Time for Democrats to play hardball with DINOs!

If you’re familiar with Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and you should be, you may think I’ve lost track of the seasons, since we haven’t yet reached Samhain / Halloween. The reality is that both have spirits as leading characters. Now, picture either Joe Manchin or Krysten Sinema, or both, as Scrooge. I have little faith that either of their hearts could be softened by Tiny Tim’s fate. Much closer to their hearts would be the assets they’re accumulating. SO, the question becomes, what might make them fear for the future of those assets?

spirits of yesterday, today, tomorrow?

Photo by J. Harrington

Has anyone figured out that a hard transition away from fossil fuels, especially coal, would leave many miners in a deep hole if alternative jobs and training aren’t available, because a certain senator from West Virginia overplayed his hand? And wouldn’t that increase the amount of fossil fuel stranded assets? (And, by the way, wouldn’t a hard transition also hurt many of Mitch McConnell’s miners?)

Arizona’s economy includes a major nonprofit sector that gets a lot of earned income from the government sector. It might be a shame if some large federal government funded contracts became cancellable or if a significant effort were launched to make much of the pharmaceutical sector nationalized.

There is no question that  climate change needs to be addressed in a big way by US. There is also little question that collaborating with the enemy has been an unproductive strategy thus far. Both Arizona and West Virginia need to be vigorously reminded of President Kennedy’s profound advice from his inaugural address: "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

One Day

Joseph Millar

Everything shimmers
with the sound of the train
rattling over the bridge
especially the ears and nostrils and teeth
of the horse riding out
to the pasture of death
where the long train runs
on diesel fuel
that used to run on coal.
I keep listening
for the crickets and birds
and my words fall down below.

I mistook the train for a thunder storm,
I mistook the willow tree
for a home, it's nothing to brag about
when you think of it
spending this time all alone.
I wandered into the hay field
and two ticks jumped in my hair
they dug in my scalp
and drank up my blood
like the sweet wine of Virginia,
then left me under the Druid moon
down here on earth in the kingdom.

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About that July 4th military parade!

We're just going to leave this here and wish all patriotic Americans, those turning their backs on 45's VIP/GOP celebration tomorrow, a Happy Independence Day. Remember that Ed Abbey warns us that:

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

source: Snopes

Snopes is a fact-checking web site and their "bottom line" on the accuracy of the portrayal above is:

"Pach, who is co-author of The Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, told us the general would have responded negatively to any proposal to hold a Soviet-style military rally:

"My guess is that Eisenhower would have rejected that advice if he got it. He wasn’t someone invested in pomp and circumstance. He knew that power had to be effective in ways other than elaborate displays of military might."

A real American who lived in Washington, D.C., among other locales, wrote about real Americans, who once were as common as Leaves of Grass:

I Hear America Singing

Walt Whitman- 1819-1892

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be
   blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or
   beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or
   leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the
   deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter
   singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in
   the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife
   at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of
   young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs. 

We look forward to the day when, once again, all America sings a strong, melodious song.

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Invasive buckthorn #phenology, managing our commons

We have buckthorn on our property that we're trying to control. At least, until the past few days I was sure it's buckthorn. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources notes on their buckthorn identification page that "Leaves stay green late into fall." What I've been identifying as buckthorn has leaves that are turning yellow, and some that are already dropping. All of which occurred before Autumn's arrival this morning with temperatures in the low to mid-fifties. Even in our North Country, that's brisk for August.

early August buckthorn(?) with yellow leaves?

