Homecoming 2016

Throughout the nation, high schools, colleges and universities host homecoming celebrations this time of year. So it was Saturday in Bozeman, Montana, with the Montana State University Bobcats, blue and gold, hosting the University of North Dakota Hawks on the gridiron. Yesterday morning the homecoming parade snake down Main Street. We were in attendance to support the locals and watch our flutist perform.

Main Street was bordered with Montana State flags and banners on the lampposts throughout downtown.

We set up across from Ted's Montana Grill. This is about as close to the food source as you can get, for Ted Turner's Flying D ranch, where the buffalo roam, is down the road to Big Sky.

 We are Montana, so, of course, there was a horse troop..


and another.

 Then horses hauling the Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply covered wagon.

Followed by a pooper scooper to pick up offerings left behind by equine friends.

Color Me Clueless

Paul Bunyan statue, Brainerd, Minn. Bathgate, N. Dak.

Lest there be any doubt as to my pop culture ignorance, I chanced to look through the list of Emmy award winners from last night.  Going down the list, I had to look down to the sixth award (Saturday Night Live • NBC - Jimmy Fallon as Host) before there was a show or series known to me (Saturday Night Live premiered n 1975). The next show or series I had heard of was Fargo • FX Networks, checking in at number 19 on the list. And the only reason I knew about "Fargo" is the miniseries has been driving views of one of our most popular posts, On the Road to Bathgate Act 1: Fargo the Movie.  

Happy Halloween!

Morton Grove 4th of July Parade -- The Shriners Return

I grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois, which was the topic of one of my most popular posts (No. 3 all time). The Village of Morton Grove is a place that honors charity and community service and is a locale where traditions continue. This year, as usual, the Shriners were well represented in the lengthy 4th of July parade parade down Dempster. They are folks whose charity is second to none and they love their conveyances. Here are some photos, shared courtesy of the North Shore Voice.   

The Shriners love their camels.  They have noses.  Anyone got a tent?

Shriner and his plane.

Shriners on motorcycles.

Shriners in a fire engine.

Shriners on a bus.

Shriners on rolling carpets.

Shriners in a Prius.

And the parade ended with the obligatory street sweeper.

Million Dollar Mania

Besides giving rise to million dollar bus stops, DC suburb Arlington County is home of the Pentagon, the FDIC, the INS, the TSA and DEA among other federal agencies. If you were wondering the purpose of the million dollar stops, I'm betting it has got something to do with Arlington's spiffy new million dollar high school softball field. High brow, low brow, one and all, they sure know how to live it up inside the Beltway, mostly with your money.

The U.S. Constitution in Practice in Watertown

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Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

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The Fourth Amendment enforced by weapons drawn and aimed, ejecting people from their home,

Anyone want to bet anything other than no lawful warrant was issued?

Global Cooling?

It snowed on May Day.  But hey, we are Montana and stuff like that happens here -- but not so in the central Plains and the Midwest.

Omaha, Neb., Mason City, Iowa, and Rochester, Minn., are but only several cities that have been clobbered by their biggest May snowfall on record. In many cases in the major cities in the Plains, those records date back to the 1800s.

18 inches of snow fell in Blooming Prairie, Minn. Several locations in western Wisconsin have reported more than 14 inches of snow, including one report of up to 18 inches near Hayward, Wis. Up to 11 inches was reported in Britt, Iowa.  We had the first ever recorded May snow in Arkansas.  Twenty major baseball games have been snowed out.  

The last time we had a spring this cold Newsweek magazine published a feature article on global cooling.

There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon. 

April 28, 1975 Newsweek

The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During the same time, the average temperature around the equator has risen by a fraction of a degree – a fraction that in some areas can mean drought and desolation. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars’ worth of damage in 13 U.S. states. 

To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world’s weather. The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth’s climate seems to be cooling down.

