Must-read essay about oligarchic rule and why it must be destroyed: "Class: The Little Word the Elites Want You to Forget."

Seldom have I seen the gist of the matter explained as accurately and clearly as in the following essay by Chris Hedges.

Of course, today was eventful. If you're gleeful at this seeming power move on the eve of Super Tuesday -- Pete and Amy out for president, but very much with the "in crowd", Bloomberg's money still theoretically available to bankroll the nominee Biden, and Sanders at last deposed -- your satisfaction is fully shared by the ruling power structure.

The oligarchy will find nothing disturbing in a center-right "democratic" platform stripped of meaningful content, one that excludes any mention of correcting (read: attacking) inequality. Even if this "GOP Light" capitulation were enough to defeat Trump, nothing much would change with the fundamental issues, would it? The tinkle-down would continue, as it has since RayGun was in charge.

Until you grasp this basic fact, center-right moderation borne of fear is just more of the same oligarchy fluffing. You'll be sorry; but then again, that's usually the way it plays out. We'll have ineffectively treated the symptoms yet again, while allowing the disease to rage on.

Click through and read the whole damn thing. Get off those personality cult fetishes, and FOLLOW THE MONEY.

Class: The Little Word the Elites Want You to Forget (Common Dreams)

The culture wars give the oligarchs, both Democrats and Republicans, the cover to continue the pillage. Open, nonviolent revolt against the oligarchic state is our only hope.

Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx grounded their philosophies in the understanding that there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the rest of us. The interests of the rich are not our interests. The truths of the rich are not our truths. The lives of the rich are not our lives. Great wealth not only breeds contempt for those who do not have it but it empowers oligarchs to pay armies of lawyers, publicists, politicians, judges, academics and journalists to censure and control public debate and stifle dissent. Neoliberalism, deindustrialization, the destruction of labor unions, slashing and even eliminating the taxes of the rich and corporations, free trade, globalization, the surveillance state, endless war and austerity—the ideologies or tools used by the oligarchs to further their own interests — are presented to the public as natural law, the mechanisms for social and economic progress, even as the oligarchs dynamite the foundations of a liberal democracy and exacerbate a climate crisis that threatens to extinguish human life.

Oligarchic rule must be destroyed. If we fail, our democracy, and finally our species, will become extinct.

The oligarchs are happy to talk about race. They are happy to talk about sexual identity and gender. They are happy to talk about patriotism. They are happy to talk about religion. They are happy to talk about immigration. They are happy to talk about abortion. They are happy to talk about gun control. They are happy to talk about cultural degeneracy or cultural freedom. They are not happy to talk about class. Race, gender, religion, abortion, immigration, gun control, culture and patriotism are issues used to divide the public, to turn neighbor against neighbor, to fuel virulent hatreds and antagonisms. The culture wars give the oligarchs, both Democrats and Republicans, the cover to continue the pillage. There are few substantial differences between the two ruling political parties in the United States. This is why oligarchs like Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg can switch effortlessly from one party to the other. Once oligarchs seize power, Aristotle wrote, a society must either accept tyranny or choose revolution.

The United States stood on the cusp of revolution—a fact President Franklin Roosevelt acknowledged in his private correspondence — amid the breakdown of capitalism in the 1930s. Roosevelt responded by aggressively curbing the power of the oligarchs. The federal government dealt with massive unemployment by creating 12 million jobs through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), making the government the largest employer in the country. It legalized unions, many of which had been outlawed, and through the National Labor Relations Act empowered organizing. It approved banking regulations, including the Emergency Banking Act, the Banking Act and the Securities Act, all in 1933, to prevent another stock market crash. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration provided the equivalent in today’s money of $9.88 billion for relief operations in cities and states. The Democratic president heavily taxed the rich and corporations. (The Republican administration of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s was still taxing the highest earners at 91%.) Roosevelt’s administration instituted programs such as Social Security and a public pension program. It provided financial assistance to tenant farmers and migrant workers. It funded arts and culture. It created the United States Housing Authority and instituted the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established the minimum wage and set a limit on mandatory work hours. This heavy government intervention lifted the country out of the Great Depression. It also made Roosevelt, who was elected to an unprecedented fourth term, and the Democratic Party wildly popular among working and middle-class families. The Democratic Party, should it resurrect such policies, would win every election in a landslide.

But the New Deal was the bête noire of the oligarchs. They began to undo Roosevelt’s New Deal even before World War II broke out at the end of 1941. They gradually dismantled the regulations and programs that had not only saved capitalism but arguably democracy itself. We now live in an oligarchic state. The oligarchs control politics, the economy, culture, education and the press. Donald Trump may be a narcissist and a con artist, but he savages the oligarchic elite in his long-winded speeches to the delight of his crowds. He, like Bernie Sanders, speaks about the forbidden topic — class. But Trump, though an embarrassment to the oligarchs, does not, like Sanders, pose a genuine threat to them. Trump will, like all demagogues, incite violence against the vulnerable, widen the cultural and social divides and consolidate tyranny, but he will leave the rich alone. It is Sanders whom the oligarchs fear and hate.

The Democratic Party elites will use any mechanism, no matter how nefarious and undemocratic, to prevent Sanders from obtaining the nomination ...

Just a damn rant about "democracy grief."

It's a bit confounding to watch as Americans like Ms. Goldberg mourn something that barely ever existed. I've no use whatever for Donald Trump, and yet Trump has done nothing "to" America apart from accurately divining the obliviousness of its occupants as to eager culpability in their own oppression, which has far more to do with refusing to follow the money than visiting a therapist.

Democracy Grief Is Real, by Michelle Goldberg (New York Times)

Seeing what Trump is doing to America, many find it hard to fight off despair.

Lately, I think I’m experiencing democracy grief. For anyone who was, like me, born after the civil rights movement finally made democracy in America real, liberal democracy has always been part of the climate, as easy to take for granted as clean air or the changing of the seasons. When I contemplate the sort of illiberal oligarchy that would await my children should Donald Trump win another term, the scale of the loss feels so vast that I can barely process it.

Trump grasps the efficacy of following institutional weakness and native American anti-intellectualism to their logical conclusions, because that's where the money is.

But what if those "universal ideals" were little more than a chimera to begin with, mere window dressing to keep the inmates passive as they buy more articles they don't need and worship the palpably untrue?

Obviously, this is hardly the first time that America has failed to live up to its ideals. But the ideals themselves used to be a nearly universal lodestar. The civil rights movement, and freedom movements that came after it, succeeded because the country could be shamed by the distance between its democratic promises and its reality. That is no longer true.

Was it true even then?

There is nothing more authoritarian and oligarchic than all-encompassing consumerism -- and this is our national religious. It's who we are and what we do.

We make choices as consumers every day that buttress capital accumulation and income inequality far more efficiently than Trump's ability (itself questionable) to enhance further injustice.

We do it to ourselves, don't we? It's the economic system, and the ability of some to position themselves within it to the exclusion of others. We keep paying them, and they keep getting more powerful ... and it's not trickling down, is it?

But Trump’s political movement is pro-authoritarian and pro-oligarch.

Look, if you want to repel the nasty bully, why are you handing the nasty bully most of your money every single day? It might be a better idea to take away the money from the oligarchs. Hit the oligarchs with your wallet for a change.

Since when are "democratic ideals" even measured by the amount of debt you've accumulated on your credit cards?

“The only other option is to quit and accept it, and I’m not ready to go there yet,” she said. Democracy grief isn’t like regular grief. Acceptance isn’t how you move on from it. Acceptance is itself a kind of death.

