A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon Ariana Grande's new song "God is a woman". Of course, as a Christian, I had an incredibly visceral reaction to the song, and consequent music video. I have a lot of thoughts about this piece, and I will probably craft them into a post in a few…Read more She is woman, and that is enough.
The Gatekeepers: interesting, informed, even entertaining documentary that is, above all that, quite thought-provoking. The politics of it are likely to rile one group or another; the bias of the film is clear, but it’s interesting, nevertheless, to see how the six voices evolve throughout. The mixture of the interviews with historical footage and special effect shots makes this more interesting to watch.
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There are two kinds of Libertarians on the political scene today; the actual members of the Libertarian Party and the members of the Republican Party with strong Libertarian views.
The Libertarian Party folks are where you find the true believers, the ones who are radically anti-government and pro individual freedoms. The one thing that you can say about these folks is that they are consistent in their application of these principles. They are fine with just about any behavior as long as it’s in the privacy of your own home between consenting adults. You don’t get the socially conservative tendency to legislate morality with these guys. But the party is also where you find the true nut cases, the ones who are so Libertarian that they are pretty much anarchists. At the Libertarian Convention in 2016 one candidate actually suggested that drivers licenses were an imposition by the government on our personal liberty. It’s pretty clear that the official Libertarians are not where you look for people to govern your country.
Most people with Libertarian leanings are to be found in the Republican Party. And they are far less concerned with being consistent. They favor small government and maximum personal freedom, or so they say, but are often the first in line to legislate morality that fits with Christian fundamentalist values, which hold a lot of sway in the GOP. Really, they mostly skip the personal freedom aspect and focus on the property rights side of things.
People shouldn’t be told what to do with their property by some central government. In fact Federal government ownership and management of public lands is suspect. Corporations are people, so all the rights of the individual are extended to the corporations and a overwhelming trait of the philosophy held by these people is an almost religious faith in the market place as the most efficient force in managing an economy.
These folks are the Über Capitalists. The current Republican crusader for Capitalism sees his personal mission as undoing virtually every piece of regulatory legislation passed since the New Deal and dismantling the Federal regulatory structures that performed this oversight.
These people have waited for years and years for the Holy Grail of a Republican Congress and Presidency full of truly radical right wing conservatives. With Donald Trump, they may not have found the guy who will pursue the radical social conservative agenda he seemed to promise in his campaign, but they definitely have a champion of the billionaire corporate class willing to destroy virtually all of the protections offered by our government against corporate malfeasance.
Donald Trump has asked Corporate representatives to make their recommendations as to what regulatory legislation they would like to see undone. This is asking the fox to guard the hen house. This is giving a group of folks whose sole interest is in delivering short term profits to their share holders free rein to pollute, to discriminate, to have unsafe working conditions, and so on.
If you look at the America proposed by Republican libertarian / Tea Party advocates, it is an America in which business is free to pursue its own course as dictated by the market place. The problem with all of this is that we have already been here before. From an historic point of view there is absolutely zero evidence that a corporation will ever choose to forego possible financial gain when it conflicts with maximizing profits.
When business did have pretty much free rein we had our nations rivers full of undrinkable carcinogenic waters. In the most famous case, the Passaic River in New Jersey actually caught fire. The air on our major urban areas was toxic and in the worst cities, like Los Angeles, toxic smog clouds hovered over the city, virtually obscuring the city from the view in the mountains. Our national bird, the bald eagle, was on the edge of extinction dues to the use of the pesticide DDT, lung cancer due to smoking killed tens of thousands of Americans every single year, and so on.
The fact is that when our US government was run on a more libertarian model we had unsafe air, unsafe water, unsafe food, unsafe working conditions, child labor, no social safety net, rampant sexual harassment, housing discrimination, racial discrimination, massive economic fluctuation due to unrelated speculation in the stock market and so on. The economy would crash and serious economic depressions happened with some regularity.
This is the world of the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We had it already and we chose to change it. Now, people with absolutely no historical perspective, who derive their political philosophy from the works of Ayn Rand, are ready to take our country backwards in time to a world that will look more like Charles Dickens than anything we’ve see for 150 years.
The idea that the market place and unrestrained capitalism with voluntary self regulation by the corporations would do anything but open us up to the predations of corporate pirates is laughable. These are the same people who for decades denied that asbestos was terribly dangerous and was killing people. They sponsored studies that faked research and they lied through their teeth in order to preserve their profits.
These are the same people who for decades knew, from their own research, that tobacco caused cancer but fought all attempts to acknowledge that fact in court while simultaneously working to develop a product that was even more addictive than it was naturally.
These are the same people who produced an automobile that they knew was unsafe but chose to not correct the problem because it was cheaper to settle the law suits than it was to correct the problem.
It is simply an observable fact that every single instance of attempts to institute clean water standards, clean air standards, work place safety standards, equal rights, the list goes on and on, was resisted tooth and nail by the industries concerned. It’s history. You can read it and verify it.
The fact is that the only thing that stands between our citizenry and total corporate control of our nation like something out of a science fiction novel, is the Federal Government. No other entity in our society has the power to stand up to the power of the corporations derived from the vast wealth concentrated under their control. That’s why the wealthy and the corporations spend so much money trying to subvert it. Every single positive step this nation has taken on the environment, worker’s rights and safety, auto safety, child labor, every single instance was IMPOSED on unwilling industry by the government.
