Lost Dog found on Fisher Rd. in Parksley. If you know this dog or can help, please call the Esracf Melfa facility to find out how to reclaim your dog 757-787-7091.
History Notes this week of May 16
325AD: Convocation of the First Council of Nicea, one of the earliest attempts to define and formalize Christian church doctrine. It was ordered by Roman emperor Constantine I as a result of a number of competing heresies that were confusing the core truths of Christianity across the empire. 1800 bishops were invited, and anywhere from 250-318 attended. They worked through and resolved a number of significant issues, including the nature of the deity of Christ, condemnation of certain heresies, setting the process for dating Easter, and creating the first draft of what we know now as the Nicean Creed.
577AD: Death of Saint Brendan the Navigator, the Irish monk whose legendary travels in a leather currach helped establish the idea of a lush and inhabited island across the sea from Europe. “St. Brendan’s Island” often shows up on early maps; one school of thought believes it indicates that Brendan was actually the first European to make landfall in North America. He remains the patron saint of sailors and navigators.
1096: In the beginning of the unauthorized crusade led by Peter the Hermit, his unruly mob swarms into the Jewish section of Worms, Germany and begins a pogrom that leaves over 900 dead.
1499: Catherine of Aragon- the same Spanish royalty whom we keep reading about throughout the year- is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of English King Henry VII. She is 14. He is 13. They have been legally betrothed* for ten years already, the Tudors of England and the Trastamaras of Aragon & Castile reasoning that a marriage of their two families would provide a solid diplomatic bulwark against the territorial claims on both countries by the Valois dynasty of France.
1506: Death of Christopher Columbus, in Valladolid, Spain, thus beginning another adventure regarding the movements of his corporeal remains around the world. He was initially buried in Valladolid, and then was moved to a monastery in Seville. At the request of his son Diego, who had been governor of Hispaniola, his remains were then moved back across the sea to Santo Domingo. When the French took over the island in 1795, the remains were moved to Havana, and then after the Spanish-American War in 1898, they were moved again to the cathedral in Seville, where they remain today (we think). The Dominican Republic maintains a huge memorial tomb they call the Faro a Colon (Columbus Lighthouse) in which is buried a small lead box, discovered in Santo Domingo in 1877, inscribed with “Don Christopher Columbus” and containing bone fragments and a bullet. Recent DNA sampling between the bones and Columbus’ descendants is inconclusive.
1532: Sir Thomas More resigns as England’s Lord High Chancellor, his second attempt to leave Henry VIII’s court over the issue of papal versus royal supremacy. The sovereign is not amused. More’s “season” approaches its end.
1536: Death of Anne Boleyn (b.1501), Queen Consort of King Henry VIII, beheaded after conviction on charges of adultery, high treason, and incest.
1568: Queen Elizabeth I of England orders the arrest of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots.
1792: Opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange.
1795: Birth of Baltimore businessman and philanthropist Johns Hopkins (d.1873). One of the all-time wealthiest men in the United States, Hopkins was a keen businessman, parlaying a dry goods business into enough capital that he could invest in the nascent railroad industry, most notably the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, whose smashing success sealed his fortune. Fortunately for the rest of us, Hopkins left a huge endowment to the university and medical school that now bears his name, to say nothing of the rest of his artistic and cultural legacies.
1801: Birth of William Seward (d.1872), Secretary of State in the Lincoln Administration, and the official at Lincoln’s deathbed who announced to the press, “Now he belongs to the ages.” In the Andrew Johnson Administration, Seward became the chief advocate of the United States’ purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The popularly remembered “Seward’s Folly” cost the country $7,200,000.00, or 2 cents per acre.
1802: Napoleon Bonaparte initiates the French Legion of Honor award. It is the France’s highest decoration, available for military and civilians who exhibit extraordinary courage or accomplishment in the performance of their duties. It is specifically designed to not confer a title of nobility- the Revolution did away with all that- nor is it infused with any sense of religious legitimacy- the Revolution did away with all that, too. It is explicitly secular (using a 5-pointed star instead of a stylized cross) and based solely on merit, available to all, regardless of birth. The Legion remains active to this day as a functional body of the government, with the President as its head.
1802: Napoleon Bonaparte, acting as First Secretary of the French Directory, re-establishes slavery in French colonies, where it had previously been repealed in 1794 by an early decree of the French Revolution. Many of the colonies, particularly in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), rebel violently at this move. France’s inability to suppress the slave revolt there convinced Napoleon that he could no longer hold onto his American possessions, leading to his eventual decision to sell all of Louisiana to the United States a year later.
1845: The Franklin Expedition– Under the leadership of Arctic explorer John Franklin, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror depart the River Thames with 134 men on what they hope will be a conclusive discovery and transit of the elusive Northwest Passage. They are never heard from again. Their disappearance captures the imagination and curiosity of Great Britain, and multiple rescue and recovery expeditions are launched to find out what happened. Eventually, bits and pieces of evidence are found, including the emaciated and partially cannibalized corpses of several expedition members. The ships remain unlocated for over 150 years, although the documents recovered in earlier searches confirm they had proceeded well into the icy archipelago of northern Canada before they were completely iced in. In 2005, Canada launched a “Franklin 150” expedition using highly technical sensing equipment to search for the ships, in part to solve the historical puzzle and in part to affirm Canadian sovereignty claims in the high north. The search paid off in September, 2014, when Canadian PM Stephen Harper confirmed that the teams had discovered and conclusively identified the wreckage of Terror in the Queen Maude Gulf off the Adelaide Peninsula.
1860: Opening day of the Republican National Convention in Chicago. Springfield lawyer and former Member of Congress Abraham Lincoln defeats the front-runner New Yorker William Seward on the third ballot.
1861: Opening shots in the Battle of Sewell’s Point. Two Federal gunboats from Fort Monroe are dispatched to investigate Confederate activity across the water at Sewell’s Point. When they see two artillery pieces and the beginnings of fortified breastworks, they open fire and scatter the men working there. USS Monticello remains in place overnight and re-commences firing in the morning. The Confederate battery answers back. There are no fatalities on either side. The Confederate position is abandoned a year later when Norfolk is evacuated.