Generally speaking, didn't we accept it long before Trump became a factor? Conceding that to quote Thomas Jefferson puts one at great hazard, I persist in thinking that he had one indisputably great insight.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Yep; the Declaration of Independence (except for the enslaved).

Imperfect, but there it is. Move past this facile notion of "democracy grief" and ask yourself the pertinent questions: Are these evils sufferable? Are the forms to which you are accustomed still adequate?

If yes, then buy another car and head to the multiplex for another dose of Marvel comic movies.

If no, then you just might have some thinking to do. Lots of you keep talking about resisting the part of the iceberg that's visible. Maybe it's the system beneath the surface that needs alteration.

Hello Wendy, Part Two: "Are dissidents born or made? A humanities major examines his life and locale."

Gibberish, isn't it?

Previously: Hello Wendy, Part One: In which we are properly warned not to heed the oligarchs' call to discount the value of liberal arts degrees.

As originally published on May 18, 2017, this column explains why I feel this need to say hello to Wendy Dant Chesser, the president and CEO of One Southern Indiana ... and why I have no plans to "let it go" anytime soon.

Note also that many of the same thoughts were repeated a few weeks later, prior to the council's annual rote approval of One Southern Indiana's tithing request.

(2 of 2) My comments at tonight's city council meeting, during public speaking time prior to A-17-02 (funding for One Southern Indiana).

---

ON THE AVENUES: Are dissidents born or made? A humanities major examines his life and locale. 

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Since my mother died in mid-March, I’ve experienced periods of intense introspection.

Are these signs of depression?

Maybe, although I don’t think so. In all likelihood, periods of reflection are natural manifestations of the grieving process. The cosmos can be disorienting even in the best of times, and our reactions change with them.

I believe that it’s never too late to learn something, and accordingly, these past few weeks have struck me as an opportunity to relax and see where these evolving thoughts are leading.

One very big question has moved to the front of the cerebral queue. It’s something I’ve often asked myself through the years.

Why am I here?

Mind you, not here on Planet Earth. There’s no need for existential musing about the nature of origins, at least yet. I’m perfectly content to allow theologians, philosophers and even humanities majors to earn their meager pay, but looking through old photo albums is evidence enough for me.

My parents met, and one thing led to another. Suddenly there I was, all created, pouring pints of Guinness for a living and plotting a beer revolution.

Rather …

Why am I still here, continuing to live in New Albany when I might be residing in another part of the state, country or world?

(Reader’s note: The axiom known as Thrasher’s Razor fully applies to this rumination, because now more than ever, we’re all here because we’re not all there.)

As the missus reminds me on widely scattered occasions -- basically, every morning at breakfast -- I’ve never been much in sync with the sort of polite poseur’s society mores craved by the likes of Bob Caesar. They're far too banal an ordeal for me.

After 57 years of give and take, it’s evident that I have lots of buttons – and the reigning poltroons have even more fingers. I’ve never been able to swim a lick unless it’s against the metaphorical tide. Contrarianism fits me like a well-tailored suit, which of course I’d refuse to wear, because you can’t trust anyone who does.

They’re just hiding behind those fashionable costumes (seriously?), anyway.

I trust it isn’t time to face the final curtain, and yet the years dwindle down. Wouldn’t I be happier elsewhere, in a place with a cultural climate more in keeping with my personal value system, as opposed to one that prompts severe allergic (read: aesthetic) reactions?

Might I manage to find the zip code for peace and harmony, even at the advanced age of “I can remember the first moon landing”?

Haven’t “they” always told me to leave town if I didn’t like “their” toxic farrago of ignorance and anti-intellectualism?

To which I’ve always succinctly replied: “You first, my dear Gaston.”

---

The most recent resurgence of these locational culture reflections came during our April visit to Portland, Maine.

It was a Friday morning at the estimable Tony’s Donut Shop at the corner of Bolton and Congress, and we were equipped with cream horns, black coffee and the bakery’s gnarled regulars seated at an adjacent table, talking current events.

As noted previously, Tony's is somewhat reminiscent of New Albany’s venerable Honey Creme Donuts, albeit three or four times larger, with more production capacity as well as a half-dozen cozy tables for visitors to sit and converse.

It was impossible to avoid overhearing the amiable patter as locals came and went with their carry-outs, nor to ignore the booming voices of the senior citizens seated nearby. They were talking hockey when we sat down, then shifted to politics -- and I caught myself cringing involuntarily, as though expecting to be savagely beaten.

After all, back home again in Indiana, where I’ve insisted on remaining amid the raging right-wing proclivities, this conversational shift inevitably would have segued into the parroting of conservative talk radio bromides.

Or, just the thing inspiring me to respond loudly from the left side of the aisle, a scenario usually culminating in rancor, disharmony and “if you don’t love it, lump it” -- or worse.

And so there I sat at Tony’s Donuts like Pavlov’s drooling mutt, conditioned to imagine a fine day about to be ruined, all the while thinking that I can’t seem to escape the mentality of Redevelopment Commission meetings no matter how far I travel – except this time, it wasn’t that way at all.

Instead, these retirees in Portland fiercely criticized Donald Trump’s buffoonery. They mercilessly ridiculed the Republican Party, and scoffed openly at the very idea of a theocratic creature called “Mike Pence” reposing within spitting distance of power.

Me? I’m from Chicago. Never heard of Indiana.

Awestruck, yet aware it would have been impolite of me to kiss these strangers, I settled for stuffing another nut-encrusted Bismarck into my gratified pie hole. Still, it started me thinking.

I’ve lived in Floyd County my whole life, and in the city of New Albany during the latter half of it. Even when Barack Obama won the state of Indiana in 2008, John McCain beat Obama more than comfortably in both my county and city. So did Mitt Romney in 2012, and of course Trump easily carried them, too.

Yes, so-called Democrats have “controlled” municipal government for much of the same period, although it is painfully clear that the retirees at Tony’s would take one pained look at Caesar and accurately place him somewhere to the right of George Wallace.

Back to my original question. If I’ve never been into S & M, why have I punished myself these many decades?

As an old-school Red (Commie) marooned in a new-age Red (Conservative) sandbox, and generally outnumbered, I’ve been compelled for thirty-five or more years to inflict my liberalism on the prevailing Falangist orthodoxy by means of guerrilla warfare, destined almost always to lose, and just as often reluctant to compromise.

Why am I like this?

I don’t know. After I’m dead, the psychoanalysts can study my brain for causes of contrarianism. In my experience, it’s incurable.

All I know is for as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with the notion that opposing points of view deserve a hearing, especially as they pertain to politics, civil rights, religion and individual conscience.

The bland respectability of Babbitt-style conformity invariably tramples “other” competing sides of the story, and so when disposed to tilt, my windmill of choice flies a banner reading “we’ve always done it this way.”

On the other hand, if I’ve been of assistance just once to someone by helping them see that it’s okay to be different, and it’s possible to be responsible, productive and ethical without being duped and hornswoggled by delusions, fantasias and superstitions foisted by the usual suspects, then my career in contrarianism has been well worth it.

---

As a relevant postscript, I cannot attend Thursday evening’s city council meeting owing to a conflict with my Leadership Southern Indiana graduation ceremony. As you may recall, I’m a proud member of the Discover class of 2017.

Leadership Southern Indiana’s mission is to engage, develop and mobilize regional leaders who will serve and transform our community.

