Another sign of their decay.

Like anyone who views the world as no more than an exploitable commodity, we have this fantasy of "potential value". Of course, their concept of potential value is the imaginary value if its used for some imaginary purpose. Therein lies the problem; they will destroy everything to keep the machine running, despite its sputtering. Until its recognized that we cannot run our infrastructure and schools while borrowing the landscape from the future, we will continue destroying the very places we live. But its what I've come to expect out of any colonial culture...

For decades, voting for the lesser evil has been normal. Northeastern Minnesota’s DFL, however, was and has always appeared the last bastion for ordinary people’s needs. In many ways, that remains true, but in others, it is now so utterly destructive that to vote for them is to destroy the very place we live.

The peculiar history of Northeastern Minnesota and the Range in particular has, after five generations, made destroying the communities and the natural world the norm. While southern Minnesota was first to be destroyed, settlement was dominated by agriculture and by its very essence, was very different than the ecocide of the north. The north was not settled at first; after the conquest, native lands were legally stolen and turned over to land speculators and railroad men. The first exploitative assault was to denude the forests of its most ecologically and financially valuable timber; the forests were not “cleared”, but instead demolished. Hapless American and European peasants were shipped in, railroads built, the finest timber removed, and the land covered with the remaining debris. Genocide and the catastrophic Hinckley and Cloquet fires were the first children of the rape; the second were the mineral prospectors. In the brute exploitation of both human and nature that was 19^th century capitalism, gold wasn’t found, but iron ore was. I will not glorify the destructive history of earlier times, for the history sits all around us in a demolished landscape, tainted water and desperate communities.

This history, however, is constantly refrained and built into monuments honoring destruction; these show how the extreme becomes the normal and the thinking of the exploiter becomes the thinking of the exploited. And this is where I need to break with those I used to support.

Recently, Range Dfler’s joined the state’s Republicans in rewriting the state’s environmental review rules. The complaints justifying the need all spoke of timeliness and jobs, but none dealt with the actual results. They added their own special privilege: Any Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) project is exempt from the environmental review process. This, of course, means the taxpayers are now forced to give the Polymet project money despite its potential destructive effects. In short, the public is now forced to hand over land, cash and profits to private investors, many of them foreign, in hopes that several hundred desperate people might hopefully be employed for 20 years. The refrain is always “jobs” and “community” while two concepts are never mentioned; the mysterious word “profits” and the always ignored fact that any community built completely for exploiting a finite resource is doomed from the very beginning. That the Range DFLer’s don’t recognize this shows they are now as much of the problem as the former land barons and “iron men” now honored in ridiculous murals and statues. Now, as part of the local elite, they assist the destroyers with endless subsidies; the DNR’s mineral research, infrastructure funding, education, and finally, handing over our land, water and the very resources we sit on. The communities and employees, trapped in the hapless modern equivalent of the company town, their incomes bound to the corporations, hand over their very lives and landscapes. That they are comparatively well paid only leads to more co-option; the endless supply of over-size trucks, ATV’s and bound mortgages colors the thinking of everyone. The desperation that is the modern United States surrounds us; we work for corporate investors so we can pay debts to corporate investors so we can buy plastic toys from corporate investors who use slave labor to build them overseas. Mysteriously, this is called the zenith of civilization.

The Range’s problems are complex yet simply defined; the communities, despite any booster’s glorification’s, are graveyards next to wastelands. The people are beholden to their corporate master's, a truth fully evident yet never spoken; it as if saying “the sky is sometimes blue”. No one mentions it so they do not have to acknowledge the drudgery that is modern life for most. We have toys, yes, but we do not have what matters most, and that is community. And now we watch helplessly as the one group who used to define something different be the group willing to hand over the most; our land, our water and more of our community.

In a rational world, albeit imaginary, we might ask of ourselves 'We have this resource, perhaps of wealth, perhaps of trouble, but what do we do with it and how will it benefit us? What do we charge the corporation for exploiting our land? What do we get in return? What will be left? How do we assure our grandchildren will still want to or be able to live here?

This is, of course, not the case.

The mining laws of Minnesota, like most dealing with “Natural Resources”, sets the state's role as promoter of exploitation, or truly, the mother of destruction. We pay for research, we pay for infrastructure, we pay for what little of reclamation occurs and then we finally pay for destroyed communities and dysfunctional lives left over when the profit takers “downsize” or walk away. No matter what, it's a temporary fix and a devil's bargain.

