Yo, Pope Frankie

Is this the face that launched a thousand quips?

Pope Francis, consistent with his breakout name, knows how to push the right buttons in the American culture wars.

Essentially, he said that the Catholic Church is "obsessed" with abortion, gay marriage and contraception to the exclusion of other critical issues including the poor and the marginalized.

Gee, ya think?

He refuses to condemn homosexuals, claiming, who is he to judge them.

He also may not be opposed to priests being married.

Atheists, he said, could make their way to heaven.

Wow.

And, he's just getting warmed up.

The new pope chastised capitalism for its "idol called money."

Of course, this brought the wrath of Rush Limbaugh who called the pope a Marxist.

Showing his wit, the pontiff responded that while he was no Marxist nor care for its ideology, he did say, "I have known many Marxists who are good people."

So far, the Pontiff Frank, if I can be so bold, is a breath of fresh air.

No wonder Time magazine named him the Person of the Year.

 He is down to earth in a most refreshing way.

So far, he gets it.

What he gets is that the Catholic Church's membership is declining, particularly in the Catholic strongholds of Central and South America.

If the Catholic Church is fading there, it must be fading everywhere.

In the developed worlds of Europe and North America, the Catholic Church no longer holds the center of modern life.

It's hard to attract new members or retain current Catholics when the church practices a policy of exclusion rather than inclusion.

Pope Frankie understands simple math.

One of the claims of modern Catholicism is that it never changes. The times change to meet with it.

Well, that is completely bogus.

It's changed plenty over the past 2,000 years.

Which brings us to the modern conundrums that the pope referenced.

Instead of focusing on American political wedge issues, the pope is reaffirming the church's position on human rights, both male and female.

When the Catholic Church helps those who are disenfranchised within their own countries, no matter where, then the church comes closer to fulfilling its true mission.

As God (and Jesus) intended.

This is no golden age for journalism

It seems odd for an editor of the local daily newspaper to ruminate about the golden age of "muckraking" journalism from 100 years ago and then demonstrate, in a single column, how far newspapers have fallen from those progressive days.

But, that's we got Sunday as the editor grumbled about public sector unions and their ties to the Democratic Party.

Nevermind that about 11 percent of the American workforce is unionized today. Or, that unions, at their height of "power" in the mid-1950s, represented just 36 percent of the workforce.

Obviously, by sheer percentage numbers alone, unions never had monopolistic powers attributed to them and whatever clout they had is diminishing year by year.

And yet, this editor claims that unions are solely responsible for the desolation that is Detroit today.

And that this devastation will spread across the country because of unions and Democrats.

Really?

For more enlightenment on Detroit's demise, check out this concise piece in the National Journal.

The upper midwest is called the "rust belt" for a reason. The world has passed it by.

The same could be said for today's media.

What gave rise to the muckraking journalists was the desire to expose corrupt government machine politics such as Tammany Hall, and reveal the devastating effect that corporate monopolies were having on the economy.

Ida Tarbell, through her investigative pieces in McClure's Magazine, took on the greatest capitalist of all time in this country. As one writer described it, Tarbell "brought down the world's greatest tycoon and broke up the Standard Oil monopoly."

For a defense of unions, read up on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York. The owners of the factory were not convicted of any wrongdoing in the deaths of 146 garment workers because there were no laws protecting these workers.

Flash forward to 2013 and the horrific collapse of garment factory building in Bangladesh where more than 1,000 perished. Corporations went to Bangladesh for cheaper labor and because there is little government oversight in such things as building safety. Was it good that these workers had no union to look out for their interests?

Of course, few Americans care about anything outside our borders.

So back to our problems.

As income disparity reaches levels experienced 100 years ago, the rich are engaging in "class warfare," pitting the lower and middle classes against each other.

The greatest achievement of corporations, and their supplicants in the press, is to convince millions of Americans that their diminishing incomes can be attributed to the middle class union worker next door and not to the millionaire executives taking an ever-expanding slice of the economic pie.

Here's a crucial section of that short article: 

"In May 2012, researchers from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) took a stab at calculating the overall CEO-to-worker compensation ratio with the information already available. Here’s what they found: In 2011, the average CEO’s compensation was equal to 209.4 times that of the average worker, at least when stock options were included in compensation. That was up substantially from the 18.3-to-1 ratio found in 1965, but barely half of the 411.3-to-1 found in 2000.

