California Dreaming. . .

Part of the California homeless crises is a classic economic conundrum. When you put in place programs that assist the needy, you also create an economic demand for more needy people. The better the programs, the greater the demand. The greater the “need”. This is among the reasons the study of economics was called the “Dismal Science” for years. While California over the years has tried desperately to do the right thing about its homeless problem, and has put in place an enormously expensive social system of such programs, it has not yet found the answer. 

However, as the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan pointed out many years ago, these social “assistance” programs more often than not have only made the problems worse. They built instant slums, not homes. They gave checks, not jobs. They built a great bureaucracy, just not a successful one,  It was almost all, in essence, counterproductive. The more counterproductive, the greater the failure, the more California doubled down. They really wanted, and I think they still want to do the right thing.

The net effect of all of the programs nationwide was to wreck poor and particularly poor Black families and neighborhoods. Prior to the “Great Society” programs of LBJ there were more traditional Black families as a percentage than white families. There were far more white babies born out of wedlock than Black babies as a yearly percentage. These social programs, intending good, but doing harm, reversed those percentages and were a major factor in the creation of single parent, female, Black families according to Moynihan and others. They literally removed fathers from homes on purpose.

Part of California’s problem is also the weather; it’s relatively nice there, all four seasons. You can live rough there easier than just about any other place in the world. The people are also generous. They have funded all of these programs for years at the cost of the highest tax rate in the US. The combination of these factors has only increased the problems every year.

There is also a down side to the way California has helped create its own problem. With an economic fierceness that rivals the robber barons, they have effectively eliminated low, and now even medium income housing. The zoning system almost precludes the creation of such housing except in areas where it is almost designed to fail. In the East coast they call it gentrification. After the middle class was priced out of new homes, they began buying older homes and “updating” them. Combined with the prior practice of routing major highways through poorer areas, unassisted, low/middle income housing has all but vanished in the state. 

In addition, the densities, very low, make public transportation uneconomical as well. This requires even more public funds, as do the incredible environmental and local restrictions on development of any type. The continuing debacle of the bullet train program in California is a prime example of some of what is wrong as well. Unending litigation, increased costs far beyond initial projection are only part of the problem, but they are seemingly always there.

However, it would be a mistake to say that this is all California’s problem. To a greater or lesser degree it is happening everywhere in the US. California is merely a precursor and the factors noted above have made it much worse there, for now. It is to the Californians’ credit that they have gone further and spent more to try to solve the problems. They have neither hidden from it, nor ignored it, but they have yet to solve it. 

It would be a mistake to believe that these problems have overwhelmed the California lifestyle. They have not. It is still an incredibly lovely place to live and raise a family, but the rot is spreading ever faster. It is already literally killing San Francisco. Some college campuses have recently been reported as unsafe. Smash and grab robberies are on the up swing through out the state. Businesses have taken note. Stores have closed. Jobs have been eliminated.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that even the current problems have caused a reassessment in proposing solutions. The state still allows not just homes, but whole towns to be built in fire zones that are even more accurately delineated than flood zones. It is no surprise when they burn regularly. It has a decrepit electrical grid that contributes regularly to the fire problem. Zoning and other rules, regulations, litigation, etc., still mandates, not favors, mandates single family homes instead of greater densities. This mandates, although they try to ignore it, continued reliance on a car culture, whether gas or electric, that is already strangling the cities. It still dumps enough fresh water into the Pacific Ocean that could solve its recurrent water crises. None of these problems will be easy, or cheap, to fix no matter what solution is chosen. 

While all this needs to change, there does not yet seem to be agreement on how. We will see?

