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“Solving Local Environmental Problems”

December 27, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The January 2019 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” TV series (see below for info about watching it through your computer or TCTV channel 22) helps us understand and solve some environmental problems in the Olympia area, especially in the Deschutes River, Capitol Lake, Budd Inlet, Puget Sound, and the surrounding land areas. This program’s scientific insights will also help people elsewhere to understand and solve their local problems.  We clearly explain the science so anyone can understand the problems and the solutions we propose. Two very knowledgeable guests help us explore these problems and solutions: Sue Patnude has a master’s […]

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A local community passed a pro-democracy ordinance and is sued by business corporations for “lost profits.”

December 19, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Local communities in various places (especially in Pennsylvania and Ohio) have been passing “Community Rights Ordinances” to assert local democratic control and protect their local environments.  Some outside businesses react with lawsuits against the local pro-democracy ordinances, and they demand to be paid for “lost profits.” See information about the legal basis for these local efforts to protect local democracy and local environments at www.celdf.org See information about this particular local case at https://celdf.org/grant-township-the-right-to-profit/ My April 2014 TV program explores this exciting opportunity.  That episode’s title is “Strengthen Democracy with a Community Rights Ordinance (CRO).”  Watch the interview and/or read a […]

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Create PUBLICLY OWNED BANKS and use them to finance a GREEN NEW DEAL

December 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

What a great way to combine two urgently needed remedies: — Publicly owned banks — A Green New Deal Ellen Brown, perhaps our nation’s top expert on publicly owned banks, urges bold progress. Publicly owned banks can be created at the FEDERAL, STATE, and/or LOCAL levels. See information elsewhere about the Green New Deal, a bold plan to create jobs to protect the environment and climate. See information: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/17/radical-plan-fund-green-new-deal-just-might-work?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=This%20Radical%20Plan%20to%20Fund%20the%20%5Cu2018Green%20New%20Deal%5Cu2019%20Just%20Might%20Work&utm_campaign=These%2016%20Democrats%20About%20to%20Go%20Down%20in%20History%20for%20Helping%20GOP%20Kill%20Internet%20as%20We%20Know%20It%20%7C%20News%20%2526%20Views%20&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-These%2016%20Democrats%20About%20to%20Go%20Down%20in%20History%20for%20Helping%20GOP%20Kill%20Internet%20as%20We%20Know%20It%20%7C%20News%20%2526%20Views%20-_-This%20Radical%20Plan%20to%20Fund%20the%20%5Cu2018Green%20New%20Deal%5Cu2019%20Just%20Might%20Work

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Vote for Tye Menser. The Republican-funded postcard is a LIE trying to deceive you.

October 23, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

On Friday and Saturday October 19 and 20 many thousands of Thurston County residents received in the mail a slick postcard that is TRYING TO DECEIVE AND TRICK YOU into opposing Tye Menser, the excellent Democrat running to replace Bud Blake as a County Commissioner in Thurston County. The postcard scam was devised by a right-wing extremist (Glen Morgan), who has a long history of lying and deceiving the public in electoral matters.  He created a phony organization that claims to be “progressive,” when it is actually a front for right-wing dirty tricks intended to trick voters here and in […]

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Vote for Tye Menser for County Commissioner!!! Stop a right-winger’s lying!!!

October 21, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Glen Morgan, a notorious right-wing extremist with a long history of lying and abusing democracy mailed some election propaganda to everybody in Thurston County.  DO NOT LET THAT NOTORIOUS LIAR mislead you!!! That right-winger (Glen Morgan) created a PHONY organization that claims to be progressive, but is actually a front that is LYING TO THE PUBLIC in order to defeat a progressive Democrat (Tye Menser) running for Thurston County Commissioner. The propaganda mailing is trying to CONFUSE AND MISLEAD people by urging a write-in campaign for EJ Zita instead of Tye Menser.  If people fall for that lie, that could […]

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“Local Governments Must Protect the Environment”

August 27, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

SEPTEMBER 2018 “Local Governments Must Protect the Environment” This month’s interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” will inform, inspire and motivate us to urge our local governments to do a better job of protecting the environment. People everywhere really do care about the environment, but environmental problems persist all the way from the global level down to the local level. This interview will help you understand why local governments often fail to protect the environment – and how we can be more effective in urging them to protect it. We can indeed think globally and act locally. Three knowledgeable, insightful guests […]

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“A New Dawn for Guatemala?”

