Jan 2019, Week 2

Jan 15, 2019

Welcome to the Reader-Submitted issue of The Lee Camp Ledger. To get important stories and opinions in front of our community send an email with a few paragraphs and a link to LeeCampLedger@protonmail.com

R. Carson

Trump's speech last week (1/8/2019) on "The Barrier" was met with expected and predicable opprobrium from both progressives and the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. I'll waste no time commenting on The-Fence-Maker-in-Chief's proposed ‘National Park of Bigotry’ in itself apart from noting my opposition to it; rather, it's instructive to examine the language found in Trump's coolly-stated malice.

Trump's belch includes the phrase "our southern border" four times and "our border" or "our borders" thrice. "Our country" manages to make four appearances over the course of the oration. He notes that "We are out of space" to "hold" migrants and that "...thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now." With gushing optimism, he expresses his hope that "we can rise above partisan politics in order to support national security." Fascinating amidst all of this is the implication that we're now purportedly all part of the same gang undertaking his dirty work.

For Trump, it won't suffice to divide the population into quite the standard us vs them dichotomy; the goal of this rhetoric is to lump the country into a undifferentiated mass under siege.

Our borders are assaulted, our space is violated, we need to overcome indecision and partisanship. Even an ideological cleft, typically mundane in principle, but more malicious in this case, is treated as a minor hurdle for Trump's populace who "don’t build walls because they hate the people on the outside but because they love the people on the inside." But the love expressed here is no more than solidarity in the hatred that oozes through despite Donald’s denial.

Precisely whom do we find on the "outside"? Illegals. Indeed, the refugees, individually, or as a whole, can only exist within Trump’s nationalistic narrative with a brand of "illegal". Not once over the course of the entire speech does Trump refer to refugees without trying to bludgeon away their humanity with this legalistic posturing. But this crude epithet does not come alone. Instead, illegality is always accompanied by sanguinary or brutal descriptions. In reality, according to Trump, the only Latin American refugees who could possibly exist are "illegals" who "savagely murdered" us, perform "beheadings", and "act viciously".

Our supposedly caring President can’t even be accused of a merely unbalanced presentation; in his report there is nary a positive or concerned word for the many millions who sought only a better atmosphere in which to cultivate their humanity. Savage to the point of bestial is all they are or can be.

Chilling blanket statements apply at every mention of the people who are caught up in what Trump does correctly refer to as a "humanitarian crisis". Crisis aside, it's difficult to find any ascribed humanity for the refugees buried in Trump's bombast. The closest we'll uncover is the hope that "illegal immigrant children can be safely and humanely returned back home."

Normally, one expects that children would be treated safely and humanely, but when children are somehow lesser beings by virtue of being "illegal aliens", the altruistic thing to do becomes sending them back to the difficult circumstances from which they've escaped-"home" in Trump's appallingly sickening euphemism.

That Trump would utilize weaponized language is no surprise, but this should not change the fact that it’s incumbent upon spectators of America’s political farce to not ignore the twisted dishonesty or genuinely disturbing definitions of love and hate found within calls for “border security”.

L. Haas, Trump Administration Burying Toys ’R’ Us Case

As a whistleblower in multiple cases, I find it particularly alarming that there's never been any investigation into the eToys cases that resulted in the demise of Toys ‘R’ Us.

More than 100 crimes are going by without investigation or prosecution, including the "culture" issues at Goldman Sachs that encouraged personnel to believe tha ripping Malaysia off for billions of dollars was permissible.

When Trump was sued in March 2017 to stop Jay Clayton from becoming head of the SEC - the Clerk of D.C. Federal Court refused to docket the case!

When is enough - Enough - for investigations to begin?

Seskef, anon.

The world has been increasingly neoliberalized for the past half century, and people in general are almost entirely ignorant of its progression. But with the rise of the gilletes jaunes, Brexit, and an increasingly disgruntled American populace, it seems that even though people don’t know the how’s or why’s, that they are rejecting neoliberalism in increasing numbers. This necessitates more pro-neoliberal propaganda, more doublethink, and less honest conversation in the public spectrum of debate.

Read the blog post here.

D. Pennington, Carbon Sequestration via Small Scale Agriculture

I have been working on the production and uses of "biochar", a microbially inoculated carbon (charcoal) which greatly enhances soil fertility while efficiently storing CO2 in a verifiable, long term manner. To this end I developed an insulated construction material made from waste Styrofoam plus cellulose fiber (paper or wood) and cement (or enzymes from the gut biome of termites).

