[letter to Dr. Michael Hicks in response to his Kokomo Tribune column of April 3rd in which he encourages more investment in urban development in Indiana. He believes rural places are at risk and that the best chance for the future is in solid connection to labor markets in “healthy, vibrant and growing regional cities”. I think he missed some things.]
Dr. Hicks:
I am writing in response to your recent column about the decline in rural, small-town Indiana and your position that more investment is needed in urban centers. I have a couple of observations to make.
First, about the decline of rural, small-towns in Indiana: I believe this has largely come about due to the adoption of what has turned out to be devastating agriculture policy following World War II. One of the leaders in this movement was Dr. Earl Butz, former Secretary of Agriculture and Dean of the School of Agriculture at Purdue. He told farmers to “get big or get out” and to produce chickens and pigs like “Fords and Chevys”. This was at the beginning of large, corporate owned agriculture in what has come to be dominated by the giant chemical/seed companies. Today, I believe for several reasons we have a train wreck waiting to happen.
Steve Daily, former mayor of Kokomo, and his family are a prime example of what has resulted. He has told me that at one time there were 13 members of his family involved in agriculture as a way to make a living. After his retirement from Ivy Tech recently, he has gone back to farming; now organic farming. He says that only one other member of his family remains in agriculture. If the Daily family is typical, and I believe it is, it is clear how this would impact small, rural communities.
I believe there is growing recognition of the damage done by ill-advised agriculture policy. We see now that genetically engineered foods will be labeled; one positive step toward recognition of the risks of biotechnology for both people and the environment and of the toxins typically involved that follow food to the dinner table. We see the growth of local farmers’ markets and the increase in demand for “organic” or chemical-free foods. We see the growth of demand for foods produced closer to home; not shipped all over the country or from other countries. I believe we will see a gradual growth of the number of people involved in agriculture and, perhaps, even a reversal in population trends in rural areas.
You suggest we need more investment in urban areas. I suggest as well we need more encouragement in growing healthy food in Indiana. What a difference this would make. Both you and I live in areas dominated by wall-to-wall corn and soy beans, most of which has been genetically modified to withstand massive doses of glyphosate (Roundup) that has now been determined to be carcinogenic. And we wonder why the cancer rate in our nation is the highest in the world.
Finally, an over-arching question: when is enough, enough? Everyone talks about “growth and development” when they really mean more population and more jobs. When is it time to stabilize population and work on increasing standard of living only. I, for one, do not want Kokomo (a regional center) to become an “Indianapolis” or anything even close. Except for the impact of immigration, most of the developed nations of the world are at near zero population growth, but that is a whole other subject for discussion.
Regards, Kent Blacklidge
Brussels Siren
Just read a column about the wave of terror in Brussels, Paris, and San Bernardino. It made perfect sense. The terrorists were “home grown”, it seems. Nearly every one of them operated from within immigrant communities where they could swim out of sight of authorities.
“Crime historians tell us that nearly every nationality that has immigrated to America over the last 200 years in a large wave has brought with it a new organized crime network.”, the column said. We are seeing the large immigrant wave flood over Europe. We are allowing tens of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants into the United States. They cannot possibly be assimilated to democratic values and existing culture in a rate equal to or greater than the numbers coming in. What happens with Islamists is a pool or community of foreigners provides a place for incubation of radicalism that flies under the radar of law enforcement.
For over 50 years, immigration policies in Europe and the United States have been filling these “enabling pools”. That needs to change. There was a time when US immigration policy allowed less than 100,000 people annually to migrate to this country. In 1931, the number was 97,000. In 1941, it was 52,000. In 1951, it was 205,000. It remained below 500,000 until 1978 when it was 590,000. With few fluctuations, the number has climbed to over one million annually where it hovers today. For many reasons, not the least of which is security, the population of this country needs to stabilize, not continue to grow. Population growth in the United States is fueled largely now by the number of immigrants allowed in.