Ironically, the council’s Thursday evening agenda includes A-17-02, an ordinance documenting our legislative body’s annual tithe to One Southern Indiana – and coincidentally, 1Si’s President and CEO, Wendy Dant Chesser, spoke to my class last week during our concluding Community Leadership Day.

Ostensibly Dant Chesser was there to outline steps for effectively leading a non-profit organization, and this she managed to do with requisite efficiency.

However, the second half of her presentation quickly digressed into the customary advertisement for 1Si, although this time with a novel twist.

According to Dant Chesser, the large manufacturing conglomerates most eagerly courted by 1Si (as opposed to independent local businesses and grassroots entrepreneurs, who must settle for trickle-down) prefer employees holding one of the six “top earner” university degrees, including engineering, computers and electronics.

However, according to her PowerPoint slide, higher education insists on disgorging twice as many graduates who’ve been awarded the six least “useful” (and lowest paying) degree choices: English, philosophy, history and the like.

It would seem that both Dant Chesser and the fluffed and subsidized multinational beneficiaries of the neoliberal order, upon whom 1Si depends to make payroll for 14 staffers, are offended by this ratio.

She made no effort to conceal her disdain for those viewing education as anything other than glorified vocational training, and considering the fact that I wasn’t the only humanities major in the room, her summarizing anecdote of choice was tellingly errant.

Dant Chesser told us of her recent chat with an art history major who was having trouble in the job market. Well, what did he expect? Art history? What sort of guidance counselor would recommend studying subjects as perennially useless as art history?

Well …

Perhaps those guidance counselors grasping that the object of education isn’t always to match obedient hamsters to their proper wheel, but to produce humans capable of thinking. The fact that “fake” news is such a concern these days might enter into this paradigm, wouldn’t you … think?

Seemingly nowhere in Dant Chesser’s narrowly defined (read: confined) world exists the type of broad, individually tailored choices of human aspiration that depart from economic development of the “we’ve always done it this way” variety, which by breathtaking coincidence is the type best calculated to advance the specific capitalist format to which 1Si has attached itself like a leech – hence the blood money of its council funding request.

The real problem might be that humanities majors have been made aware of different trends in the history of thought, and as such, they’re the ones most likely to question Dant Chesser’s premises.

Which I did, aloud and joyfully.

Bizarrely, another of her slides testified to the critical importance of every Southern Indiana resident meekly accepting 1Si’s version of the Regional Cities Initiative, so as to provide unanimity in pursuit of a “collective” path forward – and yes, “collective” is precisely the word this crony capitalist enabler used.

Irony is dead, but Trumpolini didn’t kill it.

As a direct result of past concerns proffered by anti-establishment dissidents, at least the money 1Si is requesting of our council will be put to a specific, directed use: WorkHub, a workforce training initiative.

That’s all well and good, but is this workforce training available to art history majors, or must we collectively denounce the pursuit of non-vocational education before disbursing the dollars to applicants?

Until Dant Chesser answers this question (a contrite public apology would be more suitable, but I’m a cynical realist), I recommend to council that the money be withheld. It won’t, and I can hear the backslapping already.

This admittedly has been a long read, so thanks for persevering.

You know, if dastardly parasitic humanities majors like me didn’t combat the angst with alcohol and stick around places like Nawbany, confident that any reasonable definition of leadership includes transparency, the ability to hear opposing viewpoints, to weigh available options and to filter the incessant bilge before charging across open ground toward the machine gun nest – tell me, would anyone bother challenging Wendy Dant Chesser and Bob Caesar when they begin spinning those “our way or the highway” whoppers?

That’s okay. You needn't answer. It’s my conscience, and it’s not for sale. However, I’m not going anywhere, and you can buy me a beer any time you like.

Hello Wendy, Part One: In which we are properly warned not to heed the oligarchs' call to discount the value of liberal arts degrees.

Or else THIS happens.

First, we have this wonderful statement of principle doubling as a middle finger to oligarchs everywhere.

In Part Two, there's a look back at what first prompted this specific middle finger to the oligarchs ... one that isn't being decommissioned, any time soon.

---

Bellarmine professor: Don't discount the value of liberal arts degrees, by Dr. Justin D. Klassen (Courier Journal)

The liberal arts, and the humanities especially, are under attack these days for their supposed uselessness. Gov. Matt Bevin recently urged universities to cut programs that do not generate obvious economic returns for students, and mentioned “interpretive dance” as one example.

Bevin is not alone in his thinking. In 2015, for instance, Japan’s government urged its national universities to close faculties of humanities and social sciences, ostensibly to prepare students better for competing in a technology-oriented global economy.

Gov. Bevin and the Japanese government are not wrong to seek value for the money we invest in education. Where they are misguided is in their understanding of how to measure the value of education. This, above all, is where we need some clarity. If we take this question seriously, both philosophically and in terms of the data, it becomes clear that the most trustworthy measure of education’s value is breadth, specifically the breadth of subjects and ideas covered.

I understand if this sounds far-fetched at first glance. Even students who choose to attend a liberal arts school tend to see breadth requirements as needless obstacles to what they “really” should be doing.

I know from years of reading course evaluations, however, that many of these same students discover over time that breadth is more tangibly and enduringly valuable than specialization alone. Seeing the world through the lenses of disciplines beyond their major teaches a crucial lesson: that the world is more complex than any one discipline could ever capture.

This discovery is no small or useless thing! Indeed, we should not consider ourselves mature human beings until we can admit and abide the complexity of life, which is precisely what a liberal arts education makes possible. That is to say, a broad education reveals the world’s uncountable nuances, while giving us the tools we need to approach them with confidence. Such an education therefore frees us to be creative where we might otherwise accept the status quo without question. It prepares us to be more compassionate with others, by requiring us to see our fellow human beings beyond easy stereotypes, and thus as possible collaborators and friends.

In a word, a broad education frees us to be reverent. Reverence, says the theologian Barbara Brown Taylor, is “the proper attitude of a small and curious human being in a vast and fascinating world of experience.” The liberal arts can teach us this properly human attitude. Honestly, what could be more valuable?
If you are willing to grant that a liberal arts education is transformative and even liberating, yet remain skeptical that knowing something about history or ecology or literature will enhance one’s employability in a specific field, please bear with me just a moment longer.

A friend of mine sells commercial real estate in a booming North American city. He makes a lot of money. He has been at it for a while now and regularly hires entry-level agents, drawing from a growing pool of similarly credentialed applicants. When he interviews people for open positions, he says he can tell immediately who has had a broad undergraduate education and who has not. Knowing that he prefers the former candidates, he spends little time these days looking for specialized credentials alone. Instead, he looks at where applicants went to college, and prioritizes those with liberal arts degrees.

Why is this important to him? Does he spend his days arguing about Plato, or Emily Dickinson? Is he some egghead realtor, with a penchant for “interpretive dance”? No. He spends his time building relationships with clients and prospective clients, and he needs co-workers who know how to relate to people with a wide range of backstories. In other words, he needs people experienced in being humane, in thinking on their feet, in listening and making arguments with sympathy and grace. He can teach them the industry-specific skills they need. But he can’t teach them from scratch to be mature, well-rounded human beings, which he knows is more crucial to their business success than any credential on its own.

My friend is not alone in his understanding of the value of a liberal arts degree.

We must vehemently reject fashionable dismissals of the liberal arts. If we really care about getting value for our education dollars, we can do no better than to demand from our schools and our policymakers a promise to educate our citizenry broadly. And to my colleagues who profess various disciplinary approaches to the truth of our human condition: let us make this promise loudly, and continue in our fidelity to it.

