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Jun 18, 20188 min read

BISBEE WIRE/Council Meeting/Tech, Econ, Reality Show/2018 June #19

Hello, The political season is getting underway as evidenced by the number of candidates at Pride this past weekend and the discussion/debate with two Bisbee mayoral candidates. As of now, I don't know of any Ward candidate discussion/debates scheduled. I'll soon put out a special election rundown of the sitch throughout the State. The info flow continues unabated as noted in the range of articles below. Of particular attention is the article about opting out of ads and personal info tracking in your TV, smart phone and router. I followed the instructions for the ATT carrier and it did make a positive performance difference on my phone. fred COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY JUNE 19 7:00Building G, 1415 Melody Lane Background here: http://bisbeeaz.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06192018-254

................................ COUNCIL AGENDA

INVOCATION:  A Moment of Silence                                       PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE MAYOR’S PROCLAMATIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: CALL TO THE PUBLIC THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WILL BE DISCUSSED, CONSIDERED AND/OR DECIDED UPON AT THIS MEETING: GENERAL BUSINESS: 1.        ACCOUNTS PAYABLE:  Subject to availability of funds 2.        Approval of the Consent Agenda                                                               A.     Approval of the Minutes of the Special Session of Mayor and Council held on April 25, 2018 at 6:15PM. B.      Approval of the Minutes of the Work Session of Mayor and Council held on April 18, 2018 at 6:30PM. C.      Approval of the Resignation of Ken Budge from the Board of Adjustment. D.     Approval of the recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Committee to dismiss Luche Giacomino from the Parks and Recreation Committee due to in excess of three unexcused absences. E.      Approval of the Appointment of Ken Budge to the Civil Service Commission. F.      Approval of the Park Facility and Right of Way Use Permit for the Use of Cole Ave, Bisbee Road and Arizona Street for the 4th of July Parade on Tuesday, July 4, 2018 from 9:00am to 1:00pm; Bisbee Rotary Club, Applicant. G.     Approval of the Park Facility and Right of Way Use Permit for the use of Brewery Gulch for the 4th of July Hard Rock Drilling and Mucking Events; Dominic Moots, Applicant. H.     Approval of an Special Event Liquor License Application submitted by Bisbee Vogue Inc., for an event to be held at St. Patrick’s Church located at 100 Quality Hill Road, Bisbee, AZ on Saturday, October 20, 2018 from 11:00am to 4:00pm; Cynthia Conroy, Applicant. NEW BUSINESS 3.        Presentation by the Utility Service Partners Private Label, Inc, d/b/a/ Service Line Warranties of America regarding Sewer Line Warranty. Andy Haratyk, Public Works Director 4.        Discussion and Possible Approval of an Engagement Letter with Willdan Financial Services/Economists.com for a Sewer Rate Study. Robert Smith, City Manager 5.        City Manager's Report: ·         Other current events (No Discussion) ADJOURNMENT:


+++++++++++++++++++++ AMAZON TO OPEN FULLFILLMENT CENTER IN TUCSON

Projected for opening in 2019, about 1500 jobs will be created (unless of course robot development by that time will cut that by half). It will be located just off and North of I-10 on Kolb Rd. Amazon joins Target and Home Away as the third fulfillment center in Tucson. The city has been striving to create a "Sonoran Corridor" that locates Tucson as the hub for East, West, and North goods traffic.

+++++++++++++++++++++ NAFTA TALKS TO HALT ARIZONA ECONOMIC GROWTH? The NAFTA negotiations, dragging on for months, is a possible fly in the Arizona beer as the Realty Show Guy's administration continues its' bellicose stance in trade deals. It is economically important to Mexico and particularly Arizona that Nafta be reformed. Currently border traffic both ways is significant; Arizona exports $629 million a month to Mexico, $2.2 billion a month from Mexico through Arizona, $290 million a month in fresh produce. (figures from azmex.eller.arizona.edu/sites/azmex/files/Report/azmex-quarterly-update-3-28-18.pdf) +++++++++++++++++++++ Although there are a complex of reasons, NAFTA is the single most important reason for migration problems in the US. It opened up Mexico for development and investment by foreign corporations. In addition to buying land, Big Ag dumped low priced corn on the Mexico market, resulting in bankruptcy for thousands of inefficient small plot ejidos. Those owners/workers went to the urban area for jobs; there were none. That began the migration to the US in earnest. As the migration trickle became a torrent, Cartels saw big money in moving people as well as drugs and stepped in and organized the flow of people into the US.