We do not need to single out countries of origin, religions, or ethnic groups since that seems to offend some do-gooders; but we do need to put a stop to the growth of enabling pools for terrorists and criminals. The aim should be to halt all immigration possible. This will ensure that the number of immigrants arriving is small enough that all can be screened for security. In addition, the categories allowed in should be of immigrants most likely to arrive with the best chance of rapid assimilation. We should restrict immigration to spouses and minor children of immigrants already here, marriages and adoptions by US citizens, and workers with extraordinary skills.
We need to eliminate chain migration that brings in unending flows of distant relatives of an original immigrant. We need to eliminate the visa lottery that brings in people by raffle. We need to eliminate employment-based visas for workers who have skills that unemployed or underemployed Americans have. Concerning illegal immigration particularly, we need to enforce the law.
The USA and other countries, particularly the European Union countries, should concentrate on helping refugees find safe, healthy refuge in their home region.
Mitch Daniels and GMOs
[Purdue President Mitch Daniels on February 25th gave a talk to the Agriculture Outlook Forum meeting in Arlington, VA. The thrust of his talk was that any who do not accept genetic engineering of crops are anti-science, ignorant, and immoral. My response to him is below.]
President Daniels:
I was shocked when I read the Wall Street Journal article about your talk to the Agriculture Outlook Forum in Arlington, VA; “Mitch Daniels on Anti-GMO Cruelty”. Your conclusions about genetically engineered crops and foods could have come right out of the playbook of any of the large chemical/seed corporations public relations departments.
In my opinion, the way biotechnology is currently being used in agriculture is both risky and reckless. It is risky for human health, for livestock, and for the environment. The primary reason for GE crops to date has been to allow them to be massively dosed with pesticide that kills surrounding “weeds” but does not kill the crop. The principle pesticide, glyphosate, has been determined to be carcinogenic. We spray it everywhere. All kinds of problems and questions are emerging regarding the chemicals and the genetically engineered crops that become either feed or food.
I have included with this letter a document to read. Please note it is extensively documented. In addition, Dr. Don Huber, Purdue professor emeritus, has it right in spite of the fact he has been called, “an embarrassment to Purdue” by one ranking academic at Purdue. If you have not, I suggest you read some of what Dr. Huber has written as well.
Large corporate agriculture is headed in the wrong direction. It is a train wreck waiting to happen. Many in Europe have already recognized this. It is encouraging to know that there are some at Purdue that know this as well; I have heard them.
Purdue does have an opportunity to lead. It is my hope it leads in directions healthier for people and the environment.
Sincerely,
Kent H. Blacklidge
Past Publisher/ The Kokomo Tribune
Purdue Degrees:
Ph.D. Genetics
MS Aquatic Toxicology and Fish Biology
MS Conservation of Natural Resources
BS Industrial Management
Note: the document included with the Daniels letter is titled, “10 Reasons we don’t need GM foods”. It is available in full at www.gmwatch.org/files/10-reasons-we-dont-need-GM-foods.pdf
Generating Snake-oil
[Below is a response to a Michael Hicks Ph.D. column in the March 13th issue of the Kokomo Tribune. Hicks is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University. I am thinking he needs to do a bit more research.]
The Michael Hicks column in the March 13th Kokomo Tribune misses the point completely. He states, “American manufacturing firms are making more goods altogether than at any other time is history”. That may be very true but by itself that fact is rather meaningless unless related to population and jobs. It may be great for the corporations’ bottom profit line, but of no value to those out of work.
Hicks goes on to say, “Indiana has been losing manufacturing employment for a half century and the nation as a whole has for over 40 years”. Now we are getting somewhere. At the same time, Indiana population has been growing as has the population of the nation. The result is clearly more people with relatively fewer available jobs. That is pretty easy to understand. Now it is estimated there are over 90 million people in the U.S. either with no job or seriously under employed.
