The Socialist Platform...Some Good Points

The Socialist Party of America has a number of platform statements that might be of interest to you.I am going to list them for your reading.I don't agree with every statement but some of their platform agenda might lead us in a better direction in the near future.. We demand the immediate withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and oppose the creation of a widened Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). . We call for a minimum wage of $15 per hour, indexed to the cost of living. We call for a full employment policy. We support the provision of a livable guaranteed annual income. We call for a steeply graduated income tax and a steeply graduated estate tax, and a maximum income of no more than ten times the minimum. We oppose regressive taxes such as payroll tax, sales tax, and property taxes. We call for the restoration of the capital gains tax and luxury tax on a progressive, graduated scale. We support guaranteed incomes and grants for artists and performers. We call for full funding of community and school arts programs for people of all ages. We support the right of artists to join and form unions to protect their labor rights and to form collectives to advance common artistic visions.1. We call for full and equal funding of public education; for the restoration of a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, including art, music, world languages, and physical education; for an end to all public funding of private schools; and for free tuition and full-time teachers with full benefits (not "adjuncts") at the post-secondary level.We support public child care starting from infancy, and public education starting at age three, with caregivers and teachers of young children receiving training, wages, and benefits comparable to that of teachers at every other level of the educational system.. We call for an egalitarian educational system with teaching methods that accommodate the wide range of teaching and learning styles, and that provides all students with the means to obtain the post-secondary education they desire. We call a maximum of 15 students per teacher for grades K-12, and a maximum of 50 students per teacher at the post-secondary level.



Give critical support to the demand for the immediate abolition of all private health insurance companies through the creation of a single-payer health system. We see single-payer as an important step in the direction of a fully socialized national health program with full standard and alternative medical, dental, vision, and mental health coverage for all. This system would be publicly funded through progressive taxation and controlled by democratically elected assemblies of health care workers and patients. The National Health Program should improve, and replace, Medicare and Medicaid.We call for the reinstatement of funding to community mental health services so that low-cost or no-cost treatment is available on a voluntary basis, with clients' rights respected. We oppose involuntary incarceration for treatment without due process.

We call for a vast increase in Section 8 housing subsidies as one element of major public investment in the construction of low cost, scattered site, community-based, high quality housing.2. We call for rent control for all rental units, and the right of tenants to organize..We support the formation of non-profit land trusts and of socially owned, tenant controlled housing cooperatives.




We call for the creation of a fully funded high-speed national rail system with fares set low enough to be a viable alternative to the use of the automobile.
The U.S. must immediately return to participation in international agreements, such as the Kyoto Protocol, limiting carbon emissions, and accept a major role in worldwide efforts to control global warming.


We oppose policies that target minority communities for placement of local landfills, toxic waste disposal sites, or incinerators.

I could continue..go to Socialist Party of America....I don't think workers and communities should own all corporations but I do feel the state or federal government should own businesses that employ citizens and create revenue.We need to create products and start buying items made in USA.




Berkley Leaf 2008

                                                
                                                Untitled    2008

                                         Hudson River:  Saugerties Lighthouse Path

                Two Alpaca at an organic farm....south of Saugerties






















                       Dead Space...
                                             Dead Space

                                                                  Can't be used for the things we want to use it for.




                                                   Los Angeles...2009 in the dead of winter ..............
                                                                              always beautiful,always fun