1863: General U.S. Grant completely surrounds Vicksburg, Mississippi and begins to lay siege to the city.
1868: President Andrew Johnson is acquitted on his impeachment trial by a single vote in the U.S. Senate.
1873: San Francisco tailor Levi Strauss patents a rugged style of denim trouser, fastened with copper rivets.
1879: Birth in Danville, Virginia of Nancy Langhorne (d.1964), who rose socially and politically to become The Right Honorable Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor. On the accession of her husband Waldorf Astor to the House of Lords, she ran for election for his Commons seat and won, becoming the first woman to be seated in that chamber. She was an exceptionally vocal MP, particularly during the buildup to the Second World War. After a tumultuous period of scathing critiques of just about everyone in the political spectrum, she retired in 1945, but remained in the public eye as something of a curmudgeon until her death. She is especially remembered for her acerbic wit. No-one was immune. A few quotes pulled from the estimable Wikipedia: “I married beneath me. All women do.” “One reason why I don’t drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time.” “We women talk too much, but even then we don’t tell half what we know.”
1886: Death of John Deere (b.1804), American blacksmith who invented and successfully marketed the first cast steel plow.
1881: Birth of Mustafa Kemel Ataturk (d.1938), the First President of the Turkish Republic. General-Pasha of the Ottoman army during the Great War, he was in command of the Turkish forces that held the ANZAC invasion of Gallipoli (DLH 4/25) to nothing more than a toehold until they withdrew under fire nine months later. He then commanded Ottoman armies both in the Levant and on the northern reaches of Anatolia against the Russians. After the war, he served as Aide-de-Camp in the Sublime Porte during the Allied occupation of Constantinople and Izmir as the British and French worked to divide up the outer reaches of the Ottoman Empire. By June of 1919, he had had enough of external meddling, and began a two-pronged Army revolt- both militarily and politically- that eventually led to the establishment in October, 1923 of the explicitly secular Turkish state as we know it today, or at least as we knew it until the current demi-Islamist party got voted into power a few years back. Ataturk is constitutionally the only person who will ever be permitted to assume that title, which means, “Father of Turkey.”
1896: Providing yet more proof that the U.S. Supreme Court is capable of error, the Court issues on this day a decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities for different races is legal.
1897: Birth of Phoenix. Arizona native Frank Luke (d.1918). World War I American fighter Ace and Medal of Honor winner, he was second only to the great Eddie Rickenbacker for the number of confirmed kills by an American pilot. Luke’s fearlessness and airmanship led him to focus on destroying German observation balloons, and earned him the moniker of “The Balloon Buster.” One would think that diving a screaming fighter in towards a huge, immobile gasbag would not be much of a challenge, but one would be gravely mistaken in that assumption: the balloons were not only surrounded by dozens of pre-loaded light artillery pieces aiming straight up, each one of their ascents was also covered by a flight of German fighter planes flying high cover overhead. Luke and his wingman perfected the technique of diving out of the sun and making repeated passes at the balloon until its hydrogen finally burst into flames and plunged to earth. His total count was 14 balloons and four aeroplanes, all shot down in the course of only 10 sorties over 8 days. Rickenbacker himself called Luke the “…the most daring aviator and the greatest fighter pilot of the entire war.” Luke Air Force Base in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale is named for him.
1918: As a companion bill to its recently passed Espionage Act, Congress passes, and President Wilson signs, the Sedition Act. It makes it illegal to criticize, e.g.: to“…willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government during time of war. In addition to a $10,000 fine and 20 years in prison, the Postmaster General was tasked to halt mail deliveries to and from any person convicted or associated with a person convicted of the act. Over 1500 were charged and more than 1000 were convicted. Wilson’s Attorney General sought to keep a peacetime version in place after the war, but Congress repealed it in December, 1920.
1920: Birth of the late Polish theologian Karol Wojtyla (d.2005).
1921: The US Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act, limiting legal immigration to a small percentage of the current nationalities then residing in the country. The act effectively shut off the flow of immigrants who were streaming into the country from southern Europe and the Balkans.
1927: With pressure building from competitors, Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island in his heavily laden, custom-built Ryan aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, in an attempt to become the first to fly solo across the Atlantic, New York to Paris. After only a few hours of fitful sleep last night, he carries a thermos of coffee and two sandwiches into the drippy New York sky. The country holds its collective breath to see if the young daredevil will make it…
1932: American aviatrix Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland, enroute to Ireland, in an attempt to become the first female to solo across the Atlantic. The country again holds its collective breath, wondering if the young daredevil will make it…
1940: The end of the “Sitzkrieg.” Eight months after Germany’s invasion of Poland and the immediate declaration of war that followed by the western Allied powers, neither Germany nor the Allies have made any significant military moves against each other. The period is known by many different names: Sitzkrieg was the German’s pun on their Blitzkrieg strategy; Churchill called it the Twilight War; Brits in general called it the Bore War (pun on the relatively recent Boer War in South Africa); the Poles, who were on the receiving end of it, called it the Strange War; and the French, anticipating what was to come, referred to it as the drole du guerre, the Bizarre War. All this uncomfortable humor came to a sudden stop on the 10th of May when Chamberlain resigned, Churchill became Prime Minister, and Germany began its advance west into the Low Countries. The Nazi armies enter and occupy Brussels, Belgium, and concerns grow about the impending invasion of France.
1940: The first prisoners arrive at the new Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland.
1941: German paratroopers invade Crete. The Brits evacuate to fight another day.
1943(a): The B-17 Memphis Belle flies its 25th combat mission over occupied Europe, a bomb run against German submarine pens at L’Orient, France. A documentary camera crew recorded the mission and the crew celebrations afterward, which became part of a full-length feature film. The aircraft and crew returned to the States and began a publicity tour around the country in support of War Bonds.
1943(b): A dramatic RAF raid by “The Dam Busters” smashes three dams in Germany’s industrial heartland. The crews trained in secret for three months perfecting the technique of “skip bombing” to get through German defenses.