............................. REALITY SHOW WATCH

A SUCCINCT ANALYSIS OF THE REALITY SHOW GUY

...................... REPORTERS TARGETED BY RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/14/doxxing-assault-death-threats-the-new-dangers-facing-us-journalists-covering-extremism?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=278062&subid=20881720&CMP=GT_US_collection ...................... RUSSIANS INTERFERING WITH ELECTIONS https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/the-director-of-national-intelligence-says-russia-poses-a-threat-to-midterm-elections-but-trump-doesnt-seem-to-care/?utm_source=mj-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-russian-connection-2018-06-14 ..................... $375 MILL SPENT IN CAMPAIGN AD BUYS "Since Jan. 1, 2017, over a million television ads have aired related to 2018 congressional and gubernatorial races, with the estimated total cost of television advertising nearly $375 million. The 1,035,327 ads in the 2018 cycle is up 86 percent from the 555,251 ads that had aired over the same period during the last midterm cycle in 2014." http://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases/june-2018/#head1 +++++++++++++++++++++ BULLSHIT AND FACTS How to counteract bullshit is becoming a necessary defense as more and more political pronouncements are lies. This article and the second about a class on bullshit is a good start.

"Facts, in short, can be adjusted, until they match up with our chosen view of the world. This has the bad effect, though, of transforming all political disputes into disagreements about moral worldview. This sort of disagreement, though, has historically been the source of our most violent and intractable conflicts." https://theconversation.com/why-bullshit-hurts-democracy-more-than-lies-96331

There is a class with examples of how to identify and deflate Bullshit. How bout teaching this at Bisbee High School, Cochise College, and U of A south? http://callingbullshit.org/case_studies.html +++++++++++++++++++++

.............. ECONOMICS

Economics  is often called the dismal science, and it often is apt, but there are some bright spots. There is plenty of economic info out there, separating the wheat from the chaff is the problem. I've been following Stephanie Kelton for the past year. I think she is on to something with some new thinking. The Sanders campaign is now making better use of her insights, finally. This is a long read from huff post.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stephanie-kelton-economy-washington_us_5afee5eae4b0463cdba15121 +++++++++++++++++++++ A SUCCINCT ANALYSIS OF HOW TARIFFS SUCK JOBS OUT OF THE US

A local example of how Trump's policies deeply affect our lives...the cost of newsprint has increased about 30% in a year. That is the stuff that the Herald Review and Observer is printed on.(http://www.philly.com/philly/business/trump-commerce-paper-mill-newsprint-tariffs-20180612.html)  Raising the cost of newsprint, in this case to benefit only one company in Washington state that employs 250 people, has adversely impacted about 200,000 workers nationwide and has resulted in large layoffs. "The effect of a tariff, therefore, is to change the structure of American production. It changes the number of occupations, the kind of occupations, and the relative size of one industry as compared with another. It makes the industries in which we are comparatively inefficient larger, and the industries in which we are comparatively efficient smaller. Its net effect, therefore, is to reduce American efficiency ..." https://www.businessobserverfl.com/article/trumps-tariffs-not-fit-print +++++++++++++++++++++ LAS VEGAS CULINARY WORKERS UNION WINS CONTRACT Many years ago I was an elected trustee of the biggest union in San Francisco, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union Local 2. In 1992, our sister local in Las Vegas asked other locals nationally to come help them in their struggle against Frontier Casino. On Labor Day a group of us went to Las Vegas to support Local 226 that had authorized a strike.  About 50,000 of us sat down and shut down Las Vegas Blvd, the main artery on the Strip. It was an inspiring  show of worker's power. Ultimately it took the union six years to get a contract at Frontier; but they did. But more importantly, it showed  corporations that owned casinos the visible extent of support by workers throughout the industry. That one strike led to much better labor contracts at other casinos as corporations were forced to share economic benefits. The union is now called the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. And recently threatened a strike against major casino corporations that have prospered. Two of the larger companies, Caesar's and MGM that control 18 properties, have settled and several others are in talks. The union has also organized a Trump hotel. This article illustrates how this union has benefited members' lives outside of work as well on the job, adapting to corporate and technological changes that are buffeting workers everywhere. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-las-vegas-union-that-learned-to-beat-the-house_us_5b182984e4b0734a993a56f7