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Unhappy Labor Day

Today should be a happy day for all workers from labor and management.Unfortunately, this is a sad time for both sections of the workforce.The unemployment rate is close to 10% which includes both sections.Our production rate is one of the highest in the world.Americans work harder and longer than the vast majority of workers in developed countries.We are taking on more work each year while our incomes have barely keep up with inflation.This has been going on since the late seventies. Our energy costs have increased since our oil production reached it's peak in 1970. We are forty years away from that peak and each year import more oil than the previous year. In the early seventies oil prices rose dramatically. With this increase came inflation and a weak economy.Nixon and Carter tried to combat both of these maladies through regulation and energy efficiency.Eventually,we got lucky, the price of oil fell during the Reagan years.The beginning of globalization also started during this administration with the opening of imports from all countries to our shores.The"free market "finally got it's opening and took the bait with full force.Before this time,our trade mainly consisted of  products from our allies.We did trade with other countries but at a low rate. After 1980, world trade became affordable due to reasonable transportation costs and tracking technologies. Once this process began to take off and America's doors were open to trade from around the world, our workers in the U.S. began a slow decline in wages and the amount of good jobs that were available. To cut labor costs here, companies realized they could sub-contract components of their products where workers were paid less and ship the finished product to American consumers.This trend has been going on since the eighties and has steamrolled every year since. So many jobs left our shores that our major sector today is financial services that went from 6% to 40% of all jobs during this time period.

Union membership is at it's all time low point in America since WWII. After the war, 35% of the jobs were unionized with income disparity at it's lowest.Today's percentage is under 12%.Only 7% of private jobs are union while 34% of public jobs have union affiliation.Today,income disparity is at our highest since 1928.The Republican platform always blames unions for many of the economic problems of our country.Many low to low middle income level citizens buy into the platform because they don't make enough income from their jobs.They want lower taxes to maintain the simple lifestyle they have.I can understand this position. So many workers have lost collective bargaining power and the majority of jobs are unstable(company can move to reduce costs). Many want what  a third of the public employees have.They want higher salaries and benefits.They want stability and some protection from upper management decisions. These Republicans want to bring union workers down to their situation instead of supporting the public unions that will fight for their rights through lobbying and legislation.This platform is dividing workers and have been successful since the Reagan administration.

Today should be the most important day in our country.We must work together to change the working conditions in our country.Progressives in the Democratic party try to support all workers and bring some stability to the workforce through policies that promote fair pay and benefits. The 20% who own 85% of the America's assets should remember their roots on this day and begin to share America's wealth in a democratic manner. We are a capital monarchy today with decisions being made for the welfare of the few.Both management and labor don't share in the decision making concerning their working lives.A very small percentage in our businesses and public services make all the important decisions. Management and labor just meekly follow instructions to survive.As we know,many workers have been exiled for resisting these instructions and some fall into economic misery by being blacklisted.Shared decision making,collective bargaining and worker cooperation should be the foundation of a democratic nation.I hope next year we have improved our employment opportunities and help move workers towards emancipation here and abroad.

Information Superhighway

Yesterday was a beautiful windy,cloud filled day. I spent the day with my wife and our friend at the same park as the day before. I finished "Power Trip" and started reading "Coming Climate Crisis"by Claire Parkinson. We were entertained by an older couple trying to navigate a jet ski at the boat launch. They almost fell in the water and started arguing about the procedure.They finally got it together but only went about 5 MPH to a boat in the middle of the Hudson.Maybe anyone over fifty should leave that activity to younger folks.

"Power Trip" has been an interesting book and I recommend it wholeheartedly. Some facts from the book...DoE released a report showing that the United States could get 20% of it's power from wind by 2030 and create 10 million jobs.Wind is cheaper than coal as a power source.Texas already has a wind power capacity of 7,900 megawatts which is equivalent to a dozen coal power plants.It has approved a 4.9 billion plan to build transmission lines for wind energy throughout the state.Geothermal  resources are being discovered in the West.The U.S. has 2,500 megawatts of geothermal power currently but could increase that output fifteen times in the near future.This is equivalent to 45 coal plants.Another vast untapped reserve is the ocean.Ocean power is a decade behind wind power but could produce between 6-20% of all America's electricity in the future.Human energy can be harvested through daily exercise. Human energy can be converted into electricity to charge ipods,cell phones and walkie talkies for the military.Using human garbage can be used to generate electricity.Florida(with Geoplasma's technology) has an experimental plant that blasts garbage with high temperatures that creates a combustible gas that runs turbines. They can vaporize 3,000 tons of garbage a day and produce 120 megawatts of electricity."Poop Power",human waste, can also be converted into electricity by an industrious breed of bacteria that creates methane gas.