1944: After four months of bitter battle and near-continuous bombing and shelling that obliterated the medieval mountaintop monastery, the German redoubt at Monte Cassino is captured by the Allies. Polish forces lead the climb to the shattered Italian hilltop and raise their flag.
1954: The Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, overturning the separate-but-equal doctrine previously codified by the Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessey vs. Ferguson decision.
1980: At 0832PDT, Mount St. Helens detonates with an eruption that lasts over 10 hours. The pyroclastic flow, landslides, ash, fire and earthquakes destroy 210 square miles of southwest Washington state wilderness. 57 people are killed, including Mr. Harry Randall Truman, 84 year old denizen of Spirit Lake, who refused repeated entreaties to leave his lodge in the months before the mountain blew. “If the mountain goes, I’m going with it…” It did, and he did; his lodge was buried under 150 feet of ash and landslide debris.
1987: USS Stark (FFG-31) is struck by an Iraqi Exocet missile while monitoring shipping in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war. 37 sailors are killed, 21 wounded.
Get Ready for Pain: Labor Shortage is Serious
In this week’s Shore Daily News, Ted Shockley wrote a great piece about how the labor shortage is affecting businesses on the Eastern Shore. While the shortage on the Eastern Shore is acute, it is not unique. It is happening all across the United States.
Labor shortages are having a strong impact on the entire US economy. Today’s conditions could easily develop into one of the worst labor shortages of the last 50 years.
A report from the The Conference Board notes that the extreme shift in labor market conditions in the past decade is not a coincidence, but the result of a perfect storm in which several long-term trends have converged simultaneously.
- The massive retirement of the large baby boomer generation is bringing growth in the working-age population to a halt—a trend that will continue through 2030. This is the main reason why this era of shortages is so different. Never before have such a large number of retirements and almost zero growth in the working-age population happened before.
- The working-age population of noncollege graduates is already shrinking. As a growing share of young adults are enrolling in four-year colleges, the number of working-age people with a bachelor’s degree is solidly and uninterruptedly increasing by about 2 percent annually. On the flip side, the number without a bachelor’s degree is shrinking.
- The recovery in labor force participation has been disappointing. Overall, the tight labor market has led to an increase in labor force participation in recent years. But the improvement has not been remotely fast enough to prevent the labor market from tightening and has been somewhat disappointing, especially for men, and especially compared to other advanced economies in the last decade.
- Compared with earlier decades, young men without a college degree are less likely to be in the labor force. That decline in participation is partly because they are much more likely to be single, living with their parents, and have less of a need to earn income. These trends are more structural than cyclical and will be hard to reverse.
- The large drop in labor force participation of 16-24-year-olds. While good from a societal perspective since it is a result of higher education attainment at this age, the steep decline in the labor force participation of young people (aged 16 to 24) significantly reduces the supply of workers in occupations that typically hire young and less-educated workers.
The demand for blue-collar workers continues to grow, partly due to the unprecedented slowdown in labor productivity in the past decade. This is really a problem in manufacturing, where labor productivity has remained essentially flat since 2010.
Also, e-commerce has pushed the demand for other blue-collar and manual services workers such as in transportation and warehousing industries, which have increased by over 20 percent, compared to 9 percent in the total economy. Employment in personal care and health support jobs has been increasing.
The tightening labor market has already affected hiring and retention. Employers are hiring less-educated workers, which is partially responsible for historically high levels of concern about labor quality. Employee retention rates are declining due to increased employment opportunities, where voluntary quit rates are already well above 2007 rates.
The most basic and intuitive way to solve labor shortages is to raise wages. This is the most used solution for both recruitment and retention challenges. Wage acceleration is occurring in blue-collar and manual services jobs. Wage growth for management and professional workers, which includes close to 40 percent of the workforce and most of total compensation, is not rising as quickly.
Companies are using a mix of solutions to solve the problem.
The situation is only going to deteriorate in the coming decade as working-age population growth will be closer to zero and the decline in the number of noncollege graduates will accelerate.
To maintain the growth rate in standard of living, the US either needs to greatly improve labor productivity growth and labor force participation or introduce more immigrants to the country’s labor supply.
Restoring Fish Habitat in Virginia
NOAA – Tucked between the Rappahannock River and the York River, Virginia’s Middle Peninsula is mostly off the beaten path. While the Middle Peninsula is not far to the east of the busy Interstate 95 corridor and Virginia’s capital, Richmond, it remains mostly rural. It includes thousands of acres of ecologically valuable wetlands, forests, pastures, rivers, streams, and bays.
Many families have lived in the area for generations. Other people have discovered it more recently and have built second homes there as vacation spots. Some residents still make their living by farming, forestry, or fishing. That’s thanks to a fairly healthy ecosystem, which supports life both on land and in the water. Both residents and visitors enjoy the land and water and appreciate the area’s maritime culture and history.
But as in many other areas in the Chesapeake Bay, the Middle Peninsula faces economic and environmental challenges, and the future is uncertain. It’s important that we take care of the Middle Peninsula. The area experiences frequent flooding and coastal erosion. These events can affect the local economy, which depends on a vibrant ecosystem. It’s also important to consider threats like pollution and runoff, and the effects they could have on creeks, rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay. NOAA and partners are looking for ways to keep these special places healthy.
One of the ways NOAA is doing this is by helping to restore nearshore fish habitat. Fish, crabs, and other species use several different kinds of habitat. Sometimes they need the hiding places that oyster reefs offer. Other times they like to hang out along shorelines, sometimes in submerged aquatic grasses.
Together with partners, NOAA is working to establish 438 acres of healthy oyster reef in the Piankatank River and 200 acres of reef in the York River. These reefs will not only provide habitat for critters, but because oysters are filter feeders, they will help remove excess nutrients from the water. Better water quality benefits fish, crabs, and humans, too!
They are also pitching in on efforts to design and build climate-resilient nearshore restoration projects. Developing solid design plans is a key step before building projects to support fish habitat and wetlands. We have funded two design projects, and our colleagues at the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program have funded work, too. These projects will also reduce shoreline erosion from coastal storms. Project designs have been developed for locations including the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station and Hog Island.