(Dr. Justin D. Klassen is associate professor of theology at Bellarmine) University.

The secrecy, maybe? "Something doesn’t feel right about David Jones’ group of Louisville powerbrokers."

Tell me if you've heard this one before.

Encroaching nausea as Insider Louisville tracks down Louisville's secretive power brokers, an "elite group of influencers."

Oh, look. How charming. The usual suspects, same old pillars and engorged oligarchs together again, in secret, to huff and puff and -- dear, could you fetch my pitchfork? Just in case One Southern Indiana's already played the copycat.

Gerth nails it.

Something doesn’t feel right about David Jones’ group of Louisville powerbrokers, by Joe Gerth (Louisville Courier Journal)

The group that David A. Jones Sr. brought together is impressive.

There are nearly 70 community leaders — from entrepreneurs to ecclesiastics (and a rabbi thrown in for good measure) — who have joined to address the problems that have held Louisville back for decades.

Good idea. Talented cast.

But something doesn't feel right about this.

It's instructive that Insider Louisville broke this story, and the Courier Journal gives credit where due. Let's hope the News and Tribune is reading.

The group operated in complete secrecy until Insider Louisville wrote about it earlier this week and said that Jones wouldn't turn over a list of members. He relented and gave Courier Journal a list of names the following day.

Encroaching nausea as Insider Louisville tracks down Louisville's secretive power brokers, an "elite group of influencers."

SCALA, not La Scala.

Oh, look. How charming. The usual suspects, same old pillars and engorged oligarchs together again, in secret, to huff and puff and -- dear, could you fetch my pitchfork? Just in case One Southern Indiana's already played the copycat.

By invitation only: Meet Louisville’s power brokers, by Caitlin Bowling, Boris Ladwig and Joe Sonka (Insider Louisville)

Part 1: How an elite group of influencers aims to solve the city’s most vexing issues, including JCPS

At invitation-only meetings during the last seven months, prominent Louisville power brokers from businesses, nonprofits and religious organizations have discussed issues including public safety, air service and — with recent urgency — the state’s potential intervention in or takeover of Jefferson County Public Schools.

The group of about 70 members — modeled after a similar organization in Nashville — has been operating largely under the radar until recently when multiple sources alerted Insider Louisville to its existence. In interviews with dozens of people over several weeks, Insider has learned more about the members, agenda and structure of this influential group.

Its very existence sheds light on how a determined coalition of private citizens can hone in on key issues hoping to expedite outcomes beyond the sphere of government, elected boards or traditional business groups.

In interviews with Insider, founders and members of the group — called the Steering Committee for Action on Louisville’s Agenda (SCALA) — described it as an effective way for “thought leaders” to come together to tackle some of the city’s major problems.

However, SCALA critics who recently learned of the group have blasted it as a covert and “nefarious” attempt by wealthy elites to undermine public education and the democratically elected local school board. Even though public education is a top three priority for SCALA members, the group has not extended an invitation to any current JCPS or public higher education executives.

SCALA is a nonprofit entity that was registered with the state in July by Humana founder David Jones Sr., who is listed on its board of directors along with Chuck Denny, the regional president for PNC Bank in Kentucky and Tennessee, and Sandra Frazier, chief executive of Tandem Public Relations.

Before I go any further, forget the pitchfork: QUICK, GATHER YOUR BUCKETS, PAILS AND BASINS -- LEFTOVER AIR SICKNESS BAGS TOO -- BECAUSE IT'S ABOUT TO GET NASTY.

It seems that one of SCALA's stalwarts is found in Webster's word book under "unctuous son-of-a-bitch."

(Ed Glasscock, chairman emeritus of Frost Brown Todd) told Insider that other SCALA members include Alice Houston, CEO of Houston Johnson; Jim Lancaster, CEO of Lantech; and Koleman Karleski, chairman of Cork Communications and former managing partner of Chrysalis Ventures, which Jones Jr. co-founded. None of the three could be reached.

Glasscock said SCALA represented a carryover from groups of local influencers who had used their expertise to bring about positive change in the community, from the merger of local and county government to construction of the KFC Yum! Center and the Ohio River Bridges Project.

“This is a continuation of some of those coalitions,” he said. “It’s a very progressive group trying to do important things.”

Yep, I definitely remember Glasscock from the bridges project.

Ed Glasscock. Progressive? You know, progressive just like Idi Amin.

Come to think of it, an opera link might soothe the savage turn toward socialism and redistribution.

Opera’s awful role models and the #MeToo moment (Prospero, at The Economist)

A typical work has as much sex and violence as “Game of Thrones”, but a less plausible plot. Should we expose our children to such filth?

 ... “How can I love an artform that is so consistently, insistently cruel to its female characters?” asks Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian, wondering if opera is “the most misogynistic art form”. She has a point. In the age of #MeToo, some directors have decided to adapt old plots to make them more female-friendly.

Hmm. Didn't work. Back to the pitchfork solution, but kudos to IL for the fine article.

THE BEER BEAT: Scofflaw Brewing flies the bird as AB InBev shareholders watch with preda-masturbatory glee.

Photo credit: Paste.

The ensuing scenario can be easily imagined.

Somewhere deep inside the bowels of AB InBev, one among a legion of highly paid thievery consultants peruses the Paste article with ill-contained and growing enthusiasm.

"It's just what we need," he says to himself while frantically calculating shelf space algorithms.

"An edgy vibe, perfect for capturing the 'screw you' market segment."

Within weeks, a new photo appears.

Now, Scofflaw's friends and foes alike at last find common cause to unite, rejecting the newborn mockrobrew to find the next greatest Northeastern IPA, and lofting those middle fingers in the precise direction this most honest of all personal salutes always should have been pointed.

To AB InBev ... over and over ...rinse, repeat ... and bartender, can I have a Bell's Two Hearted Ale, please?

Breweries vs. Fans: Craft Beer on Social Media, by Jim Vorel (Paste)

Take a look at the photo above. The crowd of assembled, bearded brewers (and a few ladies) belongs to Atlanta-area brewers Scofflaw Brewing Co. You may have noticed that they all have their middle fingers raised in salute—I assure you that this will become relevant soon enough. But first, a little bit of background.

Scofflaw is one of the young stars of Atlanta’s beer scene, having gathered a huge amount of hype for a company that hasn’t yet celebrated its one-year anniversary ...

 ... But there’s always a flip side to such stories, and according to many Scofflaw drinkers, the pressing issue is consistency and replicability of the company’s flagship beers such as Basement IPA ...

 ... What is uncommon is a brewery reacting to those types of concerns with combative words and upturned middle fingers. That’s what Scofflaw did via Facebook yesterday, firing off a post that has lit up the Atlanta craft beer scene and ignited debate on both sides.

Council approves 1Si's funding request. Greg Phipps disagrees, and Dan Coffey denounces free speech. In tonight's performance, the role of Jeff Gahan was played by Mike Hall.

This post has been edited to reflect Pat McLaughlin's vote against A-17-02 (1Si funding. Apologies for missing this; thanks to Greg Phipps for the correction. 

Earlier this evening, I read both of my prepared statements during their allotted time.

(1 of 2) My comments at tonight's city council meeting, during the public hearing for A-17-02 (funding for One Southern Indiana).

(2 of 2) My comments at tonight's city council meeting, during public speaking time prior to A-17-02 (funding for One Southern Indiana).

Bob Caesar looked greatly pained. What if the cool kids and the in-crowd held him responsible for the words of wild-eyed, dissenting, anti-establishment types like me?