Massive evidence?  Devastating weather outbreaks?  Drastic declines in food production?  This must have been very controversial.  But the article continued, "the present [temperature] decline has taken the planet about a sixth of the way toward the Ice Age average."  Some meteorologists viewed  "the cooling as a reversion to the 'little ice age' conditions that brought bitter winters to much of Europe and northern America between 1600 and 1900 – years when the Thames used to freeze so solidly that Londoners roasted oxen on the ice and when iceboats sailed the Hudson River almost as far south as New York City."  Scientists warned that cooling "causes an increase in extremes of local weather such as droughts, floods, extended dry spells, long freezes, delayed monsoons and even local temperature increases – all of which have a direct impact on food supplies."  In other words, cooling temperatures cause almost everything that is now attributed to warming temperatures.

For the record, world wheat production rose from 353 million tons in 1975 to 654 million tons in 2012, an 85 percent increase, compared to the 1975 vintage expert claims of a drop in output from wheat producing lands.   Good thing the politicians of that era flat ignored fear mongering academics and left wing loonies, who back then were recognized for what they are -- the fickle few.  Today's single-variable, adjusted data, straight line extrapolation climatologists and slide show mavens deserve no more credit.

Stop the Police State

With regard to the police state shutdown of Boston Ron Paul said,

Mr. Paul reminded the surviving suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was ultimately discovered by a civilian, and not due to police crackdown, Politico reported.

“He was discovered by a private citizen, who then placed a call to the police,” he said. “And he was identified not by government surveillance cameras, but by private citizens who willingly shared their photographs with the police.”

In the meantime I had participated in a Facebook discussion on the same topic that went as follows,

Paul

April 20 near, IL 

I'm not sure what is scarier. The Boston bombing was a terrible tragedy. But the fact that authorities could shut down a city the size of Boston so easily is scary. It is good for a manhunt to ensue to catch these men who did the bombing, but if authorities can stop movement, transit, and all other forms of gathering so easily, what is to prevent the wrong person(s) in control of such things from doing so? And the, where is our "freedom?"

Rob U are way too paranoid. The people in this country would not take it for long even if it did happen April 20 at 9:03am via mobile · Like
Janet I think they had a lot of help from the public on that one. I would so co-operate with something like this. If the people had not wanted to co-operate, there would be no shutting down anything. April 20 at 9:40am · Like · 1
Grady Foster It is instructive that the second perp was discovered when and because people were freed to go out on and about their own business. When we depend on the police or centralized government to do a job alone there is trouble in the offing. The benefits of freedom of movement, freedom of expression and freedom of belief are too innumerable to list or fully comprehend.  April 20 at 9:46am · Like · 2
Paul what if they didn't have guns, but those running the show did? Janet I think that people seem to be in a terrorist mode and will cooperate with a heck of a lot. Rather than paranoid, I think we need to think of the possibilities and think rather than just react. April 20 at 11:28am · Like
Steven Paul, the City of Boston did not require or force anyone to stay in doors. What they did do is strongly recommend for each person, and for the safety of the society as a whole, not to go out and risk the possibility of coming into contact with armed killers. This is no different than the government telling you to get in the basement of your home in the event of a tornado. At the end of the day you can still take a risk and go out in the tornado but it's at your own risk. April 20 at 5:26pm · Like
Grady Foster The Governor's stay in place "request" was widely reported in the media as an "order" and officials weren't exactly falling over themselves to correct or clarify that misinformation. With regards to the 2nd perp, society actually was made safe as a the direct result of an individual civilian taking initiative and coming into contact with the armed killer. That was a totally different fact situation from an approaching tornado, where in reality people are generally counseled to use their best judgment and aren't specially ordered to do anything. PS -- I know people who are alive today because they ignored the intercom instructions to stay in place in the 2nd tower at the WTC. The bureaucrats always want things as neat and orderly as possible -- that isn't the same thing as being safe. April 20 at 7:48pm · Like
Steven  Grady, I believe it is overwhelmingly accepted and common sense that you don't go out of your home, which is considered to be a safe place, when there is danger outside. Of course that doesn't mean that by staying in your home someone still won't break in but overall, it is understandably deemed safer to be located on the inside. I believe that an overwhelming majority of the people in Boston felt that their freedoms were never being imposed upon by the government's request / order to stay indoors while a dangerous killer was on the loose. April 20 at 10:41pm · Like
Paul Steve, I can't agree. If you went by that line of reasoning,no one would ever go outside. There is always danger wherever we are, especially in large cities. Whether it be from just accidents, to random acts of violence, to a dangerous killer, to gangs, to organized crime. Just from a few people you see here, not everyone, amongst millions of people, would choose voluntarily to stay inside. When violent criminals escape from prison, you don't see massive action of people not going outside. This, unfortunately, is the world in which we live. April 21 at 7:39am · Like