The Yorktown Naval Weapons Station nearshore restoration design used the latest science on oyster restoration for fish habitat and shoreline protection. The Department of Defense recently selected it to receive implementation funding. We look forward to progress as this and other projects move into the implementation phase over the next year or so.
Supporting the Local Economy
The Middle Peninsula has higher-than-average poverty rates, and a majority of residents must commute to outside of the area for work. Businesses and homes in some areas are at risk due to increased flooding, sea level rise, and shoreline erosion.
Habitat restoration projects will enhance seafood production and help coastal communities be more resilient to the effects of climate change. They can preserve real estate value by reducing shoreline erosion, and boost tourism and recreation by protecting places people enjoy spending their spare time. All of these elements boost the financial bottom line of the Middle Peninsula.
Bringing Partners Together for a Sustainable Effort
It will take strategic partnerships to do all this work. For example, we help with the York River and Small Coastal Basins Roundtable. The Roundtable is a group managed by the Virginia–Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve that brings local and regional partners together. They work on topics that are important for the area: water quality, habitat, resilience, and stewardship. Our NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office created a subgroup of the Roundtable, the Habitat Restoration Steering Committee, to focus on nearshore restoration projects.
And as NOAA has learned from their work in the Choptank Habitat Focus Area, building a strong community of partners can lead to larger-scale and more collaborative projects. These longer-term strategic partnerships will last beyond a few restoration projects to have a sustained impact.
Last updated byNOAA Chesapeake Bay Office on May 20, 2021
USDA to Begin Loan Payments to Socially Disadvantaged Borrowers under American Rescue Plan
WASHINGTON, May 21, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) today published the first notice of funding availability (NOFA) (PDF, 242 KB) announcing loan payments for eligible borrowers with qualifying direct farm loans under the American Rescue Plan Act Section 1005. The official NOFA will be published in the Federal Register early next week and USDA expects payments to begin in early June and continue on a rolling basis. A subsequent notice addressing guaranteed loan balances and direct loans that no longer have collateral and have been previously referred to the Department of Treasury for debt collection for offset, will be published within 120 days.
“The American Rescue Plan has made it possible for USDA to deliver historic debt relief to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers beginning in June,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “USDA is recommitting itself to gaining the trust and confidence of America’s farmers and ranchers using a new set of tools provided in the American Rescue Plan to increase opportunity, advance equity and address systemic discrimination in USDA programs.”
Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) provides funding and authorization for USDA FSA to pay up to 120 percent of direct and guaranteed loan outstanding balances as of January 1, 2021, for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as defined in Section 2501(a) of the Food, Agriculture Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 2279(a)). Section 2501(a) defines a socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as a farmer or rancher who is a member of a socially disadvantaged group, which is further defined as a group whose members have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities. Qualifying loans as part of today’s announcement are certain direct loans under the Farm Loan Programs (FLP) and Farm Storage Facility Loan Program (FSFL).
For much of the history of the USDA, socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers have faced discrimination—sometimes overt and sometimes through deeply embedded rules and policies—that have prevented them from achieving as much as their counterparts who do not face these documented acts of discrimination. Over the past 30 years, several major civil rights lawsuits have compensated farmers for specific acts of discrimination—including Pigford I and Pigford II, Keepseagle, and the Garcia cases. However, those settlements and other related actions did not address the systemic and cumulative impacts of discrimination over a number of decades that the American Rescue Plan now begins to address.
Sections 1005 and 1006 of ARPA provide USDA with new tools to address longstanding inequities for socially disadvantaged borrowers. Section 1006 of ARPA provides additional funding to begin long-term racial equity work within USDA, including to address heirs property claims and to stand up an Equity Commission to identify barriers to access USDA programming.
To learn more about the loan payments to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, visit www.farmers.gov/americanrescueplan.
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
Opinion: Court to Biden-Stop Discriminating, Joe!
Special Opinion to the Mirror by Paul Plante
Now, first of all, is there anybody out there in America today over the age of say, twelve, who is surprised that Joe Biden, who says he wants to unite this nation, which is empty blather because Joe is a divider, would discriminate against some Americans who he calls “Dregs of Society” who belong in a “Basket of Deplorables,” in favor of other Americans who are precious to him as part of his agenda to divide America into those who drink the KOOL-AID of the CULT OF JOE, and thus, are precious to Joe, and everybody else, who because they are not members of the CULT OF JOE, are instead outsiders entitled to none of the bounty Joe offers to his followers and acolytes as their reward for giving Joe their love, which spurs his love and largesse in return to those who love him?
Truly, people, is anybody at all surprised by any of that?
Which takes us to a story in The Hill entitled “Federal judge says Biden restaurant fund discriminated against white male” by John Kruzel 20 May 2021, where we had as follows in that matter, to wit:
A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary ruling Tuesday which found that the Biden administration’s nearly $29 billion restaurant relief fund discriminated against a white male restaurateur.
end quotes
And my goodness, people, of course it did.
White males, especially heteronormative white males, are the root cause of all the problems everybody else in America are experiencing, so it is time somebody like Joe Biden stepped up to the plate to cut them off at the knees to teach them a much-needed lesson in humility, and if Joe has to discriminate against them to teach them that lesson, well, by damn, it will be done, and so it was, which resulted in Joe’s administration getting sued in court and losing, which is quite an accomplishment for Joe in his first one hundred days in office.
Getting back to The Hill, the story continues as follows:
In an 18-page ruling, the judge ordered the Small Business Administration (SBA) relief program to temporarily stop prioritizing funding applications from businesses owned by women and racial minorities, over that of the plaintiff.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, found that the plaintiff is “experiencing race and sex discrimination at the hand of government officials.”
end quotes
And again, people, of course he is, by intent of Joe Biden.
That is not accidental discrimination, that is intentional discrimination, as Joe Biden sets himself up as the arbiter of who is going to win and who is going to be made the loser in the Biden Miracle Economy, which takes us back to that story, as follows:
“The evidence submitted by plaintiffs indicates that the entire $28.6 billion in the Restaurant Revitalization Fund may be depleted before plaintiffs’ application can be considered for relief under the program,” O’Connor wrote.
