“From city halls to county courthouses, from the State house to the White House – bureaucrats control our lives. Public servants who often try to become our masters. People whose salaries we pay, but what goods and services do we get? On Sierra Wave’s Bureaucrat Beat, we’ll report what they’re up to.” That’s the Bureaucrat Beat declaration of dissatisfaction, but as you may know, Bureaucrat Beat talks about so much more.
Nothing says “I don’t care” like a government shutdown. We in the Bureaucrat Beat Newsroom want someone to propose a simple appropriations bill and vote for it !! Health care is a separate matter. If the public could pass legislation, we could ban Congress from appearing on TV for a couple of months and get some work done.
We also want Congress to get cozy with the concept of shame. Clearly they have no working relationship with that feeling. Our elected officials, and perhaps ourselves, need to make the moral decision – will we provide health care or let people suffer? It’s really that simple. Other, less fortunate nations have found a way to resolve this issue.
Mammoth’s Mayor, Rick Wood, recently ran the Berlin Marathon. Wood is unstoppable. He noted that on our government shutdown, European news outlets see the U.S. as “ridiculous”, generally blaming the Republican Party. Way to go, USA. Said Wood, “They (the Europeans) cannot understand why universal health care, which most countries have, can be in the way of keeping the government running.” They are not alone in their head scratching.
DWP and LA officials must feel alone. They have actually started a project to replenish their own groundwater. Someone down there must’ve lit up with an epiphany that one day they may not be able to suck everybody else dry. After all, they have not tried hard to make friends with those at the source of Eastern Sierra water. DWP’s new plan is called the Groundwater Replenishment Project. You can comment on it through October 21st. According to a press release, the project “plans to use highly purified water from the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant each year to replenish the San Fernando Groundwater Basin at existing spreading grounds and new injection wells in the San Fernando Valley.” Don’t look for any Inyo-Mono Groundwater Replenishment Project.
Do watch “The Town” – the Rise and Fall of Mammoth Lakes created and produced as an online documentary by C.K. Hickey and Matt Sarnacki, students of the UC Berkley Graduate School of Journalism. C.K. is a lifetime visitor to Mammoth and got interested in the impending bankruptcy. The pair interview Dave McCoy about the burst of energy that became Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. The documentary tracks a decline into turmoil when McCoy sold to Intrawest. As Mr. McCoy said, with corporations it’s all about the dollars on the table. It’s a strange feeling watching some 60 years of Mammoth in one sitting.
One of our website commenters mused that maybe the government shutdown halted all the spying on American citizens. We doubt it. Things have gotten so crazy that birds are now being detained for their potential to eavesdrop. Say what??!! Yep. According to a story in the LA Times, a stork was once detained by Egyptian authorities on suspicion of being a spy. Holy beak, Batman.
The story says residents in Egypt found the bird had died on an island in the Nile. Earlier, someone found the stork southeast of Cairo. A device was reportedly found on the long-legged, winged creature. It was a European wildlife tracker. Police were suspicious. Now we’re so paranoid, we’re afraid of storks!!!
Before the recent political theater was a farce called the Sequester – some Congressional game about senseless cuts if they couldn’t make a decision. According to Medscape, billions of dollars in research funding and thousands of health-related jobs were lost. The National Institutes of Health lost $1.7 billion due to Congressional hijinks. So much for cancer research.
And, it’s not just the government shutdown that has Yosemite National Park in its crosshairs. According to an LA Times article by writer Louis Sahagun who covers our area, climate change has hit Lyell Glacier in Yosemite which is the source of a great deal of water. The article says Lyell has dropped 62% of its mass and 120 vertical feet in the last 100 years. Geologists give it 20 more years. But, of course, climate change is just a con, right?
With that, this is Benett Kessler signing off for Bureaucrat Beat where we await your word on our lives in the Eastern Sierra and beyond.