 ———#####———-

My book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive  is available on Amazon both as a paperback and on Kindle. It is a Five Star book with lots of reviews, many by others that were there in Vietnam with me at the time. Please give it a look. See; Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive 1968

Recent Reviews of Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive:

“John Harrison does an eloquent job writing what it was like being in the infantry during the Vietnam war. I know, I was in the infantry in Vietnam. There is a statistic which states that only 1 out of 10 who served in Vietnam were in the infantry. All of us have been asked what that was like at one point since our return. It is an impossible question for most of us to answer in part much less in full. John Harrison manages to do this in his book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive. So, if you are inclined and wonder what it was like, or you want to tell someone else what you went through, buy this book. Show it to your friend, show it to your family. It tells your story. To, “LT” John Harrison- thank you Sir.Salute.”

“John Harrison’s book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive, is a series of short stories, told mostly in the first person, that weaves together the humor and violence that only a talented writer can accomplish. The result is a compelling book that is hard to put down. John’s words flow easily on the pages, making an easy read. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has been there and did that, or anyone wanting to know a personal record of one lucky Lieutenant in Vietnam and the people that made it possible for him to return home.
Dan Hertlein, helicopter mechanic with the 192nd AHC at LZ Betty 1968″

“John is the soldier speaking the truest story of Vietnam. I will confirm his action as I was in a different company same battalion, fighting the same battles.”

The Times, they are a changing

by John harrison

On November 10, 1958,^[19] New York diamond merchant Harry Winston, sent the Hope Diamond through U.S. Mail to the Smithsonian, in a small box, wrapped in plain brown paper, as simple registered mail^[,16] He insured it for $1 million at a cost of $145.29, of which $2.44 was for postage and the balance insurance.^[16][54] Upon its arrival it became Smithsonian Institution Specimen #217868.^[55] Smithsonian Institution mineralogist George Switzer is credited with persuading Harry Winston to donate the Hope Diamond for a proposed national gem collection to be housed at the National Museum of Natural History.^[53 Wikipedia

On July 18, 2023, yesterday, we received a card from a former next door neighbor thanking my lawyer wife for her considerable help while they were selling their home recently. Enclosed within a nice card in the envelope when it was mailed was a short note wrapped around a $250 gift card. However, neither the note, nor the gift card was in the torn envelope when we received it.

There have been many memes and postings describing how the world has changed on Facebook, i.e., rabbit ears on TV, paper maps and phone directories, corded telephones, and so forth. The day before we received the letter we had received a notice in our mailbox from the Postal Service essentially saying “do not send checks through the mail” because they are being stolen. While I have seen lots of comparisons about society’s changes over time, I have not seen this one.

Today we have become tolerant of lawlessness on an incredible scale. It is killing great cities, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore; It is destroying jobs and opportunities as business after business departs leaving grocery, and pharmacy deserts in their wake. The US mail once was sacrosanct. If you dropped it in one of those green boxes neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor the occasional thief would slow it, much less stop it on its way to you. Harry Winston was not being irresponsible when he dropped a million dollar diamond in the U. S. Mail, he was doing  what millions did every day, trust the mail to get it there.

Long ago, when I was going to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, my Mother would regularly send me the $15 a week I needed for food and incidental expenses, in cash, in a regular envelope, in the mail. I always got it. It cost 5 cents, first class, postage. Processing a check on the other hand cost my Mother a dime each time a check cleared her bank. True, it was long ago. But, if I did not receive that money, I literally did not eat. It always came. I always ate. Later when my brother was in law school in Texas and I was working, from time to time, I sent him money, cash, the same way. However, when my children went to college I never sent cash to them. It was always a check, or money order. Now, even those are at risk and the postal service knows it, even admits it in warnings to its customers. To give you an idea of the power of a dime back then, you could buy two standard Coca Colas with a dime and get 4 cents back if you saved the little green bottles and turned them back in to the store. Cigarettes were only 18 cents a pack at the grocery store and you also got a free pack of matches.

Nostalgia is supposed to be fun for old people, but I wish we were leaving a better world to our children. When you can’t trust the United States Post Office, when you routinely avoid going downtown because of personal safety concerns, when you favorite stores close because of rampant theft, it is much more than an inconvenience, a basic civic right has been destroyed. Who’s minding the store? Is anybody? It does not seem so. 