Photo by J. Harrington

A buckthorn-related issue, other than identification, has come up as we've started pulling and burning the "buckthorn" on our property. The Wildlife Management Area (Carlos Avery) that surrounds our property has some large reservoirs of replacement buckthorn. I have concerns about when, if ever, MNDNR will get around to managing it. Those concerns were heightened when I started looking for indications of what DNR has already tried to accomplish in terms of actual management. There is no mention of invasive species in the 2016 Forest Health Report. If I've read their 2015 Forest Health Report correctly, the Department is busier trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to identify the "leading edge" of the invasion than in actually controlling the plants. The reason the Department cites for their approach is that

"Prior to 2015, the terrestrial invasive species (TIS) program consisted of a single position with limited funding for field projects. In 2015, annual work plan targets were established for all areas for invasive species survey work and management practices. Also in 2015, program leads were identified for each of the areas and regions. The resulting structure resembles other forestry program such as the roads, timber and silviculture programs. Being new to everyone, 2015 was a year of exploration and learning."

So, despite the fact that buckthorn has been a known invasive problem in Minnesota since the late mid-1880s (well over a hundred years ago), the Minnesota legislature, the Department and various governors have seen fit to leave staffing unfunded until recently. That's not setting a very good example for private citizens to follow, is it? But then, both species of buckthorn are only classified as "Restricted Noxious Weeds."

"Restricted noxious weeds are plants that are widely distributed in Minnesota and are detrimental to human or animal health, the environment, public roads, crops, livestock or other property, but whose only feasible means of control is to prevent their spread by prohibiting the importation, sale, and transportation of their propagating parts in the state except as allowed by Minnesota Statutes, Section 18.82. Plants designated as Restricted Noxious Weeds may be reclassified if effective means of control are developed."

 If this is the best Minnesotans can expect for control of "restricted noxious weeds," I'll have the temerity to ask why we are spending our tax dollars on anything other than the identification of "effective means of control." Internal contradictions such as "annual work plan targets" related to invasive species "whose only feasible means of control is to prevent their spread by prohibiting the importation, sale, and transportation of their propagating parts" just doesn't make sense. When was the last time Minnesota's legislative auditor ran a logic check on MNDNR's budget and work plan for invasive species? Perhaps the Department should consider contracting the the 1854 Treaty Authority, which seems to have a pretty effective listing of invasive species by county within their territory. Maybe it would make sense to consider using permaculture approaches to managing invasive species and to place more emphasis on political efforts to prevent the establishment of new invasive species. Maybe those efforts could be pair for through an international tax on global shipping or international investments. A global economy needs to support global services such as invasive species management.

                     Once the World Was Perfect

By Joy Harjo

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.

Then we took it for granted.

Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.

Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.

And once Doubt ruptured the web,

All manner of demon thoughts

Jumped through—

We destroyed the world we had been given

For inspiration, for life—

Each stone of jealousy, each stone

Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.

No one was without a stone in his or her hand.

There we were,

Right back where we had started.

We were bumping into each other

In the dark.

And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know

How to live with each other.

Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another

And shared a blanket.

A spark of kindness made a light.

The light made an opening in the darkness.

Everyone worked together to make a ladder.

A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,

And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,

And their children, all the way through time—

To now, into this morning light to you.

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Water management is all wet. Who's in charge?

Today we received a notice from our township supervisor alerting us to a proposal to expand the current Chisago Lakes Improvement (taxing) District [LID] to align with a new and improved watershed boundary. If the expansion is approved, properties newly added to the district will probably see an increase in taxes. Today's posting isn't about a tax increase however. That may or may not be the issue. I don't understand why the County Commissioners and the LID board can't provide a detailed set of maps that clearly delineates which properties are in and out of the current and proposed district and why. Here's some background:

• The Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District and the Chisago County Commissioners are proposing to adjust the boundary of the LID.


• From the maps they provided as links, I can't tell whether or not my property (which is located along the western boundary of the watershed) is in the "official 2009 Chisago Lakes Chain of Lakes Watershed developed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources" or just across the line in the Carlos Avery Unit.


• The area I'm particularly interested in lies between County Roads 19 and 80 on this map. The text and the legend don't make it clear how DNR delineated the western watershed boundary and what the dashed and red lines in the area of interest are supposed to show.