The dispute arose after Philip Greer, a white male restaurant owner, brought a lawsuit on Sunday against the SBA over alleged violations of the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
Greer had sought to apply for the federal relief program after his restaurant, Greer’s Ranch Café, lost nearly $100,000 in revenue during the coronavirus pandemic.
But the program, which is part of the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill passed in March, aims to give priority to groups that Greer does not fall under – namely women, veterans and “socially and economically disadvantaged” people – for an initial period of May 3 to May 24.
The judge concluded that Greer was at risk of “irreparable harm” because the entire fund could run out by the time the prioritized groups’ claims were processed.
An attorney for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
end quotes
Way to go, Joe!
Getting sued for discrimination in your first 100 days and then losing is quite an accomplishment!
Rep. Luria’s Pipeline Security Act Advances
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Congresswoman Elaine Luria’s Pipeline Security Act passed unanimously out of the House Committee on Homeland Security (HCHS). The bipartisan legislation would support the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to secure pipelines and pipeline facilities from cyberattacks, terrorist attacks, and other nefarious efforts.
“Cybersecurity is a dangerous and emerging threat, and the recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline proves we need to do more to protect our vital infrastructure,” Congresswoman Luria said. “There’s no reason that protecting our infrastructure can’t be a bipartisan effort, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this legislation forward.”
The Pipeline Security Act would:
Explicitly codify TSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) roles in securing pipelines.
Codify TSA’s Pipeline Security Section and require TSA to develop a personnel strategy for staffing it.
Require TSA to update pipeline security guidelines within a year of enactment.
Improve mechanisms for stakeholder engagement and congressional oversight of TSA’s efforts.
Congresswoman Luria introduced the legislation along with Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), House Committee on Homeland Security (HCHS) Bennie Thompson (MS-2), Ranking Member John Katko (NY-24), and eleven of her HCHS colleagues
Rep. Luria Supports Bipartisan Commission To Investigate Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Attack
H.R. 3233 passes with bipartisan support.
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Congresswoman Elaine Luria today spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives urging her colleagues to uphold their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution. Her remarks came during the debate over H.R. 3233, legislation creating a 9/11-style commission, comprised of a group of independent, bipartisan experts, to get to the truth of how the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol happened and ensure that it cannot happen again.
You can see Congresswoman Luria’s speech here.
Key features of the Commission:
The Commission will be charged with (1) investigating and reporting upon the facts and causes of the January 6th attack on the Capitol as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked the attack on our democracy; (2) examining and evaluating evidence developed by relevant Federal, State, and local governments, in a manner that is respectful of ongoing investigations, regarding the facts and circumstances of the attack; (3) building upon other investigations regarding the attack and targeted violence and domestic terrorism related to such attack; and (4) reporting to the President and Congress regarding its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures taken to prevent future acts of targeted violence and domestic terrorism, including against American democratic institutions, improve the security posture of the United States Capitol Complex in a manner that preserves the accessibility of the Capitol Complex for all Americans, and strengthen the security and resilience of nation and American democratic institutions against domestic terrorism.
Like the 9/11 Commission, the measure establishes a 10-person bipartisan commission with five commissioners, including the Chair, appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate and five commissioners, including the Vice Chair, appointed by the Minority Leaders of the House and Senate.
Commissioners must have significant expertise in the areas of law enforcement, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, intelligence, and cybersecurity. Current government officers or employees are prohibited from appointment.
Like the 9/11 Commission, the Commission will be granted authority to issue subpoenas to secure information to carry out its investigation but only upon agreement between the Chair and the Vice Chair or a vote by a majority of Commission members.
The Commission will be required to issue a final report with findings regarding the facts and causes of the attack, along with recommendations to prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions, by December 31, 2021.
H.R. 3233 passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 252 to 175.
Transcript of the Congresswoman’s remarks:
Like all of us, I watched with horror as our capitol was overrun on January 6 by those seeking to overturn a free and fair election.
As a 20-year Navy veteran I swore an oath multiple times through my career to support and defend our constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
As Members of Congress, we swear the same oath. We swear this oath not as a member of a political party, but as Americans.
There is no carveout for political expediency.
I implore every member of this body to uphold their oath, and vote in support of this bipartisan commission. The American people deserve to understand exactly what happened that day in January.
I urge my colleagues not to turn this into a partisan litmus test, not to pit Republican against Democrat, and not to perpetuate “the big lie.”
Finding the truth should not be controversial or a question of partisanship.
This is about our shared future — the future of this Congress and the future of our Democracy.
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How Totalitarianism Rhymes Throughout History: Czechoslovakia, China, & Venezuela
Original Article by Sam Jacobs for Ammo.com
“It can’t happen here” is a political cliche in the United States. Regardless of your personal viewpoint, there is a vast swath of the American population who simply do not believe in the possibility of any kind of totalitarianism in the United States.
It’s worth noting that throughout history, in virtually every place that totalitarian regimes have arisen, the residents of these countries felt the same way. Russia was seen as too traditional and backward, the power of the Czar too entrenched to be defeated. Germany had been viewed throughout most of the modern period as the home of Goethe, Schiller, and Mozart, a place where the local Jewish population had largely assimilated.
Because totalitarianism emerges differently throughout history in different countries, it’s crucial to take a broader view of how totalitarian regimes arise. For example, when we’re discussing the rise of communism or the rise of fascism, we see different trends in Russia than we do in China, different trends in Italy than we do in Germany. When we examine multiple, somewhat lesser known examples of the rise of socialism throughout the world, we paint a picture of the different ways in which socialism originated and its possible resurgence.
This case study of terror analyses three examples of totalitarianism throughout history. In Czechoslovakia, the Communist Party was able to establish the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic by leveraging little more than a strong showing – but not a victory – in the parliamentary elections. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of Communist China in the 1960s, Chairman Mao came out of relative isolation to radically remake an already communist country. Lastly, we will look right in America’s backyard at the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
More than perhaps anywhere else, the rise of totalitarianism throughout the world is an excellent example of the quote often attributed to Mark Twain, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” If you are looking for a mechanical repeat of the past, you are looking in the wrong place. Our point is not to show you that the exact same things are currently happening here in the United States, but to highlight similarities.
