Miriam,
We're just beginning to sort out the choices(limited) available to her
mom. She is on Section 8, and there are some decent assisted living
facilities that could provide her room. The real problem is Dorothy.
She does not want to move. "I'm going out of here feet first" is her
usual statement when the subject is brought up. Until her annuity is
gone, we will check in with Catholic Community Services. They do a
good job of providing in-home assistance, for a decent fee. I've
forgotten how much per hour they charge, but we plan to pay it until
we transfer her to SSI later this year. At that time she will be
eligible for something like four hours a day, although some of our
clients have had their time cut to either 2 hours a day or 4 hours
three times a week.
But for certain Cathy can't drive to Silverdale three or four times a
week, do the chores and shopping, etc...and work, too.
Today both Cathy and Marlene are headed to finish up the chores.
Dorothy had banned Marlene from her apartment because she believes
Marlene steals from her. She also believes her son stole from her,
and her grand children are just waiting for her to die so they can
grab all her stuff...which she promised them, but took it all
back...and gave it again...and took it all back, etc.
If I were Marlene, I would not go back, but then that leaves Cathy
once again, doing it all. It's hard to make sense out of the thinking
of a woman who is so angry at her own children. I never say anything
to Cathy, but when Dorothy and I are alone...which I do my best to
keep to a minimum, she gripes about Cathy, too. I'm sure that I get
my fair share from some things I've heard among other family members.
After last Friday, I told Cathy that if I live to be 91, and bitch
about everything and everyone, she has my permission to put a pillow
over my face while I'm sleeping.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/30/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oh my goodness, what will you and Cathy do about Cathy's mother? Do you have
community Medicaid in the State of Washington? Not that, that's such a great
answer. But it does sound like she needs a home health aide.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2017 2:11 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: How can we fight climate change? All out for
the April 29 Climate March!
My plan was to tune in yesterday, but Life got in the way. Cathy's mother
is becoming more and more confused and even has a struggle to go from her
recliner to the bathroom. We spent most of the day behaving like Care
Givers.
Still, I applaud the commitment of all of the people who made the effort,
paid the price, went miles from home, to make their beliefs known. And so
it pained me greatly when NPR spent time this morning broadcasting excerpts
of Donald Trump ranting in front of a gathering of cheering loyal Believers
in a return to White Supremacy. He damned the Media, calling MNBC and CNN
out by name, and the Media in general, than spreading the "truth" as dreamed
up by Donald Trump. And this herd of braying faithful believed him, despite
there being concrete facts reputing everything Donald Trump said. This
amazing ability of a man standing at the head of a powerful nation and
making up stories designed to mislead the people, is what causes my Faith to
be shaken.
I see the day when the vast majority of Americans are on one side of the
room, and Donald Trump and his Cabinet are on the other, and Donald Trump
ignores the Will of the People as he spins his Fairy Tales and leads us to
our destruction.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/30/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
I think you were listening to the wrong thing. I listened to three
hours of the five hours of the climate march yesterday. It was on the
Democracy Now website, but it was also broadcast by KPFK Berkley
which, after great confusion, I managed to figure out how to access on
my VR Stream. Well, I did that last week so that I could hear the
Science march which Democracy Now also broadcast from its website as
well as KPFK. The Scienc march was highly controlled and choreographed
and I listened only to two hours of that. I think that the speeches
were given during the first two hours of the climate march this week,
and I wasn't listening at that point. So I got to hear all kinds of
people from all over the country, talking about why they'd come to
Washington to march in a very hot march, 93 degrees. Last week, it
poured during the science march. And tomorrow, immigrants will be
demonstrating and also, staying home. But whatever kinds of
demonstrating and talking and writing done by the people, the
government, fueled by a lust for power, keeps grinding along. In the
midst of the horrors of the Trump administration, we need to remind
ourselves that it was Obama who set the stage for increased nuclear
arms development, who added to the annual military aid our country
gives to Israel, who made it easier to deport huge numbers of
immigrants without due process, and who gave in to Republican demands
to radically cut domestic spending and to Neo Con and Neo Liberal
demands to give arms to Jihadists in Syria and to overthrow the government
in Libya. And I was reminded by several podcast discussions that it was
Obama who taught the public to differentiate between the "good" and "bad"
immigrants. Trump just talks as if there are more bad ones than good
ones.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2017 10:52 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: How can we fight climate change? All
out for the April 29 Climate March!