The Sunrise River watershed isn't identified on this map

Further troubling my impression of a lack of rigorous accountability and focus on mission are these statements on the LID's web site:

"The Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District partners with other organizations such as Chisago Soil & Water Conservation District, local communities, lake associations, state and federal agencies.... The following fact sheets highlight 2014 Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District activities that benefit lakeshore, non-lakeshore, city, and rural residents.

• 295th Street Neighborhood Retrofit – Lindstrom
• Aquatic Invasive Species Treatment
• Chisago County Children’s Water Festival
• Chisago County Water Quality and Aquatic Invasive Species Monitoring
• Chisago Lakes Watershed Best Management Practices Implementation
• Carp Management
• Ditch and Weir Maintenance
• Fish Kill Disposal
• Furgala/Labernik Rain Garden – Center City
• Groundwater Observation Wells
• Hook, Line and Sinker Recycling Program and Summary
• Lake Avenue Dead End Street Project – Chisago City
• Lake Level Monitoring Program
• Lake Level Graphs
• Summary for Chisago Lakes Chain of Lakes Watershed lake level monitoring activities
• Lake Water Quality Monitoring
• Loren’s Park – Center City
• Minimal Impact Design Standards
• North Center North Lindstrom Channel
• Pleasant Hill Park – Lindstrom
• Public Outreach and Awareness
• Pumphouse Park/Elm Street Project – Lindstrom
• Rural Subwatershed Assessment
• Septic System Compliance
• Slow No-Wake Ordinance
• South Center Lake Boat Launch – Lindstrom
• Surfland Neighborhood Rain Gardens – Chisago City
• Swamp Lake Outlet Easements
• Urban and Shoreline Best Management Practices
• Water Trail System
• Watercraft Inspection Program
• Watercraft Inspection Report"

The yellow area is the Chisago Lakes District

Perhaps I wouldn't be as disturbed as I am if I hadn't recently been reading the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy Report for the Sunrise River Watershed, prepared by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The Chisago Lakes watershed is part of the Sunrise River watershed, which is part of the Lower St. Croix River Watershed that is part of the Mississippi River Watershed. The WRAPS report notes

"Many key partners have been brought together to make this WRAPS Report a useable document that will ultimately help us to meet the goals of the Sunrise River Watershed and the Direct Drainage to the St. Croix River. These groups include: Anoka CD, Chisago SWCD, Isanti SWCD, Washington CD, Chisago County, MN DNR (Fisheries and Eco/Waters), MPCA, City of North Branch, City of Stacy, City of Wyoming, City of Shafer, City of Taylors Falls, USDA NRCS, Sunrise River Water Management Organization, Comfort Lake-Forest Lake Watershed District, Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District, Linwood Lake Association, and Friends of the Sunrise River. These groups have collaborated with the Chisago SWCD to provide comments and additions specific to their subwatersheds. This collaboration will prove to be pivotal in applying for funding in the future to complete projects in each constituent’s jurisdiction."

Here's my basic complaint: Nowhere can I find a clearly laid out matrix of which agency or agency is responsible for which issue in which jurisdiction. Nowhere can I find a coordinated work program and budget that aligns resources with priorities. I'm not suggesting that all these folks aren't doing good and necessary work. I am stating unequivocally that we, the taxpayers and resource users, don't know. We'll report back here from time to time as we, hopefully, make some progress on this.

Issa’s Cricket

On a branch
floating downriver
a cricket, singing.

Issa (Japan, 1763-1827)

[translated by Jane Hirshfield]


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Do we know if Minnesota becomes less sustainable?

Several times on My Minnesota we've mentioned how much we like Bobby Kennedy's assessment of our Gross National Product, especially these lines:

the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.

It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

riverfront development, Mississippi River in Minneapolis

The same assessment can be applied to Minnesota's very own Gross Domestic Product. It hasn't always been this way, nor does it now have to be. Economics, that dismal science, is necessary but not sufficient except to those who would have us know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. There is an alternative measure to GDP that has been used in Maryland and Vermont. It's called the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). It starts with something like a Gross Domestic Product, but from that it deducts the costs of pollution and loss of natural resources and adds the value of volunteer services and makes a number of other adjustments.