Nonetheless, the institute found that CEO pay had grown 725% between 1978 and 2011, while worker compensation had only increased by 5.7%. That stratospheric growth in CEO pay has correlated with an overall explosion in income inequality; whereas the top 10% of income earners in the United States controlled only about one-third of all income throughout the 1970s, they now lay claim to over half, according to a report from economist Emmanuel Saez."

Or, check out this link about how many months a typical employee must work to earn what the CEO of  his or her corporation makes in a single hour.

President Obama and Pope Francis have drawn attention to this financial imbalance that threatens the future of billions on this planet.

Unions are hardly the reason for this worldwide problem.

Republicans, except for Teddy Roosevelt, have long sided with corporations as they illegally crush competition, evade most taxes and send American jobs overseas. For decades, Republicans have extended the middle finger to the working class in this country. Bend's daily newspaper editor merely flipped off a good chunk of his readership with both hands.

By the way, I've never belonged to a union or worked in the public sector.

In praise of Nelson Mandela

He fought the power and won

As a white-bred American, I knew little of the world and the problems that existed outside our borders or even within our borders.

But then, after a bit or reading and watching the news, I picked up a few things.

I remember the time in the 1980s when the economic boycott against South Africa was the topic of the day.

I supported whatever boycotts the world deemed appropriate against the racist government of South Africa.

Naturally, many white Americans, including President Reagan and the editor of the local daily newspaper, railed against these sanctions as counter-productive.

But, guess what? The boycotts were so effective that they ushered in the end of apartheid in South Africa.

So much for the thinking of old white men in America.

They were totally wrong. And, I'm being kind here.

The hero of all this was Nelson Mandela.

Reagan and his acolytes dismissed Mandela as a terrorist because he fought for freedom for black South Africans.

Well, Reagan was a racist as were all those who opposed the economic boycott of the racist South African government.

Mandela, who became South Africa's first real president after serving 27 years in prison, had more credibility, heart and soul, than any of his predecessors or any pro-apartheid American, including Reagan.

Mandela was one of the great figures the world has ever known.

He was for reconciliation before anyone knew what the process meant.

Mandela, the founding father of the modern South Africa, proved to be an inspiration to not only South Africans, but also to freedom-loving people everywhere.

He was one of the greatest men who ever lived.

He is missed already.

Let developers, PacifiCorp dredge Mirror Pond

If prominent local developers Bill Smith and Todd Taylor want to own the land under Mirror Pond, then let them be responsible for the occasional dredging of Bend's iconic pond.

Without PacifiCorp's hydro facility at the north end of the pond, we wouldn't have this sediment problem. Of course, we also wouldn't have one of the more scenic urban settings in the Northwest.

With the small hydro facility at the end of its 100-year life span, PacifiCorp wants to dump the dam and its costly removal onto the lap of Bend's taxpayers.

Nevermind that PacifiCorp has made millions over the decades from  the electricity generated at Mirror Pond. For a corporation, it's never enough.

If PacifiCorp can dupe the city of Bend and the park district into paying millions for the removal of the dam, it'll laugh all the way to the bank.

Corporations are adept at saddling taxpayers with the cost of the problems they create. It's part of their business plans.

We won't hear this from the local press.

The media have always done the bidding of corporations (so much for left-wing bias) because they know how their bread is buttered.

It's likely that most Bend residents would like to see Mirror Pond kept as it is rather than as a free-flowing river with less curb appeal.

Unfortunately, all of Bend's property taxpayers would be saddled with the enormous bill for something that primarily benefits Bend's west side.

Bend's northside, southside and eastside residents should realize that if they agree to subsidize Bend's west side livability, it means there will be little money left to improve livability in their neck of the woods. In fact, there will be no money for any other projects in Bend.

Ironically, we wouldn't have this discussion at all if Bend's developers had succeeded in building homes on the banks of Mirror Pond as they originally intended to do.

It was Bend's women who fought to preserve the area in 1921 that became Drake Park and, today, is synonymous with the city itself.

Now, nearly 100 years later, we have developers trying to preserve the Mirror Pond/Drake Park experience.

No one is stopping developers or PacifiCorp from dredging the river, removing the dam or maintaining the status quo.

But, they want Bend's property taxpayers to pay the freight.

Well, put up the money yourselves or shut up.

It's about time

Finally, the Democrats demonstrated some guts and altered the Senate filibuster rules to get something accomplished in this government.