I listened to excerpts of Donald Trump telling a screaming crowd of
supporters how successful his first 100 days were, and how much he has
accomplished. Although I believe that the worst is yet to come, what
Trump claimed to have accomplished is mostly hot air. After soundly
trashing the Mass Media, a lashing they richly deserve, but still,
it's the same Media that sucked up his every move and trotted his name
out before the public until the name Trump was so ingrained in folks
heads that they reached out and their hands automatically went to the
Trump lever, after damning them, Trump then told his fans the "real
facts".
What seems to be happening is that we are moving away from the
artificial economy we've created, into an even more unreal world,
created in the head of Donald Trump. There is only two possible
outcomes. Either Trump will drive this out of control presidency over
a cliff and destroy the world economy, or the working class will rise
up and remove the burden of wealth from the billionaires.
But for the moment, the cheering, wild crowds of "True Trump
Believers" ring in my ears.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/30/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://socialistaction.org/2017/04/28/how-can-we-fight-climate-chang
e -all-out-for-the-april-29-climate-march/
How can we fight climate change? All out for the April 29 Climate March!
/ 2 days ago
May 2016 Global justiceBy BILL ONASCH
On the eve of the April 29 People’s Climate Mobilization in
Washington and other cities, Bill Onasch describes what working
people and the labor movement must do in order to avoid the most
catastrophic effects of climate change.
The working class faces challenges on many fronts today. But one
crisis is overarching. On both land and sea, Northern and Southern
Hemispheres alike, our planet is getting hotter. The scale and pace
of this global warming is unprecedented in human history. The last
three years have been the hottest since precise measurements began in
the 1880s.
This heat is expanding the volume of oceans. Along with melting sea
and glacial ice in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Greenland, this is
raising sea levels. If not stopped soon it will eventually inundate
coastal areas that are home to hundreds of millions. The New York
City penthouse at Trump Tower would remain dry—but by 2050 the tip of
Manhattan, including Southport, Battery Park, and much of the World
Trade Center would be submerged.
Familiar weather patterns are being disrupted, leading to severe
droughts in some areas and giant floods in others. In February,
11,743 local record warm daily temperatures were recorded just in the
United States. The world has been hit by ferocious storms, like
Cyclone Debbie in Australia, and massive wildfires such as the recent
one in Kansas that killed thousands of livestock, consumed all of the
hay supply, and destroyed hundreds of farm structures.
In some regions of the world, such as eastern Africa, this
early-stage climate change has resulted in famine—and numerous climate
refugees.
Pernicious liars like the president of the United States assert that
climate change resulting from global warming is a hoax, variously
attributed to either greedy climate scientists bilking tax-payers or
the Chinese government trying to wreck our economy.
Other deniers don’t challenge the validity of thermometer and sea
level readings but insist this is a natural cycle of our planet that
will eventually get back to what we consider normal. They see no
cause for alarm or need for drastic changes. In any case, they say
there’s nothing we can do to stop Mother Nature.
But the overwhelming majority of scientists accept irrefutable
evidence that the principal cause of global warming is the release of
greenhouse gases by the ravenous energy demands of industry,
agriculture, transportation—and war.
These emissions are still growing. The damage this causes to the
fragile biosphere that has nourished human civilization is
irreversible. While its worst effects will be felt by future
generations, climate change has been advancing faster than expected
and requires urgent and far-reaching countermeasures.