The Czechoslovak Coup d’Etat of 1948
Standing on this side of history, it’s easy to take Soviet domination over Eastern Europe as a given. However, at no point during the early transition from Nazi domination to the post-war period was it a fait accompli that the formerly occupied nations of Eastern Europe wouldn’t go back to being free and independent nations. Czechoslovakia is perhaps one of the best examples we have of a country that was by no means “destined” to go communist.
The situation on the ground in Czechoslovakia was very similar to that of Italy and France – all three had been occupied by the Germans and had large Communist Parties enjoying broad, if not a majority, support. The Communist Parties of each country had a track record of cooperation with non-Communist Parties. What’s more, the Communist Party was able to get a little clout based on the role of the Red Army in liberating Eastern Europe.
The broad support of the Communist Party should not be overlooked, as it is a major factor in the rise of a Communist government in Czechoslovakia. In 1945, the Communist Party had a scant 40,000 members. By 1948, this had ballooned to 1.35 million, with several fellow travelers and supporters whose strength is difficult to estimate.
This numerical strength formed the basis of their participation in the National Front, a “big tent” parliamentary front composed of Communists, but also conservative agrarians, social democrats, Christian democrats, and liberals.
Before going any further, we should take a minute to examine just what the Communist Party was doing to create such mass support. As is often the case, true aims were concealed or cloaked in doublespeak. Rather than presenting themselves as the vanguard of the international socialist revolution, the Communists instead positioned themselves as part of the broader nationalist and democratic traditions that had informed the Czechoslovakian body politic since the country’s founding.
This branding exercise paid dividends in the 1946 parliamentary elections. The Communists garnered 31.2% of the vote, the strongest showing by a Communist Party in a free election, far and above the 22% showing the Hungarian Party was able to get the following year. This meant a gain of 63 seats for the Communists.
They held 93 seats in the parliament; however, they were still short of having a majority of 151 seats, which was needed to form a government. Regardless, due to the National Front and the broad forces that it was host to, the Communist Party was able to form a government with the support of lesser parties. As a result, the 1946 Czechoslovak election was the last free and fair election held in the country until 1990.
The Communists of Czechoslovakia were very shrewd. They did not attempt to control the whole of the government and were even content to let most of the ministry positions be occupied by members of other parties. Nine of the cabinet positions were occupied by Communists, with the remaining seventeen were held by non-Communists. What was crucial for their eventual success was that the Communists controlled the Ministry of the Interior, which was in charge of the police forces in the country.
There were other areas of communist dominance that were crucial to their takeover of the country. Key positions were held in agriculture, propaganda, education, and social welfare. Soon after the 1946 election, the Communists dominated in the civil service. Most of the government bureaucrats that average people encountered daily were now members of the Communist Party.
The Communists, despite being in the minority, wasted no time in pushing the envelope and moving the ball forward for their side. The police quickly started acting like Communist goons, collectivization was openly discussed and farmers were told to produce more food without any increase in wages. Even so, people still assumed that once the elections were held in 1948, the deeply unpopular Communists would be shown the door by the Czechoslovak electorate.
The original plan was for the Communists to push their advantage in the parliamentary elections, but with the defeat of Communists in France and Italy after the war, Stalin scrapped this plan. Still, forces on the ground knew that a revolutionary coup d’etat wouldn’t work in Czechoslovakia and that an approach that, at least on the surface, respected the democratic forms of government needed to be employed.
To this end, the Communists decided that demonstrations and protests were the way to flex their muscles in the streets. At the same time, the Interior Minister began purging the police forces, replacing the existing police force with as many Communists as he could. The practical result is that the Communists were able to use the National Police Force as a wing of the Communist Party — punishing their enemies and rewarding their friends.
Several non-Communist ministers resigned in protest, believing that their resignations would not be accepted and that this would be humiliating for the Communists. However, Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš decided to remain neutral. This is when the Communists struck.
Massive Communist demonstrations were held throughout the country. Non-Communist ministries were occupied, the relevant civil servants were fired and the army, who were, at least in theory, non-partisan, were confined to their barracks. “Action Committees” (a Communist euphemism for street mobs and shakedown rackets) and militias within the Communist-allied trade unions were established by the Communist Party. The Communist Party threatened a general strike unless the President agreed to form a new government, this one dominated by the Communist Party.
Fearing both a general strike and the Red Army at his borders, the President capitulated. The new government was composed almost entirely of Communist, pro-Moscow Social Democrats. Only a single anti-Communist minister, Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, remained. He was found dead two weeks after the formation of the new government under mysterious circumstances.
On May 9, the parliament approved a new constitution declaring Czechoslovakia a “people’s democratic state.” Although the new constitution didn’t mention the Communist Party, it was so similar to the Soviet Constitution that the President refused to sign it. On May 30, elections were held with a single list provided by the National Front, which garnered 89.2% of the vote. The Communists were able to win 214 of the 300 available seats, giving them majority control This majority continued to grow in the year following as the Social Democrats merged into the Communist Party.
Following this election, no political parties were allowed to exist outside of the National Front – a wholly owned subsidiary of the Communist Party. The President resigned on June 2 and was succeeded by the head of the Communist Party. The country remained under Communist domination until 1990.
What We Can Learn From the Czechoslovak Coup
The Czechoslovakian Coup is an important historical lesson for a couple of reasons. First, the Communists were able to use a strong showing in a single election to dramatically remake a country of millions. They did this by controlling key ministries within the government, astroturfing mass rallies, and replacing a politically neutral police force with a politically motivated goon squad.
It all happened rather quickly, but it didn’t happen overnight. It’s important to note that none of the democratic forms of Czechoslovakia, which prided itself on being a pluralistic democracy, were violated. Everything was done according to “the rules.”