For decades, congressional Democrats have caved to Republican demands even when the Dems had the clear majority. 

The result is a federal judiciary that is out of step with our nation that wants the government out of the bedroom and women's wombs, and corporate millions out of politics.

Federal judges, appointed by Republican presidents, have sanctioned the GOP's war on women and workers.

The only governing principle that Republicans have today is stopping anything President Obama proposes and anyone he nominates or appoints.

Americans are tired of this and want some change.

Thanks to Oregon's Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, who led the charge to change the filibuster rules, we  have a chance to restore some balance to the federal judiciary.

The is much whining from Republican lawmakers, but they're actually thrilled that the Democrats ended this filibuster tactic because they assume they'll be able to ram arch-conservative judges through to the federal bench after the 2016 election.

Well, good luck with that.

Good job, Democratic senators. It's great you showed some spine, finally.

The Walmart problem

Walmart's compassionate side

Ray's Food Place in Bend and Redmond will go out of business soon as its parent companies closes a quarter of its markets.

In total, about 500 will lose their jobs.

And, in no surprise, competition from Walmart gets the blame from Ray's owners.

Walmart has a superstore on Redmond's north end, which appeals to shoppers from the Hub city along with Madras and Prineville.

On Bend's south end, Walmart supersized its store there this year and will soon put Albertsons, directly across the street, out of business in a few months, resulting in more job losses.

Albertsons has been so desperate to attract shoppers to its southside Bend store that it's been running $10-off coupons in the local daily.

I shopped at Albertsons on a recent Sunday when the coupon was in the paper. Sadly, there were only a handful of shoppers in the store on what otherwise would be a busy shopping day.

It's no surprise that Ray's went out of business in Bend because it was right across the street from a giant Safeway store.

Still, the Walmart factor looms large over all retail in Central Oregon.

 Consumer Reports' surveys show that of all the major supermarket chains, Walmart has the worst produce and service.

Its known that Walmart treats its workers, called "associates," so poorly that it allows its own stores to put up food bins to collect food for Walmart employees for the holidays.

Since Walmart will be open on Thanksgiving day, their workers won't be able to enjoy the holiday anyway.

Walmart: a job-killing corporation with a happy face.

Progress.

A thin mint for Chris Christie?

Does this doom Christie's chances for president?

Since there is nothing much going in the world, aside from a catastrophic typhoon in the Philippines or Obamacare's struggles or the latest with Miley Cyrus, we're pretty much stuck with talking about the presidential election that's only three years away.

Of course, why stop there. 2020 is just around the corner.

Time magazine kicked things off well with a cover story on Gov. Chris Christie, after his easy re-election victory in the deep "blue" state of New Jersey, with the provocative title: "The Elephant in the Room."

The silhouette photo of Christie is more evocative of Alfred Hitchcock than it is of a presidential contender.

In most ways, Christie represents the classic conservative: He avoids the bully pulpit on social issues even though he toes the party and loves giving away the farm (public employee pensions) to corporations. 

And, nothing screams GOP like his double-double chin. As Austin Powers once quipped about Fat Bastard: "He's got more chins than a Chinese phone book."

Christie is also brash, crass, rude and arrogant. Those qualities endear him to voters in the Garden State and others in the northeast who share those same attributes.

But, his combative style doesn't seem to play well elsewhere, according to this poll.

One big reason why Christie doesn't poll well outside the northeast is because of his "bromance" with President Obama after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New Jersey just before the 2012 election.

Plus, Christie lauded President Obama's swift federal response to the disaster. Some GOPers believe Christie handed the election to Obama.

In light of the onetime Christie-Obama lovefest, it would be hard for Christie to win any GOP primary in the south where racism is synonymous with the Republican brand.

His "Soprano" style of politics also wouldn't carry the day in the Midwest.

And, there is the question of Christie's health.

Despite having surgery to reduce his rotund shape, Christie still looks like he's one step away from a fatal heart attack. Or, for fans of "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life," he could be one thin mint away from exploding like Mr. Creosote.

Christie's weight problem means that his running mate would be more important than Christie himself.

Does he pick a Rand Paul or Ted Cruz and soak up support from the teabaggers?

Would either of those two bring in enough independent voters to close the deal?

It would be odd for a vice presidential candidate be the de facto top of the ticket.

But, that's where we are in 2013, which means we are nowhere near seeing a legitimate Republican contender for the White House.