Then Hicks tells us globalization and international trade are not significant factors, really. He says believing this appeals to ignorance and cowardice. He says our eyes deceive us when we see stores “full of Chinese made goods and shuttered factories across the Midwest”. What? Here I am thinking that those now shuttered factories once manufactured goods and that many of those goods are now being manufactured in China and other countries; and that the jobs that were filled by Americans are now filled by people in China. What am I missing? Maybe it is Hicks who cannot see.
Talk about confused: he says our public debate ought to be about what steps we can take to help workers who have lost their jobs. With that I would agree. There is no doubt that an increase in manufacturing efficiency in the United States has been one key factor in the downward pressure on available jobs, but there is no doubt that outsourcing to foreign workers is another and maybe the most important factor. We want efficiency, but we want jobs for people in the United States first; not in other countries. It is time to take back the jobs. It is time we see stores full of United States of America made goods and fully operating factories across the Midwest.
Personally, I found the Hicks column to be insulting to the intelligence of Americans whom he calls ill-informed and myopic. There is no “illusion” of damage from bad trade agreements. It is very real. It began with NAFTA and is about to be expanded by TPP. Hicks needs to do some serious re-thinking.
Trump Movement
Bruce Haynes had it right in his analysis of the Trump “Movement” on RealClearPolitics.com. He said a populist rebellion has been brewing in the United States for the past 25 years as a “tsunami of economic and cultural globalism” swamped the white working class and took away their jobs and with it, their dignity.
He said, since 1979, the US has lost 7 million manufacturing jobs, many of them outsourced to China and Mexico thanks to trade agreements negotiated by elites in both parties. In 2008, Americans who lost homes, savings, and jobs to the Great Recession then had to watch as the Washington elites bailed out the same Wall Street banks that caused the meltdown. Believing that they have been “sold down the river”, middle-class voters in both parties have turned to populist outsiders, namely Trump and Sanders, to “drop an anvil on the system’s head the way one was dropped on theirs.”
And all the while the adverse, damaging trade deals were being made and companies were leaving the United States for lower wages, more lax [if any] environmental regulations, more favorable taxing, and more lax [if any] worker safety regulations; the southern US border has remained out of control which has allowed millions of illegal aliens into the country. It is no wonder there are now over 90 million US citizens now out of work or seriously under employed. It cannot continue if the country is to survive economically and socially.
It is time for the apple cart to be overturned. It is time for the Washington elites to be turned out. They have betrayed the people they are supposed to represent. There is a quiet revolution under foot.
Vermont in Your Kitchen
[Below is a letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal in response to an editorial in the WSJ on March 7th opposing the labeling of genetically engineered foods]
Editor….
The Vermont law requiring labeling of all foods containing genetically engineered ingredients goes into effect on July 1st this year. You oppose it. Your editorial on March 7th could have been written by the public relations department of any of the giant chemical/seed corporations. The problem is that it contains just plain false information.
You said, “No agricultural innovation has been more maligned than GMOs, though the technology has proven safe, reliable, affordable and good for the environment”. None of that is true. The technology has not been proven safe. It is haphazard, reckless, and risky. The techniques are crude and potentially very disruptive to native genomes with potentially catastrophic consequences to human health and the environment. To now, the primary reason for GE corn and soy (the major crops) has been to allow them to be massively dosed with glyphosate or other pesticides without killing the crop but killing all vegetation around it. Now glyphosate has been determined to be carcinogenic. Pesticide residues follow the crop to livestock and to the dinner table. Studies have shown serious health consequences to livestock fed genetically engineered feed. So, there are serious safety issues about the genetically engineered crops themselves and as a result of the pesticides found with them.
As a past daily newspaper publisher and as a genetic scientist, I am an adamant believer in the right of the public to know all that is involved in the raising and production of the food they put on their families tables. It is the right of people to make that decision. It is not the right of the chemical/seed companies and corporate farmers to make decisions about what to tell and what not to tell in secret.
Over 60 countries world wide made the decision to either ban or label genetically engineered foods. Several now are considering banning genetically engineered crops altogether. Of those who did adopt genetically engineered crops and used the pesticides designed for them, many are seeing very serious health issues in their populations, particularly among farm workers. I add that over 60 countries cannot be wrong.