Naturally there wasn't the slightest doubt that A-17-02 would pass, with $30,000 going to 1Si for vocational training initiatives, although Citizen Cassidy raised an excellent point. He asked why 1Si's tithing hat is not extended in the direction of Floyd County government, too.

It was gratifying to have Greg Phipps join me in defending the virtue of liberal arts and humanities majors. Phipps and council president Pat McLaughlin cast their votes against A-17-02.

1Si's Wendy Dant Chesser was in attendance, and when asked by Phipps to clarify, she denied speaking with disdain about art history majors. I have two things to say about this.

First: I wasn't the only LSI class member in attendance to come away with the same impression as mine. She did as she did.

Second: If Dant Chesser's objective (then as now) is to urge the expansion of vocational training as well as encouraging college degrees in areas of most interest to employers, this is fine and dandy, but is it really necessary to mention the college degrees one shouldn't pursue?

Put another way, if her argument is sound, why even tell the anecdote of the embittered art history major and risk being misread?  

Consequently, I stand by my statements.

Of course, no council meeting would be complete without Dan Coffey going full gonzo reactionary.

In Coffey's schoolboy zeal to agree "100%" with Dant Chesser, who would detour down the alley lickety-split if she saw Coffey approaching her on the street, he announced with agitation (paraphrasing) that taxpayers simply shouldn't be allowed to come to council meetings and use the podium as a "bully pulpit" in order to say what they think.

So much for the Constitution.

Say it ain't so, Adam -- Dan Coffey opposed to free speech?

Well, DUH, but of course this doesn't stop Jeff "Dear Leader" Gahan from parleying with the lapsed Wizard in pursuit of emptied public housing blocks accompanied by a fully remodeled Riverview Towers, where the barbecued bologna always hits the fan at just the right time.

Just imagine a public housing tenant packing his or her belongings in a Kroger shopping cart on the way to the rail siding, and seeing Gahan's face staring back with an $8,000 reminder to eat healthy and visit the aquatic center often.

But I digress.

Funniest of all was Al Knable's brief reply to Coffey. Knable upheld the wisdom of allowing taxpayers to speak even when they disagree with Dan Coffey, and clarified the meaning of "bully pulpit" as originally used by Teddy Roosevelt, to which Coffey nodded vigorously and insisted he knew the meaning of a concept he'd butchered just moments before.

No wonder Coffey and Gahan have been joined at the hip for so long.

Neither of them has made a mistake, ever.  

---

TWITTER LOG for MONDAY, JUNE 5 (from start to finish)

I've returned to city council after a hiatus. So far. too busy reading prepared statements to tweet. If anything happens ...

Mayor Hall is here. His attendance is stellar. Except he isn't the mayor.

A-17-02 One Southern Indiana's $30K for vocational training advancement. Caesar vouched for 1Si's integrity v.v. $

A-17-02 Phipps grills Dant Chesser about the value of liberal arts education. Bravo.

A-17-02 Coffey says what we all know: it's good to have all sorts of jobs.

Coffey denounces public speakers who use council time to exercise free speech. Somewhere @DeafGahan is smiling.

5 minutes later, Coffey is still talking. He doesn't understand why such a great idea should be discussed #OhDonald

Coffey thinks A-17-02 will transform the planet.

Coffey now says of course he knew what "bully pulpit" meant when he misused it moments ago. Of course. Ha ha.

A-17-02 is going to be approved unanimously. Even I'm not sure why the questions have broken out. But that IS why I spoke.

Phipps opposes A-17-02. Bully for him. Final score 8-1 7-2 in favor of the 1Si Oligarchs.

(Edit: McLaughlin also voted against)

A-17-03 New police car funding. 9-0 in favor.

3rd reading on the last two, meaning they both got final approval.

R-17-08 Lots of abatements and stress relievers for Beach Mold and Tool. Caesar's mayoral campaign is in full swing.

Duggins thanks everyone. His mayoral campaign is in full tumescence, too. So many engorged members, so little time.

R-17-08 The choreography is awesome for what probably be another unanimous vote. The ritual can be fascinating even w/o martinis.

R-17-08 Vote is 9-0 in favor. Now who'll take credit for this in 2019? Caesar? Duggins? Nod?

Adjourned. Thank you.

(2 of 2) My comments at tonight's city council meeting, during public speaking time prior to A-17-02 (funding for One Southern Indiana).

What I'll be saying tonight during regular public speaking time for agenda items. It is a repurposed extract from a recent ON THE AVENUES column. Part 1 is here.

I’m a member of the Leadership Southern Indiana’s Discover class of 2017.

The presence of A-17-02 on tonight’s agenda is ironic, given that in May, One Southern Indiana’s President and CEO, Wendy Dant Chesser, spoke to our class during Community Leadership Day.

Ostensibly Dant Chesser was there to outline steps for effectively leading a non-profit organization. However, the second half of her presentation quickly digressed into the customary advertisement for 1Si, although this time with a twist.

According to Dant Chesser, the large manufacturing conglomerates most eagerly courted by 1Si (as opposed to independent local businesses and grassroots entrepreneurs, who must settle for trickle-down) prefer employees holding one of the six “top earner” university degrees, including subjects like engineering, computers and electronics.

However, according to her, higher education insists on disgorging twice as many graduates who’ve received the six “least useful” (and lowest paying) degree choices, like English, philosophy, geography, history and the like.

It would seem that both Dant Chesser and the often subsidized multinational beneficiaries of the local branch of the neoliberal order, upon whom 1Si depends to make payroll for 14 staffers, are very offended by this educational ratio.

She made no effort to conceal her disdain for people who might view education as something other than vocational training, or that differs from what employers want, and considering the fact that I wasn’t the only humanities major in the room, her summarizing anecdote of choice was tellingly misplaced.

She told us of a recent chat with an art history major who was having trouble in the job market. Well, she said, what did he expect? Art history? What sort of guidance counselor would recommend studying subjects as perennially useless as art history?

Perhaps those guidance counselors grasping that the object of education isn’t always to match obedient hamsters to their proper wheel, but to produce humans capable of thinking. The fact that “fake” news is such a concern these days might enter into this paradigm, wouldn’t you … think?

Seemingly nowhere in Dant Chesser’s narrowly defined world exists the type of broad, individually tailored choices of human aspiration that depart from economic development of the “we’ve always done it this way” variety, which by breathtaking coincidence is the type best calculated to advance the US Chamber of Commerce-approved, specific capitalist format to which 1Si attaches itself.

The real problem might just be that humanities majors have been made aware of trends in the history of thought that differ from hers and the oligarchs she serves, and as such, humanities majors are the ones most likely to question Dant Chesser’s premises.

Which I did, and am doing so again tonight. Because, how did I manage to stay in business 25 years without an engineering degree?

Dan Chesser also informed us that every Southern Indiana resident should unquestioningly accept – notice a pattern yet? – 1Si’s version of the Regional Cities Initiative, so as to provide unanimity in pursuit of a “collective” path forward – and yes, “collective” is precisely the word this crony capitalist enabler used, proving that while irony is dead, the Great Trumpolini didn’t kill it.

As a direct result of past concerns voiced by anti-establishment dissidents, at least the money 1Si is requesting tonight of our council will be put to a specific, directed use: WorkHub, a vocational training initiative.

But first we need to answer two questions: Is this vocational training available to art history majors, or must we collectively denounce the pursuit of non-vocational education before disbursing the dollars to applicants? Can art history majors be cured of their wayward choices, and restored to harmony with multinational corporations?