Many electric cars have hit the market recently.The race to develop the best lithium-ion battery is ongoing.The Asian battery makers(Mitsubishi,Toshiba,Panasonic-Sanyo,etc.) are up against American companies(EnerDel,Kokam,KD Avanced Energy,Johnson Controls-Saft,Altair Nonotechnologies and A123 Systems).By 2015,2.3 billion will be invested in their development. Chery Automotive(China) recently released S18 which it claimed could get 93 miles on a single charge and be recharged in four to six hours.China is moving to sustainable transportation even while providing a large portion of their power from coal.At the same time,they are also looking for renewable resources to decrease their use of fossil fuels.

 Better Place is using software to connect electric cars to a smart grid in countries around the world.Their system uses digital chips in vehicles and designated charging ports that reads owners identity and register the use of electricity every time a car is charged .Car customers can also sell their unused electricity back to the Better Place network.Israel will have 1000 battery swapping stations for a battery that is running low.Better Place is installing and managing the new smart grid.Renault and Nissan built the electric cars and is a partner in the project.The car makers will lease basic car models to consumers below the cost of conventional cars thanks to substantial government subsidies.(see Better Place link)

Google is a leader in the effort to create a more reliable and dynamic power grid. It is working on an intelligent grid that communicates with consumers and can understand communication coming back from the same consumers.It would take energy from a car or household when needed and return it when desired.The intelligent grid will link millions of cars,smart garages, and homes with the new clean power sources that will sustain them.(Google.org).

Power to The People

Yesterday I spent another day at a public park south of Saugerties called Glasco Town Park.It is on the Hudson and recently has been renovated with benches,swings,fishing pier and a pavilion.A beautiful spot to do some reading.I'm still reading "Power Trip" and I'm going to bring you some of her findings.Amanda Little wrote about a community that is inTennessee 75 miles from her house.It was a new tract of houses that were "Zero-energy homes"(ZEH).The houses were built by Habitat for Humanity for under$100,000.Jeff Christian,researcher at D.of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory,is the designer and has been working on ZEH for a decade.These houses are like little power plants that sell electricity back to the grid.The houses have solar panels, heavy insulated walls,ultraefficient lighting and appliances,special wiring to allow for back and forth exchanges with the grid,exterior paint made with light-colored materials,a geothermal heating and cooling system,a mechanism that captures the heat from shower water as it goes down the drain and a device that captures the warmth that comes off the coils behind the refrigerator.The local utility company buys electricity from the house during the day when the children and parents are gone, the lights and appliances are turned off and the solar panels are producing a surplus.The grid needs this peak energy and it is a perfect symbiosis.

Eventually,millions of people will live in ZEH homes.One crucial factor must change first:clean power has to get cheaper.Experimentation with solar panels are going on at a quick pace today.The cost of solar panel capacity has decreased 30% from 1998 to 2007.A company called Energy Innovations is developing panels that use optics technology that concentrates the rays to levels that are a hundred times more powerful than diffused sunlight.Another company,Miasole, is working on cheap,flexible photovolatic materials that could be mounted anywhere.The material can be directly embedded into shingles or produced in adhesive sheets that can be pealed off and attached on top of metal roofs.A northern Cal. firm,Nanosolar, uses the science of nanotechnology to create a product that increases efficiency five to ten times more than thin films.The "nanoink" can be painted on
.It could be integrated into rooftops of cars and trucks,suspended in liquid and painted on house exteriors,a coating for windows and into fabrics.This is amazing.

Solel,BrightSource and Solargenix have attracted billions of dollars to build more than 500 megawatts of solar-thermal installations. Concentrating solar power(CSP) is a process to capture the suns energy not it's light rays.It is a process that magnifies the effect of the sun to very high temperatures(700 degrees)that heat oil or molten salt.This fluid circulates in pipes that boil vats of water that create steam that drive turbines.Solar thermal plants in the Southwest(92 square miles) could in theory generate electricity for the entire country.