Grady Foster Steve, there are at least three options, stay inside and hope for the best, get away from the source of danger as safely as and quickly as one can (this is frequently the best option, even if that means temporarily increasing one's exposure to danger), or to confront and deal with the source of danger directly (possibly protecting others or allowing them to escape in the process). No centralized government authority is capable of deciding which option is best. Which of these options to use in particular situations depends on assessing on the ground, in the here and now, what is going on and acting accordingly. There is no such thing as single "common sense" fact free solution, but the government is really good a coming up with one that interferes with our freedoms. April 21 at 9:38am · Like

Steven  Grady, Paul, sorry not to respond sooner. It's Sunday.... In reading over your comments  I think we actually might be saying similar things but it's a matter of degree. For example, instead of locking down the whole city, perhaps you would accept or be comfortable with road blocks where each car passing a certain point was checked. Still, some people would feel that that is an imposition on one's freedom. From my side, I would not be comfortable if the government ordered everyone to stay inside for say 3 days. I would begin to worry that something is not right. I think this conversation is really about what our tolerance for what government requires us to do under a given situation. Grady, I do agree about one thing you said and that is there is, no single "common sense" fact free solution. However, what I don't agree with is that the government's motivation to have citizens stay inside for the day was to impose on one's freedom. That part is too much of a stretch. April 21 at 6:50pm · Like
Grady Foster Common sense prevailed after all in Boston -- Dunkin Donuts stayed open throughout. Cheers! http://www.boston.com/businessupdates/2013/04/19/cops-request-dunkin-donuts-stays-open/a981LXWXrfuZAAgnIM1YjL/story.html

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Philadelphia Terrorized

Man dressed in camo occupying old crapped out car taken into custody.  Arrest shuts down Visitors Center at Independence Hall -- good thing not many Montanans visit Philadelphia.

The Boat

Is there a fund for replacing David Henneberry's boat?

4/21:  Here's a link and another to David Henneberry boat funds.

5/1:  The boat fund has reached its $50,000 replacement goal, thanks in large part due to a matching pledge by the boat's manufacturer.  Thanks to all who gave.

University Censorship Portland Style

Three Forks, Montana

One of our favorite places to grab a bite to eat is the Iron Horse Café in Three Forks, Montana.  Three Forks is where the Gallitan, Madison and Jefferson rivers join to form the headwaters of the Missouri River before it begins its 2,341 mile journey across the northern tier of the United States to join ultimately the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri.  Three Forks is a celebrated Lewis and Clark encampment.  On their return trip Meriwether Lewis continued northeast along the Missouri River while George Clark branched off due east along the Gallitan River, headed towards Bozeman Pass, camping overnight at the mouth of Kelly Canyon within sight of our home.  Most everything Lewis and Clark is held in awe in Montana.  They survived an extraordinary journey that opened the American West.  But this story is not about Lewis and Clark, the men; it’s about Lewis and Clark, the law school, and its pathetic leadership.