WorkHub probably is a good program, but absent a public apology by Dant Chesser to humanities majors, which I sadly know isn’t forthcoming, I’d recommend that council withhold the money until my questions are answered. You won’t, so instead I’ll urge you to think carefully about what 1Si is, and what it does. Not all your constituents view it as a panacea.

Thank you.

(1 of 2) My comments at tonight's city council meeting, during the public hearing for A-17-02 (funding for One Southern Indiana).

What I'll be reading this evening during the public hearing. Thanks to Jeff and Randy for their input. Part 2 is here.

Tonight, One Southern Indiana concludes its annual visit to city council, hat in hand, asking for $30,000 to fund vocational training and career placement via 1Si’s WorkHub program.

Granted, $30,000 probably is less than it cost Jeff Gahan to put his face on Kroger shopping carts. I’m told there must be demonstrable progress before any more city funds go to this program. That’s well and good, and I have no illusions that a single “no” vote will be cast tonight.

But still, we must remember that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

1Si is a private lobbying firm which petitions government on behalf of private, paying clients -- not in conjunction with public interests but, as often as not, in spite of them.

It is absurd for local government to pay 1Si for the privilege of being lobbied.

1Si’s support for the Ohio River Bridges Project and the subsequent tolling boondoggle, as well as its disastrous Regional Cities Initiative proposal, are merely the tip of the oligarch’s iceberg.

1Si famously endorses the agenda of the US Chamber of Commerce, which generally supports Republican political candidates. 1Si once began endorsing candidates itself, then backed down. I’d suggest that we need to keep a close eye on them lest partisan endorsements resume, and withhold all tithes if they do.

According to the organization called Chamber Watch, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce works against the public interest across a variety of sectors, including civil justice, climate and energy, health care, workplace safety and financial reform.

In addition, the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) and green businesses represented by the American Sustainable Business Council have fought the U.S. Chamber’s goals.

It should tell us something that AMIBA feels this way. 1Si’s bait and switch with regard to small, locally owned independent business surely helps pay salaries for those it employs to fluff the major corporate entities, but it does nothing to assist the most vibrant grassroots sector of the local economy.

1Si extracts fees from gullible indies hoping for "networking" benefits from larger corporations, which are firmly entrenched in the international order, and have no interest whatever in localism. This is trickle-down at best, and usually not even that. In fact, these businesses support 1SI, and not the other way around. Why should taxpayers do the same?

One of my favorite 1Si subdivisions is the Economic Development Council.

“The Economic Development Council is one of our most prestigious committees. Members provide strategic direction to 1si’s economic development activities, including new business attraction, advocacy, business retention and expansion, transportation, quality of life and recruitment of talent. Places on this Committee are restricted to proven investors.”

In other words, you have to have a certain amount of money to be welcomed into the discussion about economic development. You must be sufficiently well-heeled to comment about “quality of life.”

This tripe is plainly exclusionary, and it insults small business persons and every citizen who lives paycheck to paycheck, and can’t afford the ante to discuss their contributions to economic development every single day in this community.

$30,000 for vocational education? That’s probably tolerable, but let’s not forget what 1Si really is, and really does.

Thank you.

ON THE AVENUES: Are dissidents born or made? A humanities major examines his life and locale.

ON THE AVENUES: Are dissidents born or made? A humanities major examines his life and locale. 

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Since my mother died in mid-March, I’ve experienced periods of intense introspection.

Are these signs of depression?

Maybe, although I don’t think so. In all likelihood, periods of reflection are natural manifestations of the grieving process. The cosmos can be disorienting even in the best of times, and our reactions change with them.

I believe that it’s never too late to learn something, and accordingly, these past few weeks have struck me as an opportunity to relax and see where these evolving thoughts are leading.

One very big question has moved to the front of the cerebral queue. It’s something I’ve often asked myself through the years.

Why am I here?

Mind you, not here on Planet Earth. There’s no need for existential musing about the nature of origins, at least yet. I’m perfectly content to allow theologians, philosophers and even humanities majors to earn their meager pay, but looking through old photo albums is evidence enough for me.

My parents met, and one thing led to another. Suddenly there I was, all created, pouring pints of Guinness for a living and plotting a beer revolution.

Rather …

Why am I still here, continuing to live in New Albany when I might be residing in another part of the state, country or world?

(Reader’s note: The axiom known as Thrasher’s Razor fully applies to this rumination, because now more than ever, we’re all here because we’re not all there.)

As the missus reminds me on widely scattered occasions -- basically, every morning at breakfast -- I’ve never been much in sync with the sort of polite poseur’s society mores craved by the likes of Bob Caesar. They're far too banal an ordeal for me.

After 57 years of give and take, it’s evident that I have lots of buttons – and the reigning poltroons have even more fingers. I’ve never been able to swim a lick unless it’s against the metaphorical tide. Contrarianism fits me like a well-tailored suit, which of course I’d refuse to wear, because you can’t trust anyone who does.

They’re just hiding behind those fashionable costumes (seriously?), anyway.

I trust it isn’t time to face the final curtain, and yet the years dwindle down. Wouldn’t I be happier elsewhere, in a place with a cultural climate more in keeping with my personal value system, as opposed to one that prompts severe allergic (read: aesthetic) reactions?

Might I manage to find the zip code for peace and harmony, even at the advanced age of “I can remember the first moon landing”?

Haven’t “they” always told me to leave town if I didn’t like “their” toxic farrago of ignorance and anti-intellectualism?

To which I’ve always succinctly replied: “You first, my dear Gaston.”

---

The most recent resurgence of these locational culture reflections came during our April visit to Portland, Maine.

It was a Friday morning at the estimable Tony’s Donut Shop at the corner of Bolton and Congress, and we were equipped with cream horns, black coffee and the bakery’s gnarled regulars seated at an adjacent table, talking current events.

As noted previously, Tony's is somewhat reminiscent of New Albany’s venerable Honey Creme Donuts, albeit three or four times larger, with more production capacity as well as a half-dozen cozy tables for visitors to sit and converse.

It was impossible to avoid overhearing the amiable patter as locals came and went with their carry-outs, nor to ignore the booming voices of the senior citizens seated nearby. They were talking hockey when we sat down, then shifted to politics -- and I caught myself cringing involuntarily, as though expecting to be savagely beaten.

After all, back home again in Indiana, where I’ve insisted on remaining amid the raging right-wing proclivities, this conversational shift inevitably would have segued into the parroting of conservative talk radio bromides.

Or, just the thing inspiring me to respond loudly from the left side of the aisle, a scenario usually culminating in rancor, disharmony and “if you don’t love it, lump it” -- or worse.

And so there I sat at Tony’s Donuts like Pavlov’s drooling mutt, conditioned to imagine a fine day about to be ruined, all the while thinking that I can’t seem to escape the mentality of Redevelopment Commission meetings no matter how far I travel – except this time, it wasn’t that way at all.

Instead, these retirees in Portland fiercely criticized Donald Trump’s buffoonery. They mercilessly ridiculed the Republican Party, and scoffed openly at the very idea of a theocratic creature called “Mike Pence” reposing within spitting distance of power.

Me? I’m from Chicago. Never heard of Indiana.

Awestruck, yet aware it would have been impolite of me to kiss these strangers, I settled for stuffing another nut-encrusted Bismarck into my gratified pie hole. Still, it started me thinking.