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was not the imposition of socialism on a country, as that had already happened in 1948 at the end of the Chinese Civil War. However, it is an important example to include in this analysis.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution marked a dramatic change in the tone of political life in China. At its root, the Cultural Revolution was an attempt by Chairman Mao to reassert himself in public life. After the debacle of the Great Leap Forward was hung squarely on his head, he was put out to pasture. While the People’s Republic of China (PRC) remained a Communist nation, it was one run by moderate pragmatists – men who were much more interested in leading China to prosperity than they were with preserving every jot and tittle of Marxist dogma.
In 1963, Mao began the Socialist Education Movement, generally seen by historians as the precursor to the Cultural Revolution. This is where the modus operandi of the Cultural Revolution began to take shape. Mao would identify an enemy and have one of his political allies attack the rival for being insufficiently orthodox in public newspapers. An example of this was General Luo Ruiqing, the Chief of Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Mao felt he was too interested in military training and not interested enough in political indoctrination. He was denounced, performed a self-criticism, and eventually committed suicide. This resulted in the PLA falling into the hands of Mao and his loyalists.
The next stage of the Cultural Revolution began on May 16, with the May 16 Notification. This outlined Mao’s thesis of the political lay of the land for the PRC. Capitalists and those seeking to return China to capitalism had infiltrated the Communist Party and were pretending to be Communists in the name of restoring the old regime to China. It was only through “the telescope and microscope of Mao Zedong Thought” that these secret interlopers could be identified.
The first major purge was Peng Zhen, First Secretary of the Beijing Committee of the Communist Party of China because he disagreed with Mao’s position that all literature should be in the service of the state. With Zhen removed, the political leadership of the capital fell into chaos. This created the perfect environment to stage “independent” mass demonstrations that were effectively Mao’s faction of the Communist Party attacking all of his opponents.
Mao was able to leverage popularity among Communist youths to create massive demonstrations throughout the country. These youths were later organized into the Red Guards, paramilitary groups fanatically loyal to Chairman Mao. They first got wind in their sails during Red August, which saw 1,772 people who were mostly teachers and principals killed by the Guards and their supporters. An additional 33,695 homes ransacked and 85,196 families were forced to leave Beijing.
Red August was effectively a series of politically motivated riots; however, the riots were not stopped by the police force of China. The Red Guards often received official protection from the police, who instead enacted harsh measures against anyone who dared to resist Mao’s Red Guards. Red August is generally considered the beginning of the Red Terror in China. Red Guards from Beijing No. 6 High School famously wrote “Long Live Red Terror!” on the wall with the blood of their victims.
It is easy to get bogged down in the various details of the Cultural Revolution, but it is the broader points that are most important. The Cultural Revolution was, at least ostensibly, wages against “the Five Black Categories:” landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, bad influences, and rightists and “the Four Olds:” Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Customs.
The Five Black Categories can be further described as follows:
- Landlords: Anyone owning any amount of land, especially anyone who derived rental income from their land.
- Rich Farmers: As students of Soviet history will already know, “rich” is a very relative term. It could mean owning one cow or many cows.
- Counter-Revolutionaries: This refers to an alleged cabal of Chinese people who were actively working to restore either the Emperor or the Nationalist government. In reality, nearly all of these had fled to Taiwan by 1966 or else were killed.
- Bad Influences: Generally used when describing school teachers and other intellectual workers considered insufficiently enthusiastic about Mao.
- Rightists: Another secret cabal, this one within the Communist Party, looking to use the Communist Party as a tool of counter-revolution.
These groups were treated as if they were entrenched, oppressive forces some two decades after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The short version of all of this is that Mao wasn’t simply looking to reassert his power in the country, he was looking to radically remake China in such a fashion that the past never really existed. Everything from the days before the People’s Republic of China that was not tied directly to Mao’s strident brand of Marxism was meant to be destroyed.
This meant that priceless cultural artifacts were destroyed by rampaging mobs of Maoists. Individuals were targeted for holding opinions that would have been entirely uncontroversial even just a few months before the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. People were violently victimized – dragged into the streets by rioters and forced to denounce themselves, friends, and family in what were called “Struggle Sessions.”
The Chinese government believes that the total number of people who died as a result of the Cultural Revolution is 20 million, with another 100 million persecuted.
What We Can Learn from the Cultural Revolution
The important thing for contemporary Americans to understand is the mass nature of the Cultural Revolution. It was carried out by literally millions of Chinese youth, with the official sanction and encouragement of the state. The Red Guards were protected by the police and the military, while the victims were prevented from taking any measures to protect themselves.
What’s more, the damage was not limited to the lives lost directly in “struggle sessions” or in forced relocations. The 1975 Banqiao Dam failure is considered to be the direct result of China’s best and brightest being more concerned with divining the correct revolutionary line than with making sure the dams were in good repair.
Finally, it is worth noting the ferocity with which people were attacked for holding opinions that were until very recently uncontroversial. There was a massive, hysterical push to destroy symbols of Chinese history that had become unfavorable due to the current political climate. Those who were being persecuted by the government were, somewhat perversely, painted as if they were an oppressive class being uprooted by a revolutionary government that was going to equalize society by addressing historical injustices.
All of this should sound extremely familiar to contemporary American audiences.
Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution
Venezuela, at least among those in the know, is the symbol of 21st Century socialism and its catastrophic consequences. Venezuela teeters on the brink –its citizens are often incapable of obtaining adequate health care or even basic consumer goods, such as quality food and toilet paper. Such is the track record of socialist governments throughout history.
The so-called “Bolivarian Revolution” of Venezuela, named after Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar, began in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was elected President. He received 56.4% of the popular vote in an election that had the lowest voter turnout of any in the history of Venezuela. Chavez ran on a moderately left-populist program, railing against corruption, entrenched oligarchs, and widespread poverty.
Once elected, Chavez was unable to make good on any of his promises due to the weakness of the Venezuelan economy. Unwilling to risk scaring away foreign investors with radical wealth redistribution, beefed up regulations, and increased social spending, Chavez decided to put the military in charge of various anti-poverty and infrastructure projects, instead of defending the country.
