Faith of the One Voice of Merced, home to a new UC campus, built where rain will never more percolate into the city’s aquifer, there is still Philosophy. So, we offer for the end of the year, a few insights by that great American philosopher, William Barkley “Bat” Masterson, 1853-1921, Buffalo hunter, cowtown sheriff, gunfighter, gambler, and sports writer:

9-19-13

League of California Cities

When it comes to Big Pharma, Big Food, and Public Health, guess who bats last at the federal Food and Drug Administration. Time to yell and pound on your loudest cooking utensils! -- blj

12-17-13
New York Times

A dozen years ago, we were watching hopelessly after 9/11 as vendors hawked equipment to protect New Yorkers again gas attacks and as it became clear that the Bush Regime had blown away any sympathy the rest of the world had for the United States in the immediate aftermath. The drums and the lies of war were busy turning sorrow into fear and hatred. Here in this county, two murdered men were found in a canal; they had worn turbans after all.

The curious thinking of Chip Ashley, managing editor of Community Alliance and second vice-chairman of the Fresno County Democratic Party Central Committee, muddied the case against fracking last week. Too much fracking is ongoing or planned here in the Valley for us to afford petty partisan political bickering..

In the letter to the Fresno Bee included below, Ashley asks why, if Fresno Republican Assemblyman Jim Patterson “can’t be bought,” he accepted any money from fracking interests.

We weren't able to find news of this in the local papers and stumbled onto it in an unrelated Internet search. It seems that the new big bank in the valley is fitting in nicely with the rest of the finance, insurance and real estate scum that continue to loot the territory.

It doesn't take any character at all to cheat and steal when you are very rich to begin with. It's sort of like shopping to these people, with the !$B fine as the credit card bill. They didn't shop here, of course. - blj

 10-29-13

Reuters
Dutch Rabobank fined $1 billion over Libor scandal

 Truth

by Yip Harburg, Rhymes for the irreverent, FFRF, Inc. Madison, WI, and The Yip Harburg Foundation, 2006

Truth is a foreigner

Under every dome,

Truth is a refugee

Looking for a home.

Without flag or passport,

Hounded, plagued, and banned,

Truth must be smuggled in --

It has no fatherland!

Truth is a subversive,

A super counterspy

“The issue … here is about how Governor Brown wants to be remembered, and his history, and what his legacy is going to be in California,” said Victoria Kaplan, campaign director at MoveOn.org Civic Action. “Is he going to be remembered as the governor who backtracked on his commitment to addressing climate change?” … The industry group posted a response on its website to the letter Brown received from scientists urging a moratorium. The scientists’ argument, the oil association said, “ignores the reality that our economy, our comforts and conveniences, our security, indeed our very lifestyles depend on an abundant and reliable supply of petroleum energy.” David Siders, Sacramento Bee, Dec. 2, 2013.