How capitalism fouls things up
After steam engines fueled by wood and coal gave a big boost to the
18th-century Industrial Revolution, the capitalist economy became
increasingly addicted to fossil fuels. Since the first modern oil
wells began pumping in Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1859, the United
States, Britain, and other major powers have been exploring and
conquering on land and in the sea to satisfy the thirst of diesel,
internal combustion, and jet engines, as well as for raw material for
production of petrochemical products like plastic.
For some time now, the U.S. has had more registered cars and trucks
than licensed drivers. Big new markets have been carved out for
products like snowmobiles, all terrain vehicles, and motor homes.
Once serene lakes are now battered by racket and wakes of ubiquitous
motorboats and jet skis. And we shouldn’t forget those dirty, noisy
two-stroke engines commonly used to mow lawns.
While plug-in electric cars are now starting to appear, nearly 99
percent of the auto industry is still cranking out fossil-fueled cars
and trucks. More than 900,000 American workers are directly involved
in making parts and assembling these vehicles. Millions more earn a
paycheck by selling, maintaining, repairing, insuring—and ultimately
scrapping them. Hundreds of thousands of others are employed in
building and maintenance of highways and city streets. And, of
course, auto is a prime customer for the steel, rubber, and glass
industries.
With zero redeeming social benefit, the fighters, bombers, tanks,
cruise missiles, and drones used in constant wars of intervention to
advance the interests of capitalist Globalization are also a huge
greenhouse polluter.
Of course, it has never been the intention of the capitalists to
wreck our biosphere. That’s collateral damage in the class war they
wage, which has made today’s American ruling class the richest in
history.
Some of them favor measures they hope will slow down global warming
so that the next generations can figure out something better.
The bosses and bankers mainly promote ineffective schemes like carbon
price, carbon tax, and carbon offsets, which have been widely used
since the Kyoto Accords were adopted in 1997—but never implemented by
Clinton or Bush II.
Obama’s much hailed “Clean Power” initiative—which Trump is now
trying to dismantle—was the first American contribution to world
efforts to adopt goals to reduce carbon emissions. It was mainly
based on inducing many power plants to convert from coal to somewhat
less carbon-polluting natural gas. This hasn’t happened out of
climate concerns by the utilities. Gas has become cheaper than
coal—mainly because of Obama’s promotion of environmentally
destructive hydraulic fracturing (fracking.)
“Clean Power” also relied on the cooperation of states to develop
carbon markets and quotas—much like Obama’s Affordable Care Act
counted on states doing the right thing. And because this “historic”
plan was introduced through an executive order, it can be modified
and perhaps even nullified by order of the current Denier-in-Chief.
Real solutions are available
Since burning fossil fuels is the main culprit in creating the
greenhouse effect driving climate change, a total solution is simple
and obvious—quit burning them, leave them in the ground. We in fact
don’t need them. There are clean, renewable energy sources available
free for the taking everywhere on Earth—sun, wind, and water.
We can replace dirty, inefficient internal combustion and diesel
engines that consume fossil fuel with electric motors. We can
conserve energy and reap many other ecological benefits by reversing
urban sprawl, reclaiming the forests, wetlands, and farm lands that
once surrounded and nurtured many of our cities before being wrecked
by irresponsible “development.”
To facilitate population return to our depleted, long neglected urban
cores will require using craft workers now building pipelines and
fracking wells to be put to work rebuilding and renovating quality
affordable housing and a sustainable infrastructure. Safe, reliable,
electric-powered mass transit would be a high priority project.
Climate change is a global crisis. No country can escape its
impact—not even the U.S., the richest country in history. A large
part of this American wealth—of which the lion’s share is controlled
by about one-tenth of one percent of our population—is accumulated
through exploitation of other nations, leaving them “underdeveloped”
and polluted. There is not only a moral obligation but also a vital
self-interest for the world economy to finance climate stabilization
projects in the poorest countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
But we need to offer more than money—it’s also essential to lead by
example in action. Sustainable restructuring of the world’s biggest
economy can convince the whole world that there is now a road to
development far superior to our history marked by unintended
ecological destruction.
