Jan 2019, Week 3
In the Reader-Submitted issue of The Lee Camp Ledger we highlight the opinions and stories of the community. If you want us to publish a short opinion of yours or an explanation of something in the news that you think is important then send an email with a few paragraphs and a link to LeeCampLedger@protonmail.com.
Please read previous submissions to get an idea of what we’re looking for. We will edit your writing, but only up to a point.
J. Olson, The Housing Crisis Around The Nation
We live in Portland, Oregon. In the last four years, since 2014 exactly, these huge developers just stormed in and took over the entire city. They are building "luxury apartments" with "affordable housing" options so they get a flipping tax break. The "affordable housing" that they offer are 500 sq ft studios and instead of being $1500, they are offered at the affordable price of $1300 for a teeny tiny suffocating 500 sq ft studio apartment!
4 years ago, the average price for a studio apartment in Portland was $500/month. You cannot find that anywhere now. At the minimum, it doubled. And that means that no matter what reasonable amount of "inflation" one would attribute to a livable wage, if housing costs just doubled or tripled, the poverty line should account for that.
This has thrown thousands of people onto the streets with no-cause evictions so that current landlords and apartment owners could throw everyone out and double their rents.
I have lived here for decades and am an original resident of Oregon.
These housing developments are happening at an insane pace. I think that these big foreign investors don't have a clue about the local economy and are simply buying up whole entire counties because the bubble isn't just staying local, it is simultaneously happening to all of the communities around Portland — even the most undesirable places are sky-rocketing in rent.
My partner is a radical economist and says that this is unlike any housing bubble he has ever seen and that even though his field of expertise is in this area, he cannot describe what is happening with housing bubbles all around the world.
Also, many of these new monstrous apartment buildings being built, have already changed ownership a few times before they are even finished, which leads one to think there is some sort of scandal going on here.
L. Haas, Goldman Sachs 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Apology Is Insincere
It is public knowledge that Goldman Sachs has unclean hands concerning the Malaysia 1MDB Multi-Billion-Dollar scandal.
Additionally, it is public knowledge that Sachs executive, Tim Meissner, has pled guilty for being complicit.
Just yesterday, Goldman Sachs’ new CEO, David Solomon, apologized for whatever part Goldman Sachs personnel may have had.
For the following reasons, the apology of Sachs new CEO, David Solomon, appears to be insincere!
1. Sachs is doing ad hominem attacks against its former exec, Tim Leissner - post guilty plea; and such appears to be an effort to diminish the duplicity of the corporation.
2. Tim Meissner specifically stated his actions, since 2009, were encouraged by the "culture" at Goldman Sachs.
3. Previously, in 2012, Greg Smith, also a Sachs executive, resigned with a much publicized Letter to the Editor at The New York Times, where Mr. Smith expounded on the toxicity of Goldman; and how there were emails between Sachs employees mocking the fact that they were systemically ripping off clients!
4. Making these issues extensively heinous & egregious is the fact that Sachs affiliated parties ( lawyers from complicit firms) are "planted" in key positions of authority, where they presided over racketeering cases involving Goldman Sachs and their partner in crime - Bain Capital.
For the reasons listed above, and because cover ups and obstructions of justice by Sachs continue in the Mattel, Fingerhut and eToys cases. The purported apology by Sachs’ new CEO, David Solomon, and his promise that the "culture" of Sachs is of gold faith - is insincere.
I know all of this because I was the CEO of eToys who Bain Capital’s lawyers offered a million-dollar bribe to. This was similar to the one given to Kay Bee CEO Michael Glazer.
Sachs’ CEO isn't the only insincere one. When I reported this corruption to the Public Corruption Task Force - the special unit was shut down - and career federal prosecutors were threatened to keep their mouths shut. See L.A. Times "Shake-up toils federal prosecutors."
Until Goldman Sachs apologizes to me and eToys - nothing will change.
This case is as big as it gets. Over 100 articles and several documentaries are publicly available — including an episode of American Greed and a cover story on Rolling Stone — but none of them scratch the gravity of the situation.
C. DeCarlo
I believe animals need people to speak for them. I know the wild horses in my state are in great need. I wonder, is the US Forest Service the loophole to be able to send them to slaughter without having to sneak around to do it?
Perhaps they will have a stay of execution in the courts.
Large animals on this planet are being killed for whatever resources found beneath their feet/hooves/paws that humans want. If there is a way to make money off the actual specie all the more reason to beware of their fate.
I admit to loving animals. I know the magnificence of the equine species. My heart aches for them.
Further reading: New pen at California-Nevada border may allow sale of horses for slaughter - The Denver Post
K. Kostov, EU, killer robots, and drones...
I don’t know if you have a sense of this, but we Europeans are much more unaware of the propaganda and wars we unwillingly support, because most of us are asleep. We are under the illusion that we live in real democracies, and that we are different (meaning better) from the totalitarian states to the East and South of us, but also from the extreme US capitalist system.
We, especially in the Nordic countries, are convinced that we’ve got things right… So, when our governments do things that the majority of us would not support, it usually goes unnoticed because the media here has the same function as in the US. When we are fed anti-Russian propaganda, it is accepted uncritically, because… Russia is bad and we are good! Facts are irrelevant…
If you point out the reality to someone in Sweden, where I live, or Denmark, where I go every month due to my work, s/he will say something like “yes, but… this is just an exception (or a special case), or there is probably something that we don’t know, but our leaders are not like the crazy neocons in the US, or the horrible dictators in the rest of the world. So, overall, we — most of the EU — are doing well… and we are a force for good!”…
I wrote all the above just to explain how weak we are in Europe on the anti-war front, compared to you, in the US… Although, I am sorry to say this, but you are just as powerless as we are. ☹
I am not saying we should resign and give up. I am simply acknowledging the reality, and as you say, we should “keep fighting” as long as we can!
After venting out my emotions, here is why I am writing to you. I don’t know if it will be of any good use, but you are asking for reader-submitted information and here is something that you probably haven’t heard about:
The EU is funding research on killer robots and drones. First there was a campaign and a web-site where scientist could sign the Researchers for Peace pledge. Then there was an effort to get signatures for an open letter denouncing the militarization of the EU. There were 177 scientists from 17 countries who signed the letter.
I know that in the eyes of the EU leaders I am nobody, but I cannot understand how intelligent and highly educated people cannot realize how wrong-headed these militarization efforts are. They are out of their minds if they think that spending money on "killer robots" will make us safer. Even if the West can develop "autonomous" (unmanned, or whatever) weapons that are superior to what Russia can make (something that I seriously doubt), there is no human or robot that can withstand a nuclear blast. And there is no doubt that if Russia is losing a “conventional war”, it will use its ultimate weapon – the nuclear weapons that it has enough of…
So, this “research” is not only a waste of resources, but it is suicidal - it can only provoke the use of WMDs, which will kill us all...
The only way to survive as humans is to make peace.