PufPuf23
PufPuf23's JournalThe political climate leads to a decline in morale of the Federal employees
with lingering effects on the agencies.
I was a Fed from 1969 to 1985; first as a YOC in high school but that experience led me to university and what I conceived at the time as a Fed career. After university I became a professional (forester/soil scientist in USFS USDA) and then went to USFS employee grad programs for a year as a Fed employee (and became a civil engineer as well as forester), signing a contract to remain with agency for 6 more years (which was not an issue as considered myself a lifer). I grew up in a remote mountain town (where I reside now in retirement) with still only about 600 people, my Dad went as far as 8th grade so this experience had a large impact on my life and opened the World to me. I worked on several other Ranger Districts than my home town and at the historical Fed forest research lab then in Berkeley.
The USDA had a program where 10 mid career USDA employees could get a masters degree whereby the employee would be paid salary and expenses for 2 years and grants would be made to the participating university in planned research, again there would be a contract to stay with USDA for 6 years or be liable for reimbursement of (some) costs to Feds. I competed for a slot and was to start in Fall 1984 at Stanford with research regards the ecological economics of the USFS timber management program.
The USFS was targeted by Reagan, making a mockery of progressive new laws and regulations (and with time opening the agency to many lawsuits). Morale was bad and many of the more talented and ambitious younger professionals left the agencies or looked elsewhere coming out of university, others just went along with the new work climate. Unfortunately I divorced in 1984 and was not able to start in Fall 1984 because of the marriage situation. The USDA cancelled my slot and I was told by superiors that the planned research was no longer relevant to the agency. I left the USFS in 1985 (end of the 6 years I owed the agency) for an Haas School MBA and went to work in corporate management consulting.
Reaching out to rural and Red State voters is imperative for
the Democratic Party moving forward (I have included this thought in several recent DU posts).
Making rural voters is the most secure way for the Party to gain and retain control of Congress and not have disappointment in the Electoral College.
Rural USA is not monolithic; there are Democrats, Progressives, and Liberals. FDR had strong support in rural USA that has ebbed over the years. Some form of a Green New Deal is a great means to revive rural economies, much like the CCC, TVA, and various WPA in the 1930s.
Economists flee Agriculture Dept. after feeling punished under Trump
Trump policies have negatively impacted farmers and rural economies. The ability of the economists of the Economic Research Service of the USDA to inform the nation of the negative impacts is being hindered. Economists are retiring or being transferred.
The Trumpian negative impacts to farmers and rural economy in general is an excellent lever for building political support in rural USA. See bolded below.
Economists flee Agriculture Dept. after feeling punished under Trump
Economists in the Agriculture Department's research branch say the Trump administration is retaliating against them for publishing reports that shed negative light on White House policies, spurring an exodus that included six of them quitting the department on a single day in late April.
The Economic Research Service — a source of closely read reports on farm income and other topics that can shape federal policy, planting decisions and commodity markets — has run afoul of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue with its findings on how farmers have been financially harmed by President Donald Trump's trade feuds, the Republican tax code rewrite and other sensitive issues, according to current and former agency employees.
The reports highlight the continued decline under Trump’s watch in farm income, which has dropped about 50 percent since 2013. Rural voters were a crucial source of support for Trump in 2016, and analysts say even a small retreat in 2020 could jeopardize the president’s standing in several battleground states.
More at: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/economists-flee-agriculture-dept-after-feeling-punished-under-trump/ar-AAB1ega?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=spartanntp
In Summer months I make sun tea from various teas and
also make Yerba mate tea in a boiled pot that I then bottle.
I also make herbal teas from the local forests in the Fall and Winter: Prince's Pine (Chimaphila umbellate spp), Yerba Buena or Indian tea (Satureja douglasii), and California Spikenard or California Ginseng (Aralia californica that has many of same active ingredients of ginseng and is in Ginseng botanical family). The California Ginseng I make into a tonic by boiling the roots and have made an extract with alcohol in the past; the CG is more a tonic and not a pleasure to drink. The Prince's pine and Yerba buena I boil in a pot of water then strain hot and bottle.
I use recycled Snapple bottles. With the sun tea I simply put a teabag in water and close the lid and leave on a step stool on the deck feet from me at my office deck. I favor green teas but also do black teas and chai teas and named stuff from Earl Grey to Constant Comment to Sleepy Time). I drink them and offer them to visors instead of soda or beer.