In April 1999, there was a referendum on whether or not Venezuela should adopt a new constitution. The measure passed with 71.8% in favor. In July 1999, an election was held for delegates to the Constitutional Assembly, with Chavez loyalists receiving 95% of the delegates despite receiving only 52% of the vote. Over half of eligible voters stayed home.
The Assemblea Nacional Constituyente (ANC) was charged with drafting a new Constitution of Venezuela in six months. The ANC quickly became an alternate center of power to the official government of Venezuela. Chavez publicly supported the ANC over existing organs of the elected government.
On November 20, 1999, the new constitution was unveiled. With 350 articles, it was one of the longest and most complicated constitutions in the world. President term limits were extended from five years to six years, presidents were now allowed to run for consecutive terms, and the President was given the power to dissolve the National Assembly, which was turned into a unicameral house and stripped of most of its powers. The new constitution included several positive rights, such as the right to housing, employment, and healthcare.
In the 2000 elections, Chavez and his allies tightened their hold on the government. Despite receiving 44.38% of the votes, Chavez’s party received 55.75% of the seats. The election was the subject of widespread accusations of fraud, with the Carter Center refusing to certify it as a free and fair election. At the same time, the government began demanding that all union elections take place under government supervision.
After his stunning victory in the 2000 elections, Chavez rammed an “enabling act” through the National Assembly. This allowed Chavez to rule by decree for one year. It was towards the end of this year that Chavez began making sweeping changes to Venezuelan society. This included “land reform,” where squatters were given title to other people’s land, as well as encouraging the formation of pro-government paramilitary groups. Crime also began to balloon around this time.
In 2002, there was a failed military coup against Chavez. In 2004, there was a recall attempt that Chavez survived, though the vote was marred by accusations of fraud. In 2009, Chavez successfully removed term limits, allowing him to become President for Life. He died in 2013 and was replaced by Nicolás Maduro, who continued many of Chavez’s policies and overall socialist direction of the country.
The economy and living standard of Venezuela continues to decline.
What We Can Learn from the Bolivarian Revolution
Hugo Chavez was not considered a far-leftist when he was inaugurated. It was only after the fact that he became an open admirer of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. What’s more, the elections that put him in power were marred by accusations of fraud.
Venezuela stands as a powerful example of how quickly a country can be changed when the wrong person gains power and uses it for their ends. The Venezuelan Constitution dramatically remade the nation, going so far as to rename it from the Republic of Venezuela to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The power of the Chavez movement is now so firmly entrenched that it’s not clear if there’s a road back to normalcy for the people of Venezuela.
It is crucial for Americans to see an example of how fast a fraudulent election can enshrine into power a radical leftist agenda. Venezuelan politics demonstrates how quickly a “center-left” politician can move to the radical left and how a politician can spin up a mob to act as enforcers for their agenda on the street.
What We Can Learn From Three Red Terrors
The three Red Terrors explored in this article provide valuable lessons about how the rise of totalitarian socialism occurs differently, in different places, at different times. Americans who are concerned about socialism should resist the temptation to mechanistically look for “history repeating” and should instead look for broader strokes that are common in the examples analyzed above and the rise of totalitarianism in general. These include:
- The demonization of political opponents.Totalitarianism doesn’t see its political opponents as misguided or even good faith people with disagreements. Rather, it sees groups of people as obstacles to be overcome or destroyed. Oftentimes, groups are scapegoated because of who they are rather than what they think, but typically both types of “dissent” are repressed.
- The formation of political mobs. Ironically, totalitarianism requires some kind of mass support on the ground to get going. These political mobs, which are effectively goon squads, are somewhere between conformity enforcement and an end zone dance. Political mobs not only demonstrate that the totalitarian movement has meaningful social power on the street, but they also consolidate and increase that power by victimizing individuals who oppose them or groups who have been chosen as a scapegoat.
- Support from allies within the state. In each of the above cases, militias and paramilitary groups operated with impunity because they were protected by sympathetic members of the state apparatus. This need not be over political sympathy. It can simply mean looking the other way while people are victimized, while at the same time attacking anyone who defends themselves against politically motivated violence.
- The politicization of everyday life. The personal is not political. Most people are simply trying to live their lives as best they can, without political considerations. Totalitarian groups, however, believe that everything a person does has a political character. This forces all of society to walk on eggshells.
- Rapid change of social values. When opinions that were very recently considered completely acceptable and normal are quickly and radically viewed as something one dare not express publicly, there is a cultural revolution underway that might well be a prelude to a political and economic one.
- Electoral chicanery. While it’s certainly true that totalitarian ideologies enjoy mass support, they rarely if ever, win at the ballot box without some kind of chicanery. This could be outright fraud, voter intimidation, voter suppression, or other dirty tricks designed to marginalize opposing views.
One certainly can see elements of each of these in the current political climate in the United States. Hopefully, we will not have to update this article anytime soon to detail how the American people were the latest victims of the death march known as socialism.
The most important thing to remember is that the enslavement of a nation is never inevitable. The lessons above are not meant to create a sense of helplessness in the face of American totalitarian impulses, but rather to arm our readers with the knowledge they need to successfully oppose such.
Town Begins Work on Budget
Town staff finalized the department requests, personnel requirements, all of which need to be examined and discussed by Town Council. A special meeting was held Thursday to begin this process.
Due to covid, last year’s budget was somewhat marginal. The town found itself more focused on the pandemic than on the material functions of the town. The hope is to make the FY22 budget more robust and to try and bring back a needed focus on items that were left out last year.
Personnel costs and capital projects were areas that took a hit. Personnel costs are usually the biggest piece of the pie. According to the town manager, the goal is to focus more money in order to be able to bring in and hold onto quality employees.
The town is looking at things such as cost of living adjustments, training opportunities, competitive wages, and a strong benefits package in order to keep all of these quality people on staff.
Capital projects were in most cases put on hold last year. From town managers staff report, “But if needed maintenance is not conducted timely, a minor repair can turn into a major one, costing much more in the long run.
Investment in other projects that can improve efficiency or enhance economic opportunity can also have an important return on investment that is lost when reasonable capital spending is not part of a healthy budget. So while last year’s budget did not contain much capital spending, the FY22 budget needs to again look at this.”
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