I’ve lived in Floyd County my whole life, and in the city of New Albany during the latter half of it. Even when Barack Obama won the state of Indiana in 2008, John McCain beat Obama more than comfortably in both my county and city. So did Mitt Romney in 2012, and of course Trump easily carried them, too.

Yes, so-called Democrats have “controlled” municipal government for much of the same period, although it is painfully clear that the retirees at Tony’s would take one pained look at Caesar and accurately place him somewhere to the right of George Wallace.

Back to my original question. If I’ve never been into S & M, why have I punished myself these many decades?

As an old-school Red (Commie) marooned in a new-age Red (Conservative) sandbox, and generally outnumbered, I’ve been compelled for thirty-five or more years to inflict my liberalism on the prevailing Falangist orthodoxy by means of guerrilla warfare, destined almost always to lose, and just as often reluctant to compromise.

Why am I like this?

I don’t know. After I’m dead, the psychoanalysts can study my brain for causes of contrarianism. In my experience, it’s incurable.

All I know is for as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with the notion that opposing points of view deserve a hearing, especially as they pertain to politics, civil rights, religion and individual conscience.

The bland respectability of Babbitt-style conformity invariably tramples “other” competing sides of the story, and so when disposed to tilt, my windmill of choice flies a banner reading “we’ve always done it this way.”

On the other hand, if I’ve been of assistance just once to someone by helping them see that it’s okay to be different, and it’s possible to be responsible, productive and ethical without being duped and hornswoggled by delusions, fantasias and superstitions foisted by the usual suspects, then my career in contrarianism has been well worth it.

---

As a relevant postscript, I cannot attend Thursday evening’s city council meeting owing to a conflict with my Leadership Southern Indiana graduation ceremony. As you may recall, I’m a proud member of the Discover class of 2017.

Leadership Southern Indiana’s mission is to engage, develop and mobilize regional leaders who will serve and transform our community.

Ironically, the council’s Thursday evening agenda includes A-17-02, an ordinance documenting our legislative body’s annual tithe to One Southern Indiana – and coincidentally, 1Si’s President and CEO, Wendy Dant Chesser, spoke to my class last week during our concluding Community Leadership Day.

Ostensibly Dant Chesser was there to outline steps for effectively leading a non-profit organization, and this she managed to do with requisite efficiency.

However, the second half of her presentation quickly digressed into the customary advertisement for 1Si, although this time with a novel twist.

According to Dant Chesser, the large manufacturing conglomerates most eagerly courted by 1Si (as opposed to independent local businesses and grassroots entrepreneurs, who must settle for trickle-down) prefer employees holding one of the six “top earner” university degrees, including engineering, computers and electronics.

However, according to her PowerPoint slide, higher education insists on disgorging twice as many graduates who’ve been awarded the six least “useful” (and lowest paying) degree choices: English, philosophy, history and the like.

It would seem that both Dant Chesser and the fluffed and subsidized multinational beneficiaries of the neoliberal order, upon whom 1Si depends to make payroll for 14 staffers, are offended by this ratio.

She made no effort to conceal her disdain for those viewing education as anything other than glorified vocational training, and considering the fact that I wasn’t the only humanities major in the room, her summarizing anecdote of choice was tellingly errant.

Dant Chesser told us of her recent chat with an art history major who was having trouble in the job market. Well, what did he expect? Art history? What sort of guidance counselor would recommend studying subjects as perennially useless as art history?

Well …

Perhaps those guidance counselors grasping that the object of education isn’t always to match obedient hamsters to their proper wheel, but to produce humans capable of thinking. The fact that “fake” news is such a concern these days might enter into this paradigm, wouldn’t you … think?

Seemingly nowhere in Dant Chesser’s narrowly defined (read: confined) world exists the type of broad, individually tailored choices of human aspiration that depart from economic development of the “we’ve always done it this way” variety, which by breathtaking coincidence is the type best calculated to advance the specific capitalist format to which 1Si has attached itself like a leech – hence the blood money of its council funding request.

The real problem might be that humanities majors have been made aware of different trends in the history of thought, and as such, they’re the ones most likely to question Dant Chesser’s premises.

Which I did, aloud and joyfully.

Bizarrely, another of her slides testified to the critical importance of every Southern Indiana resident meekly accepting 1Si’s version of the Regional Cities Initiative, so as to provide unanimity in pursuit of a “collective” path forward – and yes, “collective” is precisely the word this crony capitalist enabler used.

Irony is dead, but Trumpolini didn’t kill it.

As a direct result of past concerns proffered by anti-establishment dissidents, at least the money 1Si is requesting of our council will be put to a specific, directed use: WorkHub, a workforce training initiative.

That’s all well and good, but is this workforce training available to art history majors, or must we collectively denounce the pursuit of non-vocational education before disbursing the dollars to applicants?

Until Dant Chesser answers this question (a contrite public apology would be more suitable, but I’m a cynical realist), I recommend to council that the money be withheld. It won’t, and I can hear the backslapping already.

This admittedly has been a long read, so thanks for persevering.

You know, if dastardly parasitic humanities majors like me didn’t combat the angst with alcohol and stick around places like Nawbany, confident that any reasonable definition of leadership includes transparency, the ability to hear opposing viewpoints, to weigh available options and to filter the incessant bilge before charging across open ground toward the machine gun nest – tell me, would anyone bother challenging Wendy Dant Chesser and Bob Caesar when they begin spinning those “our way or the highway” whoppers?

That’s okay. You needn't answer. It’s my conscience, and it’s not for sale. However, I’m not going anywhere, and you can buy me a beer any time you like.

---

Recent columns:

May 11: ON THE AVENUES: Would a Canon candidacy compromise Deaf Gahan's and Mr. Dizznee's shizz show? A boy can dream.

May 4: ON THE AVENUES: Under the volcano in Catania, Sicily (Part One).

April 27: ON THE AVENUES: Dear Mr. Dizznee: Can you hear me now?

April 20: ON THE AVENUES: The Weekly Wad? It was a modest start.

"The best worst president ever."

The propensity to laugh out loud comes even more quickly when the speaker is a chicken announcing its eternal fidelity to Colonel Sanders.

The old angry white guys don't want to think about economics, even if their daily working lives are testament to the sacrifices necessary to maintain the 1%.

The old angry white guys just want someone to tell them that it's okay to hate their pre-selected  convenient targets, ranging from the gays to the coloreds to the ragheads.

I'm an old angry white guy, too. It's just that I reserve my anger to be directed at the old angry whiye guys. They embarrass me, and I wish they'd either grow up or ... that's right ... move to Putin's goddamm Russia if they don't like it here.

NOTES & ERRATA BY MARK MORFORD: The best worst president ever (SF Gate)

“Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to this country,” declares the wealthy, rakish, silver-haired Newport Beach white guy to his small group of perfectly tanned 50-something females sitting just a few feet away from us at a stunning restaurant patio overlooking the sun-kissed California coastline, just off of Highway 1, as he sipped his pinot and adjusted his wraparound Ray Bans, flush from the economy’s spectacular recovery that has benefitted his exact demographic most of all, stroking his purebred dog and taking various selfies with their $500 phones, oblivious to the furious swirls of irony and hypocrisy fluttering just above their heads.

I laughed out loud. Couldn’t help it; I had just overheard Mr. Newport Beach say something about how Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster (despite how, of course, it’s not), and if America were to somehow actually develop a health care system similar to, say, Canada’s, that would be the end of America for certain; we’d never recover from such a devastating blow. Or something. And then came the “worst thing to ever happen” quip, and I couldn’t hold back.