But we need a plan—pronto
When American capitalism decided to go all-in for the Second World
War, they didn’t try to induce industry to build unprecedented
numbers of ships, planes, and tanks through tax credits or other
fiscal and market measures. Instead, the government essentially took
control of the entire economy and dictated products and production
quotas. This project of Big Government was the most successful crash
mobilization of economic resources in history.
To be sure, this is a far from perfect analogy. The end use of that
production led to 70 million deaths and the beginning of the era of
nuclear war. We want to end wars and war spending, not make them
bigger or more efficient.
Nor is it realistic to expect a capitalist government to carry out
such planned economy to combat climate change. The capitalists were
rewarded handsomely for their compliance with the government’s World
War II plan, and the U.S. victory led to opening up vast new markets
to U.S.
domination—which from their point of view made the slaughter and
destruction more than acceptable. They will not make any sacrifices
to eliminate the most important sources of profit.
The only force in society with both the potential power and material
interest to challenge destructive capitalist rule is the
working-class majority. With the same sense of wartime urgency, our
class that does nearly all the work, in alliance with scientists and
environmentalists, can take charge of a planned rapid restructuring
of a sustainable economy and run it democratically.
Some hopeful signs from labor
The only class-based mass organizations in the USA are the trade unions.
This movement has long been divided over climate and environmental
issues. But today a number of important national unions are educating
and mobilizing their members around climate as well as class justice.
Those making that connection include the Amalgamated Transit Union,
American Federation of Teachers, American Postal Workers,
Communications Workers of America, National Nurses United, Service
Employees International Union, and the United Electrical, Radio &
Machine Workers.
Some of these unions are part of the labor/environmental Blue Green
Alliance. All are affiliated with the Labor Network for
Sustainability, which is doing valuable work in hammering out a
program for “Making a Living On a Living Planet.”
Most have also joined the global Trade Unions for Energy Democracy.
Among other demands, TUED favors socialization of all energy under
worker management—a goal Socialist Action heartily supports. But to
secure the needed massive restructuring plan, we think socialization
will need to also include at the very least the financial and
transportation sectors and, because of its central importance, the
auto industry as well.
Both the LNS and TUED strongly support the application of Just
Transition—a topic of an article in the February issue of this
newspaper. This long standing working-class principle holds that when
workers lose their livelihood for the better good of society we have
a collective obligation to give them income, retraining, and
relocation support until they can find suitable new jobs.
Unlike Trump’s phony promise of putting miners back to work digging
coal, we can honestly and confidently guarantee Just Transition to
the millions of workers who will be affected as we replace
climate-wrecking jobs with sustainable ones. At the same time as we
save our biosphere, we will generate full employment with a decent
standard of living for generations.
As the working class replaces the present capitalist ruling class, we
can use some of their ill-gotten wealth to also provide generous
solidarity grants to nations exploited by the old rules, so that they
too can be part of making a decent living on a healing planet.
This, of course, won’t be done overnight. While climate change
relentlessly advances, the struggles for both climate and class
justice are in their early stages. There are no short cuts. We need
to continue to educate and motivate around the urgent need for
climate action while helping the working class recover from class
identity theft. Periodic mass demonstrations, along with education in
union halls and workplace break rooms, and teach-ins on college
campuses, remain essential
Scientists and environmentalists have done their job well in
explaining the climate crisis and offering ways to satisfactorily
resolve it. But the necessary alternatives require taking political
power away from the climate-wrecking class. That won’t be done until
the working class breaks the two-party political monopoly that allows
this tiny destructive minority to rule. The need for a mass
working-class party in the United States—likely arising from our
unions—is every bit as urgent as the climate crisis itself.
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April 28, 2017 in Environment, Labor.
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