Minnesota does have its own Compass ... Measuring Progress. Inspiring Action. There are a number of very useful resources on the Wilder Foundation's Compass web site. Unfortunately, the indicators and resources provided don't translate into a comprehensive measure that tells us, overall, whether we're making progress or not.

I started thinking about all of this again when I recently saw and heard references to an Atlantic article about how great Minneapolis is [The Miracle of Minneapolis], and then noted that the Washington Post raises the question, is Minneapolis great for all its inhabitants? What about the racial disparities gap?

It turns out that we've know about how great we are, and our problems, and how to measure our own progress for quite a few years. In the late 1990's Minnesota developed a progress indicator similar to the GPI. We produced an update for the first year of the new biennium.

I haven't researched why we didn't continue with genuine measures of our actual progress. Presumably for reasons similar to why we no longer have a State Planning Agency. It can be politically inconvenient if there are publicly available long term trends that demonstrate which party's policies produce better results and for whom. We wouldn't want voters to be confused by all those numbers, now, would we?

As we read the reports and analyses on the effects of climate change, including droughts, water shortages, an occasional Polar Vortex, disruption of our current northern Minnesota habitats and the animals that depend on them, we might think it would be wise to reconsider our need for indicators on whether we're actually making progress or not. FOr example, we've been told by some of our politicians that the Keystone pipeline should be supported because it's safer than rail. Perhaps those politicians haven't checked with or are disregarding the assessment of those who assert:

"Don’t buy TransCanada’s argument that crude-by-rail disasters demonstrate the need for the Keystone XL pipeline. In fact, the two transport methods have very little to do with each other.

“The vast majority of crude moving by rail in North America is moving east or west from the Bakken shale or other shale sources,” says Swift. “That’s not the tar sands crude that Keystone XL would have shipped south from Alberta. Keystone XL wouldn’t take crude off the rails.”

In the past four years, North Dakota oil producers have rejected two proposed pipelines, because they prefer the flexibility of rail. It allows them to sell their products to whichever market is paying the highest price at the time of delivery. Oil producers don’t see pipelines as a replacement for crude-by-rail. They want both."

Now I'm off to take some photos, promised yesterday, of the local redosier dogwood. No poem today.

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Putting global warming and water waste on ice

My Minnesota has been writing quite a bit recently about water resources and consumption and conservation and, a little bit, about non-consumptive wildlife use. (The local tree frog seems to appreciate our use of gator bags.)

tree frog hiding in a gator bag

Photo by J. Harrington

Minnesota, I believe, has an opportunity to take a national, perhaps international, leadership role in sustainable and restorative development. We have most of the basic framework in place. I've lived in this state and metro region long enough to know that nature, even, especially, in our urban areas, is a big part of our quality of life. In Minneapolis, I've seen bald eagles flying, huge murders of crows leaving and heading toward their urban roosts and flocks of geese coming and going in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. I'm concerned that we think we'll always have nature as part of our lives even if we don't do much to provide for it (her?).

As an example, more than a few gallons of Minnesota's water goes to keeping our Kentucky Bluegrass green. According to the USDA, many Great Plains states and Wisconsin have it listed as an invasive species. Minnesota DNR has it listed as a harmful exotic. I believe a number of local governments, as part of their efforts to protect property values, have mowing requirements. We know that native plant species require less maintenance, including mowing and watering. I'm wondering how property values will hold up in the future if home buyers have a choice between brown bluegrass and native plantings. Take a close look at your neighborhood rain garden the next time you pass by one. Most I've seen are full of native flowers. The last I heard or read, bluegrass, unlike flowers, doesn't provide much for honeybees. I'm obviously in favor of bird's and bees and flowers and think that grass should be primarily for medicinal use. We've got some volunteer sunflowers coming up in front of the house where the bird feeder was before the neighborhood bear needed a snack. The local bees seem to like them.