My building material can be made by anyone using a few very cheap, low-tech tools. This material can be used to make "retorts". These are a type of kiln for efficiently converting waste biomass into "recalcitrant carbon" which lasts in the soil for thousands of years. The charcoal provides a microbial habitat and a buffer storage of water and nutrients. The retorts can even be converted into homes which will last basically forever, or until the owner wants to recycle them into another form.

My plan is for small farmers to build these kilns and improve their soil while being paid by fossil fuel users and/or producers. The cost of this Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) method is far lower than any CCS system currently being developed. Because it is low-tech this method can be spread far and wide very rapidly. The amount of carbon stored can be measured and verified, unlike high-tech underground CCS methods which we are currently wasting billions of dollars developing.

The Amazonian Indians created immense amounts of "terra preta" (biochar) which enabled them to build a vast civilization which is only recently being fully appreciated. This immense civilization, "discovered" in 1542 was wiped out by western diseases but it has VERY important lessons for us today.

I have deciphered the method they used to make biochar using the materials they had: mud, water, fire and wet biomass. The millions of tons of biochar they made are still in the soil today.

We must reproduce the work of this ancient civilization immediately on a global level if we want to avoid the coming disaster which will be even worse than the one they suffered.

W. Mellado, Julian Assange

Julian needs our help and exposure now more than ever.

The majority of people know he is an innocent man, a true journalist, who is being punished for daring to not toe the line by delivering true journalism to the world at large.

The lack of exposure to his true situation by the ‘fakestream’ media means he is at risk of being forgotten by the public, the very people he is directly or indirectly helping, leaving Julian at the mercy of those he is inconveniencing.

Once again he is rightly being nominated for a Nobel Peace prize by Mairead Maguire for his and Wikileaks’ critical work.

From Mairead Maguire’s Press Release:

Julian Assange, fearing deportation to the U.S. to stand trial for treason, sought out asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012. Selflessly, he continues his work from here increasing the risk of his prosecution by the American Government. In recent months the U.S. has increased pressure on the Ecuadorian Government to take away his last liberties. He is now prevented from having visitors, receiving telephone calls, or other electronic communications, hereby removing his basic human rights. This has put a great strain on Julian’s mental and physical health. It is our duty as citizens to protect Julian’s human rights and freedom of speech as he has fought for ours on a global stage.

Read the rest of the Press Release here.

K. Ward, Fire Commander & Chief

As leader of our ‘nation of immigrants’, the President today has proposed withdrawing Federal Support for fire ravaged areas of California struck by history-making fires last year.

I would call them wildfires but they were alleged in at least one case to have been sparked by PG&E neglect (more than one fire a day since 2014). PG&E is the electric utility that failed to monitor its problematic transformers.

These fires, like nearly every aspect of global warming, were preventable and human caused. Its impact on the lives of many was — as it always seems to be these days — an immediate and fearsome flight for safer ground.

Regardless, the prescription offered by our meteorological renegade POTUS was for California to manage our forests like Finland, and to rake the forests of debris. That is both insane and actually incendiary advice. Forest debris helps to both sequester CO2 and to cool the forests.

Natural forest mulch prevents global warming.

When the Woolsey fire near Los Angeles in November claimed much of Malibu many fled to the ocean for safety. The area, 4,531 acres of premier real estate and necessary coastal national park forest, was transformed to ashy cinders in several days. Countless lives were affected, people and animals.

One Malibu couple and their kids had been vacationing nearby when the fire struck and mass evacuations were mandated. I met them on the Ventura Esplanade as they joined my wife and I on a bench overlooking the ocean and out toward the areas of burn-off on the horizon, where they lived.

They could have been in shock. The man looked familiar, perhaps a movie star that I had seen countless times in small roles, but I could not place him. He sat wide eyed and hardly speaking as his charming wife explained the situation that they may have lost all they had. Their kids, early teens, distractedly circled around the bench enjoying what was a beautiful afternoon, even as wind whipped the fire for a third day. Though fanning the flames down south, the fractious wind kept the smoke at bay from where we all watched.

I made a sick joke about their needing to be an Evacuation Airbnb but in fact, many places in the area were accommodating evacuees for free! Imagine the most exclusive, protected and wealthy community in the US unable to wall off the onslaught of fierce Santa Ana-inflamed fires.

Maybe the US wasn’t a nation of immigrants as much as it was refugees, save the indigenous or formerly captive citizenry who were here originally or were forced to land on these shores respectively disrespected.

My wife sympathized and wondered what they were going to do now.

The woman said she really didn’t know. Assuming they could skirt the hastily built wall down south they might start over in a safer place, maybe Mexico.

Lee Camp Ledger