More from this book tomorrow.

Field off Rt. 212 going to Phil Jackson's house

The Color of Money

Yesterday,I went to Montgomery Place on the Hudson River.It is a 300 acre estate that has been in the Livingston family(was second largest landholder in colonial N.Y.)  for several generations.The mansion was built in 1805.It is a free park and I read sections of "Power Trip"by Amanda Little on a bench under a locust tree planted in the early 1800's.(support public parks)I have been interested in electric cars recently(Better Place link below) and have found evidence that electric production is on the radar screens of several major corporations in the U.S..Amanda Little has spoken to executives from Walmart,General Electric and Duke Energy and she states that all have made significant investments in renewable power sources and energy efficiency."Increasingly for business,"green" is green" according to Jeff Immelt GE's CEO.He explained that sustainable strategies are becoming ever more financially rewarding.Immelt said it is a natural progression for the company to pioneer next generation technologies-wind turbines,solar panels,cleaner-burning coal plants and energy-saving lightbulbs and appliances.The company is the leader in the wind industry in U.S.(6 billion dollar business).Duke Energy(massive utility in the southeast)has increased solar and wind to 11% of their supply.Duke plans to cut coal use by more than half by 2030 and has started a" save a watt" program for improving energy efficiency of homes,offices and factories.Walmart is one of Duke's biggest customers.Walmart is the biggest private consumer of electricity in the U.S.They have experimented with recycled asphalt,heating oil from grease pans from their own deli,rooftop solar panels and on-site windmills.The experimental site also has waterless toilets,superefficient lighting,refrigerators and air conditioning systems.Walmart claims that their stores will eventually run on 100% renewable fuels,emit zero waste,sell only sustainable,energy-wise products and require its suppliers to uphold strict green principles.Walmart plans to save billions on energy costs in the future.DuPont,Dow Chemical,Caterpillar,Alcoa Steel,General Motors and Archer Daniels Midland has acknowledged the challenges of global warming and energy independence and see business opportunities now and down the road.


Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are among many billionaires placing big bets on wind.Goldman Sachs has invested 2.5 billion into renewable sectors.Citygroup has pledged 7.5 billion to fund renewable energy projects with a goal of 31 billion.Bank of America has committed 20 billion to finance green innovation.Small scale venture capital investments rose to 8 billion in 2008.Leading venture capitalist John Doerr has shifted to the energy sector stating "The field of green-tech is the largest economic opportunity of the twenty-first century".Sergey Brin and Larry Page,Google's founders,has a program"RE<C" that aims to produce one gigawatt of electric generating capacity (enough to power San Fran.)from green sources.

This is wonderful news.Electric cars is a exciting development for our country and the world. Changing the power source for electricity will increase it's viability.Energy independence is in our national interest and now large corporations are seeing profitability in developing and using new products to reduce energy cost.Many products are being developed in solar,wind,tides and waves,geothermal,human energy and waste and smart grids.I will continue this discussion in the next blog.

My winter place in L.A.