This is also true on the equal rights front. Without the power of the Federal Government and the forcible imposition of civil rights legislation on the Southern States, we would still have segregation. Without the Fair Housing Act we would still have redlining and rampant discrimination in all areas of real estate.
LGBT rights, Women’s rights, the rights of the disabled, none were voluntarily enacted by most of the country. Supreme Court decisions backed by the enforcement power of the Federal Government were what forced the nation to start living up to its stated values. It was not voluntary. People did not voluntarily decide to act better, As society began to evolve, it needed to reach a tipping point at which it was ready to change. But it was the government that made that change happen in the larger society. It has been both the mechanism for making positive change happen and the guardian of those changes once they did.
So, we are now looking at the dismantlement of the only agency in our society that effectively stands up for our rights, for our environment etc. The right has hijacked the Supreme Court and they wish to cripple enforcement. Donald Trump’s invitation to private industry to suggest what legislation it wishes to repeal is just the start. It’s just one step away from total corporate control of our nation. The wall that has protected us from the self serving, profit before the public good, predations of the industrial pirates is slated for demolition. We must do what we can to ensure that this effort does not succeed.
Just a short note of appreciation for a guy who has to be the very best ambassador the Angling Trust could hope to have. Until I started work for the Trust I had never met Dave Harrell although I had followed his Stella matchfishing career through the pages of the Angler’s Mail and Angling Times. Three years later and not only has the Midlands river ace become a trusted and valued colleague but also a firm friend.
Dave Harrell is not just the brains behind this years’ successful RiverFest competition, the final of which is on the wonderful Wye at the weekend, he was also one of the key organisers. Dave loves fishing rivers and was sick and tired of a match scene that had largely gravitated to over stocked stew ponds fishing for semi tame carp. Instead of just bemoaning the glory days of river matchfishing he set himself the task of doing something about it.
Now when we came up with the idea of inviting a cross section of well known names in our sport to become ambassadors for the Angling Trust we were careful not to ask too much of already busy people. But I have to say that Dave has been outstanding. He has spoken at conferences, provided great support for our Action on Cormorants campaign, is always ready with a helpful quote or a bit of wise advice and now, more than we could have ever hoped for, he has rolled up his sleeves and worked tirelessly with Ben and Sandra in our competitions team to make RiverFest one the outstanding new events in the UK matchfishing calendar.
Action on Cormorants – Launched on the banks of the river Severn in July last with Dave Harrell and other valued Angling Trust ambassadors
The Angling Trust RiverFest 2013 will carry the biggest ever individual river competition first prize of £10,000, plus more big main list and section cash prizes in the final. Twenty qualifiers of up to 60 anglers on various river venues around the country will now see three anglers from each match qualify for a two-day weight aggregate final on the fish rich River Wye at Hereford on the weekend of November 16th & 17th. After last week’s floods the river is fining down nicely and the locals are expecting a cracking match with 20lb plus weights of roach, dace and perch to compliment the inevitable nets of chub and occasional barbel.
The Angling Trust has secured some great additional sponsorship for the grand final with an additional place added to the list of prizes with 6th place now claiming £700 and the ten section winners each day now seeing their pay out increase to £175. Such a healthy prize pool is one in the eye for those sniping keyboard twats on some of internet forums who were implying that there was something dodgy going on with Angling Trust competition accounts. Dave Harrell has been absolutely steadfast in his support and told us to ignore the doubters and let the success of RiverFest speak for itself.
As it happens The Angling Trust has published a breakdown of the income and expenditure of the main national coarse angling competitions which have been completed in 2013 and provides a financial report for each competition when it is completed, and a breakdown of all competitions it runs in all disciplines as an appendix to the accounts which are made available to all members of the Trust by the 31st of July each year and presented at the AGM.
The Trust are grateful to Thames Water and Severn Trent Water who are contributing a total of £4,000 sponsorship which will go towards the prize pot for the grand final, a sign of their continued support and commitment to angling and river fishing in their respective regions.
Dave’s connections in the tackle trade have borne fruit with Bait-Tech providing each finalist with a selection of bait for the final, which includes Bait-Tech’s new Pro Natural groundbait as well as a variety of Halibut feed and hook pellets, Halibut Marine Method Mix groundbait, tins of Superseed hemp and assorted Hybrid barbel hookbaits, a package worth almost £2,000.
Daiwa Sports have also donated their latest TDR2508 reel worth £245 for the angler who catches the biggest fish over the weekend, and the section stewards also have a chance of getting in on the action with a prize draw to win a TDM2508 reel worth £150.
Despite not qualifying himself, something of a shock to most people, Dave will be at the final both days working alongside the Angling Trust team. Myself and Angling Trust boss Mark Lloyd will be there on the Sunday and at the prize giving in the evening. Spectators are welcome so do come along and watch some of our best river anglers in action. Parking and is free for Angling Trust members and there is a path along the full length of the river where the match will be held and access is easy. Cars should be parked in the field adjacent to the Hereford Rowing Club at the bottom of Greyfriars Avenue.
Spectators will also have the use of the facilities and be able to get refreshments at the rowing club where there will be a bookmaker present to take bets on your fancied anglers.
In addition, Dave Harrell, will be on hand to answer your questions and to show you his full range of DH Angling products. Sky Sports will also be in attendance on the Sunday to televise the event and the Mail and Times will also be attending.
The draw takes place each day at 8am and the club is open to Angling Trust members from 9am. Fishing is from 10.30am until 3.30pm each day.