The news these days has come to be everything but news – opinions, sources, views and feelings, anything but hard and objective fact, all filtered through political perspective.  It starts in the universities that train (I almost said "educate" here, but that implies a level of thinking and critical discourse that has been abandoned) our young adults.  This Lewis and Clark story reveals forces that create the sad alternative reality that news reporting has become.   The universities are building culture and journalistic process around image and communal acceptance.   Veracity and honest inquiry are the victims.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
visits Lewis & Clark Law School

I don’t know what is worse, a university law school that has a public relations department, a public relations department that thinks it has the authority to censor news, a public relations flack who doesn’t understand the difference between news and promotional materials, or quiescent cub reporter students who allow themselves to be censored and are so ill-informed that they actually believe the Justice Department controls press coverage of the Supreme Court – all shielded by a law school dean’s offhand, milk toast reaction.  So much is wrong.  This is about a law school squelching speech, an institution where one might reasonably believe the administration has a passing acquaintance with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and its prohibitions on abridging freedom of the press, and the underlying principles thereof. 

In early April, Chief Justice John Roberts visited the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon to observe arguments related to an environmental moot court advocacy competition.

Naturally, as The Oregonian reports, undergraduate journalist Anthony Ruiz wanted to cover the event for The Pioneer Log, the private school’s student-run weekly newspaper. He wrote a generally flattering article about the judge’s visit to the 80th-ranked law school in all the land (says U.S. News).

School officials then apparently strongly encouraged the newspaper not to publish the story. The reason for the censorship? The head of an American law school wanted the Supreme Court’s press office to approve the story before it was printed. 

The players in the censorship game commented as follows,

The Pioneer Log’s editor, Pillotte, told The Daily Caller that she has serious misgivings about the incident.

“I really regret not just going ahead and publishing the story,” Pillote explained, “but I felt extremely pressured by Lise Harwin, head of public relations. She sent me an email saying that Lewis & Clark respects freedom of the press, but she said this is a special case.”

According to Pillote, Harwin also asserted that “the school was following the rules of the Justice Department.”

Harwin told The Oregonian that school officials believed that the high court would want to evaluate the story before it went to press. She called the court’s press guidelines “rigorous and fairly exhaustive.”

Klonoff [the law school dean] told the local rag that he thought the office would be concerned about details printed in the student newspaper of a private college attended by about 2,000 undergraduates.

The law school dean said he was sorry the Pioneer Log missed its deadline.

Lewis & Clark Law School
Dean Robert Klonoff

It's a miracle that anything real gets reported.  The dean’s “Oh I’m sorry, but I thought” response is incredibly pathetic.  Why would the dean allow manipulative and deceitful publicity flacks to stay on payroll other than most times they get away with tilting the news?  Lewis and Clark’s dean, if he were driven by principle and integrity, would rid the school of its censorship minded flacks and eliminate the obsequious publicity machine.  Instead life goes on and the university sausage stuffer continues to wreak havoc.

RIP Annette Funicelo

RIP Annette Funicelo.  I can still taste the after-school chocolate covered graham crackers I ate watching the Mickey Mouse Club -- escapism at its best.

On the Road to Bathgate Act 6: Norval Baptie Champion Skater

Norval Baptie
Champion Speedskater

My dad was born and raised ten miles south of the Canadian border in Bathgate, North Dakota. He talked of skating on the frozen surface of the Tongue River, snaking into and down through town. When my dad laced up he wore racing skates, the long-bladed variety with tubular support, in the style worn by speed skaters, flashing left, right, left, right, left, right as they powered along.  

Dad spoke in mythical terms of a skater from Bathgate by the name of Norval Baptie – an unbeatable speed skater and champion barrel jumper, a man who conquered the skating world but whose heart never left home. This has got to be hyperbole I thought -- dad’s recollection skewed by youthful small town perspective. I could not have been more wrong -- Norval Baptie is a legend.