volunteer sun flower with bee

Photo by J. Harrington

Responding to global warming climate change is catching people's attention. Another example: I can think of few things that are more Minnesotan than a love of hockey. I was really pleased to learn this morning that the National Hockey League is working toward becoming more sustainable because of their (and our) concerns about global warming climate change. (They've been at this for 3 and a half years now. Somehow, I missed it.) The article notes "So what if, due to climate change and freshwater scarcity, there were no more frozen ponds on which to skate?" Now, I was much more a hockey fan when I lived in Boston and followed the Bruins and Bobby Orr, who's quoted in the story. On the other hand, I don't think we should be less concerned about global warming and water scarcity than the NHL. Do you?

Ice

By Gail Mazur

In the warming house, children lace their skates,   

bending, choked, over their thick jackets.

A Franklin stove keeps the place so cozy

it’s hard to imagine why anyone would leave,

clumping across the frozen beach to the river.   

December’s always the same at Ware’s Cove,

the first sheer ice, black, then white

and deep until the city sends trucks of men

with wooden barriers to put up the boys’   

hockey rink. An hour of skating after school,

of trying wobbly figure-8’s, an hour

of distances moved backwards without falling,

then—twilight, the warming house steamy   

with girls pulling on boots, their chafed legs

aching. Outside, the hockey players keep   

playing, slamming the round black puck

until it’s dark, until supper. At night,

a shy girl comes to the cove with her father.

Although there isn’t music, they glide

arm in arm onto the blurred surface together,

braced like dancers. She thinks she’ll never

be so happy, for who else will find her graceful,

find her perfect, skate with her

in circles outside the emptied rink forever?

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False gods

© harrington

Welcome. Thanks for stopping by. I assume that you're in favor of clean air, clean water, open space, healthy foods and wildlife and related pleasures of life in Minnesota. I also assume that, if enjoying those pleasures meant we all had to go back to living in caves and brushing our teeth with twigs and generally living a subsistence (or less) lifestyle, you'd be somewhat less enthusiastic about clean air, clean water etc. The good, actually great, news is we don't have to make that choice. The bad news is we keep electing politicians who appoint "leaders" that don't see it that way. An classic example of where we keep going wrong is summarized in a two part interview about the Stillwater Bridge. Ron Meador talks with Jim Erkel on MinnPost following up on the recent ground breaking. I've had the pleasure of meeting both of these folks and have a lot of respect for their work. In fact, if we elected and appointed lots more of us who think like these two, I wouldn't be writing this post (you're excused to go organize the write-in campaign). Part one makes the excellent point, with which I agree, that innocent people are dieing because we're investing in convenience instead of necessary repairs. (This fits with my long time suspicion that the opposite of good isn't evil, it's convenience, slippery slopes and all that.) Part two argues that slowing growth (and the existence of an Interstate bridge only 6 miles south) may make the bridge almost as good as a bridge to nowhere. (If Scott Walker keeps getting his way in Wisconsin, it will be a bridge to nowhere anyone wants to be.) Let me repeat: we didn't gain jobs with the Stillwater bridge construction. We just moved them around and shared a lot with Wisconsin. Construction jobs are created with infrastructure repair (take a look the next time you've finished your "zipper merge"). If we keep wasting our tax dollars on projects like the Stillwater bridge, we'll end up with the kind of government, world and environment we deserve, and it won't involve clean air, clean water a pleasant environment OR GOOD JOBS. I think we deserve better. What do you think? After all, it's up to us. By the way, I don't see this as a Democrat versus Republican choice, or a liberal versus conservative choice or a young versus old choice. It's a choice between smart and dumb. Thanks for listening. Think about the kind of place you want Minnesota to be. Come back so we can discuss it some more. Rants, raves and reflections served daily.