The WSJ needs to do more homework. The bill now in the US Senate should never see the light of day. As you concluded… “let the consumers decide what to eat”. Vermont leads the way.
Dear RNC by Anonymous
[I could not help passing this along to you……]
This letter was sent to 100% FED Up! by an anonymous author:
It doesn’t matter who you support for President in 2016. This letter will make you want to stand up and cheer for the 80 year old American who expresses what most of us are feeling right now. Enjoy…
Dear Representative,
From the time I was able to vote I voted Republican. I am 80 years old, and have a great deal of respect and influence with hundreds of senior ball players who also network with thousands of others around the country.
I received your questionnaire and request for money and strongly agree with every question, as I have since Obama was elected. Unfortunately the one question that was missing is “What have the Republicans done for the American people?” We gave you a majority in the House and Senate, yet you never listened to us. Now you want our money.
You should be more concerned about our votes, not our money. You are the establishment, which means all you want is to save your jobs and line your pockets… Well guess what? “It’s not going to happen” You shake in your boots when I tell you we’re giving our support to TRUMP and he hasn’t asked for a dime.
You might think we are fools because you feel Trump is on a self destruction course, but you need to look beyond Washington and listen to the masses. Nobody has achieved what he has, especially in the liberal state of New York.
You clearly don’t understand why the Trump movement is so strong, so I’d like to share with you an analogy to help explain the Trump phenomenon. By the way, it’s not just the Republicans who feel ignored and disrespected; there are plenty of Democrats and Independents who also feel let down by the Washington elite. You seem to have forgotten about “We The People” and who hired you to represent us.
So here it is, the best analogy I could come up with. Here is the reason so many Americans have boarded the Trump Train, and why your pleas to come back to the party who deserted us, is falling on deaf ears:
You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately…You call the city and four different exterminators, but nobody could handle the job. There is this one guy however, who guarantees you he will get rid of them, so you hire him. You don’t care if the guy smells, you don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he was friends with liberals, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack…you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period.
Here’s why we want Trump: Yes he’s a bit of an ass, yes he’s an egomaniac, but we don’t care. The country is a mess because politicians have become too self-serving. The Republican Party is two-faced & gutless. Illegal aliens have been allowed to invade our nation. We want it all fixed! We don’t care that Trump is crude, we don’t care that he insults people, we don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, we don’t care that he has changed positions, we don’t care that he’s been married three times, we don’t care that he fights with Megan Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, we don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslim terrorist.
This country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegal aliens and bringing tens of thousands of Muslim refugees to America, while leaving Christians behind to be persecuted. We are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo and Hasid is part of a special group with special rights to the point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in; “AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED” and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want.
We’re sick of politicians. We’re sick of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. We just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but he isn’t beholden to lobbyist money and he doesn’t have political correctness restraining him. All we know is that he has been very successful, he’s an excellent negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he’s also not a politician. He’s definitely not a cowardly politician. When he says he’ll fix it, we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong or looked at and called a liar.
Oh yeah…I forgot…we don’t care if the guy has bad hair either.
We just want those raccoons gone.
Out of your house.
NOW!
Nevadans: Choose Wisely
Nevadans have the opportunity to choose.
Deceit, manipulation, and lies have proved Ted Cruz to be nothing more than a commensurate Washington politician. He was educated in East Coast schools, practiced law in Washington DC, hid personal loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank from Texas voters, and is not respected or liked by Senate peers. In short, he cannot be trusted.
Then there is Marco Rubio who claims more than any to have extensive foreign policy experience when that largely consists of sitting in a chair in a Senate committee room for briefings. He rarely showed up for votes in the Senate and has the worst voting record of any Senator. His prior experience consists of time in the Florida General Assembly. A lot of mouth and no action.
