Where do your taxes go? Do you know?
In Tompkins County; the rural people pay the same county taxes as everyone else, but do not get any County bus service, Law enforcement patrols, Municipal water, Planning representation, or County outreach — and it’s the county’s urban residents; the ones who receive all of that, who are designated as “underserved” and given special attention.
This isn’t widely known — but then, we don’t get any media coverage either.
“Cronyism” is the Gold Standard of corruption. While following a money trail is difficult; the Quid Pro Quos and Future Expectations of cronyism are much more difficult to nail down as misconduct.
New York State requires that 3 of the 5 voting members of every oversight Soil and Water Conservation Committee be “farm” [one an active farmer, one from the Farm Bureau, and one from the Grange]: farming is the biggest polluter of the state’s lakes and waterways — is this “cronyism”? These Committees oppose fines and excuse even the largest agricultural spills; while constantly praising these farms for their commitment to Stewardship — is this “cronyism”?
There is always a point at which the logic and reasoning disappears, transparency is lost, and the power of the decision maker takes over — we need to make sure that these decisions are made for the right reasons.
We’re all in this together . . . but wouldn’t you rather be together somewhere else?
When you’re in a speeding vehicle with an impaired driver; maybe it’s better to jump out anywhere, then end up who-knows-where. Oh, Hell!
“Faster than a spending bureaucrat! More powerful than a lobby! Able to leap ethical barriers in a single bound!
(“Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a Law!” “It’s a Mandate!” “It’s The Greater Good!”)
Yes, it’s The Greater Good… strange concept from an autocratic viewpoint, who came to our society with powers and abilities far beyond those given by the Constitution! The Greater Good… who can change the course of ethical guidelines, bend principles in his bare hands! And who, disguised as Equitable Policy, mild-mannered proponent for a Great Dictatorship, fights a never-ending battle against truth, justice, and the American people!
Is there a “kryptonite”? Yes, knowledge. Full Disclosure • Full Exposure of our government’s policies and statistics will change a Greater Good Dictatorship into a good for all democracy.
Life is more than just choices; it’s also about opportunities. Sometimes the opportunity comes when you’re out of choices; sometimes the choice carries an “opportunity cost”; and sometime the choice creates the opportunity itself.
I can’t say the choice of not going on to another bar was ever a bad one. The opportunity? Maybe just living to talk about it.
Nature abhors a vacuum — doesn’t everyone?
There’s always the urge to fill in the blank space; even when you’re not requested to “insert image/comment/URL here.”
But what constitutes a “blank space”?
Incomers define our rural fields and meadows as “vacant space” because they have not been defined and demarked as to usage. To them, these “blank spaces” are frightening; objects without labels —opportunities without a profit.
There is no neighborliness: instead, we’re now a “community,” and our community needs, running and bike trails, a dog park, sidewalks, a “town center,” a high-tax school system . . . a suburban pastiche of county club aspirations and sit-com sensibilities.
Forcing on the original inhabitants things that they don’t want; at a price they can’t afford.
The natives either die off, are taxed out, or squeezed into low-level jobs and marginalized living.
Pure Urban Colonialism.
Say it and forget it; stick it and regret it. Bumper stickers can say a lot of things, and can be put on for a lot of reasons, but there’s one thing they have in common; they’re difficult to take off.
Cornithaca is a place where rich non-profits decry the materialism of working people all the way to the bank; and “lip service” is another name for a convocation of policy makers.
It’s a place where non-conforming people and ideas are targeted in a servile media; while intellectual lemmings attack and attack with mindless ferocity.
In a county where “user-ism” has replaced activism; profiting in a very material way from public policy has become a way of life.
Their burden is the weight of rulership; ours is to carry their sedan chairs.
No concept could be scarier to today’s secular elite. The selective disclosure of information to legitimize elitist policy making is the stepping stone to their “greater good” dictatorship: a “Black Box” Bureaucracy of power and control.
I used to satirize this society by saying that the only rights left will be the right to be a victim and the right to be poor. This isn’t true — they’ll decide that as well.
If the last election and its aftermath has taught us anything; it’s that if you’re not confrontational; you’re nothing.
Those that were confrontational and violent are being showered with privileges and media promotion; those that were not are just fodder for the Sacrifice Grinder.
Use this generic bumper sticker as an attitude setting giveaway for your group’s confrontational launch.
Remember: “If you don’t make the list; you’ll never be missed.”