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.  

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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.

Mike Rowe's election analysis: We're trying to lick a cat without actually putting our tongues on it.

These past few days, I've been browsing for election perspectives from across the spectrum, and not the places I usually alight.

This one comes from Mike Rowe, the actor and television personality to whom I'd otherwise be completely indifferent (I watch almost no TV), except for his emphasis on boosting vocational education as a means of addressing America's skilled trade gap.

Rowe's thoughts strike me as sensible. You?

Mike Rowe

Last Friday, my dog posted a video that featured a man licking a cat with the aid of a device that’s designed for the specific purpose of making it easier for people to lick their cats. I’ve been silent ever since, because frankly, I couldn’t think of a better way – metaphorical or otherwise – to express my feelings about this election cycle. The entire country it seems, has been preoccupied with finding a way to lick a cat without actually putting their tongue on it.

Too oblique? Too weird? Ok, how about this analysis ...

If you cannot access it via Fb, try here: Mike Rowe weighs in (Tribunist).