................. TECHNOLOGY

MORE TIPS TO TURN OFF AD SETTINGS This is important to do if you would prefer you personal information not be sold. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/06/15/hands-off-my-data-15-more-default-privacy-settings-you-should-change-on-your-tv-cellphone-plan-linkedin-and-more/?utm_term=.4ec4d8f0a6d1&wpisrc=nl_cybersecurity202&wpmm=1 FCC LIES TO THWART CITIZEN COMMENTS The Federal Communications Commission will probably have some explaining to do. Gizmodo's Dell Cameron reports that the FCC lied to defend unsubstantiated claims last year about a cyberattack against the agency. “The FCC has been unwilling or unable to produce any evidence an attack occurred — not to the reporters who’ve requested and even sued over it, and not to U.S. lawmakers who’ve demanded to see it,” Cameron writes. “Instead, the agency conducted a quiet campaign to bolster its cyberattack story with the aid of friendly and easily duped reporters, chiefly by spreading word of an earlier cyberattack that its own security staff say never happened.”

The FCC said in May 2017 that several distributed denial-of-service attacks had targeted its systems while Internet users attempted to submit messages on the commission's comment platform during the debate on net neutrality. Not only did the agency not provide any evidence of such attack, but on top of that at least two FCC officials spread false information about a previous security glitch in 2014, according to Cameron. “David Bray, who served as the FCC’s chief information officer from 2013 until June 2017, assured reporters in a series of off-the-record exchanges that a DDoS attack had occurred three years earlier,” Cameron writes. “More shocking, however, is that Bray claimed Wheeler, the former FCC chairman, had covered it up.”https://gizmodo.com/fcc-emails-show-agency-spread-lies-to-bolster-dubious-d-1826535344?wpisrc=nl_cybersecurity202&wpmm=1

+++++++++++++++++++++ TEENS AND SOCIAL MEDIA USE

Facebook is soooo  like yesterday...unless you are a teen living in a low income household. "...smartphone ownership has become a nearly ubiquitous element of teen life: 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis." http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/?ex_cid=SigDig

+++++++++++++++++++++

THE NEW BORDER WALL?

https://www.wired.com/story/palmer-luckey-anduril-border-wall/?wpisrc=nl_cybersecurity202&wpmm=1 .......... SHORTZ Last year U.S. sales of high heels fell 11 percent, while sales of women's sneakers rose 37 percent. http://www.businessinsider.com/women-wear-sneakers-instead-of-heels-2018-6 ....................... NEW CAUTION ON LASIK SURGERY

The eyes sometime don't have it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/lasik-complications-vision.html ....................... MEN! R U GETTING BALD? TOUGH SHIT, NOTHING WILL HELP  https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-the-age-old-quest-for-a-baldness-cure-reaching-its-end .......................

NO GENDER GAP IN MATH STUDENTS

Family is more important than all else—neighbors, good friends, democracy, less good friends.


One shall endorse feminism when it is good for woman, and that woman is me.


Many wise men say that fiction can be more real than fact, so do away with facts.


Those who are rich deserve it. Those who are poor deserve it. In this way, we are all equal.


When making clothes, make them in China. Then pretend they are American.


Open eyes to see one’s beautiful children, then close eyes as other children are torn from their families.


For those who are women, remember the value of sisterhood, unless one’s sister is Tiffany. Then forget it.


Always look beautiful, for one never knows if one may be seen by one’s father that day.


If one wishes to sound wise, but that is not in one’s wheelhouse, fabricate something and pretend that it is a Chinese proverb.


+++++++++++++++++++++FM+++++++++++++++++++++

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