I add no sugar or any other sweetener. Sometimes I will add wild lemon balm or wintergreen herb for a different flavor to the forest herb brews. Yerba mate is readily found in stores these days but most is highly sweetened. Mate is high in caffeine but basic rather than alkaline like coffee or darks teas (and easier on stomach).
The Prince's pine was used for diabetes by the Native Americans. I was drinking a bottle a day last Fall and early Winter until I ran out and am now waiting for snow to clear from good gathering areas. I have been diagnosed on meds for Type II diabetes for 2 plus years and the Prince's pine had a noticeable positive impact on my blood sugars (and my GP was aware my use, I even gave her a quart of the leaves but she is NA and in a IHS clinic). The Prince's pine is common in some areas of the western forests but there is another species of Chimaphilia in the southern Appalachian Mountains (which is the secret ingredient in Pepsi cola).
As a diabetic, I find it takes much looking at labels for cold store-bought drinks because of sugar and I rarely desire a carbonated beverage.
My mother watched for Japanese attacks during WWII
at the then Onion Mountain Lookout in what is now Six Rivers National Forest but was then part of Klamath National Forest. Onion Mountain is just inland from Redwood National Park east of the lower Klamath River.
I learned of the Mitchell attack and deaths when working on the then Weyerhaeuser Klamath Falls timberlands 30 some odd years ago and stumbled upon the monument (which is way out in the boonies).
https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/balloon_bombs/#.XM8UBXdFyUk
Balloon Bombs
The Mitchell Monument marks the spot near Bly, Oregon, where six people were killed by a Japanese balloon bomb during World War II. Designated by the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, this is the only place on the continental United States where Americans were killed by enemy action during World War II.
Between November 1944 and April 1945, Japan launched more than nine thousand balloon bombs—experimental weapons intended to kill and cause fires. The balloons, each carrying an anti-personnel bomb and two incendary bombs, took about seventy hours to cross the Pacific Ocean. Three hundred sixty-one of the balloons have been found in twenty-six states, Canada and Mexico.
The balloon bombs were 70 feet tall with a 33-foot diameter paper canopy connected to the main device by shroud lines. Balloons inflated with hydrogen followed the jet stream at an altitude of 30,000 feet. The high-explosive anti-personnel and incendiary devices were rigged to self-destruct and leave no evidence. The Japanese hoped the bombs would start forest fires and create panic, according to documents found after the war.
The first bomb was spotted southwest of San Pedro, California, on November 4, 1944. On January 4, 1945, two men working near Medford, Oregon, heard a blast, saw flames, and found a twelve-inch-deep hole in the ground where the bomb had exploded. The U.S. Office of Censorship asked the news media not to publish reports for fear it might cause panic.
________________________________________________________________________________
There was also an attack by airplane and bomb that occurred earlier in WWII near Brookings, OR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuo_Fujita
Nobuo Fujita
Nobuo Fujita (藤田信雄
(1911 – 30 September 1997) was a Japanese naval aviator and Warrant Flying Officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy who flew a floatplane from the long-range submarine aircraft carrier I-25 and conducted the Lookout Air Raids in southern Oregon, making him the only Axis pilot during World War II to aerial bomb the contiguous United States.[1][2][3] Using incendiary bombs, his mission was to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest near the city of Brookings, Oregon with the objective of drawing the U.S. military's resources away from the Pacific Theater. The strategy was also later used in the Japanese fire balloon campaign.
cut
Fujita continued as an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot, mainly in reconnaissance duties, until 1944, when he was transferred to the training of kamikaze pilots. After the war he opened a hardware store in Ibaraki Prefecture, and later worked at a company making wire.[4]
Fujita was invited to Brookings in 1962, after the Japanese government was assured he would not be tried as a war criminal. He gave the City of Brookings his family's 400-year-old katana in friendship. Ashamed of his actions during the war, Fujita had intended to use the sword to commit seppuku if he were given a hostile reception.[4] However, the town treated him with respect and affection, although his visit still raised some controversy.[7]
Impressed by his welcome in the United States, during his visit, he promised to invite Brookings students to Japan. After his visit to Brookings, Fujita worked hard to keep his promise that he made in Brookings. Even though it was tough time in Japan he successfully made money by running his own business which he gave to his son. Unfortunately the business did not go well after this, making Fujita broke. Fujita did not give up on keeping his promise, he worked at a factory and kept saving money to invite students from Brookings to Japan. He saved most of his earnings, only leaving him with small amount of money for him to buy two or three books every month. After years of hard work, Fujita invited three female students from Brookings to Japan in 1985. During the visit of the Brookings-Harbor High School students to Japan, Fujita received a dedicatory letter from an aide of President Ronald Reagan "with admiration for your kindness and generosity."