 ———#####———-

My book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive  is available on Amazon both as a paperback and on Kindle. It is a Five Star book with lots of reviews, many by others that were there in Vietnam with me at the time. Please give it a look. See; Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive 1968

Recent Reviews of Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive:

“John Harrison does an eloquent job writing what it was like being in the infantry during the Vietnam war. I know, I was in the infantry in Vietnam. There is a statistic which states that only 1 out of 10 who served in Vietnam were in the infantry. All of us have been asked what that was like at one point since our return. It is an impossible question for most of us to answer in part much less in full. John Harrison manages to do this in his book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive. So, if you are inclined and wonder what it was like, or you want to tell someone else what you went through, buy this book. Show it to your friend, show it to your family. It tells your story. To, “LT” John Harrison- thank you Sir.Salute.”

“John Harrison’s book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive, is a series of short stories, told mostly in the first person, that weaves together the humor and violence that only a talented writer can accomplish. The result is a compelling book that is hard to put down. John’s words flow easily on the pages, making an easy read. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has been there and did that, or anyone wanting to know a personal record of one lucky Lieutenant in Vietnam and the people that made it possible for him to return home.
Dan Hertlein, helicopter mechanic with the 192nd AHC at LZ Betty 1968″

“John is the soldier speaking the truest story of Vietnam. I will confirm his action as I was in a different company same battalion, fighting the same battles.”

Here We Go Again

Here We Go Again

by john harrison

Speaker Pelosi has called for President Trump’s second impeachment because of his encouragement of mob violence against the Capitol. The protestors purpose apparently was to interrupt the Congress’s certification of the election of President Elect Joseph Biden. All of those on Capitol Hill that awful day were justifiably terrified of being in the epicenter of a truly violent riot. 

There is no excuse either for the rioters’ or for the President’s words and actions. How did we get here? And more important, where is here? That is where it gets difficult.

The Democrats profess that they are aghast at President Trump’s actions that day. They say that he in effect urged the crowd to insurrection. Clearly that is not what a man sworn to up hold the law of the land should do. As the nation’s Chief  Law Enforcement Officer, President Trump obviously should have acted differently, he should have up held the rule of law rather than sending his supporters to a place he knew they should not go. He did not. If you doubt me, then here is the passage from his speech that directed his followers to head toward Capitol Hill.

“And after this, we’re going to walk down there, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down … to the Capitol and we are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” Trump told the crowd. “And we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

And then he added a measure of defiance, unfortunately mixed with a call to action.

“We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved, Our country has had enough. We’re not going to take it anymore.” Trump said. 

The President also said:

 “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

And then, he added, with a bit of perhaps unintentional, irony:

 “Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy.”

So, how did we get here, to this violent, lawless place with five Americans killed and over sixty police officers injured. President Trump’s rhetoric has often been combative, but what was the context? What were others saying and doing?

“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents,” 

So said Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Democrat, at the Wilshire Federal Building, according to a video of the event made well before the tragic events at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

“We don’t know what damage has been done to these children. All that we know is they’re in cages. They’re in prisons. They’re in jails. I don’t care what they call it, that’s where they are and Mr. President, we will see you every day, every hour of the day, everywhere that we are to let you know you cannot get away with this,” Congresswoman Waters added.

Congresswoman Waters appeared on MSNBC later in the day to double down on her remarks, saying she has “no sympathy” for members of the Trump administration.

“The people are going to turn on them. They’re going to protest. They’re going to absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the President, ‘No, I can’t hang with you.’”

So, what did Speaker Pelosi have to say about respect for law and order?

During Pelosi’s remarks about immigration issues, she portrayed the parents of “Dreamers” as victims who have had to endure much “risk” to bring their families illegally into the country.

“I say to their parents: Thank you for bringing these Dreamers to America. We’re in your debt for the courage it took, for you to take the risk, physically, politically, in every way, to do so,” Speaker Pelosi said.

That is, she thanked them for breaking the very laws that in many cases she had helped pass, and much more important, that she has sworn repeatedly to uphold. How is she still the Speaker of the House?