Norval Baptie was born in Bethany, Ontario, March 18, 1879, and was moved with his family to the Bathgate, N.D., area at the age of one.  He was the eighth of 10 children born to Jonathan and Elizabeth Baptie.  Norval began ice skating at a very young age and was often spotted in the railroad ditches racing the Great Northern trains as they passed by.  As a youngster he maintained a regimen of constant exercise and rules for keeping fit. 

Baptie’s career tracked an amazing trajectory.

Bozeman Strums

Bozeman is a music town. It's in the air. Before the moving boxes were unpacked last August the kids decided to learn guitar. We found a music store. 

Music Villa says it is a Gibson 5 Star Dealer.  The store is on our side of town, just 3.3 miles they say from the Bozeman, MT Gibson acoustic factory, which has put out this promotional video.

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We bought acoustic guitars for the older girls and a ukelele for our 7-year old, cause it has fewer strings and is easy to hold.  They needed an instructor, so we came across Ty straight away.  Who has lusher dreadlocks and rocks out better than Ty?

Blythe introduced Ty to Alvin Lee (God rest his soul) and Ten Years After, "I'd Love to Change the World."

I mentioned Herman's Hermits.  Ty said "Who?"  I said, "You know, 'I'm Henry the Eighth I Am'" with "Second verse same as the first."  Ty said, "What?"  Before returning to his native Montana last summer, Ty had lived in Nashville and toured for several years across the USA and internationally.   There is a generation gap -- more like 2 or 3.  We're closing it and having fun.

Growing Up in Morton Grove

I am a baby boomer.  I grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois, a suburb due north of Chicago and about five miles in from Lake Michigan.  The village is physically much as it was when I left it for good in 1971.  Its population has fluctuated between 20 and 30 thousand people over the last 40 years, due mostly to changes in household size.  Morton Grove is probably best known for enacting a ban on handguns in 1981.   By 1986 Morton Grove reversed the ban, concerned that legal bills associated with defending the gun control ordinance would drive taxes unacceptably high and/or bankrupt the village.  The NRA used the Morton Grove experience as a cause celeb in lobbying various states to enact preemptive laws that eliminated or limited local control over gun possession and ownership.

Enough about firearms – this is a post about growing up, when the only guns in our household popped percussion caps or squirted tap water.  Here is the house I grew up in -- a resident from birth until the summer before college. 

Google Street View, Northeast Corner Of Austin & Davis, Morton Grove, IL

Half a block up and across the street was a field on the edge of the Cook County Forest Preserve, which with its bridle paths, heavily wooded areas, and riparian landscape presented all manner of opportunity for adventure and mischief.   We captured butterflies, grasshoppers and lightening bugs, hung out in a "cave" along the river, climbed trees and explored the dump once located within.   

Another half block up the street was Chick Evans Golf Course (known as Northwestern in my youth), a "muni" that had driving range mats on asphalt covered, chain-link fenced tees, nary a sand trap and clover filled, non-irrigated fairways that were indistinguishable from the rough. But the course is on a nice property, including mature trees and thick forests, crisscrossing the North Branch of the Chicago River. And one more block up the street, behind the 16th green, is a privately owned stables that was the source of most of the horse traffic which ensured the Forest Preserve bridle paths were consistently aromatic. Each of these land uses remain.

    

Home Sweet Home Was Left Edge of 16/Bike Circle, Bridle Paths are Dashed Yellow Lines
Green Shaded and Cross Hatched Space Are the Golf Course and Forest Preserve

Where Have All the Doughnuts Gone?

Hotel Baxter Snow Light

Moving from inside the Beltway in Arlington, Virginia, to rural Gallitan County just outside Bozeman, Montana, you got to expect culture shocks and culinary shifts.  For example, it was a given that the 30 or so snowfalls each winter would cause no school closings or delays, no cancellations, whereas most snowfalls in Arlington were cause for school closings or schedule changes, event cancellations and federal government delays or shutdowns. Snow is cause for celebration in Bozeman.  The flashing blue light atop the downtown Hotel Baxter building is lit for 24 hours after each inch or greater mountain top snowfall, to alert skiers to the new powder accumulating on the slopes at Bridger Bowl.  In no time, the road up Bridger Canyon is filled with four wheel drive SUV's and pickups along with Subaru’s with ski pods on top.