Petty local oligarchs profiting from ORBP? Say it ain't so, Kerry.

ORBP skeptic Daniel B. had this to say about Tom Clevidence's reasoning.

The Bridges Project is driving up the cost of all other construction in the area. I do not remember this being used as a selling point for the project.

It surely was not. But the extraction oligarchs are making a few bucks, aren't they -- and just as surely, this WAS their chief selling point, and the one stuffed down our throats.

Clarksville council increases maximum bonding capacity for project, by Matt Koesters (Huntsville Picayune)

 ... The Clarksville Town Council unanimously voted at an Aug. 18 work session to increase the town’s maximum bonding capacity for its wastewater and stormwater projects from $37.5 million to $40.5 million to accommodate rising prices.

“The reason that it went up from our original, anticipated bond amount, was according to our engineers — and I’ve seen it myself — the cost of construction, due to the [Ohio River] Bridges Project, has gone up tremendously,” said Tom Clevidence, the town’s director of engineering and stormwater operations. “You can’t hardly get a dump truck. You can’t hardly get materials and stuff like that.

“For a contractor to bid a job, he has to figure on having to wait for concrete, wait for rock, wait for trucks, so he has to build that into his project.”

Clevidence said he believes Ohio River Bridges Project is putting a strain on the area’s supply of raw construction materials.

“It does make sense when you’ve got a billion dollars’ worth of work going on on the riverfront in this location, and they’re pulling rock from the local quarries and concrete from the local suppliers,” Clevidence said.

Today's truthful moment: "Bridge tolls will devastate Indiana businesses, owner says."

Kerry's in that castle, somewhere.

Mike, of course we both know that the bridges junta recognized this fact from the very beginning, which is why those earnest efforts we all made, again and again, to have Kerry Stemler and his sycophants sign off on an economic impact study for local businesses was mocked, ignored and buried beneath the Eisenhower-era verbiage -- and we were ignored because we're not the kind of esteemed, engorged business fetishists that Kerry and his ilk can get their rocks off to (and rake in a few stray bucks while smoking the inevitable post-$-coital ciggies), which is to say, we're not the big-picture, River Ridge besuited kingpins.

And then there's Ron Grooms, who said and did nothing until nothing could be done or said, and only at a dog-won't-hunt point far beyond tactical usefulness finally opened his eyes to the issues and heroically spoke out to mostly empty rooms. Posterity won't be kind. Meanwhile, the rest of us search for survival strategies.

Bridge tolls will devastate Indiana businesses, owner says, by Charlie White (CJ)

A longtime Southern Indiana businessman told Indiana officials during a Tuesday public hearing for the Ohio River Bridges Project that businesses in western Clark County will be "devastated" by the addition of tolls on Interstate 65.

Mike Kapfhammer, co-owner of Rocky's Sub Pub and Buckhead Mountain Grill on Riverside Drive in Jeffersonville, estimated that 40 percent to 50 percent of his customers cross the river from Kentucky without paying a toll. He doesn't believe many will buy toll transponders if they only travel to the Hoosier state for dining or shopping ...

ORBP antidotes: “The mayor has already made the case as to why these improvements are important."

It's a feature-length piece (1,400 words) by local newspaper standards, and presses most of the relevant buttons. Go read it, while considering a question I've asked before: What is the nature of the opposition to complete streets in New Albany?

By "opposition," I'm not referring to scattershot sniping from the briefly inconvenienced. Rather, I mean organized, coherent opposition. I can't seem to find any, although certain possibilities are obvious (Padgett, for instance, although there seems to be no record of the company's position either way). Proponents, including the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, have been making a coherent and public case for a decade, and yet successive mayoral administrations seem constantly paralyzed.

I'm not entirely sure Jeff Speck knows what he's in for.

New Albany alone might well comprise sufficient material for a whole new book, and while I'd like to think it would be because we elect to institute a bold, vibrant laboratory to promoting modernity and the merits of infrastructure adjustment to achieve desired ends ... well, I've lived here for too long. I know we can do it. The problem is whether we know we can do it.

BRIDGING THE FUTURE: Examining the Ohio River Bridges Project impact on New Albany, Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

... With the Ohio River Bridges Project underway, the (East Spring Street) neighborhood group is pushing for the city to address what they feel is a dangerous traffic grid before more motorists head to New Albany to avoid tolls which will be placed on downtown interstate bridges and the new east-end bridge.

Roads such as Spring, Elm and Market Streets are already sped through by motorists who show no concern for the neighborhood they’re endangering, Roberts and other members of the group said.

“They don’t live here and they don’t care about the people that live here every day,” Harshfield said.

Overwhelmingly, the residents and business owners interviewed by the News and Tribune for this story said they support two-way streets in downtown New Albany for safety and commerce reasons, and added that the bridges project should make that decision even more clear for city leaders ...

The multi-talented Kerry Stemler can screw up wet dreams on BOTH sides of the river.

Sifting through the weird breathlessness of Insider Louisville typically takes some doing. One of the site's latest fixations has been purges underway at Greater Louisvile Inc (GLI), which is Louisville's version of One Southern Indiana (1Si), which in turn suggests that a source for discounted Hazmat suits would be very much appreciated if I'm to keep reading about the wonders of besuited enrichment.

Wait ... what's the smell? It smells like a garden-variety Quisling to me.

CEO Craig Richard’s letter to GLI members reveals first details about staff cuts, budget issues and travel freezes

 ... These changes were not made lightly or in a vacuum. Communication with GLI’s Chairman of the Board, Kerry Stemler, and members of our Executive Committee on these decisions were ongoing. I appreciate their full support as we implement these changes and cost-saving initiatives.

Let me get this straight: Stemler gets to poison more than one well? On both sides of the river? Too bad we're not a tri-state area; he could pull a hat trick -- or a rat trick.

Just savor this prime bit of vintage oligarch-speak gibberish as he explores efficiencies and body cavities at GLI.

Sources: ‘Bloodbath’ at Greater Louisville Inc., with at least 25 percent of staff dismissed, by Terry Boyd

 ... “There were two catalysts for organizational change at this time – the post-recession business dynamics and the new leadership agenda of our president and CEO Craig Richard. We’ve been able to identify efficiencies within the organization and create a structure with an increased focus on economic development and member services.” Kerry Stemler, Chairman of the Board, Greater Louisville Inc.

Writing like that is so incredibly bad that it makes one pine for the halcyon days of Benny Breeze. In comparison with Stemler's nonsense, Tea Party screeds read like Thomas Jefferson. It makes Bob Cesar look visionary. More gin is demanded.

Posterity is going to be very unkind to these lemmings. GLI and 1Si will be consigned to the ash heaps they both richly deserve to inhabit. Meanwhile, future generations will be asking:

Why'd they let a second-rater like Stemler dictate anything beyond a mobile phone's voice mail message?

Renn: "Louisville Bridges Project Proceeds From Tragedy to Farce."

Just read it and weep -- not in sorrow, but at the sheer volume of the stupidity inherent in the Oligarch's River Bridges Project.

Bridges Project Proceeds From Tragedy to Farce

I’ve written a lot about the $2.6 billion boondoggle project to build two new bridges across the Ohio River in Louisville (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). A new East End river crossing is without a doubt necessary and adds regional value, but the rest of the project is basically bad news.

But no matter how crazy this project is, it always manages to find ways to show that it’s even more wacky than I thought. The latest installment comes from the so-called “investment grade toll study” that was conducted in order to set toll rates and issue bonds.