Fujita returned to Brookings in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1992, he planted a tree at the bomb site as a gesture of peace. In 1995, he moved the samurai sword from the Brookings City Hall into the new library's display case. This library is the biggest library in Oregon and Fujita helped to gather money in order to make this library.
He was made an honorary citizen of Brookings several days before his death at a hospital in Tsuchiura, Japan, on September 30, 1997, at the age of 85.[8] In October 1998, his daughter, Yoriko Asakura, buried some of Fujita's ashes at the bomb site.
“If we knew each other. If we understood each other as a friend. This foolish war would never have happened. I sincerely hope that a day would come where everyone could overcome their differences through talking and not fighting”. Quote from diary of Fujita Nobuo
What is more likely than a civil war is a fascist military dictatorship
ala Hitler's Germany.
If "spot fires" of a violent civil war occur, there will be immediate martial law and the military will rapidly stomp out uprisings at the will of the ultra-wealthy and corporations. We are pretty far along that track now without civil war.
Our right to vote is already weak sauce. The crimes and corruption of the Reagan era were not adequately addressed. The 2000 election was essentially a coup followed by lying and propagandizing the USA into an aggressive war in Iraq. The Iraq War and War on Terror in general have poor results for the American people (and world not to mention the citizens of the assaulted countries) but some interests have greatly benefit ted and now "own" our political system. Yet the corporate media still urges on more war.
About the time the USA comes face to face violent war with Russia and/or China, our Democratic Republic will have come to an end (and we are not nearly as in such a strong position as the past). Not much is making sense anymore and this is deliberate action by interests that want to change the world to their evil sensibilities. . Contrary to many at DU, I think Trump is a hapless dupe in the eyes of Putin but Trump is not under direct control of Putin; Trump is a dangerous self-centered greedy control freak that is enabled by a GOP gone far off the rails of sanity, enacting policy that harms rather than enhances our place in the World and decreases freedom and welfare of our citizens. What I thought were values to be perfected in a never ending curse of our history. I tend to think that all the current red baiting is a dangerous mistake as the World powers are still in an ever more precarious position of mutually assured destruction.
You would be better mannered to read other other's posts and knock off the insults.
Sachs is a well-respected economist and specializes in poverty and the conversion of communist to capitalist economies. He is not popular as some because Sachs is a Keynesian and not a neo-liberal economist. Some say neo-liberal is a meaningless word but it specifies an economic approach.
Yes you are catapulting the propaganda. Venezuela has been targeted since Chavez was elected POTUS of Venezuela. Neither Chavez nor (much less so) Madura are my cup of tea. Venezuela has been subject to several failed coups, notably 2002; an oil strike and oil sector sabotage, and a separatist movement in Zulia. THE USA established military lily pads on Curacao and Aruba (not that developed because of local opposition) as part of Plan Colombia.
The Maracaibo Basin of west Venezuela was important in WWII; the two largest oil refineries in the World then were Lagos Colony on Aruba and Shell on Curacoa. Germany actually attacked Lagos Colony. If (when) there is ever a hot WWIII, the very first thing the USA will do is seize western Venezuela for the oil.
So Trump now with the aid of Bolton and Abrams have turned up the heat in destroying the already struggling Venezuelan economy since 2017. It is a shame that the conditions have been so dire for most people of Venezuela despite the great natural resource wealth; they seem to get screwed over by their own leadership, left or right wing, and are subject to outside interference to keep the oil flowing and money coming in to the wealthy over basic needs of most people there.
So keep in mind you are siding with Trump, Bolton, Abrams, and the part of the CIA that specializes in destabilizing resource-rich countries for regime change. Often the regime changes make some rich but don't do much for the USA nor the local people as a whole; think Iran, Libya, and Iraq.
Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017
Sachs is about as reputable an economist as it gets.
Evidently you have not been paying much attention to Venezuela. Judi Lynn does pay attention. Just because one does not embrace USA foreign policy and methods regard "regime change" does not mean one embraces Maduro. Neither does not approving of aggressive foreign policy make one a commie or otherwise supporter of the Kremlin; that is sleazy and stupid, evidently you are a fan of Trump and Bolton and 3rd world oligarchs in general. See how that works?
