Oregon’s Governor and the Grifter(s)
Oregon’s Governor and the Grifter(s)
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/13/oregons-governor-and-the-grifters/
“It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”
— Frank Herbert
Oregon’s Governor-for-Life John Kitzhaber, 68, resigned Friday the 13th. His resignation letter was the usual lawyerly-parsed, blame-the-media/take no responsibility sham we’re used to seeing. He had been governor from 1995-2003 and again from 2011 until now. The basic allegations which forced the rest of the state’s Democratic Party elite – Senate President, House Speaker, State Treasurer and others to join the state’s largest newspaper and call for his resignation – involve influence-peddling by his ten-year girlfriend/fiancée Cylvia Hayes. Hayes, 48, – a woman with a grifter’s history – pretty much publically advertised that her clout with the governor was for sale and cashed in for over $200,000 at the same time she was his advisor on energy policy, working out of the governor’s mansion and using government employees as subordinates. The most damning allegation? She took over $118,000 from a sham non-profit that went defunct without ever filing a report with the IRS. She herself never reported her payments. The entire purpose was to shake loose tens of millions of state subsidies for “Green” Energy projects.
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Since the Democrats cannot call for the necessary reduced energy consumption in our grow-or-die economy (they’ve proven that time and again in their regular endorsements of oil wars) , they have fully embraced forest liquidation. Green groups funded by the same cabal of foundations have also come on board plans to strip forests for Biomass under the guise of fire-proofing them. That part of the equation has corrupted elected officials at the federal level with Democrats Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Peter DeFazio echoing John Kitzhaber and the two other Democrats on the State Land Board in calling for massive increases in logging on public forests – state and federal – and successful plans to sell off parts of our state forests
The quietly adopted 25 by 25 Renewable Energy Portfolio corrupted Oregon Democrats…as a whole, not just Kitzhaber. It’s also one of those tip of the iceberg things. Green Crony Capitalism is also a national phenomenon, not just Oregon. And it’s been exposed here and hit here in Oregon hard because it’s partly a one-party state thing,
The fact that the Oregon GOP is certifiable is a sad part of the equation. Flat Earthers would be a kind way of describing them. The fact that a lot of this was know before the election and Oregonians still voted for Kitzhaber is telling. His opponent was atrocious. There are no more Tom McCalls, Vic Atiyehs or even Bob Packwoods in the Oregon GOP. They’d be drummed out in a second these days.
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The National Ramifications
While crony capitalism is generally the GOP’s bread and butter; “green” crony capitalism is a gluten-free croissant and almond butter concoction that has taken down one narcissistic Democrat in backwater Oregon. The virus, however, has settled in across the country. Biomass plants are springing up like Starbuck’s near every forest carbon sink. Subsidized “green” energy projects abound.
The 25 x 25 Portfolio or various versions of it continue in Oregon and elsewhere. The Democrat-connected unaccountable big foundations fully own the paid professional “green” movement. Like anything else that is constantly oversold, Green Energy is no savior…neither are the Democrats. We must get rid of this parasitic “green” version of the “growth” economy just as we must drastically lower our carbon addiction… and Power Down and People Down if we and far too many innocent species are to have any chance. We could power the grid on unicorn farts; but if we continue to consume at the same (or likely higher) rates, we still eat the planet.
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MICHAEL DONNELLY names names and spells it out.
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