Both are less-than-one term Senators ala Barrack Obama. Neither has managed anything including a hot dog stand, so know little about business or economics.
Nevadans, please choose wisely.
Indiana HB1082
If you care about Indiana’s natural environment, pay attention.
The Tribune front page Associated Press article on February 16th reported on an Indiana Senate committee hearing about House Bill 1082. This bill passed the Indiana House with co-sponsorship by Representative Heath VanNatter and the “aye” vote of both him and Representative Mike Karickhoff, our local representatives. What are they thinking?
HB1082 strips the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) Environmental Rules Board (ERB) of the authority to make or enforce any environmental rules or standards more stringent than the corresponding regulation or standard established under federal law. In short, this says that VanNatter and Karickhoff trust the federal government more than Hoosiers to make the wisest decisions about Indiana environmental protection. They want the federal government to set both the floor and the ceiling on environmental regulations. In the past, the federal government has set only the floor. Under this bill, Hoosiers will not be able to address unique environmental issues with stronger regulations than elsewhere in the nation even if Hoosiers decide they are needed. Any stronger regulations would only be permitted under specific statute passed by the General Assembly. No immediate actions could be taken. The IDEM Environmental Rules Board would be in a straight jacket. One must wonder why.
The IDEM Environmental Rules Board, which makes environmental policy in Indiana, consists of 16 members including 11 appointed by the governor and 6 specifically defined ex officio members. The ERB came into existence on January 1, 2013, but did not meet until after the inauguration on January 14th of Governor Mike Pence. Under the legislation that established the ERB; the Indiana Air Pollution Control Board, Solid Waste Management Board, and the Water Pollution Control Board were all abolished. Shortly after Pence’s inauguration, he issued an executive order placing a moratorium on new regulations, and announced plans to initiate a process to review all existing regulations with the exception of federal mandates not subject to a waiver request, rules needed to reduce the cost or burden on job creation, and rules to address emergency health or safety concerns. Again, in short, he took action to prevent adoption of any more stringent environmental regulations. Now comes HB1082 which adds to limiting the authority of the ERB. Why?
The AP article tells why. Fred Mills, the director of governmental affairs for the Indiana Energy Association, is quoted as saying “This is not about what is happening today, this is about what could happen.” The article goes on to point out that IDEM’s leadership could be shuffled by a Democratic governor in the future who is “less inclined to give business a break”. So, here it is: control. The passage of HB1082 cements that control by making it a requirement that any regulation more stringent than federal regulation be approved by specific General Assembly statute. The concern is not about protection of our natural environment. Be clear, it is about political and corporate control.
The Ringmaster
The South Carolina debate was a real circus that had one “Ringmaste
r“: Donald J. Trump!
Trump has the establishment GOP going nuts. In New Hampshire, he drew support from every demographic one can imagine. People are both angry and afraid. And the establishment GOP candidates are just not convincing they would or could shake up the system that has put the United States at real risk.
The latest that really upset people is the announcement by Carrier Air Conditioning (United Technologies) that it is moving a manufacturing plant to Mexico. Just the kind of corporate thing Trump has spoken about for months. Some 1,400 people in an Indianapolis plant will be losing their jobs.
The United States has been shipping manufacturing and other well paying jobs out of the country by the millions. The Obama administration via the Department of Labor statistics touts a 5.6% unemployment rate, but here are things you need to know.
If you are so hopelessly out of work that you have stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor does not count you as unemployed. If, for example, you are an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you are not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because that is all you can find, the government does not count you in the 5.6%. Right now there are as many as 30 million Americans either out of work or severely underemployed. So, we have been fed the BIG LIE.
Trump may not be an angel, but he may be our only hope. We must stop the horrible trade agreements, stop the incentives that send jobs to other countries, stop the inflow of immigrants [legal and illegal] that in part take what jobs there are, and stop the ability of corporations to escape their financial responsibilities by locating “headquarters” in other countries while raping the people of the USA. Trump has talked about all of this.
It is going to be interesting to see what the people of South Carolina think.