As a lawyer with over 30 years experience I would say that both Congresswoman Waters’ and Speaker Pelosi’s comments are no better and no worse than President Trump’s, but that his led to much worse, much more immediate, and very much more tragic, consequences. While that does make the President more liable for his comments, it does not in any way remove their similar culpability for some very similar statements.

So, now we have outrage from Speaker Pelosi, and probably from Congresswoman Waters as well about President Trump’s lack of respect for the rule of law. They are correct, but they both do suffer from the Glass House Rule, that is the failure of their party to admonish them in any way for their similar behavior tends to make them look a lot more like hypocrites than righteous guardians of the Republic.

This does not in anyway excuse President Trump for his outrageous words and behavior, but sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. Both the Speaker and the Congresswoman, and perhaps others on both sides of the aisle, should also be censored for the actions and words that have gotten us to this violent place.  

Fair play, is not fair at all if it only goes one way. Hate, whether justified or not, is not a substitute for evidence, nor is it a substitute for trustworthiness. You have to earn that. We will see if they do. Will the impeachment process be fair this time? Or, will be another badly managed partisan attack for little purpose and no possibility ever of success?

The last impeachment, President Trump’s first impeachment, the Democrats were the gang that could not shoot straight. The first time the Democrats impeached President Trump they put on a show of utter incompetence from beginning to end. If you disagree, think about relying on the Republican dominated Senate to call the witnesses that should have been called during the Houses’ investigation. The very idea boggles the mind, and it killed any possibility of success for their first impeachment of President Trump.

At least the Senate and Congress now have a much better idea of how the people of Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle and San Francisco must feel regularly when violence and lawlessness forces their shops and restaurants to close, and businesses and dreams to fail. Assuming that these cities returned to their lawful past tomorrow, it will still take years to repair the damage. Already, for example, many insurers have notified their policy holders in Portland that they will not insure businesses in central business area at any price. They are withdrawing from the market permanently. If you can’t get casualty insurance you can’t get business loans. If you can’t get business loans you can’t reopen. It is a simple if brutal relationship that kept much of Northeast Washington, D.C., a wasteland for decades after the 1968 riots provoked by the murder of Dr. King. Decades, in the Nation’s capitol. These same harsh economic rules are still there. In the absence of some creative government actions these cities, at least in their central portion, will die.

The Democratic leaders are practically begging Republicans to join them in cleaning the house that the Donald built, and some have already agreed. However, there is a lot more to do than just that. It is time they all got to work on the People’s business and not their own little political power games. Riots, like wars, are bad for all living things no matter how justified they may be. We need to clean up the mess, all of it.  

____________________________________________________

My book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive  is available on Amazon both as a paperback and on Kindle. It is a Five Star book with lots of reviews, many by others that were there as well. Please give it a look. See; Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive 1968

Recent Reviews of Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive:

“John Harrison does an eloquent job writing what it was like being in the infantry during the Vietnam war. I know, I was in the infantry in Vietnam. There is a statistic which states that only 1 out of 10 who served in Vietnam were in the infantry. All of us have been asked what that was like at one point since our return. It is an impossible question for most of us to answer in part much less in full. John Harrison manages to do this in his book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive. So, if you are inclined and wonder what it was like, or you want to tell someone else what you went through, buy this book. Show it to your friend, show it to your family. It tells your story. To, “LT” John Harrison- thank you Sir.Salute.”

“John Harrison’s book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive, is a series of short stories, told mostly in the first person, that weaves together the humor and violence that only a talented writer can accomplish. The result is a compelling book that is hard to put down. John’s words flow easily on the pages, making an easy read. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has been there and did that, or anyone wanting to know a personal record of one lucky Lieutenant in Vietnam and the people that made it possible for him to return home.
Dan Hertlein, helicopter mechanic with the 192nd AHC at LZ Betty 1968″

“John is the soldier speaking the truest story of Vietnam. I will confirm his action as I was in a different company same battalion, fighting the same battles.”