July 14, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The August 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” informs us about an interesting and inspiring community in Guatemala where refugees from the previous dictatorship have settled into a new community. These people are empowering themselves at the grassroots to meet their needs for education, clean water, social justice and democracy. About 300-400 people live in Nuevo Amanecer, the Spanish words for “New Dawn.” The community was founded in 1998 by refugees who had fled the genocide and “scorched-earth” campaign of the 1980s and 1990s. The U.S. funded and trained Guatemala’s brutal military to commit those crimes. Now the “New Dawn” […]

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“Base Public Policy on Honest Science”

June 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The July 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” TV program helps us understand how science works. It also helps us push governments to use honest science as a basis for smart and wise public policies.  Governments should make decisions based on what is actually true, not corrupted by financial greed or ideological pressures. To watch the interview, click this link:  WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE. To read the thorough summary of what we said in the interview — and see a list of excellent sources of information, click this link:  2018.07 Program Summary — SCIENCE. People in Thurston County who have […]

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“Hidden Costs of Local Population Growth”

April 16, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The May 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” interviews two very knowledgeable guests who have been working to protect the broad public interest in matters affecting our local community. Typically, local communities assume that they are supposed to grow in population. Local population growth is promoted as good for us, but the promoters avoid disclosing the real costs – the hidden costs – of local population growth. This interview explores the costs of such growth. Although some of our examples come from the greater Olympia area, the principles pertain elsewhere too. The City of Olympia expects 20,000 more people here […]

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Prayers sponsored by governments or schools UNDERMINE authentic religion!

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Many conservative persons, religious advocates, government officials (including some in charge of public schools, as well as local, state and federal governments) want prayers at local government or legislative meetings – or in public schools.  ACTUALLY, THESE GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED PRAYERS UNDERMINE authentic religion. Prayer should be a personal communication with God, but making it mandatory or obligatory – or a mindless public ritual – destroys the personal faith aspect and makes it a meaningless governmental routine. It’s ironic that conservatives who oppose “big government” want government to cram someone’s religion down everyone else’s throats. Instead of protecting liberty, they are taking […]

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“Create a Publicly Owned Washington State Bank”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Serious problems require bold, creative solutions!  The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s January 2011 TV interview explores a creative solution to help our state’s economy. Even during hard financial times, a lot of money flows through the state government. Property tax payments, sales tax revenue, payroll taxes, fees for licenses, and other revenues arrive at various times. From time to time the state pays out this money for salaries, equipment, supplies, rent, payments to local governments, and so forth. What happens to the money while the state has it? The state deposits most of it with the big Wall Street banks […]

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“A Public Park for Olympia’s Isthmus”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Overwhelming public opinion supports having a public park instead of privately owned high-rise condominiums on the isthmus that connects downtown Olympia and West Olympia. This much beloved strip of land at the southernmost tip of Puget Sound has a great view of the Capitol Building and the Olympic Mountains. The isthmus is in the heart of an area where people love to hang out. The community struggle to protect this land for public enjoyment turned more positive in July 2011, when Thurston County Commissioners Karen Valenzuela, Sandra Romero, and Cathy Wolfe unanimously offered financial support for the Olympia Capitol Park […]

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“Washington State Needs Tax Reform”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The State of Washington experiences recurring budget crises, so the Legislature keeps making drastic cuts.  Revenue keeps falling short of the needs, so they keep slashing and slashing. They have cut funding for state employees, state parks, K-12 education, higher education, health care, assistance for our poorest people, and pretty much everything. But it’s never enough. The Governor and state legislators scrutinize everything on the expenditure side, but they have been refusing to seriously examine the seriously dysfunctional revenue side. They don’t seriously examine “tax expenditures” – various tax breaks, exemptions and loopholes. Some of these have existed for decades […]

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TV: “A Publicly Owned Electric Utility for Thurston County?”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Puget Sound Energy, the capitalist-owned electric and gas utility that serves Thurston County and other parts of Western Washington, was based in Bellevue, Washington until a few years ago when it was sold to a different group of capitalists based in Australia – on the opposite side of the world. In 2012 local people in Thurston County Now the Thurston County Public Utility District – which is owned by the general public of our own local community – were exploring the feasibility of buying out Puget Sound Energy’s business in Thurston County and operating it with local ownership, local management, […]

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TV: “Local Government Fairness and Accountability”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

How many people actually pay much attention to local governments’ detailed decisions about zoning, funding streets and sewers, and so forth? Hardly anyone pays attention – except those who have a direct financial stake in those decisions, such as real estate developers and other persons who have direct financial interests in local governments’ decisions. So what happens as a result? The “special interests” are able to exploit local governments to serve their narrow economic profits, while the rest of us never know that we are being ripped off. For example, the local elites that run many local governments and media […]