I knew that hunting is big and defensive posturing with firearms is ingrained in the culture.  Here in Bozeman a neighbor advised me to carry an automatic when hiking so as to be truly loaded for bear – damn the pepper spray, semi automatic 44 Magnum ahead.  I don’t even blink anymore when I hear the report of a rifle or a shotgun locally.  Nor do I look twice when I see someone carrying a weapon while hiking a trail, crossing a field, or walking down a sidewalk or across a parking lot.  Last month the local NRA chapter sponsored a raffle table at a local shopping center featuring a "Wall of Guns."  I wasn’t at all surprised when a second neighbor told me he “harvested” two deer and an elk this last fall. I half expected that ground elk meat would be featured at his welcome neighbor barbecue (by the way, it tastes great!).  I anticipated that most commercial hamburger joints would feature buffalo burger.  I haven’t been disappointed.



Pentagon Police
Uniform Patch

Owenhouse Ace Hardware
Main Street Bozeman

I understood from the beginning that when planning a trip to a Bozeman mall you did not have to mention its name because there is but a single shopping mall in town.  I even knew there would be one police force instead of the fifteen or twenty that result from gerrymandered jurisdictions and the multiplicity of inside the Beltway federal police empires.  In Arlington, the nearest hardware store was three miles distant and I had to leave the county altogether to access a Lowe’s or a Home Depot.  In Bozeman, we not only have multiple big box local and national hardware stores, there are multiple friendly ACE is the place outlets as well as farm and ranch supply outlets.    

But what I did not expect was a doughnut wasteland.   I mean really, I know there are fewer police, but stinting on the doughnut supply is taking cultural differences too far!

Columbia Pike Dunkin' Donuts, Google Street View

  

Back in Arlington, when I had a 6 something am tee time, on the way to the course, at 5 something am, I would stop at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Columbia Pike, grab a large cup of java and a few doughnuts.  Arlington’s finest, the Pentagon Police and Federal Protective Service law enforcement were reliably represented at that early hour.  Columbia Pike is but one of 7 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in Arlington.  Then there is Arlington's Krispy Kreme shop on Lee Highway.  If that isn’t enough, there are no less than two dozen 7-Eleven stores in Arlington (5 were within a mile of our former house) each well stocked  with their trademark shelves of fresh doughnuts, long johns and sugar twists.  Heck, Arlington even has a doughnut truck.

What do we have in Bozeman?   No 7 Elevens.  Our lone dedicated to doughnuts outlet is Granny’s Gourmet Donuts.  One chic, chic gourmet doughnut shop on the edge of the MSU campus – that’s it.  Even the Hostess outlet has closed.  Well, after reading this, does anyone have the munchies now?

 

On the Road to Bathgate Act 5: Founding and Early Years

Original Plat of Bathgate Township
IJ Foster Quarter Section North of Town

Bathgate, North Dakota was formed in 1881 when my grandfather, Isaac J. Foster and his father (my great grandfather, William K. Foster) sold a homesteaded claim to a developer. They kept and farmed other claims the family had homesteaded in 1879. Their prime retained land, immediately north of town, was bisected by the railroad right of way, and the river ran through it.  

Isaac was born in Kemptville, Ontario Canada on February 26, 1862; he died in Bathgate on May 10, 1934, with his trade indicated on his death certificate as real estate and auctioneer of 30 years tenure. Isaac is interred in Bathgate Cemetery. William emigrated to Canada from Ireland. Isaac's father was born in Ireland and his mother was born in Scotland. Among other pursuits, Isaac was Pembina County Sheriff (1911-1915), a farmer, a realtor and auctioneer (as mentioned), president of the county fair board, and an insurance agent. He was a Grand Mason. He served on various state boards and along the way sired 11 kids.  