The two communities most affected by the Polymet project have problems deriving from their very origins; they were both built specifically for mining only, standing at road’s end, miles from anything, surrounded by a scavenged landscape or forest. The project’s proponents want to resolve this by destroying more public forest for private profit, supported by countless subsidies, in exchange that a few will get paid for 20 years. Their aim, of course, is to start more projects on the same ore bodies, to destroy more land, to destroy more water, it all at public expense for private profit.

When I think of where I'm from, I think of the earliest labor organizers, some of whom I met and knew. Despite their so called ignorance, they knew one fundamental fact: the owners were exploiters, and nothing more. They were not our friends, and not to be trusted. They would sacrifice anything , including their worker's lives for a few dollars more profit. Fortunately, and unfortunately, the labor fights and unions brought us better conditions and a share of the profits., but they also co-opted us. Now, many are slaves bought and paid for, their lives a collection of mortgages, four wheel drive trucks and other toys. Like Orwell's well trained dog, they roll over without the masters watching. Anyone who questions the constant cycle of destruction and subsidy is labeled treehugger. No one sees the fundamental truth behind what is done; we borrow from the future to keep it all going, ignoring the mess we make in exchange for a big screen tv, burgers at the bar and a boat at the inherited lake property.

To end, there is one question that needs to be answered by those arguing for any extraction project: What will be left when it's done? Until the Range DFL answers that question, they are nothing more than puppets who want to sweep the crumbs off the table to the public's mouths.

Considering the results we see now, with emptying communities, rampant social problems and addiction, aging infrastructure we can't afford and environmental destruction all around us, the experiment's results are obvious; we simple need a better way.

Having just watched Part 1 of Adam Curtis' "The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom" to be viewed here; his "Power of Nightmares" is also worth viewing. Curtis argues that right wing political doctrine is derived from two main ideas; the war justifying selfish game theory of John Nash, and the lunatic selfish economics of Frederick Hayek. These ideas and their assumptions underlie much of Anglo-American political thought. Curtis traces the variations through our two countries, ending with the lunacy of the Bush Presidency and the empty ending of the Tony Brown ministry. What is fascinating to me is noone in mainstream thought asked a very simple question: Maybe those who argue that human beings are nothing more than self serving paranoid sociopaths do so because that is what they are?

In a late night daze, my friend and I hopped over to Hibbing for the Jubilee street dance to wander around. Since he is from here, and I am not, I always end up being an observer. I am always stunned by one thing on the range; almost entire missing age groups. Now at my age, I do not expect thousands of raving near middle age people roaming around as we usually have children, jobs that actually require us to show up and perform and other categories under that evil responsibility word. But one thing is always a shock...the age group between 25 and 45 seems to almost not exist. It seems that beyond 22 or so and after mid baby-boomers, the lack of compatriots is obvious; you feel as if an alien. So, is my perception correct? The best data we have is now 9 years old, but it can tell us something:

From Hibbing, the first is the table;

22 to 24 years	254	2.9	285	3.1	539	2.97
25 to 29 years	438	5.0	426	4.6	864	4.77
30 to 34 years	461	5.2	498	5.3	959	5.29
35 to 39 years	570	6.5	629	6.7	1,199	6.61
40 to 44 years	708	8.1	722	7.7	1,430	7.89
45 to 49 years	823	9.4	750	8.0	1,573	8.68
50 to 54 years	634	7.2	594	6.4	1,228	6.77
55 to 59 years	436	5.0	476	5.1	912	5.03
60 and 61 years	140	1.6	152	1.6	292	1.61
62 to 64 years	192	2.2	237	2.5	429	2.37
65 and 66 years	115	1.3	168	1.8	283	1.56
67 to 69 years	199	2.3	275	2.9	474	2.61
70 to 74 years	368	4.2	484	5.2	852	4.70

And this table includes projections:

2000 Population*	17,071
1990 Population*	18,046
Percent change from 1990 population*	-5.4
2007 population estimate***	16,170
2010 population projection***	--
2000 Total minority population*	530
Urban population**	12,603
Rural population**	4,467
Median age*	41
Population by Age
Population under 18 years*	3,891
Population 18 years and over*	13,180
Population 65 years and over*	3,372

Now for my old district on the west side of St. Paul:

22 to 24 years	580	5.2	524	4.8	1,104	5.03
25 to 29 years	1,042	9.4	1,006	9.2	2,048	9.32
30 to 34 years	946	8.5	853	7.8	1,799	8.19
35 to 39 years	869	7.9	755	6.9	1,624	7.39
40 to 44 years	833	7.5	645	5.9	1,478	6.73
45 to 49 years	638	5.8	569	5.2	1,207	5.49
50 to 54 years	481	4.3	496	4.5	977	4.45
55 to 59 years	354	3.2	385	3.5	739	3.36
60 and 61 years	116	1.0	156	1.4	272	1.24
62 to 64 years	156	1.4	181	1.7	337	1.53
65 and 66 years	96	0.9	107	1.0	203	0.92
67 to 69 years	132	1.2	146	1.3	278	1.27
70 to 74 years	180	1.6	284	2.6	464	2.11

and the projected numbers, which are unfair due to size:

2000 Population*	287,151
1990 Population*	272,235
Percent change from 1990 population*	5.5
2007 population estimate***	287,669
2010 population projection***	--
2000 Total minority population*	103,253
Urban population**	287,151
Rural population**	0
Median age*	31
Population by Age
Population under 18 years*	77,827
Population 18 years and over*	209,324
Population 65 years and over*	29,647

Remember, most of the numbers are now 9 years old, and simply moving forward the clock you can get new age cohorts; reality is more complex, however, as the economy and movement will alter things quite a bit. The stunning difference is in the old 25 to 44 Year old age classes. which in the simple sense are the new 35 to 54 year olds. Especially in the thirties, the difference is quite striking. The median age is ten years difference, which tells you the weight of the pyramid. Hibbing, and probably most range cities, is skewed much much older. The projections are also different; almost 30% of Ramsey county in 2000 was under 18. Hibbing's was slightly less, but the important thing was how many were already in child bearing years. Alot of Hibbing has since passed beyond true child bearing age. It will be interesting to see what the changes are in next years census.

I guess my perceptions are true...but darnit the pics I grabbed of the dance itself didn't turn out. Alot young people drinking like fish and standing around ...and far less people wanting hair band music, thank goodness.

What kind of state do you want?

With Governor Pawlenty's pronouncements on the Corporate tax rate, I thought it would be interesting to do some comparisons since this plan, like most Republican thinking, makes a number of assumptions without consulting that abstraction called the real world. The source of his numbers is this corporate think tank. For 30 years, tax rates and loopholes for corporations and the wealthy have been expanded to where the they only pay 6% of taxes collected in the U.S. The first question might be to examine where tax rates are by state; Minnesota is at 9.8 % and the rate is high, but it does not tell you what breaks and subsidies there are. It also does not say why it is a much more succesful state then such tax paradises like South Dakota, home of the poorest county in the United States. But let us compare this with states with much lower rates, then look at this to how a society might be contrasted rationally, such as by social measurements like access to health care, education, literacy and poverty rates. There it is a bit more confusing, but we can look at states that compare completely opposite of Minnesota by social measurements; For example Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi or Kentucky. These are states with many conditions like the third world, yet have some of the lowest corporate tax rates. In short the world is much more complex than the governor lets on; handing breaks or having low corporate rates is not connected to advancement. In fact, it might show a connection between low rates and low quailty of life. The governor's beliefs, like most of republican thinking, does not work with the real world. After years of budget cutting on the backs of working people, we now have this tired old bucket of drivel. You would think they would come up with something new. In short, it appears the governors model is from down south, with hordes of poor people and a small elite, with no worker's rights and conditions like the third world for much of the population.

Do Unicorns steal the tusks of Narwhal's and other new age theories...

I think it is easily discovered...All unicorns must die !

Range Radio and crazy talk:
Of course all media is in a shuffling state and has been for years, but the talk radio on the range is entering a bizarro world. The am station in Virginia, owned by the local right wing lunatic from Duluth, is best listened to when accompanied by films from the Nuremberg rallies and goose-stepping practice, while that out of Hibbing gives the standard right wing fare...a day to day rehashing of an imaginary world, liberal conspirators preparing children to live off welfare. Knowing a little about the place, I still have not quite figured out just how many whack jobs in the area listen to this drivel. Are they mostly rural? Are they just a skimming of the local elite? Closet cross dressing gun nuts who happen to listen to crazed, obese, multiple divorcees? There is nothing local about it, and there is only one true local station, unfortunately set a little west of here. But as I occasionally listen, I see how the obvious failures of multiple station ownership, lack of local media and lunatic politics come together...Don't bother listening. Just pull some old speeches of Mussolini and at least learn some Italian.