Medium….Can you imagine how ANGRY those you mentioned….among others,are going to be when the mid-term elections take place in 2014 ?…and the voters get some of these tea-baggers and Republicans out from the House and Senate …and finally be able to get something done for a change ….
I’m not so sure those media persons/pundits are as ANGRY as they would like to appear they are. They have found a good way to get wealthy – very wealthy. It all started when they went non-stop and full-force into the process of demonizing the word LIBERAL. Ever noticed how… Read more »
As for the government shut down: I think the White House and Congress, the military, the IRS, CIA, FBI, BLM, and NSA should all be condemned and boarded up for freedoms sake!
“Ya say ya want a revolution, hay hay ya know” =
Lives are lost and property destroyed in revolutions. We elect our governments and you want ruin what we freely chose at the point of a gun? Go back to whatever you are smoking and leave solving our nation’s problems to adults.
Freely choose to be governed? I didn’t choose to be governed, did you? I don’t need to be controlled or ruled over, do you? And I don’t believe in guns either, guns kill. Do you bullets and guns? As for our nations problems, the problem is the government, isn’t it?… Read more »
Dear MJA, Problems always start with the people. We really do have some say in our government. If we focus on the real priorities of life and the principles that govern living together, the right people may run for office and represent us. Ignorant, lazy, greedy, ill-informed, self-centered voters elect… Read more »
Yes, and MJA says shut them down if they cause us problems. We can speak and vote for that.
I won’t vote again Benett until there is a single ballot question that asks: Do you wish to be governed or free? I will vote for freedom. As for Democracy, One cannot be governed and free, can we? The control of government, no matter its ideals is the problem because… Read more »
Complete freedom in a society is an illusion. We can strive for personal freedom within our own selves. We have to face the fact that we live with a whole planet full of people, and we all have responsibilities to each other – not to live someone else’s life but… Read more »
MJA, the founders of this nation fought to overthrow absolute monarchy in favor of a republic governed by elected representatives. In no way did they fight for an absence of government. Their first attempt, the Articles of Confederation, was so weak the new nation threatened to collapse and break apart.… Read more »
Funny how some minds automatically go to violence and drugs at any threat of peaceful change.
“Complete freedom in a society is an illusion.”
I have a dream too. =
Now you must know Pedro, that comments like that will get you the moniker of a ” No-good, do-gooder, Peacenik, Commie Liberal” from some of our more deep-thinking Americans.
LOL!
You would be surprised what informed public participation can achieve, particularly at the local level. I am a member of a tax oversight committee in my city. I was an opponent of a new tax, and had some pretty harsh words for some members of our city council that they… Read more »
Well, put Tortoise.
BK
Limbaugh, Hannity, Bachman, Coulter and Fox News would be proud of you, MJA.
The people who hate our government are ascendant, refusing to accept our democratic processes and using the force of political blackmail to get their way. It is far easier to destroy than to build, and destruction is their sole game. They are not only hateful, shameless and anarchist, they are… Read more »
Wow. So well stated. It reminds of the time of Joe McCarthy, who was in a different way destroying our way of life. Newsman Ed Morrow and some others finally went public with the truth about McCarthy’s destructive behavior. It just takes a few strong people to state the truth.… Read more »
Good one, Benett! McCarthy era Part II. Instead of the nasty House of Un-American Activities back then, we get to hear how LIBERALS are destroying the country today. And, sadly, this type truly believes it represents the one, true, White, Anglo-Saxon Christian Protestant America. But the cycle is running its… Read more »
So, what ever happened to the Compassionate Conservative?
“The people who hate our government…” Where the hell were these people when that very same government invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence (of non-existent WMDs) that only resulted in killing many young civilians and our troops as well, bankrupted the country, and made defense contractors Halliburton and Lockheed Martin… Read more »
A key point regarding San Fernando Valley ground water is “existing spreading basins”. LA County Flood Control District has had spreading basins in place in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys for as long as I can remember, placed near major flood control channels that allow flood waters to… Read more »