Issac J Foster

When Bathgate Township was founded in 1879 it was originally named Bay View after a the adjacent watery expanse on a bend of the Tongue River, and renamed when the post office was established. The town of Bathgate was platted in 1881 by the Comstock and White Co -- one story has it that Mr. Comstock named it for Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, the hometown of his wife.

Two historical sketches of Bathgate were written for the nation's Bicentennial,. “History of Bathgate, North Dakota” by Shirley Hart, in "Heritage ’76: Pembina County, North Dakota, Then and Now," and “Bathgate History” in "Proudly We Speak: a History of Neche, Bathgate, Bruce and Hyde Park", pp. 47-48  (Neche/Bathgate History Book Committee, ca. 1976).

In the "History of" we are told,

Wake Up Little Sheeple, Wake Up!

Greek Unemployment Trend
Deleveraging at Work

You might wonder why I am leading off with a chart of Greek unemployment.  Well, the way deleveraging works is it breaks one weak link, then another and another, until it cracks a link so large and so crucial that it brings down most of what was chained to it, as well as many links distantly connected. That’s what happened in the 2008 financial meltdown.  In the investment banking world, first it was Bear Stearns, then Fannie Mae, then Freddie Mac, then Lehman, and if it had not been for massive and controversial interventions, the next failures would have been Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, and even ultimately, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.  In the commercial banking sector major banks like Wachovia, WAMU and Countrywide disappeared along with hundreds of regional and community banks, and zombie too-big-too-fail banks like Citibank and Ally (nee GMAC) were put on continuous life support.  Financial sector collapses seeped into the general economy, causing the worst recession in generations and morphing, with a big assist from the Obama administration’s economically antagonistic policies, into the weakest economic recovery in decades. 

Now in Europe we are beginning to see the impacts of more profoundly damaging countrywide (actual countries, not the bank) deleveraging, with Greece taking the lead.  Meanwhile, US debt is building to Greek proportions.

Obama doesn’t see any crisis, no cause for concern.  Young people, Barack Obama could not have made it clearer yesterday that he doesn’t give a damn about you or your future.  He is going to roll the dice, mortgaging your future, betting everything on the here and now.  Obama’s goal is to build a false prosperity, certain to collapse, structured on debt burdens that stretch into your pockets for decades to come.

The United States is roughly $17 trillion in debt, but President Barack Obama says there’s no reason to worry.

Speaking with ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos this week, Pres. Obama downplayed concerns of an impending financial catastrophe, claiming quite to the contrary that the country is on track to turning the economy around.

"We don't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt,"Pres. Obama told Mr. Stephanopoulos during an interview that aired Wednesday on the television program Good Morning America.

"In fact,” added the president, “for the next 10 years, it's gonna be in a sustainable place."

This isn’t rocket science.  The only way to avoid deleveraging is to not pile up the mountain of debt in the first place.  Say no, and whatever hole you have worked your way into, work your way out of it.

Greek Stock Market
Residue of Deleveraging

Obama says not immediate?  When forced deleveraging is an immediate threat it is far too late to react in a productive way.  Look at the unstoppable reckoning that ensues.  Greek unemployment hit 26.2 percent last quarter.   For Greecian youth the jobless rate is an astounding 57.8 percent – a metric defining a generation that is not merely lost but utterly destroyed.   In pre-crisis years (when the debt crisis was inevitable if not immediate to use Obama’s irrelevant adjective) Greece’s unemployment rate was comparable to unemployment in the US today.  As for older folks who saved and invested for retirement, there’s no Easy Street for them either when countrywide deleveraging kicks in.  The Athens stock market index is down by more than 80 percent from pre-recessionary levels. Yes, no immediate crisis today -- nothing but economic desolation and destroyed lives in the future.  That’s Barack Obama’s legacy to the next generation.