May 01, 2019
More than 40,000 people have died in Venezuela since 2017 as a result of U.S. sanctions, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-authored by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot. The report examines how U.S. sanctions have reduced the availability of food and medicine in Venezuela and increased disease and mortality. We speak with Jeffrey Sachs in our New York studio. In the report, he writes, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change. It’s a fruitless, heartless, illegal, and failed policy, causing grave harm to the Venezuelan people.”
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. Our guests are Miguel Tinker Salas, a Venezuelan professor at Pomona College in California; Jeffrey Sachs is with us here in New York, leading economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He’s recently co-authored a report for the Center for Economic and Policy Research headlined “Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela.”
So much is being used against the presidency of Maduro, saying he’s brought the country to an economic standstill. You make a different case, Jeffrey Sachs.
JEFFREY SACHS: Well, it’s not an economic standstill. It’s a complete economic collapse, a catastrophe, in Venezuela. There was a crisis, for sure, before Trump came to office, but the idea of the Trump administration, from the start, has been to overthrow Maduro. That’s not a hypothesis. Trump was very explicit in discussions with presidents of Latin America, where he asked them, “Why shouldn’t the U.S. just invade?” He said that already in 2017. So the idea of the Trump administration has been to overthrow Maduro from the start. Well, the Latin leaders said, “No, no, that’s not a good idea. We don’t want military action.” So the U.S. government has been trying to strangle the Venezuelan economy.
It started with sanctions in 2017 that prevented, essentially, the country from accessing international capital markets and the oil company from restructuring its loans. That put Venezuela into a hyperinflation. That was the utter collapse. Oil earnings plummeted. The earnings that are used to buy food and medicine collapsed. That’s when the social, humanitarian crisis went spiraling out of control. And then, in this year, with this idea, very naive, very stupid, in my view, that there would be this self-proclaimed president, which was all choreographed with the United States very, very closely, another round of even tighter sanctions, essentially confiscating the earnings and the assets of the Venezuelan government, took place.
Now Venezuela is in complete, utter catastrophe, a lot of it brought on by the United States deliberately, creating massive, massive suffering. We know there’s hunger. We know there’s a incredible shortage of medical supplies. We can only imagine, because we won’t know really until the dust settles and careful studies are done, how much excess mortality there is, but, surely, in a context like this, this is a catastrophe largely created by the U.S., because, as was said earlier, this is an all-or-nothing strategy. What the U.S.—what Trump just doesn’t understand and what Bolton, of all, of course, never agrees to, is the idea of negotiations. This is an attempt at an overthrow. It’s very crude. It’s not working. And it’s very cruel, because it’s punishing 30 million people.
Remainder of interview transcript and video under a Creative Commons License at:
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/1/economist_jeffrey_sachs_us_sanctions_have
Report Finds US Sanctions on Venezuela Are Responsible for Tens of Thousands of Deaths
Report Finds US Sanctions on Venezuela Are Responsible for Tens of Thousands of DeathsThis Year Will Be Much Worse, Authors Say, If Sanctions Continue
For Immediate Release: April 25, 2019
Contact: Karen Conner, (202) 293-5380 x117, conner@cepr.net
Washington, DC ― A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), by economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs, finds that economic sanctions implemented by the Trump administration since August 2017 have caused tens of thousands of deaths and are rapidly worsening the humanitarian crisis.
“The sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports,” said Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of CEPR and co-author of the report. “This is illegal under US and international law, and treaties that the US has signed. Congress should move to stop it.”
The paper notes that the recognition by the Trump administration of a parallel government in January created a whole new set of financial and trade sanctions that are devastating to the economy and population. These new restrictions make it much more difficult to even pay for medicines and other essential imports with the limited foreign exchange that is available.
The authors also explain how the sanctions prevent an economic recovery from the country’s severe economic depression and hyperinflation. “Venezuela’s economic crisis is routinely blamed all on Venezuela,” said Jeffrey Sachs, co-author of the paper. “But it is much more than that. American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change. It’s a fruitless, heartless, illegal, and failed policy, causing grave harm to the Venezuelan people.”
http://cepr.net/press-center/press-releases/report-finds-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-are-responsible-for-tens-of-thousands-of-deaths?fbclid=IwAR3666I6SrB0ysltr4TX7DP9x5SbzeajD269vHuYQRITaHjYiATcZCzU7XA
Did you ever see the end of the TV show Six Feet Under?
We need to start hoarding blow up dolls for election morning 2020.
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