The Glass Is 95% Full,Maybe Not

A friend recently commented that I should see America as a glass that's 95% full and to stop dwelling on the negative 5%. I thought about it for a minute and began to realize I have reason to be negative and will always be because I'm far from satisfied with the America I have come to understand.My blog on" Income Disparity" demonstrates that our economic system isn't providing enough money for all of us.When 20%(I might be in that percent)own 85% of the assets,something tells me that we could do a lot better and that our system isn't meeting the needs of all the citizens.It's like the current educational cry, we must improve and eradicate large dropout rates.Our system needs(according to Mr.Duncan)numerous charter schools to end the decline in American education.Maybe our economy needs the same solution(blog to follow on this perspective).It is a failure when 40% of our citizens don't earn enough money to pay income taxes using our tax codes.Also,the 1% with the majority of the money, pay 40% of the taxes.Spending ratios clearly show that poorer citizens spend more of their income than the rich and help the economy grow.(unemployment benefits have the highest ratio)
Our citizens have been asking two questions of government for a long time.(1) What can the government do for me?(2) What can the government do for others? The first group want government to just do the basics and little more while the second group wants government to solve the problems of our entire nation.The first group wants to be independent of government and reduce their taxes so they can spend their income as they wish.The second group is concerned with societal issues and are willing to increase revenue to help alleviate their destruction. I'm in the second group and will always be because I have a need to see all of us prosperous and safe.I'm uncomfortable around too much wealth and feel guilty when I spend time surrounded by it. My home is where the ordinary citizen lives and I feel comfortable there.I'm interested in the life of Hispanic workers who stand on corners in Red Bank,N.J. waiting for trucks to pick them up to work in Rumson(in 2% of income level).I care about each low income,crime ridden,drug infested enclave in every major and minor city in our country.

Sunset from our deck

Everyone knows we have more than a 5% problem.13.5%,according to the current census,lives below poverty.Another 13-20% live right above it. We are talking about the citizens who don't pay income taxes and need costly assistance to survive in our society.(Medicaid,food stamps,etc.) Our capital system takes care of 60-70% of our society very well.I am thankful and part of that system but I'm not content as an American.I wish Beck/Palin talked more about helping all of America instead of trying to divide us with their insecure propaganda that labels our citizens and rewards greed.

Orientation Day 2010,only one more left

I've been teaching since 1973,when the Vietnam war was still going on.My first school was on Fordham Rd. in the Bronx with a population of 5,000.The very first day, I realized schools shouldn't be this big..small is better.I guess I was ahead of the curve regarding Charter schools.That school was once 50% Italian and 50% Black and Hispanic.Fighting was frequent with an assortment of bats and knives according to my mother.When I got there(she got me the job),the ratio was 5% white and 95% Black and Hispanic.I taught reading and eventually English for two years until the city laid off a large number of teachers.The school was fine(not very violent)and I enjoyed my stay.

I got rehired in a few months and landed at a new alternative school on West 93rd in Manhattan.This was one of the first alternative schools in the country. N.Y. had about eight of these schools around the city in the late seventies.I also believe it was a precursor for the "Harvey Milk School"in San Fran. for gay students who were being attacked in the large custodial schools around the city.It was the best education community I ever worked for.We had advisor groups and even taught Marxism as an elective.I witnessed the first rap poets there before they hit the airwaves.John Lennon lived in the neighborhood.I was even the "commissioner" of an integrated(men and women) alternative H.S. softball league.We played in numerous parks all around the city.

In 1982,I found a cabin to live in near Woodstock,N.Y.I wanted to move to the country with my wife and daughters and be close to a town that was an extension of Greenwich Village(art and music).Woodstock fit that bill and the move landed me at a small rural school in Columbia Co.I remember the school was surrounded by fields of corn and cows.It seemed like heaven for a city boy.But, unfortunately,I ran into major culture shock.I not only was an outsider but the rules and regulations of their system reminded me of my Catholic elementary days in the city.Discrimination was rampant and my time there lasted only two years.Luckily,I knew a administrator at a local BOCES that offered me a job to start an alternative school for Columbia andGreene Co.I started that school from scratch and eventually helped graduate more than a thousand students who were at-risk of dropping out.I've been a teacher with this organization since 1984.

Over my career,each year seems a get a little more complicated and full of committees,agendas and goals.For me,teaching has always been simple and about relating to people.You have to listen and make each individual believe they have your complete focus.It isn't always a simple task but it is one of the keys to good teaching.Another key is to accept the reality that is before you.Each day is different and one must be open to constant change.Eastern thought teaches one must avoid duality.This means, don't have a set view on what is good and attach value to any given situation.Both good and bad days should be thought of as one and the same.I have loved teaching at times because I enjoy people...I didn't learn that from my Masters in Ed.Psychology but from the projects in the Bronx.